;)
The Commentariat -- Nov. 23, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Look, I have an aged female friend, and I swear on my little cracker I am not grabbing her ass with my left hand. P.S. This is a good woman: she's rich (but not as rich as I am) and she's going to take your education tax dollars and give them all to the rich children.
... Well, This Is Horrible. Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump intends to name Betsy DeVos, a conservative activist and billionaire philanthropist who has pushed forcefully for private school voucher programs nationwide, as his nominee for education secretary, according to a person close to DeVos." -- CW
*****
Daniel Wiessner & Robert Iafolla of Reuters: "A federal judge on Tuesday blocked an Obama administration rule to extend mandatory overtime pay to more than 4 million salaried workers from taking effect, imperiling one of the outgoing president's signature achievements for boosting wages. U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant, in Sherman, Texas, agreed with 21 states and a coalition of business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that the rule is unlawful and granted their motion for a nationwide injunction. The rule, issued by the Labor Department, was to take effect Dec. 1 and would have doubled to $47,500 the maximum salary a worker can earn and still be eligible for mandatory overtime pay.... Mazzant, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, ruled that the federal law governing overtime does not allow the Labor Department to decide which workers are eligible based on salary levels alone." -- CW
Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "President Obama granted commutations Tuesday to 79 federal drug offenders who were imprisoned under harsh and outdated sentencing laws, pushing to more than 1,000 the number of inmates who have received clemency from him. Obama's historic number of commutations -- more than the previous 11 presidents combined -- was announced as administration officials are moving quickly to rule on all the pending clemency applications before the end of the president's term. The Trump administration is not expected to keep in place Obama's initiative to provide relief to nonviolent drug offenders." -- CW
Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The 21 men and women who stood awaiting the nation's highest civilian honor Tuesday in the White House East Room represented Barack Obama's particular vision of the United States: one where pioneering scientists, groundbreaking performers, crusading activists and unconventional artists chart America's destiny. President Obama has not stinted on handing out the Presidential Medal of Freedom during his time in office: He has bestowed it on at least 114 individuals, more than any of his predecessors.... Striking a nostalgic tone at the end of the ceremony, the president said: 'So, just on a personal note, part of the reason why these events are so special to me is because everybody on this stage has touched me in a very powerful, personal way, in ways that they probably couldn't imagine.'" -- CW ...
** Dangerous Times. Nancy Hemmer of US News: "At the moment the Trump team is a small group with a shared commitment to white nationalism, Islamophobia, draconian immigration restrictions and conspiracism.... But in order to fully understand the danger of this political moment, we need to look not overseas but to our own history.... Take Japanese internment. The history of internment has been front-and-center this week, thanks to a Trump surrogate who cited it as justification for a Muslim registry. Internment ... was ... an executive order issued by Franklin Roosevelt in 1942. Two years later..., the [Supreme C]ourt signed off on internment.... Despite the passage of the 15th Amendment, which guaranteed African-American men the right to vote, from the 1880s to the 1960s that right was essentially dead-letter in the American South.... Voting rights were not protected by the Constitution. They were protected by the willingness of the president, the Congress and the courts in the 1960s to throw the combined weight of the federal government into their defense.... The Voting Rights Act was gutted in 2013. State legislatures immediately began passing race-based restrictions, and a Trump administration will do everything in its power to continue rolling back access to the ballot for poor and minority voters.... Those of us who have grown up in this brief period of imperfect but improving liberal democracy have put our faith in safeguards that do not exist." -- CW
Mark Landler & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump moved swiftly to diversify his cabinet on Wednesday, announcing the nomination of Gov. Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina, a rising star in Republican politics, to be United States ambassador to the United Nations and offering the post of secretary of housing and urban development to Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who ran an outsider's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination." -- CW ...
... Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a rising Republican star and daughter of Indian immigrants, has accepted ... Donald Trump's offer to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the coming administration, according to a person familiar with the selection process.... Haley, 44, who is serving her second term..., brings little foreign policy experience. Her views on various U.S. military and national security matters usually fall within the GOP's hawkish mainstream.... If confirmed, Haley would be replaced by South Carolina's Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster, a top Trump ally. His ascension is seen inside of Trump's inner circle as a welcome consequence of her departure...." -- CW
Trump the Unstable. Philip Rucker & Mark Fisher of the Washington Post: "In the space of just 24 hours this week, [Donald Trump] ... set off cyclones ... that preview the drama he seems likely to bring to the White House. Trump summoned two dozen television executives and news anchors to his offices Monday to berate them as dishonest and disobedient. He sought to strong-arm the British government to appoint his Brexit ally, Nigel Farage, as ambassador to the United States. He dropped his threat to prosecute ... Hillary Clinton. Then there was Tuesday's meeting with the New York Times, the newspaper Trump loves to mock as 'failing.' It was scheduled, then canceled, then rescheduled. And once the president-elect settled in at the Grey Lady's boardroom, he softened his position on climate change, floated the idea that his son-in-law could broker peace in the Middle East, voiced new doubts about the effectiveness of torturing terrorism suspects, savaged Republicans who wavered on his candidacy and left unresolved concerns about how -- or even whether -- he would disassociate himself from his global business holdings to avoid conflicts of interest. Whew.... This could become Washington's new normal...." -- CW ...
