It was all just part of the show
by digby
More proof that it was Trump’s serious appeal to voters’ economic and safety concerns that won him his victory:
These are all things Trump explicitly said he would do, over and over again. Maybe they didn’t believe him. He is a pathological liar, after all.
But it is instructive for analysts as they try to sort out what happened. It would appear that a lot of Trump supporters voted for him for other than substantive reasons. Imagine that.
Politics and Reality Radio: Is the Emerging Democratic Majority Still a Thing?
by Joshua Holland
In 2002, during the last period of unified Republican control of our government, John Judis and Ruy Teixeira wrote The Emerging Democratic Majority, a seminal book on the demographic shifts underway in the United States, and how they may reshape American politics. The book influenced a lot of people’s thinking about the future of both the progressive and conservative coalitions.
After the 2014 midterms, Judis underwent a change of heart, writing that we were seeing the emergence of a new Republican advantage. Key to his argument was that Democrats were losing too many white voters, even as the “Obama coalition” of younger voters, people of color and unmarried women had won two decisive victories in the previous presidential elections.
Even after the election of Donald Trump, who was carried over the top by a massive advantage among less-educated white voters, Teixeira remains confident that progressive values are going to be ascendant in the coming years, largely as a result of a changing electorate.
This week, we’re joined by Ruy Teixeira and John Judis to talk about what the future may hold.
Playlist:
Eddie and the Hotrods: “The Kids Are Alright”
Ingrid Michaelson: “The Way I am”
La Casa: “Mi Barrio”
As always, you can also subscribe to the show on iTunes or Podbean.
Conway just put a horse head in Clinton’s bed
by digby
This is ugly:
BASH: OK. Let’s move on to something that you are well aware of as Donald Trump’s campaign manager.
At pretty much every rally president-elect Trump was hearing from the crowds, lock her up. And he said on Tuesday to the “New York Times” that he is not looking to prosecute Hillary Clinton when he comes into office.
He said he won’t rule it out but he really isn’t looking to hurt the Clintons. Given the fact that the base was so energized by the prospect of going after Hillary Clinton legally, is this something that you agree with? Should he be moving on from this?
CONWAY: Well the full comment that he made was he’s not focused on it and he said at the “New York Times” and elsewhere, I’m focused on health care and immigration. And then he went on the list all the issues that he’s been talking about, trade, et cetera.
And so he said he wouldn’t rule it out. He said it’s just not his focus right now. I think he’s being quite magnanimous and at the same time he’s not undercutting at all the authority and the autonomy of the Department of Justice, of the FBI, of the House Committees, who knows where the evidence may lead if, in fact, it were — if the investigation were re-opened somewhere.
But this is the president-elect’s position right now and I would say he has been incredibly gracious and magnanimous to Secretary Clinton at a time when for whatever reason her folks are saying they will join in a recount to try to somehow undo the 70 plus electoral votes that he beat her by. I mean this — you know, I was asked on CNN and elsewhere, goodness a thousand times, will Donald Trump accept the election results? And now you’ve got the Democrats and Jill Stein saying they do not accept the election results. She congratulated him and conceded to him on election night. I was right there. And the idea that we are going to drag this out now where the president-elect has been incredibly magnanimous to the Clintons and to the Obamas is incredible.
She directly ties his “magnanimous, gracious” decision not to prosecute her with this recount.
Here’s Trump earlier today:
In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016
I don’t know what they’re so afraid of.
Potential Conflicts Around the Globe for Trump, the Businessman President
In many of the president-elect’s international development ventures, his business partners have close ties to foreign governments.
MANILA — On Thanksgiving Day, a Philippine developer named Jose E. B. Antonio hosted a company anniversary bash at one of Manila’s poshest hotels. He had much to be thankful for.
In October, he had quietly been named a special envoy to the United States by the Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte. Mr. Antonio was nearly finished building a $150 million tower in Manila’s financial district — a 57-story symbol of affluence and capitalism, which bluntly promotes itself with the slogan “Live Above the Rest.” And now his partner on the project, Donald J. Trump, had just been elected president of the United States.
