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

There's no contradiction between Bannon's "ideas" for massive infrastructure investment and the right-wingness of everything else if you look at it as fascism. That is what the fascists did. More and more the political fight of the moment looks like it's between neoliberal globalism and a kind of vulgar ethnic nationalism - and either way the right wing wins

guys im starting to freak the fuck out again

any stated goal to bring jobs to the US and improve the lives of working class Americans is not going to happen, and that is by design. That is not what Trump or any Republican is interested in. They are only trying to find ways to put more money in the pockets of rich people and corporations, period. If you are confused about this, you are as gullible as the people that voted for Trump.

seeing (somewhat specious) reports that huckabee will be ambassador the Israel & move the embassy to jerusalem?

bannon's comment about "it'll be as exciting as the 30s" brings up for me something i've been mulling

i've come to the conclusion that a massive portion of the electorate voted for trump because they're bored to death, full-stop. i guess i've read versions of this elsewhere, but not stated flat-out. i'd like to see studies of this. like, how many ppl voted for trump not bc they especially thought he'd succeed at doing anything beneficial, but simply because it would be a kick to see what happens. something insane, and wildly entertaining, is bound to happen, no? isn't that, ultimately, the only *promise* of his campaign? isn't that the only thing anyone can count on? he even bragged about it, "i'm going to keep you in suspense."

the places where trump gained the most traction are by and large boring places, and they've become even more boring in recent decades, as Main Street has been replaced by box stores, and young people by old. terminal boredom.

to echo sarahell (iirc) upthread a bit, it's a YES AND thing. Duh I'm not saying the 39,000 other factors don't count, but this one counts for more than has been acknowledged.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/11/donald-trump-voters-pennsylvania-blue-collar-214466

“I can take you out there,” he said, nodding in the direction of the factory floor, “and introduce you to my black friends. I’ve called them the N-word, and they’ve called me the N-word. It’s reality.”

He asked me if anybody had ever called me that. I’m 39 and white. I told him no. He seemed surprised. “You ever heard them on a rap song?”

I was not expecting our conversation to have gone this way, and my facial expression must have suggested as much. Byich tried again.

“Ever pick up a dictionary?” he said. “Read the definition of a N-word. It’s an object that does work for another thing. Google it.”

So I Googled the word, and up onto my screen popped the definition: “Noun. Offensive. A contemptuous term for a black or dark-skinned person.” I slid my phone across the table.

Byich put on his industrial-strength safety glasses.

“Really?” he said. “Are you serious?”

any stated goal to bring jobs to the US and improve the lives of working class Americans is not going to happen, and that is by design. That is not what Trump or any Republican is interested in.

Just to say - yeah I wasn't taken in by it/don't think anyone itt is taken in.

There is an opportunity here though right, where the big claim to make all these jobs ends up in total failure? If the people who voted Trump aren't any richer or any better employed at the end of his term?

any stated goal to bring jobs to the US and improve the lives of working class Americans is not going to happen, and that is by design. That is not what Trump or any Republican is interested in. They are only trying to find ways to put more money in the pockets of rich people and corporations, period. If you are confused about this, you are as gullible as the people that voted for Trump.

― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Friday, November 18, 2016 3:38 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark

idk - it seems trump/bannon's brand of economic populism is at odds with the GOP. it's a puzzle to me how they're going to push through both tax cuts (favored by GOP) and large scale infrastructure (favored by bannon).

He also has this major plan for returning offshore income to this country. I'm not entirely sure how that works.

― sarahell, Friday, November 18, 2016 8:33 PM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is a scam. it basically is amnesty for tax evasion.. just pay the corruption tax and all is forgiven. and yeah this is what I was referring to upthread about shit schumer is totally into.

any stated goal to bring jobs to the US and improve the lives of working class Americans is not going to happen, and that is by design.

