The true catch 22 democrats find themselves in balanced between principles and survival of the fights ahead.

Current Trends by Natasha Sapp

Her name conjures images of a staunch democrat fighting for average Americans sounding off about the debt crisis, cost of 2 wars put on a credit card, a Medicare drug program more expensive than necessity because it was constructed as a giveaway to drug companies and tax cuts for the rich. Vocal about the twin crisis of student loan debt crushing young people getting educated to fill the jobs of tomorrow combatting college tuitions several times inflation projections, for profit institutions using shameless tactics to get bodies in seats and money into their pockets lying to perspective students with criminal records about their career options in fields like criminal justice, shaming students with don’t you want to better yourself arguments and telling them lack of funds wasn’t a reason not to enroll, suggesting maxing out credit cards, using 401k accounts to offset costs; one of the reasons she joined a chorus going after Trump University. Warren one of a lone few fighting long ignored predatory Wall Street tactics establishing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, slamming Wells Fargo’s CEO for example, fighting to keep the positives in Obamacare while fixing not dismantling the rest, incredulous at big pharma raising the price of cancer drugs, the lifesaving epi pen. Presenting a strong front on women’s rights, everything from abortion to standing against Donald Trump’s misogyny throughout his campaign and after; tireless defender of refugee children who pose no threat to U.S. sovereignty or national security, who are blatantly not extremists saying on the congressional floor we don’t throw them to the wolves. The person many hoped would be Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential running mate; others still hoping she will mount her own presidential bid in 2020. After the election showing she was willing to work with our new president on areas of common ground, issues of mutual agreement about how to make this nation again work for its people; currently, former aspirations of working together for America’s common good proving impossible from day 1, far from giving up her day job Elizabeth Warren has consistently been unwilling to overlook his conflicts of interest, his potentially impeachable offenses, his beyond unconventional staffing choices, repeated breaks with tradition and decorum sidestepping unusual and flirting with downright dangerous. With her reputation preceding her as never afraid of the hard hitting questions, long shot fights for what is right, a history of going against the status quo grain, those identical hard hitting questions, refusal to avoid tough issues attitude, mindset thrown at every single cabinet pick brought before her, stumping HUD secretary candidate Ben Carson on conflicts of interest regarding president Trump’s possible real-estate holdings and agency funding, contracts to create, manage, renovate subsidized housing complexes, low income homes for the homeless, families, veterans, senior citizens. Ben Carson who, voters, citizens might remember once said, via his spokesperson, he was unqualified to hold any government position at Whitehouse level citing inexperience, being a pediatric neurosurgeon earning fame separating conjoined twins at the head who doesn’t know the difference between RU486 and morning after emergency contraception asserting women should seek the former in emergency rooms post rape or incest, the same Ben Carson also stated during his confirmation hearing he didn’t believe in giving gay people ‘extra rights;’ completely uncomprehending LGBTQ persons aren’t asking for extra rights merely the same ones everyone else enjoys denied them because they love, are romantically attracted to their same gender, are transgender, feel their biological gender anatomy and their mental emotional gender picture are opposites, are romantically attracted to people of either gender. The laughably offensive Ben Carson who when he claimed being gay was a choice immediately talked about prison inmates going in straight and coming out gay; apparently oblivious to the staggering numbers raped in prison, who perform sexual favors to stave off other drastic bodily harm, engage in sexual activity with fellow inmates to relieve boredom, to alleviate sexual tension and other men/women are their only option. So why would she, for the life of her, vote to confirm him drawing shocked outrage from the liberal, progressive, democrat left screaming this is the resistance, this is the opposition to the, let’s face it, downright insanity labeled Donald Trump’s presidency; however, it’s not like he’s been idle in giving standard leaders, seasoned political operatives, including Ms. Warren, things to worry about, fueling apprehensions about how things under his administration would be run. Questions about would he try to build that wall, would he attempt to ban Muslims from entering America, force the deportation of millions of undocumented persons; answers all seeming to be yes judging by actions taken mere hours post being sworn in that have only escalated since. A man who instituted a Muslim ban feeding our enemies plenty of propaganda, stranded green card holders and permanent residents, translators who helped us in regions like Iraq, kept out sports stars and academy award winners, stalled students’ educations from counties who haven’t produced a single terrorist, a ban having since been shot down by 2 courts. A president who has spent his first weeks in office signing a flurry of executive orders not properly vetted and that no one knows how to implement in between threatening or offending no less than a half a dozen U.S. allies and trading partners implying he would send troops into Mexico, to handle the ‘bad hombres’ down there, after his talk about the wall caused Mexico’s president to cancel a scheduled visit, who hung up on the Prime Minster of Australia, bungled a call with France’s Francois Hollande, agitated Iran into a missile test with his travel ban from 7 majority Muslim countries then added to tensions by increasing sanctions. Senator Warren unsurprisingly part of the group moving to counter that ban, appearing at spontaneous protests sparked by it; travel ban so poorly implemented it kept the 4 star Iraqi general currently commanding counter terrorism forces there, opposing ISIS, from entering to visit his family legally settled here for their safety. Ensnared a former Norwegian prime minster specifically coming here for the national prayer breakfast, in detention because he had visited Iran; information available at the airport screening conveniently leaving off his human rights conference participation, man’s presence obviously representing diplomatic endeavors. A president who has yet to fill key top level positions from which all others flow, lapses that cannot be blamed on slow cabinet conformations because Trump, his Whitehouse, between election and inauguration the Trump transition team, across the board, has yet to put forth names for said positions. Could it have been Ben Carson was the least threatening of cabinet picks she knew she had no moral choice than to oppose; demonstrating a willingness to work across the aisle, building political capital she knew she would need in the not so distant future proving she could work independent partisan lines, vote yes on an individual she didn’t totally agree with? Due to there are only so many times you can repeatedly say no, no, no before ordinary people blame you for playing politics, assert you won’t approve, vote for person X, idea Y because it was suggested by a republican, because it doesn’t have liberal, progressive fingerprints on it, they won’t be able to take credit for it, true or not. Was it a situation where having someone in the position, even a hardly undeniable incompetent such as Mr. Carson, who can be monitored, mentored, managed was better than leaving it vacant; did she see something speaking to malleability knowing with the right person speaking in his ears, advising him they could mitigate the damage, after all it seems to be working quite well with Whitehouse advisers and president Trump. Was she trying to expedite the final phase of his hearing to help moving on to more significant, important, detriment causing individuals, persons negatively impacting greater swaths of Americans if unchecked, if the wrong person is allowed to fill the slot titled secretary of…? Equally looking to avoid the public spectacle, the fight, keenly aware of the number volume democrats don’t have to throw around; while republicans, the opposition gets to spin the media narrative of they, democrats, liberals, progressives are what’s slowing down, impeding government function, courting undecided, uninvolved voters, winning them over to their cause, solidifying their bases, supporters looking ahead to 2018, 2020, because who isn’t among the political sphere—oh. Still think Elizabeth Warren deserves tar and feathering, your hate mail, your backlash?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBPzTuNxXQY

http://www.salon.com/2017/02/08/another-disastrous-call-trump-bungled-a-phone-call-with-french-president-francois-hollande/

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/26/following-backlash-from-the-left-elizabeth-warren-defends-her-vote-for-ben-carson/

Warren is absolutely right we may not get anyone better than the nominees put forth; knowing the usual pattern with Trump, he would simply double down on his support of targeted, would be cabinet members then accuse democrats of biased unfairness, rule breaking, blustering about legislative lawlessness. And considering where the electorate is they’ll believe him; already inclined to plead with their fellow Americans to give him a chance, remind us we can vote him out in 4 years, buying into viewpoints saying opposing political parties, those who voted for someone else, chose to abstain due to the underwhelming performance of any candidate are just against him because they don’t like him, don’t agree with his policies to the level of paranoia, zealotry, are determined to hate him because he is republican, because he flouts tradition political correctness. “At the moment the democratic strategy seems to be make him stand in fire ants and eventually he’ll go away,” an analogy quote from one supporter; despite characterized perceptions, no democratic strategy isn’t about fire ants, literal or figurative, isn’t about making things as difficult as possible for the sake of making them as difficult as possible, payback for losing an election, another popular line of speculation. It is centered around making things as difficult as possible for the unprecedentedly bungling Trump administration, so in over its head it’s dangerous, unto a purpose; that purpose being not destroying American as we know it, protecting president Obama’s legacy less because it belonged to him, in homage to him and more because his legacy did very good things for our country. Never mind these cabinet appointees are taking so much time because the transition took so long to choose them or that selected appointees haven’t finished the required background checks, financial disclosures, bare minimum paperwork needed for the jobs they were asked to fill, items supposed to be completed before their hearings took place, procedure that hasn’t been deviated from for 40 years until now. On top of necessary procedural missteps people are just supposed to ignore paraded nominees display either such incompetence or conflicts of interest their hearings take twice the amount of time they have previously mandated under past administrations; Ben Carson literally the least of it, there was James ‘mad dog’ Mattis accused by fellow soldiers of leaving men to die, John Kelly is another so called ‘war hawk’ who will potentially lead us into another bloodshed conflict, probably with Iran, whose views on immigration and Gitmo are rightly labeled draconian by any expert in the modern era. There’s Mike Pompeo, picked to run the CIA, who is described as both a far right Christian zealot and islamophobe, seemingly correct at least on the islamophobia front following in the footsteps of a man who thought the Muslim brotherhood was seizing power in Washington; Pompeo himself demonstrating he believes adjacent ideas insinuating president Obama may have an affinity for ISIS because he rejected the term radical Islam in favor of violent extremism. Policy wise Pompeo suggested the prompt due process and execution of Edward Snowden on C-span, wants expanded NSA powers AKA advance spying the American people wholeheartedly disagree with, supports torture tactics, think waterboarding, garnering objections from conservative diehard Rand Paul and John McCain. Rex Tillerson our next secretary of state whose ties to big oil, Tillerson the CEO of Exon mobile infamously known for the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and Russia more than raises eyebrows receiving the order of friendship from Russia’s own Vladimir Putin; you know it’s bad when the former Russian government member tells reporters his conflict of interest is written on his face using broken English but understands the idiom. Tillerson who once said his goals weren’t geared toward American interests rather making money, amassing personal wealth, allegedly creating a company with Russia using the Bahamas as a tax haven; all of particular concern considering evolving information about both Russian election interference and Trump campaign, election transition staff contact going father and father back, serious questions about whose government is this America’s or Russia’s? Among the no experience crowd, in addition to Carson, whose defenders implied his formative years growing up in public housing qualifies him to run the department of housing and urban development, noting he has done nothing to dissuade this notion, you have for UN ambassador Nikki Hailey who told haring members the UN could use a fresh set of eyes. Rick Perry known for lackluster debate performances leaving audiences wondering if he was either too medicated or needed medication, ‘who famously forgot’ he wanted to eliminate the department of energy, more recently of Dancing with the Stars fame rather than a political standout. Equally as disturbing to senate panelists was his answer/comment on ‘transition chaos,’ unsettling reports detailing exactly which critical agencies had yet to be staffed, had yet to have department heads and his fervent hope his department of energy secretary counterpart would stay on past noon January 20 when reminded the energy secretary oversaw nuclear operations, missile silos, missile stockpiles and so forth. Independent not being asked the way president Obama preplanned, specifically asked to have key George W. Bush staff stay on and got a firm yes before unconcernedly assuming they would; contrasting Obama staff who plainly said they no longer wished to serve, were uncomfortable remaining in their job under the incoming administration, simply having made other plans, reporting to the jobs they had lined up. Betsy DeVos education sectary to be has/had a long history of endless championing for school vouchers, channeling public money into less regulated, equally bad performing or housing their own