Tuesday Reads: Donald #tRump, The Ugly UnAmerican, Wants an Ugly America
Posted: November 29, 2016 Filed under: morning reads, U.S. Politics 60 Comments
Trump wants to ban photos of his double chin
Good Morning!!
Breaking news this morning: #tRump will be leading rallies again beginning on Thursday in Cincinnati. He will then go on to stage rallies in other “swing states.” He doesn’t want anyone to call it a “victory tour” either, so don’t do that or you might lose your citizenship or be thrown in jail.
Bloomberg reports:
President-elect Donald Trump will begin a “Thank You Tour” on Thursday in Cincinnati, replicating the arena events that powered his surprise campaign, three of his transition officials said.
The Republican has credited his rallies as a central component of his victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. The events at times drew tens of thousands of people and were often broadcast live and in their entirety on cable news networks, affording him a practically unfiltered channel to voters.
His post-election tour may take him to “swing states we flipped over,” George Gigicos, Trump’s director of advance, told reporters on Nov. 17. Trump won Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida, all states President Barack Obama won twice.
In case you haven’t noticed, insane president-elect doesn’t like dissent–not one little bit! He either hasn’t heard about the first amendment to the Constitution or thinks it should be ignored. This morning he tweeted about it.
Last night, #tRump flew into a rage at CNN reporter Jeff Zeleny for saying on the air that there is no evidence of that voter fraud led to Hillary Clinton’s more than 2 million lead in the popular vote, and then retweeted several random twitter posts about it. One of them was from a 16-year-old boy, but he apparently likes #tRump; so #tRump thinks he’s an expert.
The president elect doesn’t think he needs intelligence briefings from the U.S. intelligence agencies, because he’s apparently getting his briefings from “foreign leaders”–most likely Vladimir Putin. He gets his “expert advice” on appointments from Fabio and Don King. He doesn’t give press conferences or talk to the media. The only thing we have is his tweets. Some folks think we should ignore them, but this madman is the president elect and his tweets are essentially press releases. They may be the only direct communications Americans get from #tRump for the next four years. They are also the best evidence we have that #tRump is literally insane.
Aaron Blake at The Washington Post: Why we can’t — and shouldn’t — ignore Donald Trump’s tweets.
With a trio of tweets Sunday alleging millions of fraudulent votes and “serious” fraud in three states, Trump effectively hijacked the news cycle for the next 24 hours with baseless conspiracy theories. A week prior, it was Trump’s tweets demanding an apology from the cast of “Hamilton” for disrespecting Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who was in the audience the previous night.
It can all feel pretty small and sideshow-y at times. Some have a prescription: The media should resist the urge to cover Trump’s tweets as big news. Others even say we should ignore them altogether.
But both of those are fantasies. And we’d be doing readers a disservice if we tried either.
Undergirding the idea that Trump’s tweets shouldn’t be big news is the theory that he’s manipulating the media into focusing on small things to cover up less sexy but more important things — conflicts of interests and possible corruption, in particular.
I’m skeptical any such plan exists, given that Trump’s thin-skinned tweeting is pretty indiscriminate. But this idea has returned with a vengeance given the latest tweetstorm, and it’s likely to perk up again after Trump on Tuesday morning suggested revoking the citizenship or jailing of people who burn the American flag.
I don’t buy that he’s following some Machiavellian theory of media distraction. We’ve already seen that #tRump has virtually no self-control. He’s an childish man who has always been prone to temper tantrums. He’s not going to change. This dangerous man has been chosen by a minority of American voters have chosen to be the most powerful person in the world. More from Blake:
What we’re basically talking about here is treating Trump like a social media troll with an egg for an avatar who can be blocked or ignored and hopefully loses the will to keep harassing us.
But this is the president-elect of the United States. The job comes with the so-called bully pulpit, and what he says matters and will be the subject of debate no matter what the mainstream media does. Everything he says reverberates. It doesn’t matter if he says it on Twitter or at a news conference; either way it’s going to be consumed by tens of millions of people, and the media has an important role to play when it comes to fact-checking and providing context.
