The Commentariat -- November 11, 2016

The AP has called Arizona for Trump. Michigan (leans Trump) & New Hampshire (leans Clinton) are outstanding:

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama and Donald J. Trump made a public show on Thursday of putting their bitter differences aside after a stunning election upset, during a once-unimaginable Oval Office meeting. It brought together a president who has darkly warned that Mr. Trump could not be trusted with the nuclear codes and a successor who rose to political prominence questioning Mr. Obama's birthplace and legitimacy.... It was an extraordinary show of cordiality and respect between two men who have been political enemies and are stylistic opposites...." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... David Nakamura & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "In a sign of how tensions between the two politicians have not disappeared in the immediate aftermath of the election, the White House did not arrange for the traditional photo-op between the current first couple and the incoming one, a custom that George W. Bush and his wife Laura observed when the Obamas visited the White House in 2008. Melania Trump met separately with Michelle Obama.... [Donald] Trump later met with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) at the Capitol and said they also would work together -- but on Republican goals that are opposed by Obama and his fellow Democrats." -- CW ...

... Paul Waldman: "This tableau, of Obama shaking the hand of the man who spent years in a despicable racist effort to convince the country that he wasn't really an American, just sickens me. You may not like President Obama's policies, but no one of any political stripe can argue that he didn't conduct himself in office with uncommon graciousness, thoughtfulness, and dignity. And now he's going to be succeeded by a guy millions of us use as a lesson for our children in how human beings shouldn't act." -- CW

... Kathleen Hennessey of the AP: "... Donald Trump on Thursday refused to let a group of journalists travel with him to cover his historic first meeting with President Barack Obama, breaking a long-standing practice intended to ensure the public has a watchful eye on the nation's leader. Trump flew from New York to Washington on his private jet without that 'pool' of reporters, photographers and television cameras that have traveled with presidents and presidents-elect. Trump's flouting of press access was one of his first public decisions since his election Tuesday." CW: So maybe not the most transparent presidency ever? ...

A Very Short-Lived Reprieve for Muslims. Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's campaign staff temporarily redirected the webpage detailing his controversial proposal to temporarily ban Muslim immigration into the United States, one of the most divisive and controversial policy ideas of his campaign, but swiftly sought to restore it after reporter inquiries Thursday." -- CW ...

... The Government the Gullible Deserve. Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump, who campaigned against the corrupt power of special interests, is filling his transition team with some of the very sort of people who he has complained have too much clout in Washington: corporate consultants and lobbyists. Jeffrey Eisenach, a consultant who has worked for years on behalf of Verizon and other telecommunications clients, is the head of the team that is helping to pick staff members at the Federal Communications Commission." And so forth. -- CW: Trump didn't wait a day before he started betraying his dimwitted voters (and the rest of us, of course, but we knew this would happen).

Comrade President Trumpskyev, Moscow on Line for You! Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: "The Russian government maintained contacts with advisers to Donald J. Trump during the American presidential campaign, one of Russia's top diplomats said Thursday -- an assertion a Trump spokeswoman flatly denied. 'There were contacts,' Sergei A. Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. 'We continue to do this and have been doing this work during the election campaign,' he said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Akhilleus: No wonder Putin was so happy Comrade Donaldavich won. Wonder how long after Trump gets his security briefing he gives BFF Vlad the inside dope on US national security secrets. And it's also no wonder Wikileaks never released anything hacked from the Trump campaign. Although I doubt a revelation like this would have done him any harm. The American right has quite a crush on the ex-KGB strongman.

Roxana Popescu & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Attorneys for ... Donald Trump went to court Thursday to ask that a civil fraud suit against Trump scheduled to begin in less than three weeks be delayed, a reminder of the unusual complications facing Trump as he shifts from businessman to commander in chief. Trump's attorneys said he will be too busy with the presidential transition to participate in the Nov. 28 trial involving his defunct real estate seminar program, Trump University. They asked that the trial be postponed until February or March, after he has taken office. They made their request before Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the jurist Trump harshly criticized during the campaign as biased because of his Mexican heritage." -- CW ...

