The Conversation -- November 11, 2024
⭐ Emily Brooks of the Hill: "Republicans are projected to keep control of the House of Representatives, handing the party total control of Washington with former President Trump back in the White House in January."
Marie: Oh, I forgot this about Elise Stefanik: ~~~
~~~ Mike Lillis & Mychael Schnell of the Hill: "President-elect Trump's nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations sets the stage for one of the organization's most vocal and combative critics to have a powerful seat at its table. Stefanik, 40, the fourth-ranking House Republican and a devoted Trump loyalist, has little foreign policy experience. But she has built a reputation over the last year as a leading champion of Israel, in part by repeatedly hammering the U.N. for its reproach of the country's military response to last year's attacks by Hamas. In September, she accused the organization of being infected by 'antisemitic rot.'"
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So It Begins. Adios, Advice and Consent Clause. Perhaps Trump plans to snip away at the Constitution clause-by-clause. Sunday's casualty? Not a clause, but a prepositional phrase that gives the Senate power to control presidential appointments: "... and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate...." Just correcting Article II, which gives Trump "the right to do whatever I want." ~~~
~~~ Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump and his allies signaled Sunday that they will try to call the shots in the Republican-led Senate, pushing the candidacy of Sen. Rick Scott (Florida) for GOP leader and demanding that Republicans allow Trump to make appointments to his administration and the courts without Senate approval.... Writing on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump said: 'Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner.' Within minutes, [Sen.] Rick Scott [R-Fla.] vowed to fulfill Trump's request if he becomes Senate Republican leader, writing on X: '100% agree. I will do whatever it takes to get your nominations through as quickly as possible.' Top Trump allies -- including billionaire CEO Elon Musk -- and a number of far-right influencers have quickly lined up behind Scott's bid. 'Rick Scott for Senate Majority Leader!' Musk posted Sunday." ~~~
~~~ Anthony Adragna of Politico: Neither of the other two candidates for Majority Leader, John Thune (S.D.) and John Cornyn (Texas), ruled out caving to Trump. "In addition, the president-elect said the Senate should refuse to confirm any further judicial nominations put forth by President Joe Biden in the waning days of this Congress, saying 'Democrats are looking to ram through their Judges as the Republicans fight over Leadership.' However, Trump's request is almost certain to fall on deaf ears. Democrats maintain control of the Senate through the end of the year and have made filling judicial vacancies a top priority for the lame duck session."
~~~ Marie: Here is a newly-reelected U.S. Senator (Scott) voluntarily ceding the Constitutional rights and duties of the Senate in order to accommodate a MAGAlomaniac, and two other seasoned Senators refusing -- at least publicly -- to rule out abrogating a Constitutional duty. This whole story, BTW, is wrapped up in how the Senate in recent years has rendered recess appointments impossible, so the reporters are able to ignore the underlying issue of Advice & Consent. We shrug at our own peril. If Trump can do this to a powerful elected official, he sure can deprive any one of us of our Constitutional rights.
Mike Ives of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump said late Sunday that he had named Thomas D. Homan, a senior immigration official in his last administration, as the 'border czar' in charge of the nation's borders and its maritime and aviation security.... 'I've known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders,' Mr. Trump wrote in [a] post. 'Likewise, Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin.'" ~~~
~~~ Guardian: "A Heritage fellow and Project 2025 author, Homan told this summer's Republican national convention in Milwaukee he had 'a message for the millions of illegal aliens who Joe Biden allowed to enter the country in violation of federal law -- start packing, because you're going home.' At a panel on immigration policy in July, Homan said: 'Trump comes back in January, I'll be on his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen.' Homan was also reported to have accepted an invitation to a white nationalist conference hosted by Nick Fuentes, the Holocaust denier and Hitler admirer who dined with Trump and Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago in 2022." ~~~
~~~ Marie: BTW, the Times article reveals nothing more negative about Homan than that he told CBS News last month that large-scale worksite raids seeking to capture undocumented workers would resume in a Trump administration. Otherwise, Ives reports only Homan's work history, which would suggest he is just another highly-qualified guy worthy of a top job.
CBS/AFP: "... Donald Trump has offered N.Y. Rep. Elise Stefanik [R] the job of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and she has accepted the offer, they told the New York Post Sunday night." MB: This is just another indication of how little Trump thinks of the U.N.
Marie: Here's a wacky idea I love, even though I know it's not gonna happen:~~~
~~~ Jennifer Bahney of Mediaite: "Jamal Simmons, former communications director for Vice President Kamala Harris, made a bold suggestion Sunday that shocked the CNN panel discussing Donald Trump's transition to the White House. 'Joe Biden's been a phenomenal president, he's lived up to so many of the promises he's made. There's one promise left that he could fulfill, being a transitional figure,' Simmons said. 'He could resign the presidency in the next 30 days, make Kamala Harris president of the United States -- ... It would absolve her from having to oversee the January 6th transition, right, of her own defeat. And it would make sure, it would dominate the news, at a point where Democrats have to learn, drama and transparency and doing things the public want to see -- this is the time, this is the moment for us to change the entire perspective of how Democrats operate.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: AND it would mess with all the MAGA nitwits who bought 47 merch.
Ellen Nakashima, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.... During the call, which Trump took from his resort in Florida, he advised the Russian president not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of Washington's sizable military presence in Europe, said a person familiar with the call.... The two men discussed the goal of peace on the European continent and Trump expressed an interest in follow-up conversations to discuss 'the resolution of Ukraine's war soon.'..." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Oh, yeah? Seems maybe Putin is ignoring Trump: ~~~
~~~ Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "The Russian military has assembled a force of 50,000 soldiers, including North Korean troops, as it prepares to begin an assault aimed at reclaiming territory seized by Ukraine in the Kursk region of Russia, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials. A new U.S. assessment concludes that Russia has massed the force without having to pull soldiers out of Ukraine's east -- its main battlefield priority -- allowing Moscow to press on multiple fronts simultaneously. (Also linked yesterday.)
Ben Davis, in a Guardian op-ed: "Despite the trauma and death of Covid and the isolation of lockdowns, from late 2020 to early 2021, Americans briefly experienced the freedom of social democracy. They had enough liquid money to plan long term and make spending decisions for their own pleasure rather than just to survive. They had the labor protections to look for the jobs they wanted rather than feel stuck in the jobs they had. At the end of Trump's term, the American standard of living and the amount of economic security and freedom Americans had was higher than when it started, and, with the loss of this expanded welfare state, it was worse when Biden left office, despite his real policy wins for workers and unions. This is why voters view Trump as a better shepherd of the economy.... [President] Biden wanted to continue many of these policies, but there wasn't a political pathway. Instead, they quietly expired. To voters, however, the material reality is that when Trump left office, this safety net existed, and by the time of the 2024 election, it had evaporated." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: This essay is a good example of burying the lede. But I think Davis is onto something I missed, probably because I took the economic effects of the pandemic too personally. Trump raised my taxes even as Covid lowered my income, so the Trump years were far from a boon for me. But for many working people, as Davis points out, the social safety net enhancements forced upon Republicans by the Covid crisis was a boon. As a number of opinionators have noted, many voters chose Trump at the same time they chose Democrats' policies where that was an option. Davis' theory fits into that picture.
Greta Reich of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will not allow Sen.-elect Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) to participate in Senate orientation this week because he doesn't consider the race to be resolved yet. Though the Associated Press projected Thursday that McCormick defeated Democrat incumbent Bob Casey in Pennsylvania's Senate race, Casey has yet to concede, claiming that there are still thousands of ballots left to be counted. 'With over 100,000 ballots left to be counted in Pennsylvania, the race has not been decided. As is custom, we will invite the winner once the votes are counted,' a spokesperson for Schumer wrote in a statement. As of Sunday at 4:30 p.m., McCormick was ahead by approximately 39,000 votes."
