Mike Pence attended the Broadway show “Hamilton” last night. The show is a remarkable re-imagining of America’s founding with a cast of actors of different races, mostly black and brown. I saw it a few weeks ago and was greatly moved by its vision of an inclusive nation.
The cast and audience were aware of Pence’s presence. He received some applause but also loud boos.
At the end of the show, the character who plays Aaron Burr addressed Pence directly, with the cast surrounding him. He read a statement written by the show’s creator and director.
For the full statement from the cast to Pence, read here.
This morning, Donald Trump tweeted that the cast had “harassed” Pence and should apologize to him.
I stand with Lin Manuel Miranda and the cast. The statement was honest, heartfelt, and dignified. Pence needed to hear it. So does Trump.
As Harry Truman said, “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“…As he pulled a small piece of paper from his pocket, Dixon encouraged people to record and share what he was about to say “because this message needs to be spread far and wide.”
“Vice President-elect Pence, we welcome you, and we truly thank you for joining us here at ‘Hamilton: An American Musical.’ We really do,” Dixon said to further applause. “We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us. All of us. Again, we truly thank you truly for (sharing) this show, this wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds and orientations.”
Pence reportedly left the auditorium before Dixon finished speaking, but a show spokesman told the Associated Press that the vice president-elect stood in the hallway and heard the full message….”
……..
Nothing was said that needs an apology.
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I’m sure if Dixon would have just repeated excerpts from Trump’s campaign speeches complete with four lettered words and insults, Trump and his supporters would be OK with that as free speech.
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Pence and Trump are too delicate to listen to a polite request! Weak!
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Free speech. For Trump to start demanding apologies is thin-skinned, weak, and comical. But Trump could maybe look forward to a Broadway musical about him in 100 or so years.
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hopefully much, much sooner
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Free speech indeed. No one is claiming otherwise. And absolutely rude in a way that would have been seized by the press as bigotry if someone had singled out president-elect Obama (or Biden) in the same way, back in 2008.
Maybe Trump will get a musical about him…it would be far more effective if it took place during his lifetime, or even during his term of office. After all, Dubya got “Primary Colors”. But then, it won’t take 100 years–probably not even 20–for “Hamilton” to seem like a faded, cornball evocation of its time period. It’s like “Rent” for the 2010s! And who in this day and age still thinks “Rent” was some great piece of art?
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If Obama and Biden threatened the ideals of the Founders as Trump and Pence do, I would expect they would get the same treatment. Obama was a constitutional law professor, so no worry there. There will be plenty of plays, films, and documentRies in the next four years about this takeover by the radical right and evangelicals. It is a dangerous time and we must defend the Constitution and the amendments, especially the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech, assembly, religion, and the press.
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A false equivalence and hypothetical. How was Dixon’s message rude? Did he insult Pence or threaten to assault him? Did he use four letter words, make fun of him or his spouse? Did he call him a vile name like “pig” or “fat”?
Dixon simply spoke exercising free speech in a calm and respectful manner after the play was over. Could it be Trump supporters and conservatives only think free speech is words and thoughts they agree with?
I can’t wait for your response.
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Me🌻
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I think they did that one already… “Sex., Lies and Videotape” although I would not want to insult that film. Perhaps it could be “Rape, Lies and Tweeting”…
Hamilton was the perfect venue for speaking truth… hats off to the cast! How did Pence score tickets anyway? Already using his position for gain????
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Is this really relevant to education? If you continue to rant about the in-coming administration in such a manner, you really should have TWO different blogs — one for educational purposes and a second for advancing your progressive agenda.
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Yes, it is directly relevant to education. It is about the education of all Americans. It is about our knowledge of civics and history. It is about bias and dignity and the struggle for the soul of America.
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Note that Hamilton was a framer of the ELECTORAL COLLEGE..There, that makes it educational.
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It is even more relevant than that . Politics is the process by which we decide how the economic produce of any society are distributed. Education is a tool to attain a piece of that pie. The access to and quality of that tool helps determine who will have the bigger pieces of the pie .
