As the West goes up in flames, Trump couldn’t care less
September 15, 2020
The air outside my window is yellow today. It was orange yesterday. The Air Quality Index is over 200. The Environmental Protection Agency defines this as a “health alert” in which “everyone may experience more serious health effects if they are exposed for 24 hours.” Unfortunately, the index has been over 200 for several days.
<p>The West is burning. Wildfires in California, Oregon and Washington are incinerating homes, killing scores of people, sickening many others, causing hundreds of thousands to evacuate, burning entire towns to the ground, consuming millions of acres, and blanketing the western third of the United States with thick, acrid and dangerous smoke.</p><p>Yet the president has said and done almost nothing. He’s in California today for a quick photo-op, and then high-tails back to Washington (or is it Mar-a-Lago?) as fast as he can.</p><p>A month ago, Trump wanted to protect lives in Oregon and California from “rioters and looters.” He sent federal forces into the streets of Portland and threatened to send them to Oakland and Los Angeles.</p><p>Today, <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2020%2Fsep%2F12%2Fwildfires-are-striking-closer-and-closer-to-cities-we-know-how-this-will-end&t=YWYyNGNiMGJiZTZhNDVkNGNkNDY3YWFkZmZjNDE0MDdmMjU2Yzg0YixES1FmSzVzZA%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F629260931735633920&m=1&ts=1600131528">Portland is in danger of being burned</a> and Oakland and Los Angeles are under health alerts.</p><p>Trump couldn’t care less. These states voted against him in 2016 and he still bears a grudge.</p><p>He came close to rejecting California’s request for emergency funding.</p><p>“He told us to stop giving money to people whose houses had burned down because he was so rageful that people in the state of California didn’t support him,” <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com%2Fnews%2F2020%2F08%2F17%2Ftrump-california-wildfire-money-397340&t=N2ZlODI1M2JlMDMyN2ZhZjViM2VkZGU3MjRhYzc5ZmM0MGZmNDJiMyxES1FmSzVzZA%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F629260931735633920&m=1&ts=1600131528">said</a> former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor.</p><p>Another explanation for Trump’s indifference is that the wildfires are <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fagupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com%2Fdoi%2Ffull%2F10.1029%2F2019EF001210&t=MDllYjg0Yzg1OTAxOWM2NTUzMGJiNmJmMjliYjM5Njk2ZDc0NDA0ZCxES1FmSzVzZA%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F629260931735633920&m=1&ts=1600131528">tied</a> to human-caused climate change, which Trump has done everything humanly possible to worsen.</p><p>Extreme weather disasters are rampaging across America. Last Wednesday, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration released its latest <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.noaa.gov%2Fnews%2Fsummer-2020-ranked-as-one-of-hottest-on-record-for-us&t=NjE4YmRmMGVjOGZiZjI2ZTAwNGVhNmUzMDAxYzQ1MzQwYWJmOTEwZSxES1FmSzVzZA%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F629260931735633920&m=1&ts=1600131528">State of the Climate report</a>, finding that just in August the US was hit by four billion-dollar calamities. In addition to wildfires, there were two enormous hurricanes and an extraordinary <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbsnews.com%2Fnews%2Fderecho-storm-100-mph-winds-hits-midwest%2F&t=OTU5ZGFmNTNmNjAxNDJlOTFmNWM3NGQ0N2YzZWE1NDQ5NGI5ZmU2NCxES1FmSzVzZA%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F629260931735633920&m=1&ts=1600131528">Midwest derecho</a>.</p><p>These are inconvenient facts for a president who has spent much of his presidency dismantling every major climate and environmental policy he can lay his hands on.</p><p>Starting with his unilateral decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, Trump has been the most anti-environmental president in history.</p><p>He has called climate change a “hoax”. He has claimed, with no evidence, that windmills cause cancer. He has weakened Obama-era limits on planet-warming carbon dioxide <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2019%2F06%2F19%2Fclimate%2Fepa-coal-emissions.html&t=Yzg0MDkzN2U5YjBhZDE3NDkzMDk2OTRhMDBlNzY3YTgzY2JlN2ExZSxES1FmSzVzZA%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F629260931735633920&m=1&ts=1600131528">from power plants</a> and from <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2020%2F03%2F30%2Fclimate%2Ftrump-fuel-economy.html&t=NTFhZWY1ODI0ZjMxOTg4N2Y1MDE4YzQwNTI5ODBlZTkxMzQ1ZjVlMixES1FmSzVzZA%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F629260931735633920&m=1&ts=1600131528">cars and trucks</a>. He has rolled back rules governing clean air, water and toxic chemicals. He has opened more public land to oil and gas drilling.</p><p>He has targeted California in particular, <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fenvironment%2Fstory%2F2019-09-20%2Fcalifornia-sues-trump-car-emissions-authority&t=NzE2MDdhMzFjMDU4OWRkYWMwOGY5NjEyYTM1ZDRmNjEyNTI1YTYxNCxES1FmSzVzZA%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F629260931735633920&m=1&ts=1600131528">revoking the state’s authority</a> to set tougher car emission standards than those required by the federal government.