Somehow, We're Here

Just sharing something I posted into a Facebook conversation. It's a serious question:

I'm not going full Godwin here and saying Trump is Hitler. Hitler wasn't "Hitler" when he came to power. However, I don't think anyone here would question the idea that Hitler should've been declared "illegtimate" and all options should've been on the table to Germans who opposed him and the Nazis after a certain point. What would that point be? Kristallnacht? Nuremberg Laws? Sometime before that?

I'll repeat... Trump isn't Hitler. But there are an awful lot of lines being crossed right now that I never thought I would ever see an American President would cross. So I find myself struggling with the same stuff. And I think that if I'd asked myself a couple of years ago whether working with a hostile foreign power to turn an election and enrich oneself would be one the serious "red lines," there's almost no way I would've said no.

Somehow, we're here.  

Dems Stand Up

Tonight, in the midst of a whirlwind of votes on the ACA repeal, every Democrat stood up and made a personal statement as they made their vote, over the objections of the parliamentarian. Heidi Heitkamp was crying as she cast her vote.

More of this, please.

Well, That Was Unexpected

I don't think we have a reason why yet (optics?), but the House is postponing the OCE vote.

News: rules change to OCE has been pulled, just now at conference meeting in Capitol basement

— Robert Costa (@costareports) January 3, 2017

In any case, if you do talk to your Congressperson, I'm happy to log it.

And I'll try it in the future if we have more notice. Now that we're starting to move from the looking-back part of this blog's mission (post-mortems), it's something I'd love to do for our #damagecontrol mission.

UPDATE (1/3/2017, 12:29 PM): I just spoke to Congressman Hakeem Jeffries's (D-NY) office and they said they didn't know why it happened, but are happy it did and that the Republicans will accept the OCE's rules for the time being. I think all of our pushing on Twitter last night couldn't have hurt.

On the Same Side

This is based on a piece I was going to write tomorrow, but I think I've got something in me at 2 AM...

As I'm sure I've said on this site a dozen times before, Ari and I are writing for our own edification more than for others to read; we were both gobsmacked by the events of 11/9 and are both looking for the lessons we can learn so that we can get involved in the fight ahead of us in our own way (we're best friends, but are in very different situations). We have our own lives and our own careers, and neither of us ever expects to make a living writing about politics, and are really happy to mostly aggregate the people we read regularly who do or are trying their asses off to do so (see the Daily Rounds in the right sidebar).

We bring our own strengths to the table; Ari brings bona fide economic expertise, and I sorta bring the ability to link a whole lot of crap together and make sense of it, but mostly I bring my heart on my sleeve. So, for the most part, I don't write thinking about how many people might read what I babble (though I like numbers so when they do climb it's fun to watch). I have found that about once every ten days or so I write something that I really want other people to read, and it's nice to have a platform beyond Facebook on which to do it. Last Wednesday night/Thursday morning was one of the times where I really appreciated that, even though I was a little hesitant:

Last night, I visited a local watering hole in Brooklyn that I tend to frequent. I was busy studying for an exam, so I pretty much had my head in a book for much of the night. However, I couldn't keep it there because there were not one, but two incidents of Trump supporters in this bar (where there were maybe 15 people) trying to provoke others.

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The Tennessean then asked me if I knew what the "wood treatment" was. I said no, and he said, "It's when I slam your head into the bar." Despite the fact that he was much bigger than me, I thought to myself that I had a moral obligation to stand up to him. I did exactly that -- I got off my seat, and said "You think so?" and he somehow backed down, and then the three glared at me as they left without finishing their beers.

I was actually a bit embarrassed. I'm not the kind of guy who gets into physical fights. I apologized to the bartender for the situation, and he said, "No, don't apologize. I thank you, because someone needs to give actual facts and statistics to guys like that."

After having some time to process and to chat about the situation with friends, I find myself proud that I did stand up not just for myself, but for the principles, like, uh, science, that I'm going to stubbornly cling to for as long as I can.

