monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

IN THE BACKDROP of a chaotic first year of Donald Trump’s presidency, the conservative Koch brothers have won victory after victory in their bid to reshape American government to their interests.

Documents obtained by The Intercept and Documented show that the network of wealthy donors led by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch have taken credit for a laundry list of policy achievements extracted from the Trump administration and their allies in Congress.

The donors have pumped campaign contributions not only to GOP lawmakers, but also to an array of third-party organizations that have pressured officials to act swiftly to roll back limits on pollution, approve new pipeline projects, and extend the largest set of upper-income tax breaks in generations.

“This year, thanks in part to research and outreach efforts across institutions, we have seen progress on many regulatory priorities this Network has championed for years,” the memo notes. The document highlights environmental issues that the Koch brothers have long worked to undo, such as the EPA Clean Power Plan, which is currently under the process of being formally repealed, and Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, among their major accomplishments. The memo also highlighted administration efforts to walk back planned rules to strengthen the estate tax in a list of 13 regulatory decisions favored by the network.

The network’s political operation includes a polling and research outfit, Capitol Hill lobbyists, several hundred field staff, groups designed to air campaign ads, and an assortment of grassroots groups set up to appeal to certain constituencies. The LIBRE Initiative is a network group geared toward selling Koch policy ideas to Latino communities. Generation Opportunity works to reach out to millennials and college students; Veterans For America for veterans and military-minded voters.

Despite some public antagonism over Trump — including flirtations with replacing him as the nominee with Ryan at the Republican National Convention — the Koch brothers have enjoyed incredible access with his administration. The president’s lawyer, Don McGahn; the president’s chief liaison to Congress, Marc Short; and the president’s counselor, Kellyanne Conway all previously worked for the Koch network before taking their current positions in the White House. Ethics forms reveal that officials across the government, including at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy, previously served at Koch think tanks or other Koch groups. Vice President Mike Pence also maintains a very close relationship with the Koch brothers.

President Trump on Monday criticized the officers who failed to confront the shooter at Stoneman Douglas High School, boasting that “I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon.”

“You never know until you’re tested,” he said during a meeting with governors at the White House on Monday. “But I think, I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon and I think most of the people in this room would’ve done that too because I know most of you.”

Well, see...Lincoln, McKinley, Garfield, MLK, Malcom X, RFK and JFK were assassinated, and Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan might have been as well.

But as long as the guy doesn't die, no biggy huh?

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) on Monday told President Donald Trump that a “culture of death,” “psychiatric drugs” and a lapse in morality are contributing to the increase in mass shootings in America.

He also said guns are not to blame because “there have always been guns.”

“This culture of death is becoming pervasive and if it’s not addressed by all the imperfect people in this room with a sense of purpose and sense of aspiration, I think we are going to see a continued trajectory that is not good,” he said during a governors meeting at the White House on Monday.

Firearm manufacturer donates to Boy Scouts of America to ensure they’re ‘consumers for life’

Less than two weeks after a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida left 17 people dead, one of the most popular gun manufacturers in the country is courting Boy Scouts in order to cultivate the next generation of gun owners.

Vista Outdoor manufactures a range of outdoor sports and recreation gear, including everything from water bottles to grills. The company also owns several firearms and ammunition brands, including Savage Arms, a line of rifles and shotguns. Savage Arms boasts on it’s website that “to hold one of our firearms in your hands is to know what winning feels like.”

“I just think this is a circumstance where we need to listen — that educators should educate, and they should not be foisted upon this responsibility of packing heat in first-grade classes. Now, I understand you have suggested this, and we suggest things and sometimes then we listen to people about it, and maybe they don’t look so good a little later. So I just suggest we need a little less tweeting, a little more listening.”

All that, and I could probably think of more.