Month: January 2017

We don’t need no stinkin’ allies

by digby

Donald and Nigel bffs forevuh

Trump is an imbecile and doesn’t understand what he’s saying. People around him, specifically Bannon and Flynn, do.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump called NATO obsolete, predicted that other European Union members would follow the U.K. in leaving the bloc and threatened BMW with import duties over a planned plant in Mexico, according to an interview with Germany’s Bild newspaper that will raise concerns in Berlin over trans-Atlantic relations.

Quoted in German from a conversation held in English, Trump predicted Britain’s exit from the EU will be a success and portrayed the EU as an instrument of German domination with the purpose of beating the U.S. in international trade. For that reason, Trump said, he’s fairly indifferent whether the EU breaks up or stays together, according to Bild.

Trump’s reported comments leave little doubt that he will stick to campaign positions and may in some cases upend decades of U.S. foreign policy, putting him fundamentally at odds with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on issues from free trade and refugees to security and the EU’s role in the world. On Russia, he suggested he might use economic sanctions imposed for Vladimir Putin’s encroachment on Ukraine as leverage in nuclear-arms reduction talks, while NATO, he said, “has problems.”

“It’s obsolete, first because it was designed many, many years ago,” Trump was quoted as saying about the trans-Atlantic military alliance. “Secondly, countries aren’t paying what they should” and NATO “didn’t deal with terrorism.”

While those comments expanded on doubts Trump raised about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during his campaign, he reserved some of his most dismissive remarks for the EU and Merkel, whose open-border refugee policy he called a “catastrophic mistake.”

In contrast, Trump praised Britons for voting last year to leave the EU. People and countries want their own identity and don’t want outsiders to come in and “destroy it.” The U.K. is smart to leave the bloc because the EU “is basically a means to an end for Germany,” Bild cited Trump as saying.

“If you ask me, more countries will leave,” he was quoted as saying.

While Trump blamed Brexit on an influx of refugees he said that Britain was forced to accept, the U.K.’s number of asylum applications in 2015 was a fraction of the 890,000 refugees who arrived in Germany that year at the peak of Europe’s migrant crisis.

With Merkel facing an unprecedented challenge from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany as she seeks a fourth term this fall, Trump was asked whether he’d like to see her re-elected. He said he couldn’t say, adding that while he respects Merkel, who’s been in office for 11 years, he doesn’t know her and she has hurt Germany by letting “all these illegals” into the country.

In line with his threats against other automakers, Trump said Bayerische Motoren Werke AG would face a 35 percent import duty for foreign-built BMW cars sold in the U.S. BMW should scrap plans to open a new plant in Mexico and build the factory in the U.S. instead, he was quoted as saying. BMW plans to start building 3 Series sedans at San Luis Potosí in 2019.

Other Trump comments, according to Bild:

• The Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq may have been the worst in U.S. history
• Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, is a natural talent who will bring about an accord with Israel
• Trump plans to keep using social media including Twitter once he’s in the White House to sidestep the press and communicate directly with his followers
• People entering the U.S. will face “extreme” security checks, possibly including some European nationals

So he is pretty much telling all companies who want to sell their products in the US that they can’t build plants anywhere but here in the future. It’s not about sending jobs overseas.

This trade war’s going to be a lot of fun. Fasten your seat belts exporters!

And the rest … oof. It sure sounds like the far-right line being pushed by Russia and the likes of Nigel Farage and Marine LePen. Jettisoning NATO and slamming Merkel for Germany’s immigration policies and basically just popping off without understanding the ramifications of these actions is very dangerous. This would be a wrenching change, ill-considered, without concern for the instability it will instantly create. Maybe those white working class folks who decided the election knew this was what they were voting for but I doubt it.

I wrote about Trump’s worldview many times during the campaign. It’s not as if we didn’t see this coming. I guess I had hoped that he would sober up after he won. I was wrong.

This piece from last May laid out his basic ideas.

Mr Popularity

by digby

OR ELSE!!!

His numbers are getting worse:

Donald Trump will enter the White House next week as one of the most unpopular presidents in recent American history. And he will be pushing an agenda that most Americans don’t support.

