;)
The Commentariat -- Nov. 20, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Patrick Temple-West of Politico: "... Donald Trump will prioritize repealing President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare law right 'out of the gate' once he takes office..., Mike Pence said Sunday." -- CW
They've Got Ethics! Patrick Temple-West: "Overhauling the government's ethics laws will be a top priority for ... Donald Trump in Congress next year..., Mike Pence said Sunday. Speaking on 'Face the Nation' on CBS, Pence declined to affirm that lobbyists will not serve in Trump's administration. Trump, who had campaigned on the notion that he would 'drain the swamp' in Washington, drew fire last week for initially including lobbyists on his transition team." -- CW
Joanna Plucinska of Politico: "The U.K. government is deploying the Queen to reach out to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and establish a good relationship with his administration after his inauguration. The Queen is expected to extend a formal invitation to Trump soon after he is sworn in as president on January 20, according to the Sunday Times." CW: Elizabeth has endured worse tinpot dictators than Trump.
Mallory Shelbourne of the Hill: "Melania Trump and her son, Barron, will not move to the White House after ... Donald Trump takes the oath of office, according to a report in the New York Post." CW: As Rockygirl predicted yesterday, "She & her son will remain ensconced in Trump Tower, emerging only when absolutely necessary."
*****
Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "President Obama sought to reassure leaders ... at an annual [Asia Pacific economic] summit [in Lima, Peru,] that the United States would continue to pursue closer ties with the Asia-Pacific region, even though Donald Trump's presidency is sure to reshape America's approach to the region.... But Trump's sharp criticism of trade deals such as the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)..., and his suggestion that long-standing U.S. military base agreements in Japan and South Korea might be too expensive to maintain, threatens to reverse the Obama administration's agenda and upend decades of American leadership in the region." -- CW
Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The heads of the Pentagon and the nation's intelligence community have recommended to President Obama that the director of the National Security Agency, Adm. Michael S. Rogers, be removed. The recommendation, delivered to the White House last month, was made by Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., according to several U.S. officials familiar with the matter. Action has been delayed, some administration officials said, because relieving Rogers of his duties is tied to another controversial recommendation: to create separate chains of command at the NSA and the military's cyberwarfare unit, a recommendation by Clapper and Carter that has been stalled because of other issues." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... The story has been updated: "The news comes as Rogers is being considered by ... Donald Trump to be his nominee for director of national intelligence to replace Clapper as the official who oversees all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies. In a move apparently unprecedented for a military officer, Rogers, without notifying superiors, traveled to New York to meet with Trump on Thursday at Trump Tower."
Julie Pace & Jonathan Lamire of the AP: "... Donald Trump is filling his Twitter feed like the campaigner of old even while racing to fill senior positions in his administration. Trump was meeting Saturday with one of his sharpest Republican critics of the campaign, 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, at Trump's golf club in New Jersey, and on Sunday with two leading supporters, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. During the campaign, Romney called Trump a 'con man' and a 'fraud,' while Trump repeatedly called Romney a 'loser.' But first came a tweetstorm.... [Trump] rushed to the defense of Mike Pence on Saturday after 'Hamilton' actor Brandon Victor Dixon challenged the incoming vice president from the Broadway stage.... [See stories yesterday & below.] Trump also bragged on Twitter about agreeing to settle a trio of lawsuits against Trump University, claiming: 'The ONLY bad thing about winning the presidency is that I did not have the time to go through a long but winning trial on Trump U. Too bad!'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update. Michael Schmidt & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump met with Mr. Romney for about an hour and a half. Afterward, both men exited the clubhouse and shook hands for the cameras. 'Went great,' Mr. Trump said, cupping his hands at his mouth to project his voice. Mr. Romney then briefly addressed reporters, declining to say whether he was interested in a cabinet position. 'We had a far-reaching conversation with regard to the various theaters of the world with interest to the United States of real significance,' Mr. Romney said.... Mr. Romney did not answer reporters' questions about whether he had apologized to Mr. Trump for his criticism of him during the campaign." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Ashley Parker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A senior adviser described the meeting, in part, as Mr. Romney simply coming to pay his respects to ... [Trump] and 'kiss his ring.'" -- CW
"You're Fired!" Implausibly, Trump Worried about Having Jerks on His Team. Isaac Isenstadt of Politico: "... just a few months after being denied the VP slot, [Chris] Christie suffered another public humiliation -- he was stripped of his leadership of Trump's presidential transition. In a phone call last week..., [Trump] told Christie that he had become a political liability. Trump and his top aides were most concerned about two issues, according to nearly a dozen people briefed on the process: Christie's mismanagement of the transition, and the lingering political fallout of the Bridgegate scandal.... In the days following the election..., Trump ... vented about how the governor had loaded up the team with lobbyists, the very class of people Trump had campaigned against, with his calls to 'drain the swamp' in Washington.... [Trump] also noticed that Christie had stocked his team with old New Jersey friends and allies." -- CW ...
