IMO President Elect Trump would do well to avoid appointing ideologues to jobs in his administration. Republican Part hacks, neocon war-mongers, R2P do-gooders, all these will, if they can, drag him toward high risk positions that he can ill afford given the high level of resistance to his legitimacy among left wing Americans.
He will have Steve Bannon in the building to give him the right wing's point of view and Priebus for balance in trying to deal with the Congress and everyone else in Washington.
President Trump IMO has little regard or respect for the traditional Republican leadership. IMO that is a good thing. The GOP wants to gut entitlements and other popular programs. Trump knows he can't do that without destroying his position in the minds of his supporters.
Therefore he is going to have to work with the Democrats in Congress. They may be in the minority but their votes will be needed to overcome GOP resistance to many of the things he will want to do.
For God's sake, no neocons and no "movement conservatives." pl
Colonel, IMO, president elect shouldn’t trust anybody especially in DC but his own close family. I hope he keeps his promises to those working class that gave him the presidency.
I was thinking the exact thing – the democrats may well benefit from the divisions within the r-party and Trump’s lack of ideology. He’ll be more flexible with how he gets things done in congress than boehner could or would be. If your right about his survival instincts, he will need the dems to avoid the really unpopular measures the republicans might try. Still not sure how his supporters will react to all of this cooperation, should it happen…
– Pitch
I think there’s general agreement among Committee members on this point. Unfortunately, the GOP’s septic system hasn’t been pumped out for at least a generation and there are many “floaters” (capitalist running dogs, neocons, “traitors on trade,” general warmongers, etc.) that will try to weasel their way back up the sewer pipe. Choosing a handful of folks from Bernie Sanders’ wing of the Democrats, and a promise to work with construction unions on infrastructure initiatives, would go a long way to bolstering Trump’s support among the Deplorables while he continues to cut back on his immigration promises and other “red meat” issues.
The same holds true on the economic front, and his signature issues of bringing jobs back on-shore and rebuilding infrastructure. If he adopts the dogmatic orthodoxy which is the doctrine of mainstream “Theonomics,” consisting of balanced budgets, “paying” for new expenditures by reducing equivalent spending elsewhere, not reining in Wall Street’s rent seeking, and tax cuts for the rich that will allegedly yield trickle-down benefits (that’s really worked well for the past 35 years) his programs will be stillborn.
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2016/11/economic-consequences-donald-trump.html
I’ve read that Trump has placed four immediate relatives on the transition team. Some have questioned the propriety of this but if his intent is to have trusted eyes and ears throughout the operation it’s a good thing.
Unfortunately I keep hearing John Bolton’s name come up as a potential major figure in the Trump administration. I hope it’s just a baseless rumor.
Part of the problem is there seem to be few influencers left in Washington who aren’t idealogues and part of the neocon/R2P crowd.
Neocon war hawk Eliot Cohen is asking his ilks to go and serve the country ( he said he won’t do it himself). Guess the foreign policy wonks who are yesmen to AIPAC and Bibi must be pulling their hair.
The Kagan family must be wondering what to do
My impressions are similar, but I am very aware that they are only impressions. I do not believe it is possible to know what Trump will do until he does some things. The one thing I do think I know is that he has no respect for the current leadership of the Republican party. Entertainment value is likely to be quite high. (Higher if the stakes weren’t so large.) I seriously doubt this is going to work out the way people seem to think.
Looks like Paul Ryan wants to end Medicare:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/ryan-plans-to-phase-out-medicare-in-2017
‘This guy is a complete maniac’: ISIS commander on Donald Trump
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-militant-groups-isis-al-qaeda-1.3849486
Bolton ( neocon hack from the Bush era) is circling sec. of state. That’s somewhat concerning but I don’t think he’ll get it. Haven’t seen any major rescinding of his immigration promises. Bannon knows what’s up, and he’s a senior adviser. I trust that guy to do what needs to be done more than a momentary ‘softening’ signal (everybody lost their heads the week before Trump’s big hardline immigration speech claiming he was cucking).
Trump has actually been most forthright since his election on resolving the ME terrorist problem by aligning with Russia. The British poodle has been dispatched to beg for continuity of terrorism support.
Col.,
Trump’s advisors during the campaign were not selected in a systematic fashion, but rather based on connections and friends. His closest advisors and his children will play the largest roll in selecting his staff. Chris Christie, I think, would have been a good influence here, but sadly his influence is diminished. As they say in East Fresia, “Abwarten und Tee trinken.”
ISIS is a construction of the USA. I thought afew days back I’d give him a chanc, so far its Flynn (Reinstate torture), and Repeal Roe V. Wade, blatant racist as his Chief of Staff, and Priebus whatever that clueless get along go along dude. And Guiliani, so we can torture domestically also, and Phase out Medicare next year (2017, Ryan and Trump agree!. He had his chance and this is the agenda? No thanks, chance over, hit the streets. We shall just obstruct and proest for 6 weeks. We livehere also you know, and were not over 50 yet. Sorry I have a family mom and kids. This won’t fly, I was going to be open minded, I tried and failed. ISIS Is not a real problem, we have real problems, will Trump deal with those, or just attack grandma and dump the costs on the working class. I hope so, a such he’ll be powerless in like ten minutes. Times up, we heard the plan and its a brutal attac k on my finances and mother and wife and daughters. Imagine what he could have accomplished, but we realize he hates most of us (I am Jewish) and we will obstruct, end of story. We are young. He can’t work with us real Democrats that despise Hillary, that’s a pipe dream. Hit the streets I say, we have no other option. The fact y’all respect him it as if racism and eliminating Medicare is just fine as his primary platforms long s he doesn’t fight with Russia? That’s not good enough for me and I hope a Voucher is good enough for hose of you who have Medicare. You voted to dramatically shift costs onto yourselves. is that just dandy or what? remember what haapenedin1989to Rostenkowski when they passed the Catastrophic cost/care act etc. He was almost murdered by a horde of 97 year old ladies in his car! Such is Trump’s fate, I guarantee it, just ask your moms. Things fall apart.
The first big test (or second). There will be howls across country demanding “keep gov’t out of my Obamacare,” figuratively or literally, let alone Medicare. If Trump caves to Ryan, the whole thing will be proven to be a big huge lie. Hopefully, it won’t be, but that will require a cross party coalition. In an odd way, the Sanders wing of the Democrats will be more relevant than ever.
Again, if Chris Christie is the plan, your in trouble. Did you know there is a strain of Marijuana in California named after him? It is simply called Chris Christie. I am not sure why. It is quite popular.
I think it useful to remind oneself that there are 2 kinds of leaders; those who surround themselves with the very best, even if those people are smarter and more capable than themselves, and those leaders that hire the next best (to themselves).
Let us see what kind of leader Trump is.
On Twitter:
Bill Kristol Verified account
@BillKristol
3. “The war in Iraq was right and necessary, and we won it”. (4/)
Wonder in what world he is living !
Yes,and he could use his casino background to call a meeting with all the native american chiefs to set a solid tone and a priority and great optics too.
If Koch bros , Enbridge et al want to lay pipeline on Lakota land or water, let them bring their PWC or Lloyds risk capitalization books to the table for free inspection, and give the securitization bonds to the tribe for safe keeping.
What needs to be done is dress them up in white sheets like the KKK members they admire so much. He “Knows what needs to be done.” I am Jewish, could you explain what you are referring to? The Al Nusra thing is a diversion to throw all of us off. “What needs to be done” sounds like the talk of 1931. The Jews will be a yuge problem when you move to deport, just watch what happens. We won’t be the only ones, the military will have many members that refuse to assist. The Clergy will lie down on the highways. You have awakened a monster, and it ain’t the malinformed clueless left. It’s all of us, including active service members will go awol and balk at their orders. Is my friend Edward going to deport his Salvadoran mom? is he? He’s in the National Guard. No he will refuse and he will disappear. He just finished Ranger training. He wants out as soon as possible. We will obstruct and refuse and block the trains and highways and airports. We know all about this subject, being Jewish and all. Go ahead, we dare Trump to begin. Then what, we get sanctioned and ridiculed by all of the other countries on earth and boycotted, prosecuted, sounds like a good idea. Trump’s failure is obvious and is going to be self generated with Bannon, Flynn/Torture again and Guiliani. Its not 1954 anymore. My son thinks he is being deported. He is terrified and a US Citizen. This has already caused a major issue in our household, its not theoretical for kids that are not Caucasian. The Caucasian kids have told him he has to leave. Maybe he would have been better off if we had never adopted him from Vietnam, as they don’t do things like the USA does. They are building their country, not tearing it apart. The Trump loving secret alt right should put themselves in my nine and a half year old sons shoes for five minutes before saying that “he will do what he has to do”. Has to do according to whom exactly? The alt right? The KKK? As I said last week attack Medicare first to ensure total failure And he did just that today!!!! He’s gone. The goodwill is over, sorry. Bannon is unacceptable to anyone who is not a racist or sympathetic to racism. Nor is Guiliani. Flynn should probably be tried for war crimes, as should Obama. Don’t ask the Dems to help after appointing these clowns, we won’t at all.