The latest numbers for Trump, beset this week by fresh reports of Russian efforts to boost his candidacy, are stark. A new poll from Gallup shows that just 44 percent of Americans approve of his presidential transition efforts while 51 percent disapprove. By contrast, 83 percent approved of President Barack Obama’s transition in 2008. Even George W. Bush, who like Trump lost the popular vote, enjoyed a 61 percent approval rating of his transition as he prepared to enter the White House.

There is limited enthusiasm for Trump’s Cabinet choices, with 52 percent saying they are average or better and 44 percent considering them below average or poor, according to Gallup. Only 10 percent viewed Obama’s choices as average or poor.

A recent Pew survey found that 55 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Trump has done to explain his plans while 39 percent approve. The Pew poll said just 41 percent approve of Trump’s Cabinet picks while 49 percent disapprove.

Trump himself has also seen his approval ratings slide again after a brief uptick following his surprise Electoral College win. A Quinnipiac poll out this week showed that just 37 percent of Americans approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president-elect to 51 percent who disapprove. The numbers are the reverse of Obama, who had a 55 percent approval rating in the poll.

Other readings for Trump in the poll also showed signs of serious trouble. A 53 percent majority said Trump is “not honest” and 62 percent that he is “not level-headed.” On average, Trump has a 48.7 percent unfavorable rating among Americans to 42.7 percent favorable.

Trump’s inauguration next Friday might improve these numbers if he can deliver a unifying speech and convince Americans that he has clear plans to spark economic growth and ease fears that he is a thin-skinned hot head prone to lashing out at even the slightest criticism. But major protests planned for the inaugural weekend could dampen some of these efforts and galvanize Trump’s opposition.

Trump also faces a broader problem once he takes office. His priorities are not widely shared by the American public. A new poll conducted for Politico and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health found that the top three priorities for Trump voters are repealing and replacing Obamacare (85 percent), stopping future illegal immigration (78 percent) and major increases in defense spending (67 percent).

The numbers are much lower for the general public. Just 44 percent say repealing at replacing Obamacare should be a top priority while 38 percent say immigration and 43 percent say increased defense spending.

The most popularity priority for the general public at 49 percent — major government spending on infrastructure — is the least popular among Trump voters at 50 percent. There are also major differences on immigration in general. Fully 57 percent of Trump voters view undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. as a “very serious problem” compared with just 30 percent of the general public. The public at large is also much more inclined to support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants than are Trump voters.

On taxes, the poll found that “a majority of both the general public and Trump voters oppose lowering taxes on big businesses and upper-income Americans. … Only 39 percent of Trump voters and 22 percent of the general public believe corporate taxes should be lowered. Only 18 percent of Trump voters and 13 percent of the public think taxes on upper-income Americans should be lower.” Trump’s initial agenda includes major tax cuts for both individuals and corporations.

Trump and the Republican Congress will also be on very dangerous ground making repeal of the Affordable Care Act — without an immediate replacement that ensures people are not deprived of existing coverage — their first agenda item.

For the moment, Trump’s deep unpopularity does not appear to be a problem for him with the Republican Congress. The president-elect remains popular with an aggressive base that delivered him an Electoral College win even as he lost the popular vote by 3 million. Most Republicans on Capitol Hill live in fear of crossing Trump and angering his supporters.

That last is important. His base is a bunch of uninformed, angry white men and the women who love them. Nothing he does matters except sticking it to the people they resent. And that’s everyone but people like them. And they pretty much resent them too.

And anyway, this is nothing a good war won’t fix, amirite? USA! USA! USA!

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Politics and Reality Radio with Joshua Holland: The Crimes of Seal Team Six; Trump, Russia and the Left

Seal Team Six– the highly trained “tip of the spear” widely hailed for killing Osama Bin Laden — has taken on legendary status in the American imagination. But this week, Matthew Cole offered a painstakingly reported look at the darker side of the vaunted special operations group for The Intercept. We’ll be joined by Cole to discuss the abuses he uncovered, and the failures of command that enabled them.