... Dan Levine & Karen Freifeld of Reuters: "The U.S. judge overseeing a lawsuit against ... Donald Trump and his Trump University told both sides they would be wise to settle the case 'given all else that's involved.' Lawyers for [Trump] ... are squaring off against students who claim they were they were lured by false promises to pay up to $35,000 to learn Trump's real estate investing 'secrets' from his 'hand-picked' instructors. Earlier on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel tentatively rejected a bid by Trump to keep a wide range of statements from the presidential campaign out of the fraud trial.... Trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 28, and Curiel told lawyers he was not inclined to delay the six-year-old case further." -- CW

Giuliani Interviews On-Air for AG Spot. Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: "... Rudy Giuliani ... used a CNN interview Thursday morning to tout his qualification to be attorney general. Giuliani initially indicated he would take the job if he couldn't point to three other lawyers who would be just as good." Luckily for Rudy, Trump watches a lot of TV. Maybe he caught the interview. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Christopher Mele of the New York Times: "Thousands of demonstrators filled the streets in several cities across the country for a second night on Thursday in what were largely peaceful protests against the election of Donald J. Trump as president. In Portland, Ore., the police contended with what they described as an 'aggressive' crowd of about 4,000 protesters and widespread reports of vandalism, fires and broken windows. 'Due to extensive criminal and dangerous behavior, protest is now considered a riot,' the Portland Police Department said on Twitter." -- CW ...

... ** Masha Gessen in the New York Review of Books: "... Clinton's and Obama's very civil passages ... seemed to close off alternative responses to [Trump's] minority victory. (It was hard not to be reminded of Neville Chamberlain's statement, that 'We should seek by all means in our power to avoid war, by analyzing possible causes, by trying to remove them, by discussion in a spirit of collaboration and good will.') Both Clinton's and Obama's phrases about the peaceful transfer of power concealed the omission of a call to action. The protesters who took to the streets of New York, Los Angeles, and other American cities on Wednesday night did so not because of Clinton's speech but in spite of it. One of the falsehoods in the Clinton speech was the implied equivalency between civil resistance and insurgency. This is an autocrat's favorite con, the explanation for the violent suppression of peaceful protests the world over." Read on for Gessen's Rules for Survival in an Autocracy. -- CW

ISIS and Al Qaeada Thrilled About Trump. Laura Bult of the New York Daily News. "Islamic extremists are celebrating Donald Trump's shocking victory this week, claiming the election outcome proves half of Americans' anti-Muslim sentiment, according to a group monitoring jihadism. Islamic terrorist organizations including Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Taliban are touting Trump's stunning win as a signal of the country's downfall, according to reports in SITE Intelligence Group cited by USA Today. 'Pro #AQ (Al Qaeda) accounts: "On 9-11 US struck w disaster at the hands of AQ. On 11-9, US struck with disaster at the hands of their own voters,'" wrote SITE founder Rita Katz on Twitter." Akhilleus (Also linked yesterday.)

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Michigan), in a Washington Post op-ed: "I said Clinton was in trouble with the voters I represent. Democrats didn't listen.... Much of the district is Democratic and those voters strongly supported Bernie Sanders in the primary. That result didn't surprise me, but it did infuriate me that Clinton and her team didn't show up until the weekend before the primary, when it suddenly became clear they had a problem.... They never stopped on a campus; never went to a union hall; never talked to the Arab American community. Sanders was in my district 10 times during the primary. How would any sane person not predict how this one would go? It was fixable for the general election." -- CW ...

... CW: Several reports have noted that Clinton narrowly won the popular vote, but something that gets far less attention is this from Dominico Mantanaro of NPR: Based on unofficial returns for 2016, President Obama got 65.9MM votes in 2012; Clinton won only 59.1MM, or 6.8MM fewer than Obama. Romney won 60.9MM votes in 2012; Trump got 59MM, or 1.9MM fewer than Romney. Contributor Patrick repeatedly pushed for GOTV; despite numerous reports touting Clinton's ground operation, obviously it was dismal.

