“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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E. J. Dionne Jr.: The electoral college should think hard before handing Trump the presidency
In making what is likely to be the most consequential decision of this transition period, Donald Trump couldn’t resist petty vindictiveness.
Mitt Romney was briefly touted as the front-runner to become secretary of state. After meeting with Trump over a meal, he pronounced himself “very impressed” by the man he had described as “a phony, a fraud” during the campaign.
Trump did not accept this graciously. Citing a Trump friend, The Post reported that the president-elect “enjoyed watching his dinner partner appear to grovel for the post.”
Memo to Trump’s Republican critics: Your initial instincts about Trump were right. Remember that catering to this man will bring only pain and humiliation. [..]
It will be entirely understandable if 270 or more of the electors pledged to Trump decide they are agents of their state’s voters, not independent actors. They can argue, fairly, that rejecting Trump would threaten the stability of our institutions. But the threat Trump himself presents to those institutions is why electors need to think hard before they make this decision.
And if Trump prevails, as expected, this is also why vigilance rather than acquiescence is the primary duty of those unwilling to forget everything we believed about him before Nov. 8. He’s done nothing to change our minds. Just ask Mitt Romney.
Max Richtman: In The Fight To Save Retirement Security For The Working Class
After his re-election in 2004, President George W. Bush declared he would spend his political capital to realize a long-held conservative goal: end Social Security as we know it and turn it over to Wall Street. Bush didn’t realize he had stepped on a political landmine. I was Executive Vice President of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare in 2005, when we beat back Bush’s attempt to privatize one of America’s most popular and successful government programs.
We and other advocacy groups banded together to oppose the plan. We lobbied on Capitol Hill. We held town halls and rallies across the country. We mobilized at the grass roots level. We mounted a paid media campaign. By the summer of 2005, Bush’s scheme was dead. Not a single piece of privatization legislation made it to the floor in Congress. The people had spoken: Hands Off our Social Security!
Here we are, eleven years later, facing another existential threat to our health and retirement income security. But this time the threat is worse, the peril more palpable. The millions of workers, retirees, the disabled and their families who depend on Social Security and Medicare have cause for grave concern. Why do I say that? After all, we prevailed in saving Social Security in 2005, with Republicans in control of the White House and Congress – just like today. But there are several key differences between then and now:
*In 2005, there were more GOP moderates in the House and Senate. There was no Tea Party or Freedom Caucus. We’ve seen in the past 6 years how these extremists are the tail that wags the dog in the House. They are determined to privatize or cut Social Security and Medicare, and they have considerable clout with the House GOP leadership.
Richard Wolffe: Donald Trump’s presidential transition is basically reality television
The Apprentice, that long, free commercial for a president-elect, hinges on one moment of drama.
Amid all the meaningless tasks and even less meaningful job offers, there is one key scene: when Donald Trump himself enters the fake boardroom to fake fire some hapless contestant. Or possibly their friend. It doesn’t much matter.
All that matters is that Trump is a god among men: an all-powerful and fearsome boss with the capacity to humiliate the weak and needy.
Never mind that his businesses have failed repeatedly and that his campaign was so poorly managed that he worked through multiple campaign managers on his way to losing the popular vote.
Never mind that Trump University was such a fraudulent enterprise that he paid $25m to settle the lawsuits between election day and his inauguration.
What matters most is the character Trump has played, first through the tabloid gossip pages and then The Apprentice, all the way through his reality show of a presidential campaign: the character of the alpha boss. Because that’s the role he continues to play during his so-called presidential transition. He’s the all-powerful boss who can humiliate the hapless job hunters.
Kate Aronof: The tech industry won’t save us – or the planet – from Trump’s excesses
Swamp monsters are about to take over the White House, and the consequences for the environment are terrifying. Tech millionaires are known for making lofty promises on climate. Now that they’ve jumped into the bed with Trump, they’ll be quick to say they can “disrupt” the administration from within. That’s nonsense.
At a meeting in New York on Tuesday, Trump gathered a slew of industry all-stars – including Uber’s Travis Kalanick, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Apple’s Tim Cook – to talk jobs and economic development. Among the more surprising faces at the table was Elon Musk, the media darling and renewable energy magnate who criticized Trump during the campaign, and has long raised alarm bells about the potentially disastrous impacts of man-made climate change.
Now, Musk looks poised to become part of a small but growing group of green-tech millionaires willing to work with Trump. Musk had an intimate meeting with just Trump and Cook. He’ll also join Kalanick and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum
Jessica Valenti: Will Trump cause progressives to forget about women’s rights?
If you were concerned that forced funerals for fetuses and zygotes wasn’t quite horrific enough, rejoice! In the last week, Ohio has passed a law banning abortions after 20 weeks and Oklahoma wants to mandate that businesses post anti-abortion signs in women’s public restrooms.
In the wake of Trump’s win, reproductive rights opponents have not wasted a moment in their plan to roll back access to abortion and birth control. And, as has been the case for some time, these harmful policies are being presented as wins for women.
When Governor John Kasich of Ohio passed the 20-week ban, for example, he also vetoed a six-week ban – the hope being that the move would be seen as moderate in comparison. But 20 weeks is around the time that women find out about fetal abnormalities – a leading reason for later abortions. And while the Oklahoma plan is being touted by pro-life groups as a way to offer women “alternatives”, what it’s really doing is shaming women and requiring that businesses spend money on ideological propaganda. (Also, so much for the Republicans caring about women’s privacy in bathrooms!)
The research is clear: women suffer when you deny them access to birth control and abortion. In fact, despite anti-choice rhetoric to the contrary, the only kind of negative mental health impact that abortion has on women occurs when someone seeks out the procedure and is denied
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