Donald Trump still, quite literally, doesn’t know anything about anything

In First Network Interview as President, Trump Confirms Things That Aren’t “Tremendous” Are “Disasters”

By Elliot Hannon

 

Well, that was pointless. ABC News scored the first sit-down network interview with Donald Trump five days into Trump’s world and the real takeaway of the hourlong back-and-forth with anchor David Muir is not particularly breaking news, but here it is: Donald Trump still, quite literally, doesn’t know anything about anything. If you missed the actual interview, here’s a summation of Trump’s vision. Everything that currently exists in America and the world is a “disaster.” Everything will be “tremendous” soon. How will this tremendousness happen? We’re going to be smarter and stronger. Donald Trump now speaks in tweets and David Muir let him get away with it.

Before we get to Trump’s know-nothingism, there was one exchange that provided an unusually succinct summation of Trump’s worldview, if you can call it that. Muir asked if Trump’s proposed “Muslim ban” was going to anger the vast majority of Muslims around the world who are just living their lives and might feel unfairly targeted.

Pres. Trump on potential reaction to executive action on immigration: "The world is a mess. The world is as angry as it gets." pic.twitter.com/1x4MPh18wF

— ABC News (@ABC) January 26, 2017

Muir: Are you at all concerned it's going to cause more anger among Muslims around the world?

Trump: Anger? There's plenty of anger right now. How can you have more?

Muir: You don't think it will exacerbate the problem?

Trump: David, David—I mean, I know you're a sophisticated guy. The world is a mess. The world is as angry as it gets. What you think this is going to cause a little more anger? The world is an angry place. All of this has happened. We went into Iraq. We shouldn't have gone into Iraq. We shouldn't have gotten out the way we got out. The world is a total mess. The world is a mess, David.

“How can you have more?” I don’t understand. Is that a serious question?

Here's something an actual president of the United States said in an interview:

Pres. Trump on if his first 5 days in office has changed him: “I don’t want to change too much." https://t.co/89o6NhpsWh pic.twitter.com/Le2XGq31ql

— ABC News (@ABC) January 26, 2017

I can be the most presidential person ever, other than possibly the great Abe Lincoln, all right? But I can be the most presidential person. But I may not be able to do the job nearly as well if I do that.

I'm not sure where that leaves us, but let's move on, David Muir certainly did.

 

Should undocumented immigrants be worried about being deported?

They shouldn't be very worried. They are here illegally. They shouldn't be very worried. I do have a big heart. We're going to take care of everybody. We're going to have a very strong border. We're gonna have a very solid border. Where you have great people that are here that have done a good job they should be far less worried. We'll be coming out with policy on that over the next three to four weeks.

So should they be, perhaps, just a normal level of worried then? Because I'm not sure where that leaves us. Let's, however, move on. David Muir certainly did.

Trump using the fact that a report was done to disprove voter fraud as evidence there must, in fact, be voter fraud.

Muir: You say you're gonna launch an investigation.

Trump: Sure, done.

Muir: What you have presented so far has been debunked. It's been called—

Trump: No it hasn't.

Muir: —false.

Trump: Take a look at the Pew report.

Muir: I called the author of the Pew report last night. And he told me that they found no evidence of voter fraud.

Trump: Why did he write the report?

Muir: He said no evidence of voter fraud.

Trump: Excuse me, then why did he write the report? Somebody—Pew report. Then he's—he's groveling again. You know, I always talk about the reporters that grovel when they want to write something that you want to hear, but not necessarily millions of people want to hear, or have to hear.

Trump declaring his speech to the CIA a "home run" and suggesting David Muir check out the Fox News coverage of it to get some perspective on just how far out of the park he hit it.

So I went to the CIA, my first step. I have great respect for the people in intelligence and CIA. I'm—I don't have a lot of respect in particular one of the leaders. But that's OK. But I have a lotta respect for the people in CIA. That speech was a home run. That speech, if you look at Fox, OK. I'll mention you—we see what fox said. They said it was one of the great speeches. They showed the people applauding and screaming and—and they're all CIA. There was—somebody was asking Sean—"Well, were they Trump people that were put—" we don't have Trump people. They were CIA people. That location was given to me. Mike Pence went up before me, paid great homage to the wall. I then went up, paid great homage to the wall. I then spoke to the crowd. I got a standing ovation, in fact.

People loved it. They loved it. They gave me a standing ovation for a long period of time. They never even stay down, most of them, during the speech. There was love in the room. You and other networks covered it very inaccurately. I hate to say this to you and you probably won't put it on but turn on Fox and see how it was covered. And see how people respond to that speech. That speech was a good speech. And you and a couple of other networks tried to downplay that speech. And it was very, very unfortunate that you did.

Trump being surprised that his secretary of defense is not a casual supporter of torture.

President Trump on waterboarding: “I feel it works,” but will rely on team’s guidance and do everything “legally." https://t.co/89o6NhpsWh pic.twitter.com/vWoL5W2ycc

— ABC News (@ABC) January 26, 2017

Muir: We are still waiting on the word for any decision involving those so-called black sites. We do not torture. Will you say that?

Trump: I have great respect for Gen. Mattis. I was a little surprised he is not a believer of torture. As you know, Mr. Pompeo was just approved, affirmed by the Senate. He is a fantastic guy. He is going to be the head of the CIA. You will have somebody fabulous as opposed to the character that just got out. He was not fabulous at all. And he will, I think, do a great job, and he is, you know—I haven't gone into great detail, but I will tell you I have spoken to others. In intelligence. And they are big believers in as an example, waterboarding.

To quote the 45^th president of the United States: "It's a disaster."

Elliot Hannon is a writer in New York City. Follow him on Twitter. 

A Lie By Any Other Name

By Charles M. Blow 

This is not a presentation of “alternative facts,” whatever that may mean, as Kellyanne Conway, President Trump’s mistress of misdirection, posited over the weekend.

These are lies; good old-fashioned lies, baldfaced and flat-out lies.

Some have suggested that we in the media should focus a bit less on these lies — some of them issued in tweets and some in interviews or news conferences — and focus more on policies, particularly the ineptitude of the gathering cabinet and the raft of executive orders that Trump himself is signing.

But I take the position that this is all worthy of coverage, that there are simply different kinds of news being unearthed about this administration that exist on different strata.

