These are just for starters.
Trump’s missteps have been egregious, but then he hired the chief executive of Breitbart News, a right-wing website that’s beloved by white nationalists, everywhere. Wait. Let’s call them what they are. This election, says Richard Spencer, who came up with the phrase “alt-right,” was about “identity politics for white people,” And Breitbart News has become a media standard for both the alt-right and white identity politics.
Don’t believe me?
Listen to a recent NPR interview with Breitbart senior editor, Joel B. Pollak, who tried to say that he couldn’t be held responsible for a few racist/misogynistic pieces out of “tens of thousands” of pieces they run.
And then he accused NPR of racist content, because of their Code Switch race and identity podcast and blog.
The Trouble With Mike Flynn
Late last night, NBC's Kristen Welker confirmed that President-elect Donald Trump asked retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn to serve as his national security adviser. (The news was first reported by the AP.) But the controversies and ethical baggage around Flynn are problematic. For starters, there are Flynn's statements about Islam and Muslims. "Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL: please forward this to others: the truth fears no questions," he
tweeted back in February. Critics have argued that Flynn is too cozy to Russia, pointing to a trip to Moscow in which he spent time with Vladimir Putin, as well as a paid
speaking engagement with state-run Russia Today. There are questions about his management style, given that he was fired as DIA director, as Welker reported on "Today." And then there is last night's report from
Yahoo, which said he began receiving national security briefings last summer while still advising foreign clients. "Flynn's relationship with his overseas clients is coming in for new scrutiny amid recent disclosures that two months ago, during the height of the presidential campaign, his consulting firm, the Flynn Intel Group, registered to lobby for a Dutch company owned by a wealthy Turkish businessman close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey."
On Twitter, Michael Flynn interacted with alt-right, made controversial comments on Muslims, shared fake news
A CNN KFile review of Flynn's Twitter account finds that the retired lieutenant general, who once served as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, tweeted routinely with members of the so-called alt-right movement, going so far as to endorse a book by one controversial figure who regularly makes offensive comments.
Flynn faced criticism in July when he retweeted an anti-Semitic message. Flynn said the retweet was an accident and deleted the message.
Emails to a spokesperson for President-elect Trump and Flynn seeking comment were not returned. A follow up question to Flynn asking who managed his Twitter account also went unreturned.
The GOP owns this now. All of it.
Maclean’s:
As anger and disbelief metabolized into action and activism, an iconography of protest emerged: Post-It notes offering supportive messages were plastered in subway stations and on school washroom mirrors; the safety pin, adopted as a symbol in Australia in 2014 and in post-Brexit U.K. to signal alliance with vulnerable groups, popped up on lapels and social media avatars. Safety pins, denounced by some as merely a “feel good” gesture, weren’t the only gesture denoting fear of what was to come. Non-profits protecting Trump’s avowed targets—civil liberties, women’s reproductive rights, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, the environment, press freedom—saw a spike in donations, aided by sites like Jezebel’s list of “Pro-women, pro-immigrant, pro-Earth, anti-bigotry organizations that need your support.” Within 24 hours, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) received a record high in online donations of some $940,000, a tally that now stands at more than $7.2 million. Trump has become a poster boy for the ACLU, which published a harsh message for the president-elect, promising its “full firepower” should he seek to undermine the Constitution. Its homepage reads: “See you in court,” next to Trump’s photo and a “donate” button.
Modern Healthcare:
The incoming Donald Trump administration and Republicans in Congress reportedly are rushing to repeal most of the Affordable Care Act within days of taking office, with a possible delay of a year or two while they craft a replacement package.
They're also discussing quick administrative moves to unravel the ACA, such as terminating payments to insurers that compensate them for reducing cost-sharing requirements for lower-income exchange plan members.
But pro-ACA experts and some insurers warn that repealing the law without passing a replacement, combined with administrative actions undermining the law, could prompt health plans to abandon the individual insurance markets in 2018. That's because insurers have to calculate and submit their 2018 premiums by spring, and that task will be difficult or impossible if they don't know the rules of the new Republican-led system. The turmoil likely would affect both the exchange and off-exchange markets, through which nearly 20 million Americans get coverage, they say.
"I would not be surprised by a stampede to exit the market for fear of uncertainty and the strong potential for adverse selection,” said Mike Kreidler, Washington state's insurance commissioner, at a news conference Wednesday organized by the liberal Center for American Progress. Kreidler said he's already gotten calls from nervous insurance leaders and plans to meet soon with the CEOs of the three major insurers in his state, where half a million people have gotten coverage under the ACA.
Here, from the Telegraph, is something both campaigns agree on:
FBI's decision to reopen Clinton email probe enabled Donald Trump to win election, says former aide Corey Lewandowski
Norm Ornstein/WaPo:
Donald Trump’s choice of alt-right leader Stephen K. Bannon as top White House strategist suggests that the worst instincts of the president-elect remain intact. The hopes for governance hewing closer to the center, and respecting all those living in the United States, rest with the Senate, and with the behavior and outlook of senators in both parties.
For Senate Republicans, this is a critical moment to heed a call their colleague Lindsey Graham (S.C.) made earlier in the campaign — there is a time to put country ahead of party. Reflexive party loyalty now, including blindly confirming all of Trump’s executive and judicial nominees, would violate that maxim. Republicans need to vet thoroughly and firmly all nominees, but especially those who violate basic standards of moderation, civility and respect for constitutional norms. That means racially divisive and bombastic figures such as Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke, who stunningly called on his allies during the campaign to ready their “pitchforks and torches,” and who has been rumored to be Trump’s top choice for homeland security secretary, should be rejected.
Paul Waldman/WaPo:
Why the filibuster may survive after all — and limit the damage congressional Republicans can do
The narrowness of the Republican majority means that Democrats would need only a couple of Republicans to vote with them to deny the GOP the 51 votes it needs to institute a change in Senate rules. And now at least four Republican senators have gone on record saying that the filibuster should stay. Lindsey Graham said emphatically that ending the filibuster would be “a horrible, terrible idea.” Orrin Hatch was even more categorical. “Are you kidding?” he responded when asked by the Huffington Post’s Michael McAuliff whether it should be eliminated. “I’m one of the biggest advocates for the filibuster. It’s the only way to protect the minority, and we’ve been in the minority a lot more than we’ve been in the majority.” And NBC’s Benjy Sarlin reports that Jeff Flake and Jim Inhofe both told him the filibuster should stay.