Farewell, Good Man Edition
A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES: Trump’s cabinet appears to be shaping up to be the least qualified and least capable ever, by leaps and bounds. As Benjamin Wallace-Wells put it, “The typical Trump nominee has not been the ideologue but the glib billionaire, disdainful both of the Senate confirmation process and of subject-specific expertise.” First we get this terrifying story of how Rick Perry fell into the job of overseeing America’s nuclear weapons cache: because no one -- not Trump’s team, and not Perry -- had any idea whatsoever what the Energy Department does. [Note: Some appropriate skepticism of this claim here.] These are two sentences that the Times put back to back, comparing the current Secretary Ernest Moniz (former chair of MIT’s physics department) to Perry (and note, I have not edited this in any way): “For Mr. Moniz, the future of nuclear science has been a lifelong obsession; he spent his early years working at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Mr. Perry studied animal husbandry and led cheers at Texas A&M University.” Then we had Trump’s pick for Education Secretary face insanely abbreviated questioning from the Senate this week -- and good thing, because she could barely last the little fire she faced. (Good roundup here.) She admitted she had no idea what the federal laws were regarding education access for disabled students; she could not explain the difference between proficiency and growth evaluation metrics; she disagreed that all federally-financed schools should be subject to the same standards; she seemed to have no idea how (or even whether) to regulate for-profit colleges that survive on federal student loans; and she said guns may belong in schools to protect against “potential grizzlies.” As in bears. That is a real thing that she said. Oh, and she would not commit to maintaining public education funding or refraining from privatizing public schools. Then we had Tom Price, nominee for HHS secretary. He vowed that “no rug is going to be pulled out from under” people benefitting from Obamacare (which seems to implicitly admit that people are in fact benefitting from Obamacare). He gave no details on any replacement plan, and would not rule out cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. His health policies, to the extent they exist, were somewhat overshadowed by news that broke over the weekend showing that he had bought shares in companies before introducing legislation that directly benefitted those companies (and in at least one case, later receiving a $1,000 donation from the company). “I think our job is to avoid the appearance of conflict,” my favorite senator, Al Franken, told him. “And you have not done that.” Price’s testimony -- which conflicted the story put out by the Trump team -- only fanned the flames of the scandal. Also: “President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Treasury Department initially failed to disclose his interests in a Cayman Islands corporation as well as more than $100 million in personal assets.”
UNDER THE RADAR (BUT SHOULDN’T BE): Late last week, the DOJ released a scathing report on the rampant excessive force (and racism) that marks the Chicago police department. (Appreciate this report, because the DOJ is getting out of the business of occasionally inspecting police departments as of noon tomorrow). Some key findings are here, and they are shocking (shocking but not surprising). Police regularly shot at harmless, fleeing suspects; they routinely lied about using force; there are no rules or standards about reporting the use of force at all; they routinely physically threaten suspects (or just anyone on the street) to get information; there is constant, routine lying among police officers when it comes to use of force; supervisors frequently sent or forwarded blatantly racist emails/social media posts (an issue found in many police departments).
THANKS, OBAMA: Tonight is the last night of the Obama presidency. I have found myself so emotional as we reach this transition point, between a man that has embodied thoughtfulness, analyticism, empathy, and clear thinking to a man who embodies the opposite of those things, riding a wave of terror to the White House. But that’s not our focuss here; our focus is reflecting on the the last eight years and assessing the amazing triumphs as well as the real disappointments. First, here’s a very heartwarming video looking back at the top Obama moments. And now here’s my un-scientific, surely-missing-lots-of-obvious-things list of the greatest successes of the Obama administration: Passage of the ACA; signing the Paris climate treaty; reopening relations with Cuba; nuclear treaty with Iran; repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; signing the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; appointing the total ballers Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan; promoting and arguing in court for same-sex marriage; writing new rules on overtime pay; writing crucial new environmental regulations; sentencing reform; mass commutations (including Chelsea Manning, who has been subjected to years of inhumane treatment in prison); Dodd-Frank financial reform; raising taxes on the wealthy; massive investment in clean energy technology; ending the war in Iraq; killing bin Laden; trying his damndest to close Gitmo; ending torture. I’m sure there are many, many more -- and this doesn’t even include the unquantifiable comfort of having a loving, stable family in the White House led by a couple with a fantastic sense of humor and a passion for promoting American art and artists. But his administration had some failures too, of course, some places where he could not live up to our expectations or even his ideals. Those seem to me primarily in the national security space: His enormous reliance on drones meant that we killed more people in more countries around the world than at any other time in American history, without ever declaring war. He could never figure out how to mitigate the staggering atrocities making up the years-long Syrian civil war (not that I think there were any good options). He oversaw the massive expansion of the secret national security state, including the secret wiretapping and data mining of every American’s phone calls, emails, text messages, etc -- a massive program that would have remained secret had it not been for Edward Snowden; Obama has banished Snowden and has immorally left his fate in the hands of a dangerous psychopath. Obama was far too deferential to the CIA on the issue of torture (new details of which continue to emerge even today, literally), refusing to prosecute those who broke our nation’s laws under the Bush administration and then fighting tooth and nail to keep the so-called Torture Report out of the public’s hands (including moving just last week fighting not to hand over a copy to a federal court to ensure that the GOP and Trump don’t destroy it). Finally, his biggest political mistake was failing to go after the banks and bankers that tanked the economy in 2008. I know that it was politically difficult (even with his kid gloves approach, recall that high profile Wall Streeters were comparing him, literally, to Hitler), but I believe that failure not only led directly to the Tea Party but also to Trump’s election. The vast wealth accumulated by Wall Street is simply unfathomable, and the fact that that wealth was not even dented after the entire world’s economy came crashing down just 8 years ago is unconscionable.