To take it even further, it may be these seemingly smaller infractions that produce the greater injury because the implications are more profound. Trump does not simply have “a running war with the media,” as he so indecorously and disrespectfully spouted off while standing on the hallowed ground before the C.I.A. Memorial Wall. He is in fact having a running war with the truth itself.

Donald Trump is a proven liar. He lies often and effortlessly. He lies about the profound and the trivial. He lies to avoid guilt and invite glory. He lies when his pride is injured and when his pomposity is challenged.

Indeed, one of the greatest threats Trump poses is that he corrupts and corrodes the absoluteness of truth, facts and science.

It is no coincidence that the rise of Trump is concurrent with the rise of “fake news.” It is no coincidence that his rise comes during an age of severely damaged faith in institutions.

And now that he has been elected, Trump wants absolute control over the flow of information, to dictate his own version of facts rather than live with the reality of accepted facts. Trump is in a battle to bend the truth to his benefit.

He hates members of the press because, when properly performing, they are truth seekers rather than ego-strokers. The press may sometimes get things wrong, but it most often gets them right. A truly independent press is not stocked with political acolytes but political adversaries.

This doesn’t sit well with an administration that wants to be perpetually patted on the back and never rapped on the knuckles.

After Trump and his press secretary, Sean Spicer, got called out by the press for lying about Trump’s inauguration crowd size and viewership, Spicer limped back to the mic and whined of Trump’s press coverage: “The default narrative is always negative, and it’s demoralizing.”

No, sir, the default is to call a lie a lie; lies are negative because they are the opposite of the truth; and Trump continuously lies. Also, he who is devoid of morality is immune to demoralization. You can’t wring water from a rock.

The bone you have to pick is not with the press but with the “president.”

Trump’s team seems to need to control narratives and to staunch what they view as negative, even if it’s true. This compulsion may in fact be spilling over into the Trump administration’s approach to government agencies, particularly those with a more scientific leaning.

As The Hill reported Tuesday, “The Trump administration is clamping down on public communications by agencies as it seeks to assert control over the federal bureaucracy.”

The site continued:

New restrictions on social media use and interaction with press and lawmakers at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the departments of Commerce, Health and Human Services, Agriculture and the Interior have sparked concerns of a President Trump-backed effort to silence dissenting views.

Although The Hill granted, “it’s not unusual for incoming administrations to seek control over agency communications,” it cited “experts on the federal work force” who said “they have never seen a White House take the type of steps Trump’s administration has to curb public communications.”

And Trump for his part continues to rage about three to five million illegal votes causing him to lose the popular vote in November. This, too, is a lie. A lie. Not the euphemisms you hear on television, like “unsubstantiated,” or “unproven,” or “baseless.” It is a lie, pure and simple.

But Trump won’t let it go. His pride is hurt, his vanity tarnished. The man who prides himself on winning lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly three million votes, the biggest popular vote loss by a winning candidate in American history. That stings.

So, even after his lie is reported and rejected, he continues to perpetuate it. This is what makes Trump qualitatively different from our leaders who came before him: He believes that truth is what he says it is, and the only reason it has yet to be accepted is that it has yet to be sufficiently repeated.

Unbowed, Trump published two tweets on Wednesday morning that read together:

“I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!”

This is just like Trump, whose inclination is never to admit a mistake, and instead to redouble his self-righteousness even in the midst of his wrong. This statement weakens our democracy and strengthens voter suppression efforts.

We all have to adjust to this unprecedented assault on the truth and stand ready to vigilantly defend against it, because without truth, what’s left? Our president is a pathological liar. Say it. Write it. Never become inured to it. And dispense with the terms of art to describe it. A lie by any other name portends the same.

I invite you to join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter (@CharlesMBlow), or email me at chblow@nytimes.com.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.

MSNBC viewers dumping Morning Blow

By Jason Easley



MSNBC viewers have spoken loudly as Morning Joe’s ratings continue to slide. The conservative talker is now the lowest rated morning show on cable news.

One statistic from TVNewser tells the story of Morning Joe’s decline, “Last year, “Morning Joe” was ranked #28 of all cable news shows in the demo. This January it is #47, and in fourth place in the demo behind “Fox & Friends,” “New Day,” and ‘Morning Express.'” The numbers for Joe Scarborough’s show have fallen apart, “On weekday mornings, CNN’s New Day registered its highest ratings ever in January and posted its largest monthly share of the cable news morning audience since 2009. The program also easily beat MSNBC’s Morning Joe, topping Joe for four straight months in total viewers and seven consecutive months among A25-54. Fox and Friends posted its lowest delivery since 2001.”

MSNBC boss Phil Griffin has continued to tout Morning Joe as one of his successes, but the reality is that MSNBC viewers have no interest in the program. The collapse of Morning Joe highlights one of the biggest inconsistencies in MSNBC’s strategy. Griffin claims that he wants to attract younger viewers to the network, but he appears to be completely in love with a program that does poorly with the same viewers age 25-54 that he is courting.

Morning Joe, along with the rest of MSNBC, is dying a slow ratings death. MSNBC lost 23% of their primetime viewers and 39% of their younger viewers in comparison to January 2014. The problems at MSNBC continue to be driven by leaders who have no clue who their potential viewers are, and what they want. The strategy of deploying series of Rachel Maddow clones throughout the schedule has chased viewers away while diluting the distinctiveness of their star program.

Loyal MSNBC viewers have been unhappy with Morning Joe for years, and they have finally walked away from the program. A Pew study on media polarization found that CNN has replaced MSNBC as the preferred network for liberal. Morning Joe will continue to hurt MSNBC until they realize the common sense idea that liberals and progressives don’t want to listen to three of Joe Scarborough’s Republican talking points.

Donald Trump Is "Demoralized" That No One Thinks He's A Real President

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-first-days-inside-trumps-white-house-fury-tumult-and-a-reboot/2017/01/23/7ceef1b0-e191-11e6-ba11-63c4b4fb5a63_story.html

A Plea To Trump Fans: This Man Is Dangerous

Donald Trump is not just lying to you and me—now he’s lying to himself.

‘Morning Blow’ Demands Trump Fire Some Staff: 'The Show Has Begun Really Badly'

“Whoever was encouraging him, goading him to keep fighting about the size of the crowds…should be fired today for the sake of America."

By Alexandra Rosenmann

President Trump’s first 48 hours in office began with a lie, widely criticized by both the left and the right.

"This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period," Press Secretary Sean Spicer announced on Saturday, while offering zero evidence to back up his claim.