Make America Hate Again. Heather Timmons of Quartz: "In his acceptance speech on Nov. 9, US president-elect Donald J. Trump made a pledge of unity, promising to be a leader for 'all Americans.' But some of his supporters have not heard that message. Even as Trump was speaking, one person in the audience yelled 'Hang Obama,' and online commentators spewed a steady stream of racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic messages on a YouTube livestream, directed to 'Anti-whites,' 'Killery,' and 'Jews in Congress.'" Read on for a sampling of the violence & expressions of hatred across the U.S., including one assault on a Trump supporter. CW: Actually, his supporters did hear the message. But to them & to Trump, "all Americans" means "all white Christian Americans, especially men." ...

... Make America White Again. Here's more from Sean O'Kane in Medium. -- CW

Tim Egan: "The strongest resistance [to Trump] should come from the white working class; they will soon find out that Trump will treat them the same way he treated the suckers who signed up for his fraudulent university. When steel mills fail to return to Youngstown, or when new trade deals produce no more magic than the old ones, these economic exiles will wonder how they got betrayed. Look to the euphoria of soon-to-be deregulated Wall Street bankers for your explanation. Finally, all of us in the American family should never trust anyone from the pollster industrial complex, including those at my own newspaper. Never. Read your horoscope; it's far more likely to be accurate." -- CW

Paul Krugman: "I’m not ready to accept that this is inevitable — because accepting it as inevitable would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The road back to what America should be is going to be longer and harder than any of us expected, and we might not make it. But we have to try." -- CW

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Trump represents the last wisp of the rich white plantation owner holding on to the glories of the past.... How can we hope that this man understands or cares about us? Especially now that white America has rewarded his outrageous racism, misogyny, xenophobia and religious intolerance with a mandate to put those beliefs into policy. For African Americans, America just got a little more threatening, a little more claustrophobic, a lot less hopeful. We feel like disposable extras, the nameless bodies who are never part of the main cast.... People of color ... must mount a long-term offensive that includes relentlessly challenging every act of institutional racism in the country." -- CW

Sarah Jones in Politicus USA: "Since Donald Trump won his bid for the White House, the women of America have been suffering Trump Traumatic Stress Disorder. I wish I were kidding. But I'm not. This is real and it's serious.... Women shared these feelings with me on Twitter and Facebook and more and more notes poured in. The same story and the same symptoms: Sobbing, vomiting, can't sleep, nightmares.... It's about the fact that our beloved country decided to give the most powerful position in the world to a man who admitted sexually assaulting women.... It's about kicking women in the guts, electing a man we know is a dangerous, unstable predator." -- CW ...

... CW: Then there are women like me, who deal with TTSD by diverting my attention to other things. A friend sent TTSD friends a bunch of Cute Animal Pictures. Like this one:

And the Fox Lay Down with the Hare. (CW: Not sure how this worked out for the bunny when the fox awakened.)

David Brooks: "Trump's bigotry, dishonesty and promise-breaking will have to be denounced. We can't go morally numb. But he needs to be replaced with a program that addresses the problems that fueled his assent. After all, the guy will probably resign or be impeached within a year. The future is closer than you think." CW: Yippee! President pence.

** Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Digby in Salon: "The media's normalization of Trump is complete. The demonization of Clinton continues." -- CW

This is actually one of the untold stories of the 2016 campaign. I was not the only journalist to whom Trump offered gifts clearly meant to shape coverage. Many reporters have told me that Trump worked hard to offer them something fabulous -- from hotel rooms to rides on his 757. -- Megyn Kelly, in her memoir Settle for More ...

... Book Review. Jennifer Senior of the New York Times reviews Fox "News" anchor Megyn Kelly's memoir, Settle for More. In the book, Kelly relays how Donald Trump first tried to curry favor with her by offering her freebies to his resorts, then turned on her when he learned Kelly would question him in the first GOP primary debate about his attitudes toward women, then maybe he tried to poison her. Also, as reported earlier, Roger Ailes hit on her & threatened her career. CW: How come Trump made such a big deal about Clinton's team getting a heads-up for a debate question when he himself got a heads-up in his? Oh, yeah, it's the projection thing again.

