Just Saying

I copy below a Reuters News item that just appeared recently:

Staffers at the Department of Energy say President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is seeking a list of employees who have worked to cut carbon emissions, a move many fear means an impending purge of those fighting climate change. A report by ABC News late Friday said staffers had received a 74-point memo on Tuesday asking for information on several of the department’s programs, as well as a list of names of staffers who worked on certain projects. One question specifically asks for the names of those who attended international conferences on climate change. “It looks like Trump and his administration are planning a political witch hunt which has no place in American government: purging or marginalizing anyone who has worked on the issue of climate change,” John Coequyt, climate policy director at the Sierra Club, said in a statement on Friday. Trump has repeatedly described climate change as a hoax created by the Chinese. His choice of Scott Pruitt, a climate change denier, to head the Environmental Protection Agency has further fueled fears that the Trump administration will undo all progress made fighting global warming by the Obama administration.

Let me remind you of a time in the 1930’s when similar lists of names were also acquired in Germany. 

In May 1935, Jews were forbidden to join the Armed Forces, and that year anti-Jewish propaganda appeared in Nazi German shops and restaurants. The Nuremberg Laws were passed around the time of the Nazi rallies at Nuremberg; On September 15, 1935, the Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor was passed, preventing sexual relations and marriages between Aryans and Jews. At the same time the Reich Citizenship Law was passed and was reinforced in November by a decree, stating that all Jews, even quarter- and half-Jews, were no longer citizens of their own country. This meant that they had no basic civil rights, such as that to vote. In 1936, Jews were banned from all professional jobs, effectively preventing them from exerting any influence in education, politics, higher education and industry. Because of this, there was nothing to stop the anti-Jewish actions which spread across the Nazi-German economy. As of March 1, 1938, government contracts could no longer be awarded to Jewish businesses. On September 30, "Aryan" doctors could only treat "Aryan" patients. Provision of medical care to Jews was already hampered by the fact that Jews were banned from being doctors or having any professional jobs. Beginning August 17, 1938, Jews with first names of non-Jewish origin had to add Israel (males) or Sarah (females) to their names, and a large J was to be imprinted on their passports beginning October 5. On November 15 Jewish children were banned from going to normal schools. By April 1939, nearly all Jewish companies had either collapsed under financial pressure and declining profits, or had been forced to sell out to the Nazi German government. 

All of these actions required lists of names and addresses of Jewish people. 

Just saying....