Mary Lemanski reads and comments on a list, compiled by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, of the Trump Administration’s civil and human rights rollbacks during the second year of his administration. More episodes to come covering all four years!
Transcription
Welcome to the Mary kind of contrary podcast. I am your host, Mary Lemanski, and today is Sponsor is Cyberpunk Web Marketing and Virtual Assistant Services. Cyberpunk Web Marketing and Virtual Assistant Services offers a variety of services to fit your small business needs. They can help you with your internet marketing, including website creation and maintenance, newsletter creation and social media management.
They have over 10 years of virtual assistant experience providing general administrative and office management help to small businesses and nonprofits. They also have over 20 years experience with D I Y and Gorilla Marketing. For musicians, artists, and other creatives to build and grow their online presence, you can find out a full listing of their services on their website@cyberpunkmarketing.com.
All right, well last episode we were going through, um, a list of the civil human rights rollbacks done by the Trump administration, and we just covered 2017 and it was an hour episode. So I can imagine 2018, it’s probably gonna be about like that too. But, um, this list was compiled by the leadership conference of Civil and Human Rights, and I’m just kind of reading it and common commenting on what it actually means to these things.
Um, I’m not a lawyer, but I know how to read and comprehend quite well, so, so I’ll explain it to you. Um, I have taken law classes. I’m not a lawyer though, at any rate. I do understand what’s going on. So, um, so if you listen to the last episode, you’ll hear all of 2000 seventeens, um, civil and human rights rollbacks by the Trump administration.
And today we’re going to be talking about everything that Trump and his administration did in 2018. So what they did, basically, I wanna just say it out here right now, is lay the groundwork for what they’re doing now, which is, they started from the very beginning, eroding trust in the election. I mean, he won the election and Trump was saying that the election was, was rigged.
I mean, that didn’t make any sense at all. I mean, he was saying it before the election even started, and then when he won, he kept saying it was rigged. So did you really not win or what? But, uh, so, so they, they, they’re sowing distrust in our elections. They’re sowing distrust in our judicial system by undoing 50 years of precedent.
I mean, that is the reason why precedent is set. You can’t just up and get rid of it because you don’t like it just cuz you don’t agree with something. That’s not how a democracy works. We have to struggle to get civil rights changes done and you’re just gonna up, up, upend them in in two seconds. I mean, What, where is our government going?
And then, um, the Congress has pretty much, especially the house is pretty much turned into the judicial branch. There’s, they’re playing court to, to everything. And, and since they already went and, um, made congressional subpoenas null and void by ignoring all of the January 6th committee’s, subpoenas, nobody needs to pay attention to their subpoenas.
So this whole little fake court, they’re, they’re holding it in Congress about the weaponization of Amer, of the government against conservatives. I mean, it, it’s just not happening. Come back to reality people. The wizard has been exposed. We see him pulling all the levers. Okay? So come on, turn around and face us.
So anyway, this is the 2018 Civil and Human Rights rollbacks by the Trump Administration as put together by the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights. And you can go to their website@civilrights.org. So in 2018, they started early on January 4th, Jeff’s sessions rescinded guidance that had allowed states with minimal federal interference to legalize marijuana.
This move further reignited the war on drugs. You’d think that Republicans who are so, oh, the economy, the economy. We need to, we need to help our farmers. We need to help our farmers in such a strong, strong following. In the, in rural areas in the south, which is largely rural, um, you, you would think that these farmers would want new crops like cannabis and a hemp.
You would think, I don’t know what has convinced them to go against their economic interests? I have no idea what kind of wacky thing that Republicans tell farmers that you don’t need to grow crops. We got all these, we can keep subsidizing these, this land keep subsidizing this land. Subs, you know, subsidies are just really socialism.
It’s the government, the. Playing an ownership role in businesses and keeping them afloat. And the, the way our system works, the US taxpayers don’t see any return on their investment. I mean, maybe, maybe they pay interest to the government. Maybe these, uh, like for these loans and stuff, maybe, you know, when the banks crashed, maybe they paid interest on these loans.
But I, from what I understand of it, the interest rates were really low on them. So we really didn’t get our return on our investment. And so anyway, subsidies are just another form of socialism. Um, and I’m all for keeping our farmers, you know, uh, I, I think it’s very important to keep our food supply. In American hands, and so I’m all for farm subsidies, but oil and coal subsidies.
