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

yeah. this election felt a little bit like having a relative who just got a liver transplant take up drinking again.

Xpost 4-8 years? Try, like, 10-14, so the next guy takes the fall, and Trump will probably be dead anyway.

A bit off topic, but this is what we're up against (I don't think the edit distorts too much):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnaSvvSqY-8

The most vulgar, godless character to win a major party's nomination in several lifetimes, and here he's being treated as the hand of Jesus. There's an alternate reality out there, and there's no way any of us can effectively effectively confront it. They have their own media, their own collective delusions, and they're all members of a nihilist apocalyptic faith.

I wouldn't overestimate the size of the constituency of Jim Bakker -- it's a slice of Trumps base but it's not Trump's base.

He's a longtime televangelist con man and his current thing is selling grossly overpriced survival food.

That video is amazing though and dark as fuck.

xp: Obviously, there's quite a few groups contributing to Trump's 38% approval ratings. The kooky pentacostals, the white nationalists, the coal rollers, the diehard 'R' cheerleaders, the internet nihilists, the moneyed opportunists, etc

On a purely technical basis, how does one get through to any of these? They're immune to factual reporting, science, any emotions resembling empathy or compassion.

I don't think you need to get through to his hardcore supporters. He probably only squeaked by in this election with the help of unenthusiastic supporters who either disliked Clinton more or just didn't know much. Those are the only ones I'd bother trying to reach.

Right. The Christianists, the white supremacists, the money men, the anti-environmentalists .... those people weren't voting for Obama either. There are a lot of pretty normal people who are not locked in a crazed epistemic loop who voted for Trump and who next time will be perfectly open for voting for somebody else.

That WaPo article was a fantastic read-

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-white-flight-of-derek-black/2016/10/15/ed5f906a-8f3b-11e6-a6a3-d50061aa9fae_story.html

That is a fascinating story.

https://twitter.com/therealbradg/status/804048624615198720

wapo piece on derek black was outstanding and gave me a little hope

http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/11/president-trump-can-send-emergency-alerts-to-everyone.html

lol

I assume something none of us can foresee will happen "next"

The only real lesson from the election is one that's been in place since idk at least Reagan - the only thing that matters to the voters that decide elections is a believable illusion of authenticity.

Give Clinton credit, she tried faking it as many ways as she could come up with.

of note: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2016/11/29/another-clinton-trump-divide-high-output-america-vs-low-output-america/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=metro

5k posts in under a month and, again, I'm compelled to point out we still haven't started yet.
This is gonna get unwieldy.
Do we reboot monthly maybe?

That high vs. low output divide has been the focus of critical geographers for a while. You could read Sassen's 'Global City' now and much of it match up with current realities. It's only going to get worse, I think.

I don't really want to live in a city state though...

It seems like there has to be some opportunity to fight back economically on some level though, right? I'm a little dense in this area, but I feel there must be some way we could leverage our wits/economic advantages to fuck up the right for the next 4 years.

ya, move operations to ireland

I'll repeat: they're not drinking wine, that's a bottle of sparkling water in the wine bucket. Ugh.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 30 November 2016 17:47 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

As someone who started drinking late, and had a lot of excellent food before that, I might have to ask you to go fuck yourself here? And I suspect some of ILX's recovering alcoholics might have similar views.

I apologize. Neither is a recovering alcoholic though.

I understand that, but there is no moral imperative to drink alcohol with food?

"Who eats a meal without wine?!" is obv daft fronting but hardly offensive

Beer is ok as well, but putting sparkling water in a wine cooler? Monsters!

in the eighties this was called a "spritzer."

It was also called "gross."

While we're talking about it, on the occasion where we dine fine and get some sort of epic tasting menu, it's the alcohol that messes things up, especially for my wife. By course 15 or whatever she/we're pretty drunk, and she's already full, and adding alcohol further pumps the final price up to levels insane enough that she'd rather stick with water or even stay home. So wine with dinner? Sure. Beer, cocktails, whatever. But I can't begrudge these assholes for going with water, even if, in a sad turn of irony, they're already responsible for millions of people drinking more.

But yeah, sparkling water in a wine bucket? That's pretty lame. Fancy restaurant protocol I thought is to bring the bottled water out as needed? I don't think it's to leave the bottle on the table, at least. Maybe Trump asked, because ... he's the boss! (Cue trombone).

One of the few chuckles I've gotten over this knucklehead the last few weeks is the Office of Government Ethics apparently counter-trolling Trump via Twitter yesterday. But Trump for once has a good point. How do you practically divest of real estate, let alone real estate with your name smeared all over it? You can sell stocks and put money and other investments in a blind trust, but you can't do that with big ugly buildings.

that's not anyone's problem but his iirc

Well, yeah.

Drumpf is a lifelong teetotaller; Romney is a practicing Mormon.