After the election, Mr. Antonio flew to New York for a private meeting at Trump Tower with the president-elect’s children, who have been involved in the Manila project from the beginning, as have Mr. Antonio’s children. The Trumps and Antonios have other ventures in the works, including Trump-branded resorts in the Philippines, Mr. Antonio’s son Robbie Antonio said.
“We will continue to give you products that you can enjoy and be proud of,” the elder Mr. Antonio, one of the richest men in the Philippines, told the 500 friends, employees and customers gathered for his star-studded celebration in Manila.
Mr. Antonio’s combination of jobs — he is a business partner with Mr. Trump, while also representing the Philippines in its relationship with the United States and the president-elect — is hardly inconsequential, given some of the weighty issues on the diplomatic table.
Among them, Mr. Duterte has urged “a separation” from the United States and has called for American troops to exit the country in two years’ time. His antidrug crusade has resulted in the summary killings of thousands of suspected criminals without trial, prompting criticism from the Obama administration.
Just as an aside, recall this from Trump on the trail:
“The world hates our president,” Trump told his supporters Friday in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. “The world hates us. You saw what happened with the Philippines after years and years and years; they’re now looking to Russia and China, because they don’t feel good about the weak America.”
During a diplomatic visit to China on Thursday, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared “a separation from the United States both in military but economics also.”
“I mean, I realigned myself in your ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to [President Vladimir] Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world: China, Philippines and Russia,” Duterte was quoted as saying in a transcript of his speech.
Trump said such foreign policy declarations underscore America’s weakness on the world stage.
“America has grown weak, so weak that the Philippines have broken with decades of pro-American foreign policy to instead leave for the orbit of China and Russia,” the real estate tycoon said. “Why is Obama campaigning? He ought to be out working.”
I’d guess that Duterte and Trump are going mend fences. And Trump will take credit for making America “loved” again. (By violent psychopaths, but that’s beside the point.)
Anyway, the NY Times continues:
Situations like these are already leading some former government officials from both parties to ask if America’s reaction to events around the world could potentially be shaded, if only slightly, by the Trump family’s financial ties with foreign players. They worry, too, that in some countries those connections could compromise American efforts to criticize the corrupt intermingling of state power with vast business enterprises controlled by the political elite.
“It is uncharted territory, really in the history of the republic, as we have never had a president with such an empire both in the United States and overseas,” said Michael J. Green, who served on the National Security Council in the administration of George W. Bush, and before that at the Defense Department.
The globe is dotted with such potential conflicts. Mr. Trump’s companies have business operations in at least 20 countries, with a particular focus on the developing world, including outposts in nations like India, Indonesia and Uruguay, according to a New York Times analysis of his presidential campaign financial disclosures. What’s more, the true extent of Mr. Trump’s global financial entanglements is unclear, since he has refused to release his tax returns and has not made public a list of his lenders.
In an interview with The Times on Tuesday, Mr. Trump boasted again about the global reach of his business — and his family’s ability to keep it running after he takes office.
“I’ve built a very great company and it’s a big company and it’s all over the world,” Mr. Trump said, adding later: “I don’t care about my company. It doesn’t matter. My kids run it.”
In a written statement, his spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, said Mr. Trump and his family were committed to addressing any issues related to his financial holdings.
“Vetting of various structures and immediate transfer of the business remains a top priority for both President-elect Trump, his adult children and his executives,” she said.
But a review by The Times of these business dealings identified a menu of the kinds of complications that could create a running source of controversy for Mr. Trump, as well as tensions between his priorities as president and the needs and objectives of his companies.
In Brazil, for example, the beachfront Trump Hotel Rio de Janeiro — one of Mr. Trump’s many branding deals, in which he does not have an equity stake — is part of a broad investigation by a federal prosecutor who is examining whether illicit commissions and bribes resulted in apparent favoritism by two pension funds that invested in the project.
Several of Mr. Trump’s real estate ventures in India — where he has more projects underway than in any location outside North America — are being built through companies with family ties to India’s most important political party. This makes it more likely that Indian government officials will do special favors benefiting Mr. Trump’s projects, including pressuring state-owned banks to extend favorable loans.
