Trump Redefines Human Rights

We all know about the monstrous Nazi like violations of human rights of 5000 children kept in cages at the boarder. But what else has Trump done to create moral outrage on  human rights?

The Trump administration is coming under fire for its refusal to engage with international human rights monitors over potential violations inside the US, from police brutality and executions to the abuse of migrant children at the border.Protests have poured in from organisations objecting to the government’s virtual boycott of established systems designed to protect human rights, after the US withdrew from the United Nations human rights council last year. Washington is accused of rebuffing official complaints from monitors, undermining human rights bodies and threatening officials with prosecution should they set foot on US soil.[1]

the state department claims to remain “deeply committed to the promotion and defense of human rights around the globe”[2] yet it declines comment on the allegations otherwise. "The cold shoulder given to some of the world’s most respected human rights experts marks an extraordinary about-turn for the US, which under previous presidents has prided itself for upholding standards. The US was central to the creation in 1945 of the UN, which is headquartered in New York."[3]

Human right organizations find the pace of violations connected to the Trump administration is growing. Columbia law school human rights institute has developed the human rights tracker.
"It is difficult to keep up with all that the new administration is doing that threatens human rights. Each day brings fresh news of a damaging initiative by the President of the United States.
This tracker was designed to help journalists, civil society organizations, and the general public understand how the Trump Administration is impacting human rights."[4]

The administration has signaled minimal support for rights but everything it has done suggests the opposite. They rolled back efforts to reduce over incarceration. One might be tempted to argue "what about over commission of crimes that make incarceration necessary?" Well consider state and federal jails hold over 2 million people,4.5 million on probation or parole.[5]  Women are the fastest growimg segentothe indorceratedpoploation that is across the nation. more than 700 percent between 1980 and 2016. Human Rights Watch documented the lasting harm of jailing mothers pretrial, many of whom simply cannot afford bail in that state.32000 kids incarcerated in adult jails.[6] [7]

The 121-page report, “You Miss So Much When You’re Gone’: The Lasting Harm of Jailing Mothers Before Trial in Oklahoma,” finds that jailing mothers even for short periods of time can result in overwhelming debt and loss of child custody. Based on more than 160 interviews with jailed and formerly jailed mothers, substitute caregivers, children, attorneys, service providers, child welfare employees, and advocates, this joint report by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) documents the harms experienced by women with minor children jailed pretrial in Oklahoma – which incarcerates more women per capita than any other state.[8]

Mothers plead guilty ad don't fight charges because they have to get back  with the children.
“Mothers are often presented with exorbitant bills for their jail stay in addition to other fines and fees, making it harder for them to get back on their feet and establish the stability they need to regain custody of their children.”[9]

There also racial inquiries:

Racial disparities permeate every part of the US criminal justice system. Black people are 13 percent of the population but close to 40 percent of those in prisons. They are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of white people. Black people use illegal drugs at similar rates to white people, but suffer drug arrests at significantly higher rates...According to the Washington Post, police reportedly shot and killed 876 people in the US as of the beginning of October. Of those killed, whose race is known, 22 percent were black. Of the unarmed people killed by police, 39 percent were black. The Justice Department rolled back efforts to investigate local police departments following credible reports of systemic constitutional violations. Some state governments have taken on this oversight role. Racial disparities in police use of force, arrests, citations, and traffic stops continue to exist.[10]  

 Translates into voter suppression

Millions of people still cannot vote due to a patchwork of felony disenfranchisement laws across the country. However, in November, Florida voters approved a ballot initiative during the mid-term elections that restored the right to vote for 1.4 million residents with felony convictions. The initiative was one of several that states passed that advanced criminal justice reform, including an initiative in Colorado that removed language in the state constitution that permitted convicted criminals to be forced to work in prison without pay or restitution; an initiative in Florida, allowing sentencing reforms to be retroactive; one in Michigan that legalized marijuana for recreational use; and another in Washington state that strengthened police accountability.[11]

