Friday, January 20, 2017

Witness to History as The Transition of Power Begins In Washington



The official transition of power has begun as President-Elect Trump and Mrs. Trump joined the Obamas at the White House:

As our team went to press, The US House just adjourned as dignitaries are beginning to arrive at the Capitol for the inauguration. and as the National Mall begins to fill up.     C-Span will have gavel and gavel coverage that will be available by clicking here.

(Update:  The President and the Vice President-Elect have made their way to the inauguration area as we just got this from Geoff Colvin as a special edition of "View of the Week" as what he deemed the "Trump Experiment" Begins":

Daily insights on leaders and leadership
Daily insights on leaders and leadershipDaily insights on leaders and leadership
JANUARY 20, 2017
Every presidency is an experiment in leadership, and the one that begins today is among the largest experiments in U.S. history.
It’s often observed that no one is prepared to be president, that every president must grow into the job. Donald Trump arguably enters the job from further back on the learning curve than any predecessor. He is the first president never to have served in any part of government, including the military. That’s a big element of his appeal to millions of supporters who are fed up with politicians and the world they’ve created. Trump is an outsider, not even one of those CEOs who like to visit Washington, influencing policy. As a businessman, however, his abilities and successes were as a dealmaker, not as a leader; visitors to the Trump Organization’s headquarters in Trump Tower are always surprised at how few people comprise his corporate staff.
So Trump takes charge of governing the world’s most powerful nation and largest economy with no government experience and slim credentials as a leader – not a promising résumé. But remember, no one is ever prepared. So what should we expect? The best insights I’ve seen come from two seasoned presidential historians, Richard Reeves and Doris Kearns Goodwin.
In a book about John F. Kennedy as president, Reeves wrote, “He was not prepared for it, but I doubt that anyone ever was or ever will be. The job is sui generis. The presidency is an act of faith.” Reeves debunks most people’s expectations of a president by identifying “the most important fact about being president.” It’s this: “The toughest job in the world is essentially reactive. The president does not run the country and is not paid by the hour. He is there to respond to events unanticipated….”
History supports his view; think of Obama taking charge at the depth of the last recession, or Bush 43 responding to 9/11. Reeves notes, “Presidents are alone, facing the unknown. The job…is about leading the nation in unexpected crisis or danger. No one remembers whether Lincoln balanced the budget.”
Goodwin, speaking on Tuesday in Michigan, mused on Trump’s insistence that he is always a winner; his ultimate insult seems to be “loser.” Yet she noted that Lincoln suffered from debilitating depression and endured multiple political defeats. Franklin Roosevelt was crippled by polio. From those experiences of loss they “learned patience and resilience.”
She is encouraged that several of Trump’s cabinet nominees are expressing views contrary to his in their confirmation hearings; conflicting views often lead to better decisions. Still uncertain is whether Trump fully knew of their views when he appointed them. Goodwin also offered a bit of advice from Lincoln, who often wrote “hot letters” to those who made him angry, but never sent them. Maybe Trump could set up a pretend Twitter account.
Reeves wrote in 2008, “No one knows what will be the issue that defines the next president.” That is always true; what makes this presidency one of the largest experiments in our history is that, more than in living memory, and regardless of what that defining issue may be, we have almost no idea how the new president will respond. Even more than past presidencies, this one is an act of faith.

(Update:  President Trump just left the Congressional Luncheon after having signed a number of laws--including the waiver for his Defense Secretary Designee--He also paid tribute and led a standing ovation to Mrs. Clinton at the luncheon.   The Obamas, in the meantime, are on their way to our home state of California in Palm Springs for some "downtime".   There were protests in Washington--the big one is the Women's March on Washington as the alternative to Trump begins to emerge starting tomorrow:

Barack Obama waves goodbye

 

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Tips to a Person Living with HIV; Beware of HPV

We bring you yet another article that we hope will help have the HIV-care plan that will guarantee you a quality life and wellness.