When there’s other forms of, uh, energy that are n not harmful to the environment, why would you even want to go that route? Just ween ourselves off of it and invest in the, these new technologies where we have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink. What a concept you, you c you can’t literally can’t have businesses if there’s no people to take part in the services and to buy the products.
It’s just a losing business strategy to keep going with with these. Oil and coal and these things that are polluting our environment when we obviously have other alternatives. Why would you go that route is unless you’re just ho, heavily invested in it. Take some of those billions of dollars and invest in, in solar, invest in geothermal.
Um, come on. You got the money. You’re just not the, the head of the, you’re not the king on top. That’s what, what these, these oil and coal companies want. And this is coming from somebody whose grandfather was a coal miner and whose uncle was a coal miner and whose cousin was a coal miner. And guess what?
My uncle died from emphysema, probably related to being a coal miner. And, um, I don’t, I’m not quite sure how my grandfather died, but luckily my cousin got out because he saw what happened to his dad. And so why not invest in clean energy that’s not going to kill our family members. All right, so that little rant about really investing in, in things that are, uh, new technologies and new, new things like new crops like cannabis and all the things that can be made with it.
Why, why would you say no to that? Why would you convince farmers to go against their own economic interests? Those farmers need those crops. Look at all those fields. We’re paying them to keep bear. Why? Why not plant some cannabis there and grow the economy while we’re at it? Rant over. All right. On January 8th, Trump renominated a slate of unqualified and biased judicial nominees, including two rated not qualified by the American Bar Association.
Also, on January 8th, the administration announced it would terminate the temporary protected status designation for nearly 200,000. Salvadorians Dorians,
the Racism. On January 11th, the Trump administration released new guidelines that allow states to seek waivers to require Medicaid recipients to work. Requirements that represent a throwback to rejected racial stereotypes. Again, with the racism. On January 12th, the Trump administration approved a waiver allowing Kentucky to require Medicaid recipients to work.
On January 16th, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under Mulvey’s Leadership announced it would reconsider the agency’s payday lending rule. Now they’re going after the poor. On January 17th, the administration announced its decision to bar citizens from Haiti for re receiving H two A and H two B visas.
You see a theme here, it’s, it’s brown people. That they don’t want coming into the country. You don’t see them banning Eastern Europe. I mean, again, not that Eastern Europe doesn’t anything except maybe Russia. But where’s the Russian ban? Can we have a Russian ban on January 18th? My birthday? Oh, let’s see.
Oh, they did two things on my birthday. On January 18th, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a proposed rule to allow healthcare providers to discriminate against patients and within the department’s Office of Civil Rights, a new division, the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division, to address related claims.
So they’re, they’re going in and they’re changing our administrative agencies and how they operate. And they’re weakening them. Also, on January 18th, the C F P B had roughly dropped a lawsuit against four online payday lenders who unlawfully made loans up to 950% a p r in at least 17 states. I wonder what states those were.
That’d be interesting to find out. On January 25th, the Census Bureau announced that the questionnaire for the 2018 end-to-end census test will use race and ethnicity questions from the 2010 census. Instead of updated questions recommended by Census Bureau staff. This suggests that the Office of Management and Budget will not revise the official standards for collecting and reporting this data despite recommendations from a federal agency working group to do so.
See it is, and then now they’re attacking the census. We don’t wanna count, we don’t want to count certain people because they don’t fit into our worldview of how the world should be. On February 1st, the New York Times reported that the Department of Justice was effectively closing its office for access to justice, which was designed to make access to legal aid more accessible, again, discriminating against poor people.
So February 1st was certainly busy. Um, again, on February 1st, 2018, reports surfaced claiming Trump’s labor department concealed an economic analysis that found working people could lose billions of dollars in wages under its proposal to rule back in an Obama era rule. A rule that protects working people in tipped industries from having their tips taken away by their employers.
Really, you need every single little penny that we have. You have to go after people that are making two and $3 an hour and take their tips away from them, because that’s what happens when you take their tips away. They make two or $3 an hour. They’re the ones going around waiting on everybody. Why should the the owner get anything?
They’re not doing any work, really. They aren’t. They’re just l putting the whale into motion and hoping they make money. All right. Um, so again, on February 1st, multiple sources reported that acting, consumer acting, see, they’re always acting. They’re not actually appointed. So I don’t know what that does for, um, How much blame can be put on them.
Oh, I was just doing what I was told I was acting. Um, but, you know, that could misfire and all, every, all the directions came from somebody, right. We all know it came from somebody. So, um, anyway, on February 1st, multiple sources reported that acting consumer financial protection Bureau director, mic Mulvaney had transferred the Consumer Agency’s office of Fair Lending, an equal opportunity from the Supervision Enforcement and Fair Lending Division to the director’s office.
