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January 2017

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 23, 2017 24 Comments
Elizabeth Warren always has been known for having sharp elbows. She bullied her way through academia. It's a trait that has carried over to her politics. Warren's first instinct always is to attack in very personal ways, then play victim when there is pushback. I experienced a small example of that during Warren's 2012 campaign against Scott Brown.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on January 23, 2017 71 Comments
An extraordinary first half-hour of Morning Joe today. The thesis was that President Trump had gotten off on a seriously bad foot by failing to look back at history in his inauguration speech, sending a first and ungracious tweet about the Women's Marches, sending Sean Spicer out to berate the press over crowd-size reporting, and above all for a self-referential, boastful, angry speech, referencing crowd size, given while standing in front of the wall of fallen heroes at the CIA. And the message, delivered repeatedly and in the starkest terms, by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, was that those aides who abetted President Trump, who counseled him to adopt a combative tone, should be fired and leave immediately. View the video to see the myriad ways in which Joe and Mika pummeled the presidential aides who did not advise President Trump to moderate his remarks.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 23, 2017 16 Comments
The New York Times editorial board entitled their traditional post-inaugural address commentary, "What President Trump Doesn't Get About America."  What it reveals, however, is quite different.  While one can reasonably expect an op-ed to lean in a particular direction and address policy differences, the editorial board's main criticism of President Trump's inauguration speech is centered on his, to their minds, unflattering portrait of America. Seemingly still reeling from "their" loss in November, the board focuses on the parts of Trump's speech that Obama could have easily read in his own first inauguration.  Former president Obama's 2009 inaugural address, however, was met with gushing enthusiasm for his unflattering portrait of America as "in decline" and "in crisis."

Posted by Mike LaChance on January 22, 2017 25 Comments
Military deserter Bowe Bergdahl was hoping for a pardon from President Obama which never came. Now that President Trump has taken office, Bergdahl's lawyers are claiming he can't be guaranteed a fair trial due to Trump's prior criticism of him. The Hill reports:
Bergdahl lawyers press for dismissal after Trump inauguration Lawyers for former prisoner of war and Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl made good on their promise to call for his case to be dismissed based on President Trump’s campaign comments against him, filing a motion on Inauguration Day.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 22, 2017 8 Comments
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Pete King (R-NY) laid out the details on the legislative agenda for the House for the next 100 days when they appeared on AM 790 in New York:
"We're going to be going full steam to move forward with the Trump agenda to make America great again," Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.) said on John Catsimatidis' "Cats Roundtable" radio program on AM 970 in New York. "Basically Donald Trump has said it's not only a change in president or change of party, it's really a whole change of philosophy. And it's a whole new movement basically to give power back to the people," he said. "And it's going to be more assertive as far as America is concerned. It's no doubt he is determined, and he didn't back down at all … It's definitely a new era in American history."

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 22, 2017 14 Comments
Predictably, the "grassroots" and "spontaneous" women's march wasn't so grassroots, after all.  It may have started as such, but things changed rather quickly.  Ultimately, more than 50 groups, PACs, and assorted organizations backed by billionaire agitator George Soros were deeply involved in the march.

A self-declared "life-long liberal Democrat who voted for Trump" uncovered the tangled web of the money trail for the New York Times.  Asra Q. Nomani explains that "the march really isn’t a 'women’s march.' It’s a march for women who are anti-Trump.   As someone who voted for Trump, I don’t feel welcome . . . ."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 22, 2017 21 Comments
Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Despite reports that an announcement could come as soon as Monday morning, January 23, 2017, The White House says it is still in the early stages of discussions:
The White House said on Sunday that it is only in the early stages of talks to fulfill President Donald Trump's pledge to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, an action that would likely spark anger in the Arab world.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on January 22, 2017 45 Comments
Talk about mansplaining . . . could Michael Moore possibly have been any more patronizing and condescending to women? Appearing on Joy Reid's MSNBC show this morning, Moore approvingly cited and adopted actor John Leguizamo's proposition that women who voted for Donald Trump were "victims" who did so out of "ingrained misogyny and sexism." Those poor, confused women Trump voters who thought they had the ability to make decisions for themselves. The dearies didn't realize that they had been subconsciously programmed and were nothing more than—to use a favorite Rush phrase—mind-numbed robots.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 22, 2017 22 Comments
Anyone who still doubts how seriously President Donald Trump takes his new position or his capacity for hard work will be pleased to learn just how swiftly his new administration has changed the political climate already. My colleague Fuzzy Slippers has already reported that his first Executive Order lays the groundwork for waiving or minimizing the penalty for Americans who don’t buy health insurance that would probably void the burdensome Obamacare requirement altogether. His second order made General James Mattis our new Secretary of Defense.
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