Categories
Legal, Laws, and Regs

Can Trump Create the Terminator Rule?

Rather than a press conference or interview, Trump put out a video seemingly to assure Americans that we don’t have to spend our days and nights in absolute terror because he’s in charge. Flip to the end: he didn’t succeed.

All Trump did was create confusion. Reading the transcript doesn’t provide more clarity.

There is much in the short Trump video to cause one sleepless nights, but the Trump promise that really grabbed me is his promise of a rule to kill rules:

On regulation, I will formulate a rule which says that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated, it’s so important.

In effect, he’s proposing a Terminator Rule.

Leaving aside the soundness of just tossing rules and regulations aside, can Trump as President create a Terminator Rule?

Categories
Government

Two men and one woman does not make a diverse cabinet

Donald Trump has selected two women for his cabinet: Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education, and Nikki Haley, as Ambassador to the United Nations. Rumors have it that he’s selected Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development or as Health and Human Services Secretary. The media has hailed Trump’s recent appointees as a move towards diversity.

It is still early in Trump’s cabinet and senior level picks. We can appreciate him appointing two women and two people of color, but if these selections are the sum and total of his diverse appointments than no, he can’t be congratulated. And diversity is more than numbers: we’ll need to look at who he has selected for what position in order to truly judge Trump’s outreach.

Categories
Just Shelley

The elephant in the room

This is my birthday gift from Roomie. Yes, it is as big as it looks. Over five feet tall.

The choice of an elephant is because of my long interest in elephants and the Ringling Brothers court case…not as the Republican symbol. He didn’t give it to me to use as a punching bag.

The Elephant in the Room, or TER, as we have named it, is very soft, very plush, and infinitely squeezable.

In the next four years, whenever I get stressed, I can grab TER for a good squeeze. Stuffed animals don’t just work for kids.

And it looks fantastic on the couch.

Giant stuffed elephant sprawled across a sofa

Categories
Government Legal, Laws, and Regs

Can Trump break the rules (and regulations)?

Last week, we established that Trump can’t abolish the EPA, or any other department or regulatory agency without Congressional support. Even if Congress and Trump do abolish an agency or department, the laws the organization enforces still must be enforced.

What about those laws? Can Trump abolish a law, or refuse to enforce it?

Categories
Government Legal, Laws, and Regs

Can Trump abolish the EPA?

Donald Trump made a lot of promises during his run for the White House, and his transition team picks seem to support some of the most egregious. There’s a world of difference, though, between a promise and the capability to fulfill that promise—even for the holder of the highest office in the land.