Ted Galen Carpenter of the Cato institute harps on the inconsistency of American  foreign policy to staunchly support dictators throughout the 20th century while preaching democracy around the world. He Then states; "Likewise, the Trump administration’s relationship with Saudi Arabia’s murderous totalitarian theocracy remains exceedingly close, despite Riyadh’s genocidal war in Yemen and other outrages."[12]

Yet all of this pales in comparison, In the grand style of Trump always the biggest,the best,the better, if he's strong he's Herculean, if he's smart he's Spock, if he;s evil he;s the anti- 
christ, Trump wi;; now redefine human rights! He has actually instituted a commission for this very purpose! WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday that he was installing a human rights advisory panel in the State Department, and named a conservative law professor as its chairwoman, to review and tighten the agency’s definition of human rights and ensure it is grounded in the “nation’s founding principles” and a 1948 United Nations declaration.[13] 

This, remember, is the administration that has consistently relegated human rights in its valueless foreign policy; saw in the Saudi murder and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi no cause to reprimand Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman; embraced North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un; kowtowed to every autocrat outside Iran and Venezuela; and separated migrant children from their families to hold them in appalling camps.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday the creation of a Commission on Unalienable Rights to provide “an informed review of the role of human rights in American foreign policy.” But this superficially laudable step is fraught with threats to the very human rights that it purports to strengthen.[14]

That is because, as Pompeo suggested, the purpose of the commission is not to uphold all rights but to pick and choose among them: “What does it mean to say or claim that something is, in fact, a human right? How do we know or how do we determine whether that claim that this or that is a human right, is it true, and therefore, ought it to be honored?”[15]

NOTES

[1]Ed Pilkington, "Trump Administration Ignoring Human rights monitors, UC:U Tells UN." The Guardian," (March 18,2019)
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/mar/18/trump-administration-ignoring-human-rights-monitors-aclu  (accessed Feb 17,2020)

[2] Ibid

[3]Ibid

[4]Columbia Law School, "Trump Administration Human Rights Tracker"A project by the Columbia Human Rights Law Review supported by Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute, No date the first date on the tracker is Oct 4, 2019.
https://trumphumanrightstracker.law.columbia.edu/ 
(accessed Feb 17,2020)

The Columbia Human Rights Law Review and Columbia Law School’s Rightslink, Human Rights Clinic, and Human Rights Institute launched this regularly updated tool at the start of Trump’s Presidency to keep track of the Executive Branch’s actions and their impacts on human rights. It summarizes the action taken by the administration, identifies the human rights implications, and provides links to sources where readers can find more detailed analysis.Input from those using this tool is welcome at trumphumanrights@gmail.com.MethodologyWhat counts as an “action” ?Relevant executive actions include executive orders, presidential memoranda, presidential proclamations, and signing statements; bill signings and presidential vetoes, determined on a case-by-case basis; and various agency actions, also determined on a case-by-case basis. Relevant executive actions do not include speculated executive actions (e.g., leaked drafts of executive orders) and rhetorical presidential statements (e.g., speeches and Tweets), and actions that do not have have real or purported legal effect.

[5]Human's Rights Watchl "Events of 2018," Human Rights Watch Kenneth 
Roth excective Director (2018)
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/united-states
(accessed Feb 17,2020)

[6]Ibid

[7]  "US: Devastating Impact of Jailing Mothers," Human Rights Watch (September 26, 2018 12:01AM EDT)
https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/09/26/us-devastating-impact-jailing-mothers
(accessed Feb 17,2020)

[8] Ibid
[9] Ibid
[10] "Events 2018." Human rights watch op cit

[11]Ibid

[12]   Ted Galen Carpenter "Washington's Incoherent Policy toward Dictators," Cato Institute (Jan 30,2019)
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/washingtons-incoherent-policy-towards-dictators
(accessed Feb 17,2020)
The American Conservative on January 30, 2019.

