Trump Declared Himself the Law and Order Candidate; As President He Continues to Support Law Breakers

Trump during the campaign branded himself the “law and order” candidate.  This was seen as a possible dog whistle of racial politics harkening back to Goldwater and Nixon – and a reaction to the civil rights movement of the 1960’s (http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/287635-trumps-law-and-order-gamble).  Since being elected and taking office, Trump has continued to tout a “law and order” agenda (http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/29/politics/trump-law-order-jeff-sessions/index.html).  However he has not echoed this sentiment in many of his actions.  The CNN article (linked above) notes the pardon of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio (which I have previously written about in this blog).  Now he is supporting a candidate not only accused of sexual assault and, even worse, sexual assault against minors, but who was removed from the Alabama Supreme Court (as its Chief Justice) not once, but twice.

I have heard a few people mention it, but in the wake of the sexual allegations against Roy Moore it is not mentioned nearly as often as it should be, that he was an unfit candidate before the allegations surfaced.  Roy Moore was removed from his position of Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2003 (he was sworn in in 2001 to a six year term) for refusing a federal district court ruling (upheld on appeal and “denied review by the Supreme Court” – http://www.weeklystandard.com/roy-moore-is-constitutionally-illiterate/article/2010482#!).  This incident brought Moore to national attention as it began with him putting a two ton monument of the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the state supreme court.  Moore had commissioned the monument himself and had it installed in the middle of the night without informing any of the other judges.  He even had the installation filmed (and I have read that proceeds from the film helped pay for his defense).  In 2003 he was removed from the bench by a unanimous ruling of the Alabama Court of Judiciary that he had “violated the Canons of Judicial Ethics”, a ruling that was upheld in appeals (http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/09/who_is_roy_moore_former_alabam.html).

Then Moore was re-elected to the Chief Justice position in 2012.  He was removed three years later (2013–2016).  On this occasion Moore ordered state judges to defy the Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage (https://www.npr.org/2017/09/27/553856901/roy-moore-s-long-controversial-history-in-alabama-politics).  This time Moore was not removed, but suspended without pay.  However, due to his age, Moore is ineligible to run for the position again (his term would end in 2019).  Instead he ran for the Senate and landed us where we are now in the Alabama Senate election to be held on December 12, 2017.

Moore’s removal from the bench is not his only legally questionable stance.  As the Weekly Standard article notes, “Moore seems to respect only those constitutional provisions compatible with his worldview” (http://www.weeklystandard.com/roy-moore-is-constitutionally-illiterate/article/2010482#!).  He has publicly stated a number of views of his that violate the Constitution.  For example, he called on Congress to refuse to seat Representative Keith Ellison because he is a Muslim, despite the fact that the Constitution forbids a religious test for office.

Trump has also declared that Doug Jones, Moore’s opponent in Alabama, is weak on crime.  Doug Jones is a former Alabama prosecutor.  In 2002 he was the lead prosecutor in the case against two of the KKK members who bombed the 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama – killing four African-American girls.  Jones was also involved in the prosecution of Eric Rudolph who bombed an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, killing an off-duty police officer (http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/27/politics/who-is-doug-jones/index.html and https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/doug-jones-alabama-democrats_us_59cbeb52e4b053a9c2f5e7f5). Trump has claimed he supports police officers and yet he labels someone who participated in the prosecution of the killing of an off-duty officer as weak on crime.  How does this make sense? And these are only two of the more famous cases in Jones’ career prosecuting criminals rather than being “WEAK on crime.”

Finally – and as a sort of an aside – Trump and the White House continue to support Kellyanne Conway.  Conway pitched Ivanka Trump’s clothing line during a Fox News interview, despite the fact that “federal law that bars public employees from making an ‘endorsement of any product, service or enterprise, or for the private gain of friends, relatives, or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity.’” (http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/22/politics/kellyanne-conway-hatch-act/index.html).  Then mere days ago, Conway went on Fox News in front of the White House and spoke against Doug Jones.  Walter Shaub, former White House Ethics Director, has filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel against Conway for violating the Hatch Act by advocating against a candidate in her official capacity (demonstrated by the backdrop in her appearance).  The White House previously decided to do nothing substantive against Conway, and White House spokesman Raj Shah has released a statement defending Conway.

