Hillary Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri: “One of my proudest moments with [Hillary Clinton] is her standing up with courage and with clarity in Steve Bannon’s own words and Donald Trump’s own words the platform that they gave to white supremacists, white nationalists. And it is a very, very important moment in our history as a country and I think as his presidency goes forward I am going to be very glad to be part of the campaign that tried to stop this.”
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway: “We flipped over 200 counties that President Obama won, and Donald Trump just won. You think that’s because of what you said, or that people aren’t ready for a woman president? Really? How come it’s just Hillary Clinton? She doesn’t connect with people. How about they have nothing in common with her? How about you had no economic message?”
more uh huh than huh
cnn: There was also fierce criticism of the press by the Trump campaign. One of the odder complaints came from former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
“This is the problem with the media. You guys took everything Donald Trump said so literally,” Lewandowski said. “The American people didn’t. They understood it. They understood sometimes when you have a conversation with people, whether it’s around the dinner table or at a bar, you’re going to say things and sometimes you don’t have all the facts to back it up.”
*Will give bonus points to anyone showing up at these campaign autopsies holding a Queen of Diamonds playing card. *
This whole year seems to be an instance of “just because” instead of “why”. Herding cats or catching moonbeams might be easier to accomplish. Gobbledygook as the lingua franca of 2016 seems about right.
This whole year seems to be an instance of “just because” instead of “why”.
sjwny, here’s another “why” answered with “just because ”
wapo: Why Trump gets more hype out of 1,000 jobs than Obama does out of 16 million
Dunno if it’s just the nature of our world these days or me getting dumber, but the list of things I don’t understand is growing. What’s more weird, Trump going rogue with phone calls to foreign leaders — or that China gets to decide who our presidents can talk to???
Bloomberg: “China lodged a complaint with the U.S. after President-elect Donald Trump flouted almost four decades of diplomatic protocol by directly speaking with the leader of Taiwan, which Beijing considers a rogue province.”
Craig: I’ve decided that I really don’t understand anything about what happened this year! Can’t even say huh? cause trump just brings out the trucker in me…WTF!! We now have a President who know/cares nothing about diplomacy or National Security in charge of the nuclear button! RE the Bloomberg article, I came over here on the heels of reading this Boston Globe article. The man is an idiot and proudly tweets about it!
Ah nuts, at last I’m on the same side as Palin on an issue; the Carrier deal was just “crony capitalism.”
If Donald wanted to make a good deal and keep jobs here, he could’ve told Carrier that there would be huge taxes to bring their foreign-made products back into the US for sale (not that all would be meant for the US market). He could’ve added that Carrier’s parent company’s juicy defense contracts might just be in jeopardy.
What he did was good for about a thousand workers in the short term. It was not a good deal for the US. It was a GREAT deal for his corporate buddies.
The thing is, with Obama, those jobs (and the support business in the area who depend on workers spending their wages at their stores) would not have been saved, the parent company would still have their defense contract, but Carrier wouldn’t have a huge tax break.
As for Donald taking a call from the prez of Taiwan & everyone going nuts about it, F China for trying to call US on the carpet. F China, in general. But, it’s almost like Donald is trying to do something so unnerving that the EC will reject him. Maybe the thrill was in the chase & he doesn’t really want the job.
About things that have you thinking that hell has frozen over and pigs are dive bombing from above because you agree with the speaker:
Anne Coulter: Medicare IS NOT WHAT THE ELECTION WAS FOUGHT OVER. If Ryan wants to change Medicare, then run for president on that & see how far you get.
So far the Trump cabinet is shaping up to be a complete freak show. I don’t know who is worse: The climate change denier or the billionaire sister of a corporation so hideous it has had to change its name three times to try to hide electrocuting American soldiers.
