How to deal with “America First” electeds?
November 21st, 2022
Campaigning as “America First” in 2022 — do people understand what this means? I hope it’s “just” voter ignorance, but it’s how Altendorf proudly, intentionally, labeled herself. That alone should be reason to eject them from office. Check out the high mileage look of these two:
Both are 2020 election deniers, and together they are sponsoring their (ALEC) Education Freedom Act, identical to one passed on Arizona. Thankfully it won’t go far in Minnesota’s DFL controlled legislature.
What Drazkowski had to say about Altendorf in his endorsement of her for state House 20A:
“LEADING” conservatives with Recall City Hall effort, squawking at school board meetings about “critical race theory” and mask mandates.
And bragging about being an “America First” candidate… good grief… And she was elected.
Back to America First, there’s this, Conservative U.S. House Republicans to form ‘America First’ caucus and the platform:
And a look at what “America First” means:
From 2019, ‘America First’ is only making the world worse. Here’s a better approach. that then before the 2020 election noted the increase of nationalists, demagogues and autocratic powers:
Yet that president is going to face an increasingly dangerous world that looks more like the 1930s than the end of history—with populists, nationalists and demagogues on the rise; autocratic powers growing in strength and increasingly aggressive; Europe mired in division and self-doubt; and democracy under siege and vulnerable to foreign manipulation. Then there are the new challenges of our own century—from cyberwarfare to mass migration to a warming planet—that no one nation can meet alone and no wall can contain.
Doubling down on “America First,” with its mix of nationalism, unilateralism and xenophobia, would only exacerbate these problems. But so would embracing the alternative offered by thinkers across the ideological spectrum who, concerned that our reach exceeds our means, advise us to pull back without considering the likely consequences, as we did in the 1930s.
Yes, time to trot out my “RENOUNCE NATIONALISM sign again.
Oh we got trouble… right here in Goodhue County… And that starts with G and that rhymes with P and that stands for… or is it G and that rhymes with D… it’s BOTH!
p.s. If you want to learn more about “America First” in Minnesota get up to Little Falls, and do some reading in the library at the Charles Lindbergh House and Museum.
A MUST visit — Minidoka National Historic Site
June 1st, 2022
When we left Craters of the Moon Nat’l Monument and Preserve, we learned Minidoka National Historic Site was on the way out of Idaho, so of course we headed to Jerome, Idaho. It’s a memorial documenting the U.S. internment of Japanese citizens and issei (first generation Japanese immigrants who the “U.S.” determined were unable to become citizens). When we toured Manzanar in 2017, which needs to be on everyone’s go-to list, I got a copy “By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans,” written by Greg Robinson, focused on Executive Order 9066 and rounding up of Japanese without due process, without notice, where families lost everything, EVERYTHING, and were in these concentration camps for years, in some cases, having to build the camps, as they were in remote locations, and nothing was there!
It’s really disturbing that this IS how we treat people in this country. It’s doubly disturbing when we see familiar names on the list, in this case, the Issei Memorial of those imprisoned at Minnedoka:
These are lessons we need to know, and never repeat. Yet back in 2017, when we toured Manzanar National Historical Site, the then “President” was issuing hateful and discriminatory Muslim ban Executive Orders, starting with EO13769, to prevent entry to the U.S. Deja vu all over again.
The Minidoka National Historic Site is quite new, and it looks like it’s under development, more to come. There’s a strong tie with this location to the Bainbridge Island round-up, where Japanese first were sent to Manzanar, and then to Minidoka. There’s more info on Bainbridge Island that HERE (though this site is odd, the wording/language used is a little to “happy.” From the site, “children and adults alike will enjoy this delightful local museum” ummmmm, there’s nothing delightful about forced “evacuation” and incarceration.)
Archives have preserved Trump Executive Orders
April 27th, 2022
Years ago, early 2017 to be precise, I was so disgusted with the Executive Orders being rammed through, particularly about immigration, that I started up a website to track them and the many lawsuits challenging them. Not long into the administration, I gave up on tracking, it was beyond a full time job. About the same time, the White House phone comment line closed (I’d been leaving comments often) and the switchboard would not forward any calls to anyone or take a message, and then the White House website dropped the entire section on Executive Orders. GONE!
Recently someone wrote saying that a link I’d posted wasn’t working, well DUH, it was from when there was a White House Executive Actions page, with Orders and Memoranda. But I looked, and of course the Federal Register page is still there, but there’s now an Archive preserving the Executive Orders!
TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL ACTIONS ARCHIVE
Note the caveat at the top — this is just ONE of the EOs that were disappeared:
The “person” who let me know that the link I had posted didn’t work I think was a bot or ? trying to get me to click on something malevolent. Just no… stick to the Federal Register.
Executive Orders happening now!
January 21st, 2021
Undoing the big mess that tRump left, and already, a big improvement. SCROLL DOWN FOR BIDEN EOs. See that big pile of folders in the photo? Biden signed a couple handfuls of Executive Orders undoing some of the horrible ones tRump emitted. AND, the Biden administration already has the White House website up, with the “Presidential Actions” link back — Executive Orders are no longer hidden. As with the White House phone line, the White House website started out functional, but then the website wasn’t, the “Presidential Actions” section disappeared and it was very hard to find Executive Orders. The good news was they had to be published in the Federal Register, otherwise, hard to find! GO HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO FEDERAL REGISTER DOCUMENTS AND PUBLIC INSPECTION.
In January, 2017, right out the gate, tRump started in on his “Muslim ban” series of Executive Orders, and for every obnoxious EO, it was up to “someone” to challenge it in court, and challenge they did, over and over and over and over. It was so disturbing to me that I put together a site to track his Executive Orders and those challenges, and by April, I had to give up, there was no way to keep up with the flurry of the awful Executive Orders and lawsuits.
How many Executive Orders? 211 of them, and many perverse beyond belief. Click these links to review:
Does anyone remember how he campaigned against use of Executive Orders, over and over slammed Obama for use of Executive Orders?!?!
Here are a few blog posts from those daze, what got my dander up:
UPDATE! Minnesota joins Washington State against tRump’s EO 13769
February 3rd, 2017
tRump’s EO 13769, Norway’s former Prime Minister detained
February 3rd, 2017
NY Federal Judge says NO! to tRump’s Executive Order
January 28th, 2017
tRump bans immigration from “certain” countries
January 28th, 2017
Here are the Biden Executive Orders posted so far — and the Muslim/travel bans, the issue most concerning to me, not that they’re ALL important — have been removed/reversed. Nothing’s come across in Federal Register for Public Inspection yet:
Preserving and Fortifying Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
Reinstating Deferred Enforced Departure for Liberians
Executive Order on Ethic Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel
Executive Order on Revocation of Certain Executive Orders Concerning Federal Regulation
Executive Order on Revocation of Certain Executive Orders Concerning Federal Regulation
Executive Order on Protecting the Federal Workforce and Requiring Mask-Wearing
Proclamation on Ending Discriminatory Bans on Entry to The United States
Regulatory Freeze Pending Review
And some “statements” issued:
E.O. 13888 INJUNCTION!!!
January 15th, 2020
Once again, tRump is on the wrong side of the Constitution in his continued attempts to limit refugees, immigrants, Muslims, from entering the U.S. LEGALLY! Today, the Maryland federal district court said NO, YOU CAN”T DO THAT!
Love it when this happens. But to have to keep going to court, over and over and over and over and over and over… at what point can these unconstitutional Executive Orders be ground to a halt?