Still No Chaos, America?

Well, Donald Trump has been President for almost two whole years. But, don't worry, according to Trump, everything's fine, and there is no chaos in DC. At least that's what he's said previously. Let's take a new look, shall we?

Economically, many businesses are struggling because of his seemingly random tariffs on US trading partners. Those companies that do make money are often putting their profits into stock buybacks to inflate their company's worth and reward their stockholders--not plowing their money back into their businesses or into rewarding their workers. Many workers have not seen decreased taxes or raised wages. Retirement savings of Americans have drastically reversed through rash economic policies enacted by the White House. The deficit, meanwhile, has ballooned to nearly $22 trillion.

The US Government is currently in partial shutdown. Trump's Cabinet staff members come and go as though the White House is hosting an Open House mixer. Advisors to Trump are often not the(somewhat)  trained people originally chosen for that role (many dogged by their own ethics investigations), but instead are more often conservative media talking heads and vociferous fringe elements from the populace and the GOP. Trump has continually villainized law enforcement, legislators,  and the judiciary of the country.

And you'd have to think that's reduced our country's standing in the world. Trump's been tagged as publicly making more than 7500 lies/exaggerations/misstatements in just his first 700 days in office--far less than half the country believes his whoppers anymore (from the Washington Post). Allies privately discuss the instability of the US now, instead of that of Russia. Trump's Defense Secretary Mattis resigned because he has no faith in the leadership or values of the President of the United States (let that sink in for a moment).

And, unbelievably, new lies from Trump and his associates come out virtually every week regarding covered-up connections with Russia and Russian businesses. Even more unbelievably, Trump's moves, such as withdrawing US troops from Syria, seem to benefit Russia, as well.

To me, that's chaos. Wouldn't you agree?

To Trump, though, I guess it's just another day at the office.

Wisconsin's (GOP) shame

Shame.

 Wisconsin's GOP legislature just voted to scale back the incoming Democratic Governor's power, reduce early voting, possibly diminish open records, and provide GOP-legislative oversight for what had been Governor-led agencies. Despite the fact the GOP received many fewer votes than the Dems in the midterm elections, and that all state-wide offices were flipped from Rep to Dem. Even despite the fact the severely (and court-challenged) gerrymandering of legislative districts and voting limitations already put in place by the WI GOP tied the hands of the Dems.

Wisconsin's GOP has left a stain on this building.

And the WI GOP did it at 4 AM in an all-night, lame-duck, so-named "extraordinary session" so their GOP could keep their control over Wisconsin before their fuhrer, Scott Walker leaves office.

What really makes this extraordinary (which is what an extra session is really called), is they did it knowing the state had voted for Tony Evers. They hadn't suggested the changes before Evers was elected. If it was such an egregious situation, their GOP-controlled legislature surely would have done it before the election, right?

And now it goes to Walker's desk. Walker famously once promised to sign legislation that prohibited the Legislature from voting after 10 PM or before 9 AM.

"I have two teenagers and I tell them that nothing good happens after midnight. That's even more true in politics," he said in a statement. "The people of Wisconsin deserve to know what their elected leaders are voting on." 

And he's gonna sign it.

It's just another morally-bankrupt and ethically corrupt action, and well, it's just plain wrong, on the part of the state GOP. 

And it's shameful.

This morning's story from jsonline.