;)
The Commentariat -- December 27, 2017
Late Morning Update:
Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: "Politicians, and others in positions of power, should stop corroding civil discourse and seek to unify society, the former US president Barack Obama said in a rare interview conducted by Prince Harry for BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Obama did not mention his successor, Donald Trump, by name, but said social media could lead to facts being discarded and prejudices being reinforced, making public conversation harder. 'All of us in leadership have to find ways to recreate a common space on the internet,' he said.... Trump has been fiercely critical of Obama personally and politically since he entered the Oval Office, but Obama in his first interview since leaving office did not take the chance to hit back, possibly reflecting his wife Michelle's famous dictum: 'When they go low, you go high'." ...
... Here is reputedly audio of the full interview. ...
... Mrs. McC: Don't if this is true, considering the source. News.au: "BRITISH government bureaucrats are urging Prince Harry not to invite the Obamas to his wedding for fear of infuriating Donald Trump. Harry and fiancee Meghan Markle have told aides they want the former US president and wife Michelle at their big day on May 19, according to The Sun." ...
... See also today's commentary on whether or not Harry & Meghan Markle can invite the Obamas to their wedding on accounta it might upset Trumpelthinskin. One possible solution: they can follow the tradition of having the bride's parents act as official hosts & send out the invitations. That way it's not Queen Elizabeth's or Theresa May's fault that the Trumps' invitation accidentally got lost in the mail.
*****
Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: "Trump began his day [Tuesday] criticizing the FBI and claiming that the now-famous dossier containing allegations about his connections to Russia and possible coordination between his campaign and the Kremlin during the 2016 election is a 'pile of garbage.' Trump, who is vacationing at his private estate in Mar-a-Lago, appeared to be watching and quoting from the morning cable-news show 'Fox & Friends' while tweeting. 'WOW, @foxandfrlends "Dossier is bogus. Clinton Campaign, DNC funded Dossier. FBI CANNOT (after all of this time) VERIFY CLAIMS IN DOSSIER OF RUSSIA/TRUMP COLLUSION. FBI TAINTED." And they used this Crooked Hillary pile of garbage as the basis for going after the Trump Campaign!' he tweeted.... Earlier in the morning, Trump touted the tax cut bill he signed into law last week before leaving Washington for his holiday vacation. He took a jab at the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act and promised to 'develop a great new HealthCare plan' to replace it.... He headed out to Trump International Golf Club shortly after sending his morning tweets." ...
... Nicole Lafond of TPM tries to interpret what-all Trump thinks he's talking about in these tweets. ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The idea that the FBI hasn't confirmed the entire Steele dossier is a red herring. There are elements of the dossier that would be of no interest to law enforcement. For instance, confirming the "golden rain" story could constitute an invasion of Trump's privacy; however, confirming that Russia has taped Trump in compromising sexual situations or has other Kompromat on Trump would be highly significant. I would assume the FBI has never had the intention of confirming all of the elements of the dossier, so the assertion that it hasn't been able to "VERIFY CLAIMS" will always be true. ...
... Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) on Tuesday called for a 'purge' of the FBI, warning of 'deep state' figures at work in the agency." Mrs. McC: This is my very own Representative, calling for a dictator-style cleansing of the country's top law enforcement agency. As with all purges, the "offense" is suspicion of supporting an opposition party. We are no longer in danger of going off the rails; we are now the dazed survivors of a massive train wreck. I am not an alarmist; this is happening. And it started at the top. ...
... Rebecca Savransky: "A Former Watergate prosecutor said Tuesday that President Trump's new attacks on the FBI could amount to obstruction of justice. 'It is also a possible obstruction of justice, witness intimidation, and it's obstructing justice by saying to agents you better not dig too deep, you better not find anything because I will attack you,' Jill Wine-Banks said during a segment on MSNBC. 'And this is the president of the United States, it is congressmen who have a national audience and can make people's lives miserable.... It's a serious threat to the investigation and to democracy,'she said." ...
... A Few Legal Problems for Team Trump
Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "In Washington legal circles, there's a broad expectation that [Robert] Mueller will file what's called a superseding indictment of [Paul] Manafort and Rick Gates, his erstwhile business partner -- and alleged partner in crime. Gates and Manafort both pleaded not guilty when Mueller's team filed their indictment on Oct. 30.... In that current indictment, Mueller's team hinted there was more to come. In particular, they hinted at potential tax charges for Manafort's foreign financial transactions.... Anytime federal prosecutors want to charge someone with breaking tax law, they must get approval from the Justice Department's Tax Division. That approval process can be time-consuming[, which would explain the delay & the need for a superseding indictment]. Woodruff reports on indicators of further tax-related indictments of other Trumpies, including Michael Flynn. ...