</p><p>In all, the Trump administration has reversed, repealed, or otherwise rolled back <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Finteractive%2F2020%2Fclimate%2Ftrump-environment-rollbacks.html&t=ZjY4MjM2MzQ4ZWRiZTE0Nzc5YzU3M2IwNjc3ZGNlMDc2YmNlZGE3YixES1FmSzVzZA%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F629260931735633920&m=1&ts=1600131528">nearly 70 environmental rules</a> and regulations. More than 30 rollbacks are still in progress.</p><p>Now, seven weeks before election day, with much of the nation either aflame or suffering other consequences of climate change, Trump unabashedly defends his record and attacks Joe Biden.</p><p>“The core of [Biden’s] economic agenda is a hard-left crusade against American energy,” Trump harrumphed in a <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fnam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com%2F%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.whitehouse.gov%252Fbriefings-statements%252Fremarks-president-trump-press-conference-071420%252F%26data%3D02%257C01%257CAnna.Phillips%2540latimes.com%257C4600775ab6ed4b5579ee08d83f363c9b%257Ca42080b34dd948b4bf44d70d3bbaf5d2%257C0%257C0%257C637328849470271771%26sdata%3D58LZxrFn88bQKCongOyDJwXcAuHFVA5jmJQ2bxX%252BtTg%253D%26reserved%3D0&t=ZWE5OWY1N2RjNGNlODJkM2Q1YWZiM2ZiMjU3NTJkN2UyNGRkYTcwOCxES1FmSzVzZA%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F629260931735633920&m=1&ts=1600131528">Rose Garden speech</a> last month.</p><p>Not quite. While Biden has made tackling climate change a centerpiece of his campaign, <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fpolitics%2Fstory%2F2020-07-14%2Fbiden-aggressive-targets-climate-change&t=NjY0ZDliMDU0N2Y1NjQzNjllY2FjMjEyZjgwNzU3NjMzMGY0YjI1NCxES1FmSzVzZA%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F629260931735633920&m=1&ts=1600131528">proposing to invest $2 trillion</a> in a massive green jobs program to build renewable energy infrastructure, his ideas are not exactly radical. The money would be used for improving energy efficiency, constructing 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations, and increasing renewable energy from wind, solar and other technologies.</p><p>Biden wants to end the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity by 2035, and to bring America to net zero emissions of greenhouse gases by no later than 2050. His goals may be too modest. If what is now occurring in the west is any indication, 2050 will be too late.</p><p>Nonetheless, Americans have a clear choice. In a few weeks, when they decide whether Trump deserves another four years, climate change will be on the ballot.</p><p>The choice shouldn’t be hard to make. Like the coronavirus, the dire consequences of climate change – coupled with Trump’s utter malfeasance – offer unambiguous proof that he couldn’t care less about the public good.</p></div>
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Reich: Here Are 6 Reasons for Hope in the Trump Era
July 30, 2018
In these darkest of days, here’s what gives me hope:
<p style="margin: 21px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: Georgia, Times; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); text-align: justify;"><b>First, Donald Trump has been a giant wake-up call that we can’t take democracy for granted.</b> The young people of America get this. I’ve been teaching for 40 years and I don’t recall a generation as committed to social justice, reforming this country, and making it work for all and not just a few. </p><p style="margin: 21px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: Georgia, Times; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); text-align: justify;">Look at those kids in Parkland, Florida. Or the millions more who are getting involved in their communities and in politics. They are America’s future, and they won’t give up. </p><p style="margin: 21px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: Georgia, Times; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); text-align: justify;"><b>The second thing that makes me optimistic is occurring at the grassroots of America, where there’s more activism than I remember in half a century.</b> The #MeToo movement, Time’s Up, #BlackLivesMatter, #Neveragain, the Poor People’s Campaign, Indivisible.org, <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fswingleft.org%2F&t=YmFkYmE5NmNlM2VlMThmYzMyNjU3NjQ3NmYzZmI0YWVmNjE5MDNkZCxpb1VqaUdaNQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F176373362075&m=1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(65, 130, 196); text-decoration-line: none;">swingleft.org</a>. </p><p style="margin: 21px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: Georgia, Times; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); text-align: justify;">They and thousands of other groups and millions of Americans are united by a commitment to end abuses of power – whether by sexual predators, or the police, the National Rifle Association, or billionaires out to undermine our democracy.</p><p style="margin: 21px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: Georgia, Times; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); text-align: justify;"><b>Third, Fueled by Trump’s election, more women are running for office than ever before.