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:
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.
“True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.”– Kurt Vonnegut
Welcome to the weekend, we should be at least concerned, if not terrified. After all, look at who is in charge. Its those jerks you knew back in the day.
We have just driven into a long, dark tunnel in the back seat of the Trump Express. Will we ever see light at the other end? When a president is out of his partyâs mainstream by this much, he just provides cover for the rest of them to act out accordingly.
A few things that happened this week that you should consider, none of which will be the worst thing that Trump puts in motion over the next four years:
The House and Senate approved a measure that scuttles a new regulation aimed at preventing coal mining debris from being dumped into nearby streams. The Senate’s 54-45 vote on Friday sends the measure to President Trump. What’s more, the law prevents the executive branch from imposing substantially similar regulations in the future.
On Thursday, the House repealed a Social Security Administration regulation to keep people with severe mental illnesses from buying guns. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee said:
The agency should be focused on serving all of its beneficiaries, not picking and choosing whose Second Amendment rights to deny…
On the gun issue, the GOP is taking away Obamacare, so you wonât be able to afford treatment for your mental illness, but hey â go buy a gun!
To paraphrase Mitt Romney, coal companies are people too. They need the profits from dumping industrial waste in the water supply just as much as a human needs clean water. Why should we prioritize humans over corporate folks? Maybe youâre just prejudiced against legal persons.
Republicans seem to know intuitively that the faster and more boldly they move, the harder it will be for Democrats to change the rules later. As long as Republicans control both the House and the Senate, Trump will leave big, black heel marks all over our democracy.
So, calm down. Itâs gonna get worse. Take a break with a hot cuppa DECAF coffee and settle back for half an hour to listen to music. Here is Mendelssohnâs Violin Concerto E Minor OP 64 first performed in 1845. It took Mendelssohn six years to write. Today we hear it performed by three-time Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn playing in June 2012 with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Korean Art Centre Concert Hall, Seoul Korea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1dBg__wsuo
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
According to Article V of the US Constitution, the states can convene a Constitutional convention without any action by the federal government if two-thirds (34) of them pass a resolution in favor of the convention. Right-wing organizations have been working for decades to convince enough state legislatures to call for such a convention, with the aim of limiting the powers of the federal government.
Now, Republicans are close to that goal.
Resolutions for a Constitutional convention have already passed in 28 states. And after Novemberâs elections, Republicans control both legislative chambers in 32 states, while also dominating Nebraskaâs uni-cameral legislature, giving them 33. This means that they are just one state shy of the 34 needed to propose an Article V convention. And Republicans now hold 34 governorships.
OTOH, Nevadaâs House and Senate flipped to the Democrats, offering progressives an opportunity to rescind the convention resolution they passed previously.
Well done Democrats! Not only will the GOP control the Supreme Court for the next generation, they are on the cusp of rewriting the Constitution to make the Federal government a weak shadow of what it was under FDR and LBJ.
Say goodbye to the liberal democracy you say you cherish. Neither the President nor the Supreme Court have any say in this if 34 states agree to hold a Constitutional convention.
Last September, Convention of States a group dedicated to creating a Constitutional convention, convened a simulated Constitutional convention. At this meeting 137 state legislators representing all 50 states attended a âdry run,â in Williamsburg, Va. It produced drafts of six different proposed amendments:
A balanced budget amendment that mandates a Congressional supermajority in order to increase the national debt
Congressional term limits
Abolishing the federal income tax; while requiring a supermajority for other federal taxes
Curtail federal legislative and executive jurisdiction by reining in the commerce clause
Allow three-fifths of the states to nullify a federal law
Allow congressional override of regulations
The balanced budget amendment has been a priority of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) for decades. ALEC, whose funders include many very large US companies, has poured huge sums of money into state legislative races, and provides sample legislation to its members.
According to In These Times, at ALECâs July 2016 annual meeting, the Constitutional convention was made a top priority. ALEC has adopted model rules for an Article V convention and offers its members model language for a resolution to call for a convention. After focusing on state legislatures for decades, they now have tight relationships with many states across the country.
Since 2000, ALEC did a brilliant job of using the Congressional mid-term elections and state elections as a referendum on the Obama administration. And since Obama came to office, Democrats have lost control of 958 state legislative seats.
