Mountain Views News, Pasadena Edition [Sierra Madre] Saturday, December 10, 2016

B4

OPINION 

DICK Polman

Mountain Views-News Saturday, December 10, 2016 

RAGING MODERATE 

by WILL DURST

JOHN L. MICEK

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THE POPULIST AND HIS CREW 

OF BILLIONAIRES 

A cabinet populated by bankers and wealthy insiders. A $1 million 
premier package of tickets to the presidential inauguration in January. 
And a posh dinner with Mr. 47 Percent, himself, Mitt Romney.

If his earliest actions are any guide, America’s incoming chief executive 
isn’t so much draining Washington’s swamp as he is refilling it with higher 
quality sludge.

 As The Washington Post reports, three of President-elect Donald J. 
Trump’s cabinet picks have personal net worths running to the billions of dollars. One possible 
pick for energy secretary, Harold Hamm, is worth $15 billion alone.

 That’s $15 billion - with a “B.” Crack open your wallet - do you even have $15 in cash in it right 
now?

 And if you’re thinking about heading to Washington for the inaugural festivities, you’d better 
take out that second mortgage now. Trump and his team are looking to raise an eye-watering and 
record-breaking $65 million to $75 million to finance inaugural events across the Capital.

 They’re doing it on the back of high-dollar events that include an “exclusive” luncheon with 
Trump’s cabinet picks; a dinner with Vice President-elect Mike Pence and his wife and a “ladies 
luncheon” with Ivanka and Melania Trump, The New York Times reported.

 The events will run anywhere from $25,000 to as much as $1 million. That’s a long way from the 
hot dogs and chips populism that fueled Trump’s packed rallies on the campaign trail earlier this 
year.

 And, just for good measure, Trump’s chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, once mused about the 
possibility of only letting property owners vote. When an associate reminded him that would shut 
out a lot of black voters, Bannon allegedly said “maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”

 So maybe it’s no surprise that the shine went off Trump’s populism not long after he entered the 
halls of power. It was a mirage to begin with.

 Keep in mind, this is a guy with a private jet; who lives in a gold-plated penthouse on top of 
a skyscraper in midtown Manhattan, and who has never had a problem showing off the gaudy 
trappings of his success.

 The “blue-collar” billionaire who was going to build a wall; repeal and replace Obamacare and 
“lock-up” Hillary Clinton has been since been exposed as something much more obvious - and far 
less surprising - a card-carrying member of the same elite he said he would scourge.

 Remember how Trump teed off on Hillary Clinton’s six-figure speeches to Goldman Sachs 
during his rallies? Well, it’s not such a nest of vipers that he’s above raiding it for two of his cabinet 
picks.

 Trump’s choice for treasury secretary is former Goldman partner Stephen Mnuchin. Another 
Goldman executive, Gary Cohn, might be tapped for budget director.

 As Politico notes, after a decade in the “wilderness,” the Wall Street firm that was the embodiment 
of the financial collapse is set for a big-time return to Washington and maybe even a rehabilitation 
of its battered public image.

 After all, as recently as October, Trump was Tweeting that Clinton was “[meeting] in secret with 
international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty in order to enrich” her donors.

Putting aside the disturbingly undertones of anti-Semitism from candidate Trump in that 
140-character burst, President-elect Trump now seems to find that international cabal of bankers 
perfectly acceptable.

 Again, that’s no surprise.

 It’s always been accepted wisdom that Trump, a Washington outsider, with little to no existing 
political network, was going to have to turn to Washington’s elite and veteran Republican hands to 
populate his administration.

 On the one hand, that’s a good sign because it means that some of Trump’s more radical 
campaign trail proposals will be moderated.

 And despite the presence of Bannon, the white nationalist Trump-whisperer at his side, both 
Mnuchin and Cohn are Jewish, which means some of the uglier, dog-whistle tactics of the 
campaign might be jettisoned as well.

 But that again might leave the blue-collar voters who packed Trump’s rallies wondering what 
they signed on for.

