As of January 19th, these were appointed by the now President Donald John Trump, 45th President of the United States of America. Sends shivers of worry out in every direction. The people he's appointed will boost use of fossil fuel, trample over health care, ignore global warming, encourage torture ... I don't see how his appointees to his cabinet will give control back to the people. This man is a con-man, and he's surrounded himself by many con-men and women.
And if you look at what he said to the CIA in his first visit, I feel that he is out of his depth, and winging it.
Sonny Perdue: Secretary of Agriculture, he could prioritize the profits of big agribusiness and trade over the interests of American farmers, workers and consumers
David Shulkin: Secretary of Veterans Affairs, he's not a veteran, and Trump wants Veterans Affairs overhauled.
Jared Kushner: Senior Advisor to the President, Trump's son-in-law, lacks experience in politics., may not actually be allowed by law to take a role in his father-in-law's administration.
Dan Coats: National Intelligence Director, supports torture and widespread government surveillance, banned from Russia.
Kellyanne Conway: Counselor to the President, plays down Trump's worst habits and excusing his bad behavior, shifting focus to worst behaviour of others..
Mick Mulvaney: Budget Director: has aggressively pursued the defunding of Planned Parenthood and the prevention of Syrian refugees from entering the United States. Would shut government down rather than reach a compromise.
Ryan Zinke: Secretary of Interior: Non-believer in climate change. Describes the overwhelming evidence behind climate change as "unsettled science" .
Rick Perry: Secretary of Energy: Likely to shift the department away from renewable energy and toward oil and other fossil fuels that he championed as Texas governor.
Rex W. Tillerson: Secretary of State: no experience in the public sector, strongly in favor of free trade, Russia even awarded him Order of Friendship.
Gary Cohn: National Economic Council Director. president of Goldman Sachs and COO
Andrew Puzder: Secretary of Labor: lacks government experience, his burger chains have drawn criticism for featuring scantily clad women.
Linda McMahon: Head of the Small Business Administration, billionaire co-founder and former CEO of the wrestling franchise WWE, she and her husband donated $5 million to the Trump Foundation, according to The Washington Post.
Scott Pruitt: Head of the Environmental Protection Agency. He has been a booster of the fossil fuel industry, doesn't believe in global warming.
Gen. John F. Kelly: Secretary of Homeland Security, job will be building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
Ben Carson: Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, no experience in government, opposed an Obama administration effort to improve housing integration, has also criticized government programs meant to combat poverty .
James Mattis: Secretary of Defense, retired Marine Corps general, shares Trump's approach against America's enemies, particularly Iran, views "political Islam" as a threat.
Steven Mnuchin: Secretary of the Treasury, career started at Goldman Sachs, hailed as a "financial expert" by Trump insiders, he has no experience in government. He purchased a bailed-out bank for pennies on the dollar and then aggressively foreclosed on tens of thousands of families
Jeff Sessions: Attorney General, hardliner on immigration, described the Ku Klux Klan as "okay until I found out they smoked pot", said a white lawyer who had black clients was "a disgrace to his race", called the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) "un-American".
Wilbur Ross: Commerce Secretary, wealth is estimated at $2.9 billion, buys troubled companies "on the cheap" and sell them for billions of dollars in profit.
Betsy DeVos: Secretary of Education, a billionaire businesswoman, has sought to steer money away from public schools and into private and parochial schools,
Elaine Chao: Secretary of Transportation, has worked in three Republican White Houses.
Tom Price: Secretary of Health and Human Services, the leading voice to repeal the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, staunchly pro-life, opposes funding for groups like Planned Parenthood, he's against the Obamacare mandate that provides free birth control, and he's against same-sex marriage.
Reince Priebus: Chief of Staff, lacks government experience. Cozy with Republican members of congress, he doesn't necessarily know how to run a government.
Steve Bannon: Chief Strategist and Senior Adviser, holds extreme conservative positions like white supremacy, anti-immigration, and anti-feminism. has worked for Goldman Sachs, "I'm a Leninist," he once told a writer at the Daily Beast. "Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that's my goal, too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today's establishment."
Mike Pompeo: Director of the CIA, has spoken out in the favor of the CIA's use of torture, which, according to a Senate report, included "waterboarding...the use of electric shocks, dogs, nudity, hypothermia, and mock executions."
Michael Flynn: National Security Adviser, retired Army lieutenant general , comments about the Muslim faith verge on Islamophobia, led chants of "lock her up" directed at Hillary Clinton. Praises "alt-right" (extreme right wing conservatism) internet trolls.
Nikki Haley: United Nations Ambassador, surprisingly a Trump critic, but lacks foreign policy experience, and opposed the settlement of Syrian refugees in South Carolina.
