The December 30, 2016 Thread

Filed in National by on December 30, 2016

“If Mr. Trump’s strategy to keep jobs in America relies on busting unions, keeping wages down, deregulating everything in sight and cutting taxes for the wealthy, he’ll certainly fail…If President-elect Trump is serious about building a high-productivity, high-wage economy, he needs to put a moratorium on flawed trade agreements and crack down on unfair trade practices, and he must work to end all tax subsidies for offshoring and put those and other revenues toward funding quality education, skills and infrastructure investment….” – from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s NYT op-ed, “Don’t Let Trump Speak for Workers.”

Ed Kilgore explains “Here’s How Obama Could Go Nuclear on Trump and the GOP Before Leaving Office” by making ‘recess appointments of scores of federal judges up to and including the U.S. Supreme Court seat vacated by deceased Justice Scalia. There are reasons why it is unlikely to happen, including Obama’s temperament. But it’s not like the Republicans can credibly attack Democrats for bucking bipartisan comity and playing hardball. As Kilgore concludes, “..I wouldn’t rule it out entirely before the new Congress is gaveled in.”

He would have to do it on Tuesday, January 3. It won’t happen.

Sam Wang’s “Constitutional Hardball: Can Senate Democrats Confirm Merrick Garland on January 3rd?” explores the idea further at The Princeton Election Consortium. Calling it a “long shot,” Wang says “A bigger hurdle is whether Democrats have the boldness to attempt such a move. To some extent, party members adopt their tone from their leaders. Senate Democrats might have to push back on President Obama, who has made it clear that he seeks to make an orderly transition to the Trump Administration. But the roughness of the Presidential transition may give him second thoughts. Democrats may be bolstered by the fact that Obama’s net approval is quite high, while Trump’s net approval rating is the lowest of any incoming President on record.”

The whole Garland gambit is much more complicated than President Obama simply recess appointing lower court judges. It would require action by Vice President Biden, in the moment between gaveling to order the new Congressional session in the Senate on January 3 and swearing in the newly elected Senators en masse (during which time there would be technically a majority of 36 Democrats to 33 Republicans), to call on “Majority Leader” Dick Durbin, and having Durbin move for a vote on the nomination of Garland. This scenario assumes that no Republican would in any way object, and that the motion would not be filibustered.

So yeah, that won’t happen either.

Josh Katz has a fun post up at NYT’s The Upshot, “‘Duck Dynasty’ vs. ‘Modern Family’:50 Maps of the U.S. Cultural Divide.” It’s also an excellent resource for political ad buyers, because it indicates exactly where such TV shows and many others are popular. A lot of the popularity maps are predictable enough, but you might be surprised to learn that “The Walking Dead” is very big along the Texas-Mexico border, while “Game of Thrones” doesn’t do very well outside of narrowly-defined cities and “The Tonight Show’s” largest area of popularity is in north-central Utah. In PA, you would book some ads on “Dancing with the Stars,” “NCIS” and “Law and Order: SVU.” On the Pine Ridge reservation in SD, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” rules and “Saturday Night Live’s” strongest southern metro area is Nashville.

“The Obama administration struck back at Russia on Thursday for its efforts to influence the 2016 election, ejecting 35 Russian intelligence operatives from the United States and imposing sanctions on Russia’s two leading intelligence services,” the New York Times reports.

“The administration also sanctioned four top officers of one of those services, the military intelligence unit known as the G.R.U., which the White House believes ordered the attacks on the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations.”

“The expulsion of the 35 Russian spies, who were posing as diplomats, was in response to the harassment of American diplomats in Russia, officials said. None of those officials are believed to be connected to the hacking.”

Once the New Year celebrations are over, the battle for health care begins. It looks like there is still some disarray among Republicans on the plans for Obamacare repeal and delay.

Republicans are debating how long to delay implementing the repeal. Aides involved in the deliberations said some parts of the law may be ended quickly, such as its regulations affecting insurer health plans and businesses. Other pieces may be maintained for up to three or four years, such as insurance subsidies and the Medicaid expansion. Some parts of the law may never be repealed, such as the provision letting people under age 26 remain on a parent’s plan.

House conservatives want a two-year fuse for the repeal. Republican leaders prefer at least three years, and there has been discussion of putting it off until after the 2020 elections, staffers said.

From TPM related to the Russian Hacking:

A joint report from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security on Russian “malicious cyber activity” was declassified and released on Thursday, just after the Obama administration announced sanctions against individuals and entities associated with Russian intelligence that it believes were involved in election-related hacking.

The full report is here.

Democrats are organizing a day of action on January 15th – “Our First Stand: Save Health Care.”

Leading House and Senate Democrats are calling for a national “day of action” ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration, pledging to make that Sunday the Democrats’ “first stand” in what’s shaping up to be a bruising legislative battle over health care programs in 2017.

In a letter circulated to their colleagues, incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and liberal firebrand Bernie Sanders predicted that the GOP will repeal Obamacare and begin to gut Medicare and Medicaid benefits as soon as Congress reconvenes in January. They asked Democratic lawmakers to organize rallies in protest to create a national message in opposition.

The White House is running a series at Medium titled, “In Review: The Obama Presidency.” So far they have covered President Obama’s top speeches, his top moments in the digital era, favorite White House videos and the most memorable “we the people” petitions. Today’s entry featured Michelle Obama’s top 10 “Let’s Move” moments. That gives me an excuse to post this video that captures the absolute coolest First Lady ever.

Good: “The Buffalo Board of Education voted 6-2 Thursday to issue a stunning ultimatum to Carl Paladino, one of their own members who has been under national fire for his racially charged comments about the Obamas: Resign within 24 hours, or the board will petition the state to remove you.”

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