The December 27, 2016 Thread

“The concentration of wealth among president-elect Donald Trump’s nominees is setting up an arduous and expensive Senate confirmation process that could slow implementation of the White House agenda,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The Republican has so far appointed five billionaires and half a dozen multimillionaires to serve in his administration. To win confirmation, they will be required to disclose their financial holdings and divest themselves of any assets that could present a potential conflict of interest with their new posts.”

What's in store for Europe in 2017? A look at possible scenarios https://t.co/7KOnWxJxby

— The Guardian (@guardian) December 27, 2016

New York Times: “With swift and brutal efficiency, North Carolina Republicans welcomed an incoming Democratic governor this month to an elite but hardly desirable club: the handful of governors around the nation who face veto-proof majorities of the opposing party…”

“Governors outgunned by veto-proof majorities in their legislatures have successfully used the bully pulpit of their office, going over the heads of part-time lawmakers to directly appeal to citizens.”

“Other times, governors have profited from a basic law of politics: They are usually more popular than legislative bodies, whose job favorability is little higher than that of perpetrators of Ponzi schemes. And governors in control of the bureaucracy of the executive branch have found that, like President Obama in the face of congressional obstruction, they can pull the levers of executive action to advance an agenda.”

"People aren't necessarily getting the media literacy they need, so they're just kind of panicking" https://t.co/4vNi01qehF

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 27, 2016

Dana Milbank says there is a new solution for Trump and his team of billionaires: Ignore the law.

Trump lieutenant Newt Gingrich this week proposed an elegant solution for all the conflicts of interest swirling around the president-elect and his team of billionaires: Ignore the law.

President-elect Donald Trump, Gingrich said, should let those in his administration do as they wish with their personal fortunes and business interests and pardon them if they are found to have violated laws against using public office for personal enrichment. “He could simply say, ‘Look, I want them to be my advisers, I pardon them if anybody finds them to have behaved against the rules, period’,” Gingrich said on NPR’s “The Diane Rehm Show” on Monday.

“Drain the Swamp” is so October.

In another NPR interview on Wednesday, Gingrich said Trump’s “swamp” campaign theme had been relegated to the marshlands of history, asserting that “he now says it was cute, but he doesn’t want to use it anymore.”

Excellent. That will make impeachment easier when the Dems retake Congress.

Donald Trump's regime looks more like crony capitalism mixed with reheated Reaganomics https://t.co/tPsYkfrPy2

— Salon (@Salon) December 27, 2016

“Congressional Republicans are planning a massive overhaul of the nation’s tax system, a heavy political lift that could ultimately affect families at every income level and businesses of every size,” the AP reports. “Their goal is to simplify a complicated tax code that rewards wealthy people with smart accountants, and corporations that can easily shift profits — and jobs — overseas. It won’t be easy. The last time it was done was 30 years ago.”

Could Trump help unleash nuclear catastrophe with a single Tweet?

Yes, arms control experts tell me:https://t.co/i9DLz9hZe7

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) December 26, 2016

“Donald Trump spent the past two years attacking rival Hillary Clinton as crooked, corrupt, and weak. But some of those attacks seem to have already slipped into the history books,” the AP reports. “From installing Wall Street executives in his Cabinet to avoiding news conferences, the president-elect is adopting some of the same behavior for which he criticized Clinton during their fiery presidential campaign.”

The Guardian: “From smaller local organizations to household names such as Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, nonprofit organizations across the US reported fundraising tallies many magnitudes higher than in previous years as they approached their end-of-year donation drives…Progressive causes in the US saw a spike in donations immediately after the election on 8 November from voters dismayed, outraged or even frightened by the outcome. In the weeks since, this wave of strategic giving has compounded. Planned Parenthood has received more than 300,000 donations in the six weeks since the election, 40 times its normal rate. Around half the donors were millennials and 70% had never given to the family planning organization before, a spokesman told the Guardian.”

Politico: “The transition team has recruited dozens of Republican public relations veterans and policy experts to help sell the public and the Senate on Trump’s selections, according to sources close to the transition. Their task will be to convince Americans that the billionaires, generals, donors and CEOs chosen by the president-elect have the expertise to manage the federal government — even if they have no Washington experience.”

“Every nominee has his or her own team of sherpas, or guides, to teach them about the inner workings of their agency, help prep them for confirmation hearings and guide them through the process of filing a mountain of paperwork… Meanwhile, each nominee has been assigned a ‘media sherpa,’ who has been tasked with managing negative stories about nominees, helping to sort out the logistics of meetings with senators and their staffs, and providing background information to reporters.”

Gene Sperling: “[I]f Democrats focus too much of their attention on Medicare, they may inadvertently assist the quieter war on Medicaid — one that could deny health benefits to millions of children, seniors, working families and people with disabilities…Of the two battles, the Republican effort to dismantle Medicaid is more certain. Neither Mr. Trump nor Senate Republicans may have the stomach to fully own the political risks of Medicare privatization. But not only have Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Tom Price, Mr. Trump’s choice for secretary of health and human services, made proposals to deeply cut Medicaid through arbitrary block grants or “per capita caps,” during the campaign, Mr. Trump has also proposed block grants.”

“Twitter messages apparently posted by one of President-elect Donald Trump’s aides have added some intrigue to the sudden resignation of Jason Miller, Trump’s choice for communications director,” the Washington Post reports.

“A tweet from the account of A.J. Delgado, an adviser to Trump’s campaign and a member of the transition team, appeared Thursday with the message: ‘Congratulations to the baby-daddy on being named WH ­Comms Director!’ Delgado also appeared to call Miller ‘The 2016 version of John Edwards,’ a reference to the former U.S. senator and Democratic presidential candidate who carried on an extramarital affair with his campaign videographer. Two other tweets called on Miller to resign — which he did.”

“Delgado deactivated her Twitter account Saturday and could not be reached for comment ­Sunday.”

For your amusement. pic.twitter.com/0sbEXkTGVm

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) December 27, 2016

Israel’s ambassador the United States told CNN that his country will share evidence with President-elect Donald Trump that the Obama administration was behind a United Nations Security Council resolution that condemned Israel’s settlements in Palestinian territory. Said ambassador Ron Dermer: “We will present this evidence to the new administration through the appropriate channels, and if they want to share it with the American people they are welcome to do it.”

I would gain more respect for Obama if he was behind it. Netanyahu deserves it. Israel is now an apartheid state and it is long past time the world start treating it as such.

At NPR, Linda Wertheimer interviews Nick Rathod, executive director of the State Innovation Exchange (SIX), which fights for progressive causes and candidates in state houses across America. Rathod notes that”one of the things that progressives have done…is that we try to pass big pieces of legislation here in D.C. and then educate everyone on the back end where conservatives have developed policies that are tailored to local communities and then have the conversation and build narratives around what that means for people. I mean, I grew up in Nebraska, and when I talk with my conservative friends there, we’re pretty close on a lot of the issues. But the thing is that we just haven’t ever really sat down and talked to people about what it – what equal pay actually means. You know, do you care whether your daughter gets paid the same as your son? I think most people would say yeah. Do you care that people have a living wage, that people who are playing by the rules, working hard, I think people would say yes to that. Let’s have those conversations locally, and let’s shake out who is actually fighting for those things.”