</b> According to Emily’s List, more than 36,000 women are interested in running for office in 2018 and beyond. By comparison, 920 women contacted Emily’s List in the 2016 campaign.</p><p style="margin: 21px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: Georgia, Times; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); text-align: justify;"><b>Fourth, I’m optimistic because America’s history shows that every time we’ve gotten off track, Americans mobilize to get our country back on track.</b> We did this after the Gilded Age of the 1880s and 1890s, when robber barons monopolized the economy; politics was poisoned by money; and poverty, and disease, and horrendous working conditions claimed thousands of lives each year. </p><p style="margin: 21px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: Georgia, Times; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); text-align: justify;">We did it again in the Depression decade of the 1930s, after the economy collapsed because of Wall Street’s excesses. And again in the 1960s and 1970s, when we embraced civil rights and voting rights, Medicare and Medicaid, and environmental protection. If history teaches us anything, we will again reform this system.</p><p style="margin: 21px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: Georgia, Times; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); text-align: justify;"><b>Fifth, I’m also optimistic because these grueling years of the Trump presidency have made us all realize how fragile our democracy really is, and what we need to reform</b>–from the Electoral College and super-delegates to gerrymandering, voter ID laws, and hacker-proof voting machinery. </p><p style="margin: 21px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: Georgia, Times; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); text-align: justify;">And most of us now know how important it is to vote.</p><p style="margin: 21px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: Georgia, Times; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); text-align: justify;"><b>Finally, I’m optimistic because I don’t like the alternative</b>. We must have hope. </p><p style="margin: 21px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: Georgia, Times; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); text-align: justify;">The fate of this nation depends on every one of us becoming an activist, joining with others, and reclaiming this land from those bent on destroying it.</p>
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Reich: Is Trump a Traitor?
July 20, 2018
Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki was a betrayal of the nation he has a sworn duty to protect.
<p>Under Article III Section 3 of the Constitution, the crime of treason is defined as “giving aid and comfort” to enemies of the United States. Trump has betrayed the American people in 5 ways we already know of:</p><p>1. <b>He ignores attacks on our democracy</b>. According to American intelligence, there’s no doubt about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. And no doubt they’re continuing to attack, and planning further attacks, on our democratic institutions and even our energy infrastructure. </p><p>Yet Trump casts doubt about the conclusions of the intelligence community, blames past presidents, and turns a blind eye to safeguarding America from current and future attacks. </p><p>2. <b>He publicly undermines U.S. intelligence officials</b> – taking the side of Putin, a former KGB officer, when Putin claims Russia didn’t interfere in the election. And Trump accuses his own government officials of being part of a so-called “deep-state” conspiracy out to get him. </p><p>3.<b> He attacks our closest allies, weakening America’s standing in the world and playing into Putin’s hands</b>. During his trip to Europe, Trump insulted German Chancellor Angela Merkel, mocked British Prime Minister Theresa May, and was rebuked by the French President. His unreasonable demands on NATO – that members increase their military expenditures to 4 percent of their GDPs – have frayed our most important security alliance. </p><p>4. <b>His campaign knowingly sought help from a Russian agent.</b> In June, 2016, senior members of Trump’s campaign, including Don Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort, met with a Russian lawyer who, before they met, had promised them damaging information on Clinton. </p><p>5. <b>Then in July 2016 Trump publicly encouraged Russia to meddle in our election,</b> asking Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s email server and release the emails to the public. That same day Russian operatives initiated their cyberattack, and weeks later released the emails. </p><p>Never before has a President of the United States so brazenly sided with a ruthless dictator intent on destroying American democracy.</p><p> If this is not treason, what is it? </p>
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Reich: Here's What We Can Do About Trump's Escalating Lies
July 13, 2018
As the political season heats up, Trump is ramping up his lies through his three amplifiers: Fox News, rallies, and Twitter.
