Lazy Saturday Reads: Trump “Values” Are Not American Values
Posted: November 19, 2016 Filed under: Afternoon Reads, Foreign Affairs, open thread, U.S. Politics | Tags: Donald Trump, first amendment, Hamilton, Ivanka Trump, kleptocracy, Mike Pence, NOT BANNON!, Planned Parenthood, postcards, Steve Bannon, White supremacists 40 Comments
Good Afternoon!!
Here’s something we can do right away to let the PEOTUS know how we feel about his decision to install a white supremacist in the White House. A friend invited me to join this Facebook group that is asking people to send postcards from their states to Trump Tower between November 26 and 28. I sent invitations to my Facebook friends, so many of you will be getting them. Here’s the plan:
**IMPORTANT: Please do not send your postcard until NOV 26th**
**PUBLIC PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/events/235432800204102/
Instructions to participate:
1. Get a postcard from your state – any picture that represents your state.
2. In the message section, write this simple message: NOT BANNON!
3. Sign your name if you wish
4. Address it as follows:
Donald Trump
c/o The Trump Organization
725 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10022
5. Affix a stamp – you can use a 35 cent postcard stamp, or a normal letter stamp.
6. Take a picture of your postcard that you can share on social media using the hashtag #stopbannon #postcardavalanche
7. Drop it in the mail between Saturday, Nov 26th and Monday, Nov. 28th to create a concentrated avalanche of postcards.If you can’t send yours until later, don’t let that stop you.
**IF YOU CANT INVITE, WE RECOMMEND USING THE PUBLIC PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/events/235432800204102/
Now invite, invite, invite! The more voices we can get in the mail, from the more states, the better. To make it go viral we will all need to share the details with our sphere of influence in whatever ways we feel comfortable. Feel free to copy and paste the details or even post your own public event. The more the merrier!
If you are unfamiliar with Steve Bannon, he is a white supremacist who is also the head of a factoring companies that proliferates misogynistic, homophobic, and xenophobic views. The Donald is about to make him chief White House strategist. We have to stand up for American values against this man!
Let’s go national and send a message the old fashioned way!
Here’s something else people are doing. From the Indianapolis Star: 46,000 people have donated to Planned Parenthood in Mike Pence’s name since the election.
People on social media, ranging from regular Janes to celebrities, have been passing around Mike Pence’s official contact information.
Why?
To encourage others to make a donation to Planned Parenthood in Pence’s name and send him a notification of the gift.
Planned Parenthood confirmed that people are putting their money where their tweets are. Of more than 200,000 donations made to Planned Parenthood since the election, 46,000 have been made in the vice president-elect’s name, according to the organization.
I’m sure you’ve all heard about what happened to VP elect Pence last night. From the LA Times: Mike Pence gets booed as he arrives for performance of ‘Hamilton.’
Mike Pence, the vice president-elect, took a break from planning the next administration on Friday night by attending the popular Broadway show “Hamilton.”
Though Pence received a smattering of applause when he arrived, the New York audience mostly greeted the Indiana governor with boos….
The hip-hop musical about one of the country’s founding fathers, with its multicultural cast and tale of immigrant pride, has been a favorite of liberals. One of its songs was first performed at the White House when creator Lin-Manuel Miranda was a guest of President Obama.
From Rolling Stone: Watch ‘Hamilton’ Cast’s Powerful Plea to Mike Pence.
Pence had initially received an icy reception from the New York audience, with video of the Indiana governor being roundly booedupon entering the Richard Rodgers Theater quickly circulating on social media.
However, upon the show’s curtain call, the cast and crew of Hamilton, led by actor Brandon Victor Dixon, had a strong message to deliver to the VP-elect. “There’s nothing to boo here, we’re all here sharing a story of love,” Dixon said. “We have a message for you, sir.”
“Vice President-elect Pence, welcome. Thank you for joining us at Hamilton – An American Musical. We, sir, are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values, and work on behalf of ALL of us,” Dixon said.
Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr in the production, then again thanked Pence for attending a show featuring a “diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds and orientations.” “We don’t have to fight one another. The beautiful part of this country is… we don’t have to agree, but we gotta live here, baby, and share with one another,” Dixon added.
Watch the video at the LA Times or Rolling Stone link.
PEOTUS has already sent two whiny tweets claiming that Pence was “harassed.”
PEOTUS is not a fan of the first amendment to the Constitution. I wonder if he realizes how millions of people are going to greet his inauguration? He is going to hear a lot of boos in the next four years–if he lasts that long. He’d better get used to it. This isn’t Venezuela or Nazi Germany yet.
Meanwhile, the Trump organization is already well on the way to turning the U.S. Government into a kleptocracy. You probably saw that photo of Ivanka Trump sitting in on a meeting between her father and the Japanese Prime Minister. Ivanka’s husband was there for part of the meeting too.
Think Progress: This isn’t just a photo of Ivanka Trump. It’s a middle finger to democracy.
Donald Trump is leveraging his new position as president-elect to empower his business empire — and he’s doing it publicly.