The Human papilloma virus is one virus you need to talk to your doctor about, if you are living with HIV. Or if you are in non-monogamous relations. It will help you avoid HPV-related cancers and diseases.

HPV, can cause pre-cancers which may manifest later in life. Early detection can help you avoid late stage illnesses.

HPV, can be transmitted by rubbing and body-to-body contact. Sexual intercourse may have taken place or not. It does not stop one getting HPV.

HPV, has no signs and symptoms. So, unless one goes to a doctor for a check up it is hard to know.

HPV, resolves on its own. But, you should ask your health worker or doctor about immunizations.

HPV related cancers include:
1. anal cancer
2. rectal cancer
3. genital warts
4. cervical cancer
5. vaginal cancer
6. vulvar cancer


For those who would like to read further about our work, please visit: www.marpsinuganda.org.

References:
http://www.hpv.com/static/pdf/MKHPV_FACT_SHEET.pdf.

The Friday Musical Interlude: John Legemd

As the Week-End is at hand, we hope all enjoy a feature we're reintroducing for this year--The Musical Interlude as we hope all enjoy the selection for this week--John Legend:


We wish all a fabulous and restful Week-End from our rainy yet beautiful HQ here in Laguna Niguel, California.   

Notations On Our World (Special #TrumpInauguration Edition): On the Obama Legacy

America will have a new President at noon on Friday January 20, 2017.     President-Elect Trump arrived in Washington on January 19, 2017 with his family and laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns:


US President-elect Donald J. Trump and US Vice President-elect Mike Pence participate in a wreath laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on January 19, 2017 in Arlington, Virginia

As all around the World are witness to this handover, The AL Jazeera's Marwan Bishara summed it all up:


It will be an interesting four years.

On this Final Day of #ObamaFarewell: Final Thoughts From President Obama & A Retrospective From Larry Sabato





As the Obama Era comes to an end,  we just received these final thoughts from President Obama which we present in full for all: 


My fellow Americans,
It's a long-standing tradition for the sitting president of the United States to leave a parting letter in the Oval Office for the American elected to take his or her place. It's a letter meant to share what we know, what we've learned, and what small wisdom may help our successor bear the great responsibility that comes with the highest office in our land, and the leadership of the free world.
But before I leave my note for our 45th president, I wanted to say one final thank you for the honor of serving as your 44th. Because all that I've learned in my time in office, I've learned from you. You made me a better President, and you made me a better man.
Throughout these eight years, you have been the source of goodness, resilience, and hope from which I've pulled strength. I've seen neighbors and communities take care of each other during the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. I have mourned with grieving families searching for answers -- and found grace in a Charleston church.
I've taken heart from the hope of young graduates and our newest military officers. I've seen our scientists help a paralyzed man regain his sense of touch, and wounded warriors once given up for dead walk again. I've seen Americans whose lives have been saved because they finally have access to medical care, and families whose lives have been changed because their marriages are recognized as equal to our own. I've seen the youngest of children remind us through their actions and through their generosity of our obligations to care for refugees, or work for peace, and, above all, to look out for each other.
I've seen you, the American people, in all your decency, determination, good humor, and kindness. And in your daily acts of citizenship, I've seen our future unfolding.
All of us, regardless of party, should throw ourselves into that work -- the joyous work of citizenship. Not just when there's an election, not just when our own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime.
I'll be right there with you every step of the way.
And when the arc of progress seems slow, remember: America is not the project of any one person. The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word 'We.' 'We the People.' 'We shall overcome.'
Yes, we can.
President Barack Obama
P.S. If you'd like to stay connected, you can sign up here to keeping getting updates from me.