... BUT. Brent Griffiths of Politico: "... Donald Trump will meet with Chris Christie on Sunday, an indication of how Trump is maintaining ties to the New Jersey governor despite removing him as the head of his transition team." CW: Trump is meeting with more than a dozen candidates for high office this weekend, so the Christie confab looks more like either a 10-minute courtesy meeting or a brush-off. We'll see.
Nothing to See, Folks. Eric Lipton & Ellen Barry of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump met in the last week in his office at Trump Tower with three Indian business partners who are building a Trump-branded luxury apartment complex south of Mumbai, raising new questions about how he will separate his business dealings from the work of the government once he is in the White House. A spokeswoman for Mr. Trump described the meeting as a courtesy call by the three Indian real estate executives, who flew from India to congratulate Mr. Trump on his election victory. In a picture posted on Twitter, all four men are smiling and giving a thumbs-up." -- CW
The Theater must always be a safe and special place. The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize! -- Donald Trump
... Trump needs a refresher on his high school civics class.... The First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy, and Democratic and Republican presidents alike have understood that freedom of speech makes our country stronger -- even if it sometimes make our leaders uncomfortable. The apology should instead come from ... Trump for calling into question the appropriateness of the Hamilton cast's statements. -- ACLU executive director Anthony D. Romero, on Trump's demand for an apology after a "Hamilton" cast member asked mike pence to uphold the rights of all Americans ...
... Peter Marks of the Washington Post: "Maybe by 'safe and special' he means the theater is supposed to be docile, an innocuous landscape filled exclusively with chorus girls and holiday pageants. But let's be clear: 'Safe' theater is dead theater. Conflict is what drives drama, and sometimes, emotions in that public space become intense and things get messy.... The challenging words by the 'Hamilton' cast and the contretemps surrounding them portend a contentious relationship between the Republican-led government and an arts community that may be preparing to take it on publicly. In the context of a musical about a revolution, the events of Friday night look like life imitating art." -- CW ...
... CW: Maybe by "safe and special," Trump is alluding to Washington, D.C.'s Ford Theater, ca. 1865. When an anti-Trump Republican unfurled a banner at a Trump rally, campaign aides & Trump Jr. called it an assassination attempt; this might be just an instance of Trump and some of his surrogates chewing the scenery. Overstating grievances is a GOP way of life, and Trump has perfected it.
... Tara Golshan of Vox: "Hamilton's cast reminded Pence that inclusivity is an American value. Trump wants an apology.... Donald Trump's latest Twitter feud is with the cast of Hamilton.... If anything..., it signifies that Trump's quick temper, and inability to let criticism slide, may very likely continue through his time in office." -- CW ...
