The December 19, 2016 Thread

Filed in National by on December 19, 2016

Washington Post: “The White House may be the nation’s time-honored symbol of power, but Trump is establishing his 58-story colossus at 725 Fifth Avenue as a stage for his new role, potentially nipping at Washington’s reputation as the center of American authority and the stature of its most famous address, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

“On most days, crowds of tourists, rank-and-file New Yorkers and candidates seeking jobs with the new administration endure a maze of checkpoints, barricades and police command posts on the traffic-choked streets that bound Trump Tower.”

Peter Weber says Senate Dems should just say no: “Democrats in the House will have very little power, but Senate Democrats will have a chance to block Trump’s more outrageous proposals — at least as long as the filibuster stands — and a handful of Republicans skeptical of various aspects of the Trump agenda (see: Russia) will wield a lot of clout. More to the point, these senators will have every right to block Trump, if they see fit. After all, America has elected its senators by popular vote since the 17th Amendment took effect in 1913 — unlike Trump, all 100 of these Senate members won more votes than their opponents.”

“Republicans did not assent in 2009 after Obama won 365 electoral votes, 52.9 percent of the popular vote, and nearly 10 million more votes than his Republican opponent. If Democrats, and even a few Republicans, don’t buy this 46 percenter’s claim to a mandate, that seems more like common sense than fighting dirty.”

CNN discovers Clinton voters exist. I think this is the first segment on the opinions of Clinton voters that aired in the entire last 24 months.

Leaked documents show that Rex Tillerson, the businessman nominated by Donald Trump to be the next secretary of state, is the long-time director of a US-Russian oil firm based in the tax haven of the Bahamas, The Guardian reports.

“The leaked 2001 document comes from the corporate registry in the Bahamas. It was one of 1.3m files given to the Germany newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung by an anonymous source. The registry is public but details of individual directors are typically incomplete or missing entirely.”

If there are Trump nominees that may fail, it is Tillerson and his deputy, John Bolton, and perhaps the knuckledragger picked to lead the EPA.

A tweetstorm by David Frum. Read them all.

DNC chair Donna Brazile said Russian hackers persisted in trying to break into the organization’s computers “daily, hourly” until after the election — contradicting President Obama’s assertion that the hacking stopped in September after he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin to “cut it out,” ABC News reports.

Said Brazile: “They came after us absolutely every day until the end of the election. They tried to hack into our system repeatedly.”

Meanwhile, Clinton campaign chair John Podesta refused on NBC News to say it was a free and fair election: “I think it was distorted by the Russian intervention.”

“Presidents often are tested early, by unexpected crises or provocations by foreign adversaries. President-elect Donald Trump’s first test has come even before he is sworn in, and so far, he has responded with denial, equivocation and deflection,” the Washington Post reports.

“The test has come over Russia’s brazen intrusion into the U.S. election process through its hacking of the servers at the Democratic National Committee and the email account of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager.”

“Contrary to what Trump said last week, the Russian intrusion was known long before the election. The Washington Post’s Ellen Nakashima reported in June that the Russians had penetrated the DNC network. Then on Oct. 7, intelligence officials publicly stated that the hacking had occurred, that the Russians were behind it and that ‘only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.’ That was an obvious reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

The Post says pressure is growing on Electors: “Pressure on members of the electoral college to select someone other than Donald Trump has grown dramatically — and noisily — in recent weeks, causing some to waver but yielding little evidence that Trump will fall short when electors convene in most state capitals Monday to cast their votes. Carole Joyce of Arizona expected her role as a GOP elector to be pretty simple… But then came the mail and the emails and the phone calls — first hundreds, then thousands of voters worrying that Trump’s impulsive nature would lead the country into another war.”

Politico says Electors under siege. LOL. Guys, these electors are almost certainly party stalwarts from the central committee. They are voting Trump.

If this guy ended up dead somewhere, I would be pleased.

George Lakoff on how Democrats help Trump: “Without knowing it, many Democrats, progressives and members of the news media help Donald Trump every day. The way they help him is simple: they spread his message.”

“Think about it: every time Trump issues a mean tweet or utters a shocking statement, millions of people begin to obsess over his words. Reporters make it the top headline. Cable TV panels talk about it for hours. Horrified Democrats and progressives share the stories online, making sure to repeat the nastiest statements in order to refute them. While this response is understandable, it works in favor of Trump.”