ProPublica senior reporting fellow Jessica Huseman nailed it in an interview with The Fix’s Callum Borchers on Monday.
“If he had said something similar in a press conference, no one would be concerned that journalists are getting distracted by his absurd language,” Huseman said. “But because it was a tweet, that’s somehow different? Unfortunately, this president-elect has decided to make Twitter his main means of communicating with the American public, and the American public listens deeply to things that he says on Twitter.”
Now, before I move on to other #tRump news, here’s a bizarre photo that Kellyanne Conway posted on Twitter yesterday.
How would you caption this picture?
I have lots of links for you today.
Here’s one of the most frightening. The New York Times: How Stable Are Democracies? ‘Warning Signs Are Flashing Red,’ by Amanda Taub.
Yascha Mounk is used to being the most pessimistic person in the room. Mr. Mounk, a lecturer in government at Harvard, has spent the past few years challenging one of the bedrock assumptions of Western politics: that once a country becomes a liberal democracy, it will stay that way.
His research suggests something quite different: that liberal democracies around the world may be at serious risk of decline.
Mr. Mounk’s interest in the topic began rather unusually. In 2014, he published a book, “Stranger in My Own Country.” It started as a memoir of his experiences growing up as a Jew in Germany, but became a broader investigation of how contemporary European nations were struggling to construct new, multicultural national identities.
He concluded that the effort was not going very well. A populist backlash was rising. But was that just a new kind of politics, or a symptom of something deeper?
To answer that question, Mr. Mounk teamed up with Roberto Stefan Foa, a political scientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia. They have since gathered and crunched data on the strength of liberal democracies.
Their conclusion, to be published in the January issue of the Journal of Democracy, is that democracies are not as secure as people may think. Right now, Mr. Mounk said in an interview, “the warning signs are flashing red.”
Read the rest at the link, but here’s disturbing chart from the piece showing how attitudes toward the need to live in a democracy have changed over time. Older people still care about democracy, younger people not so much.
We haven’t heard that much about #tRump’s son-in-law lately; but, according to the Wall Street Journal, like he may have nearly as many conflicts of interest as #tRump.
The real-estate company controlled by Jared Kushner, President-elect Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has hundreds of millions of dollars in loans outstanding from domestic and foreign financial institutions, markets condominiums to wealthy U.S. and foreign buyers and has obtained development financing through a controversial U.S. program that sells green cards.
Those and other business activities could raise conflict-of-interest issues if Mr. Kushner is named to a staff position in the Trump administration. Executive branch employees are prohibited from participating in any matter in which there is “a close causal link” between that matter and a “real possibility” of a financial gain or loss, according to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
Mr. Trump has floated the idea of Mr. Kushner taking a number of roles in his administration. But he also is considering not giving Mr. Kushner any staff position to sidestep the conflict issue, a person familiar with his thinking said Monday.
If Mr. Trump wanted to give Mr. Kushner an official role he also would have to comply with federal nepotism law. Even if Mr. Kushner were to serve in the new administration as an unpaid adviser, his potential influence on policy would invite scrutiny, legal experts said.
Much more at the WSJ. I got through the paywall somehow; I hope my link works.
Jonathan Cohn at Huffington Post: Trump’s Pick For HHS Signals He Is Dead Serious About Repealing Obamacare
President-elect Donald Trump will name an ultra–conservative surgeon, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), to run the Department of Health and Human Services.
The choice, which Trump’s transition team announced on Tuesday morning, would appear to signal Trump’s determination to proceed with a major overhaul of federal health care programs ― including not just Obamacare, which Republicans have sworn to repeal, but also Medicare and Medicaid.
Price, 62, practiced as an orthopedist for about two decades before winning election to the House of Representatives in 2005.
Once in Congress, Price gained notoriety for his right-wing views ― first as chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative lawmakers, and then as a founding member of the Tea Party Caucus. A constant in his career has been a hostility to government interference with the practice of medicine.
That may help explain why Price has emerged one of Washington’s most vocal and persistent critics of the Affordable Care Act. That law, which President Barack Obama signed in 2010, has helped more than 20 million people to get health insurance and made coverage available even to people with pre-existing medical conditions. It has also increased the underlying cost of insurance and raised taxes on the very wealthy.