If a convention gets triggered, state legislators from across the country will convene to propose amendments, which then need to be ratified by three-fourths (38) of the states to become part of the Constitution. There are concerns however, even within the right-wing that a Constitutional convention could become a runaway train, attempting to go way beyond its stated goals, or by creating more division in an already divided country.
The best argument against a Constitutional convention is that any benefit gained by fixing glitches in our system could easily be outweighed by the risk of letting the crazies have a shot at wrecking the whole thing.
But no need to worry about that particular risk. The crazies are already here.
Republicans love the Constitution so much that they just nominated as a Supreme Court Justice a strict constructionist who will decide cases in accordance with the Constitutionâs original intent. The GOP says they cannot abide tampering with that.
And yet, they are working to change it.
If you think we should only want a Constitutional convention when the country reaches a crisis point, welcome to our new world:
There are two possible outcomes at this point. Either the crazies succeed and consolidate power on top of the wreckage of our current system, or they will falter and fail.
Sorry Democrats, you just canât sit back and count on the latter.
Weâve made it to Saturday, all the while trying to sort through the blizzard of executive orders issued by our Orange Overlord. As we cruise into the weekend, we need to reflect on Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trumpâs nominee for Attorney General. The Senate Judiciary Committee will probably vote on the nomination on Tuesday, after which it will go to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.
At a moment like this one, it simply will not do to have someone in the attorney general’s office who was deemed too racist to be a federal judge 30 years ago. It will not do to have someone in the attorney general’s office who launched a dirty-tricks prosecution of voting-rights activists when he was a U.S. Attorney in Alabama. It will not do to have someone in the attorney general’s office who greeted the gutting of the Voting Rights Act in 2013 by noting that it was “good for the South.”
Pierce says that no (zero) Democrats should vote for Sessions:
There is no room for compromise or horse-trading. The Democratic Party should stand for the expansion of the franchise and for a greater ease in exercising it.
Voting rights will be at risk if Sessions is confirmed. The AG will follow Trump’s lead and focus on a âvoter fraudâ investigation in the big liberal states and urban areas that do not vote Republican. This is something the right wing has been doing for years. From what Trump said this week to David Muir on ABC, he believes that the problem exists only in places he didnât win. He told Muir that every one of the alleged 2 million to 3 million illegal votes went to Hillary Clinton.
If it isn’t clear by now, this is a powerful new national campaign of voter suppression coming down the road to a polling place near you. We donât know at this point who will be heading Trumpâs âinvestigation,â or what form itâs likely to take, but Jeff Sessions is just the man for the job.
We could also tell our Senators that they should not vote to confirm Betsy DeVos and Tom Price, but both will probably get a few Dem votes. Wrongo isnât arguing for complete resistance as the only response to Trump, but we canât appoint Sessions.
Will even a single Republican Senator have the backbone to vote against the president’s hand-picked bigot? The prospects are not heartening.
Glad thatâs off of Wrongoâs chest. Time to grab a cup of Bengal Spice Chai tea, and mellow out with the Saturday Soother. Today we are going acapella with the University of North Carolina Clef Hangers. They have been around for 35 years, and have released 17 studio-produced albums. Here are the Clef Hangers doing âYou Never Need Nobodyâ, a song by the Brooklyn NY-based The Lone Bellow:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
This past Saturday, I was one of almost 500,000 women and men participating in the Womenâs March on Washington. From 8 am until well after 8 pm, the streets were crowded with women wearing pink âpussy hats,â carrying indignant signs, and chanting out against our newest president.
The movement was powerful, and greatly exceeded expectations: the Washington March itself had almost 2.5x the amount of people it was projected to have, and the sister marches across the States and the world had incredible turnout. After having seen so many red âMake America Great Againâ caps and rioters in the streets just twenty-four hours earlier, I was encouraged to see an influx of pink hats participating in a protest that remained peaceful and could spark a global movement.
From an outside perspective, it may seem that the Womenâs March had no direction and no goal. Millions of people took to the streets to protest, but for what? On the Womenâs March website, it lists the âunifying principlesâ of the march: ending violence, reproductive rights, LGBTQIA rights, workerâs rights, civil rights, disability rights, immigrant rights, and even environmental justice. From what I saw, participants in the March held signs that advocated for each of the unifying principles of the March. However, the heart of the matter is this: President Trump was elected without a majority popular vote, and while he has promised to be âa president for all Americans,â his words and actions have proven that he will not.
