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

not sure if this article has been posted but i know a number of you have said the same thing: https://newrepublic.com/article/139245/trumps-distractions-will-provide-republican-cover-rip-apart-safety-net "Trump’s Distractions Will Provide Republican Cover to Rip Apart the Safety Net"

On a daily basis, Trump has proven able to divert media attention away from the plutocratic government he is assembling and on to a variety of shiny objects. His meetings with Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio received far more coverage, for instance, than the fact that his designated Environmental Protection Agency director worked hand in glove with polluters as Oklahoma’s attorney general. He has not tweeted about Obamacare or turning Medicare over to private insurers, but he did appoint one of the most fiercely dedicated foes of both programs to run the Department of Health and Human Services.

In 2005, when Democrats wanted the GOP’s plan to privatize Social Security to drive news coverage, Bush played into their hands. In a way, he did so consistent with the best liberal traditions of public debate. Likewise, when President Barack Obama asked Congress to pass health care reform, Congress undertook a major public legislating process, while Obama quarterbacked. He gave a prime-time health care reform address to a joint session of Congress, and participated in a televised negotiation with congressional Republicans at the Blair House—a final gesture for cross-over support—before Democrats passed it on their own.

In all likelihood, Trump isn’t going to do any of this.

And in a very intentional way, he won’t really have to. House Speaker Paul Ryan has been priming Republicans in Congress to streamline Obamacare repeal and Medicare privatization for years. Unifying control of government so Congress can set the agenda, and the president can sit back and sign bills, has been the party’s long-game for years. The difference is that instead of keeping drama at bay, the GOP president will be creating routine distractions from the hard work of crafting unpopular legislation.

For the press, the temptation will be hard to resist. Covering major legislation is grueling, complicated work that doesn’t generate a return-to-clicks in the way a Trump rally or a Trump tweet does. Many dedicated, hardworking reporters will work insane hours covering the GOP’s decision-making and legislative maneuvers, but much of that hard work will end up below the fold, where much of the public won’t see it. This will insulate the party from blowback while the process is underway, which is precisely when blowback is most needed.

i.e. trump's tweets may be reprehensible and disturbing but keep your eye on the ball re: shitty and dangerous GOP legislation

oh god, sitting through that cold was interminable when it was a president I was enthusiastic about, I can't imagine being in that environment for Trump

― ¶ (DJP), Friday, December 9, 2016 3:51 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's OK there should be plenty of hot air

Isn't part of the problem that people already don't pay attention to or understand enough the machinations of government? I mean why does this work as a "distraction" technique in the first place? Why are more people clicking the tweet story than the medicare story?

I feel like I said this somewhere before, but Trump tweets (and, by extension, any words he types or utters) only have utility as a window into the complex of mental illnesses from which he suffers. None of it represents his true intentions or reflects his actions or means a goddamn thing so, yes, focus your attention on what he actually does.

Are you all familiar with the handy acronym IOKIYAR*?

*It's OK If You're A Republican

― jane burkini (suzy), Friday, December 9, 2016 2:51 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thats some fucked up acronym algebra my dude

By that logic wouldn't most of Trump supporters also be mentally ill?

xp

I can't take credit/blame for the acronym algebra! It's been in use for 15 years.

yeah I have to look it up about every 3 months or so thanks to Balloon Juice

I was looking at it, trying to somehow make it about Steve Aoki

I feel like I said this somewhere before, but Trump tweets (and, by extension, any words he types or utters) only have utility as a window into the complex of mental illnesses from which he suffers. None of it represents his true intentions or reflects his actions or means a goddamn thing so, yes, focus your attention on what he actually does.