There is nothing more important to the society as a whole.than Politics . Which is why there has been a 40 year war on the political process by the party of Trumps.
“An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” T.J.
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I fully support Diane’s discussions. The conservative agenda has never been a friend to science, learning, teachers, education. Taken as a whole, conservatives use many means to undermine teachers and classrooms, from intimidating immigrant students, attacking health care and retirement of school employees, reduced funding to science and research, using religion as a way to discriminate and silence educators, using the budget process to starve ideas they disagree with, proposing and implementing laws limiting free speech on campuses, suppressing voter turnout of those embracing liberal thought. America is at a precipitous into authoritative rule and fascism. I want more speech, not less.
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“Taken as a whole, conservatives use many means to undermine teachers and classrooms. . . ”
Umm, NO! Conservatives have not/do not do that. The posers who call themselves “conservative” are actually regressives, self-deluded ones at that, whose concept of reality is based in false notions of the past. Conservatives do not attempt to destroy societal goods, such as public schools, they attempt to conserve/preserve society as it is not wanting to go to fast with any major societal changes. Call a spade a spade. The ignorant self-deluded regressives of the far right (especially the xtian right), the alt-right (although I don’t think that is an especially good term) are not conservative at all.
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Regressives is a good term.
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How about retrogressives?
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Joanne Y… Donald Trump is meeting with Michele Rhee today in NJ! This is one scary political meeting that is likely to help “set” Trumps public education course over the next 4 years!!!! Whether he appoints her to an office or not HE IS LISTENING TO power hungry incompetent people like Rhee.
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Excuse me Joanne, but who elected you arbiter of how Diane chooses to run HER OWN blog? Talk about chutzpah. How can we possibly ignore the coming Trump presidency and its effects on education and all aspects of our lives? Trump and his gang of GOPers will have huge negative effects on education. Diane has also criticized the Obama’s horrible education policies.
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I just filled out the U.of Pitt survey at Jonathan Pelto’s request on how students and educators are reacting to the new administration. It took some reflection as an educator of public policy, and it is relevant here and now, Joanne Y.
(Suggest other teachers fill out this survey. I asked Jonathan to publish the resulting report, and he said he will do that.)
Joanne…This situation of the outcome of America’s current election is probably the most important ‘teachable moment’ in our history. Not only do we have the opportunity to teach all aspects of the Constitution, with the history of the framers, and of today’s resultant laws and the impacts on us and on the world, and the economics and the ethics surrounding it all, PLUS the vast critical thinking skills of making some sense of this election, but we who teach are also challenged to show our human side to terrified students of all ages.
Amazed that you have overlooked all this and claim it has no relevancy and then proceed to be accusatory in suggesting Diane is using the blog “for (her) progressive agenda.” NO mystery who you voted for.
Since teachers have a legal duty to report harm done to their students, I cannot imagine a scenario any worse than the harm that is being done to America’s youth. Teachers are the natural protectors to shout it all out to the greater world, while teaching about it in classrooms.
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Joanne Y, this blog has always been at the nexus of education and politics. That reflects the highly politicized nature of education in the US.
Right up until the early 1960’s, our law allowed Southern blacks to be educated separately and w/far less funding than white students. Court decisions & subsequent law made that illegal; there was social struggle over various attempts to mandate integration & federally-supplement poor schools’ funding. White flight & mfg decline have left many urban areas w/o sufficient property value to raise enough $ to educate the children of families to poor to move out: more social struggle over how to fund these schools.
In the last 30+ yrs, under the pincer-pressure of global trade, mfg decline, increased immigration/ poverty, financial collapse of 2007-8, the very value of public ed has come under fire, w/many lumping it into all social services as a drag on our ability to compete w/emerging nations’ low labor costs.
There are strong pressures to privatize USed via charters & vouchers in the hopes that small decentralized private schools can do more with less money. Trump has thrown in with that crowd, despite the obvious volume-discount advantages of national public schools, 20 yrs of weak results of charters, & the obvious ed-quality/ fin stability issues involved in throwing public $ at unmonitored private schools w/whatever curriculum.
