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“…Remember the good old days — by which I mean just a few weeks ago — when there was hope and talk that Donald Trump’s 36-year-old son-in-law would play the angel to Steve Bannon’s devil, tempering the president’s policies and keeping his crudest and most belligerent tendencies in check?
Well, the devil is running rampant in the Trump administration so far. The angel looks ever paler and frailer, with a halo that’s hard to find.
Jared Kushner, where are you?
I ask that specifically, in terms of Trump’s inner circle and Bannon’s obviously greater sway. But I ask it in a broader sense as well. Where among Trump’s sanest advisers and the most reasonable Republicans in Congress is the degree of pushback that’s called for? Where are the sufficiently loud voices of dissent? Right now Trump has too many mum collaborators too content to hope for the best. I put Kushner in that pack.
Bannon certainly knows how to manipulate the president and get what he wants. He’s Trump’s unabashed Iago, whispering sweet fictions about the magnitude of the “movement” that the president is leading and specifying how to feed it. He has a seat on the National Security Council. Kushner has his hand on Ivanka Trump’s seat.
If you haven’t seen that photo of the couple, do find it, and bear in mind when Ivanka posted it on her social media accounts: around midnight on Saturday. Her father’s hastily, sloppily composed immigration ban was just being implemented. Many confused, frightened travelers languished in detention or limbo. Protests had erupted at American airports. But she and her husband were on the town! They beamed, resplendent in formal wear and peerless in tone deafness.
A clever observer tweeted an image of Ivanka in her metallic gown next to one of a Syrian girl in a metallic emergency blanket, asking: “Who wore it better?”
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C3UJ4IdUkAAHwqZ.jpg
If Kushner has sturdy principles or half the say that Bannon does, then explain the wording of the statement that the president put out on Friday in remembrance of the Holocaust. It failed to mention Jews, an omission so glaring that it incited a furor among Jewish Republican groups. And rather than apologize to them, the administration dug in, reprimanding them for being too touchy.
This had all the markings of Bannon, who deplores what he deems the politically correct coddling of minority groups. But it seemed to go against what Kushner holds dearest. He’s the descendant of Holocaust survivors, including a grandmother who helped to found the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and once complained of America’s reluctance to take in Jewish refugees who were trying to avoid extermination.
His family is famous for its Jewish philanthropy. He and Ivanka, who converted to Judaism for their marriage, observe the Sabbath from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday. And yet his father-in-law fell short of the presidents before him in recognizing the horrors inflicted on Jews.
Both before Trump’s candidacy and at its start, Kushner was pegged as someone with mild political views. He and Ivanka ran in socially liberal crowds, and their presence beside Trump provided at least an iota of reassurance for some of the many people aghast at his racially incendiary tactics.
But for Kushner, the campaign was less a political journey than an emotional one. His family had felt the lash of disdain after his father was sent to prison years earlier, and he was intent on redemption, revenge or something along those lines. Trump represented a road to a summit from which his son-in-law could lord it over the elitists who had looked down on him.
Maybe he didn’t register all the ugly swerves along the way. Maybe he convinced himself that they weren’t so ugly. Maybe he believed that he’d be able to grab the wheel and correct the course. Maybe he still tells himself that, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Sometimes I study him and see someone drained of color, even thinner than before, haunted. More often I see an emblem of our morally compromised capital, full of people willing to let the Trump juggernaut flatten essential American values just as long as they get to go along for the ride.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/opinion/where-is-jared-kushner.html?ribbon-ad-idx=4&rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article
Some of the comments under this write-up:
Susan Kentucky 12 hours ago
Very well put, but when our hopes for rational leadership lie with a callow and feckless young man , however stellar his marketing skills, it is not promising.
mamazoni New Haven, CT 12 hours ago
This is how low we’ve set the bar? We’re hoping to see more of the simply unqualified advisor, in lieu of the unqualified, unhinged and treasonous one?
Within 11 days we’re nostalgic for the good ol days of Jared Kushner?