 If Trump doesn’t repeal and replace all of Obamacare, doesn’t bring back coal or manufacturing 
jobs, but instead doles out goodies to the 1 percent in the form of tax cuts (as a Republican Congress 
will no doubt demand), there could be some restlessness in the cheap seats.

 At the Sex Pistols’ notorious final live show at San Francisco’s Winterland in 1978, lead singer 
Johnny Rotten asked the crowd, “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”

 After 18 months of being promised the Earth - and the moon to boot - Trump’s hardcore 
supporters might want find themselves asking the same thing.

 An award-winning political journalist, Micek is the Opinion Editor and Political Columnist for PennLive/
The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. Readers may follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek and email him 
at jmicek@pennlive.com.

PRESIDENTIAL APPRENTICE

Two months before joining the government in an entry level 
position, President-elect Donald Trump has been learning 
the ropes and is busier than a bartender ten minutes before 
midnight at a Times Square Applebee’s on New Year’s Eve.

A large amount of time was spent selecting a cabinet of 
deplorables from his basket of deplorables and making sure 
the two sons from his first marriage, Uday and Qusay, had 
the proper security clearances. Their safari trophies were also 
expedited though customs.

Trump cleverly kept America’s enemies on their toes by refusing to commit to moving 
into the White House. Replacing a black family living in public housing would cause 
him to break out in hives, and nobody wants an itchy beloved leader. Besides, Melania 
is reluctant to downsize.

Trump then advised people calling for a three state recount to “get over it.” Reminded 
it had taken him seven and a half years to acknowledge Barack Obama was born in 
America, Trump invoked the classic, “do as I say, not as I do” doctrine, demonstrating 
a firm grip on the hypocritical handle necessary to wield a leadership baton.

He honed his diplomatic skills getting into a fight with both a Broadway musical and 
“Saturday Night Live,” leading folks to wonder how soon a Twitter war with Lady 
Gaga will break out.

But the majority of the future 45th President’s time was spent reneging on a slew of 
campaign promises. Who would have thought a New York City developer would 
welsh on a deal? Oh yeah. Everybody.

- He settled the lawsuit he “would never settle” against Trump University because 
nobody wants the presidency plagued by frivolous distractions. And there will be 
plenty of other lawsuits to be frivolously distracted by.

- Trump now looks forward to getting advice from President Obama. Probably 
expects some problems with his Kenyan immigration policies.

- One of his major refrains was locking up Crooked Hillary. Now he’s thanking her 
for her service to the country. Lock her up with hugs and kisses is what he meant.

- He will retain parts of Obama Care instead of getting rid of it on Day One like 
previously promised. It is thought his major complaint is Obama’s name on the bill 
and as soon as the country starts referring to it as Trump Care, he’ll be fine with it.

- That whole imposing a Muslim ban thing? No. No. No. He’s imposing a muslin ban. 
No more imported loosely woven cotton fabric. In addition we’re going to keep out 
those nasty Vicuna coats from Peru as well.

- An end to sanctuary cities? Yes. Definitely. Bird sanctuary cities.

- Going to impose tariffs on Chinese gods not goods. The Eight Immortals can remain 
eternal but they’re going to have to do it on Chinese shores.

- Bomb ISIS. What he meant to say is the Egyptian goddess Isis is the bomb.

- Getting rid of NAFTA? No, he’s going to get rid of naphtha and switch to the much 
more economical liquid gas to heat all his resort swimming pools.

- And building a wall- a simple misunderstanding. He’s going to build a mall. And get 
Ross Dress for Less to pay for it.

- Huge tax cuts for the rich because god knows the rich need more money. Yeah. That 
one he’s going to keep.

——-

Will Durst is an award-winning, nationally acclaimed columnist, comedian and former 
assistant manager at a Pizza Hut in West Allis, Wisconsin. For a calendar of personal 
appearances, go to willdurst.com. 


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LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN

DICK POLMAN

MAKING SENSE

by MICHAEL REAGAN

SHOULD DEMOCRATS 
BECOME 

THE PARTY OF NO?

