The Commentariat -- Nov. 14, 2016

Afternoon Update:

A number of contributors have been crediting Akhilleus for coming up with the term "confederates" to describe the right-wing party & its followers. That didn't sound right to me, so I spent way too much time checking. Akhilleus has illuminated hundreds of good ideas here on Reality Chex. But the originator of the term "confederates" was actually Monoloco, who suggested it in January 2015.

Sam Roberts of the New York Times: "Gwen Ifill, an award-winning television journalist for NBC and PBS, former reporter for The New York Times and author who moderated vice-presidential debates in 2004 and 2008, died on Monday in Washington. She was 61. Her death, at a hospice facility, was announced by Sara Just, executive producer of 'PBS NewsHour.' The cause was cancer, PBS said." A full obituary is to follow. Thanks to NJC for the lead.-- CW

Simon Tisdale of the Guardian: "When [President Obama] makes his final visit to Europe this week, in what had been planned as a triumphant farewell tour, Obama's awkward job is to reassure nervous allies that a Trump presidency will not be as bad as they fear." CW: That would be a betrayal of his beliefs -- and of reality.

Steve M. on how NPR is whitewashing the Steve Bannon appointment: "NPR's coverage of the election and its aftermath has been awful in recent days.... NPR's preferred approach seems to be letting loyalists come on one at a time, and allowing them to spin and spin and spin." ...

... CW: NPR is a broadcast operation; it relies on its share of the public airwaves (and to a very small extent, public funding) to get its stories out. Donald Trump, by virtue of his appointing a friendly FCC commissioner, will soon control the public airwaves. (Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is probably polishing his resume'.) What you're hearing in NPR "news reporting" -- and no doubt soon in other non-political programming -- is self-preservation, not accurate news coverage. Expect NPR to become a broadcasters' Pravda on the Potomac. This is voluntary co-option. The commercial broadcast networks will do the same.

Sewell Chan & Christina Anderson of the New York Times: "Six years after the Swedish authorities opened an investigation into a rape accusation made against Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, he faced questioning about the matter on Monday. The questions were prepared by prosecutors in Sweden, where an arrest warrant for Mr. Assange was issued in 2010, but were posed by a prosecutor from Ecuador under an agreement the two countries made in August. Ecuador granted Mr. Assange political asylum in 2012, and the interview occurred at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. Mr. Assange has lived in the embassy since June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over the rape accusation." -- CW ...

... The Guardian story, by Esther Addley & David Crouch, is here.

*****

CW: If you missed Kate McKinnon's "SNL" cold open, do take time to watch it; it's embedded in yesterday's Commentariat.

** Trump Names White Supremacist/Anti-Semite to Top White House Post. Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump on Sunday chose Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee and a loyal campaign adviser, to be his White House chief of staff, turning to a Washington insider whose friendship with the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, could help secure early legislative victories. In selecting Mr. Priebus, Mr. Trump passed over Stephen K. Bannon, the right-wing media provocateur. But he named Mr. Bannon his senior counselor and chief West Wing strategist, signaling an embrace of the fringe ideology long advanced by Mr. Bannon and a continuing disdain for his party's establishment.... In a statement Sunday afternoon, the transition team emphasized that the two men would work 'as equal partners to transform the federal government.'... The official statement mentioned Mr. Bannon first.” Emphasis added. -- CW ...

... Elise Viebeck & Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump faces a growing backlash against his decision to name campaign chairman and former head of Breitbart News Stephen K. Bannon as chief strategist at the White House, a choice critics believe will empower white nationalists. A chorus of advocacy groups, commentators and congressional Democrats denounced Bannon as a proponent of racist, anti-Semitic and misogynistic views as Trump began his first full week as president-elect.... A spokesman for Trump accused critics and the media of trying to 'divide people' following the election when they raise questions about Bannon's views and history." -- CW ...

... Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's decision to appoint Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist in the White House has drawn a sharp rebuke from political strategists who see in Bannon a controversial figure too closely associated with the 'alt-right' movement, which white nationalists have embraced.... 'Stephen Bannon was the main driver behind Breitbart becoming a white ethno-nationalist propaganda mill, the [Southern Poverty] [L]aw [C]enter wrote via Twitter in its first statements on Bannon's elevation." -- CW...

