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Women: Let's Strike. Then Trump Will See Our Power |
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Monday, 06 February 2017 14:16 |
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Excerpt: "The idea is to mobilize women, including trans women, and all who support them in an international day of struggle - a day of striking, marching, blocking roads, bridges, and squares, abstaining from domestic, care and sex work, boycotting, calling out misogynistic politicians and companies, striking in educational institutions."
Protesters demonstrate outside the site of a new hotel owned by Trump. (photo: Yuri Gripas/Reuters)
Women: Let's Strike. Then Trump Will See Our Power
By Linda Martín Alcoff, Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, Nancy Fraser, Barbara Ransby, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Rasmea Yousef Odeh and Angela Davis, Guardian UK
06 February 17
The ‘lean-in’ variety of feminism won’t defeat this administration, but a mobilization of the 99% will. On 8 March we will take to the streets
 he massive women’s marches of 21 January may mark the beginning of a new wave of militant feminist struggle. But what exactly will be its focus? In our view, it is not enough to oppose Trump and his aggressively misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic and racist policies. We also need to target the ongoing neoliberal attack on social provision and labor rights.
While Trump’s blatant misogyny was the immediate trigger for the huge response on 21 January, the attack on women (and all working people) long predates his administration. Women’s conditions of life, especially those of women of color and of working, unemployed and migrant women, have steadily deteriorated over the last 30 years, thanks to financialization and corporate globalization.
Lean-in feminism and other variants of corporate feminism have failed the overwhelming majority of us, who do not have access to individual self-promotion and advancement and whose conditions of life can be improved only through policies that defend social reproduction, secure reproductive justice and guarantee labor rights. As we see it, the new wave of women’s mobilization must address all these concerns in a frontal way. It must be a feminism for the 99%.
The kind of feminism we seek is already emerging internationally, in struggles across the globe: from the women’s strike in Poland against the abortion ban to the women’s strikes and marches in Latin America against male violence; from the vast women’s demonstration of last November in Italy to the protests and the women’s strike in defense of reproductive rights in South Korea and Ireland.
What is striking about these mobilizations is that several of them combined struggles against male violence with opposition to the casualization of labor and wage inequality, while also opposing homophobia, transphobia and xenophobic immigration policies. Together, they herald a new international feminist movement with an expanded agenda: at once anti-racist, anti-imperialist, anti-heterosexist and anti-neoliberal.
We want to contribute to the development of this new, more expansive feminist movement.
As a first step, we propose to help build an international strike against male violence and in defense of reproductive rights on 8 March. In this, we join with feminist groups from around 30 countries who have called for such a strike.
The idea is to mobilize women, including trans women, and all who support them in an international day of struggle – a day of striking, marching, blocking roads, bridges, and squares, abstaining from domestic, care and sex work, boycotting, calling out misogynistic politicians and companies, striking in educational institutions. These actions are aimed at making visible the needs and aspirations of those whom lean-in feminism ignored: women in the formal labor market, women working in the sphere of social reproduction and care, and unemployed and precarious working women.
In embracing a feminism for the 99%, we take inspiration from the Argentinian coalition Ni Una Menos. Violence against women, as they define it, has many facets: it is domestic violence, but also the violence of the market, of debt, of capitalist property relations, and of the state; the violence of discriminatory policies against lesbian, trans and queer women; the violence of state criminalization of migratory movements; the violence of mass incarceration; and the institutional violence against women’s bodies through abortion bans and lack of access to free healthcare and free abortion.
Their perspective informs our determination to oppose the institutional, political, cultural and economic attacks on Muslim and migrant women, on women of color and working and unemployed women, on lesbian, gender nonconforming and trans women. The women’s marches of 21 January have shown that in the United States, too, a new feminist movement may be in the making. It is important not to lose momentum.
Let us join together on 8 March to strike, walk out, march and demonstrate. Let us use the occasion of this international day of action to be done with lean-in feminism and to build in its place a feminism for the 99%, a grassroots, anti-capitalist feminism – a feminism in solidarity with working women, their families and their allies throughout the world.
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FOCUS: John Yoo Wishes Trump Abused Executive Authority More Effectively |
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Monday, 06 February 2017 12:00 |
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Wheeler writes: "What Yoo is worried about is not abuse, per se, but that Trump will 'waste the executive's powers.'"
