“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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Paul Krugman: The Age of Fake Policy
On Thursday, at a rough estimate, 75,000 Americans were laid off or fired by their employers. Some of those workers will find good new jobs, but many will end up earning less, and some will remain unemployed for months or years.
If that sounds terrible to you, and you’re asking what economic catastrophe just happened, the answer is, none. In fact, I’m just assuming that Thursday was a normal day in the job market.
The U.S. economy is, after all, huge, employing 145 million people. It’s also ever-changing: Industries and companies rise and fall, and there are always losers as well as winners. The result is constant “churn,” with many jobs disappearing even as still more new jobs are created. In an average month, there are 1.5 million “involuntary” job separations (as opposed to voluntary quits), or 75,000 per working day. Hence my number.
But why am I telling you this? To highlight the difference between real economic policy and the fake policy that has lately been taking up far too much attention in the news media.
Keith Olbermann: The Resistance: A Message For Trump Supporters
Coming from a presidential candidate, Donald Trump’s misty-eyed admiration of Russia and its autocratic leader was weird. Coming from a president-elect, it’s nothing short of alarming.
I repeat the questions I asked back in September: What’s the deal with Trump and Russia? Does he have financial entanglements with Russian banks, businesses or billionaires that color his views? If not, as he claims, then why won’t he release the personal and business tax returns that could put the matter to rest?
The latest sign of Trump’s infatuation is his refusal to accept the conclusion of the U.S. intelligence community that Russian state-sponsored hackers meddled in our election — a risky and provocative operation that could have been authorized only by Vladimir Putin. [..]
It is unclear how Trump could know even a little about hacking, since he rarely uses computers. Aides reportedly must print out news articles for him to read. In my experience, experts on cybersecurity know how to use a Web browser.
Richard Greene: After Today, Congress Officially ‘Owns’ Donald Trump
The United States Constitution allows The United States Congress to choose someone other than Donald Trump when they are asked to certify the results of The Electoral College.
And 1,018 pages of data collected by a bipartisan team of attorneys alleging that over 50 of the electoral votes for Donald Trump can be invalidated under state and Constitutional law (because of electors not living in the right districts or improperly holding two elected positions) could give every Congressperson and every Senator the legal means to choose either Hillary Clinton or Colin Powell. (Here is the 53 page Executive Summary of that report https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0GnyHC1E-uOaXVqbG05TFIwQzQ/view
Since Congress is the final word on Election 2016, they have the absolute right to invoke these, or other, criteria and invalidate 35 (or more of Donald Trump’s electoral votes), bringing him below the 270 threshold and throwing the election into The House of Representatives.
This is not hopeful opinion. It is the law of The United States.
Live by The 18th Century Electoral College, die by The 18th Century Electoral College.
But Congress is not going to do it.
Heather Digby Parton:: Why is Donald Trump resisting the Russian hack findings? Michael Flynn may hold the answer
In anticipation of the release of a report commissioned by President Barack Obama, the top brass of the United States intelligence community appeared before Congress on Thursday to testify that the Russian government had interfered in last year’s election. The director of national intelligence, James Clapper, declared, “This was a multifaceted campaign. So the hacking was only one part of it, and it also entailed classical propaganda, disinformation, fake news . . . whatever crack, fissure, they could find in our tapestry . . . they would exploit it.” It’s pretty dramatic stuff.
The report will be provided to President-elect Donald Trump over the weekend, and members of Congress will be briefed next week. An unclassified version is slated for release to the public as well, but details are already being leaked to the news media. Trump was not amused by the media’s access as he indicated in a tweet: […]
But there is a factor that looms large in this story that may simply explain some of Trump’s behavior: former general Michael Flynn. When it comes to the intelligence community, Flynn serves as Trump’s eyes and ears. The president-elect literally knows nothing about the workings of matters of intelligence, and there’s is no evidence that he’s spent any time trying to bone up. He has said he doesn’t need daily briefings and seems to have outsourced taking in these updates to his trusted aide Flynn. And Flynn is an angry man with a major ax to grind.
Amanda Marcotte: Nearly a quarter of Americans are not religious: Why doesn’t that diversity show up in politics?
Most people know that that Congress unfortunately doesn’t look like the rest of the country. It’s more male, whiter, and more Republican. But a new Pew Research Center report has highlighted another way that members of Congress don’t accurately reflect the people they are sent to represent: Its members are far more Christian than the nation at large.
Only 71 percent of Americans now identify as Christian, but a whopping 91 percent of elected members of Congress consider themselves Christian, according to the Pew report. This isn’t due to underrepresentation of faiths such as Islam, Hinduism or Judaism, however but entirely from underrepresentation of those who are not affiliated with any ‘/’religion. [..]
“It’s very dismaying to see this gap between representatives and the people they represent,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, the co-founder and co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said by phone. She referred to “a quarter of the population [as having] one person that supposedly represents us.”
Gaylor argued, “People are afraid if they run for office and they aren’t religious, they won’t get elected,” adding that this contributes to the “stigmatization and demonization of the non-religious.”
It’s hard to argue with Gaylor’s point, in light of the election of Donald Trump as president.
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