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

I do have to wonder what motivates him -- he's rich as shit, has been a governor, and is probably never again going to be positioned to be president no matter what, so what does he get out of this? Surely he could refuse and live out his horse-dancing days in peace?

it is a pretty incredible photo

Drinking water out of wine glasses looks fucken stupid

there's your friggin' banality of evil right there too. those schmucks are gonna end the world? doesn't seem fair really.

so what does he get out of this?

he gets to go farther than his father

it's Tic Tac time

Drinking water out of wine glasses looks fucken stupid

that's no ordinary water.

that's Kona Nigari Water, served neat

Idk I think the president-elect spouting off nakedly fascist ideas about how to deal with political dissidents and enemies is seriously concerning even if it's not ''legislation'' or ''policy.'' Insert argument about normalization here. I spent a year hoping we were shifting the window leftwards on what things can be said, discussed, bandied about as viable and familiar solutions - by dads in the street, by newscasters, by sitting politicians at whatever level. Now we look ahead to a fascist turn in all areas. It will take decades to even begin to undo the damage to common understanding of what is beyond the pale in a free society. High school debate topic: okay, y'all argue ''pro'' on sending people to Gitmo for criticizing the troops. Tonight on Crossfire: felony punishment for protestors who use profanity when discussing the president, good or bad idea? Placing BLM on the terrorist watch list: well-intentioned but overreaching, or necessary evil?

Like between this and the Muslim registry idea it's just.... fuck. Obviously much of this is not exactly new (see: Patriot Act, etc etc) but these words matter and are not just a distraction from the other terrifying things Trump is doing elsewhere.

i guess the diff is people kinda liked his dad(?)

who has a non-negative opinion on mitt romney other than "eh"

idk romney taking state means Giuliani or Bolton or petraeus don't get the job which is maybe the strongest public service he's done in his career.

Idk I think the president-elect spouting off nakedly fascist ideas about how to deal with political dissidents and enemies is seriously concerning even if it's not ''legislation'' or ''policy.'' Insert argument about normalization here. I spent a year hoping we were shifting the window leftwards on what things can be said, discussed, bandied about as viable and familiar solutions - by dads in the street, by newscasters, by sitting politicians at whatever level. Now we look ahead to a fascist turn in all areas. It will take decades to even begin to undo the damage to common understanding of what is beyond the pale in a free society. High school debate topic: okay, y'all argue ''pro'' on sending people to Gitmo for criticizing the troops. Tonight on Crossfire: felony punishment for protestors who use profanity when discussing the president, good or bad idea? Placing BLM on the terrorist watch list: well-intentioned but overreaching, or necessary evil?

Like between this and the Muslim registry idea it's just.... fuck. Obviously much of this is not exactly new (see: Patriot Act, etc etc) but these words matter and are not just a distraction from the other terrifying things Trump is doing elsewhere.

― walk back to the halftime long, billy lynn, billy lynn (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, November 30, 2016 1:03 PM (twenty-eight seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i agree w/ this

its.... so fucked up

High school debate topic: okay, y'all argue ''pro'' on sending people to Gitmo for criticizing the troops. Tonight on Crossfire: felony punishment for protestors who use profanity when discussing the president, good or bad idea? Placing BLM on the terrorist watch list: well-intentioned but overreaching, or necessary evil?

tbf these all seem p much in the rich tradition of American high school debate topics, going back as far one cares to look. I'm not saying that's a good thing, and this is def a step back in the national discourse, but it's not like there's some golden age where dissent was uniformly respected and the threat of the gov't killing you was remote.

xp

Japanese internment camps, COINTELPRO, previous Muslim registry - there's precedents for all that stuff. the discourse normalizing extreme and ridiculous "solutions" is bad, no doubt, but it's not unprecedented.

Xpost photo was referred to upthread as Lynchian, and it certainly is, and then I get back from lunch and open up my newsfeed to this horrifying pic of Giuliani, which looks like Robert Blake in Lost Highway.

http://s259.photobucket.com/user/yodelagogo/media/giuliani.png.html
https://media2.giphy.com/media/2zOEcqG4EuvF6/200_s.gif

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh310/yodelagogo/giuliani_1.png

Having a president and his cronies wilfully spread confusion and paranoia via hundreds of thousands of viral "fake news" articles, however, is a new ripple in the history of American authoritarianism: it shows his naked disregard for the principles of constitutional governance.

that is a new one yeah

I'm sure Nixon would've done it if he could have

You don't need to whitewash American history to recognize that Trump's rise is a remarkably fucked up developmeng that threatens to undermine everything worth preserving in our society.

Yeah Nixon was a nefarious dirtbag. He at least felt the need to try to hide it though. Trump just makes up his own script and scorns any sort of accountability, Big Brother style

that's all true. I just don't feel compelled to spend a lot of time worrying about what he's tweeting or whatever. I don't want to be complicit in ceding power to the medium or his use of it. The sooner a skepticism about shit people see on twitter/facebook/etc. is adopted as a cultural norm the better imo. So I'll treat it as what it is: noise designed to distract.

xp

okay, that's better. thanks, internet.

https://scontent.fbed1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15253385_10210167664041750_6738994999794603389_n.jpg?oh=ecc50c6708913528a8f2202e2a0fea4f&oe=58AEF49D

https://i.imgur.com/RjNN4uu.jpg

mitt with the "i picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue" face

mitt's all like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I think Trump is doing something under the table to Mitt, the kind of thing only stars can get away with

That lighting makes it look like they're eating little stacks of gold coins.

https://twitter.com/blakehounshell/status/803821372006875137

wow, incisive tweet

Get someone who can do both

I guess legislation that has a reasonable chance of passage and ending on the president's desk for signature scares me more than our moron president sharing an opinion on Twitter.

probably would happen with any ol' Republican president though

i know we're already past it but that fucking NYT waving the white flag economics article is the worst and most depressing thing I've seen today and I saw a pigeon get run over in the street

typical mammalian bias

"I think what he's done so far shows two things. Number one: He has picked people that know how the system works and are willing to make the commitment to him and his policies to make sure the trains run on time and the train stays on the track, and I think that's very important, particularly for someone who ran as an outsider," Chambliss said.

Making sure the trains run on time, hmmmmm.

O_O

People who are completely ignorant about history, or people who are way too knowledgeable about particular aspects of history?

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--5ZCmxAme--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/qkmh7jwn0ify6wbirndk.png

(via)

lol unreal

wow, incisive tweet

― k3vin k., Wednesday, November 30, 2016 1:55 PM (forty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

How bout this one?

https://twitter.com/WalshFreedom/status/804038449300959232

I totally misread 'felicitated' as 'fellated.' I need to step away from the internet.

Mike Cernovich posted a similar tweet and then deleted it. It has of course been screenshotted and RT'd.

fellated Navidad
prospero año y felicidad

don't know why I got curious and hopped over to this dummy's blog again but my god the delusion here is so palpable

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/153865618451/the-idea-you-are-least-likely-to-believe

When Trump was running for election, facts and reasons and policy details didn’t matter to the outcome. He knew that. I knew that. Every trained persuader knew it. But the general public did not, and that is the realization that is beginning to dawn on the world.

this is just so stupid - Trump DID have "facts" and "reasons" and "policy details" but that facts were wrong, the reasons were dumb, and the policy details were impossible or completely vague, and yet this is a good thing? fuck off.

wow, that press release.

that is unbelievable.

Everything is believable now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUfgAbFY4CA

The irony would be if Trump did manage to make America great again strictly through empty flattery.

Nobody tell Trump that Pakistan is like 98% Muslim.