I think they want to bring jobs to the US, the issue is whether those jobs will be permanent or temporary (like the infrastructure plan which does refer to the New Deal, but also to Hitler's hearts and minds strategy). Will they have a secondary goal of dismantling unions? Will the generous profit margins these contracts would give be earmarked for Trump cronies or will there be a fair bidding process? Will the processes for these infrastructure developments lead to test cases that will dismantle legal protections that have been in place for half a century or more? I feel like your oversimplification is ignoring how much more insidious this is capable of being.

xxp

they are not at all at odds, they are complementary. Here's how Vox describes Trump's infrastructure plan:

What Trump has right now is an idiosyncratic proposal for Congress to offer some $137 billion in tax breaks to private investors who want to finance toll roads, toll bridges, or other projects that generate their own revenue streams. But this private financing scheme, experts across the political spectrum say, wouldn’t address many of America’s most pressing infrastructure needs — like repairing existing roads or replacing leaky water mains in poorer communities like Flint. It’s a narrow, inadequate policy.

Yeah. Reading about Trump's various horrifying appointments, it seems pretty clear that they're all anti-union, anti-regulation. Without unions and regulations you can't stop the global market dictating whether a steel mill in a given town stays open or shuts down? So I'm trying to parse what this new infrastructure build (with none of these protections in place) would actually look like.

Industry is given freedom so long as they serve the volk?

xp milo - ja wohl

holy fuckin shit @ that politico story

this is a scam. it basically is amnesty for tax evasion.. just pay the corruption tax and all is forgiven. and yeah this is what I was referring to upthread about shit schumer is totally into.

― carthago delenda est (mayor jingleberries), Friday, November 18, 2016 12:49 PM (four minutes ago)

my surface impression is that they would pay a modest penalty, that's like pennies on the dollar. On the other hand, would they have paid anything under current law?

moodles - those are tax breaks for developers, not the wholesale rewriting of the federal income tax code and the corporate tax code for individuals that the GOP wants

how many online petitions do ppl feel like signing

http://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/stop_sessions/?aktmid=tm2855373.s2oBvE&t=1&source=conf

also that whitehouse.gov appoint Garland petition hit its goal so now let's gird ourselves for the "thanks but nah" answer

Donald Trump Agrees to Pay $25 Million in Trump University Settlement
By STEVE EDER

Donald J. Trump has reversed course and agreed to pay $25 million to settle a series of lawsuits stemming from his defunct for-profit education venture, Trump University, finally putting to rest fraud allegations by former students, which have dogged him for years and hampered his presidential campaign.

The settlement was announced by the New York attorney general on Friday, just 10 days before one of the cases, a federal class-action lawsuit in San Diego, was set to be heard by a jury. The deal, if approved, averts a potentially embarrassing and highly unusual predicament: a president-elect on trial, and possibly even taking the stand in his own defense, while scrambling to build his incoming administration.

It was a remarkable concession from a real estate mogul who derides legal settlements and has mocked fellow businessmen who agree to them....

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/us/politics/trump-university.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/us/politics/trump-university.html
Donald Trump Agrees to Pay $25 Million in Trump University Settlement

haha

does this surprise anybody

"I don't settle"

he's settled tons of times

well that's why he said that

ha yes

@becket
Trump is driving to New Jersey and Lincoln Tunnel is shut down for his motorcade at 5 p.m. on a Friday.

this guy

Quick question for people: does calling Congress and signing petitions accomplish anything substantial, or is it mostly a means to blow off steam? Like, does anyone but Trump have the power to rescind the offer to Bannon? Sessions? Etc? What is the hope in writing letters and leaving messages?

Bannon no, but Sessions needs congressional approval

sorry, senate not all congress

But what does calling achieve? He is already a senator, he already has a history of being rebuked for racial insensitivity. Why would they change their mind now?

Meanwhile, Vince Neil signed up to play the inauguration. This is like the ultimate snobs versus slobs comedy, except not funny.

axl rose denounced jeff sessions

https://twitter.com/SalenaZito/status/799732646695686144

dem senator joe manchin says he supports sessions

see you back home in 2018, fucknut

https://www.apnews.com/f286ef2e25a8413aad2bf99cbfee528a/Key-lawmaker:-Trump-favors-privatizing-air-traffic-control

senators are always gonna protect their own, plus manchin is up for re-election in 2 years in what is iirc the reddest state in the country (at least in terms of presidential voting)

Trump is driving to New Jersey and Lincoln Tunnel is shut down for his motorcade at 5 p.m. on a Friday.

