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Huh? Democrat Rep.Tulsi Gabbard for Trump’s Sec. of State!

National, , ,

gabbardntrumpA steady stream of potential candidates for the president-elect’s cabinet and administration has been auditioning for Donald Trump.

And about six days ago Democratic US Rep. from Hawaii,Tulsi Gabbard who served with her state’s National Guard and volunteered for duty in Iraq  joined the pilgrimage to Trump’s New York tower of power on Fifth Avenue.

During the Democratic Presidential primary campaign, DNC chairwoman Gabbard made big news among supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders in February when she resigned her position to support Sanders’ candidacy over foreign policy differences with Hillary Clinton. She said then: “We can elect a president who will lead us into more interventionist wars of regime change, or we can elect a president who will usher in a new era of peace and prosperity.”

Rep. Gabbard was hailed last February as a Democrat to watch in the future, and now that prediction is proving true but in an unexpected and strange way. Democrat Gabbard has joined the line of well known Republican job seekers Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Jeff Sessions and lesser known former office holders Scott Brown and Rick Perry trekking to Trump Tower and Trump-owned golf resorts.

Her audience with Donald and his team raised a few eyebrows among Democrats. And fellow Democrats in Hawaii’s Congressional delegation note she failed to join 169 other Democratic House members that condemned “Alt-Right” supporter and possible ant-Semite Steve Bannon playing a major role in a Trump White House. And Howard Dean was particularly critical of Representative Gabbard: “She’s an interesting person, and the people from Hawaii basically have her tabbed as extremely ambitious with flexible principles.” He speculated that she may be motivated to position herself to the right for a future run for the Senate, but added: “So who knows what this is all about.”

Gabbard’s audience with Trump might have gained wider attention if the Trump transition itself wasn’t such a … well, circus. The NYTimes.com says he has transformed what is normally a quiet task of forming a government into: “…a Trump-branded, made-for-television spectacle, parading his finalists for top administration positions this weekend before reporters and the world.” We have to wonder, is it the red carpet or a future perp walk?

Gabbard’s audience with Trump, according to a spokesperson, was focused on foreign policy “…our current policies regarding Syria, our fight against terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS, as well as other foreign policy challenges we face.” They did not say if a job with the new administration was discussed.

Interestingly an opinion piece titled: Tulsi Gabbard is the pick for Secretary of State, not Mitt Romney appeared in TheHill.com and Brietbart News, floating the  congresswoman as possible Secretary of State:  [Gabbard]…does not play politics [and] embodies the very essence of the President-Elect’s ideological departure from the interventionist policies that have plagued this nation for the past two decades. No mention is made in the piece about Rudy Giuliani who has also been tagged a possible Sec. of State. But Mitt Romney, yet another candidate for the job, gets a trashing in the piece that is perhaps greater than any praise it offered for Gabbard.

Is this about Romney adversaries on the Trump team utilizing Gabbard for bit of political theater and showmanship to influence Donald? With all things Trump it is probably wise not to even speculate. On this one I’ve got to side with former Governor Howard Dean when he wondered: “So who knows what this is all about.”

Obama serves Thanksgiving meals

National, Uncategorized

U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama served traditional Thanksgiving food at the Armed Forces Retirement Home. The Home is an independent agency in the Executive branch and provides residences and related services to retired members of the Armed Forces. This is the final Thanksgiving that Obama will mark as President of the United States.

Sure, it’s a photo-op, a darned good one by the way, and all things considered I’m going to miss him and his family.

Also yesterday,President-elect Trump and family spent Thanksgiving at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Their six option main course menu reportedly included “Mr. Trump’s Wedge Salad,” and a three layer “Trump chocolate cake,” dessert.

Trump, they say, will be hard at work today and for the coming weeks is planning to hold  a series of large ‘victory rallies’ as some supporters have already been doing. Okay, there’s the circuses — where’s the bread?

