Another busy day in the transition of President-elect Trump.
He won’t prosecute Hillary Clinton for the “crimes” that he said were “worse than Watergate.” The crowds chanting “lock her up” surely must have known he never meant to follow through.
Yesterday, Trump met with leaders of the TV networks and told them he didn’t like their coverage. Has anyone briefed him on the First Amendment?
Here’s the deal with Trump. He is vain. He has no sense of humor. He is thin-skinned. He can’t laugh at humself. He is in for a very rough four years. And so are we.
His is vanity and touchiness make him a rich target for satirists, artists, and the entertainment industry.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
That New Yorker article is a mind blower. Is he trying to intimidate the press/media? I guess the new chant for Hillary is, Unlock her up, unlock her up!
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Trump said that is was the 2nd Amendment that was at risk in this election. Alarmingly, it is the 1st and 14th.
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As Trump himself would have said, “Crooked Hillary breaks the law and Trump protects her. So sad!”
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I’m urging all my friends to subscribe to the New York Times. It’s the closest thing we have to the BBC. No other media outlet has its scope, depth and quality. But like most news media today, it’s in precarious financial shape. It needs us. And we need it.
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Agree. Too many people go into “it’s a liberal rag” or “it’s a neoliberal rag” mode when they dislike the coverage or opinions. There needs to be more respect for what real journalists do.
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I recently dropped my 15 year subscription to the lazy and careless NY Times because its nothing more than a propaganda arm of Wall Street and their corporate owners. I believe it’s a form of censorship to withhold substantive news, which they do when it suits their political agenda. Innuendo and opinion do not belong in the front page. The opinion columnists all say the same thing a thousand different ways. Its hard to trust the NYTimes for accurate and complete news coverage.
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What’s a better alternative?
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“the lazy and careless NY Times”
I think the style guide prefers “the failing NY Times,” but “lazy and careless” isn’t half bad.
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Your Acronym For Today : NESTA
“Not Entirely Sane Twitter Addict”
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There were only two things specified as not prosecuting her for at this time, not that prosecution for another change couldn’t/wouldn’t take place in the future. And that does not imply she isn’t guilty of a crime. Given the contents of her emails there are still areas of investigation for a later day. The Federal government is not the only entity that might have an interest in prosecuting a crime.
Just the allegations of pay to play within her foundation have resulted in drastic reductions in large donations from special interests and countries known to try and curry favor.
The media has always been a liberal source of information. Now, how ever, they are trying to pick the information for us and tell us how to think. A large part of this is the financial interference into 70% of the media market by GEORGE SOROS. He may have chosen to become an American, but he neither loves, nor respects this country. He has wanted for decades to crush our republic, YES REPUBLIC. We are more under a republic. Rights come from God under a republic. In a democracy they are more like the tides that ebb and flow…changing with the whim of the people and government.
Media should be presenting the facts … pros and cons … and let the people decide. Teachers should be teaching students how to teach themselves so they can make informed decisions, not indoctrinating mindless drones we refer to as students.
Other countries around the world are interested in working with Trump on a one to one for business. They thought they had to “go along to get along” and that is what their citizens wanted. They are listening to the people in ways they haven’t for decades. It started with BREXIT and growing. The U.K. is anxious to negotiate with other countries, just as the citizens of this country are anxious to do. Listening to the Chinese news yesterday it was obvious they are beginning to change their tone. You could already perceive how they would make future changes their “glorious” idea.
The president elect has bigger things to do than focus on Hillary. Let her stay waiting for the other shoe to drop. Let her watch her empire be abandoned by those she promised to be especially nice to in her world. Her world is gone and will not be back.
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“Other countries around the world are interested in working with Trump on a one to one for business. ”
Exactly! Thank you Linda Griffin for pointing out that Trump is far more guilty of “pay for play” than Hillary ever was.
And I agree with you that the media gave Donald Trump a pass on all that. How we elected a corrupt businessmen we both don’t know. I’m glad you are smart enough to recognize Trump’s corruption is far worse than Hillary’s.
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Linda: What specific news source would you recommend we read if we want reliable news? Serious question.
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Theguardian.com/us
Democracynow.org
Truthdig.com
Truthout.com
Alternet.org
Counnterpunch.org
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And perhaps most important of all, NakedCapitalism.com
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“Rights come from God under a republic.”