<p>According to <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fgraphics%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-claims-database%2F&t=YWQ5YmVhM2VlMDMxN2IwOWNlMjFlOTA4Mzk5MDAxNDllYzM1MTE2MyxCVVo1QUx6eg%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F175757408255&m=1">The Fact Checker’s database</a>, the average daily rate of Trump’s false or misleading claims is climbing.</p><p>The problem isn’t just the number or flagrancy of the lies – for example, that Putin and the Russians didn’t intervene in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump, or that the Mueller investigation is part of a Democratic plot to remove him.</p><p>And it’s not just that the lies are about big, important public issues – for example, that immigrants commit more crimes than native-born Americans, or trade wars are harmless.</p><p>The biggest problem is his lies aren’t subject to the filters traditionally applied to presidential statements – a skeptical press, experts who debunk falsehoods, and respected politicians who publicly disagree.</p><p>The word “media” comes from the term “intermediate” – that is, to come between someone who makes the news and the public who receives it.</p><p>But Trump doesn’t hold press conferences. He doesn’t meet in public with anyone who disagrees with him. He denigrates the mainstream press. And he shuns experts. </p><p>Instead, his lies go out to tens of millions of Americans every day unmediated.</p><p>TV and radio networks simply rebroadcast his rallies, or portions of them.</p><p>At his most recent rally in Great Falls, Montana, Trump made 98 factual statements. According to the Washington Post’s fact checkers, <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fnews%2Ffact-checker%2Fwp%2F2018%2F07%2F10%2Fanatomy-of-a-trump-rally-76-percent-of-claims-are-false-misleading-or-lacking-evidence%2F%3Futm_term%3D.6970113167ba&t=NjAwZWMyY2UxNWM2MzQxNzNjYjg1MGUxMDQ3YzRlN2RjODE1YjIzMyxCVVo1QUx6eg%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F175757408255&m=1">76 percent</a> of them were false, misleading or unsupported by evidence.</p><p>For example, Trump claimed that “winning the Electoral College is very tough for a Republican, much tougher than the so-called ‘popular vote,’ where people vote four times, you know.”</p><p>The claim ricocheted across the country even though countless studies have shown that Trump’s <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2017%2F07%2F05%2Fpolitics%2Fkobach-voter-fraud%2Findex.html&t=NjY0NDlhNmFhMTNhNGI0ODRhYzZlYzIyZGM2ZWFhNjFiYjA1MjhkNyxCVVo1QUx6eg%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F175757408255&m=1">claims of widespread voter fraud and abuse are simply not borne out by the facts</a>.</p><p>Meanwhile, over 50 million Americans receive his daily tweets, which are also brimming with lies. </p><p>Recently, for example, Trump tweeted that Democrats were responsible for his administration’s policy of separating migrant families at the border (they weren’t), and that “crime in Germany is way up” because of migration (in fact, it’s down).</p><p>Around 6 million Americans watch Fox News each day and relate what they see and hear to their friends and relations.</p><p>Fox News is no longer intermediating between the public and Trump. Fox News <i>is </i>Trump. Many of his lies originate with Fox News; Fox News amplifies the ones that originate with Trump. </p><p>Fox News’s Sean Hannity is one of Trump’s <i>de facto</i> top advisers. Trump has just appointed Bill Shine, the former number two at Fox News, as his deputy chief of staff for communications.</p><p>No democracy can function under a continuous bombardment of unmediated lies.</p><p>So what are we to do, other than vote November 6 to constrain Trump?</p><p>First, boycott Fox News’s major sponsors, listed <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnewsadvertisers.com%2F2018%2F06%2F19%2Ftop-advertisers-week-ending-june-17-2018%2F&t=ZjViMDU3ZDhjZTM5MDFjMDQxNWJhNWQ4MzNjMTI2NTJhNDE0YmVjMSxCVVo1QUx6eg%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F175757408255&m=1">here</a>. Vote with your wallet and starve the beast. Get others to join you.</p><p>Second, attend Trump’s rallies, as distasteful as this may be. You’re entitled to attend. He is, after all, the president of the entire country.</p><p>Organize and mobilize large groups to attend with you. Once there, let your views about his lies be heard and seen by the press. You can find out when and where his rallies will occur <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.donaldjtrump.com%2Frallies%2F%255D&t=NzgzOTEyNzAwNDI5NmM2ODVhZjBjNmVmZDlkM2RkOTYzOWRjN2Q5YyxCVVo1QUx6eg%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F175757408255&m=1">here</a> or <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpg%2FDonaldTrump%2Fevents%2F&t=M2ZkYjQ2NTE0NGVkNGUwOTYwMzc0Y2UzMzE5MGEwYzgxYWE4NWE4ZixCVVo1QUx6eg%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F175757408255&m=1">here</a>. </p><p>Third, sign up for his tweets, and respond to his lies with the simple: “b.s.” You can sign up <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">here</a>.