Have I convinced you yet that US ed is political, & a Trump presidency has great impact on US ed?
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Just to add to Bethree5, Brown v. Bd. of Ed was settled by SCOTUS as national law in 1954. It reflected a compilation of 5 separate cases on the same issue…’separate but equal’ education for black children. This much-needed law led directly to the Civil Rights movement and laws of the 1960s. Most Americans believe it was a welcome turning point for equality for all children….at least we thought that up until our last election day.
Brown v. Bd. of Ed has been badly affronted and decimated by the charterizers, and as shown with Success charter schools and many others, which regressed to creating totally segregated schools.
Trump and others of his belief system want this separation of races and intend to use vouchers to achieve this. Pence, only a “good man” to some, wants further to use these vouchers for Christian education and teaching that America is a Christian Nation and also to disavow Darwin.
Many of us feel that this Trump/Pence imposition is all a pile of excrement and do not intend to go down quietly as they rape America of all wealth and freedom, and as they now shout ‘we are not being polite’ to them..
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addendum…as to education issues…we are now told that the Civil Rights of students includes killing the unions and taking away due process for teachers…as with the Vergara lawsuits.
What a stretch of civil rights and Brown v. Bd of Ed…and Trump is considering appointing another major crooked liar (and her husband who fools around with underage girls as he steals from the California taxpayers) as his head of the Dept of Ed…yes, he met today with Michelle Rhee.
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Joanne, there is no way to separate education from politics.
What home on politically in this country effects education, it can’t be helped.
OTOH, if you cannot understand this, or you do not like this, perhaps you can either stop reading this blog, or start your own blog. Or both.
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“What happens” politically…..
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“Hamilton” is one of the worst shows I have ever seen and is anything but a diverse cast. Miranda lifted the story form another author, used often boring and flat rap, costuming that was inconsistent, and story lines that went nowhere, and characters were largely undifferentiated from one another. The one exception was King George.
The speech delivered by Dixon is exactly the exclusionary rhetoric that has alienated the white electorate that voted in Barrack Obama twice. We are Americans first and foremost and we must begin speaking, thinking, and behaving as if we are all deserving of protection and our unalienable rights. Enough.
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I disagree. Hamilton was one of the most patriotic shows I have ever seen. I have never heard anyone claim that it was plagiarized or that the music and lyrics are boring and flat. I have received nearly 400,000 comments on this blog but never one so clearly meretricious and false.
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Diane, fh33 had an opinion. You can disagree with this opinion, but how can an opinion be “meretricious and false”? Opinions are neither true nor false. And are you even clear what “meretricious” means? This opinion seemed quite sincere.
If the creators and producers of Hamilton are so interested in “inclusion”, why did they include casting calls that specifically stated that only non-whites should audition? http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/03/29/hamilton-casting-call-non-white/
I lived in Indiana until recently; I know that Gov. Pence is limited in his vision and abilities, after we dealt with the RFRA fiasco. But Trump is right: this was incredibly rude and undignified, and if you feel otherwise, it’s because you like the partisan slant that it takes on. One of the “Hamilton” cast members tweeted in response that it was a “conversation” with Pence. BS. The cast exploited their position on the stage and singled out an audience member for a lecture, who was there to enjoy the show. No conversation was feasible, nor was it intended to be so. They singled Pence out for ridicule, under the guise of being “heartfelt and dignified”. Grow up. It only managed to make Pence look good, which is something I’m loathe to say.
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Fh33 said that Hamilton was plagiarized. That is meretricious and false. The show won many honors and no one but Fh33 thinks it was plagiarized and the music and lyrics were flat and boring. I seriously doubt that this person, if it is a person, ever saw a Hamilton.
Yes, the purpose of the show was to reimagine the founding of America and to use gifted actors of color.
Have you seen Hamilton? The music is wonderful, the acting is too. It is one of the most patriotic shows I have ever seen. It receives ovations at every performance and repeated curtain calls. Every red-blooded American should see it, including Fh33.
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Everyone’s a critic.
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And if Rum Tum Tugger gave the same speech at the end of Cats, would you form the same opinion as to the content?