The law's totally on my side. The president can't have a conflict of interest. -- Donald Trump, claiming there is no prohibition against his profiting from the presidency, in a meeting with the New York Times Tuesday
When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. -- Richard Nixon, interview with David Frost, May 1977
... Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump on Tuesday tempered some of his most extreme campaign promises, dropping his vow to jail Hillary Clinton, expressing doubt about the value of torturing terrorism suspects and pledging to have an open mind about climate change. But in a wide-ranging, hourlong interview with reporters and editors at The New York Times -- which was scheduled, canceled and then reinstated after a dispute over the ground rules -- Mr. Trump was fiercely unapologetic about repeatedly flouting the traditional ethical and political conventions that have long shaped the American presidency. He said he had no obligation to establish boundaries between his business empire and his White House, conceding that the Trump brand 'is certainly a hotter brand than it was before.' He defended Stephen K. Bannon, his chief strategist, against charges of racism, calling him a 'decent guy.'... [Trump's] turnabout on the need for torture as a tool in the fight against terrorism, which he repeatedly endorsed during the campaign, was remarkable. CW: Definitely read the whole story. ...
... Here's the full transcript of the meeting. ...
... Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "The strained relationship between Donald J. Trump and The New York Times took an odd path on Tuesday when a planned meeting between the president-elect and the newspaper was abruptly canceled by Mr. Trump and then quickly rescheduled. After a morning of back-and-forth statements and Twitter posts, Mr. Trump arrived at midday for a meeting with Times representatives at the paper's Midtown headquarters. Seated next to the publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., in the paper's Churchill Room, he said he had great respect for the paper but thought its treatment of him had been 'very rough.'" CW: Spoiled schoolchildren aren't this flighty. What a disaster! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
...Eric Levitz of New York: "On Tuesday,Trump offered incautious optimists cause for comfort. In a sit-down interview with the New York Times..., [Trump] waxed moderate on the subjects of climate change, President Obama, military torture, and press freedom. And yet, even as he played the reasonable Republican, Trump repeatedly deployed the reasoning of an authoritarian kleptocrat...As Trump moves from room to room and decade to decade, his political views shift radically. But through it all, he has consistently displayed an affinity for authoritarianism and exploiting public trust for personal profit. If you want to know how he will govern, best to keep those core commitments in mind." --safari...
... Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump has taken the staid task of preparing to assume the presidency and turned it into an exercise in conspicuous self-promotion and carefully choreographed branding.... The venues he has picked to conduct his official transition planning attest to his success as a real estate developer... Mr. Trump especially liked the Bedminster[, N.J.,] setting, he told his aides, because the images of him receiving potential cabinet appointees at the front door of the clubhouse resembled 10 Downing Street in London.... 'It stinks,' said Norman Eisen, who was the chief White House ethics lawyer for President Obama from 2009 to 2011. Because there is no specific law prohibiting public officeholders from financially beneficial self-promotion, what Mr. Trump is doing is probably not illegal, Mr. Eisen added. 'But that doesn't make it right,' he said. 'It's part and parcel of the unsavory marketing of his brands that he also did during the campaign.'" -- CW ...
... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "When ... Donald Trump touts his exemption from federal conflict-of-interest laws, he might want to offer a word of thanks to those who made it possible: PresidentGeorge H.W. Bush and the U.S. Congress. As Trump faces a flood of stories about how his businesses could complicate his work as president, he made clear Tuesday that he's well aware that that the key federal legislation aimed at separating personal interests from official responsibilities does not apply to the president.... The carve-out Trump alludes to became law in November 1989 as part of ethics legislation that also granted members of Congress -- and other government officials -- a pay raise they had long sought. The exemption -- walling off the president, vice president, lawmakers and judges from conflict-of-interest provisions -- was contained in a proposed bill that Bush sent to Congress in April of that year." --safari...
... Trump Loads the Impeachment Gun. Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "... impeachment is a political process, not a legal one. If Congress wants to, it can take up the issue of Trump's likely violation of the emolument clause based on the evidence in the public record and Trump's own admissions. Of course, a newly victorious Republican Congress is unlikely to challenge Trump. But the constitutional gun is now loaded if anyone wants to pick it up in the future." -- CW ...
... Nolan McCaskill & Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump conceded Tuesday that he probably won't make good on his campaign pledge to pursue a new criminal investigation into ... Hillary Clinton.... Trump did, however, suggest he wasn't taking potential investigations into Clinton off the table, while still remarking that he doesn't want to 'hurt the Clintons.'... Breitbart News, the alt-right news organization formerly run by Steve Bannon, Trump's chief strategist, headlined the lead story on its home page 'BROKEN PROMISE.' And Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog agency that sued to get more of Clinton's State Department emails released, urged Trump on Tuesday to 'commit his administration' to investigating Clinton, while promising to continue its own litigation and investigations to help uncover possible scandals.... Matt Miller, a former spokesman with the Department of Justice, tweeted Tuesday morning that Trump would be violating the Justice Department's independence if he ordered his attorney general to pursue an investigation." But Jeff Sessions, Trump's nominee for AG, said in an interview last month "that there was 'sufficient evidence to bring a charge' and argued that Attorney General Loretta Lynch abandoned her responsibility by simply accepting FBI Director James Comey's recommendation not to pursue charges." -- CW ...
... Here's the follow-up to Joe Scarborough's scoop-o'the-day, linked yesterday:
... "Never Mind." Michael Shear of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump repeatedly said Hillary Clinton's '"lies and deception' rivaled Watergate. He called her 'Crooked Hillary.' His most rabid fans chanted it over and over again at huge campaign rallies: 'Lock her up!' But on Tuesday, Mr. Trump essentially said: 'never mind,' signaling that he does not intend to pursue investigations into his rival's use of a private email server or the financial operations at the Clinton family's global foundation. In an appearance on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' program, Kellyanne Conway, the former Trump campaign manager and a senior adviser to his transition, said ... [Trump] wanted to 'move beyond the issues of the campaign' and confirmed that Mr. Trump did not want his promised Clinton investigations to take place." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... CW: Look for sales of sweaty, used, extra-large-sized "Lock Her Up!" T-shirts on e-bay. P.S. to Obama: You might want to issue a quiet blanket pardon to Clinton anyway. Not that Trump would ever lie to gain an advantage. ...