... Annie Laurie of Balloon Juice: "... Hamilton is a musical about a bunch of New York City immigrants, played by a cast of not-white actors, many of them openly LGBT. People like Mike Pence go to Hamilton to confirm their conviction that New Yorkers have always been filthy immigrants who proudly mock God and 'history' while celebrating their perversities with every variety of that noisy jungle music. Getting boo'd at Hamilton gives Mike Pence immense 'street cred' with the neo-Nazis clotting around Steve Bannon, official Trump strategist-in-chief; since Bannon has a lot more influence with Trump than Mike Pence will ever accrue, Pence probably enjoyed the public opprobrium more than he did the play itself." -- CW
** Trump Preps to Violate Constitution from Day One. Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "Friday evening, the Washington Post reported that about 100 foreign diplomats gathered at ... Donald Trump's hotel in Washington, DC to 'to sip Trump-branded champagne, dine on sliders and hear a sales pitch about the U.S. president-elect's newest hotel.'... The Post also quoted some of the diplomats saying they intended to stay at the hotel in order to ingratiate themselves to the incoming president.... The incoming president, in other words, is actively soliciting business from agents of foreign governments. Many of these agents, in turn, said that they will accept the president-elect's offer to do business because they want to win favor with the new leader of the United States.... Richard Painter..., who previously served as chief ethics counsel to President George W. Bush, says that Trump's efforts to do business with these diplomats is at odds with a provision of the Constitution [-- the 'Emoluments Clause' --] intended to prevent foreign states from effectively buying influence with federal officials.... On Twitter, Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe agrees with Painter...."
... CW: If "Emoluments Clause" doesn't slide right off your tongue now, you will soon know it better than Tenthers know the Tenth Amendment. ...
... Judd Legum of Think Progress: "Donald Trump is leveraging his new position as president-elect to empower his business empire -- and he's doing it publicly.... In his first meeting with a head of state, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump invited his daughter Ivanka -- who will likely serve as acting CEO of his companies -- to participate.... His team handed out a photo featuring Ivanka.... Trump is choosing to send a clear signal to Japan and the world .... Any country doing business with the Trump organization will be very clear about Ivanka's role.... The Trump transition did something similar when it leaked word that Trump had requested security clearances for Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr.... Trump later denied this report but at that point, it hardly mattered. The story was another way for the Trump transition to credential his children as integral to, not separate from, the Trump administration." ...
... CW: The question now is how much of this House Republicans will put up with. Since they'd rather have mike pence as president, maybe not too much. Trump's mistake in choosing pence as a running mate over, say, Chris Christie or Ben Carson, is that pence is far more palatable to the GOP than is Trump. Before the election, House members were planning an impeachment of Hillary Clinton; it's not crazy to think they might get their grandstanding impeachment hearings even without her as foil.
Daniel Golden of ProPublica, in a story co-published in the Guardian: Jared Kuschner got into Harvard because his parents "had pledged $2.5 million to Harvard University in 1998, not long before his son Jared was admitted.... Administrators at Jared's high school ... described him as a less than stellar student and expressed dismay at Harvard's decision. 'There was no way anybody in the administrative office of the school thought he would on the merits get into Harvard,' a former official at The Frisch School in Paramus, New Jersey, told me. 'His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it.... Then, lo and behold, Jared was accepted. It was a little bit disappointing because there were at the time other kids we thought should really get in on the merits, and they did not.'" CW: I guess that helps explain the question I asked yesterday about why so many prominent confederates have Harvard degrees. They bought 'em.