problems charter schools, parochial schools; her and her family have given large portions of their considerable wealth to conservative, Christian conversion therapy thought to turn LGBT youth straight. On the contrary proven to do untold psychological damage to, especially young people, and not ‘resolve’ their homosexual, bisexual, transgender feelings; DeVos who had never attended a public school, allowed her children to attend a public school stopping at mentoring in one. Who came to her hearing plainly without doing her homework, essentially accepting a job as education secretary sans knowing the slightest about major debates going on in education today; i.e. how assessment testing is used to gage student performance: should it be do they meet outlined proficiency standards, or should the measure growth, how far someone has gone in an academic year. Proficiencies 2 biggest downsides being it holds no room for those who are bright, gifted and can go so much farther, likewise offering no help to those who are nowhere near proficiency yet don’t have to be lost causes if met where they are and given help, but Ms. DeVos plainly had no understanding of either topic. Then republicans predictably, quickly cut her hearing short. Jeff Sessions for attorney general, leader of the justice department deciding which cases get prosecuted at the highest federal level—think police brutality, monitoring the violence in Chicago, LGBT rights issues, the slow legalization of marijuana state by state; once claiming he wanted to execute pot dealers, garnering the nervous attention of civil rights groups for his abysmal record on race that lost him a federal judgeship in 1986 relating to racist comments leveled at a fellow prosecutor, joking about a case he tried in which 2 Klan members brutally murdered a black man saying of the Klan: “he thought they were fine until he discovered they smoked pot.” Labor secretary choice Andy Puzder fast food owner of the Hardy’s and Carl’s Jr. franchise has half his restaurants violating the very labor regulations he would be responsible to oversee, has spoken in favor of automation rather than people in such jobs and against minimum wage’s fight for $15. Tom Price, health and human services pick, whose chief qualification appears to be an obsession with repealing Obamacare and replacing it with a nebulous ‘plan’ that costs more and covers less, worries he could damage women’s access to contraception even if Obamacare is left intact. Steve Mnuchin’s history with predatory lending and a failed bank prompted one woman to tell her story on TV; losing her home to a bank run by Mr. Mnuchin refusing to work with her, lying to her regarding options to stay in her home, utterly shocked, feeling devastatingly betrayed in spades Trump chose him to be secretary of the treasury. Linda McMahon, billionaire, once WWE owner given reign over the small business administration, discard the WWE can scarcely be called a small business you have running up to this she spent millions on her own failed senate campaigns in ’12 and ’14, millions she donated to Trump’s foundation, more millions showered on his campaign; news outlets describing McMahon’s conformation as the least contentious of many coming before it. There’s not one of these cabinet nominees so far, with perhaps the exception of transportation secretary Elaine Cho, who doesn’t bring along controversy and legitimate questions detailing past stances, business ties or competence to do the job. Realities that didn’t stop Kelly, Mattis and Pompeo being breezily confirmed, Hailey too garnering little resistance; few able to fight the first two’s undeniable qualifications under the goals of safety and security from an increasingly volatile world, people who feel vulnerable and unsafe desiring to finally feel safe. But Elizabeth Warren, one person who voted against McMahon and a growing number of others, is the problem, her use of a twitter video to express her negative opinions of Steve Mnuchin like her fellow democrats didn’t hammer him hard enough, because it was their turn to ask questions rather than shirking her responsibility. Talk about progressive bubbles when you also don’t comprehend Trump is using twitter to communicate very effectively with the public and there’s absolutely no reason she shouldn’t do the same; having them on your side as you “delay, delay, delay” is crucial for long-term success, absolutely key to you having a congressional seat at all. Why she’s ‘only kind of standing up to a cabinet nominee,’ characterization up for dispute; yes Jimmy Dore I’m talking to you.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/green-beret-accuses-gen-mattis-leaving-men-die-article-1.2896433

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/13/meet-mike-pompeo-the-far-right-christian-zealot-with-islamophobe-ties-who-will-lead-trumps-cia/

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/12/donald-trumps-rumored-secretary-of-state-pick-rex-tillerson-has-very-close-ties-to-russia/

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/21/rex-tillerson-donald-trumps-secretary-of-state-pick-once-bragged-about-his-close-relationship-with-putin/

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/15/exxonmobil-ceo-and-trump-pick-rex-tillerson-my-philosophy-is-to-make-money_partner/

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/19/donald-trumps-secretary-of-state-pick-rex-tillerson-created-a-company-with-russia-using-the-bahamas-as-a-tax-haven/

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/06/ben-carsons-life-in-public-housing-qualifies-him-to-be-hud-secretary-supporters-say/

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/30/jeff-sessions-forgetting-he-once-wanted-to-execute-pot-dealers/

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/18/politics/jeff-sessions-racism-allegations/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Oc9WUHkEM

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/22/trumps-death-panel-the-president-elect-violated-health-care-promises-by-appointing-tom-price-to-run-health-policy_partner/

http://www.salon.com/2016/11/29/donald-trump-to-pick-tom-price-who-wants-to-kill-affordable-health-care-act-to-lead-health-and-human-services/

