FYI:
xStop whatever you're doing and read the @WhiteHouse plan for complete reorganization of the entire federal government. I have tweeted some highlights, but honestly can't begin to capture the horror.Overall, it privatizes a lot, cuts, & consolidates power.https://t.co/P08kGi7dSh
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) June 22, 2018Here is Garrett’s bio on twitter:
Former Sr Fellow @CFR_org. Recipient of Pulitzer Prize, Polk (2Xs) and Peabody Awards. Author: IHeard theSirensScream, TheComingPlague, Ebola & BetrayalofTrust.
xUnder the Plan, the govt sells off the US Postal Service, FAA, eliminates more than a 1/3rd of the US Public Health Corps, restructures all foreign aid & development programs, and places every single domestic program for poor families & children under a single welfare authority.
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) June 22, 2018 xThe Plan also offers a real estate bonanza for developers, selling off federal properties en masse. And it cuts or restructures all the fedl progs that are meant to educate people about their financial rights & protect them from bank & mortgage fraud.
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) June 22, 2018 xThe #Trump plan cuts R&D @NASA and all forms of alternative energy development are consolidated under a single DOE agency. A Dept of Welfare is created, and all forms of support for health of America's poor leave @HHS& go to new Welfare authority.
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) June 22, 2018 xThe Plan facilitates "streamlined" privatization of federal assets via a Customer Experience (CX) Improvement Capability.It transfers all background/conflicts checks on fedl appointees and employees AWAY from @FBI and into the Dept. of Defense.https://t.co/P08kGi7dSh
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) June 22, 2018 xNet impact of the #Trump govt reorg scheme is taking everything across govt that is for poor & needy people and consolidate it under single budgetary authority, cut science all over the place, eliminate the Census Bureau, reduce regulation &, as this closing shot shows, #MAGA . pic.twitter.com/71zPfN8tsV
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) June 22, 2018 xThis is the Koch Plan pic.twitter.com/mg4BfQW3lG
— Mary McDonald (@Ruetheday852) June 22, 2018Here is a direct link to the plan itself:
Delivering Government Solutions in the 21 st Century-Reform Plan and Reorganization Recommendations
Garrett’s summary:
Net impact of the #Trump govt reorg scheme is taking everything across govt that is for poor & needy people and consolidate it under single budgetary authority, cut science all over the place, eliminate the Census Bureau, reduce regulation &, as this closing shot shows, #MAGA .
The closing shot is a picture that shows a child on his father’s shoulders waving an American flag. Superimposed on the image are the words: “Let President Trump reorganize the government like a business” — Michelle, Delaware
Of course, the Constitution does not give any president the power to “reorganize the government” in the manner that a CEO might do. Friends, rich and powerful interests in this country want to be free of any regulations that might inhibit their wealth and power, and let the poor and needy fend for themselves, which is pretty much how rich and powerful interests have always operated over the entire course of human history. Lest anyone be confused, the definition of “poor and needy” ultimately means anyone who is NOT rich and powerful. For sure it includes me, most likely it also includes you.
I am coming to see that the word “capitalism” is ultimately a highly sugarcoated word that essentially means the same thing as “might makes right”. Same old story, VERY OLD story, only with a new cast of players.
Thomas Jefferson, A Nation of Sheep will have a Government of Wolves
The way to prevent these irregular interpositions of the people is to give them full information of their affairs thro’ the channel of the public papers, & to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole mass of the people. The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers & be capable of reading them.
Democracy depends on an informed electorate. Today, we are surrounded not by information, but by propaganda. What can we do? We must work to restore the fairness doctrine.
The fairness doctrine of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was—in the FCC's view—honest, equitable, and balanced. The FCC eliminated the policy in 1987 and removed the rule that implemented the policy from the Federal Register in August 2011.[1]
snip
The demise of this FCC rule has been considered by some to be a contributing factor for the rising level of party polarization in the United States.[2][3]
I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, & restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter, under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves & sheep. I do not exaggerate.
Behold, the wolves are coming out to devour the rest of us.