They’re reshaping the way the administrative agencies operate and it probably affecting their efficiency and their effectiveness. Uh, the move essentially. Gutted the unit responsible for enforcing anti lending discrimination laws. Well, there you go. Dismantling and making these administrative agencies that are all under the president, all under the executive branch, making them basically non-functional so that there’s less people around and, and they’re consolidating the size of the government to the point that there’s only a few people that are in the in crowd that are gonna be in power when it all goes down
on February 12th, the Trump administration approved a waiver allowing Indiana to require some Medicaid recipients to work. So you’re gonna see a theme here where they’re requiring Medicaid recipients to work and they’re gonna roll these back in. All these states. Aren’t some of these Medicaid recipients old and sick?
Is that why they’re not working? Do they really need to be working? On February 12th, the Trump administration released a fiscal year 2019 budget proposal, which would deny critical healthcare to those most in need, simply to bankroll the president’s wall through border communities. The proposal would also eliminate the community relations service, a justice department office, established by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which has been a key tool that helps address discrimination conflicts and tensions in communities around the country.
So they went to so more division. On February 12th, the Trump administration released an infrastructure proposal that would reward the rich and special interest at the expense of low income communities and communities of color and leave behind too many American communities and those most in need, again, attacking the poor and people of color.
On February 12th, Buzzfeed News reported that the US Department of Education would no longer investigate complaints filed by transgender students who have been banned from using the restrooms that correspond with their gender identity. On the same day, the department released a statement saying, Trump’s budget protects vulnerable students, a most dubious claim as we have seen.
They’ve been so busy. Trying to erode transgender rights and women’s rights, then it makes you wonder who’s this next? On February 26th, the US Department of Education proposed to delay implementation of a rule that enforces the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or I D E A. The rule implements the I D E’S provisions regarding significant disproportionality in the identification, placement, and discipline of students with Discipl Disabil with regard to race and ethnicity.
On March 5th, the Trump administration approved Arkansas request to require some Medicaid recipients to work. On March 5th, the Office for Civil Rights at the US Department of Education released a new case processing manual c p m that creates greater hurdles for people filing complaints, and allows dismissal of civil rights complaints based on the number of times an individual is filed.
So if you’re continually harassed for on about your civil, you know, your civil rights are constantly being violated. That’s not a bad thing. That, that you just dismiss that, that thing that, I mean, that seems like it should be doubly, doubly investigated, not dismissed. Uh, March 5th was another busy day for the Trump Administration.
March 5th, 2018, a Department of Housing and Urban Development memo announced Secretary Ben Carson’s consideration. Of revising the agency’s mission statement and removing anti-discrimination language and promises of inclusive communities. I wonder how following the Republicans Plan worked out for Ben Carson.
On March 12th, attorney sessions announced the Justice Department’s school safety plan, a plan that civil rights advocates criticized as militarizing schools over policing children and harming, um, disproportionately students of color. You see the theme Attack education, attack, the administrative agencies attack transgender people, attack women, attack people of color, who’s left.
On March 14th, the White House issued a statement of administration, administration policy supporting HR 49 0 9, the student teachers and officers preventing or stop School Violence Act, which the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights opposed. On March 23rd, Trump issued new orders to ban most transgender people from serving in the military.
The latest iteration of a ban that he had initially announced in a series of tweets in July of 2017 in the Justice Department was, or not to Justice Department, but the, uh, Pentagon and, and the military were pretty much, you know, surprised by it. Surprised. Guess what we’re doing? Uh, shouldn’t you have conferred with US Commander in Chief?
It’s like he doesn’t even care about national security or something. On March 23rd, Trump signed a spending bill that included the Stop School Violence Act, which civil rights organizations are were concerned would exacerbate the school-to-prison pipeline crisis, further criminalize historically marginalized children and increase the militarization of and over-policing in schools and communities of color.
You know, once they take over the communities of color and they’ve got EV that all under control, then they’re gonna come after all the rest of us. You guys realize that, right? This is how authoritarian states operate. On March 26th, 2018, secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, announced that he had directed the Census Bureau.