But happily, tonight I can tell a different story -- same location, same time of night, but different players. A couple of hours ago I was at the same bar, in roughly the same seat, and struck up a conversation with a Spaniard who was in Brooklyn on business. He really wanted to discuss American politics, and we agreed readily that Trump/Pence/Ryan/McConnell/other evil flotsam are just a horror show in waiting. From there, he stated that, as a European, he would've had a hard time accepting a politician as "moderate" as Hillary Clinton and that he thought that Bernie  Sanders would've made a better President. There's obviously nothing unusual about discussing that, but the fact that at the same place where things nearly got out of hand after a Clinton/Trump exchange last week, I debated for over an hour about Clinton/Sanders with no violence (save for a "terrorist fist jab" -- ahhh, 2008, simpler times) left me with a wee bit of optimism. This contrast was magnified as I ambled home through Fort Greene listening to the mighty Digby on blog-to-speech:

We are in uncharted territory with a new leader at the top of a political party that has reached peak insanity in a world in which the very concept of truth is being challenged. It feels as though everything liberals and progressives care about is about to come under assault from a dozen different directions. It's going to take a concerted effort just to understand it all much less figure out how to resist it.

I don't have the answers about how to do that. But I do have a willingness to keep my eyes open and my mind as clear as I can keep it to sort through all the day to day chaos and try to see things as clearly as I can. If we can do that in this chaotic media environment I think we're halfway there. 

3 AM now, and this is getting a bit incoherent. But what I'm getting at is that, though we are about to take some blows from the Republicans that were unimaginable two short months ago, we have the opportunity to emerge as a better team, even if we never in our lifetimes make up the ground we lose over the next four (or, FSM forbid, more) years. I am never going to agree with, or even try to find any common ground with, the Deplorables from last week who insisted I was a hypocrite because I supported abortion rights while fretting about 30,000+ gun deaths per year in this country. But I am, as Digby says, trying to maintain "a willingness to keep my eyes open and my mind as clear as I can keep it to sort through all the day to day chaos and try to see things as clearly as I can." I have no beef  with the Sanders supporter who wants to provide free health insurance and education to every American; we both want that and just disagree on how close and how soon we can get to that and what the American political system can accommodate.

I happen to think that the 2016 Democratic Party platform was a political miracle. We came together and we assembled a document with the following Table of Contents:

Raise Incomes and Restore Economic Security for the Middle Class...................................... 3
Raising Workers’ Wages ............................................................................................................ 3
Protecting Workers’ Fundamental Rights................................................................................... 4
Supporting Working Families..................................................................................................... 4
Helping More Workers Share in Near-Record Corporate Profits............................................... 5Expanding Access to Affordable Housing and Homeownership ............................................... 5
Protecting and Expanding Social Security.................................................................................. 6
Ensuring a Secure and Dignified Retirement.............................................................................. 7
Revitalizing Our Nation’s Postal Service ................................................................................... 7Create Good-Paying Jobs............................................................................................................. 7
Building 21st Century Infrastructure .......................................................................................... 7
Fostering a Manufacturing Renaissance ..................................................................................... 8
Creating Good-Paying Clean Energy Jobs ................................................................................. 8
Pursuing Our Innovation Agenda: Science, Research, Education, and Technology .................. 9
Supporting America’s Small Businesses .................................................................................. 10
Creating Jobs for America’s Young People.............................................................................. 10
Fight for Economic Fairness and Against Inequality .............................................................. 10
Reining in Wall Street and Fixing our Financial System ......................................................... 11
Promoting Competition by Stopping Corporate Concentration................................................ 12
Making the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share of Taxes................................................................. 12Promoting Trade That is Fair and Benefits American Workers ............................................... 13
Bring Americans Together and Remove Barriers to Opportunities...................................... 14
Ending Systemic Racism .......................................................................................................... 14
Closing the Racial Wealth Gap ................................................................................................. 14Reforming our Criminal Justice System................................................................................... 15
Fixing our Broken Immigration System ................................................................................... 16
Guaranteeing Civil Rights......................................................................................................... 18
Guaranteeing Women’s Rights................................................................................................. 18
Guaranteeing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights .............................................. 19Guaranteeing Rights for People with Disabilities..................................................................... 19
Respecting Faith and Service .................................................................................................... 19
Investing in Rural America ....................................................................................................... 20
Ending Poverty and Investing in Communities Left Behind .................................................... 20
Building Strong Cities and Metro Areas................................................................................... 21
Promoting Arts and Culture ...................................................................................................... 21
Honoring Indigenous Tribal Nations ........................................................................................ 21
Fighting for the People of Puerto Rico ..................................................................................... 23
Honoring the People of the Territories ..................................................................................... 24
iii
Protect Voting Rights, Fix Our Campaign Finance System, and Restore Our Democracy 24
Protecting Voting Rights........................................................................................................... 24
Fixing Our Broken Campaign Finance System ........................................................................ 25Appointing Judges .................................................................................................................... 25
Securing Statehood for Washington, D.C................................................................................. 26
Strengthening Management of Federal Government................................................................ 26
Combat Climate Change, Build a Clean Energy Economy, and Secure Environmental
Justice ........................................................................................................................................... 27
Building a Clean Energy Economy........................................................................................... 27
Securing Environmental and Climate Justice ........................................................................... 28
Protecting Our Public Lands and Waters.................................................................................. 29
Provide Quality and Affordable Education.............................................................................. 30
Making Debt-Free College a Reality ........................................................................................ 30
Providing Relief from Crushing Student Debt.......................................................................... 31
Supporting Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions.. 31
Cracking Down on Predatory For-Profit Schools..................................................................... 32
Guaranteeing Universal Preschool and Good Schools for Every Child ................................... 32Ensure the Health and Safety of All Americans ...................................................................... 34
Securing Universal Health Care................................................................................................ 34Supporting Community Health Centers.................................................................................... 35
Reducing Prescription Drug Costs............................................................................................ 35
Enabling Cutting-Edge Medical Research................................................................................ 36
Combating Drug and Alcohol Addiction.................................................................................. 36
Treating Mental Health ............................................................................................................. 36
Supporting Those Living with Autism and their Families........................................................ 37
Securing Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice .................................................................. 37
Ensuring Long-Term Care, Services, and Supports.................................................................. 38
Protecting and Promoting Public Health................................................................................... 38
Ending Violence Against Women............................................................................................. 38
Preventing Gun Violence .......................................................................................................... 39
Principled Leadership ................................................................................................................ 39
Support Our Troops and Keep Faith with Our Veterans....................................................... 40
Defense Spending ..................................................................................................................... 40
Veterans and Service Members................................................................................................. 41
Military Families....................................................................................................................... 41
A Strong Military...................................................................................................................... 41
Confront Global Threats............................................................................................................ 42
Terrorism................................................................................................................................... 42
Syria .......................................................................................................................................... 42
Afghanistan ............................................................................................................................... 43
iv
Iran ............................................................................................................................................ 43
North Korea............................................................................................................................... 43
Russia ........................................................................................................................................ 43
Cybersecurity and Online Privacy ............................................................................................ 44
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Weapons ......................................... 44
Global Climate Leadership ....................................................................................................... 45
Protect Our Values...................................................................................................................... 45
Women and Girls...................................................................................................................... 45
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People..................................................................... 46Trafficking and Modern Slavery............................................................................................... 46
Young People ............................................................................................................................ 46
Religious Minorities.................................................................................................................. 47
Refugees.................................................................................................................................... 47
Civil Society.............................................................................................................................. 47
Anti-Corruption......................................................................................................................... 47
Torture....................................................................................................................................... 47
Closing Guantánamo Bay ......................................................................................................... 47
Development Assistance ........................................................................................................... 48
Global Health ............................................................................................................................ 48
HIV and AIDS .......................................................................................................................... 48
International Labor.................................................................................................................... 48
A Leader in the World................................................................................................................ 49
Asia-Pacific ............................................................................................................................... 49
Middle East ............................................................................................................................... 49
Europe ....................................................................................................................................... 50
Americas ................................................................................................................................... 50
Africa ........................................................................................................................................ 51
Global Economy and Institutions.............................................................................................. 51


Look at the items I bolded. Most of those were, while not entirely anathema to the Democratic Party of the 1990s, would have been considered divisive. But they're there now. Why? Because we're the good guys. We know we are, and the other side seems to be proud they're not.. I'm glad to be a member of  Hillary Clinton's party. I'm glad to be a member of Barack Obama's party. I'm glad to be a member of the party that Bernie Sanders decided was a proper vehicle for his progressive message. We're all on the same team, and we have a blueprint for the future of America.