Wasn’t Chris Christie the guy frothing at the mouth demanding Russian planes be shot down at the GOP primary bunfights?
The portly potentate’s endorsement of Trump was an act of revenge against Liddle Marco nefarious New Hampshire adds attacking his well rounded character. This drama aside, he strikes me as an unimaginative and entirely orthodox Eastern Republican. “Thank you fat man but its time for you to be on your way.”
@Freudenschade: Trump, to his disadvantage, is now stripped of his favorite enemy, Clinton. The lady is dead. From now on, whatever he does or says, nobody can reply anymore “Ah, but e-mails, ah but Benghazi, ah but the Foundation, ah but pay-for-play etcetera etcetera p.p.”. These were all good reasons to vote for him, very good campaign talking points, but that is now over. He now stands on his own little Nichts. Abwarten und Tee trinken, da hast Du sicher Recht. But, out of the vacuum of Trump’s mind, so far nothing has yet emerged. And there’s no reason to expect that anything but smoke will ever emerge. Will he even last the full term? I doubt it. That’s the tragedy of the 2016 election.
I believe America will recover from this clown. After all, recovering and getting back on its feet has always been America’s most admired, indeed legendary quality. From my European vantage point, this is the only thing I’m counting on. I really hope I won’t be disappointed. I’m holding my breath for a while.
Lemur,
I do not think that John Bolton will be appointed secretary of state because president Bush jr. had to use a recess appointment to make Bolton the ambassador to the United Nations since the Democrats were blocking a confirmation vote on him in the Senate back in 2005–
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/01/AR2005080100436.html
Bolton usually spouts hardcore necon views, and may have been involved in the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), which promoted policies using the Bush jr. administration that helped cause the destruction that has come to the Middle East.
true, “60 Minutes” TV interview & CNN link here shows Trump will be a moderate
http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/13/politics/donald-trump-60-minutes-first-interview/index.html?sr=fbCNN111316donald-trump-60-minutes-first-interview0809PMVODtop
I was a Bernie supporter so glad Hilary lost. To calm some of my lefty friends down, some interesting things to note in the above interview:
Despite hysteria predictions of Gestapo squads & cattle cars, Trump said he will be only deporting only illegal immigrants who comitt crimes.
He also said “gay marriage is settled law of the land” & won’t appoint judges to overturn it.
Those people who lived in NY know Trump as a supporter of gay rights & in previous TV interviews, he said he doesn’t care if LBGT get married, “let them”
Trump also said he wouldn’t be prosecuting Clinton, that he doesn’t want to hurt them. It’s genius & cunning because Trump knows it’ll create a debt that the Clinton/Dems will owe him a favor in the future, to play as a ‘Trump card’ to keep in his back pocket later.
He may even go an extra step & ‘pardon’ her beforehand because she would never be found guilty anyways because she’s too heavily protected, making her look guilty for getting the pardon & him magnamonious & ‘bringing people together’ while he gets more Dems/Clintonista’s owing him political favors
===
http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/trump-in-1999-i-am-very-pro-choice-480297539914
Before running for president,Trump said on TV interviews so presumably his true stances:
“I’m very pro-choice”
He said that he’s pro-single-payer & pro-social security, pro-Medicare, & that gov should pay for everyone’s healthcare
He also said on those TV interviews: “You can’t deport people.. how can you deport someone who’s lived here all their lives”
I read his ghostwritten autobiography “Art of the Deal” —
his motto is say OUTRAGEOUS things to get free publicity
&
“say anything to make the sale” regardless if true or not & regardless if you intend to keep any promise ..
Once the deal is signed, forget the promises if convenient
His biographer who shadowed Trump for 6 months living with him said Trump is the ultimate salesman or to his enemies, he’s the ultimate con artist or sociopathic liar –he
said
Trump has no qualms about lying to anyone & anytime to get what he wants & is ruthless
Tyler was correct that most of what he said was just to ‘red meat’ to attract the Repub base to vote for him
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/donald-trump-contradicting-himself-hypocrisy-video
==
is this proof that most people couldn’t stomach voting for Hilary? https://www.rawstory.com/2016/11/watch-michael-moore-drops-some-hard-truths-about-how-democrats-have-ignored-the-midwest/
Trump won the electoral college because he won the Rust Belt states like Michigan by 11,000 votes because
90,000 Democrat MI voters voted Democrat straight down the ballot BUT
left “President” blank because they refused to vote for Hilary
Similar happened in other Rust Belt states, causing Trump to win the electoral college
Lessons to learn:
1. Populism sells for those swing states & hence the election, listen to Bernie Sanders
2. Don’t be pro NAFTA or ‘free-trade’ TPP gold-standard bearer
3. Don’t be pro neocon regime-change plans
“The British poodle has been dispatched to beg for continuity of terrorism support.”
Poodle. Couldn’t ease off on that one, could you?
That aside, do you have fuller information please? Who’s been dispatched, how has continuity of terrorist support been requested, has anything been officially announced, is the mission on behalf of the British government only or is it on behalf of European NATO members as a whole?
Good commentary counter-signalling the snarky MSM narrative Trump’s “betraying” his campaign promises:
“Liberals want no deportations. We want all deportations. Trump is reframing the debate by focusing on “criminal” deportations. Now, liberals want no “criminal deportations,” and we want all “criminal deportations”.
The old position was very good for liberals. They built a high defense in the mountain passes that “No human is illegal”. They assert the moral high ground. Illegals are would-be model citizens. Under the old frame, conservatives would answer weepy questions about why they want to deport 5.0 GPA Biology Graduates and separate families. A million teary anecdotes would rain down like hellfire to convince you that having borders and laws is racist and shit. Conservatives would abandon the assault and retreat, consoling themselves that at least they didn’t get their hands dirty. How many times have you watched the cucks lose these battles?
Trump’s new frame hits the liberal high ground like an earthquake.
Liberals are now defending criminal illegal immigrants and suddenly their mountain fortress becomes an indefensible sinkhole. They will have to answer a million weepy questions about why rapists and murderers should stay in the country. While they’re defending that every conservative with a social media account is already convincing moderates that the problem is worse than they’ve ever realized. The left will riot and make a great show of recreating the Underground Railroad, but this will only backfire. It’s all because of Trump’s reframing.
Once we have deportations for some criminal illegal immigrants it’s not hard to extend the concept. You wouldn’t want a rapist to be let in — would you want a tax fraud?”
https://mpcdot.com/forums/topic/8496-the-donald-trump-presidential-archive/page__st__18920
Fortunately, many in the neolib (R2P crowd), can’t stand bonkers Bolton. What Trump will have to do is bifurcate them even though they have largely similar objectives re the ME. If they get together and Trump annoys them too much they have a mechanism for removal. At this point the Electoral College is the immediate hurdle and a near impossibility. Subsequently it will be impeachment. That’s a political process wrapped in legal cloth. Reasons can be found having little to do with the actual reasons. The super-majority required will make it difficult but I’m sure the chattering classes are looking at the possibilities.
I offer the Committee the “freeze, unfreeze, refreeze” policy model for your consideration.
Most of the time Government policy is “frozen” into an orthodoxy that is highly resistant to change. From my perspective, that orthodoxy, for perhaps the last twenty years has included political correctness, radical social engineering constructs like feminism, gender equity and “soft” public education, Keynesian economics, globalism, corporatism and a direct military interference based foreign policy. I would argue that this policy no longer serves broad American interests, if it ever did. Both sides of Congress supported this orthodoxy.
I would argue that the election has precipitated a historic “unfreeze” of permissible policy options that gifts a President Trump with opportunities for change not seen for Twenty years and unlikely to be seen again for a further twenty. When I say “unfreeze”, I mean that the existing orthodoxy has been smashed and can be replaced with whatever policies President Trump proposes with little if any political resistance from Congress or the voters.
To put that another way, Trump has given people permission to think the unthinkable as is evidenced by the intellectual elite of opinion leaders running around with their hair on fire as they confront the demise of their carefully constructed realities. I personally find this refreshing. Here is a typical example:
……….Professor Siracusa labelled Mr Trump “an appalling human being” and said he had cultivated a voter base sympathetic towards conspiracy theories.
“He’s as dumb as Ronald Reagan and meaner than Richard Nixon,” Professor Siracusa said.
“But I accept he had a base out there. And they were conspiratorial alright, they thought professional wrestling was real and the moon landing was a fake.”
“I doubt Kmart would hire him the way he talks.”………..
Does anyone disagree that the chattering classes are in meltdown?
What this means is that there is not going to be any serious, organised and coherent opposition to President Trumps policies because people have just demonstrated by electing him that they are prepared to think outside the box. The old box is broken and it is up to Present Trump to construct a new one. Make no mistake, he can do pretty much whatever he wants without opposition. The policy elites are in shock now. The unthinkable has happened. The Donald is going to the White House.
However President Trump has very limited time, about Twelve months by my estimate, before the thaw ends and orthodoxy refreezes into whatever model Present Trump has shaped. The intellectual forces of conservatism will regroup. Coherent resistance will reappear and the talking points of political orthodoxy will refreeze around the policies Donald Trump has emplaced. Twelve months.