Why this matters to me and should to you to:

Trump has repeatedly claimed he is a law and order President, but his actions have defied that description.  We need to know that the President supports the laws and Constitution of the United States.  Trump keeps supporting people who don’t and seems to be flaunting the law himself, the emoluments clause in particular among potential others.  I saw David Cay Johnston on MSNBC recently give a list of ways/times that Trump has evaded prosecution/consequences for various legal violations (taxes and financial mostly).  Shouldn’t the President be held to a higher standard and not be able to flaunt the law and encourage others to if he agrees with them?  In a democracy, no one should be above the law.  I worry that this is all part of turning our democracy into something else – and Trump is leading the way on that change.  I don’t want to live in an autocracy, a kleptocracy, or a dictatorship, and I’m worried that’s where we are headed.  Where else do some people get to break the law and get promoted while others are persecuted with enthusiasm? If they do go after the Clintons legally, we will be even closer to that result – keep an eye on any potential developments there.  We need to hold everyone accountable, and people in power even more so, or we are headed down a very bad, slippery path.

For a deeper look at “Law and Order” as a dog whistle in campaigns:

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/07/donald-trump-law-and-order-richard-nixon-crime-race-214066

For a deeper look at Roy Moore and his religious stances:

https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/9/29/16379112/roy-moore-christian-theocrat-ten-commandments-judge-alabama-senate

Before the Election, Trump Tweeted That There Was “No Downside” to Keystone XL. Now the Keystone Pipeline Has Leaked.

On Thursday, November 16, 2017, the Keystone pipeline leaked 5,000 barrels of oil in South Dakota.  Trans-Canada, the company that owns and runs the Keystone pipeline, says the pipeline was shut down in 15 minutes and they don’t yet know the cause of the leak.  In 15 minutes their pipeline leaked 210,000 gallons of oil in South Dakota.  It isn’t the first leak from the Keystone pipeline – it isn’t even the first leak from the Keystone pipeline in South Dakota (CNN has a map showing an earlier leak on April 2, 2016, also in South Dakota – http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/16/us/keystone-pipeline-leak/index.html). Furthermore, it took 4 to 5 hours (depending on which source you are reading) from when the spill was detected before the South Dakota authorities were informed.

On this coming Monday (4 days after the leak), the state of Nebraska is supposed to have a decision on whether to allow the Keystone XL pipeline to go forward in the state.  Environmentalists are hoping that the leak will help to sway the decision. However, from what I have read, Nebraska isn’t allowed to consider environmental impact when making their decision.  In the wake of this leak, I think limiting what Nebraska can consider should not be allowed.

Trump approved the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines mere days after entering office.  During the campaign he Tweeted that the pipeline will be “…good for the environment, no downside!” (https://www.salon.com/2017/11/17/keystone-pipeline-spills-210000-gallons-of-oil-in-south-dakota/).  Trump has also claimed that the Keystone XL pipeline will create 20,000 jobs.  In reality, there will only be 35 permanent jobs created by the pipeline.

The pipeline leak in South Dakota was underground, but the oil has seeped through the ground and can be seen on the surface.  It was noted in an article from Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-transcanada-keystone-spill/keystone-pipeline-spill-pushes-oil-higher-fuels-transcanada-opponents-idUSKBN1DH24O) that the leak in South Dakota in April 2016 took 10 months to clean up, according to Kim McIntosh, environmental scientist manager at the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources.  Several articles noted that the spill did not seem, as of yet, to have affected wildlife or water.  Trans-Canada has said that it does not know when it will resume using the pipeline, and no one knows, or seems to be claiming to know, how long it will take to clean up this spill.  We are just left with a large oil spill that happened in 15 minutes.

Why this matters to me and should to you too:

Trans-Canada is a foreign company that has built pipelines traversing the US and wants to build one that will carry the much more toxic and difficult (if not impossible) to clean up tar sands from Canada to the Gulf Coast.  In favor of the Keystone XL pipeline, American’s land has been claimed by eminent domain and given to this foreign company with little recourse left to the people whose land was taken if there is ever a spill that contaminates their land.