I spent most of the early part of the day playing on Twitter, and found that this offhand tweet I made to Karoli at Crooks & Liars received an inordinate number of likes (17!):

@Karoli I like it. Tells who's not really on our side. Took me until almost 37, but I've found a left boundary for my vision of the D Party.

— Great Consolidation (@tgconsolidation) December 30, 2016

The question is not, as Karoli asks, "Are we not Americans before partisans?" It's "Is it not necessary to be partisan as Americans today?" Howard Zinn and all that. All of us resisting Trump and his ilk need to come together under the Democratic Party umbrella, no matter which candidate we supported in the primaries. If you can't recognize that the Democratic Party is a general force for good as we enter 2017, you're not my ally. If you're out to turn the party into a circular firing squad, ditto.

I was on the fence until recently regarding the Greenwald/Snowden/Manning crowd, but no. Y'all make me think #pecsandhorse, and I think the seventeen people who liked my tweet think so too.

As we enter 2017, I ask anyone reading this (all seven of you):

• Are we going to accept foreign meddling in our elections?
• Are you OK with gutting the American safety net?
• Can you countenance the erosion of rights of people because of their gender, race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation?
• Should Americans be prevented from having affordable education and health care?
• Can you accept further degradation of our air, water, and other natural resources, leaving a wasteland for future generations?

My answer to all of the above is "HELL NO." If you agree, there's only one side to be on. We'll sort the rest out later.

Quick Thought

I really want to feel like Trump is poking a bear (not a Russian one) that will lead to his political demise, but I'm pretty sure I'm fooling myself.

UPDATE (12/30/16 7:10 PM): If you want to try to fool yourself a bit longer like me, follow this guy on Twitter. He's a great read:

It’s almost like our current POTUS is executing a strategy.

*ahem*
*cough*
*thread from December 11*
*ahem* https://t.co/eRQ41Mkm8a

— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) December 30, 2016

Obama, Don't Go!

Can't believe I'm quoting David Frum, but he's right:

Without Trump’s own willingness to make false claims and misuse Russian-provided information, the Wikileaks material would have deflated of its own boringness. The Russian-hacked material did damage because, and only because, Russia found a willing accomplice in the person of Donald J. Trump.

Many questions remain about how the Russian spy services did what they did. That includes Putin’s motives for ordering the operation. But on issues from Crimea to Syria to NATO to the breakup of the European Union, Trump’s publicly expressed views align with Putin’s wishes.

Over Trump’s motives for collaborating so full-throatedly with Russian espionage, there hangs a greater and more disturbing mystery—a mystery that Trump seems in no hurry to dispel. And maybe he is wise to leave the mystery in place: as delegitimizing as it is, it’s very possible the truth would be even worse.

Our readers know my feelings on this; this race was so illegitimate and we have traitors coming into power, but there's nothing we can do about it.

But if we at least want to stand up to them, we need a leader. No one's really come forward yet. The one who should is obvious, but he doesn't appear to want the responsibility:

In a podcast interview posted Monday with his longtime political adviser David Axelrod, Obama made clear he doesn’t want to lead the resistance to the new president. He allowed that he might take on Trump “a year from now or a year and a half from now or two years from now”—if “foundational issues about our democracy” are at risk—but Obama has other post-presidency priorities: vacationing with his wife, drafting his next book, developing new Democratic talent, and, before any of that, getting some serious shut-eye.

No one begrudges Obama some R&R after eight taxing years. But the memoir can wait. And while he should absolutely promote the next generation of Democrats—and work on redistricting with Eric Holder, as he’s also planning to do—those projects will take many years. The left has more immediate, pressing political concerns. Until the opposition finds a new, dynamic leader, it should be able to count on the great one it’s already got.

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“I believe in the wisdom that George Washington showed, that at a certain point, you make room for—for new voices and fresh legs,” Obama told Axelrod.

