President Trump is engaged in an open war on the US press. While he canât be impeached for that, it is time to recognize what he intends: His plan is to neutralize what is our most vital check on authoritarianism. If he succeeds, it will still be called the âfree pressâ, but we will hear only the official story from the White House. Our media must change its game, or democracy will die. Right now, its Trumpâs facts first, and THE facts second, if at all. This is a battle the public must make certain Trump loses. Only 47 months to go…
Trumpâs press conference was all we needed to know:
The Westminster dog show was controversial in some circles:
Itâs Saturday, and Wrongo wishes he was sitting in that beautiful 5,000 book home library, drinking a Grande Chai Latte, listening to music, and distracted from the world at large.
But reluctantly, Wrongo watched some of Trump’s press conference on Thursday (transcript and video here). His presentation style is obnoxious. He adds opinions and adjectives to everything that he, or anyone else says. The point is that he NEEDS to tell you that his shit is great, and yours stinks.
He has memorized a list of both positive and negative adjectives, and he fires them in volleys as he speaks. He said that he has made “incredible progress” so far. Every new POTUS claims to make progress on something in the early weeks, but generally, they leave it to the media and public to evaluate the claim. Trump however, gives us the first glowing review of his work, and if possible, the first negative review of his opponents.
This is highly problematic for fact-based observers, because they have to evaluate not only “progress” but “incredible progress”
He is willing to lie about things that a ten year old could fact check. A lot of his shtick is a continuation of his basic campaign speech, and nobody needs to waste time refuting that BS. We can just roll our eyes, and move on.
However, we should be very concerned about how completely he controlled the press conference. It seemed to Wrongo that the press corps acted in a less than first-rate manner when on their feet. They had few sharp or pointed questions, and they allowed Trump to repeatedly call them out for trading in fake news.
Why didnât anyone point out that the slow confirmation process for Cabinet positions is due mostly to Trump naming his appointees late, followed by submitting the required paperwork slowly?
Trump gets away with his whining because the press spends time trying to play âgotcha” with the Jedi Master of gotcha: Did you see what he did to Rep. Elijah Cummings? They should be exposing that half of what Trump thinks he knows is wrong. But he sure knows how to hold a press conference, and we should probably expect him to do more of them than any previous POTUS.
The Trumpets like the notion that he’s going to “Shake things up“, but he plans to go well beyond shaking things up. For example, he wants to change the balance of power with the other two branches, and it appears that many of his supporters actually want that to happen.
It he pulls that off, say bye-bye democracy.
Wrongo gets incensed when powerful people attack the weak and vulnerable. He believes in the importance and value of facts and rational thought. But Trump, and his so-called mainstream Republican buddies keep moving farther and farther away from these values.
We could try to look at each lie or obfuscation in Trumpâs press conference, but something is lost when you look at the trees rather than the forest.
And its Trumpâs forest of total bullshit that needs to be chopped down by what remains of the independent media.
The NATO Defense Ministers are meeting this week, and a big issue is the financial support provided by the member nations. The US spends more of its GDP on NATO than any other member, 3.6%, or $664 billion in 2016. NATO countries have committed to spending 2% of their GDP on the military, but the only countries currently meeting that target are Britain, Poland, Estonia and Greece. At a preliminary meeting, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the ministers would âstress the importance of fair burden-sharing and higher defence spending,â
New US Defense Secretary, Gen. Jim Mattis, warned that continued American support for NATO could depend on other NATO countries meeting their spending commitments:
Americans cannot care more for your childrenâs future security than you do…I owe it to you to give you clarity on the political reality in the US and to state the fair demand from my countryâs people in concrete terms…If your nations do not want to see America moderate its commitment to this alliance, each of your capitals needs to show support for our common defense…
Europe is reluctant to pay for its own defense. The GDP of the EU approximates that of the US, but its military budget is less than half of ours. Trump is correct to question why Europe doesnât pay its fair share. Of course, he isnât the first US president to make that point.
