By Sam Knight:
Mulvaney's appointment to lead the influential OMB has raised questions about some of President Trump's key campaign promises, given the congressman's well-documented opinions on the welfare state.
Though Trump repeatedly vowed not to cut Medicare or Social Security, in Mulvaney, he has appointed a budget chief who once declared the programs unconstitutional.
During his confirmation hearing, Mulvaney said that he would not be urging the President to argue that the two programs violate the constitution. He nonetheless would not back off past calls to cut benefits paid out by Medicare and Social Security.
"It seems to me that Rep. Mulvaney is way, way out of touch with what the American people want and what President Trump campaigned on," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said at Mulvaney's confirmation hearing.
Sanders noted he was not only opposed to Mulvaney's appointment on ideological grounds, but that his very nomination highlighted problems with "the integrity and the honesty" of Trump.
The Full Story (February 17, 2017)
Showing posts with label truthout. Show all posts
Showing posts with label truthout. Show all posts
Monday, June 5, 2017
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Truth-Out: Nazis Once Published List of Jewish Crimes, Trump Now Pushing to Do the Same for Immigrant Crimes
By Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh:
The Trump administration has announced plans to publish a weekly list of crimes committed by unauthorized immigrants living in so-called sanctuary cities, where local officials and law enforcement are refusing to comply with federal immigration authorities' efforts to speed up deportations. The plans for the weekly list, to be published by the Department of Homeland Security, were included in Trump's executive orders signed last week. We speak to Andrea Pitzer. Her upcoming book is called One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps.
* * *
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what President Trump has said he's going to do: keep a list of, quote, "immigrant crimes"?
ANDREA PITZER: Well, this weekly report that he has called for recalls a number of things from the past that we have seen before, which is this move to isolate and identify and then vilify a vulnerable minority community in order to move against it. When he -- I just went back last night and reread his speech from when he declared his candidacy, and the Mexican rapist comment was in from the beginning, and so this has been a theme throughout. And we see back in Nazi Germany there was a paper called -- a Nazi paper called Der Stürmer, and they had a department called "Letter Box," and readers were invited to send in stories of supposed Jewish crimes. And Der Stürmer would publish them, and they would include some pretty horrific graphic illustrations of these crimes, as well. And there was even a sort of a lite version of it, if you will, racism lite, in which the Neues Volk, which was more like a Look or a Life magazine, which normally highlighted beautiful Aryan families and their beautiful homes, would run a feature like "The Criminal Jew," and they would show photos of "Jewish-looking," as they called it, people who represented different kinds of crimes that one ought to watch out for from Jews.
So this preoccupation with focusing in on one subset of the population's crimes and then depicting that as somehow depraved and abnormal from the main population is something we've seen quite a bit in the past, even in the US Before Japanese-American internment, you had newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle running about the unassimilability of the Japanese immigrants and also the crime tendencies and depravities they had, which were distinguished from the main American population.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, of course, this flies in the face of all studies that have shown that the crime rate among immigrant populations in the United States is actually lower than it is among ordinary American citizens, but yet this is attempting to take isolated incidents or particular crimes and sort of raise them to the level of a general trend, isn't it?
The Trump administration has announced plans to publish a weekly list of crimes committed by unauthorized immigrants living in so-called sanctuary cities, where local officials and law enforcement are refusing to comply with federal immigration authorities' efforts to speed up deportations. The plans for the weekly list, to be published by the Department of Homeland Security, were included in Trump's executive orders signed last week. We speak to Andrea Pitzer. Her upcoming book is called One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps.
* * *
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what President Trump has said he's going to do: keep a list of, quote, "immigrant crimes"?