We are also pleased to present this retrospective from the University of Virginia's Larry Sabato:

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http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball
THE END OF THE BEGINNING
Sic Transit the Transition
By Larry J. Sabato
Director, UVA Center for Politics

Tomorrow marks the start of the brave new world of President Donald J. Trump. But today marks the end of the Obama-to-Trump transition. They, and we, survived the interregnum, more or less -- and it was not guaranteed and is worth celebrating.
Truly, has there ever been as dramatic a contrast between outgoing and incoming chief executives as Barack Obama and Donald Trump? Actually, yes: the refined John Quincy Adams and the rough-hewn populist Andrew Jackson despised each other. Jackson believed he had been cheated out of the White House by a corrupt bargain during 1824’s House of Representatives “run-off” that installed Adams as president. Jackson spent four years making sure that wrong was righted on Inauguration Day 1829.
Other jarring transfers of power surely include the ones between the timid, indecisive James Buchanan, doing nothing while seven states left the Union, and Abraham Lincoln, who saved the Union in a bloody civil war (1861); the scholarly, erudite Woodrow Wilson and the tawdry, careless Warren G. Harding (1921); Herbert Hoover, a great humanitarian but hapless president, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, who gave people hope and sustenance through the depths of the Great Depression (1933); and Jimmy Carter, tortured by a bad economy and the Iranian hostage crisis that persisted to the moment of Ronald Reagan’s oath-taking in 1981.
The transition gives Americans sufficient time to adjust to the change they themselves have wrought. Over 70 days of transition exist between the November election and the Jan. 20 inauguration, and before the 20th Amendment first applied in 1936, the transition was close to double that time span, from November until March 4. The transition was cut in half precisely because the Hoover-to-FDR handoff was fraught with peril and left the nation rudderless during a calamitous period.
Much worse than any scheduled transition were the nine immediate White House transformations caused by natural death, assassination, or resignation. Popular and governmental adjustment had to be instantaneous, and the elevated vice presidents usually had personal styles that contrasted with their late predecessors, as well as some different substantive policies. Theodore Roosevelt was about as dissimilar from William McKinley as two presidents from the same party could be, for instance.
History could only partially prepare us for the aftermath of November 2016’s earthquake. In the hours and days following Donald Trump’s shocking upset, many observers wondered if a crisis would develop right away. How could Trump and Obama, fierce personal enemies and ideological polar opposites, ever manage a transition? After all, Trump had spent five years as the most prominent leader of the spurious, outrageous birther movement that sought to delegitimize Obama’s presidency by claiming he was not a natural-born American. In return, Obama had made a thin-skinned Trump the butt of jokes and barbs for years. And no one worked harder than Obama to keep Trump out of the Oval Office.
It couldn’t have been easy for either man to be civil to the other after the election. But they were and continued to be, for the most part, to their substantial credit. Our country is still deeply divided, much more so than usual, yet imagine how much worse it could have been had No. 44 and No. 45 feuded day after day. Their businesslike tone made cooperation possible, or at least less of a chore, for their staffs. We can’t expect political enemies to join hands and sing kumbaya; we can expect presidents to act in the national interest.
For those who think Obama and Trump’s minimal level of comity is assured, a few historical reminders are in order. John Adams was so contemptuous of Thomas Jefferson that he left the White House in the middle of the night on March 4, 1801, refusing to attend the inaugural ceremony of the man who had vanquished him. (What great correspondents and friends they became in later years, however; for politicians and the rest of us, reconciliation is possible until the tomb beckons.)
Democrat Samuel Tilden, who handily won the reported popular vote in 1876, was urged to lead an army into Washington to stop the “corrupt” handover of power by Congress to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes; luckily, Tilden declined, partly because the election was tainted on both sides. Nonetheless, Tilden and his backers insisted they had been robbed. President Hayes, thereafter called “His Fraudulency,” never had widespread respect or support in his single term.
As already mentioned, the long Hoover-FDR transition was a disaster that inflicted additional pain (such as loads of failed banks) on a suffering nation. President Hoover attempted to get Roosevelt to join him in a reform program during their four-month transition, but FDR refused -- believing the reforms inadequate and the ideas designed to tie his own hands. So bitter were these rivals that they said not a word during the 1933 inaugural drive from the White House to the Capitol. Hoover and Roosevelt never reconciled, and they hurled insults at one another with regularity.
We have been more fortunate in modern times. Harry Truman didn’t much care for Dwight Eisenhower -- at least the Republican political version of him -- but Truman ordered up the first real transition plan, and it benefited Ike significantly. In turn, while Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy were not at all close, and the outgoing president was deeply disappointed that his vice president, Richard Nixon, had lost to JFK, pre-inaugural relations between Ike and JFK were correct and cooperative.
When Nixon finally won the White House in 1968, President Lyndon Johnson was angry that Nixon had helped deep-six his Vietnam peace talks. Yet the transition went fairly smoothly and the image of unity was projected. Naturally, behind the scenes, they were less flattering about one another. For example, LBJ reveled in describing the tour of the private residence he gave Nixon -- always adding that in eight years as vice president, Nixon had never once been invited by Eisenhower to see the living quarters in the White House.
Even after a close, losing campaign that greatly disappointed him, President Gerald Ford was determined to organize the most extensive and professional transition ever -- and he did, as Jimmy Carter noted at the outset of his 1977 inaugural address and again as a speaker at Ford’s funeral decades later.
If any president has exceeded Ford’s labors, it might be George W. Bush. The Obamas have frequently mentioned the extraordinary efforts of President and Mrs. Bush to make their move into the White House a smooth one. Moreover, Bush and Obama did what Hoover and FDR did not -- coordinate on some urgent responses to the near-collapse of the U.S. financial superstructure in 2008.
No doubt the precedent set by Bush influenced Obama’s actions in recent weeks. The outgoing president knew he owed the incoming one every assistance, whatever their past conflicts. And while Trump has launched broadsides at many an Obama program and ally, the president-elect of late has stayed generally respectful of the outgoing president himself.
In these hyper-partisan times, one is grateful for any hint of civility. Under difficult circumstances, both Obama and Trump have listened to the better angels of their nature. It may be too much to hope that this initial precedent will apply to the many battles on the horizon, but to the extent it can, we’ll all be better off.
As Obama and Trump complete the final act of the transition at noon tomorrow, they would do well to recall the Latin phrase, “Sic transit gloria mundi,” best translated as “worldly glories are fleeting.”
Editor’s Note: For a look back at some Crystal Ball commentary on past inaugurals, please see here for 2009 and here for 2013.