In Ireland and Scotland, executives from Mr. Trump’s golf courses have been waging two separate battles with local officials. The most recent centers on the Trump Organization’s plans to build a flood-prevention sea wall at the course on the Irish coast. Some environmentalists say the wall could destroy an endangered snail’s habitat — a dispute that will soon involve the president of the United States.
And in Turkey, officials including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a religiously conservative Muslim, demanded that Mr. Trump’s name be removed from Trump Towers in Istanbul after he called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States. More recently, after Mr. Trump came to the defense of Mr. Erdogan — suggesting that he had the right to crack down harshly on dissidents after a failed coup — the calls for action against Trump Towers have stopped, fueling worries that Mr. Trump’s policies toward Turkey might be shaped by his commercial interests.
Mr. Trump has acknowledged a conflict of interest in Turkey. “I have a little conflict of interest because I have a major, major building in Istanbul,” he said during a radio interview last year with Stephen K. Bannon, the Breitbart News executive who has since been designated his chief White House strategist. “It’s a tremendously successful job. It’s called Trump Towers — two towers, instead of one. Not the usual one. It’s two.”
Trump says he doesn’t care about his business. But hey, if he happens to become the richest man in the world while he’s president, well that’s just gravy.
And, needless to say, whether he “cares” about it isn’t the only question, is it? it may be that other people care about it, including foreign leaders and businessmen with a financial stake.
And then there’s the fact that the Trump name, emblazoned all over buildings throughout the world, are now synonymous with the United States. What could wrong? And how much money are taxpayers going to have to spend to protect them? Hell, just look at what we’re going to be spending to protect Trump Tower in NYC, the official headquarters of the Trump Organization? Sweet …
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Trump’s kitchen cabinet
by digby
Most presidents have an informal group of family and friends he call upon for advice and Trump is no different. He is unusual in that he has pretty much made his entire family into official advisers and he has no old friends. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t going outside the normal channels to seek input and advice:
The talk at Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving dinner at his Florida club was all about if he should pick Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani for secretary of state.
The president-elect held court on Thursday at his Palm Beach, Fla., Mar-a-Lago club at a large table with family members including wife Melania and sons Eric and Barron.
One witness told us Trump took a prime table next to the fireplace in the club’s living room, but spent a lot of time greeting members and asking who they think should be his top diplomat.
The spy said, “Donald was walking around asking everybody he could about who should be his secretary of state. There was a lot of criticism about Romney, and a lot of people like Rudy. There are also many people advocating for [former US ambassador to the UN] John Bolton.”
On Friday it was reported that Trump wants Romney to publicly apologize for criticizing him during the campaign in order to be considered for secretary of state.
Guests joining Trump for Thanksgiving at Mar-a-Lago included Christopher Nixon Cox, the grandson of Richard Nixon, who we are told is being lined up to be Trump’s ambassador to China. Also there was Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter, CEO of Newsmax Media Christopher Ruddy, boxing promoter Don King, interior designer William Eubanks and political consultant Mary Ourisman. Attracting almost as much attention as the president-elect was chiseled romance-novel hunk Fabio, who was seated at a table near Trump, and “was asked for pictures nearly as often as Trump himself.”
It’s not that far fetched to ask Fabio, people. Trump understands his voters a lot better than we do:
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Only in America
by Tom Sullivan
There was a mass shooting in New Orleans’ French Quarter early this morning. Details are still sketchy:
Ten victims aged between 20 and 37 were shot, including two women and eight men “one of whom has expired at the hospital,” Harrison said. “Our hearts go out to the deceased.”
Two arrests were made for illegal carrying of a firearm
Responding to mass shootings has been a sad routine of Barack Obama’s presidency, one aspect of the job he will not miss. How will a President Donald Trump fake comforting families of the victims of mass shootings on his watch? I can’t imagine. Trump is more inclined to insults than empathy.
We are headed into uncharted waters. Amy Davidson has a list of concerns raised by the Trump transition so far. She worries a Trump presidency might unalterably change the nature of the country itself:
More important than all these concerns is the way that a Trump Presidency might change our common conception of what it means to be American. In addition to naming Sessions, Trump has chosen a chief strategist who has retailed alt-right rhetoric, a national-security adviser who tweeted out a video presenting reasons to fear Islam, and a C.I.A. director who has called for the execution of Edward Snowden. And this is in a time of relative peace. Where Trump’s instinct for blame and diversion would take him and the country during an emergency—a terrorist attack, for example—is an unpleasant question to contemplate. This is why many people voted for Clinton rather than for Trump. But he won, so what do they do now?