Former Department of Justice official John Yoo testifies before the House Judiciary committee during a hearing on the administration's interrogation policy in Washington, D.C., Jun. 26, 2008. (photo: Getty Images)
John Yoo Wishes Trump Abused Executive Authority More Effectively
By Marcy Wheeler, Emptywheel
06 February 17
 t the end of a John Yoo critique of Donald Trump’s abuses that a lot of people are mis-reading, he says this:
A successful president need not have a degree in constitutional law. But he should understand the Constitution’s grant of executive power. He should share Hamilton’s vision of an energetic president leading the executive branch in a unified direction, rather than viewing the government as the enemy. He should realize that the Constitution channels the president toward protecting the nation from foreign threats, while cooperating with Congress on matters at home.
Otherwise, our new president will spend his days overreacting to the latest events, dissipating his political capital and haphazardly wasting the executive’s powers.
John Yoo is not stating that, across the board, Trump has overstepped his authority. Indeed, the areas where Yoo suggests Trump has or will overstep his authority — existing NAFTA and building a wall — are things Trump has not yet put into place. His concern is prospective. The only thing Trump has already done that Yoo believes abused power was firing Sally Yates, and that because of his explanation for firing her.
Even though the constitutional text is silent on the issue, long historical practice and Supreme Court precedent have recognized a presidential power of removal. Mr. Trump was thus on solid footing, because attorneys general have a duty to defend laws and executive orders, so long as they have a plausible legal grounding. But the White House undermined its valid use of the removal power by accusing Ms. Yates of being “weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration.” Such irrelevant ad hominem accusations suggest a misconception of the president’s authority of removal.
Yoo doesn’t, for example, complain about Trump’s Executive Order on Dodd-Frank, which may have little effect.
But what Yoo is worried about is not abuse, per se, but that Trump will “waste the executive’s powers.”
That’s important given Yoo’s critique of Trump’s Muslim ban.
Immigration has driven Mr. Trump even deeper into the constitutional thickets. Even though his executive order halting immigration from seven Muslim nations makes for bad policy, I believe it falls within the law. But after the order was issued, his adviser Rudolph Giuliani disclosed that Mr. Trump had initially asked for “a Muslim ban,” which would most likely violate the Constitution’s protection for freedom of religion or its prohibition on the state establishment of religion, or both — no mean feat. Had Mr. Trump taken advantage of the resources of the executive branch as a whole, not just a few White House advisers, he would not have rushed out an ill-conceived policy made vulnerable to judicial challenge.
Yoo is saying that Trump could have implemented this policy if only he had gotten better advice about how to hide the fact that it was a Muslim ban, in the same way firing Yates would have been fine had Trump offered another explanation for it.
There’s a big rush among those who’ve abused executive authority in the past to rehabilitate themselves by seeming to criticize Trump. Many of them — including Yoo — are mostly complaining that Trump’s bad execution of abuse of executive power might give it a bad name.
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=20877"><span class="small">William Boardman, Reader Supported News</span></a>
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Monday, 06 February 2017 11:16 |
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Boardman writes: "What follows is a briefly annotated roster of the key players on Team Trump assembled to carry out its game plan of a top-down assault on America, to seize and destroy much of the US government as it existed in 2016, and to accept whatever collateral damage may ensue."
Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump are joined by congressional leadership, including Paul Ryan, before formally signing his cabinet nominations into law at the Capitol on Jan. 20. (photo: Getty Images)
Team Trump’s Wrecking Crew – The Early Roster
By William Boardman, Reader Supported News
06 February 17
The Donald’s various US-haters want to make America grate again
here’s little question that a cohort of the people who elected Trump, possibly a minority of a minority of the population, want to tear down most of the existing government and replace our imperfect government of the people, by the people, and for the people with — well, with what? It’s not really clear beyond the premise that the Trump hats decide and the rest of us are expected to obey bare-headed.
The people who didn’t elect Trump, along with the people who regret electing Trump, as well as the people who didn’t elect anyone — all those people, a majority of a majority, are already reacting in surprising numbers against early Trump initiatives. This apparent majority of Americans, with little help from Democrats or any of the other old swamp creatures in the Trump-drained swamp, have more or less spontaneously risen in resistance to Trumpian attacks on freedom, decency, constitutionality, and whatever else might offend the nonpartisan oligarchy of rich predators.
