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

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"

They’re angry, arrogant, screaming “you LOST!”

finally, common ground

and they would also have to deal with lower turnout

we have to work to ensure this is not the case

It would be lovely if Trump's cabinet of deporables convinced him not to work with anyone outside of their little hateful circle. Seal yourself up in a little bunker for four years, fuckers. We'll break off the handle.

Like a lot of folks I'm pretty depressed and fearful about this, but I am also concerned that some of the rhetoric coming out of this mood is a potential tactical error. Lots of talk of Hitler and Stalin and nuclear war and never having an election again: I get it, I get where it's coming from. But it does sort of hand rhetorical ammunition to the Trump reelection campaign, in that all he has to do to prove it false is not be actual Hitler. Then his side has the talking point "they said we were Hitler, and look, we're not herding millions of people into gas chambers, so they lie and they suck and why should you trust their dire predictions any more."

worked for obama

agree that there's some OTT shit happening right now but the left is essentially traumatized/going through the grief cycle right now.

I do think this level of terror can be leveraged into motivating voter turnout in the midterms - as Karl's post implies, this worked for the GOP, there's no reason it shouldn't work for us.

hey look our next attorney general

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jeff-sessions-racist-comments-derailed-federal-judgeship

Sessions denied being racist, the New Republic reported, and defended himself by citing his children's attendance at integrated schools as well as multiple occasions when he shared a hotel room with a black lawyer.

slashfic waiting to happen tbh

Just sayin, there's plenty to be said about the actual horrible words and actions of these garbage people. And I'm sure they'll keep giving us more to say.

I'm wary (and weary) of the Hitler analogies too. I understand its therapeutic value, but we can't fall into the trap of OMIGOD GUESS WHAT TRUMP SAID TODAY like we did when Bush was president. Two-term presidents have no problem being underrated (Ike, Reagan, Bush II), no problem having their syntax corrected because the press can follow only one story at a time, and a malapropism will get more hits than Trump eliminating COBRA.

I do think this level of terror can be leveraged into motivating voter turnout in the midterms - as Karl's post implies, this worked for the GOP, there's no reason it shouldn't work for us.

oh, i didn't mean to imply that. it was a poorly formed post but i was just noting that the rightwing apocalyptic fantasies were NOT enough to take down obama, at least not in 2012. i suppose there's an argument to be made that they were the beginnings of trumpism and that they paralyzed obama's administration and led to this current moment. one key difference though is that the amount of complete bullshit on the right seems to overwhelm the what is produced on the left, and that from 2008-16 the right developed an alternate universe of media to take advantage of that. there's no doubt there's a bubble that exists on both the left and right, but the rightwing one, at least in my lifetime, has always been the much bigger and terrifying one.

the trump lines people can't believe are not "malapropisms"

agree that facebook liberalism doesn't work

agree the nuclear war stuff (the chosen and already almost-shed fear of srs media adults) is an error because to me it seems the least likely of the various utterly bleak forecasts which range imo up to the actually certain

hitler has never been a good comparison but trump and his circle are a genuine and aggressive threat to american democracy in a way not at all mitigated by remembering that nixon or jackson were too (to incarnations of american democracy with sturdier bones)

all this stuff about how the presidency's gonna be brought to a halt when trump realizes how hard the job is and how much reading it requires is written by people who have apparently forgotten not only reagan but dubya

I'm wary (and weary) of the Hitler analogies too. I understand its therapeutic value, but we can't fall into the trap of OMIGOD GUESS WHAT TRUMP SAID TODAY like we did when Bush was president. Two-term presidents have no problem being underrated (Ike, Reagan, Bush II), no problem having their syntax corrected because the press can follow only one story at a time, and a malapropism will get more hits than Trump eliminating COBRA.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 15 November 2016 16:47 (eighteen minutes ago) Permalink

Think I said almost exactly this upthread. Hi five

agreed on all that. Trump's general disengagement and incompetence will be terrible because it will enable those within his party who actually know how to write bills/pass legislation

also in the admittedly sprawling and unexclusive pantheon of objects of overreaching hitler analogies trump can at least boast the enthusiastic endorsement of the world's nazis

A new horrifying thought every hour. The latest: will James O'Keefe have a role in the White House?

at this point i've gone through full preemptive kubler-ross over every potential appointee -- except milo

all this stuff about how the presidency's gonna be brought to a halt when trump realizes how hard the job is and how much reading it requires is written by people who have apparently forgotten not only reagan but dubya

― difficult listening hour, Tuesday, November 15, 2016 12:04 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark

i guess my hope here is that having the anti-GOP bannon in his ear constantly may help foment discord

One fleeting pleasure is seeing Trump fuck over Chris Christie.

I'm wary (and weary) of the Hitler analogies too. I understand its therapeutic value, but we can't fall into the trap of OMIGOD GUESS WHAT TRUMP SAID TODAY like we did when Bush was president. Two-term presidents have no problem being underrated (Ike, Reagan, Bush II), no problem having their syntax corrected because the press can follow only one story at a time, and a malapropism will get more hits than Trump eliminating COBRA.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

I've been guilty of making some references to 1930's Germany this past week. They're problematic, always, but hardly therapeutic (at least for me). For me it's more about being vigilant, and an attempted antidote to some of the normalization that's taking place. But I agree, these references come at a price.

Dems should def strategize to encourage GOP in-fighting. they are hardly a unified front, and the level of general incompetence combined with huge egos/lust for power means there could be a lot of internal blood-letting - which would be to our advantage in terms of stopping items of their agenda.

xp

at this point i've gone through full preemptive kubler-ross over every potential appointee -- except milo

― difficult listening hour, Tuesday, November 15, 2016 11:11 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Have you done Michael Cohen as AG yet?