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/19/war-on-birth-control-incoming-hhs-secretary-tom-price-can-seriously-damage-contraception-access-even-under-obamacare/

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/08/that-time-linda-mcmahon-incoming-head-of-small-business-administration-donated-millions-to-donald-trumps-efforts/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on9FmLvViVM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCWG56EcAhI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUAa1ip_DMs

Then there are the people surrounding president Trump, advisors and appointees, not subject to any conformation process or who were derailed by it, dropped out before being fully subjected to it; on the shielded from confirmation front individuals like Jared Kushner violating nepotism laws on hiring family or the staggering influence he seems to have over president Trump versus people with actual government titles and experience national security head, homeland security secretary, secretary of state. Next, Breitbart executive, white nationalist, white supremacist Steve Bannon; if it wasn’t bad enough that his position has led to headlines describing white supremacy being represented feet from the oval office, his telling the press to keep its mouth closed calling them the enemy certainly did prompting the following response from Washington Post writer Eugene Robinson, “I don’t need Steve Bannon’s permission to do my job.” Compounding his sketchy credentials to fulfill the title chief strategist to any president, forget one who needs as much management as Trump, he is accused of domestic violence against his wife, at the time; beginning of a disturbing pattern plaguing would be Whitehouse staff. Special adviser to the president Kellyanne Conway who began her new job, post telling reporters she didn’t want to work for Trump past his campaign, reviving the phrase alternative facts from the dystopian book 1984 while supporting Sean Spicer’s inauguration turn out number comments. Solidifying herself fodder for comedians, a person who can’t be taken seriously, earning her the moniker Kellyanne Coned-me from independent media she invented a terrorist massacre, allegedly happening in Bowling Green Kentucky, her only defense for first intense scrutiny of Muslims, the easiest way to shore up arguments for keeping them out of America well before president Trump’s travel ban; multiplying her truth woes by lying about where the story came from. Asserting she said the wrong word, in place of massacre she meant plot, perhaps forgetting having previously divulged this tall tale for several media outlets including Cosmo magazine, TMZ and the Daily Beast. Ms. Conway who could face ethics violation charges for hocking Trump daughter Ivanka’s clothing line in a national TV interview post Trump finding out Nordstrom’s was dropping said clothing line for poor sales, not implied political controversy, sending out familiar angry tweets about unfairness. Followed by national security advisor Michael Flynn recently staring down the barrel of his own investigation easily facing losing his job after lying about a suspect phone call with Russian dignitaries as president Obama was imposing actions for their election interference; initially saying he only made contact to set up a later official call, now come to find out he indicated Russian personnel should not be overly alarmed by sanctions saying they might be eased under president Trump, weakly claiming he doesn’t remember if he discussed sanctions or not after weeks of stating no, no, he didn’t when asked, finally forcing his abrupt resignation, still facing investigation via the FBI among others. Press secretary Sean Spicer began his job on the wrong foot similar to Conway telling absolute whoppers regarding inauguration crowd size enthusiastically claiming Trump’s was bigger than president Obama’s circa 2008; fabricating his own terror attack Georgia the unlucky state, specifically Atlanta, to drive home his boss’ point. The same Sean Spicer embarrassingly retweeting articles from The Onion sarcastically bashing him, too ignorant to know it wasn’t praise, Sean Spicer causing everyone speculative worry upon seeing tweeted letter and number combinations released twice in 2 days wondering if they were so called pocket/butt dials, tweets or as serious as nuclear codes. Technical aspects relevant because, remember Hillary Clinton’s damned private server was less secure the G-mail, she was corrupt, unworthy of the presidency purportedly endangered national security using that ‘home brew’ server; contrasted to Trump staff busted using private e-mail, insert lazy shoulder shrug, worries about Trump still using an unsecure Android phone in addition to his provided Whitehouse secured one Trump supporters were probably blissfully obvious until they read this sentence and will dismiss it because I write for independent news, days to secure his @POTUS twitter account oh well. Still Hillary Clinton deserved to be locked up for the number of blackberries, tablets, computers her and her aides might have used, emphasis on might, the dust up over Anthony Wiener’s computer possibly shared with his wife close Clinton aide Huma Abedin droves believe cost her the election. Putting final nails in Mr. Spicer’s competence to do the job known under the title Whitehouse press secretary he gets up in the briefing room and references president Trump’s meeting with Canadian prime minister Joe Trudeau, just one major problem, the prime minister’s name is Justin Trudeau; moreover these are the kind of errors we were taught not to make, as ordinary people, watching that iconic TV show The West Wing. Spicer again resorting to whoppers explaining why Iran was suddenly put ‘on notice’ practically shouting during another daily briefing Iran attacked U.S. navy ship; except they didn’t, they hit a Saudi Arabian ship thinking it was a U.S. navy ship, not stopping him from saying so and Trump from using it as justification for his ‘on notice’ tweet. Steve Miller credibly rumored to have been behind the hastily drafted travel ban barring people entering America from 7 predominately Muslim countries along with chief advisor Steve Bannon leaving out key players like defense secretary Mattis, homeland security secretary Kelly, on the verge of being conformed at the time secretary of state Rex Tillerson; doing rounds on the recent weekend morning shows calling the judiciary’s halt on that ban rouge, asserting the president has all the authority to