How to Select an American President

Monday, March 6, 2017

Alignment of the Present Government Systems and Organizations with Priority Outcomes

(Part 2) The purpose of this task is to audit the present government structure (at a high level) to see how they support the attainment of prescribed outcomes. It might be that some things the government does are more than our nation’s capacity. It may be that the list of outcomes missed some important things that government is doing.

Bear in mind that what a future President and Congress should do is to audit the nation’s performance to ensure in detail that citizens know what government is doing and how well it is performing.

Observe from current history that the Donald Trump administration arbitrarily applied “executive judgment” to determining that certain organizations are excessive and unnecessary. He didn’t do that by calling for a deliberate audit of Departments and Agencies. He didn’t do it in collaboration with the Congress that created them by acts of laws. Otherwise, the Executive branch may have exceeded its authority in the American political system. Without bipartisanship, and with one party in charge, there are greater possibilities for recklessness in downsizing government.

The process here is to align each department and agency in government with their associated outcomes.

U.S. Federal Government Departments and Agencies

· ACTION (ACTION's functions relating to SCORE and ACT programs were transferred to the Small Business Administration. Other functions exercised by the Director of ACTION before March 31, 1995, were transferred to the Corporation for National and Community Service by 107 Stat. 888 and Proclamation 6662 of April 4, 1994. (defunct)

Administrative Conference of the United States (The Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) was established under the Administrative Conference Act (5 U.S.C. 591-96), as a permanent independent agency of the Federal Government. ACUS provides suitable arrangements through which Federal agencies, assisted by outside experts, may cooperatively study mutual problems, exchange information, and develop recommendations for action by proper authorities to the end that private rights may be fully protected and regulatory activities and other Federal responsibilities may be carried out expeditiously in the public interest.

Other purposes of the ACUS include the promotion of effective public participation and efficiency in the rulemaking process; The reduction of unnecessary litigation in the regulatory process; the improvement of the use of science in the regulatory process; and the improvement of the effectiveness of laws applicable to the regulatory process.

Following the loss of its funding in 1995, ACUS ceased operations from 1995 to 2010 at which time Congress reauthorized and refunded ACUS to re-initiate operations.)
Administrative Office of United States Courts Created in 1939, the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AO) serves the federal Judiciary in carrying out its constitutional mission to provide equal justice under law.

The AO is the central support entity for the Judicial Branch. It provides a wide range of administrative, legal, financial, management, program, and information technology services to the federal courts. The AO provides support and staff counsel to the Judicial Conference of the United States and its committees, and implements and executes Judicial Conference policies, as well as applicable federal statutes and regulations. The AO facilitates communications within the Judiciary and with Congress, the Executive Branch, and the public on behalf of the Judiciary.

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) is an independent federal agency that promotes the preservation, enhancement, and productive use of our nation's historic resources, and advises the President and Congress on national historic preservation policy.

The goal of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), which established the ACHP in 1966, is to have federal agencies act as responsible stewards of our nation's resources when their actions affect historic properties. The ACHP is the only entity with the legal responsibility to encourage federal agencies to factor historic preservation into federal project requirements.
African Development Foundation The African Development Foundation (USADF) was established under the African Development Foundation Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 290h) as an Independent Federal agency created to support African-designed and African-driven solutions addressing grass-roots economic and social problems.

USADF provides grants to community groups and small enterprises that benefit under served and marginalized groups in Africa. Marginalized groups are people that have significant needs that are not being currently addressed by existing governments programs, NGOs, or other international development efforts. USADF measures grant success in terms of jobs, increased incomes levels, and improved social conditions.
Agency for International Development The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent Federal agency established by 22 U.S.C. 6563 that receives overall foreign policy guidance from the Secretary of State. Its principal statutory authority is the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.).

USAID serves as the focal point within the Government for economic matters affecting U.S. relations with developing countries. USAID administers international economic and humanitarian assistance programs. The Administrator is under the direct authority and foreign policy guidance of the Secretary of State.

International Development Cooperation Agency The IDCA was abolished by act of Oct. 2, 1998 (112 Stat. 2681-790) and its functions transferred to the Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development, and overseas Private Investment Corporation.

Agriculture Department The Department of Agriculture works to improve and maintain farm income and to develop and expand markets abroad for agricultural products. The Department helps to curb and cure poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. It works to enhance the environment and to maintain production capacity by helping landowners protect the soil, water, forests, and other natural resources. The Department, through inspection and grading services, safeguards and ensures standards of quality in the daily food supply. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) was created by act of May 15, 1862 (7 U.S.C. 2201).

