Wibbly-Wobbly Ramblings

• Congress is looking to cut $876 million out of FEMA’s total budget of $13.9 billion budget just as they are about to work rebuilding the areas harmed by Hurricane Harvey. The money being cut is going to serve as half of the down payment for Trump’s border wall. Since Trump is threatening to shut down the government over the wall payments, cuts to FEMA are very much on the table. (source)
• Trump has reversed the restrictions put in place to keep police departments from having access to military surplus equipment. The police will now have access, again, to grenade launchers and armored vehicles. Jeff Sessions announced the news which he says is “lifesaving gear,” and that “Those restrictions went too far. We will not put superficial concerns above public safety.” Note that these “superficial concerns,” happened amid the national debates over policing after Ferguson and high-profile deaths of Black men at the hands of police. (source)
• The Trump administration sent a memo announcing their plan to halt a rule that would have helped advance equal pay opportunities. The rule wasn’t going to go into place until spring 2018 but companies wanted to stop the rule because it would become “enormously burdensome.” Despite making equal pay a major talking point through the Trump campaign and presidency, Ivanka Trump also backed the decision to stop the rule. (source)
• The White House has quietly deleted the website’s report on sexual violence titled “Rape And Sexual Assault: Renewed Call To Action.” The report was created in 2014 by the White House Council on Women and Girls. It consisted of nonpartisan facts about sexual assault and ways the criminal justice system and colleges can improve combatting sexual violence. (source)
• Betsy DeVos hired Julian Schmoke to head the unit that investigates for-profit college fraud. Interestingly enough, Schmoke is a former official for DeVry University, a for-profit college that recently agreed to a $100 million settlement for defrauding it’s students. (source)
• Trump delivered a speech outlining the administration’s tax reform plan - though it was very broad and the White House actually hasn’t reached an agreement on the details yet. All he stated so far is that the plan is to simplify the tax code, make a more competitive tax code, and bring back offshore profits. He also stated that it would relieve the middle class, but early reactions say that the plan would benefit the ultra rich and businesses. (source)
• Fox News has officially hired Tomi Lahren as a contributor. (source)
• Despite early reports that James Mattis froze Trump’s transgender military ban, Mattis is actually doing exactly what Trump instructed him to do in a memo. Trump told the defense secretary to “determine how to address transgender individuals currently serving in the United States military.” Mattis has until February 21st to submit a plan for implementing the new policy. (source)
• Trump tweeted that "talking is not the answer,” when dealing with North Korea, which was quickly contradicted by James Mattie and Rex Tillerson who are pushing for diplomatic solutions. (source)
• A new law in Indiana is allowing a database comb election rolls and remove voters without any attempt to contact or inform voters. This means that many will be unable to cast a vote on Election Day because they won’t know they’ve been removed from registration. (source)
• Mexico has offered aide to the U.S. in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has accepted the aide but Trump still hasn’t accepted the offer, which they made several days ago. (source)
• A federal judge has temporarily blocked Texas’s White House backed attempt to punish sanctuary cities. The law would have allowed law enforcement to ask anyone who is detained about their immigration status, even at traffic stops. This would have gone into effect on September 1st. (source)

Man Dies After Bloody, 10-Minute Beating From LAPD Officers

laist.com

A father of three died 12 hours after LAPD sergeants beat him in front of his house in South L.A.

MUST SEE VIDEO: I am reposting this short (8 min) for the third time because it beautifully contrasts the formal U.S. response to protecting freedom of speech and right to assembly abroad, while remaining silent on the police brutality against students here in the United States.

It is noteworthy that the violence shown in this video - images that were shocking when they first came out 6 weeks ago - have since been eclipsed by the images of escalating violence by U.S. police against the protesters in the past few weeks: the fractured skull of Iraq War vet Scott Olsen, the pepper-spraying of 84 year old Dorli Rainey and the UC Davis students, and the NYPD’s running over protesters with motorcycles and beating them with batons.

This is what a police state looks like.

President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, where are you?

UNITED STATES OF HYPOCRISY 

• Hypocrisy has its own elegant symmetry.