* Watch this video and count how many positions are reversed by these Fox News conservatives now that a Republican has been elected president.
Here’s my count:
1. Executive orders are a show of leadership rather than a sign of tyranny.
2. They now LOVE the reconciliation process in the Senate.
3. Infrastructure spending is great for the economy.
4. Borrowing for deficit spending is a good idea while interest rates are low.
* Buried in Scott Shane’s expose about Steve Bannon is this little tidbit:
Ms. Jones, the film colleague, said that in their years working together, Mr. Bannon occasionally talked about the genetic superiority of some people and once mused about the desirability of limiting the vote to property owners.
“I said, ‘That would exclude a lot of African-Americans,’” Ms. Jones recalled. “He said, ‘Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.’
Beyond African Americans, I’m wondering how a guy that mused about limiting the vote to property owners jives with Bannon’s reputation as a populist fighting for the working class.
* If, like me, you found Eli Saslow’s account of the life of former white nationalist Derek Black to be fascinating, you’ll want to read what Black himself wrote in an op-ed titled, “Why I Left White Nationalism.”
People have approached me looking for a way to change the minds of Trump voters, but I can’t offer any magic technique. That kind of persuasion happens in person-to-person interactions and it requires a lot of honest listening on both sides. For me, the conversations that led me to change my views started because I couldn’t understand why anyone would fear me. I thought I was only doing what was right and defending those I loved…
I never would have begun my own conversations without first experiencing clear and passionate outrage to what I believed from those I interacted with. Now is the time for me to pass on that outrage by clearly and unremittingly denouncing the people who used a wave of white anger to take the White House…
No checks and balances can redeem what we’ve unleashed. The reality is that half of the voters chose white supremacy, though saying that makes me a hypocrite. I was a much more extreme partisan than a vast majority of Trump voters and I never would have recognized that label…
There are millions of Americans who don’t understand why anyone might worry about the effects of this election. They see it as “feelings” versus their own real concerns. Those of us on the other side need to be clear that Mr. Trump’s callous disregard for people outside his demographic is intolerable, and will be destructive to the entire nation.
* Here is an example of resistance beginning to take shape:
Across the nation, officials in sanctuary cities are gearing up to oppose President-elect Donald J. Trump if he follows through on a campaign promise to deport millions of illegal immigrants. They are promising to maintain their policies of limiting local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration agents.
In doing so, municipal officials risk losing millions of dollars in federal assistance for their cities that helps pay for services like fighting crime and running homeless shelters. Mr. Trump has vowed to block all federal funding for cities where local law enforcement agencies do not cooperate with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents.
But as Mr. Trump prepares to take office, Democratic bastions, including Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco, have reaffirmed plans to defy the administration and act as a kind of bulwark against mass deportations.
* Speaking of resistance, I hope you won’t mind a humble-brag from my home state.
A Somali-American teen has made history after she wore a burkini and a hijab when participating in the semifinal of the Miss Minnesota USA pageant.
Halima Aden was met with rapturous applause when she stepped out on stage in a burkini during the swimsuit segment of the contest.
The 19-year-old St Cloud college student was born in a refugee camp in Kenya, which borders Somalia, and moved Minnesota as a young child.
Halima Aden starts off Miss Minnesota USA’s swimsuit segment to big cheers from the crowd. Announcer: “She’s making history tonight.” pic.twitter.com/OUvbHv6xct
— Liz Sawyer (@ByLizSawyer) November 27, 2016
* Finally, back when I was in high school, we didn’t call them “garage bands.” But every group of rock-n-roll wannabes had to be able to cover this song from Led Zeppelin. After awhile, it all soured me a bit on “Stairway to Heaven” – one of the greatest tunes of all time. That was true until I heard this cover by Heart at a Kennedy Center Honors performance. You can tell how good it was by the way the originators reacted.