The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization — a think tank — dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. Its scholars and analysts conduct independent, nonpartisan research on a wide range of policy issues.

aka High class,scholarly, right wing 


[13] Edward Wong and Eileen Sullivan. "New Human 
rights Panel Raises Fears if a Narroiwing US Advocacy." New York Times (July 8, 2019)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/us/politics/state-human-rights.html
(accessed Feb 17,2020)

[14]Kenneth Roth, "Beware The Trump Administration's Plans or 'Fresh Thinking' on Human Rights," Human Rights Watch (July 11, 2019 )
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/07/11/beware-trump-administrations-plans-fresh-thinking-human-rights (accessed Feb 17,2020)

Roth is executive director HRW

[15] Ibid

Criticis of the State of the Dictatorship Speech

from:

NEWS ANALYSIS

POLITICS & ELECTIONS

Trump’s SOTU Speech Bristled With Fascist Politics

BY

Henry A. Giroux, 

Truthout

PUBLISHED

February 5, 2020

https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-sotu-speech-bristled-with-fascist-politics/

Authoritarian societies protect the powerful — not the poor or vulnerable — and Trump made that clear in boasting about tax policies that largely benefit the ultra-rich and major corporations. He lied about supporting workers’ rights and “restoring manufacturing rights” even as he continues to implement regulatory roll-backs that endanger both the environment and the health of workers and many other people in the U.S. His claim that he has launched the great American comeback is laced with death-dealing policies that range from criminalizing social problems, demonizing and punishing undocumented immigrants and their children, and laying claim to ultra-nationalist and white supremacist rhetoric that echoes the social and racial cleansing policies of earlier fascist societies. When Trump says in his speech “our families are flourishing,” he leaves out the misery and suffering he has inflicted on the many people who don’t fit into his white Christian notion of the public sphere, as well as on the immigrants and other people of color whom he has deemed disposable.

America is Dead, we live in the kingdom of Trump

America is Dead, we live in the kingdom of Trump

Burning the Reichstag 1933


The Republicans of U.S.Senate have united and marched the Republic off the cliff and into the world of fascist dictatorship. Should  there be  any doubt  that this  is the case consider:  

(1) The Senate just voted totally along party lines  to forgo a real trial eve though the House met it's constitutional mandate to require a trial. WE see in this the Repuboicans will do anything Trup tells them do do.

(2) Trump really does believe the constitution gives him unlimited power.

(3) Can there be any doubt he believes he's above the law? Clearly the Republican senators believe he's above the law.

Let's look at the the first step in Trump's power play advancing notions of unlimited power, Trump has been documented making several statements to this effect: "President Donald Trump on Tuesday inaccurately suggested the Constitution gives him the power to do 'whatever he wants' as president...While criticizing the former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference, Trump said, 'Then I have an Article 2, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.'"[1] There is a much more through list in audio were many more of Trump's statements are recorded from  el presidente  Himself. The issues are discussed by John Iadarola and Brett Erlich. [2]

Of course Trump is way off base; That very section of the constitution (article II section 2) Limits the President's power by defining it and setting it in checks and balances.  One such check is impeachment which is spelled out in that very section,[3] There is also the oath of office: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." He swore to defend the constitution but he subverted the constitution by, among other things, scraping the impeachment trial,which is prescribed in the constitution. The house voted to impeach so they had to have a trail. But instead they had a coronation. This is very serious, the Republicans derailed justice they turned constitutional mandate for justice into  joke.

According to one version of Christian theology, St. Augustine no less: St. Augustine (354-430), "in Book IV of The City of God, relates the story about the pirate who had been seized and brought before Alexander the Great. The cheeky pirate asks Alexander what is the real difference between a pirate and an emperor apart from the scale of action."[4]

The actual quote:

Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on. If, by the admittance of abandoned men, this evil increases to such a degree that it holds places, fixes abodes, takes possession of cities, and subdues peoples, it assumes the more plainly the name of a kingdom, because the reality is now manifestly conferred on it, not by the removal of covetousness, but by the addition of impunity. Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, “What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor[5]

That is what the Trump administration, is a criminal enterprise. Think about it, He's violated the  Emoluments clause in numerous ways (such as holding important meetings with foreign dignitaries at venues from which he profits), His daughter getting trademarks from China all the time [6] so on. Trump is so detached from reality there surely must be a group of people somewhere who are really  running things so it is an organized gang.