Trump has been divisive. He can’t just paper over his destructive campaign rhetoric, especially since he’s creating a far right, nationalist cabinet when over 1 million more voters went with Hillary over Donald. And time to have more free speech, not less. Republicans will have a hard time governing if the plan is to keep blaming Democrats and Obama. Last I check, they are running everything, now.
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Wow. The trolls are out today.
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Indeed!
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The only time Trump is in the kitchen is to walk through it. He has a staff that’s probably paid poverty wages that does all the cooking and cleaning. If he stops while walking through the kitchen, it’s probably so he can grope a cute female servant that caught his perverted eyes. And he whisperes in her ear, “Resist or protest, and I’ll see that you are deported.”
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Lloyd,
Our comment is in poor taste
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Didn’t you mean to say “Your comment is in poor taste”? Not our comment …
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Raj…how can you say Lloyd uses “poor taste” after hearing Trumps remarks from his own mouth about how he is given the right to grab women’s body parts because he is a star? I guess next he will say it is his right, as he has already claimed would be accepted, if he murdered people on 5th Ave. And you would say it is poor taste to even comment on his total lack of ethics.
This is just what Keith Olbermann said today is “pretending” that this is new normal. And trolls here, and in the media, are on the Trump bandwagon and claiming this really is the new normal. What outrageous hyperbole.
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“If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.”
Be careful what you ask for . I would check with a little wisdom from Mick Jagger on that one
At least the music relives the depression
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Somebody add that ‘e’ f’or me in the last line
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Does that make Trump a snowflake?
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no it just makes the two inline behind him just as dangerous. .
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Yes…and maybe more dangerous since both Pence and Ryan are far smarter than Trump.
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It still boggles my mind that Donald Trump was even a candidate, let alone elected. There is strong evidence that cheating in key states allowed this to happen (http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/youre-not-just-imagining-it-the-hillary-clinton-vs-donald-trump-vote-totals-do-look-rigged/104/). Stay tuned on this.
A bigger worry might be that Trump is sworn in, becomes incapacitated, or dies, and then the radical Pence succeeds him. I believe he would have a much more sinister focus than Trump.
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Pence would want to send us back to the dark ages.
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I agree, I’m totally boggled at the election results. Trump is a nightmare, Pence is a horror, not to mention the rest of the GOP and Trump’s choices for his cabinet and administration. It’s like being on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean with a tiger, hyena and a crocodile thrown in for good measure. (hat tip to Life of Pi)
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Thanks for Pi, Joe.
He survived.
So will we.
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Totally appropriate and nearly a moral necessity given what the play is and has become and all surrounding circumstances.
Trump is simply without sense. His comments are those of an uninformed nonsensical bystander. And THIS is our president? A dimwit character to be ignored? Our obsession with so-called reality gone completely awry? I guess the people will have to learn that many wildly successful business people are no closer to reality and real solutions than high-pressure sales people, or frauds.
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Salespeople
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That the cast of Hamilton would turn the spotlight and the attention of their audience on this man and humiliate him in this way is deeply disturbing. I imagine a great number of people in the audience were embarrassed and uncomfortable. I am profoundly saddened that they felt righteous publicly pointing the finger at this man who came to enjoy their show.. How heartless, how insensitive, how audacious. What is this world coming to?
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What is this world coming to? We have a vicious demagogue almost in the White House and we’re supposed to worry about being polite. Trump never worried about being polite. Trump’s whole campaign was heartless, insensitive, audacious and much worse.
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Good thing shoes weren’t flying .
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Is Pence a weak snowflake that can’t handle opposition?
Trump and Pence are divisive and dangerous. Get used to it.
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If the show took place in Indiana, Pence would support businesses not serving some of the cast members. From my point of view the cast was incredibly polite to a man who holds some of their members in contempt. I wonder why he would sully himself by attending the performance.
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And the cast was incredibly brave to use their one time opportunity to have a public voice with Pence. Their statement was incredibly polite and heart felt. Surely if they wanted to make an appointment for a sit down to talk with him, that would never happen.