Advocacy and Outreach Office USDA’s Office of Advocacy and Outreach was established by the 2008 Farm Bill to improve access to USDA programs and to improve the viability and profitability of small farms and ranches, beginning farmers and ranchers, and socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers. As such, OAO is split into five key program areas: Socially disadvantaged farmers, small and beginning farmers and ranchers, Higher education institutions program, farm worker coordination, and community engagement.
Agricultural Marketing Service The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) was established by the Secretary of Agriculture on April 2, 1972, under the authority of Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1953 (5 U.S.C. app.) and other authorities. The Service administers standardization, grading, certification, market news, marketing orders, research and promotion, and regulatory programs.
Agricultural Research Service The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) was established on November 2, 1953 under the Secretary of Agriculture’s Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1953. ARS is the principal in-house research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

ARS conducts research to develop and transfer solutions to agricultural problems of high national priority. It provides information access and dissemination to ensure high-quality safe food and other agricultural products; assess the nutritional needs of Americans; sustain a competitive agricultural economy; enhance the natural resource base and the environment; and provide economic opportunities for rural citizens, communities, and society as a whole.
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service was reestablished by the Secretary of Agriculture on March 14, 1977, pursuant to authority contained in 5 U.S.C. 301 and Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1953 (5 U.S.C. app.).

Commodity Credit Corporation The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) is a Government-owned and operated entity that was created to stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices. CCC also helps maintain balanced and adequate supplies of agricultural commodities and aids in their orderly distribution.

The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) was originally incorporated October 17, 1933, under a Delaware charter with a capitalization of $3 million. It was initially managed and operated in close affiliation with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which funded its operations. On July 1, 1939, CCC was transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and later reincorporated under the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act (62 Stat.1070; 15 U.S.C. 714) on July 1, 1948 as a Federal corporation within the USDA.

Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service In 2009, CSREES was reorganized into the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008.

Economic Analysis Staff The Economic Analysis Staff (EAS) was established on June 15, 1982, by Secretary of Agriculture’s Memorandum 1020-6.

The primary responsibility of the EAS was to advise and assist the Assistant Secretary for Economics in fulfilling his responsibility for economic policy review and analysis in the Department of Agriculture.

Regulations that related to the organization and functions of EAS at 7 CFR XXXIX were removed in the Federal Register of December 31, 1996 (61 FR 68997).

Economic Research Service The mission of the Economic Research Service (ERS) is to inform and enhance public and private decision making on economic and policy issues related to agriculture, food, the environment, and rural development.

Energy Policy and New Uses Office Since 2009, an important area of analysis by OEPNU has been the integration of renewable energy (wind, solar, geothermal) and agriculture. OEPNU in cooperation with the Rural Utilities Service also tracks the potential effects of deregulation of electric utilities on rural communities.

Federal Service Impasses Panel

Homeland Security Department

Housing and Urban Development Department

Labor Department

Federal Procurement Policy Office

Treasury Department

Twenty-First Century Workforce Commission

U.S. House of Representatives The House of Representatives is made up of 435 elected members, divided among the 50 states in proportion to their total population. In addition, there are 6 non-voting members, representing the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and four other territories of the United States. The presiding officer of the chamber is the Speaker of the House, elected by the Representatives. He or she is third in the line of succession to the Presidency.

Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies

This table is developing as I associate "outcomes" with "departments and agencies."

The Federal Government Enterprise Model, Part 1 of 2

The Federal Government Enterprise Model is a conceptual model associating priority outcomes and their enabling departments and agencies which embody the systems that provide services and produce expected outcomes.

Here is how the Federal Government Enterprise is developed.

1. Start with the highest order purpose of the US Federal Government.
2. Identify America’s top priority outcomes.
3. Associate the present government systems and organizations with priority outcomes.
4. Account for laws and regulations governing system and organization performance.
5. Associate revenue inputs with government systems and outcomes.
6. Associate costs and benefits with outcomes.

Those six activities are non-trivial and should require investment to complete. However, I will draft a high-level model for the purpose of guiding the creation of Party Platforms and Presidential Manifestos.

I will compare the product with existing Platforms and then follow up with a suggested template for producing future Platforms and Manifestos.

Highest Order Purpose of the U.S. Federal Government

Since at least 2010, I have proposed that the highest order purpose of the US Federal Government is to “Optimize the return on national resources.” If you can think of something better, I would like to know it in your feedback.