To add an untested and unnecessary question to the 2 20 20 census form, which would ask the citizenship status of every person in America. On April 3rd, secretary of Education, Betsy Duo restored recognition of for-profit school accreditation, A C I C S, which the prior administration had terminated as a federal aid gatekeeper based on A C I C S’S documented failures to set mon monitor or enforce standards at the schools it accredited, including the now defunct, uh, Corinthian I t t, and fast train.
On April 6th, attorney General Sessions announced that he had notified all US attorney’s offices along the southwest border of a new zero tolerance policy toward people trying to enter the country. A policy that quickly and inhumanely separated hundreds of children from their families. So all these people that are saying, oh, the the child separation policy, the children in cages started with Obama.
The child separation policy started with Obama. The the keep holding children in the cages probably did start with Obama, but the zero tolerance policy of separating children from their parents and then losing the children because they didn’t keep track of them. That all started under the Trump administration.
Under attorney GE General Jeff Sessions on April 6th, 2018. On April 10th, a federal official announced that the Department of Justice was halting the legal orientation program, which offers legal assistance to immigrant immigrants. On April 10th, Trump signed in an executive order directing federal agencies to push for work requirements for low income people in America who receive federal assistance, including Medicaid and snap.
So now they’re just not going after the states, they’re going after everybody. On April 11th, 2018, the Bureau of Justice Statistics announced that it would stop asking 16 and 17 year olds to disclose voluntarily and confidentially their gender identity and sexual orientation on the National Crime Victimization Survey.
On April 17th, the White House issued a Statement of administration policy supporting SJ Res 57, a resolution under, under the Congressional Review Act to repeal the consumer financial protection Bureau’s guidance on indirect auto financing. The sole purpose of the resolution was to undermine the ability of the um, C F P B to enforce laws against racial and ethnic discrimination and auto lending, which is why the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights opposed it.
On April 25th, secretary Ben Carson proposed changes in federal housing subsidies that could triple rent for some households and make it easier to impose work requirements. It’s like they’re out for people of color and transgender people and the poor. Why are you so harsh on the poor? People are just trying to get ahead and you’re just pulling out the rug from underneath them.
On April 26th, the Trump administration announced it would terminate the temporary protected status designation in 12 months for approximately 9,000 Nepali immigrants. See the theme On May 3rd, 2018, Trump signed an executive order creating a White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative tasked with working on religious liberty issues across federal agencies.
The order deleted protections for beneficiaries receiving federally funded services from religious groups. Uh, so they’re the, they’re basically trying to create a theocracy, it seems like. I mean, It’s what it sounds like to me. On May 4th, the Trump administration announced it would terminate the temporary protected status.
Again, we see another theme designation in 18 months for approximately 57,000 Honduran immigrants, more brown people on May 7th, the Trump administration approved New Hampshire’s request to require some Medicaid recipients to work or participate in other community engagement activities, whatever that means.
On May 11th, the Federal Bureau of Prisons released changes to its transgender offender manual that rolled back protections, allowing transgender inmates to use facilities including bathrooms and cell blocks that correspond to their gender identity. Hmm. I think that might translate into cruel and unusual punishment in some people’s eyes.
On May 13th, the New York Times reported that the Department of Education had effectively killed investigations into possibly fraudulent activities by several large for-profit colleges where top hires of Betsy DeVos, the education Secretary, had previously worked by reassigning, marginalizing, or instructing its fraud investigators to focus on other matters.
Wow. How convenient. How convenient that she’s helping out the people she used to work for. And, uh, uh, another thing I I, I went to a for-profit college for my mba. I went to the University of Phoenix, but I went there for a reason. It was because I was working and I. I could earn my online degree, my MBA online.
I was, this was in 2003, this was 20 years ago. It was probably one of the first people to get my MBA online. And so I, I valued my for-profit education. But you know, there’s standards that they should be held to and they should be held to, uh, uh, the standards, same educational and social standards that all the other colleges are held to.
Okay. Moving on. So on May 18th, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it would be publishing three separate notices to indefinitely suspend implementation of the 2015 affirmatively furthering fair housing rule. You don’t wanna give people fair housing or what? On May 21st, Trump signed a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act, which repealed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s guidance on indirect auto financing.
Let’s just screw poor people over some more again, on May 21st, the White House issued a Statement of administration policy supporting S 2155, the Economic Growth Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, which the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights opposed. On May 22nd, 2018, the Trump administration issued a draft notice of proposed rulemaking designed to block access to healthcare under Title 10 and deny women information about their reproductive healthcare options.