ANDREA PITZER: Well, this weekly report that he has called for recalls a number of things from the past that we have seen before, which is this move to isolate and identify and then vilify a vulnerable minority community in order to move against it. When he -- I just went back last night and reread his speech from when he declared his candidacy, and the Mexican rapist comment was in from the beginning, and so this has been a theme throughout. And we see back in Nazi Germany there was a paper called -- a Nazi paper called Der Stürmer, and they had a department called "Letter Box," and readers were invited to send in stories of supposed Jewish crimes. And Der Stürmer would publish them, and they would include some pretty horrific graphic illustrations of these crimes, as well. And there was even a sort of a lite version of it, if you will, racism lite, in which the Neues Volk, which was more like a Look or a Life magazine, which normally highlighted beautiful Aryan families and their beautiful homes, would run a feature like "The Criminal Jew," and they would show photos of "Jewish-looking," as they called it, people who represented different kinds of crimes that one ought to watch out for from Jews.
So this preoccupation with focusing in on one subset of the population's crimes and then depicting that as somehow depraved and abnormal from the main population is something we've seen quite a bit in the past, even in the US Before Japanese-American internment, you had newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle running about the unassimilability of the Japanese immigrants and also the crime tendencies and depravities they had, which were distinguished from the main American population.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, of course, this flies in the face of all studies that have shown that the crime rate among immigrant populations in the United States is actually lower than it is among ordinary American citizens, but yet this is attempting to take isolated incidents or particular crimes and sort of raise them to the level of a general trend, isn't it?
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Truth-Out: Trump's Lesser-Known Homeland Security Adviser Espouses Anti-Muslim Policing
By John Knefel:
Some of President-elect Donald Trump's most controversial cabinet nominees face Senate confirmation hearings this week, but one top adviser will not have to be approved by the Senate: Thomas Bossert, who will serve as the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. Bossert will occupy a powerful position in the White House, though little is known about his current political positions. The few indications of his political leanings that are available are not reassuring; for example, Bossert retweeted an Islamophobic Twitter post in 2015 -- a choice that could potentially foreshadow the incoming administration's homeland security policies.
Unlike many top Trump aides, Bossert maintains a low public profile, but his previously unpublicized retweet raises concerns about his willingness to promote anti-Muslim rhetoric. In the hours following the Paris attack in November 2015, Bossert retweeted a post from former NSA official and conservative columnist John Schindler that read: "The liberalism I was raised in was not a societal death-wish. If you think political Islam is a plan for progress or diversity, get help." (Schindler has also, however, tweeted statements denouncing Trump's Muslim ban and praising Muslims who fight against ISIS.)
Robert McCraw from the Council on American-Islamic Relations said he found the tweet to be concerning, especially in the larger context of the people Trump is surrounding himself with. "Bossert's retweet is just another troubling example of the Trump administration's comfort in mainstreaming Islamophobic messages," he told me in a phone interview. "A number of the Trump administration's national security, homeland security and intelligence appointees and nominees express a deep fear and mistrust of Islam and Muslims."
The Full Story (January 15, 2017)
Some of President-elect Donald Trump's most controversial cabinet nominees face Senate confirmation hearings this week, but one top adviser will not have to be approved by the Senate: Thomas Bossert, who will serve as the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. Bossert will occupy a powerful position in the White House, though little is known about his current political positions. The few indications of his political leanings that are available are not reassuring; for example, Bossert retweeted an Islamophobic Twitter post in 2015 -- a choice that could potentially foreshadow the incoming administration's homeland security policies.
Unlike many top Trump aides, Bossert maintains a low public profile, but his previously unpublicized retweet raises concerns about his willingness to promote anti-Muslim rhetoric. In the hours following the Paris attack in November 2015, Bossert retweeted a post from former NSA official and conservative columnist John Schindler that read: "The liberalism I was raised in was not a societal death-wish. If you think political Islam is a plan for progress or diversity, get help." (Schindler has also, however, tweeted statements denouncing Trump's Muslim ban and praising Muslims who fight against ISIS.)
Robert McCraw from the Council on American-Islamic Relations said he found the tweet to be concerning, especially in the larger context of the people Trump is surrounding himself with. "Bossert's retweet is just another troubling example of the Trump administration's comfort in mainstreaming Islamophobic messages," he told me in a phone interview. "A number of the Trump administration's national security, homeland security and intelligence appointees and nominees express a deep fear and mistrust of Islam and Muslims."
