Too Perfect for Words

 

From TPM:  Trump's Vote Fraud Guru is Registered in Three States

Shadow Government

 

This post from Josh Marshall's joint  is a shocking added twist to the co-opting of Congress. According to the report, the president's* administration worked with congressional staff on crafting the Immigration ban without telling their bosses, the members of Congress!

I can't even - the gob, she is smacked...Imagine you have an employee, someone who works under your direct control, takes care of your most sensitive issues, and this person also happens to work for someone else without your knowledge. You then have a potential for divided loyalties and conflicts of interest. If you found out could you ever trust that person again? It would be like cheating in a marriage - often the damage cannot be fully repaired.

That is what Mr. T has done to these Congresspersons - destroyed the trust and confidence in their office staff. The capper to all this is that the staffers were required to sign the famous Trump non-disclosure agreement. This is like pouring acid in the gears of congress. Per my earlier post on the slow-motion coup seemingly in progress, this further undermines the Congressional branch of government. 

I tell you, you can't take your eyes off these people for a second!

Slow-Motion Coup d'Etat

 

This  post from Yonatan Zunger echos my impressions of the last week or so. He asks if the events of the last few weeks are a "trial balloon for a coup". I would argue that they are not a trial balloon, they are the real thing. 

This is not your typical Banana Republic coup - instead of a few strong men, we have a diverse collection of power centers. Instead of one quick attack, taking control of our system requires the submission or replacement of many people. What is frightening is that large groups are already co-opted. The recumbent Republican party has been a total enabler of this - as long as they get tax cuts for rich people, they don't care much about a bunch of peons. The institutional Democratic party is back on its heels and is lagging behind its supporters in many cases. So much for congress.

The Executive branch take-over is, of course, well underway. The few sparks of resistance - renegade tweeters at the Interior Department, the Acting Attorney-General who will not support the unconstitutional Immigration ban - are rapidly being identified and liquidated. The head of DNI and the Joint Chief of Staff have been removed from the Principals committee of the National Security Council, replaced by Trump's Rasputin, Steven Bannon. 

In fact it appears that Bannon is now effectively our un-elected president. From Foreign Policy:

"Even before he was given a formal seat on the National Security Council’s “principals committee” this weekend by President Donald Trump, Bannon was calling the shots and doing so with little to no input from the National Security Council staff, according to an intelligence official who asked not to be named out of fear of retribution.

“He is running a cabal, almost like a shadow NSC,” the official said. He described a work environment where there is little appetite for dissenting opinions, shockingly no paper trail of what’s being discussed and agreed upon at meetings, and no guidance or encouragement so far from above about how the National Security Council staff should be organized.

The intelligence official, who said he was willing to give the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt when it took office, is now deeply troubled by how things are being run.

“They ran all of these executive orders outside of the normal construct,” he said, referring to last week’s flurry of draft executive orders on everything from immigration to the return of CIA “black sites.”

Bannon has set up a shadow government and is cutting out everyone except the most trusted inner circle, at the same time he is circumventing the normal review and documentation of the decision process:

""If those papers are now being generated by political staff, she added, it corrupts the whole process.
It could also contribute to Bannon’s centralization of power.

“He who has the pen has the authority to shape outcomes,” the intelligence official said.

Now Bannon’s role in the shadows is being formalized thanks to an executive order signed Saturday by Trump that formally gives Bannon a seat on the National Security Council’s principals committee. The same executive order removed from that group the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the director of national intelligence, and the secretary of energy."
 So much for the Executive.

Three Federal District Courts issued stays against the Immigration action this weekend and it appears that DHS is ignoring some or all of the court's orders. Further, the Dear Leader is scheduled to release his Supreme Court pick tomorrow night (is anyone giving odds that it will be anything other than a straight, white, conservative christian man?). The Democrats may have some success filibustering any nominee, but what if another slot opens up? I pray-to-god knock-on-wood hope I am totally wrong on this, but part of me wonders if Bannon is even now planning the assassination of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It would totally fit with his hate-fueled drive for power. So much for the Courts?

We have to stay on top of these developments and fight like our lives depend on it, because they very well may - at least life anything like the America we have known. Congratulations to all who have marched, protested, got activated, called their representatives and senators, discussed this with friends and acquaintances. These are all excellent beginnings but are just that - beginnings. This will be a long struggle, friends, and we need the love and support of each other to sustain us. Never forget - we are the true heirs of America and there are more of us than of them - the future will be ours!

The Impeachment Clock is Ticking

                                             Protesters at SeaTac Airport


We will not stand for this - or, rather we WILL stand for this - protesting in our thousands! A nation of immigrants that turns its back on the most desperate and vulnerable immigrants has lost its soul. We will not allow that to happen because if we do, we are lost. We are better than this. 2018 is not far off - let's make sure the R's reap the whirlwind at the next election.