What do we have to do to convince him? Maybe give him everything on Steve Martin's Christmas list?

Why Is Paul Ryan Rushing to Repeal Obamacare?

Jonathan Cohn at HuffPo thinks it's because there's too much good news coming in about Obamacare and that it will start to push his caucus's constituents to start to make noise:

House Speaker Paul Ryan has vowed a quick repeal of Obamacare in order to “stop the damage” and because “things are only getting worse.”

Meanwhile, here is a selection of news reports from the past two weeks:

The Obama administration announced that the number of people signing up for insurance through HealthCare.gov, the federal website that 39 states use to administer Obamacare plans, is even higher than last year. State-run sites such as Covered California are reporting similar surges.

An independent think tank, The Commonwealth Fund, published a study showing that fewer people are skipping medical care because of cost ― most likely because, thanks to the health care law, so many more people have health insurance.

Standard and Poor’s Global Ratings reported that insurers selling Obamacare plans are seeing better financial results this year, suggesting that premiums are finally coming into line with the actual medical expenses of their customers ― and that this year’s big rate hikes may be a “one-time pricing correction.”

It’s possible that Ryan thinks these and similarly positive news items are irrelevant ― that the Wisconsin Republican has deluded himself into thinking Obamacare really is an unmitigated policy disaster, rather than a fairly typical government program full of pluses and minuses and the inevitable implementation complications that large reform efforts usually overcome.

It’s also possible that Ryan’s crusade to pass repeal in January has nothing to do with policy and everything to do with politics ― that he wants Congress to vote before the rest of the country, and maybe even the president-elect, wakes up to the real-life changes such a vote would unleash.

It could be, but aside from the fact that many House Republicans are pretty safe thanks to gerrymandering, getting this and many other things that will result in lower taxes for his backers is the highest priority, and he may only have two years to get them all through -- ACA, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, SNAP, public education... these things will take time.

Having said that, delaying the vote in any way we can, for whatever reason, is a good idea. Also, protesting ACA repeal in districts like these would be terrific.

Good News, Bad News

Aw, who am I kidding? It's all pretty terrible.

If there's been any (nanoparticle thin) silver lining in the loss of the Democratic Senate majority since 2010, it's been that the Democratic caucus has purged nearly all of its conservative members.

In light of John Kennedy's win in Louisiana last  night, which left the Rep/Dem balance at 52-48, the Wall Street Journal highlighted something I somehow missed:

Meanwhile, two vulnerable Democratic members, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, are being considered positions in the Trump administration. Their move to a Trump administration post could give Republicans additional seats given the competitive politics in both states.

Those are the last two Democrats in the Senate that I basically consider to be mostly playing for the other team. So, at least we'll all be on the same side.

But if the filibuster is totally removed (which I think it will be), in order not to lose pretty much everything that provides the average American with anything resembling security over the next four years, we need to rely on roughly ten percent of Senate Republicans to have a shred of a conscience. Boy, do those seem like long odds.

So, going forward, assuming the Republicans don't continue to continue to strengthen their electoral dominance through what in any real democracy should be considered cheating, do we have to start to bend ideologically again? We shouldn't HAVE to. Even with a fully progressive-leaning slate, we are more popular than the almost totally batshit Republicans.

We have to stop Trump before he takes the oath. There is no choice. Even if we do, we're still decades away from ever having a truly fair democracy. But we need to keep that door open.

Narcissism and the Presidency

Over the last couple of days, I've seen an article from Medium by N. Ziehl about Trump's apparent narcissistic personality disorder. I've taken a course in dealing with people with that disorder in the workplace, and would not consider myself in how to overcome it or change it, but from what I have learned, it is a pretty spot-on diagnosis. Normally, I don't think it's great to try to diagnose someone from afar (I'm speaking to you, Dr. Frist), but we have forty years of Donald Trump in the public eye, tens of thousands of hours of footage, and we've seen so many actions taken on his part.