See there’s this just constant attacks on women. I thought men were supposed to protect women and make sure that they were safe and make sure they, they got cared for. It doesn’t seem like these men care for women at all. It’s like they don’t even care if they die, and yet they, they want their white population to keep populating.
Well, when you’re killing off all the women, it just doesn’t work that way. Guys. On May 24th, 2018, Trump signed the Economic Growth Regulatory Relief in Consumer Protection Act, which will undermine one of our nation’s key civil rights laws and we can Consumer protections enacted after the 2018 financial crisis.
So we tried to fix things, but they just wanna make it worse. The law rolls back more Expansive. Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data requirements for banks that generate fewer than 500 loans or lines of credit each year, thereby exempting 85% of banks and credit unions. On May 24th, 2018, the Department of Education announced that it did not plan on implementing rules designed to protect students in online degree programs from being taken advantage of by schools that load students up with debt, but offer useless degrees and instead plan to delay implementation of the rules and rewrite them.
How convenient. On June 6th, mc Mulvaney fired all 25 members of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Consumer Advisory Board. That seems like a. Good idea for an acting person to do. Wow. I told you they were dismantling the government right in front of your eyes and you cheered them on the whole time.
On June 8th, 2018, a Department of Justice filing argued that the Affordable Care Acts protections for people with preexisting conditions are unconstitutional. The brief was signed by Chad Reeder, uh, justice Department Official, who Trump nominated and Senate Republicans confirmed to serve on the US Court of Appeals for the sixth Circuit on June 11th.
Attorney General Sessions ruled that the fear of domestic or gang violence was not grounds for asylum in the United States. Again on June 11th. It’s like they like to be particularly cruel on certain days. On June 11th, US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director l Francis Csna announced the creation of a de naturalization task force in a push to strip naturalized citizens of their citizenship.
So now you can’t even become a citizen of the United States anymore. On June 11th, the Department of Justice announced that it would delay implementation of a permanent program for collecting information on arrest related deaths until fiscal year 2020, a full five years after the Death in Custody Reporting Act was signed into law.
And two years after the Department of Justice last published its near final compliance guidelines, they were just lazy. Again, dismantling things that have already been put into motion. On June 12th, the Department of Justice sued the state of Kentucky to force it to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the registration records.
This voter purge lawsuit was filed one day after the US Supreme Court upheld Ohio’s voter purges in Houston versus a Philip Randolph Institute. The timing. The timing, see, so they got that, um, the Supreme Court upheld that law, and then the next day, you know, they pretty much set it into precedent. On June 18th, Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, announced that the United States was withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council.
Seems like a really dumb idea. We don’t wanna be world leaders anymore, is that what we, we don’t wanna be involved in what’s going on in the world. That doesn’t seem too good for national security. It’s best to have an open dialogue, I would think. On June 27th, the White House issued a statement of administration policy supporting HR 61 39, the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act, which the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights opposed on July 3rd, right before the 4th of July.
They just can’t take a day off, can they? Well, they took the, they took a few days off after that. Actually gotta work up to the last minute. It’s your patriotic duty. On July 3rd, attorney General Jeff Sessions and Education Secretary Betsy Duo rescinded a guidance from the Departments of Justice and Education.
That provides a roadmap to implement voluntary diversity and integration programs and higher education consistent with Supreme Court holdings on the issue. So they’re basically checking the power of the Supreme Court, is that what they’re doing? An administrative agency is doing that. Oh, I wish we could get this all organized and back the way it was before all these people took over our country and ruined it.
We had such a great plan going and now who knows what’s going on and what the precedent for all this stuff being moved around and all that is doing, I hope. I hope the people in the Biden and administration are reversing a lot of this. It seems like a big mess. On July 10th, 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced cuts to navigator funding for outreach to hard to reach communities.
So basically, People out in the country for the fall 2018 Affordable Care Act, open enrollment period. On July 25th, the Department of Education proposed new borrower defense rules, which would further exacerbate inequalities, making the already unfair and ineffective student loan servicing system even more harmful to all students, particularly to borrowers of color.
The proposal would strip away student borrower rights and key deterrence of predatory school conduct and make it nearly impossible for students hurt by school misconduct to get loan relief. Why are you attacking poor college students that, I mean, they don’t even have any money. It’s just the cruelty of it.
It’s really, it just seems like they do it for the cruelty of it. On July 26th, 2018, the Trump administration failed to meet a court ordered deadline to reunite children and families separated at the border. Like I said, it’s the cruelty is the point. On July 30th, Jeff Sessions announced the creation of a religious liberty task force.