After the irresponsible announcement dominated the news cycle this past weekend, the Morning Joe team weighed in Monday morning. “It’s show time,” co-host Mika Brzezinski began. “And the [Trump] show has begun really badly.

“Whoever didn’t write, or should have written, or should have edited that [CIA] speech should go today — out, goodbye, done,” she added, referring to Trump's inappropriate bragging of his crowd sizes at the CIA headquarters.

At the same event Trump once again attacked the media.

"I have a running war with the media," President Trump said, calling the press recording him "dishonest."

Co-host Joe Scarborough agreed that this battle should be put to bed.

“Whoever was encouraging him, goading him to keep fighting about the size of the crowds… should be fired today for the sake of America,” Scarborough said.

He then used a boxing metaphor to speak of the turmoil since Trump's inauguration.

"The bell just rang... for the first round," Scarborough said. "We're looking into the crowd and completely over-matched by history."

Watch:

.@JoeNBC and @morningmika on Trump’s volatile weekend: It’s show time. The show has begun really badly. https://t.co/jauXutHnV3

— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) January 23, 2017

Breaking News

Trump team ‘scrambling to get back on script’ after ‘terrible’ first weekend in office

By David Ferguson

Donald Trump reportedly spent his first weekend in office on an emotional roller coaster as he obsessed over Twitter posts about his inauguration and lashed out at critics — against the advice of his top advisers, who are now “scrambling to get back on script.”

The New York Times said Sunday night that Trump spent a “rocky” first weekend in office as he echoed his campaign trail cycle of “angry Twitter messages, a familiar obsession with slights and a series of meandering and at times untrue statements, all eventually giving way to attempts at damage control.”

“The lack of discipline troubled even senior members of Mr. Trump’s circle,” reported the Times‘ Peter Baker, Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman, “some of whom had urged him not to indulge his simmering resentment at what he saw as unfair news coverage. Instead, Mr. Trump chose to listen to other aides who shared his outrage and desire to punch back. By the end of the weekend, he and his team were scrambling to get back on script.”

During the inauguration itself, Trump reportedly became “increasingly angry” as Twitter users posted photos of his inauguration crowd next to Pres. Barack Obama’s much larger audience from 2009.

“But he spent his Friday night in a whirlwind of celebration and affirmation,” the Times said. “When he awoke on Saturday morning, after his first night in the executive mansion, the glow was gone, several people close to him said, and the new president was filled anew with a sense of injury.”

“Several senior advisers urged him to move on and focus on the responsibilities of office during his first full day as president,” but Trump’s need to hit back would not be denied. He devote a major portion of his speech at CIA Headquarters to lashing out at the media for what he perceived as unfair inauguration coverage.

Then he sent out newly minted Press Secretary Sean Spicer at 6 p.m. on Saturday to deliver a hot-faced, defiant press conference in which Spicer flatly stated that Trump’s inaugural audience was the “largest ever,” took no questions and stormed out of the White House Briefing Room.

Even stalwart Trump supporters like L. Lin Wood are concerned that the administration is off to a bad start.

“To someone who believed we might have a good opportunity to change, it’s just a terrible start.

Because he’s got a long way to go,” Mr. Wood told the Times. “This is going to go downhill quickly if it’s not changed, and that’s not good for any of us.”

Who Is Dumber: Bush Or Trump?

Vote at http://tytnetwork.com/dumb

It’s a tough call... Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, John Iadarola, and Jimmy Dore, hosts of The Young Turks, discuss. Tell us what you think in the comment section below. http://tytnetwork.com/go



"Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said in a radio interview on Tuesday that he thought it was “sad” that former President George W. Bush chose not to vote for him.

“I think it’s sad, you know, when I see George Bush do that,” Trump told host Howie Carr. “Look, I was very critical of him for getting us into Iraq, which was obviously a horrible decision. And getting out the way Obama got us out was a horrible way to get out too — the combination.”

But Trump didn’t seem too worried about losing a couple of votes.

“I don’t think it has any impact, frankly,” he told Carr. “I think it has no impact.”

The former president and his wife, Laura Bush, left the presidential candidate section of their ballots blank, only voting for Republicans in down-ballot races, according to CNN.”*

Read more here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-george-w-bush-vote_us_58227bf1e4b0e80b02cdbf59

Hosts: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, John Iadarola, Jimmy Dore
Cast: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, John Iadarola, Jimmy Dore

Trump's Presidency Will Be A Fiasco

The president-elect will only get smaller and less influential as broken promises pile up.

By William Greider

For many Americans, Donald Trump’s inauguration is going to feel more like a funeral than a celebration of democratic self-government. Trump is the most unpopular president-elect in at least 40 years. Pew says 68 percent of Americans find him “hard to like.” Only 41 percent approve of the job he’s done explaining his plans for his presidency. His “unfavorables” hover around 50 percent.

If Americans wanted a performer to run the country, why not pick George Clooney? Instead, we got a slightly demented carnival barker with gilded hair and a bloated ego. The fright and gloom are understandable, but I have a hunch Donald Trump has already peaked. He won’t go away, of course—he will be Mr. President—but the air is already seeping out of Trump’s balloon. The president-elect has amassed a huge inventory of dubious promises, and I expect this powerhouse of American politics to get smaller and less influential as the broken promises pile up.

The Trump era is going to be a fiasco for the country, but especially for Donald Trump. He was a brilliant novice on the way up, both funny and tough, astutely attacking the stale dogmas of both political parties. On the way down, he begins to look like a great American mistake and bait-and-switch businessman.

As a salesman, Trump pitched an appealing nostalgia—a breezy promise to restore American “greatness.” “I alone can fix it,” he told the cheering rallies. His self-congratulations were over-the-top, sincerely-felt, though unconvincing.

If Trump expressed his governing vision, it was usually limited to 140 characters. His longer speeches, if you listen closely, are always about the same subject—the greater glory of Donald Trump. We still don’t know how much Trump knows about governing. Or how much he cares.

President-elect Trump doesn’t seem to understand that governing is a team sport. It requires complicated cooperation and fluid policy arguments. Small details produce awesome differences. In other words, for Trump, it’s boring. Trump is a big-picture guy who treats the politics of governing like it’s high-stakes mud wrestling. And it’s all about him. He shows little interest in or knowledge of policy specifics and spews gratuitous scorn and ridicule on his opponents.