enact it and will not be questioned drawing collective gasps from every analyst, morning show anchor who heard it including staunch conservative Joe Scarborough. Scarborough proceeding to school him on civics, social studies, history and the constitutional, fact we have are supposed to have an independent judiciary making his emphatic statements about a usurpation of power the ravings of at best an uneducated child, at worst an unhinged lunatic; a former New Hampshire GOP chair not mincing words calling him delusional. President Donald J. Trump who knowingly has a health advisor who doesn’t know how birth control works, a deputy national security advisor who moonlighted on Fox News before coming to work for him; when he asked his top choice to pretty please replace Michael Flynn she, KT McFarland appointed deputy, was the last straw point of contention, them wanting to bring in their own people, you know someone actually competent qualified to do the job. Developing, David Petraeus the guy who actually gave away national security secrets to people who weren’t supposed to have them, never subjected to equal lock him up chants as Hillary Clinton was, bowed out upon finding he too would be denied his own staff and barred from actually leading security policy, AKA doing the job he was hired to do, uneasy about the chaotic dynamics as well. Carl Icahn, whom Trump bombastically stated, years before he ran that if he did and if he won, he would put Mr. Icahn in charge of trade with both China and Japan, will be his advisor on regulatory reform despite wrecking TWA, regulations meant to reign in businesses, put common sense checks and consumer protections in place diametrically opposed to how he achieved his wealth. Unhappy with the intelligence coming out of the intelligence community, leaks accusingly attributed to our wide ranging alphabet of agencies, information arguably the American people need to know, who does he appoint to conduct his desired overall of intelligence community members, enter billionaire investor number what are we up to now joining administration staff at the cabinet or advisor level. Paralleling his selection for ambassador to Israel sent in to handle easily termed the most delicate diplomatic mission of the modern era, charged with keeping Israelis and Palestinians, the original Hatfield’s and McCoy’s, from further killing each other: a bankruptcy lawyer holding added descriptors right wing and hawk; chief qualification Trump knows him and he’s Jewish. Problems compounded by a middle east aide harboring his own checkered past pertaining to the area whose stance on anything outside Iraq and Iran are as fragmented, disjointed as Trump’s; spelling our next invasion, war, only time will tell. Speaking of religion, religious based conflicts his education task force is to be headed up by none other than Jerry Falwell Jr. president of Liberty University, a Christian fundamentalist college; Christians, regardless demonization, pushing creationism based on the bible be the main science curriculum taught in school though it lacks a basic scientific basis, has not been put through the rigors of standard scientific method, proofing to become an established scientific theory. Christians who overwhelmingly and repeatedly support scaling back anatomy and physiology, biology lest adolescents learn about their own bodies; because, aforementioned learning will lead to sex in their minds, contradicting every sociological study showing the more information given the later and less teens have sex. Christians apoplectically opposed to comprehensive sex ed., Utah and Christianity’s Mormon offshoot trying to pass a law preventing parents from opting in to complete sex ed., making that choice for their child/children, their family, no one forcing it on them; Christians the driving force behind replacing AP history with the 10 commandments and Reagan speeches according to an Oklahoma bill. President Trump’s latest non-conformable staffing pick for intergovernmental and technology initiatives has been accused racist club policies resulting in numerous lawsuits including testimony about beatings and harassment on one project; at another club employees had a code for referring negatively to blacks as “urbans” or “Canadians” they couldn’t even adhere to. Vice president of the entertainment company owned by Trump’s embroiled advisor, Reed Cordish telling a DJ to change the music by saying Get that fucking n**ger music off here,” among several such comments made by Cordish management. On the flunked before examination, complete examination front there’s glaring example Andy Puzder already reportedly questioning whether he wanted that kind of deep dive into his life after it was revealed he’d paid an undocumented housekeeper for years, his having published a manifesto espousing automation over workers because robots don’t call in sick, report slip and falls, subject to fines for paying workers under the minimum wage, finally sidelined by an Oprah interview recording featuring his wife, sporting a disguise out of visual fear, domestic abuse accusations in tow. Glaring question what’s with all the domestic abusers applying to the Whitehouse, perhaps Trump, his staff need to get to know some more people because first Bannon now Puzder; at least one of them won’t be working highly in our government, but it raises the secondary question of how he was considered at all. A secretary of the military who couldn’t divest his assents far enough to satisfy ethical guidelines attached to the position; backup for his job possibly drooping out too owing to lack of active navel experience and, recurring theme, conflicts of interest. Senior Director of Strategic Communications for the National Security Council pick, Monica Crowley, bowing out post revelations she plagiarized large portions of her book form fellow columnists, Fox News articles, Wikipedia and Investopedia; 6 Whitehouse aides abruptly dismissed after failing their background checks, a doubly epic fail Trump personnel responsible for those task apparently unaware the idea is to vet them, compete extensive background checks before employees begin working in such an important environment. Again there’s nothing about this that works, nothing that signals to a people defender, fighter for Americans they can rest easy on a single issue to give others more attention, their full attention, yet we’re getting hung up on Ben Carson, Elizabeth Warren’s decision on Ben Carson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNi8uQjIm2k

