SUNDAY MORNING

Michelle Obama In People Magazine says even though the election is over she will still criticize Trump for his polarizing rhetoric.

Bernie Sanders on Face The Nation thinks Trump has to re-affirm his commitment not to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid because the congressional Republicans are promising to do just that. Sanders urges Trump to tell the Republicans to back off.

Trump literally said he doesn't need intelligence briefings because he's "so smart."

The intelligence community is in an uproar because of Trump's insulting them. Watch this space in the future. This rift its a major concern. Trump still maintains the reports about Russia hacking our elections are ridiculous. 

Since former Presidents have the right to request intelligence briefings at a presidential level, it seems to me Bill Clinton should request one .

Russian officials can't hide their glee over Russia winning the American election. Newsoutlets in Russia think that Trump's dismantling sanctions against Russia for the Ukraine and the Crimea will make Russia on the par with the United States. Please remember this is a country with the same GDP as Italy. Russian analysts say that the sanctions hurt Putin's allies badly and he wanted to get back at Hillary Clinton for this. 

The Obama official who transitioned with Trump's ethics guy reports that the Trump people are not concerned about corruption.

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry is the likely new Energy Secretary. Maybe Trump doesn't know Rick Perry made Texas the leading solar energy state in the Union.

David Remnick gave an important interview with Der Spiegel where he talks about how Russian democracy was destroyed by Putin and how Trump toys with fascism. He says that millions will be disappointed by Trump.

In the New Yorker, Remnick conducted an interview with President Obama about his legacy. The interview held in three sessions started with the anticipation of a Clinton win and ended with Obama contemplating the GOP trying to destroy his legacy. Obama said he thought 75-80% of his achievements will be maintained. He cited the difficulty with eliminating regulations he put in place and other measures.

Trump again claimed on Fox News that he is studying the Paris Climate Change Agreement and said no one knows whether climate change is real and whether anyone should care about it. 

While people like myself think Angela Merkel is the leader of the "Free World" and Joe Biden thinks Justin Trudeau, the alt right thinks Vladimir Putin is the leader of the free world because he made nationalism respectable and brought back Christianity to Russia. They really do think Putin is the leader of Christianity. Moscow has been a mecca for people like Pat Buchanan, David Duke,Robert Spencer and Nigel Farage.

David Brooks says the number of billionaires in Trump's cabinet doesn't bother the Trump populist because they just hate the managerial class and not those who made money.

Anthony West, The far-right African-American Colonel, says that General Mattis was selected for kill lots of Muslims.

Intelligence officers think Mattis is going to eat Trump's NSC adviser for lunch. Between Mattis and General Kelly at Homeland Security ,these people think the two generals will provide pushback against Flynn's hair brain schemes. This seems to be another example of "Oh it can't get any worse" type thinking.

Russia is delighted by Tillotson as Secretary of State since both countries can be petrostates. But no one knows what he thinks about any other issue.