This issue is well known, but a Win/Gallup survey provides a disturbing portrait of the will of people in Europe to defend themselves. The survey shows that 61% of people polled across 64 countries would be willing to fight for their country. However, there are significant differences in willingness to fight by region. It is highest in the Middle East (83%), but, it is lowest in Western Europe (25%).
Win/Gallup surveyed a total of 62,398 persons globally, and developed a representative sample of around 1000 men and women in each country. This is somewhat old data, the field work was conducted during September 2014 – December 2014.
In Europe, the highest number willing to fight was Finland at 74%. The Netherlands was at 15%, Germany was at 18%, Belgium, 19%, Italy, 20%, UK, 27%, France, 29%. Â Except for Turkey at 73%, Greece at 54%, and Sweden at 55%, a clear minority of people in the NATO countries said they would be willing to fight for their country.
Only 44% of Americans surveyed said that they would fight for our country.
We should remember that like us, most European armies have professional militaries, and that is probably reflected in the survey results. Neutral Finland still has a draft, and trained reserve of about 900 000. They also have an 830 mile border with Russia.
It is also possible that there was confusion, with some respondents thinking about fighting an offensive war, while some could have been thinking of a defensive war. Another difference could be due to whether the respondents think an offensive or defensive war is more likely for their country.
Europeans have become used to having the US foot much of the NATO bill. The bigger question is raised by the Gallup survey: What would they do if we had a real fight?
BTW, would most Americans fight for America? Survey says “no”.
With the Trump administrationâs moves to deport Mexicans, letâs remember a plane crash in Los Gatos Canyon in January 1948 that resulted in 32 dead. The news reported it as four Americans and 28 migrant workers whose names were not recorded. They were simply called âdeporteesâ in news reports, because they were being deported back to Mexico. Woody Guthrie wrote “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” to remember them. Here is Judy Collins with âDeporteeâ:
On Labor Day, 2013, a monument was unveiled listing the names of the 28 who perished in the crash. After 65 years, the names of the 28 were finally known.
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Politico reports that President Trump has actually done little since entering office despite White House aide Stephen Millerâs bragging on the Sunday Pundits:
We have a president who has done more in three weeks than most presidents have done in an entire administration.
That simply isnât true, but the thrust of the article is that, when you tune out the noise coming from the White House, very little has actually happened. From Politico:
So far, Trump has behaved exactly like he has throughout his previous career: He has generated intense attention and sold himself as a man of action while doing little other than promote an image of himself as someone who gets things done.
Sorry, but this is characteristic of the gleeful DC narrative that Trump is failing, that heâs bumping up against the institutional/Constitutional realities of Washington. This meme seems to repeat the same mistakes that smart people made during the campaign â misreading and underestimating Trump. They see him challenged on a few things and assume that since Trump thought heâd show up, wave a wand, and make things happen immediately, and is now stymied, therefore he must be frustrated. They presume that clashes with other branches of government, or with the unfawning press, or the âresistanceâ from the 52% that didnât vote for him to begin with, has made him cool his jets.
Why should we think it upsets him that his first bolts out of the gate are stymied?
Wrongo thinks that so far, Trump is winning. His fights with what he calls âthe Establishmentâ and the âfake news mediaâ are a win from the perspective of the Trumpets. They figure thatâs what he was sent to DC to do.
If heâs not trying to learn the ropes? That goes in the plus column. And if itâs reported that he shows impatience or impulsiveness? Plus column. To his base, the furor in the media makes the infuriated ones, and those who report it, seem like smug elitists, determined to enforce the status quo through the usual DC tactics.
Really, everything Politico says are problems for Trump are the opposite. Heâs ginned up a national hissy fit over his ill-conceived Executive Order on immigration, while managing to mostly get his cabinet choices confirmed (sorry Mr. Pudzer) â a cabinet more radical and unqualified than any traditional Republican would dare to nominate.