Then we’ll speak with Yale political scientist John Stoehr about the US intelligence community’s conclusion that Russians hacked the 2016 election, and how on the left the issue has become intertwined with hostility toward Hillary Clinton and resentments lingering from the Democratic primaries.

Playlist:
Junior Parker: “Tax Man”
Blackalicious: “Alphabet Aerobics”
Ricky Nelson: “Lonesome Town”

As always, you can also subscribe to the show on iTunes, Soundcloud or Podbean.

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Sunday Funnies

by digby

Needless to say … epic:

FYI: 90% of the cartoons this week were on this topic. It is sticking to him like glue:

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 Running the country like he runs his businesses

I suspect most Trump voters would rather he just say to hell with Martin Luther King Day, but this will suffice.

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The Trump effect

by digby

Here’s your new country America. Get used to it:

A well-known Greenwich Republican called a town worker “nothing but a bloodsucking lazy union employee” and later reached in from behind to place his hand between her legs and pinch her in the groin area, according to the police arrest warrant.

Christopher von Keyserling…was arrested in Greenwich Town Hall on Wednesday afternoon and charged with fourth-degree sexual assault, police said. He posted $2,500 bond and was released to appear in court on Jan. 25.

The incident began at about noon Dec. 8 when the 57-year-old woman encountered von Keyserling in the hallway of an unnamed town facility, the warrant said.

The two briefly spoke about politics and the woman told him that “it was a new world politically” and he had to educate his fellow politicians, the warrant said. Von Keyserling is a member of Greenwich’s Representative Town Meeting.

He allegedly replied: “I love this new world, I no longer have to be politically correct,” according to the warrant.

She told him that if he was “proud of that I can’t help you,” after which he called her a lazy, bloodsucking union employee, the warrant said.

She uttered “(expletive deleted) you” and walked into her office, the warrant said. She said he followed her into the office and said he wanted to talk with her co-worker, the warrant said.

When that co-worker walked in, she said she didn’t have time to speak with him and left the office, the warrant said. The 57-year-old woman decided to leave with her co-worker because she didn’t want to be alone with him, the warrant said.

As she walked by, he allegedly pinched her in the groin area, according to the warrant. She threatened to punch him if he ever did that again, the warrant said.

She said he “looked back with a really evil look in his eyes and said, ‘it would be your word against mine and nobody will believe you,'” according to the warrant.

On the following day, the woman accompanied by a friend and the town’s Assistant Director of Human Resources went to the police department to report the incident, the warrant said. She said that she didn’t want to have a criminal complaint laid against him.

A detective called von Keyserling at 6:35 p.m. and told him he was to not have any contact with the complainant and to stay away from the facility until he was contacted by the facility’s executive director, the warrant said.

He told the detective that he understood and that it was all a misunderstanding, the warrant said. “He related that he was sorry he pinched her, and … it has gotten this out of hand,” according to the arrest warrant.

On Dec 16, the woman returned to police headquarters because she now wanted to move forward with the complaint, the warrant said. She said she had originally been reluctant to go forward due to a fear of retribution and the possible publicity that an investigation could bring, the warrant said.

She told the officer that she learned he had allegedly acted in a similar way with other employees and that he had told other individuals at Town Hall that the incident between the two of them was a joke, the warrant said. She said she was compelled to come forward to prevent similar acts from happening against other women, the warrant said.

Police also spoke with her about a meeting she had with von Keyserling on Dec. 9, the warrant said. He had been told to stay away from the facility and that if had concerns about that to speak with Human Resources. She had another employee sit in with her because she told police she wasn’t comfortable with meeting him alone, the warrant said.

She declined to speak about the complaint, prompting him to say, “Was this about the little pinch I gave?” and further adding it was a joke and that he couldn’t believe the 57-year-old woman could be offended, the warrant said. He said that he and the woman have “that kind” of a relationship. He added that “he is the kind of guy that like to embarrass his teenage daughter and he calls it a ‘gig’ and that’s what this was ‘a gig.'”  He asked whether he could apologize but was told to not contact the victim and stay away from the facility.

Police said video footage from a surveillance camera on the day of the incident is consistent with the sequence of events described by the complainant.

