Mourning in America - Trump Year One: November '16 to

it's this patronizing bs that just lost the election smarty pants

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau)

hillary clinton's meme stash was just not dank enough :(

Sticking your name in huge letters on projects around the world does wonders for branding, but it also makes Trump the person on the planet <i>most</i> vulnerable to boycotts, protests, and outright legal expropriation.

My hope is that the rest of the world pursues this when Trump threatens to harm the planet by leaving or ignoring the Paris Accords.

For a while I thought the best-case scenario was that Trump would just do all the things a generic 2016 Republican president would do (which I admit is a pretty bad scenario). Now I wonder whether he won't start feuding with Congress based on imagined personal slights, vetoing unpopular bills and getting more and more frustrated that he can't just wave his hand and things happen automatically. Bizarro Obama situation.

(best-case scenario, I'm sure it will be worse than that)

forget protests, what about terrorism? what would the security issues be for the united states today if the obama family owned/licensed their names to properties around the world with OBAMA on the front in big letters?

xp yeah there may be friction not just between factions within a trump admin but between trump himself and the gop congress -- but not on everything, because there are a few points on which trump, the gop, and the people who think trump's their champion agree. one of them is letting the police do what they feel.

on the one hand it's very possible that the trump people dedicate plenty of time/energy to feuding with the republican establishment (i understand brietbart today has a lead story attacking paul ryan)

on the other hand they are going to be (and are right now!) forging alliances with rightwing nationalists in europe instead

i live in indiana, and i hate the fuck out of mike pence, but a pence presidency, or a cruz presidency, or any of those other presidencies don't fill me with the despair and raw fear that the prospect of a trump presidency does. i'd be talking tactics, chewing over the post-mortem, all the stuff that the losing party does after a regular election, instead of waking up every morning and waiting for the shaking to stop.

donald j. trump is, even within the context of his party, a uniquely unqualified individual to hold the office of president of the united states.

my wife was talking about how rudy giuliani was going to devote the entirety of his job to putting hillary clinton in jail. my reaction to that is "thank god", because i can imagine what he would be doing if he didn't have a meaningless personal vendetta to keep him busy.

https://external.fbed1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQALF1iYyl_gS2k7&w=487&h=487&url=https%3A%2F%2Fscontent.cdninstagram.com%2Ft51.2885-15%2Fs480x480%2Fe35%2F15034717_1826838897595525_4378609954433531904_n.jpg%3Fig_cache_key%3DMTM4MTQyNzMwMTkxMzAyNDMxOA%253D%253D.2

uh South Florida becomes South Toronto in November

been thinking about this and i really would prefer a Pence presidency, however it were to come about. i'm pretty concerned about god emperor Trump's cult of personality and his team's unique ability to keep the swarm of assholes engaged in a way that a run of the mill GOP idiot simply can not.

i think one of the fundamental mistakes of the Obama admin and dems in general was not being more aggressive in keeping his voters stoked past the elections (partic w/r/t white rust belt supporters) when his goodwill was still high. some 20/20 hindsight qb'ing there i know.

tbf i don't really know what this would have looked like in execution, or if it wouldn't have just petered out regardless. the psyche of the avg Obama voter and Trump supporter is clearly very different.

'Pence is so much worse' arguments are both probably true but he also just wants to fight the culture wars that Republicans are losing or have lost so...

yep. looks like a one-termer if i ever saw one

people were not just voting FOR hrc, but were totally stoked about her, and yes, the historic nature of her candidacy.

maybe so, but not enough of them actually fucking voted.

also believe that the MSM really dropped the ball on not going all in exposing the alt-right

there are very few investigative news shows in America. 60 Minutes. and... 🕸🌾??

also believe that the MSM really dropped the ball on not going all in exposing the alt-right

― acerbic (sic)s (will),

MSM afraid of ad revenue and accusations of bias

Also: MSN benefited from Trump-related clicks. Pot meets kettle.

also: msm has hated the clintons since the 1990s.

