The controversy of the moment is the unacceptable and
un-Christian action taken by Trump to stop Muslim refugees from seven countries
from entering the United
States . The problems with Trump’s order are
several, it was sudden and to all appearances not based on any new intelligence
or even the recommendation from his National Security team. The order appears
to be unconstitutional at least to the eyes of the acting Attorney General,
Sally Yates, who he fired for doing her job. I say, for doing her job, because
her oath of office calls for her to defend the constitution and her job is to
provide counsel to the president so he doesn’t violate it. Yates told him the
order was wrong and told her staff not to defend the indefensible in court and
she was fired for it. Had she done his bidding Yates would have been complicit in
the crime just as the German soldiers were who claimed they were just following
orders as they gassed Jews in places like Auschwitz .
Trump’s action on refugees is far from the only issue worthy
of protest. Hearings are still going on for his often incompetent, occasionally
dangerous, possibly criminal, and sometimes unethical nominees for cabinet
posts as well as a terrible nominee for Supreme Court justice.
So we have a C student from Texas A&M nominated to head
the Department of Energy which among other vital tasks is responsible for the
safety and maintenance of our nuclear arsenal. Yes, it’s former Governor Rick
Perry, the same incompetent dullard who ran for president and wanted to
eliminate the Department of Energy entirely except he couldn’t remember its
name during the debate. Now he says he hadn’t realized how important the agency
is. Don’t you think the responsible thing to do before you suggest eliminating
something is to find out what it does?
Then there’s Betsy “Billionaire” DeVos who never saw a
public school she didn’t want to dismantle to feed her investment portfolio and
has been nominated for Secretary of Education. Senator Al Franken asked DeVos
for her views on the controversy over mastery versus improvement for judging
student achievement and teacher competence. Sadly DeVos is so incompetent she
didn’t even understand the question let alone have a coherent response. For
someone who claims to be informed about education in general and public schools
in particular Betsy “Billionaire” seems mighty ignorant.
Trump’s dangerous nominee for the job of among other things defending
civil rights is a man with a history of using his position to prevent
minorities from exercising those civil rights. The nominee is Jeff Sessions who
was previously denied a federal judgeship by a Republican controlled Senate due
to his racist actions in attempting to prosecute African American voter
registration volunteers for doing their best to turn out voters to the polls.
Sessions also took credit for prosecutions while a US Attorney for which he
didn’t even exercise oversight let alone actively participate.
For a potentially criminal and certainly unethical nominee
there’s Tom Price who is Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human
Services. He’s been proven to have invested in medical product companies then
used his position as chair of the committee overseeing them to improve their
profits thus fattening his own wallet.
Finally, there’s Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s nominee for justice
on the Supreme Court. Gorsuch decided the Hobby Lobby case which defying all
logic allows a business to claim it has religious rights just like a natural
person. He opposes regulation of businesses, so it’s OK if the coal mine
poisons the water for everyone downstream.
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