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The Commentariat -- December 26, 2017
Afternoon Update:
Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: "Trump began his day 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." ...
... 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."
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."
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How the Trump Stole Christmas. Avi Selk of the Washington Post remembers Trump's Christmases past. Here's the best one: "Christmas 1981.... In the 1980s..., Trump bought an old apartment building across the street from Central Park in New York that he hoped to tear down and rebuild as a high-rent tower. When the longtime residents wouldn't move out voluntarily, the New York Times wrote, Trump hired a management company that essentially ran the building into the ground. And while Trump threatened to house homeless people in the building, the management company used creative tactics that included covering windows in tin and forbidding Christmas decorations in the lobby. It was probably the least of residents' concerns, but Trump allowed no Christmas tree in 1981, the Times wrote, nor in the next year." We'd be remiss if we didn't mention Racist Trump Christmas 2011. ...
... Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: "... the secular or the merely skeptical should not refuse Trump's call to say 'Merry Christmas.' They should embrace it. Christmas has always been a happily mixed-up holiday for mixed-up people and confused cultures. It is, at its roots, the very model of a pagan-secular-synthetic festival as much as it is a religious one -- just the kind, in fact, that the imaginary anti-Christmas forces are supposed to favor." ...
... AND a warm Christmas gift for a very deserving Steve Mnuchin:
Okay now, News:
There IS a Real Donald Trump. Benjamin Hart of New York: "Hours after signing the massive GOP tax cuts into law on Friday, President Trump told ultra-wealthy members of Mar-a-Lago that 'you all just got a lot richer,' CBS News reported Sunday morning.... In the past few months, Trump has made halfhearted efforts to assure Americans that the richest Americans -- and he in particular -- would not be rewarded by the Republican tax bill.... While it's true that most Americans will see a small tax cut next year, the richest of the rich will see the vast bulk of the bill's benefits over the course of the next decade. And between changes to the estate tax, rules that disproportionately benefit commercial real-estate companies like Trump's, and other provisions, the president stands to enrich himself to the tune of millions of dollars per year. Precisely how much is impossible to know, since the president continues to refuse to release his tax returns. Between his proudly plutocratic comments at Mar-a-Lago and reports that he'd made multiple outwardly racist remarks in the Oval Office, it's a good weekend to remember that despite his mendacious reputation, President Trump has the capacity to be completely candid about his true beliefs." ...
... Susan Glasser of Politico Magazine: Two confederate NeverTrumpers -- Eliot Cohen & Max Boot -- assess Trump's first year as president (includes audio & transcript):
In many ways, the damage he's doing at home is even worse, where he's undermining the rule of law. He's obstructing justice. He's lending the support of the presidency to monsters like Roy Moore. He is exacerbating race relations. He is engaging in the most blatant xenophobia, racism and general bigotry that we have seen from the White House.... I think that Trump, as a personality type, is probably not that different from a Mussolini, a Peron, a Chavez. And if you were operating in Argentina or Italy, he would probably be a dictator by now. -- Max Boot
He is both ignorant of the military and intoxicated by it.... He has an adolescent male fascination with the military. So that's one problem. The other thing is, because he is a narcissist, he really lacks empathy. I mean, I think you can -- there's something about, you know, if he sees a picture of a kid who's been gassed in Syria, that somehow strikes a chord with him. But overall, if you tell him Seoul is going to be devastated, I don't think he's going to be horror-struck by that because I don't think he can really sort of place himself in that position. -- Eliot Cohen
... Gene Robinson: "Just a few more days and this awful, rotten, no-good, ridiculous, rancorous, sordid, disgraceful year in the civic life of our nation will be over. Here's hoping that we all -- particularly special counsel Robert S. Mueller III -- have a better 2018.... The rest of us -- Democrats, independents, patriotic Republicans -- should work toward the November election. Our duty is to elect a Congress that will bring this runaway train under control.... Many of us began 2017 with the consoling thought that the Donald Trump presidency couldn't possibly be as bad as we feared. It turned out to be worse." Robinson runs down a list of horribles. ...
... Paul Krugman: "Donald Trump has been every bit as horrible as one might have expected; he continues, day after day, to prove himself utterly unfit for office, morally and intellectually. And the Republican Party -- including so-called moderates -- turns out, if anything, to be even worse than one might have expected. At this point it's evidently composed entirely of cynical apparatchiks, willing to sell out every principle -- and every shred of their own dignity -- as long as their donors get big tax cuts. Meanwhile, conservative media have given up even the pretense of doing real reporting, and become blatant organs of ruling-party propaganda. Yet I'm ending this year with a feeling of hope, because tens of millions of Americans have risen to the occasion.... [But] even if voters rise up effectively against the awful people currently in power, we'll be a long way from restoring basic American values. Our democracy needs two decent parties, and at this point the G.O.P. seems to be irretrievably corrupt."
The President of Mar-a-Lago. Daniel Politi of Slate: "... Donald Trump is enjoying a 10-day Christmas break in a familiar location: a place that he owns and where other people can pay to stay. Overall, the commander in chief has spent more than 100 days at one of his company's properties, meaning 'nearly one-third of the days he has been in office,' according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Trump's travels. His time has been pretty evenly split between his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., where he spent a total of 40 days, according to a CNN count, and Mar-a-Lago, his luxury Florida resort where he is spending Christmas.... Although all presidents take vacations, Trump's case is unique because of the ethical questions surrounding his trips." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This is yet another way the Trump presidency* is like a teevee show -- one-third of the airtime is commercials.