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/22/kellyanne-conway-trumps-new-pick-for-white-house-counselor-learned-everything-she-knows-on-a-blueberry-farm-in-new-jersey/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkbu07-qUAo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lDtaoYSBTc

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/13/another-fox-news-loon-joins-the-government-but-k-t-mcfarland-could-be-the-least-qualified-of-all/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3bTvIB_aZE

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/22/donald-trump-chooses-carl-icahn-who-destroyed-twa-to-advise-him-on-regulatory-reform/

http://www.salon.com/2017/02/17/trumps-blatant-cronyism-turns-to-national-security-president-taps-billionaire-investor-to-overhaul-the-spy-agencies/

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/19/donald-trump-is-sending-a-right-wing-bankruptcy-lawyer-to-israel-what-could-go-wrong/

http://www.salon.com/2017/02/12/middle-east-column-tk/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baBaL9SG1zk

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/23/the-certainty-factor-trumps-pick-for-labor-secretary-wrote-a-deregulatory-manifesto_partner/

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/12/reports-of-plagiarism-continue-to-follow-monica-crowley/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLavb9qdanU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWVAfgXphIU

Constituents, liberals, democrats, progressives or just sane persons who recognize Trump’s insanity seeing red now fail to realize she may have merely been picking her battles, saving her political, mental, emotional, psychological strength for fights ahead holding greater impact on the American people as a whole; knowing well they might not win any of their sparring matches and they certainly were less likely to win them all. Worth acknowledgement if not overt praise Warren, along with nearly every democrat in congress did fight, holding 24 hour filibuster sessions on the most controversial cabinet picks Betsy DeVos and Jeff sessions; managed to win over 2 republicans willing to vote no in DeVos’ case, although that might have had something to do with answering a Coneticutt senator’s questions about guns in school, do they have any place in school, Connecticut being the state of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting tragedy, by bringing up Wapiti Wyoming and the threat of grizzly bears mauling students. As opposed to crafting a coherent answer centered around school resource officers, armed security being A- personnel trained to handle guns and B- meant to keep students safe in an unsafe world, schools no longer the haven they used to be and owning her opinion, stance on the issue. DeVos who likely plagiarized her answers to committee questionnaires, unclear on exactly how that happened or no, credible information she lied to hearing committee members in reference to her ties to an anti-LGBT foundation had citizens collectively bombarding their local legislature’s offices via calls, e-mails telling them to vote no, particularly on DeVos. Opposed by the 2 major teachers unions eliciting genuine fear from teachers, parents plus students themselves about quality of learning going forward; still vice president Mike Pence stepped in to do his historic duty in breaking a senate tie handing her her conformation. Hardly paid attention to, certainly not by the people willing to crucify Elizabeth Warren, republicans blew up, changed the rules making it easier to push nominees through senate committee one step closer to final conformation and harder for democrats, anyone to oppose them about the time they were ramming through anti-EPA EPA secretary Scott Pruitt controversial for suing the EPA on multiple occasions, 14 times, rivaling only the number of times republicans have unsuccessfully tried to repeal Obamacare. As if that and his ties to a secret alliance to oil and gas companies wasn’t enough, serving as attorney general in Oklahoma cutting and pasting letters from oil/gas companies onto government letterhead, changing a few words sending it to Washington as the view of Oklahomans there are his other actions as attorney general in the Sooner state. Namely his involvement in a botched execution that left a man writhing on a gurney, trying to insert his own needles after lengthy failed tries resulting in increasing pain and a governor agreeing with prison officials to call it off only for said man to die of a heart attack; why, because, upon realizing they didn’t have any execution drugs available for an upcoming execution scheduled later citing attorney general as an election position and public pressure to go through with aforementioned executions as reasons, he, his office staff trolled the internet for names of drugs that would kill people, duration it takes to kill people using “WikiLeaks or whatever,” documents proving Pruitt’s repeated denials of involvement totally false. Sidestepping Mr. Pruitt should probably be in jail not slated to serve in nation public office he found himself hastily shoved, rubber stamped through the process independent a Oklahoma court mandating the release of e-mails between himself and oil/gas companies; correspondence potentially shedding light on his fitness to do the job. President Trump advising the same rule change tactic be used to put his nominee on the supreme court telling senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to “go nuclear” if that’s what it takes to get judge Gorsuch through; nominee Neil Gorsuch raising red flags over a fascist group he created in high school, leaving readers the nagging question what’s behind all the extremist groups members suddenly holding jobs nest to the president? Both Flynn and Miller doing adjacent activities in college, Miller with an anti-Muslim group; Flynn most disturbing, doing his with member of a foreign country and well into adulthood. Elizabeth Warren asked to sit down during hearing objections for Jeff Sessions accused of violating an arcane rule preventing the impugning