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

if there's going to be a bulwark it's not going to come from the so-called "international community" which i think as of today is basically done as a source of global ethical leadership or authority. it'll have to come from the israeli electorate. generally speaking i think they're apathetic at this pt but who knows. i don't see how bibi can hold off forever when the president of the united states is telling him that annexation is a-go.

Obama White House staffers watching Trump and his staff arrive for today's meeting: https://twitter.com/ColeLedford11/status/796777653432971264

I want to hug all these people esp the ones LITERALLY CRYING in these shots. </3

i wonder whether the UN will still be in NY 4 years from now. seems like a lot of good reasons to think it might not be? Republicans hate it, Trump seems to hate it...

I was also thinking that Trump barely owes anyone since his own party gave him so little support but you know who stood by him through thick and thin? this goblin:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Sheldon_Adelson_crop.jpg/440px-Sheldon_Adelson_crop.jpg

i'm taking some smal, inevitably temporaryl solace in how deeply terrified trump appears to be rn

I prefer this one
http://i.imgur.com/MOcVtDH.jpg

i'm taking some smal, inevitably temporaryl solace in how deeply terrified trump appears to be

I noticed this too. It confirms he didn't know what he was getting into

why would trump be terrified? dude is thrilled. i never understood people saying "he doesn't really want to be president"

so many people saying "he has no idea how hard this job is", he doesn't give a shit. like he has any respect for the seriousness or demands of the role?

it's not his job, it's pence's job

I'm imagining Trump saying, "So what, you come in in the morning, put your feet up, flip on MSNBC, wait for your staff to bring you all the clips that mention you, spend a little time on Twitter . . ." and Obama being like, "No, I . . . I work, all day. Every day. Seven days a week sometimes. It's really hard work."

Knowing how the Presidency ages people, there's some comfort in knowing that by 2020 he'll be just a pile of loosely-organized dust.

why do you think he would submit himself to the hard work required by the role?

he wont

he doesn't give a fuck about that shit

yeah i'm sure he's happy to play the figurehead while pence and his staff run the day-to-day duties

he will surround himself with sycophantic imbeciles, he won't invest time in reading the memos and listening to the briefings. let pence handle this. Trump is every other dead eyed corporate dude who finds himself running a large governmental organization - he will provide the bullshit "vision" while letting his underlings do the real work. he will pop in every once in a while to blurt out whatever his very first thought is, authoritatively and scaring the shit out of everyone else in the room, ruining many plans simultaneously. he will spend his time being the face of the organization, enjoying the perks, and figuring out ways to benefit those that are loyal to him.

yeah I agree Trump looks absolutely petrified, and i got that sense during his acceptance speech, which as someone said in the election day thread, was this "delirious utopian fantasy," as if he were reading the lyrics of Lennon's Imagine. I fully believe he did not expect to win, has no plan, and Pence will effectively be leading the country. which is even more of a nightmare than Trump imo

Lol @ "ruining many plans simultaneously"

exactly, he'll run the presidency like a business owner since that's all he knows

i know i posted this upthread, but letting the VP run the country - domestic and foreign policy - is explicitly what Trump Jr offered to John Kasich when they were trying to woo him, on behalf of his father

lol he doesn't "look petrified" you guys are reading into it exactly what you want. otoh yes pence will do most of the hard work, that was the plan all along, cf that NYT story

I am sincerely worried about how I will react when/if I witness any of the racist shit that's going down. Just reading about it is filling me with fury.

Now, imagine worrying about how you will react when some of the racist shit that's going down happens to you. Ponder how that feels for a while. It's not a very good feeling.

check out this bird! this bird is TERRIFIED!

http://i.imgur.com/385EVn9.jpg

the bird is like "get me out of here guys i don't know wtf i'm doing"

lol he doesn't "look petrified" you guys are reading into it exactly what you want. otoh yes pence will do most of the hard work, that was the plan all along, cf that NYT story

― k3vin k., Thursday, November 10, 2016 3:10 PM (

I said he looks petrified and that's that

haha that stupid fucking bird that i definitely did not vote for looks very dumb and scared!