Here is what this means. Given the nation's natural resources, materials, capital, and human resources, the job of government is to create an optimal environment in which citizens, their corporation, both public and private, can perform to the highest level of their capacity and ability.

Governments at each level collaborate with the Federal Government to produce optimal rules that provide incentives for good performance while dissuading or preventing bad or dangerous performance by people and their entities. The Federal Government is the citizen's instrument for achieving these things and for addressing essential outcomes as proposed here.

America's Priority Outcomes
1. Nation secured economically - 100%
2. Nation has a sustainable economy - 100%
3. Nation secured militarily - 100%
4. Homeland secured from terrorists - 100%
5. Employment opportunities for all who can work - 100%
6. Upward mobility for all who are prepared commensurate with ability - 100%
7. All persons provided minimal sustainment as a baseline to start - 100%
8. Social security assured for all persons - 100%
9. Clean air and water - 100%
10. Best education in the world - #1
11. Freest nation in the world - #1
12. Lowest crime rate in the world - #1 in the least crime per capita
13. Healthiest population in the world

The rationale is as follows:

The nation must be secured economically because anything less than that undermines everything else. When the debt and deficit are too large, the national integrity is at risk. The U.S. experienced a national crisis in 2008 following a period in which the Presidential administration and Congress initiated a foreign policy that we could not afford while simultaneously lowering taxes to the wealthy and corporations. Therefore, the nation’s precarious financial condition was made worse from revenue shortage.

Second, the nation must have a sustainable economy. The present economic model is one of regulated capitalism. The economy has operated on the notion of ever expanding markets, growing population, and unlimited energy supply. The present paradigm has been fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are in limited supply and burning them to produce energy creates an environmental hazard. Therefore, capitalism based on those ideas is unsustainable.
Short-sighted politicians who are corrupted by “Big Oil” and “Big Business” influences support corporations who want to maximize profits at the expense of being socially and environmentally responsible.

A sustainable economy is one that is managed to produce the required amount of upward mobile opportunity (jobs) that satisfy a progressive population. There are debates about how to best measure economic progress. The old approach is Gross Domestic Product. One new approach is Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). GPI starts with personal consumption expenditures, a major component of GDP, and adjusts it using 25 components. The point is that the nation must continuously review its economic model in light of advancing ideas.

The nation must be secure militarily. A nation that cannot defend itself is not viable. The U.S. engages in a strategy to be the strongest military force in the world and to be able to conduct a couple of global conflicts simultaneously. The Department of Defense manages different branches of service, each with a unique brand of warfare and capabilities. The DOD, like the entire nation, cannot stand still and must continuously improve.

Homeland Security is a new invention designed to combat and prevent domestic terrorism and violence. It is an immature organization with wide-reaching responsibilities. As with economic and military security, citizens may well expect the DHS to keep the nation 100% secure. When political leaders try to hedge on that commitment, they are ripe to answer questions about it.

Coincident with a sustainable economy is ensuring employment opportunities for all who can work. That is a foundation for ensuring that there is no poverty in America. We know that is a deficiency today.

It is not enough to be employed. Citizens who invest in personal and professional development deserve comparable opportunities to apply themselves.

Every citizen deserves a minimum standard of living that is above poverty.

Social Security must be guaranteed to all citizens for their lifetime.

Without clean air and water, human habitation is impossible. The government must ensure this through proper environmental regulation. The present government of the Executive and Legislative branches is withdrawing that commitment. Citizens have every right to resist and to demand better performance.

Americans deserve the best education system in the world, and that is not the status today. Deficiencies in education and training undermine the #1 priority, and that is economic security.
We have every right to expect that our Constitutional guarantees are met. The present government is failing to do that.

As a nation, we have every right to expect the cities and states everywhere to have the lowest crime rate in the world. Today, we are failing that measure.

Alignment of the Present Government Systems and Organizations with Priority Outcomes.

The purpose of this task is to audit the present government structure (at a high level) to see how they support the attainment of prescribed outcomes. It might be that some things the government does are more than our nation’s capacity. It may be that the list of outcomes missed some important things that government is doing.

Bear in mind that what a future President and Congress should do is to audit the nation’s performance to ensure in detail that citizens know what government is doing and how well it is performing.
Observe from current history that the Donald Trump administration arbitrarily applied “executive judgment” to determining that certain organizations are excessive and unnecessary. He didn’t do that by calling for a deliberate audit of Departments and Agencies. He didn’t do it in collaboration with the Congress that created them by acts of laws. Otherwise, the Executive branch may have exceeded its authority in the American political system. Without bipartisanship, and with one party in charge, there are greater possibilities for recklessness in downsizing government.