So how does President Trump use the Twelve months grace he has been given to reshape America for the better? I don’t know what he proposes, but I do know he has to land running and overwhelm his opposition by a multitude of radical changes as fast as possible. That means using outsiders. That means taking an axe to things; “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” better still; “If it ain’t broke, break it and then fix it”. That means cutting corners and being fast and free with the truth. That means destroying careers and people. Above all, it means ignoring and sidelining the Washington Wormtongues who will counsel for less haste. The Donald has Twelve months before the forces of darkness reassert themselves. Twelve months.
And all of that means that we already know how the Donald Trump Presidency is going to end – in a web of scandal over the means he is going to be forced to employ to get America back on track and looking after its people again.
GCP,
That’s a talking point and not what Ryan said.
” What a lot of folks don’t realize is this 21-person board called the ipap is about to kick in with price controls on Medicare. What people don’t realize is because of Obamacare, medicare is going broke, medicare is going to have price controls because of Obamacare, medicaid is in fiscal straits. You have to deal with those issues if you are going to repeal and replace obamacare. Medicare has serious problems [because of] Obamacare.”
Here is some news that bodes well:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-14/putin-calls-trump-discuss-renormalization-us-russian-relations
“Moments ago the Kremlin released a statement in which the Russian presidency reported that Putin and Trump held a conversation, in which the Russian leader congratulated his American counterpart again on his victory in the presidential election, wished him “success in the implementation of the pre-election program, and noted his willingness to build a partnership dialogue with the new administration on the principles of equality, mutual respect and non-interference in the internal affairs of each other.”
During the conversation, Putin and Trump “not only agreed to assess the current unsatisfactory state of bilateral relations, but also spoke in favor of active joint work to normalize relations and aim for constructive cooperation on a wide range of issues. The call emphasized in particular the importance of creating a solid foundation of bilateral ties through the development of trade and economic relations.
In the call, it was also noted that that “next year marks 210 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and the United States, which in itself should stimulate a return to pragmatic, mutually beneficial cooperation, which would meet the interests of both countries, stability and security throughout the world.”
Putin and Trump shared thoughts on the need for joint efforts in the fight against the common enemy number one – international terrorism and extremism. In this vein, and discussed issues of the settlement of the crisis in Syria.
The two agreed to continue contact by phone and agreed to meet in person in the future.”
It is probably giving the neocons a fit though.
Doug
Electors will overwhelmingly vote in accordance with the election outcomes in their states. So, you can forget that. Impeachment? The Republicans control BOTH houses of Congress for at least the next two years. He is the head of their party. So, that is OUT. You need to try to come to grips with the reality that is the end of the coastal Demo multi-culti dream. pl
shaun,
You sure do a lot of trolling. “Caucasian kids” are terrifying your adopted son and ….. you did what, write a blog comment?
So who started this “al-Nursa thing” as a front, back in 2012?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Nusra_Front
I know this is news to you but the US Army won’t be deporting people here illegally these people will:
https://www.ice.gov/about
What Ryan said is not quite true. I plan for this stuff every day. There might be some cuts, not large, and providers will be asked to provide evidence that what they are doing actually works. The board will be tasked, if it is not gutted or altered, to try to keep Medicare increases in line with inflation. If we don’t do that, Medicare dies anyway.
Steve
Why the scare quotes for betraying? He promised to put his companies into a blind trust. Now his family will run it. Potential for conflict of interest? You bet.
Steve
I can actually see Trump working with Democrats (not sure they will work with him), but how does he get around the rules in the House? Do you think Ryan will do that? How long does he stay Speaker?
Steve
shaun
A very rich and powerful Jewish friend started out in life collecting funds for Israel in a tin cup on the Manhattan subway. He told me at lunch one day in the palatial dining room of Lazard Frères in Rockefeller Center that if I wished to understand Jews I had to understand the depth of your fear, your collective fear of the goyim, in other words of people like me. That was funny because we were business partners and I trusted him with my money. I understand your “thing” now. You are hysterically afraid of the return of pogroms, the Nazis (always with the Nazis, endlessly). In your hysteria you can hear the trucks being warmed up to come get you and so you lash out at your fears. Well, suit yourself. Perhaps you could consider aliya lest the bogeyman get you. Your semi Salvadoran friend can escape the image of the US armed forces that you have created and your adopted son can return to the paradise that is communist Vietnam. All the best. pl
If Obamacare has caused medicare to go broke, as Ryan claims, then the repeal of Obamacare should solve that problem–at least if you follow Ryan’s logic.
The article which you cited also states that:
“First, Ryan claims that Obamacare has put Medicare under deeper financial stress. Precisely the opposite is true. And it’s so straightforward Ryan unquestionably knows this. The Affordable Care Act actually extended Medicare’s solvency by more than a decade. Ryan’s claim is flat out false.”
Do you have any information on how Obamacare negatively affected medicare? I honestly have no idea of the interplay between the two program, whether negative or positive.
Remember that presenting DT in the worst possible light was the DNC strategy and bought into by the MSM. Beware of creating your own demons:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-13/liberals-scared-death-their-own-caricature-trumpettes
“Liberals are afraid of their own shadows right now. That’s because they’ve created anti-matter, Mr. Hyde caricatures of the Trumpettes — the average little guys who support Trump. These shadows that liberals have cast by their own self-deceit now surround them, and they believe the grotesquely exaggerated images they have created.
This false belief like any phobia is taking on its own life by creating mass hysteria in the streets of America. By that step, belief becomes reality. While the initial description that liberals painted of Trumpettes is false — they’re all misogynistic, homophobic racists — the hysteria is real, and that causes people to react with violence against whatever they fear. Those violent reactions become very real horrors that are not just painted in the imagination, and they divide the nation deeper, creating fears that are now based on real horrible events that came about due to the original false beliefs. It’s like a panic attack that feeds on itself.
And the more people continue to believe the caricature that liberals created out of Trump supporters and then react in fear to that caricature, the more real-life bad events will create real horrors. It can quickly become a self-fueling social vortex that all began from false fears.
Liberals have for months been retelling each other every day that Trump supporters are all bigots, homophobes, xenophobes and misogynists. They painted Trump supporters with a broad crimson-stained brush as being entirely motivated by hatred. On one level, I’m sure they created this image of the Trumpettes in order to win the election — by making making them look like the KKK fan club, which no decent person would want to belong to.
There is, however, a deadly downside to this kind of demonization: you cannot do it unless you also convince yourself that the stereotype you are creating is true — otherwise you’d live in the knowledge that you are a liar. Nobody wants to live in the knowledge that he or she is a liar, and it is simple to convince yourself that the stereotype you are believing is true because that is who you want to simplify the other side anyway.”
“…Trump is playing the media. …So, Trump says things like “we need to keep out Mexicans who are rapists,” and the media and liberals start chattering among themselves about how Trump believes all Mexicans are rapists. I note, as the chatter takes off, that he didn’t actually say “Mexicans are rapists.” He said we need to keep out any that are. (That may be only 1% of Mexicans that he wants to keep out, and why wouldn’t we want to keep out convicted rapists, whether they are Mexican or any other nationality?)”
“…So, why be upset that Trump says we need to stop importing racists from Mexico … unless you deliberately misread that statement to mean he thinks we need to stop importing all Mexicans because they are all rapists? Liberals jumped to that conclusion because it fit their political aims to believe it. They created the lie and immediately believed their own lie … because they wanted to. But now it leaves them afraid of something that was never real in the first place.
Trump was speaking about an incident where some actual criminals who were illegal aliens raped someone after they were known by the government to be both criminal and illegal aliens. He was saying that we should never allow known criminals into our country from other countries (Mexico or otherwise), and we should always deport aliens if we find out they are rapists. What do we need rapists for? What’s wrong with that? He was pointing out that it is ludicrous that those rapists were still in the country since their illegal status SHOULD make it very easy to get them out.”
Your son isn’t going anywhere; be careful that you aren’t putting wrong ideas into his head.
shaun
IS is not a construction of the US. That is yet another hysterical reaction on your part. Consider aliya but bring money with you. A friend in Jerusalem told me that the best way to make a small fortune in Israel is to bring large fortune. You might “take to the streets?” Good idea. Send pictures of the cops kicking your ass. pl
Also,
Sheldon Adelson was the second highest Trump donor (Trump himself was 1st).
If I remember correctly he is staunchly pro-Israel, so I doubt the Jewish community has much to fear.
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2016-presidential-campaign-fundraising/
This reads like nonsense. Take a deep breath and step away from the bong.
shaun of the dead
“…I was going to be open minded, I tried and failed.” The only rational part of your statement. You really think he’s going after the Jews? You are a neurotic fool.
I’m going to at least wait until he is in office.
^
Right wing politics will not be abandoned simply because Jews get the subjective feeling another shoah is around the corner. What, we can’t take definitive necessary action because that entails authoritative judgment calls on which people in this snowflake nation might disagree? Yes, we can. The people have assigned Trump this mandate.
It’s rather curious you immediately frame this in Jewish terms when I use the phrase ‘what needs to be done’ in reply to a OP that talks about Trump softening on illegal immigration (ie, criminally entering the country). Because if there is one thing Hitler has gone down in infamy for, it was being stickler for deporting Poles who snuck across the border to live the German Dream.
