SEE WHAT HE DOES

We are told not to listen to President Donald Trump but see his actions.  Well, his initial actions are pretty orthodox Republican. I can't think of any of his cabinet appointments that aren't orthodox Republican appointments.  A possible exception was the turncoat Rick Perry who formerly wanted to do away with the Energy Department until he found out what the Energy Department does.  This is kind of humorous until you think about actions Republicans like to take without knowing what they are doing.  Kind of sobering, yes?

Trump signed a bill to permit the deranged (mentally disturbed) to buy guns.  That is a positive?

President Trump visited the CIA.  I suppose it was to do some fence building.  The beginning of his talk did that (but I think he was laying it on a bit thick); however, about a third of the way through, Trump started a harangue against the news media saying they had falsified he views on the intelligence committees and on the CIA in particular.  I guess we are supposed to believe the CIA falsified Thump tweets and he never made them.

I suppose we also are to believe that Trump never compared the CIA to the Nazis (“I think it was disgraceful, disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out. I think it’s a disgrace, and I say that is something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do,” Mr. Trump said at a press conference Wednesday in New York City.) or that the CIA Director leaked untrue information *  President Trump tweeted ("much worse - just look at Syria (red line), Crimea, Ukraine and the build-up of Russian nukes. Not good! Was this the leaker of Fake News?")**.

Trump now has a problem with veracity and I developed a Scale of Lying*** called the Trump Scale.  But lying is a harsh term and efforts are made to avoid it e.g. not truthful.  Many decades ago, I developed a saying "I'm not accusing you of lying, I am just saying you are not telling the truth."

Kellyann Conway, Counselor to the President, has come up with the most imaginative alternative  expression for lying: "Alternative Facts."  I think that at least sometimes Trump actually believes his lies, but this does not mean they are true.  So when he says something like he has talked to a few intelligence officers (at the highest levels)  about water boarding, my first thought is. "I wonder if he has actually talked to a couple of intelligence officers."  Though water boarding may have worked initially, now everyone knows what is going on.  In fact U.S. troops are trained to resist it.****

Probably the worst of all his lies is his accusation that President Obama "wiretapped" him.  OK, I'll buy that he really meant "surveillance."  This serious lie is discussed more in other posts on this blog and I won't repeat things here.

It is hard to see how this ends well.

POSITIVES:  I think it was fair for President Trump to press Angel Merkel of Germany (who has become the leader of the Free World) to pay up to the 2% of their budget for NATO that they promised to do, but I think it wasn't right to snub her afterward in the Photo Opportunity where he refused to shake hands with her.  Germany is a wealthy country and I don't see why they cannot contribute their fair share.

There are some things I am in favor of in Trump's Executive orders.   I'm for the Keystone XL Pipeline for environmental purposes, but also it is the cheapest way to transport crude.  I consider myself an environmentalist and I believe all environmentalists understand that a pipeline is safer than transport by train or truck.  But what they want is to stop the extraction of the oil in the first place.

I feel I don't know enough about the Dakota pipeline to make a decision; however, my understanding is that it is all but finished.   If it is worry about the pipe breaking under the river, you could have a pipe inside a pipe for added safety and have it wired to detect any liquid leaking to the outer pipe, for example.  But I guess the pipe line is going to be finished shortly and that it is too late for the.

HOPES: I hope that Trump gets around to reinstate the Yucca Mtn. radioactive waste repository.  I was against it in the beginning and for granite storage; however, I came to understand the merits of Yucca Mtn..  You know where the water recharge area of the aquifer is and you know where it exits at Ash Meadow Springs where you could monitor the seepage.  Opponents say what if we have a retrograde society that doesn't know about radioactivity (say survivors of a nuclear war).  I guess I believe in that case, it doesn't matter.

I also would hope that President Trump gets around to approving oil exploration in the 1002 area of ANWR (Alaska Natural Wildlife Area).  You don't know whether there is oil there until you bring it in (http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2010/12/you-dont-know-until-you-bring-it-in.html).  The evaluators have already moved the best target area once, fortunately away from the calving area..  ANWR oil prospects are only in a very small part of the Refuge, but it does contain a lot of caribou.  Caribou have accommodated themselves very nicely in the adjacent area.

* http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jan/15/cia-director-john-brennan-blasts-trump-for-nazi-ge/
** https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/820789938887294977
*** http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-scale-of-lying.html
**** http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2016/may/24/todd-wilcox/waterboarding-works-us-senate-candidate-todd-wilco/