Dana Santa Monica 14 hours ago
It is a myth that Kushner is a reasonable, good influence. One developed by the media perhaps because he is young and telegenic, but not at all based in reality. Kushner took credit for orchestrating the absolutely disgusting stunt of having Bill Clinton’s accusers show up at the debate in a shameful effort to embarrass and disgrace ms Clinton. He’s as dirty as they come. The media should be careful to remember that.
kathy new york city 14 hours ago
It’s hard to have a backbone when your entire life things have been given to you… Father bought him a place at Harvard University, then made him president of his real estate company. Here in NYC, his real estate efforts include forcing rent control & rent stabilized tenants out of their apartments to renovate and replace with million plus condos. It’s easy to be Jewish observing Shabbat; it’s like Trump going to church on Sunday. One day instead of scheming how to get in his father in laws good graces, he might start to think about his own grandmother’s words and what he can do to help people… a good start might be to become his own man and not somebody’s puppet.
James New Wilmington 12 hours ago
Year’s ago Trump’s mentor was Roy Cohn, who while gay himself participated in the persecution of gay people, starting with his time on the McCarthy committee. Kushnar is a Jew but will put that aside for access to power and money-and tolerate antisemitism from Trump and Bannon. He had better be careful in his dealings with Trump, he runs the risk of ending up like his father—incarcerated.
Elizabeth Roslyn, New York 12 hours ago
Or perhaps Jared is just his father’s son. Neither are ‘nice’ people.
luckygal Chicago 14 hours ago
Kushner and Ivanka have no interest in rocking the boat. They are happy on the sidelines, using Trump’s presidency in any and every way that will benefit them, their families, their companies. Ivanka on her Twitter profile claims to “support empowerment of women and girls,” yet was completely silent during the days of the Women’s March, and both are silent about The Ban. She coyly backs a non-controversial childcare initiative, while keeping her anti-choice views quiet, so she can keep selling shoes and jewelry to ALL women. They both come from cons, the apples haven’t fallen far from the trees.
Patricia Brooklyn 14 hours ago
I’m convinced that far from any moderating expectations, he is an enabler. It’s not like he doesn’t know who his father-in-law is. It’s not like he didn’t spend months on the campaign trail with him and see him address crowds. It’s not like he didn’t run his campaign (and pushed people out of the way while doing so)! It’s not like he doesn’t see him behind closed doors, where the ugliness is on ever higher display than on Twitter. This family is like the mafia. It’s all about unquestioning devotion. Nothing else matters, not even the fact that their kids are being raised Jewish and that their grandfather, the President, is now being manhadled by the alt-right. But as to the kids being raised Jewish and the pair observing Sabbath faithfully–well, like someone else put it in the comments–they sure look the part. This is a dangerous man. Don’t be fooled.
SB NJ 14 hours ago
I wonder if Jared isn’t the puppeteer behind the scenes, pulling all the strings. Others take the heat and protect Jared, Ivanka and theTrump brand.
Bill at 66 (years old) Portland OR 14 hours ago
Citizens are always looking for someone to “moderate” the President’s behavior these days. It is whistling in the dark, a justified but very fearful posture that we are all assuming whether or not we admit it. Get it through your heads this a cabal of like-minded people, many who attached themselves to Trump and are simply opportunists previously marginalized by their own abilities and the norms of governance. They are not going to normalize Donald, they are going to make Donald the new normal.
Did anyone else notice the two Trump boys at the Supreme Court show last night, sitting up front, applauding and waiting for a moment with their dad so that they could discuss business? LOL? Great separation. The President will emerge from this four years much richer than he entered it.
In the meantime I would caution all of us (again) it is hard to see what is on fire when we are choking on the smoke. And this new administration knows how to fan the flames… Good luck to us all, the Republic will need it in growing doses…
More comments:
Ellen is a trusted commenter 21 hours ago
You are assigning far too many positive attributes to Kushner than he deserves.
He bought The Observer, then plundered it and ruined it.
He has a terrible reputation among the tenants of his many buildings.
He trotted out his grandmother’s horrific story of survival this summer, which includes being denied refuge in the US — in order to mitigate the damage of the blatantly anti-semitic Trump campaign image of Hillary Clinton, with a 6 pointed star, on which was written “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever” as cousin and dollar bills rained down on her.
Trump explained the star as a “sheriff’s star”.
If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
Need I mention his (extended) family was FURIOUS to see Grandma used that way?
What else would you expect from him? I think he joined the campaign, as much as anything, to get back at Chris Christie, who put his father in jail, and rightfully so. Personal enrichment is the frosting on his cake.
