Keystone Pipeline Explainer

Important things to know about the Keystone XL Pipeline:

1. The company that wants to build the Keystone XL Pipeline is the TransCanada Corporation. Unsurprisingly, this is a Canadian company.
2. The company that will supply the pipe for the pipeline is Welspun Corp Ltd, an Indian company based in Mumbai.
3. The steel that the Indian-based company will use to build the pipeline for the Canadian company will come primarily from Evraz, a Russian steel manufacturer owned by Roman Abramovich, a close friend of Vladimir Putin. And Michael Flynn. And Ivanka Trump.

The Essence of Trumpism

To state a tangent as the essence of a thing is the work of fools and liars. To convince the people as such is to destroy reality.

- Rogue POTUS Staff (@RoguePOTUSStaff), on Twitter

The Shock Event

From US/GOP historian, BC professor Heather Cox Richardson:

I don't like to talk about politics on Facebook-- political history is my job, after all, and you are my friends-- but there is an important non-partisan point to make today.

What Bannon is doing, most dramatically with last night's ban on immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries-- is creating what is known as a "shock event." Such an event is unexpected and confusing and throws a society into chaos. People scramble to react to the event, usually along some fault line that those responsible for the event can widen by claiming that they alone know how to restore order. When opponents speak out, the authors of the shock event call them enemies. As society reels and tempers run high, those responsible for the shock event perform a sleight of hand to achieve their real goal, a goal they know to be hugely unpopular, but from which everyone has been distracted as they fight over the initial event. There is no longer concerted opposition to the real goal; opposition divides along the partisan lines established by the shock event.

Last night's Executive Order has all the hallmarks of a shock event. It was not reviewed by any governmental agencies or lawyers before it was released, and counter terrorism experts insist they did not ask for it. People charged with enforcing it got no instructions about how to do so. Courts immediately have declared parts of it unconstitutional, but border police in some airports are refusing to stop enforcing it.

Predictably, chaos has followed and tempers are hot.
My point today is this: unless you are the person setting it up, it is in no one's interest to play the shock event game. It is designed explicitly to divide people who might otherwise come together so they cannot stand against something its authors think they won't like. I don't know what Bannon is up to-- although I have some guesses-- but because I know Bannon's ideas well, I am positive that there is not a single person whom I consider a friend on either side of the aisle-- and my friends range pretty widely-- who will benefit from whatever it is. If the shock event strategy works, though, many of you will blame each other, rather than Bannon, for the fallout. And the country will have been tricked into accepting their real goal.

But because shock events destabilize a society, they can also be used positively. We do not have to respond along old fault lines. We could just as easily reorganize into a different pattern that threatens the people who sparked the event. A successful shock event depends on speed and chaos because it requires knee-jerk reactions so that people divide along established lines. This, for example, is how Confederate leaders railroaded the initial southern states out of the Union. If people realize they are being played, though, they can reach across old lines and reorganize to challenge the leaders who are pulling the strings. This was Lincoln's strategy when he joined together Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, anti-Nebraska voters, and nativists into the new Republican Party to stand against the Slave Power. Five years before, such a coalition would have been unimaginable. Members of those groups agreed on very little other than that they wanted all Americans to have equal economic opportunity. Once they began to work together to promote a fair economic system, though, they found much common ground. They ended up rededicating the nation to a "government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Confederate leaders and Lincoln both knew about the political potential of a shock event. As we are in the midst of one, it seems worth noting that Lincoln seemed to have the better idea about how to use it.

Don't Share, Copy and Paste!

What Obama Leaves for Trump

Nancy LeTourneau, writing for the Washington Monthly, compiled a short list of vital indicators on the day that President Obama leaves office. You should read the entire article, but here's an excerpt:



Washington Monthly | Political Animal Blog: "As we await Donald Trump’s swearing in today, I thought it might be helpful to take a look at some of the key indicators as a baseline for a dashboard of performance by the incoming administration. This is a summary of a few of the metrics they will inherit:

• Unemployment rate: 4.7% 
• Underemployment rate: 9.2%
• Labor Force Participation Rate: 62.7% 
• Federal deficit: 3.2% of GDP 
• Dow Jones: 19,732 
• Uninsured rate: 9% 
• Medicare is projected to be solvent until 2028 
• Number of troops deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria: 14,700 (6,000/8,400/300)"

It's your move, Comrade Donnie...

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Richard White's answer to How has Hillary Clinton not been charged, indicted, or arrested for anything regarding the email scandal? - Quora

I'm sure your Crazy Uncle Who Watches Fox News will mutter or already has muttered something about Hillary Clinton being corrupt, and will wonder or has wondered why she isn't in jail. Of course, the short answer is that we don't jail people because Fox News doesn't like them. But here's a longer, more succinct answer:Richard White's answer to How has Hillary Clinton not been charged, indicted, or arrested for anything regarding the email scandal? - Quora:

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Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, Julian Assange: What They Believe | New Republic

Interesting article from 2014 about Snowden, Greenwald, and Assange...



Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, Julian Assange: What They Believe | New Republic:



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Donald Trump said 560 false things, total | Toronto Star

Daniel Dale, the Washington Bureau Chief for the Toronto Star, kept track of every lie Donald Trump told on the campaign trail. The total number of lies -- 560 -- worked out to 20 lies per day.

Twenty. Lies. Per day.
Here's the article; you should go read it right now.


Donald Trump said 560 false things, total | Toronto Star:



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There have been just 4 documented cases of voter fraud in the 2016 election - The Washington Post

The Washington Post takes a look at how much voting fraud occurred in the 2016 election. Donald J. Trump, a known con-man from New York who once ran a fake "University," claimed that there were "millions of illegal votes." The Washington Post found... (wait for it...) four cases. One fewer than five, one more than three. Four cases. Four cases of Republicans voting twice or altering absentee ballots.

Four.
Cases.
All Republicans.

Read it for yourself: There have been just 4 documented cases of voter fraud in the 2016 election - The Washington Post:



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Don't Use This Image!

Donald Trump has informed NBC News that he does not want them to use the photograph below anymore. You can ensure that his wishes are respected by reposting this photo in as many places as you can, so that people will know which photograph they shouldn't use. We present this information to you as a public service.

Donald? About That Pesky Constitution...

From Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution of the United States of America:

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Washington Monthly | Hillary’s Emails: a Socratic Dialogue

One more time, for the willful idiots out there who want to keep bringing this email "controversy" up, even though they don't have the slightest clue as to what it's all about:

Washington Monthly | Hillary’s Emails: a Socratic Dialogue:



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Donald Trump’s Week of Misrepresentations, Exaggerations and Half-Truths - POLITICO Magazine

Here's the money quote from the article:

Trump averaged one falsehood every 3 minutes and 15 seconds over nearly five hours of remarks.

Donald Trump’s Week of Misrepresentations, Exaggerations and Half-Truths - POLITICO Magazine: "Trump averaged one falsehood every 3 minutes and 15 seconds over nearly five hours of remarks."



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