... Max Kutner of Newsweek: "... Donald Trump should pardon his former national security adviser and campaign aide Michael Flynn ... Flynn's brother said Tuesday. 'About time you pardoned General Flynn who has taken the biggest fall for all of you given the illegitimacy of this confessed crime in the wake of all this corruption,' Joseph Flynn tweeted, though the post was deleted after about 15 minutes. Flynn's tweet came after Trump posted his own miniscreed on Twitter complaining about [Robert] Mueller's probe, among other things.... Joseph Flynn told Newsweek that he found Trump's tweet interesting and so, 'I responded.'" ...
... It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Schneiderman! Danny Hakim & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Eric Schneiderman, New York's attorney general, reached a milestone of sorts recently. By moving to sue the Federal Communications Commission over net neutrality this month, his office took its 100th legal or administrative action against the Trump administration and congressional Republicans. His lawyers have challenged Mr. Trump's first, second and third travel bans and sued over such diverse matters as a rollback in birth control coverage and a weakening of pollution standards. They have also unleashed a flurry of amicus briefs and formal letters, often with other Democratic attorneys general, assailing legislation they see as gutting consumer finance protections or civil rights." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Annie Karni of Politico: "The woman accusing ... Donald Trump's former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, of unwanted touching at a Trump International Hotel party last month has filed a sexual assault report with the Metropolitan Police Department detailing the incident. Joy Villa, 31, a singer and Trump supporter who is exploring a congressional bid in Florida, says Lewandowski slapped her on the butt hard, twice -- even after she voiced an objection."
Mark Hosenball & Jonathan Landay of Reuters: "A Georgian-American businessman who met then-Miss Universe pageant owner Donald Trump in 2013, has been questioned by congressional investigators about whether he helped organize a meeting between Russians and Trump's eldest son during the 2016 election campaign...."
Nicholas Burns, in a USA Today op-ed: "The Trump administration's newly unveiled national security strategy lists reinforcing America's alliances as a major objective. Yet in the first year of his embattled presidency, Donald Trump has so undermined our ties to Europe that we could be on the verge of a break in the seven-decade trans-Atlantic alliance. Trump is the first U.S. president since World War II who does not seem to consider himself the leader of the democratic West. His populist America First platform has opened deep fissures in his relations with European leaders.... He has changed the way the U.S. government talks about our oldest allies, describing the European Union more as an economic competitor than a leading strategic partner." Mrs. McC: Burns was a long-time State Department diplomat who worked under administrations of both parties. He does not toss off alarming, unfounded accusations.
Jonathan Lemire & Zeke Miller of the AP look back at "13 days in July that transformed the White House. Even for an administration that spent most of 2017 throwing off headlines at a dizzying pace, events in the second half of July unfolded at breakneck speed. They encapsulated both the promise and peril of President Donald Trump's first year in office -- and yielded aftershocks that reverberate within the White House even as the calendar turns to 2018. The two-week span laid bare the splintering of Trump's relationships with two influential Cabinet members, foreshadowed the reach of the Russia probe into the interior of his orbit; saw the dramatic, last-minute defeat of one of the president's signature campaign promises; and featured a senior staff shakeup that reset the rhythms of this presidency." Mrs. McC: A good read. You might think the article is a treatment Lemire & Miller are shopping around Hollywood. ...
... Here's a timeline for the 13 days.
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "... the most idiotic program on all of televised news was interviewing Paula White, President Trump's longtime spiritual adviser.... And as it turns out, White does a great job of spewing pro-Trump spiritual talking points without any opposition from her interviewers. The segment, broadcast on Christmas morning on 'Fox & Friends,' sat at the crux of an obsession -- and a lie -- that both Fox News and President Trump hold dear: The idea that under President Barack Obama, Christmas was somehow under siege. And thus, that it somehow needed to be revived. Todd Piro..., [a Fox & Friends' sub], teed up the segment with this claim: 'President Trump, delivering on his promise to put Christ back in Christmas.'" Mrs. McC: Yes, because I remember when President Obummer & his Radical Wife would always sign off on their annual "holiday" videos with, "May the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster drop down your chimney tonight." (Also linked yesterday.)