We’ve known for some time that Trump didn’t plan to actually resolve the unprecedented conflicts his far-flung business interests presented.
Instead of liquidating his assets and placing them in a Qualified Diversified Trust, as President Bush did, or investing in index funds and government bonds, as President Obama did, Trump has done nothing.
He’s waved away concerns about conflicts-of-interest, saying that he would just hand over control of his business interests to his children.
He called this a “blind trust” but it is actually the opposite. A blind trust is when you hand marketable assets over to a neutral third party to control. The contents of the trust, since they can be traded at any time by the administrator, are soon unknown to you. Trump knows what his assets are and says he is handing them to his children.
Immediately after Trump’s election, he named three of his adult children — Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Jr. — to his transition team. This means the same people running the Trump Organization will also be choosing the top officials in the Trump administration.
Now he is taking things a step further. In his first meeting with a head of state, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump invited his daughter Ivanka — who will likely serve as acting CEO of his companies — to participate.
Trump could have kept Ivanka’s participation private. Instead, his team handed out a photo featuring Ivanka.
Please go read the rest. They are thumbing their noses at all that is decent and ethical.
And remember that Trump hotel in Washington DC–right near the White House? Foreign leaders and diplomats will soon be able to bribe the President of the U.S. by staying in that hotel on their official visits. They will be able to do the same by staying in other Trump branded hotels and patronizing his golf courses and other businesses.
Washington Post: For foreign diplomats, Trump hotel is place to be.
Trump International Hotel, Washington DC
About 100 foreign diplomats, from Brazil to Turkey, gathered at the Trump International Hotel this week to sip Trump-branded champagne, dine on sliders and hear a sales pitch about the U.S. president-elect’s newest hotel.
The event for the diplomatic community, held one week after the election, was in the Lincoln Library, a junior ballroom with 16-foot ceilings and velvet drapes that is also available for rent.
Some attendees won raffle prizes — among them overnight stays at other Trump properties around the world — allowing them to become better acquainted with the business holdings of the new commander in chief.
“The place was packed,” said Lynn Van Fleit, founder of the nonprofit Diplomacy Matters Institute, which organizes programs for foreign diplomats and government officials. She said much of the discussion among Washington-based diplomats is over “how are we going to build ties with the new administration.”
Back when many expected Trump to lose the election, speculation was rife that business would suffer at the hotels, condos and golf courses that bear his name. Now, those venues offer the prospect of something else: a chance to curry favor or access with the next president.
Perhaps nowhere is that possibility more obvious than Trump’s newly renovated hotel a few blocks from the White House, on Pennsylvania Avenue. Rooms sold out quickly for the inauguration, many for five-night minimums priced at five times the normal rate, according to the hotel’s manager.
Read more at the link, but prepare to be nauseated.
That’s all I have the strength for today. Please post your thoughts and links on any topic in the comment thread, have courage and hold onto your values for dear life.
peej
Carissa
dakinikat
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
JJ Lopez aka Minkoff Minx
peggysue22
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Love the post card idea! Headed to get some for all the members of my house & maybe for the Trump voters in my extended family!
I sent small donations to Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. I can’t afford much but I am asking my kids to do the same in my name as their Christmas gifts to me. I don’t need one more nightgown or box of Russell Stovers under the tree.
I also plan to avoid the inauguration and the ball that follows. To hell with these racists and their appeasers. I want no part of this charade.
What I can count on is this blog to keep updated but outside of this I have no interest in Fuehrer
Trump and his merry band of thieves.
Thanks for that, Pat. I’m going to donate when I can afford it after the first of the month. I already subscribed to the digital WaPo. I’m also thinking of signing up for TPM Prime.
I know you have mentioned in the past that you buy stuff on amazon. Just letting you know, when I sign onto amazon I sign onto smileamazon dot com. through smile, I was able to designate a charity that I wanted amazon to donate to whenever I made a purchase. so every time I buy something on amazon, a donation is made to Planned Parenthood Virginia. It’s a nice way to donate to a worthy cause and it doesn’t cost you any more than you are already spending.
I do that too. I have PP of MA on mine.
POETUS?
If pres-elect — would think PEOTUS.
You’re right. I’m not doing too well with focusing these days.
I was thinking PEEOTUS. BTW Bravo to the cast of Hamilton. And I think Ivanka is in on the meetings because Melania is too old for The Donald.
“They are thumbing their noses at all that is decent and ethical.”
Keeping on, keeping on. Nothing new from Trump & family.
And doesn’t Ivanka look right at home in her Gold Lamé Bullshit Palace.
I bought a safety pin pin on Etsy from Mary in Cleveland at SafetyPinJewelryArt who said she is donating a dollar of each sale to the ACLU.
I wake up every morning thinking “what fresh hell” awaits us today? We’re run by banana Republicans and religious nuts. We finally lost the Republic. I can come to no other logical conclusion. I wonder how many of us will live to see the Bill of Rights respected again by this country?
