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

I had a dream about a news story featuring the pictures of Trump's cabinet appointments, which included both Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope and which seems both horrifically on-the-nose but also way off the mark inasmuch as they, unlike most of Trump's cronies, have in the past demonstrated some intellectual curiosity re: magnets and what have you.

"A woman and an openly gay man...but it's Sarah Palin and Milo Yiannopoulos" #thefrogurtisalsocursed

I've mentioned previously my friend/co-worker (whose office is next door to mine) who went from Berniebro to Steinbro, and even the day before the election was posting pro-Green stuff and saying "Vote your conscience, don't let them scare you into thinking Trump can win."

Since last Tuesday he's been posting on FB every critical story about Trump he can find, and just posted the Deadspin piece about Trump's unprepared transition team with this note:

It's all happening... Trump doesn't really want to do the work. He just wants the status. Funny that they're trying now to see how much power they can legally give Mike Pence. And man, that is bad news for the country.
If you're gay, that dude literally wants to arrest you for applying for a marriage license. You may not agree with gay marriage, but that is scary. And a vote for Trump was indifference to these sorts of things, even though you might not be a bad person yourself.

It's all I can do, literally, to keep from getting up from my desk, opening my office door, walking into the hall, opening his office door and beating him to death.

I admire your self-restraint

v progressive of you

I LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU, MORBZ

This Kurt Eichenwald piece in Newsweek is quite something.

On Friday, I almost assaulted a fan of my work. I was in the Philadelphia International Airport, and a man who recognized me from one of my appearances on a television news show approached. He thanked me for the investigative reporting I had done about Donald Trump before the election, expressed his outrage that the Republican nominee had won, and then told me quite gruffly, “Get back to work.” Something about his arrogance struck me, so I asked, “Who did you vote for?”

He replied, “Well, Stein, but…” I interrupted him, and said, “You’re lucky it’s illegal for me to punch you in the face.” Then, after telling him to have sex with himself—but with a much cruder term—I turned and walked away.

A certain kind of liberal makes me sick. They traffic in false equivalencies, always pretending that both nominees are the same, justifying their apathy and not voting or preening about their narcissistic purity as they cast their ballot for a person they know cannot win. I have no problem with anyone who voted for Trump, because they wanted a Trump presidency. I have an enormous problem with anyone who voted for Trump or Stein or Johnson—or who didn’t vote at all—and who now expresses horror about the outcome of this election. If you don’t like the consequences of your own actions, shut the hell up.

"i want to beat people to the left of me to death, but i have restraint" -- sincerely, a very good liberal

yeah, both you blamesters are still disgusting Dem hacks.

http://reason.com/blog/2016/11/09/gary-johnson-jill-stein-voters-clinton

"people who wanted trump on the other hand, we're brahs"

Morbs now repping for Koch Bros Media, awesome

I have no problem with anyone who voted for Trump
I have no problem with anyone who voted for Trump
I have no problem with anyone who voted for Trump
I have no problem with anyone who voted for Trump
I have no problem with anyone who voted for Trump
I have no problem with anyone who voted for Trump
I have no problem with anyone who voted for Trump
I have no problem with anyone who voted for Trump

congrats on knowing who owns everything, pd, it's a full life. now go beat some idealists to death.

“You’re lucky it’s illegal for me to punch you in the face.”

Putin on the Hitz

I thought you were banned, you tedious fuckhole.

when do we get to find out how many people wrote in Harambe?

Coming from someone who not only knows the name of Chelsea Clinton's husband but what he does for a living, that's rich.

I think there's an errant comma in that Eichenwald piece, not that it makes it better. It should probably read: I have no problem with anyone who voted for Trump because they wanted a Trump presidency. Otherwise the next sentence makes no sense, since it begins, "I have an enormous problem with anyone who voted for Trump or Stein or Johnson . . ."

Yeah seems he means strictly in context of being upset at the outcome.

someone who not only knows the name of Chelsea Clinton's husband but what he does for a living

i dont remember that toad's name. i'm sure you've congealed every anti-Clinton poster into one

Eichenwald is possibly my least favorite person in media right now outside of the actual right wing.

He seems exceedingly stupid and craven, even for a mushy centrist.

Later I'll find the tweetstorm about how his "tech people" told him it was "not possible" for 600,000 emails to be stored on one laptop.

speaking of hysterical people, arthur chu has now taken to retweeting peter daou. think it's time to unfollow

Peter Daou literally tweeted that it's not the campaign's job to convince people to vote.

i managed to get blocked by arthur chu without ever interacting with him. still not entirely sure what his deal is

lol me too

Eichenwald deleted at least some of the tweets about how laptops can't possibly store that many emails locally. https://twitter.com/kurteichenwald/status/795411365569658880

I mean the guy wrote The Informant. He has connections at the FBI, clearly. He's just an imbecile.

the posts of his i've seen read like a living satire of performative liberalism

I like the cut of this Merkley fellow's job: https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/press-releases/merkley-denounces-appointment-of-white-nationalist-to-top-white-house-post

*jib

I was out to dinner with a friend last night. She has a cousin who voted Trump, and her cousin has been crowing about his victory. The thing is, her cousin entered this country as a child illegally. She knows it, her cousin knows it, but she instead just chose to unfriend her rather than out her. My friend (who is Filipino) also has family in Oklahoma, with two mixed race nephews. Her sister voted Clinton, her brother in law went not-Trump, but she still plans to not visit them for years because she is afraid to travel to a place that, last she visited, was so dense with Trump signs it scared her. Her father, meanwhile, in Michigan, a person of color and a doctor, voted Trump. She's not sure she can ever forgive him.