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. So Fox "News," in a print report by Bryan Llenas, asserted that the CEO of Grubhub, an online restaurant delivery service, "Tells Pro-Trump Employees to Resign." Oh, crap, the headline writer had to make a change. The new headline is "Boss says employees who agree with Trump's rhetoric should resign." That little change was because what Grubhub CEO Matt Maloney actually wrote to employees was that any employees who agree with Trump's "nationalist, anti-immigrant and hateful politics" should resign because Maloney won't abide workplace intolerance. They don't do nuance at Fox.

Jonathan Chait: "... in a Fox News interview with Bret Baier, [House Speaker Paul] Ryan said Medicare privatization is on.... Ryan tells Baier, 'Because of Obamacare, Medicare is going broke.' This is false. In fact, it's the complete opposite of the truth. The Medicare trust fund has been extended 11 years as a result of the passage of Obamacare, whose cost reforms have helped bring health care inflation to historic lows. It is also untrue that repealing Obamacare requires changing traditional Medicare." ...

     ... CW: Those old codgers who voted for Trump at the same time they want "the government to keep its hands off my Medicare" are in for a rude awakening. Whether Ryan can get away with further privatizing Medicare for those who are at or near the age of eligibility remains to be seen, but I can tell you that Medicare is already partially "privatized" (that is, upper-income recipients pay premiums), so he has a good chance of making it even more of a pay-go plan. ...

... Steve M.: "Everything bad in the next four years is going to be Obama's fault. They're going to call the next recession 'the Obama recession.' They're going to give massive new tax cuts to the rich and blame the skyrocketing deficits on Obama. Oh, and any terror attacks on President Trump's watch will be because Obama made America weaker, even if it's four years from now and the Homeland Security secretary is an self-promoting wingnut clown like Sheriff David Clarke or Joe Arpaio. And the average American won't know any better." -- CW

Mike DeBonis, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Senate's soon-to-be top Democrat told labor leaders Thursday that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal at the center of President Obama's 'pivot' to strengthen ties with key Asian allies, will not be ratified by Congress. That remark from Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is expected to be the incoming Senate minority leader, came as good news to the AFL-CIO Executive Council, which met Thursday in Washington. Schumer relayed statements that Republican congressional leaders had made to him, according to an aide...." -- CW

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "Jason Chaffetz, the Utah congressman finishing his first term leading the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee..., will continue to investigate Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state." -- CW

Joe Davidson of the Washington Post: The Inspector General of Homeland Security found that the Secret Service's computer system "suffer[s] from neglect, ignorance and bad management.... The [IG] report ... is related to the agency's breach and leak of personal information belonging to Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) last year.... A 2015 OIG investigation found that 45 employees got into Chaffetz's 2003 Secret Service job application. Only four had a legitimate need, leaving the rest in violation of the Privacy Act and agency policies. The file snooping began minutes after Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, opened a hearing into allegations of agents' misconduct." -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

Surprise! Trump Victory Encourages Hatemongers. Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "In the wake of Donald Trump's upset presidential win, the small yet vocal cohort of white nationalists who supported his campaign are refocusing their efforts from trolling liberals online to running for elected office. Their reasoning: If a candidate who appealed to the tide of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim sentiment surging on the country's right could win over voters, why not one who is openly 'pro-white'?.... Others are thinking in the short-term and training their eyes, perhaps more quixotically, on possible positions in a Trump administration." -- CW

The Commentariat -- Nov. 10, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama and Donald J. Trump made a public show on Thursday of putting their bitter differences aside after a stunning election upset, during a once-unimaginable Oval Office meeting. It brought together a president who has darkly warned that Mr. Trump could not be trusted with the nuclear codes and a successor who rose to political prominence questioning Mr. Obama's birthplace and legitimacy.... It was an extraordinary show of cordiality and respect between two men who have been political enemies and are stylistic opposites...." -- CW

Comrade President Trumpskyev, Moscow on Line for You! Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: "The Russian government maintained contacts with advisers to Donald J. Trump during the American presidential campaign, one of Russia's top diplomats said Thursday -- an assertion a Trump spokeswoman flatly denied. 'There were contacts,' Sergei A. Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. 'We continue to do this and have been doing this work during the election campaign,' he said." ...