... Oops! Newt Didn't Get the Memo.* Kristine Guerra of the Washington Post: "Newt Gingrich blasted the notion that Donald Trump's campaign and rhetoric catered to what's called the alt-right movement, which rejects establishment conservatism and spreads its far-right ideology online. 'It's garbage,' the former House speaker and a Trump adviser told CBS's John Dickerson on 'Face the Nation' on Sunday when asked to comment on the alt-right movement, whose members have shown support for Trump. 'Donald Trump is a mainstream conservative who wants to profoundly take on the left. The left is infuriated that anybody wants to challenge their moral superiority,' Gingrich said." -- CW

     ... * Or he did get the memo but thinks he can pretend Bannon is a mild-mannered reporter. ...

... ** Paul Waldman: "There has been way too much euphemizing about Bannon, so let's talk plainly. He's not just a 'controversial' figure who ran a 'provocative' web site. He is one of the foremost drivers of the spread of white nationalism in the United States today, and Breitbart is a firehose of thinly veiled racism and anti-Semitism, spewing its endless supply of poison into our politics.... And now to the cluelessness:... The man ran for president for a year and a half, and is surprised that the presidency is such a big job. Meanwhile, his aides were under the impression that the Obama staffers would stick around and be working for them now. This is appalling, but it shouldn't be surprising. Those of us who actually contemplated a Trump presidency during the campaign were particularly disturbed not just by Trump's ignorance, but also by the fact that it was accompanied by a certainty that he knew everything he needed to know, despite the fact that he knew virtually nothing." (See also Margaret Hartmann's report, linked below.) -- CW ...

... Zachary Pleat of Media Matters provides a good overview of Bannon's racist, misogynist, xenophobic, anti-Semite, anti-LGBT views, as expressed in his hate site Breitbart "News." -- CW ...

... Kim Bellware of the Huffington Post: "Breitbart has propagated conspiracy theories, like Planned Parenthood having Nazi ties or Clinton aide Huma Abedin being a spy for Saudi Arabia. The website traffics in misogynist and racist stories; it frames women who push back against harassment or gender bias as weak and incompetent and portrays people of color and immigrants as inherently criminal. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) spokesman Adam Jentleson said Trump's choice of Bannon 'signals that White Supremacists will be represented at the highest levels in Trump's White House.' 'It is easy to see why the KKK views Trump as their champion,'...." -- CW

Emily Schultheis of CBS News: "... Donald Trump said in a wide-ranging interview with '60 Minutes' that his role of appointing a Supreme Court justice is 'very important' -- and that he plans to appoint pro-life justices. 'I'm pro-life,' he said. 'The judges will be pro-life.'... When [interviewer Lesley] Stahl followed up on the question, asking whether it's okay that some women might have to travel to other states to receive abortions, Trump said there's a 'long way to go' before discussing that.... During the third presidential debate, he suggested that third-trimester abortions were currently legal and that Clinton supported allowing them -- both things which are not true. Trump added that his Supreme Court nominees would also be 'very pro-Second Amendment.'... As for same-sex marriage, Trump said after the Supreme Court ruling last year it's the law of the land -- and that he is 'fine' with that being the case." -- CW

Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "... Donald Trump returned to Twitter on Sunday morning, to attack a familiar target: the New York Times." -- CW ...

... Daniel Politi of Slate: "... this latest attack came shortly after Trump told 60 Minutes that he will be 'restrained' on how he uses Twitter." CW: There's "restrained" and there's "restrained." In this case, I think "restrained" mean, "didn't wrap anti-NYT tweets in Star of David or hangman's noose." ...

