I’ve been buying holiday gifts online yesterday and today. Soon, we all may be bartering, thanks to Trump’s ideas for tariffs. Canada’s Prime Minister Trudeau traveled to Mara Lago to meet with Trump after he suggested 25% tarriffs on Mexico and Canada. I imagine Trudeau is having trouble containing his anger.
A few things to share with you today. First, a good, if worrisome, piece by David Remnick in The New Yorker about the press and Trump and what we might be looking forward to.
Democrats are urging young leaders to challange older ones in the Congress. For example Jamie Raskin (MD) should replace Jerold Nadler (NY), head of Judiciary Committee. Raskin’s a fighter. Nadler is too, just perhaps not as adept at confronting Trump, in my opinion. We need to see more of Hakeem Jeffries and less of Nancy Pelosi (whom I love). We need tough and agile leaders, new faces.
Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, was accused by his own mother of mistreating women. In a letter in 2018, she wrote to her son:
“On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself,” Penelope Hegseth wrote, stating that she still loved him. “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”
She since apologized. In an interview with the NY Times on Friday, she disavowed her 2018 comments to him and said he was a “good father, good husband” and what she had written was “not true.” Hegseth was accused of rape in 2017, which he denies and said was consentual. He paid a settlement to the compaintant a few years later to protect his job at Fox News. Hegseth has a known pattern of infidelity, which is detailed in this NY times article, as are more excerpts from his mother’s letter. Very sad, all of it. I can’t see him being put through as head of the Pentagon.
John Fetterman said something in a NY Times interview that I think is helpful. The Democrat Senator of Pennsylvania said that Democrats have to stop “freaking out,” and “Buckle up and pack a lunch, because it’s going to be four years of this.” I don’t agree that all Democrats were or are freaking out, many were and are working really hard to focus on the problem that is Trump. But I think it’s a good idea not to freak out. It doesn’t help, and, as Fetterman also suggests, we have to have conversations with those who voted for Trump. How? I actually am not sure.
This video came up on my feed the other day. It’s helpful, I think.
Anway, have a good Saturday and see you tomorrow. Happy weekend!
I am growing weary of all the “important people” trekking to Mar a Lago to meet with T-rump (or kiss his ring). I have more respect for the President of Mexico that stays in her country and makes him look like a fool!!
Kamala’s comments are helpful and on target . Thanks.