Benjamin Hart of New York: "In its latest flurry of anti-regulatory activity, the Trump administration is seeking to rescind rules put in place by President Obama after the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, The Wall Street Journal reports: 'The proposed rule would relax requirements to stream real-time data on oil-production operations to facilities onshore, where they currently are available to be reviewed by government regulators. It also would strike a provision requiring third-party inspectors of critical equipment -- like the blowout preventer that failed in the Deepwater Horizon case -- be certified by BSEE.' The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement says the changes would save the oil industry about $900 million over the next decade.... The bureau is leaving in place a rule involving how much pressure drillers can maintain as they build a well. But in a quintessentially Trumpian flourish, it's removing the word safe from that regulation, because it found that the word 'creates ambiguity....'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe Trump hopes everything will die by the time he does.
David Dayen in the New Republic: "Imagine a car dealer sold you a lemon. You sue to get your money back. But the judge discovers that you managed to get yourself around most of the time.... You only missed 10 percent of your appointments, so the judge orders that you are entitled to 10 percent of the price of the car. That's essentially what Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced last week for students defrauded by for-profit chain Corinthian Colleges. Victims of the corrupt diploma mill will not have their student loans discharged; instead, they will get a portion of relief based on their current income. The more professional ingenuity they showed despite being defrauded by Corinthian, the less money they will get in restitution. It's yet another way in which DeVos has acted in favor of the for-profit college industry, which was left for dead after several major companies' deceptive schemes finally caught up with them. Not only is DeVos shielding the industry from the consequences of those misdeeds, she's rewriting the rules to legalize those practices." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: A good chunk of Corinthian's defrauded students were military veterans, whom Corinthian targeted. If they got good jobs after obtaining a Corinthian degree or certificate or whatever, it was probably because of their military experience, not their "college" gig. So Betsy's decision is just another way to stick it to veterans. Also to single mothers, another demographic group Corinthian targeted. Yep. Young people who started life needy should pay extra for any success they might enjoy.
Homeland Away from Homeland. Ron Nixon of the New York Times: "The Department of Homeland Security is increasingly going global. An estimated 2,000 Homeland Security employees -- from Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agents to Transportation Security Administration officials -- now are deployed to more than 70 countries around the world. Hundreds more are either at sea for weeks at a time aboard Coast Guard ships, or patrolling the skies in surveillance planes above the eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The expansion has created tensions with some European countries who say that the United States is trying to export its immigration laws to their territory. But other allies agree with the United States' argument that its longer reach strengthens international security while preventing a terrorist attack, drug shipment, or human smuggling ring from reaching American soil."
Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "Three major cities [-- New York, Philadelphia & San Francisco --] have filed a lawsuit against the Defense Department for its failure to report many criminal convictions in the military justice system to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its national gun background-check database. The Pentagon has for years run afoul of federal laws intended to keep guns out of the hands of felons and domestic abusers by not transmitting to the F.B.I. the names of service members convicted of crimes that disqualify gun ownership. This is what allowed Devin P. Kelley, who was convicted of domestic assault in the Air Force, to buy at a store the rifle he used to kill 25 people, including a pregnant woman whose fetus also died, at a Texas church in November."
We're talking about presidential appointees, political appointees, FBI special agents in charge, U.S. attorneys, wardens, a chief deputy U.S. marshal, a U.S. marshal assistant director, a deputy assistant attorney general. -- Michael Horowitz, DOJ Inspector General ...
... The Department of Injustice, Ctd. Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department has 'systemic' problems in how it handles sexual harassment complaints, with those found to have acted improperly often not receiving appropriate punishment, and the issue requires 'high level action,' according to the department's inspector general. Justice supervisors have mishandled complaints, the IG said, and some perpetrators were given little discipline or even later rewarded with bonuses or performance awards. At the same time, the number of allegations of sexual misconduct has been increasing over the past five years and the complaints have involved senior Justice Department officials across the country. The cases examined by the IG's office include a U.S. attorney who had a sexual relationship with a subordinate and sent harassing texts and emails when it ended; a Civil Division lawyer who groped the breasts and buttocks of two female trial attorneys; and a chief deputy U.S. marshal who had sex with 'approximately' nine women on multiple occasions in his U.S. Marshals Service office...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I wonder if Clarence Thomas insisted his clerks watch porn flicks with him. Or something.
