People that you've never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows -- US Politics September 2020

oh nice!

xps Check those notes again. The "Dems" haven't handed anything over, yet. This was a voice vote of the House Armed Services Committee members on an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act, which may or may not be removed when the bill reaches the floor vote.

This mostly means the Armed Services chair Adam Smith backs the amendment. He's a military hawk, like most members of that committee. What happens next is more maneuvering from both sides. We'll have to see who wins.

rob bishop is a notable p.o.s.

Forcing someone to wear a mask for public safety is a bridge to far, but forcing a woman to have a hysterectomy against her will is nbd.

one of my friends, who has all sorts of medical ailments, as does her husband, wore a mask to the local BP and some asshole made a "baaaaaaaa" bleating sound at her, and my friend walked back over to her and said "hey my husband has COVID, want me to breathe on you?" and the asshole ran away fassst.

(her husband didn't have COVID, but she thought that aws funny)

I'm in Trumpland and one of my neighbors wrote TAKE OF THE MASKS AND SMELL THE TYRANNY on their SUV, but surprisingly most everyone does wear a mask here

TAKE OF THE MASKS

like... eat them like communion wafers?

i have taken to coughing loudly when i wear a mask and am surrounded by the maskless; that tends to make the point

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-biden-mask-mandate-abc-town-hall_n_5f617ac9c5b68d1b09c9541a

Sorry for HuffPo

Posted for Neanderthal:

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/15/orlando-democratic-voters-trump-reelection-415526

NEW: Multiple White House staff have tested positive for COVID-19 today. The White House press pool was just informed, but Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is not releasing any further information.

This comes less than 24 hours after international leaders met with President Trump.

please let Netanyahu and Trump get it

oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please

TAKE OF THE MASKS BUT GUARD THE SEED

just give me this ONE fucking thing this year

Good lord, we don't need to give Trump a bunch of "sympathy votes" because he is suffering, while the nasty libs are all gloating about it, the poor man. And yes, there would be gloating and people silly enough to give him pity votes.

lord, please, do not listen to aimless! strike down trump! he deserves it more than all of the people of sodom and gomorrah combined. that is an impossibly large number of people, impossible for anyone except perhaps for yourself to comprehend. strike him down!!

The way 2020 has gone, he'd pull a Boris Johnson on us and recover.

listen, god is just. and he has a plan. you know he's gotta strike trump down.

Bolsinaro, too. He recovered. And now that Trump is 6'3" instead of 6'2", he's not obese, so you can scratch off the comorbidity tick mark.

lol as if Boris actually had it

Seconding the hope than Netanyahu, Trump, and McConnell bite it from COVID

Can’t find any legit source for those White House covid tests

On a Rosh Hashanah call with Jewish leaders, Trump told them “we love your country also” and said he’s disappointed Jews seem to “almost automatically” vote for Democrats. He said he saw he got only 25% in 2016 even though “I have a son-in-law and a daughter who are Jewish.”

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 16, 2020

He needs to get the word out about that obviously

The way 2020 has gone, he'd pull a Boris Johnson on us and recover.

These men need to be choking to death on a pudgy fistful of peanuts while on the toilet, not actual illness.

fucking piece of fucking shit

This is quite simply one of the most appalling and inhuman statements ever uttered by an American President. https://t.co/YTSyBuFP47

— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) September 16, 2020

Does Trump have any businesses in any red states (assuming Florida is neutral)?

Perhaps he should relocate all his businesses to red states and see how that goes.

Trump insisting that Redfield didn't understand the question about vaccines and masks:

Trump throws the CDC under the bus, says Dr. Redfield "made a mistake" during his testimony on Wednesday when he said a Covid vaccine might not be available until well in 2021 pic.twitter.com/3h4mObDKsf

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 16, 2020

and again

Donald Trump really thinks he knows more about public health than the director of the CDC. This is the second time he's tried to correct different parts of Director Redfield's testimony during this press briefing. Tragicomical. pic.twitter.com/vXm0JZCvBK

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 16, 2020

Donald Trump will win the election if you take the blue states out.

inclusion in "america" is now judged by if you like donald trump, seems sustainable.

turns out Orange Shitpile aspires to be Ming the Merciless

Officers requested a "heat ray" weapon for possible use against protesters in a park next to the White House in June, a National Guard major has said.

Military police allegedly asked the National Guard for the Active Denial System (ADS), which makes targets feel their skin is on fire.

It happened before Lafayette Square was cleared of people protesting against the killing of black man George Floyd.

The National Guard did not possess the heat ray and it was not used.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54187961?

god i hate this smug dumb fuck Barr so much. he's right behind his boss right now in terms of who I most want to see beneath a guillotine.

I've got him first in line. He knows what he's doing.

Ditto--him and Pence.