Dems obsess over each offense and announce âresistanceâ but have no real strategy. They raise money but can do little, while being viewed as unseemly in Trumpâs flyover country.
When the Republican obstruction to Obama took shape in 2008, they assumed a posture of cooperation, only to be âdisappointedâ by the âextremeâ positions of the President. Rarely in Obamaâs first term did they announce obstruction in advance of his actions. By his second term, Democrats had lost enough seats that they no longer had the ability to override Republican inertia, and the GOP’s naked obstruction was visible.
Now Democrats have fewer votes as a minority party than the GOP had in 2016, and have no way to block anything but the most obnoxious Trump moves, assuming that a few Senate Republicans join in the blockage.
Trump has no need to figure out or to get along with Washington â in fact, thatâs the opposite of what he wants. He has staked his political fortune on an âown the mobâ strategy â which worked just fine in November. He doesnât need to deliver on his election promises. He needs to let Republicans push through the horrifying agenda theyâve salivated over for decades. And he will.
He needs a riled up Establishment to blame for any stymied efforts. This means the more cartoonish his behavior the better, as the Establishment will be all too happy to jump on his missteps.
Trump wonât suffer if he never comes up the learning curve.
The rest of us, the country, the world, will. We actually need things to work.
Here is Robert Cray with âSmoking Gunâ recorded in 1986. With all the Trump people who seem to be on the wrong side of the CIA and FBI, it seems appropriate:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
(The Philology library at Berlinâs Free University. Designed in the shape of the human brain)
Trumpâs National Security Adviser Mike Flynn is out. His lies or charitably, his misremembering whether his communications with the Russian ambassador included discussing the sanctions that had recently imposed by the outgoing Obama administration, were too much even for the fact-challenged Trump administration. That became patently obvious after the WaPo dropped the bombshell that Trump was warned about Flynn’s ties by the Justice Department before the inauguration.
Who notified them? Then-acting attorney general Sally Q. Yates. You remember that Yates was later fired by Trump for advising the President that his Muslim ban was unconstitutional.
She informed the Trump White House late last month that she believed Michael Flynn had misled senior administration officials about the nature of his communications with the Russian ambassador to the US, and warned that the national security adviser was potentially vulnerable to Russian blackmail.
When she notified the White House that the FBI had Flynn on tape talking with the Russian Ambassador, she also told then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and then-CIA Director John Brennan.
So the Trumpets had more than enough of Ms. Yates by the time she advised them that the Muslim ban wouldnât fly.
Flynn resigned Monday night. Most Republicans say there is nothing more to see here, and that we should move along. Democrats want an independent investigation.
Whether this issue is over or not probably depends on whether you believe that Flynn was a rogue actor, operating without any cooperation or involvement by others in the Trump administration. Was something larger at work? Was it just Flynn lying to Pence, and then Flynn lying to Trump?
Thatâs possible, but considering the character of some of the people in this administration, from Trump to Bannon, to Miller and Conway, it seems unlikely that Flynn was acting alone.
And on Tuesday, Trump tweeted, after accepting Flynnâs resignation, that:
The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington?
We all know that isnât the real story. Thank you Sally Yates!
Here is The Who with âBehind Blue Eyesâ from their album, âWho’s Nextâ. It was recorded in March, 1971. It describes the Orange Overlord to a âTâ:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfuWXRZe9yA
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Sample Lyrics:
No one knows what itâs like
To be a rich man
Itâs a bitch, man
Behind blue eyes
No one knows what itâs like
To be hated
To be baldpated
Telling only lies
No one knows what it’s like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
No one knows what it’s like
To be hated
To be fated
To telling only lies
But my dreams They aren’t as empty As my conscience seems to be
I have hours, only lonely My love is vengeance That’s never free
No one knows what it’s like To feel these feelings Like I do
(The Long Room of the Library of Trinity College Dublin, built in 1592)
Today is Valentineâs Day, so we pause from blogging about whatâs wrong to thinking about whatâs right with the world, the people we love.