... Dara Lind of Vox: "Much of the meeting [between Trump & the NYT] ... was typical Trump bluster and whining; Trump reportedly started the meeting with four solid minutes of complaints about how 'unfair' the Times had been to him. It's also tough to tell at times whether Trump was saying what he believes or, as he often does, was just trying to get his audience to like him. Still, even Trump's self-serving comments can be a useful window into what he wants, and he offered some glimpses into how he sees his presidency -- and how little he takes responsibility for pretty much anything he said during the campaign." Read the whole post, but here's a taste: "... Trump's idea of what a better relationship with the press would look like involves two rich men solving their disagreements in private, without anyone needing to do anything so gauche as blaring it on the front page." ...
... Deplorables Confused & Surprised Trump Dumped Them for the NYT. Nicky Woolf of the Guardian: "... Donald Trump's disavowal of Richard Spencer and his far-right ... National Policy Institute, a day after video of Spencer's supporters giving the Nazi salute at an event in Washington DC surfaced, has dismayed some of his supporters on the 'alt-right'.... They also objected to his visiting of the New York Times for an on-the-record meeting on Tuesday, at which Trump described the news organization as a 'world jewel'." -- CW ...
... Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "On Monday, some of the biggest names in TV news trooped into Trump Tower for an off-the-record meeting with [Donald Trump].... Brandon Friedman, a Virginia-based public relations executive, offered his theory on Twitter: 'They walked into an ambush, agreed not to talk about it, then Trump went straight to the Post with his version.'... On Tuesday..., the Times played it right. Despite a tweet attack from [Trump]..., editors refused to go the off-the-record route with Trump.... The paper successfully called Trump's bluff.... [Trump] has masterfully manipulated the media for the past 18 months -- bullying reporters, garnering billions in free publicity and portraying journalists as part of the corporate structure that must be brought down so that the people can triumph.... In fact, U.S. citizens need an independent press more than ever." -- CW ...
Fuck him! I know I am being emotional about it.... I really am offended. This was unprecedented. Outrageous! -- A Target of Trump's TV media slaughter ...
He truly doesn't seem to understand the First Amendment. He doesn't. He thinks we are supposed to say what he says and that's it. -- Another Target at the meeting ...
... David Remnick of the New Yorker has interviewed a number of participants in Trump's meeting Monday with TV network execs & on-air anchors. "Participants said that Trump did not seem entirely rational about his criticism of the media, nor did he appear any more informed about policy than he had been during the campaign.
... Dana Milbank: "It was a pathetic spectacle: TV news executives and anchors filing in to Trump Tower on Monday to be [Trump]'s whipping boys. Donald Trump had summoned them for a talk, but it turned out to be part tongue-lashing, part perp walk. The TV news people had foolishly agreed that the session was 'off the record,' leaving Trump and his aides free to characterize the media representatives as groveling while Trump berated them as liars.... Trump singled out for abuse CNN -- the outlet that, with its endless live broadcasts of Trump speeches, did more than any other to win Trump the GOP nomination.... Ominously, [many media outlets are] taking to heart the criticism that the media were too tough on him, and talking about recalibrating their approach to him to regain public approval.... Journalists need to recognize that we're not going to win a popularity contest with Trump, and we shouldn't try.... We're not here to be popular." -- CW
David I-Told-You-Trump-Was-a-Crook Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's charitable foundation has admitted to the IRS that it violated a legal prohibition against 'self-dealing,' which bars nonprofit leaders from using their charity's money to help themselves, their businesses or their families. That admission was contained in the Donald J. Trump Foundation's IRS tax filings for 2015, which were recently posted online at the nonprofit-tracking site GuideStar. A GuideStar spokesman said the forms were uploaded by the Trump Foundation's law firm, Morgan, Lewis and Bockius.... Such violations can carry penalties including excise taxes, and the charity leaders can be required to repay money that the charity spent on their behalf. During the presidential campaign, The Washington Post reported on several instances in which Trump appeared to use the Trump Foundation's money to buy items for himself or to help one of his for-profit businesses. But the new Trump Foundation tax filings provided little detail so it was unclear if these admissions were connected to the instances reported in The Post." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Lee Fang of The Intercept: "Donald Trump, implementing what one news outlet called a 'tough lobbying ban', swept several registered lobbyists out of his transition team last week -- only to replace them on Monday with new officials heavily involved with lobbying for the same industry interests.... The Trump transition team ethics standards requires officials to deregister as lobbyists and agree to a five-year lobbying ban. But the rules do not preclude officials who have recently worked in the lobbying industry or currently work in the lobbying industry without having explicitly registered as lobbyists." --safari ...
... CW: Major media & Democrats must follow up Fang's reporting. The silence from Democrats, and from the DNC, during Trump's transition is deafening. And they wonder why they're the minority party. ...