Jared is playing the historical role of Court Jew. He is there to legitimize the most heinous discriminatory writs and edicts – while giving cover to his father-in-law as he pillories Muslims, denies shelter to those most in need of it, and brings the most rabid racists, anti-semitic fringe elements and under the rock dwellers in America to the very heart of OUR government. We are the only ones to save ourselves and our country.
RjW Spruce Pine NC 21 hours ago
No one can stand in the way of this arc of history any longer. The die is cast I’m afraid. Opportunity lost, hope in the rear view mirror.
Putin is on the march in Ukraine as I write, and it has barely made the news.
Make Russia (and China) Great Again!
Our intelligence communities and military are clearly divided in their loyalties now, and the afformentioned countries know it.
The next shoe to drop may be China firming up its position in the South China Sea. We’ll have to wait and see if even that can make the news.
Godspeed to those parts of government that have the temerity to keep things together for us during this dark period.
cirincis out east 14 hours ago
Wow. We’ve reached the point where we’re wondering (and longing for) Jared Kushner to save us? Another neophyte without an iota of government experience? Whose sole qualification to wield enormous influence is that he married Trump’s daughter?
We’re in bad shape.
joanne Pennsylvania 18 hours ago
There’s an inner circle power struggle complete with endless turf wars.
Led by a narcissist who surrounds himself with other narcissists just like himself.
Looks like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller won the fight club match.
Trump aides have leaked to multiple news organizations that the inner circle is a “chaos cage match” filled with shouting, rage and total dysfunction.
How narcissistic is Kushner to believe he can run a government because he briefly ran a real estate firm that belonged to his dad. How narcissistic is Bannon to believe he can run a government? Or Miller?
None was ever elected to even be dog catcher.
They bring their own agendas and that’s it. Bannon/Miller function as the alpha males in the room– as a hapless, distracted, self-involved president wiles away the time on his hair, his tan, and what the press is saying every minute about him.
His hair was dyed a different color when he appeared last night at his big premier for Celebrity Apprentice, Supreme Court. He even called his selections “finalists.” Always the television performer, never a president.
That inner circle coup d’etat was ripe for the picking, as they say.
Alex London 19 hours ago
If anyone imagines that Kushners appointment is anything other than optics or a compromise for Trump’s nepotistic proclivities is sadly deluded. To even suggest that he is the Angel to Bannon’s Devil is frankly naive. Kushner has inherited his position in society with a poor record of personal achievements (Observer newspaper). Other than the doting husband and father that Ivanka is determined to showcase he is unacomplished in public service and business and is unlikely to have the ear of the president. Banon on the other hand has had a long and varied career, is an ideologue with significant experience of challenging authority; a strong personality who has Trump firmly in the palm of his hand. With cleverly calculated flattery the Machiavellian Bannon will be the power behind the throne as the first two weeks of this administration have made abundantly clear.
Teresa MD 18 hours ago
The hero-worship and celebrity fascination of our culture is a reflection of our vacuous values. Everyone excretes the same smelly wastes, dies the same death from cancers, and looks the same when you cut them open during an autopsy or surgery. One has to wonder WHY on earth anyone would think that this rich, entitled, glamorous “power couple” would suddenly ascend to influence our government. How much do they actually know about constitutional law or history? They are millennial poster children with all the superficiality that characterizes this generation and, as has been pointed out, they were pretty much liberal democrats prior to this election or in Donald’s case when he first got interested in the presidency. It is sickening. Anyone consoled by Ivanka’s robotic/Stepford-like poise and beauty or the fact that Jared is Jewish is delusional. Steve Bannon is an evil, dangerous man controlling Trump’s puppet strings. That is the real fascination here and the real danger. How and why in God’s name are the Republicans in Congress tolerating this thug in a leadership position? It’s like Il Duce, with Adolf behind the scenes, heading the government. The media would do well to stop fueling this reality show (and the man-baby’s need for attention) and focus on reporting news without all the emotion.
JABarry Maryland 20 hours ago
Mr. Bruni says of Kushner, “I see an emblem of our morally compromised capital, full of people willing to let the Trump juggernaut flatten essential American values just as long as they get to go along for the ride.” So true. About Trump and the GOP.