This is a man who — out of the blue, at their first meeting — confided to Sir Richard Branson about five people who would not help him after his latest bankruptcy. Branson wrote, “He told me he was going to spend the rest of his life destroying these five people.”
After genuflecting before the altar of “both sides do it,” Dan Zak elaborated in the Washington Post about Trump’s grudges:
The shelf life of Trump’s grudges is long. In 1975, Richard Ravitch, a New York housing official, denied a tax exemption for one of Trump’s construction projects. Thirty-four years later, when New York Gov. David Paterson named Ravitch as his lieutenant governor in 2009, Trump wrote to him to complain that Ravitch was “extremely weak, ineffective and a poor negotiator,” according to the Washington Post book “Trump Revealed.”
The president-elect will remember those who fail to treat him (and his office) with respect. His comments for Fidel Castro’s family on his death showed none of that:
America: a tale of 2 screen caps pic.twitter.com/WUiNztUKnZ— Elias Isquith (@eliasisquith) November 26, 2016
Trump did, however, elaborate with a statement hours later that allowed his administration would “do all it can to ensure the Cuban people can finally begin their journey toward prosperity and liberty.” In that order, you can bet on it.
But look on the bright side, Graydon Carter writes at Vanity Fair, only in America could a man like Trump be a man like Trump:
Only in America could a man for whom truth is an inconvenient concept feel comfortable referring to his opponent as “lying” and “crooked.”
Only in America, a nation built on a history of immigration, could a man who married two immigrants—one of whom is alleged to have worked illegally when she first arrived—run on an anti-immigration platform.
Only in America could a man with a legendary reputation for stiffing small-business owners and wage laborers be able to pass himself off as a champion of the little guy.
Carter goes on. Somehow, this one says it best, doesn’t it?
Only in America could a man whose résumé of failed businesses and alleged sexual harassment is so miserable that he would have trouble finding work at a copy shop be named chief executive of the world’s largest economy.
You gotta love this country.
Saturday Night at the Movies
Better poke him to make sure: Revisiting Cuba on film
By Dennis Hartley
Time, he’s waiting in the wings
He speaks of senseless things
His script is you and me, boys
-from “Time” by David Bowie
So the dictator who once inspired a documentary entitled 638 Ways to Kill Castro was finally taken out by time-honored method #639: Patience. Whether you are happy, sad or ambivalent regarding the passing of Fidel Castro, it’s inarguable that it’s been a long, strange trip for U.S.-Cuban relations since the Teflon strongman seized power in 1959.
In light of this development, I’m re-running a post that was originally inspired by Secretary of State John Kerry’s historic visit to the island-nation in October of last year:
There’s just something about (Castro’s) Cuba that affects (U.S. presidential) administrations like the full moon affects a werewolf. There’s no real logic at work here.
-an interviewee from the documentary 638 Ways to Kill Castro
The Obama administration’s decision to restore diplomatic ties with Cuba is the latest foreign policy misstep by this President…
-from Gov. Jeb Bush’s official Facebook statement, December 2014
Pardon me for interrupting, Jeb. October of 1962 just called…it wants its zeitgeist back.
-the author of this post
Although you wouldn’t guess it from the odd perfunctory mention that managed to squeeze in edgewise through the ongoing 24/7 Donald Trump coverage dominating the MSM, that flag raising at the American embassy in Cuba yesterday, coinciding with the first official visit by a U.S. Secretary of State in 70 (seventy) years was kind of a big deal.
Wasn’t it?