Phil Scott’s “moderate” governors coalition partner wants voter restrictions

National, , , ,

Aren’t New England GOP’ers supposed to be the good ones? That’s the theory at least. And based on that age-old theory, Phil Scott wants to form a coalition of these fabled (mythical?) moderate Northeastern Republican governors to protect states from policies of the Trump Administration. And Scott wants to include New Hampshire’s Governor-elect Chris Sununu in his new coalition of moderate northeastern Republican governors. Scott also name drops Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan as possible partners (since when was Maryland in the Northeast?).

nhvotersHowever, Sununu is right in lock-step with the not-so-moderate national GOP trend to limit voter registration. Shortly before this year’s election on Boston talk/news radio Sununu alleged Democrats practiced voter fraud and said: “[…] when Massachusetts elections are not very close, they’re [Democrats] busing them in [to New Hampshire] all over the place.” He got a pants on fire rating for that one from politifact.com

Now with the election over, Governor-elect Sununu has back-pedaled on his earlier fraud allegations but still wants restrictions: “It’s not about fraud and a rigged system, that nonsense. It’s really just about making sure that our rules are clear, that they’re unambiguous, and that people can believe that as a full-time resident of the state of New Hampshire, your vote isn’t being watered down by someone who’s ‘drive-thru voting,’ ‘drive-by voting.’ We just need to modernize the system.”

Specifically he wants to end or restrict his state’s same-day voter registration law – enacted by a majority of Republican legislators and signed into law by the Republican Governor in 1994. Sununu echoes the language used nationally by GOP’ers and Koch Brother’s ALEC funded efforts to squeeze voter registration rolls. Same-day registration, Sununu says, can have “problems.” He told NH Pubic Radio: “We just need our laws tighter.”

Same-day voter registration can have problems? Well, Ay-yup, and perhaps Sununu and New Hampshire Republicans have a “problem” with this: Same-day registration is a major issue in several college towns in New Hampshire, which this year voted heavily for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Democratic Senate candidate Maggie Hassan.

Oh, I see it now: by “problem” Sununu means figuring out how to limit Democratic voters. I suppose the NHGOP could, like in the old days, allow only property owners to vote – or better yet on the revenue side, impose a hefty poll tax to keep those others from voting – that used to work like a charm.

And that brings it back to Phil Scott’s imagined coalition of ‘moderate’  Northeastern Republican governors. Don’t know much about Governors Baker or Hogan but I wonder how moderate this coalition can be if Sununu is one of Phil’s “good guys.”

“Minimum” good news from Election Day

Business, National, , , ,

In four states, voters approved increases  in their minimum wage this past Election Day. Arizona, Colorado, and Maine voters approved phased–in minimum wage  increases to at least $12.00 per hour by 2020. In Washington the increase will be $13.50 by 2020. Seventeen other states (including Vermont) and many cities have already raised minimum wage requirements in recent years. However the Federal minimum wage remains low at $7.25 per hour.

wageworldCommenting on the passage of minimum wage hikes Holly Sklar, CEO of an organization called Business for a Fair Minimum Wage says: “This really reinforces what we know—that there’s very strong support among the general public for raising the minimum wage, and there’s also strong support in the business community for raising the minimum wage. And you can see it across the country and across the political spectrum.”

There’s a clear business case for supporting the increase. “To put it in the most basic terms, workers are also customers,” says Sklar. “Some of the political opposition against raising the minimum wage often acts like workers and customers are like two different species of people.”

Here in Vermont the Democrats and Progressives in the legislature passed and Governor Shumlin (D) signed an incremental minimum wage bill increase to $10.00 per hour in January 2017 and $10.50 by 2018.wageslaves1 Governor-elect Phil Scott(R) opposed this move. He said then and now that he prefers not to “burden” businesses and that wages should be left alone to grow “organically.”

Good news has been in short supply since Election Day but that shouldn’t diminish the fact that thanks to the voters roughly two million low-wage workers wages will benefit from these increases — a good small step, long in coming.

Phil Scott to meet with Koch Brothers

Business, local/regional, National,

Well, not precisely with the Koch Brothers but close enough (and besides, the “evil Koch Brothers” are proven bi-partisan click bait in Vermont). Governor-elect Phil Scott will be flying to Florida this week to attend the Republican Governors Association’s two-day post-election conference.rga201620 At two million dollars the Kochs were the largest contributors to the Republican Governors Association(RGA) in 2016 according to opensecrets.org.

The RGA then, in turn coughed up big bucks – almost $3 million dollars – to support Scott’s campaign win here in Vermont. It is worth noting that with Trump’s ascendance in the national GOP, the Kochs have been channeling more and more resources – reportedly $750 million – to extend their influence to state GOP office holders at all levels.

A theme of this week’s RGA gathering is “leading the change,” and featured speakers include public employee union-busting Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, climate change denier Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, and Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina. Of the three only Haley has been critical of Trump, but she also accepted contributions from him.