... Kate Zernike of the New York Times: Everybody on Trump's team thinks Chris Christie is an incompetent, faithless, self-centered jerk. And other reasons Christie will not be veep, chief-of-staff, AG or under-secretary of the White House mailroom. -- CW
Brent Griffiths of Politico: "Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson said on Tuesday that he'd had multiple 'offers on the table' for positions in the incoming Trump administration, including secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 'I would say that was one of the offers that is on the table,' the retired neurosurgeon told Fox News' Neil Cavuto of the possibility that he is being considered for the the top job at HUD." -- CW
Naomi LaChance of The Intercept: "Jeff Sessions, Trump's choice for attorney general, said in a 2014 radio interview that he does not think undocumented immigrants should serve in the military, and that immigrants in the military in general are more likely to be spies. 'I just think in terms of who's going to be most likely to be a spy: somebody from Cullman, Alabama, or somebody from Kenya?' Sessions asked.... Sessions ... has been a vocal opponent of most immigration measures, and has often said that immigrants take jobs away from Americans....The U.S. has a long record of immigrants serving in the military, and the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Actallows immigrants who served in the U.S. military during periods of conflict to apply for naturalization." --safari
** Drumpf Hypocrisy, Ctd. Gideon Resnick & Brandy Zadrozny of The Daily Beast: "Almost $600,000 per hour. That's the fee Donald Trump's charity got for recording a video on behalf of a Ukrainian oligarch. It's a payment that could be in violation of tax laws, legal experts told The Daily Beast. When Hillary Clinton's foundation received money from the very same billionaire, Donald Trump blasted her as 'crooked.' Ukrainian steel magnate Victor Pinchuk's foundation was the single largest outside donor to Donald Trump's private charity in 2015, according to new IRS filings filed by the organization.... Pinchuk's gift was given in conjunction with a short video Trump made for the Yalta European Strategy annual meeting, held in Kiev in September of 2015...[Trump] was hired by Pinchuk in 2011 to advance the steel magnate's interests in the United States.... The question and answer session, billed as 'How New Ukraine's Fate Affects Europe and the World,' was given at a time when Trump was already a presidential candidate." Read on. --safari ...
... Yay! Steve Bannon Has a Fake Charity, Too. Robert O'Harrow of the Washington Post: Donald Trump's chief White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon accepted $376,000 in pay over four years for working 30 hours a week at a tiny tax-exempt charity in Tallahassee while also serving as the hands-on executive chairman of Breitbart News Network. During the same four-year period, the charity paid about $1.3 million in salaries to two other journalists who said they put in 40 hours a week there while also working for the politically conservative news outlet, according to publicly available documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service.... The ties between the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) and Breitbart call into question the assertions the institute made in filings to the IRS that it is an independent, nonpartisan operation, according to philanthropic specialists and former IRS officials." CW Rule of the Right: You are not a real confederate mover-and-shaker unless you have your own fake charity/think tank.
** Gabriel Sherman of New York: "Hillary Clinton is being urged by a group of prominent computer scientists and election lawyers to call for a recount in three swing states won by Donald Trump, New York has learned. The group, which includes voting-rights attorney John Bonifaz and J. Alex Halderman, the director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society, believes they've found persuasive evidence that results in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania may have been manipulated or hacked. The group is so far not speaking on the record about their findings and is focused on lobbying the Clinton team in private.... The Clinton camp is running out of time to challenge the election. According to one of the activists, the deadline in Wisconsin to file for a recount is Friday; in Pennsylvania, it's Monday; and Michigan is next Wednesday. Whether Clinton will call for a recount remains unclear. The academics so far have only a circumstantial case that would require not just a recount but a forensic audit of voting machines." -- CW ...
... Rick Hasen: "Halderman is very credible, and if he says there are anomalies that deserve investigation, they should be investigated. But the fact that this group has gone to Elias and Podesta, and so far the campaign has said nothing since learning of it last Thursday, should give you pause." -- CW ...
... Andrew Prokop of Vox: "... be skeptical. Maybe this group of 'prominent computer scientists and election lawyers' is sitting on more persuasive evidence than this. If so, they should post it publicly and let their claims be analyzed, rather than letting vague rumors swirl. But you definitely shouldn't believe a vague, fantastic-sounding claim about a stolen election unless serious, solid evidence emerges to back it up, and independent experts validate how that evidence is being analyzed." -- CW
Think Progress Editors: "ThinkProgress will no longer treat 'alt-right' as an accurate descriptor of either a movement or its members.... We will use terms we consider more accurate, such as 'white nationalist' or 'white supremacist.'... You might wonder what, if anything, distinguishes the alt-right from more hidebound racist movements such as the American Nazi Party and the Ku Klux Klan. The answer is very little.... The term is flexible enough that Steve Bannon ... can boast that he turned Breitbart News into 'a platform for the alt-right' while simultaneously denying any association with white nationalist movements.... The point here is not to call people names, but simply to describe them as they are. We won't do racists' public relations work for them. Nor should other news outlets." -- CW ...
... Dylan Byers of CNN: "Michael Hirsh, an editor with Politico, has resigned from the company after publishing the home addresses of a white supremacist leader [Richard Spencer] and encouraging people to go to his home.... In a statement, Politico editor-in-chief John Harris and editor Carrie Budoff Brown called Hirsh's post indefensible." -- CW ...
Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: "The Democratic Party, as an actually existing thing, has four main parts to it: one, the elected officials; two, the money people; three, the people (a few thousand) who work in the trenches for the various progressive causes; four, the energized base (as opposed to people who just vote once every four years). The four parts don't really talk to each other. That must change. Elected officials have to see that they need to take the idea of energizing the base seriously." Tomasky writes that the parts need funding, too. ...
... CW: But Tomasky doesn't address the need to get out the message of what Trump & his Republican Congress is proposing/doing. It does no good, voter-wise, for Democrats to save Medicare or Social Security or whatever, if voters don't know which party made sure they got coverage. It's the Message, Stupid.