View of the Week: On the Eve of @RealDonaldTrump Taking Office

The Guardian of London sponsored 24 hours of Live Coverage of Climate Change:

Keep It In The Ground

Global warning - 24 hours of live climate change coverage

The Guardian is spending the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration talking to people whose lives have been changed by the climate change he questions
A man wearing a Donald Trump mask protests outside the US embassy in London.
 A man wearing a Donald Trump mask protests outside the US embassy in London. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

Mark Rice-Oxley


Tomorrow, America will inaugurate a president who is openly sceptical of the almost unanimous scientific view that human activity is contributing to global warming.
So today the Guardian is conducting a major digital event to concentrate minds at this pivotal moment: 24 hours of live, uninterrupted coverage of the issue from around the world. Films, data, experts, writing, graphics, the lot.
We’ll be hearing from people who can actually see climate change happening before their very eyes, flooding into their lives through their front door, or drying up the land they rely on for sustenance.
We are speaking to the visionaries who have solutions and tell us “don’t give up – it’s not game over just yet”. And we’ll be asking what comes next, whether Donald Trump can or indeed will pick apart the 25-year movement to get governments working together to head off environmental disaster.
It’ll be a bit rough and ready, I reckon, a cross between a telethon and a disaster movie. I really hope you’ll join us and let us know what you think.
Mark Rice-Oxley
Head of special projects, The Guardian

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

On this #ObamaFarewell: President Barack Obama’s Final News Conf.(Courtesy of the New York Times)





Our team has been on the Prowl for the day as we await the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States.  This is the final Press Conference by President Obama as he prepares to leaves the White House.    He began as he spoke for all Americans as President George H.W. Bush & Mrs. Barbara Bush have been hospitalized how they were in everyone's thoughts & prayers.   He also paid tribute to the Press to make sure that they hold those in power to "be the best version of themselves" and America to be the "best version of itself.     This is as President-Elect Trump's nominees have been before Congressional Committees throughout the day.