Maybe it’s just me (silly old peacenik that I am). Anyway, in honor of this auspicious occasion, here are my picks for the top 10 films with a Cuban theme. Alphabetically:
Bananas– Yes, I know. This 1971 Woody Allen film takes place in the fictional banana republic of “San Marcos”, but the mise en scene is an obvious stand-in for Cuba. There are also numerous allusions to the Cuban revolution, not the least of which is the ridiculously fake beard donned at one point by hapless New Yawker Fielding Mellish (Allen) after he finds himself swept up in Third World revolutionary politics. Naturally, it all starts with Allen’s moon-eyed desire for a woman completely out of his league, an attractive activist (Louise Lasser). The whole setup is utterly absurd…and an absolute riot. This is pure comic genius at work. Howard Cosell’s (straight-faced) contribution is priceless. Allen co-wrote with his Take the Money and Run collaborator, Mickey Rose.
Buena Vista Social Club– This engaging 1999 music documentary was the brainchild of musician Ry Cooder, director Wim Wenders, and the film’s music producer Nick Gold. Guitarist/world music aficionado Cooder coaxes a number of venerable Cuban players out of retirement (most of whom had their careers rudely interrupted by the Revolution and its aftermath) to cut a collaborative album, and Wenders is there to capture what ensues (as well as ever-cinematic Havana) in his inimitable style. He weaves in footage of some of the artists as they make their belated return to the stage, playing to enthusiastic fans in Europe and the U.S. It’s a tad over-praised, but well worth your time.
Che– Let’s get this out of the way. Ernesto “Che” Guevara was no martyr. By the time he was captured and executed by CIA-directed Bolivian Special Forces in 1967, he had put his own fair share of people up against the wall in the name of the Revolution. Some historians have called him “Castro’s brain”. That said, there is no denying that he was a complex, undeniably charismatic and fascinating individual. By no means your average revolutionary guerrilla leader, he was well-educated, a physician, a prolific writer (from speeches and essays on politics and social theory to articles, books and poetry), a shrewd diplomat and had a formidable intellect. He was also a brilliant military tactician. Steven Soderbergh and his screenwriters (Peter Buchman and Benjamin A. Van Der Veen) adapted their absorbing (two-part) 4 ½ hour biopic from Guevara’s autobiographical accounts. Whereas Part 1 (aka The Argentine) is a fairly straightforward biopic, Part 2 (aka Guerilla) reminded me of two fictional films with an existential bent, both of which are also set in torpid and unforgiving South American locales-Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear and Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Like the doomed protagonists in those films, Guevara is fully committed to his journey into the heart of darkness, and has no choice but to cast his fate to the wind and let it all play out. Star Benicio del Toro shines.
The Godfather, Part II– While Cuba may not be the primary setting for Francis Ford Coppola’s superb 1974 sequel to The Godfather, it is the location for a key section of the narrative where powerful mob boss Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) travels to pre-Castro Havana to consider a possible business investment. He has second thoughts after witnessing a disturbing incident involving an anti-Batista rebel. And don’t forget that the infamous “kiss of death” scene takes place at Batista’s opulent New Year’s Eve party…just as the guests learn Castro and his merry band of revolutionaries have reached the outskirts of the city and are duly informed by their host…that they are on their own! And remember, if you want to order a banana daiquiri in Spanish, it’s “banana daiquiri”.
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay– Picking up where they left off in their surprise stoner comedy hit Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, roomies Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) excitedly pack their bags for a dream European vacation in weed-friendly Amsterdam. Unbeknownst to Harold, Kumar has smuggled his new invention, a “smokeless” bong, on board. Since it is a homemade, cylindrical device containing liquid, it resembles another four-letter noun that starts with a “b”. When a “vigilant” passenger, already eyeballing Kumar with suspicion due to his ethnic appearance, catches a glimpse of him attempting to fire up in the bathroom, all hell breaks loose. Before they know it, Harold and Kumar have been handcuffed by on-board air marshals, given the third degree back on the ground by a jingoistic government spook and issued orange jumpsuits, courtesy of the Gitmo quartermaster. Through circumstances that could only occur in Harold and Kumar’s resin-encrusted alternate universe, they break out of Cuba, and hitch a boat ride to Florida. This sets off a series of cross-country misadventures, mostly through the South (imagine the possibilities). As in the first film, the more ridiculously over-the-top their predicament, the funnier it gets. It’s crass, even vulgar; but it’s somehow good-naturedly crass and vulgar, in a South Park kind of way. Also like South Park, the goofiness is embedded with sharp political barbs.