It’s no big deal. Women who complain about such behavior are just being politically correct whiners. And that “it would be your word against mine and nobody would believe you” is the way the world works. After all, millions of our fellow Americans thought Hillary Clinton was a lying witch than Donald Trump, a man who cannot speak he truth ever, was just exaggerating for effect.

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The civil counterargument
by Tom Sullivan

Shepard Fairey’s famous Obama HOPE poster became instantly iconic. He was less inspired by the presidential election results of November 8, 2016:

I watched the election results with disbelief and dismay. I feel disheartened to acknowledge that whether by ignorance or hate, or both, a majority of the American voters have embraced xenophobia, sexism, racism, and a candidate with unprecedented narcissism, zero experience as a public servant, and zero ability to relate to the struggles of average Americans. In effect, the voters have rewarded possibly the most uncivil and disgusting behavior from any candidate I can recall. I refuse to believe that the majority of Americans actually share the values of Donald Trump. I think as a people we are better than what Trump represents. However, the success of Trump’s tactics will only invite more movement in an uncivil direction. Creating and implementing policy in a democracy requires a degree of civility. I’m very concerned that we are eroding the civility that is necessary for our government to function for the common good. We have taken a very dark turn as a nation.

Fairey has taken to posters again to push back against that dark turn with the help of the Amplifier Foundation and artists Jessica Sabogal, and Ernesto Yerena. Facing a toxic Trump administration, Fairey told PBS:

It’s hard to encapsulate the complexity of what we’re facing, going into this Trump presidency, in three images. But we chose three groups that are vulnerable. In the history of the U.S., there are a lot of people who fled persecution from Europe on the basis of religious identities. The idea of championing the ideals of our forefathers and then limiting the movement of Muslims — it’s so confounding that this is not riling more people up. And so it’s really time do some [work] that I think is a counterargument to that, and that’s not based on division but based on inclusion. We’ve seen where division has got us.

“The antidote is not attacking Trump more.”

Wow Shepard Fairey's new poster for the 2017 inauguration:
We The People. pic.twitter.com/cMbnuPFsWC— Negar نگار (@NegarMortazavi) January 15, 2017

According to their Kickstarter page, the plan is:

Much of Washington will be locked down on Inauguration Day, and in some areas there will be severe restrictions on signs and banners. But we’ve figured out a hack. It’s called the newspaper! On January 20th, if this campaign succeeds, we’re going to take out full-page ads in the Washington Post with these images, so that people across the capitol and across the country will be able to carry them into the streets, hang them in windows, or paste them on walls.

Every dollar you put into this campaign will buy six ads printed and distributed for us.

Amplifier will also distribute these images as large placards throughout DC at Metro stops, out the back of moving vans, at drop spots to be announced in the coming week via our social media feeds, and, on January 19, as free downloads for you to print and share as you like.

“We the People” posters by Shepard Fairey, Ernesto Yerena and Jessica Sabogal / Amplifier Foundation

Fairey told PBS:

SHEPARD FAIREY: The Obama poster was very sincere. I come from this rebellious subculture, where sincerity and earnestness are not always really welcome. I come from punk rock. But sometimes, [sincerity and earnestness] means you are going against the grain. When the status quo is fearful and scapegoating, then the most punk rock you can be is finding common ground with your fellow human beings.

“As much as I appreciate social media and the way it democratizes things….When people get out there and they hold something, it’s different.”

I’m also at this point in my life where I’m a really big believer in civility. There’s nothing wrong with disruption that’s ethically sound and well thought-out. Going to a town hall meeting and being uncivil is not something to be proud of.

The Clash are big role models of mine, and Rage Against the Machine. Even though these guys are angry, all their arguments are grounded in humanitarianism.… But sometimes I’m cautious to make sure that my style of my delivery doesn’t eclipse the content of my delivery.

I’m sort of doing this inside-outside strategy. Sometimes I’m very happy to do things pushing the envelope as an outsider. Other times it’s more constructive to infiltrate and make change within their own machinery and language, with subversive intent. Like in “We the People.”