... Brian Stelter & Jill Disis: "On Sunday morning, Trump tweeted: 'Wow, the @nytimes is losing thousands of subscribers because of their very poor and highly inaccurate coverage of the "Trump phenomena.'" Trump did not cite any evidence to back up his claim. And the Times flatly says it is not true. The newspaper crunched the numbers on Sunday morning.... Then it responded to Trump, naturally, on Twitter. 'Fact: surge in new subscriptions, print & digital, with trends, stops & starts, 4 X better than normal,' the Times said.... On Friday, the newspaper's publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, wrote a letter to subscribers saying 'let's pause for a moment on those famous instructions that Adolph S. Ochs left for us: to cover the news without fear or favor. As Donald Trump begins preparing for his new administration, those words have rarely felt more important,' Sulzberger said. In a followup tweet, Trump wrongly characterized the letter as an 'apology' for earlier coverage." -- CW

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "In a '60 Minutes' interview scheduled to air Sunday..., Donald Trump said he planned to immediately deport 2 million to 3 million undocumented immigrants who 'have criminal records' after his inauguration next January.... According to The Washington Post Fact Checker, Trump likely gets these estimates from a Department of Homeland Security fiscal 2013 report saying there were 1.9 million 'removable criminal aliens.' However, that figure includes undocumented immigrants and people who are lawful permanent residents, or those who have temporary visas." CW: In other words, these are people whose "crime," at most, is being here, not violent criminals.

Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "Perplexed foreign ministers from the European Union nations met Sunday to try to assess the election of Donald Trump..., underlining the uncertainty for America's closest allies over issues as wide-ranging as Iran, Russia and climate change. The emergency dinner gathering was a measure of how suddenly the U.S.-Europe relationship has been cast into disarray by the election of a man most European leaders openly campaigned against. The E.U. is deeply dependent on U.S. cooperation for a host of European priorities, many of which Trump called into question on the campaign trail." -- CW ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Christopher Dickey & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Breitbart, which currently has operations in London and Jerusalem, certainly has plans to expand in France and Germany with new bureaus to cultivate and promote the populist-nationalist lines there. Bannon, elevated Sunday night from the head of Trump's favorite public-relations outfit masquerading as news outlet to a White House senior counselor, is right now the direct line between the European far-right and Donald J. Trump, leader of the free world." CW: Of course Trump & Bannon have plans to dismantle the "free" part of "free world."

Paul Krugman: "... the consequences of the new regime's awfulness won't be apparent right away. Opponents of that regime need to be prepared for the real possibility that good things will happen to bad people, at least for a while." -- CW

Jonathan Chait: "Whatever signs of normality [Trump] has given since Tuesday's triumph are, thus far, purely superficial.... It is now within the realm of imagining that the United States will come to resemble some sort of illiberal democracy or quasi-democracy -- Berlusconi's Italy or, eventually, even Putin's Russia.... The man who thought he was through with politics has, it turns out, one more essential role left: Beginning next year, Obama needs to rally the opposition, to community-organize his coalition, and to exploit his celebrity to make the case for saving his legacy.... Trump's election is one of the greatest disasters in American history.... The proper response is steely resolve to wage the fight of our lives." -- CW ...

... The Drumpf Whisperer. Margaret Hartmann of New York: "The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that President Obama 'plans to spend more time with his successor than presidents typically do' because he realized during their meeting last week that Trump 'needs more guidance.' Per the Journal:

During their private White House meeting on Thursday, Mr. Obama walked his successor through the duties of running the country, and Mr. Trump seemed surprised by the scope, said people familiar with the meeting. Trump aides were described by those people as unaware that the entire presidential staff working in the West Wing had to be replaced at the end of Mr. Obama's term. -- CW

Melanie Eversley of USA Today: The post-election uptick in hate crimes is greater than what occurred following 9/11, according to hate-crime watchers like the SPLC. CW: I suspect this is because there are more groups to "hate" and the targets are ubiquitous, whereas the Muslim population was relatively concentrated & comparatively small. There's not a town in the U.S. that doesn't have women to victimize, for instance. ...

... Daniel Politi lays out a partial list of post-election racist incidents, which are occurring around the country. See also Ken W.'s comment at the top of today's thread. Clearly, Trump's election has emboldened the deplorables, as if they weren't bold enough already. ...