Mike Isaac of the New York Times: Facebook "has quietly developed software to suppress posts from appearing in people's news feeds in specific geographic areas, according to three current and former Facebook employees.... The feature was created to help Facebook get into China, a market where the social network has been blocked, these people said. [Mark] Zuckerberg has supported and defended the effort, the people added.... Facebook does not intend to suppress the posts itself. Instead, it would offer the software to enable a third party -- in this case, most likely a partner Chinese company -- to monitor popular stories and topics...." -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R), along with the Republican candidate for state auditor, on Tuesday filed for a statewide recount as McCrory trails Democratic state Attorney General Roy Cooper by more than 6,000 votes.... The McCrory campaign acknowledged that a recount cannot occur until all counties have certified their votes, but the campaign said it filed for a recount on the original legal deadline to do so. The deadline for counties to finish canvassing their votes was last Friday, but several counties have been delayed by Republican-filed complaints of alleged voter fraud and challenges over determining which provisional ballots to count." -- CW ...
... How to Nullify an Election. Paul Waldman: "Watch this race -- there's a provision under which the Republican legislature can just give the office to whoever they like no matter what happened in the election, and they're actually thinking of using it to just put McCrory back in office." -- CW
Lisa Ryan of New York: "[A]t the age of 26, [Sarah Weddington became the youngest person ever to argue in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, when she represented Norma McCorvey -- otherwise known as Jane Roe -- in the landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion across the country. Now, at age 71, she finds herself in a precarious position.... [S]he's dedicated her entire adult life to being a champion of women's rights -- only now, so much of what she's accomplished is under threat.... Donald Trump has said that he will appoint pro-life justices to the Supreme Court, who will potentially overturn Roe v. Wade and allow states to again set their own abortion laws. It's the first time that Weddington has seen such a severe threat to the abortion rights she fought to secure." --safari
Julia Wong of the Guardian: "A 21-year-old woman was severely injured and may lose her arm after being hit by a projectile when North Dakota law enforcement officers turned a water cannon on Dakota Access pipeline protesters and threw 'less-than-lethal' weapons, according to the woman's father. Sophia Wilansky was one of several hundred protesters injured during the standoff with police on Sunday on a bridge near the site where the pipeline is planned to cross under the Missouri river. Graphic photographs of her injured arm with broken bones visible were circulated on social media." -- CW
Way Beyond
Rod Nordland & Safak Timur of the New York Times: "The Turkish government on Tuesday expanded its crackdown on political opponents, dismissing an additional 15,000 civil servants from their jobs and shutting down 375 organizations, including nine more news outlets. More than 100,000 public workers, including police officers, teachers, soldiers and others, had already been fired for what the authorities said were connections to a failed coup on July 15 or to terrorists.The new wave of dismissals came on a morning when the European Parliament was scheduled to debate freezing accession talks for Turkey to join the European Union. It was one of several recent indicators that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was abandoning hope of success in that process, which has dragged on for 11 years." -- CW
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Reader Comments (30)
So now it's official. Ethics do not apply to Pres. Trump. So it's official. America has one and only one priority. Make money for Trump.
Interesting take on Ellison as DCC chairman from The Root.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2016/11/3-reasons-keith-ellison-should-not-lead-the-democratic-party/
Just imagining out loud; if the Halderman findings prove credible and there is a challenge, she still has to win Michigan, Wisconsin and PA. So the 5 day delay between the time this information surfaced to the story breaking suggests that it is an improbable long shot. Got to wonder though, should the laws of maximum misery be working in their mysterious ways, and she were to win, what kind of Hillary leader would emerge after such a punishing, albeit temporary, loss. That kind of purifying fire could turn out to be a good thing.
Toward the end of the NYTimes interview with Trump, he mentions that "clean air and crystal clear water" are so very important. Yet he claims he's going to gut the EPA and double down on coal and oil production.
This guy lacks any semblance of coherence in any of his policy proposals. His breath must smell terrible because his mouth only produces bullshit.
And Jarod Kushner is now going to fly into Israel and broker a peace deal? His qualifications for the job are, what again? Trump has already said he has "every intention" of recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital (including East Jerusalem), which is a non-starter for Palestinians. Maybe he'll promise to build some Trump towers in Palestine to bring in huuge revenues through his name recognition.
Nothing he says is serious, except self-indulgence strategies.
Safari, my daughters FB comment. My favorite part of this is Jared Kushner can really help with Palestinian-Israeli relations. That is akin to saying, "My accountant is black so I think we'll be able to eliminate police brutality".
@Marvin Schwalb: Exactly. This must be Trump's thinking, too, on making Nikki Haley Ambassador to the U.N.: "Hey, she's a foreigner! She'll fit right in with all those other foreigners at the U.N. & get them to back my policies. Also, too, now I got a white guy/Trumpbot running South Carolina. Win, win. I'm a genius."
Marie
So the NYT says that it looks like Ben Carson will be the Sec. of Housing and Urban Development. Finally a job for a black guy! I mean Carson is a serious expert in ?????
Just finished reading the whole transcript of the meeting between Trump and the NYT. What do you want to bet those newspaper people fortified themselves afterwards at the bar down the street.
The tangential aspect of Trump's conversation is mind boggling–-also the ubiquitous repetition reveals a mind that's somewhere housed in another sphere:
"The wind is a very deceiving thing"–
"I don't care about anything having to do with anything having to do with anything having to do with anything other than the country."
Question: "What do you make of the Website he ran, [Bannon] Breitbart?"
Trump: "The which?"
