Trump White House official at work on government website
As a recent New York Times article (reprinted here at Yahoo! news) indicates, one of the many areas where President Joe Biden is trying to undo the extensive damage done by Donald Trump is the language used by our federal government. Obviously, Trump and his minions agreed with what we have written about here for more than 10 years, i.e. that “messaging matters” and, in particular, that Republicans are experts at framing issues in ways that favor their point of view. Part of this framing is the use of certain loaded words and phrases. While Trump was in the White House and not busy playing golf, he liked to use Nazi propaganda tactics such as the repetition of big lies, and he had his federal government employ loaded words, or prohibit the use of other words, to gain political advantage. The two areas where this seems most prevalent were, perhaps not surprisingly, the politically contentious subjects of immigration and the environment/climate change. Take a look after the jump to see what Trump did, and how Biden is trying to repair the damage:
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Leave a comment! Tags: BLM, China, climate change, Coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19, Donald Trump, environment, EPA, Florida, global warming, immigration, Joe Biden, Nazi, Rick Scott, Wuhan
Fox News, state-run TV for Republicans
A jarring juxtaposition between Cable News Network (CNN) and Fox News on how to treat Donald Trump‘s administration took place this week. Yesterday, the Daily Beast reported that, before Trump Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned this year in a wave of scandals, he repeatedly received sweetheart deals when appearing for interviews on the Fox & Friends program. The Fox treatment of Pruitt went way beyond simply going easy on a Republican guest, which Fox News does all the time, and which is why Donald Trump loves Fox & Friends in particular. Here, Pruitt’s staff coordinated closely with the Fox & Friends staff to script the actual interview questions and talking points in advance. This throws out any pretense of real journalism, especially in questioning a government official, and turns Fox News into the equivalent of the Russian state-run TASS news agency.
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Knotted Gun sculpture, New York City
Last month, the Democratic Party announced that it would run an anti-corruption campaign against Donald Trump and his administration in the 2018 midterm elections. We suggested that the Democrats also campaign on what they stand for, and, a few days later, the Democrats did something ingenious along those lines when they proposed that the Trump/Republican tax cuts be rolled back and the proceeds be used to fund teacher raises and school improvements such as new textbooks. Since we’ve gone through numerous special elections and primaries already, it’s time for the Democratic Party to roll out a specific, national campaign for the midterms that ties these ideas and actions together. We have the following suggestions:
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2018 midterm elections, Affordable Care Act, Bill Clinton, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, EPA, George H.W. Bush, guns, health, James Carville, Michael Dukakis, NRA, Republicans, Robert Mueller, Russia, schools, Scott Pruitt, taxes, teachers, Willie Horton
Democratic U.S. Senators, here led by Sen. Cory Booker, protest 2016 Republican healthcare bill.
According to recent news reports, the Democratic Party has agreed upon a theme for the 2018 midterm elections: the corruption of Donald Trump‘s administration. The Democrats reportedly will call this election theme, and their own proposals, “A Better Deal for our Democracy.” This builds on the Democrats’ announced theme from last year, “A Better Deal.” Both slogans hark back to Democratic proposals from decades past, including the “New Deal” and the “Fair Deal,” as well as recall Trump’s best-selling book, “The Art of the Deal.”
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Intermountain Power Project coal-fired plant, Utah
The death of Republican U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has refocused attention on how much is at stake in the 2016 presidential election. We have an ongoing series on this subject, including the president’s power to nominate Supreme Court justices and other federal court judges. Another area of great importance and great difference between the parties which is at stake in November is the future of our environment, including fighting climate change.
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Leave a comment! Tags: Al Gore, Anne Burford, Anne Gorsuch, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Christie Todd Whitman, climate change, Department of the Interior, environment, EPA, Gale Norton, George W. Bush, James Watt, President, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, White House
President Obama at the COP 21 climate conference in France
President Barack Obama this week signaled that he would have a robust final year in office as he announced executive actions on the registration of gun purchases, especially narrowing the “gun show loophole.” Obama also held a town hall meeting aired by CNN on Thursday to talk about his anti-gun violence actions. Moreover, just a week ago, President Obama appeared on an epic, hilarious episode of Jerry Seinfeld‘s web series “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” Obama was not only very funny and relaxed, he also managed to plug his Affordable Care Act, which has covered an estimated 17.6 million more people in the past two years, causing the percentage of Americans without health insurance to drop to the lowest level ever measured. In short, President Obama is exploding the stereotype of the lame duck president.
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Leave a comment! Tags: Affordable Care Act, Barack Obama, climate change, CNN, economy, EPA, gun control, gun violence, guns, ISIS, jobs, Keystone XL, Obamacare, Second Amendment, State of the Union, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership
On Wednesday night, Organizing for Action (OFA), the grassroots organization that pushes for President Obama‘s agenda, held a conference call to discuss the Obama administration’s proposed new Environmental Protection Agency rules to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The call featured Rohan Patel, who is special assistant to President Obama and White House Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. Patel spoke about what the Obama administration seeks to accomplish with the new EPA rules, as well as the White House messaging on climate change.
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Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley speaks at Maryland Climate Change Summit, 2013
The Obama Administration’s latest move to battle climate change — new Environmental Protection Agency rules designed to cut power plant emissions by 30 percent — will likely set off a Republican response not unlike their response to the Affordable Care Act. We can expect lies, delays and lawsuits from Republicans and their Big Coal corporate backers to block the EPA rules. However, while many Republicans have the luxury of being climate change deniers to score political points, insurance companies and state and local officials do not have this luxury. Even insurance companies run by Republicans, and Republican state and local officials, will have to deal with the actual effects of climate change, such as an increase in claims by homeowners and business owners for damage related to rising sea levels, storm surges and fires, increased health care claims, and state and local budgets depleted by disaster response and rebuilding. That’s why it will be important to watch what these insurance company executives and public officials do.
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