Edward must follow superior orders, and enforce the rule of law or face Court Martial. During the WWII if my memory serves me correctly, only one British officer refused to carrying out his orders out of moral principle. And since then, Western militaries have got a lot better at ensuring automatic obedience. I doubt there’s much legal recourse for these ‘other countries’ to ruin relations with the world’s only superpower for enforcing perfectly legitimate immigration law.
#CurrentYear God is unimpressive imo. Mainline protestants and liberal Catholics are in terminal decline. They won’t be doing much.
As the United States balkanizes, tribal politics will continue to rapidly supplant issue based elections. You must prepare your son for this inevitable result of multiculturalism. Perhaps Vietnam is building a cohesive country because ethnic Vietnamese (Kinh) constitute 86.2% of the population? What needs to be done here is macro level adjustments that we cannot permit be paralyzed by sad story anecdotes. Because sometimes what your little boy wants/needs is in opposition to what a lot more little kids want/need. So, not an argument, rather paralysis via ‘analysis’
Trump gradually assuming control of the GOP party; he dragged them to victory with majorities in both houses and the position to appoint lifelong conservative judges. Dems are irrelevant for a long time.
And why stop at alleging Trump (with his Jewish in laws) and pro-Israel Bannon are alt-right stooges? Let’s go the whole hog and admit muh Putler is behind all this.
You’ll have to forgive my Kiwi irreverence. Not all of us get learned to speak proper down here..
Here’s the links
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/11/13/britain-to-tell-trump-forget-islamic-state-depose-assad-instead/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/12/trump-putin-alliance-sparks-diplomatic-crisis/
Do you understand that Obama has deported more than Bush ever did?
Fine with me if you dislike Trump, but imho your arguments are irrational.
If your son is being hassled at school, have a talk with the school administration. I doubt if his 9 year old peers are that attuned to politics that they suddenly feel it’s ok to be jerks because of Trump. Kids can be jerks, period.
the wall and trade are the two central issues of Trump’s electoral mandate.
Sounds like a modern day FDR, in a sense–FDR was himself a manipulative, backstabbing, ruthless, lying bastard and jerk. But he also got things done and, on the whole, served extraordinarily well the nation at large. But FDR also had top notch people like Marshall advising him. We shall see.
No neocons and no movement-conservatives, then who?
Democrats, lobbyists?
“From my perspective, that orthodoxy, for perhaps the last twenty years has included political correctness, radical social engineering constructs like feminism, gender equity …”
Really? Are feminism and gender equity bad ideas? Or, perhaps, ideas that are actually good ones that make our nation stronger.
The majority of our citizens are women. They have worth and the young ones soon will run the place because they are getting college and graduate degrees at a ratio of three to two over the men.
Also, but for our peculiar electoral college system, the majority of the majority of the voters were women who voted for Hillary and she would have won. On close zoom-in examination of that vast “fly-over” land, it has lots of blue in it making it more and more purple, the color of the feminists.
“So how does President Trump use the Twelve months grace he has been given to reshape America for the better?”
He needs to reconcile with the women, many of whom are really pissed and restive. There is no future in putting down the women.
Shaun
Are you a product of public schools?
House rules are what a majority of the House members say it is. Normally, it is difficult to assemble a majority out of members who would publicly defy the wishes of the party leaders, but with Ryan (potentially) cowed and White House weighing in, there’s no reason that rules would stay as they are.
origin
Look at the by county map of the 2016 election. It DOES NOT have a lot of blue in it except for Indian lands and Black areas. The by county map has grown steadily redder over the last ten years. pl
Out of the frying pan and into the fire?
@ryangrim tweets:
“Source says John Bolton is close to being named Secretary of State, Corker still a remote possibility, Gingrich is out.”
TV
People who are not fanatics. pl
Lemur
So the British tail is going to try to wag the American dog? pl
“Therefore he is going to have to work with the Democrats in Congress. They may be in the minority but their votes will be needed to overcome GOP resistance to many of the things he will want to do.”
This hopeful thought runs straight into the “Hastert Rule” which the republican leadership in the House of Representatives has imposed, namely, that no legislation even gets a vote unless it has the support of a majority of the majority.
This prevents the House democrats from building any sort of coalition with elements of the House republican to get legislation that the republican party opposes, even though it might have the support of a majority in the House.
http://politicaldictionary.com/words/hastert-rule/
“On November 21, 2013, the Senate voted 52-48, with all Republicans and 3 Democrats voting against, to eliminate the use of the filibuster against all executive branch nominees and judicial nominees other than to the Supreme Court.”
I don’t think the filibuster keeps Bolton from becoming Secretary of State.
rkka
Hastert? Oh, you mean the convicted pedophile rapist of the athletes he was coaching. That will go down pretty quickly or the Republicans in the House will suffer for it. pl
Tigermoth
Yes, Trump is a friend of Israel but not a reliable servant. pl
You keep identifying yourself as “Jewish”.
How is that important?
I have European ancestry, but never identify myself as Cornish or Scots, I’m an American.
Sir,
I agree switching enough votes in the Electoral College is merely a theoretical possibility. There has never been more than one or two that didn’t vote in accordance with their mandate. The moveon.org crowd, that is sponsoring the effort, knows that. Their efforts are for fundraising.
What concerns me more is Congress a year or so from now. While Republicans control both houses, a large number of them do not consider Trump a Republican and can’t stand him in multiple areas. Trump simply has to maintain enough popular support outside DC to hold them at bay.
However, if anyone can overcome the DC inertia and mindset, Trump can. Still, the adversaries he has had in business are different than his political ones will be. I hope he as studied “The Prince” as thoroughly as he has obviously studied, or simply understands intuitively, Robert Cialdini’s works.
Col, I fear you are going to find yourself on the WRONG SIDE of the bothered British. Boris will declare you.
It’s the Suez Crisis of 1956 all over again, except Uncle Sam is about to get a taste of his own medicine
wink wink
Buddist,
Watching the interview gave me the impression he is still pandering. IOW, he as yet has no solid plan. Nothing wrong with that, it’s to be expected, it’s only been a few days. He is unready for a war with his own party at the moment so he gave Ryan a sop to buy time. “Tax cuts!”
IMO his first instinct will be to bludgeon his own party into submission but he’s smart enough to know he must proceed carefully before trying. He needs time to develop a plan. He did not expect to win so he doesn’t currently have one. He will wish to make Congress into his staff. All Presidents wish to, I guess, but he may view it as essential.
Colonel,
I think this is very sound advice and I hope he’s smart enough to take it. FWIW (coming from a dastardly lefty) I suspect he is.
I tend to agree with this too – anyone (especially GOP) seen as standing in the way of Trump’s efforts will indeed pay a price.
A big tell is going to be whom he selects as head of the National Security Council.
The counties may look red, but within the individual counties, there are many blue votes. For example, check out the counties in middle Georgia where there are a lot of Blue votes even though the county may be colored red. Overall, in the whole country more voted blue than red.
Col–The multicultural dream is a function of people falling in love: with a country, with another person, with a cuisine, with a culture. It ain’t gonna end anytime soon!
Yes, from the right wing perspective they are. Properly formulated, the right seeks to advance ‘the common good’, not a leveling equality. Until Trump came along the left thought the march of progress was inevitable, forgetting ‘progress’ is the comparative of which we have not settled the superlative. Suffice to say our ultimate values are antithetical to yours. Against the liberal refrain of ‘liberty, fraternity, equality’, we oppose authority, hierarchy, and differentiation. I realize this is crimethink, but as Julius Evola noted when he was hauled before the tribunal in *democratic* Italy, “My principles are only those that, before the French Revolution, every well-born person considered sane and normal.” What we live in a now is a epoch of dissolution. Our trajectory is downwards.
Women are notably underrepresented from STEM degrees; instead they’re graduating with degrees in sociology and various courses that end in ‘studies’. That’s not how you MAGA! I’ve seen what passes for coursework in these “disciplines”.
The peculiar electoral college system was designed to prevent coastal population concentrations eternally lording it over flyover country. Remove the electoral college and regional tensions would mount until the Union factionalized into de facto partition. And if there are blue patches in the South (most of which are due to the uniparty importing a new people who are not steeped in the historical American tradition), there are red patches in the North. Oregon is the most polarized state in the Union.
It’s interesting to note 53% of white women voted for Trump. This election was about race and class, not gender. Slate had a hilarious piece up on how white women betrayed the ‘sisterhood’ and voted with their angry white male relatives (the horror!).
Women are natural conservatives. They seek to maintain stability in systems whatever they may be, and so some will resent what Sam Francis called the ‘middle American revolutionaries’. But if there’s one thing that entices women to a new order, its a firm, authoritative, and efficacious ethos and pathos. That’s what Trump will be projecting in the coming months. 180: Women will reconcile with Trump. They already have in a way once we factor race and class into the equation. That’s what the liberal Slate thinks anyway.
After Breitbart gets through with it, the “Hastert Rule” will be reframed as honoring a senior patriot and athlete who “empowered” youngsters. PRAVA is gonna be given a run for their money!