The Full Story (January 15, 2017)
Monday, March 6, 2017
Truth-Out: Wall Street's Win-Win With Trump
By Mike Lofgren:
The fact that America's premier corporate raider, Carl Icahn, will advise Trump on financial regulation (and may be appointed SEC chairman), and that his pick for Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, was a Goldman executive for 16 years, does not inspire confidence that their management of the economy will be any different from that of their predecessors before the 2008 crash.
Mnuchin is only one of several Goldman alumni destined for top positions in the Trump administration. Goldman president Gary Cohn has been tapped to head the National Economic Council. Hedge fund manager and former Goldman executive Anthony Scaramucci is a vocal Trump media surrogate and is widely expected to receive a government position. (Responding to a question by CNN about the alleged demonization of bankers, Scaramucci responded, "I think the cabal against the bankers is over," neatly inverting the fact that the derogatory term "cabal" has normally been associated with bankers, rather than their critics).
The pseudo-populist Stephen Bannon, Trump's chief of strategy, is also a Goldman spawn. It is hardly surprising that Goldman Sachs's stock has risen 30 percent since November. Does anyone seriously think "this time will be different" compared to the Bush debacle?
The Full Story (January 2017)
The fact that America's premier corporate raider, Carl Icahn, will advise Trump on financial regulation (and may be appointed SEC chairman), and that his pick for Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, was a Goldman executive for 16 years, does not inspire confidence that their management of the economy will be any different from that of their predecessors before the 2008 crash.
Mnuchin is only one of several Goldman alumni destined for top positions in the Trump administration. Goldman president Gary Cohn has been tapped to head the National Economic Council. Hedge fund manager and former Goldman executive Anthony Scaramucci is a vocal Trump media surrogate and is widely expected to receive a government position. (Responding to a question by CNN about the alleged demonization of bankers, Scaramucci responded, "I think the cabal against the bankers is over," neatly inverting the fact that the derogatory term "cabal" has normally been associated with bankers, rather than their critics).
The pseudo-populist Stephen Bannon, Trump's chief of strategy, is also a Goldman spawn. It is hardly surprising that Goldman Sachs's stock has risen 30 percent since November. Does anyone seriously think "this time will be different" compared to the Bush debacle?
The Full Story (January 2017)
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Truth-Out: Donald Trump Is Not the Enemy We Prepared For
By Andrew Reszitnyk:
Trump is the organic expression of a sinister faction of right-wing thinkers that have up until now been restricted to the dark corners of the internet: the neo-Nazis, white supremacists, extreme religious traditionalists, anti-Semites, anarcho-capitalists and hardcore libertarians that together make up what white nationalist Richard Spencer describes as the "alt-right." This host of regressive political communities also includes the so-called Men's Rights Movement, the group responsible for instigating the Gamergate cyber attacks upon women in the video game industry. Jared Taylor, the head of the white nationalist New Century Foundation and one of the chief "intellectuals" of the self-described alt-right, has said that the president-elect, "instinctively, clumsily stumbled upon some of the policies that we've been promoting for a long time." These are the people for whom Trump was not a protest candidate but instead a champion, the first high-profile figure to openly espouse their extreme cause. This movement embodies a violent identity politics for straight white men that rejects the very principle that all people on Earth deserve equal protection and dignity.
The white supremacists and other right-wing activists who describe themselves as the alt-right are united less by coherent shared policy positions and more by a number of strong feelings -- mostly angry, hateful feelings directed toward the media, government institutions, universities and the so-called culture of political correctness. Members of this group describe the efforts of left-leaning academics, politicians, media outlets and celebrities to call out racism, sexism and homophobia when they see it as tyrannical developments that have stripped white men of their "rightful" power. Claiming that feminist, anti-racist and anti-homophobic political movements represent a turn away from universalism, and that efforts to criticize offensive speech amount to censorship, this group rejects both mainstream Democrat and Republican parties. Some members of the alt-right have hijacked the language of feminism in order to describe their movement as an intersectionalism of the right, which blends a wide spectrum of prejudices. The self-described alt-right gives a home to all who reject the idea that the government should provide for its citizens and that all people are equal. Trump's vocal supporters -- KKK leader David Duke, anti-Semitic media chairman Steve Bannon, anti-feminist and Islamophobic journalist Milo Yiannopoulos, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, white supremacist website The Daily Stormer, and an army of anonymous internet trolls posting racist Trump memes on 4chan and 8chan -- comprise a veritable "who's who" of the alt-right.
