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I admit I\u2019m still not used to the idea of Donald Trump as president. \u00a0It certainly doesn\u2019t seem as if it\u2019s possible that this could continue for another 3 years and 49 weeks. \u00a0And I can\u2019t even keep track of all the crazy that\u2019s happening \u2014 and that\u2019s not just coming from the White House.<\/p>\n
Item 1: \u00a0Elizabeth Warren is being hailed as a new national hero, for nothing of any significance. \u00a0She was in the middle of reading a 30 year old letter in which\u00a0Coretta Scott King criticized Senator Jeff Sessions when\u00a0Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell invoked a senate rule against criticizing other senators, and, by a party-line vote, ended her speaking time. \u00a0(See, e.g., CNN<\/a>.) \u00a0And now she\u2019s got her own hashtag, #ShePersists, and is being labeled\u00a0on twitter as a modern-day Rosa Parks. \u00a0At the same time, there are theories<\/a> that McConnell did this for strategic reasons; if Warren\u2019s popularity increases, that keeps the Democratic party tilted to the left, and makes it more difficult for them to reach out to moderates, as well as giving the Republican grass roots a target for their own two minutes\u2019 hate.<\/p>\n Item 2: \u00a0Betsy DeVos. \u00a0Was she really the right person for the job of Education Secretary? \u00a0I don\u2019t know. \u00a0Her supporters say that, even though she wasn\u2019t a professional politician or bureaucrat, she had deeply immersed herself in the issues. \u00a0And the frenzy coming across my facebook feed \u00a0went so overboard that it\u2019s hard to take seriously, basically shouting out that four years from now, not a single child will be left in America that\u2019s capable of reading, and portrayed the Secretary\u2019s role as that of direct hands-on management, kind of like Atlas holding up the Earth, and that if she takes her eye off the ball for even a minute disabled children will lose their educational services. \u00a0Yes, there is good and bad in voucher\/school choice systems, but it\u2019s also not clear to me how much DeVos can do with her position, when spending is generally dictated by law, except for whatever pet projects she might promote on a pilot basis.<\/p>\n Item 3: \u00a0\u201cTrump labor nominee said 40% of his workers were once undocumented\u201d \u2014 that\u2019s the headline of a CNN article<\/a> that was linked to on its homepage earlier today. \u00a0The headline makes it seem as if\u00a0Andrew Puzder, the nominee and CEO of a fast food chain, intentionally hired illegal immigrants. \u00a0The reality was that his quote was about the difficulty of excluding illegal workers, and the benefit of E-Verify in allowing employers to genuinely check documents in a way that wasn\u2019t possible before (when questioning documents you suspect are fake is termed unlawful discrimination).<\/p>\n This E-Verify system has been wonderful for us because it used to be that we\u2019d have people in the restaurants and somebody would announce that ICE was coming and 40% of the employees wouldn\u2019t show up.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it wasn\u2019t that we were out there trying to hire illegal immigrants,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey all have social security cards and driver\u2019s licenses and there was no way to check through the government. So now we have it. But you can\u2019t go back, you can\u2019t go back and E-Verify former employees because there\u2019s a lot of them and it\u2019s expensive and you don\u2019t want to look like you\u2019re discriminating, but going forward we\u2019re using E-Verify so we\u2019re hiring a population that\u2019s here legally.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Item 4: \u00a0Yes, I could write more than you care to read about Trump\u2019s crazy twitter pronouncements, and his affection for lies of various kinds. \u00a0It\u2019s just painful. \u00a0I still just can\u2019t comprehend this continuing. \u00a0And the \u201cMuslim ban\u201d? \u00a0How hard would it have been to have said, \u201cwe will stop processing visa applications for 120 days\u201d, instead of this PR mess and court battle? \u00a0(Added:) \u00a0And this whole bit with Nordstrom \u2014 the store removing the Ivanka Trump line, with the claim of low sales and the suspicion of politics, and Trump responding with an anti-Nordstrom tweet? \u00a0It\u2019s hard to know what the long-term story will be (will the line be shut down? \u00a0will the Trump family use the White House to push Trump products?), but it\u2019s not looking good.<\/p>\n Item 5: \u00a0Local politics. \u00a0In Illinois, the 2018 gubernatorial election will be multi-millionaire vs. multi-millionaire, as Chris Kennedy (who apparently isn\u2019t trading on the Kennedy name so much as his wealth) announced his candidacy<\/a> today. \u00a0Politico reports<\/a>,<\/p>\n Kennedy\u2019s entrance in the race instantly raises the profile of a state Democratic primary where billionaire J.B. Pritzker is also exploring a run. Chicago Ald. Ameya Pawar was the first to file paperwork to enter the primary. . . .<\/p>\n Democrats have sought a wealthy candidate to counter Rauner in 2018. The first-term incumbent has poured an unprecedented amount of money into campaign spending \u2014 first breaking records in his run for governor, and recently depositing $50 million into his own campaign account.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So there you have it \u2013 and it\u2019s only Thursday. \u00a0What will next week bring?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Image: \u00a0it\u2019s a flippin\u2019 train wreck. \u00a0public domain, from pixabay.com<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I admit I\u2019m still not used to the idea of Donald Trump as president. \u00a0It certainly doesn\u2019t seem as if it\u2019s possible that this could continue for another 3 years and 49 weeks. \u00a0And I can\u2019t even keep track of all the crazy that\u2019s happening \u2014 and that\u2019s not just coming from the White House. 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