A new era is before us.....

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Notations On Our World: On Inauguration Week & Change in Washington


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On January 20, 2017, President Elect Trump will take the Oath of Office as the 45th President of the United States.   


Although the depiction above is humorous, it underscores the uncertainty and unpredictability of the new era.       Some key agencies of the Obama Administration issued out Exit Memos that is available for all by clicking here.    There debate on the Obama Legacy will continue as he leaves office, goes on an extended vacation and begins to build his library.    It is of note, though, that when President Obama took office, there  were nearly 200,000 Troops fighting in wars and the Dow Jones was dipping below 6600.   HIs approval ratings were 55% and after a massive explosion in deficits in the aftermath of the financial collapse of 2009, there was a steady decrease in it.  Unemployment dropped to below 5% awhile the gross domestic product increased from a little under 15 trillion to almost 20 Trillion Dollars.   

On January 13, The Dow Closed as follows (Source: BigCharts.com):




The Obama Administration has been quite busy as they are winding things down.    The President used his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to expand Natural Resources--including a number of key resources here in our home State of California--including an expansion of the      There is also a "sense of resistance" as epitomized by Senator Schummer--this is as we went to press, we saw reports of some 20 Democrats boycotting the inauguration ceremonies in the aftermath of  Mr. Trump having attacked Congressman John Lewis.     This is as Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post just declared the honeymoon over before the President-Elect takes the Oath.   

One of the other key challenges we have been witness to was the confirmation process.    Cabinet nominees have appeared before US Senate Committees giving testimony as they gear up all for confirmation.     The drama began when the US Senate Majority Letter sent off this letter: 



All Senator Schummer did was to change the name.   The letter was sent by Senator McConnell as the nominees for President-Elect Obama were before Congress in 2009.      This is, of course, as the GOP had committed to stifle the Obama Agenda and wanted to make sure Mr. Obama was a one term President.   Partly as a result of the moves by Democrats,  A number of key Trump Administration nominees were delayed--including nominees for Department of Education and Department of Labor who have been quite controversial.   What was also interesting was how key nominees differed from the President-Elect on some key views in this regard.    This is as Mr. Trump has just come out and again called NATO obsolete during an interview he granted to the Times of London and one of the leaders of Brexit, Michael Gove.   

Beyond the nominations, The House GOP Majority was back at work as we received this snapshot of their week as all of us look to inauguration week--with the key focus having been the repeal and replacement of Obamacare (That our Team reported on over the W-End):   

The Weekly Essentials

A quick weekly newsletter to keep you up to date on the top things happening for the House GOP
Inauguration
Next week is Inauguration! Get the latest information and behind-the-scenes updates on TwitterFacebook, and Instagram
 VISIT WEBSITE 
McCarthy
House passed legislation to limit the power of bureaucrats in Washington and undo damaging regulations from the Obama administration.
 READ STORY 
Ryan and Tapper
Speaker Ryan joined CNN's Jake Tapper for a town hall on everything from GOP plans to repeal and replace Obamacare to tax reform.
 SEE RECAP 
McCarthy
Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady gives preview of the work coming out of his committee, including tax reform.
 LEARN MORE 
Rep. Collins
GOP Congressmen expose the failures of Obamacare.
 READ MORE 

JUST IN...

The House voted to take the first procedural step towards repealing Obamacare.