Just received my monthly church letter in the mail. Apparently, “post-truth” is the world of the year. I haven’t heard it before, but it seems related to Colbert’s “truthiness.” It’s all about the reactionary feeeelz.
https://youtu.be/c_Y50hE5ri8
rawstory: US veterans build barracks for pipeline protesters in cold North Dakota winter
U.S. military veterans were building barracks on Friday at a protest camp in North Dakota to support thousands of activists who have squared off against authorities in frigid conditions to oppose a multibillion-dollar pipeline project near a Native American reservation.
Veterans volunteering to be human shields have been arriving at the Oceti Sakowin camp near the small town of Cannon Ball, where they will work with protesters who have spent months demonstrating against plans to route the Dakota Access Pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, organizers said.
The Native Americans and protesters say the $3.8 billion pipeline threatens water resources and sacred sites.
Some of the more than 2,100 veterans who signed up on the Veterans Stand for Standing Rock group’s Facebook page are at the camp, with hundreds more expected during the weekend. Tribal leaders asked the veterans, who aim to form a wall in front of police to protect the protesters, to avoid confrontation with authorities and not get arrested.
nytimes:
CANNON BALL, N.D. — Lee Plenty Wolf knows the government wants him to clear out of the snowbound tepee where he stokes the fire, sings traditional Oglala songs and sleeps alongside a pair of women from France and California who came to protest an oil pipeline in the stinging cold. But he and thousands of other protesters are vowing to make what may be their last stand at Standing Rock.
The orders to evacuate the sprawling protest camp on this frozen prairie just north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation came down last week from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the North Dakota governor’s office. After four months of prayer marches and clashes with law enforcement officials who responded with tear gas and water cannons, the protesters now have until Monday to leave.
[….]
Cusi Ballew, a Pottawatomie member from southern Ohio making his second trip to the camp, was up on a ladder drilling pieces of plywood together to make a bunkhouse for Sioux tribal members. “Humans have been surviving winters for over 250,000 years,” he said. “What’s important isn’t how we’re doing it but why we’re doing it. We’re here for prayer and for action.”
And more people were pouring in.
Veterans’ groups were hoping to bring 2,000 Native and non-Native veterans to Standing Rock over the weekend. The Bismarck airport was a hive one morning: the actress Patricia Arquette could be seen heaving a suitcase off the baggage carousel; the director of a clean-water group was on the phone figuring out transportation; California friends from the Burning Man festival arrived with $5,000 worth of turmeric and medicinal herbs and oils.
At the camp, children sledded down the icy hills and horses cantered through the snow, and as night fell and people clustered around campfires to cook chili and fry bread, Laurie Running Hawk made her way to a small camp by the banks of the river. In the distance were the sounds of Native men drumming and singing, and the sight of tall floodlights along a ridge that marked the path of the pipeline.
There is one question that I stopped asking myself each morning ‘what will the floater do today which is worse and more horrible than yesterday?’ That simple question caused me much grief as I could never even guess what idiotic thing it would do. The New Nixon he is not. He may make Tricky Dicky look like a saint when the first year is done.
The U.S. will be lucky if China does not sink any U.S. vessel that approaches the newly formed islands. We have nothing. The Chinese navy will be a irritant. But, the U.S. cannot do anything in that theater against the Chinese. We cannot invade. Sure we could expend a few thousand missiles and rockets, but that will not matter. Our lives and the Chinese lives are now intertwined and breaking those bonds is not lightly taken. Except by the floater.
Gale is getting very good at shopping. Today was early xmas rush at Bed Bath and Beyond, she got shook up at one point, but she got back on being the good dog there. Then it was to Petco, her favorite shopping store, new toys and treats. She is getting used to her vest and walking around stores.
Bloomberg, back in august:
China Holdings
The latest available Treasury data and estimates by strategists suggest that China controls $1.48 trillion of U.S. government debt, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That includes about $200 billion held through Belgium, which Nomura Holdings Inc. says is home to Chinese custodial accounts.
The PBOC has sold at least $106 billion of reserve assets in the last two weeks, including Treasuries, according to an estimate from Societe Generale SA.