Open Thread: Trump And His Brogliarchs Have Big Plans For You

“It’s weird to find solace in the Civil War, or the Great Depression, or the beginning of World War Two, but my whole optimistic temperament depends on saying that we will get through it and emerge stronger.” — Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, in an interview with the Financial Times.

“President Joe Biden said a key regret of his four years in office was not taking more credit — and reminding voters — of his administration’s accomplishments, including infrastructure and Covid relief spending,” CNN reports. Said Biden: “The mistake we made was — I think I made — was not getting our allies to acknowledge that the Democrats did this.

“When President-elect Donald Trump first unveiled his picks to staff his new administration, some of the more unconventional names sparked gasps and speculation that they could not amass enough support to be confirmed even in a GOP-controlled Senate,” the Washington Post reports. “But three days ahead of Trump’s return to the White House, many of his most prominent Cabinet choices have sailed relatively unscathed through their hearings and are poised to win confirmation as Republican senators rallied around them and appeared largely unwilling to defy Trump’s wishes.”

“After Donald Trump entered the White House in 2017, The Washington Post adopted a slogan that underscored the newspaper’s traditional role as a government watchdog: ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness,’” the New York Times reports. “This week, as Mr. Trump prepares to re-enter the White House, the newspaper debuted a mission statement that evokes a more expansive view of The Post’s journalism, without death or darkness: ‘Riveting Storytelling for All of America.’” I actually thought this was a joke when I first read it.

Less than half of Americans expect Donald Trump will lower the price of groceries, housing and health care, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

President-elect Donald Trump plans to strike a more optimistic tone at his inaugural festivities than his “American carnage” message during his first inaugural address, Axios reports.