What we now know about Trump is he likes to make up stuff. When challenged by fact-checkers, he blames media bias. Then he makes up new facts that are also wrong. We also know Trump likes to hurt people with his words. He gave demeaning nicknames—“Little Marco,” “Crooked Hillary”—to his rivals. He regularly congratulates himself on Twitter, and uses the platform to counterpunch enemies or anyone else who questions his wisdom. He recently labeled Senator Charles Schumer, the Democratic floor leader, the “head clown.” But Trump’s party will need Schumer on some of the big issues, like trade reform and infrastructure spending, where the GOP doesn’t have the votes to prevail. Why dump on someone you need? Trump would rather spank them.

The president-elect is also a prisoner of his own race-tinged ignorance. When Representative John Lewis, hero of the civil-rights movement, called him an illegitimate president, Trump fired back with an ugly and ignorant slur of modern Atlanta, the congressman’s home district.

“Congressman Lewis,” Trump tweeted, “should spend more time on fixing and helping his district which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results.” Never mind that Representative Lewis’s district is neither “crime infested” nor “falling apart,” but how sad it is that Trump seems to have forgotten his own “birther” campaign eight years ago, when he attacked the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s presidency.

 “Where is the birth certificate?” he asked then.

You might say Donald Trump won the presidency by dwelling in his own personal world of “magical realism.” If Trump says it, it must be true… at least until Trump says something new and different. During his campaign, his rude, crude words and wicked falsehoods effectively destabilized the standard language of democratic dialogue. Rival politicians were baffled. The press was late in grasping the incendiary significance of Trump’s candidacy, and so was I.

Others might say the suggestion of “magical realism” is too generous. Trump is simply a con man, a very talented one who succeeded in conning the Republican Party and the American electorate. If Trump was a character in a novel, he might be described as an “unreliable narrator.”

Some writers, like Jim Fallows of The Atlantic, explored a deeper explanation: Trump is a narcissist, totally self-absorbed in his own reality and oblivious to competing facts and understandings. He has an infantile reach of impulse and intellect; his world is self, food, now. This is probably not quite the case, but he seems to lack common traits of empathy and sincerity.

The harshest analysis I read was by Charles Krauthammer, the conservative columnist for T he Washington Post and a psychiatrist himself. In August, he was shocked when Trump attacked the Gold Star mother Ghazala Kahn following her appearance at the Democratic National Convention.

“It reveals a shocking absence of elementary decency and of natural empathy for the most profound of human sorrows–parental grief,” Krauthammer wrote after Trump said Kahn wasn’t “allowed” to speak during her DNC appearance, where her husband spoke of their son’s death in the Iraq War.

Donald Trump, he explained, “is beyond narcissism. I used to think Trump was an 11-year-old, an undeveloped schoolyard bully. I was off by about 10 years. His needs are more primitive, an infantile hunger for approval and praise, a craving that can never be satisfied. He lives in a cocoon of solipsism where the world outside himself has value—indeed exists—only insofar it sustains an inflates him.”

Now he is to be our president, and Trump’s “magical realism” is about to collide with the hard earth of mortal politics. The president-elect and his staffers are already busy trying to distance themselves from some of his more explosive promises, hoping they get forgotten in the excitement of a new party’s taking power. Trump acknowledged in passing that he is not going to prosecute Hillary Clinton after all. No more “Lock her up!” chants, he told disappointed supporters. Trump is also not going to “Drain the Swamp.” Indeed, some of the creatures from the Wall Street lagoon have been appointed to the important positions in Trump’s first cabinet. Trump still claims he will build the wall to keep out immigrants and make Mexico pay for it, but nobody believes him. He admitted the United States will have to pay for the wall then seek reimbursement from Mexico.

Campaign promises often perish after an election, but even some of his cabinet appointees are disowning Trump’s promises during confirmation hearings. His nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said he opposes Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims during his confirmation meeting. Nikki Haley, Trump’s nominee for UN ambassador, strongly supported NATO, which Trump recently called “obsolete,” during hers. These retreats and the high-risk legislation that lies ahead are part of why I foresee a hard road ahead for Republicans and their less-than-popular president.

Indeed, if Trump doesn’t produce on jobs and trade reform while cutting corporate taxes, I can imagine yard signs in working-class neighborhoods that blame “Double-Cross Donald.”

‘Would-be-dictator’ Trump will fail: George Soros

By Agence France-Presse

Billionaire George Soros on Thursday delivered a scathing assessment of Donald Trump, calling the US President-elect a “would-be-dictator” who is “going to fail”.

On the eve of Trump’s inauguration in Washington, Soros said Trump was “gearing up for a trade war” which would have “a very far reaching effect in Europe and other parts of the world”.

The “would-be-dictator… didn’t expect to win, he was surprised,” the Hungarian-born financier told an audience of business leaders and journalists at a Hotel in Davos where the World Economic Forum is being held.

“I personally have confidence that he’s going to fail… because his ideas, that guide him are inherently self-contradictory,” said Soros, adding that members of Trump’s cabinet are each fighting for different interests.

But he predicted the loss of the US’ “positive influence in the world in favour of an open society”, which would have “a very far reaching effect in Europe and other parts of the world”.

Soros, who was a supporter of Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton during last year’s campaign, lost nearly a billion dollars as a consequence of the rally prompted by Trump’s surprise election victory, according to press reports.

But the positive reaction in financial markets would not last long, Soros predicted, because ultimately they do not like uncertainty.

US stocks retreated and the dollar fell against most currencies Thursday in the final session before Trump’s inauguration on Friday.

On Brexit and Theresa May, Soros predicted the British Prime Minister’s spell in power would not last long and said the UK population were “in denial” about the financial consequences of leaving the European Union.

“It’s unlikely that Prime Minister May is actually going to remain in power,” he said.

“At the moment people in the UK are in denial. The current economic situation is not as bad as it was predicted, they live in hope, but as the currency depreciates, and inflation will be the driving force, that will lead to declining living standards.

“It’s going to take some time but when it does happen, they will realise that they are earning less than before, because wages won’t rise as fast as the cost of living.”

8 inauguration humiliations Donald Trump has already endured

By Kali Holloway

In addition to trying to destroy civilization through sheer will and profound ineptitude, Donald Trump’s hobbies now apparently include party planning. According to a recent New York Post article, Trump is showing far more interest in inaugural trivialities than he does in government policy.