Once again, insti integrating religion into our government at the Department of Justice, which many saw as a taxpayer funded effort to license discrimination against L G B T Q, people and others. On August 10th, the Department of Labor encouraged the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the C F C C P staff to grant broad religious exemptions to federal contractors with religious based objections to complying with executive order 1 12 46.
And deleted material from a prior O F C C P F A Q on sexual orientation and gender identity, non-discrimination protections that previously clarified the limited scope of allowable religious exemptions. They’re basically discriminating against people. They’re basically discriminating against people under the guise of religion, of religious liberties.
I just wanna say a couple things about that because these people purport to be Christians and I consider myself a Christian. Um, and I don’t think that they’re Christian, not in the way that Jesus Christ was a. Christ was, I mean, Jesus Christ was a Jew, but, but if you’re, if you call yourself a Christian, it’s that you believe in the teachings of Christ.
And there’s, you know, a lot of preachers and they talk a lot of stuff, but a lot of times they don’t always put things into historical context that’s in the Bible. Sometimes they do. Some preachers are really good about it. And then some people, not so much. Some people use certain messages in the Bible to manipulate people because people, when it comes to spirituality, it’s a very scary thing because it’s so very, very individualized.
It’s an individual thing. Your beliefs are yours own. You don’t have to follow along with the group. And anyway, Jesus was very, very clear about how women should be treated. It’s pretty clear that he saw women as equals because Jesus spoke to women in public. Sometimes when he was alone with them, he spoke to them in public, which is forbidden.
Even today, in some places in the Middle East, those laws still exist today, that you’re not to talk to women in public. Men are not to talk to women in public. Women in some countries are, are supposed to be accompanied at all times by a male. So to speak to a woman who is by herself alone in the Middle East, back in that time period was revolutionary.
Jesus thought women should be treated as equals. Why aren’t these Christians, or as they say they are, why don’t they treat women as equals? Another thing that Jesus did was that he always brought Samaritans into his parables. And if you notice in his parables, the Samaritans do all the good things. The Samaritans are the good guys in his parables.
Well, Samaritans were a people that were only partially Jewish. They were only half Jewish, and so many Jews did not accept him. They were racist against them. So if you wanna know what Jesus thought of racism, it’s right there in the parables. He was not for racism. So this warped evil thing that Christianity has become.
Is a 180 from what Jesus Christ was and what he taught. So just before you agree to have a religion, take over your government, just make sure that it’s really a, a religion that’s true and not one that’s made up. On August 13th, secretary Ben Carson proposed changes to the Obama era affirmatively furthering fair housing rule, which aimed to combat segregation and housing policy.
Why he would do that is beyond anybody’s logic, but whatever. Rest in peace, Ben Carson. On August 15th, the Federal Register published a Trump administration proposal to restrict protest rights in Washington DC by closing 80% of the White House sidewalk. Putting new limits on spontaneous demonstrations and opening the door to charging fees for protesting.
Protesting is your first amendment right. You don’t need to pay to exercise your first amendment rights. On August 29th, 2018, the New York Times reported that the Department of Education was preparing rules that would narrow the definition of sexual harassment. Holding schools accountable only for formal complaints filed through proper authorities and for conduct said to have occurred on their campuses.
They would also establish a higher legal standard to determine whether schools improperly addressed complaints, so make it harder. For women to report these things as if it’s not already hard enough, and the fact that a woman is doing this is just ridiculous. How do these people sleep at night? On August 30th, the Department of Justice filed an amicus brief opposing Harvard College’s Motion for Summary judgment in Students for Fair Admissions Inc.
Versus Harvard choosing to oppose constitutionally sound strategies that colleges and universities use to expand educational opportunities for students of all backgrounds. It’s the, there’s a constant attack on our education system too, in addition to everything else, because you gotta keep the populace dumb to buy this stuff that they’re trying to sell.
On September 5th, the Trump administration sent sweeping subpoenas to the North Carolina State Elections Board and 44 county sports. Requesting voter records to be turned over by September 25th, two months before the midterm elections, civil rights advocates worry. This effort would lead to voter suppression and intimidation, which we all saw in the 2020 election with armed people standing outside voting boxes.
On September 6th, 2018, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services announced a proposal to withdraw from the floors settlement agreement. The Floors agreement is a set of protections for underage migrant children in government custody. So they got all these kids in government custody cuz they’ve separated them from their parents and they roll back the set of protections for them.
