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

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
Facebook
Twitter
Google +
Email
Comment
Print

MOST POPULAR
The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics
Trump's appointment of son-in-law could rest on Clinton precedent
Trump names Mike Flynn national security adviser
David Brock gathering donors to ‘kick Donald Trump’s ass’
Kanye West: If I voted, I would have voted for Trump

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

Sessions is getting confirmed. Senate courtesy.

jackoff sesh

this is like watching your house burn down in slow motion

https://twitter.com/jasonfebery/status/799273256138076160

We're going to perpetually be stunned by his principle-free hypocrisy until we acknowledge the real reason he's politically bulletproof (you know where I'm going with this)

One small amusement - the Twitter people who retweet and rush to praise the remaining NeverTrumpers but get real quiet when those people praise Sessions. The party itself is a cancer.

Not sure if this article has been linked: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/us-election/the-real-reason-donald-trump-got-elected-we-have-a-white-extremism-problem/article32817625/

Is Trump going to rule as a vicious authoritarian or will he just bullshit and equivocate over the next four years, causing harm by enacting Republican policies but nothing so wild in terms of immigration, trade policy, or the military?

probably the former

neither

He sure is appointing some scary people to his cabinet...

he will bullshit and equivocate while the ppl he appoints rule as vicious authoritarians

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/799798508673003520

The bootlicking is in full effect at the NYT between deej's link and this .

Yeah that sounds right to me too. The Reagan or Bush II method

xp

Is there any pence slashfic out there

Pence's head and face always remind me of what a latex Halloween mask of Pence would undoubtedly look like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjodxBrB9eI

I liked this

https://twitter.com/KateAurthur/status/799822616890478592

https://twitter.com/billyeichner/status/799831763425951744

this cabinet is a fucking nightmare

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/799798508673003520

The bootlicking is in full effect at the NYT between deej's link and this .

― and this section is called boner (Phil D.), Friday, November 18, 2016 10:27 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seriously? like someone said upthread, the hysteria is getting really tiresome. trump is not going to be an authoritarian. he won. we're going to have another election in 4 years. as far as pence getting booed at Hamilton, it just makes me sad

seriously? It makes you sad? Because people are uncivil?

a reality tv star w/ no political experience just got elected leader of the free world

if anything the hysteria is way, way below where it needs to be

we're going to have another election in 4 years.

the question is who will get to vote, once Trump's voter suppression experts have their way

yea even when we really try to be optimistic, is there anything we've learned about donald trump (or any of the people in his entourage) that bodes well, at all? I really don't think there is

xp to iatee

a reality tv star w/ no political experience with extremely poor self-control and an easily bruised ego, who spouts racist gibberish, while making weird hand gestures that mimic Byzantine icons.

xp no, sorry, there isn't. at this point some are looking at sheer incompetence as a mitigating factor which is, er, not comforting

lol Aimless

This is an obedience test to those who support his party. How much will his enemies within it put up?

https://storify.com/miniver/how-fascism-accumulates-power-by-testing-people

yeah that's not especially helpful or lucid

sure it's a twitter rant but the idea of testing, pushing people def resonates w/me

(the idea of Trump & co. doing so, that is)

I underestimated what Trump could get away with and how much support he'd get during the campaign, I'd rather not underestimate what he'll do now that he's got massive amounts of power.

doesn't seem like gender and/or ethnic diversity is much of a consideration in trump's staffing

seriously? like someone said upthread, the hysteria is getting really tiresome. trump is not going to be an authoritarian. he won. we're going to have another election in 4 years. as far as pence getting booed at Hamilton, it just makes me sad

For one thing idk how good your memory is but people booed the current President during his own fucking state of the union address. For another Mike Pence would happily and with a beaming smile would send half the cast and audience of Hamilton to "gay conversion therapy" so he can choke on a bag of fucking elephant dicks. Nobody in that room or on that stage owes him anything but scorn.

xp he has four white men named Mike and zero women or nonwhite people.

was this linked yet?

throughout the elections i've enjoyed reading Bouie more than anyone. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/11/the_democrats_are_already_screwing_up_the_trump_resistance.html

oh ok yeah, it was all over the place. thought i had all the messages opened.

my partner, who teaches art in NYC schools through support programs, is telling me that administrations and teachers are openly freaking the fuck out at the possibility of Trump trying to shut down the dept of education. meanwhile, kids are sensing the madness and acting out; she's seen multiple fist fights in classes. sounds dire in classrooms right now. any other teachers want to weigh in? Abbs?

it's been mentioned before, but that remnick/nyer articler is something else. this quote alone:

“In ’08, they saw me coming, but I was a guy named Barack Hussein Obama coming up against the Clinton machine, so no way! So they weren’t focussed on me, and I established a connection. Then came the stuff: Ayers and Reverend Wright and all the rest. What I’m suggesting is that the lens through which people understand politics and politicians is extraordinarily powerful. And Trump understands the new ecosystem, in which facts and truth don’t matter. You attract attention, rouse emotions, and then move on. You can surf those emotions. I’ve said it before, but if I watched Fox I wouldn’t vote for me!”

also, this is maybe where I think I might be able to be useful doing immediate volunteer work with computer classes and tutoring ESOL. Anybody supported Make the Road in the past? My experience with people engaging with them has been positive.
http://www.maketheroad.org/participate_jobs.php

there are these heartbreaking moments of realism, things you knew everyone was thinking but wondered if he thought himself. and then, alongside it, stuff like

"Obama’s final appearance, on the eve of Election Day, was at an outdoor rally next to Independence Hall, in Philadelphia, alongside Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, and the Clintons.", switchbacks into the fugue state

way down the list i'd like us to retire "leader of the free world"