By Miriam Raftery

January 24, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – Federal funding for abortions has long been banned, including under the Obama administration. But now President Donald Trump has gone farther, signing an executive order to ban all funding for nonprofits that provide abortions overseas, even money that provide vital women’s health services such as birth control, mammograms, pre-natal and maternity care.

Trump’s action could result in 6.5 million unintended pregnancies, 21,700 mothers dying, 2.1 million unsafe abortions, and countless deaths of newborn babies from preventable conditions, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

By Miriam Raftery

January 24, 2017 (Washington D.C.) - In his book, 1984, George Orwell wrote, “The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history.”

Recent actions by the Trump administration to discredit journalists over truthful reports and stifle public comments have alarmed First Amendment supporters, constitutional scholars, journalists, and government watchdog groups.

East County News Service

January 22, 2017 (Washington D.C.) -- Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is bringing a federal lawsuit to stop President Trump from violating the Constitution by receiving payments from foreign governments that CREW contends are illegal.

Book review by Joe Gandelman, Editor in Chief, The Moderate Voice

Reprinted with permission from The Moderate Voice, a member of the San Diego Online News Network

January 22, 2017 (San Diego's East County) - A Clear and Present Danger: Narcissim in the Era of Donald Trump was written before the election — but boy is it needed to be read now.

It’s a thoughtful volume comprised of contributions by psychiatrists, doctors, psychologists– and a notable storyteller-author-clinical-psychologist that’ll be read for many years and deserves to be read and studied. Because there is a history of narcissism in world history and politics. And in world history, leaders who fit the definition of having narcissistic personality disorder often don’t often fare well — and their countries may fare worse. One thing they do: they backhand societal and political norms, often get away with it and can change their societies, often little by little, sometimes abruptly — and often legally.

By Miriam Raftery

January 22, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – In one of his first actions as President, Donald Trump signed an Executive Order directing federal agencies to reduce financial costs of the Affordable Care Act on insurance companies, healthcare providers and patients, allowing agencies to “waive, defer, grant exemptions or delay implementation of any provision or requirement” of the ACA, also known as Obamacare.

By Miriam Raftery

January 21, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – In an inauguration speech that Donald Trump has said he wrote himself, the new President pledged to “rebuild our country and to restores its promise for all of our people.”  

Programs funding the arts, public broadcasting, civil rights, legal services for the poor, violence against women, civil rights enforcement and police salaries are all set for elimination or deep cuts

By Miriam Raftery

January 19, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – Donald Trump is preparing a budget that would “take an axe to government spending,” reports The Hill, an online news site specializing in capitol politics. The budget is based on plans from the conservative Heritage Foundation.  It includes deep cuts or outright elimination of many cherished American institutions, as well as safety nets for the poor and elderly.

By Miriam Raftery

January 15, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – On the eve of the weekend when our nation honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President-Elect Donald Trump attacked one of the nation’s most respected civil rights leaders, Congressman John Lewis (D-Georgia).  His actions have drawn criticism even from prominent Republicans.

Richard Posner, by William Domnarski (Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2016, 289 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

January 10, 2017 (San Diego) - Judge Richard Posner is one of the great legal minds of our age, on par with such generation-defining judges as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Learned Hand, and Henry Friendly. A judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the principal champion of the enormously influential law and economics movement, Posner is also an archetypal public intellectual: he writes provocative, best-selling books, receives frequent media attention, and often engages in high-profile policy debates. He is also a member of an increasingly rare breed – judges who write their own opinions rather than delegating the work to clerks. We therefore have unusually direct access to the workings of his mind and his judicial philosophy.

By Miriam Raftery

December 19, 2016 (Sacramento) -- Scientists have voiced alarm that the Trump administration might discontinue scientific research into climate science or even destroy decades of data amassed by the government.   But now, scientists and California’s Governor Jerry Brown are pledging a fight to assure that climate science facts don’t disappear into a black hole.

By Miriam Raftery

December 15, 2016 (Washington D.C.) — Environmental leaders are bracing for an assault on environmental protections if several key appointees of President-Elect Donald Trump are confirmed by Congress.  The appointees include an ExxonMobil CEO, Governors and legislators who have all denied climate change and lobbied for fossil fuel interests.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Gage Skidmore

December 11, 2016 (Washington D.C.) – Continuing his string of maverick cabinet appointments, President-Elect Donald Trump has announced he will appoint retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, also a former presidential candidate, to serve as Director of Housing and Urban Development. 

By Miriam Raftery

December 5, 2016 (Washington D.C.) – Congressman Tom Price, a Republican from Georgia and medical doctor, is President-Elect Donald Trump’s nominee to served as Health and Human Services Secretary.  But far from protecting the nation’s social safety nets, Price has pledged to dismantle them.

By Miriam Raftery

November 30, 2016 (Washington D.C.) — President-Elect Donald Trump’s holdings in hundreds of companies around the world, as well as his financial holdings, have raised serious concerns over potential conflicts of interest.  Surprisingly, there is no law prohibiting a President from making decisions that may profit him personally, unlike laws that ban such conduct for other elected federal officials.