The Commentariat -- Nov. 24, 2016
Jen Hayden of DailyKos posts an important message from ex-news anchor Dan Rather on the fascist tendencies of Trump's movement and sounds the alarm. Well worth the read. --safari
Brian Beutler: "What's needed is a single conceptual lens through which to view all of Trump's antics, whether they seem evil or dangerous or confused, and the one concept that encompasses all of them is impunity. Through luck and graft and privilege, Trump has gotten away with an incredible amount of chicanery in his life.... At the ... meeting with the Times, Trump didn't attempt to spin away concerns that he would use the presidency to enrich himself. To the contrary, he admitted he pressed the leader of a foreign political party to oppose offshore wind farms because he's worried about their effect on the view from one of his seaside golf courses. He boasted that his victory earlier this month probably increased the value of his new Washington, D.C., hotel. He hinted he might exploit presidential exemptions to federal corruption laws in the same way he's exploited tax loopholes that erased his income tax liability for years and years.... If Trump seems to be winging it through the early days of the transition, unperturbed by the potential for horror, this is why. He can't (or makes no effort to) distinguish between bumbling and purposefulness; ethics and corruption; normal and abnormal behavior -- because these distinctions have never been a lasting source of value to him.... This presidency is shaping up to be defined by a single maxim: that when the president does it, that means it is not illegal -- even if he had no idea what he was doing in the first place." -- CW ...
... Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: "Some of America's biggest crusaders against crony capitalism warn Trump could use his position to pressure foreign leaders to accommodate his company, or to bend U.S. regulations to favor his interests over competitors. He might not even need to ask for those favors; they might just appear.... Writing in the Wall Street Journal's opinion pages this week, conservative columnist Holman W. Jenkins Jr. said Trump's administration could 'swirl down a drain of cronyism.'” CW: This is the "systemic corruption" Matt Yglesias warned about last week. As Tankersley notes, "Skewed government interests can, however, dampen an economy.... The diversion of resources to a president's businesses or his friends can chill competition; saddle consumers with fewer choices and higher prices; and erode incentives to work, innovate and invest." And now, as Brian Beutler (and others) have pointed out, Trump has embraced systemic corruption. -- CW ...
... Here's a blatant example:
... Trump Uses Pending Presidency to Boost His Turkish Licensing Deal. Paul Blumenthal of the Huffington Post: "When ... Donald Trump spoke to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Nov. 9, he mentioned one of his Turkish business partners as a 'close friend' and passed on his remarks that he is 'your great admirer.'... Norm Eisen, the former top ethics official for President Barack Obama..., called Trump's references to his business partner in his conversation with Erdogan 'entirely improper,' 'wrong' and 'reprehensible.'... In recent years, the Dogan Media Group [owned by the family of Trump's friend] has butted heads with the authoritarian Erdogan as he sought to punish dissenting media. '[Trump's support] will give them a layer of protection,' said Henri Barkey, director of the Middle East program at the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan policy forum. '... the Turkish government will think twice about going after them because the president of the United States is supporting them and, also, Erdogan is really looking for Trump to change many of Obama's policies, especially in Syria and with respect to Iran. So he's not going after anything that would upset or annoy Trump.'" -- CW
... CW: Even if you think Trump is great & you're thrilled he's making money off "foreigners," enhancing Trump's riches provide no economic advantage to the country (especially since he doesn't pay taxes, or at least doesn't pay his fair share of taxes, and he isn't building anything in the U.S., so he's not creating jobs). Putting more money in rich people's accounts does not improve the economy since they don't spend it the way the rest of us do. ...
... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "The second week of the Trump transition brought several new appointments, the first specific policy pronouncements, and the most alarming statement about Presidential power since Richard Nixon declared, in 1977, 'When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.'... Trump's ... picks over the past week fall into two categories: unqualified and extreme." CW: You can pretty much ignore Lizza's remarks on DeVos. Either that, or Lizza has kids in private school, & he would like Betsy to see that the local taxpayers help him with their tuition. ...
