monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

The white (almost all) men (almost all) sitting around the table will look like their predecessors, generations of them. But they won’t be the same as their predecessors, not at all. They will have been placed in their positions and handed the reins of power not to govern, but to destroy.

It’s not only Rick Perry, the former Texas governor whom President-elect Donald J. Trump has named to head the Department of Energy. Mr. Perry so disdained that department when he was running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2011 that he blanked on its name when listing the federal agencies he wanted to abolish. It’s also Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma state attorney general, who has devoted his adult life to fighting environmental regulation in partnership with his financial backers in the oil industry, named to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

It’s Tom Price, the congressman-doctor from Georgia who doesn’t believe the federal government has an affirmative role to play in health care, named as secretary of health and human services. Or another congressman, Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, a founder of the House Republicans’ Freedom Caucus who would rather shut down the government than pass a budget, named to be the White House budget director. It’s Wilbur Ross, named to head the Commerce Department after having made a fortune as an investor, buying and dismantling distressed industrial corporations. (Explain that to the voters who believed a Trump presidency would save their factory jobs.)

Donald Trump’s transition team announced Wednesday that billionaire investor Carl Icahn would serve as a special advisor to the President-elect on issues relating to regulatory reform.

One of those questions related to a statement that Trump released after the attack, which read, in part, “Innocent civilians were murdered in the streets as they prepared to celebrate the Christmas holiday. ISIS and other Islamic terrorists continuously slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad.”

But when asked specifically about that statement, Trump seemed confused, asking the reporter “Who said that? When did—when was that said?” Then, when told that he was the one who said it, in a statement, Trump seemed to edit the remark, saying “It’s an attack on humanity. That’s what it is. It’s an attack on humanity and it has to be stopped.”

Yes, that is EXACTLY what I am saying. That's why I believe it should be OK for someone running a business to not be OK with a homosexual marriage.

I understand this, and understand that there is nothing wrong with two consenting adults acting upon homosexual urges. I am saying that not everyone else should be forced to be on board with it through government intervention.

I think this is one of our fundamental differences... I think a person's business is their business. They put blood, sweat, tears, and a whole lot of money into owning that business. That business is not Uncle Sam's baby, and uncle Sam shouldn't be running it.

Despite some post-election gains, Trump likely will take office with a lower approval, and higher disapproval, rating than any of those predecessors. In recent Gallup and NBC/Wall Street Journal surveys, only about half of Americans gave him positive marks for his transition, far lower than the share for previous presidents. In Gallup’s polling for Obama, George W. Bush, and Clinton, voters gave them initial job-approval ratings that were, on average, eight points lower than the ratings for their transition; if anything near that precedent holds, Trump will become the first modern president to start with less-than-majority public approval.

I believe the answer here involves two conflicting principles

There is also an overarching issue here as well, and that involves the degree to which we want our government involved in the enforcement of social norms.

Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump’s first campaign manager, brokered the meeting between Mexican telecom billionaire Carlos Slim and the president-elect last weekend, Lewandowski’s business partner said Wednesday.

Barry Bennett, who on Wednesday unveiled a new lobbying firm with Lewandowski, confirmed to POLITICO that Lewandowski traveled to Mexico City this month to meet with Slim and that he arranged the subsequent sitdown with Trump.

The meeting between Trump and Slim — over dinner this past Saturday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida — occurred about 10 days after Lewandowski’s visit with Slim.

The revelation that Lewandowski brokered the meeting — coming hours after he and Bennett unveiled their lobbying firm — could undermine Trump’s campaign pledge to “drain the swamp” by reducing the power of lobbyists and special interests in Washington.

It also raises the specter that Lewandowski and Bennett, who was an informal senior adviser to Trump’s campaign, could take advantage of their relationship with Trump as they pursue their own outside business interests.

So what about pedophiles

be the same as not holding someone personally responsible for being a pedophile

We should push for a tolerant society, one where you are encouraged to walk grandma down the street. However, the concepts and ideals should be freely encouraged by people like you, through example and free speech, not forced by government and enforced by law suits.

You contradict yourself. The law can act for good or evil, as you illustrated. Restraint on the power of government is a nesessary element of a meaningful solution.