Robert Pear of the New York Times: "... Republican attacks [on ObamaCare], culminating this month in the death of a mandate that most Americans have insurance, are shifting the balance [of private v. public funding], giving the government a larger role than Democrats ever anticipated. And while President Trump insisted again on Tuesday that the health law was 'essentially' being repealed, what remains of it appears relatively stable and increasingly government-funded. I short, President Barack Obama's signature domestic achievement is becoming more like what conservatives despise -- government-run health care -- thanks in part to Republican efforts that are raising premiums for people without government assistance and allowing them to skirt coverage.... Congress's decision to eliminate the individual mandate means that healthier people with less need for insurance are less likely to buy it. The remaining pool of insurance buyers will have higher costs, on average, so insurers will increase premiums even more. And when premiums rise, consumers are entitled to larger subsidies from the federal government to help defray the higher costs." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As soon as Republican legislators threatened to put the mandate on the chopping block as part of the tax heist, health insurance experts in the industry & in the media pointed out that removing the mandate would raise premium prices, thus making more people eligible for subsidies & raising the cost of subsidies of those already eligible. But one of the symptoms of Obama Derangement Syndrome is an inability to hear, read or understand logical consequences. If you thought Republicans were incapable of governing before they passed the tax heist, that one legislative "achievement" is the proof in the pudding.
Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "Sen. Orrin G. Hatch said it was an honor to be 'Utahn of the Year.' It wasn't.... Along with a news article and the photo, the newspaper published a scathing editorial that took aim at the senator's recent record, most notably his part in the Trump administration's decision to shrink two national monuments in the state, and said that the designation was meant to anoint the Utahn who had had the most impact, 'for good or for ill.' Hatch had earned the title because of his part in the 'dramatic dismantling' of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, his role in helping to pass the recent tax code overhaul, and his 'utter lack of integrity that rises from his unquenchable thirst for power,' the editorial board wrote.... Hatch's retweet of the Tribune's front page -- which did not capture any part of the editorial's text -- set off a cascade of ridicule on social media from people who accused the senator of not reading it.... Matt Whitlock, a spokesman for Hatch, said that the senator's tweet was made in jest.... He followed up with a statement that lambasted the newspaper's 'unquenchable thirst for clicks.'"
Natasha Singer of the New York Times: Tech "companies are accelerating their efforts to remake health care by developing or collaborating on new tools for consumers, patients, doctors, insurers and medical researchers. And they are increasingly investing in health start-ups.... Physicians and researchers caution that it is too soon to tell whether novel continuous-monitoring tools, like apps for watches and smartphones, will help reduce disease and prolong lives -- or just send more people to doctors for unnecessary tests."
Beyond the Beltway
Graham Moomaw of the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch: "Virginia's State Board of Elections has postponed a scheduled tiebreaker in a Newport News-area House of Delegates race after Democrat Shelly Simonds announced an eleventh-hour legal challenge asking the judges that oversaw last week's recount to reverse themselves and declare her the winner. Simonds is expected to file legal paperwork in Newport News Circuit Court on Wednesday asking the three-judge recount panel in the 94th House District to reconsider its 'erroneous' decision to count one additional ballot for Republican Del. David E. Yancey late in the recount process."
Way Beyond
Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "Four defectors from the area near North Korea's nuclear testing site showed symptoms that could be attributed to radiation exposure, but scientists said they could not conclude that the health problems had been caused by a nuclear test, the South Korean government said on Wednesday. The four arrived in South Korea from Kilju, a county in northeastern North Korea that includes Punggye-ri, where the North has conducted all six of its nuclear tests in tunnels dug deep beneath the mountains. South Korea began conducting medical exams of defectors from that region in October, a month after the North conducted its biggest test explosion yet."
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Reader Comments (20)
News flash: the richest got way more rich in 2017. That's why they need tax relief. The struggle is real.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-27/world-s-wealthiest-gain-1-trillion-in-17-on-market-exuberance
@Patrick: OOPS.
WaPo: Israel's transport minister wants to name a new Jerusalem train station after Trump.
Israel gets it!!!. If they named a 'rest room' Trump, they would get total support. I think we are going to see a lot of renamed building that are going to cost America billions and none of the buildings will be in the US.
Kim Jong Un, do you want to own the entire peninsula? Try North Trump!
Elizabeth Hardwick once described Boston as "wrinkled, spindly-legged, depleted of nearly all her spiritual and cutaneous oils, provincial, self-esteeming–-has gone on spending and spending her inflated bills of pure reputation , decade after decade."