... Charles Blow. Memo to DJT: "You don't get a pat on the back for ratcheting down from rabid after exploiting that very radicalism to your advantage. Unrepentant opportunism belies a staggering lack of character and caring that can't simply be vanquished from memory. You did real harm to this country and many of its citizens, and I will never -- never -- forget that. As I read the transcript and then listened to the audio [of Trump's meeting with NYT execs, columnists & reporters], the slime factor was overwhelming.... Much of your campaign was an act of psychological projection, as we are now learning that many of the things you slammed Clinton for are things of which you may actually be guilty. You slammed Clinton for destroying emails, then Newsweek reported last month that your companies 'destroyed emails in defiance of court orders.' You slammed Clinton and the Clinton Foundation for paid speeches and conflicts of interest, then it turned out that, as BuzzFeed reported, the Trump Foundation received a $150,000 donation in exchange for your giving a 2015 speech made by video to a conference in Ukraine. You slammed Clinton about conflicts of interest while she was secretary of state, and now your possible conflicts of interest are popping up like mushrooms in a marsh." ...
... The audio of the meeting is here. ...
... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "To ... Donald Trump, Breitbart News -- the racist, sexist and all-around offensive website once overseen by his campaign chairman and designated White House chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon -- is 'just a publication.' Breitbart's editors and writers, Trump told the New York Times, 'cover stories like you cover stories.'... No, no, no. That Trump would put it in the same category [with the NYT] exposes both his failure to understand the role of the media and his failure to recognize -- or to care about -- the offensiveness of what Breitbart, under the Bannon regime, represents.... Breitbart isn't 'just a publication.' It's a pestilence -- one whose repugnant views Trump has invited into his White House." -- CW
Donald Trump Is Way too Busy for Intelligence Briefings. Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump has received two classified intelligence briefings since his surprise election victory earlier this month, a frequency that is notably lower ... than that of his predecessors, current and former U.S. officials said. A team of intelligence analysts has been prepared to deliver daily briefings ... to Trump in the two weeks since he won.... Mike Pence, by contrast, has set aside time for intelligence briefings almost every day since the election, officials said. Officials involved in the Trump transition team ... not[e] that he has been immersed in the work of forming his administration...." CW: And what an excellent administration that "immersion" is yielding! ...
Ben Carson Is Still Crazy. Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "Ben Carson spoke out on Fox News [Wednesday night] about all the speculation surrounding whether he'll take a Cabinet position in Donald Trump's administration. There have been reports Carson has been offered the position of HUD Secretary, but there was some confusion earlier today over whether he'd accepted it. Carson told Kelly File guest host Sandra Smith that it's been 'amusing' to see what's being said in the press about him, explaining, 'Every job is very important, but in terms of complexity, I can guarantee you that very little comes close to neurosurgery.' He affirmed that yes, 'the offer is on the table.'" CW: Let's see if the Dear Leader can handle Dr. Ben's playing hard-to-get. I have a feeling Trump will give Ole Doc the middle finger & nominate his demolition contractor as HUD secretary. ...
... Yay! Another Billionaire! John Santucci & Alexander Mallin of ABC News: "... Donald Trump is expected to name investor Wilbur Ross as his pick for commerce secretary, two senior-level Trump transition sources tell ABC News. Ross, 78, is a billionaire who has made a fortune restructuring failed companies in the manufacturing and steel industries, among others." -- CW ...
... The Vulture King; Mitt, on Steroids. Adam Behsudi of Politico: "Admirers praise Wilbur Ross as 'the king of bankruptcy,' calling him a savior of failing U.S. industries. But his critics have a different name for the 78-year-old investor said to be Donald Trump's pick for Commerce secretary. They describe him as a 'vulture,' and say his restructuring of ailing industries has sometimes come at the expense of workers' safety -- in one egregious case, contributing to the deaths of 12 miners in Sago, West Virginia.... By all accounts, Ross is a savvy negotiator and a member of the same club of enormously successful billionaires as Trump: He has an estimated net worth of $2.9 billion and a house down the street from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.... His investments in steel, in particular, place him close to an industry that has waged an aggressive campaign of trade cases against foreign competitors. That could raise questions over whether he might benefit financially from favorable trade rulings.... Ross has also run into trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In August, the SEC ordered Ross to pay a $2.3 million fine for failing to disclose certain fees to investors." -- CW
Look, I have an aged female friend, and I swear on my little cracker I am not grabbing her ass with my left hand. P.S. This is a good woman: she's rich (but not as rich as I am) and she's going to take your education tax dollars and give them all to the rich children.