The Amplifier Foundation is also printing and distributing artwork for the Women’s March on Washington. Downloadable, in case you’d like to print some for your local event. The march is looking to be “one of America’s biggest protests,” the Guardian reports:

The Women’s March now has almost 200 progressive groups, large and small, signing on as supporting partners. The issues they represent are as varied as the environment, legal abortion, prisoners’ rights, voting rights, a free press, affordable healthcare, gun safety, racial and gender equality and a higher minimum wage. Men are invited.

More than 300 simultaneous local protests will also occur, across all 50 states, and support marches are planned in 30 other countries, organizer Linda Sarsour said.

“We have no choice. We need to stand up against an administration that threatens everything we believe in, in what we hope will become one of the largest grassroots, progressive movements ever seen,” said Sarsour.

The question is whether that many progressives can pull together and not in 200 different directions, and not devolve into a mishmash of interest groups. TBD, but it’s doable.

In the meantime, it might be best to keep a sense of humor about the incoming Trump administration while we still can. It’s funny, but it’s not funny:

If there’s ever been a situation that requires a special prosecutor it’s this one

by digby

This seems obvious to me. At this point, Comey’s decision to contravene normal prosecutorial guidelines and norms in what turned out to be a trivial and unsubstantiated case against Hillary Clinton, while following those norms and guidelines in the case of a much more serious set of charges against Donald Trump during the election. His ongoing double standard makes it imperative that the investigation be taken out of his hands.

From former DOJ staffer Matthew Miller in TIME:

It was always going to be difficult for FBI Director Jim Comey to oversee an investigation into ties between President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign and the Russian government. Thursday’s announcement that the Department of Justice’s Inspector General will investigate Comey’s conduct during last year’s presidential election makes it impossible.

As director of the FBI, Jim Comey is a key intelligence advisor to the president, responsible for briefing him on threats to our country’s security from a number of fronts, including foreign espionage. The agency he leads is also responsible for investigating those plots, and producing evidence that can be used by Department of Justice prosecutors to bring criminal charges against anyone who commits espionage against the United States.

[…]

Comey is without a doubt a man of personal integrity, but over the past six months, he has shown repeatedly that his perception of his skill at managing high-profile political investigations vastly exceeds his actual ability. He improperly inserted himself into the 2016 campaign twice, first in July when he violated Department of Justice rules to pass judgment on Hillary Clinton’s conduct, and then again in October when he violated further Justice guidelines to comment on an ongoing case during the waning days of a campaign.

At the same time as Comey was publicly maligning Clinton, he was refusing to answer questions from Congress about whether the FBI was investigating Trump (it was), all while sources within the bureau were repeatedly leaking damaging information about Clinton. Furthermore, Comey in October refused to sign an assessment by other members of the intelligence community finding that the Russian government had intervened in the election — a fact with obvious relevance to the electorate. These issues together had already cast doubt on the FBI’s ability conduct a fair investigation into Donald Trump under the current chain of command. The fact that Comey will now be leading the probe while under investigation himself make it completely untenable.

The situation will only be made worse when Senator Jeff Sessions is confirmed as attorney general and given the duty of supervising Comey and any Justice investigations that are underway into Trump. Sessions did not just endorse Trump and campaign repeatedly for him, he also officially joined his campaign as chair of its national security advisory committee. It is simply impossible for the American people to have confidence that Sessions can conduct a fair investigation into a campaign of which he was a senior official.

This matter requires an unquestionably independent investigation because the outstanding questions go to the heart of our democracy and to the legitimacy of the Trump presidency. They include:

• Did Trump campaign officials – or intermediaries such as Roger Stone – have knowledge of the Russian government’s campaign to hack the email accounts of Democratic party officials and release the information through Wikileaks?

• Did Trump campaign officials, including former chairman Paul Manafort – who once worked for a Putin-backed autocrat in Ukraine – change the party’s platform at the behest of the Russian government?

• What are the extent of Trump’s business dealings in Russia, and is there any truth to the allegations the Russian government is sitting on information with which it plans to blackmail him?

• Did Trump campaign officials such as incoming national security advisor Michael Flynn, a paid contributor to the Kremlin-financed RT television network, participate in the official Russian propaganda campaign to elect Trump that the intelligence community described in its public report?