This might have been around the time Boston was embroiled in the nasty bus boycotts––those white Bostonians didn't like "them dirty niggers" integrating their schools. Last night PBS featured the Spotlight journalists (they uncovered the priest scandal–-see the film "Spotlight") from the Boston Globe and illuminates Boston's racial disparities. With video.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/spotlight-journalists-illuminate-bostons-unique-racial-disparities
Didn't see the link to the Lemire/Miller 13-day piece, but found the story here on the WaPo.
Trump and Melania's Christmas message was, as they said, not only for us Mericans, BUT for the ENTIRE world. Pray tell, then, why would you send this kind of message?
""In the season of joy, we spend time with our families, we renew the bonds of love and goodwill between our citizens and most importantly we celebrate the miracle of Christmas. For Christians we remember the story of Jesus, Mary and Joseph that began more than 2,000 years ago. As the book of Isaiah tells us, for to us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. This good news is the greatest Christmas gift of all, the reason for our joy and the true source of our hope."
First of all one gets the sneaking suspicion that Trump is equating all those descriptions of this " Mighty God" to himself. Then, of course, is the fact that the "entire world" and many Americans are NOT Christian. The "good news" here is the birth of Jesus which according to this message is not only the greatest gift of all but the reason for ALL of our–-the entire world's––joy and true source of our hope. Now, I ask you, don't that just curdle your milk?
I wanted to ask my old pal God about all this, but unfortunately he was off on cloud 9 watching Netflix's new streaming classic "The Godfather" and couldn't be bothered.
@unwashed: Sorry about that; I've added the link (directly to the AP site) above. This is my Oopsy Day. I started by leaving open a test box, to which Patrick appended a funny two-word comment. Then left off the AP link. I'm going out a little later to dig my car out of the snow, again. The snow is ice-covered & the temps are barely inching into the teens. I hope none of my oopsies today involve falling on ice.
@Bea, do be careful. My wife has these things that are like rubber sandals with steel spikes molded into them. She stretches them over (under?) her boots whenever it's bad here. Got 'em at the local hardware store.
@PD Pepe: You're quite right. The part of Isaiah which Trump cited was probably written in the 8th century BCE (so way more than 2,000 years ago), & it prophesies a God-anointed Jewish messiah who was to be head of state. There are many Gospel passages that describe what Jesus was supposed to be like, but they hardly assert he was head of state; in fact, they were written in reaction to the fall of the Jerusalem at a time no Jewish-run state at all existed or was likely to resume.
So, yeah, Trump (or, more likely, his speechwriter) chose the Isaiah passage which praises an ideal, "wonderful" messiah. You know, like Trump. But also one who never really materialized (altho Jews did name a few messiahs, including Simon Maccabee, & there were plenty of self-anointed ones). There is a certain perfection in a fake Christian telling a fake Christmas story implying his fake self equates to an unrealized (fake) prophecy. If you compare Trump's Christmas message to Queen Elizabeth's, you might begin to wish Americans had lost the Revolution.
Merry Christmas, P.D. And thanks for having the fortitude to watch Trump's message. I didn't.
After seeing this again and again, it appears that Trump's primary source of information as POTUS is Fox & Friends'.
Prince Harry has a problem. He has a real friend named Obama that he wants to invite to his wedding. The UK government is concerned that the fake POTUS will be upset that he wasn't invited. They can't invite Trump because that would turn the event into a protest.
Two possibilities. Invite Obama and ignore the idiot or follow the Israel lead and rename Trafalgar Square. Or simply it's time to recognize the limitations with the mentally ill.
Burns' op-ed well describes but doesn't much explain the Pretender's behavior toward Europe.
Let me advance two thoughts.
His base appreciates his nativist posturing. There has long been a thread of anti-European feeling of various colors and weights in our politics and advancing some now to a base taught to fear both the social and the democratic in Europe's social democracies makes some political sense here at home.
More simply maybe, Putin likes it, and the Pretender works for Putin.
The second gets my vote. There is no doubt, considering the bluster the totally unsubstantiated dossier continues to prompt, the Pretender is in thrall to Europe's enemy.
Period.
Upper lips not so stiff...
