Tyrants v. the endurance of those whom they oppress.
February 2, 2017 12:41 PM Subscribe

The second week of the Trump administration is wearing Trump out, it seems, and triggering him during liasions with long-standing, key allies. In more positive news, he implied that Frederick Douglass is still with us, and this was confirmed by his Press Secretary. The nation awaits his reappearance with bated breath.

No doubt part of what's so wearing for Trump is the grinding media coverage of the opposition to his immigration ban, his ("successful") raid on Yemen, the military leaks about that, and his bizarre cabinet picks (warning: that last link is highly believable satire.)

But at least he got his Secretary of State confirmed, and they've been able to start walking back Obama's Russia sanctions, so while the optics are bad, they're making progress on their key priorities... There is also some red meat on the table for the Republican Handmaid's Tale base: proposed executive order which would curtail protections for LGBT people.

A date has been chosen for the March for Science: April 22nd. You should go, and maybe wear a pink lab coat. Remember, a chunk of the Antarctic the size of Delaware looks like it's about to break off and melt, and the EPA is not allowed to talk about it.

Housekeeping. Please...
- Don't go after each other, don't poke known sore points.
- Take it to Chat for context-free, exclamations and other existential reactions.
- Check before submitting a link whether it's already been done in this thread.
- Don't paste huge swathes of text from somewhere you're linking to anyway.
- If needed there are self-care recommendations from the mods, or try writing or commenting on a non-political post on MetaFilter, good nutrition, sleep or company, or walk away from screens and enjoy nature for a while.

posted by Coventry (2136 comments total) 119 users marked this as a favorite

I endeavor to say fuck at least once per comment, just to keep up with our quotas.
posted by lydhre at 12:43 PM on February 2, 2017 [39 favorites]

Thanks Coventry (and all your background helpers)
posted by INFJ at 12:44 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

The air is so nice and fresh in here! Too bad Pruitt will fix that soon.
posted by gatorae at 12:45 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

@JustSchmeltzer
It ain't hard to see the REAL point repealing the Johnson Amendment. Explained below...
Watch this magic trick. kids:

1. Trump gets a repeal of the Johnson Amendment, allowing churches to engage in partisan political activity and not lose their tax exempt status.
2. "Churches" start to run ads, run field efforts, etc etc for candidates, all tax exempt.
3. People make political donations to "churches" - and write it off on their taxes!
4. "Churches.' don't have to report any of those tax-exempt donations, so everything is hidden.
5. A new way to flood politics with unregulated, unreported money is born -AND it all becomes tax-deductible. too!

Drain the swamp - or Swamp the Drain
posted by chris24 at 12:45 PM on February 2, 2017 [111 favorites]

Fox News: DHS Secretary Says Parts Of Border Wall Will Be 'See Through': Fox’s Catherine Herridge said that Kelly told her that the wall “will take a multi-layered approach. There will be the physical wall and then parts of the wall that you can see through because it will rely on sensors and other technology.”
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:46 PM on February 2, 2017 [15 favorites]

The limits of titles are prescribed by the hardcoded constants of those whom the
posted by J.K. Seazer at 12:46 PM on February 2, 2017 [22 favorites]

I see the RNC is already getting remodeled
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 12:47 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

The emperor's new wall.
posted by cmfletcher at 12:47 PM on February 2, 2017 [69 favorites]

The limits of titles are prescribed by the hardcoded constants of those whom the

Ah, that's a shame. Maybe a mod can edit to something sensible.
posted by Coventry at 12:48 PM on February 2, 2017

Fox News: DHS Secretary Says Parts Of Border Wall Will Be 'See Through': Fox’s Catherine Herridge said that Kelly told her that the wall “will take a multi-layered approach. There will be the physical wall and then parts of the wall that you can see through because it will rely on sensors and other technology.”

So basically, they're not going to build the wall, but they're going to tell us that they've built the wall but we can't see it because it's invisible? That's impressively alt-factual.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:48 PM on February 2, 2017 [168 favorites]

There will be the physical wall and then parts of the wall that you can see through...

A see-through part of a wall. Fascinating! We could call it a... window?
posted by 0xFCAF at 12:48 PM on February 2, 2017 [34 favorites]

Oh of course, a see-through wall. Kinda like a half blind trust.
posted by gatorae at 12:49 PM on February 2, 2017 [18 favorites]

Trump administration: we're going to be sending out postcards to every native-born american citizen, scheduling ten minute daily shifts for each citizen to sit in quiet contemplation and believe vehemently in the wall. [fake]
posted by murphy slaw at 12:49 PM on February 2, 2017 [11 favorites]

im still not done reading the old one

help
posted by poffin boffin at 12:50 PM on February 2, 2017 [36 favorites]

Maybe it means we'll all be fitted with shock collars since it's really an invisible fence.
posted by yoga at 12:50 PM on February 2, 2017 [17 favorites]

1. I linked this post by Ijeoma Oluo at the bottom of the previous thread, it is pretty wonderful: Have we forgotten what we’ve done in the past? Have we forgotten what the Civil Rights movement looked like? Where the fuck was resistance fatigue then? You know what causes resistance fatigue? Assholes who claim to be with us, telling us that our defeat is preordained and our protest is useless. We have barely begun to fight.