</p><p>Fourth, write to Twitter and tell its executives to stop enabling Trump’s lies. Its contact information is <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.headquartersinfo.com%2Ftwitter-headquarters-information%2F%23resources&t=NTFhNzdhZWFjZjA3NTgwNzBjMzgxNzM0ZmFjNzY0ZDk4ODZiNDYzNixCVVo1QUx6eg%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F175757408255&m=1">here</a>. </p><p>In addition, as the Times’ Farhad Manjoo <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2018%2F07%2F04%2Ftechnology%2Femployee-uprisings-twitter.html&t=YWIxMjUzYzYxNDg1OTZiNzQwZWRkN2I5OGZkNTgzYmEyMzc0MWJmMyxCVVo1QUx6eg%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F175757408255&m=1">suggested</a> recently, Twitter’s employees should be encouraged to make a ruckus – as did Amazon workers who pushed the firm to stop selling facial recognition services to law enforcement agencies, and Google employees who pressured Google not to renew a Pentagon contract for artificial intelligence. </p><p>Twitter defines its mission as providing a “healthy public conversation.” Let them know that demagoguery isn’t healthy.</p><p>Your vote on November 6 is the key, of course.</p><p>But as the political season heats up, Trump’s lies are heating up, too. And they will sway unwary voters.</p><p>So you need to be active now, before Election Day – on behalf of the truth.</p>
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Reich: What Americans Must Do to Defeat Trump and Save Democracy
June 28, 2018
My friends, this is a dark hour. Intolerance, cruelty, racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and environmental destruction have been let loose across the land.
<p>Trump controls the Republican Party, the Republican Party controls the House and Senate, and the Senate and Trump will soon control the Supreme Court.</p><p>Republicans also control both chambers in 32 states (33 if you count Nebraska) and 33 governorships. And in many of these states they are entrenching their power by gerrymandering and arranging to suppress votes.</p><p>Yet only 27 percent of Americans are Republican, and the vast majority of Americans disapprove of Trump. The GOP itself is now little more than Trump, Fox News, a handful of billionaire funders, and evangelicals who oppose a woman’s right to choose, gay marriage, and the Constitution’s separation of church and state.</p><p>So what are we – the majority – to do?</p><p><b>First and most importantly, do not give up</b>. That’s what they want us to do. Then they’d have no opposition at all.</p><p><b>Second, in the short term, if you are represented by a Republican senator, do whatever you can to get him or her to reject Trump’s Supreme Court nominee,</b> or, at the least, postpone consideration until after the midterm elections. Urge others to join with you. Senate switchboard: 202-224-3121</p><p><b>Third, make a ruckus.</b> Demonstrate. Engage in non-violent civil disobedience. Fight lies with truth. Join the resistance. <a href="https://twitter.com/IndivisibleTeam">@<b>IndivisibleTeam</b></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/swingleft">@<b>swingleft</b></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/UpRiseDotOrg">@<b>UpRiseDotOrg</b></a><a href="https://twitter.com/MoveOn">@<b>MoveOn</b></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Sister_District">@<b>Sister_District</b></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/flippable_org">@<b>flippable_org</b></a>.</p><p><b>Fourth, don’t succumb to divisive incrimination over “who lost” the 2016 election</b> (Hillary loyalists, Bernie supporters, Jill Stein voters, etc.). This will get us nowhere. We must be united.</p><p><b>Fifth, vote this November 6 for people who will stand up to the Trump Republican outrage.</b> Mobilize and organize others to do so. Contact friends and relations in “red” states, and urge them to do the same.</p><p><b>Sixth, help lay the groundwork for the 2020 presidential election,</b> so that even if Trump survives Mueller and impeachment he will not be reelected.</p><p><b>Finally, know that this fight will be long and hard</b>. It will require our patience, our courage, and our resolve. The stakes could not be higher.</p>
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Robert Reich Warns The Media Not to Let 'Churlish Thin-Skinned Vindictive Narcissistic' Trump Control Their Narrative