Wrongo would like you to listen to the late great Chet Baker, the hypnotic jazz trumpeter with a fabulous voice, who lost it all to heroin. Along the way, Baker also lost many teeth, both due to addiction, and to a street fight over drugs. Itâs tough to play the horn without teeth, and it took Chet a few years to scrape up enough cash to fix his mouth and then learn to play the trumpet again. He was 58 when he died in 1988.
Here is Chet Baker with âTime After Timeâ, words by Sammy Cahn and music by Jule Styne in 1946:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Lyrics:
Time after timeI tell myself that I'mSo lucky to be loving youSo lucky to beThe one you run to seeIn the evening when the day is throughI only know what I knowThe passing years will showYou've kept my love so young, so newAnd time after timeYou'll hear me say that I'mSo lucky to be loving youI only know what I knowThe passing years will showYou've kept my love so young, so newAnd time after timeYou'll hear me say that I'mSo lucky to be loving you
Wrongo and Ms. Right went to a concert by Buster Poindexter on Saturday. Poindexter is a stage persona for David Johansen, a glam rocker from the 1970s, when he fronted a group called the New York Dolls. Poindexterâs thing is to look suave and sophisticated, holding a drink, while singing an eclectic song book. He tries to say something humorous as a lead-in to the next song. His first comment was that he had been drinking steadily since November 9th.
The venue is in rock-solid conservative territory, but the line mostly drew laughs from a decidedly middle-age audience, except for one guy who screamed âbullshitâ loudly and often during Poindexterâs first song. Eventually, the local police came, and the guy became a model of passive resistance, going to the floor limp, and unresponsive. After assuring themselves he hadnât collapsed, the police ushered him out to a standing ovation, again, in a solidly Republican part of Connecticut. But think about this:
That sort of indicates that Trump voters are a forgiving lot. They were prepared to lock up Hillary Clinton for using a private email server because it jeopardized national security. Now the Trump administration is doing the same thing, and many think its no big thing. From The Hill: (brackets by the Wrongologist)
The [poll] results are surprising, considering Trumpâs campaign included calling out Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for using a private email server while she was Secretary of State.
According to Newsweek, at least four senior officials in President Trumpâs White House have active accounts on a private Republican National Committee (RNC) email system. Counselor Kellyanne Conway, White House press secretary Sean Spicer, chief strategist and senior counselor Stephen Bannon and senior advisor Jared Kushner all have rnchq.org email accounts. More from Newsweek: (emphasis by the Wrongologist)
The system (rnchq.org) is the same one the George W. Bush administration was accused of using to evade transparency rules after claiming to have âlostâ 22 million emails.
Think about that. If it werenât for double standards, Republicans would have no standards at all. But maybe the crowd reaction at the Poindexter concert showed us something: Buyerâs Remorse.
Remorseful Republican voters can help bigly in 2020 (and maybe in 2018), because all it takes is a few of them to make a difference in who becomes the next president. Presidential elections are won on the narrowest of margins, so if, 3-4% of Trump voters show remorse and flip, or decide to stay home, Trump could lose by a wide margin, even while maintaining the vast majority of his support.
Moreover, if many of them are demoralized or turned off by 2018 that could flip midterm Senate seats. Think back to 2006: the Democratic Senate pickups that year were in four states Bush had won (MT, VA, MO, OH) and one he had only lost by 2.5% (PA), which ended up in a 17 point blowout. Why? GW Bush voters stayed home, or switched.
OTOH, the only Republicans up in 2018 are the ones who survived 2006 and 2012, the year the Tea Party decided to debate âlegitimate rapeâ).
There is virtually no way to make the 2018 map good. There are only 9 Republican-held seats up for election at all; three of those would have to go to Democrats in order to flip the Senate, even if all the vulnerable Democratic seats were held. The best that can be hoped for is mitigating the damage.