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Saturday 21 January 2017
Friday 20 January 2017
Satire: Hard Hrexit, Or Soft Hrexit? Houghton Regis Votes to Leave Bedfordshire
Last year Houghton Regis voted to leave Bedfordshire, but the population remains split over the decision. Leave won by 52% to 48%.
Key Leave campaigner, Mr Park Avenue, said, "It was a momentous decision, Houghton Regis has voted to Leave, and we're now free to trade with the rest of the UK, and control our boundaries."
When Article 50 of the Treaty of Bedfordshire is invoked, the other 125 settlements in Bedfordshire will discuss Houghton Regis' decision. Negotiations over Houghton Regis leaving Bedfordshire will then begin. A draft deal will be put to Central Bedfordshire Council (59 members). Also to be consulted are Luton Borough Council (48 members) and Bedford Borough Council (41 members). The draft deal will need to be approved by at least 82 settlements with 65% of the population of Bedfordshire. And then the draft deal needs to be ratified by a Parliament of all Bedfordshire Councils. At the end of two years, negotiations can be extended further but only if all 125 settlements agree. If there is no agreement to extend then the Treaty of Bedfordshire ceases to apply to Houghton Regis.
Following Hrexit, the office of Deputy Town Clerk will embark on asking for quotations from counties all over the UK, to clear away the town's household rubbish; providing housing benefits; schools and education; dealing with anti-social orders; providing services to encourage employment; road repairs; council housing repairs; children's services; pollution control; control of libraries and the countryside; gritting; electoral registration; registration of births deaths, marriages; health and social care.
Depending on negotiations, new passports may need to be issued to anyone who wishes to leave the town, and all visitors may need to be processed before they can enter. New employment will be created to build, and police, a new wall that will be erected around the town to keep out undesirables.
Unexpectedly, the main supermarket in the town, has already declared that they will be leaving Houghton Regis and seeking an alternative location within Bedfordshire. A spokesman for the company said, "After Hrexit, it will be harder for people from all other parts of Bedfordshire to shop here, so we want to be where most of our customers will be."
Mr Park Avenue, said, "We're now free to trade with the rest of the UK. We have other grocery stores in Houghton Regis, we should be loyal to them. And we'll approach the other main stores to supply us. I'm sure we can get a better deal. There's too many foreigners in shopping areas like Luton, anyway, and Milton Keynes is much nicer."
But it wasn't clear 'who' would approach the other stores to broker a better deal for Houghton Regis. The Town Clerk advised that negotiating with major grocery suppliers to come to Houghton Regis within the UK was outside her remit.
Houghton Regis will also lose it's police force. "Not to worry, we'll set up our own police force, and I'm sure they'll do a better job than Bedfordshire Police ever did for us," commented Mrs Park Avenue. The Town Mayor was unavailable for comment when we asked him how he was going to set up a town-wide police force, but was seen in worried conversation with a Mr Willows, and the words "consultation" were mentioned.
Social Services and Highways Maintenance are currently provided by Bedfordshire, and the office of Deputy Mayor of Houghton Regis would have two years to negotiate with them to take over running the services for Houghton Regis. "We'd like a reciprocal arrangement with them so that we can continue to offer this to our residents." But Leave campaigners have insisted that Leave means Leave, saying they want a hard Hrexit, not a soft Hrexit.
Mr Ad Infinitum commented, "Taking back control of of our boundaries will put a stop to developers coming here to ruin our countryside. Planning in Bedfordshire has gone too far, taking up all our wildlife spaces."
Key Leave campaigner, Mr Park Avenue, said, "It was a momentous decision, Houghton Regis has voted to Leave, and we're now free to trade with the rest of the UK, and control our boundaries."
When Article 50 of the Treaty of Bedfordshire is invoked, the other 125 settlements in Bedfordshire will discuss Houghton Regis' decision. Negotiations over Houghton Regis leaving Bedfordshire will then begin. A draft deal will be put to Central Bedfordshire Council (59 members). Also to be consulted are Luton Borough Council (48 members) and Bedford Borough Council (41 members). The draft deal will need to be approved by at least 82 settlements with 65% of the population of Bedfordshire. And then the draft deal needs to be ratified by a Parliament of all Bedfordshire Councils. At the end of two years, negotiations can be extended further but only if all 125 settlements agree. If there is no agreement to extend then the Treaty of Bedfordshire ceases to apply to Houghton Regis.
Following Hrexit, the office of Deputy Town Clerk will embark on asking for quotations from counties all over the UK, to clear away the town's household rubbish; providing housing benefits; schools and education; dealing with anti-social orders; providing services to encourage employment; road repairs; council housing repairs; children's services; pollution control; control of libraries and the countryside; gritting; electoral registration; registration of births deaths, marriages; health and social care.
Depending on negotiations, new passports may need to be issued to anyone who wishes to leave the town, and all visitors may need to be processed before they can enter. New employment will be created to build, and police, a new wall that will be erected around the town to keep out undesirables.
