Tuesday Reads: The Trumpocracy Takes Shape
Posted: November 15, 2016 Filed under: Barack Obama, Foreign Affairs, morning reads, Republican politics, U.S. Politics 96 Comments
Trumpocracy
Good Afternoon!!
So . . . we have a president elect who is completely unqualified, overwhelmed, surrounded by racists and conspiracy theorists, and openly supported by Neo Nazis and the KKK. After 7 days as president elect, he has yet to address the American People except for his acceptance speech and his bizarre appearance on 60 Minutes.
According to Rachel Maddow last night, the Trump team has not yet reached out to the DOJ, the intelligence community, Homeland Security or any other government entity we know about and they are not answering calls from people in the government who are anxious to begin working on the transition.
He has announced the appointment of Reince Priebus as WH chief of staff and Steven Bannon as chief White House strategist and senior counselor. Neither of these men has any experience in government. Priebus does know GOP leaders, of course; but he has little apparent knowlege about how the White House and the Federal government work. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is so ignorant of government that on Thursday he actually asked White House staffers how many of them would be staying on after Obama leaves!
Rudy Giuliani is the top choice to be Secretary of State. The second choice is John Bolton. One positive note: Ben Carson has said he doesn’t want a role in the Trump administration. He was being mention as Secretary of Education! So now many they’ll just go ahead and eliminate that department as Trump as threatened.
President Obama gave a press conference yesterday in which he provided veiled warnings about what may happen, announced that he will be visiting a number of foreign countries to try to reassure them, and that he will be helping Trump get ready for a job he will never be ready for.
Brian Beutler at The New Republic: Obama Is Warning America About Trump’s Presidency. Are You Listening?
President Barack Obama’s remarks about Donald Trump in his Monday press conference contained some of the most ominous words I’ve heard since news networks began calling the election for Trump early last Wednesday morning….
In a tense environment in which reporters, government workers, world leaders, and anxious citizens and immigrants understandably are scrutinizing every Donald Trump tweet and utterance and leak, Obama’s closing thoughts on the presidency and his successor will inevitably be given short shrift. But the things he says about the transition contain critical information about its progress and his confidence that, on the other side of it, things will run fairly smoothly.
His Monday comments suggests he has very little confidence that they will.
On the subtext of Obama’s remarks:
On the surface, his comments were reassuring. He was chipper. He did not doomsay. He searched for the generous and hopeful things to say about Trump and Trump’s designs on the presidency. But the sum total of his remarks, on close reading, were frightening—a stage-setting, at the very least, for an administration that Obama expects will be hobbled by incompetence and likely to fail.
Obama kept returning to three basic themes: that Trump will be given every opportunity to succeed, thanks to the tutelage Obama and his team will be providing, and the fact Trump won’t be inheriting massive crises—which should give him the kind of running room Obama never enjoyed; but that the work of a presidency is ceaseless, and much of it highly detail-oriented; and finally that Trump’s grasp of what he’s been elected to do is at best remedial.
Obama may be subtly trying to communicate to the Trump transition team that they need to make massive strides, and quickly, or they will be, in Obama’s words, “swamped.” But his expectation that Trump and his entourage will get their act together is clearly very low.
Please go read the rest.
Steve Bannon
On November 10 Elliot Cohen, a conservative, hawkish foreign policy guy who worked for awhile under Condoleeza Rice and who helped organize other national security experts to oppose Trump, wrote this at The American Interest: To An Anxious Friend…
First, the buffers and restraints built into our system—Congress, the courts, the press, bureaucratic inertia, federalism, and certain norms—are really quite strong. Republican politicians know that with a better candidate they would not have eked out a bare tie in the popular vote, but would have crushed Clinton and added to their Senate majority rather than reduced it. They are not beholden to Trump and do not feel that they should be. He will not be able to rule as a dictator. And in truth, Democratic fears that he may are salutary. So many of them dismissed Republican complaints about a politicized Internal Revenue Service—my guess is that they are rediscovering a healthy respect for older values of rigid political neutrality, as well as the larger system of checks and balances.
Second, Trump may be better than we think. He does not have strong principles about much, which means he can shift. He is clearly willing to delegate legislation to Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. And even abroad, his instincts incline him to increase U.S. strength—and to push back even against Russia if, as will surely happen, Putin double-crosses him. My guess is that sequester gets rolled back, as do lots of stupid regulations, and experiments in nudging and nagging Americans to behave the way progressives think they should.
