good morning, it's 27 february 2017

Okay, so editorials and background mostly for you this morning.

I include the Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorial because that is not a liberal town. Item two makes it look to me like Steve Bannon has not just bought into the cyclic theories of Neil Howe's, but is trying to short-circuit them to get them to a desired position - and certainly adds another layer to his desire for massive war in the mideast. And there's another round of Jewish cemetery desecration, in a new city.

Leakers continue to leak, 'cause leakers gonna leak, even when it's a memo about leakers. Six and seven are about the vote coming on Tuesday to more or less shut down Trump investigations in Congress. Eight has the new EPA head talking about how awful the EPA is - as he's done his entire career, of course.

Item 10 is important because it charts together some of the previously-murkier people involved at the high-money/high-data levels of the rightist/authoritarian movement. It's long, but worth reading.

11 - Trump may have more secret loans, but no proof - just curiously inconsistent data. 12 - meet the 16-year-old Canadian girl known only as "Julia" who got the NeverTrump Republicans attention on the Milo videos. And finally, the current candidate for Secretary of the Navy withdraws.

Good luck.

( It's February 27, 2017; this is the news )

good morning, it's 28 february 2017

As predicted, Sessions is reversing the Justice Department's course on voter rights protections - Texas, first. More will come. He's also laying off investigations into police abuses (dismissing the DOJ report on Chicago police as anecdotal despite not having read it) in favour of crackdowns.

In the house, Nunes is in hard denial; 'We still have not seen any evidence' of Trump campaign, Russia contact. Paul Ryan is ‘We Know Russia Meddled in the Election, No One Is Disputing That’ but it's all about nope nope nope on any investigation of meaning. Rep. Burr (chair, Intelligence committee) - who called himself "inseparable" from Trump - is yet another blocker for any actual investigation. As a fourth article says, "We No Longer Have Three Branches of Government."

First look at the budget proposal involves a 10% hike in military spending and huge cuts in domestic. Combine that with Slate's article on how the Trump administration is slowly taking apart the Federal government via attrition (failing to nominate people to hundreds of positions, etc) - "The Trump Administration’s Not-So-Benign Neglect" - and you've got a picture of unaccountability and hypercentralisation of power in the political administration. And, of course, you've got to have something to use that military buildup against, which is why Trump's ISIS-boosting rhetoric fits in so nicely.

In Trump's war against reporting, you've got a smear campaign against a reporter, and an update on intimidation which includes that report. Also, other countries are starting to use Trump's actions on Friday as an excuse/example in more severe crackdowns against their own journalist corps.

ICE agents are loving Trump's change in direction. The job is "fun" again. They can pick on whoever the fuck they want now and it's all good.

'The Religious Origins of Fake News and “Alternative Facts”' is one of those articles I keep pointing people to (and even writing myself). Maybe it'll sink in at some point.

On the state level: Ohio bill to outlaw marital rape gets zero support from GOP lawmakers; our governor Jay Inslee now ‘more concerned’ after meeting with Trump on health care, immigration; 'Plan A Protest, Lose Your House' Bill, SB 1142, Killed by Arizona House (but they'll try again, I have no doubt), and Mercer Island Jewish community center evacuated following bomb threat as at least 20 other JCCs and schools get bomb threats Monday.

( It's February 28, 2017; this is the news )