While January 21st was an important first step in the fight against the Orange Overlordâs administration, the fight in no way stops here. As a pragmatist, I realize that many women and men will walk away after this weekend thinking that theyâve completed their democratic duty by simply showing up and chanting angrily for a few hours.
Despite this, I am extremely hopeful. Many speakers at the Washington March implored the participants to get politically active. We were told to write our representatives every single day, join and become active in the organizations that we were working to support, and finally, to run for public office. Protesters held signs echoing those same sentiments, urging us to vote and to get involved. To top it off, the Womenâs March website published an article outlining what exactly we can do during Trumpâs first 100 days to make sure our voices are heard in the Capitol.
In the same way that it is our democratic responsibility to vote in local, state and national elections, it is also our democratic responsibility to peacefully protest and make sure that our representatives are accurately representing our interests. Itâs hard to evaluate if the Womenâs March will lead to concrete actions â the commitment of the crowd could easily be attributed to mob mentality, and people lose resolve over time. Still, the Womenâs March was the largest protest to ever occur over the inauguration of a US President, and that fact cannot go unnoticed. My hope is that, with clear guidance and resources from the Womenâs March administrators, the majority of participants in Saturdayâs movement will abandon their excuses and take it upon themselves to exercise their democratic rights and responsibilities.
I can promise you that this protester will refuse to sit by idly, and will take action.
My favorite chant from Saturday sums up the movement perfectly:Â âThis is what democracy looks like”. Here are a few photos from the DC March. This one shows size of the crowd:
Sign from person near the Smithsonian:
One of the main purposes of the March was to address reproductive rights:
âIâm with herâ sign shows marchersâ solidarity. View towards the Washington Monument:
After the Womenâs March, both Trump and his press bunny, Sean Spicer, said that the numbers of attendees at the Trump Inaugural was the largest of all time. How can Spicer explain this?
In a surreal turn, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer tonight denied reality, lashed out at the press for its supposed âshameful and wrongâ coverage of the size of the crowd that attended President Trumpâs January 20 inaugural festivities, instructed the White House press corps on what they âshould be writing and covering,â declared that the administration intended to âhold the press accountable,â and left the briefing room without taking questions
For those who think they can trust Spicer, here are a few more links:
If Spicer wanted to avoid a confrontation, he could have shut down the discussion by saying that Trumpâs supporters had to work on a Monday, because of the terrible jobs situation in America. But he tried ju-jitsu instead.
We should be very concerned about the lying and the angry effort to turn the tables on the press by Trump and his press secretary. They wouldnât even tell the truth for something that is totally knowable, and then they attacked those who reported truthfully.
It is clear that the Trump administration plans to bully the press until: a) they stop attending press conferences, and/or b) stop digging for the real facts behind any bald-faced Trump administration assertion.
There are just three choices here:
You think lying is wrong
You think lying is OK
You are a hypocrite who moves between options 1 & 2 depending on whether you’re benefiting from the lie, or being harmed by it
The Overlord thinks he has no need to speak the truth, because he can just deny that whatever he disagrees with is true, and have some 20 million of his diehard twitter followers re-trumpet that he is correct.
This is a real threat to democracy! It is looking like Trump will be the Bullshitter-in-Chief, broadcasting a daily smokescreen of “fake news” (formerly, propaganda) while his cabinet of billionaires work to enrich themselves and Trump’s friends, and the Republican Congress tries to turn America into Paul Ryan’s granny-starver version of Ayn Rand’s paradise.
Bushâs and Roveâs “we manufacture our own reality” ultimately failed, and it seems Trump is trying the same thing but with a much weaker hand. We thought that Bush was incompetent and couldn’t do the job, and he was well on his way to proving that when 9/11 happened, and suddenly everyone was “rallying around our president“. Trump would also be seen as a terrific leader by a majority if he was talking through a bullhorn from the top of a pile of rubble.
And Trump won’t miss any opportunities to tweet glowing assessments of his performance. Thus, he has no need to engage in an honest evaluation of anything when a quick, preemptive hit works so well for him.
So time for the press to wake up and flay the Trump administration whenever they dissemble. The press now has a new organizing principle called the quest for truth. Something that has been missing for nearly 30 years.
To help them wake up, here are the Eagles with âNew Kid in Townâ from their 1976 âHotel Californiaâ album. Released as the first single from the album, the song became a number-one hit in the US. Glenn Frey died late last year. He is missed. Here is âNew Kid in Townâ in a live version from their show in Washington, DC in 1977 at the old Capitol Center:
Time to hold the new kid responsible for his lying.