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Haiti. Frances Robles of the New York Times: "The former United Nations official tapped to lead Haiti through a gang-fueled crisis has been fired by the country's ruling council, following a political power struggle that unfolded amid a wave of kidnappings and killings. The official, Garry Conille, 58, a medical doctor who previously ran UNICEF's Latin America regional office, was hired in late May to serve as interim prime minister of Haiti. He and the country's ruling council are supposed to pave the way for elections next year to choose a new president. Haiti's transitional council named Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, the owner of a chain of dry cleaners and a former candidate for the Haitian Senate, as his replacement, according to an executive order published Sunday afternoon in the country's official gazette, Le Moniteur."
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Reader Comments (21)
Instead of staying angry as I have been for the last week, often waking an hour earlier than usual just pissed off, I have to somehow get a grip.
Will likely be difficult to maintain in the face of the awfulness assuredly to come, but I see signs this morning that I might be able to take refuge in an appreciation of the ludicrous.
The Rick Scott as anointed Senate leader? A man whose fortune is based on ripping off Medicare? Recommended by the Grifter in Chief?
Why not?
American exceptionalism at work. No ethics for me.
@Ken Winkes: Is it possible your getting up an hour earlier this week is not attributable to Trumpolini but to the end of Daylight Savings Time? (That is, you're waking up at the same "natural" time of day; the gummit is trying to tell you the time of day has changed, but your body knows better.)
I've stopped watching the local news past the weather, and I've stopped watching the national news and PBS, to allow myself to sleep. If the local news burbles anything about 47, I mute it until the weather comes on. I'm retired now, but I'm still worried, as I'm a childless cat lady and I have a very useless senator named Susan Collins. That's how I'm coping for now.
Heil Myself!
Fat Hitler isn’t waiting for Day One to be a dictator. That was to be expected. The Rick Scott thing is the sounding of a death knell for effective, competent, constitutional government. It’s what fascists do. They mow down any impediments to the slightest narcissistic whims.
It’ll be Sycophant City in the District of Columbia from here on out. No hint of competency or adherence to laws or regulations. Any gigantic breaking of either will be disposed of quickly via a 24 hour shadow docket ruling by Little Johnny and the Rubber Stamps.
But here’s what I’d like to know. Will either AG or Bozo, sorry, Bezos, say a word about this? Fat Hitler bragged that, on Day One, he will end Russia’s war on Ukraine. Twenty-Four Hours.
If that doesn’t happen, what will the bastions of the MSM say? Will they hold him accountable for that outrageous lie?
No breath holding, now.
I’m pretty sure he’ll pull the trigger on at least three bits of self-serving dictatorial braggadocio.
One: pardon all his J6 treasonous thugs.
Two: begin firing thousands of career civil servants and replacing them with incompetent, know-nothing, grifting MAGAts.
Three: stop all federal prosecutions of his heinous crimes. In other words, pardon himself.
In Ernst Lubitsch’s wonderful send up of fascism, “To Be or not To Be”, starring Jack Benny and Carole Lombard (and a passel of excellent character actors), an actor playing Hitler in a stage play in Poland, comes onstage. In response to the usual sycophantic “Heil Hitlers”, he responds “Heil myself”. It’s funny. But for the next four years, Fat Hitler will be heiling himself every day.
It won’t be funny.
@Robin: That's pretty much how I'm coping, too.
And this. I have to buy some major appliances -- fridge, range, dishwasher, washer & dryer. I was going to put off the purchases until next year. Now, I'm planning to buy them this week and next, as I've read a couple of stories that report manufacturers are already gearing up for Trump's tariffs/taxes.
Marie,
Yeah to the early part. As I age, I do notice those time adjustments that once made me wonder what all those older people were complaining about.
But no to the anger. That is definitely political, not temporal.
I get that massive tariffs make metaphorical sense to foreign policy and psychologically inclined isolationists but I don't get why the Right thinks they make economic and political sense.
Or is it all just Pretender tough talk, like that beautiful wall that Mexico would pay for?
