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

That does reflect unserious vulgarity but it doesn't project nearly enough sneering contempt imo.

i am reading nixonland right now. it is weirdly comforting
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek)

I'm hoping Perlstein is at work on a Reagan-to-Trump book.

i am reading nixonland right now. it is weirdly comforting

I'm reading the Invisible Bridge. It is, in the same way, profoundly unsettling.

My dad said verbatim, "the President is quitting his job because he lied to everyone."

God bless Dad, but this reminds me just a little of the "No president will ever lie to us again" line in the Watergate spoof Dick.

Aw man y'all are making me wish I'd asked my parents more questions about their experiences of the 60s/70s.

my folks knew people that were killed at Kent state. at the time when there was a national draft and students were shot and killed at a peaceful protest. rmde to see people freaking out over him saying dumb things on twitter or being critical of the NYT thus the world is ending.

http://crossover.bureau42.com/supeskennedy.jpg

cross-referenced from the 'real people in comic books' thread

in 2016 no innocent unarmed people are murdered by law-enforcers, of course xp

or inspired to take up arms by ludicrous fictions shared on social media

xp my dad's experience of the 60s and 70s was "being in the Army, with most of 1966-1971 in Vietnam." My mom's was "sitting on Army bases and shitty civilian apartments raising two kids." Exciting. I know that 1972 was the last time my dad ever voted for a Republican president, since doing so got him promptly sent back into combat.

altho Kasich just rejected the "heartbeat abortions" bill in Ohio

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/13/505457437/ohio-gov-kasich-signs-20-week-abortion-limit-rejects-heartbeat-bill

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, December 14, 2016 8:24 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The fact that both bills reached his desk the same day is not a coincidence. The one was presented as a distraction so he could veto it and sign the other while looking "reasonable." A 20 week ban is still complete bullshit. Kasich has signed 18 - 18!!! - anti-abortion laws during his term in office and been on the anti-PP bandwagon since day one. He's no more reasonable than any of these other fucksticks.

I'd posit that, under Trump, the likelihood that you'll be sharing your parents' experience is sadly quite high, Adam.

Comparing Kasich to Trump is meaningless at this point, especially because establishment conservatives deserve no leeway due to their apparent willingness to support Trump. (I know Kasich himself is a notable exception to this, although, importantly, not notable enough to endorse Hillary.)

But being serious, Trump is a unique threat to the Republic in ways that go far beyond policy. He is supporting all the horrible, anti-woman, anti-government stuff the Republicans always support but as a bonus he is also literally a malignant narcissist with authoritarian aims and absolutely no ability to make discerning choices when it comes to issues of national security, the environment, etc.

but is he dangerous?

Idk. I wouldn't hire him as my dogwalker.

If John Kasich wanted to be my dogwalker he might make it past the first round of interviews.

when was this chance?

it is true that life is in many (but not all) ways better for people of color, women, and queers than it was in 1974, but let's see what the future holds fight the future.

he election of Trump is a direct affront to any movement in this direction, from civil rights to the environment to education to diplomacy, the reactionary drumbeat of "anti-PC" basically an aggressive fuck you to empathy, which is key to progress. I've noted it earlier, but for all this country's faults going forward, we've really yet to go backwards.

Look at 1964 and 1968. At the height of achievement you can see the abyss below you. That's history, man. It's a bitch.

it's not a straight line, etc

are you saying that the arc of the moral universe is more of a scribble

it's more of a Mad Libs.

the arc of the moral universe bends toward Kanye

I've noted it earlier, but for all this country's faults going forward, we've really yet to go backwards.

http://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/031208/031208_reaganobit_hmedium.grid-6x2.jpg

("this facial expression" there, dragged into optimism+triumph by sheer will)

I'm one of those minorities that has benefitted from the constitutional advances of the last 20 years but, no, I don't think history evolves unceasingly.

No one answered my question about who has grounds to sue the president for violating the Emoluments Clause.

xxp DLH otm

I'm hoping Perlstein is at work on a Reagan-to-Trump book.

― clemenza, Wednesday, December 14, 2016 10:37 AM (fifty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

did you see https://washingtonspectator.org/press-trump-perlstein/ (posted previously)?

man do I love Ronnie's hair

If John Kasich wanted to be my dogwalker he might make it past the first round of interviews.

Romney wouldn't.

you're saying you don't want your dog strapped to the top of the car and driven cross country for 14 hours?

No one answered my question about who has grounds to sue the president for violating the Emoluments Clause.

