I’ve spent the day trying to figure out what to write about next, and realized there are just too many things happening with the new Trump administration. We now have a President who is a pretty clearly a raging narcissist (possibly to the point of it being a personality disorder if he’s not faking it all), and who lives in his own universe and has no problem imagining his own facts, which may or may not have any basis in reality (unfortunately consistent with narcissistic personality disorder.) And it is VERY tempting to do what the media is doing, and spend a lot of time on the Trumpian Extremes coming out of the White House. Three to five million illegal votes cast for Hillary! Replaying the election over and over! Crowd size controversies at the inauguration and women’s march! Federal dollars for the wall! Protesters just sore losers!

All of this is very real news, and taking up a lot of network time, but problematically these things are NOT the real issues. (ok, maybe the wall could be, but that’s still very unlikely to go anywhere.) These are distractions. Tasty morsels that we can sink our teeth into and decry, but not real issues. Ok, that’s not quite right. If the President of the United States really does have a personality disorder that causes him to live in his own reality, this is probably the biggest problem we currently face. But even if evidence points that way, we can’t prove that. And talking about it ad nauseam let’s other issues slip through.

The problem is that in distracting us, MANY very real things are also happening. And we NEED to focus on those items or each of them could cause significant damage to our economy, to our country, and potentially to our way of life over the long term.

Just a few of the things that we’ve found in the first week, many of which are worthy of a protest march all for themselves:

  • The approval of Cabinet members who are unqualified (DeVos and Carson among them), or who are on record with their desires to dismantle their departments (too many to count…)
  • Reopening the way for the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines. Protesters will certainly go out again for this one, but what will it look like with the Feds on the other side? And has Trump actually divested himself of his investments in the pipeline? We know he had them, but haven’t seen any records since then. Will he be personally profiting this early in his term?
  • The problem of conflicts of interest is huge, and will continue moving forward. This is a big picture issue for both Trump and some of his richer cabinet members. On the cabinet side, they are currently being approved without normal vetting procedures for conflicts. Cabinet members are being rushed through as a political move, and some may get into office with conflicts present — and we may not know. And may NEVER know. Unless a GOP Congress decides to push this and go through full vetting procedures, who would tell us? This is even worse for Trump. We have no tax returns, so we don’t know where his investments lie. He claims to have divested himself of all stock outside of Trump companies, but we have seen no documentation of this (and since he has clearly lied about things before…) And his continued ownership of Trump corporations will be a perpetual problem on a variety of levels. It doesn’t matter if he isn’t running it — if he makes a decision (foreign or domestic) that aids his company, then he profits directly from the Presidency. The Constitution and emoluments clause are very clear on this one, especially profits from any foreign ventures, of which Trump apparently has many. BUT WE DON’T KNOW. I learned this one very early in life — when someone refuses to provide basic information like this, assume they are hiding something. And right now, we can assume that Trump is in violation of the Constitution, and that several of his cabinet members are set up to violate Federal laws on conflicts of interest. They can pretty easily prove us wrong through full disclosures, but if they refuse to do that, then logic dictates that we assume they are hiding something until proof is provided.
  • This week, Trump and others in the administration threatened to take Iraq’s oil (again). Apparently, when we invaded them they should have been grateful enough to give us their only natural resource, and if not, then screw them and we’ll take it anyway. I think some Iraqis may get a bit pissed about this. Possibly including the Iraqi soldiers that 5,000 Americans are assisting and fighting beside. Also, the American and European oil companies who have contracts with the Iraqi government to rebuild the oil industry must be scratching their heads right now.
  • Gag orders were placed on public discussion on multiple Federal agencies. Some of these may be on the chopping block. Others may have inconvenient facts that differ from the alternate facts the White House is peddling (more below). While this has been occasionally done in specific places by past Presidents, doing it at this point in the administration is very strange. What do our public servants not want us to know?
  • Speaking of the war on science, it is most definitely “on,” and truth may never be the same. In this case, a lot of quotes from 1984 and Nazi Germany have been floating around the interweb — and it disturbs me that they are true. When the government controls facts and the truth, a society is ripe for totalitarianism. And the fact that some senior members of the GOP are now echoing the claim from the White House that we should “ignore the news, because the President is the only reliable source of information right now,” is truly astounding and frightening.
  • And regulations? Who needs regulations? This week the White House announced (by press release or Tweet(!), I can’t remember which) plans to cut environmental regulations by up to 75% in order to help the environment. Yep, that will definitely work.
  • How about those new tax plans too! Early estimates are they will screw the middle class and poor, and help the rich! Imagine that.
  • Mexico City rules on US funding of any international organization that even speaks about abortion were reinstated too. This isn’t necessarily strange since it is expected of GOP Presidents, but Trump’s rules are MUCH harsher than any of his predecessors.
  • And where are we at on the ACA? The early plans released make massive cuts, and look like they could take away insurance from many of the 20m people who gained it under Obamacare. The big problem here is, we don’t really know. After all this time of hating on the ACA, it turns out that Trump and the GOP leaders didn’t really have a replacement plan after all. But it’s coming. Soon. Or soon after they repeal ACA. Really.
  • And the Women’s March. Beyond the headlines, there are serious problems on the horizon for women and the men who love and care about them. Planned parenthood is the first thing on the block, and it could be completely defunded soon. This could take contraception and basic medical care, including things like mammograms and pap smears, away from a huge number of young and poor women. Likely results include not only increased pregnancies, but increased physical harm and deaths. It’s a huge issue. Definitely big league.

