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

I plan to rely on this thread for news for the forseeable future. Trying to make a clean break with Twitter and cable news for as long as humanly possible. My wife put on Maddow last night but at least she was covering the protests. I'm 100% done with all this "What are the optics?" type bullshit though.

― evol j, Thursday, November 10, 2016 10:16 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I had this setup to do before the election but it's particularly intense now: i'm serving lunch to holocaust survivors at 1 today. I will also be trying to have some real conversations and asking for wisdom. will report back.

Called up my Trump supporting friend last night and tried to heal the divide between us. Going forward with love in the heart. Best wishes to you all.

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/analysis-donald-trumps-tax-plan/full

that kind of humanity is the spirit we need xp

Collapse the current seven tax brackets, which range from 10 to 39.6 percent, into three brackets of 10, 20, and 25percent.

Three fucking brackets? Are you KIDDING ME?

it's a wonder what sleep can do

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, November 10, 2016 11:05 AM (nineteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

at least for this gay man of color

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, November 10, 2016 11:05 AM (nineteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea i feel better today too. yesterday was .... awful. desperate. i still feel so angry and defeated about this though.

Cookeville transgender veteran's truck painted 'Trump,' lit on fire

btw:

Russian government officials had contacts with members of Donald Trump’s campaign team, a senior Russian diplomat said Thursday, in a disclosure that could reopen scrutiny over the Kremlin’s role in the president-elect’s bitter race against Hillary Clinton....

[snip]

.“Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage,” Rybakov said. “Those people have always been in the limelight in the United States and have occupied high-ranking positions. I cannot say that all of them but quite a few have been staying in touch with Russian representatives.”

“We have just begun to consider ways of building dialogue with the future Donald Trump administration and channels we will be using for those purposes,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying.

There were no further details given on the claimed contacts, including names in the Trump campaign or other specifics.

Serious q: what's the worst thing that could happen with detente with Russia? In a realpolitik way not moral way.

Ask some Latvians et al.

Realignment toward Russia is the least disconcerting thing to me. Putin is no worse than plenty of foreign leaders we make nice with.

Our student media editor in chief wrote this. I don't often post their work but I got a lump in my throat.I watched Clinton's concession speech w/her, a black female student. She was crying. When I asked what was wrong she said, "Do you know what it's like to be a woman and not being able to show emotion, to not cry because if you do you'll get dismissed with, 'Well, you're a woman'?"

so is it true that the Dow is actually up today?

really feeling thankful for these threads b/c I just cannot handle TV in any way right now

Letting Russia do whatever they want in Syria, and some of Europe?

one thing I want to do to augment my cognitive equipment for what's coming is read something good and unflinching about Berlusconism in Italy. Can anyone recommend any book on that subject

― his eye is on despair-o (Jon not Jon)

Haven't read it yet myself, but reviews have led me to Paul Ginsborg's Silvio Berlusconi: Television, Power and Patrimony (2004). Looks promising, and I'll be picking it up at the library today.

thank you!

A good corrective here to some of the postelection handwringing.

https://twitter.com/pwthornton/status/796356934643437569

I just posted it on a bud's wall.

I posted that on the other thread too, I think. I definitely read and retweeted, since it's so similar to my own experience as a rural Ohioan. (I went to a 100% white high school, after spending my entire life prior to 6th grade in integrated schools as an Army brat, so it was quite shocking to me.)

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/texas-state-university-police-looking-into-trump-vigilante-fliers/jhWSmmhNxxuTXZaQJiYhNI/

"Now that our man Trump is elected and Republicans own both the Senate and the House -- time to organize tar & feather vigilante squads and go arrest and torture those deviant university leaders spouting off all this diversity garbage," at least one of the fliers reads, according to a photo that the university community is sharing.

