President Trump

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Rooting for President Trump...

Dad was from New York City. Until his sister came to live and die with us in 2001, her abode was the same Flushing apartment Dad found and moved his parents and sister into back in 1940 while he was a student at Wheaton College. Hear tell the building's owners had a blowout party to celebrate Aunt Elaine's departure after sixty years of rent control on her corner apartment.

So I've always known and kept track of The Donald, and for decades the souls I serve as pastor have observed my—shall I say it publicly?—loathing for him. My disgust with the man long predates his entry into politics. But if anything, The Donald's election as president has modulated my loathing. Yes, it continues; but now it's mixed with a certain grudging appreciation (as well as respect for the office of President)...


Politico gets Pence just right...

Excellent profile of Vice President Mike Pence. Summary: "mercurial" Trump rewards Pence's loyalty and humility with exceptional authority.

A couple excerpts:

His governorship in Indiana was derailed by the mishandling of religious freedom legislation, and although he was more likely than not to win reelection in 2016, his approval rating was underwater statewide.

Just right. Not RFRA itself, but the Governor's mishandling of RFRA. Sad, but true. He should have fought Tim Cook and all his filthy-lucre buddies with boldness, not giving an inch. It grieved me when he responded to the attack of the elites by telling everyone...


Preet Bharara: not quite the knight in shining armor...

You want to keep your eye on the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York regardless of who holds the position. Today, the news is everywhere that President Trump asked the office's present occupant, Preet Bharara, to resign and at least earlier today, Bharara was refusing. Bharara did Harvard Law and has made quite a name for himself by avoiding the prosecution of any of the Masters of the Universe who caused the Great Recession while making a big splash by taking down lots of other financial criminals as well as statehouse guys like Sheldon Silver. Bharara has long been known to have in his sights what he refers to as the "three-men-in-the-room" governance he says dominates New York's statehouse.

The hate-Trump-always media are hissy-fitting over President Trump asking for the resignations of 46 U.S. Attorneys who served under President Obama. They don't mention President Clinton cleaned house on all the U.S. Attorneys himself, nor that Bharara is best-buds with Charlie Schumer... 


You really must read this piece on Trump's closest advisor, Steve Bannon...

Yesterday, I asked Mary Lee if she'd read the piece about President Trump's advisor, Steve Bannon, I'd linked to at the end of the hillbilly post?

The stream of hatred the press passes off as news about Bannon makes him out to be President Trump's Rasputin. Rosie O'Donnell agrees, so this morning she announced she wants to play the man on SNL. The man Bannon, you understand.

Mary Lee said she hadn't read the Bannon profile. If you haven't read it either, you simply must.

Some teasers. After introducing Bannon as a man who is "embracing... a fringe cast of ultra-conservative figures," the piece goes on to define Bannon's fringe ultra-conservatism...


Peggy Noonan on the Inauguration: nothing like this has ever happened...

Peggy Noonan is a Reagan Democrat. She wrote speeches for President Reagan and her memoir of her Reagan years, What I Saw at the Revolution, is a piece of tender affection for Nancy's Ronnie. Joe Sobran loved Peggy. There was a tenderness when he talked about her you never saw him express for anyone else except Jesus Christ.

What Noonan writes I like and trust. After 9/11 she wrote a short piece titled "Welcome Back, Duke" that I consider one of the most astute essays on sexuality in our time. 9/11 and sexuality? Yup, read it and you'll never forget her contrast between firemen and Woody Allen. Devastating—not just to Woody Allen but also you (if you're a man) and me.

Now Noonan has given us a short piece on the Inauguration of President Donald Trump...