Barack Obama had just beaten John McCain by a margin of 10 
million votes and 7.2 percentage points - the biggest Democratic 
win since 1964. Democrats also won both congressional chambers. 
And yet, despite this decisive pro-Democratic mandate to govern, 
congressional Republicans resolved, at a private dinner on day one, 
not to offer a scintilla of cooperation. They resolved to thwart Obama’s efforts to fix the 
Great Recession, hoping that his failures would grease a Republican comeback in the 
2012 race. Newt Gingrich, a dinner guest, reportedly told his former colleagues, “You will 
remember this day. You’ll remember this as the day the seeds of 2012 were sown.”

 Here’s where we are today: Trump has lost the popular vote (as of Wednesday) by a 
whopping 2.66 million. His losing share of the popular vote (46.2 percent) is the worst 
for an Electoral College winner since John Quincy Adams in 1824. Even his winning 
electoral vote margin (74) is a pittance compared to Obama’s winning 2808 margin (192). 
So why should Democrats on Capitol Hill give Trump the cooperative deference that 
Republicans denied to Obama?

 As Michael Corleone said in “The Godfather II” movie, “My offer is this: Nothing.”

 Cooperating with Trump, behaving as if he were just another Republican, would lend 
legitimacy to his authoritarian bent. Cooperating with Trump would “normalize” his 
racist populism and his serial lies. Such a strategy — tantamount to surrender — would 
be disastrous for a Democratic Party that has spent decades fighting for tolerance and 
diversity.

 Democrats have buckled in the past. Even though George W. Bush lost the popular vote 
in 2000, they acted as if the guy had a mandate to govern. Lots of Democrats voted for 
Bush’s deficit-cratering tax cuts. They voted for his Iraq war resolution, despite the dearth 
of evidence that Saddam had WMDs. They supplied enough votes to put John Roberts in 
charge of the Supreme Court. 

 Republicans reciprocated by foiling Obama on a regular basis, blocking everything 
from his 2011 American Jobs Act (which could’ve put as many as two million people back 
to work) to his last Supreme Court nominee (the radical refusal to even hold hearings on 
Merrick Garland was unprecedented).

 David Faris, a political science prof at Roosevelt University, said it well in a column the 
other day:

 “[Cooperation] is the first instinct of the Democratic Party even after a crushing, 
incomprehensible defeat ... The urge to minimize the damage in defense of the public 
interest is broadly shared, and understandable. It must make many Democrats proud to 
support a party that truly believes in the public good, even at the expense of winning.

 “On the other hand, no. It’s time for Democrats to say no. To everything ...

 “It helps that the Republicans — led by a man who rage-tweets fake news in the middle 
of the night — are about to embark on a long voyage of turning every single thing they 
touch into garbage. There should be no Democratic fingerprints whatsoever on the 
coming catastrophe ... Hand Trump the keys and let him drive into a tree.”

 That sounds harsh. But, lest we forget, Republicans paid virtually no political price for 
their eight years of anti-Obama obstruction. Voters didn’t seem to care that Republicans 
thwarted a president who twice won elections with a majority of the popular vote. Why 
would they punish Democrats for standing in steadfast opposition to an unqualified 
poseur who was rejected last month by 53.8 percent of all voters? Chuck Schumer, the 
new Senate minority leader, is indeed warning that when Trump gets too extreme, “we’ll 
go after him with everything we’ve got.”

 Senate Democrats can set the tone by putting Trump’s Cabinet picks through the 
wringer, because a number of them deserve to be seriously slow-walked — most notably, 
attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions (rejected for a federal judgeship 30 years ago, 
due to his racist remarks), Treasury nominee Steve Mnuchin (who made piles of money 
foreclosing on homeowners during the Great Recession), and Health and Human Services 
nominee Tom Price (who wants to kill Obamacare, a move that would nix coverage for 20 
million people). And what remotely qualifies Ben Carson to be housing secretary, beyond 
the fact that he lives in a house?