It is now broadcast widely that the Trumpeters are compiling enemies lists and even KellyAnne has warned people to shut up and let the Imperial Family rule in their own way, letting Trump be Trump…including his scions. Anyone who speaks out against this distorted view deserves a medal, not rebukes.
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I have to say (as a longtime NYC resident, now NJ) that I am not comfortable with the cast’s choice to single out Pence in this way. Broadway is a class act. The musical is an artistic statement that stands on its own merits. Better to let Pence mull over its message, its casting. Instead the cast used it as a vehicle for protest. Perhaps a poke in the eye to New Yorker Trump which might smart, but doubtful it would enlighten Pence, more likely just put him on the defensive.
But that was their choice, & despite misgivings, I exult in seeing a formidable cultural force exercise 1st Amendment rights in the week following an election of major import.
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I am surprised to hear you believe bullying an audience member from the stage is appropriate behavior.
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Then I guess you also are appalled at Trump’s bullying. Fasten your seat belts, there’s much more to come.
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Peggy,
Pence was not bullied. He was addressed with respect.
The rest of us worry that Pence will bully us for four years.
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Did the guy in the funny costume in a make believe musical really scare you that much?
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It is clear you do not understand what bullying is. A one time incident is not bullying.
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Peggy Collum:
please consider this from 2old2teach, just above—
“If the show took place in Indiana, Pence would support businesses not serving some of the cast members. From my point of view the cast was incredibly polite to a man who holds some of their members in contempt.”
😎
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If you call that bullying, then, how would you call the hundreds of alleged hate crimes, and teachers yelling at blacks, hispanics, and Muslims at school and elsewhere???
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Funny how stupidity and sarcasm can sound the same.
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The writers and cast pretty much had to do it.
Pence is not just VP-elect, he’s the head of the transition team.
And this is all totally unprecedented stuff for this country.
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Pence was not harassed, he was petitioned.
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Well put.
Apparently Trump supporters cannot distinguish between respect and subservience.
😎
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ditto
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I think we need to think hard about Joanne’s reaction above. I think my Trumper colleagues would react similarly. We liberals pride ourselves on being smarter than the Trumpers, but we’re not that smart when it comes to understanding the psychology and world-view of the Trumpers. They feel routinely humiliated and disrespected by us. If Trump tries to foment a literal civil war, as I fear he might (see Spanish Civil War), we will need the goodwill of as many Americans as we can get. We should still speak truth to power, but I think it would be wise to avoid needless inflammation. Humiliation is a very dangerous force, especially with vile men like Trump and Pence. We need to drive a wedge between Trump and some of his supporters, and we may fail if insults against Trump are perceived as insults against his followers too. The perception is everything.
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I’m ambivalent about the actor addressing Pence. Should he have anticipated that the address would be perceived as public humiliation? Shouldn’t the play itself have worked some enlightenment and perspective-shifting on Pence? If not, it’s an indictment of the play, is it not? On the other hand, part of me thinks it proper that the secular intelligensia show it is not cowed by Trump’s many hints of using the office to bully.
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We liberals have ceded anger and outrage for far to long to the right .
Time to make them realize that they will rue the day they ever tried to roll back the the clock, economically and socially , possibly past the New Deal and before the Square Deal . 49% of Americans don’t vote . I would concentrate on them and I am betting that Bernie was right “poor people don’t vote “
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http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/lets-never-stop-booing-mike-pence-and-entire-administration
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This was the right thing to do. I would have done it. I hope it happens frequently with anyone in the upcoming administration.
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Agree with you Daniel…but Trump shouted out often, and on film, at anyone who disagreed with him, to “get rid of him, and if he is injured, I will pay your legal fees” or words to that effect.
Anyone who stands up to these bullies is a hero. Now that they have all the power, they can see to it that people are deported and/or put in Guantanamo which Pence said will remain open.
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The cast, Brandon Dixon especially, was nothing but polite. From the Politico report:
“Vice President-Elect Pence, I see you walking out, but I hope you hear us, just a few more moments,” Dixon said as some of the audience members booed Pence. “There is nothing to boo here ladies and gentlemen, there is nothing to boo here. We are all here sharing a story of love. We have a message for you sir and we hope that you will hear us out.”