June 17, 2018
1. Stop treating Trump’s tweets as news.
<p>2. Don’t believe a single word that comes out of his mouth.</p><p>3. Don’t fall for the reality-TV spectacles he creates. (For example, his meeting with Kim Jong-un.) They’re not news, either. </p><p>4. Don’t let his churlish thin-skinned vindictive narcissistic rants divert attention from what he’s really doing. </p><p>5. Focus on what he’s really doing, and put the day’s stories into this larger context. He’s (1) undermining democratic institutions, (2) using his office for personal gain, (3) sowing division and hate, (4) cozying up to dictators while antagonizing our democratic allies around the world, (5) violating the rule of law, and (6) enriching America’s wealthy while harming the middle class and the poor. He may also be (7) colluding with Putin.</p><p>6. Keep track of what his Cabinet is doing – Sessions’s attacks on civil rights, civil liberties, voting rights, and immigrants; DeVos’s efforts to undermine public education, Pruitt’s and Zinke’s efforts to gut the environment; all their conflicts of interest, and the industry lobbyists they’ve put in high positions. </p><p>7. Don’t try to “balance” your coverage of the truth with quotes and arguments from Trump’s enablers and followers. This is not a contest between right and left, Republicans and Democrats. This is between democracy and demagogic authoritarianism. </p><p>8. Don’t let him rattle you. Maintain your dignity, confidence, and courage. </p>
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Trump Is Stoking Global Tensions to Oversee a 'Dangerous Military Buildup' and 'Underwrite Endless Wars': Robert Reich
June 15, 2018
THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL DRAIN
<p>As Trump stokes tensions around the world, he’s adding fuel to the fire by demanding even more Pentagon spending. It’s a dangerous military buildup intended to underwrite endless wars and enrich defense contractors, while draining money from investment in the American people.</p><p>President Dwight D. Eisenhower once noted, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." </p><p>Eisenhower was a Republican and a former general who helped win World War II for the allies, yet he understood America’s true priorities. But Washington–and especially Trump–have lost sight of these basic tradeoffs.</p><p>Since 2001, the Pentagon budget has soared from $456 billion–in today’s dollars–to $700 billion, including the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other national security expenses. All told, when you include spending on the military and war, veterans’ benefits, and homeland security, military-related spending now eats up 67 percent of all federal discretionary spending.</p><p>According to the 2018 Military Balance report by the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the United States already spends more on the military than the next 10 nations combined. Even if the Pentagon budget were cut in half, the United States would still outspend China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea combined.</p><p>The military budget has become bloated with waste and abuse. According to the Pentagon’s own internal figures, the department could save at least $125 billion by reducing operational overhead. </p><p>Out-of-control defense contractors also drive up spending. In the coming years, cost overruns alone are projected to reach an estimated $484 billion. Meanwhile, the CEOs of the top 5 defense firms took home $97.4 million in compensation last year.</p><p>Despite all this, some still argue that military spending is necessary to support good-paying jobs and economic growth. Baloney. America would be much better served by a jobs program that invested in things we really need – like modern roads and highways, better school facilities, public parks, water and sewer systems, and clean energy – not weapons systems.</p><p>The biggest reason for increases in Pentagon spending is the incredible clout of the military-industrial complex – Eisenhower’s term. Every year, defense contractors spend millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions to keep federal dollars flowing their way. More than 80 percent of top Pentagon officials have worked for the defense industry at some point in their careers, and many will go back to work in the defense industry.</p><p>Since taking office, Trump has increased military spending by more than $200 billion. Let’s take a second to look at how else that $200 billion could be spent. We could, for example: </p><p>Offer free public colleges and universities, as proposed by Bernie Sanders.</p><p><i>And</i> fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program.</p><p><i>And</i> expand broadband Internet access to rural America.</p><p><i>And</i> meet the growing needs for low-income housing, providing safe living conditions for families and the elderly.</p><p><i>And </i>help repair the physical devastation in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.</p><p>Spending more on bombs and military machinery funnels money away from the American people and into wars. It’s time to rein in Pentagon spending and this endless war machine, and demand investment in America.</p>
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Reich: We're Already Living in a Constitutional Crisis
June 11, 2018
I keep hearing that if Trump fires Mueller we’ll face a constitutional crisis.