of a fellow senator; forget that wasn’t what she was doing, considering the words weren’t her own instead reading a letter from wife of civil rights leader Martin Luther King one Coretta Scott King. Forget that even if her reading could have been construed as an impugning on Sessions it was completely justified and should have been permitted, not least of which because she too is deceased, also because it goes to the heart of concerns about him, his record on civil rights, his accusations of racism persecuting civil rights leaders attempting to legitimately register eligible African Americans to vote, Ms. Scott- King’s descriptions of how he used his power on the judiciary to squelch black votes. Interesting too how Warren was asked to be seated but fellow male democrats read the same letter facing zero repercussions; Sessions who lied about his record to hearing committee members only to see him confirmed anyway. Democrats well past Ms. Warren and hardened fighters a-la Bernie Sanders, Elijah Cummings and John Lewis naming but 2 more took steps to boycott senate hearings meant to advance health and human services choice Tom Price and treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin. Called out for leaving off a Cayman Islands bank account, 6 shell companies and a hedge fund in Anguilla from his financial disclosure form; Price adamantly denying profiting from congress while it’s blatantly obvious he did receiving donations from companies awaiting approval and proposed legislation designed to benefit them by delaying regulations a mere week after buying their stock. Textbook insider trading after congress passed a law expressly forbidding members, government officials profiting from information received solely in the course of their job, and if Martha Stewart could be jailed for it, why is this guy not only walking free minus charges, trial, time behand bars, but being considered for a top government position? Chuck Schumer pointing out that very legal point, his stock trading’s probably illegality to no avail. Democrats all had hard questions for secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson on oil, climate change, only 3 democrats voted for him staggering when taking into account his business dealings with 3 state sponsors of terrorism; yet their yes votes assume they knew that, assumes they had access to those records delving how hard its been to pry information from these nominees, how many have been caught in lies, failures to disclose things. Proposed secretary of the interior, charged with maintaining public lands and protecting natural resources, overseeing conservation Ryan Zinke was previously controversial prior to his appointment for having improperly billed the government over travel expenses to renovate his home and visit his mother logging it as official business. Concerns also stem from his denial of climate change asserting there has been no definitive conclusion it’s manmade in addition to worries he will give in to conservative political pressures to give set aside lands back to the states underlined by corporate interests who want to build, drill or log national monuments, major nature sites. Think Bears Ears and the chief opposer’s argument stating president Obama didn’t fully account for how the land could be used. Mick Mulvaney is a name citizens have barely heard, if at all, but we should have since public record indicates Trump’s man to lead the Whitehouse’s office of management and budget makes it abundantly clear he wants to cut social security and Medicare; the identical social security and Medicare our president said he wouldn’t touch, exact opposite would try to save, ran ads in key rustbelt states, Pennsylvania to that effect. Mr. Mulvaney follows Rand Paul on the kooky theories to save the government, give its power back to the people that will actually hurt them; railing against the federal reserve, blaming it for our economic woes, artificial interest rates, wage stagnation, exactly what he told the John Birch Society accusing it of choking economic growth. The John Birch Society known for its right leanings and conspiracy theories calling Nelson Mandela a communist, terrorist, thug in response to the movie Invictus, who once believed Dwight Eisenhower was a ‘dedicated conscious agent of the communist conspiracy,’ linked fluoride in drinking water meant to fortify teeth, particularly of children, to communist endeavors a-la mind control; plots to destroy America tied to the league of women voters and the civil rights act, whose response to Brown V. board of education was to demand the impeachment of the then chief justice of the supreme court, who earnestly thought civil rights was about creating a negro soviet republic on American soil to name only a few of the head scratching ideas coming from an established group. Next question, what was Mulvaney doing talking to these specific people at all? Here, here are the individuals handpicked run parts of the government, chosen by a president who embodies strategies to implode unpopular government agencies from within rather than without; in favor of battling to eliminate them, employ incompetents to run them then showcase how well they cease to function, you suddenly have everyone on your side in axing a “useless’ government ‘money hog’, chipping away at over grown, overblow bureaucracy. If I’m Elizabeth Warren I don’t sleep at night, can barely get out of bed daily and am a harried mess mulling over the consequences of presented choices to run something as instrumental as our government; putting yourself in Elizabeth Warren’s shoes it’s got to be overwhelming even for a seasoned politician, battle hardened, as they’re calling them, justice democrats to even try figuring out where to start, which fire to put out first, which ticking time bomb to even try to prevent going off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqszZR4smEg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDn0xAmaKVo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjl_VQcF-qg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htEKgvFk-98

