Week One of Go to Hell, America

February 14, 2017 Originally published on SFGate

The Trumpocalyse so far, in a grotesque – and rather terrifying – nutshell…

  • Trump issued largely unconstitutional global gag order on international NGOs providing women’s health care and family planning services (“policy experts predict this will mean 6.5 million more unintended pregnancies, 2.2 million more abortions, 2.1 million more unsafe abortions, and the deaths of 21,700 pregnant women.” – The Nation)
  • Froze all research grants for, and issued gag order on the EPA, with promise to defund and destroy agency that provides invaluable research and protects water supply, air quality, everyday life, the planet itself. Nominated EPA-hating Scott Pruitt to run ruin the agency, promised to tear the 14,000-strong agency into “little bits” in favor of pollutive corporate cronies and poisonous deregulation
  • Gag order on USDA scientists, HHS, National Parks, many other agencies, threatened to defund NASA climate satellites, resulting in 50+ “rogue” Twitter sites created by infuriated, muzzled government scientists and their colleagues
  • Sabotaged vital final week of ACA signups by yanking pre-paid ads for Heathcare.gov at the most crucial registration time, out of sheer spite, even though signups are still surging
  • Hiring freeze on all federal employees, except the 4,000 he’s hiring for his own snarling administration
  • Promise to completely defund Planned Parenthood, decimate Roe v. Wade, cut back on Title IX enforcement, eliminate all funding for Violence Against Women grants in the Department of Justice
  • Called for review of all “multilateral treaties,” such as Paris Climate and many others, which will wreak harm on allies and dangerously undermine America’s ability to be a good and humane global citizen
  • Proposed massive 40 percent reduction in U.S. support for the United Nations and other global bodies, equaling billions of dollars, which “includes international peacekeeping missions and U.S. support for development work under the U.N. umbrella,” and which will more radically isolate U.S.
  • Narrowed list of possible Supreme Court nominees to a handful of ultraconservative, anti-choice white males
  • Torture works
  • Threaten Mexico with huge import tax/trade war
  • Threaten Chicago with martial law

  • Plans to eliminate all funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, privatize PBS, eliminate science funding, among other major cuts to Energy, Commerce, Justice departments
  • Meanwhile. issues executive order to redirect taxpayer funds to start building useless wall
  • Threaten to post pictures of immigrants who have “committed crimes,” just like the Nazis did with the Jews
  • Personally pressured director of U.S. park service to locate more favorable inauguration photos to prove his big day wasn’t so dismally attended, which of course it was, a fraction of Obama ‘08 and a fraction of the Women’s March
  • Call for absurd investigation into “massive” voter fraud related to “millions” of illegal immigrants, fraud which does not exist and has been laughably discredited by both parties
  • Correction: Voter fraud exists. Multiple members of Trump’s close staff and his own daughter Tiffany are illegally registered to vote in two different states. Lock ’em up!
  • Steve “Breitbart” Bannon, Trump’s main squeeze and the king of all racist trolls, said the media should “keep its mouth shut” about what the narcissistic orange manbaby is doing – a directive also shared, wouldn’t you know it, by the Nazis
  • Plan to ban all Syrian refugees and introduce “extreme vetting” of immigrants from seven majority-Muslim nations
  • Announced plans to issue exec order to re-open notorious CIA “black sites” overseas (unlisted prison camps, worse than Guantánamo) for detaining suspects unlawfully, and torturing them
  • Mocked the CIA to its face, brought in his own cheering section with one “lead clapper” to force applause, similar to the paid actors he hired to clap for him when he announced his presidential run
  • Restarted needless, destructive Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipeline projects
  • Broadened definition of who can be deported to mean any illegal immigrant who “in the judgment of an immigration officer, otherwise pose[s] a risk to public safety or national security.” (Read: anyone).
  • Threatened to strip all federal funding from the more than 200 sanctuary cities across the U.S. that provide havens for refugees fleeing massacre and genocide
  • Named new head of FCC, Ajit Pai, who will gut/eliminate net neutrality rules that gave everyone fair and equal access to the Internet
  • And more…

Just 207 more weeks to go. Might be time to join the resistance.

Read more here:: Week One of Go to Hell, America

Mark Morford

About Mark Morford