Kushner has not been on my mind, but Mr. Bruni provides a compelling analogy of conflicted Kushner, conflicted America. The crux: morality. During the campaign Trump rallied a part of America to not just condone, but to admire immorality. Politically correct civil discourse was vilified;ruffing up protesters was encouraged;women demeaned, vulgarity elevated, sexual molestation gentrified, lying made the new standard of communication.
Some of America is drooling in ecstasy. MOST of America remains moral, steadfast in holding onto the values and rights we cherish, passed onto us by courageous Americans (of all colors, gender, religions, ethnicity — immigrants all) who placed their lives in jeopardy, gave their lives, to give us America.
Trump’s promise to make America great again is a mockery of America’s greatness. Just as Trump is making a mockery of the presidency. The days since doomsday have been nothing short of a farce, performed by buffoons, produced as reality TV.
Even if Kushner might moderate Trump’s excesses, that is not enough, that is no bargain. We must rid ourselves of this malignancy, which includes a slithering, spineless, shameless GOP.
America is better than Trump.
“…Republican leaders announced last March that they would not consider any nominee. They did so even though Barack Obama still had 10 months left in his term and even though other justices (including Anthony Kennedy) had been confirmed in a president’s final year.
The refusal was a raw power grab. Coupled with Republican hints that no Hillary Clinton nominee would be confirmed either, it was a fundamental changing of the rules: Only a party that controlled both the White House and the Senate would now be able to assume it could fill a Supreme Court vacancy.
Of course, the strategy also worked, and the flip from an Obama justice to a Trump justice will likely be the deciding factor in many of the most important cases in coming years.
So what can Democrats do?
First, they need to make sure that the stolen Supreme Court seat remains at the top of the public’s consciousness. When people hear the name “Neil Gorsuch,” as qualified as he may be, they should associate him with a constitutionally damaging power grab.
Second, Democrats should not weigh this nomination the same way that they’ve weighed previous ones. This one is different. The presumption should be that Gorsuch does not deserve confirmation, because the process that led to his nomination was illegitimate.
I understand that all of these options sound aggressive and partisan, and it makes me deeply uncomfortable to make such an argument.
But Democrats simply cannot play by the old set of rules now that the Republicans are playing by a new one. The only thing worse than the system that the Republicans have created is a system in which one political party volunteers to be bullied…”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/opinion/neil-gorsuch-how-democrats-should-respond.html?_r=0
“…It’s been almost a year since Senate Republicans took an empty Supreme Court seat hostage, discarding a constitutional duty that both parties have honored throughout American history and hobbling an entire branch of government for partisan gain.
Trump had a great opportunity to repair some of that damage by nominating a moderate candidate for the vacancy, which was created when Justice Antonin Scalia died last February. Instead, he chose Neil Gorsuch, a very conservative judge from the federal Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit whose jurisprudence and writing style are often compared to those of Justice Scalia.
If Judge Gorsuch is confirmed, the court will once again have a majority of justices appointed by Republican presidents, as it has for nearly half a century. For starters, that spells big trouble for public-sector labor unions, environmental regulations and women’s access to contraception. If Trump gets the chance to name another justice, the consequences could be much more dire.
These are not normal times.
The seat Judge Gorsuch hopes to sit in should have been filled, months ago, by Merrick Garland, the chief judge of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, whom President Barack Obama nominated to the court last March. Judge Garland, a former federal prosecutor and 20-year veteran of the nation’s most important federal appeals court, is both more moderate and more qualified than Judge Gorsuch.
That meant nothing to Senate Republicans, who abused their power as the majority party and, within hours of Justice Scalia’s death, shut down the confirmation process for the remainder of Mr. Obama’s presidency. There would be no negotiations to release this hostage; the sole object was to hold on to the court’s conservative majority. The outrageousness of the ploy was matched only by the unlikelihood that it would succeed — until, to virtually everyone’s shock, it did.