While it was reported that Pence did stop at the door way to listen, did he? No one has reported that Pence acknowledged the speech that was specifically for his ears.
Instead we get Tweet reports that Trump thinks Pence was harassed and Gingrich had to suddenly put in his one cent.
“Hamilton cast hostility, Warren comments on Trump nominees, Times and Post false coverage,all reminders this will be a permanent campaign” Gingrich wrote.
I re-read Dixon’s statement – three times – to make sure I wasn’t missing something. There was no malice, no harassment, no hostility, no disrespect. It was just a statement asking the the new administration to uphold the American values and work on behalf of all. Yes, it was a petition.
While we can’t please everyone with a simple statement, I find it disheartening that people will interpret it opposite of its intent. But then isn’t that how Trump’s campaign was run?
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From The Daily Beast just now…long but interesting…
THIRST FOR POWER
Rob Reiner Calls Out Jared Kushner: ‘He’s Turning His Back on His Religion and His Heritage’
The celebrated filmmaker discusses the election of Donald Trump, the alt-right, and Trump son-in-law—and key advisor—Jared Kushner’s bizarre apathy towards anti-Semitism.
Marlow Stern
11.19.16 6:33 AM ET
In June of last year, then Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump received his first—and one of his only—endorsements from a publication. It came courtesy of The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi and white supremacist website. The Daily Stormer’s stated goal, according to founder Andrew Anglin, is “to ethnically cleanse White nations of non-Whites and establish an authoritarian government. Many people also believe that the Jews should be exterminated.” In the wake of Trump’s shock victory, Anglin urged his readers to troll mourning pro-Clinton liberals into committing suicide.
As if that weren’t enough, Trump also received endorsements from the American Nazi Party, whose chairman felt a Trump victory would present “a real opportunity” for the white nationalist movement, as well as the Crusader, otherwise known as the official newspaper of the KKK. And over the course of the campaign, both Trump and his eldest son, Donald Jr., shared anti-Semitic memes that originated on neo-Nazi message boards, while Don Jr. and Eric Trump gave interviews to white nationalist-affiliated outlets.
The Trump camp’s seeming embrace of the white nationalist movement, and their utter refusal to condemn any and all anti-Semitism spread in Trump’s name, is particularly puzzling when you consider the fact that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who Trump advisers have called his “real campaign manager,” is an Orthodox Jew. It’s even more baffling when you take into account how Trump’s own daughter, Ivanka, converted to Orthodox Judaism to marry him.
“We’re pretty observant, more than some, less than others,” Ivanka told Vogue last year. “It’s been such a great life decision for me. I am very modern, but I’m also a very traditional person, and I think that’s an interesting juxtaposition in how I was raised as well. I really find that with Judaism, it creates an amazing blueprint for family connectivity.”
This conundrum baffles Rob Reiner, the celebrated filmmaker behind the movies This Is Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally…, The Princess Bride, and many more.
“I don’t understand Jared Kushner at all. What is he doing? He’s turning his back on his religion and his heritage just so he can make money? I don’t get it. I just can’t wrap my mind around it,” Reiner, who is Jewish, tells The Daily Beast.
“The whole time while all those anti-Semitic memes were being passed on throughout the campaign, [Trump] certainly must have known, and his sons Eric and Don Jr. must have known they were retweeting things from anti-Semitic websites,” he adds. “Even if you want to cut them all the slack in the world, they have never to this day said, ‘This is absolutely unacceptable and abhorrent that we are being supported by these groups of people.’ They’ve never said it! So they’re completely comfortable with the idea that anti-Semitic and racist groups are supporting them.”