Laura
I speak four languages, have lived in a dozen countries, and, I too, like different kinds of grub. Do’t lecture me about multiculturalism. I have lved it. That does not make the attempted suppression of traditional Americans and their culture by the multi-cultis any less despicable. pl
Public education helped establish the US as the wealthiest, most powerful country on earth. Hand it over to Wall Street and other parasites, which Trump, unfortunately has vowed to do, at your peril.
Origin,
You’re referring to the black belt?
– Eliot
Thanks. Also, Mogherini has doubled down on her anti-Russian stance:-
“You know, the European Union has a very principled position on the illegal annexation of Crimea and the situation in Ukraine.” “This is not going to change, regardless of possible shifts in others’ policies.”
I believe Boris Johnson did not attend the meeting of Foreign Ministers at which this was said, but the British FO appears to be attempting to persuade Trump to continue the attempt to remove Assad.
Taken with Stoltenberg’s statement, does this indicate that the Europeans are in no doubt that American policy on Russia and on the ME is going to change comprehensively? They’d surely not make all this noise if they didn’t think so.
Plus the election results in Bulgaria and Moldova. Beginning to look like Festung Europa contra mundum.
Good time for Mrs May to depart the camp and do a U-turn. Boris is just the man for that. He can turn on a sixpence.
The sole reason the democrats have a growing electoral college advantage (well, at least before Trump came along and engineered a wholesale realignment of the system) is because democrats and the GOP oligarchs have been busy electing a new people for the last 50 odd years. California used to vote red. Yet liberals like to interpret this ‘new America’ as if they won some vast historical argument against the deplorable bigots, when in fact they merely perfected South American patron-client politics thanks to mass immigration. As Spengler predicted nearly a century ago now, the left turned into the instrument of big capital. Now the oligarchs can (a) preempt a system of organic common sympathies that can demand real structural reform (b) engage in the economic version of patron-client – the famous wealth transfer payments the IMF has ZERO problem with. These bribes provide temporary alleviation for permanent chronic abuse by rapacious multinational elites. And (c), they can play the different tribes off against one another.
The only electoral map that matters:
http://imgur.com/a/dopUR
Shaun, you are going to be surprised. In Australia when refugees from Iraq and Afghanistan started to come here by boat, we suffered a political crisis. On one hand the conservative government which launched these wars cracked down hard on these asylum seekers (Illegal Boat Arrivals), sending the opposition into a frenzy. I was already fighting hard against my government for assaulting Iraq in the first place, to then deny our duties to look after these people was too much. In 2007 we finally won and Howard was gone, and we could repeal his Pacific Solution.
Problem is, once we took the foot off, tens of thousands of people started to arrive. We couldn’t deal with this influx easily, makeshift refugee camps became over-crowded and rioting developed. Boats started sinking a sea, and like in Europe dead people started washing up on our shores. As our sycophantic leaders were unwilling to deal with the push factors (evil wars in the Middle East), we could only work on the pull factors. We won’t change our way of life or values, so all we had left was the use of force.
The Labor government flamed out after six years of this failed policy, and the new conservative government launched a military operation called “Sovereign Borders”, put a three-star general in charge of it and closed down media reporting. We haven’t had a boat arrive in years, and we are closing down the last of the camps. There is now almost no opposition to these measures, because we saw what happened when we set government policy with our hearts. This is something to be proud of, we tried, but in the end, as that bastard Howard said “we will decide who comes to this country, and the manner in which they arrive.”
Australia and America are sisters born of the same mother. We are both the most successful multicultural countries in the world. We will always have generous refugee programs, because we are all refugees here. But borders are there for a reason, the free migration of people will only lead to war and genocide. The American people will protest when you crack down on illegal migration because you are beautiful people with hearts and morals. But you will see quickly the merit of the program, and accept the truth that a little force saves a lot.
Shaun,
“We know all about this subject, being Jewish and all.”
The only people I know and am reasonably sure voted Trump are some of my Jewish relatives; all ardent Zionists and descendants from a real macher in the Jewish community and the Democratic Party during WWII and the post-war era.
I’ll let them know their “Jewish” must be malfunctioning.
origin
OK. Color you blue. pl
Chances is, he’ll use the position to enrich himself.
slabinja
That is just slanderous. Are you from the 3rd world or eastern Europe.? Or perhaps you think his name is Clinton? pl
no, its a function of dissolution by bored post-modern SWPLs (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=SWPL) so deracinated from their community and culture they seek out decontextualized exotic stimuli to satiate their existentially impoverished souls. Even the deconstructively inclined Erich Fromm noted that in order to actually ‘love’ something in the full sense of the term, one had to be first rooted in prior matrix of meaning. But if everyone is mixed up, what is prior? It’s the equivalent of forming your musical personality by listening to country, metal, pop, and jazz at the same time. In his second meditations Nietzsche considered that culture by definition required parameters in order to define itself. The open society is no society at all, merely a endless wasteland of deconstruction. One that TS Elliot found so horrifying he turned his prodigious talents to writing about cats. The word ‘freedom’ draws from the root, ‘dom-ain’. To be free, there must be limits.
https://elfishpolitics.blogspot.co.nz/2016/03/an-alternative-to-liberalism-part-2_26.html
We can further expand on this theme by noting this love is a secularized protestant heresy. The protestant cultivates his ‘personal relationship’ with Jesus, excluding any intermediaries. In secular terms, the individual becomes the sole determinant of his relationship with the world, and thus holistic conceptions must be eschewed because they are forms of illegitimate dominance based upon the legacy of personal charisma. With the individual liberated from his matrix of meaning, indeed having become his matrix of meaning, they sink fatefully down into the world of contingency. So what we are really speaking of is something lower than self-indulgence. We’re speaking of self-delusion, that meaning can be generated within the confines of no confines.
“the central and defining purpose of culture is to regulate the always-troublesome relation between the No-imposing voice of commandment and the Yes-seeking desires of the individual. According to Rieff, the traditional approach to the felt difficulties of bringing personality into coordination with authority involves internalizing and intensifying cultural norms. Religious at their core, traditional cultures stamp our inner lives with their creeds and, in so doing, deliver the human animal from its slavery to instinct.”
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2007/04/philip-rieffs-charisma
Every Congressman won his own election, and usually by a wider margin than did Trump. For the last 20 years working with Democrats meant you got a primary challenge. I don’t really see that suddenly changing.
Steve
Yeah Boris’ politics are ultimately about Boris.
Let’s talk brass tacks. The steel in the European position is American resolve. Stoltenberg and Mogherini talk a big game but their ascendancy is predicated on American ‘engagement’. That’s the REAL reason they’re flipping out. If Trump ignores Europe the anti-American Europhiles (possibly in conjunction with nationalists) will depose the Atlanticist factions and make peace with the bear.
Lady Britannica has lost her dance partner for the Waltz of ME Shenanigans. “My word, why won’t you LEAD Donald”, Theresa May is imploring. “Why is finding and keeping a good man so damnably impossible these days?” If Britain can’t fulfill her ‘global security role’ pretending to fight terrorists in Syria with Uncle Sam, she’ll be reduced to growling angrily as “Putler” trolls his navy up and down the ENGLISH channel. Still, it will give the HMS Daily Fail something to do.
Money talks, bs walks though. Britain wants that sweet trade deal, if only to pip France and Germany.
But the “women” did not vote for Hillary Clinton, though.
Some women did, and they are identifiable by certain demographic characteristics, but a majority of women in other demographic characteristics did not.
I don’t think this means condoning overtly putting down women, but it does beg the question, how “real” are the kind of priorities that self-claimed feminists have, not just for the entire country, but for wide swaths of women themselves?
I think we have to start with the recognition that many features of our system of representation failed. Many people–women, minority, working class–don’t feel represented. The white working class, men and women, showed their displeasure by voting for Trump. The black working class, men and women, showed their displeasure by staying home. If people who call themselves Feminists feel that only the educated upper class women are worth their time, maybe this is what they deserved.
Steve,
I am neither the Speaker of the House, the President Elect nor the author of the Talking Points Memo article that GCP linked to in the comment I responded to.
No. He’s beyond that now. Trump has the biggest ego to occupy the Oval Office since Lyndon Johnson and I believe he sees himself, like LBJ, as assuming the job at a crisis point with an opportunity to go down in history as one of the greatest. Johnson ran afoul of Vietnam, but one can make a plausible case that without him it would have taken at least another decade or two to put Jim Crow on the ash heap of history. And those would not have been quiet, uneventful years.
“Women are notably underrepresented from STEM degrees; instead they’re graduating with degrees in sociology and various courses that end in ‘studies’.”
How about the elite STEM degree, M.D. Men certainly do not have any big piece of that pie. About 47 percent of the current medical school doctor graduates are women http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/medical-school-graduates-by-gender/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D and about 48 percent of the law students currently enrolled at ABA law schools are women. The women lawyers are rapidly filling the judgeships and getting the real power.
It is not about “leveling”, it is about the openings to compete and equal opportunity. I seriously doubt that Trump will be enticing any of these soon to be powerful women with his ethos and pathos. It is not about the “liberal state”, it is that women now know they can compete with men and win on a personal basis.