     ... Akhilleus: No wonder Putin was so happy Comrade Donaldavich won. Wonder how long after Trump gets his security briefing he gives BFF Vlad the inside dope on US national security secrets. And it's also no wonder Wikileaks never released anything hacked from the Trump campaign. Although I doubt a revelation like this would have done him any harm. The American right has quite a crush on the ex-KGB strongman.

ISIS and Al Qaeada Thrilled About Trump. Laura Bult of the New York Daily News. "Islamic extremists are celebrating Donald Trump's shocking victory this week, claiming the election outcome proves half of Americans' anti-Muslim sentiment, according to a group monitoring jihadism. Islamic terrorist organizations including Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Taliban are touting Trump's stunning win as a signal of the country's downfall, according to reports in SITE Intelligence Group cited by USA Today. 'Pro #AQ (Al Qaeda) accounts: "On 9-11 US struck w disaster at the hands of AQ. On 11-9, US struck with disaster at the hands of their own voters,"' wrote SITE founder Rita Katz on Twitter." Akhilleus

Giuliani Interviews On-Air for AG Spot. Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: "... Rudy Giuliani ... used a CNN interview Thursday morning to tout his qualification to be attorney general. Giuliani initially indicated he would take the job if he couldn't point to three other lawyers who would be just as good." Luckily for Rudy, Trump watches a lot of TV. Maybe he caught the interview. -- CW

*****

CW: I don't know what Reality Chex will look like going forward -- it's something we'll all have to figure out as we evolve -- but I know you will seldom turn to this page and find speeches by President-Elect or President von Clownstick.

Christopher Mele & Anne Correal of the New York Times: "Thousands of people across the country marched, shut down highways, burned effigies and shouted angry slogans on Wednesday night to protest the election of Donald J. Trump as president. The demonstrations, fueled by social media, continued into the early hours of Thursday. The crowds swelled as the night went on but remained mostly peaceful. Protests were reported in cities as diverse as Dallas and Oakland and included marches in Boston; Chicago; Portland, Ore.; Seattle and Washington and at college campuses in California, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania." -- CW ...

... Emma Whitford of Gothamist: "The NYPD is helping the Secret Service ramp up security outside Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue this afternoon to levels befitting the president-elect, according to an NYPD spokesman. In addition to the row of Sanitation Department trucks parked end to end outside the tower since Tuesday, police have placed white concrete barriers emblazoned with the NYPD logo across 56th Street at the eastern intersection of Fifth Avenue." CW: Garbage trucks protecting the gilded Trump Tower. That's fitting.

Sylvan Lane of the Hill: "The Dow Jones industrial index hit an an all-time high Wednesday, reversing a massive drop triggered by President-elect Donald Trump's improbable win. The Dow surged more than 300 points briefly Wednesday afternoon, finishing with a 250-point rise. The Nasdaq and Standards and Poor's 500 industrial index rose roughly 1 percent each. Wednesday's surge reflects a promise of business-friendly, growth-focused policies from Republicans, who gained control of the White House while maintaining control of Congress.... Stocks for private prisons and coal companies boomed, while gun and marijuana company shares fell."...

     ... CW: Which just goes to show you that "Wall Street" investors are ignorant. Our economy has done better under Democratic presidents that Republican presidents for more than half a century. That's because the more people who participate in the economy, the more the economy grows, something that should be obvious. Republicans' "business-friendly, growth-focused policies" actually hurt the economy. There is at least some satisfaction in the irony of the gun lobby's "success" -- President von Clownstick will depress gun sales, and gun sales are the ultimate goal of Trump's biggest backer -- the NRA.