Michael Crowley of Politico: "Republican Sen. John McCain issued a fiery warning to ... Donald Trump on the subject of torture Saturday. 'I don't give a damn what the president of the United States wants to do. We will not waterboard,' McCain told an audience at the annual Halifax International Security Forum. 'We will not torture people ... It doesn't work.'... Anyone who tries to resume torture, McCain added to applause from the crowd of American, Canadian and European security officials and experts, would find themselves in court 'in a New York minute.'... Trump has repeatedly said that he would use much harsher measures against suspected terrorists.... On Saturday, McCain reminded the audience that torture remains illegal under the Geneva Conventions and was also banned by Congress last year. That law, signed by President Barack Obama, restricts interrogation techniques to those outlined by the U.S. Army Field Manual -- which does not permit waterboarding." -- CW
Expanding the Forever War. Michael Hirsh in Politico Magazine: President "Obama repeatedly sought to remind Americans that it was precisely the idea of a 'clash of civilizations' that Islamists embraced -- because it frames the conflict as one against all of Islam and its culture, not just the jihadists. But ... Trump appears open to the clash-of-civilizations idea — one that fits neatly with his view of an America that rejects 'globalism,' tightens up its borders against immigrants, and bans most new Muslims from coming in until they can be 'vetted.' 'I think Islam hates us,' Trump told CNN's Anderson Cooper last March. While he said he was speaking of radical Islam, he added: 'It's very hard to define. It's very hard to separate. Because you don't know who's who.' For the Trump team, who did not respond to a request for comment, Muslims appear to be guilty of radical sympathies until proven innocent. That approach, some scholars say, will be a terrible mistake, 15 years into what is already seen by some as a 'Forever War.'" -- CW
Welcome to the U.S. Now Get Out! Mallory Shelbourne of the Hill: "A federal judge this week said at a U.S. citizenship ceremony that anyone unhappy with ... Donald Trump should go to a different country. 'I can assure you that whether you voted for him or you did not vote for him, if you are a citizen of the United States, he is your president,' Judge John Primomo said Thursday, according to KHOU 11 News. 'He will be your president and if you do not like that, you need to go to another country.' At the ceremony in San Antonio, the judge condemned Americans who have protested by holding signs that read 'Not my president' in the days since Trump won the election." -- CW
Alan Rappeport & Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "... on Saturday, in the wake of 's surprising election victory, hundreds of his extremist supporters converged on [Washington, D.C.,] to herald a moment of political ascendance that many had thought to be far away.... Members of the so-called alt-right movement gathered for what they had supposed would be an autopsy to plot their grim future under a Clinton administration. Instead, they celebrated the unexpected march of their white nationalist ideas toward the mainstream, portraying Mr. Trump's win as validation that the tide had turned in their fight to preserve white culture. 'It's been an awakening,' Richard B. Spencer, who is credited with coining the term alt-right, said at the gathering on Saturday. 'This is what a successful movement looks like.'" -- CW ...
... CW: If you'd like to know what Spencer's views are, read it and get sick. (And this, I suspect, is the sanitized version.) Anyway ... Thanks, Drumpf!
Erin Keane of Salon: "In the cold, bitter light of November 2016, truthiness sounds positively quaint. We're in the 'post-truth' era now, baby. The word of this year gained popularity in the aftermath of the Brexit vote and took on a life of its own and three more heads, it seems, as Donald Trump's campaign for president with its wild claims to 'Make America Great Again' proved unstoppable. Now it's the Oxford Dictionaries' word of the year for 2016." -- CW ...
... CW: The whole idea of deconstruction was to assume that text was so "unstable" that it could be analyzed down to the point that it meant sometime very different from, or even opposite of, what the writer thought she wrote (and what a "traditional" reader-critic would glean), and reader-response adherents deem the writer and her words meaningless until readers (whatever their views) interpreted them. It is a way of giving the literary critic power over the artist. It is probably coincidental that Republicans adopted anti-truth and no-truth at the same time literary critics did, but Trump is the avatar of the conservo-nihilism & fake-news phenomena, not an aberration, as the "sensible" Bush branch of the GOP likes to pretend.
I watched parts of ... Saturday Night Live last night. It is a totally one-sided, biased show - nothing funny at all. Equal time for us? — Donald J. Trump, arts critic November 20 ...