Several hundreds of examples of hate crimes since Trump “elected.” All sorts of stories about people being illegally thrown off the voter rolls so as to change the outcome. Months and months of the most obscene and threatening statements and chants being directed at Hillary Clinton, including by Republican officeholders, and at the party convention. Protesters at rallies being slugged and pummeled. But it is booing which is being condemned? And as usual, the mainstream media takes up the cry,-in the wrong direction. I guess it is that Republicans get to do and say whatever they want, while Democrats must behave with Edwardian civility, no matter what is being done to them. I’m not sure that the media, which normalizes Republicans’ assault on human rights, isn’t as big a danger to democracy as they are.
From a European organization with good info and links, including from the US Southern Poverty Law Center:
http://www.unitedagainstracism.org/archive/pages/info30.htm
Yep I needed it. Thank You!!!
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/obama-loyalists-trump-resistance-231642
That pretty much verifies the post I saw from the Pantsuit Nation group. I love Obama even more.
More good info here:
http://www.attn.com/stories/12768/former-congressional-staffer-explains-how-to-make-congressman-listen
My karmic desire is for all Trump hotels to become subsidized housing or residences for the low income elderly. Maybe Margaret Atwood could feature this plan in a novel.
Whose to say he won’t “wire”those rooms AKA the KGB? Wouldn’t put it past him.
I loathe Trump with every fiber of my being.
The hypocrisy of this group is mind boggling. Romney held a press conference to denounce Trump, calling him a bigot, a fraud, a con man.
Now he is rushing to kiss Trump’s fat ass in hopes of finding relevance again even though he described him perfectly as the asshole that the is.
This is going to be a tough 4 years live through. As bad, or worse than the Bush years.
My heart aches.
Don’t let Donald Trump’s antics distract you from what’s really important
Yes, watch the magician’s (con man’s) other hand.
Good news, so far, Cooper is winning over Gov. McCory in NC…………Go Cooper.
Excellent News. Getting rid of McCrory will be a bit of good news for those of us looking for something other than bad news.
And here is an unbelievable billboard – snopes says it’s true
http://www.snopes.com/russian-billboard-features-trump-and-putin/
It is. I put that photo in a post awhile back.
Not to mention his financial conflicts of interest. I’m not counting on the upcoming Congress to impeach Trump and remove him from office. Dark days.
Yeah AG Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions III will get right on that.
https://goo.gl/62qZ7X
NSA shake up over failure to stop cyber spying?
Wow, something is going to have to give! Before Pres. Obama leaves office, he must appoint an independent investigation into this matter. You know damn well the republicans are not going to investigate, even with John McCain jumping up and down.
I wish I understood what the hell is going on. This story leaves me with more questions than answers.
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/11/teaching-1984-in-2016/508226/?utm_source=atlfb
I am feeling pretty glum this morning but am focused on what I see as the discounting and disappearing of the extremely enthusiastic women supporters of Hillary Clinton, and supporters of her who really, really wanted her to guide us at this time not only because of her experience and positive vision, but because her way showed how a woman’s mind works–and we need that. I don’t get those who say she ran a negative campaign or who focus on women who didn’t support her. I don’t get lumping her into the disliked establishment and leaving it at that, discounting how many people couldn’t put their trust in a woman for president (couldn’t see through the media distortions as a result). And it makes me feel real despair because the way politics has been run is pretty horrid and I see so many people, in effect, affirming that it needs to keep happening that way, except “we” need to win, just do it better so “we” can win.
So I’ve been following and supporting those who want to see if we can catch skulduggery in the voting count, which is a long shot, but one of the ways I can try to change the outcome. And I’m going to the million women march on Washington to stand with women and those who are allies with them.
Trump winning brings up every deep distrust of life being good that I have had since my traumatic experiences as a girl and woman happened, and I refuse to go back to delegating those to some private realm that doesn’t intersect with politics. I am not giving in to those feelings, but they are with me. I studied the rise of National Socialism but didn’t think I’d live to see something similar here, not so quickly. And because we have obviously lost a lot more ground than we realized with those in power and outside it who really don’t value a constitutional democracy, I wonder about next steps. All I know is that I pray (truly!) to find other women who are strong to face that challenge with. I just have no patience for mysogyny and its ways in the world. I know everything doesn’t come down to that, but too much does, I think.
We have to organize and resist. I never thought it could happen here but have to admit that I saw so much of this come from the religious right since the 80s that I should not be surprised. They seem as drive as the religious freaks from ISIS. It doesn’t surprise me that so many votes came from the same folks that supported the moral majority. It’s hard to know what to do to ride this out.
So glad you joined us here!!!
h/t to imusthaveHillary over at Uppity’s.
Tess Rafferty is a TV writer, comic and author. Twitter: @TessRafferty
Steve Cohen is a director for film and TV. Twitter: @flamdiddle
Thanks for the video, Luna. It helps make up for listening to Sirius POTUS channel while driving this evening and hearing only about how Trump should appoint a special prosecutor for Clinton because wealthy people shouldn’t be above the law (emails and foundation). If I’d had a number to call I would have called in. Crazy making.