Marie: rethink all those appliance purchases. You won't need a fridge when there's nothing affordable in the supermarket but cabbage, potatoes and beans. Preparing dinner will only require a hot plate (or propane campstove if you can get propane ... but there should be plenty from the drilling), a 3 Qt pot, a tin plate and a steel knife and fork. I'd say you can keep a cow but up in the winters of NH a few pigs in the garage would probably be better. Lay in salt for the pork crock preservation. If you don't live near a clean flowing creek, be sure to have a rain collection barrel.
Washer? A good zinc tub can also serve for your pork pickling needs. A dryer? You can get 100 ft of clothesline for under $10.
Make America Hard Again.
Margaret Renkl
"Against Panic: A Survival Kit
To fight the calamities that are coming, we will need to find what gives us joy even amid the fight, and we will need to find a way to rest when the fight is too much to bear. To allow the braying winners to turn us into desolate, impotent shadows with stones forever lodged in our throats would be to let them win even more surely than they won at the ballot box last week.
There will be more books and more poetry and more time with friends and more afternoons sitting on a bench and watching the leaves fall. I will be fighting with all that I am, but I will also be reminding myself again and again not to wait for the world to give me a reason to sigh with relief. I will give myself respite. I will remember not to keep waiting for sweetness and rest to arrive on their own.
“If it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all,” Shakespeare wrote in “Hamlet.” I’ll remember that, too."
Ten Second Memory
"Why Did Trump Win? These Dems Have Discovered a Very Disturbing Answer
Are you sitting down? Turns out it proved very hard to persuade swing voters that Trump was a bad president.
Internal testing in all the battleground states over the course of many months yielded a result that unnerved the campaign, according to a senior Harris campaign operative who has seen the data. It was this: Undecided voters didn’t believe that some of the highest profile things that happened during Trump’s presidency—even if they saw these things negatively—were his fault.
This was the case on two of the biggest issues in the campaign—the 2020 economic crash and the demise of reproductive rights, the operative told me. The result: The good pre-Covid economy during the Trump years largely defined undecided voters’ impressions of him, and no message about his first term could persuade them to the contrary."
@Patrick: Gosh, thanks for all the practical suggestions. Rather than milk cows & pigs, I'm thinking goats. I know from personal experience that Nubians give great-tasting, fairly rich milk, and for any males that may arise from breeding, the meat is delicious. They don't yield much meat, of course. But if I slaughter the young males at the proper time in late fall, I might be able to keep the meat cold through the winter. Remind me, though, to check on a recipe for goat jerky.
I already have an old-fashioned washboard, and a creek runs through my property. As I recall, it runs even in winter (except when the beavers stop it up). I can string a clothesline from the creek to the house, and if I set up a proper pulley system, I can hang the load from a spot near the creek and retrieve it from a place on the back porch.
Assuming I can get electrical service, I do have an energy-saving, single-burner induction cooktop AND I have a fire pit for roasting the occasional chop or potato. I should make out fine in Trumpsamerica. At least until "they" come for me.
Marie: looks like you are well-set for the hard times.
If you get long-haired goats to add to your nubians, you can also spin your own yarn with a little bit of distaff and spindle practice. These are skills that American women used to prize, but have for some reason become less practised than they were before steam power made mills feasible.
RAS,
For those not given to abstractions like the ideals of democracy and what used to be common morality, the Pretender's years were probably good or good enough.
Combine those memories with the constant stream of Right Wing lies, especially on major social media sites and from the Pretender himself, and with the still common inclinations toward misogyny, racism and anti-intellectualism and we get what we just got.
It is obvious to me that Rick Scott (AKA Skeletor--) has managed the same task all the other MAGAts have done: total amnesia once a thought has approached and taken hold of the cement blocks they have for heads and hearts. He thinks he is a statesman, having been the unfortunate governor, and senator of Fractured Florida, and he has convinced the people voting for him that he is wholly innocent of corruption and grifting every day. The rest of the nation's MAGAts are the same-- that article about how they luvved the Fat Felon because they had gas and Cheerios at the right price, only before 2020, is right on. Remember, the Moneyed Monster most of the time thought he was running against Barack Obama, so how could he possibly remember anything that happened at all? Denial of anything is all her has in his mass of jelly beneath the scrambled eggs on his head.
