MORNING MESSAGE
Trump's Perverse Populism
Donald
Trump’s inaugural address stunned Washington elites. The New York Times,
Washington Post and others commented on its unbridled populism, its accusatory
tone. The Post’s antiquated conservative, George Will, scorned it as “the most
dreadful inaugural address in history.” Yet it deserves attention for it reveals
how Trump’s right-wing populism distorts America’s populist
tradition...
AFTER
THE MARCH, TAKE ACTION
After this weekend’s massive Women’s Marches kicked
off the resistance, the next step in tomorrow.
Join us Tuesday,
January 24, when People’s Action, MoveOn.org, and the Working
Families Party are hosting rallies across the country. We are sending a clear
message to the Senate: Stop Tom Price. Stop the #SwampCabinet. Protect our
health care.
Biggest. March. Ever.
Women’s
March may have been largest ever. Vox: “According to data collected by Erica
Chenoweth at the University of Denver and Jeremy Pressman at the University of
Connecticut, marches held in more than 500 US cities were attended by at least
3.3 million people. ‘Even using a conservative estimate, it was the single
largest day for a demonstration in the US,’ Chenoweth, an expert on political
protests and civil resistance, told us.”
Yahoo!
News adds: “More than 1 in every 100 people in the U.S. turned out to march
against Donald Trump and for women’s rights.”
Democrats
ponder next steps. W. Post: “‘The next stop is organization,” [Rep. Gerald
E. Connolly] said. ‘We need to correct the cracks in the political structure
that didn’t work as well as it should have in the last election and that means
organization in every town and every small place and big space in the country.’
… Connolly urged the anti-Trump masses to set their sights on the 2018 midterms
… Rep. Jamie B. Raskin [proposed] a program to put the young people who attended
their first big march Saturday to work…. ‘We have got to go on a consultant and
pollster fast for a while. And we should put that money into organizing.'”
TRUMP TO SIGN ORDERS TODAY
Trump
to sign more executive orders. USA Today. NBC: “Expected executive orders in
the coming days .. are being designed to reverse Obama-backed restrictions on
carbon emissions of energy production, as well as changes in immigration policy
… Other possible topics of looming executive action include health care and
national security. Trump may hold off on one notable Obama executive order, the
previous president’s decision to defer deportations of migrants who were brought
into the United States illegally as children.”
Trade
moves up today. Bloomberg: “President Donald Trump will sign an executive
order on Monday to withdraw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership …
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in November that TPP without the U.S.
would be ‘meaningless.’ Still, multiple signatory countries including Vietnam
and Australia have said they would stick to the deal even without the leading
party of the agreement … Trump is [also] widely expected to notify the leaders
of Canada and Mexico of his intent to renegotiate Nafta…”
Trump
expected to go easy on fast-food CEOs. Salon: “McDonald’s has been facing a
labor-relations issue [and] could get some help from fast food industry ally
President Donald Trump, if the White House moves quickly to fill vacancies at
the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) … The NLRB is currently deciding
whether McDonald’s should be considered a joint employer in labor and wage
brought against McDonald’s franchises, a decision that could have a broader
impact on the franchise industry.”
Budget
tension within GOP. The Hill: “…some of Trump’s [budget] targets have fans
in the GOP-controlled Congress, particularly in the Senate … Team Trump is
relying on proposals outlined last year by the Heritage Foundation … One likely
target is the Legal Services Corporation, a federal agency providing financial
support for civil legal aid to low-income people … [Another] is the elimination
of the essential air service program, a program that subsidizes rural airports
serving sparsely populated communities … some GOP lawmakers are warning that
efforts to tackle the nation’s fiscal problems through discretionary spending
are short-sighted … Trump has vowed, however, to not make cuts to Medicare or
Social Security.”
Trump
to push Medicaid block grants. NYT: “President Trump’s plan to replace the
Affordable Care Act will propose giving each state a fixed amount of federal
money in the form of a block grant … Governors like the idea of having more
control over Medicaid, but fear that block grants may be used as a vehicle for
federal budget cuts. ‘We are very concerned that a shift to block grants or per
capita caps for Medicaid would remove flexibility from states as the result of
reduced federal funding,’ Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, a Republican,
said this month…”
“Retiring
Border Chief Calls Trump’s Wall a Waste of Time, Money” reports ABC: “‘I
think that anyone who’s been familiar with the southwest border and the
terrain…kind of recognizes that building a wall along the entire southwest
border is probably not going to work,’ [said] Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of
CBP during the Obama Administration … Kerlikowske said that he didn’t ‘think
this was feasible,’ nor ‘the smartest way to use taxpayer money on
infrastructure.’ ‘When we look at the cost –– and we have about 600 miles of
fencing now –– we look at the maintenance and the upkeep, we know how incredibly
difficult it is,’ he said.”
TRUMP GETS SUED TODAY
Trump
immediately faces lawsuit over foreign income. NYT: “…the lawyers argue that
a provision in the Constitution known as the Emoluments Clause bans payments
from foreign powers like the ones to Mr. Trump’s companies … The suit, which
will not seek any monetary damages, will ask a federal court in New York to
order Mr. Trump to stop taking payments from foreign government entities … The
legal team filing the lawsuit includes Laurence H. Tribe, a Harvard
constitutional scholar … Richard W. Painter, an ethics counsel in the
administration of George W. Bush … and Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham University law
professor … the legal team intended to use the lawsuit to try to get a copy of
Mr. Trump’s federal tax returns…”
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