An investigation led by Jeff Sessions and Jim Comey will never be accepted by the American public as having fairly and adequately addressed these questions. Sessions has never been independent from Trump, and Comey has squandered much of his reputation for fairness. It is crucial that Sessions, or Attorney General Lynch in her waning days in office, appoint a special counsel with independent authority to determine whether criminal statutes were violated, and, if appropriate, bring charges.

Furthermore, Congress should establish a bipartisan commission with subpoena power, the ability to make criminal referrals, and a mandate to hold public hearings and issue a public report. While an investigation by a special counsel is crucial, criminal investigations are not by themselves sufficient for a question that also raises fundamental Constitutional questions. The American people deserve the sort of full public accounting of what happened during the campaign and whether it presents an ongoing risk to our democracy that only a bipartisan commission can deliver.

President-elect Trump has to date resisted any further inquiry, and he seems to fear that this issue casts doubt on the legitimacy of his presidency. But it is precisely because of those doubts that we need a full and fair investigation.

Either the Trump campaign acted in coordination with a hostile foreign power to influence the election or it didn’t. If it did, the American public deserves to know the full truth. If it didn’t, Trump deserves to have these questions put to rest. Until they are, he will never obtain the legitimacy he so obviously craves.

I don’t know about his personal integrity. His “mistakes” sure seem to only go in one direction. But it doesn’t matter. He and Sessions cannot be trusted to run the Trump investigation and there needs to be a special prosecutor. The probe will have no credibility with those two in charge.

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Trump’s little white slip is showing again

by digby

Trump is mad a John Lewis, the moral conscience of American politics, for calling him an illegitimate president. So he lashed out on twitter, saying Lewis has never done anything in his career. 

On Martin Luther King Day week-end.

Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to……

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2017

mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk – no action or results. Sad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2017

Obviously Trump has no clue who John Lewis is or he’s the last person he would say is “all talk.” In fact, Trump saying that about anyone is insane, but to say it about a man who was beaten half to death fighting for civil rights is obscene.

But our new president doesn’t know that because he really doesn’t know much of anything. He is an imbecile.

Moreover he obviously attacked Lewis for his allegedly “crime infested” neighborhood because he’s black and we know he assumes that every black person in America except for Ben Carson and Omoarosa lives in a dystopian hellhole. That is racist.

John Lewis’s constituents have some words for Trump:

Politicians and pundits weighed in too:

Jason Carter, the 2014 Democratic candidate for governor who represented part of the 5th District in the state Senate, said Trump “clearly doesn’t know anything about the 5th District or Atlanta.”

“It exemplifies what’s great about this country,” Carter said in an interview. “The center of business, the center of innovation and the cradle of the civil rights movement and it’s incredibly successful right now. And it’s about the host a (NFL) playoff victory!”

And how about this?

On Thursday, the city of Atlanta, Georgia Tech and 10 of the metro area’s biggest corporations, including Home Depot and Delta Air Lines, announced plans to launch a technology incubator and venture fund that they hope will cement Atlanta as a tech powerhouse.

In particular, Midtown has emerged since the Great Recession as the Atlanta region’s technology boomtown. NCR in recent years announced it would relocate from Gwinnett County to a new headquarters at Technology Square.

The company then doubled down on that move last year when it announced its tech hub and second phase of development. The company will ultimately have more than 5,000 workers in Midtown.

Other prominent names that have built new innovation labs or made corporate expansions near Georgia Tech include Equifax, Southern Company, Panasonic, Sage Software and AT&T. Coca-Cola and Turner Broadcasting teamed up in late 2015 to back start ups that could bring potential innovations to both companies.

I’m sure Trump will take credit for that too, claiming that he personally turned Atlanta around.

He is an ignorant bigot. There’s no other explanation for why he would attack Congressman John Lewis in this specific way. Racists always reveal themselves in all their true ugliness when they’re angry.

Update: Read this from Joan Walsh on the meaning of Lewis’s comments.

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True love

by digby

I don’t know what the poster is behind them, but it adds to the joke, I think.

In case you missed it this week, these things happened too:

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