Boo-hoo. Things across the pond are tense enough what with Brexit breathing down their necks and a PM battling a severe lack of confidence, sexual harassment scandals and their very own Trump-like idiot, Boris Johnson, shooting his fat mouth off about things he knows nothing about (a Trumpy specialty). Now they have to worry about the biggest baby in the Western World (and one of the biggest in history, since he's always so concerned about his place in it), Wah-Wah Trump.
If Prince Harry invites the horrid nee-groe Obama and his horrid nee-groe wife Michelle to his wedding with Meghan Markle (who is part horrid nee-groe), little Wah-Wah may do poopies in his diapey, or nappy, as they say over there.
Have we ever had a more infantile, selfish, egocentric little baby in high public office in this country?
The British ought to know by now that it doesn't matter if they bend over backwards for Wah-Wah, if he wakes up on the wrong side of his crib one morning, if his baba isn't on time or if his poopy diapey hasn't been changed quickly enough, he will tweet something along the lines of "Too bad Philip's Armada hit that storm!" Oh, wait. That is, if he knew who King Philip was.
So now the twitchers at 10 Downing are reportedly putting pressure on Harry, who has a good relationship with the Obamas, to refuse to invite them lest Wah-Wah pee his pants.
Grow up, Brits. Show some spine, otherwise, I'm tempted to call upon old pal Will to tell you what he thinks: "[You are] pigeon-liver’d and lack gall."
(The hoops people are jumping through to keep an infant from taking off his diaper and running around the house in front of company. This might be cute with a one year old, but a 70 year old one year old? Ewwww.)
About DiJiT's Christmas message.
Of course it was written by someone else, who was probably attuned less to the original Isaiah and more to the Christmassy rhythms of the Handel Messiah oratorio.
And to be fair to that staffwriter, he/she only drew on the long tradition that the Christmas message is for the whole world, not just for believers.
Well get pretty much the same message April 8, Buddha's birthday. Not so much with the caroling and stuff, though.
Patrick,
The strains of Handel's music came immediately to mind as I read the words PD relates from the Trumpy Message of Personal Greatness and Deification, notably from the "For Unto Us a Child is Born" chorus.
As much as I love the music of Messiah (having done a number of Messiah sings in the past), I had never really considered some of the underlying messages of the text. About a month ago, prowling the dusty bins of a used bookstore, I pulled out a book by musicologist Michael Marissen, that uncovers a possible strain of anti-Semitism in the lyrics. Perhaps not so much full on white supremacist anti-Semitism, but more of a triumphalist sensibility to the fall of Judea for not accepting Jesus as the Messiah, a sense that "they got what they deserved".
Marissen wrote a Times piece some years ago (you can read it here), that eventually became this book. The book, I warn you, is heavy with close textual analysis and an academically minded hermeneutical approach. You might want to read the article first.
One of the points Marissen makes in rebutting the sense that Handel was actually pro-Jewish (he wrote a number of important pieces using Old Testament figures and stories) is his contention that Handel, like many current Christians I would wager, is not so much a supporter of Judaism, per se, as he is enthused by Biblical figures who can be easily transmogrified into "proto-Christians". The vogue in evangelical Christian circles (and, ergo, in the little king's small brain) for the presumption of Jerusalem as an enclave of Judeo-Christian (accent on the Christian) prophecies regarding it's importance in end times comes from a similar mindset. Jerusalem is important, naturally, to Jews, as central to its place in history and as the home of Abraham and David among other things. To evangelicals being wooed and now mollified by Trump, it's the place from which Jesus will oversee the end of the world. It's about prophecy. Not peace. So, a longing for a Mooslim-free Jerusalem is more about Christian triumphalism, not really a nice thing for Israel or the Jewish diaspora.
One other point of interest involves the author (or rather editor) of Messiah's lyrics, Charles Jennens. I think I knew about this guy before but put him aside because Handel considered himself such an expert on Biblical texts that, when commissioned to write the anthems for the coronation of King George II, Handel, very nicely, told the Archbishop of Canterbury, who informed the composer that he would be choosing the lyrics, to kindly fuck off. The first coronation anthem, "Zadok the Priest" is a stunning piece, the lyrics coming from the Biblical story of Zadok and Nathan the Prophet crowning Solomon king. It's one of the interesting Handelian pieces where halfway through, he switches the meter, changing back again toward the end, which gives the middle part ("the people rejoiced" part) it's propulsive feel. I've always wondered, however, if Solomon himself knocked on the door of the palace, would ol' George have invited him in or turned him away as a Shylock-like bill collector.
