The latest Trump craze is underway...

Trump announced on 60 minutes that he was planning on forgoing his presidential salary and for some reason people are having a conniption. There have been other past presidents whom have forgone their salary and given it charities or their staff.

For example, John F. Kennedy and Herbert Hoover. JFK had a net worth of about 1 billion, Hoover had a net worth of about 4 million and our new president-elect has a net worth of about 3.7 billion.

I don’t know about anyone else but the message that Trump is sending me (reminder, I do not support him) is that he is truly a public servant. Isn’t that role of all congress members AND the executive chief? We elect these people to serve us if you really break it down. By Trump not accepting his salary means to me that he didn’t run for president for the pay. For goodness sakes the man makes almost 4 billion dollars! I would feel some type of way if a man that has that much money takes chump change (compared to the money he has) just because. That would show me that he is greedy and if you asked me he played it smart by not accepting the pay.

I get the whole “there’s a law” blah blah blah, what he’s doing isn’t a new thing. Obama didn’t even accept his whole salary either, I personally just don’t see an issue like other people are making this out to be. I guess it’s just because he’s Trump or something I don’t know but it’s getting old, like real old real fast. 

Adapting to Climate Change: Trump's inability to see the obvious

One of the most concerning aspects of Donald Trump’s thought process is his inability to understand the severe and very real problem of climate change.

Although he would deny it now, Donald called climate change a Chinese hoax.   

Donald, this is a very real issue, and has never been a Chinese hoax.

Our climate is rapidly changing as a result of mankind’s severe and excessive production of greenhouse gas emissions.

Any fool with the access to the Internet can find credible data that proves Earth's climate is changing in very real and very dangerous ways.

The World Meteorological Organization reports that 2016 will most likely be the hottest year on record.

As a result of this overall increased warmth, the Arctic ice caps are melting at a very high rate  and the sea levels are increasing.

If the Arctic ice caps were to melt, millions of Arctic Wildlife will be displaced from their homes and be subject to extinction.    

National Geographic reports that rises in sea levels, will adversely affect Earth’s overall ecosystem in a number of ways, be it in increased chances of land erosion to the loss of habitats for animals.

While globally, we’ve been taking steps to address this issue and have created the Paris Agreement, an agreement which spreads over 196 countries, the United States included, Trump has called for fewer mandated climate regulations and an increase in oil drilling. Additionally, he is potentially calling for the United States to back away from the Agreement.   

Trump’s disregard of scientific data and his resistance to work globally to address this man-made made issues, speak to his inability to see the reality of the situation.

When it comes to Climate Change, we can adapt, mitigate, or do nothing. We’ve already made steps toward adaptation through the Paris Agreement, let’s hope Trump realizes its value.   

White Nationalism in the White House

It has only been a week and a half since the election and already we’re seeing Donald Trump make good on his promise to make American white great again. White Nationalism in the White House? It probably seemed like an unlikely scenario a few weeks ago, but yet here we are experiencing another nightmare. Steve Bannon, best known as the executive chairman of Breitbart News is a White Nationalist that now has a top position in serving as Donald Trump’s Chief Strategist. Many of his comments over the years are racially fueled and disturbing to say the least. To have this man serving as Trump’s closest advisor is worrisome. But it doesn’t stop there. 

Bannon seemed bad enough, but over the course of the week he’s become just one of many names to make it on Donald Trump’s list of transition team members that seem like less than ideal choices for top power positions in our country. Senator Jeff Sessions, a conservative from Alabama has now been selected by Trump to be the new Attorney General, a controversial choice since he has come under fire in the past for racially charged comments. Sessions made controversial remarks in the past about civil rights organizations such as the NAACP, saying they ”were all un-American organizations teaching anti-American values.” This from the man that will now be overseeing the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Amazing.

This is a dangerous strategy for Donald Trump in my opinion. Our country is not in the place it was in the 1960’s. We have come too far to turn back to such racist ideologies, nor should we allow our country to go back there. Is it too soon to look forward to the next election? 

Media matters, Trump

It’s no secret that Donald Trump hates mainstream media.

Just ask some of his 15 million Twitter followers about their thoughts on Trump’s recent tweets about The New York Times.

While Trump has a right to despise these publications, his ideas of limiting journalists first amendments rights are terrifying.

Although he has hasn’t proposed anything specifically yet, he’s already making it hard for journalists to cover his presidency.

Just the other day, he intentionally duped the “the protected pool” of journalists whose job is to cover Trump’s day to day occurrences.

The group of journalists were told that Trump was done for the night. He failed to inform them, however, that he was actually having dinner with his family.

In a statement written by The White House Correspondents Association, the Association apologized for Trump’s actions and stated they will be doing everything in their power to give journalists the access they need to do their job correctly.

His shady actions are quite concerning. It really doesn’t seem like Trump takes into the account why journalism matters.

Journalists serve as watchdogs. When journalism is at it’s finest, the checks and balances in our nation’s society are kept in check.

Journalists serve as advocates for the nation’s everyday citizen.

It seems as though Trump wants to close off public information to the press because he seems them as nothing more than a nuisance.

But Trump must understand that It’s important the public knows of the president's whereabouts. Trump must understand the role of the press and its job of keeping those in power in check. He must understand that without journalism we truly can’t be a democratic society.

As the business mogul Warren Buffett once said, “The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. [For] to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves-and the better the teacher, the better the student body.”

Fact-Check Your Social Media Stories

Fake news stories are taking over on social media and too many people are believing them. Is this how Trump got elected? The NY Post reported a story featuring fake news-writer, Paul Horner who thinks he may have inadvertently sent Trump to the White House by posting fake news stories that appeared to be in Donald Trump’s favor, only because he thought these absurd stories would be fact-checked. They weren’t. Horner says that even Trump’s campaign team was reposting these fake stories like they were facts. Shocking. Trump’s supporters ate these stories up. Is it just assumed that whatever is posted on the Internet has to be true? It seems we mistakenly believe that common sense dominates. It clearly does not. Let me say it plainly. Do not believe everything you read. Do not believe everything you hear. I’m not even sure you can believe everything you see.

Paul Horner in my opinion cannot be seen as innocent here. Putting that much faith in the American public to dismiss these stories as false was unrealistic. Even the people that may have realized these stories were false didn’t seem to think it was important enough to stand up to it. And now it’s too late. Fake stories helped to boost Trump to the White House and we’re all left asking ourselves what we could’ve done differently. It always takes a tragedy to learn a hard lesson.

Fact check, people.  

Since the election last week, there has been much focus on the influence these fake stories have on social media. Facebook execs have claimed they’re working on this problem to try and filter through what’s real and what’s not since people don’t care to do their own homework. Do I see a new position opening up at Facebook?