Unexpectedly, the main supermarket in the town, has already declared that they will be leaving Houghton Regis and seeking an alternative location within Bedfordshire. A spokesman for the company said, "After Hrexit, it will be harder for people from all other parts of Bedfordshire to shop here, so we want to be where most of our customers will be."
Mr Park Avenue, said, "We're now free to trade with the rest of the UK. We have other grocery stores in Houghton Regis, we should be loyal to them. And we'll approach the other main stores to supply us. I'm sure we can get a better deal. There's too many foreigners in shopping areas like Luton, anyway, and Milton Keynes is much nicer."
But it wasn't clear 'who' would approach the other stores to broker a better deal for Houghton Regis. The Town Clerk advised that negotiating with major grocery suppliers to come to Houghton Regis within the UK was outside her remit.
Houghton Regis will also lose it's police force. "Not to worry, we'll set up our own police force, and I'm sure they'll do a better job than Bedfordshire Police ever did for us," commented Mrs Park Avenue. The Town Mayor was unavailable for comment when we asked him how he was going to set up a town-wide police force, but was seen in worried conversation with a Mr Willows, and the words "consultation" were mentioned.
Social Services and Highways Maintenance are currently provided by Bedfordshire, and the office of Deputy Mayor of Houghton Regis would have two years to negotiate with them to take over running the services for Houghton Regis. "We'd like a reciprocal arrangement with them so that we can continue to offer this to our residents." But Leave campaigners have insisted that Leave means Leave, saying they want a hard Hrexit, not a soft Hrexit.
Mr Ad Infinitum commented, "Taking back control of of our boundaries will put a stop to developers coming here to ruin our countryside. Planning in Bedfordshire has gone too far, taking up all our wildlife spaces."
Thursday 5 January 2017
Brexit: Remoaners, Exiteers, and Me ; Basically it was a Marriage Gone Bad.
I asked a simple enough question and got a storm of a response yesterday. "So our best divorce lawyer has resigned, and we're still hoping for a successful Brexit?"
This may turn out to be a rambling, load of tosh, it's not researched, it's more of "an awareness". But I'm going to write it anyway.
So, I did argue on the Remain side. We had a vote. It was close. The weekend that followed was amusing and an all-time low, like the one I've often had after any election campaign, especially one that's not been won.
This may turn out to be a rambling, load of tosh, it's not researched, it's more of "an awareness". But I'm going to write it anyway.
So, I did argue on the Remain side. We had a vote. It was close. The weekend that followed was amusing and an all-time low, like the one I've often had after any election campaign, especially one that's not been won.
Gove stood aside, Boris went off to play golf, Farage came on telly and wrongly got slated via TV AM for saying there won't be £350m going into the NHS, more like £250m, he said. Wrongly slated since that slogan wasn't his, It came from the LEAVE EU campaign team, which he was not in.
In a marriage, there could be one partner thinking they want to get out and never letting the other partner know about those thoughts. Then, the idea of divorce comes up, and it's mentioned to the other partner who at first denies it as a blip, perhaps even ignores the idea, months, and years roll by and before the partner realises it isn't a blip, things have gone too far and the divorce is imminent.
While I was an original founder member of the Liberal Democrats, coming from the Liberal Party, the one part of policy I was never comfortable with, was that bit about wanting to be closely involved with a federalist Europe. The EU, its policies, its ins and outs, were never interesting enough in my life for me to pay any attention to.
Just about the only piece of "EU" that I did find interesting enough to pay attention to, was that MEPs are voted in by proportional representation. So that was why I voted in EU elections, to keep PR alive. We even had a Lib Dem MP for the East of England out of it. Then this MP started sending out newsletters to members about all the things he was doing for the East of England. I even read some of them. But it all felt unconnected to my life, so dull, was it.
Along comes UKIP, making some noises, I get the idea that they're some sort of racist, anti-EU and diametrically opposed (according to others in the Lib Dems) to Lib Dem themes, so I must therefore do everything to see them off. But actually, it's about leaving the EU, an idea I ignored, because I assumed people thought like me, that the EU was boring and wouldn't be interested anyway.
We move on a few years more and now the other marriage partner really means it. They want a divorce at all costs! Suddenly, we have a vote looming, something the 'out now' partner has been plotting and planning for years, something which the 'stay in' partner has to flounder around searching and worrying over what the problem is.
Then the vote is called! The preliminary divorce papers arrive through the letterboxes! Calamity! Panic! What are the counterarguments? The 'out partner' has no need of counterarguments, their mind was made up long ago!
By the time the vote came around, I had left the Lib Dems for local and personal reasons. Even if I took the political compass test now I would come out midway between Liberal (edit:Democrat) and Social Democracy. In the run-up to the Referendum vote, I was not a member of any political party and still am not. I went into the run-up with an open mind but soon found myself looking into and supporting the 'stay-in' side. For me, it was a very late awakening that the EU had actually brought us a lot of very good things.
The vote is held. Cameron resigns. The 'stay-in' partner sulks away as the judge delivers his verdict.
In a marriage, there could be one partner thinking they want to get out and never letting the other partner know about those thoughts. Then, the idea of divorce comes up, and it's mentioned to the other partner who at first denies it as a blip, perhaps even ignores the idea, months, and years roll by and before the partner realises it isn't a blip, things have gone too far and the divorce is imminent.
While I was an original founder member of the Liberal Democrats, coming from the Liberal Party, the one part of policy I was never comfortable with, was that bit about wanting to be closely involved with a federalist Europe. The EU, its policies, its ins and outs, were never interesting enough in my life for me to pay any attention to.
Just about the only piece of "EU" that I did find interesting enough to pay attention to, was that MEPs are voted in by proportional representation. So that was why I voted in EU elections, to keep PR alive. We even had a Lib Dem MP for the East of England out of it. Then this MP started sending out newsletters to members about all the things he was doing for the East of England. I even read some of them. But it all felt unconnected to my life, so dull, was it.
Along comes UKIP, making some noises, I get the idea that they're some sort of racist, anti-EU and diametrically opposed (according to others in the Lib Dems) to Lib Dem themes, so I must therefore do everything to see them off. But actually, it's about leaving the EU, an idea I ignored, because I assumed people thought like me, that the EU was boring and wouldn't be interested anyway.
We move on a few years more and now the other marriage partner really means it. They want a divorce at all costs! Suddenly, we have a vote looming, something the 'out now' partner has been plotting and planning for years, something which the 'stay in' partner has to flounder around searching and worrying over what the problem is.
Then the vote is called! The preliminary divorce papers arrive through the letterboxes! Calamity! Panic! What are the counterarguments? The 'out partner' has no need of counterarguments, their mind was made up long ago!
By the time the vote came around, I had left the Lib Dems for local and personal reasons. Even if I took the political compass test now I would come out midway between Liberal (edit:
The vote is held. Cameron resigns. The 'stay-in' partner sulks away as the judge delivers his verdict.
The 'out now' partner cries "Bloody hell, I'm not married anymore. What do I do now?" At first, no one quite knows what to do. Gove stabs Boris in the back, and Boris appears more bumbling than ever. Theresa takes on the challenge of leading the busted-up family in a search for new lodgings.
It's at this stage that I get to really look at Farage in the 'work' he's done as a Euro MP. In his amazing attacks on EU officials - there are plenty of YouTube videos on this. I actually start to conceive the idea that this guy Farage might actually be a very Liberal free trader, and very much more democratic than anyone else in my sphere of life has ever dared to suggest before.
The divorce is over, it's agreed they will part. I've voted, so have others. We must adhere to the vote. Then out comes Tim Farron, and latterly others in Parliament, saying they will campaign to stay in. I think, "Mr Farron you are a chump, you won't get me back on that stance". We voted on it. You lost, Tim. The marriage is over. So get over it. The 'out-now' group will be forever unwilling to try again. The 'stay-in' group will hang on, and hang on, and hang on, as long as they can, because they are in denial and don't accept the need for the divorce.
The pragmatist in me says it is over. The best way forward is to move on with the situation, work out the best settlement, and do the best to remain friendly with those former parts of the EU institution (the marriage). The third group: moving on with the situation.
I'm in the third group, and I like to think that my question at the top shows my concern that out of this divorce, moving out of the 4-bedroom family home, we might just end up in the shed at the bottom of the garden.
It's at this stage that I get to really look at Farage in the 'work' he's done as a Euro MP. In his amazing attacks on EU officials - there are plenty of YouTube videos on this. I actually start to conceive the idea that this guy Farage might actually be a very Liberal free trader, and very much more democratic than anyone else in my sphere of life has ever dared to suggest before.
The divorce is over, it's agreed they will part. I've voted, so have others. We must adhere to the vote. Then out comes Tim Farron, and latterly others in Parliament, saying they will campaign to stay in. I think, "Mr Farron you are a chump, you won't get me back on that stance". We voted on it. You lost, Tim. The marriage is over. So get over it. The 'out-now' group will be forever unwilling to try again. The 'stay-in' group will hang on, and hang on, and hang on, as long as they can, because they are in denial and don't accept the need for the divorce.
The pragmatist in me says it is over. The best way forward is to move on with the situation, work out the best settlement, and do the best to remain friendly with those former parts of the EU institution (the marriage). The third group: moving on with the situation.
I'm in the third group, and I like to think that my question at the top shows my concern that out of this divorce, moving out of the 4-bedroom family home, we might just end up in the shed at the bottom of the garden.
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