It's a good piece, but there's one section that stood out to me as being particularly relevant as far as how to take on Donald Trump, both as media, and as the Democratic Party:

2) He will say whatever feels most comfortable or good to him at any given time. He will lie a lot, and say totally different things to different people. Stop being surprised by this. While it’s important to pretend “good faith” and remind him of promises, as Bernie Sanders and others are doing, that’s for his supporters, so *they* can see the inconsistency as it comes. He won’t care. So if you’re trying to reconcile or analyze his words, don’t. It’s 100% not worth your time. Only pay attention to and address his actions.

So, media, please stop trying to look for little things he says that make him seem normal, and just look at the crazy actions he has or is preparing to take. And Democrats, working with him isn't worth it. Just stop him. Meet him head on, like you appear to be doing on Medicare, and figure out specific steps to keep the brunt of what he's going to do from affecting us.

Anyway, read the whole thing.

The Reaction Continues

Because of course...

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

Apparently, this along with other distractions, is keeping Trump from selecting appointees in his administration. I'm still trying to stay appreciative of Jill Stein, but she makes it really, really difficult:

Why would Hillary Clinton—who holds "public" and "private" positions—want to engage in something as transparent as #Recount2016?

— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) November 26, 2016

Schumer Ready to Obstruct

Chuck Schumer is not only getting ready to try to hold Trump and the other Republicans back, he seems to be starting to get "it"...

I particularly like this part:

This has been a key difference between the two parties for a good 20 years now: The Republicans relentlessly pander to their base, while the Democrats keep theirs at arm’s length (think of the way Pelosi immediately slammed the door shut on impeachment talk when she became Speaker in 2007).

That has to be different now. They shouldn’t pander to the base as abjectly as the Republicans do, because that’s what got us to Trump. But they do need to listen more and be less afraid of Republican attacks.

The Democratic Party, as an actually existing thing, has four main parts to it: one, the elected officials; two, the money people; three, the people (a few thousand) who work in the trenches for the various progressive causes; four, the energized base (as opposed to people who just vote once every four years). The four parts don’t really talk to each other. That must change.

Elected officials have to see that they need to take the idea of energizing the base seriously. Again, here, Schumer made a positive and, to me, surprising move when he came out so quickly for Keith Ellison as the new DNC chair. Ellison is well to Schumer’s left, but Senate sources tell me that Schumer recognized that the official party, the one’s and the two’s, have to do a better job of making the four’s feel they’re being heard.

Not only does that indicate the Schumer is willing to listen to the left more than he has in the past, it also shows some serious thinking about what the Democratic constituency looks like. It's like, organized (sorry, Will Rogers)!

Here's why I've been saying that even though we'd like to get money out of politics, and we don't want to give Wall Street much of a say:

That leaves the three’s, and this too is an absolutely crucial point. These organizations on the broad left are constantly underfunded—everybody scrounging to the same few foundations, which take months to decide things and then fund something for three years and withdraw instead of the 10 years that people need to make their organizations have impact.

Let me give you one telling example. As I wrote more than once during the campaign, Judicial Watch did a lot, in this campaign and over many years, to darken Hillary Clinton’s image in the minds of average Americans. They did this through FOIA request after FOIA request, getting their teams of lawyers to comb through every document, and turning up stuff that could be peddled as dirt and that informed the way the mainstream media wrote about Clinton—the assumptions made, the adjectives used, and so on. Judicial Watch has a $30 million annual budget.

Now: Don’t you think liberalism could use a Judicial Watch of its own to file FOIA after FOIA after FOIA on the Trump administration? It sure could. The group would have a field day with this guy. The revelations that would come out would make for a constant media barrage hitting Trump on ethics. He’d be on the defensive all the time.

Well—there is no such group. No one has funded it. Actually, there is one group in Washington that may be capable of doing this work, the Committee for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). It’s a good outfit. But CREW’s budget is just $2 million.

You hear a lot about George Soros and rich Hollywood liberals, and you probably just assume that liberals spend more money on this kind of activity than conservatives. Not so. There are far more rich conservatives than liberals for the obvious reason that having pots of money tends to make people conservative—and tends to make them want to invest in the politicians who’ll protect their money. 

We need a war chest. We need endowments. We need institutions. You just simply can't get them without money.

There's more useful information in there. Read on.