: |

My sister moved from Chicago area to rural Wisoconsin. Hanging in Lake Wisco one day, a local says to me "Isn't this just gorgeous? This is the most beautiful place in the country!". Mainly to make conversation, I asked where else she'd been, what other parts of the country had she seen. "Oh I haven't really left the state much. Been to Florida a couple of times". She was in her 50s! Same story with most of the other locals I met or heard about: basically had only been to Florida or the "WHOOO PARTY!!" parts of Mexico (both are locales where they are assured to be around a ton of other tourists very similar to themselves!)

I'm here, lurking! And just trying to live. My job takes an enormous emotional toll (and has some nontraditional/extra hours) so I can't do as much community work as I would like to, or activism or campaigning either b/c I can't risk arrest anymore. But I will be thrilled to talk about anything you want!

i grew up only an hour outside of chicago (mchenry co) and tbh never really interacted with anyone who wasn't white. it's a pretty red county, or it was. not sure about now. but racism as a "thing" was there. my best friend in kindergarten tried and failed to start a local chapter of the KKK (he managed to get two other members.) after i left that school and ended up in rockford, it was a whole new world. and i mean that's just 30 miles down a country road. but there are people even just outside major cities, or diverse cities, who since they don't interact on a day to day basis with people unlike them, only view them through the lens of the media. and as the media has become more specifically targeted and as you can pick and choose very specific viewpoints about groups of people you've never met, you're going to get an even more poisoned mind than you would have a couple decades ago.

I just posted this to the last, miserable election thread, but I probably should have posted it here:

Okay yeah, so, it's important to recognize that it is not unprecedented to have Republicans in both houses, with a dipshit Republican president rubber-stamping things, and the Bush era WAS awful and 2004 WAS until yesterday the worst post-election morning of my lifetime. The big difference to me is the emergence of the Tea Party/Freedom Caucus types during the Obama administration. All their feuding with Boehner/Ryan goes away without a Democratic president they're trying to strategize around, and you're left with a huge swath of dipshit Republicans for roll-call votes, and leadership cadres that are now MUCH further right than they were in the Clinton and W eras. It's going to be rubber-stamping of absolutely demonic shit, the kind of draconian nightmare Republican government we've all been fearing for a long time unless some of them break ranks (doubtful) or that trying to gut Social Security along with the rest of the federal government just takes so long that a really well-organized opposition can make gains back in the midterms (yeah right).

And in the meantime, Trump is following Reagan in appointing to his cabinet and all the executive agencies people who are either his corrupt and incompetent old real estate crony friends, or right-wing true believers who are also sycophants good at making him feel smart, and whose main goal in running these agencies is to make them nonfunctional. That's terrifying whether it's an Anne Gorsuch type at the EPA in the face of climate-change disaster, or fucking Rudy Giuliani controlling the Justice Department and rolling back even the baby steps towards investigating police departments and trying to prosecute brutality cases. And a million other things.

i like to think that during the years i was surrounded only by white people that i wasn't particularly awful and i don't think i was, but i was certainly still ignorant. it's a good thing i always liked exploring music and film from other cultures, because i think that really helped. no joke, it was important to not just listen to public enemy or blues music or cypress hill or whatever but to also try to get into the mindset of other cultures, it's a good education for those who live in places where you're not exposed to non-white people except through mainstream media or targeted news channels.

It took people knocking me over the head over and over, figuratively, to get me to reconsider the acculturated racism I had. It took work, but I appreciate it now, I was a real dumbass when I was younger.

Just watched the Houston episode of Bourdain's show on the bus to work, tearing up and sniffling. Gave me hope, though. Seek it out.

https://twitter.com/joshledermanAP/status/796769992603815936

WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama says he was 'encouraged' by conversation with Trump, calls Oval Office meeting 'excellent' and wide-ranging

I can't fit into my head the thought of Obama meeting with (President-Elect!) Donald J. Trump

good post from a Veteran in my timeline:

Hey, Army (and military in general). What was the point of those incessant power points we had to go over four times a year. Something about not sexually harassing/assaulting people and something about racial discrimination being unacceptable, right? Enjoy your new commander-in-chief. Do as daddy says not as daddy do. #grabbedamericabythepussy

"WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama says he was 'encouraged' by conversation with Trump, calls Oval Office meeting 'excellent' and wide-ranging"

wtf's he going to say, honestly

hopefully he goes back into hsi office and recess appoints Garland.

recess appoints Garland.

he'd spark white riots, which we can't call riots, but you get the idea

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this blows huh

Vote to consolidate everything to a I Hate Trump board.

xxp also a constitutional crisis, which with a divided court would be p. chill

ive been wracking my brane for ways to be helpful out here in rural vermont, and have thus far come up empty handed

however, a friend of mine in new mexico could always use support (http://www.santafedreamersproject.org/what-we-do/), and a recent thread on her FB raised an interesting idea. for those of you in sanctuary cities/counties/states, encourage your local leaders to make a public declaration of support for immigrants. it might not seem like much, but ppl are pretty scared right now, and letting them know that their community supports/protects them might provide a not insignificant amount of comfort

one of trump's "first 100 days" actions is to revoke all federal funding for sanctuary cities

i have no idea how/whether that would be possible but hey

oh jesus i missed that

I don't even know if there's a way for Congress to do that -- federal funding for cities comes through a zillion different programs. But I suppose they can try.

Nixon decided it was in his power to sequester money allocated by Congress by simply choosing not to spend it. I can't recall offhand if he got away with this gambit, but he had a hostile Congress to contend with who fought back. Trump would have a compliant Congress, more than happy to set this craven precedent in return for scoring some political brownie points with their base.

based on my (cursory) look into it, it would seem that some places (eg Cali, New Mex) are sanctuaries at the state level, and others (Portland, ME) are at the city level.

also, "sanctuary city" seems to be pretty vaguely defined, and my guess is that it would be very, very difficult for congress to limit federal funding in any meaningful way

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cw60UTzVEAA0reF.jpg

christ

also, "sanctuary city" seems to be pretty vaguely defined, and my guess is that it would be very, very difficult for congress to limit federal funding in any meaningful way

― jason waterfalls (gbx), Thursday, November 10, 2016 1:23 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's reassuring. i wasn't sure at all

christ antichrist

I don't think it would happen, but...I live in Seattle, we're a sanctuary city, overdue for a huge earthquake. What then?

(The response that comes to mind is that middle-class whites will know what Katrina felt like but of course it's going to be the poor, minorities, people without resources who suffer the most.)

The other, distant fear is that four years from now, if everyone works like hell and turnout rises and we elect someone decent, who says these people are going to want to give the country back to the blacks and the queers and the immigrants?

Xp that is reassuring, lessens terror a few percentage points

yeah "malware associated with Russia" is, like, most malware

also "malware found on a laptop that wasn't connected to the utility grid" is pretty far from "hacking"

no u wrong they hacked using 2 coordinated accounts pu✧✧✧@rus✧✧✧.c✧✧ and russiahacksthe✧✧✧@rus✧✧✧.r✧

anyone want to sum that article up? obviously i love great journalism but im not paying to read about some idiot giving his login password to a hacker pretending to be Comcast

I can cut back and paste.

nvmd, so yeah the laptop was not even connected. fake news

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President-elect Donald J. Trump, expressing lingering skepticism about intelligence assessments of Russian interference in the election, said on Saturday evening that he knew “things that other people don’t know” about the hacking, and that the information would be revealed “on Tuesday or Wednesday.”

Speaking to a handful of reporters outside his Palm Beach, Fla., club, Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump cast his declarations of doubt as an effort to seek the truth.

“I just want them to be sure because it’s a pretty serious charge,” Mr. Trump said of the intelligence agencies. “If you look at the weapons of mass destruction, that was a disaster, and they were wrong,” he added, referring to intelligence cited by the George W. Bush administration to support its march to war in 2003. “So I want them to be sure,” the president-elect said. “I think it’s unfair if they don’t know.”