Sara Wire of the Los Angeles Times: "Votes are still being counted across the country, but it appears Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton could win the popular vote, while President-elect Trump wins the electoral college and thus the White House. At 5 a.m. on the West Coast, the Associated Press showed Clinton with 59.16 million votes nationally, compared to Trump's 59 million votes."

Hillary Clinton's concession speech, with a lovely introduction by Tim Kaine:

President Obama speaks about the transition:

Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post: "The frightening thing about Trump is that he has a penchant for retribution. One campaign aide, Omarosa Manigault, told the Independent Journal Review, 'It's so great our enemies are making themselves clear so that when we get into the White House, we know where we stand.' And she added this: 'Mr. Trump has a long memory and we're keeping a list.' Yes, revenge is a dish best served cold. And when you're president of the United States, it could come under the color of law." -- CW

Kumbaya? No Thank You. Peter Beinart of the Atlantic: "The blunt truth is that most Trump supporters hold bigoted views. It's what most clearly distinguishes them from other Americans.... Downplaying the racist views of Trump supporters is an evasion of the facts." -- CW ...

... Jenée Desmond-Harris of Vox: "Donald Trump has won the presidency..., not despite but because he expressed unfiltered disdain toward racial and religious minorities in the country. The message his victory sent to nonwhites, Muslim Americans, immigrants, and their families is clear: Never underestimate the power of racism and bigotry. In his victory speech early Wednesday morning, Trump promised to serve all Americans. But he&'d already made clear what that meant to him: using his power to create a 'great again' version of America where white Christian citizens would have the dominance to which they felt entitled, despite changing demographics. And if that meant insulting and snatching back the rights of everyone else, with women caught in the crossfire, so be it. This is an unambiguous message." Thanks to Diane for the link. -- CW ...

... Jamelle Bouie: "Pundits and observers will attribute Trump's win to 'populism' or his 'anti-elite' message. This is nonsense. Trump ran for president as a nationalist fighter for white America.... More than anything, Trump promises a restoration of white authority. After eight years of a black president after eight years in which cosmopolitan America asserted its power and its influence, eight years in which women leaned in and blacks declared that their lives mattered millions of white Americans said enough.... Trump forged a politics of white tribalism, and white people embraced it.... We are still the country that produced George Wallace. We are still the country that killed Emmett Till." -- CW ...

     ... CW: As Bouie points out, there's a substantive difference between surreptitiously catering to white racists, as Republicans do, & embracing the white supramacists' "cause," as Trump does. ...

... ExPat Girl in Daily Kos (Nov. 9: 1:40 am): "As I watch Republican incumbent after incumbent win hold of their seat, the idea that this election was about 'change' is garbage. This was about hate. Nothing more and nothing less. There is NO WAY you get this result because something is about 'change'. The only reason 'white' America stands so squarely against every other group is to retain supremacy." -- CW

Gail Collins offers ways to accept a president-elect who is the "dimwitted, meanspirited spawn embodying the nation's worst flaws, failings and nightmares." ...

    ... CW: None of her ideas is convincing, particularly this one: "Don't let people tell you that the vote proves half the American population is racist." Yes, they are. Anyone who voted for Trump is a racist, an anti-Semite & all-purpose xenophobe, a misogynist & a proto-Nazi. Under normal circumstances, you can vote for a candidate you don't like much & not share his bad traits if you think he represents the lesser of two evils. But you cannot vote for somebody like Trump & get off without revealing your slimy true self. The one upside for me of the results of this election (and it would have been so if Clinton had won by a slim margin) is that I get to walk in the shoes of the black man, the Mexican, the Jew, the Muslim: I suspect every Anglo I pass on the street. ...

... The New York Times Editors disagree with me: "We Americans can be heartened by Mrs. Clinton's and Mr. Obama's decency. They were right to be gracious." CW: It's fine to be gracious to George Bush or Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan. It's an abrogation of a responsibility to democratic-republican ideals to be gracious to Donald Trump. Our Democratic leaders failed us again, as Gloria & others point out in today's commentary.