“He’s into every detail of everything,” Tom Barrack, chair of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, told the outlet. “I beg him all the time to go back to running the free world and let me focus on setting the tables.”

Maybe all that fuss is to compensate for the fact that Trump’s inauguration will have half the number of attendees as incoming President Obama’s did, and no big-name draw upon which to base a comparison of the two events. You can bet this infuriates Trump. There are other things he’s probably angry about, too. Steam definitely came out of his ears when he learned his team would be buying up Facebook ads to put butts in seats. So the U.S. president-elect and your local jam band are using the same marketing scheme to gain new fans. Think about that for a second.

Here’s a list of eight inauguration humiliations—and a bonus fact—that are infuriating Donald Trump right now.

1. Tickets are in incredibly low demand.

Miami Herald columnist Lesley Abravanel (aka Savvy Gadfly) recently tweeted that she’s aware of at least one person being paid to make the Trump inauguration look a little less empty. “Thank you @realDonaldTrump for already creating jobs!” Abravanel wrote. “My friend is being paid to be a seat filler at your Inauguration! #TuesdayMotivation.” There’s no official confirmation from the Trump team about this, but there are various other signs that conflict with Trump’s contention that “people are pouring into Washington in record numbers.” One scalper complained he’ll have to swallow losses because “nobody wants” Trump inauguration tickets. There are still plenty of tickets available on Craigslist for a couple hundred bucks, a fraction of the five figures some Obama inauguration tickets were going for, according to a 2008 CNN article. A spokesperson for U.S. Congressman Donald Payne Jr. of New Jersey told a local news outlet, “We had more tickets than demand.” The Trump team is apparently so desperate it’s taken out Facebook and Instagram ads inviting—oh, let’s just call it begging—people to attend. Marina Cockenburg, who works for the Tonight Show, clicked the “Why Am I Seeing This Ad” button and discovered the Trump team had targeted “people ages 27 and older who live in New York.” Another Ohio recipient noted the minimum age had dropped to 18, which suggests they're casting an ever wider net.

2. Women’s March bus permit requests outnumber inauguration requests by 3 times.

As of the last reported count, there were 1,200 requests for bus parking permits for the Women’s March on Washington, being held Saturday, January 21. That’s a little more than triple the number of permit requests the city has received for the inauguration. “All of the city's 1,200 available charter bus parking spaces at RFK Stadium have been filled for the Women's March,” reports the Hill, noting the count might be an underestimate. “There could be more buses coming for the march and parking in other locations.” The president and cofounder of Rally, a shuttle bus company providing transportation to D.C. from around the country told the Chicago Tribune, "In six years of doing business we've never seen buses get sold out so quickly.”

3. Most hotel bookings have been made by anti-Trump protesters.

The Women’s March “is driving significant additional demand” to the Kimpton Hotels chain, according to spokesperson Jack Lindemuth. Elliott Ferguson, who leads the city's tourism bureau, told Fortune that "more rooms being picked up on Saturday than on Friday.” He also noted that with Trump’s inauguration numbers so poor, the Women’s March appears to have unseated it as the main event.

"It's been much, much slower than anyone would have anticipated for a first-term president," Ferguson told the Chicago Tribune, contrasting Trump’s event with the Women’s March. "The moment it was confirmed it was happening in the city our hotels were seeing reservations take place.”

4. Trump is wrong (again): dress shops still have plenty of available frocks. 

“All the dress shops are sold out in Washington,” Trump told the New York Times earlier this month.

“It’s hard to find a great dress for this inauguration.”

The first sign that this was a lie is the fact that it was uttered by Trump. Boutique spokespeople say they not only have plenty of gowns in stock, but dress sales have been particularly poor for Trump’s big day.

“There’s never been less demand for inaugural ballgowns in my 38 years,” Peter Marx, who owns D.C. dress shop Saks Jandel, told People. “Never ever has it been less for the inaugural.”

Other shops expressed similar sentiments.

“We were expecting heavy traffic and it has not been that way,” a D.C. Bloomingdale’s representative told Elle. “The last inauguration was a lot more people shopping."

A spokesperson from Intermix told the outlet, “Usually, it is really big for us, but this year we haven't seen anything yet, surprisingly.”

Elle notes that “among others we called, White House Black Market and Cusp in Georgetown confirmed they have options in stock. So does Neiman Marcus. And Gucci. And Lord & Taylor. And Nordstrom.”

5. More than 60 Democrats and counting are boycotting the inauguration. 

There are a million and one reasons not to legitimize Trump’s presidency, enough that everyone can take their pick and feel more than justified. In addition, add Trump’s recent racialized insults to Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights hero, right in time for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. The list of House Democrats sitting the inauguration out now stands at 65, with a chance that number may rise slightly in the next 48 hours. Most of those lawmakers issued statements about their reasons for bailing, many of them sober, well-crafted rebukes of PEOTUS. I was partial to one from Oregon’s Kurt Schrader: “I’m just not a big Trump fan. He hasn’t proved himself to me at all yet, so I respectfully decline to freeze my ass out there in the cold for this particular ceremony.”

6. The list of celebs who said 'no' is much longer and star-studded than the 'yes' list.

Trump’s desperate tweets about how great his inauguration will be seem as authentic as a high school boy's stories about having a model girlfriend who “lives in another town.” For someone whose entire fragile sense of self is based on approval from others, Trump’s done a piss-poor job of playing it cool, or even just, you know, not acting like a maniac when he gets rejected. With every Twitter tantrum he confirms his dejection and anger over the fact that the list of performers at his party is a poor simulacrum of his A-list dreams. Reportedly, Elton John, Garth Brooks, Bruno Mars, Kiss, Celine Dion, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, George Lopez, and Moby all said no. Jennifer Holliday, Paul Anka, and the B Street Band (a cover homage to Bruce Springsteen), all made last–minute cancellations. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Radio City Rockettes are still on the bill, but members of both groups voiced loud opposition to performing, with some defectors refusing to take the stage. The final inauguration lineup now includes 3 Doors Down, the Piano Guys, Toby Keith, Jackie Evancho, Lee Greenwood, DJ Ravidrums, the Frontmen of Country, Sam Moore (of Sam and Dave), and Jon Voight. There was also an 11th-hour addition of Chrisette Michele—though Questlove has tweeted that he'd pay the singer money not to perform.