As we tried to get a sense of the transition, our team picked up this from the First Week in Washington courtesy of a political activist posted on Facebook: 

1. Trump fires all Ambassadors and Special Envoys, ordering them out by inauguration day (This came up during the confirmation hearings of Rex Tillerson and apparently a number of them have launched appeals).
2. House brings back the Holman rule allowing them to reduce an individual civil service, SES positions, or political appointee's salary to $1, effectively firing them by amendment to any piece of legislation. We now know why they wanted names and positions of people in Energy and State.
3. Senate schedules 6 simultaneous hearings on cabinet nominees and triple-books those hearings with Trump's first press conference in months and an ACA budget vote, effectively preventing any concentrated coverage or protest.
4. House GOP expressly forbids the Congressional Budget Office from reporting or tracking ANY costs related to the repeal of the ACA.
5. Trump continues to throw the intelligence community under the bus to protect Putin, despite the growing mountain of evidence that the Russians deliberately interfered in our election.
6. Trump breaks a central campaign promise to make Mexico pay for the wall by asking Congress (in other words, us, the taxpayers) to pay for it.
7. Trump threatens Toyota over a new plant that was never coming to the US nor will take jobs out of the US.
8. House passes the REINS act, giving them veto power over any rules enacted by any federal agency or department--for example, FDA or EPA bans a drug or pesticide, Congress can overrule based on lobbyists not science. Don't like that endangered species designation, Congress kills it.

 Fortune shared this during its' Daily Notations on what Mr. Trump was up to with Twitter attacks throughout the week: 
JANUARY 6, 2017
Updating developments in a couple of stories we’ve been talking about this week:
–Trump attacks another carmaker. Having tweet-flamed General Motors on Wednesday for importing Mexican-made Cruzes, and after lambasting Ford for months on similar grounds, Trump yesterday turned his 140-character artillery on Toyota. The company is expanding production of Corollas and Tacoma pick-up trucks in Mexico for import into the U.S. – to which Trump thundered, “NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax,” echoing his message to GM.
Such outbursts make for good theater but pose many problems. After issuing an explicit threat, Trump must deliver or lose all credibility. Yet House Speaker Paul Ryan is adamantly opposed to any new tariffs, let alone Trump’s threatened 35% levy on Mexican imports. Also: Toyota exports about 160,000 cars annually from its U.S. plants, but a trade war could shrink that number substantially and cost U.S. jobs. And those Corollas that Toyota plans to make in Mexico are currently made in Canada. Does Trump intend to impose a heavy tariff on Canadian imports? If so, he doesn’t seem to have mentioned it, but if not, why not?
For now, Fiat Chrysler, Mazda, Honda, Nissan, and Volkswagen – all of which have factories in Mexico – are presumably braced for impact.
-Sears gets more desperate by the day. The company is now officially burning the furniture to stay warm. It announced yesterday that it’s selling its Craftsman tool brand to Stanley Black & Decker. Investors consider Craftsman one of Sears’s three crown jewels, the others being its Kenmore appliance brand and DieHard auto battery brand. How important is Craftsman to Sears? The deal calls for payments by Stanley Black & Decker of about $900 million plus royalties for 15 years, amounting to a deal value that Sears believes could easily top $1 billion. For Sears, that’s a huge number: At the close of trading Wednesday, before the deal was announced, Sears’s market cap was $1.1 billion.
So does Craftsman actually account for virtually all of Sears’s value? Apparently not; the stock price barely budged on Thursday in response to the announcement. Investors probably figured the deal’s present value is well below $1 billion, and they probably had a Craftsman sale priced into the stock already. So maybe instead of accounting for nearly all of Sears’s value, Craftsman accounts for only a half or a third. Still – selling it is a desperate move, one of several in recent days. This week the company announced it would close an additional 104 stores, and last week it announced it had arranged to borrow up to $500 million from CEO Eddie Lampert’s hedge fund.
For the historically minded, it was almost exactly 26 years ago that Sears ceded the title of America’s biggest retailer to Walmart
January 7, 2017 
Saturday Morning Post: The Weekly View from Washington
At 6:19 AM on Friday morning, hours before Donald Trump huddled with top U.S. intelligence officials for a briefing on Russia’s interference with the election, the president-elect fired up his Twitter account. In the first of seven missives he sent before that midday meeting, Trump called out the “dishonest media” for reporting that American taxpayers could be stuck with the bill for building a border wall, rather than Mexico covering the cost, as he promised on the campaign. (Mexico will reimburse us, he said.) He went on to tweet about how NBC’s rejiggered “Celebrity Apprentice” performed in the ratings; and why he was starting his day by venturing downtown to meet with Condé Nast editors (Vogue’s Anna Wintour invited him); and announced that he’d asked Congressional chairs to investigate how NBC got ahold of the intelligence community’s report on Russian hacking before he did. For those accustomed to Trump’s seemingly stream-of-consciousness social media broadcasts, none of this registered as particularly remarkable. It is. Two weeks before his inauguration, with his transition in full swing and an unprecedented incursion into our democratic process by a hostile foreign power yet to be addressed, the breadth of distractions Trump is invoking could be cause for alarm.
Is it possible, however, there’s a deeper game afoot? Is Trump taking a page from the leadership playbook of the last man to assume the presidency without any prior experience in elected office? Dwight D. Eisenhower frequently presented as an affable but bumbling figure, a profile he cultivated in order to conceal a highly active and aggressive prosecution of his power behind the scenes. The full extent of the strategy — what Princeton historian Fred Greenstein came to call “the hidden-hand presidency” — didn’t become clear until decades later, when Ike’s presidential papers went public. Trump’s closest advisors already insist he’s operating with far more guile than his detractors understand. After all, it’s gotten him this far. Eisenhower, too, was underestimated, starting with the man he succeeded (Harry Truman said Ike’s inexperience in politics would cripple him, predicting, “He’ll sit here and he’ll say, ‘Do this, do that,’ and nothing will happen.”) But Eisenhower secured and preserved the peace, threatening our enemies with nuclear annihilation while leveraging cheap covert force to check Communist ambitions abroad. At home, he oversaw massive infrastructure investments that he balanced against the urgency of Cold War defense spending, reasoning in a 1953 speech, “The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.”
Is Trump up to the task? If he’s successfully playing a hidden hand — say, by dangling shiny objects from his Twitter account to mask a far more disciplined agenda — we may not soon know it. Of course there remains the real possibility, if not probability, that what we’re seeing is precisely what we’re getting. The answer to that question, and many more hovering over a transformed dynamic in Washington, will carry world-shifting consequences for business, as Republicans prepare to overhaul the healthcare system, rewrite the tax code and roll back regulations. That’s why we’re excited to announce the launch of the latest addition to our stable of newsletters. We’re calling it Trumponomics Daily. Five days a week, it’ll bring you breaking news and insights into what the changes out of government mean for private enterprise. We hope you’ll join us by signing up here: http://fortune.com/gettrumponomicsdaily/.


