Open Thread: Always Be Grifting, Donnie!
The spin — “Surprisingly, Trump inauguration shapes up to be a relatively low-key affair“:
President Obama’s first inaugural festivities stretched over five days. Donald Trump is spending barely three on his.
Bill Clinton hit 14 official balls on the day he was sworn in. Trump plans appearances at three.
And while other presidents have staged parades that lasted more than four hours, Trump’s trip down Pennsylvania Avenue is expected to clock in at 90 minutes — making it among the shortest on record.
In a word, the 45th president’s inaugural activities will be “workmanlike,” said Boris Epshteyn, communications director for the Presidential Inaugural Committee, a pop-up staff of about 350 people scrambling to put together the proceedings from the second floor of a nondescript government building just south of the Mall.
The notion of a relatively low-key inaugural bereft of many A-list entertainers may come as a surprise, given the president-elect’s flair for showmanship and his credentials as a reality TV star. Epshteyn said that Trump settled on a less flashy approach, however, including keeping the ticket prices for the inaugural balls at $50 apiece so that working-class Americans who helped fuel Trump’s victory can take part…
The old man wants to get home in time for his Matlock Apprentice reruns. Also, there’s that whole “can’t get any entertainers, or sell many tickets” problem.
But it’s not that he doesn’t have the funds! McClatcheyDC, “Big money names behind Trump inaugural start to come out despite his secrecy plan“:
Donald Trump is trying to keep the names of the people and companies donating millions of dollars to his inauguration festivities this week a secret — a break from his Republican and Democratic predecessors in the White House.
At least the last three presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, all disclosed names of donors before they were sworn into office .
A federal law passed when Bush was in office required presidents to reveal names of contributors, but only 90 days following the inauguration.
Some names have been leaked out or been released by the donors themselves. Chevron gave $500,000 and will sponsor additional events and Boeing pledged $1 million, according to the companies. AT&T and JPMorgan Chase also donated, according to the companies. Other corporate donors include those who donated to Obama’s inauguration or had declined to contribute to the Republican National Convention last summer, including UPS, Bank of America and Deloitte, according to the New York Times.
“It is all about access and influence,” said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the nonpartisan public advocacy group Public Citizen. “Donations come in very large amounts and from those who almost always want something from the new administration.”…
John Wonderlich, executive director for the Sunlight Foundation, which advocates for more openness in government, called Trump one of the most secretive candidates in modern history. “This trend is continuing through the pre-presidency and likely the presidency,” he said.
Trump is expected to raise more than $90 million — a record amount — from people and corporations to pay for days of activities, including receptions, balls and the parade surrounding the 58th inauguration celebration. Taxpayers will spend millions more on the official swearing-in ceremony, security, construction and cleanup…
Am I the only one who suspects some large portion of these ‘donations’ will go straight into Trump’s pockets, while the usual party preps get skimped?
The Trump inauguration is shaping up to be Washington’s smallest party in years https://t.co/iDr5c0JEEZ
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 18, 2017
There probably won't be enough food either. https://t.co/f0sdYHjrj9
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) January 18, 2017
It'll probably be a cash bar. https://t.co/rcZii72TyE
— George Scriban (@scribandotcom) January 18, 2017
This could change tomorrow, but I have been in DC for six inaugurations and I have never seen fewer people or less excitement
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) January 19, 2017
@dougalpollux @washingtonpost Actually, you're wrong. They're paying for seat fillers. Read that again…paying people to attend.
— Ryan Randall (@itsryanrandall) January 18, 2017
Open Thread: Always Be Grifting, Donnie!Post + Comments (143)
Wayne Barrett, July 11, 1945 – January 19, 2017: Rest in Peace
Wayne Barrett, the greatest investigative reporter I've ever known, a guiding, goading inspiration to generations of reporters, has died.
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) January 19, 2017
Wayne Barrett, the long time reporter for the Village Voice and one of the first biographers of the President-elect has died at the age of 71. Barrett had been in ill health throughout the 2016 election season, but continued reporting and providing analysis for as long as he was able to.
From his obituary at the NY Times:
Wayne Barrett, the muckraking Village Voice columnist who carved out a four-decade career taking on developers, landlords and politicians, among them Donald J. Trump and Rudolph W. Giuliani, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 71.
His wife, Fran Barrett, said the cause was complications of lung cancer and interstitial lung disease.
…
A 1992 book, “Trump: The Deals and the Downfall,” was, as Mr. Barrett acknowledged, a flop at first. Thanks to his subject’s improbable political ascent 25 years later, it was successfully republished and expanded in 2016 as “Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth: The Deals, the Downfall, the Reinvention.”
Mr. Barrett’s voluminous background files from the Trump biography, and his professional courtesy, made his Brooklyn home a mecca for investigative reporters during the recent presidential campaign.
“There may be no journalist in the nation who knows more about Trump than Barrett,” Jennifer Gonnerman wrote in The New Yorker just after the election.
…
“He took Trump seriously long before anyone else did,” Mr. O’Brien, who is now executive editor of Bloomberg View, said, “and most of the work that followed Wayne’s was built upon his insights.”
Here’s a link to his Twitter feed, which includes links to much of his election year analysis of the President-elect.
Wayne Barrett, July 11, 1945 – January 19, 2017: Rest in PeacePost + Comments (33)
Samantha Bee Vs. SpokesCobra
Cobra never had a chance. Open thread.
Open Thread: Palin Wept
Q: What books are you reading?
