Bundestagging

I’ve honestly tried to avoid the US news while here in Berlin but the Orange Menace doesn’t make that easy. Last night’s visit to the Bundestag – reading so much of how Germany cleansed itself after the horrors of the Nazis and about the peaceful reunification – brought the Wackaloon in the White House’s continuing path of dismantling so many of the good things about the US. into painful, sharp focus.

White House proposes steep budget cut to leading climate science agency
~~~
“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting would be privatized,” the Hill's Alexander Bolton reports, “while the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities would be eliminated entirely.” (source)
~~~
Also on the chopping block:
The Economic Development Administration supports "distressed communities with their infrastructure needs that will help drive regional growth," promotes "economic development projects that spur entrepreneurship and innovation at the regional level," and "provides direct technical assistance to firms negatively impacted by global trade.” (source)

Is this part of his gigantic confidence trick? You know, this is part and parcel of his mega swindle of all but his fellow fat wealthies? If he keeps this up will we drop the calls for investigating his significant Russian contacts and how they may well have secured the presidency for him?

The past few days have brought a growing list of confirmed communications between Trump campaign aides and Russian officials, with each new revelation adding to a cloud of suspicion that hangs over the White House as critics demand an independent investigation. (source)

 How much did they push the election into the unstable, xenophobic, racist, misogynistic Trump and Co. hands? Will we ever know? With the Republicans circling the wagons (as usual – treason doesn’t count as long as you’re a Republican but god help ya if you’re a Democrat and have even the most minuscule whiff of impropriety) it seems we’ll only make progress on this if we can vote the Party-Before-Country fuckers out. I know, I know, we can’t vote out all the asswipian, suit wearing ‘tutes but I sure as hell hope we can get rid of enough so’s the balance is tipped towards sanity.

While this is goin’ down, Trump’s gang of thieves and miscreants continue to plan deportation of “bad dudes,” (something, by the by, the US has always done anyway) BUT, somehow it’s a 26 year old hospitalized woman (rockin’ a brain tumor) who’s targeted.

A woman with a brain tumour was forced to leave a hospital in Texas by immigration officers and returned to a detention centre, her lawyers have said. (source)

Huh, go figure – they went after the lowest hanging fruit. I’m STUNNED, I tells ya!

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press,
and that cannot be limited without being lost.
~ Thomas Jefferson

Oh and it looks like us’n Americans are gonna need to get visas in order to visit Europe now.

Lawmakers passed a non-binding resolution on Thursday calling for the E.U. Commission to impose visas on U.S. citizens by May, ahead of the summer tourist season. The vote stems from a transatlantic dispute over the fact that the U.S. currently requires citizens of Croatia, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland to obtain visas before visiting. (source)

But of course! He cherry picks the hell out of who can come into the US and who can’t (hint, if the countries contain any Trump businesses, they’re welcome whether there’s a history of terrorists coming from there or not). He disses the military – claims we don’t have nearly enough death machines (we do) and his boy Bannon boldly states that “We’re going to war in the South China Sea in five to 10 years.” By "we" he means you and me or our sons and daughters, not him or his fam. Natürlich! The fuckers are hell bent on war. Why? It'll line their filthy pockets handily.

I’d wanna keep us a few million fathoms away too.

From the ashes of World War II Germany, a reunified, MUCH healthier, saner country emerged. The Bundestag, from the the theater where Parliament sits to the beautiful glass dome atop, gave me hope. If Germany can rise up – survive, thrive and recreate itself as a FAR more nourishing, sensible, sound place – can’t we? Can we do it before we descend farther into a cold hearted wasteland?