monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

The Baltic States and Poland are justifiably asking if an alliance with the US is still worth anything. Especially since Trump seems, above all, to be focused on his friendship with his Russian friend Vladimir.

Trump’s attack on John Lewis is the essence of narcissism

...Trump often justifies his attacks as counterpunching. Even a glancing blow seems to merit a nuclear response. But this is the exact opposite of the ethical teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, and of the principled nonviolence of the civil rights movement. In these systems of thought, the true victory comes in absorbing a blow with dignity, even with love. It is the substance of King’s message. It is the essence of a cruciform faith.

This is not always easy to translate into politics. But a president-elect attacking a hero of the civil rights movement less than a week before he takes the oath of office is not normal. There is some strange inversion of values at work. Because Vladimir Putin praises him, Trump defends Putin. Because Lewis criticizes him, Trump attacks Lewis (as “talk, talk, talk — no action or results”). The only organizing principle is the degree of deference to Trump himself. It is the essence of narcissism...

...Trump often justifies his attacks as counterpunching. But this is the exact opposite of the ethical teaching of the Sermon on the Mount...In these systems of thought, the true victory comes in absorbing a blow with dignity, even with love.

A hellscape of lies and distorted reality awaits journalists covering President Trump

...this is the reporter whom Trump mocked during the campaign — waving his arms in a crude but unmistakable imitation of Kovaleski’s movements. When criticized for doing so, Trump vehemently denied that mocking Kovaleski was even possible because he didn’t know him. (Which was also a lie.) All this, because Trump wanted to promote a myth — talk about “fake news” — that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated 9/11, which he falsely claimed Kovaleski reported while working at The Washington Post. Any reasonable person looking back at the facts would find that ­absurd.

...But that’s just part of what experience teaches us to expect from Trump.

Here’s another: Trump will punish journalists for doing their jobs. Famously touchy and unable to endure serious scrutiny, he has always been litigious — although, as journalist Tim O’Brien has pointed out based on Trump’s failed suit against him, sometimes unsuccessfully so.

Imagine that tendency, now with executive powers, a compliant attorney general and a lily-livered Congress. Trump’s reign will probably be awash in investigations and prosecutions of journalists for doing their jobs, stirring up the ugliest of class wars along the way.

Trump will punish journalists for doing their jobs...Imagine that tendency, now with executive powers, a compliant attorney general and a lily-livered Congress. Trump’s reign will probably be awash in investigations and prosecutions of journalists for doing their jobs, stirring up the ugliest of class wars along the way.

But [Americans For Prosperity] can point to major successes over the past year — helping to oust a GOP House member who had voted against key priorities, swinging close Senate races toward Republican incumbents in North Carolina and Wisconsin, and putting field workers on the ground in key states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio that handed Trump the presidency.

[The Kochs’ powerful operation isn’t aimed at helping Trump – but it might anyway]

There are plenty of signs that any tensions between Trump and the Kochs are in the rear-view mirror. Marc Short, a former top Koch network official, will be serving in an influential post in the White House as director of legislative affairs. And the Washington Post reported last month that many Trump transition advisers on veterans affairs had ties to Concerned Veterans for America — a Koch group that was recently brought under AFP’s umbrella.

Last week, it was revealed that Netanyahu and Mozes, long considered bitter enemies, had attempted to negotiate a deal for favorable coverage for the prime minister in return for restricting the market access of Israel Hayom, the free, pro-Netanyahu Hebrew daily owned by U.S. billionaire Sheldon Adelson.

Excerpts from recordings of the secret discussions between Netanyahu and  Mozes, reported by Channel 2 over the weeked, illustrate how the two men got down to the nuts and bolts of how they would implement a deal for better coverage for Netanyahu and reduced commercial competition for Mozes. In details published later, Mozes told Netanyahu: We'll make sure you remain prime minister.

According to the excerpts, Mozes and Netanyahu even discussed specific journalists to hire at Yedioth to provide more favorable coverage of the prime minister.

Fifty-four percent of voters approve of the job Obama is doing as president, 34 percent strongly so in preliminary exit poll results. [..]

Slightly more voters think the next president should continue Obama’s policies (28 percent) or change to more liberal ones (18 percent). Forty-six percent say the next president’s policies should be more conservative that Obama’s.

Today in a new interview with the Germany's Bild and the Times of London Trump expanded on these goals dramatically. Trump leveled a series of attacks on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, suggesting he'd like to see her defeated for reelection and saying she'd hurt Germany by letting "all these illegals" into the country. Trump also called NATO "obsolete", predicted other countries would soon leave the EU, and characterized the EU itself as "basically a vehicle for Germany."

Trump and Bannon are extremely hostile to Merkel and eager to see her lose. But what is increasingly clear is that Trump will make the break up of the EU a central administration policy and appears to want the same for NATO.

In an appearance on the ABC News Sunday morning show This Week, incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus warned the Director of the Office of Government Ethics to "be careful" about criticizing President-Elect Trump's conflicts of interest.

On Wednesday Director Walter Shaub Jr. called Trump's plan to separate himself from his business "wholly inadequate" and "doesn't meet the standards" set by other presidents or even Trump's own nominees.

Said Priebus: "The head of the government ethics ought to be careful, because that person is becoming extremely political. Apparently, may have made a -- publicly supported Hillary Clinton as calling out the president with information on Twitter about our disentangle -- disentangling of the business over a month ago. So I'm not so sure what this person at Government Ethics, what sort of standing he has anymore in giving these opinions. I think Jason Chaffetz was correct to call for an investigation into the Government Ethics Department in the government for the positions that they've taken in this campaign."

But Spicer was having none of it, slamming the venerable late night comedy show as “disappointing,” just a day after the President-elect added his own criticism of the show he once proudly hosted.

And that, says frequent Trump critic Jay Rosen, is precisely the next president’s plan. “Trump is preparing a presidency that optimizes for a low-trust environment,” said Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University. “The whole premise of ‘winning back credibility’ is off. He’s prepared to govern without credibility. He seeks to profit from maximizing distrust.”

David Axelrod ‏@davidaxelrod 11h11 hours ago
Days after his nominee for Defense Secy told Senate NATO is vital, PEOTUS says its "obsolete." Do these guys speak?

David Frum ‏@davidfrum 11h11 hours ago
In interview with the Times, Trump proposes dropping sanctions on Russia w/out any end to Russian war on Ukraine