Mitch Perry
Some random thoughts at the end of one of the most epochal weeks in the history of our republic:
Yesterday in this space we contemplated some of the first moves the Donald Trump administration might make when he inherits power in January. Lots of focus right now is on the fact that he could kill all of the efforts this nation has made in worldwide pacts on climate change, beginning with the historic agreement signed in Paris earlier this year.
“I don’t think that’s been decided,” Myron Ebell, the head of Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency transition team, tells Bloomberg. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
Trump did say on the campaign trail he would attempt to kill the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Environmental protection, what they do is a disgrace; every week they come out with new regulations,” he told Fox News Sunday last year.
“Who’s going to protect the environment?” asked host Chris Wallace.
“We’ll be fine with the environment,” Trump replied. “We can leave a little bit, but you can’t destroy businesses.”
OK, enough serious policy. Can’t we just relax with the weekend approaching?
Juiciest gossip of the morning is the revelation in Megyn Kelly’s memoir (being published next week) that her first question to Trump in the first GOP debate in the summer of 2015 regarding his comments about women was leaked by someone at Fox News to the candidate himself.
That comes via a review in today’s New York Times. However, late last night, Kelly took to Twitter to say that the reviewer inferred that happened, but it actually didn’t. Hmmmm.
Leonard Cohen passed away last night at the age of 82. Though not as heartbreaking to me as was the passing of David Bowie and Prince earlier this year, I know some serious fans of his, and it’s a blow.
Speaking of the New York Times, columnist David Brooks concludes his column on the Trump election by surmising, “the guy will probably resign or be impeached within a year. The future is closer than you think.”
Dealing with dropping television ratings, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says he wants to address the length of time and the number of commercials. How about ensuring you don’t have non-watchable teams like the Cleveland Browns on Thursday Night Football?
First step for the national Democratic Party in picking up the pieces from Tuesday night is: Who will lead the Democratic National Committee? Keith Ellison and Howard Dean have thrown their names into the mix.
On this Veterans Day, a sincere gesture of appreciation for the men and women who have served this country in our armed services in the past, and most definitely to those doing so now.
In other news …
Although it was a pretty horrid night for Democrats everywhere in Florida on Tuesday, incoming House Minority Leader Janet Cruz is proud of the pickups for Dems in the state House.
The most obvious casualty of the Trump movement in Florida was in House District 36, where Democrat Amanda Murphy saw a 12-point lead evaporate under the flood of Republicans who voted for Donald Trump, and electing a college student over Murphy by a few hundred votes.
And Tampa City Councilwoman Yolie Capin is damned upset at the Democratic Party in the wake of Trump’s victory on Tuesday.