And how is the Times going to report on this grand meeting? They treated Trump with respect and decorum but holy cow! And does Donald now think he's gonna be the Time's darling because he gave THEM the time? And all the time I was reading I couldn't help thinking–– this man, this President elect, is so out of that "big league" he so often mentions that the prospect of him succeeding is on par with that wind not being a deceiving thing.
Now I do have to take a shower and get on with my day.
@PD You reacted & wrote exactly as I would have had I gotten around to it after reading the transcript in the early morning hours. Thankfully, for Trump it appears it was a solid material conference table...not a contemporary glass-topped one, which if the scene were filmed would surely have shown the NYTimes writers kicking & nudging each other under the table as they surely must have anyway—to avoid completely guffawing at his inane answers.
Demagogues and successful performers of any kind do have a talent. They sense what their audience wants and they deliver it.
Trump's rally attendees wanted it brutally simple. Hate Hillary. Throw the bums out (those bums being everyone not in adoring attendance--the Washington Establishment, the evil media and all those black and brown folks). Give 'em what they want and bask in the love.
The NYTimes audience, few of whom attended Trump rallies, wants something else. A modicum of reason, maybe. Not all that much, and often not enough, but some. So the Performer President does his best to comply. It's not easy, but he does the best he can.
Yeah, that HRC vendetta is a little silly. I may not pursue it. And climate change? Could be we humans have had an effect on it. I'll have to think! more about it.
It's hard for a brute to be charming, but he tried.
But because he will always say what his current public wants to hear, because his need to be loved overwhelms all principle, we should expect nothing but the inconsistent incoherence we have so far gotten.
One more thing: Since in Trump Land financial success is the true and fundamental measure of love, his fascination with business, his own and the nation's, will not go away.
That fascination, absent all ethics of course, will remain the only consistency.
Pre-Thanksgiving Rant.
Democrats. Indolent, apathetic, or just exhausted? You make the call.
So there is evidence of hacking and election finagling (like there always has been on the part of confederates) in vital swing states and the Clinton camp is being importuned to pick up the ball and run with it. Will they? What do you think?
Of course they won't.
But you can bet everything you own that if the situation was reversed and Trump had a chance to overturn the election based on serious information--and not just Trump, but ANY Republican candidate--they would jump on it. It's Al Gore's "Let's all get along" flag of surrender all over again. If Gore had pressed his case, made it the issue it deserved to be, just think of how differently things might have been without The Decider and his pet shark in charge for eight hellacious years. And if you thought they were bad--and they were the worst, so far--wait until you get a load of what the current criminal loony will do in just four years. Now tell me, four years from now, that you won't care whether or not Clinton could have pulled out a win or at the very least challenged "overwhelming mandate from the people" bullshit.
What's the real chance? I dunno. But with stakes this high, it's worth a shot. Just for the Supreme Court alone.
But Democrats will do what they always do. Fight amongst themselves and then do nothing. Chuck Schumer will tell everyone to calm down and trust in Wall Street. Again.
Currently there is a mountain of evidence of Trump wrongdoing and an even bigger mountain of imminent conflicts. I haven't heard a thing from anyone except Harry Reid (and he's out) and Elizabeth Warren.
Maybe some Democrats are banging the drums of the impending constitutional crisis, but I haven't heard anything about it. Of course much of the press is too worried about the best way to make Trump the Dangerous Loon look like a normal president elect and try not to piss him off too much. Might get called on the carpet at the Tower of Barad-dûr and sent to bed without their supper.
This smirking creep and his white supremacist buddies, their lap dogs in congress, and his vindictive, mendacious, avaricious family are getting ready to carve us up. But as usual, the Democrats are thinking, well, we'll get 'em at the mid-terms, by which time they'll lose three more seats in the Senate and 25 seats in the House, and then it'll be "Hey, there's always '20." Bull.
Drumpf is preparing to clean us out and of course, congress could stop him, but a Republican run operation is going to sit back and lick their lips waiting for their cut. And Democrats?
Who fucking knows.
I'm so sick of this shit. We get our asses kicked and what do we do? "Oh let's all try to get along". Fuck that shit. We are in a true existential crisis and we need some leadership. We need to force the issues every day and in every way. We can't let a single Trump con go uncovered or unanswered. And there'll be plenty. That's all he knows.
He is going to set himself up because he doesn't give a shit about laws or rules or the Constitution. The problem is that, first, the press will let him get away everything, unless cattle prodded, and Republicans, the party of constitutional correctness, will happily look the other way as long as they get theirs. That leaves the opposition. Trump is getting ready to be a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, ripe to be shot down. Couldn't miss if you tried. But will the Democrats take advantage of that? Will they bring a slingshot and stand on Broadway and complain that their pebbles didn't go high enough? Next scene: Reelection in a land slide and there goes the country.
What's left of it by then.
A good look at the dark, cynical, destructive forces directing our country now. “I’m a Leninist,” [Steve] Bannon boasted. “Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too....I want to bring everything crashing down.”
"With both Breitbart and the threatened postelection Trump TV, Bannon is certainly poised to expand his army of the aggrieved. He is looking ahead, steely eyed and well prepared, to a dystopian future of massive unemployment and parochial divisiveness, ready to marshal the energies of any and all downwardly mobile American patriots disenfranchised by neoliberalism’s corporate caucus." https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/11/breitbart-news-drudge-alt-right-koch-trump/
Rant continued...
To pick up on Ken's thought, Trump measures success in life by two yardsticks: money and power (power being the ability to get your way and stick it up the asses of your enemies at the same time. Trump is a poor winner).
He describes anyone without the maximum amount of money and anyone who chooses not to exert power to cause the maximum hurt to enemies, real or perceived, as a loser. And Trump cannot abide the thought that he is a loser. So by his own measure, not gorging himself on all potential riches and not stepping on enemies would make him a loser.