The process here is to align each department and agency in government with their associated outcomes. (More follows in part 2.)

(c) 2017 by James A. George, All Rights Reserved

https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/a

Give Trump a Chance

I heard it frequently weeks ago at the start of the Trump installment in American history, "Give him a chance. He's only been in office a few days...weeks...months." Trump is brilliant if he says so himself.

You see, his strategy is to own our enemies. He wants to deploy his family in his Trump enterprise and deal his way around the world with their being his surrogates. They will engage the Russians in all sorts of "really big deals, bigger deals, the biggest deals ever." They will engage the Iranians too as they already have a head start.

You see, he will own them, and their relationship will be symbiotic and copasetic, capiche?

"Trump’s hotel and tower in Azerbaijan has ties to an Iranian terrorist group

The president's superheated rhetoric about Iran does not match with the reality of his deal in Azerbaijan

MATTHEW ROZSA

Despite putting Iran “on notice” and generally promoting a hawkish line toward that country, President Donald Trump is reportedly engaged in an Azerbaijan business deal with an oligarchic family that has ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

According the financial filings submitted by Trump’s presidential campaign to the Federal Election Commission, Trump is the president of two entities that were created as part of a project to build the Trump International Hotel & Tower Baku, which never opened. Their partner, Garant Holding, is controlled by Anar Mammadov, the son of the nation’s billionaire oligarch and transportation minister Ziya Mammadov. The Mammadovs are so notorious for their corruption that Foreign Policy assigned them the nickname of “The Corleones of the Caspian.”

The Mammadovs also have close financial ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a New Yorker report Monday. The Revolutionary Guard has been repeatedly accused by the American government of criminal activities ranging from sponsoring terrorism and drug trafficking to money laundering. The Trump administration even proposed last month that the Revolutionary Guard be designated as a terrorist organization.

http://www.salon.com/2017/03/06/trumps-hotel-and-tower-in-azerbaijan-is-ties-to-an-iranian-terrorist-group/

Trump hotel in Iran

Image from The Business Insider

Do Generals Want War?

Donald Trump is a blowhard, reckless and feckless leader who is dangerously ignorant about foreign policy and military strategy. How do we know that? He has served up a plate filled with evidence before and after his assumption of the office of President.

An article by The Nation, a liberal media channel, says that "Trump's obsession with generals could send us straight into war with Iran." Usually, I agree with the Nation's point of view. In the same article, William Hartung characterizes, "Bannon and his motley crew of extremists in the White House," as being most influential. That concerns me more than "Generals," in general.

True is that the way that military leaders can best distinguish their abilities is on the battlefield or in the theater of war. That is where they earn their promotions. Does that mean that they want war?

In my experience over 30 years of engaging high-ranking military officers, I never met one that embraced war as the first resort. Most are very reluctant to expose soldiers and sailors to danger. When they do, they want to see a clear endgame and exit strategy. They want the reward to be worth the high cost.

Iran and North Korea pose the greatest dangers at present because they are rogue nations. They are very different in their governments. Iran is motivated as a country to achieve prosperity for its well-educated population of Shiite Muslims. They know that oil is running out and they embarked on a nuclear strategy to stay in business in the long run. They also have radical and hostile views about Israel and other nation states for which they may have no qualms about engaging in war. Nuclear weapons would give them a decisive edge, and that is why they pursue their development.

North Korea is another story for a different article.

The risks of attacking Iran's nuclear sites would have grave consequences that would likely envelop the world in a nuclear holocaust of some magnitude. It should not be an option.

"Trump’s Obsession With Generals Could Send Us Straight Into War With Iran

The president’s foreign policy picks have set the stage for an aggressive military-first administration.

By William D. HartungTODAY 12:17 PM

In the splurge of “news,” media-bashing, and Bannon is that’s been Donald Trump’s domestic version of a shock-and-awe campaign, it’s easy to forget just how much of what the new president and his administration have done so far is simply an intensification of trends long underway. Those who already pine for the age of Obama—a president who was smart, well-read, and not a global embarrassment—need to acknowledge the ways in which, particularly in the military arena, Obama’s years helped set the stage for our current predicament.

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com.