Nicole Goodkind of Newsweek: "Pope Francis called for Israel and Palestine to be separate, independent countries, and for the world to take better care of millions of migrants 'driven from their land' -- two subtle hits at ... Donald Trump in the pope's annual Christmas address. Speaking in St. Peter's Square in Rome, the Pope indirectly addressed Trump's decision last week to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a controversial move that many -- including the more than 120 nations that backed a United Nations resolution on Thursday -- believe will undermine the so-called 'two-state solution.'... Pope Francis ... also brought his attention to the migrant crisis occurring throughout the Middle East, Europe and Africa. The pope compared the plight of more than 22 million refugees worldwide to that of Joseph and Mary, who traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem but found no lodging, a timeless parable of unwelcome travelers. President Trump has tried to keep refugees out of the U.S...."
AP: "The U.S. government says it has negotiated a significant cut in the United Nations budget. The U.S. Mission to the United Nations said on Sunday that the U.N.'s 2018-2019 budget would be slashed by over $285 million. The mission said reductions would also be made to the U.N.'s management and support functions. The announcement didn't make clear the entire amount of the budget or specify what effect the cut would have on the U.S. contribution. U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said that the 'inefficiency and overspending' of the organization is well-known, and she would not let 'the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of.'"
Amanda Gomez of ThinkProgress: "The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) needs to implement an Obama-era rule on January 1, 2018 that enables low-income people to afford housing in high-opportunity areas with better schools, a federal judge ordered Saturday. Under the leadership of Secretary Ben Carson, HUD announced in August it was delaying the rule for two years, saying the agency needed to further evaluate it. Several civil rights organizations -- including the Legal Defense Fund -- immediately filed a lawsuit against the agency's decision. Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled against HUD Saturday evening, saying it did not provide 'notice and comment or particularized evidentiary findings' to substantiate delaying the rule." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Not the first time people the Trumpies love to hate have benefited from Trumpian slapdashery.
How Russia Got Its Groove on the U.S. Adam Entous, et al., of the Washington Post: "The miscalculations and bureaucratic inertia that left the United States vulnerable to Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election trace back to decisions made at the end of the Cold War, when senior policymakers assumed Moscow would be a partner and largely pulled the United States out of information warfare. When relations soured, officials dismissed Russia as a 'third-rate regional power' that would limit its meddling to the fledgling democracies on its periphery. Senior U.S. officials didn't think Russia would dare shift its focus to the United States. 'I thought our ground was not as fertile,' said Antony J. Blinken, President Barack Obama's deputy secretary of state. 'We believed that the truth shall set you free, that the truth would prevail. That proved a bit naive.'" Read on. ...
... ** Michael Morrell & Mike Rogers in a Washington Post op-ed: "... the United States has failed to establish deterrence in the aftermath of Russia's interference in the 2016 election. We know we failed because Russia continues to aggressively employ the most significant aspect of its 2016 tool kit: the use of social media as a platform to disseminate propaganda designed to weaken our nation.... This should alarm everyone -- Republicans, Democrats and independents alike. Foreign governments, overtly or covertly, should not be allowed to play with our democracy." The writers go on to cite a short list of ways in which Russians very recently have used social media to prop up Trump & attack his political dectractors. ...
... Mrs. McC: Did I mention Mike Rogers is a staunch Republican? It is hardly coincidental that Trump refuses to lift a finger to deter Russian intrusion & Russia is bolstering Trump. Adam Entous, et al., make the point that Russia's goal is not to help Trump but to destabilize the U.S. political system. The two are one & the same. This is collusion in plain sight, & Congressional Republicans -- despite their near universal support of the sanctions bill (which Trump signed into law but has slo-o-o-ow-walked) -- are borrowing arguments, word-for-word, from the Russian propaganda mill. Trump & his band of merry men & women are all collaborators.
Coal Industry Taxed at One Percent Rate. Emily Atkin of the New Republic: "... cutting the corporate income tax rate alone will likely add $1 billion to the profits of U.S. oil and gas exploration and production firms. Oil refining companies stand to do even better, according to one analyst who estimated that those companies' earnings per share will increase by an average of 23 percent. The tax bill also opens up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, the largest wildlife refuge in America, to drilling. But there's also something to be said about what the tax bill didn't change: the billions of dollars in permanent, century-old tax subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. According to Oil Change International, the U.S. federal government provides a combined $14.7 billion in various annual subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, the vast majority of which remained untouched in the tax bill. And while the majority of those subsidies favor the oil and gas industry, 20 percent go toward incentivizing coal consumption and production. What's more, the effective tax rate for coal -- which is less than 1 percent -- stays the same. In other words, the government still sacrifices billions in revenue every year to prop up coal, an industry that most energy analysts agree is dying."
... The Salt Lake Tribune names Orrin Hatch Utahn of the Year, then tells him to get out.
Rachel Shorey & Lilia Chang of the New York Times: "Nearly a year out from the election, Democratic candidates have filed in all but 20 House districts held by Republicans. By comparison, Democrats in 80 districts do not have a Republican opponent for their seat.The Democrats are not just filing to run in districts where Mrs. Clinton performed well. They are also running for conservative seats that were uncontested in 2016 and where Republicans remain heavy favorites, in states like Texas, Arkansas and Nebraska."
Way Beyond the Beltway
Caroline Davies of the Guardian: "The Queen [of Great Britain] chose the theme of 'home' for a highly personal Christmas broadcast in which she paid tribute to victims and young survivors of the Manchester Arena bombing and those of the Grenfell Tower fire. She highlighted how the 'powerful identities' of London and Manchester 'shone through over the past 12 months in the face of appalling attacks'. Her message was broadcast across Britain and the Commonwealth as the royal family welcomed the American actor <Meghan Markle, Prince Harry's fiancee, who became the first unmarried partner to be invited to Sandringham for Christmas, and was making her first public appearance with the royal family." Mrs. McC: a touching message:
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