Smug fuckin bird

actually the more i look at the picture the more i think the bird is hiding something. wtf did you do, bird?? and don't keep staring back blankly like you don't understand what i'm saying, i know you do.

ok i'm sounding like john oliver now, i'm sorry for that.

i'm going to post a rant from SETH MEYERS on my Facebook wall right now!

im just reading the election day thread posts from tuesday night to kind of get a handle on what point things started getting really scary and i saw this post:

Lol what a bunch of nervous nellies you guys are

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, November 8, 2016 9:24 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

come back shakey where are you

fuck that bird

Shakey's usually good with reassurances (and accurate). His pollsters were wrong too?

He's taking a break.

bummed that Shakey checked out right when things started to turn. hope he's ok and comes back soon.

on the radio earlier (bbc radio 5) they talked about how there would be the usual PR happy smiles for the camera/media during the meeting etc.
but no .. not one single grin.
having watched that i now need to turn up the heating.

why would trump be terrified? dude is thrilled. i never understood people saying "he doesn't really want to be president"

so many people saying "he has no idea how hard this job is", he doesn't give a shit. like he has any respect for the seriousness or demands of the role?

― marcos, Thursday, November 10, 2016 3:01 PM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

People are always desperately reading into images to fit some ideal narrative they want to be true. I could freeze a damning frame out of even the most positive, happy speeches or other footage of a politician/whoever without much effort.

Oh, what you all said above.

I think some people get paid decent money to do just that, actually

People are always desperately reading into images to fit some ideal narrative they want to be true. I could freeze a damning frame out of even the most positive, happy speeches or other footage of a politician/whoever without much effort.

― Evan, Thursday, November 10, 2016 3:26 PM

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/c9/fb/4b/c9fb4b3d485802fb61fe04db67910783.jpg

Tabloid articles are the best evidence of this

I feel for Shakey. I was right there with him, trying to quell heightened fears about the sky falling. And then the sky fell. Like, who even knew it could do that? I wasn't at all prepared when it happened so I've been madly trying to gather my wits and stay positive and constructive give that mad howling void of terror as wide a berth as possible.

shakey seems like a pretty well put together dude i'm sure he's fine

http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/u-s-election-2016/1.752212

Non-Orthodox Jews supported Clinton at higher rates than Orthodox Jews, but the Democratic candidate came out ahead even in this sub-group. According to the poll, 76 percent of Reform Jews voted for Clinton, as opposed to 21 percent for Trump; 71 percent of Conservative Jews voted for Clinton, as opposed to 25 percent for Trump; and 56 percent of Orthodox Jews voted for Clinton, as opposed to 39 percent for Trump. Among those who identified as merely “just Jewish,” 67 percent voted for Clinton, as opposed to 26 percent for Trump.

small comfort but it does move me that Trump lost even among Orthodox Jews.

I can't speak to how Shakey is/was feeling, but as someone who had a similar outlook, I can say that watching my strongly held assumptions crumble before my eyes was pretty traumatic.

The photo of Obama and Trump is so damn heartbreaking. Dude literally spent his entire life shitting all over everybody and making up conspiracy theories about them and never once had to pay the price.

alright not "literally". you know what I mean.

xxp yea same here. my more cynical friends/family who have been predicting a trump win for months are not as crushed. even in 2004 it really felt like a toss-up in the weeks before

I texted with Shakey. He's ok (as ok as you can be in this horrible new world, I guess). Taking a break from the internet.

at the end of the obama meeting Trump calls Obama 'a very good man' many times, which gives me some early hope that Trump doesn't actually stand for anything and just wants the ultimate businessman gig

the fact that he doesn't stand for anything scares me the most because those around him stand for a whole bunch of terrible shit.

^^^

trump backtracking already:

Trump had said during the election campaign he would be willing to withdraw U.S. military stationed in South Korea unless Seoul paid a greater share of the cost of the U.S. deployment, but an adviser to the president-elect played down such comments on Thursday.

...

South Korea's presidential Blue House said Trump agreed with Park and it quoted Trump as saying: "We will be steadfast and strong with respect to working with you to protect against the instability in North Korea."

...

"He has moved on to talk about non-proliferation in a way that you would hear from any Republican president," he said.

"We are very much committed to both non-proliferation and assuring the allies that not only will they continue to be under the nuclear umbrella, but that we are going to be strengthening our missile defence in ways that alleviate some of their concerns about North Korea."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-election-southkorea-idUKKBN135099

"He has moved on to talk about non-proliferation in a way that you would hear from any Republican president," he said.

oh well I'm reassured whew