As a start, Nobel Prize or not, President Obama sustained, and in some cases accelerated, the militarization of American foreign policy that has been steadily increasing for the past three decades. In significant parts of the world, the US military has become Washington’s first and often the only tool—and the result has been disastrous wars, failing states, and spreading terror movements (as well as staggering arms sales) across the Greater Middle East and significant parts of Africa. Indicators of how militarily dependent Obama’s foreign policy became include the launching of a record number of drone strikes (10 times as many as in the Bush years), undeclared wars in at least six countries, the annual deployment of Special Operations forces to well over half of the countries on the planet, record arms sales to the Middle East, and a plethora of new Pentagon arms and training programs.

Nonetheless, from the New START treaty (which Trump has called “another bad deal,” as he does any deal the Obama administration concluded) to the Iran nuclear deal to the opening with Cuba, Obama had genuine successes of a sort that our present narcissist in chief, with his emphasis on looking “tough” or tweeting at the drop of a hat, is unlikely to achieve. In addition, Obama did try to build on the nuclear-arms-control agreements and institutions created over the previous five decades, while Trump seems intent on dismantling them.

Still, no one can doubt that our last president did not behave like a Nobel Peace Prize winner, not even in the nuclear arena where he oversaw the launching of a trillion-dollar “modernization” of the US nuclear arsenal (including the development of new weapons and new delivery systems). And one thing is already clear enough: President Trump will prove no non-interventionist. He is going to build on Obama’s militarization of foreign policy and most likely dramatically accelerate it.

A MILITARY-FIRST ADMINISTRATION

It’s no secret that our new president loves generals. He’s certainly assembled the most military-heavy foreign-policy team in memory, if not in American history, including Gen. James Mattis (ret.) at the Pentagon; Gen. John Kelly (ret.) at Homeland Security; Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster as national-security adviser (a replacement for Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who left that post after 24 days); and as chief of staff of the National Security Council, Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg (ret.).

In addition, CIA Director Mike Pompeo is a West Point graduate and former Cold War–era Army tank officer. Even White House adviser Steve Bannon has done military service of a sort. The military background of Trump’s ideologue-in-chief was emphasized by White House spokesman Sean Spicer in his defense of seating him on the National Security Council (NSC). Bannon’s near-brush with fame as a naval officer came when he piloted a destroyer in the Gulf of Oman trailing the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz that carried the helicopters used in the Carter administration’s botched 1980 attempt to rescue US hostages held by Iran’s revolutionary government. As it happened, Bannon’s ship was ordered back to Pearl Harbor before the raid was launched, so he learned of its failure from thousands of miles away.

When it comes to national-security posts of any sort, it’s clear that choosing a general is now Trump’s default mode. Three of the four candidates he considered for Flynn’s spot were current or retired generals. And that’s not even counting retired vice-admiral Robert Harward, who declined an offer to take Flynn’s post, in part evidently because he wasn’t prepared to battle Bannon over the staffing and running of the NSC. The only civilian considered for that role was one of the more bellicose guys in town, that ideologue, Iranophobe, former UN ambassador, and neocon extraordinaire John Bolton. The bad news: Trump was evidently impressed by Bolton, who may still get a slot alongside Bannon and his motley crew of extremists in the White House.

https://www.thenation.com/article/trumps-obsession-with-generals-could-send-us-straight-into-war-with-iran/

Trump, a military school cadet, with a college deferment

Trump and Obama Comparison

Trump isn't getting things done. There are reasons why. For one thing, he is a lousy executive for the Federal Government. His experience is a mismatch, and he lacks knowledge, skill, and behavioral traits suitable for the job. How do I know? I wrote the book on the subject, How to Select an Amercian President byJames A. George with James A. Rodger (c) 2017 Archway Publishing.

Failing to have cleared up his conflicts of interest, he serves on the edge of an emolument clause impeachment trial. The more that he talks, the deeper he sinks, and he can't stop talking.

He has lashed out in every direction, and this past weekend, he hammered his staff. He is desperate and dangerous being in such a state.

"Gnawing at Trump, according to one of his advisers, is the comparison between his early track record and that of Obama in 2009 when amid the Great Recession he enacted an economic stimulus bill and other big-ticket items.

Yes, by this point Obama had proposed, negotiated, renegotiated, and signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That’s on top of getting the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act signed within the first two weeks of his administration.

What has Trump accomplished? Well … he wrote a bunch of executive orders, one of which has already been blocked in court, and he signed a bill making it easier for energy companies to pollute both the air and water. Hows that hatey-wally thing going for Trump voters?"