In a prepared statement, Trump hailed Price as “a renowned physician” and “go-to expert on healthcare policy. … He is exceptionally qualified to shepherd our commitment to repeal and replace Obamacare and bring affordable and accessible healthcare to every American.”
Democrats reacted to the news harshly, noting Price’s history of criticizing major federal health programs ― as well as his strong opposition to abortion rights.
“Congressman Price has proven to be far out of the mainstream of what Americans want when it comes to Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, and Planned Parenthood,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the incoming minority leader. “Nominating Congressman Price to be the HHS secretary is akin to asking the fox to guard the hen house.”
Price is also a birther:
https://twitter.com/jelani9/status/803425527314976768
More reads, links only:
Think Progress: Trump’s lies have a purpose. They are an assault on democracy.
George Lakoff: A Minority President: Why the Polls Failed, And What the Majority Can Do.
Vox: What the alt-right actually wants from President Trump.
New York Times: Combative, Populist Steve Bannon Found His Man in Donald Trump.
Washington Post: What a President Trump means for foreign policy.
Jamelle Bouie at Slate: Keep Hope Alive. Demoralized Democrats have a road map for success in Trump’s America. It was written by Jesse Jackson.
Must Read! David Fahrenthold and Robert O’Harrow Jr. at The Washington Post: The mogul, in a 2007 deposition, had to face up to a series of falsehoods and exaggerations. And he did. Sort of.
Catherine Rampell at The Washington Post: In Trump’s economy, mammas should make sure their babies grow up to be con men.
Washington Post: Donald Trump’s political mandate is historically small.
Eric Boelert at Media Matters: Too Little, Too Late: Weeks After Election, Media See Trump’s Conflicts, Potential Self-Dealings, And Corruption.
Matthew Yglesias at Vox: The Trump conflicts of interest we can see are just the tip of the iceberg.
peej
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skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
I decided to use JJ’s spelling of #tRump’s name. I think our only hope is to mock him unmercifully and attack every single thing he does. And of course we need to bombard the Democrats with demands that they hold him and every Republican accountable.
More from the Jonathan Cohn piece on Price’s plans for Obamacare and Medicare.
The Senate Finance Committee holds confirmation hearings for HHS secretary. Contact Committee members to let them know you oppose Tom Price. Save Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA!
The current Senate Finance Committee:
Republicans:
Orrin Hatch, Utah, Chairman
Chuck Grassley, Iowa
Mike Crapo, Idaho
Pat Roberts, Kansas
Mike Enzi, Wyoming
John Cornyn, Texas
John Thune, South Dakota
Richard Burr, North Carolina
Johnny Isakson, Georgia
Rob Portman, Ohio
Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania
Dan Coats, Indiana
Dean Heller, Nevada
Tim Scott, South Carolina
Democrats:
Ron Wyden, Oregon, Ranking Member
Chuck Schumer, New York
Debbie Stabenow, Michigan
Maria Cantwell, Washington
Bill Nelson, Florida
Bob Menendez, New Jersey
Tom Carper, Delaware
Ben Cardin, Maryland
Sherrod Brown, Ohio
Michael Bennet, Colorado
Bob Casey, Pennsylvania
Mark Warner, Virginia
This site provides ways to contact members of the Committee:
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/committees/SSFI
Thanks, Beata!
Thank you for your post, BB.
I am feeling energized and ready for the fight ahead! We have power and will not give up!
Think Progress: Priebus confirms that climate denial will be the official policy of Trump’s administration.
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-climate-change-bunk-28c5c44cee#.aa3iq5kuw
The media got all excited for a moment, when the NYT talked to Trump and he said that “he was keeping an open mind” on it. Of course, when the head of EPA is going to be one of the major climate change deniers, it was obvious that what Trump said for convenience meant zero. But they haven’t figured that out yet. And why even mention again that if the media had asked one single question on global warming at the debates, or ever had one discussion with scientists on their 24-hour networks, maybe some voters might have considered this important in their decision? What the voters thought were important is what the media told them was important: Hillary’s emails, the Clinton Foundation, and trade deals. I hope they enjoy watching the planet burn up. News at 11. We now have to somehow depend on the rest of the world to save us, or some empathic alien race from outer space.
If I were an alien looking at us I would wait until humans, cockroaches and mosquitos were extinct (saving all other species) – then take over.
Should bedbugs be saved? Discuss.
Lol, hmmm. What other mammals, or other species, do bedbugs torture?
Well, bedbugs can survive on cats and dogs. Cockroaches are natural predators of bedbugs, so if cockroaches are extinct, bedbugs will proliferate. Cats and dogs will not be happy.
Oooo – let’s get rid of bedbugs, thus starving the roaches. And I guess we’ll have to keep mosquitos because bats like those and I like bats.
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He actually makes Richard Nixon look like the picture of mental health and morality. He’s like all the crook, all the crazy, and total ignorance plus some. We really have to find a way to prevent this mad king from taking over. The Flag Burning comment this morning was surreal. Even Scalia upheld the right to burn a US flag in that SCOTUS decision. Trump has no idea of the rule of law or the constitution. He just has random thoughts that seem a reaction to something that’s in front of him for 2 seconds.
BB, where can I get a link that I can share of Olbermann’s video?
Joanelle, it’s on YouTube.
Click on the YouTube icon at the bottom of the video to go to the site and copy the link.
Thanks, Beata
Did you notice both the inboxes and the outboxes are empty in the photo? Isn’t that rather odd?
His brain is empty too. There’s no way in hell that is his computer.
And why does Kellyanne still have her sunglasses on her head – looks pretty dark outside.
She is a vampire. Daylight bothers her eyes.
A disordered desk equals a disordered mind. Very bad feng shui there.
The whole room looks like that in other pictures I’ve seen – not an inch of clear space on any flat surface. He even eats his taco bowls on top of stacks of stuff.
Notice also he has his latest merch (hats) lined up ready for sale!
I agree that we are unlikely ever to see a Trump press conference. He would have to answer questions and follow-ups. Remember the quaint days when the media was so outraged when Hillary went a few months without a formal press conference, and they put a clock on their screen? But that was Hillary,whom they loved to mock and goad. What will they have to do now?
This is actually a weird and scary realistic science fiction novel writing itself. Philip K. Dick sometimes wrote things like that. He had one where the president was an android; another very compelling one where there was no president, just a mock-up on a screen, and then words which were written by a team of people, and a voice coming out. I miss Philip Dick, he was an amazing writer, and he might have made some strange sense of this. Here we have a president who communicates via tweets, which cannot be parsed or questioned, since they stand alone. But the media slavishly follows them, like signs in tea leaves, or that fortune telling device in the Twilight Zone episode which kept William Shatner’s character fixed to his seat in the diner. And the “victory tour,” is unprecented, and oh-so-fascistic. I suppose the media will show those events froms start to finish, as well. I always sensed that when they showed full Trump rallies every day on prime time, and would show only a few minutes of Hillary’s rallies, that we were in trouble. People commented about it, but they still kept doing it, every day. And like any TV show, or any song that payola gets played over and over, it sinks in, and people end up buying it. The media created this monstrous situation. And as in Mary Shelley’s novel, they don’t have any idea how to stop or unravel it. As long as it makes money for them, it’s okay with them.
Sanders, who drew all five headlines in your “Crooks and LIars” link below, seems to play the necessary part of the ineffectual opposition figure who has no power, no ultimate efffect, and who is fascinated with his own words and ideology. The sooner he disappears, the better chance we have to do something significant in resistance. In Orwell’s “1984,” there was a suppposed opposition figure, but a real question as to whether he existed, or the tyranny just invented himi as a convenience. Alan Colmes played a real-life ineffectual figure for years, the convenient punching bag for Sean Hannity. Sanders is now our Alan Colmes. I hope he is enjoying his third house, purchased with campaign funds he gave to his wife as a pretend massive salary, from the millions of $27 donations he got. And as far as I am concerned, he is the major reason why Hillay “lost” this election, since he gave Trump all his bogus phony populist talking points, and ludicrously painted Hillary as a tool of Wall Street, the place where traders chanted “lock her up,” when she was shown on TV in her concession speech.