7. The list of celebs attending anti-Trump protest events is quite robust.

One day before Trump’s inauguration, on January 19, Mark Ruffalo, Alec Baldwin, Rosie Perez, Al Sharpton, and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio will attend a Michael Moore-launched protest in front of Trump International Hotel in New York City. That same day, Common and the National will be playing a free show at D.C.’s 9:30 club to benefit Planned Parenthood and Solange will be performing at the Peace Ball at the National Museum of African American History Culture. Uzo Aduba, Scarlett Johansson, Danielle Brooks, Cher, Julianne Moore, Katy Perry, Samantha Bee, Diane Guerrero, Olivia Wilde, America Ferrera, and Amy Schumer, among others, will reportedly attend women’s marches in states around the country. On inauguration day just after Trump is sworn in, Judd Apatow, Patricia Arquette, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Guest, Jane Fonda, Tim Robbins, and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy will appear on the Love-A-Thon telethon. Proceeds from the event, to be broadcast via Facebook Live, will go to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Planned Parenthood and Earthjustice.

8. He’s the most unpopular incoming president in the last four decades. 

On Monday, Gallup released a poll showing 55 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Trump, versus 40 percent (surprisingly high, considering) with favorable views. That’s about half the favorability rating President Obama had at his first inauguration, and 20 percent lower than incoming presidents Clinton and Bush. CNN’s survey results indicate roughly the same: 52 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump and 42 percent give him a thumbs-up. A Washington Post-ABC poll released Tuesday showed 54 percent of respondents are not down with Trump, while 40 percent are.

To put this all in perspective, pollster Will Jordan noted on Twitter that Trump's popularity as he enters the presidency is near the level of President Bush's right after Hurricane Katrina.

Bonus fact: Trump will take a vacation on Day One.

Remember how after Obama won a second term, Trump tweeted criticism about his vacationing, promoting a standard right-wing lie?

Trump’s team has insisted that the inauguration will be short, not for lack of star power or attendees, but because PEOTUS wants to get “to work right away.” Except that Trump recently announced he plans to spend the weekend chilling, instead of starting his new job on the day he’s hired. “My day one is gonna be Monday,” Trump told reporters, “because I don’t want to be signing and get it mixed up with lots of celebration.”

Martin Luther King Would And Did Fuck Trump's Shit Up

Posted by Rude One

1/16/2017

As we prepare for an open racist to ascend to the never more aptly-named White House, we need to remember, as this blog does every Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, that King wasn't a conservative, as Republicans and, weirdly, the Washington Post assert. No, King was a radical who made it his job to fuck up the nice little world that whites had constructed. So forget all that bullshit trying to make King into Fuzzy Marty, the Dream Hatchanimal, all ready to cuddle you with his non-violence. And, instead, let King's strength, power, and lack of fucks to give guide you as we head into the Trump era.

For instance, back in July 1966, a little over 50 years ago, King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led a march and held a rally in support of the Chicago Freedom Movement, which asked that blacks and whites be treated equally when it came to housing in the city. (The play Raisin in the Sun was based in the housing discrimination endemic to the Windy City.) King had moved into a slum in January of 1966, where he lived several days a week, to shed light on the conditions there. He threatened to lead rent strikes if things weren't improved. "We don't have wall-to-wall carpeting to worry about," King said of his apartment. "But we have wall-to-wall rats and roaches."

On July 10, in the midst of a savage heat wave, King held a rally at Soldier Field, followed by a march to city hall to demand that blacks be allowed to rent and buy apartments in white neighborhoods. Only 30,000 of the expected 100,000 came out to see him in the nearly 100 degree temperature, but King gave a rousing and curiously little-quoted speech about the need for fairness in housing as being one more part of the road to a free and equal United States.

King started, "We are here today because we are tired. We are tired of being seared in the withering flames of injustice. We are tired of paying more for less. We are tired of living in rat-infested slums and in the Chicago Housing Authority's cement reservations. We are tired of having to pay a median rent of $97 a month in Lawndale for 4 rooms while whites in South Deering pay $73 a month for 5 rooms." People forget that King could be incredibly specific and localized in his demands, that he wasn't just seeking blanket "rights." No, he wanted definite wrongs corrected.

He continued further in the speech, "Let me say, here and now, that we are not going to tolerate moves that are now being made in subtle manners to intimidate, harass, and penalize Negro landlords who may own one or two buildings while ignoring the fact that slums are really perpetuated by the huge real estate agencies, mortgage and banking institutions, and city, state, and federal governments. This day we must decide that we will no longer use our dollars to perpetuate segregation and discrimination. We must make clear that we will withdraw our money en masse from any bank that not have a non-discriminatory lending policy. We must affirm that we will withdraw economic support from any company that will not provide on-the-job training, and employ an adequate number of Negroes, Puerto Ricans, and other ethnic minorities in higher paying jobs."

Does that sound fuckin' conservative? Does that sound like someone who is kissing the ass of tradition and power structures? How about this: "This day we must decide to give greater support to Negro-owned businesses which will aid in building our economic strength." He implored non-violence. He said that there were whites that supported the cause. But, ultimately, he said that non-whites shouldn't participate in an economic system that dicked them over.

Then King led people to city hall where, among other things, he demanded an end to police brutality in Chicago. We see how that turned out today. Back in 1966, he was mocked by the Chicago Tribune, which said that King's marches and sermons had become "tiresome" and "stale." A march in Marquette Park in August turned violent, with white onlookers hurling rocks and bottles at the marchers, and King was injured. He said later that he had never seen mobs of whites "as hateful" as he saw in Chicago, not even in Mississippi or Alabama.

King always believed that he had failed in Chicago, especially since Mayor Daley didn't abide by promises he made to King about open housing. But his assassination in 1968 was followed almost immediately by President Lyndon Johnson signing the Fair Housing Act, which prohibited housing discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, and sex. And this is where we get to Donald Trump.

Five years after King's death, in 1973, Trump Management was accused by the Justice Department of violating the civil rights of blacks and Puerto Ricans under the Fair Housing Act. Fred Trump and his son, Donald, were specifically named as defendants. And while the case was settled without an admission of guilt, well, c'mon, the evidence was pretty damning that Trump rental agents deliberately steered non-white clients away from all-white apartment buildings. Trump Management agreed not to discriminate and to advertise that all buildings were open to everyone.

So, remember, on this MLK Day, that when Trump attacks Rep. John Lewis, one of King's closest associates, the President-Elect is also going after the man and the group that fucked his shit up early in his career. That King continues to do so to this day speaks to how much he will always be far more powerful than Trump ever could hope to be.