<p>Or if Mueller subpoenas Trump to testify and Trump defies the subpoena, it’s a constitutional crisis.</p><p>Or if Mueller comes up with substantial evidence that Trump is guilty of colluding with Russia or of obstructing justice but the House doesn’t move to impeach him, we’ll have a constitutional crisis.</p><p>I have news for you. We’re already in a constitutional crisis. For a year and a half the president of the United States has been carrying out a systemic attack on the institutions of our democracy.</p><p>A constitutional crisis does not occur suddenly like a coup that causes a government to collapse. It occurs gradually, as a system of government is slowly weakened.</p><p>The current crisis has been unfolding since the waning days of the 2016 campaign when Trump refused to say whether he’d be bound by the election results if Hillary won.</p><p>It continued through March 4, 2017 when Trump claimed, without evidence, that Obama had wiretapped his phones in the Trump Tower during the campaign.</p><p>It deepened in May 2017 when, by his own admission, Trump was thinking of “this Russia thing” when he <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fcnn.com%2F2017%2F05%2F09%2Fpolitics%2Fjames-comey-fbi-trump-white-out%2F&t=NGNkZmQ4NzY3ODA5MjVlMjQ5YjRiMThjYjMxY2UxN2EwODY2NzRmNCxwRlZXMWV2Nw%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F174768306820">decided to fire FBI Director James Comey</a>, who had been leading the bureau’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, andthen admitted to Russian officials that firing Comey had relieved “<a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2017%2F05%2F19%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-russia-comey.html&t=OGJhYzA5Yzg0NGRjN2VlODE2MjNkMWFlNWNjYzU3YmEyYjFhOWU0NixwRlZXMWV2Nw%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F174768306820">great pressure” on him “because of Russia</a>,” according to a document summarizing the meeting. </p><p>A constitutional crisis becomes especially dangerous when a president of the United States tells the public it cannot trust the government of the United States. </p><p>Over the last few weeks, Trump has done just this.</p><p>First he accused the FBI of sending a spy to secretly infiltrate his 2016 campaign “for political purposes.” Then he issued a “demand” that the FBI investigate the spying – resulting in the Justice Department sharing portions of the FBI investigation with Trump’s allies in Congress.</p><p>Trump blamed the entire Mueller investigation on a conspiratorial “deep state” intent on removing him from office. He used pardons to demonstrate to those already being investigated that they shouldn’t cooperate because he can pardon them, too, and then bragged to reporters that he is considering 3,000 more pardons —thereby anointing himself the judge of what is fair, rather than the judicial branch.</p><p>He claimed he has the absolute right to pardon himself and can thereby immunize himself from any outcome; and asserted he has the power under the Constitution to end the investigation whenever he wants.</p><p>The crux of America’s current constitutional crisis is this: Our system of government was designed to constrain power, but Trump doesn’t want to be constrained.</p><p>Our system was conceived as a means of promoting the public interest, but Trump wants to promote only his own interest. </p><p>Our system was organized to bind presidents to the Constitution, but Trump doesn’t want to be bound by anything. </p><p>The crisis will therefore worsen as long as Trump can get away with it. An unconstrained megalomaniac becomes only more maniacal. He will fill whatever political void exists with his unbridled ego. </p><p>The only legal way to constrain Trump is to vote for a Congress, this November, that will stand up to him. And then, in November 2020, vote him and his regime out of office.</p><p>If he refuses to accept the results of that election, as he threatened to do if he lost the 2016 election, he will have to be forcefully removed from office.</p><p>Friends, we are no longer trying to avert a constitutional crisis. We are living one. The question is how to stop it from destroying what’s left of our democracy.</p>
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Robert Reich Takes American CEOs to Task for Their 'Shameful Silence' on Trump
April 23, 2018
Congressional Republicans would be more willing to stand up to Trump if their major financial backers – big business and Wall Street – had more backbone.