Third, part of the magic of America is its ability to regenerate itself. Both parties produced rotten outcomes at the presidential level; both deceived themselves about the actual concerns of the American people; both desperately need new generations of leaders. Those will emerge. What one can hope for as well is a sobering realization about the extent to which both have played dangerous games—with identity politics, with falsehoods, with cultural contempt, and above all, with the transformation of politics into a matter of unthinking tribalism.
Tough times ahead, no doubt. But I think about my grandparents, who fled pogroms, arrived here penniless, and experienced World War I and the influenza pandemic, as well as ethnic and religious discrimination of a kind now unthinkable. My parents lived through the Depression and World War II—and then the social upheavals of the 1960s.
Then he apparently reached out to the Trump people. Here’s what he tweeted about that today.
Not very reassuring.
A couple more stories that caught my attention:
NBC News: Trump Transition Shake-Up Part of ‘Stalinesque Purge’ of Christie Loyalists.
The Donald Trump transition, already off to slow start, bogged down further Tuesday with the abrupt resignation of former Congressman Mike Rogers, who had been coordinating its national security efforts.
Two sources close to Rogers said he had been the victim of what one called a “Stalinesque purge,” from the transition of people close to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who left Friday. It was unclear which other aides close to Christie had also been forced out….
He [Rogers] and his top aide had been working for months, preparing the groundwork for transition. Two sources close to the situation described an atmosphere of sniping and backbiting as Trump loyalists position themselves for key jobs….
Rogers’ departure follows Christie’s demotion from head of the team to a vice-chair, with Vice President-elect Mike Pence taking over for him last week.
The purge indicates the emphasis on loyalty — and significant influence of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, husband of Ivanka — that characterized Trump’s campaign will carry over into his White House.
Multiple sources indicated that Christie was demoted because he wasn’t seen as sufficiently loyal to Trump, failing to vocally defend him at key moments on the campaign trail.
Rogers had been mentioned as a candidate for CIA director, but now he’s out.
USA Today Exclusive: Fox anchor Megyn Kelly describes scary, bullying ‘Year of Trump.’
In her new memoir, Settle for More, Kelly describes how an unexpectedly anxious Trump complained to Fox News executives last year about what she’d do as a moderator of the debate. The questions Kelly and her colleagues planned to ask the candidates were secret. She wrote that days before the debate, Trump called Fox “in an attempt to rein me in. … He said he had ‘heard’ that my first question was a very pointed question directed at him.” Kelly’s first question was in fact for Trump and about his treatment and descriptions of women. She wondered, she wrote, “How could he know that?”
In an exclusive interview Monday with USA TODAY — one in which she discussed what she called her “Year of Trump” and her stand against former Fox News chief Roger Ailes — Kelly said she did not believe her question leaked to Trump beforehand. “I don’t think he had any idea,” she said. “What I think he was worried about was his divorce from Ivana Trump. … He was afraid I was going to bring that up.”
Much more about Kelly’s dealings with Trump and his pal Roger Ailes at the link.
More reads, links only:
NYT: Donald Trump’s Far-Flung Holdings Raise Potential for Conflicts of Interest.
Columbia Journalism Review: Eight steps reporters should take before Trump assumes office, by Dana Priest
WaPo: Paul Ryan’s plan to phase out Medicare is just what Democrats need, by Paul Waldman
LA Times: Paul Ryan is determined to gut Medicare. This time he might succeed, by Michael Hiltzik
Daily Beast: Steve Bannon’s Dream: A Worldwide Ultra-Right, by Christopher Dickey
WaPo: Hate crimes against Muslims hit highest mark since 2001.
TPM: Jeff Sessions, Now Up For AG, Once Rejected From Judgeship For Racist Remarks.
That’s all I have. I’m still really struggling with my emotions, and I don’t know how long it’s going to take before I find my center again. This situation has triggered my deepest childhood fears and traumas. I just hope it isn’t going to be as disastrous as I expect.
Courage, Sky Dancers!
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
It has been so nice going through 8 years without a major White House scandal.
WaPo: Giuliani was paid advocate for shady Iranian dissident group
Politico: Trump adviser Michael Flynn linked to Turkish lobbying
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/donald-trump-turkey-lobbying-231354
Look at the Donald’s face in the above ‘family photo’ he looks like he’s thinking ‘Oh, god, I won, now what the heck will I do?
Or perhaps it’s “Come on Donald, you’ve gotten out of messes all your life, how do I extricate yourself from this one?
There are conflicting reports about Mike Rogers. Other accounts say that he got canned for a moment of integrity. I certainly don’t want him running the CIA, but if these accounts are true, it’s one more reason to be scared.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mike-rogers-leaves-trump-transition-team
Interesting.