 Fortunately, Democrats are indeed vowing to combat those nominees. Hey, it’s a start. 
My unsolicited advice is simple: Grow a pair.

 Dick Polman is the national political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia 
(newsworks.org/polman) and a “Writer in Residence” at the University of Pennsylvania. Email 
him at dickpolman7@gmail.com.


TRUMP RIGHT TO WORRY ABOUT 
AT&T, TIME WARNER MERGER

On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary committee held a significant 
hearing on the proposed $84 billion merger between AT&T and 
Time Warner, which owns CNN.

 AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson testified, and faced tough 
questions from senators who seemed to understand allowing 
this merger will have important implications for a free press and 
American democracy for many years to come.

 During the recent election candidate Trump said, “AT&T is buying Time Warner, 
and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it’s too much 
concentration of power in the hands of too few.”

 Since then a number of press reports – no doubt pushed by AT&T – are suggesting 
President Trump will have a laissez faire approach and the deal will go through.

 Knowing of the grassroots concerns that many conservative leaders share, I doubt 
President Trump or Congress will rubber stamp this deal.

 Trump was right when he warned of the massive concentration of media power in a few 
hands.

 Consider that today 90 percent of cable television networks are owned by just six 
companies: Time Warner (CNN), Viacom, CBS, ABC, Comcast (NBC) and 21st Century 
Fox.

 Of these major conglomerates only Fox gives conservatives a fair shake. New, independent 
networks like Newsmax TV are on the rise, but the big media still controls, dangerously, the 
flow of information to the public. Trump was their most recent victim.

 A combination of AT&T and Time Warner will be toxic, further constricting competition 
and press diversity.

 AT&T is a giant media company which also owns DirecTV. They also were a major 
corporate backer of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. They strongly opposed Donald 
Trump’s election.

 Time Warner’s CNN was nothing short of the “Clinton News Network” – a 24-hour 
propaganda machine spewing out anti-Trump and anti-Republican venom.

 Right now AT&T has 26.3 million pay TV subscribers through DirecTV and ATT 
U-verse service – controlling about 25 percent of the U.S. cable market. They are the largest 
cable/satellite operator in the U.S. bar none.

 By owning the largest chunk of cable home distribution, AT&T will obviously be 
in a position to favor their own channels like CNN, over other channels like Fox News, 
Newsmax and many others.

 The ability for AT&T to discriminate against other cable networks that could compete 
against CNN or their other networks would be endless.

 AT&T, which controls a huge percent of the mobile telephone market, could exempt 
its mobile customers from data usage charges if they stream CNN content, but streaming 
independent news networks like Newsmax might continue to count against high speed 
data caps.

 Frankly, I am usually in favor of government keeping its hands-off business activities.

But there are exceptions.

 When certain businesses act like monopolies or near monopolies, have unusual access to 
publicly-owned or controlled distribution systems, and get preferential access to broadcast/
satellite airwaves, then government has a compelling need to insure that such media 
companies act in a fair way to insure competition and the diversity of public opinion.

 We already know that vertical integration of cable operators undermines competition.

For example, when Comcast completed its merger of NBC back in 2011, it promised that 
it would not favor its own channels over other channels, agreeing to a condition that would 
have put the Bloomberg financial news channel on equal footing with CNBC across its 
distribution platform.

 It is well known that Comcast never honored the condition. For this and other reasons, 
Comcast’s recent effort to merge with Time Warner was rejected.

 AT&T has not demonstrated, in my opinion, a real desire to support the public’s interest 
in the areas of competition, diversity and fairness.

 Recently the Department of Justice sued AT&T and its subsidiary DirecTV for price 
fixing and illegally colluding to harm consumers.

 There are many reasons why the FCC and Congress needs to handle this merger with 
intense scrutiny and remember this is not a business decision, but a matter that affects our 
democratic institutions.

 President-elect Trump knows this first hand.

 Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of 
“The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press). Visit his websites at www.reagan.com and www.
michaelereagan.com. Follow @reaganworld on Twitter. 

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