DailyKos

Got the rage cage ready at GITMO

Is America at war with Muslims?

Under our U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, Americans cannot be at war with religion. We can be at war against terrorism and the sources of terrorism. Many religions harbor extremists in their ranks who are intent on imposing their will and values on others. That is against the law in America.

There are religious and associated ideological extremists residing in America today in disturbing numbers. They appear to be armed and dangerous as some of them commit violent crimes and hate crimes.

From the facts, we know that some of them are aligned with President Trump and "conservative" Republicans. That alignment happens because politicians want their numbers at the polls, and will tolerate their extreme views to get them. Such action by politicians is tactical exploitation.

Unfortunately, The Republican Party has gone so far to incorporate anti-American values into their platform cleverly. The first part of their Election 2016 Platform appears to be supporting the U.S. Constitution. That is a ruse to set up the introduction of radical and extreme ideas that are misaligned with core values. It does that to exploit the notion that America is a Christian nation.

While many pioneers came to America to escape religious persecution, and many were Christians, The Founding Fathers intentionally did not want to endorse one faith over another as that is contrary to freedom of belief.

Donald Trump's first immigration ban was struck down because the context was a "Muslim ban," by his stated intentions. Now, he has introduced a new ban making it sound more palatable.

However, the context created by his campaign and post-campaign remarks remain, and will be the basis for a legal challenge. The motivation of the illegitimate government is in question.

Trump Signs New Order Blocking Arrivals From 6 Majority-Muslim Countries
March 6, 201711:41 AM ET

CAMILA DOMONOSKE

President Trump has signed a new executive order that temporarily blocks visas from being issued to citizens of six majority-Muslim countries, replacing a controversial, now-suspended executive order known as the travel ban.

Like the initial order signed Jan. 27, the new executive order bars arrivals from specific majority-Muslim countries for 90 days and suspended the entire U.S. refugee program for 120 days. It also caps the total number of refugees admitted this fiscal year at 50,000, instead of 110,000.

But there are a series of differences. The ban announced Monday no longer includes Iraq. It explicitly doesn't apply to lawful permanent residents (green card holders) or existing visa holders. It will have a delayed implementation — going into effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on March 16. Syrian refugees are not banned indefinitely. And refugees already formally scheduled for travel to the U.S. will be permitted to enter the country.

The new order blocks people traveling from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. Iraq is no longer included because the administration says, it has pledged to "increase cooperation with the U.S." and share more information about its citizens.
A senior administration official told reporters that Iraq has also agreed to the "timely repatriation" of Iraqi citizens in the U.S. who are slated for deportation. As of last summer, Iraq was one of 23 countries considered "recalcitrant" for refusing to cooperate with the U.S. in deporting their citizens. Some countries on that list, including Iran and Libya, are affected by the visa ban; most are not.

Administration officials left open the possibility that other countries could be added to future visa bans, or that countries currently on the list could be removed.
The new order has a delayed implementation, designed to avoid the chaotic situation created by the initial order with people in transit when their visas were nullified.
It also omits a section about prioritizing refugees of minority religions — the part of the initial order that, as NPR's Domenico Montanaro has reported, "indicates prioritizing Christians," and was one reason the order was challenged as a form of "Muslim ban."

NPR, the channel that Trump wants to close

We are America.

Trump still warring with media via surrogates

Trump is still warring with media via surrogates who stick with his claim that Obama had him wiretapped. There is no evidence of that. In fact, all of the agencies have denied it. The delusional President persists. Why?

The most logical explanation is that President Trump employs misdirection as a tactic to draw attention away from his big problems such as conflicts of interest and collusion with the Russians.

The Trump White House is ablaze with chaos. It is dysfunctional, and that fuels more dysfunction in the Republican-controlled Congress too.

Oddly, and amazingly, his spokespersons are blabbing more propaganda to add to the misdirection. The jig is up on that behavior.

"WH spokeswoman doesn't think Trump accepts FBI's reported denial of alleged wiretapping

Answering a question from ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America” about whether Trump accepted FBI Director James Comey's reported denial of his claims, Sanders replied, "You know, I don’t think he does, George."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wh-spokeswoman-doesnt-trump-accepts-fbis-reported-denial/story?id=45935585&cid=clicksource_4380645_1_hero_headlines_bsq_hed

Meanwhile, the nation waits for April, the giraffe to give birth.

Bullshit slinger from The White House