Today’s comic by Mark Fiore is So-called Executive Orders:
What’s coming up on Sunday Kos …
- Uncomfortable truths—the role of slavery and the slave trade in building northern wealth, by Denise Oliver Velez
- Trump resistance is like the Tea Party, but with truth on its side, by Jon Perr
- Nevertheless, she persisted, by Laurence Lewis
- Trump has transformed the lush landscape of conservative principles into a magnificent desolation, by DarkSyde
- We haven’t even begun to persist, by Susan Grigsby
- Message to Trump supporters on Obamacare: You get sick too, by Egberto Willies
- Overcoming objections: A short process to help you address emotional need, by David Akadjian
- So you want to help a refugee family, by Sher Watts Spooner
- Saving the divided states of Trump-merica, by Frank Vyan Walton
- Black History Month: Exploring the value gap and our habits that marginalize black lives, by Kelly Macias
- To increase support for immigration, we must highlight economic benefits and desire for integration, by Ian Reifowitz
- Daily Kos International Elections Digest: February edition, by Daily Kos Elections
• California’s climate policy success depends on federal waivers—what if Trump regime doesn’t grant them?
California officials have discerned a chilling signal that the Trump administration may be willing to halt the state’s unique authority to impose its own vehicle emission rules—a move that could undercut its pioneering effort to battle climate change.
The threat arose during the confirmation hearing for Scott Pruitt, Trump’s choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt was asked by California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris if he would pledge to continue the EPA’s decades-long policy of granting California waivers from the federal Clean Air Act, giving the state the right to set its own more stringent clean air standards. Pruitt—who as Oklahoma’s attorney general sued the EPA more than a dozen times—refused to commit to continuing California’s authority, instead saying he would have to study the issue.
The waivers have been the bedrock on which much of California’s climate change goals stand. The state’s emissions from passenger cars and light trucks have been reduced by more than 30 percent since 2009, when California expanded its use of the air quality waiver to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
• Proposed Trump executive order would allow U.S. firms to sell "conflict minerals"
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• The Ballad of Bowling Green.
• Campus free speech bill proposed in Tennessee:
Inspired by a Breitbart News editor whose speeches have spurred protests at colleges across the country, state lawmakers on Thursday touted a bill that they said would protect free speech on Tennessee campuses.
While discussing the bill in a news conference, sponsors Rep. Martin Daniel and Sen. Joey Hensley referenced the protests against controversial conservative Milo Yiannopoulos, who is a senior editor at Breitbart. [...]
Daniel and Hensley sponsored similar legislation last year which sought to make it easier for students to advocate for various causes on campus. He notably said ISIS, the terrorist organization, should be allowed to recruit on college campuses in Tennessee. [...]
To pass, the bill would likely need to win approval from lawmakers who regularly take issue with socially liberal speech on campus, from events during UT's annual Sex Week to posts on the UT website about gender-neutral pronouns and holiday parties.
• UK group fights FBI’s worldwide hacking:
In February 2015, the FBI embarked on the largest known law enforcement hacking operation to date, targeting over 8,000 computers in 120 countries. Lawyers in the US have challenged the legality of the underlying warrant, arguing that the judge had no authority to greenlight searches outside of her district.
Now, activist and legal group Privacy International has filed a brief in a related case, pushing back against the global nature of the FBI's operation. As Privacy International notes, 83 percent of the computer infections were outside of the United States.
• Betraying working-class Americans:
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker recently visited the White House, prompting speculation that the Trump administration might be looking to follow Walker’s model of anti-unionism. But following Walker’s model means betraying the very people who put President Trump in office: frustrated working-class Americans.[...]
Anti-unionism is not part of making life better for hard-working Americans. It is part of a well-funded corporate agenda that, in every way possible, makes the rich richer and leaves everyone else worse off. If Trump takes up this model, he will be playing the most cynical of jokes on the working people who put faith in him.