“Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
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Keith Olbermann: The Resistance: Can Donald Trump Possibly Believe What He’s Saying?
In all the outrage about the unhinged things Donald Trump keeps tweeting and saying, there’s been almost zero criticism at the fact that Obama will be partly responsible for the extraordinary scope of powers Trump inherits. The Obama administration has not only done nothing to curtail the slew of extreme national security and war powers that Trump is about to acquire since the election – the White House is actively expanding them. [..]
Make no mistake: Trump will have a free hand to use the law meant for the perpetrators of 9/11 to wage war around the world, fashioning it to different enemies at his command, and he will be able to point to precedent set by the Obama administration as he does it.
Per usual, all the White House’s decisions are being made under the veil of official secrecy. The only reason we know about it is not because the administration announced it, but because the New York Times reported it after unnamed officials leaked it to them.
Heather Digby Parton: GOP zeal for congressional oversight has faded when it comes to Donald Trump — and it’s a scandal
When last we heard from Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the House of Representatives’ own Samuel Sewell (Salem’s famous witch hunter), he was declaring that just because Hillary Clinton had lost the election, her troubles were not over as far as he was concerned. He was undoubtedly disappointed that he was unable to pursue the impeachment hearings he had been planning for several months.
But Chaffetz gamely carried on and announced that he had every intention of continuing his investigation into her allegedly nefarious emails and conflicts of interest from when she was secretary of state. [..]
It looks as though this threat will hang over Clinton’s head for a long time to come.
This all seems rather strange, doesn’t it? There are much bigger fish to fry these days. Indeed, there is a Great White Whale out there by the name of Donald Trump, a man with so many conflicts of interest and potential national security transgressions it would be a full-time job for any congressional oversight committee to find out just what and where they all are.
Nikhil Goyal: Public schools may not survive Trump’s billionaire wrecking crew
Donald Trump, a self-described billionaire, wants billionaire heiress Betsy DeVos to take over the Department of Education. These two ultra-rich people have never attended public schools. Nor have they sent their kids to them. Yet they will likely accelerate the bipartisan dismantling of public education as we know it.
Private foundations, billionaires and Wall Street hedge fund managers have funneled billions of dollars either directly into the education system or the political process to influence policy. These groups are often staunch advocates of pro-market policies such as charter schools and school vouchers, which allows parents to send their kids to private schools using public money. DeVos has been described as “the four-star general of the voucher movement”.
If DeVos’s nomination is approved, she will speed along the erosion of public education, which has been going on for some time. As I explain in my recent book, Schools on Trial, both the Obama and Bush administrations adopted a market-based approach. This was marked by privatization, austerity measures, expansion of privately managed charter schools, high-stakes standardized testing, school closures, value-added teacher evaluations and attacks on teachers unions. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and Race to the Top program in 2009 were rooted in this ideology.
Miranda Yaver: Good luck getting healthcare in Donald Trump’s America
After an election dominated by rhetoric and anti-establishment sentiment more than policy specifics, the upset of 8 November left open many questions as to how President-elect Donald Trump would steer the nation. More questions still were raised when it was suggested that, contrary to his campaign promise, some aspects of the Affordable Care Act might, indeed, be salvaged. Such hopes have been dashed. [..]
Among Trump’s cabinet announcements this week is that of health and human services, for which he has chosen representative Tom Price, a staunch ACA and reproductive choice opponent. While qualified for the position as a long-time physician and member of Congress, much of his political record is deeply troubling in looking to the future of the American healthcare system.
To a long-time observer of American politics, it comes as little surprise that there is ample politics in policy. But that can be troubling when it comes to healthcare. After all, cancer, heart disease and diabetes do not discriminate among Democrats and Republicans. Physicians treat patients of different ideologies and socioeconomic status, and following the Hippocratic oath, they look after the safety and wellbeing of those who are in their care.
Bill McKibben: Standing Rock is the civil rights issue of our time – let’s act accordingly
When John Doar died in 2014, Barack Obama, who’d already awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, called him “one of America’s bravest lawyers”. Without his courage and perseverance, the president said, “Michelle and I might not be where we are today”.
Doar was the federal lawyer sent south by the Kennedy and Johnson justice departments to keep an eye on the explosive centers of the civil rights movement. Those White Houses didn’t do enough – but at least they kept watch on things. Doar escorted James Meredith to classes at the University of Mississippi, and helped calm crowds at the murder of Medgar Evers; he rescued activists from mobs during the Freedom Rides. A figure of history, in other words.
But history is just news from a while ago. Right now, we’re seeing a scene as explosive as the Freedom Rides or the bus boycotts play out in real time on the high plains of the Dakotas. And it’s a scene that desperately needs some modern-day John Doars to keep it from getting any worse.
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