A: Look over there. There are some books. pic.twitter.com/9cItkOPMQ7— Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) January 18, 2017
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All of them, Katie!
Yeah, I think Sam Bee is right — the President-Asterisk can’t read, at least not with any fluency. And he’s too spoilt to put in the effort to overcome his deficits.
(I always suspected Dubya was an unacknowledged dyslexic / ADD sufferer, but at least his parents had taught him to fake an interest. Sometimes. “All right, you’ve covered your ass… “)
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This is slightly different from when @michikokakutani interviewed Obama about books https://t.co/XUxRzyyixS
— Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) January 18, 2017
Government, Meet Bathtub
It’s easy to run a government that does (next to) nothing.
Here’s where Trumpism — or really Pence-ism, or really, exactly what the GOP has been promising (threatening) will have its most immediate, and quite possibly its most damaging impact:
Staffers for the Trump transition team have been meeting with career staff at the White House ahead of Friday’s presidential inauguration to outline their plans for shrinking the federal bureaucracy, The Hill has learned.
The departments of Commerce and Energy would see major reductions in funding, with programs under their jurisdiction either being eliminated or transferred to other agencies. The departments of Transportation, Justice and State would see significant cuts and program eliminations.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting would be privatized, while the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities would be eliminated entirely.
Overall, the blueprint being used by Trump’s team would reduce federal spending by $10.5 trillion over 10 years.
The NEH and NEA cuts are at once symbolic — the GOP is killing stuff liberals like, which is reward enough in those quarters — and, I think, intended to distract from other hugely reckless choices:
The Heritage blueprint used as a basis for Trump’s proposed cuts calls for eliminating several programs that conservatives label corporate welfare programs: the Minority Business Development Agency, the Economic Development Administration, the International Trade Administration and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. The total savings from cutting these four programs would amount to nearly $900 million in 2017.
At the Department of Justice, the blueprint calls for eliminating the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, Violence Against Women Grants and the Legal Services Corporation and for reducing funding for its Civil Rights and its Environment and Natural Resources divisions.
At the Department of Energy, it would roll back funding for nuclear physics and advanced scientific computing research to 2008 levels, eliminate the Office of Electricity, eliminate the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and scrap the Office of Fossil Energy, which focuses on technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Under the State Department’s jurisdiction, funding for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the Paris Climate Change Agreement and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are candidates for elimination.
The single most important point I can make is that this is the Kansas-ification of America. This isn’t a Trump policy choice. This is Mike Pence shepherding plans the Republican Party has been trying to implement for years, decades even. I doubt it will all get through, but much of it will, I’d guess, and when it does we will need to hang every shitty outcome and terrible choice around the neck of every Republican officeholder.
This is what they want. This is what they told us they wanted. They’re likely going to get it, to some approximation. And they’re going to have to own it, so that once again, Democrats can come in and fix the serial catastrophes we’re going to witness very damn soon.
Also, too — who wants to bet all the pieties about the deficit and restoring balance to the budget will fall to the tax cuts to come?
Fuck it. I’m heading back to the seventeenth century.
Image: Francesco de Rossi, Bathesheba at her Bath, 1552-1554.
Open Thread: Prepping for the Women’s March
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if you have a seat in your car you can offer someone looking to march in DC this weekend, check out https://t.co/0hIxUedqPy
— Caro (@socarolinesays) January 16, 2017
Advice for the locals, from the Washington Post:
Thousands of people are expected to be in the region Saturday for the Women’s March on Washington, an event that could draw larger crowds than Inauguration Day itself, and present travel challenges for participants and residents.
Drivers will encounter day-long— and rolling— road closures near the Mall and public transit users should expect long waits at Metro stations and crowding on platforms and trains…
Metro announced Wednesday that trains will start running at 5 a.m. and up to two dozen trains will be added to accommodate the crowds. (The transit agency had originally said it would run regular Saturday service, which meant stations opening at 7 a.m.)
Demonstrators will gather for a rally at 3rd Street and Independence Avenue on the morning after the transfer of power to president-elect Donald Trump. The crowds will then march along the National Mall to The Ellipse, near the Washington Monument. Thousands of people are expected at the event, which organizers say is not a protest but a way to “promote women’s equality and defend other marginalized groups.”
The location: The stage will be on 3rd Street and Independence Avenue by the National Museum of the American Indian.
The program:
8 a.m.— activities start with images and video on display.
9 a.m. — pre-rally with speakers, music and public service announcements.
10 a.m. — the official rally starts, featuring celebrities including Katy Perry, Cher, America Ferrera and Uzo Aduba
1 p.m. — participants start marching toward The Ellipse where the program will end.The March route: The group will begin to walk from the gathering location around 1 p.m. and march west on Independence Avenue SW, from 3rd Street SW, to 14th Street SW; then will turn north on 14th Street SW to Constitution Avenue NW; and will march west on Constitution Avenue NW to 17th Street NW, near the Ellipse and Washington Monument, where the events will come an end…
More information on parking, public transit, bike routes, and a list of banned items at the link.
Anybody who takes photos they want to share — either in DC, or at the Sister Marches — send them to me or TaMara and we’ll put them on the front page.
ETA, by request: Here’s Adam Silverman’s post on ‘Peaceful Assembly and Personal Security‘.
More free downloadable @womensmarch posters, this time by @dirtybandits and @PaperJamPress https://t.co/IB7kGlmf14
— Tina Roth Eisenberg (@swissmiss) January 13, 2017
Open Thread: Prepping for the Women’s MarchPost + Comments (72)