So sad that Trump has done this to our country!

Political violence is supposed to repel us. But Trump allies are acclimating to it.

This is an adapted excerpt from the Jan. 6 episode of "The Rachel Maddow Show."

In 2018, in Coral Gables, Florida, then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi attended an event for Donna Shalala, a Democratic congressional candidate. In response, the local Republican Party in Miami-Dade County called for a protest of that event. ....

According to their analysis, "Of those serving a year or more in prison, a full 57% are there following a conviction in cases involving an assault on a police officer. In all, 83% serving a year-or-more were convicted of committing an act of violence.”

This means that, with few exceptions, the only people Trump could release from prison with his pardon power are those who attacked a police officer, possessed weapons or explosives, or were convicted of some other violent felony.

Then there’s the deeply conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page, which published a piece with the headline, “Trump’s Pardon Promise for Jan. 6 Rioters: Does it include the ex-meth trafficker who brought a metal baton and swung it at police?” .....

Yes, there’s an unnerving, unsettling, fight to remember what actually happened — to be real about how disgusting it all was — while the Trump movement and the Republicans try to say the attack was a bunch of heroes who have been wrongly persecuted for doing nothing wrong.

But there is an instrumental and practical question at hand, too. Which is, what happens to the future of political violence — in the very short term — if the people who committed violence on the president-elect’s behalf are sprung from prison and celebrated as vindicated heroes when Trump takes office again?

The idea that there is permeability between violence and politics, that what is supposed to be civic hallowed ground, is fouled by the rioting and looting we saw take place, in Trump’s name, on Jan. 6, 2021.

That is supposed to repel us and disgust us — indelibly. We are never supposed to acclimate to that. But the Trump side has. And so now, four years later, with just two weeks until Trump is back in power, we must be prepared for what could happen next.

Soon after, Trump held a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, where he said something new and unexpected about one of his territorial targets. NBC News reported:

During a free-wheeling news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump was asked by a reporter if he could assure the public that he would not use military coercion against Panama or Greenland, a goal he has floated in recent weeks. ‘No, I can’t assure you on either of those two, but I can say this, we need them for economic security,’ Trump said.

While Greenland is currently a semi-autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Republican went on to tell reporters that he’s skeptical of the geopolitical relationship. “People really don’t even know that Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security,” the president-elect added.....

While I’m mindful of the fact that the Republican is full of bluster and nonsense on a nearly daily basis, and it’s generally wise not to invest too much energy into any one comment, Trump’s yearslong fixation on Greenland is quickly evolving past the point of silly tweets. As The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake summarized:

He just left open using a military threat against a NATO ally. ... And NATO rules require an attack on any member to be treated as an attack on them all. That’s certainly no small thing, even if it’s just Trump being Trump.[/blockquote]

The rhetoric, Blake added, was “the latest ratcheting up of Trump’s increasingly imperialistic entreaties.”.....

But those who want to see Trump as a champion of peace really ought to know better by now. The charade has unraveled. A leader willing to make veiled threats at a NATO ally as part of a wildly unnecessary imperialistic pursuit is not a leader who can be counted on for responsible restraint on matters of foreign policy.

@davidfrenchjag.bsky.social this week made the point that Trump "is at his absolute worst in a crisis."

The president-elect using wildfires to launch a new political offensive against California's governor helps drive the point home.

Around the same time, the president’s successor also turned his attention to the crisis in California, though Donald Trump had a different message in mind. The New York Times reported:

President-elect Donald J. Trump blamed California’s Democratic governor on Wednesday for the failure to contain fires engulfing parts of the Los Angeles area, accusing the state’s government of letting environmental policies run amok. ... Mr. Trump’s angry commentary came even as Southern California residents were fleeing three separate fires. Two people have been confirmed to have died from the fires, and authorities were warning the area’s residents to be ready to evacuate their homes at a moment’s notice.

The president-elect’s latest political offensive began late Wednesday morning, when Trump published an item to his social media platform that referred to the California governor as “Gavin Newscum” — as if this were an appropriate time for an incoming national leader to peddle juvenile taunts. The Republican added that he considers Newsom to be “incompetent,” adding, “He is the blame [sic] for this.”

Roughly two hours later, Trump kept the offensive going with a follow-up item that again referred to the governor as “Newscum” and condemned the local government’s efforts to contain the fires. Sixteen minutes later, the president-elect turned his attention to the incumbent in the White House: “NO WATER IN THE FIRE HYDRANTS, NO MONEY IN FEMA. THIS IS WHAT JOE BIDEN IS LEAVING ME. THANKS JOE!”.....

We’re constantly confronted with evidence to bolster the point. Last week, Trump saw a deadly attack in New Orleans and responded with ugly lies and bizarre conspiracy theories. In the recent past, there was a deadly hurricane in North Carolina, to which the Republican also responded with a different set of ugly lies and bizarre conspiracy theories.

Part of this is likely the result of Trump’s lack of empathy. It probably doesn’t help that he’s far too indifferent to the substance of governing to offer constructive recommendations, which leaves him with little more than cheap, partisan attacks.

But French’s point also rings true: When there’s a real crisis, Americans are suffering and it’s time to get to work finding solutions, Americans simply can’t count on Trump to tell the truth, to care about what matters, to demonstrate real character, to communicate like a grown-up or to resist the urge to exploit tragedies for political gain.

What Americans are seeing is a reminder of who Trump is — and why he’s so ill-suited for national leadership.

As Samuel Alito faces yet another ethics mess of his own making, he doesn't exactly have a deep reservoir of credibility he can turn to in response.

Only about a third of Americans have confidence in the courts. Alito's in a position to push that number lower.

While I can appreciate Roberts’ concerns about the high court’s institutional reputation, if he wants to better understand why public confidence is faltering to historic degrees, there’s no shortage of evidence for the chief justice to consider. Take the latest NBC News report, for example.

Justice Samuel Alito confirmed Wednesday that he took a phone call from Donald Trump one day before the president-elect asked the Supreme Court to halt his upcoming sentencing, but insisted that the case was not discussed. Alito said in a statement that they spoke Tuesday afternoon after one of his former law clerks, William Levi, “asked me to take a call from President-elect Trump regarding his qualifications to serve in a government position.”

So let me see if I have this straight. According to the official version of events, Trump wanted to speak to the Supreme Court conservative on Tuesday about an applicant for a job in his incoming administration. As The New York Times’ report noted, it’s unclear why the president-elect would personally “make a call to check references, a task generally left to lower-level aides.”

The two men did, in fact, chat — again, according to the official version of events — and one day later, Trump’s lawyers filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court, as part of a larger effort to delay sentencing in the Republican’s criminal case in New York.......

We are, after all, talking about a sitting justice who has earned a reputation as the Supreme Court’s most unyielding ideologue, who has delivered a series of overtly political speeches, who’s issued public endorsements of a conservative advocacy group’s work, who thought it’d be a good idea to defend the Supreme Court’s integrity at a pro-Trump organization exactly two weeks before the 2022 midterm elections, who’s appeared a bit too cozy with The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, and who’s declared his indifference to congressional oversight in ways that were panned as “stunningly wrong.”

And did I mention the justice’s flag controversies? Because they’re another piece of the same unsightly mosaic.

Only about a third of Americans have confidence in their own country’s judiciary, but there’s no reason to assume that number can’t drop further.

‘The Gulf of America’: Trump vows to rename the Gulf of Mexico: "We’ll be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring," Donald Trump vowed. He wasn't kidding.

It never occurred to me that this could become an actual goal of Republican officials in reality. And yet, with 13 days remaining before Inauguration Day, Donald Trump has inadvertently stolen my ridiculous idea and vowed to pursue it as part of his second-term agenda. This was the message the Republican president-elect shared during his latest press conference at Mar-a-Lago:

We’re going to be announcing at a future date, pretty soon, we’re going to change — because we do most of the work there, and it’s ours — we’re going be changing — sort of the opposite of Biden, where he’s closing everything up, essentially getting rid of $50 to $60 trillion worth of assets — we’ll be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring. That covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America: What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate. It’s appropriate.”

As a video clip from the event makes clear, the incoming American president is not kidding.

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3lf64i3h5w223

.....But stepping back, it’s worth taking stock of the Republican’s increasingly bizarre foreign policy agenda as he prepares to return to the White House. Since Election Day, Trump has:

leaned into the idea of adding Greenland to the United States;
talked with increasing enthusiasm about adding Canada to the U.S. through some kind of unexplained “merger”;
raised the prospect of the U.S. seizing control of the Panama Canal;
and vowed to impose trade tariffs on each of the U.S.’ three largest trade partners.

What’s more, asked at his Mar-a-Lago event whether he can “assure the world” that he won’t “use military or economic coercion” toward Greenland and Panama, the incoming president declined.

“No, I can’t assure you on either of those two, but I can say this, we need them for economic security,” Trump replied.

President Biden Becomes First Sitting President to Be a Great-Grandfather

In a historic family milestone, President Joe Biden announced that his granddaughter Naomi has given birth to a healthy baby boy, weighing 10 pounds, 4 ounces.

This marks the president’s first great-grandchild, making him the first sitting president in U.S. history to hold the title of great-grandfather.

Congratulations to the entire Biden family!

The good news for health care advocates: The ACA is working; it's popular; and it's brought health security to a record number of Americans.

The bad news for health care advocates: There are some ominous, Republican-seeded clouds on the horizon.

Four years ago, President Joe Biden set out to lower the uninsured rate and bring health security to more Americans. As the Democrat prepares to leave office, there can be no doubt that he succeeded. The White House boasted in a written statement about the latest Affordable Care Act enrollment totals:

[As a result of White House efforts,] the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing that it has set another all-time record for ACA Marketplace enrollment, with nearly 24 million Americans signing up for coverage with one week left in the 2025 Open Enrollment Period. A total of 45 million Americans have coverage through the ACA — either the Marketplace or Medicaid expansion — and more people have health insurance today than ever in our nation’s history.”

The president and his team have every reason to boast, and it’d be a mistake to see the latest good news is some kind of accident. On the contrary, as Biden’s term got underway, Democrats included generous new ACA subsidies in their American Rescue Plan — the party’s Inflation Reduction Act kept the premium assistance in place — and their efforts made “Obamacare” more affordable than ever before. Consumers noticed, and enrollment totals soared.

The results for health care advocates are worth celebrating: The Affordable Care Act is working, it’s increasingly popular, and it’s brought health security to more Americans than at any time in history......

Complicating matters, the Democratic subsidies that have made ACA coverage more affordable are temporary — and they’re set to expire this year, creating what some observers have labeled a health care “time bomb.” Indeed, according to a recent Congressional Budget Office analysis, if the subsidies expire altogether, several million Americans will likely lose their coverage.

As the last Congress neared its end, several Democrats tried to extend the status quo for another year, but GOP lawmakers ignored the proposal before heading home in mid-December.

As for what’s likely to happen next, no one seems able to say for sure. A lobbying coalition is taking shape to push Republicans to keep premium costs low, but a variety of key GOP officials have already suggested they’re prepared to see some or all of the subsidies disappear.