It's not who has grounds, it's who has standing, and so far nobody seems to have a good answer. The prohibition of generalized grievances seems like it would apply here, so Adler's WaPo blog on the topic is probably an accurate take: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/11/21/the-emoluments-clause-is-donald-trump-violating-its-letter-or-spirit/

Whether or not one concludes that Trump’s business dealings violate the letter or the spirit of the Emoluments Clause, the underlying controversy is almost certainly non-justiciable. It is difficult to conceive of a scenario in which someone would have standing to challenge Trump’s arrangements, and even harder to think what sort of remedy could be ordered by a court. In other words, if there are concerns about how President Trump handles his various investments, the only remedies will be political.

non-justiciable, son

Didnt know that was a word

You'll probably have ample opportunity to familiarize yourself with its usage in the coming years.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/michigan-hillary-clinton-trump-232547

In results that narrow, Clinton’s loss could be attributed to any number of factors — FBI Director Jim Comey’s letter shifting late deciders, the lack of a compelling economic message, the apparent Russian hacking. But heartbroken and frustrated in-state battleground operatives worry that a lesson being missed is a simple one: Get the basics of campaigning right.

Clinton never even stopped by a United Auto Workers union hall in Michigan, though a person involved with the campaign noted bitterly that the UAW flaked on GOTV commitments in the final days, and that AFSCME never even made any, despite months of appeals.

The anecdotes are different but the narrative is the same across battlegrounds, where Democratic operatives lament a one-size-fits-all approach drawn entirely from pre-selected data — operatives spit out “the model, the model,” as they complain about it — guiding Mook’s decisions on field, television, everything else. That’s the same data operation, of course, that predicted Clinton would win the Iowa caucuses by 6 percentage points (she scraped by with two-tenths of a point), and that predicted she’d beat Bernie Sanders in Michigan (he won by 1.5 points).

yup. The story I read about the computer in the back office behind the locked door - Ada, wasn't it called? is way worse than any email server bullshit. It's bad sci-fi.

this one; https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/11/09/clintons-data-driven-campaign-relied-heavily-on-an-algorithm-named-ada-what-didnt-she-see/

You have to wonder if Clinton's health and endurance was partly also why they didn't do more of those smaller directed outreach in some states.

you don't have to, really

the fact that in the last 24 hours i've read that politico article plus an article that claimed - with quotes from campaign workers -that podesta got hacked because he asked the tech dude whether an obvious phishing email asking him to change his password was a phishing scam or not and the tech dude answered back via email "this is a legitimate email" when he meant to write "this is an illegitimate email" are really boggling my mind

smaller directed outreach

fwiw they just didn't even go to some states at all, like Wisconsin and Michigan. i don't know about the health/endurance line, they still found time to fly home to NY every day to catch the evening news.

this quote from that politico article:

But there also were millions approved for transfer from Clinton’s campaign for use by the DNC — which, under a plan devised by Brazile to drum up urban turnout out of fear that Trump would win the popular vote while losing the electoral vote, got dumped into Chicago and New Orleans, far from anywhere that would have made a difference in the election.

iirc the big GOTV insight of the obama campaign was that direct and repeated contact between prospective voters and canvassers was by far the most effective method of ensuring turnout. that the hrc campaign went in a totally different direction is just mind-boggling.

the best fuckups money can buy

see also

https://twitter.com/gatorgoat/status/809064589715456000

It's not who has grounds, it's who has standing, and so far nobody seems to have a good answer.

If nothing else, I should think that members of the Congress would have standing, as representatives of a coequal branch of government under the Constitution.

well the House can initiate impeachment proceedings (I'm sure) for violations of the Emoluments Clause, how likely do you think Paul Ryan is to allow that

iirc the big GOTV insight of the obama campaign was that direct and repeated contact between prospective voters and canvassers was by far the most effective method of ensuring turnout. that the hrc campaign went in a totally different direction is just mind-boggling.

Which reminded me of something brought up earlier this year, that the reason Wasserman-Schulz was still head of the DNC was that the 2008/2008 Obama For America orgs disbanded after victory, whereas one group probably should have replaced the other.

those are good tweets. I knew there was a reason we brought you back

not sure how enamored I am with obama for america when they spent their last days pimping the goddamn TPP

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/russia-hack-election-dnc.html?_r=0

the depth and breadth of incompetence is truly astounding

i don't really buy kevin drum's curiously fatalistic take on the election but it's worth considering

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/12/stop-it-there-are-no-big-lessons-2016-election