<p>Ever since 1971, when the then-future Supreme Court justice Lewis Powell urged corporations to mobilize politically, corporate money has flooded Washington – most of it into Republican coffers.</p><p>Today, big corporations and Wall Street essentially own the Republican Party. In the 2016 campaign cycle, they contributed $34 to candidates from both parties for every $1 donated by labor unions and all public interest organizations combined.</p><p>They donate far more to Republicans than do extremists like the Koch brothers, and have far more influence over the GOP than does the Tea Party.</p><p>Which means the CEOs of America’s largest firms have the power to constrain the most dangerous, divisive, and anti-democratic president ever to occupy the Oval Office.</p><p>So why don’t they? What explains their silence?</p><p>Consider Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States. Dimon also chairs the Business Roundtable – the most influential confab of major CEOs in America, founded in 1972, just after Powell urged CEOs to mobilize.</p><p>Dimon has gone out of his way not to criticize the mad king. While he “strongly disagreed” with Trump’s equating white supremacists to protesters in Charlottesville last summer, he also counseled “not to expect smooth sailing” in the first year of a new administration.</p><p>Now well into Trump’s second year, with the sailing more treacherous than ever – Trump has fired most of the adults around him and grown even more erratic and unhinged – Dimon is even more conciliatory.</p><p>Asked last week how Trump is doing, Dimon gushed.“Regulatory stuff, good.” The potential summit with North Korea, a “great idea.” He regrets his 2017 prediction that Trump would be a one-term president, telling Fox Business "I wish I hadn’t said it, I was talking probabilistically.”</p><p>Dimon’s reluctance to criticize Trump is particularly curious given Dimon’s public laments about widening inequality, the explosion of student debt, America’s growing racial divide, the failure of inner-city schools, and the expenditure of “trillions of dollars on wars.”</p><p>One obvious explanation is found in the money rolling in from the GOP’s new tax law and Trump’s frenzy of deregulation. Profits have soared at JP Morgan and at other big banks and corporations. Compensation for Dimon and other CEOs has exploded.</p><p>Never underestimate the power of a fat compensation package to buy up scruples. From the perspective of Dimon and other CEOs, what’s not to like about Trump and the GOP?</p><p>It turns out, plenty. As the Republican Party moves toward Trump’s looniness – his xenophobia, isolationism, attacks on the press and on truth, conflicts of interest, anti-Muslim and racist provocations, climate-change denials, proposed cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, dismantling of the Affordable Care Act, and evisceration of the constitutional divide between church and state – Jamie Dimon and his ilk could come out big losers.</p><p>Let them try to sustain corporate profits as America slides towards authoritarianism. Try to maintain comfortable lifestyles as America descends into angry populist tribalism.</p><p>Besides which, don’t Dimon and other CEOs have a moral responsibility to sound the alarm?</p><p>I’m old enough to recall a time when CEOs were thought of as “corporate statesman” with duties to the nation. As one prominent executive told <i>Time </i>Magazine in the 1950s, Americans “regard business management as a stewardship,” acting “for the benefit of all the people.”</p><p>CEOs of that era formed the Committee for Economic Development to champion such causes as universal pre-kindergarten and campaign-finance reform.</p><p>Today’s CEOs finance a larger part of our political system, yet they won’t take a stand to save it. </p><p>The socially-conscious Committee for Economic Development has withered, while the profit-obsessed Business Roundtable (and its louder cousin, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) have become dominant.</p><p>The corporate statesmen of the mid-twentieth century have been replaced by sycophantic Dimons of the twenty-first – at a time when we need statesmen more than ever.</p><p>Democracy is fragile. Two weeks ago, Hungary’s far-right governing party, Fidesz, gained a huge victory in national elections, further tightening Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s grip on power – signaling an end to Hungary’s independent press and a deepening threat to its democracy.</p><p>If the leaders of American business remain silent about what Trump’s is doing to American democracy, they will be complicit in its demise.</p>
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