I Am Cuba– There is a knee-jerk tendency in some quarters to dismiss this 1964 film about the Cuban revolution out of hand as pure Communist propaganda, and little else. Granted, it was produced with the full blessing of Castro’s regime, who partnered with the Soviet government to provide the funding for Russian director Mikhail Kalatozov’s sprawling epic. Despite the dubious backing, the director was given a surprising amount of artistic leeway; what resulted was, yes, from one perspective a propagandist polemic, but also a visually intoxicating cinematic masterpiece that remains (accolades from cineastes and critics aside) curiously unheralded. The narrative is divided into a quartet of one-act dramas about Cuba’s salt of the earth; exploited workers, dirt-poor farmers, student activists, and rebel guerrilla fighters. However, the real stars here are the director and his technical crew, who leave you pondering how in the hell they produced some of those jaw-dropping set pieces (and if you think Birdman has tracking shots, think again).
The Mambo Kings– Look in the dictionary under “pulsating”, and you will likely see the poster for Arme Glimcher’s underrated 1992 melodrama about two musician brothers (Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas) who flee Cuba in the mid-1950s to seek fame and fortune in America. Hugely entertaining, with fiery performances by the two leads, great support from Cathy Moriarty and Maruschka Detmers, topped off by a fabulous soundtrack. Tito Puente gives a rousing cameo performance, and in a bit of stunt casting Desi Arnaz, Jr. is on hand to play (wait for it) Desi Arnaz, Sr. (who helps the brothers get their career going). Cynthia Cidre adapted her screenplay from Oscar Hijuelos’ novel.
Our Man in Havana– A decade after their collaboration on the 1949 classic, The Third Man, director Carol Reed and writer Graham Greene reunited for this wonderfully droll 1960 screen adaptation of Greene’s seriocomic novel. Alec Guinness gives one of his more memorable performances as an English vacuum cleaner shop owner living in pre-revolutionary Havana. Strapped for cash, he accepts an offer from Her Majesty’s government to do a little moonlighting for the British Secret Service. Finding himself with nothing to report, he starts making things up so he can stay on the payroll. Naturally, this gets him into a pickle as he keeps digging himself into a deeper hole. Reed filmed on location, which gives us an interesting snapshot of Havana on the cusp of the Castro era.
Scarface– Make way for the bad guy. Bad guy comin’ through. Tony Montana (Al Pacino) is a bad, bad, bad, bad man, a Cuban immigrant who comes to America as part of the 1980 Mariel boat lift. A self-proclaimed “political refugee”, Tony, like the millions of immigrants before him who made this country great, aims to secure his piece of the American Dream. However, he’s a bit impatient. He espies a lucrative shortcut via Miami’s thriving cocaine trade, which he proves very adept at (because he’s very ruthless). Everything about this film is waaay over the top; Pacino’s performance, Brian De Palma’s direction, Oliver Stone’s screenplay, the mountains of coke and the piles of bodies. Yet, it remains a guilty pleasure; I know I’m not alone in this (c’mon, admit it!).
638 Ways to Kill Castro– History buffs (and conspiracy-a-go-go enthusiasts) will definitely want a peek at British director Dolan Cannell’s documentary. Mixing archival footage with talking heads (including a surprising number of would-be assassins), Cannell highlights some of the attempts by the U.S. government to knock off Fidel over the years. The number (638) of “ways” is derived from a list compiled by former members of Castro’s security team. Although Cannell initially plays for laughs (many of the schemes sound like they were hatched by Wile E. Coyote) the tone becomes more sobering. The most chilling revelation concerns the 1976 downing of a commercial Cuban airliner off Barbados (73 people killed). One of the alleged masterminds was Orlando Bosch, an anti-Castro Cuban exile living in Florida (he had participated in CIA-backed actions in the past). When Bosch was threatened with deportation in the late 80s, many Republicans rallied to have him pardoned, including Florida congresswoman Ileana Ross, who used her involvement with the “Free Orlando Bosch” campaign as part of her running platform. Her campaign manager was a young up and coming politician named (wait for it) Jeb! Long story short? Jeb’s Pappy then-president George Bush Sr. granted Bosch a pardon in 1990. Oh, what a tangled web, Jeb! BTW, Bosch was once publicly referred to as an “unrepentant terrorist” by the Attorney General (don’t get me started).