Phil Scott’s first national excursion as governor-elect is to go racing off, following the money to schmooze at the RGA conference with union busters and climate change deniers. And the man who spoke so often about “hitting the pause button” will spend time hearing about “leading the change.” Who is this “authentic Vermonter?” Looks pretty different on the road from his campaign image when he’s at home.

The woman who thought Donald would keep a promise

local/regional, National, ,

Darcie Johnston, Trump’s rough and ready GOP campaign leader for Vermont, is The woman that knew Trump would win according to an interview done with her by VtDigger.com’s Mark Johnson.dypdonald3

Johnston explains that she has no qualms about the divisive methods Donald unleashed from the start and believes “there had to be some shock and awe to get through the process.”  She was likewise impressed by Trump’s powerful triumph of will: “He knew what he had to do to become the nominee and he was going to do it.” If he reached the general election she knew he would say and do whatever was needed in order to win. Note to Darcie: ugly election campaign rhetoric does have consequences in the real world.

As a longtime VTGOP operative and an opponent of single payer healthcare plans here in Vermont (she started Vermonters for Health Care Freedom) Johnston was encouraged by Trump’s emphatic promise to repeal Obama-care. So, she dismissed Trump’s harsh racist and sexist rhetoric — talk of a Mexican border wall as “shock and awe” campaign rhetoric. Yet, Donald’s promises to push to repeal the Affordable Care Act she took seriously.

Her anti-Obamacare heart must have positively fluttered with joy each time during the campaign when Trump promised:“On Day 1 of the Trump administration, we will ask Congress to immediately deliver a full repeal of Obamacare”. Johnston happily went to battle in the trenches for the Donald — mostly in New Hampshire where he finished second by a very small margin to Clinton.

Since Trump’s win Johnston told VtDigger she hopes to seek  a job with the new administration, on health care reform. That dream may have taken an unexpected turn when, just days after becoming president-elect, Trump quickly backed away from his promise of “total repeal [of] Obamacare on day one.”

It now seems likely “full repeal of the Affordable Care Act on day one” could actually mean keep Obama care in Trump-speak. So … surprise,Trump did what he had to do to win — shock, awe and say anything. And now he’ll ignore his promises and do whatever he wants.

So the sad fact for anyone like Johnston who bought-in to his campaign and actually believed Trump, there may be little to no time to gloat publically before President-elect Donald tosses your favorite campaign promise over his own wall at Trump Tower.

Round-up the usual Trump storylines

National, Uncategorized, ,

It will take a while – weeks, but more likely years – to sort out exactly how and why Trump won on Election Day. Unreliable first drafts of “conclusions” are already forming. Speaker Paul Ryan is claiming Trump “just earned a mandate.”   Well, I got to say it “mandate my ass.”

unusualtrumpsOnce certain storylines – true or false – take root, it is hard to dig them back out. Steve Waldman writes in Washington Monthly about four storyline “conclusions” that “don’t comport with what the exit polls show.” Here are two recent “conclusions” about Trump’s win that seem prominent now and could be with us for while.

  • This was a revolution of the economically downtrodden.

Many pundits were saying Donald Trump’s victory was fueled by people who are economically dispossessed and struggling.  Here’s what the exit polls actually showed:

Voters with incomes under $50,000 went for Clinton 52%-41%.   Over $50,000 went for Trump 49% to 47%

That’s not to say economic anxiety wasn’t a factor in eroding support for Clinton. She did lose among those without college degrees. Relative to 2012, [Trump] did better with the less affluent than Romney. But the bulk of his winning coalition was wealthier.

The alienation seems more complex – having more to do with racial standing and a sense of whether their futures seem bleak or hopeful more than whether they can actually put bread on the table at that moment.

  • This was a Trump landslide

It was shocking. It was disruptive. It was unambiguous. But by recent historical standards, it was not a landslide. For one thing, Hillary may end up winning the popular vote.  That would mean Democrats will have won the popular vote 6 of the last 7 times.

Beyond that, in the last ten elections, the winning candidate got more than 300 electoral college votes seven times. If you look at both the popular and electoral college, this would count as the second or third closest election of the last ten.

While sifting through the wreckage I’m going to keep in mind this dictum: eye witnesses are the least reliable at recalling details. Meanwhile popular pundits and politicians struggle to find storylines to explain how and why they all got it so wrong about President-elect Trump. A hint to help them find a major piece of the puzzle: try looking in the mirror.