Intercepted Russian Communications Part Of Inquiry Into Trump Associates

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT, MATTHEW ROSENBERG, ADAM GOLDMAN and MATT APUZZO 

Paul Manafort, Donald J. Trump’s former campaign chairman, at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions as part of a broad investigation into possible links between Russian officials and associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump, including his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, current and former senior American officials said.

The continuing counterintelligence investigation means that Mr. Trump will take the oath of office on Friday with his associates under investigation and after the intelligence agencies concluded that the Russian government had worked to help elect him. As president, Mr. Trump will oversee those agencies and have the authority to redirect or stop at least some of these efforts.

It is not clear whether the intercepted communications had anything to do with Mr. Trump’s campaign, or Mr. Trump himself. It is also unclear whether the inquiry has anything to do with an investigation into the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computers and other attempts to disrupt the elections in November. The American government has concluded that the Russian government was responsible for a broad computer hacking campaign, including the operation against the D.N.C.

The counterintelligence investigation centers at least in part on the business dealings that some of the president-elect’s past and present advisers have had with Russia. Mr. Manafort has done business in Ukraine and Russia. Some of his contacts there were under surveillance by the National Security Agency for suspected links to Russia’s Federal Security Service, one of the officials said.

Mr. Manafort is among at least three Trump campaign advisers whose possible links to Russia are under scrutiny. Two others are Carter Page, a businessman and former foreign policy adviser to the campaign, and Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative.

The F.B.I. is leading the investigations, aided by the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and the Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit. The investigators have accelerated their efforts in recent weeks but have found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, the officials said. One official said intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had been provided to the White House.

Counterintelligence investigations examine the connections between American citizens and foreign governments. Those connections can involve efforts to steal state or corporate secrets, curry favor with American government leaders or influence policy. It is unclear which Russian officials are under investigation, or what particular conversations caught the attention of American eavesdroppers. The legal standard for opening these investigations is low, and prosecutions are rare.

“We have absolutely no knowledge of any investigation or even a basis for such an investigation,” said Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for the Trump transition.

In an emailed statement Thursday evening, Mr. Manafort called allegations that he had interactions with the Russian government a “Democrat Party dirty trick and completely false.”

“I have never had any relationship with the Russian government or any Russian officials. I was never in contact with anyone, or directed anyone to be in contact with anyone,” he said.

“On the ‘Russian hacking of the D.N.C.,’” he said, “my only knowledge of it is what I have read in the papers.”

The decision to open the investigations was not based on a dossier of salacious, uncorroborated allegations that were compiled by a former British spy working for a Washington research firm. The F.B.I. is also examining the allegations in that dossier, and a summary of its contents was provided to Mr. Trump earlier this month.

Representatives of the agencies involved declined to comment. Of the half-dozen current and former officials who confirmed the existence of the investigations, some said they were providing information because they feared the new administration would obstruct their efforts. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the cases.

Numerous news outlets, including The New York Times, have reported on the F.B.I. investigations into Mr. Trump’s advisers. BBC and then McClatchy revealed the existence of a multiagency working group to coordinate investigations across the government.

The continuing investigation again puts the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, in the middle of a politically fraught investigation. Democrats have sharply criticized Mr. Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Mrs. Clinton has said his decision to reveal the existence of new emails late in the campaign cost her the election.

The F.B.I. investigation into Mr. Manafort began last spring, and was an outgrowth of a criminal investigation into his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine and for the country’s former president, Viktor F. Yanukovych. In August, The Times reported that Mr. Manafort’s name had surfaced in a secret ledger that showed he had been paid millions in undisclosed cash payments. The Associated Press has reported that his work for Ukraine included a secret lobbying effort in Washington aimed at influencing American news organizations and government officials.

Mr. Stone, a longtime friend of Mr. Trump’s, said in a speech in Florida last summer that he had communicated with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group that published the hacked Democratic emails. During the speech, Mr. Stone predicted further leaks of documents, a prediction that came true within weeks.

In a brief interview on Thursday, Mr. Stone said he had never visited Russia and had no Russian clients. He said that he had worked in Ukraine for a pro-Western party, but that any assertion that he had ties to Russian intelligence was “nonsense” and “totally false.”

“The whole thing is a canard,” he said. “I have no Russian influences.”

The Senate intelligence committee has started its own investigation into Russia’s purported attempts to disrupt the election. The committee’s inquiry is broad, and will include an examination of Russian hacking and possible ties between people associated with Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russia.

Investigators are also scrutinizing people on the periphery of Mr. Trump’s campaign, such as Mr. Page, a former Merrill Lynch banker who founded Global Energy Capital, an investment firm in New York that has done business with Russia.

In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Page expressed bewilderment about why he might be under investigation. He blamed a smear campaign — that he said was orchestrated by Mrs. Clinton — for media speculation about the nature of his ties to Russia.

“I did nothing wrong, for the 5,000th time,” he said. His adversaries, he added, are “pulling a page out of the Watergate playbook.”

The lingering investigations will pose a test for Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, who has been nominated for attorney general. If Mr. Sessions is confirmed, he will for a time be the only person in the government authorized to seek foreign intelligence wiretaps on American soil.

Mr. Sessions said at his confirmation hearing that he would recuse himself from any investigations involving Mrs. Clinton. He was not asked whether he would do so in cases involving associates of Mr. Trump.

Jonathan Martin contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on January 20, 2017, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Wiretapped Data Used in Inquiry of Trump Aides. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

This 1958 TV western predicted Trump with a character named...Trump

A 1958 episode of the television western Trackdown features a con artist named Trump who wants to build a wall to protect a town from destruction.

Walter Trump, a confidence man, puts on a long robe and holds a tent meeting in the town of Talpa. He tells the townspeople that a cosmic explosion will rain fire on the town and that he is the only one that can save them from death. Ranger Hoby Gilman attempts to prove Trump is a fraud.

The Trump Inauguration's No-Star Lineup

Lewis Black breaks down Team Trump's futile attempts to book A-list performers at the president-elect's inauguration.

At least one Democratic congressman is already preparing to impeach Donald Trump

When Freshman congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) spoke at the "Our First Stand: Save Health Care" at Bowie State University, he got the loudest cheer of the day when he said he may vote to impeach Donald Trump.