... Casey Quinlan of Think Progress: "In the days following the election, students are already invoking the name of ... [Donald Trump] while they spread white supremacist messages." -- CW

** Henry Grabar of Slate: "For nearly half a century, Democrats have worked to position themselves as America's metropolitan party.... Trump won dominant support in rural America. He outran Romney by more than 40 percent in large swaths of the Midwest. His rural success was not confined to the Rust Belt.... The metropolis has economic power but little political power. The American countryside has limited economic power but vast political power.... When politicians inveigh against 'urban America,' they're often stoking their constituents' race-based fears. But 'urban' is now also code for class, power, money, and the Democratic Party.... Americans are less geographically mobile than at any point since 1948. Young Americans are not going to sacrifice their dreams to accommodate the country's byzantine electoral system, which was designed to grant the franchise exclusively to landowners." -- CW

"Trump's America." CW: Just two weeks ago, a reader snapped a picture of Union Square, where a group of a dozen or so Clinton supporters gathered. Here's what Union Square looked like Saturday, courtesy of the same reader:

I love the poorly educated! -- Donald Trump, Nevada Republican primary victory speech, Feb. 23 ...

... Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone: "The Democratic Party's failure to keep Donald Trump out of the White House in 2016 will go down as one of the all-time examples of insular arrogance.... But the party's willful blindness symbolized a similar arrogance across the American intellectual elite. Trump's election was a true rebellion, directed at anyone perceived to be part of 'the establishment.' The target group included political leaders, bankers, industrialists, academics, Hollywood actors, and, of course, the media. And we all closed our eyes to what we didn't want to see.... America is like a giant manor estate where the aristocrats don't know they're aristocrats and the peasants imagine themselves undiscovered millionaires." -- CW

AND Trump Born in Pakistan, Not Eligible to be U.S. President! Times of Israel: "After years leading the false charge that President Barack Obama was born outside of the United States..., Donald Trump is facing his own minor 'birtherism' moment, with a Pakistani television network claiming the New Yorker was born in Pakistan.... The report, not unlike the claims once made against Obama, appears to have originated with social media posts.... According to Neo News, Trump was born as Dawood Ibrahim Khan in the now-Taliban-controlled Waziristan region of the country in 1954. After his parents were killed in a car accident, a British Indian Army captain took little Dawood to London, where the Trump family later adopted him and brought him to America, the report claimed.... Neo News even provided a photo of the alleged young Trump, wearing what appears to be traditional Pakistani boys' garb." CW: I sure hope the NYT is following up. By 2020, 69 percent of Democrats should be convinced Trump is not a natural-born citizen.

Josh Marshall: "Paul Ryan ... just said he will try to rush [the demise of Medicare] through early next year while repealing Obamacare.... Ryan claims that Obamacare has put Medicare under deeper financial stress. Precisely the opposite is true. And it's so straightforward Ryan unquestionably knows this. The Affordable Care Act actually extended Medicare's solvency by more than a decade....Ryan says current beneficiaries will be allowed to keep their Medicare. Says. But after the cord is cut between current and future beneficiaries, everything is fair game. For those entering the system, Ryan proposes phasing out Medicare and replacing it private insurance with subsidies to help seniors afford the private insurance.... You'll hear lots of people calling this 'reform' and other catchwords. But Medicare is a single payer, universal health care system. Replacing it with private insurance means getting rid of it." -- CW ...

What people don't realize is, because of Obamacare, Medicare is going broke. -- -- House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), interview with Fox News Channel, Nov. 10

It's bad enough that Ryan, like many politicians, uses imprecise rhetoric such as 'broke'.... But the House speaker really went off the rails when he said on national television that Obamacare is making the program go broke. That’s the exact opposite of what happened. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post

News Lede

Guardian: "New Zealand battled severe storms and violent aftershocks as the country struggled to recover from a devastating earthquake that swallowed roads, twisted railway lines and left towns and cities smashed and deserted." -- CW

The Commentariat -- Nov. 13, 2016

     ... CW: Brilliant!

How Andy Borowitz explained the presidential election result to his daughter. Really.