I'm as critical of Bernie Sanders as anyone, but holy fuck is he otm right here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/12/01/bernie-sanders-carrier-just-showed-corporations-how-to-beat-donald-trump/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.03c09c218ebf

Trump has endangered the jobs of workers who were previously safe in the United States. Why? Because he has signaled to every corporation in America that they can threaten to offshore jobs in exchange for business-friendly tax benefits and incentives. Even corporations that weren’t thinking of offshoring jobs will most probably be re-evaluating their stance this morning. And who would pay for the high cost for tax cuts that go to the richest businessmen in America? The working class of America.

...

I said I would work with Trump if he was serious about the promises he made to members of the working class. But after running a campaign pledging to be tough on corporate America, Trump has hypocritically decided to do the exact opposite. He wants to treat corporate irresponsibility with kid gloves. The problem with our rigged economy is not that our policies have been too tough on corporations; it’s that we haven’t been tough enough.

...

If United Technologies or any other company wants to keep outsourcing decent-paying American jobs, those companies must pay an outsourcing tax equal to the amount of money it expects to save by moving factories to Mexico or other low-wage countries. They should not receive federal contracts or other forms of corporate welfare. They must pay back all of the tax breaks and other corporate welfare they have received from the federal government. And they must not be allowed to reward their executives with stock options, bonuses or golden parachutes for outsourcing jobs to low-wage countries. I will soon be introducing the Outsourcing Prevention Act, which will address exactly that.

That's the way to be a Dem economic populist, I suppose. For all the unfortunate talk he has done lately - and I still dislike a lot of what he said about identity politics, many more places than we have talked/yelled about - he walks the walk, and that's far more important.

I'm not for the record rageous about this - I'm happy to admit that being teetotal in Ireland put a considerable chip on my shoulder, though the offense appears to be Alfred's.

It's true you did equivocate about telling him to go fuck himself

in the eighties this was called a "spritzer."

It was also called "gross."

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, December 1, 2016 7:29 AM (thirty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

spritzer / on ice in new york city / isn't it a pity / you never had anything to mix with that

xp, that is true, yes.

man, we just had the big Kohler strike here where the Kohlers were sorta but not really seriously considering outsourcing a ton of factory jobs. if only they'd waited a year.

Our grad worker union election is less than a week away and the two or possibly three anti-union student organizers that exist on campus have recently taken to telling people on the fence to vote no, on the premise that there could be another, more pleasing union on the docket at some point in the next few years. To my knowledge they do not seem to have an answer to ''er, you do know that our even being permitted to have this election is due to a decision by the NLRB, which will soon be controlled by Donald Trump, right?'' But then they have not really had answers to a lot of things for ages now so I'm not really surprised.

https://twitter.com/RonWyden/status/804086396113797121

I guess the big question is whether or not the media is going to continue to let Trump have the first word instead of doing their due diligence, since as we all suspected the Carrier deal is straight garbage

the good news is that the continued booming financial success of newspapers, and the attendant swelling of the ranks of dedicated, capable investigative reporters at newsdesks across the usa, means that trump will have his feet held to the fire over every trangression, no matter how minor

Just a reminder: if you want democrats in office, support unions. Don't fall for anti-teachers-union/pro-charter-school bullshit. Norquist agrees:

https://twitter.com/GroverNorquist/status/803680084292997120

i see what you did there, gazzara

https://twitter.com/JonathanMerritt/status/804310057424928768

jesus fucking christ i want off this planet

"THE MEDIA SAID IT"

"google it"

even Fox News is calling the Carrier deal BS all the way 'round

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/11/30/hundreds-could-still-lose-jobs-at-carriers-indianapolis-plant-despite-trump-deal.html

In persuading Carrier to keep hundreds of jobs in Indiana, President-elect Donald Trump is claiming victory on behalf of factory workers whose positions were bound for Mexico. But the scant details that have emerged so far raise doubts about the extent of the victory.

By enabling Carrier's Indianapolis plant to stay open, the deal spares about 800 union workers whose jobs were going to be outsourced to Mexico, according to federal officials who were briefed by the heating and air conditioning company. This suggests that hundreds will still lose their jobs at the factory, where roughly 1,400 workers were slated to be laid off.

Also, neither Trump nor Carrier has yet to say what the workers might have to give up or precisely what threats or incentives were used to get the manufacturer to change its mind.

...

Carrier said in a statement that more than 1,000 jobs were saved, though that figure includes headquarters and engineering staff that were likely to stay in Indiana.

@iaivanova
The guy who'll be running Treasury foreclosed on a 90-yo woman's home over a 27-cent error

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-treasury-foreclosed-homes-mnuchin-232038

well at least Trump didn't get payed to make speeches at this guy's banks

well, trump said he'd run the country like a business - looks like he's committed to delivering on that promise!

While consumer advocates fight OneWest in the trenches, some inside the Beltway see a glimmer of hope in Mnuchin, an expert in mortgage bonds and structured finance. They say he has the technical know-how to fix mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a job Congress and the Obama administration have avoided.

i.e. the fix is in