TYT's Eric Byler (www.Twitter.com/EricByler) caught up with them after last of several rallies held to accommodate an overflow crowd, and asked him for the grounds for impeachment.

Betting Website Gives Trump 4-1 Odds Of Being Impeached Within 6 Months

There are also 5-1 odds of the golden shower video leaking.

By Brad Reed / Raw Story

Photo Credit: Christopher Halloran/Shutterstock

Donald Trump isn’t officially president yet, but some online gamblers are already thinking about his prospective impeachment.

Per the Houston Press, Irish betting website Paddy Power is now putting 4-1 odds on Trump getting impeached within the first six months of his presidency. Additionally, the website thinks it’s even more likely that Trump will not finish his first term, as it gives him just 7-4 odds of completing four years in the White House.

Other popular Trump-related bets on Paddy Power right now include video of his “golden shower” incident leaking onto RedTube (5-1 odds); splitting with wife Melania Trump (15-1 odds); and painting the entire White House gold (500-1 odds).

For what it’s worth, Paddy Power lost a gigantic chunk of money last year after it prematurely paid out money to bettors who picked Hillary Clinton to win the presidency. In total, Trump’s upset victory cost the website $4.5 million, which it said was its “biggest political payout ever.”

Brad Reed is a writer living in Boston. His work has previously appeared in the American Prospect Online, and he blogs frequently at Sadly, No!.

Putin: Obama trying to undermine Trump

Hardball's round table has a heated debate on the state of U.S./Russia affairs and the post-cold war order.

Trump has skin thinner than his wife and an ego bigger than my ass.

By Margaret and Helen

 HELEN:

Margaret, somebody called me an elitist because I think Trump and his supporters are morons.   I wasn’t’ quite sure what being an elitist means these days and I am pretty sure most people using that as an insult probably don’t either so I looked it up. After all, I’m just a little ole’ gal born in Georgia and I am not sure I qualify to be an elitist.

Now the Oxford Dictionary says an elitist is someone who supports the view that a society or system should be led by an elite.  Well that just begged the question: What is an elite?  I got confused at first because evidently an Elite is a size of letter in typewriting, with 12 characters to an inch. Of course, for this particular scenario it also means a select group that is superior in terms of their ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society such as an elite athlete or an elite armed forces. My favorite definition of elite, however, is from Merriam-Webster:  the choice part or the best of a class.  So I guess I am an elitist after all, because I want the best candidate for the job and I know for damn sure I want an elite President and not this orange man-child who is about to take office.

And I am in good company. They said Meryl Streep was an elitist after her speech at the Golden Globes. You remember, don’t you?  That moving speech she gave where she dared to say that we shouldn’t mock the disabled and a free press was vital to our democracy…  What an elitist that Meryl is.  How dare she make speeches about standing up for the disabled and defending the Constitution!

Wait… what’s an elitist again?

You know Margaret, I was feeling lower than a snake’s belly in a ditch after a rain shower about this election.  Kellyanne Conway is so good at lying… I mean telling us what is in Donald’s heart.  And I thought to myself that maybe I should give the man a break.  Maybe Trump deserves a second look.

Maybe I should show some respect for the office to which he has been elected.   But then I thought, nah he’s a moron and I’m an elitist who doesn’t think a society or a system should ever be led by a moron.

For goodness sakes, he’s not even trying to rise to the occasion.  The man is tweeting about national intelligence agencies one minute and Saturday Night Live the next.  And shockingly he is paying attention to the latter and ignoring the former.  Damn right I’m an elitist because I actually do think society should be run by someone with superior abilities instead of an idiot who can’t prioritize security briefings over comedy sketches.

And he is surrounding himself with idiots too. Are you really telling me that of all the people he could have nominated for Attorney General, he didn’t know even one without racist attitudes? What does that say?  Think about it.  What does that say about this man?  He appointed a known plagiarist to be a senior communications strategist.  And then he asked Omarosa to be… actually I don’t know what he asked her to be.  But Omarosa for anything?  What does that say? And incoming Press Secretary Sean Spicer actually whined  to the media, that Saturday Night Live wasn’t being funny, they were being “mean-spirited”.  Oh Really?  You know what’s mean-spirited, Sean?  Mocking a disabled person. You know what else is mean-spirited?  Laughing about sexually assaulting women.  You know what else is mean-spirited? Suggesting most immigrants from Mexico are rapists and drug dealers. Also, mocking a disabled person.  And yes.  I know I said that already.

An elite athlete knows how to win a game.  An elite army knows how to win a war.  An elite President knows how to put down his smart phone and look the nation in the eye and apologize for his inappropriate behavior.  Hell.  You don’t even have to be elite.  You just have to be decent.

Decent enough to admit that it was wrong to make fun of the disabled.  Admit that it was wrong to have disrespected and then denigrate women that way. Decent enough to tell the American people that you’re not perfect but you’ll strive to be a better president than you were a man.   But we don’t have an elite as President-elect. We don’t even have a decent person about to hold the highest office in the land.  We have a buffoon, man-child with skin thinner than that size 2 model/pin-up immigrant he’s married to.  And even she doesn’t want to live in the same house with him.

Call me an elitist.  It’s a badge I will wear proudly.   I’d rather be an elitist than the racist, misogynist, mouth-breathers who voted for Trump.  That’s right.  I said it. I insulted Trump voters and I won’t apologize for it.  We all knew what he did and what he said and what he stood for.  There was no mistaking what you were voting for.  I have no intentions of pulling punches.  You people elected a moron and the rest of us “elitists” get to look down our noses and point our fingers and ask you to explain yourselves.   Is it OK to make fun of the disabled? Yes or no?  Is it OK to sexually assault women?  Yes or no?  Is it OK to commit fraud?  Is it OK to discriminate against minorities? Is it OK to refer to your daughter as a nice piece of ass?  Is it OK to vote for someone who did?  If you answered yes to any of those questions, you can kiss my elitist ass.

Trump is not my president. I will challenge him at every turn.  I will hold him accountable for every ignorant, vapid tweet. I will hold him to the very highest of standards and ridicule him when he comes up short.  Why? You ask.  How dare I? You say.  Because he made fun of a disabled person and that’s all I ever needed to know about Donald J. Trump.  I mean it.  Really.

 MARGARET:

I understand some folks are planning to wear black on Friday in protest of the inauguration.  I will be in black as well as Howard, but we will be attending a funeral of another kind.