“When you repeat Trump, you help Trump. You do this by spreading his message wide and far.”

Paul Waldman on whether the GOP Coup in North Carolina is a sign of things to come: “This isn’t just hardball politics. This is a fundamentally anti-democratic approach to government, one that says that when we win, we get to implement our agenda, and when you win, you don’t.”

“To put this in context, perhaps nowhere in the country have Republicans moved more aggressively to solidify power by disenfranchising their opponents as they have in North Carolina.”

Rich Lowry on whether the GOP is stepping into an Obamacare trap: “Let me stipulate that I’m grateful for anything Republicans can do on Obamacare and we are light years away from where we would have been if Trump hadn’t won. But there are a couple of worries here: 1) the GOP is thinking of the Obamacare partial-repeal as a way to get an “early win,” but it may play very differently in political terms; 2) there will presumably be a score pointing out that the partial-repeal will cost millions of people their insurance and we have no idea how Trump will react to it–it’s possible that he distances himself from what Republicans are doing the first time he’s asked about it in an interview; 3) the root of the problem here is that Republicans don’t have 60 votes for a full repeal and replace.”

“A Republican senator told me the other day that he believes the difficulties that the party will have grappling with Obamacare will force the GOP to reconsider the filibuster altogether, although it’s hard to see senate Republicans getting a consensus among themselves for that.”

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  1. anonymous says:
    December 19, 2016 at 12:34 pm

    Re: Greg Sargent.

    Really? Still? We’re still going to let people push the nonsense that we’re abandoning minorities by pointing out that we need white voters as well?

    That, not repeating Trump’s lies to call them out, is what’s helping Donald Trump.

    Re: Rich Lowry,

    It’s so cute when Republicans try to think. They’re so obviously new at it.

  2. Jason330 says:
    December 19, 2016 at 1:24 pm

    You know who is all fired up about the “GOP Coup in North Carolina” ? The fundraisers hired by the DLCC, and the DSCC. You know who isn’t all fired up about the “GOP Coup in North Carolina” ? Actual Dems in Congress.

  3. cassandra_m says:
    December 19, 2016 at 1:51 pm

    We’re still going to let people push the nonsense that we’re abandoning minorities by pointing out that we need white voters as well?

    It helps to read the entire article PLUS the article it responds to before pretending that there is no there there.

  4. anonymous says:
    December 19, 2016 at 1:56 pm

    Just as the GOP’s behavior since Reagan culminated in Trump, the Democratic Party’s “Third Way” culminated in a corporate-friendly party that can’t fight its way out of a parking ticket. Corporate titans were OK with that when gridlock ruled, because they could get some of what they wanted through their individual Congressional purchases.

    Now, though, the GOP can offer them a lot more than the half-loaf the Democrats did. Democrats will have no choice but to chuck the Third Way overboard because it won’t work anymore. Corporations won’t be happy with tepid support when the rabid kind is right at hand.

  5. Jason330 says:
    December 19, 2016 at 2:08 pm

    That transformation depends on a lot of burrowed in Dem office holders dying of natural causes.

  6. anonymous says:
    December 19, 2016 at 2:34 pm

    @cassandra: I didn’t realize it was a response to a different article, which I have now gone back and read.

    So the problem isn’t with Sargent as much as with what DD has chosen to excerpt. While Sargent’s point is undeniable, Vilsack also said this: “Rural America is 15 percent of America’s population. It’s the same percentage as African-Americans; it’s the same percentage as Hispanics. We spend a lot of time thinking about that 15 percent — and we should, God bless them, we should. But not to the exclusion of the other 15 percent.”

    And this from LA mayor Eric Garcetti: “If the starting point is: ‘Hey, we are a party and we are a country that stands for blacks and Koreans and people of all stripes liking each other,’ that’s not an agenda. These values aren’t just about social inclusion. They’re about getting things done.”

    Those statements were ignored by Sargent, who seems to have one particular axe to grind. Also ignored was this qualifying paragraph: “Even those who believe the party has become too fixated on identity politics do not think it should reverse course on such issues as immigration, criminal justice and legal protections for gay and transgender Americans.”