CW: After reading some of that raft of media stories about how we all have to start appreciating the trials, tribulations and grievances of an America time forgot -- trials, etc. that are so horrendous they made lovely rural people vote for perhaps the worst presidential nominee in American history -- maybe you're feeling a little guilty about not really giving a fuck about the hard life of a guy who's still wearing his "Trump that Bitch" T-shirt to the tractor pull. To help you get over the guilt thing, I suggest you watch Tess Rafferty's monologue, embedded in yesterday's Commentariat.
Alan Yuhas of the Guardian: "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced new steps to counter fake news on the platform on Saturday, marking a departure from his skepticism that online misinformation is, as Barack Obama said this week, a threat to democratic institutions. 'We take misinformation seriously,' Zuckerberg wrote in a post on Saturday.... Zuckerberg said that the company has 'relied on our community to help us understand what is fake and what is not', citing a tool to report false links and shared material from fact-checking sites. 'Similar to clickbait, spam and scams, we penalize [misinformation] in News Feed so it's much less likely to spread,' he wrote.... Facebook has 'reached out' to 'respected fact-checking organizations' for third-party verification, Zuckerberg said, though he did not provide specifics." -- CW
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Republican Sen. John McCain issued a fiery warning to ... Donald Trump on the subject of torture...
Yaawwwn, John McCain, he's your guy.
BBC Newsnight with Simon Schama.
A speech by Elizabeth Warren. Though I don't believe in the kind of bipartisanship that Cons mean, i.e., Dems cave. If quality infrastructure bills are to be passed they should include compromise with Dems. Oh, I hear cons saying, poison pills! What, like those they added to Dem bills? Yes, poison pills like, increased background checks on gun sales, expanded Medicare, Medicaid, consumer protection, voting rights. Bills ready to go.
Both these clips from very articulate, and passionate people express some of the issues, and dangers, we face. I'm sorry I didn't post them earlier.
According to the Washington Post, the Rat and the Nazi had a "far-reaching" discussion. Nice. I'm guessing that in order to stay relevant in the Age of Hate, at least to Trump voters, the far-reaching part involved Romney giving Drumpf a little tuggy under the table. But hey, Mittens, at least you reassured everyone who voted against you that you have the moral fiber to stand up to evil in the world, so there's that. One more Confederate star forfeits all credibility in order to don the brown shirt his party has always tried to keep hidden in the dirty laundry. Winger pundits have been talking about their deep bench for years. We couldn't find it because it was in Nuremberg all this time. Heil Drumpf.
@Akhilleus:
The king was in the White House,
Counting out his money;
The queen was in Trump Tower,
Eating scones and honey.
The Rat was in the Rathaus
Having quite a funk,
When along came a Trumpbot
And pecked off his junk.
Now that the purpose of all policies is to Trump, its time to start renaming all federal building, you know the Trump Statue of Liberty and the White House called the Trump Hospice for the Mentally Ill.
Trump supporters want to boycott 'Hamilton'. That should cause a loss of about 3 tickets since I doubt that most know who Hamilton was.
DJT tweeted that the theater is a "safe" space.
Aristophanes would laugh. After all, the man who invented stage political comedy should know a joke when he hears one.
@Marie: Your mention of Harvard's admitting those of questionable credentials reminded me of a scene in some film where a smart alack son of a wealthy father who had given millions to a prestige college for a library, was told by the admitting counselor that sorry, he was not up to snuff grade wise to be admitted. The kid, incredulous, reminded the counselor of the library. There is silence––the counselor, tight lipped, staring straight at the kid, finally said: "When we accept donations we assume there are no gratuitous ties to that money; what a pity you assume there were. Good day, young man."
Don't you love films?
P.S. and liked the poem! "pecked off his junk"––yowsa!
and from yesterday re: the bashing of the next first lady. I was not criticizing anyone here–-their comments were justified. That I feel uncomfortable is my own thing.
So Trump says "Hamilton" is "overrated". For all I know it may be, I haven't seen the production, and I'm willing to bet Trump hasn't either.
Another thought; Will Trump continue to use his own plane as president? After all, Air Force One isn't anywhere near as grandly fitted out as Trumps aerial digs.
