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

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.

xp thank you

Yeah the new DNC's #1 job has to be to start recruiting and campaigning at the state legislator level and below. It's really insane how thin the ranks have been allowed to get

Obama apparently plans to make this his post presidency issue

source?

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/obama-holder-redistricting-gerrymandering-229868

ty

of course that was before trump won so who knows if it still holds

A good piece on the disconnect between Democrats and the working class, from the Harvard Business Review of all places:

https://hbr.org/2016/11/what-so-many-people-dont-get-about-the-u-s-working-class

Oh no I guarantee that NDRC thing is still on like donkey kong

xp - yeah, a lot of these same points are echoed in that rural vs. urban america piece on cracked that's been making the rounds.

and in regards to that one, a lot of my friends laugh when I talk about how my mom refused to let me go to college in NYC because I would get raped and/or murdered, I'd be the next Central Park jogger or Kitty Genovese. Granted, I tell it like a joke, but realizing that many of my friends grew up in cities and that the notion of cities being dangerous places was foreign to them.

guys it was Saturday, you shoulda gotten outta the house (all day)

i saw Verhoeven's Total Recall on the big screen. not much of an escape.

fwiw I watched a documentary about the history of the Einsatzgruppen

I dropped off some knives for sharpening at dc union market

From that HBR piece

Massive funding is needed for community college programs linked with local businesses to train workers for well-paying new economy jobs. Clinton mentioned this approach, along with 600,000 other policy suggestions. She did not stress it.

Dead to rights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY5KTVA_2ys

Massive funding is needed for community college programs linked with local businesses to train workers for well-paying new economy jobs. Clinton mentioned this approach, along with 600,000 other policy suggestions. She did not stress it.

The idea that people in exurban Wisconsin would have totally broken for Clinton if she'd only said more about her plan to increase federal funding for community college-based job training is beyond ridiculous.

What if she said it was only for white people?

The questions reflect what Mr. Trump’s advisers described as the president-elect’s coming to grips with the fact that his life is about to change radically. They say that Mr. Trump, who was shocked when he won the election, might spend most of the week in Washington, much like members of Congress, and return to Trump Tower or his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., or his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach on weekends.

god how is this real

A good piece on the disconnect between Democrats and the working class, from the Harvard Business Review of all places:

https://hbr.org/2016/11/what-so-many-people-dont-get-about-the-u-s-working-class

― o. nate, Saturday, November 12, 2016 6:42 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

good article

the next four years are gonna be spectacular http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/first-read-what-we-got-wrong-n681956

gah, wrong link: http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-gov-transition-website-plugs-firm-s-properties-n682401