The great David Bowie put it well....

A Critical Dilemma

Are Democrats wasting time trying to understand the Trump voter?

We are hearing a lot these days about the need for the Democratic party to reach out to the disaffected white working class voters, listen to them and understand why the voted as they did. This implies that if we know what's eating them we can craft a message that will show them the D's are the ones actually on their side and ride this to victory in 2018. Is this a waste of time? 

To spoil my own punch line, no, I don't think the understanding part is wasted, as this understanding is needed to help craft a response based on the political landscape as it is. We need a rational clear-eyed view of where we are if there is any chance of building a bridge to where we want to be.

The effort that may, indeed, be wasted is the belief that these renegade voters can be convinced in any way that they have been sold a complete hill of magic beans. This post on Alternet from  blogger Forsetti's Justice does an excellent job of laying out the hermetically closed universe of the fundamentalist mind. 

A rigid system of knowledge based on belief acts as a filter to any information that doesn't fit the approved template or is not from one of the "approved" authorities. When Preacher Rick Joyner says Jesus's Apostles "were all Donald Trump", his flock believes that even when multiple news sources report on his frauds, infidelities and crude language. That must all be wrong - "Fake News", or just doesn't matter because they have been told he is one of the Anointed.

This kind of closed knowledge system, particularly susceptible to the "virus" of dangerous, irrational and unfounded beliefs, is the perfect breeding ground for unpersuadable, uncompromising converts who will never question what they are told. If Dear Leader says it is true, it is true, and if you try and tell me otherwise I will know YOU are not to be trusted!

So, friends, how do we respond to this? It is tempting to simply demonize these folks as ignorant morons, but heating up the war of words further won't help anything. There should be an effort to put out, loudly and strongly, the real, verifiable facts, to clearly express why core Liberal values and world views are fundamentally for the working man as opposed to the power of Big Money. 

The very word "Liberal" needs to be reclaimed and rehabilitated from the Right's propaganda campaign which has dragged the proud name of humanism and enlightened progress through the mud. As is so often the case with the reactionary Right, the ugly assertions against Liberalism that it wants to dominate, is corrupt and scheming to control the world is an almost perfect example of projection.

Let's say that all these steps are carried out, the case is made honestly and clearly, the Liberal idea refurbished - will it swing any Trump voters? Perhaps a few of the more open and aware ones, but I would not expect so in mass. But I think this is not the point, which is that we do these things because they are the right things to do, because only through honestly and clarity can we successfully deal with the world as it is. We do these things because it reflects the America we love, the child of the the 18th century enlightenment which has been a beacon to the world for so long: non-secular, rational, promising (if not always delivering) equality and justice for all.

I think if we follow the "true path" of our core beliefs, do not worry ourselves about converting those who will not be converted, but stick with plain truth and honesty we may have a chance to mobilize all those who agree with us but "don't do politics" or were discouraged or too cynical. I think this is becoming the real "silent majority" in the United States of the 21st century.

What do you think?

Update:

Joan Williams at the Harvard Business Review has some some additional insights. She suggests that voters may be swung by focusing on economic issues. Both D's and R's have become such creatures of Big Money that the white working class (WWC) feels abandoned by both. 

Mr. T promised to bring back jobs for HS graduates that can support a family (which he probably can't deliver) and won the election. Policies that actually help raise the living standard of the WWC will need to place a greater burden on the obscenely rich, but of course this administration is moving in the opposite direction.

Friday Happy Hour

 

You can always count on the Rude Pundit for a straight shot of the good stuff!

Hard to Imagine

Via Digby: Philip Roth In the New Yorker:

“It isn’t Trump as a character, a human type—the real-estate type, the callow and callous killer capitalist—that outstrips the imagination. It is Trump as President of the United States.

“I was born in 1933, the year that F.D.R. was inaugurated. He was President until I was twelve years old. I’ve been a Roosevelt Democrat ever since. I found much that was alarming about being a citizen during the tenures of Richard Nixon and George W. Bush. But, whatever I may have seen as their limitations of character or intellect, neither was anything like as humanly impoverished as Trump is: ignorant of government, of history, of science, of philosophy, of art, incapable of expressing or recognizing subtlety or nuance, destitute of all decency, and wielding a vocabulary of seventy-seven words that is better called Jerkish than English.”

"Jerkish" - I love it! a great description of the president's* middle-school-bully language. As he says, no subtlety, no nuance, just a raw expression of Id. I find I have to turn the radio down whenever DJT is on as hearing his words makes my ears feel dirty.

Quick Takes

Bits and Pieces from a Busy Weekend...

What a whirlwind! From the soggy, dark negativity of Friday's inauguration through Saturday's epic day of protest through Sunday's reflection and sense of one small victory but one loud voice, tidbits from the net...