    Y’know, we didn’t have to appeal to all white voters. Just 78,000 more of them — people who voted for Obama but stayed home this year. Even a token effort might have done the trick. Critics from just about every angle have pointed out the lack of effort in the areas in question.

    But mostly I scoff at his core message: “a major assault on various constituencies … will simply require Democrats to mount an aggressive, sustained defense of them.”

    If it’s “required,” why do I see no sign of it from most elected Democrats? It’s only required if Democrats are to survive as a viable party, and I don’t think spineless tools like Coons and Carper are up to the task.

    If the Democratic Party dies, liberals will come up with something to replace it. It might not be able to compete right away, but at least it will fight for the people. The same is not true of the centrists, whose only support is from people in the media and people without much conviction. They will never create anything. They were merely able to take the wheel of a party that lost its way during Vietnam, when the unions backed the war. This, BTW, is why unions should not be the core group around which a truly liberal party organizes. They are not actually all that liberal on anything that doesn’t involve their own wallets.

  7. Steve Newton says:
    December 19, 2016 at 2:54 pm

    @Anonymous: in your analysis of the corporations suddenly shifting to the GOP there lies the nugget of how the Democrats could proceed, which is to re-invent themselves as an actual populist/inclusive party that follows a Bernie mode of fundraising and reaches out directly to the 5 million people who voted third party–not in anger but in solidarity.

    In about a year, two years tops, there are going to be a lot of people in the Rust Belt willing to listen to real populism.

  8. Steve Newton says:
    December 19, 2016 at 2:56 pm

    And, of course, the fact that Trump has refused to drop his private security detail isn’t a bad thing … every authoritarian needs his Praetorians.

    I just wonder how long it will be till the Alt-Reich starts making Leibstandarten insider jokes. 3 … 2 … 1 …

    This is the way that republics end.

  9. cassandra_m says:
    December 19, 2016 at 3:04 pm

    @anonymous — I get you on the exerpt. And I want to remind everyone that we have a Senator who voted NO on Debo Adegbile to the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ and who is on record for Social Security cuts. Backsliding is deep in the DNA of some Dems who think it will save them from whatever it is they are so fearful of. So let’s remember this when folks tell us that there is no way they could do it.

  10. cassandra_m says:
    December 19, 2016 at 3:07 pm

    Just 78,000 more of them — people who voted for Obama but stayed home this year.

    Or we could have fought harder against the explicit voter suppression that the GOP got away with. Wisconsin may well have been in the W column if so many were not turned away for lack of ID.

  11. Steve Newton says:
    December 19, 2016 at 3:47 pm

    To add to this open thread a very important piece by Paul Krugman:

    “How Republics End”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/19/opinion/how-republics-end.html

    It is worth noting that I have more often than not disagreed with Paul Krugman and Robert Reich on economics over the years. But I have to say that the two of them are standing up to say the things that need to be said right now, when pretty much nobody else in the Democratic Party seems willing to do it.

    For the last two or three of Reich’s pieces, see

    http://robertreich.org/

    It’s past time to start picking sides, and right now I’m on theirs.

  12. anonymous says:
    December 19, 2016 at 3:53 pm

    @Cassandra: I have no proof, but I think the real voter suppression took place in North Carolina, where Democrats underperformed exit polls by almost 6 points, and Florida, which should have been a toss-up but wasn’t.

    Wisconsin absolutely would have gone to the Democrats if not for the voter suppression. But what has happened there in the past eight years is what has me highly concerned for the future.

    Scott Walker’s administration has been a disaster on almost every front. He sold off state land, slashed higher-ed budgets and failed to make good on his jobs promises, yet won re-election fairly handily. Ron Johnson, one of the emptiest suits in the Senate, easily defeated Russ Feingold’s comeback bid.

    I formerly thought that once people saw that the GOP was selling them bullshit, they’d react by electing Democrats. It didn’t happen. It didn’t happen in Kansas, either. Louisiana flipped because Jindal ran it into the ground, but one out of three isn’t very good outside of baseball.

    What I’m finding hardest to process is that this nation of self-proclaimed rugged individualists is about as rugged and independent of a flock of sheep. For 35 years the wolves have been telling them not to trust the humans, who just want to shear them. For some reason we can’t convince the sheep that the wolves want them for dinner.

    Apparently they don’t realize that “To Serve Sheep” is a cookbook, and its proper translation is “To Serve Mutton.”

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