Thus far, Trump and his henchmen have conducted a full frontal assault on civil liberties, open government and religious freedom, as well as instigating or condoning a cascade of ethics violations ranging from the serious (business conflicts of interest) to the absurd (attacking a department store for dropping his daughterâs fashion line). And, no, itâs not just a father defending his daughter. Itâs the president of the US bullying a particular business and, more generally, making a public case against free enterprise.
Parker is a conservative columnist. To an objective observer, it would seem that quite a few Republicans will decide not to defend the indefensible.
To help them arise from their slumbers, which at least a few did on Saturday night, here is Buster Poindexter with Hot, Hot, Hot from 1987:
Thatâs Bill Murray pouring the martini @ 2:00.
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Another week of the Trump administration is in the bag, just 205 weeks to go! No worries, they’ll make great progress in destroying the country while hurting our most vulnerable. Here is this weekâs example:
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) wants kids to learn early in life that thereâs no such thing as a free lunch. To make sure they absorb that lesson, heâs proposing that low-income children do some manual labor in exchange for their subsidized meals.
Heâs remembering fellow Georgian Congressman Newt Gingrich who suggested in 2011 that poor kids work in schools replacing janitors:
Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they would have pride in the schools…
As Atrios said, many people think being born in the lucky sperm club makes you a better human being, and those who weren’t need to learn just how horrible and inferior they are because their parents are poor.
Who doesn’t want to see kids well-nourished? Republicans. Before Reagan, charitable works were a good thing, but now we know that helping folks out just makes them weak, and unable to contribute to society.
On to cartoons. Leave it to the GOP. We now need three cans for recycling:
Nordstromâs decides on a new spring line:
Ivankaâs dad tries to measure up:
New Education Secretary Betsy DeVos loves vouchers:
Dems adopt Tea Party tactics by shouting down Congress Critters at Town Halls:
Trump says that busloads of fraudulent voters were the difference in NH Senate race:
It was reported by Politico that there was an “uncomfortable silence” in the room, and here’s why: If thousands means at least 3,000, and if a bus holds 50 people, that would be 60 buses rolling up US 93 or US 91 from Massachusetts to NH that nobody noticed.
Then came the cherry on top of Trumpâs crumb cake: He told Democrats in the room (Chris Coons, Joe Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp and Jon Tester) that he was glad “Pocahontas”, his nickname for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was “becoming the face of the Democrats.â
Thatâs sure to win friends among the Dems that he needs to help confirm Neil Gorsuch as a SCOTUS Justice.
Tons of moving parts this week. Jeff Sessions and Tom Price were confirmed; the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals handed Trump a setback in his plan to keep most Muslims out of the country, making our Overlord 0-2 vs. the justice system. The tweets continued; Elizabeth Warren was told to shut up, and Kellyanne was shut down for pumping Ivankaâs merch on a Fox news show.
But the big news for Wrongo was hearing on the BBC about National Security Advisor Michael Flynn: (brackets by the Wrongologist)
[Flynn] couldnât be certain that he didnât discuss sanctions with Russiaâs Ambassador [Kislyak] to the US on December 29, 2016.
In December, it was rumored that Gen. Flynn had done exactly that, which brought denials from the Trump transition team. You may remember that Mike Pence said in an interview with CBS News that he had spoken with Flynn about the matter. Pence said there had been no contact between members of Trumpâs team and Russia during the campaign. To suggest otherwise, he said: (brackets by the Wrongologist)
Is to give credence to some of these bizarre rumors that have swirled around the [Trumpâs] candidacy.
Of course, December 29, 2016 was not during the campaign. Now, the WaPo has a blockbuster story indicating that Flynn did talk to the Russians:
National Security Advisor Michael Flynn privately discussed US sanctions against Russia with that countryâs ambassador to the United States during the month before President Trump took office, contrary to public assertions by Trump officials, current and former US officials said.