Christie: This fuckin' guy...

one upside to appointing a bunch of senators to these posts is there's a chance we could steal a seat in the special elections that follow their appointments

Quick question for people: does calling Congress and signing petitions accomplish anything substantial, or is it mostly a means to blow off steam?

calling congress - definitely, those ppl listen to their constituents
signing petitions - eh, who knows and I kind of doubt it otoh it is super-easy so why not, what do I have to lose

But calling someone who is not my congressman, in another state ... ?

Sessions and Pompeo will both get confirmed (unless someone filibusters Sessions, which I guess is possible but idk who it would be - not Ted Cruz lol)

But calling someone who is not my congressman, in another state ... ?

this accomplishes nothing, unless they are the Majority/Minority Leader of their party, in which case they have broader responsibilities to the party

ie Schumer has to listen to his party on some level, or he will lose his leadership position (as he should, imo because he is worse than useless)

https://www.buzzfeed.com/coralewis/unions-saw-trump-winning?utm_term=.jvAgxjn2X#.kbjpP7kYO

"
Scott Goldsmith for Politico Magazine
THE FRIDAY COVER
What Trump Voters Want Now
The blue-collar workers who put Donald Trump in the White House are ready for him to deliver. How much time will they give him?
By MICHAEL KRUSE November 18, 2016
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JOHNSTOWN, Pa.—The night of the election, in this dying little city stuck in the hills of mostly rural, depressed western Pennsylvania, Joey Del Signore dozed off in his recliner. The 60-year-old catering company owner and lifelong resident woke up around 3 a.m., opened his eyes and focused on the words stripped across his television screen: President Donald Trump. “My dream come true,” Del Signore said the other day.

In Portage, 20 miles outside of town, Pam Schilling, 59, a retired grocery store meat wrapper whose son died in April of a heroin overdose, sat in her living room, alone except for her tiny Yorkie named Rudy, glued to the news. She stayed up all night. “I was so excited,” she said.

And at his house half an hour north, Tim Byich, a 57-year-old technician and manager at a manufacturing plant, watched the coverage “like it was a football game,” he said, wired by the surprise reversal and a few too many Genesee Lights. “I got toasted,” he admitted.

They had earned the right to celebrate. There are, easy to say now, many reasons Trump won, but high on the list are people like Del Signore and Schilling and Byich. Trump’s road to the White House ran through Cambria County, where once steel and coal let people with high school educations buy houses and take vacations and lead relatively want-not middle-class lives—and where it doesn’t work that way anymore. In this Rust Belt notch, where peeling paint, vacant storefronts and the dark hulks of shuttered mills are reminders of all that’s been lost, Trump’s mantra of Make America Great Again sounded not like a ball-cap slogan but a last-ditch chance—to reverse an economic decline that has been choking this region for decades.

“Your government betrayed you, and I’m going to make it right,” Trump told a boisterous crowd at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena less than three weeks before Election Day. “Your jobs will come back under a Trump administration,” he said. “Your steel will come back,” he said. “We’re putting your miners back to work,” he said.

The people here who voted for Trump want all that. They want him to loosen environmental regulations. They want their taxes to go down and their incomes to go up. They want to see fewer drugs on their streets and more control of the Mexican border. They want him to “run the country like a business.” And they want this fast. So now comes the hard part for Trump—turning rhetoric into results. Four years ago, the largely Democratic voters in Cambria County flipped on President Obama, disgusted that he had not made good on his promise of change. What’s clear from a series of interviews with Trump supporters here is that they will turn on Trump, too, if he doesn’t deliver.