I think the idea of who the MSM hates or whatever is a bad road to travel down - aside from Fox News and maybe MSNBC, all the media gives a shit about is money. Whichever candidate or side or horserace gives them clicks and highest ratings.

been thinking about this and i really would prefer a Pence presidency

do you really think that's not what you're getting?

http://store.harpers.org/products/fools-for-scandal-how-the-media-invented-whitewater

i think one of the fundamental mistakes of the Obama admin and dems in general was not being more aggressive in keeping his voters stoked past the elections (partic w/r/t white rust belt supporters) when his goodwill was still high.

not just keeping enthusiasm - organizing, building the party and devoting time/resources to this at the state and local level, which i feel like has really been neglected thus the GOP taking over state legislatures and gerrymandering districts to entrench themselves in power. the DLCC works on this but they are sort of neglected and underfunded.

it's a long time ago now & i hate to relitigate this, but i recall when i was wrapped up in the long obama/clinton 2007-2008 primary battle, one of the issues some of the diehard clinton partisans (who had been engaged at the local/state level for some time) brought up was that clinton would be working much harder at party building - to a great extent, obama's coalition depended on obama, the person, and much of it wouldn't be doing other work for the party or showing up in the off years and that sort of thing because they really didn't care so much. and here we are

MSM afraid of ad revenue and accusations of bias

that's very true.

i just think a lefty analogue (whatever the hell that would look like), particularly one that reveled in violent imagery and aggressive bigotry towards.. white rural christians? small business owners? ppl who send their kids to private school? -- would have gotten coverage non-stop on Fox/ talk/ etc, which would have no doubt drifted to the MSM.

i don't think they would have had any problem getting their clicks.

been thinking about this and i really would prefer a Pence presidency, however it were to come about. i'm pretty concerned about god emperor Trump's cult of personality and his team's unique ability to keep the swarm of assholes engaged in a way that a run of the mill GOP idiot simply can not.

Just wait until, as floated, Trump keeps up the rallies even through his presidency.

Pence would legislate my uterus out of my body if it were physically possible to do so,

Preferring Pence is preferring being stabbed over being shot. They're both horrible in unique special ways

v interesting daria-g. i guess i was vaguely aware of that argument at the time, but didn't fully appreciate it.

Ethan Coen takes a shit on some people and it's awesome

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/opinion/sunday/2016-election-thank-you-notes.html

'Pence is so much worse' arguments are both probably true but he also just wants to fight the culture wars that Republicans are losing or have lost so...

― Kiarostami bag (milo z)

on a policy level sure pence is nearly cruz-level terrible, but under president pence i would at least assume that the 2018 and 2020 elections will be fair and free elections, and with trump i just don't feel comfortable making that assumption. a trump presidency makes me feel threatened and powerless and makes me feel that i have no legal recourse whatsoever.

god the tobacco industry must be jerking themselves into a coma over a vp-elect who doesn't "believe" that tobacco causes cancer.

pence has succeeded in basically making himself invisible this election cycle and serving as the more predictable, less emotional half of the ticket. it's easy for people to look at him as the devil we know. like bush era republicans i guess? but he's still a rabid tea party demagogue. if he were in trump's position getting trump's spotlight, we'd all be just as terrified. now he's tea party dick cheney. people are right to be terrified.

everything is really bad

under president pence i would at least assume that the 2018 and 2020 elections will be fair and free elections

I am trusting you on this bcz you lived in Indiana but my instincts are that the GOP will be running way out in front on new and innovative vote suppression methods; that the National Association of Secretaries of State and related election officials' normal aversion to federal "interference" in elections might very well be in jeopardy; and the Election Assistance Commission (https://www.eac.gov/) could end up with a budget in the low three figures or so

I don't think anyone in the upper echelons of the GOP since Ike has ever favored free and fair elections.

lived / live

what was president pence gonna do about voter suppression again?

xp basically

trump wants to keep holding these rallies so that tons of protesters show up with no goals or plan and one or two people throw a bottle or something and the police freak out and a bunch of people get arrested and it all goes down live on cable news and then trump gets more empowered by calling for LAW AND ORDER

So so so many xps, but re the person upthread who had a friend claiming "socialist" countries FORCE american drug companies to sell their medication dirt cheap.... This is total bullshit. They pay what the companies charge, but then cover most of the cost to their citizens. So in Australia, the government pays the $1500 bill for the course of tablets to the company, and then charges the consumer $25. The drug company still makes their billions.