More from WaPo:
Nine current and former officials, who were in senior positions at multiple agencies at the time of the calls, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
All of those officials said Flynnâs references to the election-related sanctions were explicit. Two of those officials went further, saying that Flynn urged Russia not to overreact to the penalties being imposed by President Barack Obama, making clear that the two sides would be in position to review the matter after Trump was sworn in as president.
This means that Flynn was working against established US policy. He was telling Moscow not to worry about new sanctions imposed by Obama, and to stand by until Trump was inaugurated, which is what Russia did.
In some quarters, this is aiding an enemy. It also was dumb, since US intelligence routinely intercepts Russian conversations. The WaPo indicates that a transcript of Flynnâs conversation was passed among the intelligence community.
This is not the way a senior national security official should behave. He isnât fit for the office he holds, he should be fired.
If you grew up with Saturday cartoons on the tube, this will sound familiar. It has been featured in Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Krazy Kat and Tom & Jerry cartoons, and in âWho Framed Roger Rabbit?â
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
(Scroll to the bottom of the page for the Daily Escape)
When we allow the silencing of our Senators, we allow the silencing of our democracy. HuffPo reports:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) rose on Tuesday and objected to a speech Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was giving in opposition to the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) as attorney general.
McConnell took particular issue with Warren as she quoted a letter written by Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr.âs widow, when Sessions was under consideration for a federal judgeship in 1986.
McConnell invoked the little-used Rule XIX, which says that âNo Senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.â Kingâs letter argues that, during Sessionsâ time as a prosecutor in Alabama, âMr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens.â It was that portion of the letter that McConnell read back to the presiding officer, arguing that it was over the line.
The Republican presiding in the chair, Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, agreed with McConnell, ruling her in violation of the order and forcing her to sit down.
âI am surprised that the words of Coretta Scott King are not suitable for debate in the United States Senate,â Warren replied.
It seems the voices of both Sen. Warren and the late Coretta Scott King are now unwelcome in the Senateâs old boys’ club, even though Ms. Kingâs words were placed in the Senateâs records 30 years ago. This from Booman: (emphasis and brackets by the Wrongologist)
Rule 19 is a good rule that helps prevent canings on the Senate floor. But it really should never apply to a senator who is under consideration for confirmation to another office. If Warren and Merkley were reading these historical documents just to make Sessions look bad while they were arguing over the budget that would be a legitimate violation of the rules. But these documents [Kingâs letter] were germane to Sessionsâ fitness for the office of Attorney General in the same way that his tax returns and voting record are germane.
Republicans regularly call their opponents corrupt traitors. The NYT reports that both Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) appear to have violated the rule according to its true intent, without having it invoked against them. In 2015, Cruz called McConnell a liar. But heâs a Republican man, while Sen. Warren is out of line for quoting the widow of a titan of American history. Got it.
Apparently McConnell thinks that a Senator nominated for a Cabinet position isnât a nominee. They remain a Senator, and the ability of other Senators to criticize their nomination is subject to Rule 19. That is a misuse of the rule, and McConnell abused his power. And he did more to raise awareness about Sessionsâ racist past than he did to safeguard Sessions’ âcharacter.â Republicans know that Warrenâs Senate performances have a long afterlife on YouTube, so they tried to prevent another one, but failed.
Had they let her read it, it would have been seen by only a few thousand late night C-SPAN watchers. Instead, her Facebook video reading the Coretta Scott King letter had 7.8 million views by Wednesday afternoon.
The GOPâs self-inflicted wound is shutting down a white woman reading a letter written by a black woman who lost her toweringly famous husband in the struggle for equality, a letter which criticized the racism of a Southern white man, during Black History Month. The Oregonian reported:
Hours after GOP leaders blocked Sen. Elizabeth Warren from reading a letter critical of Sen. Jeff Sessions during his confirmation hearing for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Merkley picked it up and read the document uninterrupted.
So, after they shut down one Democratic Senator, McConnell allowed a different Democrat to read the letter? What’s the difference?
Your Daily Escape: Stuttgart City Library, built in 2011