They intend on re-writing history? Goodness me.
Did you see they say that Christie was purged and all his allies because he wasn’t loyal enough when Donald was under attack?
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-transition-shake-part-stalinesque-purge-christie-loyalists-n684081
That’s in my post actually.
Oh, I see it now …. sorry. I’m always worthless when I’m at work and trying to read and get interrupted but want to post something before it disappears.
No problem.
I hear Christie and his allies are being removed from pictures taken with Trump using an app called “Stalin’s Photoshop”. It comes in so handy.
lol. Kinda like using the ol’ bleach thing.
LOL
Haha.
Mose Allison passed. One of my inspirations …
http://hottytoddy.com/2016/11/15/mose-allison-dies-age-89/
Wow, I can’t believe it. Mose Allison use to play in Venice, California (LA), at a place called the firehouse, back in 1971. I think I communicated earlier with his son. He was born 1927 Tippo, Ms. He was cool. R.I. P.
Thank you, BB, for the post.
This situation is bringing up my deepest childhood fears and traumas, too. I am trying to keep myself together. It is very hard. I keep remembering hiding as a child from my abusers in a little nook inside a bookcase. It had a door that slid closed. But they would find me anyway. I wasn’t safe there or anywhere.
I need to step away from the Internet. I’m not helping anyone.
You always help, Beata; but you should do whatever is best for you.
You are a big part of good for all of us Beata!
Yes indeed!
This is even worse than Jeff Sessions as AG:
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Part of the Trumpocracy is making money from government connections.
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Don’t you just love the price? $10,800. I’m sure Trump’s working class supporters all have at least one of them!
I could live for a year on the cost of that bauble.
I still think their brand is trashed. Leslie Stahl asked Trump about that and he didn’t deny it – said it didn’t matter – POTUS was what is important.
But he is also saying he won’t live in the White House full time – so I wonder how all those high society Washington mavens – the Sally Quinns who hated the Clintons for their lack of class – how that is going to play out.
Who will be at the inaugural ball – Ted Nugent?
Inquiring minds….
Yeah, it will be interesting to see the reactions of the villagers. I don’t think they’ll be as bad as they were to the Clintons.
she better have great jewelry, the dress looks crappy and is a bad color for her. And for tv.
Who says she’ll be wearing a dress? Or anything at all?
Didn’t seem to bother his voters much that so many have already seen that side of her. Why not give them another thrill?
Who gives interviews about being ordinary Americans while sitting on gilded throne chairs?
Wow I hadn’t even noticed – they are! This is going to be the biggest circus of our lifetimes.
They look so amazingly lifelike, too. If I didn’t know better, I could almost believe they were human.
Thanks for staying on the front lines. I have not been able to write on my blog for the past week. The words just won’t come yet. But reading skydancing this week has been a huge help in keeping me sane.
Thanks. I’ve really been struggling too. Millions of us have I’m sure.
I love how the NYT headline up there is all about how his financial entanglements “raise the potential” of conflict of interest. They used that on Hillary about any scandal touching her – it raised possibilities that were never there to begin with. But for Trump – the real threats are just vague possibilities. FK the NYT.
Wapo has just how well our illustrious fourth estate did this year:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/one-billion-dollars-profit-yes-the-campaign-has-been-a-gusher-for-cnn/2016/10/27/1fc879e6-9c6f-11e6-9980-50913d68eacb_story.html
lol! raise the potential my ass. if his financial entanglements aren’t in conflict with him being the leader of the world, I’m a monkey’s uncle.
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/798612610547679235
I woke up this morning realizing that the world is on a precipice. The free world is on the brink of total domination by the forces of evil. We have learned that the Russians assisted in the propaganda campaign that brought about Brexit and that the Russians most certainly have inserted themselves into our election to bring about this disaster we are currently facing. France will fall next and I have no doubt the Russians will have a hand in it. There was another time in the not very distant past when it seemed like nothing could stop the evil that was systematically taking over the world. What did our parents and grandparents do? Did they cower under their blankets? Did they resign themselves to what seemed inevitable? No, they marshaled their forces and stood up to the evil.
Personally, I hate Winston Churchill. I hate his machiavellian ways. I hate how he sold out Poland. But we need a leader who will say the words to give us the courage and the drive to fight this scourge. Not Bernie, he’s a collaborator. Not Hillary, she deserves to rest. Maybe Barack Obama or someone younger but we all need to be inspired like Churchill did the last time the free world was on the brink of destruction.
I love your comment, Janice…thank you for posting it!
The great test of Obama as a leader will be how he conducts himself after leaving office. That will be his legacy, not his time as President.