The destructive lesson Senate Republicans taught is that obstruction pays off. Yet they seem to have short memories. After Senate Democrats refused to attend votes on two of Mr. Trump’s cabinet picks on Tuesday, Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said, “We did not inflict this kind of obstructionism on President Obama.” Even absent such dishonesty, any Democratic impulse to mimic the Republican blockade by filibustering Judge Gorsuch would be understandable…”
Good for Senator Jeff Merkely…
And boy bye to that evil, greedy, shamelessly hollow, corrupt, and opportunistic racist coward Joe Manchin…
This is NOT normal. We do not have it twisted. He’s unstable.
https://twitter.com/nycjim/status/826959321569357824
https://www.instagram.com/p/BP8kt1ml68d/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPxyjrql96F/?hl=en
Report: In a ‘humiliating’ and ‘threatening’ tone, Trump lambasted Mexico’s president during a phone call
Christopher Woody
6h 165,978
During a phone call with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Friday, US President Donald Trump disparaged Mexico and threatened to use military force against the drug trade, according to Dolia Estevez, a journalist based in Washington, DC.
In an interview with the Mexican news outlet Aristegui Noticias, Estevez, who cited sources on both sides of the call, said, “It was a very offensive conversation where Trump humiliated Peña Nieto.”
………………………………………
“I don’t need the Mexicans. I don’t need Mexico,” Trump reportedly told the Mexican president. “We are going to build the wall and you all are going to pay for it, like it or not.”
Trump hinted that the US would force Mexico to fund the wall with a 10% tax on Mexican exports “and of 35% on those exports that hurt Mexico the most,” Estevez wrote in Proyecto Puente.
Before the call, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump was considering a tax on imports from Mexico to pay for the wall.
https://twitter.com/TeaPainUSA/status/826826845555404801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/cjcmichel/status/826908660949454851?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/ByCommonConsent/status/826822736949420032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/TIME/status/826939608747368448
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C3nn2TOWQAE5kim.jpg
LOL
https://twitter.com/lalecox/status/826767952418598912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/in-the-east-room-of-the-white-house-in-washington-dc-september-29-picture-id611440944
[getty src="611440944" width="594" height="396"]
#STOLENSEAT #STOLENSEAT #STOLENSEAT #STOLENSEAT #STOLENSEAT
The same media that shrugged and said nothing for almost a year as republicans refused to even consider Merrick Garland – one of the most eminently qualified Supreme Court nominees ever, are now telling folks just how ‘qualified’ Ronald Reagan’s former cabinet member’s son is…Ronald Reagan’s EPA 1.6 billion dollar superfund misappropriating Administrator who believed the EPA was ‘over-regulating’ and spent her tenure ‘downsizing’ the agency…sound familiar..?
The media and the GOP have been talking up right-wing judicial activist, Hobby Lobby Neil Gorsuch as if he somehow pulled off something special by graduating Harvard law and with his mother’s connection, going on to Oxford…But if we’re talking qualifications, let’s look again at judicial moderate and centrist Merrick Garland’s qualifications –
Garland had more federal judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in history.
Merrick Garland is the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He has served on that court since 1997 and has been chief judge since 2013.
Garland graduated summa cum laude as valedictorian from Harvard College and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. After serving as a law clerk to Judge Henry J. Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Garland attended Harvard College on a scholarship, graduating as valedictorian with an A.B. summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in social studies in 1974. Garland allied himself with his future boss, Jamie Gorelick, when he was elected the only freshman on a campus wide committee. During his college summers Garland volunteered as Congressman Abner J. Mikva’s speechwriter. After President Carter appointed Mikva to the D.C. Circuit, Mikva would rely on Garland when selecting clerks.
At Harvard, Garland wrote news articles and theater reviews for the Harvard Crimson and worked as a Quincy House tutor. Garland wrote his 235-page honors thesis on industrial mergers in Britain in the 1960’s.
Garland then attended Harvard Law School, graduating with a J.D. magna cum laude in 1977. During law school, Garland was a member of the Harvard Law Review, serving as an articles editor from 1976 to 1977. As an articles editor, Garland assigned himself to edit a submission by Justice William Joseph Brennan Jr.
Following graduation, Garland served as a law clerk for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1977 to 1978, and then Justice William J. Brennan Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1978 to 1979.
Since 1998, Merrick Garland has volunteered as a tutor for elementary school students in Northeast Washington, D.C.
Judge Garland’s record demonstrates that he is essentially the model, neutral judge. He is acknowledged by all to be brilliant. His opinions avoid unnecessary, sweeping pronouncements. Garland has a reputation for collegiality, and his opinions rarely draw a dissent.
In United States ex rel. Totten v. Bombardier Corp. (2004), Garland dissented when the court, in an opinion written by then-Judge John Roberts, held that the FCA did not apply to false claims submitted to Amtrak because Amtrak is not the government. Roberts justified his narrow reading by citing a book by Circuit Judge Henry Friendly. In dissent, Garland (who like Roberts had clerked for Friendly), cited Friendly’s book as supporting the use of legislative intent, writing that Roberts was relying on “‘canons’ of statutory construction, which serve here as ‘cannons’ of statutory destruction. Garland’s dissent, expressing concerns that the court’s ruling would impede the government’s ability to pursue false claims cases against federal grantees, is credited with sparking the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009, which eliminated the loophole. During confirmation hearings in 2005, Senator Chuck Grassley sharply questioned Roberts on why he hadn’t adopted Garland’s reading. Roberts replied, “Any time Judge Garland disagrees, you know you’re in a difficult area.”
If Neil Gorsuch were an honorable man, he’d take his name out of contention, and insist that the far superior and infinitely more qualified Merrick Garland, be given a deserved consideration, seated first on the Supreme Court…
That’s Neil Gorsuch’s first and most important test…does he have the integrity to do the right thing…?
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/826923009009184776
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/826918997757132806
A racist in the Oval Office and a known racist who wasn’t allowed as a judge is now the Attorney General. We are on our own.
Media Alert:
BET will have two offerings tonight.
1. Mandela-starring Lawrence Fishburne
2. New series about life at an HBCU-The Quad, starring Anika Noni Rose and Reuben Santiago-Hudson. Jasmine Guy is also in it :)
https://twitter.com/malonebarry/status/826307519412838400
Trump is not my president.
https://twitter.com/AshAgony/status/826894106819428352
Uh huh
Uh huh
Trump and Bannon Consider Expansion of the Southern Strategy Against Immigrants
by Nancy LeTourneau
February 1, 2017 1:43 PM
Remember how Lee Atwater described the Republican’s Southern Strategy?
We’ve seen how that played out with the racial insinuations of everything from Ronald Reagan’s “welfare queen” to Mick Huckabee’s comparison of welfare recipients to roaches (of course they were both referring to poor people who receive welfare and not corporate giants). The point of these efforts has always been to fuel racism and bolster their attempts to dismantle the social safety net because it was being abused by “those people.”
The Trump/Bannon White House is now contemplating two additional executive orders that would revive the Southern Strategy as a weapon of division against non-white immigrants.
These are yet two more executive orders that have Bannon’s fingerprints all over them. He is the one who thinks that non-white immigrants to this country pose a national crisis.
The draft orders are not only maliciously hateful ways to divide people in this country, they are unapologetically based on lies. Let’s remember first of all that the reduction of Mexican immigrants coming into this country over the last few years is actually hurting small businesses (therefore, the economy) and secondly, immigrants are the life-blood of reinvigorating small town America in many places around the country. So it is impossible to base these claims on any actual data about how they would improve our economy. The only explanation is their appeal to white nationalism.
Incompetence Could Wound Trump More Than Anything Else
by Steven Waldman
February 1, 2017 11:26 AM
We may want to believe that Trump’s violation of our “values” will turn Middle America against the President. But it’s worth remembering that the public soured on George W. Bush as much because of his handling of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans as the Iraq War. He started to look incompetent.
Competence is supposed to be Trump’s strong suit, being as he is a never-quite-totally-bankrupt businessman. Yet he seems to be struggling with the managing-government thing.
Corporate leaders often struggle in government, but we’re now seeing that Trump’s personality issues will directly affect his competence:
The Question of Legitimacy With Trump’s SCOTUS Nominee
by Nancy LeTourneau
February 1, 2017 9:55 AM
Last night Donald Trump nominated Federal Appeals Court Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. There are questions that can and should be raised about his history on the bench. But the overriding question is one of legitimacy. The NYT editorial board captured that in the title of their response: “Neil Gorsuch, the Nominee for a Stolen Seat.”
…………………….
Let the record show that Republicans played political games with the Supreme Court and President Obama did not. They took an open seat hostage and are now pretending like that move was legitimate. Regardless of whether or not Gorsuch is qualified, a seat on the Court was stolen and that cannot go unanswered.
from BJ
Spicer doesn’t know who Frederick Douglas is either
“I think he wants to highlight the contributions that he has made,” Spicer responded. “And I think through a lot of the actions and statements that he’s going to make, I think the contributions of Frederick Douglass will become more and more.
https://twitter.com/JordanChariton/status/826880388983353344
Need one more vote to defeat DeVos:
Flake: 202-224-4521 or https://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-jeff
Heller: 202-224-6244 or https://www.heller.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form
Toomey: 202-224-4254 or https://www.toomey.senate.gov/?p=contact
https://twitter.com/DamonSilvers/status/826860800442826752
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/826840194787729408
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/826841150761869312
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/826841480245411845
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/826841850816376832
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/826842319089459200
https://twitter.com/WeWillBoycott/status/826874362083016706
This tweet makes me laugh Everytime I see it
https://mobile.twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/826660267341783044?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
PHUCK OUTTA HERE
https://mobile.twitter.com/WestWingReport/status/826814312522059776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
HOLLERING 😅😅😅😅
https://mobile.twitter.com/_mellyj/status/826818628616077318
Google Celebrates Sculptor Edmonia Lewis with New Doodle
On Feb. 1, Google will celebrate 19th century American sculptor Edmonia Lewis with a new Doodle, depicting her working on one of her defining pieces.
Born to a father of Afro-Haitian descent and a mother of Mississauga Ojibwe and African-American heritage in 1844, Lewis was considered the first woman of African-American and Native American heritage to become a globally renowned fine arts sculptor, according to Google.
“Today, we celebrate her and what she stands for — self-expression through art, even in the face of adversity,” Google wrote.
Enrolled in Oberlin College at age 15 but unable to complete her degree because of the discrimination she faced, she later apprenticed under after Edward A. Brackett, a Boston sculptor who worked with some of the era’s best-known abolitionists, and found success.
http://time.com/4656108/google-doodle-sculptor-edmonia-lewis/
https://twitter.com/USARedOrchestra/status/826832802335301632
SG2,
You take care of you. Maybe you need to take a break. Do some self-care.
Hi Rikyrah, when I wake up in the morning the first thing that comes to mind is Donald Trump is in the WH & depression sets in for the day. So disturbing seeing someone inflict pain upon people and there is nothing you can do to stop it. The people in power to stop him either don’t care, or they’re afraid themselves. All you can do is cry.
I play inspirational music to keep me going:
Starting this song at verse “We are not afraid” :
https://youtu.be/jW2MRTqzJug?t=1m51s&rel=0
https://twitter.com/DailySignal/status/826169853933416449
https://twitter.com/jdawsey1/status/826818323497283585
Dumpster’s messing with:
https://twitter.com/leahmcelrath/status/826797643213000704
Looking at how the ban has radicalized opposition to Trump, only comparison I can think of is the fallout from the 1850 fugitive slave law.
— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) January 31, 2017
Have you called your Rep today about the Stream Protection Rule?
Obama passed it in December, and it prevents Big Coal from burying streams in waste and destroying groundwater.
So of course the Republicans want to repeal it.
The vote is today: call your Rep to tell them to vote *against* the repeal of the Stream Protection Rule.
Read more here:
https://thinkprogress.org/congress-is-set-to-overturn-the-stream-protection-rule-1829c522f388#.cghd4gq99
https://youtu.be/xfqND7qROQQ&rel=0
https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/826560392117776385
Saw an Al Jazeera report on a foreign born doctor. He was Syrian and got his visa because he would work in an underserved area. He was in Alabama. In a county that went 72% for Dolt45. Had a picture of the 25 doctors that worked in his local hospital: only 3 were American born. But, you know…Make America great… Don’t you know..
Dolt45’s kid liked a tweet about that it would be good for Dolt45 if the Canadian shooter was Muslim 😕😕😕
https://mobile.twitter.com/LawyerRogelio/status/826681068023607297
Amen
https://mobile.twitter.com/CharlesMBlow/status/826659709839097856
Good Morning, Everyone 😐😐😐
This is a link to where you can find a listing of all the Congress critters will have their Townhall.
Please retweet and spread the word.
https://mobile.twitter.com/lauraolin/status/826420454739042304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw