Each week in this space we will visit Donald’s universe to see what is happening in the world of “alternative facts” and distorted reality. For these re-caps, I will briefly discuss 3 or 4 examples of the “weird and horrible” by Our Leader or his sycophants. They may not even be the worst examples of their actions for the week (who, really, am I to judge?), but they’ve resonated with me. Ready? Let’s descend into Dystopia.

“So Called Judge”

Well, as expected, Trump’s Muslim travel ban ran smack dab into our Federal Court system. And he didn’t like it one bit. The states of Washington and Minnesota challenged the law’s constitutionality. Lawyers for Trump’s Justice Department argued that the states had no standing to challenge this autocratic, religious-based order. On Friday, Federal Judge James Robart suspended key parts of the order nationwide.

How does the President of the United States respond when a respected jurist, named to the bench by a previous Republican President, rules against his Executive Order? Name-calling, of course. His tweets called Judge Robart “a so-called judge” and in a separate tweet, “Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens, blame him and the court. People pouring in. Bad.” The President says that is something bad happens, blame the Federal judge! Keep in mind, that no terrorist activity has ever happened in the US by people from these 7 countries and that it takes over a year to get a US visa from one of these countries. “People pouring in. Bad.”

The whole episode actually gets better, or worse, depending on your perspective. Judge Robart’s stay is now being reviewed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Trump’s Justice Department actually argued to the 3 judge panel that the President’s actions taken against terrorism were not reviewable by this court or by any court in the US. Think about that argument and what the reasoning behind it would mean for the people of this country. Please also note that Amicus briefs from 16 state attorneys general were filed in support of the position of Washington and Minnesota, along with Amicus briefs from former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and John Kerry.

In an unusual move, the Appeals Court hearing was broadcast and guess who was upset by the questions asked by the 3 judge panel. Prior to any ruling, Trump opined that the court was “political” and that he was unhappy with the tone of the questioning. Trump tweeted, “a bad high school student could understand this”. Who do you think he had in mind?

Sean Spicer – Attack Poodle

Is there anyone in the public eye more inappropriately positioned than Sean Spicer? He has obviously been told by the people behind the curtain that his main function is to protect his boss from those enemy hordes of media sitting in front of him everyday. The result may or may not be his true personality, but he constantly appears to be combative, uncooperative, and belligerent. A snarling, frothing poodle at the front door – in an ill-fitting suit.

Spicer hit a new low at a press briefing this week and that’s quite an accomplishment. He was asked by a journalist whether the US now questions the wisdom of a poorly conceived anti-terrorism operation that resulted in US forces killing at least 30 civilians, including women and children, and in which NAVY SEAL Ryan Owens was killed. Additional fallout from this operation occurred when the country of Yemen rescinded permission for US military operations in their country. In response, Spicer had the temerity to repeatedly admonish the journalist and impugn her patriotism by saying that we must accept the mission as a success and “any opinion to the contrary does a disservice to the SEAL and owes an apology to the life of Chief Ryan Owens”. Besides the incredibly awkward phrasing in that statement, his strongly expressed sentiment is fundamentally at odds with our country’s principles. When one of our service men or women give their lives in an operation, the people who requested such a sacrifice must be absolutely certain that the mission’s purpose was worthy and that every precaution had been taken in preparation and support to reduce the risk to the combatants. We owe them nothing less. A free republic requires, no demands, that the press thoroughly investigate these occurrences and report to the people the results. No hiding behind faux patriotism on this one, poodle.

USDA Secrets

In the first week of the Trump era, the USDA took down a public website that, for years, had provided information on animal abuse in laboratories, puppy mills, animal processing plants, and other classy operations. This information source has been essential to animal welfare organizations and people with an interest in reducing animal suffering. USDA’s operation of the site has been the bane of many operators with a long history of abusing animals in the  most horrific fashion. I won’t go into detail about the abuses animals have suffered that have been catalogued on this site. You can imagine, but you don’t want to. I know about them and I’m serious, you really don’t.

Please keep 2 facts in mind: USDA is required to enforce animal protection laws in this country and all of this information is collected under law and with taxpayer money. There is no possible rationale for hiding this information from the public except to protect cruel operators and allow harm to defenseless animals. This information is no longer available to the citizens of this country. USDA announced that anyone wanting this information must now file a FOIA request. Have you ever filed a FOIA request? I rest my case.

These actions by a Federal agency are of great concern even if you don’t care about animal suffering (in which case, I hope I never have to abide your company) because this administration, our government, is intentionally hiding information that should be publicly available. This time it’s about animal suffering. Next time – your privacy, war on terror, relaxing habeas corpus?

 

So that’s it for this week. There were certainly other incidents that could have made the list, many in fact, but I have only so much time and only so much repressed indignation. There’s always next week.