Anyway, even with these failures, Obama was a remarkable president, and is a remarkable man. We simply did not deserve him.
Apocalypse Watch: “Of his intel briefings, Trump said he likes them short. ‘I like bullets or I like as little as possible,’ he said. ‘I don't need, you know, 200-page reports on something that can be handled on a page. That I can tell you.’”
Bonus Apocalypse Watch: “Being a great president has to do with a lot of things, but one of them is being a great cheerleader for the country,” Trump said. “And we’re going to show the people as we build up our military, we’re going to display our military. That military may come marching down Pennsylvania Avenue. That military may be flying over New York City and Washington, D.C., for parades. I mean, we’re going to be showing our military,” he added.
To Keep in Mind: God knows I am not sanguine about the coming years. But President Obama’s thoughts on what’s coming, and how we should feel about it, are really worth reading in full, and taking to heart. (HT: I. Maazel)
QUESTION: And I have a personal question for you, because I know how much you like those. The first lady put the stakes of the 2016 election in very personal terms, in a speech that resonated across the country. And she really spoke the concerns of a lot women, LGBT, people of color, many others. And — so I wonder now, how you and the first lady on talking to your daughters about the meaning of this election and how you interpret it for yourself and for them?
OBAMA: You know, every parent brags on their daughters or their sons. You know, if your mom and dad don’t brag on you, you know you got problems.
(LAUGHTER)
But man, my daughters are something. And — and they just surprise and enchant and impress me more and more every single day as they grow up. And, so these days when we talk, we talk as parent to child, but also we learn from them. And, I think it was really interesting to see how Malia and Sasha reacted. They were disappointed.
They paid attention to what their mom said during the campaign and believed it because it’s consistent with what we have tried to teach them in our household and what I’ve tried to model as a father with their mom and what we’ve asked them to expect from future boyfriends or spouses. But what we’ve also tried to teach them is resilience and we’ve tried to teach them hope and that the only thing that is the end of the world is the end of the world.
And so, you get knocked down, you get up, brush yourself off and you get back to work. And that tended to be their attitude. I think neither of them intend to pursue a future of politics and in that, too, I think their mother’s influence shows.
(LAUGHTER)
But, both of them have grown up in an environment where I think they could not help, but be patriotic to love this country deeply, to see that it’s flawed, but see that they have responsibilities to fix it. And that they need to be active citizens. And they have to be in a position to talk to their friends and their teachers and their future co-workers in ways that try to shed some light as opposed to just generate a lot of sound and fury. And I expect that’s what they’re going to do. They do not — they don’t mope.
And — and what I really am proud of them, but what makes me proudest about them, is that they also don’t get cynical about it. They — they have not assumed because their side didn’t win or because some of the values that they care about don’t seem as if they were vindicated that automatically America has somehow rejected them or rejected their values. I don’t think they feel that way.
I think they have in part through osmosis, in part through dinner time conversations appreciated the fact that this is a big complicated country and democracy is messy, it doesn’t always work exactly the way you might want. It doesn’t guarantee certain outcomes. But if you — if you’re engaged and you’re involved, then there are a lot more good people than bad in this country and there’s a core decency to this country and — that they got to be a part of lifting that up. And I expect they will be.
And in that sense, they are representative of this generation that makes me really optimistic. I’ve been asked — I had — I’ve had some off-the-cuff (ph) conversations with some journalists where they said, “OK, you seem like you’re OK, but really, what are you really thinking?”
(LAUGHTER)
And I’ve said, “No, what I’m saying really is what I think.” I — I believe in this country. I believe in the American people. I believe that people are more good than bad. I believe tragic things happen. I think there’s evil in the world, but I think at the end of the day, if we work hard and if we’re true to those things in us that feel true and feel right, that the world gets a little better each time. That’s what this presidency has tried to be about. And I see that in the young people I’ve worked with. I couldn’t be prouder of them.
And so, this is not just a matter of no drama Obama, this is — this is what I really believe. It is true that behind closed doors, I curse more than I do publicly...
(LAUGHTER)
... and sometimes I get mad and frustrated like everybody else does, but at my core, I think we’re going to be OK. We just have to fight for it, we have to work for it and not take it for granted and I know that you will help us do that. Thank you very much, Press Corps, good luck.
END