The Full Story (January 10, 2017)
Trump is the organic expression of a sinister faction of right-wing thinkers that have up until now been restricted to the dark corners of the internet: the neo-Nazis, white supremacists, extreme religious traditionalists, anti-Semites, anarcho-capitalists and hardcore libertarians that together make up what white nationalist Richard Spencer describes as the "alt-right." This host of regressive political communities also includes the so-called Men's Rights Movement, the group responsible for instigating the Gamergate cyber attacks upon women in the video game industry. Jared Taylor, the head of the white nationalist New Century Foundation and one of the chief "intellectuals" of the self-described alt-right, has said that the president-elect, "instinctively, clumsily stumbled upon some of the policies that we've been promoting for a long time." These are the people for whom Trump was not a protest candidate but instead a champion, the first high-profile figure to openly espouse their extreme cause. This movement embodies a violent identity politics for straight white men that rejects the very principle that all people on Earth deserve equal protection and dignity.
The white supremacists and other right-wing activists who describe themselves as the alt-right are united less by coherent shared policy positions and more by a number of strong feelings -- mostly angry, hateful feelings directed toward the media, government institutions, universities and the so-called culture of political correctness. Members of this group describe the efforts of left-leaning academics, politicians, media outlets and celebrities to call out racism, sexism and homophobia when they see it as tyrannical developments that have stripped white men of their "rightful" power. Claiming that feminist, anti-racist and anti-homophobic political movements represent a turn away from universalism, and that efforts to criticize offensive speech amount to censorship, this group rejects both mainstream Democrat and Republican parties. Some members of the alt-right have hijacked the language of feminism in order to describe their movement as an intersectionalism of the right, which blends a wide spectrum of prejudices. The self-described alt-right gives a home to all who reject the idea that the government should provide for its citizens and that all people are equal. Trump's vocal supporters -- KKK leader David Duke, anti-Semitic media chairman Steve Bannon, anti-feminist and Islamophobic journalist Milo Yiannopoulos, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, white supremacist website The Daily Stormer, and an army of anonymous internet trolls posting racist Trump memes on 4chan and 8chan -- comprise a veritable "who's who" of the alt-right.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Truth-Out: Trump's Bait and Switch: How to Swamp Washington and Double-Cross Your Supporters Big Time
By Nomi Prins:
Given his cabinet picks so far, it's reasonable to assume that The Donald finds hanging out with anyone who isn't a billionaire (or at least a multimillionaire) a drag. What would there be to talk about if you left the Machiavellian class and its exploits for the company of the sort of normal folk you can rouse at a rally? It's been a month since the election and here's what's clear: crony capitalism, the kind that festers and grows when offered public support in its search for private profits, is the order of the day among Donald Trump's cabinet picks. Forget his own "conflicts of interest." Whatever financial, tax, and other policies his administration puts in place, most of his appointees are going to profit like mad from them and, in the end, Trump might not even wind up being the richest member of the crew.
Only a month has passed since November 8th, but it's already clear (not that it wasn't before) that Trump's anti-establishment campaign rhetoric was the biggest scam of his career, one he pulled off perfectly. As president-elect and the country's next CEO-in-chief, he's now doing what many presidents have done: doling out power to like-minded friends and associates, loyalists, and -- think John F. Kennedy, for instance -- possibly family.