Anyway, enough of that sidebar. Jennens, a wealthy patron of the arts and man about town, and friend of Handel, chose the lyrics for Messiah. And he did so partially to offset what he, and others, saw as the dangerous vogue for Deism (becoming a big thing in the colonies at the time, and eventually the source of religious feeling for many educated Americans). The idea that perhaps Jesus wasn't the Messiah and that, yeah, there was a god, but he was pretty much an absentee landlord and it's up to us to make our lives better, did not set well with traditional Christians.
So, we get Christian triumphalism.
Make of that what you will. I still love the piece, but a sense of the history behind its lyrical selections adds a bit of tension and most certainly invests the Trumpy choice of words that appear in Messiah with a darker shading.
I most certainly have no thought that, as you suggest, Trump chose those words. He's probably never read the Bible in his life, and likely has never given a thought to the underpinnings of lyrics written for a musical piece almost two hundred years old.
But he definitely seeks to profit from an overt sense of the same sort of triumphalism that he senses will get him a few votes from the Bible bangers.
Merry Christmas, asshole.
Oh, the problem with those royal weddings! Well, not the weddings so much as the wannabee invitees! Seem to recall a bit of a dilemma some decades ago...Nancy Reagan (sans Ronnie) simply had to attend the wedding for Diana & Charles.
@Patrick: Whew! my quick glance at your comment and my eyes elided the A of April to the next word...OMG Aqua Buddha. First thought, why sing carols to Ron Paul? Really, I need stronger glasses.
@unwashed: YakTrax
MAG,
Yaktrax! What a great idea. They remind me of the chains we used to put on tires in the winter when I was a kid. Of course a lot of people up north used to own two sets of tires, regular ones for the spring and summer, and snow tires for the late fall and winter. The studs in those things started chewing up roadways (back when we cared about infrastructure), so they were banned in some states.
But I could have used these things when winter backpacking.
Of course the fact that snowfall (despite lake effect snow in places like Erie, PA) has fallen off dramatically since those days plays no role in the thinking of idiots on the right. Hey, maybe someone will invent a sort of mental Yaktrax--Braintrax--for the slower amongst us, to help them climb those slippery slopes to mental acuity and basic awareness of scientific evidence. "Make your way easily from ignorance to fact!" could be the tag. Not catchy enough? How about "Stop being so fucking stupid!" (Or as Confederates like to say "Get a brain, moran".)
But if Braintrax took off, and started chewing up ideological roadways, Confederates would ban them. Their motto, after all, is not "Adaequatio intellectus nostri cum re".
@Ak: also "Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas."
Braintrax, you might wanna get a patent.
Do I remember chains? You bet. Always fun when one link broke and you noisily clanged your way home.
DeVos Poker.
The DeVos ruling designed to help her wealthy "education"-for-profit, gangster pals, is a fucking outrage.
It's a lot of things, all bad, but at root, here's what's going on. DeVos (and Trump) are the dealers in a poker game. Sitting at the table are rich investors in for-profit scams and students roped into paying through the nose for an "education" they are promised will get them a high paying job.
The game is draw poker. The students are dealt five cards. They look at their hand and can draw up to three cards after tossing out cards that don't help (four with an ace). Then the final betting takes place and everyone still in the game shows their hand. That's for the students. DeVos's pals are dealt ten cards and can draw up to eight new cards (nine with an ace) to make their best hand of five. If they don't like the cards they draw, they get an additional draw. In fact, they can draw new cards until they get an unbeatable hand.
The show of hands is just, well, for show. No one beats DeVos's pals. That's the rule.
DeVos poker. You don't want to be sitting at that table.
Unfortunately, Trump poker is played the same way. And we're all at that table.
Oh, and by the way. The deal is never passed. Only DeVos and Trump, or Sessions or Mnuchin or the other Trumpy crooks get to deal.
In college we played a lot of poker variations. One was "six high-low with a blow". Here, all you get is a blow. To the back of the head.
MAG,
Yeah, that's the Trump motto.
I forgot about those broken links! Smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, all the way home. Ahhh....memories.
Business Insider website has a delightful story about a young man who is really going places: Braxton Winston of Charlotte. The story is primarily about his mentor the CEO of Bank of America (yeah,I know). Braxton Winston happened to be photographed at a protest after a black man was murdered--you will likely remember the striking picture of him. He has now been elected to a city position and I think his election will help that city a great deal.
Happy new year, all.