And, and, and they, and you hear all over these conspiracy things, networks and social media. How, how, how they think that the Democrats are trafficking children. What do you think’s going on here? Setting it up so that they can traffic children. Luckily we’re in September and the year is almost over on September 13th, 2018, the National Labor Relations Board proposed weakening the joint employer’s standard under the National Labor Relations Act, which would make it difficult for working people to bring the companies that share control over their terms and conditions of employment to the bargaining table.
There’s something called a labor market and the labor market like every other market. The oil market, the coal market, shoes, cars, everything has a market. And the labor market is a market within these markets. And what the labor market is, is the price of the labor. So if you have any self-esteem at all, stick up for yourself and ask for a raise because you’re worth more than that.
You’re worth, you’re there working your fingers to the bone while the c e O gets paid $5,000 an hour and you get paid 15. And they think that’s a hardship on them. It’s it’s high time that people were paid a livable wage. At least give them a livable wage. At least give them that. If you’re not gonna raise the minimum wage, I mean, at least pay that yourself or you’re not gonna have money flowing back into your pockets because nobody’s gonna have money to buy all the stuff that you’re making.
It starts from the ground up. And then why not invest in your employees? Make them want to stay at your company. That’s a whole other debate. On October 1st, a policy change that the Department of State took effect saying that the Trump administration would no longer issue family visas to same sex domestic partners of foreign, um, diplomats or employees of international organizations who work in the United States.
See, the cruelty is the point. Who cares if they’re here just while they’re working here? Who cares? On October 10th, the Department of Homeland Securities proposed public charge rule. It was published in the Federal Register. Under the rule, immigrants who apply for a green card or visa could be deemed a public charge and turned away if they earn below 250% of the federal poverty line and any of, and use any of the wide range of public programs, so discriminating against poor immigrants.
On October 12th, the Department of Justice filed a statement of interest opposing a consent degree negotiated by Chicago Mayor Rama Manuel, and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to overhaul the Chicago Police Department. You know, why not help the Chicago fight the crime? Why would why go Just complain about it and then don’t do anything to help.
And take away or, or just oppose it, you know, whatever.
On October 15th, Trump vetoed a resolution passed by both chambers of Congress that would’ve terminated his declaration of a national emergency on the southern border with Mexico. On October 16th, the administration released its fall 2017 unified agenda of federal regulatory and deregulatory actions.
The document details, the regulatory and deregulatory actions that federal agencies plan to make in the upcoming months, including harmful, civil and human rights rollbacks. Great. Something to look forward to. On October 19th, the Department of Justice ended its agreement to monitor the juvenile court of Memphis.
And Shelby County and the Shelby County Detention Center in TE Tennessee, which addressed discrimination against black youth unsafe conditions, and no due process at hearings. Shouldn’t we all be afforded these protections? On October 21st, the New York Times reported that the Department of Health and Human Services is considering an interpretation of Title 10 that would define sex as either male or female.
Unchangeable and determined by the genitals that a person is born with effectively erasing protections for, for transgender people. And then they turn around and say, oh, these people are not being discriminated against. Yes, they are. On October 22nd, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued new guidance on the Affordable Care Act.
1332 waivers that would expand a state’s flexibility to establish insurance markets that don’t meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, dismantling things that work again. On October 24th, the Department of Justice filed a brief with the US Supreme Court arguing that the federal civil rights law does not protect transgender workers from discrimination on the basis of their gender identity.
On October 30th, Axios reported that Trump intended to sign an executive order to end birthright citizenship and birthright citizenship, so you can’t even be born in the United States anymore. In a tweet the following day, Trump said it will be ended one way or the other. I think the reasoning behind that is if they end birthright citizenship.
Then they can make the argument that the fetus is a person legally, because the Constitution says that you have to be born to be a citizen. So if you’re wondering which direction they’re going, that’s where they’re going. On October 31st, the administration approved a waiver allowing Wisconsin to require Medicaid recipients to work continuing theme.
It was the first time a state that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act was allowed to impose work requirements. Uh, almost toward the end of the year. Don’t, don’t have too many more weeks. I don’t know how much more damage they can do, but I’m sure they can do something. On November 5th, 2018, the Department of Justice filed a petition with the US Supreme Court to circumvent.
Three separate US Courts of Appeals on litigation concerning the Deferred Act for Childhood Arrivals are DACA program on November 7th on this la, his last day as Attorney General, Jeff Sessions issued a memorandum to gut the Department of Justice’s use of consent decrees. Oh, of course, let’s just recomplete havoc.