Here, however, is a major historical difference: the magnitude of Trump's cronyism is off the charts, even for Washington. Of course, he's never been a man known for doing small and humble. So his cabinet, as yet incomplete, is already the richest one ever. Estimates of how loaded it will be are almost meaningless at this point, given that we don't even know Trump's true wealth (and will likely never see his tax returns). Still, with more billionaires at the doorstep, estimates of the wealth of his new cabinet members and of the president-elect range from my own guesstimate of about $12 billion up to $35 billion. Though the process is as yet incomplete, this already reflects at least a quadrupling of the wealth represented by Barack Obama's cabinet.
Trump's version of a political and financial establishment, just forming, will be bound together by certain behavioral patterns born of relationships among those of similar status, background, social position, legacy connections, and an assumed allegiance to a dogma of self-aggrandizement that overshadows everything else. In the realm of politico-financial power and in Trump's experience and ideology, the one with the most toys always wins. So it's hardly a surprise that his money- and power-centric cabinet won't be focused on public service or patriotism or civic duty, but on the consolidation of corporate and private gain at the expense of the citizenry.
Given his cabinet picks so far, it's reasonable to assume that The Donald finds hanging out with anyone who isn't a billionaire (or at least a multimillionaire) a drag. What would there be to talk about if you left the Machiavellian class and its exploits for the company of the sort of normal folk you can rouse at a rally? It's been a month since the election and here's what's clear: crony capitalism, the kind that festers and grows when offered public support in its search for private profits, is the order of the day among Donald Trump's cabinet picks. Forget his own "conflicts of interest." Whatever financial, tax, and other policies his administration puts in place, most of his appointees are going to profit like mad from them and, in the end, Trump might not even wind up being the richest member of the crew.
Only a month has passed since November 8th, but it's already clear (not that it wasn't before) that Trump's anti-establishment campaign rhetoric was the biggest scam of his career, one he pulled off perfectly. As president-elect and the country's next CEO-in-chief, he's now doing what many presidents have done: doling out power to like-minded friends and associates, loyalists, and -- think John F. Kennedy, for instance -- possibly family.
Here, however, is a major historical difference: the magnitude of Trump's cronyism is off the charts, even for Washington. Of course, he's never been a man known for doing small and humble. So his cabinet, as yet incomplete, is already the richest one ever. Estimates of how loaded it will be are almost meaningless at this point, given that we don't even know Trump's true wealth (and will likely never see his tax returns). Still, with more billionaires at the doorstep, estimates of the wealth of his new cabinet members and of the president-elect range from my own guesstimate of about $12 billion up to $35 billion. Though the process is as yet incomplete, this already reflects at least a quadrupling of the wealth represented by Barack Obama's cabinet.
Trump's version of a political and financial establishment, just forming, will be bound together by certain behavioral patterns born of relationships among those of similar status, background, social position, legacy connections, and an assumed allegiance to a dogma of self-aggrandizement that overshadows everything else. In the realm of politico-financial power and in Trump's experience and ideology, the one with the most toys always wins. So it's hardly a surprise that his money- and power-centric cabinet won't be focused on public service or patriotism or civic duty, but on the consolidation of corporate and private gain at the expense of the citizenry.
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Truthout: The Six Worst Things About Trump's Tax Plan
By Frank Clemente:
1. Gives huge tax breaks to the rich and corporations, loses $6.2 trillion over 10 years, and if paid for will require deep cuts to domestic services. Three-quarters of lost revenues are from corporate and business tax breaks largely benefiting the rich. The top 0.1 percent of households, which includes Trump's, will get an annual tax cut of about $1.1 million each. Nearly half (47 percent) of the tax cuts will go to the top 1 percent of households; each one will get an average tax break of nearly $215,000 a year. The bottom 20 percent will get a tax cut of $110. Trump's plan will increase the deficit by $7 trillion, unless massive cuts are made to benefits and services that working Americans depend on.
* * *
5. Cuts taxes on hedge funds and other "pass-through" businesses by $900 billion -- personally benefiting Trump -- and allows high-wage employees to dodge another $600 billion. Many Wall Street firms, law practices and other big-money outfits organize as partnerships or other business entities that allow them to pay their business taxes at individual rates. Trump would cut the tax rate on the owners of these so-called "pass-through entities" by as much as two-thirds, to just 15 percent. Owners of larger pass-throughs would be taxed at the dividend rate of 20 percent. These special low tax rates are expected to entice half of high-paid wage earners to call themselves contractors in order to be treated as pass-through entities. Trump is the sole or principal owner of 500 pass-through entities. He would personally benefit from this massive tax giveaway that's been appropriately dubbed the "Trump Loophole."
