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

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

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.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

i don't think it's a moot point, i think it's a very hot issue. is the defining characteristic of dissent going to be trump presented as a uniquely anti-democratic figure, or is it going to be everything the republican party has done since 1981, or 1968, or...

and as much as i love history, and as much as on an intellectual level there are really good arguments for both sides, i think dissent that requires altering the historical consciousness of the masses in order to be effective is... a challenge.

xp to myself that sounds like i don't believe trump really puts any weight behind the ideology, which isn't true. i think they're mostly two sides of the same coin and pence shouldn't get away with his more-stable-and-rational reputation he's built by comparison.

xps
I had a recent period of youtubing loads of vintage Hitchens debates, a very edifying wormhole to go down. Even when his politics sucked shit he was still a fantastic orator/debater.

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.

― qualx

qualx: here in indiana, we've been able to stop pence before. we called his bluff on some anti-gay legislation he passed, and he backed down.

pence is about as intimidating to me as dan quayle is.

quayle stood behind a president who could stand on his own feet though, while trump apparently promised his prospective VP control of literally "domestic and foreign policy"

is the defining characteristic of dissent going to be trump presented as a uniquely anti-democratic figure, or is it going to be everything the republican party has done since 1981, or 1968, or...

I think Trump is/is going to be worse than Reagan, if solely for the fact that it destroys the myth of progress that things will get better. That's a lot of what makes me feel sick about it, that America hasn't intellectually and ethically improved, even though we had a relatively-liberal (compared to the past 30 years of presidents) black president for 8 years, and allowed gay marriage, and saw more visibility given to minorities' issues. It feels like people can't recognize and learn from past mistakes, which is kinda the definition of stupidity.

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

Well, yeah.

like, i'm not really focused on getting people to act in accordance with their class interests, i just want to live in a country where most people agree that pogroms are a bad thing.

who's saying that pogroms are a good thing?

my babbling about the alt right upthread is pointless. I have to believe everyone who voted for Trump was aware enough re incitations of violence, punishing women for abortions, judge Curiel, pussy-grabbing. if they didn't care about any of those then they just don't care about anything. except emails I guess.

It's not a bug, it's a feature.

welp I guess he Right, such as it is in 2016, has finally found a way to connect with 'the kids'

Frum going ham: https://storify.com/Noahkgreen/let-s-have-a-fresh-start

Just wrote the white house asking obama to recess appoint Garland to the SC. Please do this if you agree, folks.

http://nypost.com/2016/11/11/secret-service-doesnt-want-trump-going-to-ufc-fight/

Not the Onion.

wait i thought we were going to #draintheswamp

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/305727-bondi-honored-to-serve-trump-in-transition-team

who's saying that pogroms are a good thing?

― sarahell

nobody, yet, and i fucking well want to keep it that way.

My 30th birthday was on Wednesday. What a shitty way to start my third decade of life.

― monster_xero, Saturday, 12 November 2016 06:52 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hate to be the bearer of bad news but

Dude has no friends beyond his inner circle, who else is he going to pick?

To paraphrase myself: can we have somebody, anybody besides alt-right redditors flood this form, please?

OK so can "weird twitter" start flooding this please? https://apply.ptt.gov/

hoo boy

Marc Porter Magee
‏@marcportermagee

Democrats now control only 13 state legislatures (26%). If they lose 1 more they fall below the % needed to stop constitutional amendments.

https://twitter.com/marcportermagee/status/797462124788379648

amendments still require 2/3 of the senate

amendments still require 2/3 of the senate

To paraphrase myself: can we have somebody, anybody besides alt-right redditors flood this form, please?

I threw my name in the bucket. Maybe I'll get a job with the NEA before it's eliminated for good.