Mission Accomplished, Jim Comey. Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton on Saturday cast blame for her surprise election loss on the announcement by the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, days before the election that he had revived the inquiry into her use of a private email server. In her most extensive remarks since she conceded the race to Donald J. Trump early Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton told donors on a 30-minute conference call that Mr. Comey's decision to send a letter to Congress about the inquiry 11 days before Election Day had thrust the controversy back into the news and had prevented her from ending the campaign with an optimistic closing argument.... Mrs. Clinton said a second letter from Mr. Comey, clearing her once again, which came two days before Election Day, had been even more damaging." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... CW: If the Clinton campaign's analysis is correct, then I was right when I wrote on October 28, the day of Comey's first letter to Congress, "I must say I never guessed something as insignificant as Anthony Weiner's dick would lead to the downfall of the United States. But there you go." ...

... Kevin Drum notes, as contributor Patrick did contemporaneously, that headline writers played along, noting that the FBI would not bring "charges" or "action" against Clinton. "... we now know that both the Trump campaign and the Clinton campaign agree that Comey's intervention played a significant role in the election.... If it weren't for Comey, nobody would be talking about the white working class or disenchanted millennials or third-party candidates. We'd be talking instead about the implosion of the Republican Party and arguing over who Clinton should choose as her Treasury Secretary." -- CW

Steve M.: "Clinton was so busy portraying Trump as a monster that she forgot to say he'd be a lousy president.... Clinton's campaign echoed the media's message that what was important about Trump was his character and personal behavior. Ad after Clinton ad showed Trump insulting women and mocking a disabled reporter. No Clinton ad, as far as I know, ever went after Trump's economic plan the way this Barack Obama ad, for instance, went after Mitt Romney's:

Our Great White Patriarchy. Gloria Steinem, in the Guardian: "The truth is that for two and a half centuries, this country has excluded females of every race from its top leadership; also the 40% of males who are African American, Hispanic, Jewish, or otherwise seen as needing an adjective; also the 5% who identify as gay or lesbian; and also the 60% who can't afford to purchase a college degree. There has been only one president who wasn't married, and none who was openly atheist or agnostic. Add this up, and we've been selecting our top leadership from 10% of our talent at most. We may be giving birth to democracy, but there will be years of labor to come." -- CW

Gail Collins: "Sometime soon, there'll be another woman presidential nominee. Maybe she'll be in the Clinton tradition, the grand and glorious American worker bees. Maybe she'll just leap out, like Barack Obama did, a fresh face with a new message. All we can know now is that when we talk about how she got there, we'll be telling Hillary Clinton's story." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eli Rosenberg, et al., of the New York Times: "Thousands of demonstrations filled public squares, parks and streets in the country's three largest cities on Saturday to protest President-elect Donald J. Trump, part of a wave of dissent that has swelled since the presidential contest last week.... Many protest leaders had supported Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the Democratic primary race and either did not vote or chose a third-party candidate in the general election, said Ben Becker, an organizer with the Answer Coalition.... Their anger, he said, had been exacerbated by the conciliatory tone shown to Mr. Trump by President Obama and Hillary Clinton after Mrs. Clinton's defeat. More protests are planned for the coming days, and preparations already are underway for a large demonstration at Mr. Trump's inauguration in January." ...

     ... CW: Excuse me? You voted for a third-party candidate & now you're complaining Trump won? You might be better, but you ain't no smarter than a Trumpbot.

Bernie Sanders, in a New York Times op-ed: "When my presidential campaign came to an end, I pledged to my supporters that the political revolution would continue. And now, more than ever, that must happen." -- CW ...

... Daniel Strauss of Politico: "Supporters of Bernie Sanders' failed presidential bid are seizing on Democratic disarray at the national level to launch a wave of challenges to Democratic Party leaders in the states. The goal is to replace party officials in states where Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton during the acrimonious Democratic primary with more progressive leadership. But the challenges also represent a reckoning for state party leaders who, in many cases, tacitly supported Clinton's bid." -- CW

CW: As many readers know, I'm not a fan of MoDo, but she may be right here: President "Obama lost touch with his revolutionary side and settled comfortably into being an Ivy League East Coast cerebral elitist who hung out with celebrities, lectured Congress and scorned the art of political persuasion.... The man who swept into the White House in a boisterous rebellion was dismissive of the boisterous rebellions in both the Democratic and Republican Parties. He insisted that an incrementalist and fellow Ivy League East Coast cerebral elitist who hangs out with celebrities would be best to save his legacy."