Dylan Matthews of Vox: "... Donald Trump's presidency is going to be an absolute disaster for the white working class, the white poor, and every other economically struggling person in America. The people the media is crediting with Trump's win have a tremendous amount to lose.... Trump has promised an economic agenda that will increase the ranks of the uninsured by tens of millions, that will eliminate crucial safety net programs for low- and moderate-income Americans, that could start a trade war that drives up prices and devastates the economy, and that will put in place a tax code that exacerbates inequality and leaves many families with children worse off." Read on for an excellent rundown of what Trump & his new Congressional BFFs have proposed -- and now will pass into law. -- CW ...

... Trump University, on a Grand Scale. Paul Waldman: "In modern history we've never seen a president who was less a creature of his party, and for many of Trump's supporters that was a big part of the attraction. But what they may not have realized is that when they bought Trump, they'll be getting the GOP and its agenda as part of the deal. How many of those working-class whites are on Medicaid, or use subsidies to get health coverage from the Affordable Care Act? They can kiss that goodbye. Were they hoping for a big tax cut? Sorry, when congressional Republicans write their tax-cutting bill it'll be the wealthy who reap the benefits. Hope they're ready for some new restrictions on abortion, and more pollution in their communities, and fewer rights on the job, because all that's coming too.... Eventually they'll wind up like the marks he took in with Trump University -- taken in by the flash of golden cufflinks and the power of his celebrity, they'll eventually figure out that it was all a scam. But by the time they do, the damage will be done." See also safari's comment below. -- CW ...

... CW: Yes, but as it ever has been, for these people, white supremacy and misogyny trump their own personal well-being. To that extent, they are selfless. ...

... BTW, in case you think Waldman is wrong ...

     ... Burgess Everett of Politico: "Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled the Senate would move swiftly to repeal Obamacare now that the GOP Congress will have a Republican president next year." -- CW

Rick Noack of the Washington Post: "Americans opposed to Donald Trump have frequently joked about moving to the United States' northern neighbor, Canada, should Trump really become president. As that scenario started to become increasingly likely Tuesday evening, Canada's immigration website suddenly went down.... "In the hours just after Trump's victory was called, Americans were searching for jobs in Canada at ten times the rate of previous nights," Jed Kolko, an economist..., was quoted as saying in a news release." -- CW ...

... Anna Fifield of the Washington Post: "Web traffic from the United States to the New Zealand government websites that deal with immigration has skyrocketed. The Immigration New Zealand website, the government's immigration department site, usually gets about 2,300 visits from United States Internet addresses each day. In the 24 hours until 9 a.m. New Zealand time on Thursday, it had received 56,300 visits from the United States -- a 25-fold increase in traffic." -- CW

Elliot Hannon of Slate: "Donald Trump's victory has sent America's allies and adversaries scrambling.... One early indicator of the anxiety and anticipation that the U.S.'s interaction with its regional and global partners is set to change is Cuba's almost immediate decision to hold five days of military exercises to 'maintain the country's defense preparedness.' The Cuban government did not explicitly link the nationwide 'Bastion Strategic Exercise' to Trump's election, but the military drills in the past have been ordered during contentious periods with the U.S." -- CW

Senate Election

Adam Sexton of WMUR: "Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan is declaring victory in her U.S. Senate race against Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte. 'As we've gotten more results overnight and this morning, it's clear that we have maintained the lead and have won this race,' Hassan said Wednesday morning at a press conference. Ayotte's campaign responded, making it clear that she has no plans to concede the race to Hassan.... With 99 percent of precincts reporting as of 11 a.m., Hassan leads Ayotte by less than 1,000 votes." -- CW ...

     ... Update: Per this NYT graphic, it appears the AP has now projected Hassan as the winner. So. if the vote holds, that's a total of 48 Democratic Senators, or a pick-up of two. (Louisiana is to be decided in a run-off Dec. 10, but it's unlikely the Democrat will win.)

     ... BTW, Clinton, too, is now leading in New Hampshire, tho the race has not been called. Arizona & Michigan, the other two states not yet called, are "leaning Trump."

The Commentariat -- November 9, 2016

"An American Tragedy." David Remnick of the New Yorker speaks for me.