Reiner, a longtime Democrat, has a strange connection to Team Trump. He is the co-founder of Castle Rock Entertainment, a production company that produced many of Reiner’s films and developed a number of TV shows. Castle Rock was founded in 1987, and in 1989, they struck a deal with Westinghouse Electric to inject $48 million of equity into the company in exchange for a 15 percent ownership stake. Then, in the early ‘90s, Ted Turner wanted to buy Castle Rock, so Westinghouse hired the boutique investment bank Bannon & Co. to broker the deal for their cut of the company. In lieu of a fee, Bannon & Co. accepted a portion of Castle Rock—including profit participation in five shows, one of which was a then struggling sitcom called Seinfeld. When the show sold into syndication, Bannon & Co.—including its founder, Steve Bannon—hit the jackpot.
Bannon, who is a racist, would later achieve notoriety first as an absolutely terrible documentary filmmaker, then as the chief executive of the alt-right website Breitbart, and finally as Trump’s campaign manager turned chief strategist—making him the Karl Rove of the Trump administration. The KKK and American Nazi party celebrated the news. Reiner felt ill.
“If you read the stuff that’s posted on Breitbart, it’s more than a dog whistle to white supremacists—it’s a dog bullhorn,” Reiner says of the racist and sexist site. “They print all this crap on there, then Trump takes this idea on and rides it all the way to the presidency.”
Reiner had been fairly visible this election season, touting Hillary on the HBO program Real Time with Bill Maher and embarrassing the hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe for toadying to Trump. The filmmaker is angry with the media for the way they balanced Trump’s endless array of transgressions with Hillary’s emails.
“You look at the media and the way it covered things and think, what is going on here? How are we giving this man who’s a pathological liar, a misogynist, a racist, and a fraud—how are we letting him have a free pass and we’re holding her up to emails like there’s some sort of goddamn false equivalency?” he exclaims.
“And Trump’s appearance on Jimmy Fallon was disgraceful. Jimmy Fallon messing up his hair was absolutely disgraceful,” adds Reiner. “This man is a racist misogynist who should be called out at every turn. He’s not a nice guy. There’s no ‘regular guy’ here. And if you don’t call him out, you’re basically giving him a free pass.”
Nobody has seemed more stunned by the election results than President-elect Trump, who was so convinced he was going to lose he didn’t have any transition plan in place (by comparison, Mitt Romney had hundreds of pages of federal policy transitions written out—as well as an entire transition website—back in 2012). Like many Americans, Reiner isn’t sure why Trump fought so hard for a job he doesn’t even seem to want.
“Trump knows how to promote himself and I think that’s done out of a sheer desperation for wanting to be liked,” says Reiner. “It seems to me like this guy’s got a big hole in his heart and he’s doing whatever he can to try to fill it. I don’t think even the presidency is going to do that for him, and I think that’s what he’s going to discover.”
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Trump is heating the mess instead of cleaning it up. He is a divider and consummate super-narcissist, not a pillar of strength or moral integrity. He is the worst kind of loser, a permanently scarred loser who must always think win, win, win; you lose, you lose and you lose, at absolutely all costs.
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.usatoday.com/story/94129798/?client=safari
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Yes, Trump and his minions should stay out of the “kitchen”, AND the White House. Apparently, Melania plans to do just that. What an incredible, chaotic nightmare this will be for security and for all of NY, and for all of the nation.
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So Pence was left feeling targeted, uncomfortable and unwelcome? And instead of manning up and addressing that head on he called the boss to complain about it, dove for cover awaiting a tweet from #notmypotus and later regretted it by commenting two days later that he had not been offended and that the production was great? Me thinks some internal family disputes took place over those 48 hrs leading Pence to his statement.
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To Lauren Bertrand up there, at 12:31 PM–“Dubya got ‘Primary Colors’… Huh?
“Primary Colors” was about the first Bill Clinton campaign–first, the novel by “Anonymous” (who turned out to be Joe Klein), then the film. The whole “cast of characters”–Bill, Hillary, George Stephanopoulos, James Carville (the terrific Billy Bob Thornton), & the tough, female strategist (forget her name in real life, but played by the great Kathy Bates) appeared (although quite a bit of it was fiction…thus, a novel).
Actually, Lauren, “Dubya” got “W.” (I think Will Ferrell played him in the Broadway play, then Dennis Quaid portrayed him in the film.)
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