The women as well as the men who will not or cannot compete in this competitive world will be left poorer and poorer. Trump will never convince the dynamic young women to “stay home and knit” The dynamic and ambitious ones move to the urban blue areas.
It is now reported that the three Army Special Forces soldiers who were killed in Jordan on 4 November 2016 were assigned to the CIA. The article at the end also mentions that since 2001, two other soldiers, one Army Special Forces (in Afghanistan) and one Marine (in Iraq), were killed while detailed to the CIA–
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/army-special-forces-soldiers-killed-in-jordan-were-working-for-the-cia/2016/11/11/8c6b53de-7b66-40ed-9077-bf954070f2be_story.html
Not only won, but? Succeeded beyond his wildest dreams?
Indeed. He seems to be in chatty state of bewilderment.
https://twitter.com/billkristol?lang=de
No, go look in the northern part of the state too. The county voting in very mixed. What used to be the “Black Belt” is no longer so black because of emigration. It is more on level of education precinct by precinct.
trinlae,
I remember recently reading that the DAPL company at first planned to drive the pipeline under the Missouri River just about right under Bismark. The Bismarkians objected on safety and water pollution reasons. So the Bismarkians got DAPL to re-route the pipeline under sites of Lakota concern and just upstream from Standing Rock Reservation instead. Because what’s a few water-polluted Indians anyway?
I don’t know if it would occur to President Trump to suggest that the DAPL should be re-rerouted right back under Bismark just like it was going to be at the start. Because if the Bismarkians support it so much, let them host it . . . thereby putting their land and water where their mouths are. But it sure would be interesting if President Trump were to suggest that very thing. And so order the permits to be corrected to reflect that plan.
Origin,
Now overlay the crime map with the blue votes. Notice anything in common?
Fred,
I suspect Ryan would make up anything at all to rationalize his basic desire to voucherise and privatise Medicare. ( But I have long believed that privatising Medicare was part of Obama’s long-range vision as well. He was setting up Obamacare in order to flush Medicare and Medicaide and the VA System down the Obamacare over the decades to come.)
Robert Willman
Yes, SF soldiers are loaned out to CIA to do the tings they do not have the brains or balls enough to do. Old Story. pl
Blue I am and the father of two brilliant, talented and accomplished “elite” young women who would chase a Lemur to an isolated tree in the middle of a field and keep him there till he starved. They are the future and it will be a more friendly, gracious, and hard working one too. Such animals run in packs that hunt very effectively.
PS, Go to the capitol someday and look at who really runs the Congress. It used to be young men, now its young women.
Trying to keep the women down is not a winning strategy.
Does Kellyanne Conway run Trump. Could be?
steve,
Trump and any genuine Trumpublicans which may exist in the House and Senate could work with Berniecrats in the House and Senate on particular goals which both share. They may be able to do so even while opposing eachother on other goals where they differ.
I like to think that Trumpublicans and Berniecrats agree on ratifying precisely zero Trade Treason Agreements ever again. I hope they can also work on ripping up and destroying the present Trade Treason Agreements that America is currently locked into. Never Again Free Trade!
The Wall Street Republicans and the Clintonite Pelosi Obamacrats
will obstruct the “trumpies” and the “bernies” every step of the way on this. The support and pursuit of Trade Treason Agreements are core to Clinton/Pelosi/Obama’s very innermost being.
Yes, drug addiction and early death of middle class men and women strongly correlates with red.
Also, size on the map does not correlate with population. My county is 271 square miles in size and has a population around 30k less than Alaska and more than either of Wyoming, Vermont, DC, or North Dakota. And my county is just the third in size within the metro area. Each of the voters in those states (not counting DC) have claim to three electoral votes to my one. If it were not for our Electoral College system, Hillary would be the President Elect.
Origin and pl,
I have a year’s training as a cartographer. Cartography is a powerful tool in which factual information can be convincingly manipulated to represent almost any point of view desired. A map which shows a county as red or blue infers that all voters in that county voted either 100% republican or 100% democratic. It also infers equal population density in all counties. This Gizmodo article shows have the same data can be presented in different manners. The final map showing population density and great intermixing of republican/democratic voters is much closer to reality than the state or county maps.
“Working with Democrats” will be a strange challenge . . . because which Democrats does one work with? Clintonites or Berniecrats? The Clintonites are hardening into a posture of deep long-festering hatred for the Berniecrats on the ground that we cheated Her Majestic Borgness out of her rightful election.
Berniecrats will be focused on our agenda items. Trump may oppose many of those. Such is life. But if Trump really means it when he says no more bad trade deals, then Berniecrats can work with Trump even while suffering defeats from Trump on some of the other things. (And I hope Trump deepens his understanding from “good or bad deals” to the Sessions level of “American economic sovereign or not”). But if the Clintonites tell Trump “we will obstruct you every way we can if you ever work with a single Berniecrat”, then what will Trump do?
But also, remembering that personnel is policy, I will be hazzing a sad bigly
if Trump nominates Sarah Palin to be Secretary of The Interior.
I guess I should include a link to the Gizmodo article I was talking about.
http://gizmodo.com/5960290/this-is-the-real-political-map-of-america-hint-we-are-not-that-divided
robt willmann,
The CIA cares not a whit for Special Forces soldiers. They use us just like they use recruited agents. I hope Trump rescinds the Presidential findings that allows the CIA to use Special Forces in this manner on day one of his presidency. Day two at the latest. Since he’s said he wants to end supporting the Islamic rebels in Syria, I’m pretty damned sure he’ll cut the CIA’s nuts. I still don’t like the man, but I’ll happily toast him when he does this.
I must admit that this is pretty funny. You should have copy-righted this and tried to sell it to Woody Allen or to Saturday Night Live – it would have been a hit.
I think that what you describe as a setting “government policy with our hearts” had never been tested in real situations and when it was, it was found to be wonting.
Likewise in the European Union and in US in the case of Haitians 2 decades ago.
That type of pose only encourages immigration and all manners of refugees. You should have just stated that “We are an Anglo-Saxon Culture steeped in the traditions of England and we do not wish to dilute that culture. ”
It would have been both more forthright and more comprehensible to foreigners. I mean, Indonesian do resent one million Australian Christians moving into Indonesia; it work both ways.
In regards to MD – USSR had the largest percentage of female physicians but the heads of departments, the directors of research institutes, and influential and creative researchers were almost all men.
In US, in my opinion, women leave STEM – outside of Health Sciences – because they are not interested in working hard without tangible material awards that are commensurate with what they perceive to be their efforts. And there are things that women absolutely refuse to do, no matter how much they are bribed. One of them is writing computer programs professionally.
“”An individual mandate coupled with subsidies for private insurance as a means for universal healthcare was considered the best way to win the support of the Senate because it had been included in prior bipartisan reform proposals. The concept goes back to at least 1989, when the conservative Heritage Foundation proposed an individual mandate as an alternative to single-payer health care.[111] It was championed for a time by conservative economists and Republican senators as a market-based approach to healthcare reform on the basis of individual responsibility and avoidance of free rider problems. Specifically, because the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) requires any hospital participating in Medicare (nearly all do) to provide emergency care to anyone who needs it, the government often indirectly bore the cost of those without the ability to pay.[112][113][114]””
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act
Wow! That’s a big bowl of words salad 😉 I prefer Laura’s simple version.
Please, please, please, no John Bolton for the sake of our country!
Now overlay net federal tax payers map with red votes. Notice anything in common?
Lemur,
You’re doing great work here pushing back against the fellow travelers and fifth columnists. Glad to have you on board. When real life slows down, we’ll stir things up a bit.
PirateLaddie,
Floaters? LOL!
I love your other idea.
Andy,
Maybe this is a keep your enemies close strategy to control them or crush them.
Hmm, Julius Evola? Along the lines of Arthur Crowley too?
Or simply along the lines of some type of counter-revolution to save the Occident from decline?
Because if there is one thing Hitler has gone down in infamy for, it was being stickler for deporting Poles who snuck across the border to live the German Dream.
this is a curious statement. I think I know what you may have in mind. Never mind how misguided this statement is in the larger context.
Shaun,
Can I send your child to a cry-in or recommend coloring book or play doh therapy since YOU became hysterical and shared your fears? In the fifties and sixties my father was a Freedom Rider and we weren’t allowed to know everything about what he was doing or about all of the places he was going until we were much older. We were told he was away on business. I saw my mother cry when she thought I wasn’t looking but she didn’t raise fearful, spoiled, irrational adults LIKE YOU ARE.
Blame the HRC and the DNC for the Pied Piper strategy of elevating the man and people you are complaining about now.
There are liberal bigots too who are worse because the stab in the back comes as a surprise. Complain about them much? The alt right don’t pretend and I’m glad to know who I’m feeling with.
Calm down!
Again, blame the right people
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XaxCVJU1K1U
But I have long believed that privatising Medicare was part of Obama’s long-range vision as well.
I don’t think so. My semi-informed impression was that he heavily underestimated the power of lobbies he had to confront.
Who were in charge in this context in the government?
Someone around here not too long ago, maybe two, linked to an international perspective of an American expert on matters. I realized how easy it is to misunderstand a system you cannot go into details in a documentary. Or one you are not familiar with. Maybe the author himself misread some matters. Hard to tell in hindsight to what extend. At one point he could have, but didn’t specify on something that may have sent the wrong signal.