The LA Times adumbrates a scary scenario of all the ways Trump can (and will) use the office of the president to enrich and protect himself and attack enemies at the same time. He has money making opportunities all over the globe and now he'll have many more, and for far higher returns. He is constitutionally unable to say no to money, power, or adulation. Unable. He is a weak, undisciplined person. A liar, a con man, and a thief. And now he is not just the outlaw, but the sheriff as well. There is no "might", there is no "if". He WILL do everything he can to enrich himself at America's expense. It's what he's always done. It's all he knows. It's all he cares about.
But KKK Steve and Kellyanne and Trump's many media shills and shields continue to blather about no conflicts of interest when that's all there are: conflicts of interest, as far as the eye can see. We're supposed to trust one of the more untrustworthy, mendacious American figures in living memory.
He won't stop. He'll cross more lines than a running back returning a kick off for a touchdown. The problem will be, who will referee this game? The press? Hah. Republicans? Hahahahahahaha.
Trump?
Oh, yeah. That's the answer.
What people are forgetting is that "Trust me" is Trump Speak for "Fuck you".
Rant over.
For now. This being the day before the beginning of the holiday season during which we're supposed to feel cheery and bright, with hearts full full of sweetness, light, goodwill, and all that happy horseshit (okay, rant not entirely over...), I suppose I should be thankful for something.
Okay, fine. I'm thankful tomorrow's not January 20th.
Sorry I don't have time to properly post this, so here is another shocking, depressing bit of news. God damn him. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/22/nasa-earth-donald-trump-eliminate-climate-change-research
Hey, now here's an interesting thought.
Will Prez Combover's orange bouffant survive a bad weather day during his coronation? Is there that much high density, super-duper wicked hold-power hair spray in the lower 48? Do we care?
I'll have to check out the pictures later since I don't intend to waste my time watching a preening, dimwitted racist thug take the oath of office.
I'll be doing something much more important: reorganizing the pencils in my desk drawer.
The ones with not much eraser left go first. And the red erasers have precedence over the green ones (it's a subjective thing, you're free to do it your way). Number 2 pencils at the front, H in the middle, and B pencils in the back. Ones with chew marks are right out (gross), and those that can't keep a nice sharp point, into the circular filing cabinet they go.
Now, the yellow Ticonderoga pencils are excellent for general use, scribbling down notes and ideas for the cure for cancer and such but if you're the kind of ruminative-plus-artsy type who likes the occasional highbrow marginalia, you might want to opt for a Faber (depending on the type of sketch, you might need an H, an AB and a couple of B's, for building up cross-hatch shading and such).
And if you're really in a mood to unleash your inner Mary Cassat, you might choose one of those fancy Caran d'Ache colored pencils from Switzerland. If those are too pricey you can always go for a soft graphite General's. Can't beat 'em for rough sketches of simpleton authoritarians.
That's important stuff, right there.
I'm thinking there's already a Vegas line on whether or not Prez-'lect Narcissus will wear one of his Made in China baseball caps to keep the thatch in place; you know, to Make America Great Again.
Now where did I put that pencil sharpener?
Lisa,
Thanks, I guess, for the Guardian link.
Maybe the deeper thinking about scrubbing climate science from NASA's role in favor of more deep space exploration from goes something like this: Everyone know our planet is flat cooked so we need to find another place to live....
And as for Trump's expanded cabinet diversity: one rightwing governor of Indian descent (what is it about Indian governors and the Right?) and one certifiably nutty doctor who happens to be black.
Maybe we can erect some pyramids to house the homeless.
Doesn't seem all that diverse to me. They'll fit right in.
Good move from Think Progress. Now everyone else needs to follow suit. I wonder how long the "establishment" GOP can hang on as slathering sycophants while Trump acts out his mental instability. At some point, the math won't work for them. Someone that is so unpredictable and is consumed with righting every tiny perceived wrong will cease to function. The GOP will be scraping off the stink of white supremacy and Trump crazy for a long time. It's possible they think that redemption can come with Pence who will do as he's told if you let him focus on his favorite subject- who is bonking who.
Makes sense that the Kochs stick with malleable idiots like Walker and dropped the unpredictable Trump like a hot rock.
Well, that's it folks! Trump nominated two non-males and he even has his one black friend now. Time to throw out any arguments that he might be misogynistic or a racist. He's sooo normal now. Respect the office. Give him a "clean slate", starting, um, tomorrow. Nothing to see here. Move along now.
P.S. I know I'm preaching to the choir right now, but Paul Ryan claiming Trump has a mandate while Hillary Clinton breaks the 2 million popular vote threshold on the Drumpf is Fucking Incredible. I have little doubt there would've been more than a few little angry white men walking American streets with their giant penis extensions strapped to their back if their candidate found himself in a similar situation.
I still can't believe this is actually happening. It'll come to me. Maybe.
@ Diane
I read this informative article the other day and forgot to link it here.
It details the way that the Koch operation helped push the GOTV campaign for Trump, even if they were mostly focusing on down ballot candidates. The argument could be made that it was their privatized GOTV operation that put Trump over the top given how he barely scraped by in pivotal states. It also details the extent that they've bought and paid for most of the lackeys that will be serving in the Trump administration, so his agenda will be the Koch's agenda.
