Other Than That, How Was The Play, Mrs. Pence?
Brandon Victor Dixon spoke vice president to vice president to Mike Pence last Friday night. Dixon plays Aaron Burr in the Broadway hit “Hamilton”. In real life Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel.
Pence was in the audience. Unarmed.
At the curtain call Dixon thanked Pence for coming to the show. Then offered some advice about the diverse people in America:
“…who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us . . . or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us.”
He was polite but it was maybe a little condescending. A NY Post editorial said, “The words were perfectly respectful — but the implication was downright rude.”
Pence
Pence didn’t seem to mind. He said he wasn’t offended and that Trump meant it when he promised to be president of all the people.
Some good came of Dixon’s lecture. I brushed up on my history. You’ve probably heard that some Democrats aren’t happy about the electoral college. But if you haven’t perused Federalist 68 lately, you might not have noticed that the electoral college was pretty much Hamilton’s baby.
Ok, I only know that because I saw it on Newsbusters.
Stand Up Guy
In 2009 President Obama tried a “reset” with Russia.
During a 2012 campaign debate, Mitt Romney called Russia the “biggest threat” to The United States. To which Obama cracked wise, “the 1980s are calling, they want their foreign policy back“. He tutored Romney that the cold war was over.
Stand Up
Also in 2012, Obama whispered to Russian President Medvedev that he could be more flexible after the election. Medvedev promised to transmit the message to Vladimir.
Now, after the 2016 election, he’s lecturing the world that Trump needs to “stand up to Putin.”
“I don’t expect that the President-elect will follow exactly our approach,” Mr Obama said.
“But my hope is he does not simply take a realpolitik approach and suggest that … if we just cut some deals with Russia, even if it hurts people or even if it violates international norms or even if it leaves smaller countries vulnerable, or creates long-term problems in regions like Syria, that we just do whatever’s convenient at the time.”
Not My President, Didn’t Vote
I came across this item last week. Seventy percent of protesters arrested in a Portland, Oregon riot didn’t vote.
But they can keep their parents’ health plan.
Obama Turns Over National Security Apparatus Keys
The Daily Beast is alarmed by the massive national security apparatus The President is turning over to The Donald. It kills by drone and fights wars without congressional approval.
Whenever George W. Bush started a war he made sure to to pack a Congressional resolution. President Obama, not so much.
Obama ended “torture” of enemy combatants. Instead he blows them up by drone. Even American citizens make the hit list.
He also engineered a nuke treaty with Iran without Senate approval. He simply deemed it not a treaty.
Now all that power is in the tiny hands of President-elect Trump.
National Security Apparatus
Here’s Jameel Jaffer, the director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University:
“Many Americans were willing to invest broad power in the presidency because they trusted the president. But obviously the powers that we invest outlast any particular president, and now those powers are available to Trump.”
Oh.
Global Elite and USA Brexit
The year hasn’t been kind to the global elite.
Curiously, that made many Americans ashamed of their country. They’re resorting to violence because they don’t accept Tuesday’s election results. The same election they feared Donald Trump wouldn’t honor if the results were reversed.
To their credit, President Obama and Hillary Clinton gracefully accepted the voter mandate.
Others, however, are embarrassed because people are laughing at us. Many of whom live under the undemocratic rule of progressive experts. The European Union for example. The EU features strangling regulation, low growth, high unemployment, and negative interest rates.
The Brits had enough of that and voted to exit the E.U. – Brexit. Those voters too were laughed at by their enlightened betters who were embarrassed for their country.
Global Elite
The Obama agenda gave America eight years of increasing regulation, low growth, high unemployment (90 million outside the workforce), and near zero percent interest rates. Hillary Clinton promised to make us even more like France.
So American voters pulled a Brexit and elected Trump. The major media and pollsters missed both the U.K. and U.S.A. revolts entirely.
And that left the global elite shocked and dismayed.
