We have seen many disturbing coincidences from this unsettling Trump transition team. This one will, at least, lighten the mood a little, because the coincidence doesn't involve trips to visit Vladimir the Invader, or furtive, lucrative 'deals' with Russia.
Symone Sanders, Bernie Sanders' Press Secretary sparred with Brunell Donald-Kyei, Donald Trump's Vice-Chair of Diversity Outreach, over what's in store for America with our uniquely qualified HUD Secretary. Kyei is very optimistic about Dr. Ben Carson's fabulous plans for those 'inner-city' dwellers, whom Trump lovingly refers to as "the Blacks." If you recall, he's quite popular with those folks.
John Berman co-hosted the holiday edition of New Day, and throughout the show, most stories pertained to the feud between Trump and John Lewis. The firestorm of outrage that stemmed from Lewis labeling Trump's presidency 'illegitimate' and the subsequent response from Herr Drumpf gave all the "news" networks plenty of material for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The iconic civil rights hero is hardly alone in declaring this election to be fraudulent, since there was obviously an orchestrated attack on our Democracy by Putin and his troll army.
Those sorts of uncomfortable assertions must be quickly countered by the "both-siderist" pundits who must placate their corporate owners by feigning outrage at the idea of an illegitimate new POTUS. To tip the scales in favor of evil over good, they throw in a guest who must have gone to the DJT School of Verbal Diarrhea.
Brunell Donald-Kyei, like Trump, is fabricating her thoughts constantly. In order to stall for time, these b.s. specialists either repeat words or phrases. Folks like Kyei, Priebus, Trump or Spicer often resort to using superfluous filler phrases like: as I was saying, to be honest, or the fact of the matter is. Brunell Donald-Kyei repeatedly announced that she was going to tell you something. Here's a sample.
JOHN BERMAN: I don't understand questioning someone like John Lewis; saying that they're all talk, talk, talk; no action. He is the definition, the walking, living, breathing definition of action, isn't he?
DONALD-KYEI: What I would say is this: you know he is a Civil Rights icon, but that does not make him infallible. It doesn't make him perfect, and he, even he can be wrong in his judgment here. And what I'll say is this: Constitutionally, we are, we've been here in this nation, the way we have, strong and tall, because the presidents and elected officials all, you know, upheld the Constitution and the Constitution requires a smooth transition of power. And what I will say also is this; these people have been elected and the nation is watching. Donald Trump has said that he's going to put billions of dollars into the inner cities and so what I would say to them is you know, support the president-elect began to have that friendly conversation...
It is rather frustrating to listen to, that's for certain. Trump seems to prefer the over-use of comparative words like very, or 'a lot,' and superlatives like the greatest, the best, (as in the best jobs creator god ever created). Humble stuff.
Sanders was able to get in a few points, so we were treated to some rational thought for about one quarter of the segment.
SANDERS: The President-elect has yet to meaningfully come to the table where women are concerned, where people of color are concerned, Latino, Native-Americans, African-Americans. Where the disabled community is concerned, he disparages all of these communities.
So one could even argue that appointing Ben Carson, you know, nominating him as the Secretary of HUD is, in fact, demonstrating that he is not serious about his engagement of African-American communities. I'm frankly just tired and disturbed by Donald Trump's repeated stereotypical characterization of life in 'brown' communities and inner-cities, saying they're infested with crime, they're drug-infested, that they're not the best communities. That is what Donald Trump automatically referred to when he decided to attack John Lewis and that is the behavior that needs a course correction.
As you can imagine, Trump's supporter began her response in a familiar fashion: What I was saying is this: Our BS-meters have redlined, so there's no reason to torture ourselves any more. T minus 4 days and counting down.