Between the Kochs and the Mercers, they seem like they pretty much set up a straight flush for themselves this administration. If the Democrats don't put up severe resistance, we'll truly be living in Koch land in the near future. And being from Kansas, and seeing what total Koch domination looks like, that's a terrible diagnosis for our nation. The only remedy is no-holds-barred combat.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/behind-make-america-great-the-koch-agenda-returns-with-a-vengeance
Trump is quite wrong when he says Betsy DeVos is rich but not as
rich as he is. Her father was the Prince Corp. Her brother is of the
Blackwater fame. Her husband is the Amway Corp (the worlds
greatest pyramid scheme). I can see a future where all our schools,
which were paid for by us taxpayers, turned over to private industry.
And a free bible for every student, bible classes and morning prayers
will be the norm.
Oh, great. A far right wing religious nut billionaire pusher of for-profit charter schools is now running education in America.
Just the person to right the ship. And here's how that will work. All the kids and parents and decent teachers (ones who refuse to teach to the Trump) on the main ship, the one with holes in the hull and no lifeboats. DeVos, Trump, and all other billionaire charter school con artists on the good ship UST (United States of Trump) Scam, a high-powered 365 ft. luxury yacht.
And the education value? The kids (now working out sums in Davey Jones' locker), learn not to trust billionaires.
Ho-Ho-Ho!
Another victory for Trumpism!
Jesus, the more you read about this DeVos character, the worse it sounds. She advocates for for-profit charter schools run by corporations but is firmly against any oversight or penalties if her billionaire charter school buddies allow students to crash and burn.
Must be the students' fault.
She is a classic Trump appointee: an inexperienced, ideologically mesmerized neophyte who sings along to the Trump hymnal, a longtime confederate donor who lives to fuck regular people if they try to contest her ignoramus dilettante bullshit.
And just think of this: what in the blue blazes does Trump himself know about education? He brags about his time at Wharton, but he was only there two years, did nothing to distinguish himself (classmates don't even remember him--almost as if, like The Decider, he was AWOL the whole time), is deathly afraid of releasing his transcripts (all those gentleman C's and D's and the occasional F wouldn't look so great), and is very likely even less remarkable than Bush, academically speaking, which is pretty fucking scary. It's like moving from drug store greeting card poetry to dollar store greeting card poetry. Forget "Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness!". You'd be lucky to get "Der Vas a Shtorm Trooper from Stuttgart."
He never needed academic excellence to rise in life. Daddy moved him right to third base with no effort on Trumpy's part. One of his biographers stated that in a year or so of hanging out with the Great Donaldo, he never once saw him crack a book and never saw a book anywhere in any of his magisterial abodes. Who among you could go a week without picking up a book? But Trump goes decades.
And now he wants to give American students the same kind of education ethos he possesses.
Holy hell.
I have no problem with truly private schools. You pays your money and you takes your CHOICE. It's called freedom.
But the private school schemers don't want truly private schools. What they want and in many cases are already getting (thanks to JEB and others) is for-profit schools funded by public money.
Call it what you will, it's still rape--of the people and their commons--and a sure fix for the economic inequality that is already ruining so many lives.
Again, Trump has no principles other than a profit motive on steriods--for those who already have.
Wasn't this a great country, or what?
Just a thought; what in the hell are the Trump supporters going to do and who are they going to blame when the rapture doesn't arrive?
Anger exaggerates the error of my already spastic fingers, I see.
Make that "steroids." Don't know what a "steriod" is, but if it would make me feel better, I'd take one or six.
Driving back from buying wine just now (5:30) I heard two bits on NPR. (Don't buy wine the night before Thanksgiving -- l-o-n-g lines.)
First was an interview of a guy who got into the online "fake news" biz this year, said he's making about $10K/mo, creates articles from whole cloth. He said they started out writing to attract liberals and conservatives (i.e., both kinds of stories, not stories for both) but they dropped the liberal effort because nobody was buying it. Since the guy said that his only motive is money, he is not selling a point of view, this claim is very telling.
Also, heard a clip from a guy who trains refugees as carpenters, said he really likes and prefers working with the islamic refugees, because "they are most Jesus-like people."
Maybe NPR is not going all the way over to the dark side.
@AK: Pencils? Really? you still use pencils? You, dear man, ranting as you do brings me such pleasure. I laugh out loud reading you. For that I thank you because I love to laugh and it's been hard to do of late. ( I have a splendid artist's soft pen that I sketch with but don't know in what alphabet category it be but it be real cool.)
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone–-and remember the tip from Patrick: Don't ever buy wine the night before Thanksgiving.
Imagining out loud again @ safari: "no holds barred combat" (?). Do you mean with sticks, rocks, bows and arrows, knives, pitchforks, torches and light sabers? I'm trying to imagine how the surveilled nation could ever organize such a thing without violating the Espionage Act. Something tells me social media might not work. OK, imagine among yourselves.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone--that is, if you can choke down your turkey and stuffing! I feel lucky not to be feasting, because I do not have to worry about whether the stuffing has salmonella. Also, I have just adopted a turkey from Farm Sanctuary. Her name is Perdita, and I am pretending she lives on Jon and Tracey Stewart's sanctuary.
I have not regained my appetite since the election, and am absolutely pissed that the pounds I should have dropped have not disappeared from my scale. Not too upset though, because I have been "comforting" myself with some dark chocolate Mary Jane--a little bit every day. So glad it is legal here in stormy Oregon. We even have a place called "The Flower Pot" in "downtown" Depoe Bay--which is four blocks long.
I am comforted (somewhat) by the idea that President-elect Tweet will self-destruct, possibly BEFORE he takes office, or perhaps get really sick! That guy does not look well, and he is after all 70 years old and eats fast food and steak every day! I see a heart attack or stroke in his future--maybe not too distant. Meanwhile, I am enjoying my little moments of alternative reality, because actual reality sucks the big one!