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

Twitter is gonna be that dumb motherfucker's downfall, mark my words. Either his handlers have now taken a hands-off approach or he doesn't feel like he needs to listen to their advice anymore. It's just a matter of time until he tweets classified information or something equally stupid and dangerous.

The Associated Press ‏@AP 55m55 minutes ago

President-elect Donald Trump criticised after tweeting, then deleting, a nude picture of himself.

The Associated Press ‏@AP 15m20 minutes ago

America officially the first all-blind nation after accidentally viewing nude picture of president-elect Trump.

Kinda feeling like, instead of appointing Giuliani or Bolton as Secretary of State, Trump could do away with the position altogether and just have one foreign leader after another come to visit so that he can piss directly into their faces.

?????

xp

Oh, jokes. Sorry just got here.

See, we can't even tell!

So much of what transpires over the next 2-4 years is going to be decided by whether the GOP displays any backbone whatsoever in opposing the more odious efforts of Trump and his Legion of Doom. After witnessing their spineless equivocation wrt Trump's candidacy, I am not hopeful in that regard.

I'd been concerned and curious and navigated over to Google News to do a search for something that was sadly right on the front page: Trump Win A 'Public Health Crisis,' Suicide Hotline Calls Spike: Officials. So that's probably a great avenue for volunteer work if you have the stomach for it.

I have a friend who is a psychotherapist and is offering low-cost post-election counseling.

Personally, I'd have no idea what to say, and might be rather less than helpful. "Yeah it sucks for you, a person who is probably going to be fine. It's going to suck a lot more for those more vulnerable than you. The lives of the downtrodden and the marginalized were already pretty dire and they're likely to get worse. But, um, hey! Cheer up! Go for a walk or something!"

How long until Trump hires a foxy security detail and lets cameras follow them 24/7.

xpost I'm just trying to encourage people to channel their dread into something positive. Volunteer, donate, educate themselves and others about voting rights and voting registration, protest, converse with other people and try to find areas of agreement whether you're on the exact same page or not.

Here's a channel: call AND email your congressmen about Speaker Ryan's Medicare ambitions.

I had been meaning to post this, maybe it helps some people:
Concrete Suggestions in Preparation

apparently congressmen are starting to earn about it: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/details-trickling-in

How long until Trump hires a foxy security detail and lets cameras follow them 24/7.

Charlie's Angels strangely prescient

is it ok for suicide hotline counselors to recruit for the resistance

what does mike rogers stepping down mean?

Personally, I'd have no idea what to say, and might be rather less than helpful. "Yeah it sucks for you, a person who is probably going to be fine. It's going to suck a lot more for those more vulnerable than you. The lives of the downtrodden and the marginalized were already pretty dire and they're likely to get worse. But, um, hey! Cheer up! Go for a walk or something!"

Yeah. Trump is an incompetent, corrupt, unstable man if you're a minority, but he all of a sudden becomes an incredibly gifted leader and administrator without an ounce of corruption if you're white. Like magic! Just about everyone is screwed under Trump, just some more than others, unfortunately.

xp - if you bleeve this WaPo guy:

@gregpmiller
Reports that Mike Rogers pushed off Trump transition team in purge of Christie allies. Intel officials see Rogers as voice of reason.

not much to do re calling my congressman, he's about as liberal as they come:

https://twitter.com/RepJerryNadler

It was just dawning on me today how many undocumented immigrants there likely are all around me and how insane it would be if they were all deported. Queens would be a ghost borough. My wife's school would empty out. It's really horrifying.

Mike Rogers stepping down is one more post they don't have a name for, that's it.

This is going to be the longest transition ever.

hopefully this means his org will be a headless chicken and unable to coordinate with congress on anything

also looking forward to all the conflicts of interests stories that these next four years will bring http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/us/politics/donald-trump-holdings-conflict-of-interest.html

i mean:

The labor dispute in Nevada represents another potential complication. The president appoints all five members of the National Labor Relations Board. But over the past year, the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas has been in a battle with the culinary workers union, at first challenging an effort by hotel employees to unionize. The labor board ruled against him in July. Then the hotel, which Mr. Trump co-owns, refused to begin negotiations with the new union, and the labor board again ruled against it, in November. Other labor disputes with employees are pending.

“Will he as president of the United States of America use the power he has to interfere — given that he has a financial interest in the outcome of these matters?” said Bethany Khan, a spokeswoman for the 57,000-member Culinary Workers Union Local 226 of Nevada.

I briefly took some comfort in thinking that his cabinet was going to resemble the unorganized and constantly rotating clusterfuck of his campaign team but then I remembered the part where the unorganized and constantly rotating clusterfuck carried him to victory.

“Will he as president of the United States of America use the power he has to interfere — given that he has a financial interest in the outcome of these matters?” said Bethany Khan, a spokeswoman for the 57,000-member Culinary Workers Union Local 226 of Nevada.

Yes. Yes, of course he will.