The game is on now, and this may be the real Super Bowl for American constitutional government. Unlike a typical sports bowl, this political bowl has constantly changing rules, no time outs, and a running clock for the game’s four-year duration. There is no out-of-bounds and there is no limit on the numbers of plays a team can run at the same time. And this time, this bowl has only one organized team on the field, Team Trump. The Trumps say the media is the “opposition party,” to which Democrats offer no objection, making it clear that where, in the past, there was something like an opposing team, now there is a so-far largely disorganized rabble and maybe some specialty squads (like the courts). This other “team” has no unifying playbook, but it has the numbers, it can jam the field with more players than the Trumps, at least now in the opening period, and that makes the game seem less one-sided, perhaps.
What follows is a briefly annotated roster of the key players on Team Trump assembled to carry out its game plan of a top-down assault on America, to seize and destroy much of the US government as it existed in 2016, and to accept whatever collateral damage may ensue.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (POTUS) – Donald J. Trump, 70, the team captain, quarterback, calls the plays, sometimes takes suggestions from the sidelines, is well known for being not very well known except in a celebrity sense. Businessman. Billionaire (alleged net worth $3.7 billion, no transparency; Trump himself has said $10 billion). How unpredictable is he really? Who, if anyone, has his ear?
VICE PRESIDENT (1st in line of succession to Presidency) – Mike Pence, 57, attorney, conservative radio host, congressman (12 years), Tea Party loyalist, governor (3 years). Est. net worth $300,000 (not a typo). Said he is “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order.” Stands for religious freedom to control other people. Has never released tax returns. Seems to believe God has his ear.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE (2nd in line of succession) – Paul Ryan, 47, not actually a Team Trump member, but forced by circumstance to line up with the team. Est. net worth $5 million. Professional politician, congressman (18 years), Ayn Rand devotee (25 years), fitness fanatic (30 years). Enemy of Social Security, among other things. Not known to have an ear.
PRESIDENT PRO TEM OF US SENATE (3rd in succession) – Orrin Hatch, 82, also not an official Team Trump member but boxed in by circumstance. Est. net worth $4 million. Attorney, senator (41 years), reliably slippery, trashed Anita Hill, tied to pharmaceutical industry, opposed fair housing. Keeps ear to ground.
SECRETARY OF STATE (4th in succession) – Rex Tillerson, 65, oil industry engineer (42 years), CEO of Exxon Mobil (10 years), close business ties with Russia/Putin, opposes sanctions on Russia (over Crimea, Ukraine). Est. net worth $325 million. Clear conflicts of interest, but business interests depend on global peace. Comes across as one of the grown-ups in the room. Seems to have ears in all directions.
SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY (5th) – Steve Mnuchin, 54 (nominated, not confirmed as of Feb. 6), Skull and Bones at Yale, Goldman Sachs honcho (17 years), hedge fund manager (6 years), OneWest Bank owner and rapacious mortgage forecloser (8 years). Est. net worth $300 million. Not prosecuted for “widespread misconduct“ of bank. Defendant in fraud lawsuits. In financial disclosure, “forgot” $100 million. Opposes bank regulation, corporate taxation. Enjoyed Kamala Harris blowing in his ear.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE (6th) – Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis, 67, first cabinet member confirmed, vote of 98-1, despite law barring his taking office. Career military officer (48 years). Never charged with war crimes in Iraq (not even Fallujah, Mukaradeeb wedding party massacre). Post-military corporate board member. Est. net worth $5 million. Obama appointee. Takes hard line on China, North Korea, Iran. Opposed targeting Muslims, until Trump did it. 2013 quote: “The first time you blow someone away is not an insignificant event. That said, there are some assholes in the world that just need to be shot.” Ear tuned to master’s voice.
ATTORNEY GENERAL (7th) – Sen. Jeff Sessions, 71 (nominated, not confirmed as of Feb. 6), Eagle Scout, attorney, US attorney (12 years), senator (21 years). Rejected by Senate in 1986 as too racist to be federal judge. Supported Iraq war, opposed same-sex marriage. Est. net worth $8 million. Epitomizes southern charm and viciousness, graded “zero” by Human Rights Campaign. Opposes Voting Rights Act. Believes life begins at conception, marijuana more dangerous than alcohol, and climate change not real. Has ear tuned to the smallest slight.
SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE (8th) – Sonny Perdue, 70 (nominated, not confirmed as of Feb. 6), veterinarian, Georgia state legislator (both parties, ten years), Republican governor (8 years). Net worth $4.4 million. No direct experience in agriculture, led official state prayers for rain in 2007, Trump calls him “a great, great farmer.” Conflict of interest land deal 2003, doubled value of his property. Loves Confederacy, voter ID laws. Open ear to agribusiness.
