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

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/11/15/im-the-trump-supporter-pollsters-missed/?tid=pm_opinions_pop&utm_term=.7e8e341149b0

This article is pretty good. By which I mean that through its floundering irrationality it eloquently demonstrates the exact immunity to logic that caused the Trump win. This is how a large chunk of voters who aren't entrenched with either party moves - that is, the voters who decide elections once the bases have laid down their solid, predictable, zero-sum foundations.

Dude does not sound like he would be a good hang.

BTW, it just occurred to me that maybe the floundering Team Trump stories are true, and that come January he will have only filled a fraction of the positions needed ... and then he will boast that they were not needed, and look at all the money he is already saving, because he is a smart businessman who knows how to staff a big operation.

They should RapGenius that with footnotes to all the insane shit like Obama not delivering on infrastructure and get him to respond.

How I wish we could have selected someone with Newt Gingrich’s command of the facts, Sen. Marco Rubio’s eloquence, Mike Huckabee’s character, Sen. Ted Cruz’s deep love of the Constitution, Carly Fiorina’s clarity of thought and Ben Carson’s humility and gentleness.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha fuck you dude

"Secretary of State Giuliani" or "Secretary Bolton" would've been a thing in a Christie or Rubio administration.

Steve Vai's guitar skills, Lars Ulrich's acumen, Ted Nugget's diplomacy, the guy from Jackyl's mastery of the chainsaw, Jon Bon Jovi's longevity and Kid Rock's inclusivity.

Ha, Ted Nugget. Thanks, bourbon!

"How would the person seated next to you in a New York City television studio know?"

Like the set of the Apprentice?

also, why oh why isn't her column called The Petri Dish?

― scott seward, Tuesday, November 15, 2016 6:41 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Her Twitter handle is @petridishes.

i don't feel like i have any way to predict what a trump presidency will be like. forced deportations and impulsive wars sounds outlandish, but i just watched like, 500 days of trump saying something, everyday, that should disqualify him from the presidency, and then be elected president.

Maybe it's not that he was elected president and more that no one else was elected president.

Quick question: when reports state that Trump asked that top secret briefings be given to his children and son in law, am I to read that as ... top secret briefings are being given to his children and son in law? Because if the president asks for it, can anyone tell him no? Is there any law against who the president OKs for secret briefings? Wonder how long backstage (and back-stabby) stuff starts leaking publicly. The first I saw was this today:

Prominent American allies were in the meantime scrambling to figure out how and when to contact Mr. Trump. At times, they have been patched through to him in his luxury office tower with little warning, according to a Western diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt was the first to reach Mr. Trump for such a call last Wednesday, followed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel not long afterward. But that was about 24 hours before Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain got through — a striking break from diplomatic practice given the close alliance between the United States and Britain.

the incompetence and disorganization is really grotesque

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/798721142525665280

Holy Hell!

Really motherfucker? It should be nothing but organized you shit head!

posted upthread :)

Fuck idk even know. I'm just is such a rage atm and I hate this fucker so damn much any every idiot that voted for him.

lol at "ted cruz's deep love of the constitution"

he particularly loves the 2 ply version

his go-to when he runs out of athletic socks

http://www.action-force.dk/cobra/figures/serpentor/serpentor-filecard.jpg

don't blink or you'll miss em
http://www.wsj.com/articles/intelligence-expert-mike-rogers-leaves-trump-transition-team-amid-shake-up-1479221847

should staff the cabinet with all reality stars

Trump appoints horse to Secretary of Defense

Trump appoints Norman Schwarzkopf to Secretary of Treasury

(one week later)

Trump team learns Cabinet appointees must be living, learns Schwarzkopf has been dead for 4 yrs

bahahahahaha

Fuck idk even know. I'm just is such a rage atm and I hate this fucker so damn much any every idiot that voted for him.

― (•̪●) (carne asada), Tuesday, November 15, 2016 11:02 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^

I like to imagine Trump realizing just how far out of his depth he is, panicking, and feigning a health crisis that forces him to resign, disappearing from public view swiftly thereafter, retreating to Mar-a-Lago to live out his days as a semi-invalid suffering from dementia, leaving the republic in even greater disarray but safe at least from his special brand of depredations.

the meetings have got to be a total shitshow

I finally had the talk with my mom on facetime today (she lives near Bham, Al). I had been hoping that her disdain for disgusting men like Trump would overrule her disdain for corporate elitists like Hillary enough for her to write in Ben Carson or something but the right wing talking point bubble that she lives in has fully taken hold of her. She's usually able to articulate her thoughts about things well (she's an accountant and has been known to talk my ear off about credit union profit equity laws or w/e) but when she started talking about Hillary she wasn't even forming complete sentences, just stuttering shards of talking points like a 12 year-old trying to justify why he had to throw a rock at the other kid. It was sad and disappointing and she straight up shocked me in an exchange when I asked her what Obama had done that was so horrible and she said "Obamacare" and I said "yeah, I wish we just had a socialist single-payer system" and she said "well that's what we have, a socialist system, that's why it's so expensive" and I had to use wikipedia to prove to her that all the top insurance companies are for-profit. She's usually the first to admit it when she's totally ignorant of a subject matter but when it comes to right-wing media topics she completely falls into that stupid "skeptical=smart" trap and argues for ridiculous falsehood until she says "well you believe what you believe and I believe what I believe" like there's no such thing as facts.

I dunno; I've tried to resist directly attacking people head on, and try to shift them by a few degrees at a time.