He will do nothing that runs counter to his own interests and he will do as much as possible that favors his own interests. This is reflective of the first 70 years of his life and we have no reason to believe the next four years will be any different.

guys i'm starting to think trump might not make for a good president

https://newrepublic.com/article/138757/obama-warning-america-trumps-presidency-listening

some close reading of obama's comments yesterday

Even if none of the rest of our worst fears are realized over the next four years, I don't see how the US can possibly avoid a recession or worse at the absolute bare minimum.

this sums up the vibe right now

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/anti-trump-protester-knocked-down-flight-stairs-ohio-state-university

circling back to the filibuster question, I read the links posted above and yet I still can't shake the feeling that GOP senators are absolutely going to use the nuclear option. nothing they've done over the past eight years gives me any reason to strongly think otherwise. and learning that the Dems deployed the option for appointments means they already have a convenient "both sides do it" defense. obviously appointments and legislation are two different things, but the GOP knows its voters won't split those hairs (and the media will perhaps only do it half-heartedly). I see the argument that McConnell et. al wouldn't want to open this box because of what will happen when they're deposed, but I'm still not buying it. from their perspective, how often do you get a chance like this, to really have no roadblocks to passing whatever insane shit you can dream up? I hope I'm wrong but I'm just not very confident right now.

"I have a friend who is a psychotherapist and is offering low-cost post-election counseling."

My therapist hates banks and wants to move to Finland.

Cass Sunstein, ladies and germs

https://twitter.com/tinyrevolution/status/798542032016998400

also
@tinyrevolution
History & science show victory turns men into giddy testosterone monsters capable of anything. Watch for this with Trump & his personnel.

Pelosi and Reid (who won't be around much longer) don't give much cop to cooperation, thankfully.

Schumer though

for the filibuster, one consideration Republicans have to make is that they will not have a majority forever. The filibuster was their favorite tool when they were in the minority. They may not want to completely give that away.

Wouldn't getting rid of the filibuster would just clear the path to making sure they're never in the minority again.

Minus would, and it's a question

They probably imagine they can voter suppress their way to remaining a majority for the forseeable.

getting rid of the filibuster would make the next few years a real nightmare but also allows for progressive legislation that we could never dream about otherwise

which is my guess why it prob will not happen

It would be high-risk - I can't seem them winning the next presidential election, if there is a next presidential election (I am normally quite sneery about that level of alarm, but Steve Bannon is not normally the chief strategist at the White House).

what are the chances of trump mobilizing enough voters to vote in trump surrogate and trump-friendly republicans in 2018?

I think we have no idea, the most you can say is that midterms tend to go poorly for the party in charge

Obama repeatedly touted the fact that Trump will be inheriting many advantages: low unemployment, rising incomes and wages, a historically low uninsurance rate, stable financial systems, a high stock market, strong international alliances, and cheap gasoline.
Is this true? Cheap gasoline isn't a good long term goal or really short term either.

the other thing to consider is that Republicans may be less incentivized to get rid of the filibuster because Democrats are less likely to abuse it. There's no reason to assume that Democrats will take up the policy of filibustering every single bill.

I think we have no idea, the most you can say is that midterms tend to go poorly for the party in charge

― iatee, Tuesday, November 15, 2016 11:14 AM (four minutes ago) Bookmark

guess i'm thinking back to the tea party voting in a bunch of house reps a few years ago

Well:

After exchange w Trump transition team, changed my recommendation: stay away. They’re angry, arrogant, screaming “you LOST!” Will be ugly,’’ tweeted Cohen, who served from 2007 to 2009 as counselor to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He was a driving force behind an open letter last spring — eventually signed by 122 Republican national security leaders — who opposed Trump’s candidacy.

Cohen, who last week had urged career officials to serve in Trump’s administration, said in an interview that a longtime friend and senior transition team official had asked him to submit names of possible national security appointees. After he suggested several people, Cohen said, his friend emailed him back in terms he described as “very weird, very disturbing.”

“It was accusations that ‘you guys are trying to insinuate yourselves into the administration…all of YOU LOST.’…it became clear to me that they view jobs as lollipops, things you give out to good boys and girls,” said Cohen, who would not identify his friend.

Cohen also said the transition official was “completely dismissive” of concerns raised about Trump’s appointment of former Breitbart News head Stephen K. Bannon as chief White House strategist. Bannon has been denounced by advocacy groups, commentators and congressional Democrats as a proponent of racist, anti-Semitic and misogynistic views, though Trump advisers have strongly defended him.

Midterms normally go badly for the party in charge, but the senate map looks incredibly bad for democrats, and they would also have to deal with lower turnout. There's 23 dem seats, two independent seats (hi Bernie!) and only 8 republicans. Democrats in the entire midwest is up for reelection...

Dean Heller (R) in Nevada could be defeated, perhaps. The dem machine in Nevada seems like a model to follow. Other than that, it looks bleak, though.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-transition-shake-part-stalinesque-purge-christie-loyalists-n684081

"stalinesque purge"