Sample Lyrics:
There’s talk on the street, it sounds so familiar.
Great expectations, everybody’s watching you.
People you meet they all seem to know you,
Even your old friends treat you like you’re something new.
Johnny-come-lately, the new kid in town, everybody loves you, so don’t let them down.
There’s talk on the street, it’s there to remind you That it doesn’t really matter which side you’re on. You’re walking away and they’re talking behind you. They will never forget you till somebody new comes along.
For those who read the Wrongologist in email, you can view the video here.
Did everyone remember to turn their clocks back by 50 years last night? The dust has settled on the Womenâs March on Washington. The turnout was very impressive, not only in Washington, but in other cities across the US. Let us remember that women protesting ultimately led to them getting the right to vote. They helped bring about civil rights legislation, a minimum-wage, and the abolition of child labor in this country. This is both their right and their obligation.
Womenâs March outdraws the Inauguration:
And people said Clintonâs slogan âStronger Togetherâ was terrible:
What to expect after inaugurating the Overlord:
The torch was passed:
There was a chill in the White House on Trumpâs first day:
Most federal regulations exist to implement legislation. Certainly there are regulations that aren’t working as intended, that are more burdensome than needed to address the problem, that prove counter-productive in practice, and so need fixing. But ideologues have no interest in rational governance. Anti-regulatory zeal is like religious dogma to them, but driven by greed.
Trumpâs real change is to make Monopoly great again:
Did Wrongo miss anything yesterday? We had multiple meetings, and thus, no chance to see the âYou Bet Your Countryâ reality show that premiered in DC.
Look on the bright side, there are now only 1,459 days left in the reign of DT, so two things to focus on:
Work hard to save the ACA, and
Remember to toast to the health of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer every day.
Today is the Womenâs March in Washington DC. Two days in a row of firsts for our Orange Overlord. Yesterday, he was sworn in as the 45th president. Today, he sees his first mass protest in the form of the Womenâs March, and companion marches (600 at last count) around the country and the world.
New York Magazine tweaks the main stream mediaâs coverage thusly: (brackets by the Wrongologist)
…the mediaâs treatment of the [womenâs] march has been so fretful that youâd be forgiven for thinking that this grass-roots demonstration of hundreds of thousands on behalf of womenâs rights is an example of feminism in crisis and disarray.
Whenever there are protests from the left, we’re always adjured that we’re doing it wrong and/or that our “message” is defocused or unclear. Leftwing protests get little coverage in the MSM. Wrongo has observed that when there are rightwing protests, they are typically universally covered by the MSM. Plus their “message” is always described as clear, and unequivocal.
There have been protests at most recent inaugurals, but they have been generally along the parade route, as there were in DC today. The car and trash can burnings made today’s DC protests look more like what we see in European capitals.
What the Womenâs March envisions is a protest that creates as much buzz as the inauguration itself. That means the organizers are attempting to create a widespread, and diverse coalition for this event. The hope is: (1) a huge crowd shows up to protest; (2) the protest is marked by its size and the quality of its direct action (without violence); (3) the obvious fissures in the coalition remain unclear to the public until long after the march.
The March on Washington in August, 1963 was one of the largest political demonstrations in American history. The organizing idea was a protest for âjobs and freedomâ. You may not remember that John Lewis’s original speech at the March on Washington was highly controversial. Now, 54 years down the road, no one cares, because of the power of Lewis’s personal history, and the fact that the march ultimately led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The March on Washington was broadcast on TV, because we had not yet become jaded about protests, and the White House was vulnerable from both sides of the racial divide. The Womenâs March is only expected to be live-streamed via cell phone. The networks will give us highly edited snippets on the evening news.
The value of these large public protests are in building a more unified opposition movement. Perhaps it will happen this time, although there is a risk that it fizzles like the Occupy Movement did.
The Tea Party began building their national presence with a rally of maybe 7000 people in tri-corner hats, enabled by a few Congress Critters. That was enough for the media to legitimize their birth. Perhaps it will work for the Womenâs March: it will become a viable movement only if the commitment to messaging and building a national presence in Congressional districts and statehouses is carried through.
What will be more significant for the future are the state capitol and major city rallies once the protesters leave Washington. Resistance IS the message: The voters did not deliver Trump an overwhelming mandate to do the things his juggernaut is planning to shower on America.