Janicen – when I read your comment I thought wow you just read the same article I did:
View at Medium.com
I got that from Shakesville:
http://www.shakesville.com/2016/11/recommended-reading_15.html
It’s pretty terrifying – a historian with an example of how events trigger our major self-inflicted disasters.
I should warn anyone who is feeling too stressful to avoid this article.
Ah! You did show which link you meant, sorry. I’ll go back and read it.
Not sure which one you mean. There are a bunch of links in there but no, I didn’t read it anywhere. I’ve just been reading here and there and meditating and processing. This is our great war and we must win.
There are some young Democratic House members who are promising. I am thinking especially of those who have military experience: Seth Moulton (D-MA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI). Also Senator-elect Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).
Boxer introduces bill to abolish electoral college:
http://shareblue.com/senator-boxer-introduces-bill-to-abolish-electoral-college/
They’ll never do it – that would be democracy and who needs that.
https://twitter.com/coopah/status/798546166539370496
Never fear – Melania is making internet bullying her “cause” as FLOTUS.
Let that sink in.
We keep asking ourselves can it “get any worse?” and hour after hour it does.
Wow, that Brian Beutler piece really hits home. Through incompetence, Trump is going to fuck up royally- and ironically, those with him who know the game , are going to fuck up by following their plans.
C’mon Democrats leaders- we have got to be ready for this!
The sole reason I’m not on FB is Zuckerberg – can’t stand that twit.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/11/there_is_no_such_thing_as_a_good_trump_voter.html
Boulle … Spot on
One bit of good news…Merkel is going to run again. I’ll bet drumf decided her. She is talking about being an adult and standing up for the liberality of the EU.
Every Christian should be a capitalist? WTF? What happened to helping the poor and the sick, and the “Sooner will a camel go through the eye of a needle than a rich man enter heaven.” Jesus the liberal street preacher would not recognize this man.
Women’s March on Washington (at Facebook) is planned for January 21, 2017 at Lincoln Memorial. Individual State Pages can be found at the above National Page. Every group Trump trashed is invited.
I am not on Facebook. Is there another place where I can get information about my state? My dream would be to help represent disabled women at the March.
I also would like info that’s not on Facebook.
I am so damned proud of the high school students in this country. This is DC today…
That is so inspiring. It gives me hope.
The local high school kids in my neighborhood marched too, last week!
Seattle?
From Melissa McEwan:
“In the wake of this election, in which white supremacy, patriarchy, heterocentrism, Christianity, and able-bodiedness were centered — and divergence from those privileges devalued — we must urgently focus on the cultivation of empathy with marginalized people.
And we must do it not just because it is the principled thing to do, but because we are one country — like it or not — and we are all in this thing together. We must demand empathy with us out of self-interest, and make clear that it is in the self-interest of people who resent us, too.
We are all in the same leaky, creaky, unreliable boat. And knowing that means understanding even the most voracious self-interest is best served by egalitarianism: A fortune is worth nothing at the bottom of the ocean, less than a single penny carried safely to shore.
Moving forward, it will be profoundly difficult for marginalized people to continue to lift our voices, tell our stories and share our perspectives, doing it over and over to invite empathy, only to be rejected again and again. Only to have our vulnerabilities used against us.
But I am resolved to keep telling my stories — to report my lived experiences as a feminist woman, as a disabled person, as a survivor of sexual assault. I am resolved to keep speaking and providing the opportunity for people whose privileges I do not share to empathize with me.”
http://shareblue.com/we-must-urgently-cultivate-empathy-with-marginalized-people
Here is the body of a post in the Pantsuit Nation fb group:
“My friend’s wife campaigned for Obama and for Hillary. She joined a call with him today and he shared a few excerpts:
– Your President feels your pain.
– Surprising losses are worse than the ones you see coming.
– Progress doesn’t always follow a straight line.
– I’m giving you a whole week and a half to get over this. But come Thanksgiving, it’s time to stop moping and get organizing – something I know a little about.
– I’m constrained in what I can do until I’m a private citizen.
– But come February (maybe a little later after a vacation), Michelle and I will be right there with you.
– In the meantime, stay involved locally.
– I’m still fired up and I’m still ready to go.
ETA: Please feel free to share this post with other groups if you like, but don’t include my personal information or share directly from PSN (this includes screenshots). Thanks!”
Last night this doctored video of Rudy Giuliani made me laugh out loud for the first time since the election.