Well said, William.
I’m reposting this song from the last thread. It’s a great tune with a positive message. I recommend dancing to it Soul Train style, even if it’s just you and the spirit of Don Cornelius.
I love that song! Thank you.
We will need great art of all kinds in the coming years.
Keith Obermann agrees with me since I have been saying this same thing for months.
There is something seriously wrong with this man and the kindest thing is for him to be carted off just like Kanye for a much needed “rest”.
He is both emotionally and intellectually unfit for this office. What few will say aloud is that aside from his mental health issues and his narcissism he is in truth a stupid, stupid man.
He knows nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. He is so enamored of himself that he believes those stunning tweets blasting out at 2am are profound. They are beyond stupid considering that this man is poised to take the oath of high office without an ounce of integrity or a sense of logic.
The lies keep on coming. Lie after lie after lie. How much his adoring public is willing to swallow this bullshit remains to be seen.
In the meantime we are all subject to this insanity like it or not.
“How would you caption this picture?”
Donald shows Kellyanne photos of pussygrabbing.
good one!
This is a very good, but scary, article about populism. I just downloaded the guy’s book.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n23/jan-werner-muller/capitalism-in-one-family
Yeah, this is good, BB.
Really focused
President-in-Waiting Pence continues to build his future administration as Trump picks Semma Verma to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services:
“Verma, an Indiana resident, is best known for her work on Medicaid issues and her close ties to Vice President-elect Mike Pence. She designed his Obamacare Medicaid expansion model – known as Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0 – and has advised several Republican states on how to add conservative elements such as health savings accounts and employment requirements to their programs.
Through her consulting firm SVC Inc., Verma has worked on other high-profile Medicaid expansion proposals for Republican governors. That includes Kentucky, where Republican Gov. Matt Bevin has threatened to pull the plug unless the Obama administration approves his pending request. Bevin’s plan includes a work requirement as a condition of receiving benefits and lockout periods for failure to pay, and is modeled off of Indiana’s Medicaid expansion model.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2016/11/seema-verma-to-head-centers-for-medicare-and-medicaid-services-231921
Great minds…
Oh that’s just great.
Manchurian drumf may need this tour, but what is happening back at the home fires while this going on? Imagine that pence is the prez, which I think he may be; the libertarians, bigots and tea partiers are taking over. We so need to protect what left of the institutions.
drumf needs adulation – but he’ll never get it abroad. Can you even imagine what a trip abroad will look like for him?
Egg thrown at his limo, massive protests in the streets. We should do the same here.
Anyone else had trouble with facebook?
So the lease arrangement with the Old Post Office Hotel prohibits any elected official to play a role in the lease:
“No … elected official of the Government of the United States … shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom…”
Meanwhile Bahrain is booked to hold a lavish National Day celebration at the hotel.
Gosh I wonder if this will be an issue for anyone in the DOJ or Congress.
Has anyone heard from Mouse? I’m hoping she’s safe from those wildfires in TN.
Mouse, if you stop by, this is for you.
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Love it BB and thanks for thinking about me……I’m a safe distance away from the Gatlinburg fire, but we’re still under a no-burn order. We’ve only had a couple of days of rain since early May. The entire State is in extreme drought conditions so we’re all a bit worried since there are so many heavily wooded hills and mountains nearby. I think most of the South is experiencing the same thing.
Thanks for letting us know! Take care.
I was just thinking the same thing. I don’t know how close Mouse and her family are to the fires. I hope they are okay.
We’re all good Beata. Thanks for thinking of us.
Oh I hope Mouse is ok – TN fires are horrible!. Speaking of fires – DeVos and her agenda are going to burn it all down in education. Oklahoma even gets a mention in a very negative way
https://nondoc.com/2016/11/29/betsy-devos-perils-privatization/
Re: the Conway pic…”Before the Sniper”.