SECRETARY OF COMMERCE (9th) – Wilbur Ross, 79 (nominated, not confirmed as of Feb. 6) investor/banker/leveraged buyout (50+ years), known as the “King of Bankruptcy” who off-shored 2700 jobs since 2004. Net worth est. $2.9 billion, 10 times Bush’s entire cabinet. Sago Mine disaster 2006 killed 12, part-owner Ross well aware of safety violations. Opposed TPP, China-bashing as “intellectually wrong.” He doesn’t have to listen to anyone.
SECRETARY OF LABOR (10th) – Andrew Puzder, 67 (nominated, not confirmed as of Feb. 6), attorney (22 years, including 5 years with a mob lawyer defending charges of looting Labor trust funds), CEO of CKE Restaurants (Hardee’s, Carl’s Jr.) (17 years). Est. net worth $45 million. Opposed minimum wage increase, overtime pay, Obamacare, paid sick leave. Spoke highly of robots/automation because machines are “always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip-and-fall or an age, sex, or race discrimination case.” He has a hard time hearing worker issues.
SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (11th) – Dr. Tom Price, 63 (nominated, not confirmed as of Feb. 6), doctor in his own orthopedic clinic (20 years), Georgia Senate (10 years), congressman (12 years). Opposes abortion rights, gay marriage, gun control, environmental regulations, Obamacare, National Public Radio, and withdrawing US forces from Iraq. Est. net worth $13.6 million. Shady deals include his buying shares in Zimmer Biomet, then introduced legislation to help the company, which then donated to his campaign. He has not heard from prosecutors.
SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT (12th) – Dr. Ben Carson, 65 (nominated, not confirmed as of Feb.6), neurosurgeon (30 years), politician (4 years). Est. net worth $29 million. He has no experience in government generally, and none in housing or urban development. He told Fox News: “We cannot have a strong nation if we have weak inner cities. We have to get beyond the promises and start really doing something. The amount of corruption and graft and things, shell games that are played — we need to get rid of all that stuff.” He has his ears cocked.
SECRETARY OF ENERGY (13th) – Rick Perry, 67 (nominated, not confirmed as of Feb. 6), Eagle Scout, salesman, cotton farmer (with father), career politician (33 years). Switched from Democrat to Republican in 1990, ran for Agriculture Commissioner, Karl Rove campaign manager, beat Jim Hightower by 1%. Est. net worth $3 million. Texas governor (14 years). Running for president, famously forgot he wanted to abolish Energy Department. Has no experience or expertise in energy issues, most of which involve nuclear reactors and weapons. He says “nucular.” He keeps an ear peeled for every siren song.
SECRETARY OF EDUCATION (14th) – Betsy DeVos, 59 (nominated, not confirmed as of Feb. 6), born rich, married richer, philanthropist and school “choice” advocate. Est. net worth $5.1 billion. She and husband support Neurocore, a string of “brain performance centers“ based on fake science. Opposes public schools. Advocates unregulated government spending on private, religious, charter schools. Testified using fake statistics. Supports guns in classrooms to defend against “potential grizzlies.” Listens carefully to own voice.
SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS (15th) – Dr. David Shulkin, 58 (nominated, not confirmed as of Feb. 6), doctor and medical administrator (31 years), current Under Secretary in Veterans Affairs (Obama nominee). Est. net worth $17 million. Trump reported considering privatizing VA, Shulkin testified: “The Department of Veterans Affairs will not be privatized under my watch.” Critique: he’s not a veteran, that he’s working with the Koch Brothers to turn VA into an insurance company. Keeps ears pinned back.
SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY (16th) – Gen. John F. Kelly, 67, career military officer (47 years), confirmed by 88-11 vote despite law barring his taking office. Est. net worth $4 million. Opposes sanctuary cities, DREAMers. Supports Mexico wall with “a layered defense,” including patrols and sensors. Calls drug trade “existential threat“ to US. 37 Democrats voted for him. Said: “I don’t know why they hate us, and I frankly don’t care, but they do hate us and are driven irrationally to our destruction.” Hears what he wants to hear.
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION – Elaine Chao, 64 (not in line of succession, not natural born citizen), came to US on freighter at age 8, banker (25 years), Secretary of Labor (8 years), married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (24 years), part of 1996 shady campaign giving. Est. Net worth $24 million. Favors highway spending. Disregards energy efficiency, urban transit, pedestrians. Has extensive business and political links to China. Listens to own drummer.