That doesn’t even touch on what happens if a major aquifer, like the Ogallala Aquifer, is contaminated.  “Underlying eight states in America’s Great Plains, the Ogallala Aquifer provides water to nearly one-fifth of the wheat, corn, cotton and cattle produced in the United States, and is the main water supply for people throughout the High Plains. But this million-year-old, 174,000-square-mile reservoir is being depleted at an unsustainable rate.” (https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detailfull/national/programs/initiatives/?cid=stelprdb1048809).  This vital resource was already being depleted and now we are looking to threaten it with tar sands oil from Canada (the oil will be sold to China and not even to us, according to a number of reports I heard about back when the Obama administration was trying to decide whether or not to approve it).

These are issues we need to be paying attention to, but much of the news space is being eaten up by other things.  Don’t get me wrong, sexual assault and pedophilia are major issues.  This spill is a sign of something that threatens us and needs to receive more coverage.  But shouldn’t we be asking Trump to reconsider, as he is with allowing the importation of elephant trophies, his approval of the Keystone XL pipeline in the wake of this latest leak?  He thought it would create more jobs and be safe (even “good” and “better” for the environment).  He thought allowing trophy imports would help with conservation.  He is now taking another look at hunting trophy regulations, and those affect his sons. We should also call on him to take another look at the safety, job creation, and environmental (call it land sustainability, if that makes it more palatable) concerns before it is too late.

 

Additional articles on the spill in South Dakota:

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/17/keystone-pipeline-spills-210000-gallons-of-oil-in-south-dakota/

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/after-spill-trumps-keystone-xl-assurances-appear-ridiculous

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/16/564705368/keystone-pipeline-oil-spill-reported-in-south-dakota

http://fortune.com/2017/11/17/south-dakota-oil-spill-keystone-xl-transcanada/

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/keystone-oil-spill-south-dakota-spd/

And one on Trump’s support of Keystone XL from 2015:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/18/politics/donald-trump-keystone-pipeline-support/index.html

Aside – Roy Moore

Roy Moore and his defenders have been claiming that the fact that his accuser(s) didn’t speak out for 40 years is evidence that the accusations aren’t true.  Roy Moore said to Sean Hannity that he would ask for the mother’s permission to date a teenager when he was in his 30s.  How is that appropriate, parental permission or not?  Furthermore, his accuser did not come out now.  She told some people at the time, who have corroborated her story.  But, most importantly, she did not seek out the press to tell her story.  From what I have heard, The Washington Post reporters who heard rumors about Roy Moore found her.  Roy Moore has never been involved in an election that reached beyond Alabama.  He claims he is the most investigated politician. I agree with the person on MSNBC who said Moore should talk to Hillary Clinton.  It was pointed out on MSNBC that this is probably the first time national reporters have descended on Alabama to look into him.  Because of that, these reporters found his accuser and got her to tell her story.  His accuser did not seek them out – she did not come forward now, she was found now.

With more and more women coming out every day with stories about Roy Moore pursuing them when they were teens, it seems like reporters have started to ask the accusers why they are telling their stories now.  On MSNBC yesterday or today (11/15/17 or 11/16/17) Ari Melber quoted one of Moore’s accusers (now numbering 9 or 10) as saying when asked why she told her story now that she did so because someone asked.

Now that Roy Moore may become a Senator, reporters are asking.  Who knows what the count of his accusers will be by Election Day.  It’s just too bad that he’s been powerful enough in Alabama that it took someone asking.

Aside – The Paris Climate Accord

We are now the only nation not signed on to the Paris Climate Accord.  When Trump announced that we would withdraw, Syria and Nicaragua had not signed it either.  Not exactly a group we want to be a part of.  Nicaragua signed on around the time Trump decided we should withdraw, and now Syria announced they would be signing too.  I think Syria may even have joined last week.  We are now alone in not being a part of the Paris Climate Accord.  We should be ashamed. And we should be at the table when all the other nations are doing the right thing regarding the survivability of the planet.