I am not watching or listening to news either, as there is a faction of Democrats who are lining their pockets getting on teevee, nobily and smugly telling other Democrats everything they did wrong, and why it is wrong, and maybe there will be burnings at the stake for anyone who dares to buck the empire/regime. Ya see, already he is being called "the president" and he is making phone calls to world leaders cuz he is so important now; it has given him permission to get up before noon now. He's a pig, and he has always been a pig, in addition to a sexual predator, a liar, an ignoramus, a corrupt and unsuccessful businessman and a traitor. But all the voters who thought he would save their bacon are the real losers. They have screwed themselves and I am not wasting my time talking to them or trying to help them, in the event that I could-- They are a lost colony. It's the suits that will come out ahead, and my daughter and younger people are victims here.
Charlie Sykes
"Are We Sanewashing the Voters Now?"
Don Moynihan
"Who is allowed to practice identity politics?
When the right does it, its just politics"
Jeanne,
I used to think ol’ Rick (Healthcare Scammer) Scott looked kinda like Bat Boy, but now that you mention it, Rick Skeletor works as well.
Whichever horrible character you think of when this putrescent puta wafts stinkily into your consciousness, no cartoon villain or National Enquirer monstrosity can compare to his real world iniquity or moral turpitude, which makes him a perfect fit for Fat Hitler’s band of fascist fuckwads.
Robin, Marie, et al
I’m with you guys in the media moratorium group. I’ve only just gotten past garment rending (gnashing of teeth is still ongoing), and I don’t need anyone who refused to call out the horrors of the Orange Monster douche-splaining why Harris lost. I have my own ideas, so shag off, shitbirds.
So I am assiduously avoiding any political commentary, essays, and podcasts. I’m spending my dog walking podcast time on old Car Talk shows. I’d rather listen to the Magliozzi brothers opining on catalytic converter catastrophes than any offering that includes the name T—-p.
Heard a good podcast on the history of rebar the other day, and another on how the tykes in the Tower of London were not whacked by Richard III after all, and in fact probably lived to adulthood.
Mental health is important if we’re to withstand the coming MAGA apocalypse. Just sayin’.
Akhilleus,
Your comment brought to mind this old mystery novel:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daughter_of_Time#External_links
Don't know if or how the podcast you mention might have tracked Inspector Grant's researches, but as I remember, the novel was a
favorite of the English department where I avoided the science career I entered college thinking I would embark on.
Ken,
It did not, but I’ll bet Josephine Tey’s book helped kick start the movement that has had investigators looking more carefully at Richard III’s actual history.
“The Daughter of Time” sat in my pile of “Must Read Someday” books for a couple of years. I finally got to it a year or so ago. A fascinating read. As the old saying goes, truth is the daughter of time and Tey’s Inspector Grant goes after it hard.
For anyone wondering how Shakespeare (after Holinshed) could get it so wrong (he wasn’t even a hunchback), Grant attributes the popular accounts of Richard’s infamy to propaganda manufactured by Tudors long after he was dead.
Two huge pieces of evidence dug up from actual historical records is that there are no contemporary mentions anywhere of Richard doing in the boys in the Tower. In fact, a bill of attainder drawn up by his enemies at the time makes no reference to hits on Royal tykes. Such a dastardly deed would have been exhibit one in any attempt to discredit ol’ Dick, but there’s no mention of it.
Also, the boys’ mom was a regular at Richard’s court and seems to have got on famously with him. Not something you’d expect had she suspected him of bumping off her kids.
Anyway, a fun and illuminating read.
We have our own actual horrible king to deal with though, and the daughter of time is very much not in his corner.
The House, too? Total control.
Then I wonder who they will blame?