Posts with related themes:
Living through another Cuba
Too Rolling Stoned
More reviews at Den of Cinema
I wonder what he thinks of his voters?
by digby
This anecdote from the New York Times article on Trump’s Scottish golf empire is revealing:
“You watch, Mexico won’t pay either,” said Mr. Milne, a health and safety consultant and part-time novelist, referring to Mr. Trump’s campaign promise to build a “beautiful, impenetrable wall” along the border and force the Mexicans to pay for it.
The Milnes now fly a Mexican flag from their hilltop house, a former coast guard station that overlooks the clubhouse of Trump International Golf Links whenever Mr. Trump visits.
So do Susan and John Munro, who also refused to sell and now face an almost 15-foot-high earthen wall built by Mr. Trump’s people on two sides of their property.
Michael Forbes, a quarry worker whose home sits on the opposite side of the Trump property, added a second flag — “Hillary for President” — perhaps because Mr. Trump publicly accused him of living “like a pig” and called him a “disgrace” for not selling his “disgusting” and “slumlike” home.
He lives like Saddam Hussein. He does not like average folk and refuses to mingle with them.
Recall that during the campaign he refused to do the kind of personal one-on-ones in people’s living rooms that everyone else does, saying:
Don’t forget that when I ran in the primaries, when I was in the primaries, everyone said you can’t do that in New Hampshire, you can’t do that. You have to go and meet little groups, you have to see — cause I did big rallies, 3-4-5K people would come . . . and they said, “Wait a minute, Trump can never make it, because that’s not the way you deal with New Hampshire, you have to go to people’s living rooms, have dinner, have tea, have a good time.”
I think if they ever saw me sitting in their living room they’d lose total respect for me. They’d say, I’ve got Trump in my living room, this is weird.
He’s got the instincts of a despot. His former constitution, freedom loving fans love him for it.
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Once known as “the rebel leader of Cuba’s youth”
by digby
This was a very long time ago. Even people who were not born yet are old now. It’s a relic from another time. Fidel outlived almost everybody.
There may an upside to Trump’s overwhelming corruption in this one case. He may keep Obama’s opening with Cuba going so he can make money there.
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Come home now kids
by digby
This is the first sign I’ve seen of officials preparing for Trump’s horror show:
In a letter sent to each of its 23 campuses, the California State University’s Office of the Chancellor has advised administrators to tell DACA recipients currently studying abroad to return to the U.S. before the new president’s inauguration. “It is highly likely that as of Jan. 20, DACA students who are abroad will not be allowed to re-enter the U.S,” the letter said.
The letter, which an academic adviser at San Jose State shared with about 2,000 students, also advises DACA students who were planning to study internationally next year to think twice, according to university spokeswoman Pat Harris.
Harris said the school isn’t aware of any DACA students studying abroad or planning to do so next year, but the university wants “students to know the reality of federal law.”
The University of California’s Office of the President said advisers at its nine campuses are working with students participating in its Education Abroad Program to make sure they are aware of the implications of leaving the U.S. The program will waive withdrawal fees for DACA students who cancel plans to study abroad, said spokeswoman Claire Doan.
Santa Clara University also has warned DACA students studying abroad to get home before Jan. 20.
Established in 2012 under an executive action by President Barack Obama administration, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has given temporary deportation relief to young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Nearly a third of the 742,000 so-called Dreamers live in California.
Since the program’s inception, an estimated 1.3 million undocumented young people have received deferred action, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. That includes an estimated 526,000 who have received approved renewals. DACA recipients can travel internationally under a system known as “advance parole,” an application submitted to USCIS that allows them to travel outside the country and return lawfully.
It’s heartbreaking to think about what’s going to happen to these kids if Trump carries out his plans. They took the brave step of registering with the government under the assumption they would be spared deportation and now they are likely going to pay.
Maybe Trump will have second thoughts the way he allegedly has with Clinton, feeling sympathy for the pain and suffering he caused her with his lies and threats to put her in jail. But his choice of Kris Kobach and Jeff Sessions doesn’t bode well for that possibility.
Horror after horror.
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