Handled correctly that could make Trump and the GOP vulnerable. The Wrongologist will post a first-person report from an attendee at the Womenâs March, on Tuesday.
But today is Saturday, and you need to mellow out a little. Here is something radically different, yet completely familiar. This is the Austrian brass ensemble Mnozil Brass performing Queenâs âBohemian Rhapsodyâ. What better tribute to Freddie Mercury? These guys are demonstrably horny and have lots of brass. High energy, and completely entertaining:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJTIJRoEWPE
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Today is the Trump Inaugural. So many preparations, and so much detail for the transition team to worry about. From the no stone left unturned department, comes this from the WSJ:
 Workers preparing for the Trump Inaugural have taped over the name of the company â âDonâs Johnsâ â that has long supplied portable restrooms for major outdoor events in the nationâs capital…Virginia-based Donâs Johns calls itself the Washington areaâs top provider of portable toilet rentals. But the name apparently strikes too close to home for inaugural organizers.
Too close to Donald John for Donald John Trump? Of course. Somebody placed blue tape over the company name on dozens of portable restrooms installed near the Capitol for the inauguration. The company says they didnât do it. But, the companyâs name is clearly blocked from the TV cameras:
Once Donald J. Trump becomes the 45th president of the US, he will certainly push the agenda that got him elected. We all will need a way to sort the signal from the noise that we will hear from both his partisans and his opposition (which includes the Wrongologist). When you hear people raising reasoned questions and objections to Trumpâs proposed policies, odds are that youâre listening to the kind of dissent thatâs essential to our democracy, and you ought to take it seriously. For the kinds of arm-waving, emotional, knee-jerk support (or criticism) that you will hear every day, feel free to ignore that. You will know the knee-jerk stuff, since it will be sung in harmony by all the other partisans. And the media will repeat it often for your consideration.
Wrongo has serious problems with Trump, but is hopeful that his administration will:
Live up to his populist domestic promises, and
Simplify our countryâs confusing foreign policy
If he normalizes relations with Russia, extracts us from the messes in Iraq and Syria and if he encourages domestic jobs growth, Wrongo will likely sign up for all of that. If he pushes through a big infrastructure bill that isnât a wealth transfer to corporations, Wrongo will probably go along with that as well.
Wrongo does not trust Trump or the GOP on health care insurance. He worries that Republicans will throw a number of Americans under the bus, causing a great deal of unnecessary pain.
You can be sure that Trump is going to try to do some terrible things over the next four years, such as appointing ideologues to the Supreme Court. But, Congressional Republicans will clearly attempt far worse things than will The Overlord.
So the terrible fact is, we have to count on Trump to rein in the worst of the GOPâs ideas and instincts.
Needing to trust Donald Trump is enough to frighten anyone.
Trump tweets continually to rally his supporters while simultaneously manipulating the media. It’s unnerving. Saying that Trump is terrifying, while correct, is useless. The most obsessive of his opponents focus on worst-case scenarios that are designed to rally (and raise money from) the anti-Trump troops among us. Sadly, that strategy largely guarantees that the opposition will look disorganized and fragile. It also causes the American center-left to be fragmented issue by issue, and therefore, unable to broadly challenge the GOP, at least in the short run.
The Dems need to coalesce around only the potentially win-able issues. Otherwise, they should âjust say noâ to any Trump legislation intended to weaken or break our social contract. Sen. Schumer is correct when he says that the GOP needs to own 100% of the pain they cause the average person, whenever they break the contract. Any Democrat that breaks ranks to support issues like cuts to Medicare or privatization of Social Security must be challenged from the left in the next primary.
Democrats did not believe they would be in this political mess. They are trying to find their footing, but establishment Democrats want to simply tweak the message, and stay the course.
However, the battle against Trump and the GOP majority must move from “Republican Lite” to a fight to put social justice and progressivism back on the table as viable options for all Americans.
Otherwise, it will be a precipitous fall from political relevancy for Democrats.
Establishment Democrats who profit from the status quo, have no incentive to come up with an agenda that appeals to people who are suffering because of that status quo. The great weakness of Hillary Clinton’s campaign was that she aimed her appeals at the minority of voters who would benefit from the established neoliberal order, while largely ignoring those who suffered under it.
That decision could cost the Dems for a generation.