Yeah Barr is slightly worse to my mind. Orangekins is actually running third behind Barr and Moscow Mitch.

im w/ jvc because of immediate efficacy and lasting power for the unbuilding america proj

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Barr is currently the most dangerous person in/to the US.

otm

sorry to post a trump tweet, but i feel like the actual thing is needed, here, to see what he's quoting, to see what he's saying, to see the weak-ass twitter info "correction" on it:

Because of the new and unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots which will be sent to “voters”, or wherever, this year, the Nov 3rd Election result may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED, which is what some want. Another election disaster yesterday. Stop Ballot Madness! https://t.co/3SMAk9TC1a

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2020

seriously, get this fucking guy out of office. he's not just nodding toward civil war 2 in the days after the election, he is openly promoting it and has been for months

i don't know what we're all supposed to do. but it's disturbing to me how collectively all we can seem to do is grunt in response

"we" = anyone who isn't a fascist

so many commentators seem embarrassed to bring up the idea that they think this is possible. the ever-equivocating josh marshall goes to long lengths to make it clear that "I am not predicting this and I do not think this is likely." no one wants to talk about it, because you look like a crazy person if you point out that the president, the attorney general, dozens of politically appointed stooges, and millions of fucking idiots who believe in qanon (and think trump does too, and/or is god or divinely inspired or a conspiracy that they're in on and will gain from) are definitely ready for it and want it to happen, and have been laying down the groundwork for it for YEARS now

sorry, i quoted the doubtful part of the ever-equivicating josh marshall, without quoting the substance of it:

Before more time goes by a brief follow up on yesterday’s post about the Trumpian build up for a violent showdown after the election. In his late afternoon press conference yesterday President Trump again found an opportunity to declare his readiness to put down election night “riots” or “protests” by force using the US military. He quickly joined this to a conversation about purported voter fraud and election rigging using mail in ballots.

If you put together the scenario he keeps predicting it’s one in which he loses and loses on election night – or rather, in his telling, he suffers an apparent loss because of rampant fraud. Because of this purported fraud he refuses to accept the result and this leads to a violent confrontation on the streets – between civilian protestors and some mix of federal law enforcement and the US military. (Not good!)

As I said yesterday, I am not predicting this and I do not think this is likely. But I do think we should pay very close attention and continue to focus attention on the fact that President Trump keeps pushing this idea and predicting it as an outcome.

xxp including months of ppl itt

Indeed, i think it’s the very salient sensation of being the frog in the boiling water that’s getting me riled up. We see this coming, we know this is coming, it goes from nods to dog whistling to vocal advocation, not just once but repeatedly. A significant part of the population wants this to happen - I do count white evangelicals among them, with the conspiracy nuts, white supremacist groups, “patriots”, gun people - they all share common ground in seeking a violent, chaotic outcome (some say they seek “freedom”, others call it the rapture)

gosh guys, don't you know that kinda talk can only go in the Trump winning containment thread?

The most surreal part of living through a fascist coup is that we're not even talking about it as such.

— Max Berger (@maxberger) September 17, 2020

^which also seems very frog in the kettle to me^

not being able to see the forest for the trees is part of the fascist takeover playbook, from what i understand.

and looking back in ilx history, in a couple years, how disturbing it might be to find all the talk about the whole "fascism" thing confined to a "containment" thread. i mean, i totally get it, but holy shit you all, look at this

trigger warning: moaning apocalypse thoughts

i know you all think i'm a fucking idiot with this stuff, i'm sure, but it relates to the things i've been trying to say about how it seems like more and more, human actions are the end result of a longer, planned process:

it starts with desired outcome or idea, and then a simulation of something and then socializing of an idea or prediction to such a degree that it gradually becomes "common wisdom". example: the impeachment of trump. we all knew the shape of it, we just didn't know the particulars. but months before the trial started, we knew there was going to be a trial and there was going to be a bad outcome (for non-fascists). the only thing left to argue over was whether it would be a good political move. but lost in all that is the most important thing, the collective "ah ha!" moment that feels like it once existed, the "At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" or the massive shift in public opinion on Nixon once they could hear his voice saying the awful things aloud. that moment, which is SO IMPORTANT, is now gone. we don't collectively hear all of the trump/ukraine stuff at once, at the same time, in a very intense collective-learning session as impeachment trial. we don't get shocked. instead, watching the impeachment was like seeing a re-run for the 5th or 6th time. everyone knew that almost all the republicans would vote to acquit trump, no matter what the evidence was. the excitement was seeing whether susan collins would show some spine, or would mitt romney be so brave to support both impeachment counts. political commentary and op-eds became the results. lost was the outrage of seeing 50+ republicans all vote in solidarity for the worst fucking person in the universe. the collective outrage, instead of becoming a spike and causing some sort of response, becomes a long low-level dull anger (at the president and his supporters) and blaming and infighting among those who still care about it - flattening the curve, basically, keeping the outrage below threshold levels for catalyzing change.

and now it's happening again (in fact is always happening) with post-election violence. now it's becoming common wisdom that yes, election night is going to be a disaster. i, in fact, believe this, but for very different reasons than my parents believe it. "flood the zone with shit" leads to mark levin telling millions of people how this is going to work, and them believing it. the mark levin version is basically civil war 2 with conservatives "fighting back" against the left, the "rigged elections", "mail ballot fraud", protesters, looters, riots, etc. that is dumb as hell, but it is a version of the future. conveniently, under this lunatic vision, conservatives and fascists get to not only go to war with the left and throw a bunch of people in prison (or worse), but they get an excuse for it, one that many would go to their graves believing in. because it was real to them. that's the benefit of living in a different information universe. we're all so tired of hearing it, i know, but that's the reality of making up your own "news" and then delegitimatizing everything else. that's the 1984 shit, right there, happening.

PHEW. just had to get that out there. i don't mean to say any of you are the problem - none of the above is addressed to anyone specifically, it's more my exhaustion with being unable to do anything about it, seemingly. all of the preparation, the learning, thinking about fascism and all the fucking wikipedia articles and warnings - it will be such a WASTE if we can't actually use all of those things to fight back against this now. that's really how i feel. i feel the marshall-esque need to balance that with a "of course we all have our bad days and i don't think it will actually be like this", but sometimes i do feel "alarmed"