The one last ray of hope still shining: we must go all out to make sure the Republicans don't win the elections, . Take back the Senate, hang on to the house,take back back the white house.


here is Article II :
https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleii


Notes

[1]John Haltiwanger,"Trump claimed Article 2 of the Constitution gives him the right to do 'whatever I want as president,' but that's not true," Business Insider  (Jul 23, 2019, 1:26 PM)
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-falsely-says-constitution-gives-him-unlimited-power-president-2019-7  (acessed, 2/1/20)

[2]  John Iadarola and Brett Erlich, "Trump Crowns Himself King" The Damage Report, YouTube Video (Jan 31, 2020)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQw6tiPjpSU   (acessed, 2/1/20)

[3] Christina Zhao, "Article 2 Trends After Trump Falsely Claimsis it Grants Him Unlimited Powers as President..." Newsweek,  (7/23/19 )
https://www.newsweek.com/article-2-trends-after-trump-falsely-claims-it-grants-him-unlimited-powers-president-i-can-do-1450798  (acessed, 2/1/20)
states[4]Liberty Fund, Inc, "St Augustine States..." Online Library of Liberty published by Liberty Fund, Inc (2--4/2020)
https://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/200
"Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established in 1960 to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. The Foundation develops, supervises, and finances its own educational activities to foster thought and encourage discourse on enduring intellectual issues pertaining to liberty."

[5] IbidSome translations say "Brigudages." I would use "gangs of criminals.'

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/23/chaos-erupts-as-republicans-barge-into-trump-impeachment-inquiry-hearing

Republicans are using Brown shirt tactics to destroy impeachment investigation. This is not open democracy this is disruption. What if criminals and other people invaded the police and demanded to know what evidence they had found  in their investigation? This assumes the house committee is not the valid body to instigate,call your congressman demand they stop this.

Phonegate: Oil and gas connection

Rachel Maddow just went on the Colbert show (Late Night) to plug her new book Blow Out.[1] The point of the book is abuses in the oil  and gas industry but in discussing the impeachment topic with Colbert she actually said enough to connect the dots and link the impeachment crimes to a brewing scandal in the oil and gas industry. Here is Publisher's Weekly's review of the book:

https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-525-57547-4

[Rachel] Maddow (Drift), host of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, surveys Big Oil’s recent misdeeds, including Western oil companies’ support for Equatorial Guinea’s Obiang dictatorship, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and blocking rules to regulate fracking practices that cause earthquake swarms and pollution in Oklahoma (while the same companies demand tax breaks). Anchoring the book is Russian president Vladimir Putin’s cutthroat petropolitics. Maddow contends he turned Russia’s oil and gas sectors into cesspools of corruption and inefficiency, seized well-managed private oil companies and arrested their CEOs, and made energy a foreign policy weapon while getting investments and technology from ExxonMobil. Maddow tells these stories in colorful, sardonic prose—she pillories Putin’s campaign “to piss in the punch bowl of free elections all over the civilized world”...[2]

That review is ultimately not kind as he thinks she does not connect enough dots. Perhaps that is the case I don't know. But the picture taking shape from those she clearly connects gives us a good idea that much more lies behind the phone call. Not that it was directly  about  the oil  and gas industry but it raises questions that the phone giving out of the transcript  might be a diversion from the brewing oil and gas problems. Even if that is too hair brained it is clearly the case that here lies more to investigate, the impeachment proceedings open the door to do so. Mind you the hair brain idea of connection between the book and telephone call is my  idea not her's. She is not that zany.