― The Pleasure Principal (Old Lunch), Friday, December 9, 2016 4:22 PM (thirty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, I mean all this decoding and shit, I don't want to completely write it off but at the end of the day we know who he's putting in his cabinet, we know what bills the GOP want to pass, we'll presumably be able to find out what executive orders he signs. So I'm not sure if it matters why he tweets a tweet.

i still think about the video of him talking about harambe- it's jarring because you can tell he put some critical thinking skills to work and also expresses himself coherently

In response to somebody posting a vid of Trump complaining that the cover title is not "Man of the Year:"

https://mobile.twitter.com/Mobute/status/807056385577861120

Big Xmas Jeb Lund – ‏@Mobute

everyone's going to have to get used to the fact that he is always going to use everyone else's ability to be a human being against them

https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/807050319289061376 …

http://i.imgur.com/JXW05hd.jpg

dave itzkoff has a good tweet about that one

in more evidence of his corruption, donald trump arranged to win the brian eno lookalike competition

The blue man group shifting to normal desk jobs

Josh RoginVerified account
‏@joshrogin
The rumor I heard was that Rudy fell asleep in a meeting & Trump decided he just wasn't up for the SecState travel schedule & workload.

Giuliani voluntarily withdrew. I know this because he said so. He wants to spend more time with Chris Christie.

wow at trump literally surrounding himself with dickheads

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/trump-biographer-says-stop-overestimating-him-hes-a-cross-between-a-junkie-and-a-hungry-chicken/

Maybe it will rain, and Trump ends up pulling a William Henry Harrison.

― a full playlist of presidential apocalypse jams (C. Grisso/McCain)

i would just like to point out what a profoundly, profoundly awful president john tyler was.

If you shit talk Trump on Twitter to the point where he strokes out, would that count as an assassination?

wow at trump literally surrounding himself with dickheads

― rob

if herr starr isn't nommed for a cabinet-level post i'll be deeply disappointed

Bobby Valentine floated as ambassador to Japan

as someone pointed out, at least he speaks Japanese

i would just like to point out what a profoundly, profoundly awful president john tyler was.

― increasingly bonkers (rushomancy), Friday, December 9, 2016 5:45 PM (

but executive power! Treaties annexing sovereign nations! There's a lesson in Tyler for Trump.

cia report says russia intervened to get trump elected

welp,

...

How could that be possible? What were the hacks then?

Ohhhh

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-orders-review-of-russian-hacking-during-presidential-campaign/2016/12/09/31d6b300-be2a-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_russiahack-1215p%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.318936dd2af7

I misread your post.

Yeah, glad they admit it

hopefully that link works, wapo actively pasting it on top of the one about obama calling for an inquiry

Kellyanne Conway sees no difference between Trump executive-producing a network TV show and Obama playing golf: "Presidents have a right to do things in their spare time."

She strikes me as a bad person.

CIA is good to have around so they can corroborate the stuff Josh Marshall figures out during his coffee time

the needle slipped and botoxed her conscience xp

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-cia-russia-help-trump-win-20161209-story.html

(xposts) I can't figure her out. I think she had a relatively okay reputation prior to this election, she'll occasionally say something dryly amusing, and the new SNL running joke is that she's as embarrassed by Trump as the other side is. She doesn't give any indication of that, though.

she's a garbage human being who sucks

that didn't take long to calculate

el tomboto otm

i wouldn't take the running SNL joke as proof of anything. they're giving her more credit than is due. you are correct, she is a garbage person

Kate McKinnon is an American treasure but she makes all her caricature subjects endearing, which is a problem when it comes to Kellyanne, who is a gaslighting propagandist

Do y'all know who Kellyanne Conway's husband is? If you followed the Clinton impeachment hearings, George Conway was one of Santa's elves, i.e. Paula Jones' advisor. She's married to a GOP troll/ratfucker.

WaPo not fucking around with drawing inferences:

In a secure room in the Capitol used for briefings involving classified information, administration officials broadly laid out the evidence U.S. spy agencies had collected, showing Russia’s role in cyber-intrusions in at least two states and in hacking the emails of the Democratic organizations and individuals.

And they made a case for a united, bipartisan front in response to what one official described as “the threat posed by unprecedented meddling by a foreign power in our election process.”

The Democratic leaders in the room unanimously agreed on the need to take the threat seriously. Republicans, however, were divided, with at least two GOP lawmakers reluctant to accede to the White House requests.

According to several officials, McConnell raised doubts about the underlying intelligence and made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.

McConnell’s office did not respond to a request for comment. After the election, Trump chose McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, as his nominee for transportation secretary.

Mitch McConnell is the diarrhea on the seat.

(xposts) I can't figure her out

she's a terrible person who wanted a white supremacist to win

GOP has no sense of actual patriotism