Before this day is over, Donald Trump will be sitting behind the cash register . . . er, desk in the Oval Office but who will be running the store, if anyone, since he hasn’t bothered to fill even the key jobs crucial to running the country?
Moreover, not one of his cabinet nominees (as dreadful, unknowledgeable, ethically challenged, and laden with conflicts of interest they are) has been confirmed by the Senate. Two may be confirmed today—retired Marine Gen. James Mattis as secretary of Defense and retired Marine Gen. John Kelly as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
“‘This is a swamp Cabinet full of bankers and billionaires ― a swamp Cabinet,’ Schumer told reporters on Capitol Hill after Democrats met to discuss the status of hearings on Trump’s top advisers,” The Huffington Post reported.
So much for “draining the swamp.” Not that swamps are a bad thing. They are wetlands crucial to the environment. Trump, however, has polluted the swamp, turning it into a cesspool.
More than 600 of essential positions that require Senate confirmation are still to be filled.
Raw Story ran an article on the things Trump promised to do on his first day in office, except Trump “announced that he doesn’t actually plan to do any work for his first three days in office.” His “‘day one’ will take place on Monday.” Apparently, he also thinks the presidency is a five-day a week job as he “anticipates spending his weekends back at Trump Tower” in New York.
Here’s his “day one” list:
1. Fire all of the ambassadors. (Okay, he did that days before Christmas.)
2. Repeal and replace Obamacare.
3. Begin deporting all undocumented immigrants.
4. “Clean house” and fix the Department of Veterans Affairs.
5. Start work on “impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful, southern border wall.”
6. Demand the Pentagon and intelligence agencies come up with a plan for ISIS.
7. Withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
8. Pull out of NAFTA and renegotiate it.
9. Kill gun-free zones.
10. Stop Syrian refugee resettlement and build “safe zones” in the region.
11. Stop all wasteful spending.
12. End the so-called “war on coal.”
13. Tell countries who won’t take back criminals that they can’t ever come to the US.
14. Call companies and threaten his 35 percent tariff.
15. Fight to end abortion rights and Planned Parenthood.
16. End regulations.
17. Learn pretty much everything he doesn’t already know.
Yup, he’s going to learn everything he doesn’t know on day one. But he already knows more than the generals do.
Today, we learned that he also wants to do away with the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and privatize the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Is this any way to run the administration? Presidents aren’t CEOs and don’t rule by decree.
Nor is the presidency a reality show. Face it, Trump doesn’t have a clue about what he got himself into.
When the Tweeter-in-Chief isn’t spending his days and nights, like a schoolboy, sending out self-congratulatory tweets, calling the media dishonest and crying “fake news,” bashing Alec Baldwin for mocking him on SNL and lashing out at Meryl Streep among others. Does Trump think he can govern via Twitter? Sad.
Only we the people can stop Trump and the GOP crazies in Congress from pulling everything down. Collectively, we hold the power; they know it and that’s what frightens them. It’s time to put aside our petty differences and, as Benjamin Franklin said, “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
Bev Conover is the editor and publisher of Intrepid Report. Email her at editor@intrepidreport.com.
It is a circus, Bev. It is a sad, sad circus.
It is sad not only because of what it means for this country and for those of us who are aghast that this mendacious man’s lies enabled him to escalate to the summit … it is sad that he needs so many more lies to prop him up.
It is sad that the media is for the most part celebrating/honoring/normalizing the stake in the heart of democracy that this man is–and it is sad that there are still so many, like my two cousins and my son, among them who today are celebrating the coronation of such a mendacious man. And no matter how much I tell them of the incredible farcical clown they helped to climb the summit… they reply: “give him a chance.” They refuse to listen or even consider what it means to have How-Could-It-Be possible-Donald-Trump in the Oval Office (what a desperate cackle) And they refuse to read articles such as this that I would love to send to each of them. The one cousin tells me she doesn’t want to read anything that disturbs her, the other cousin replied (in her very broken and angry Cuban-American way) this to a previous e-mail I’d sent her reminding her of how it was who gave us Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and benefits that protect We The People:
“I am very sorry to tell you you the party is not the same anymore, is about liberals were everything is OK honest people been called prejudice, racist and many others things because we don’t agree with some of the things that are happening not been able to say Mery Christmas because is offensive to others, Abortion, Wall Street ,and buying favors thru money the corruption is at the highest level etc., etc etc giving away our industries to be able to make more money for them and less work for our people in the USA I have the honor of living and knowing the Midwest is so sad to see how our big industries has left our country and thousands of people good people without jobs and having to start over again after 20 years of work and start at $9.00 p/h how democrats has buy the minorities and black people just giving them money to survive without working and yet the inner cities has gotten worst. Honestly I cant not understand how you don’t see some of this things. I never send you any of the writings I believe because I don’t want to offend you and I respect your views. If the Democratic Party don’t do something to correct there errors they will have a hard time getting back it is unbelievable how they don’t want to accept they lost because the people of the USA open their eyes and want a change, I wanted a change and I am hopping the new president will help us accomplish this. this is why I voted different from you and I hope you will respect this as I respect yours and hope this will not cause any bad flavor between us. ”
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This is what happens when you throw away your vote to protest the status quo. If you believe that the policies of the Obama administration and the democrats in congress or the ACA (Affordable Care Act) was the cause of your economic status or your lack of employment, you are gravely mistaken. All you had to do was look at the obstruction of the republican led Congress the past eight years to find the cause of your misfortune. Trumps first act in office was to raise taxes on the middle class and begin the defunding of the ACA. With a republican majority in congress and a republican president. Do you actually believe that your situation will improve with these plutocrat enablers and a plutocrat in charge? When the reigns of power have been granted to those who are willing to subject the populace to more economic hardship by raising taxes destroying the ACA which millions now depend on you should be outraged. If you are not appalled by the republican political power structure in Washington, you’ve been living under a rock. For those of us who are about to face these hardships handed down to us by the Trump voters of this country, have heart, the fight has just begun. I suggest men and women of good conscience stand up and resist these republican extremists at every turn.
Bev, thank you for this powerful article. And thank the responders who so accurately depict what I also observe. “Give Trump a chance” they chant and I point out that his cabinet picks depict exactly what path he will follow.
The American people are in for a rough time as the billionaire 1% class twist the screws to exact even more from the Middle and lower income groups. Der Trump will become known as the fascist president. But it will take some of the American people a long while to recognize that they have been conned by a master con-artist.