Ah! Ah!
I have personally no idea who Steve Bannon is and I don’t really care but this might be a serious recommendation:
https://twitter.com/AlvinGrissomII/status/798422865657950209
Colonel
or someone who knows the intricacies and travails within the govt.
Why is the President-Elect asking for security clearance for his three children and most probably SIL?
FWIW: According to the LATimes, Jared Kushner (may be others also) didn’t know that the West Wing politicals would vacate the place with the new administration coming in.
Beaver
The security clearance system is a function of the Executive Branch although authorized by law. Since you are Canadian and do not really have an Executive Branch that is separate from the legislative function the sole authority of the US president over the system may not be clear to you. You do not have to be employed by the US Government to be given a security clearance and access as a consultant. You do not have to be paid. Trump uses family members as advisers and sounding boards. He will want to continue that. In that context he will want them to see classified information so that their advice can be worthwhile. I see no reason why he should not do that although it would be wise to follow the existing regulations with regard to investigations prior to clearance. This is a separate issue from the means he will use to separate himself from his businesses. Those difficulties seem insurmountable to me and a source of future embarrassment. pl
I agree, Fred:
Through all the gobbledygook and bamboozlement,
on the surface, with admittedly not a solid grasp of the history of Health Care discussions, legal approaches on matters in the US, Ryan’s take on matters reminds me of developments over here. Beyond realizing, I didn’t know much about it till recently.
But yes: From that perspective the author may well be misguided about what premiums, does or could signify.
But we do not have a single-payer system … As an afterthought it reminds me of a book by a Swedish, I think, economist who lured me into his study via an aesthetic approach. It’s a while ago, I read it, but he looked into single payer systems.
TTG
Yes. Oddly the depiction in one of the Rambo films of the predatory and callous attitude many CIA DO types toward SF soldiers has a lot of truth in it. I am altogether in favor of getting the CIA out of any covert actions that involve US soldiers. pl
Pacifica Advocate
As you know I have been writing that cooperation is possible and I think that cooperation is especially likely with the Bernyites on specific issues of interest to them like healthcare. Obama can see that on the horizon and wants to be part of it. pl
TTG
I detect a level of sympathy for the “blue” in you that I had not seen before. I take you point about intermixture in these county sized blocks but IMO the real issue is dominance in those spaces. pl
origin
You don’t like the constitutional structure of the US? Perhaps you should start agitating for a constitutional convention. That would be interesting. Women are inheriting the earth? I don’t remember that one among the Beatitudes, but if you say so … pl
>>For God’s sake, no neocons.
Trump’s “senior adviser on national security” is James Woolsey. Woolsey is doing the media rounds right for Trump now so I’m surprised no one is mentioning him.
Woolsey is the ‘Henry Kissinger’ of the neo-cons, he is part of every neocon committee and a member of every neocon board.
He became CIA director under Clinton as part of their courtship of the neo-cons then he was a member of the PNAC crowd that moved into the WhiteHouse in 2000. He was the man who *personally* worked to create and spread the “Saddam did 911” disinfo (about the same time as he become VP at Booz Allen in 2002). He has spent the last decade trying to gin up war in Iran.
I respect this website for calling things like they are – but the Colonel said “For God’s sake, no neocons…” and no one mentioned that the neo-con’s disinfo kingpin just moved in. Strange days.
Even the deconstructively inclined Erich Fromm
Interesting. What made you single out Erich Fromm? He cannot be called a bohemian after all.
I never reflected on the possibility of Erich Fromm being a deconstructionist. What specifically made him one?
I haven’t checked First Things for a while, but:
ironic detachment, rejection of moral certainties and rebellion against cultural norms, as well as the new strategies of self-management that have replaced old-fashioned forms of self-discipline.
What are “the” moral certainties?
More news of concern regarding Trump advisers. Yesterday (14 November) Trump named former CIA director and neocon James Woolsey to be a “senior adviser”. Woolsey was also involved in the Project for a New American Century–
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/trump-campaign-announces-amb.-r.-james-woolsey-as-a-senior-advisor1
https://theintercept.com/2016/09/12/donald-trump-after-blasting-iraq-war-picks-top-iraq-hawk-as-security-adviser/
Notice that in the Trump statement, Woolsey describes himself thusly: “I have been a ‘Scoop Jackson,’ ‘Joe Lieberman,’ Democrat all of my adult life ….” Joe Lieberman? He was the U.S. Senator who, after he lost the Democratic primary for re-election, transformed himself into an “independent” under Connecticut law in 2006 and ran in the general election and won–
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/08/AR2006080800596.html
Lieberman was one of the leaders moving to reverse the appointment of Chas Freeman to head the National Intelligence Council in 2009.
The neocon approach is not going to abandon itself. Michael Ledeen got next to retired Gen. Michael Flynn as a co-author of the book published this year, “The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies”.
Radical Islam and “its allies”? I thought the issue was just “radical” Islam.
Thank you Colonel for clarifying this.
I thought that it was in relation to the businesses, so that the children don’t deal with some non-welcoming foreign companies and/or govt.
sounded a bit staged to me. Although, maybe I indeed underestimate the fear factor.
Luther Blissett
Altogether an oversight on my part. Woolsey is at least as malevolent a figure as Bolton. pl
Thank you for articulating so beautifully my inchoate thoughts on this subject.
steve
From the WaPo’s fact checker.
Paul Ryan’s false claim that ‘because of Obamacare, Medicare is going broke’
“…It has been a bipartisan fallacy to claim that the old-age health program Medicare is going ‘broke,’ which is incorrect for the reasons outlined below. But what was notable was he specifically blamed the Affordable Care Act for making Medicare go broke…”
Here’s the link to the rest: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/11/14/paul-ryans-false-claim-that-because-of-obamacare-medicare-is-going-broke/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_fact-checker-1225p%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
pl,
Yes, I have a strong streak of Bernie Sanders Blue. (That ought to be a new Benjamin Moore color.) That’s the small town NewEnglander in me. The motto on our town war monument reads, “The Noblest Motive is the Public Good.” I grew up with that and it stuck. Plus, I haven’t been mugged by the dreaded multi-culti yet. So far, I’ve had nothing but good experiences. It’s the slackers of all persuasions that bug me.
Why is it that such malevolent people rise so high in the United States?
I mean, US has a very deep bench, why these people?
Do you know?
Woolsey appointment: is it consistent with “keep your friends close and your enemies closer”?
babak
Sure. To reach the top in the jungle that is government you have to be massively egotistical and ruthless. Some of us are not that however much we might be more effective in our government work. pl
TTG
As you knew I supported Sanders in spite of the reluctance I have to accept some of his larger thoughts, but as I wrote I thought that he and Jane looked like something worthwhile. And that matters. You have not been bitten by the multi culti? Like me you are comfortably retired and protected by law from abandonment. The Deplorables are in a very different position. pl
In regards to the book:
“The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies”. ”
So, somebody or somebodies find themselves in a religious war against Islam.
And I though I was the only one who was calling a spade a spade.
2 nominal Christians trying to adjudicate among the variegated ideas and ideals of Islam; I am not sure what to call it, “Hubris” or just plane “Madness”.
LeaNder,
Are you trying to quoting something but are instead using italics? Ah, you have bamboozled yourself and are spitting out more gobbledygook. Thanks.
What is always like that?
I mean say in 1930s, 40s, 50s, of even 60s?
How Marshall get to where he was, for example.
pl the map at the precinct level shows us that there are supporters of the ‘other’ side just about everywhere. On my block in the most blue suburb (outside Cleveland) there were several Trump/Pence signs. Their votes were counted the same as a Trump vote in the reddest county in Ohio.
Without over-determining ideological affiliations on the ground, what the map seems to showcase are political facts correlated with population density. Correlations given by density eventually qualifies homogeneity and heterogeneity of a social entity. This should come as no surprise.
In 2008 I was searching via Google image search for precinct level maps having to do with the recently completed election and encountered what I was looking for, plus, a most revealing map that assessed where opposition to the Viet Nam War in 1970 was most intense. That 38 year old map of could have been overlaid upon the 2008 election map with out much area deviation.
These two maps reflected an unsurprising constancy and differentiation of social homogeneity and heterogeneity.
Origin,
Congratulations on avoiding any mention of “Crime” and correlation to blue voting patterns.
dr. puck
Your argument is basically that this election was a one off and that the Deplorables will soon subside into slovenly apathy and decline as a group. I am not sure that is true. I will tell you as I did TTG that what matters in these county sized districts is dominance. Your argument ignores the steadily growing power of the GOP at the state level. pl
Robert,
Sure do. I believe Colorado (along with other adjacent states) has enjoyed some explosive growth for a number of years as companies fled the tax burden imposed by the people’s Republic of California. Texas and Florida are doing booming business in Americas fleeing high taxes in Blue states, especially in retirement.
well, he just gave, for all practical purposes, Cohen his walking papers! Three cheers for whoever pulled this off! And Rodgers too!
You make my point. The nation is a collection of individuals spread around and all mixed up. Every community has both mourners and celebrants in the election constantly lobbying each other about how we should govern ourselves. That diversity is magnificent!