1. Gives huge tax breaks to the rich and corporations, loses $6.2 trillion over 10 years, and if paid for will require deep cuts to domestic services. Three-quarters of lost revenues are from corporate and business tax breaks largely benefiting the rich. The top 0.1 percent of households, which includes Trump's, will get an annual tax cut of about $1.1 million each. Nearly half (47 percent) of the tax cuts will go to the top 1 percent of households; each one will get an average tax break of nearly $215,000 a year. The bottom 20 percent will get a tax cut of $110. Trump's plan will increase the deficit by $7 trillion, unless massive cuts are made to benefits and services that working Americans depend on.
* * *
5. Cuts taxes on hedge funds and other "pass-through" businesses by $900 billion -- personally benefiting Trump -- and allows high-wage employees to dodge another $600 billion. Many Wall Street firms, law practices and other big-money outfits organize as partnerships or other business entities that allow them to pay their business taxes at individual rates. Trump would cut the tax rate on the owners of these so-called "pass-through entities" by as much as two-thirds, to just 15 percent. Owners of larger pass-throughs would be taxed at the dividend rate of 20 percent. These special low tax rates are expected to entice half of high-paid wage earners to call themselves contractors in order to be treated as pass-through entities. Trump is the sole or principal owner of 500 pass-through entities. He would personally benefit from this massive tax giveaway that's been appropriately dubbed the "Trump Loophole."
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Truthout: What Trump Means For The Economy
By Simon Johnson:
First, we can expect an enormous tax cut that will be tilted towards people at the upper end of the income distribution. On this point, President-elect Trump and the House leadership are in complete agreement. Some version of this Trump plan will pass without much difficulty.
This means America will see a large increase in the deficit and the national debt (see these projections for details). Republicans will justify this plan with the assumption that tax cuts for the wealthy will produce a higher rate of economic growth. This assumption, which was also made by the George W. Bush administration when it put tax cuts in place in the early 2000s, will again prove unrealistic.
Second, President-elect Trump will want more federal government spending, including to build his wall with Mexico and also for infrastructure and other initiatives (including military-related ones). House Republicans will be less enthusiastic, but this spending will also likely pass without too much difficulty. This will further increase the budget deficit and the national debt. The effect that this will have long term on economic growth and the number of well-paying jobs remains to be seen.
Third, House Republicans have cued up a large wish list on financial deregulation, which includes plans to remove nearly all of the safeguards that were put in place after the financial crisis of 2008. Mr. Trump will likely embrace this with enthusiasm.
The Full Story (November 13, 2016)
First, we can expect an enormous tax cut that will be tilted towards people at the upper end of the income distribution. On this point, President-elect Trump and the House leadership are in complete agreement. Some version of this Trump plan will pass without much difficulty.
This means America will see a large increase in the deficit and the national debt (see these projections for details). Republicans will justify this plan with the assumption that tax cuts for the wealthy will produce a higher rate of economic growth. This assumption, which was also made by the George W. Bush administration when it put tax cuts in place in the early 2000s, will again prove unrealistic.
Second, President-elect Trump will want more federal government spending, including to build his wall with Mexico and also for infrastructure and other initiatives (including military-related ones). House Republicans will be less enthusiastic, but this spending will also likely pass without too much difficulty. This will further increase the budget deficit and the national debt. The effect that this will have long term on economic growth and the number of well-paying jobs remains to be seen.
Third, House Republicans have cued up a large wish list on financial deregulation, which includes plans to remove nearly all of the safeguards that were put in place after the financial crisis of 2008. Mr. Trump will likely embrace this with enthusiasm.
The Full Story (November 13, 2016)
Saturday, October 29, 2016
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