Which god??
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The Flying Spaghetti Monster. May the Sauce be with you. R’Amen.
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AAARRGGHH Matey, I hope your dressed like a pirate to be talking like that!
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Blimey! Of course!
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His new nickname is #trumplethinskin
Like his namesake, a small man
And let’s hope, like his namesake, out-witted soon.
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In other news …
NYTimes “Public Editor” Signals Paper’s Shift To A Softer Stance On Fascism
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Trump’s new nickname is #Trumplethinskin.
Like his literary name sake, a small man.
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Since I’m about as welcome around here as a skunk at a wedding, I’ll just post this and encourage people to read it so they understand Trump’s appeal and what they’re going to have to do to move forward. We’ll never move forward until we learn the lessons of the past, which the DNC seems hell-bound not to do.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/11/trump-speeches-populism-war-economics-election/
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I tend to think the directive to stop “shunning the working class” is easier said than done, at least for the left. In my opinion, economic populism doesn’t play nearly as well in the heartland when it’s not accompanied by “culture war” rhetoric.
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I fear you’re right. I’m willing to make some concessions –e.g. saying “illegal alien” instead of “undocumented immigrant”.
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That’s a start. But what the heartland really wants to hear you say is “radical Islamic terrorism.” Why can’t you say it!?
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Right, all those white working class areas in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan that voted for Obama in ’08 and ’12 (and put Trump over the top) turned fascist this year… then there the reported 90,000 voters in Michigan who left the presidential ballot blank…
Keep scolding the white working class as irredeemably racist and fascist, folks, rather than organize and mobilize to provide an economic alternative, and see how it turns out for you and the country.
If anything, this election should have proven that cultivating Identitarian politics, while ignoring disinvestment, deindustrialization and inequality, is a loser… but I guess not.
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I don’t know if someone has to be “irredeemably racist and fascist” to find culture-war rhetoric appealing. By way of personal anecdote, the “white working class” people I know in the Midwest go for economic populism when it’s framed in terms of “the Chinese are screwing us” or the giant sucking sound of jobs going south.” They don’t go for it as much when it’s framed in terms of income inequality or class conflict. In other words, economic populism appeals to them more when it’s coming from the right than from the left. They’re concerned about terrorism (much moreso than in 2008 or 2012), and they think it’s good common sense to subject people traveling from Syria, for example, to extra “vetting.” They’re pro-cop and they’re sick of hearing about Black Lives Matters (which didn’t exist in 2008 or 2012). And they like hearing that a candidate will stop the “flood of illegal immigration” into the U.S. Maybe the people I know (they’re family and some old high-school friends and their families) aren’t representative, but they do not strike me as outliers. Anyway, this is why I think it’s not as easy as it may sound for the Democrats to suddenly start appealing to the “white working class” of the Midwest.
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Flerp, you may well be right, but my point is that the Democratic Party is in for a very rough time because the dominant wing thought it could cobble together a winning coalition with Identitarian politics and hypocritical appeals to working people to educate themselves.
I’m a career teacher, and obviously believe in the power of education on many levels, but I also think it’s pretty obvious that schooling alone will not solve our economic or political problems.
The Democratic Party has spent decades playing the unions and working people, accepting their money and help, while mostly ignoring their plight and being unwilling to risk anything on their behalf. The Clintons have been the poster children for that betrayal, and this year it came back to haunt them.
It may be purely speculative, but I still think the white working class would have been less susceptible to right-wing tropes, social or political, if the Democrats had maintained even a semblance of their New Deal, class conscious beliefs, and had acted on them.
Would those voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin have been as receptive to the siren song of culture war politics if they and their neighbors were working in union/living wage jobs? We’ll probably never know, but I think not.
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If it isn’t obvious, when I say “culture war,” I have Pat Buchanan in mind. To me, Trump’s a big portion of Trump’s message seems be drawn from 1990s/2000s-era Buchanan: “white nationalist,” protectionist, anti-globalist, anti-war, anti-Clinton, anti-abortion. Arguably Trump is just Buchanan minus the overt religiosity and plus the “I’m a proven businessman, and also insane.”
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Dienne,
You are always welcome here.
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The skunk aroma is a sweet one!
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As far as Hillary goes, I am convinced she is guilty when it comes to Pay-To-Play. I hope someone investigates the Clinton Foundation on this. There was a PBS program years ago on campaign finance reform. I can’t recall if Bill Moyers hosted the program or not. The program spent 1/2 hour covering the right and 1/2 hour covering the left. They interviewed President Clinton. He straight up admitted that money buys access and more money buys more access. The show followed a Native American tribe from OK that was trying to get access. The tribe finally realized they could not afford Pay-To-Play.
As far as the media goes, Faux News, just the propaganda arm of the right. MSNBC, propaganda arm of the left. CNN, slightly left of center, until this election, then they took a hard left turn, Clinton News Network. I’ve always felt the right wing media played dirty pool, but this election cycle the left did the same if not worse.
First Amendment, I’m sure Trump knows all about it. He’s not going to strong arm the media. He might cut them off, but they’ll still be able to say what they want. And you all are lying to yourselves if you think there is any fair and unbiased media out there. There are a few, but very few, PBS, BBC, Al Jazerra maybe.
I’m a registered Democrat, two time Obama voter, Clinton voter, public school advocate. But I’m also not a partisan loyalist. The left ran a fatally flawed candidate and they lost. Get over it.
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And the right ran a far more fatally flawed candidate and they won.
Is that the lesson that we learn? That minor flaws are far worse — the left needs a candidate who will lie with impunity about all things?
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What did we learn? This election was about outsiders. The left ran the ultimate insider.
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Please don’t say that the Clintons are part of “The Left.”
Contemporary liberalism, having been thoroughly captured by Market Fundamentalists such as the Clintons (whom I voted for, grudgingly), could care less about inequality and declining living standards, just as long as the managerial ranks are superficially “diverse.”
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Thank you NoReformNeeded , I believed the same as you but with all the alt agenda(out of the norm) that the left pushes I have swung to the farthest right possible. If I give up on the testing/cc/school issue that is fine. I need borders and want to stop paying for illegals and supporting others.
The middle class needs a voice and we are 100% behind Trump. The left has played so dirty with msm that we don’t believe or trust anything they say.
Never going back to the left again…..
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Bye!
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You will regret your support for Trump unless you are a millionaire or a billionaire. Was Bush the dumber good for you? Trump has the same trickle down phony baloney economic policies as Bush.
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“Trump has the same trickle down phony baloney economic policies as Bush THE LEAST, UNCA RONNIE RAYGUN, BILLY BLOW JOB CLINTON AND THE OBOMBER.”
Just completing your thought, Joe.
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Duane, at least Clinton and Obama did not lower taxes on the rich and the corporations. Clinton raised the top two income tax rates to 36% and 39.6% and raised the corporate tax rate to 35% from 34%. I know they did plenty of crappy things but the GOP always takes it a step (steps, leaps) further.
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Joan C. Williams is Distinguished Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Center of WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Here is her take on support for Trump. It is not typical fare for the Harvard Business Review.
What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class NOVEMBER 10, 2016
Take a look at some of the comments as well.
https://hbr.org/2016/11/what-so-many-people-dont-get-about-the-u-s-working-class
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Yesterday, Trump met with leaders of the TV networks and told them he didn’t like their coverage.
Well, he provided the content.
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Me gusta.
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breitbart.com had an interesting initial response to the news.
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Thank you Dr. Laura Chapman for the best link:
https://hbr.org/2016/11/what-so-many-people-dont-get-about-the-u-s-working-class
When I was NOT-TOO young, foolish, arrogant and being a “manual” IMMIGRANT worker (= laborer before earning my degree in Sociology = a chance to read many books about activists, philosophers, sociologists in the 19th and 20th centuries), I had the same thought as the author’s father-in-law.
I still do NOT respect all “YOUNG, INEXPERIENCED, but ARROGANT professionals, especially in economic, legal, and medical field like MBA, Lawyer, and Doctor. The worst ones are Psychiatrist and Psychologist and their anti-depressant prescription! What a bunch!
IMHO, it takes lots of time to sharpen knowledge through working experiences. This includes to the prodigy and genius who also need time to develop into their maturity.
Whenever I read inexperienced, or “troll” writers in this website, I can smell their arrogance, ignorance and full of bull SH-T.
Respectfully yours,
May King
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Anyone who’s a Trump supporter; please explain this tie to Jones for me:
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-wont-donald-trump-denounce-sandy-hook-deniers/amp
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