He added: “And I know a lot about hacking. And hacking is a very hard thing to prove. So it could be somebody else. And I also know things that other people don’t know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation.”

When asked what he knew that others did not, Mr. Trump demurred, saying only, “You’ll find out on Tuesday or Wednesday.”

Mr. Trump, who does not use email, also advised people to avoid computers when dealing with delicate material. “It’s very important, if you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier, the old-fashioned way, because I’ll tell you what, no computer is safe,” Mr. Trump said.

“I don’t care what they say, no computer is safe,” he added. “I have a boy who’s 10 years old; he can do anything with a computer. You want something to really go without detection, write it out and have it sent by courier.”

I also know things that other people don’t know

Classic. No one can see inside this black box, so no one can contradict any assertions made about it.

It's like a variation on his favorite phrase: believe me!

https://twitter.com/mlcalderone/status/815597707733716993

it's amazing we're going through this again. waterboarding/"torture" all over again. like they never learn

that's what you get for dying and going to hell, which appears to be what happened to all of us.

He's seizing power in just under three weeks - let the fellatio begin!

Speaking of fellatio, Josh Marshall accidentally copied the URL of the lesbian porn he was watching instead of something else he meant to Tweet.

hahaha sorry I love when that happens

He didn't delete it for a long time, either!

He hasn't deleted it.

He did post this tho

https://www.twitter.com/joshtpm/status/815295971915694080

from the replies to that:

Eric Garland ‏@ericgarland 31 Dec 2016
@joshtpm Been reading you for 16 years since you were writing two blocks from my place on Q St, and looking forward to 16 more.

Ian Miller ‏@teen_archer 31 Dec 2016
@ericgarland @joshtpm it's time for some "i came" theory

hahaha

there will be another great recession, huh https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/claiming-mandate-gop-congress-lays-plans-to-propel-sweeping-conservative-agenda/2017/01/01/9840338a-ceee-11e6-b8a2-8c2a61b0436f_story.html?utm_term=.2884bae4b41a&wpisrc=nl_most-draw10&wpmm=1

Well, the super-rich think these recessions are pretty great. After all, they get to pick up a lot of cheap deals during the crash and come out smelling like a rose when, in order to "stimulate the economy and promote job growth" the Republicans will cut their taxes even more, while slashing safety net programs, and the Fed keeps interest rates at zero. Hand them another Great Recession and life's a bowl of cherries!

less "a great recession" and more "direct corporate rule", maintaining general prosperity is for regimes that think there should be restraints on the cops

amazing to be capable of surprise abt how cynical ppl can be right now but the ethics office bill is just luminously craven

it's stunning, yes

OCE gutting proposal withdrawn following public outcry

surprised tbh

it's important to remember that many of the things this congress is pursuing are deeply unpopular. Making sure that the public understands exactly what they are attempting to do may work as a powerful deterrent.

one hopes

OCE gutting proposal withdrawn following public outcry

Will be re-submitted, and pass overwhelmingly, over inauguration weekend, while press is busy talking about who did and didn't attend parties.

out of all the things to kick off the new session with

yeah people are seriously dense if they think this is going away...

but speaking of seriously dense how fucking dumb do you have to be to do this in the middle of the night when they should just do what the honorable mr van gorp is suggesting upthread.

also important to remember that trump is unbelievably unpopular for an incoming president

http://www.gallup.com/poll/201158/skeptical-trump-handle-presidential-duties.aspx

would love to see this repeated in every single article about him

wow, 20-30 points behind Obama & GWB in every category, impressive.

too bad all the people who aren't skeptical are the ones whose votes matter

thread is almost at 7800 posts, we could use a fresh start.
America under Trump - Year One: January 2017 to

taylor swift look like a lorax

― • (sleepingbag), Sunday, January 31, 2016 3:42 PM (ten months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Go fuck yourself.

― markers, Sunday, January 31, 2016 3:43 PM (ten months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― sleepingbag, Sunday, December 4, 2016 2:04 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink