Tag: blog

Here’s the thing: the Hamilton/Pence drama is just that: drama.

Distraction.

It distracts from Trump’s $25million settlement with 6000 defrauded Americans.

It distracts from the Washington Post “stay to play” story about Trump coaxing foreign diplomats to stay at his D.C. hotel.

It distracts from his hiring Jeff Sessions as Attorney General – a Senator who was denied a federal judge appointment by a REPUBLICAN Senate, during the REAGAN era, for being racist.

It distracts from his hiring Steve Bannon as Chief Strategist – a white nationalist who wants to "tear America down" and who compares HIMSELF to Darth Vader and Satan.

It distracts from his hiring Mike Flynn as Security Adviser – a guy who was forced out of the Defense Intelligence Agency for being mentally unstable, and is an Islamaphobe whose own fears will make it nearly impossible for him to rationally find the best solution to problems in the Middle East.

It distracts from his hiring Mike Pompeo as CIA Director – a guy who supports the NSA surveilling all Americans, opposes closing Guantanamo, and criticizes the Obama administration for closing CIA black sites.

Now, DON’T GET ME WRONG: Pence managed to be the least popular vice-president at a musical where the vice-president kills the hero, and that’s funny and ridiculous and horrible. I get that.

But it’s not IMPORTANT.

Berlusconi was able to govern Italy for as long as he did mostly thanks to the incompetence of his opposition. It was so rabidly obsessed with his personality that any substantive political debate disappeared; it focused only on personal attacks, the effect of which was to increase Mr. Berlusconi’s popularity. His secret was an ability to set off a Pavlovian reaction among his leftist opponents, which engendered instantaneous sympathy in most moderate voters. Mr. Trump is no different.

This piece is positively prescient.

This week, Trump settled a lawsuit for $25 million, and the Trump administration is getting packed in with racists, bigots, and white nationalists.

And Twitter's talking about Pence getting booed at a fucking play, and Trump getting shitty about it.

Because of course he is: first of all he's Trump; second, tactically and strategically speaking, he wants everyone's focus on meaningless drama.

Yes, he's a crap human being, but THAT DOESN'T MATTER: pointing it out isn't enough to stop him; it might not even help.

We need to focus on the stuff that actually matters, or he's going to burn the house down while we're shaking our heads at the ugly drapes.

The Right Way to Resist Trump – NYTimes.com

This week, I was inspired to:

• Set up a recurring donation to the NRDC
• Set up a recurring donation to the ACLU
• Buy a yearly subscription to the Washington Post
• Help my niece and her girlfriend get set up Signal for text and voice calls
• Add HTTPS Everywhere to my Firefox browser, and HTTPS Everywhere to my Chrome browser
• Add VPN clients to my mobile devices (I was already paying for a license, which I was using only on my computers)
• Call the state offices for three Colorado congresspeople, regarding Steve Bannon’s presence on the president-elect’s staff.
• Almost forgot: Reran the Lastpass Security Challenge and updated my passwords and settings until I got into the top 25% of users.

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For the last few years, I’ve been disappointed by the idea that President Obama would, if the pattern of former presidents held, disappear from the national stage after leaving office. He’s still young (relative to the office), and a great motivator, organizer, and speaker. It seemed a terrible waste.

Also, I’ve long held the opinion that Obama has kept himself sharply in check as the President, both out of – as he says in the interview – “institutional” dictates, and his own sense of the dignity the office requires. I see why he’s done it, but it’s been frustrating (far more so for him, I imagine), especially since no one else in Washington seemed to restrain themselves in similar fashion.

Reading he intends to remain publicly active and, even better, return to more direct language about the things he cares about is, to my mind, fantastic news.

I look forward to supporting many years of his brand of activism.

Obama: once out of office, I’m gonna stop being polite and start getting real
He made the comments to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Released in both English and Spanish.

This. This is how you fight during the next for years. State level, on the ground, and hard.

We are not going to allow one election to reverse generations of progress at the height of our historic diversity, scientific advancement, economic output, and sense of global responsibility.

We will be reaching out to federal, state and local officials to evaluate how a Trump Presidency will potentially impact federal funding of ongoing state programs, job-creating investments reliant on foreign trade, and federal enforcement of laws affecting the rights of people living in our state. We will maximize the time during the presidential transition to defend our accomplishments using every tool at our disposal.

While Donald Trump may have won the presidency, he hasn’t changed our values. America is greater than any one man or party. We will not be dragged back into the past. We will lead the resistance to any effort that would shred our social fabric or our Constitution.

Standing applause, right here.

Joint Statement from California Legislative Leaders on Result of Presidential Election
SACRAMENTO – California Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) and California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) released the following statement on the results of the President election: Today, we woke up feeling like strangers in a foreign land, because yesterday Americans expressed their views on a pluralistic and democratic society that are clearly inconsistent with the values of the people of California.

I will say what I am voting for.

I'm voting for women.

I'm voting for my kids.

I'm voting for improved rights and equality for LGBTQ Americans, and Hispanic Americans, and Black Americans, and Muslim Americans.

I'm voting to protect the environment, and combat climate change; I'm voting for the future my kids are going to have to live in.

I'm voting against hate, against fear.

I'm voting for respect, and respectful discourse.

I'm voting for fewer walls and better, affordable education.

Most importantly, I'm voting.

I hope you do too.