Have we mentioned Ed Meese yet? I feel like all the scary horrible members of the Reagan Administration that are still alive are going to return. The others will be there in spirit.

Are the taxpayers going to pay to defend trumps properties? Even the shitty licensed ones?

Have we mentioned Ed Meese yet? I feel like all the scary horrible members of the Reagan Administration that are still alive are going to return. The others will be there in spirit.

― sarahell,

For anyone who wants a cheer and a laugh, watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJFMRYTaJSI

"You're a liar, a cheat, and a thief!"

i'm struggling to express my feelings... i feel like saying that pence or gwb or reagan is "as bad" as trump normalizes and legitimizes trump. i understand where you're coming from, trying to argue for trump as culmination of decades of frequently-subliminally codified institutional oppression and prejudice, but i honestly don't believe the difference is only one of degree. i think there's a categorical difference between trump and historical republican methods of governance.

are you addressing me?

no that's an xxxxxp to something further up thread

I argued through the campaign whether Trump is an aberration or a culmination. I argued that Clinton, for the sake of courting moderate Republicans, made a mistake by failing to show how Trump was an example of the GOP mind rot since January 1981.

At this moment the point is moot.

i really have to wonder where the DNC goes from here. i keep catching myself holding onto this silver lining idea that this disaster could be an actual important step in dem institutions at least appearing to take a single step away from abject neoliberalism, and then i scold myself because that's stupid. i've got no hope for them in 2020, even in 2018 (where the bernie schism seems much less important)

unless they really are looking to the electric, disruptive ANDREW CUOMO. who doesn't go nuts off their butts for cuomo? CUO MO YEARS, CUO MO YEARS

Just curious how much do you guys pay for insurance? Is ilx in agreement that Obamacare doesn't need to be fix? Last year when I filed my taxes I was penalized due to not having coverage on myself, a little more than $600. That doesn't sit well with me.

― JacobSanders, Friday, November 11, 2016 6:17 PM (yesterday)

I pay way too much, considering how little I use it, but I've always had it for "just in case." My rates stayed about the same. I didn't get coverage through the state exchange, so I pay full price, because my income fluctuates from year to year, and I didn't want to have to pay back any subsidy at the end of the year, and there really isn't a mechanism to adjust that during the year like there is tax withholding from a job. For people that are covered by employer plans, I think it doesn't really sink in, because it doesn't affect them.

Half of my income is from income tax preparation, so I get to discuss Obamacare with about 100 people a year and see how it affected them. Most of the people who complained about it are low-middle and middle income men between the ages of 27 and 45. They were previously uninsured. They rarely go to the doctor because they are pretty healthy. They wish it covered dental, because that would be more useful, and getting dental work done is really expensive. Women in that age bracket complained less, and more were appreciative of it because it made it easier to get birth control and other "women things." The people that really appreciated it were the ones who made little enough to go on MediCal, so they got free insurance.

I understand the mechanics of the penalty for economic reasons and to increase participation, however, it doesn't sit well with me either. The only positive thing about it is that it is income-based, in that the amount of the penalty increases with income: someone making $80k a year is going to have a penalty in the thousands, whereas someone making $25k/year is going to have a penalty in the hundreds.

At least one LAPD stingray device appears to be operating at the protests this week, so if you're going to any protest - please keep your phone turned off or use a burner phone.

rushomancy: the difference i see between the two is that trump seems more or less for a spokesperson for the type of nut that pence actually is. i've never really believed that trump falls for his own act or that he really has any concrete political views at all. i don't think he entered the race because he wanted to win. but his unpredictability as a president terrifies me. i'm not trying to downplay that. i'm terrified in a mutually assured destruction kind of way. but pence's predictability is just as scary to me, and every time i see a picture of a clueless, bored trump, i worry about a new cheney pulling the strings. on top of the threat of trump going nuclear.

so really, i don't know. what trump represents (as a candidate who relied on fascist-inspired strategy and rhetoric) is a uniquely depressing thing. but i'm really not sure that's any worse than pence, the living embodiment of actual tea party ideology.

Doesn't LAPD use their StingRays for basically everything these days