[I’m running out of breath and steam here, and getting carpal tunnel from the long list. So let’s abbreviate the rest of this week’s activities, shall we?]

What else is on the table this week? Dropping out of TPP. Renegotiating NAFTA. Cutting back on NATO and UN commitments. Moving the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Banning Syrian refugees. Reinstating torture and black sites. And of course, the perennial GOP classic of cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to try to pay for everything else.

For me, attempts to quiet and suppress the press, along with the push for alternate truths, are among the scariest thing the administration did this week. The 4th Estate is essential to our democracy, and we are here today in no small part because they have been derelict in their duty for a couple of decades now. The “press” is more interested in making a buck than in educating us and providing good reporting. They believe we care more about celebrity marriages, babies and clothes than about democracy (and sadly, they may be right there…) They follow the stories the two parties give them, instead of digging up the news that the parties don’t want us to hear. Sensationalism rules the day. And this is no small part of how we got to Trump in the first place. And now facts are under direct assault too. We’ve been hearing for a while that one person’s opinion is as good as another’s fact, and that scientists and intellectuals don’t know any more than common folks about the things they study. But the assault is direct now, and this needs to be nipped in the bud immediately and hard.

Two last thoughts: this week, we’ll be hearing about the most important thing our nation could face under the Trump Administration — his choice for the next Supreme Court justice. We don’t know who it will be, although some of the candidates mentioned are quite scary, including one who believes that our LGBTQ friends are an abomination under G*d and should have no rights. He may pick someone moderate. The Dems may not let a pick get through. It’s hard to say. But I strongly suggest that if you don’t agree with Trump, this needs to be a PRIMARY focus until it is resolved. The next Supreme Court justice could be interpreting laws for decades, and could easily swing the Court back in a very conservative direction. Watch this one carefully.

And finally friends and readers, I give you the stock market! It has been soaring(!) since Trump won, and I think the investor class is on to something. Please take a moment to analyze what is going on above, from the policies, to the distractions that take our minds away from the policies. And ask yourself in each case, “who stands to benefit?” America has elected a plutocrat. And he has appointed plutocrats to important positions in his cabinet. And low and behold, all of the early policy pronouncements from this plutocratic White House will benefit various members of the investor class.

Please fasten your seat belts and keep your eyes wide open. And please get active and stay active. Take up the political call to action. Or soon you may hear that dreaded announcement, that America needs to put our head between our legs and prepare ourselves…