That's mainly the route that I took today. I wasn't even the one who brought up the election but she seemed compelled to defend her vote (she knows where I stand politically). I'm hoping that by asking a few non-pointed questions and rebutting them with a fact here and there I can slowly whittle away at her certainty about these foolish positions but I don't talk to her as much as local Bham morning DJs do on her commute so I'm not sure if it's wasted effort. I've tried prodding her about climate change over the years, hoping that as studies and evidence and international consensus continue to pile up she'll start to believe it's real and man-made but she still brings up that one time those scientist emails leaked about maybe skewing the results of one study.

Jeb Lund posted this fun timeline today, wondering if the fuckery would be reported on by media types with the same zeal as "the Obamacare website doesn't work!1" but wasn't holding his breath

http://i.imgur.com/2JCUAjN.jpg

Climate Change is one of those things that is a perfect storm(sorry) of falling into the cracks of human risk perception.

David Roberts writes about this kinda thing, that it won't becomes tenable for them until it slowly or quietly becomes an acceptable idea for members of consertivate tribal identity.

How long before Trump goes "You're fired" (preferably before cameras) on a cabinet member?

it's sad to have beliefs and principles and stuff

Yeah, too bad his "I'm against stupid wars" one didn't stick.

and presumably the things he taught in constitutional law class

Yeah, to hell with Obama and his stupid wars in Syria, Ukraine and Bulgaria. And what about his invasion of Barbados, huh? How stupid was that? Not to mention the war in Samoa, I mean, it'll take years to make up for that blunder. And also, we all know he orchestrated a secret invasion in Honduras, but did you know the real purpose of that was to create a bridgehead to conquer Guatemala and Belize? It's true.

The Guardian asked 10 people to read "the other side's" Facebook news feeds for a month:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/16/facebook-bias-bubble-us-election-conservative-liberal-news-feed

Warning: found it interesting but not making me feel any more hopeful about anything.

(Prob not the best thread, do we have a "media bubble" thread?)

Fred, you still are an embarrassment

"We're lucky if Trump becomes the new normal. There's no countervailing force against the direction Trump demonstrates we're heading in, so why on earth it would it get any better. Magic? I get why people want to make themselves feel better about this, but c'mon, this isn't going anywhere good.

― larry appleton"

larry, we're the countervailing force. and yes, that's fucking terrifying.

"I dunno; I've tried to resist directly attacking people head on, and try to shift them by a few degrees at a time.

― (rocketcat) 🚀🐱 👑🐟 (kingfish)"

seriously god bless anybody who has the fortitude and the patience for incrementalism. i don't. there's no polite way for me to say the things i feel like i need to say.

also, fred, morbz, get a room

"seriously god bless anybody who has the fortitude and the patience for incrementalism. i don't. there's no polite way for me to say the things i feel like i need to say."

whoops didn't c&p the second paragraph:

yes, i worry that i'm sending my friends and relatives right into the arms of steve bannon, that if i make them choose that's what they'll choose. but i'm more afraid of continuing to give people the luxury of pretending not to choose.

hey so somebody in another thread told me to shut the fuck up so i wrote an etiquette guide on the topic.

I'm kind of curious if I'm being sub-ilxed here, as that's not really what I was saying.

For advice on building Mr. Trump’s national security team, his inner circle has been relying on three hawkish current and former American officials: Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California, who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee; Peter Hoekstra, a former Republican congressman and former chairman of the Intelligence Committee; and Frank Gaffney, a Pentagon official during the Reagan administration and a founder of the Center for Security Policy.

Mr. Gaffney has long advanced baseless conspiracy theories, including that President Obama might be a closet Muslim. The Southern Poverty Law Center described him as “one of America’s most notorious Islamophobes.”

cool

she still brings up that one time those scientist emails leaked about maybe skewing the results of one study.

feel the need to point out here that the actual number of times this happened was zero

This morning I told my wife about his "Only I know the finalists!" tweet, and she laughed harder than I'd heard in days. I think that may be the secret to survival. I (we? everyone?) needs to go full "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" with this administration, because shit is going to get dark and stupid and ridiculous, but I'm going to stay relatively powerless, and I've got to be able to just laugh at it all. I'll protest, and I'll donate, and I'll stay engaged and involved, and obviously if any of his most horrid mouth shits in the tub truly float to the surface I'll be angry, but for the sake of personal sanity I have to just be able to look at the insanity of it all and recognize it for what it is. It's like getting a history book where someone has doodled dicks on ever page that animate when you flip the corners. It's bad, but you've also got to chuckle at such dedication to the wrong thing.

I mean, come on, "only I know the finalists!" That's where we're at. That's dada. That's selling gold-plated poop.

Anyway, no one answered me: does this mean that Trump's kids and whoever else he wants have the same top security clearance that he has? I assume he asked for this so that they can read things for him, but does this mean he got what he asked for and they have clearance? (gtfo Giuliani, "what else are they going to do for 4 years, be employed?" get real).

wow

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 23m23 minutes ago
Australia, New Zealand, and more. I am always available to them. @nytimes is just upset that they looked like fools in their coverage of me.
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Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 32m32 minutes ago
I have recieved and taken calls from many foreign leaders despite what the failing @nytimes said. Russia, U.K., China, Saudi Arabia, Japan,
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Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 36m36 minutes ago
The failing @nytimes story is so totally wrong on transition. It is going so smoothly. Also, I have spoken to many foreign leaders.

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Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 1h1 hour ago
I am not trying to get "top level security clearance" for my children. This was a typically false news story.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-bannon-flattered-and-coaxed-trump-on-policies-key-to-the-alt-right/2016/11/15/53c66362-ab69-11e6-a31b-4b6397e625d0_story.html

this is the worst gritty reboot of BEING THERE ever