Just my opinion, I don’t have any intel on it, but I think Steve Bannon is not long for his position. I think they will sacrifice Bannon so we think we’ve accomplished something and not notice that we have an oligarch in the White House. Michael Flynn is a paid lobbyist for Turkey and he’s already sat in on Trump’s national security briefing. Trump OWNS Trump Tower, Istanbul and he’s our President elect and supposed to make decisions in our nation’s best interest. Trump wants his son-in-law to sit in on national security briefings and he OWNS a fucking newspaper. This is insane.
I would feel a tiny bit better, if someone could find a flaw in my position that Obama should have just appointed Garland to the bench. My argument is that it is unconstitutional for the Senate to refuse to hold hearings for ten months. This makes a mockery of the constitutional phrase “advise and consent.” So he just should have put him on the bench. The Republicans of course would file suit. But would we lose, even the Federal Court found against us, and we took it to the Supreme Court?
If the conservative justices all found that the Senate could do that, then this stands for the proposition that a party in control of the Senate has an absolute right never to hold a hearing on any judge appointed by an opposing party President. And I am not all sure that they want to be held to that. This isn’t Bush vs. Gore, where the court could cravenly state that the findings only applied to that one case, with no precedential value. So it is my position that President Obama has made a terrible mistake by not just putting Garland on the bench, one that will resonate for decades; because a moderate swing justice would have reinstated the Voting Rights Act, and now it is gone. The more I think about this, the more it bothers me. I see it as a wrongheaded adherence to cautiousness and making nice with Republicans, at the expense of the future of the country. I know that Obama means well, but I think this is awful. So if someone can point out whey I am wrong here, I might feel better about it.
I have no idea if you are right or wrong, William. You are an attorney so I assume you know more about this than those of us who aren’t, although constitutional law is not your area of expertise. If Obama can put Garland on the bench without the Senate to “advise and consent”, he should do so. Why not? What is there to lose at this point? Obama didn’t anticipate that Trump would win the election. He thought Hillary would be appointing the next Supreme Court nominee, and therefore he didn’t need to take such a strong action in Garland’s favor.
I agree, William
Can’t he still appoint Garland as a recess appointment? I should really find out more about this.
I very much doubt Obama will suddenly abandon his trademark cautiousness. He’s not one to take chances. He’s a golfer, not a gambler.
I have to agree with you.
Just another reason why I don’t do Facebook.
Rachel Maddow had a good segment tonight on these fake Facebook stories.
Good — I’ll go look for an playback of her show.
I got mixed up, Luna. It was Chris Hayes, not Rachel Maddow, who had the segment on fake Facebook stories. His show was on right before hers. Sorry for giving you the wrong information.
Thx. It can be hard to remember all the sources in the right order, especially when we’re under stress.
Not ready. I am still sticking to cartoon network.
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Well, right now I’m discussing a vacay on the Riviera. Doesn’t mean it will happen.
I worry that any and all of his appointments will be bad.
No need to worry. They will be.
Ivana wants to be appointed ambassador to the Czech Republic. I wonder what Marla wants?
I don’t know what Marla wants, but I’ll bet that Melania wants OUT.
Yeah, you can see that all over her face, can’t you? And poor Barron. It breaks my heart to see that kid. He looks like a hostage.
She may have enough on him to make this happen.
I was a kid when this became my anthem.
“Remember the dignity of your womanhood. Do not appeal, do not beg, do not grovel. Take courage, join hands, stand beside us, fight with us.”
Christabel Pankhurst
OMFG these Bernie bots on twitter! I don’t know if they are legit or Russian trolls (who can tell anymore?) but they will cherrypick a statistic and promote it as if they have proven that Sanders would have done better than Clinton. I’m over here firing back every single time but I think I’m going to close my computer and watch a cooking show because it’s hard to believe that people are so thick!
This election has shown us they are thicker than we could ever imagine. Facts don’t work with them!
Heard a Bernie bully blathering about his anger that WA state’s electoral votes go to Hillary. He was demanding that they go to Sanders because he won the Dem caucuses. Hah! We also had a primary election — which the state’s Dem party, in their stupidity, refused to take note of — and Sanders lost that primary! Voters who didn’t want to spend 2-plus hours being bullied by the Berniebots voted en masse for Hillary instead. Of course he didn’t remember that.
OMG! And what good would WA’s electoral votes do Bernie? See, it’s stupidity like that which makes me think it’s more Russian trolls rather than Americans. Any 8th grader would know Bernie doesn’t get any electoral votes. He wasn’t on any ballots in the general election.
Don’t underestimate the stupidity of a misogynist young man. These kids aren’t worth you even responding to. I left Crooks and Liars because of them – you won’t change their mind.
And they did NOT vote for Clinton – ergo the situation we are in.