"60 Minutes": "... Donald Trump says he will not throw out all parts of the Affordable Care Act he said he would do away with before the election. In his first post-election television interview, he said he will keep the portions covering people with pre-existing conditions and children living at home under the age of 26. Trump also said Hillary and Bill Clinton called him separately to offer congratulations, characterizing the former president as 'gracious' in his call and his former opponent in her call 'couldn't have been nicer.'" Includes portions of "60 Minutes" interview transcript. -- CW ...

... HOWEVER. Trump Hasn't Decided Whether or Not to Lock Her Up. Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump ... faces a momentous decision over whether to make good on his oft-repeated campaign pledge to have a special prosecutor 'lock up' Hillary Clinton. That decision will signal whether Mr. Trump intends to look ahead and 'bind the wounds of division,' as he pledged to do in his acceptance speech early Wednesday, or look back and settle political scores, as he often seemed inclined to do during his campaign.... His top aides have left the door open to [re-investigating Clinton]. The possibility of a new investigation into Mrs. Clinton's email server has forced the White House to field questions about whether President Obama might offer Mrs. Clinton a pardon to insulate her from criminal charges. Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, said last week that he would not discuss Mr. Obama's thinking on any particular case for clemency, but he sent a strong signal that it would be inappropriate for Mr. Trump to revive the Clinton investigation." -- CW

Paul Waldman: "The greatest trick Donald Trump pulled was convincing voters he'd be 'anti-establishment.'... An organizational chart of Trump's transition team shows it to be crawling with corporate lobbyists, representing such clients as Altria, Visa, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Verizon, HSBC, Pfizer, Dow Chemical, and Duke Energy.... Who could possibly have predicted such a thing? The answer is, anyone who was paying attention.... Trump's tax plan would give 47 percent of its benefits to the richest one percent of taxpayers. Paul Ryan's tax plan is even purer -- it gives 76 percent of its cuts to the richest one percent in its first year, and by 2025 would feed 99.6 percent of its benefits to the top 1 percent. Once that's accomplished, Trump and the Republicans plan to either gut or completely repeal the Dodd-Frank financial regulations, the greatest wish of Wall Street bankers.... Voters thinking that Trump would vanquish the establishment were just marks for a con, like those who lost their life savings at Trump University." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)

... Michael Biesecker, et al., of the AP: "Donald Trump elicited wild cheers on the campaign trail by pledging to 'drain the swamp' in Washington, but the president-elect's transition team is populated largely with creatures of the capital, including former federal bureaucrats, think-tank academics, corporate lawyers and special-interest lobbyists. An internal organizational chart for the Trump transition team lists more than 30 names, some well-known within the GOP establishment. They are tasked with helping to select and vet Trump's Cabinet, as well as map out the key policy initiatives the new administration will pursue. Their areas of experience and policy expertise on the chart hint at future efforts to restrict abortion, strip away consumer protections, boost defense spending and dismantle environmental regulations. Key members of Trump's team are also advocates for sweeping privatization of government programs, including Social Security. 'Personnel is policy,' said Republican operative Ron Kaufman...." ...

     ... CW: The Democrats need to start running ads NOW in Rust Belt states as well as Florida, North Carolina AND on Fox "News," outlining Trump's various and upcoming betrayals of his voters. Waiting till the next election season is stupid. Of course there's no DNC chair, and the person Democrats choose is likely to be as unproductive, Beltway-bound and vapid as Debbie Doolittle (who, BTW, won re-election by a very comfortable margin). ...

... Here's an anthem for those Trumpsucker Rust Belt families 'awaiting on the jobs Trump promised, courtesy of MAG & PD Pepe:

Katy O'Donnell of Politico: "The potential conflicts of interest facing Donald Trump are so unprecedented that U.S. ethics laws weren't even written to account for them.... Trump could hold sway over regulators' investigations into banks that have lent his businesses hundreds of millions of dollars. He'll be directing relations with foreign governments, such as Saudi Arabia's, whose rulers have bought everything from real estate to a yacht from him as he struggled to pay off debts. Watchdogs are already scoffing at Trump's plans to turn his sprawling global empire over to his adult children, whom he also appointed to his transition team on Friday." -- CW