Donald Trump rallies supporters at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena in Johnstown in October 2016. | AP Photo
Donald Trump rallies supporters at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena in Johnstown in October 2016. | AP Photo
All the talk about the “white working class” creates an impression of a monolithic and homogenous base of support. But in one conversation after another, voters revealed meaningful distinctions about what issues they most want solved. Some might want a wall sturdy enough to stop the drug traffickers, but others are paying much closer attention to whether there’s a bump in the payroll at the last coal mine. And that variation—plus the urgency expressed by those who swung so passionately for Trump—suggests less a permanent bloc than an anxious and impatient coalition that could fracture as quickly as it formed. It’s only 10 days after this oft-overlooked, tucked-away part of Pennsylvania helped put Trump in the Oval Office—and the clock is ticking.

“I think you’ll start seeing improvements in six months,” Bill Polacek said in his corner office at JWF Industries, where he’s one of the owners of one of Johnstown’s last manufacturing plants.

Dave Kirsch stood in the parking lot of Himmel’s Coal Yard in Carrolltown, where he drives a truck, and expressed optimism and preached patience—not, though, that much patience. “My boss, he’s a pretty smart man,” Kirsch told me, “and he said it can’t change overnight, but he said give it six months to a year.”"

Huh

Sorry guys, this is what I meant to post

"All the talk about the “white working class” creates an impression of a monolithic and homogenous base of support. But in one conversation after another, voters revealed meaningful distinctions about what issues they most want solved. Some might want a wall sturdy enough to stop the drug traffickers, but others are paying much closer attention to whether there’s a bump in the payroll at the last coal mine. And that variation—plus the urgency expressed by those who swung so passionately for Trump—suggests less a permanent bloc than an anxious and impatient coalition that could fracture as quickly as it formed. It’s only 10 days after this oft-overlooked, tucked-away part of Pennsylvania helped put Trump in the Oval Office—and the clock is ticking.

“I think you’ll start seeing improvements in six months,” Bill Polacek said in his corner office at JWF Industries, where he’s one of the owners of one of Johnstown’s last manufacturing plants.

Dave Kirsch stood in the parking lot of Himmel’s Coal Yard in Carrolltown, where he drives a truck, and expressed optimism and preached patience—not, though, that much patience. “My boss, he’s a pretty smart man,” Kirsch told me, “and he said it can’t change overnight, but he said give it six months to a year.”"

A major market crash in 6 mos seems more likely

i wouldn't expect short term economic disaster.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/inside-the-market/market-updates/premarket-us-dollar-charges-to-14-year-high-bonds-in-full-swing/article32922878/

def expect unpredictability tho, which obv could mean disaster.

there were long-range forecasts i read a while back that expected a u.s. recession during the term of the next president (assumed at the time to be clinton). so there's that too.

While there are ways Trump is already betraying the voters who elected him, particularly with his eager embrace of lobbyists and Wall Street tycoons, when it comes to race they don’t have much to fear. Trump’s victory demonstrated the staggering power of a white nationalist appeal, and not because it drew in so many voters (let’s not forget that Hillary Clinton got more votes than Trump, by 1.4 million and rising as of the latest count). The power of that appeal can be seen in what Trump voters were willing to overlook in order to vote for the white nationalist candidate. It’s why, every time Trump said something awful or some new scandal was revealed, everyone who said “Surely his candidacy is finished now” was wrong. It’s what kept him going strong when he questioned John McCain’s service (the first thing people said would destroy him), when we learned about the scam that was Trump University, when we found out that he didn’t pay federal taxes, and when we heard him on tape bragging about sexually assaulting women and then a dozen women came forward to say that he done what he said he did.

In every case, his supporters laughed it off. Trump’s unapologetic embrace of white identity politics, coming after decades of Republicans who would only promote it through dog-whistles and implication, was so thrilling and empowering to them that there was almost nothing they couldn’t accommodate themselves to, twisting the latest controversy around in their minds until it became evidence of Trump’s virtue.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/11/18/when-you-elect-a-white-nationalist-president-you-get-a-white-nationalist-presidency/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-c%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.a90cfe1abade