... Well, This Is Horrible. Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump intends to name Betsy DeVos, a conservative activist and billionaire philanthropist who has pushed forcefully for private school voucher programs nationwide, as his nominee for education secretary, according to a person close to DeVos." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Paul Waldman: "Nothing says you're shaking up the system and striking a blow against the establishment like a billionaire donor who wants to destroy public schools." -- CW ...
... Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "Seen by her supporters as a tireless, driven supporter of school choice, opponents say [DeVos] is the most ideological and anti-public education nominee ever to be put forward to run the the nearly 40-year-old department. They fear that Trump, along with DeVos, will push 'choice' programs that many see as draining resources from the traditional public school districts that educate most American schoolchildren.... School choice opponents say that 'choice' not only siphons resources from traditional systems but also promotes segregation, discriminates against students with the most severe disabilities, and fights against public oversight.... The preponderance of independent research shows that choice programs have failed to systemically improve student achievement and have harmed public school districts." -- CW ...
... Ed Kilgore: "DeVos has been called the 'four-star general of the pro-voucher movement.' She and her husband, Amway heir Dick DeVos, have devoted an enormous amount of time and money promoting voucher initiatives -- the use of public funds to finance private schools [[ around the country.... DeVos is devoted to the more radical vision of robust publicly funded private schools competing for parents' allegiances.... Trump has decisively associated himself with people who would be perfectly happy with a future in which the only thing 'public' about schools will be the taxpayer subsidies." -- CW ...
... Diane Ravitch: "... Not only does [DeVos] want all children to have vouchers (charters apparently are a fall-back form of privatization for her), she opposes any regulation or oversight for the private schools she supports. When the Michigan legislature made an attempt to create some oversight for charter schools, DeVos spent over $1 million to block the effort, and she won. In Michigan, 80% of the charters operate for-profit, without regulation or oversight...." -- CW ...
... Benjy Hansen-Bundy & Andy Kross, in Mother Jones, chart the DeVos family giving tree. It's horrendous: "Across four decades and two generations, the DeVos family has poured more than $200 million into the key institutions of the Christian right and the conservative movement.... We trace the family's many millions as they flow out of family foundations into the biggest-name think tanks and advocacy groups in American politics today. And for good measure, we've included Erik Prince, the founder of the private-security company Blackwater, who is the brother of Dick DeVos' wife, Betsy. What a small world." -- CW
Dana Priest, in the New Yorker on Michael Flynn, Trump's national security advisor: "The lifelong intelligence officer, who once valued tips gleaned from tribal reporters, has become a ready tweeter of hackneyed conspiracy theories. He reposts the vitriol of anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim commentators.... Whether Flynn now learns to bottle his rage, whether he reëmbraces fact over fiction, whether he's capable of playing the role of a contemplative counsellor, will determine the outcome of his most difficult and important mission yet." -- CW
Mad magazine cover illustration. MEANWHILE, Not-yet-President Trump seems to have sent his son Donny Boy to the Paris Ritz to chat up a group of wealthy supporters of Russia's solution to the Syrian civil war.