The Family Litigious. Dan Morse of the Washington Post: "Three months ago, a 70-year-old political blogger operating from his Maryland townhouse let it rip. 'Where is Melania Trump?' he asked, going on to offer an answer: The potential first lady was reportedly having a nervous breakdown after her controversial GOP convention speech and her fears that a secret past would be revealed.... [Webster] Tarpley's claims about Melania Trump, posted in the heat of the campaign, were followed by similar allegations published in the Daily Mail, a British tabloid. Both pieces attracted the attention of Melania Trump and her attorneys, and both publications posted retractions. On Sept. 1, in Montgomery County Circuit Court, Melania Trump sued Tarpley and the Daily Mail for defamation. Her attorneys cited a series of published allegations, including those made in Tarpley's blog post, according to court records. Now, as Melania Trump readies to become first lady, the lawsuit shows no signs of slowing down." ...

     ... CW: What a nasty family the Trump clan is. It's one thing to sue the Daily Mail, which is a ridiculous but profitable rag. But a goofy blogger? This is chilling, especially because I may be the next goofy blogger on the Trump Family Hit List. ...

... This Doesn't Help. Steven Overly & Elizabeth Dwoskin of the Washington Post: "Peter Thiel was named as a member of ... Donald Trump's transition team Friday, a sign of the influence the billionaire tech investor will have in shaping the new administration." CW: Thiel bankrupted Gawker by financing libel lawsuits against the Web publication.

Nicholas Kristof: "... for all of our sins in the mainstream media, these alt-right websites are both far more pernicious and increasingly influential.... Trump was, after all, propelled into politics partly as a champion of the lie that President Obama was born abroad and ineligible for the White House. Even now, only 44 percent of Republicans accept the reality that Obama was born in the U.S.... These alt-right websites will continue to spew misinformation that undermines tolerance and democracy. I find them particularly loathsome because they do their best to magnify prejudice against blacks, Muslims and Latinos, tearing our social fabric." -- CW

Joshua Sharpe of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "A Gwinnett County high school teacher said she was left a note in class Friday telling her that her Muslim headscarf 'isn't allowed anymore.' 'Why don't you tie it around your neck & hang yourself with it...,' the note said, signed 'America!' Mairah Teli, 24, who teaches language arts at Dacula High, said she feels the note is in reaction to Donald Trump's victory in the presidential race. 'I feel children feel safe making comments that are racist or sexist because of him,' she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution." -- CW ...

... Caitlin McCabe of Philly.com: "Villanova University's Department of Public Safety is investigating a reported incident in which a black female student was assaulted by white males as they ran toward her yelling, 'Trump, Trump, Trump!' According to a university source with knowledge of the event, it occurred Thursday night as the female student, who has not been identified, was walking through a SEPTA tunnel on campus. There, she encountered multiple white males who allegedly ran toward her, shouting the name of the new president-elect. One male forcefully knocked her to the ground, causing her to hit her head, the source said." -- CW ...

... Andrew Marantz of the Guardian: "Trump connected to the segment of the population that was prepared to believe that racism was realism, misogyny was locker-room talk, inconvenient facts were media myths, and viciousness was the new normal. Just as surely as he has redrawn the electoral map, he has radically altered the Overton window. No Presidential candidate before him had ever mocked a disabled reporter, or bragged about his penis size during a debate. What kept every other candidate before him from stooping to these tactics, presumably, was deference to social norms. But norms can be swept aside." -- CW

NYT reporter Sydney Ember publishes, in a tweet, a "letter to NYT readers from Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. & Dean Baquet," the publisher & managing editor of the paper, respectively. Weirdly, the letter to readers does not seem to have appeared in the actual newspaper where, um, readers, might see it. And of course the comments are priceless: "The New York Times is a piece of crap. I will never read it because it will always be biased." CW: Not sure how the writer knows the paper is a piece of crap if he's never read it; some people are just intuitive, I guess. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