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aNabEEa9CA

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/07/donald-trump-can-fill-his-cabinet-however-he-wants-and-democrats-cant-stop-him/

http://www.salon.com/2016/11/22/unconstitutional-gerrymander-federal-court-strikes-down-wisconsins-gop-drawn-redistricting/

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/30/beaver-state-backlash-wisconsin-judge-orders-state-gop-to-redraw-gerrymandered-legislative-districts/

http://www.salon.com/2016/11/30/federal-court-orders-north-carolina-to-hold-special-2017-elections-after-ruling-racial-gerrymander-of-districts-unconstitutional/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc3lvElham0

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/26/gerrymandering-for-2020-virginia-republicans-are-trying-to-rig-the-electoral-college-votes-for-next-election/

Understanding these people where never not going to be confirmed, because democrats never had the votes to stop them outright plus republicans are so entrenched in tribalism, backing those who are deemed ‘one of them’ no matter what winning them over to making strategic votes against detrimental choices is near impossible; more importantly, votes where democrats sided with republicans on a nominee continued to see that nominee’s yes votes outstrip the number of democrats who voted for them or the number of democrats period. All nominees reaching the juncture of being brought before committee confirmed independent efforts to delay, or derail them for the good of the American people. That isn’t to say resistance is futile, this isn’t Star Trek and cabinet nominees aren’t the Borg, but it begs the question asked of the public what do you want us to do; it is to say get off Elizabeth Warren’s back, see the bigger picture. Taking an objective view means comprehending not one of the objections democrats had were along party or ideological lines, even the guy asked to compare crowd size pictures and identify which looked bigger wasn’t silliness, getting caught up in a meaningless media debate rather a test to determine are you your own person or a flunky who will repeat the words of your superiors, coworkers, people you’re trying to impress no matter how ridiculous; will you tell the truth to power? Referencing Mnuchin and Price remember they wanted the committee to regroup, get the information, the 2 to come back, come clean about what they lied about and go from there, not delay, stall for delay and stalling’s sake. Parents reading how many voted for Trump, do you want America’s education policy, funding decisions made by someone who thinks guns protect children better than fences against grizzly bears (and how frequent are bear sightings on near school grounds in Wyoming, grizzly country), can’t answer a question on guns in schools well, wants to be secretary of education and is unaware of laws protecting students with disabilities or of the primary debates going on in achievement measuring among educators; democrats probably didn’t either. Reasonable surely to view e-mails ordered released by a judge between a potential EPA pick and the oil, gas companies he’s corresponded with, melded into the evidence plainly describing contentious history he has with the agency he wants to head, so why was Scott Pruitt hastily confirmed as if everyone’s head were on fire; particularly irritating for informed, sane individuals thinking back to how much emphasis was placed on Hillary Clinton’s e-mail and what turned out not to be there versus the scope honing in on merely those correspondence that could spell out, better illuminate a conflict of interest regarding Mr. Pruitt. Shift your focus for a moment less to the delay of Jeff Session’s confirmation and instead to why, accusations of racism, prosecuting civil rights leaders for registering voters, a man, a judge who thought the Klan were ok until he found out they smoke pot. Who said in far more recent years, good people don’t smoke marijuana, despite it’s numerous documented medical benefits in treating cancer treatment pain, nausea, glaucoma, phantom limb pains for amputees; it’s many derivatives removing most THC, the element responsible for consumers high taken in oil form to treat children, persons with debilitating seizures, more discovered daily about the positives it can do, states legalizing recreational cannabis finding few of the hypothesized negatives, shouted dooms day scenarios. Here is the guy presented to be attorney general, our nation’s prosecutor narrowly confirmed, but conformed nonetheless. Coming to sobering conclusions on just how wedded people are to their Obamacare, how much insurance, prescription drug prices and the skyrocketing prices of basic medicines weighs on voters’ minds, influences their decisions, knowing how poorly we perform among compatible westernized nations in healthcare stats, hearing panel members thought twice about electing an insider trading doctor to run a department called health and human services responsible for national healthcare policy; most would call that doing their jobs, unless it involves large crowds opinions. The same double take thinking applied to Wall Street financier and predatory lender extraordinaire Steve Mnuchin who took homes out from under hard working, unlucky Americans merely because he could to run the treasury, mind our entire countries money; what if he started doing to the treasury what lenders did— bundling mortgages and selling them on that stock market, that both were purposefully deceitful tried to keep pertinent things hidden didn’t help their cause. Rex Tillerson is an exercise in the perfect example of who you don’t want serving in a government post, especially one as important as secretary of state highlighted by Trump’s scathing critique of Hillary Clinton’s job performance occupying the position; look again at the videos after paragraph 1, you know it’s bad when a Russian official calls you secretary of state a gift to a foreign power. Senior citizen, slated to retire soon, a known category espousing huge support for Trump, have aging parents, grandparents then Mick Mulvaney has a good chance of directly impacting your lives with plans to slash social security and Medicare; proof positive there were fundamental reasons why democrats repeatedly said no to these individual nominees. Days post conformation even the GOP is worried about Scott Pruitt’s leadership of the EPA; breaking news, Jeff Sessions, newly minted attorney general overrode Ms. DeVos, going directly to the Whitehouse when she otherwise refused to relent on transgender bathroom guidelines rescinding she was uncomfortable with. Also why who runs HUD matters when the man confirmed says gay people don’t deserve extra rights inevitably leading to more LGBTQ persons unable to gain housing, be treated fairly in disability services, senior living facilities functioning under city public housing administrations who receive HUD funding; however attorney general support matters more because directives, directions from one flow to the other. Contrast all these others against Ben Carson and you find the lesser of many evils, what Warren tried to explain to angry progressives; look at what’s happened in other staffing instances where the backup cases don’t want the job, backups upon backups keep dropping out, are unacceptable, think army secretary position woes, details Warren laid out explaining her yes vote on Carson telling readers she didn’t believe the backup, the alternative could be persuaded, held to the promises they were able to elicit from Carson. Similarly it’s not enough for democrats to disavow supreme court nominee Neil Gorsuch on the grounds that seat is a stolen seat should be occupied by Merrick Garland or another Obama pick, lines guaranteed not to go over well with constituents; neither democratic promises not to give Gorsuch a hearing mimicking what republicans did to president Obama, seen too much as political tit for tat. President Donald Trump tells senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to go nuclear if that’s what it takes to approve his Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch but your attack plan for taking back seats of government, resistance against authoritarian tactics is ‘replace any democrat who votes yes on Gorsuch;’ compartmentalizing momentarily replace them with what, who is available to be better at the job, it ignores the zero options spot democrats, liberals and progressives have been put in. That already Trump supports are echoing what democrats were saying about republicans during the Obama years your obstruction is the problem, your throwing up roadblocks is preventing things from getting done; MSNBC’s Joy Reid asked senator Richard Blumenthal why democrats insisted on playing by rules the republicans don’t, giving a moral highroad answer in that just because their opponents broke rules doesn’t mean they would. Yet there too remains a more practical reason, if they did they will simply be demonized and voted out of office; there is something to be said for minding your political life, ensuring your political survival if you intend to serve people, your constituents in the future. Enter the leftist blame game faulting their creation of the ‘nuclear option’ in the first place asserting now he can fill his cabinet however he likes and there’s nothing they can do about it thanks to their own efforts to manhandle the system. Instead of focusing on long standing gerrymandering, why republicans so outnumber democrats in the first place rather than policy or voter enthusiasm, gerrymandering ruled unconstitutional and a judge in Wisconsin ruling districts be redrawn to represent voters not partisan interests, gerrymandering in North Carolina ruled beyond unconstitutional deemed so bad a judge there ordered special elections for later this year, overturned by the supreme court pending decision on whether or not they plan to hear an appeal, impending gerrymandering planned for Virginia slated to impact 2020’s election by targeting the electoral college, they’re blaming democrats for trying to do something about hopeless gridlock when the subsequent message from the American people is can’t you get something done? Rather than guiding voters to find their own interests, tell them persuasively it’s ok for them to vote ‘selfishly,’ demonstrating your national ABC, CBS, NBC news carried on standard channels isn’t the enemy, isn’t lying to you every time your television’s on, they’re attacking warriors like Elizabeth Warren—face palm

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