Michael Moore posted a stirring video from Thursday night's protest in NY city. His key point: call your representatives and senators: 

"“I want every one of us to commit ― starting today if you can, but certainly starting on Monday ― that you make a part of your daily routine to call Congress,” Moore urged. You don’t even have to look up your legislator’s information, he added; you can simply call (202) 225-3121 and ask for them to connect you to your representative. "

 Liberal America links to a BBC Documentary on the links between Donald Trump and Russia. The relationship appears to be long and deep with many questions still unresolved.This is an issue with the most alarming implications for national security. The fact that the president* and his administration are shrugging their shoulders about it all is astounding. 

Dan Rather nails the importance of truth and facts to a Democracy and why we cannot begin to accept the little lies:

When you have a press secretary in his first appearance before the White House reporters threaten, bully, lie, and then walk out of the briefing room without the cajones to answer a single question…these are not normal times....The press has never seen anything like this before. The public has never seen anything like this before. And the political leaders of both parties have never seen anything like this before.What can we do? We can all step up and say simply and without equivocation. “A lie, is a lie, is a lie!” And if someone won’t say it, those of us who know that there is such a thing as the truth must do whatever is in our power to diminish the liar’s malignant reach into our society.


Another great take on the importance of Truth and Integrity from Eliot Cohen, one of the original neocons. No innocent himself, having promoted the Iraq War early on and been involved with the Bush administration, even he is appalled by the mendacity of the Trumpistas:

We will not change him—no one can. His children may be able to soften the edges and his most trusted advisers may deflect him off his erratic courses, but nothing will teach him gravitas, magnanimity, or wisdom. Until he is impeached, thrown out of office in four years, succumbs to illness, or lasts through eight years, he is what we have learned he is, and will remain so. The beginning of wisdom will be to treat his office with respect, but him with none, because it will achieve nothing, and because as a human being he deserves none. He will remain erratic, temperamental, vengeful, and perhaps most of all, deeply insecure. A man who mocks John McCain, denounces Gold Star parents, snarls at an actor who spoofs him, and makes fun of a crippled reporter is someone whose core is empty, and whose need for approbation is unlimited because the void within him is so complete.

And finally, the largest single day of protest in US history! As posted in US Uncut and reported in national news, there were massive protests in just about all major cities. If you click through to Prof. Jeremy Pressman's spreadsheet, you can see rallies of all sizes in cities and towns large and small. The resistance is widespread and deep. The trick will be to maintain the heat and momentum from this weekend, but it is a very good start!

My album of photos from the Ann Arbor march is here. It was an inspiring and empowering day!

American Heresy #1: Not the Greatest Nation on Earth

 

Part 2: Goliath Stumbles

In Part I of this essay I briefly described the rise of social movements in America on the right and left of the political spectrum. Now I would like to discuss how these developments have led to the reactionary election of Trump. The sentiments he harnessed were not of course created by him but have been brewing for many years.

Media Megaphones: Fox News and Hate Radio

I'm sure many of you have experienced comments or received emails from conservative relatives and friends that seemed surprisingly angry, accusatory or racist, referring to immigrants or unwed mothers or abortion or persons on welfare. Most recently we've seen the fierce, over-the-top demonization of Hillary Clinton but this goes back much further. Since the end of Reagan's second term Republicans have become successively more extreme and uncompromising. 

In Bill Clinton's time, there was the pursuit of his penis like it was Moby Dick reincarnated, a fervor to convict out of all proportion to events and ultimately damaging to the nation. By the time we get to Barack Obama the new paradigm seemed to be that any Democratic president was not legitimate and that any attack, lie, distortion or twisting of facts and logic was acceptable. Conservatives are currently complaining about the huge but largely peaceful demonstrations against Trump and seem to forget that Obama was greeted by protestors with nooses, flaming effigies, pictures of he and Michelle as apes and all the ugly rest of it.

How was this level of hate and animosity generated? The first driver to push these sentiments in a big way was the Hate Radio wave that swept the country starting in 1987. An example of the conservative fetish "deregulation", the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stopped enforcing the Fairness Doctrine that year. With radio stations no longer required to give politically balanced access and the conglomeration of radio stations into a few large Ownership groups, unfiltered right-wing programming began to flood the market. Rush Limbaugh began to supply the script for ugly, hurtful rants from riled-up uncles and grandparents at family functions.

The rise of Fox News Channel (or "Faux News" as some would have it) kicked all this into overdrive. Under the direction of Roger Ailes there was now a central, coordinated disseminator or the Party Line. Amusingly carrying the motto "Fair and Balanced", the network was anything but, reliably featuring dim but assured male hosts and shiny, long-legged blonde female decorations who deplored anything proposed by Democrats and puffed everything Republican. 