AND Andy Borowitz expresses my thoughts when I read that Trump had said he learned something from the President about ObamaCare: "Speaking to reporters late Friday night..., Donald Trump revealed that he had Googled Obamacare for the first time earlier in the day. 'I Googled it, and, I must say, I was surprised,' he said. 'There was a lot in it that really made sense, to be honest.' He said that he regretted that the frenetic pace of the presidential campaign had prevented him from Googling Obamacare earlier." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Andy Newman of the New York Times: "The murder trial of a white former University of Cincinnati police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black driver last year ended in a mistrial on Saturday after the jurors told the judge they were unable to reach a verdict. The jurors first informed the judge on Friday that they were deadlocked, but they were told to continue deliberations. On Saturday morning, the judge declared a mistrial. Officer Ray Tensing fatally shot Samuel DuBose, 43, during a traffic stop as Mr. DuBose started to drive off. Mr. Tensing, 26, claimed that he felt that Mr. Dubose's car was dragging him and that he fired at him because he feared he would be run over. The encounter was captured on video and set off protests." -- CW

News Ledes

New York Times: "A powerful earthquake measuring 7.8 magnitude hit the east coast of New Zealand's South Island just after midnight on Monday, triggering multiple aftershocks and tsunami waves and killing at least two people, officials said. The Ministry of Civil Defense and Emergency Management warned people living near the coast to move inland to higher ground as tsunami waves raised seawater levels in some places by about six feet." CW: Should put a damper on some American's plans to move to New Zealand in the wake of the Trumpocalypse.

Rolling Stone: "Leon Russell, renowned multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who collaborated with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, the Rolling Stones and Elton John over the course of 50 years in the music industry, died Sunday. He was 74." -- CW

In Search of a Hero

What American voters want in a president is a hero, someone who will save us from whatever we may imagine ails us. If you look back at every election in modern times from Ike on forward, the candidate who won appeared more heroic, even if he wasn't, with the possible exception of the victory of Jimmy Carter over Gerald Ford, an election that followed the Watergate debacle & Ford's pardon of Nixon.

The athletic war hero JFK certainly looked more heroic than Nixon. Lyndon Johnson, who manufactured some WWII medals, looked more heroic than the white-haired Barry Goldwater. Although there was nothing heroic in Nixon's appearance, neither was there much in the appearance of his opponents, although George McGovern actually was a WWII hero. Nixon's "heroism" centered, like Trump's, on his promise to restore white America & "save us" from racial equality.

Jimmy Carter actually served on active military duty in WWII; Ronald Reagan served as a PR man, but he was a hero in war (and football) movies! Reagan promised to "save us" from both a horrible economy AND "welfare queens in pink Cadillacs." Bush I was a tall, WWII vet who beat a short guy who looked ridiculous wearing a military helmet while riding around in a tank. Bill Clinton won against two WWII vets, but his older opponents "looked" weak by comparison. Dubya, with his brushhogging swagger, appeared more heroic than the technocrat Al Gore. Barack Obama, whose opponent John McCain was also a real war hero while Obama was not, promised to "save us" from Dubya's recession & McCain's doddering lack of understanding of a free-falling economy. Mitt Romney, who looked the part of a presidential hero figure and came close to unseating a sitting president, still lacked the eloquence and authoritative posture of his opponent.

Donald Trump constantly portrayed himself as heroic -- "Only I can fix it" -- while Clinton appeared to be someone who merely "soldiered on" in the face of repeated adversity. Yes, "it's the economy, stupid," and yes, it's white supremacy, but it's also far less about policy and more about image. Trump won on image; certainly not on substance, because what substance there is, as Clinton might say, is deplorable.

If I were Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, I would not have run for president in 2015-16. Rather, I would have looked, with the help of other party leaders, for another Obama -- someone who conveyed the qualities of the epic hero. It's time to do that now -- to cultivate and promote a core group of younger Democrats -- competent, handsome (or beautiful), and assertive. Skittish Democrats probably won't have the guts to go for it, but the person who replaced Hillary in the Senate, Kirsten Gillibrand, might replace her as the next nominee, too. There are others. I urge all of them to take elocution lessons (Bill Clinton practice by watching & emulating Reagan's style), polish their resumes, and practice looking heroic.

Marie

P.S. If you think this post suggests we want fake heroes rather than real ones -- well, yeah.