Election Day results links

Uncategorized

Posting links for local and national up-to-date voting results is probably a quaint retro-bloggy thing to do in 2016 (anyone still have dial-up?) and most people probably follow on twitter & Facebook – but just in case here are three good links.votevoice

All politics are local so here thanks to SoS Jim Condos is the Vermont Secretary of State’s Election Day results map. It is updated by county as result come in.

Talking Points Memo has a good results map and editor’s live blog. And if you want to go deep Five Thirty Eight’s hour to hour state by state How to Watch Election Guide that can’t be beat.

And the winner is…cable news networks

Business, National,

Recent polls show only 19% of US adults approved of the media. The press did better with 32 % trust .But those low approval numbers don’t prevent viewers from tuning in-and cable news profits are soaring.

“Look at this mask. Look at this mask. Oh wow. Wow, that’s beautiful. Look at that. Looks just like me.” said Donald Trump
“Look at this mask. Look at this mask. Oh wow. Wow, that’s beautiful. Look at that. Looks just like me.” said Donald Trump

[…] according to sources familiar with CNN’s finances, “the network and its related media businesses will approach $1 billion in gross profit in 2016

And of course as much as one might try, you can’t ignore Fox News:  Fox, which hosted the first GOP debate in 2015, generated $2.3 billion in ad sales and $1.6 billion in operating profit for its parent company, 21st Century Fox, in 2015, according to research firm SNL Kagan. That number will undoubtedly be higher in 2016 given the bigger audiences and higher ad rates in the election year. 

MSNBC is also having an exceptional year. In October alone, viewership was up 168 percent overall and 261 percent in the 18–54 demographic.

It would be interesting to find out how much of a role Trump,the GOP’s buffoon bigot showman had in generating viewership.There is a good chance the Trump show will  get canceled today, but could he show up in his own sequel. You know, Trump TV ?

Updated: Buying Out Democracy

local/regional, National, ,

Post Election Day update: Some national down-ballot state news such as this may get lost in the storm after Trump’s shocking win:[Democrats suffered some of their worst down-ballot failures on election night in the secretary of state races, the low-profile but quietly influential office that oversees elections in each state.

The GOP flipped four seats. Three were open seats: Missouri (Jay Ashcroft), Montana (Corey Stapleton), and Oregon (Dennis Richardson). The Oregon contest was the most surprising, with the GOP winning their first statewide office in more than a decade.]

What  are the Koch Brothers are up these days?  Well, we know the Kochs aren’t paying to woo Vermont voters to build a coal plant in the state. State Sen. Joe Benning (R) humorously suggested a clever headline-grabber what-if thought experiment to drive home his point about the level of outrage there might be were it the “evil” Koch Brothers offering payments to Vermonters to build a coal plant — rather than Iberdrola’s  wind power generating facility.kochbrosbucktalk

Of course the Kochs spend their time and political money   ($900 million in campaign 2016) much higher up the policy food chain than mere voters.

So then what are the Kochs up to these days ?  I mean in addition to running thousands of dollars worth of ads in Vermont supporting Benning’s fellow VTGOP legislative candidates through their Republican State Leadership Committee.

Well, according to the NYTimes.com, the ultra wealthy conservative Koch Brothers, the Republican State Leadership Committee, and other lobby interests are setting their sights on secretaries of state — the people in charge of impartially running elections.

The targeting of secretaries of state with campaign donations, corporate-funded weekend outings and secret meetings with industry lobbyists reflects an intense focus on often overlooked ballot questions, which the secretaries frequently help write.

The ballot initiatives are meant to give voters a direct voice on policy issues such as the minimum wage and the environment. But corporate and other special interests are doing their best to build close ties with the secretaries because a difference of even a few words on a ballot measure can have an enormous impact on the outcome.

This is of particular importance in states that regularly hold direct-vote ballot initiatives on policy issues. And Koch’s RSLC involvement may take this to a new level:  Republicans have turned to initiatives to push their agenda as a counter to liberal activists, according to an internal party memo.

“Ballot initiatives will not be the left’s mechanism for gaining power and advancing their agenda when voters have already rejected them,” said the memo, from the Republican State Leadership Committee, in February 2015 as the group prepared fund-raising efforts. “It’s time for conservatives to take back that power by rejecting their efforts and promoting our own.” NYTimes.com

Ironic as hell that big money is using the ballot-initiative/referendum process to do an end-run around legislatures. But the penny-wise Koch Brothers may figure it is a lot cheaper and more efficient to buy/influence with a few Secretaries of State than feeding friendly herds of state legislators.