I chuckled here. The dynamically self-created Trump is an unlikely tribune for restorative traditionalism.
Nevertheless the (to me) sketchy appropriation of the severe Evola, Guenon, by some of the masculinist thinkers of the alt-right, reminds me that the thoroughgoing metaphysical presumptions of traditionalism suppose that the ordained outcome of the conflict between what you term sane/normal with, (for lack of a better term,) secular relativism, is decided by absolute compliance to the revived old order, and where compliance is unobtainable, elimination of the opposition.
…exactly like what is on offer by the liver eaters. just sayin’
I very much like certain cities in Spain and Italy (not the Deep Spain or Deep Italy with which I have had no interaction). I like and enjoy aspects of the Italian and Hispano-American culture, cuisine, poetry, literature, music etc.
But I know that even if I could speak Italian or Spanish correctly, I would always remain a foreigner in those 2 countries. And I understand that, accept it, and do not have any issues with it; I would just be pleased that I could experience them and the splendid aspects of their culture and civilization – like when you can sit in the main square in Cuzco and just take in the flow of people, Spaniards, Andeans, and the Tourists.
The multiculturalism of this late phase of Western Diocletian culture reeks of condensation and of racialism; in my opinion. In Cuzco, the European or North American tourists are not there for what Cuzco offers, but for the ruins of a dead civilization that predates the Incas.
In Turkey, the nudist beach resorts for Germans is not an expression of Multiculturalism but rather colonialism
The Balts and the Finns of this world have been latecomers to the European culture and civilization. Yet in no place are their past accomplishments and culture (some dances, a few sagas and epics, some linguistic similarities with other languages) are explicitly mentioned or celebrated by the governments.
Likewise for Jews.
We have no “Jewish History Month”, no “Balt History Month” etc. in the United States.
As you probably know, I consider my self “Beige”, racially speaking.
I shudder to think a situation in which there would be a “Beige History Month” – I would find it personally insulting.
I would be very upset if “Beige” children were given a curriculum that did not cover all that has happened in Metaphysics since the time of Saint Bonaventure – under the excuse of trying to give them a taste of the accomplishments of their own past culture.
Ok, sorry, Fred. Didn’t want to make you angry. But interesting, I did. The “price controls”, I maybe should have paid more attention to that.
I responded to this by you:
“nor [am I] the author of the Talking Points Memo article that GCP linked to in the comment I responded to”
And then used italics instead of quotation marks for a maybe arbitrarily chosen quote by Josh Marshall [the author] or the article GolfCoastPirate linked to above. Not seriously reflected, babbling mode, while aware of Pat’s complaints about the usage of quotation marks.
If it helps, I’ll shut up for a while. Or simply keep out of purely American matters, if that could be some type of compromise.? 😉
Seriously no harm meant, only it feels complex matters. The baby boomers approaching retirement seem to be only one factor it seems… But what do I know?
http://paulryan.house.gov/issues/issue/?IssueID=9969
No opinion on this guy. No opinion about his use of the Annual Report to taxpayers too. Although it looks a bit simplified:
http://paulryan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398451
As for my support for the Constitutional structure, I think the Great Compromise of 1797 was a stroke of political genius. The result is that our presidential candidates must give attention to the smaller states and more rural areas. But for the compromise, all attention would be given to the densely populated areas during campaigns because the cost effectiveness of campaigning in the cities is so much higher. A candidate could generate more votes by visiting Atlanta with its four counties that exceed the population of at least four states at much less cost than canvassing in Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, and North Dakota. The compromise forces a broader attention to the less populated states by making each voter in those states have nearly three times the voter power of the larger areas. In my view, that is why the whole country is purple to varying degrees as pointed out by TTG instead being all the color of the largest states. This quirk of the American system is one of the major components of our political cohesion.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the Americans system, we select our presidents, not by direct election, but by a vote of a special body called the Electoral College that is elected by the popular vote within the states. Each state gets a vote for each senate seat and additional votes from each of its congressional districts. Nationwide, the congressional districts are based upon more or less equal amounts of voters. Georgia, my state, has 14 congressional districts and two Senators, hence 16 electoral college votes. Wyoming, our least populous state with only about 564,000 people, has one congressional district and two senators. Thus, a congressional district voter in Georgia has 1 + 1/14 vote value and a voter in Wyoming has a 1 + 2 = 3 vote value. This makes campaigning in the smaller states important in the economy of voting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_Compromise
As for whether the men or women inherit the earth, that is for God to decide. However, families who teach their female children that they are able to be educated and compete equally and be equally ambitious and accomplished as their brothers, the well encouraged daughters’ sons (and daughters) will likely inherit more earth (real estate) and wealth than the ones from families who do not encourage their daughters and give them equal opportunity to excel as their brothers.
Colonel,
After writing this piece:
http://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/11/10/to-an-anxious-friend/
Eliot has been told “to get lost”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/us/politics/donald-trump-transition.html
and Mike Rogers is out of the transition team
beaver
Good riddance to both. pl
It is always hard to understand why the best people are not dominant in history and government. Perhaps, with Trump, it is the Almighty’s intention to humble us?
Trump sure humbled the Democratic establishment and the coasters. He is well on the way doing it to the Republicans even though they falsely believe they will be able to corral the whirlwind as Trump humbles himself and his policies further impoverish the gloating rustbelt middle class left behind in the dust of technological change and globalism.
The humbling will be nearly universal.
Pacifica Advocate,
A good first step would be for the Berniecrats to primary every Clintonite just ahead of every Clintonite’s upcoming election. And every such primary challenge that the Berniecrats lose, I would like to see the Berniecrats all vote Third Party to Naderize the Clintonite primary winner.
It will take time to purge and bern all the Clintonites from out of the Democratic Party. But it will remain a Free Trade Treason Party until every last Clintonite has been purged and berned. Let them all join the Country Club Wall Street wing of the Republican Party, where they belong.
Fred,
I think a lot of the Blue State Americans retiring to Florida are fleeing winter. A piece of mere anecdata: a retiring relatives couple of mine retired at first to near-beachside Rhode Island and only when they discovered they could not take the bleak cold winter then moved to Florida.
Origin,
“…filling the judgeships and getting the real power.”
You mean the current male judges are not impartial because of their sex or that non judges do not have power?
Babak,
And there are things that women absolutely refuse to do, no matter how much they are bribed.”
“Sanitation engineers”, which are mostly unionized positions and thus that equal pay for equal work thing is a fact not a talking point. But who wants to drive a garbage truck all day?
DC,
That is certainly a factor. As Horace put it “They change their sky, not their soul, who rush across the sea.” I think that is applicable to many who move (or retire) across state lines.
If Trump does not implement even a semi-honest WPA program, I think he’s toast. No amount of boorish talk can make up for it. Millions of people across Midwest voted for him because he said he’ll protect jobs and minimum floors for everyone, and he will take the whole Republican Party with him too. What happened to Clinton and the Democrats now will be what happens to the GOP when they pull back.
If the Republican leadership is smart–and, the sad truth is, there is no guarantee of that–they should try to go along with a real comprehensive program. They will have a harder challenge than Obama did in 2009: they have too small a majority in Congress and many among their ranks will refuse to go along. Democratic cooperation will be the key for Trump to get anything done, but will the Democrats play naysayer, if things get that far, just to discredit Trump and the GOP, or will they cooperate? Will the Democrats split over this question? That seems exactly the most plausible scenario, if we are willing to give Trump any amount of credit (It’d be easier to put our heads in the sand and say that he’s a liar who won’t deliver, but that’s how we got the Trump presidency–too easy to pretend that “it’ll never happen.”)
Maybe Trump should recruit James Webb, assuming he can live with his democratic affiliation.
Colonel,
The latest : on SIL ( who btw wrote his speech for AIPAC last March)
https://twitter.com/mitchellreports/status/798675613733109760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“Trump team has asked for son in law Jared Kushner to have top secret clearance for Presidential Daily Brief no precedent for that”
Origin,
If you really believe that I wonder what color the sky is in your world.
BuddhistHarmony,
If Trump pardoned Clinton ahead of time, as Ford pardoned Nixon, the cancer of Clintonism will be left free to keep metastasizing throughout the American political and economic system.
If investigation reveals Clinton to be credibly indictable for something, let her be indicted and let her be tried. If she is found guilty and convicted, let her then be pardoned at that point. At least her reputation would be properly degraded and diminished, and perhaps that of her husband as well. They would be less of a threat to the system. They would be less able to plot a Clinton Restoration.
” What? A Clinton Restoration?” Yes. Here is a link to an article about “Chelsea Clinton being groomed to run for Congress.”
http://nypost.com/2016/11/10/chelsea-clinton-being-groomed-to-run-for-congress/
If she gets into Congress, the Clinton Restoration begins right there. At the very least, the international feast of grift and con and selling influence known as Clinton FoundationLand will have a new lease on life and wealth. We should carry out a legal and non-violent form of “proscription” against the Clinton Crime Family. And that includes Chelsea. Burn down the Clintons’ reputation so thoroughly that Chelsea is also rendered too toxic to enter public life.