Not that I am suggesting it, but it seems a very poor position, and were I he, I wouldn’t go back there.
Thanks for the link BB :https://georgelakoff.com/2016/11/22/a-minority-president-why-the-polls-failed-and-what-the-majority-can-do/ Well worth a read.
Very interesting viewpoint- people vote their values,as he describes it:
“Everyone likes to think of himself or herself as a good person. That means that your moral system is a major part of your identity — who you most deeply are. Voting against your moral identity would be a rejection of self.
That is why poor conservatives vote against their material interests. They are voting for their moral worldviews to dominate, and for public respect for their values.”
Lakoff has talked about the supremacy of words/labels before and the differences between conservatives and liberals- strict father vs nurturing family. Tonight I’m filtering what I read through that lens.
“What the Majority Can Do
A strong American Majority movement is necessary, and its backbone has to be a citizens’ communication system — or systems — run through the internet, framing American values accurately and systemically day after day, telling truths framed by American majority moral values — and appealing honestly and forthrightly to those in-group nurturant values in small towns across America. The idea that must be brought across is empathy for those in your in-group, your town. This is basic progressive thought: citizens care about citizens and provide public resources for all, maximizing freedom. It fits in-group nurturance. And it undermines — rather than negates — strict father morality.”
Citizen’s communication system? Hmmm…. not just the liberal blog roll but maybe something built from there?
Mitt Romney is enduring dinner with Trump tonight, as Small Hand Donald continues to sadistically toy with him. Rumor has it Romney is being forced to get down on his hands and knees to beg for scraps from the table, and then to roll over. Mitt barking out “Jungle Bells” is the scheduled after-dinner entertainment.
The Apprentice strikes! Doesn’t Romney hear echos of “you’re fired”?
http://www.wkow.com/story/33819198/2016/11/29/clinton-asks-to-join-lawsuit-demanding-hand-recount-in-wisconsin
Judge okayed this …maybe good news?
It would be good if we somehow won the lawsuit and got a hand recount, both in WI and MI. As I understand it, that is the only way to possibly check on whether Walker’s and Snyder’s boys simply didn’t count the provisional ballots. If somehow the provisional ballots were counted, Hillary could well win WI and MI, which would have her at 259 electoral votes. I don’t think she would win PA, although I know that there were so many people knocked off the voting rolls who would have given her the victory there.I wish that they had filed for recounts in AZ and FL, but that seems unlikely. So we would at best be 11 votes away, we would need 11 brave electors to stand up for democracy.
“Keep Your Spirits Up: You Can’t Resist Trump When You’re Tired and Sad” by Colin Beavan:
“I have put together some tools I use as an activist, writer, coach, consultant, and as a Zen practitioner.
1. Take care of yourself and be glad to be alive
Zen Master Seung Sahn, the Korean monk who brought the Kwan Um Zen tradition (which I practice) to the West, would ask his students, “Why do you eat?” The students couldn’t answer. The Zen master would say, “You ask me.” The students asked him why he ate, and he answered, “For you!”
He meant that he maintained his body in order to teach his students and help the world. But we need more than just food. To be really effective, we have to maintain our bodies and minds and hearts and spirits.
Spend time with friends. Play Frisbee. Meditate. Do yoga. Eat well. Sleep. Rest. Don’t get involved in fruitless arguments. Be grateful to be alive. Use what privileges you have to help others. Tell good jokes. Laugh a lot. Enjoy sex with someone you care for. Embrace life.
If you did these things only for yourself, that might be self-centered. But if you do them in a spirit of “not just for me” – to enjoy, yes, but also to maintain yourself for others – then taking care of yourself becomes taking care of others, and taking care of others becomes taking care of yourself. You will have more energy to live for all people and more joy and satisfaction for yourself.”
Beavan lists several other “tools” and goes into detail about each one in the article:
2. Limit your news exposure to what enables you to help
3. Affirm your power and help the vulnerable
4. Know what you stand for
5. Learn about how social change happens
6. Strengthen your optimism muscle
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/11/29/keep-your-spirits-you-cant-resist-trump-when-youre-tired-and-sad
Thank you Beata.