One fleeting pleasure is seeing Trump fuck over Chris Christie.

― dinnerboat, Tuesday, November 15, 2016 12:13 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he knows how to humiliate people, that's for sure

lol no but i have done "seeing michael cohen at all ever again" and that was all i really needed

i guess my hope here is that having the anti-GOP bannon in his ear constantly may help foment discord

reagan's staff was a high-turnover (+ high-stakes because the president was so influencable) competition between GOP types and the randian ideologues reagan brought w him from cali -- was imagining trump's admin would be similar (w white supremacists for randian ideologues, and, uh, randian ideologues for GOP types) but i guess it's gonna be starting out, at least, pretty heavy on the breitbartists?

wh has all the makings of a toxic workplace atm

"Morning" Joe has already started with the Baker vs Californians analogies.

xpost

ouch

Trump's problem is he's got no Mike Deaver

Ben Carson turned down an open offer to take an official role in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, The Hill reported Tuesday.

Carson ally Armstrong Williams told the Hill that the retired pediatric neurosurgeon would serve only as an unofficial adviser. Fox News confirmed the report.

While Carson was floated as a possible appointee to oversee the Department of Health and Human Services or the Department of Education, Williams said he never received a formal offer for either post.

"Dr. Carson was never offered a specific position, but everything was open to him," Williams told The Hill.

"Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience, he's never run a federal agency,” he went on. “The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency."

HE JUST RAN FOR PRESIDENT

loool

That's disappointing. Carson as secretary of education would have been a lot funnier than four years of drumpf jokes.

is anyone familiar with Virginia Heffernan? this is maniacal

http://www.lennyletter.com/politics/a613/hillary-clinton-is-more-than-a-president/

When people told me they hated Hillary Clinton or (far worse) that they were "not fans," I wish I had said in no uncertain terms: "I love Hillary Clinton. I am in awe of her. I am set free by her. She will be the finest world leader our galaxy has ever seen."

I wish, in those exchanges, I had not asked gentle, tolerant questions about a hater's ridiculous allergy to her, or Clinton's fictional misdeeds and imagined character flaws. More deeply still, I wish I had not reasoned with anyone, patiently countered their ludicrous emotionalism and psychologically disturbed theories. I wish I had said, flatly, "I love her." As if I had been asked about my mother or daughter. No defensiveness or polemics; not dignifying the crazy allegations with so much as a Snopes link.

...

I want to reverse the usual schedule of things, then. We don't have to wait until she dies to act. Hillary Clinton's name belongs on ships, and airports, and tattoos. She deserves straight-up hagiographies and a sold-out Broadway show called RODHAM. Yes, this cultural canonization is going to come after the chronic, constant, nonstop "On the other hand" sexist hedging around her legacy. But such is the courage of Hillary Clinton and her supporters; we reverse patriarchal orders. Maybe she is more than a president. Maybe she is an idea, a world-historical heroine, light itself. The presidency is too small for her. She belongs to a much more elite class of Americans, the more-than-presidents. Neil Armstrong, Martin Luther King Jr., Alexander Fucking Hamilton.

Hillary Clinton did everything right in this campaign, and she won more votes than her opponent did. She won. She cannot be faulted, criticized, or analyzed for even one more second. Instead, she will be decorated as an epochal heroine far too extraordinary to be contained by the mere White House. Let that revolting president-elect be Millard Fillmore or Herbert Hoover or whatever. Hillary is Athena.

Alexander Fucking Hamilton

there it is

Obama said in 2007 that his "number one ambition" was "to be remembered as the new century's Milliard Fillmore" iirc

would fund a kickstater, tbh.

lol

yeah, let's deify the woman who voted for the iraq war and then bungled an utterly winnable presidential campaign that allowed donald trump to become the leader of the free world, great idea

honestly the one silver lining to this past week has been the knowledge that clinton people are eating shit right now

I wish she had won (duh) but yeah I am not going to mourn the passing of the Clinton family's power

it took the Trump administration one week to begin a stalinesque purge.

Remember when it was going to be Bush vs. Clinton and we all groaned?

for all my alarmism "stalinesque"'s a bit of a lol there, call me when they shoot christie in the brainstem

what's their problem with christie? is he just the weak man at the moment? i mean, lol of course, but i don't really get it.

Over the last week, two of the world’s biggest internet companies have faced mounting criticism over how fake news on their sites may have influenced the presidential election’s outcome.

On Monday, those companies responded by making it clear that they would not tolerate such misinformation by taking pointed aim at fake news sites’ revenue sources.

Google kicked off the action on Monday afternoon when the Silicon Valley search giant said it would ban websites that peddle fake news from using its online advertising service. Hours later, Facebook, the social network, updated the language in its Facebook Audience Network policy, which already says it will not display ads in sites that show misleading or illegal content, to include fake news sites.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/technology/google-will-ban-websites-that-host-fake-news-from-using-its-ad-service.html

so courageous for them to take this principled stand a week after the election, after being confronted about it from all angles

I heard the pope endorsed trump

Eerie parallels to the Masha Gessen NYRB piece:

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/217831/what-to-do-about-trump

I like the closing paragraph a lot, though.

When the levers of power are seized by the small hands of hateful men, you work hard, you stand with those who are most vulnerable, and you don’t give up until it’s morning again. The rest is commentary.

Darn right.