SECRETARY OF INTERIOR (not currently in line of succession) – Ryan Zinke, 56 (nominated, not confirmed as of Feb. 6, would become 8th in line for Presidency), Navy SEAL (22 years), Montana legislator (2 years), congressman (2 years). Est. net worth $800,000. Wrote 2010 letter calling climate change “a threat multiplier for instability in the most volatile regions of the world.… the clean energy and climate challenge is America’s new space race.” In Congress backtracked, “not proven science,” got grade of 3 from League of Conservation Voters. Opposed federal land giveaways, favors gas/oil/mining exploitation. He seems to hear the money talking.
That’s it for the cabinet and presidential succession members of Team Trump. Still to come: Team Trump deep insiders, like the CIA, National Security Counsel, and White House staff.
William M. Boardman has over 40 years experience in theatre, radio, TV, print journalism, and non-fiction, including 20 years in the Vermont judiciary. He has received honors from Writers Guild of America, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Vermont Life magazine, and an Emmy Award nomination from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
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Yes, Trump, Some Americans Also Murder: Some Are Your White Supremacists |
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Monday, 06 February 2017 09:31 |
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Cole writes: "Yes, Mr. Trump, we've got a lot of killers and our country's not so innocent. You're not so innocent, either, since you went out of your way to cultivate the groups out of which those killers emerged as one of your electoral constituencies."
Dylann Roof being escorted from the Cleveland County Courthouse in Shelby, N.C. (photo: Chuck Burton/AP)
Yes, Trump, Some Americans Also Murder: Some Are Your White Supremacists
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment
06 February 17
 n an interview with Bill O’Reilly airing Sunday afternoon, O’Reilly observes of Russian President Vladimir Putin:
“He’s a killer, though. Putin’s a killer.”
TRUMP: “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent?”
As The Guardian points out, this exchange is reminiscent of one in summer of 2015 between Joe Scarborough and Trump about Putin:
“MSNBC host Joe Scarborough: “He kills journalists that don’t agree with him.”
TRUMP: “Well, I think that our country does plenty of killing, too, Joe.”
At other times, Trump has said there is no proof that Putin killed anyone.
I don’t have any way of knowing if Mr. Putin has ordered anyone to be rubbed out. It is pretty obvious that he has bullied Russia’s journalists into sullen submission or had them fired, and that some 26 have been killed since he came to power. The Russian Federation does not have a free press, and Putin played a role in derailing any movement in that more liberal direction.
However, I would like to point out that we do know who murders in the United States.
There is for instance, Dylann Roof , who murdered 9 Americans, including a sitting state senator. Roof was a big fan of of white supremacist and far right web sites of the sort promoted by Trump’s Rasputin, the alt-Neo-Nazi Steve Bannon, former CEO of Breitbart.
When then South Carolina governor Nikki Haley was shamed by Roof’s massacre into finally removing the confederate flag from the state capitol, a flag that stood for resistance to the abolition of slavery, Bannon wrote the headline, “”Hoist it high and proud: The Confederate flag proclaims a glorious heritage.”
Or there is William Sims, a talented young African-American musician in the Bay Area, snuffed out at the age of 28 just last November by . . . you guessed it, white supremacists.
As for journalists, we should never forget Alan Berg, the liberal radio commentator in Denver shot down in his driveway by The Order, “a splinter group of the Aryan Nation white nationalist movement that financed its anti-government goals with bank robberies in the Pacific Northwest.” Cute.
Guess who today’s white supremacists supported for president?
Let us also not forget Paul Guihard, a French reporter for AFP shot in the back at close range during a segregationist riot against the admission of James Meredith to the University of Mississippi on September 30, 1962.
And if we reach back to the nineteenth century, there was Elijah Parish Lovejoy, an an abolitionist editor in Alton, IL, who was killed in 1837 by a white supremacist mob that favored introducing slavery in the north.
So yes, Mr. Trump, we’ve got a lot of killers and our country’s not so innocent.
You’re not so innocent, either, since you went out of your way to cultivate the groups out of which those killers emerged as one of your electoral constituencies. And you’ve got a man who tried to make them respectable there with you in the White House.
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resident Trump loves to set the day’s narrative at dawn, but the deeper story of his White House is best told at night.