The eventual downfall of Ailes, exposed as a sexual predator and generally loathsome person, was revealing of the hidden corruption and white male privilege that is the true wellspring of the Trump phenomenon. While they have tried to apply a camouflage coat of economic populism, one only has to scratch the surface to find the emotional, irrational, fearful reaction of the dispossessed white working class. 


Party Over Country: "Let me have it or I'll break it"
 
More than just tearing families apart, this new media also began to tear the nation apart. The Gingrich Republicans would rather shut the government down than try and bargain in good faith. The dark Bush years were engulfed in the cloud of 9/11; their go-to tactics were some form of "Us or Them". Any objections or calls for debate were termed "treason", and those speaking out were warned to watch what they said.

Mitch McConnell's plotting for unwavering, uncompromising obstruction of the Obama administration beginning on day one is well documented. This is amazing when taken in context, since this was in the midst of the most severe economic panic since the Great Depression. At a time when all true patriots should have lent their every effort to preventing a full depression, they were intent on making sure Obama failed. It was Party before Country then and even more so now.

 Obama had almost a full year left in office when Justice Scalia died and we witness the never-before seen spectacle of congress refusing to even consider a President's nominee. (From the party that blew a gasket when Democrats simply asked hard questions of  Justice Thomas). We currently see Republican's falling in line with the Trump position that Russia and Putin aren't so bad after all - let's put all that Crimea and Ukraine nastiness behind us and stop the sanctions. (From the party of Ronald "The bombing starts in five minutes" Reagan). We've seen this on so many matters -  the R's rock-ribbed, holier-than-thou absolute moral stands can reverse in an instant depending on who is in power. They don't care who gets hurt or what long-standing norms they break as long as they win and their enemies are utterly destroyed.

Goliath Falls: Not the Greatest
 
Now we see how the Republican party has descended from being a corporate friendly but overall cooperative partner with Democrats in finding the viable compromises required for a functioning democracy to a rabid, angry and uncompromising abuser. The fear and anger Trump played with so dangerously during the campaign has revealed the thirst for anger, punishment and destruction motivating him and many of his most rabid followers. 

This blind rage is like a fire, unthinking and dangerous if not confined and extinguished. This urge to lash out has extended to all things that make it's purveyors feel less-than. Informed opinion, legitimate media, scientific research and those who conduct it, numbers, inconvenient facts. Truth and objective reality are themselves under attack. Displaying their signature knack for projection, they blame liberals for hiding from reality, for being out of touch, not knowing how the world really works. But of course it is they who attack scientific results they don't like or the media for reporting what they said publicly.

All this angry refusal to bargain in good faith or even accept objective reality has severely poisoned the body politic and threatens our ability to respond to the world's many challenges in a rational manner. A new and serious infectious disease (Zika) arises, and congress argues over providing any funds to study it. Congress forbids any funding for research into firearms-related deaths. Climate change isn't even mentioned.

Education has become a political football. First we had "No Child Left Behind", trying to force all students into a one-size-all- teach-to-the-test straight-jacket. Then the rise of the Charter schools, a Trojan horse to destroy public education and turn it over to for-profit players and religious institutions.Finally we Betsy DeVoss, who's family has spread enough money into the right pockets to get her nominated to head the Dept. of Education. She has not attended public school, nor have her children, she is not familiar with major aspects of Public School policy, she has spent her career trying to undercut public schools, so of course she gets the nod. National test scores for American students are behind those of many European and Asian nations and don't seem likely to catch up soon.

So here is where we find ourselves. Where once we could legitimately claim the crown of "Greatest Nation in the World", we are now fooling ourselves if we claim it is still true. The life expectancy for working white people has recently declined for the first time in the modern era. We are not the best educated, our government is not the most functional or most fair, our health care system is not the best or the most efficient. Having dabbled in torture and indefinite imprisonment we are not the most moral or just. 

The great question now is "Who are we"? While not the greatest, we are still extraordinary in many ways. While degraded, we may yet be greater in the future.This theme was appropriated by the Trump campaign with their slogan "Make America Great Again". I am sick of seeing it on those stupid hats because the "Great Again" implied there is not what I am talking about. 

Their slogan is not about a return to working together, to a broad agreement that we are all Americans and it is up to us to manage the difficult task of working together with humility, respect, honesty and good faith. The "Greatness" they hark to is rather about privilege, returning to a time that never existed where WASP values were unquestioned, where white men called the shots and everyone else shut up and fellll in line without any voices of dissent or oppressed minorities striving for equality and freedom.


Even if that time had existed, we could not return to it. The genie is out of the bottle - racial, gender and economic equality has been tasted by the American people and we will not give it up without a fight. The record-breaking national demonstrations this weekend have shown that. Where will we go from here? Can we redeem ourselves in the eyes of the world? Stay tuned - it will be an interesting ride.