Jeff Spross of the Week: "U.S. stock indexes broke records Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 19,000, the S&P 500 closed over 2,200, and the NASDAQ closed over 5,300 -- all first-time highs. This wasn't supposed to happen." But what's going on is what already has been going on "over the last few decades.... Profits can go up without any accompanying growth in jobs or wages. In those cases, the economy isn't growing; companies are just extracting more of the wealth their workers create and distributing it to stock owners.... [Meanwhile,] inequality soared, GDP growth slowed, middle- and working-class wages stagnated, investment by companies in real economic activity collapsed, and productivity growth was reduced to a crawl. Yet corporate profits reached record highs, and [as a result,] the stock market just kept climbing. There's every reason to think Trump's policies will just exacerbate this trend.... So the scary possibility ... [is] that [the market] knows exactly what President Trump will do." -- CW
Trip Gabriel & David Sanger of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton's lead in the popular vote is growing. She is roughly 30,000 votes behind Donald J. Trump in the key swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin -- a combined gap that is narrowing. Her impassioned supporters are now urging her to challenge the results in those two states and Pennsylvania, grasping at the last straws to reverse Mr. Trump's decisive majority in the Electoral College. In recent days, they have seized on a report by a respected computer scientist and other experts suggesting that Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the keys to Mr. Trump's Electoral College victory, need to manually review paper ballots to assure the election was not hacked.... Tellingly, the pleas for recounts have gained no support from the Clinton campaign...." -- CW ...
... Eric Geller of Politico: "Jill Stein's presidential campaign announced Wednesday that it plans to file for recounts in three key states if it can raise enough money. 'After a divisive and painful presidential race,' the Green Party candidate said in a statement, 'reported hacks into voter and party databases and individual email accounts are causing many Americans to wonder if our election results are reliable.'" Stein wants to request recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania -- states that were critical to President-elect Donald Trump's victory." -- CW ...
... Evelyn Rupert of the Hill: "Donald Trump is poised to win the state of Michigan after a razor-thin race, according to still-unofficial numbers released by the Michigan secretary of State Wednesday. Each of Michigan's 83 counties certified their vote tallies and submitted them to the secretary of State, showing Trump with a lead of about 10,700 total votes over Hillary Clinton. The vote totals, which still need to be approved by the Board of State Canvassers on Nov. 28, show Trump received 2,279,543 votes to Clinton's 2,268,839." -- CW ...
... Charles Pierce: "In the campaign just passed, racism and xenophobia and sexism were not 'the only reasons' Trump won. That's stupid. There is genuine economic anxiety and despair in the country. But they were the accelerant. They might not have been the biggest reason why he won, but they damn sure were a big part of filling his rally halls and getting his voters to the polls, and not just in the South, either. All American populism falls into the trap of scapegoating The Other eventually; if it didn't, Bernie Sanders would be picking his Cabinet right now." CW: Pierce might have added misogyny to his list of why people voted for Trump/against Clinton. But he didn't. Because he doesn't give a rat's ass about women.
Three Cheers for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. I'm planning to make a small donation (contributions are not tax-deductible):
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I don't remember anything about the news concerning Obama's job as President-elect either 4 or 8 years ago. I don't remember any overwhelming 'evaluations' of the competence of his choices for positions. So far there has not been a single choice for anything that has not raised serious issues. Anyway, Happy Thankschaos.
Though crony capitalism and government are old bedfellows, Citizens United has bound them ever more closely in capitalist coitus.
With Trump's election there is no more pretense. In Trumpland the appointment of a succession of vulture capitalist and inherited wealth privatizer billionaires to his potential cabinet has smashed in the notel motel door and ripped the bedclothes aside. The crony capitalist whores entwined in what is a three-or foursome and counting lie exposed for all to see.
All, anyway, who have the eyes to see it and the wit to recognize it for the anti-democratic outrage it is.
What we're seeing is not exactly a reversal, because we were already halfway there. But now government is no longer meeting behind the curtain with those who would meet their financial needs in return for favors, but a government turned brazenly over to the corruptors themselves.
Capitalism and the modern Republican Party are all about dominance and in Trumpland it's clear who's on top.
Said another way: Our government cannot root out corruption or protect us from it when government itself is its source.
The bright side? Maybe what is happening will become so obvious that even the millions of blind patsies will finally see.
If that should happen, even blessed as I and my family are, I could be more thankful a year or two from now than I am today.