I tried posting this link above earlier but apparently it got lost in the intertoobz. It's a telling example of what a master manipulator Drumpf is of the news cycle, and it's something that news leaders need to pay extra special attention to during the next four scandal-fueled years.
https://thinkprogress.org/dont-be-distracted-by-the-trump-circus-2c751f129684#.grpzk33ei
We need to keep our Eye on the Prize, and not let Drumpf bury his real scandals with comedic interludes.
@Bobby Lee: Trump would be required to use AF1 because it's outfitted with all kinds of secure features for personal safety, communications & so on. But I could certainly foresee Trump trying to (a) get Congress to buy him a new, gold-plated AF1, or (b) get his own largest plane fitted out -- at the cost of hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars -- with the unique features AF1 already has.
Marie
Betcha the real reason Melania won't move into the WH is because the Master's bedroom doesn't have two bathrooms directly connected to it. She'd either have to walk thru the living room to get to hers, or, maybe, set up camp in the Queen's at the other end of the wing (little Barron could take Lincoln's). Can't say I'd blame her. I'd want to get as far away as I could from his shit, too.
You already know the tune:
Beneath these gray polluted skies. just breathing is a pain
and once these dusty, barren, fields were amber waves of grain
We've plowed the fields, we've felled the trees, we've damned the rivers too
and we know there will come a day they will damn me and you.
America, America, God what we've done to thee.
All in the name of progress, and profitability.
We've always known that in real life, as distinct from movies, the rich and influential could buy their degrees at some of those Ivy League universities. Knowing someone as profoundly stupid as ("Like a rock, only dumber") W went to Yale (thanks, daddy), how much dumber must clownstick be that daddy Fred could not even buy his admission?
Well the stage has been cleared for Ivanka to take over the "First Lady" duties. Daughters, cousins, friends have assumed 1st lady duties before, but in my reading, its been when a wife was incapacitated or ill, the president was a widower or bachelor or for a one off trip that is even a stretch to qualify as 1st lady duties (Yalta-FDR's daughter). I'm 100% sure the media will try to say Melania in NYC "perfectly normal", as it has happened before and her son needs to stay at his private school. Even though the circumstances are completely different. Malia and Sasha Obama were 10 and 7, respectively when their father took office. The Obamas recognized the importance of a First Family in the WH. Wonder if all that working class butt hurt even recognizes the "elite" nature of the private school gig.
Anyhoo. I think this was arranged long ago to make way for Ivanka. I find the Trump-Ivanka relationship clinically creepy in a very incestuous way.
A last word on Melania. She is a grown woman who appears to have basic intelligence. She has made her decisions with eyes wide open and she must be aware of Trump's long history of despicable behavior, public long before she came into the picture. Acting on her own behalf, she lied on numerous occasions and stole the words of our First Lady in order to appear better, smarter, more learned. She doesn't get a pass for her behavior. Its willful and is demeaning, especially to women. Neither Melania's lies, plagiarizing, her minimizing Trump's criminal assault, nor her personal history engenders the title of role model to a nation. Both of them, not just Trump are uncharitable literally and figuratively. M. Trump is responsible for her part in celebrating the reversal of civil rights, decency, climate change and all the rest. I want to emphasize that whoever she is or whatever she's done would not have held the weight it does if she weren't an important representative of the American Democracy. And yes, I felt the same way about Bill.
I agree, Diane, creepy is definitely the word. I think it is a slap in the face for the American people that the "first family" does not deign to live in the White House. I wonder if it reflects the state of the marriage, and also M's inability to cope with the role, especially following Michelle. Their body language during the campaign, on the few times we saw the frumps together, was very cool. Out with the old, in with the young.
I love Alec Baldwin's twitter slam on frumpy, whose blood pressure will surely go through the roof if he continues these thin skinned rages. Here's hoping. Anyway, there's a lot more where that came from. Like the cons keep telling us, deal with it.