We also picked this up from the conservative columnist Erick Erickson noting his view of Barack Obama's legacy of Division:  
Sandy Hook and Barack Obama’s Legacy of Division
Sandy Hook and Barack Obama’s Legacy of Division
By Erick Erickson | Monday, January 2, 2017
As the nation prepares to formally enter the Age of Trump and leave the Age of Obama, it is worth noting that the
Read More...




However, as America begins to say farewell to President Obama,  our team picked this up in a tribute to President Obama courtesy of the team at @GlobalCitizen: 

44 Pictures of Obama Being a Normal Dude

Basketball, fist bumps, a run-in with Spider-Man. White House photographer Pete Souza caught it all over the last eight years. See more.



 The Democrats are also in a struggle for their future as underscored by this: 




News from WashingtonExaminer.com


Heartland mayor shaking up race for DNC chair

January 7, 2017 07:56 PM
By David M. Drucker
Pete Buttigieg, the 34-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind., is threatening to shake up the race for Democratic National Committee chairmanship precisely because he isn't linked to either of the factions warring for control of the party.
He joins a contest that has turned into a proxy battle between the populist progressives, a group led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that favors Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and the establishment wing of Democratic Party that is tied to President Obama and is lining up behind his labor secretary, Tom Perez.
Read the full story here >


Exciting times indeed....