On the way out. On November 8th, the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice announced an interim final rule to block people from claiming asylum at the entered the United States outside legal ports of entry. Did you know that a large portion of illegal immigrants here are people that just flew into the country and overstayed their visa?
So they’re, they’re rich. It’s okay if they fly in and stay too long. It’s not okay if they walk across the border. On November 8th, the Department of Labor rolled back guidance issued by the Obama administration that clarified that tipped workers must spend at least 80% of their time doing tipped work in order for employees to pay them the lower tipped minimum wage.
Why are you attacking tipped workers? On November 16th, the Department of Education issued a draft Title nine regulation that represents cruel attempt to silence sexual assault survivors and limit their educational opportunity and could lead to schools doing even less to prevent and respond to sexual violence and harassment.
On November 23rd, the Office of Personnel Management rescinded guidance that helped federal agency managers understand how to support transgender federal workers and respect their rights initially issued in 2011 and updated several times since replacing it with vaguely worded guidance, hostile to transgender working people.
Oh boy. He’s only got another month to go. On December 1st, 2018, Trump declared that he would be proud to shut down the government, which he did. It resulted in the longest government shutdown in US History, 35 days. Oh, I’m sure. He is. Just proud of that, which harmed federal workers, contractors, their families, and the communities that depended on them.
And just to point out, this happened right before Christmas. Merry Christmas. On December 14th, buds Feed News reported that the Department of Housing and Urban Development was quietly advising lenders to deny DACA recipients Federal Housing Administration loans. So now you’re attacking their, their ability to become citizens and taking away their homes.
And this seems like a good idea. This seems like a a a po, a positive policy where we’re moving America forward. On December 18th, the Trump Administration’s School Safety Commission recommended rescinding Obama Error School Discipline Guidance, which was intended to assist districts and schools in developing practices and policies to enhance school climate and comply with federal civil rights laws.
Trump doesn’t want you to have your civil rights. If he had his way, he would probably rescind the Bill of Rights. On December 21st, four days before Christmas, following the recommendation of Trump’s School Safety Commission, the Departments of Justice and Education rescinded the Dear Colleague letter on the non-discriminatory administration of school discipline.
Both departments jointly issued the guidance in January of 2014, and luckily after that it was the holidays, so they took a break, but not very long. They got started back in again on January 3rd, 2019, but that’s for another episode. We have finally finished 2018 and all of the Trump administration, civil and Human Rights rollbacks.
My great accomplishments, huh? Republicans are proud, at least the MAGA Republicans as they’ve been become known now, um, the extreme MAGA Republicans, which I’d like to differentiate from more moderate Republicans, but on, but not really because the moderates are just going along with it. If there’s really enough moderate Republicans, they could up rise and take their party back.
I, I just, they just need somebody with money to, that’s more powerful than Trump to take over. But I, I don’t think that person exists. I think that the Republican party is doomed. And this comes from someone whose grandfather was a vice-chair of the Republican party in Springfield, Illinois. I didn’t know him.
He died before I was born. But my uncle, his son was also a Republican and he was financial commissioner of Springfield and also served as interim mayor at times. And, and he was a Republican. And so knowing that, knowing what I know about both of them and what I know of my uncle, um, I don’t know that, I don’t know how they would feel about what’s going on.
I, I just remember, cuz I have other relatives in my family who are Democrats that are, these are politicians that have run for office and have served in Springfield government and Sangamon County government, um, Democrats and Republicans. And, um, they, they used to argue at my grandma’s about money. And, and social programs and how much money it was supposed to go into this and that and the other.
And now it’s about ethics. We used to have a common American, I guess, value. And it seems like these fringe elements are just taking over our country. We used to agree on things and I, I think really, I mean, 75% of Americans believe that abortion should be legal. I don’t understand why they’re going against what their constituents want.
It’s not a good reelection campaign for sure. It hasn’t been working so far. Um, maybe that’s the point. Maybe they want to take the party of Lincoln, the man that freed the slaves and drive it into the ground. Maybe that’s the whole point. Revenge. They just do the ugliest, most hateful, cruel things to people unnecessary and, and dismantling things and, and sending things into chaos and disorder, and making things ineffective for people, making agencies not work for people.
Do you want really want more of this in 2024? We don’t need this. We need to elect Democrats and people that are going to move the country forward and make this an egalitarian society where everybody is equal. That’s all I have for today. Thank you for listening to the Merry kind of contrary podcast.
I’m signing up. Have a good one.