Willem's Planet

Never mind the myriad scandals of the Trump Administration. This one is at the top of the list, in my opinion : the mythical tax bill that Republicans are working on. (Boost the economy to 4% growth, raise wages, pay for the deficit .. the delusions are many). The House of Representatives will vote on their proposition of a massive tax-cut bill tomorrow.  The losses in revenue will add some $1.5 trillion to the national debt, and slash taxes for corporations and the rich, with little benefit to middle-class working people. In fact, it will raise taxes for many.  But that’s not all: to pay for part of it, the law will take health-care benefits away from an estimated 13 million Americans. 

In other news today, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin showed off the first dollar bills with his signature on.  Yay.

The results of Australia’s postal survey vote regarding marriage equality are in, and it’s a ‘Yes’ (61.6% yes, 38.4 no%). Yes!  Good news. All states and territories recorded a majority ‘Yes’ response.   (It still has to make it into law by Australia’s parliament.  12/7/2017: It’s official. Australian Parliament Approves Same-Sex Marriage).

As New York Times notes, the record of subjecting same-sex marriage to a public vote remains mixed, though.

‘.. In 2015, Ireland was the first country to legalize same-sex marriage by referendum, but the same year, voters in Slovenia rejected a law legalizing such unions.
In the United States, numerous states outlawed same-sex marriage in referendums; in 2012, Maine, Maryland and Washington became the first states to legalize such unions by referendum. The United States Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across the nation in 2015.
The survey in Australia was controversial, not only because it placed such a thorny issue at the whims of direct democracy but also because of its cost (about US$ 97 million).
As the deadline approached for citizens to mail in their ballots, passions were inflamed by heartfelt pleas and vitriolic attacks’.

Roy Moore (age 70) is a Republican candidate for Senator, in a special election on December 12 in Alabama.  He is facing allegations of sexual assault on young girls (one was 14) when he was 32.  The Washington Post today detailed the testimony of four women; the reporters obtained corroborating information from interviews with 30 people in total, for the four women.

Republican Senators, and President Trump (the pot calling the kettle black a little, but OK), called for him to quit today. It’s too late to lawfully remove Moore from the ballot. ‘He will absolutely not quit the race’, predicts a reporter that knows Alabama politics and has followed Moore’s tarnished career as Chief Justice* for 20 years.    So: time will tell what happens. Will even more women come forward? This is now post-Harvey Weinstein, post-Kevin Spacey, and several other public figures that are paying the price for their misconduct of decades ago.

*Moore was Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2001, but was removed from his position in November 2003 by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary for refusing to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments commissioned by him, from the Alabama Judicial Building, despite orders to do so by a federal court.  Again elected Chief Justice in 2013 (why, Alabama voters?), he was again suspended in May 2016, for directing probate judges to continue to enforce Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage despite the fact that this had been ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court.

It’s been a year since the Trump cataclysm happened (how time flies). Today, voters in some states went to the polls to select new governors, and other state representatives. The race for governor of Virginia was especially closely watched, and the pre-election polls had the candidates neck-and-neck.  Republican Ed Gillespie tried some Trump tactics (anti-immigrant, support for Confederate statues), but Democrat Ralph Northam had won by 9% when all was said and done.

Democrats elsewhere did well, too.  Soo .. looks like there is hope for the 2018 House and Senate mid-term elections, for the Democrats to find some of their footing back. If Democrats will just get out and bother to go vote, it will make a huge difference. In the city of Charlottesville (site of the white supremacist march in August), votes cast were up 31 percent over the 2013 election. Northam the Democrat, took 84 percent of the vote there.

There’s something big going down in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saturday night saw the arrest of dozens of people, at least 11 of whom were princes, including the billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, as part of a ‘corruption crackdown’.

Observers see the crackdown as a consolidation of power by the country’s young crown prince (age 32), Mohammed bin Salman. And the New York Times notes that the six-year old Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh is used as a ‘gilded cage’ to confine former government ministers, prominent businessmen and members of the royal family. Surely it is the world’s most luxurious jail.  (Can I be locked up there for a week? .. and with room service and an internet connection, of course.  Right now the hotel’s website says all telephone lines and internet access are temporarily suspended).