Another reviewer summarizes the book:

https://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/14526/blowout

With her trademark black humor, Maddow takes us on a switchback journey around the globe, revealing the greed and incompetence of Big Oil and Gas along the way, and drawing a surprising conclusion about why the Russian government hacked the 2016 U.S. election. She deftly shows how Russia's rich reserves of crude have, paradoxically, stunted its growth, forcing Putin to maintain his power by spreading Russia's rot into its rivals, its neighbors, the West's most important alliances, and the United States. Chevron, BP, and a host of other industry players get their star turn, most notably ExxonMobil and the deceptively well-behaved Rex Tillerson. The oil and gas industry has weakened democracies in developed and developing countries, fouled oceans and rivers, and propped up authoritarian thieves and killers. But being outraged at it is, according to Maddow, "like being indignant when a lion takes down and eats a gazelle. You can't really blame the lion. It's in her nature."[3]

The oil and gas industry destroys enirinmentandcomunities, it doesnot bring review to thepeople of nationas crsedwith oil but rather dictatorship asiti hasto theRussiamns,
https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/behind-trumps-energy-dominance/

President Donald Trump has pledged allegiance to what he calls America’s “energy dominance.” This is good news for the oil and gas industry. We examine what this means for villagers in Alaska coping with climate change, Native American artifacts in Utah and birds flying over the U.S.  To find out, we talk with a former Interior Department official who became a whistleblower after helping relocate Alaska Native villages threatened by rising temperatures. We also examine the energy industry’s influence on the Trump administration and visit public lands in southeastern Utah, where parcels leased for oil and gas exploration contain sensitive Native American archeological sites.[4]

We know the phone call is, like wiretapping the Wategrate headquarters just the tip of the iceberg.


[1]"Late Night with Steven Colbert Interview Rachel Maddow," Wedesday,  CBS 11. Dallas Texas,Oct 2, 2019.

[2]"Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth" PW Publisher's Weekley, 8/12/2019 https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-525-57547-4
[accessed oct 2,2019]

[3]"Blowout," Bool Browse, Oct 2019
https://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/14526/blowout
[accessed oct 2,2019]

[4] "Behind Trump's Energy Dominance," Reveal the center  for Investigative reporting, Amy Walters. Editors: Deborah George, Taki Telonidis and Marla Cone. Reporters: Zack Colman, Elizabeth Shogren and Jennifer Oldham.
https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/behind-trumps-energy-dominance/
[accessed oct 2,2019]

I quote:https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46682354

An eight-year-old boy from Guatemala has died in US government custody, officials say, the second migrant child to die in US detention this month.
The border agency says the boy died on Monday night hours after showing signs of illness. A Texas congressman named him as Felipe Alónzo-Gomez.
The child was detained with his father on 18 December after illegally crossing the US-Mexico border.
A seven-year-old girl died earlier this month just hours after being detained.
Jakelin Caal, also from Guatemala, developed a high fever and died of liver failure. Her funeral was held in her village on Tuesday.

• What is the migrant caravan heading to US?

• The agony over an American dream

Thousands of migrants have travelled from Central America - mainly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador - to the US border.
Many say they are fleeing persecution, poverty and violence in their home countries and plan to seek asylum in the US.
What do we know about the latest case?
In a new, lengthy statement, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the boy, whose identity has not been officially confirmed, died at 23:48 local time(06:48 GMT) on 24 December. The cause of death is still unknown.
After being detained in El Paso, Texas, he and his father were taken to a local processing centre, where they spent two days. They were then sent to El Paso Border Patrol Station, where they were held for another two days.
On 22 December, they were transferred to Alamogordo Border Patrol Station, in neighbouring New Mexico.
On Monday morning, an agent noticed that the boy "was coughing and appeared to have glossy eyes". He was taken with his father to a hospital where he was diagnosed with a common cold and given Tylenol (paracetamol).

• A river of people: The migrant caravan in pictures

Pamela Wheelock Call senator Johnson. Head of the senate committee for Homeland Security and has oversight . He may not care, but call because you DO. 202-224-5323 Flood his phone.