45 Notes January 25

1. Dispute over the size of the inaug. Had about 250,000, if I remember correctly.

2. After sworn in on Jan 20, all refs to clim change disappeared from gov webs. Material on disabil also initially disappeared.

3. Dispute over whether pop vot was won because of illeg vots cast, 3 mil votes. So fiend, liar, or lunatic. Lun is someone who really thinks these things are true, who can't bring self to admit deep unpopularity. Liar is a fibber who knows better but just can't help self. Fiend is dis-informator, the Hitler scenario.

4. Protec agenc put on lockdown by Day 5. No information disseminated, collected. Keston pip reinitiated.

45 Notes January 3

These are notes on events relating to the years of the 45th presidency:

• Today we found out that the first action of the new House Republicans (over the objection of their own leadership) is to do away with the independent ethics office or at least severely limit its ability to monitor or prosecute congressmen. Can't see a positive to this. It sure seems like putting the fox in charge of the hen house.
• President elect tweeted (as usual) that North Korea will not get ICBMs. My fear that we are on a countdown to war. I'm taking the alert up for war up to Defcon 3. It won't be with Russia, but North Korea, China, Iran are possibilities.

Heard Karl Rove on Fox and Friends this morning.

• Of course there is the usual rhetoric about how horrible Obamacare is. I truly hope they will come up with something that is better. However, it is very irritating to hear it represented as it is by Fox and others. To cover pre-existing conditions and make possible some of the other provisions, you just have to have people who are relatively well on the plans. Part of the reason it has not been as affordable as hoped is because many Republican states did not opt in. But I hope they can come up with something better. My fear is that they will merely come up with a "selfish" plan that gives low health care to those who have it and leaves the rest back out in the cold.
• To hear Rove talk about Democrats being obstructionist in the new Congress is a joke. Obama wasn't able to get anything done from 2010 on because of the Tea Party Republicans. He wasn't even able to appoint a Supreme Court justice these last 10 months because of the Republicans. 
• And to compare the confirmation process this time around to that of 2008 is absurd. Trump's appointments are the most controversial appointments well beyond my lifetime. He's asked for an exception to how soon a general can serve in a cabinet. He's appointed an oil giant known to be cozy with Putin as Secretary of State. He's appointed an unusual number of former generals to the cabinet. He's appointed someone to energy who has said he wants to get rid of the energy department. He's appointed to Attorney General someone with at least a suspicious past in regard to race. I don't know how far back we would have to go to find a more controversial set of cabinet picks, but it is the responsibility of the Congress to vet these thoroughly. Anything less would be a dereliction of duty.
• Finally, Rove criticized the recovery after the stimulus package in 2009. As far as I can tell, this stimulus had bi-partisan support and saved America from economic catastrophe. It's been pointed out that the stimulus saved millions jobs--far more than any tariff on trade will save.

So there are my notes for today.