Another old friend of mine is married to a first generation Chinese wife. My friend grew up in Maine, with conservative parents. His mother didn't vote for president, but his father ... he doesn't know. He and his wife had to have a conversation about how or whether they wanted to raise their kids in his presence. He and his dad are pretty close and in constant communication, but the last time he heard from his dad he texted back "look, I don't know who you voted for but if it was Trump, please don't tell me." Silence. He didn't hear anything back. Eventually he realized he ... hurt his dad's feelings. The best solution he can think of right now is to tell his dad, look, my wife is Chinese, my kids are half Chinese. I don't think you're racist, but if you don't constantly affirm that opinion by fighting against all the racist shit Trump has said and done and will no doubt do, then I will assume you are racist and that I don't want you around my family.

This shit is real.

yeah Merkely's emerging as an actual opposition voice, also re the supreme court

Arthus Chu has been outspoken against harassment, and probably uses blocking lists, so if you ironically follow gamergaters or trumpkins, or follow the harassment left, he blocks you.

For a lot of identity activists, I'd wager something like 90% of first interactions on twitter is harassment, so I don't think anyone can blame them for using strong and wide blocking mechanisms, even when it hits people with no bad intentions.

"the harassment left" holy fucking shit

actual nazi memes and criticism of any kind are pretty much the same thing

Well, if you've never heard that term before, you probably don't follow people like Arthur Chu to begin with, lol.

i think some kind of civil war within the left-liberal world is inevitable. it's a shitty time to do it but i don't think it's possible not to. there's just no agreement yet on what went wrong and who's responsible. there may never be, idk.

i was never much of a bernie supporter but it seems crystal clear to me that the hillary crowed badly misread what was going on (so did a lot of people) but also failed in the most basic political duties of running a democratic presidential campaign. they all have to go. your peter daou types are not going to engage in any kind of self-criticism, are they?

this is alongside any effort to build or strengthen structures to protect the vulnerable and resist what's coming. i'm not very politically involved on a personal level (beyond being a news addict) but i think we all need to start thinking about this stuff.

on a personal and aesthetic level, for fuck's sake all of this security blanket pop culture sharable celebrity meme liberalism has to stop immediately. peace to kate mckinnon but even just the screenshots of her-hillary singing leonard cohen were sickening; couldn't bring myself to watch it. lena dunham harry potter khaleesi yaass kween jedi rebellion, all that shit is so hollowed out and dead. (but yeah i still have plenty of time for chapelle so mileage varies doesn't it)

peace to kate mckinnon but even just the screenshots of her-hillary singing leonard cohen were sickening; couldn't bring myself to watch it.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ i just can't

yeah, that was some serious bathos

I'll never watch SNL again myself

idk if consensus about what went wrong/who's responsible is necessary - what's necessary is immediately moving forward towards shared goals, ie pressuring Dems not to cave/compromise on anything, support the mounting of legal challenges to GOP agenda, grassroots support of community institutions, local Dem candidates, and charitable organizations/lobbying groups

xp

*applause* xxxp

i watched it to affirm my certainty that the Clintonmachine lives on sufficiently to run Cuomo in 2020.

(not because of the McKinnon thing, but because they aided and abetted Trump and should not be forgiven for it)

xp

the election was decided by a 1% margin, so everything that could conceivably be responsible *is* responsible

I don't think the left will actually have much in-fighting in the near future. we have more to agree on when we're the opposition. plus bernie and warren are legitimate figureheads in the party now, not part of the fringe.

xps

Chappelle was still alright overall. Wish he hadn't thrown in the bullshit at the end about giving Trump a chance.

Speaking of tax break, whatever I get from Trump's tax plan is getting evenly split between my family's emergency leave america fund and donations to anti-Trump/GOP causes.

yeah Warren and Sanders are clearly going to be leaders moving forward

xp

i followed chu during gg because he kept track of all the interlocking controversies happening in nerdworld. but then his politics started to show as sort of one-note so i stopped. defense of thatcher on feminist grounds might have been the last straw. i just checked and i am blocked. i think following any of the chapo set is enough.

a lot of the online left is v rude it's true but we have to start looking to people who see things clearly. you have to be able to draw a distinction between people who, say, tweet someone like jill filipovic "feminism is cancer, the rope is coming" and someone who says "you are a rich tourist with bad ideas"

yeah, I mean maybe they take so much of it that they feel a little thin-skinned about randos criticizing them online, but, you know, it's twitter!

in lieu of presents this year (and because I am broke and have no money of my own to donate) we are going to request that our family members make donations in our name to either the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, NRDC, Southern Poverty Law Center, or MALDEF.

I did sign up to give an (admittedly tiny - but it was what they asked for) monthly amount to moveon.org for the first time

xp

"identity activists" is a really dumb turn-of-phrases and i'm pretty glad i haven't encountered it before now.