TRUMP REGIME

 Majorities of Americans oppose Trump’s plans that threaten democratic norms

Mother Jones -  All told, there are 15 reported billionaires slated for jobs in the administration—16 if you count the Big Guy himself. And then there are the billionaires with no formal role who have nonetheless been invited to advise the incoming president behind the scenes, or who have been widely reported as having Trump’s ear. Guys like venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, a cheerleader for “effective accelerationism,” who, I feel required to point out, is currently trying to build a new model city from scratch in California; Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale; and hedge funder John Paulson. 

Newsweek -  Former Representative Tulsi Gabbard faces an uphill battle to become Donald Trump's director of national intelligence, after reportedly failing to woo senators on Capitol Hill last week. On Tuesday, Reuters reported that eight Republican senators had expressed doubts about Trump's nomination of Gabbard to lead the nation's intelligence community. Citing three unnamed sources, one within the Trump team and two with knowledge of the transition, the report said there were serious doubts about Gabbard's qualifications and her ability to secure the necessary votes in the Senate during her confirmation process.

Paul Waldman, MSNBC -  The chief critique Republicans aim at the Postal Service — that it runs a deficit every year and therefore is failing — is completely misleading. The Postal Service is structured differently than most federal departments; it has more independence and funds itself to a large degree by charging for services. For this reason, Postal Service critics frequently complain that the agency is “losing money.” But the Postal Service is still a government department, like the Defense Department and Agriculture Department. We accept that operating those agencies costs money, because we believe the country should have a military and monitor crop yields. And it should give health coverage to veterans, and maintain highways, and have courts, and do a thousand other things, too. That’s why we pay taxes.

Many of the fiscal challenges the Postal Service faces are a result of the things it does that a profit-seeking private business would never do. If the post office were privatized, it would probably start charging more — a lot more — for the services it now provides for a pittance. For instance, sending a letter from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles with FedEx will run you about $50 at a minimum; from the post office, it’s just 73 cents. Even with recent increases, we have some of the lowest postal rates in the world (sending a letter in Denmark will set you back 29 kroner, or over $4).

And just like FedEx, a private postal service would probably charge different rates depending on where you send your letter — meaning it would discard one of the foundations of our postal system. It’s fundamental to how we think of mail service that every American can send mail to every other American at the same rate, whether you’re sending a letter to the other side of town or from Apalachicola, Florida, to Alakanuk, Alaska. The Postal Service connects Americans to each other, binding us together as one nation.

No one gets a better deal from the Postal Service than rural Americans.That’s not just my poetic gloss on the USPS; it’s written into law. Title 39 of the U.S. Code states, “The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. It shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render postal services to all communities.”

In keeping with that mandate, the USPS maintains over 30,000 post offices, many of which are not economically advantageous. It does so precisely because its mission is not to make money, but to serve all Americans wherever they live, no matter how sparsely populated. According to the Post Office inspector general, 57% of post offices are in rural areas, serving just 16% of Americans. Of those post offices, nearly two-thirds “cost more to run than the revenue they bring in” — compared with just 7% of offices in urban areas. If we shut down every outpost that doesn’t make a profit, thousands of rural post offices would close. 

Guardian - Donald Trump and his Republican allies are planning to target progressive groups they perceive as political enemies in a sign of deepening “authoritarianism”, a US watchdog has warned.The president-elect could potentially use the justice department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to target non-profits and researchers, launch politically motivated investigations and pass legislation to restrict their activities.

“Trump has made it clear that he plans to use his second term to attack the progressive ecosystem and his perceived enemies,” Adrienne Watson of the Congressional Integrity Project (CIP) told the Guardian. “This is a worrying progression of Trump’s authoritarianism that would undermine our democracy.”

The CIP announced on Wednesday that it will aim to counter such abuses of power with a new initiative to defend progressive groups and individuals. The Civic Defense Project will be led by Watson, a former White House and Democratic National Committee spokesperson.