In the Fog<\/p>\n
The Manafort trial went to the jury yesterday.\u00a0 Over the next few days, jurors will be examining four hundred pieces of evidence and hundreds of hours of testimony.\u00a0 Former Presidential aide Omarosa is being sued by the Trump Campaign for violating a non-disclousure agreement, and will probably release another recording to upset their apple cart.\u00a0 The President is using his powers to attack \u201cenemies,\u201d notably former CIA Director John Brennan.<\/p>\n
There is a \u201cfog\u201d of activity around the Trump Administration, generated by tweets and Giuliani and Huckabee-Sanders, that is covering the significant changes to our world they are making.\u00a0Here\u2019s what\u2019s going on this week, underneath cover.<\/p>\n
The Department of Interior modified the endangered species act, allowing for animals whose conditions have improved to be removed form protection.\u00a0 The state of Wyoming\u2019s Fish and Wildlife Commission will allow a \u201cbig game\u201d grizzly hunt next month, killing as many as twenty-two bears.\u00a0\u00a0 It costs $15 for a hunting license, but $600 for a Wyoming resident and $6000 for a non-resident to get a tag to kill a bear. \u00a0\u00a0Wolves, also removed from protection, are hunted in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.<\/p>\n
The Environmental Protection Agency is allowing industry to apply to use known carcinogen asbestos in newly developed products.\u00a0 While previous administrations had followed a trend towards banning all uses of asbestos to reduce its cancer causing effects, the Trump EPA is allowing it.\u00a0In addition, they have re-written the safety rules to state that previous cancer causing uses of asbestos, like asbestos insulations, cannot be used showing proof of future dangers.\u00a0 The current safety studies must create whole new evidence.<\/p>\n
The Education Department has put new guidelines into effect for educational institutions using Federal funds.\u00a0 The changes to rules for Title IX alter how schools, in particularly colleges and universities, deal with sexual offenses.\u00a0 Under President Obama, schools were required to investigate charges of sexual offenses, hold hearings on the results of the investigation, and follow a \u201cpreponderance of the evidence\u201d standard in reaching conclusions (preponderance of the evidence means that of the evidence is given a percentage scale, the side with more than 50% of the evidence wins.)<\/em><\/p>\n Under the new \u201cDeVos\u201d rules, schools can now offer to \u201cmediate\u201d sexual offenses rather than treat them as student conduct offenses.\u00a0 If the school does investigate, it now must use a \u201cclear and convincing evidence\u201d standard in reaching conclusions (clear and convincing is a higher standard, more of a 75% standard but still less than the \u201cbeyond a reasonable doubt\u201d standard of criminal law.)<\/em>\u00a0 Formerly both sides in an investigation could appeal the outcome, under the new rules now only the accused can appeal the outcome.<\/p>\n The overall effect of these changes will make it harder for sexual offense victims to get justice, and easier for offenders to \u201cget away\u201d with it, especially in \u201cdate rape, he-said\/ she-said\u201d situations.<\/p>\n Education Secretary DeVos has also cut $13 billion from the fund to help students repay loans used for \u201cfor profit\u201d schools that ultimately were fraudulent.\u00a0 This leaves thousands of students holding the bag for loans that were granted by the Federal government to use at schools that were giving worthless degrees.<\/p>\n The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) has been using the Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency (CIS) to trick illegal immigrants into coming to meetings where they are arrested.\u00a0 The immigrants, following a government program that creates a path for them to become legal, come to scheduled meetings at CIS.\u00a0 ICE officers then come to the meeting, and arrest the immigrants for deportation.<\/p>\n An ICE officer who helped schedule and implement these arrests stated: \u201c\u2026They are typically the easiest to remove, they have the shortest average length of stay, and at the end of the day we are in the removal business and it\u2019s our job to locate and arrest them.\u201d<\/p>\n The goal of the CIS program is for an illegal immigrant to be granted legal status and gain a \u201cgreen card.\u201d\u00a0 In effect then, CIS is baiting those immigrants by offering a path to legality, then ICE is capturing and deporting them.<\/p>\n So as we focus on the sad circus that has become the Trump Administration, we shouldn\u2019t miss the steady drumbeat of change in American government.\u00a0 Whether we are baiting bears or immigrants, or leaving victims in our educational systems hanging, or risking further poisoning our citizens:\u00a0the Trump Administration is constantly demonstrating coldness, cruelty, and a bias towards profit.\u00a0 Under cover of the fog of the daily craziness, they are quietly changing our world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"