2. I think I'll participate in the science march wearing this Rogue NASA shirt.
posted by rewil at 12:50 PM on February 2, 2017 [81 favorites]

The true wall was in our hearts the whole time.

Wait...

No, yeah.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 12:51 PM on February 2, 2017 [30 favorites]

Mr. Douglass is buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery in Rochester, NY. It's a lovely Victorian-era cemetery and popular tourist destination. It's also home to the grave of Susan B. Anthony.
posted by tommasz at 12:51 PM on February 2, 2017 [25 favorites]

Deutsche Welle—Mexico: Fear of Trump's wall (in English, 28 min.; features deported U.S. military veterans)
posted by XMLicious at 12:51 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

unfortunately the entire population of mexico refused to put on the shock collars so we have to invade and compel them to do so.

as soon as we figure out how to get the shock collars off our soldiers so they can cross the wall
posted by murphy slaw at 12:51 PM on February 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

Fox News: DHS Secretary Says Parts Of Border Wall Will Be 'See Through'

I agree that we will all be able to see through it.
posted by prefpara at 12:52 PM on February 2, 2017 [69 favorites]

Sean Spicer is unable to give any further details with regard to the window, to the wall
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 12:52 PM on February 2, 2017 [97 favorites]

Refugees are not illegal immigrants, and language matters. The fact that Trump continues to conflate the two is a clear demonstration of his guiding ethos -- cruelty. And just this morning, while the most powerful man in the world went out of his way to degrade the world's most vulnerable, he was surrounded and applauded by evangelical leaders.

Things are escalating now.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 12:53 PM on February 2, 2017 [120 favorites]

This is... interesting. I've been reading the Federal Register a couple times a week because it feels unsafe not to. The Department of Defense has submitted a proposal to delete the files it's kept on the vetting of Presidential appointees. Their justification is that similar records are also maintained by the Office of Government Ethics, making the DoD's records duplicative and justifying their deletion. Except the Office of Government Ethics was in trouble with the Trump administration even before its inauguration, and there were rumblings among his supporters in Congress of disbanding it altogether.

Records exist on the vetting of Presidential appointees, and the government is possibly getting rid of them. This seems important. (Or maybe I'm misreading, but I don't think so.)
posted by mudpuppie at 12:53 PM on February 2, 2017 [53 favorites]

The limits of titles are prescribed by the hardcoded constants of those whom the

The struggle is real.
posted by When choosing your username make sure you plan ahe at 12:54 PM on February 2, 2017 [22 favorites]

Fox News: DHS Secretary Says Parts Of Border Wall Will Be 'See Through'

The emperor's new wall.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:54 PM on February 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

So does that mean part of the wall will be a physical wall and the other part will be the sturdy wall of xenophobia we all build in our hearts, or what?
posted by saulgoodman at 12:54 PM on February 2, 2017 [32 favorites]

I think it's the emperor's new window
posted by mannequito at 12:55 PM on February 2, 2017

I'm thinking it's a fence.
posted by Mchelly at 12:55 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Holy shit, the invisible sensor wall. They're actually going for. Love it. I read about the types of sensors they would be able to use and then all of the ways that those sorts of 'sensor walls' can be screwed with, especially with miles and miles worth of 'sensor walls' to play with.
posted by Jalliah at 12:55 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

If somebody does provide INFJ a copy of Raiders of the Lost Ark, I'm going to steal it just to prove that there is nothing they can possess that I cannot take away.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:55 PM on February 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

"Don't you see? The wall is the spirit of murderous isolationism that was within you all along!"
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:55 PM on February 2, 2017 [54 favorites]

Ah, that's a shame. Maybe a mod can edit to something sensible.

But then those who come later won't get J.K. Seazer's joke!
posted by rabbitrabbit at 12:56 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Networked sensor wall? So another vector for covert cyberwarfare attacks. Great.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:57 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

obligatory quonsar comment: FUCK.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 12:57 PM on February 2, 2017 [12 favorites]

So does that mean part of the wall will be a physical wall and the other part will be the sturdy wall of xenophobia we all build in our hearts, or what?

If you walk through it you get droned, so basically.
posted by Coventry at 12:57 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Ah, that's a shame. Maybe a mod can edit to something sensible.

Edited to keep the gist; left the change request to maintain context for the jokes.
posted by cortex at 12:58 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Jeff Jobe, of Skype question at the WH Press Briefing fame will be thrilled to see it will now be easier to pollute water sources with coal mining..
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 12:59 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

In my running commentary of a view of change from within a relatively under-scrutinized section of government (transportation), starting with two Performance Management webinars being postponed indefinitely (after the new rules were passed days before _rump's inauguration, and included references to measuring Greenhouse Gasses), and then a new webinar was announced, but to be hosted by someone not associated by the US Department of Transportation but the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) at the University of South Florida.

That webinar was today, and I had hoped it was the Feds being crafty and routing around a blockage, but it wasn't the case. The host was literally laughably bad. Really, we laughed at the casual comments he made, which he did not intend to be jokes. In an hour long webinar, spending the first 20 minutes griping about what the regulations didn't do right (too late, they're the rules of the land, how do we use them?), before getting into some of the new rules, and getting some of the general information wrong (though he did catch himself once and self-corrected).

I don't think this is an example of contracting out, exactly, but it is what contracting out is like - someone who might know the topic, if you're lucky, but generally a waste of time, and they provide no authority if you ask them about how the rules work, because they're not involved with setting the rules. That's the government's job, see?

I want the government back. Even if they're making decisions I don't agree with, I can work to change those decisions. But when it's consultant hacks running the show, I know we're all getting bilked, both financially and in terms of our time. We spend time spinning our wheels, instead of moving forward. I'll take the slow process to reach consensus over this bullshit "instant progress" without thought or consideration for ramifications or, let's be honest, reality.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:00 PM on February 2, 2017 [48 favorites]

So does that mean part of the wall will be a physical wall and the other part will be the sturdy wall of xenophobia we all build in our hearts, or what?

It's likely a bunch of bullshit about motion sensors and surveilance drones and creating a 'digital' security barriers. Some tech people somewhere are bullshitting their way into a shit-ton of government money right now. Tech like this can work on a small scale but at the scale being talked about it's in the realm of sci-fi fantasy world.

Though this is entirely on the assumption that they aren't talking about more lethal forms of this tech. Like tracking drones that shoot.

Suppose I shouldn't assume that.

Fuck.
posted by Jalliah at 1:00 PM on February 2, 2017 [18 favorites]

Holy shit, the invisible sensor wall. They're actually going for. Love it. I read about the types of sensors they would be able to use and then all of the ways that those sorts of 'sensor walls' can be screwed with, especially with miles and miles worth of 'sensor walls' to play with.

Dibbs on the CCC event where someone demonstrates the ability to trick the sensor network into displaying a game of frogger.
posted by rough ashlar at 1:00 PM on February 2, 2017 [29 favorites]

It's become increasingly clear that Trump was in fact pledging to drain the swamp literally by undermining EPA regulations and selling the land to developers
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 1:01 PM on February 2, 2017 [25 favorites]

If you walk through it you get droned

What's the over/under on this happening to a Border Patrol agent because of incompetence/stupidity?
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 1:02 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Edited to keep the gist; left the change request to maintain context for the jokes.

Wow, the title for this episode of People's Court is really something.
posted by zombieflanders at 1:02 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

I think I'll participate in the science march wearing this Rogue NASA shirt.

Such a difficult choice between that and Smokey says: Resist.
posted by honestcoyote at 1:02 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

Jennifer Barrett: Our neighborhood kids hanging signs of support at our corner bodega. #WeStandWithYou #BodegaStrike
posted by porn in the woods at 1:02 PM on February 2, 2017 [24 favorites]

Slow clap on the snark in the above the fold copy, very nice!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:02 PM on February 2, 2017

Refugees are not illegal immigrants, and language matters. The fact that Trump continues to conflate the two is a clear demonstration of his guiding ethos -- cruelty.

This has been driving me bonkers because IT IS EVERYWHERE. It's all over social media. "If these people want to come here they should do it legally." THEY DID, DIPSHITS. THEY HAVE VISAS.

People are really, really revealing their inner cruelty. It was there all along, but now they have permission to just be openly like, "Hey fuck kids, fuck elderly people, fuck everyone that isn't just like me, they deserve to die and I don't give a shit." and expect to be lauded for that attitude as patriotic. People are fucking monsters.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:02 PM on February 2, 2017 [183 favorites]

More confirmation to go along with the PPPPolls link in the previous thread that Trump and his executive orders are unpopular. This time from Gallup. Some highlights:

Americans' Views on Donald Trump's Executive Orders: Approve - Disapprove - No opinion
- Ordering temporary ban on entry into U.S. for most people from seven predominantly Muslim countries: 42 - 55 - 3

- Ordering construction of a wall along the southern border with Mexico: 38 - 60 - 2

- Indefinitely suspending the United States' Syrian refugee program: 36 - 58 - 6

- Overall job approval: 43 - 52 - 6

His net job approval has dropped 10 points in a week.
posted by chris24 at 1:02 PM on February 2, 2017 [48 favorites]

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94: It's become increasingly clear that Trump was in fact pledging to drain the swamp literally by undermining EPA regulations and selling the land to developers

As said before, swamps are diverse, interesting ecosystems. Much like converting ag land to tract homes, once the land is converted, it's damn near impossible to convert it back.

President Quick Buck Now, Fuck The Future strikes again.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:03 PM on February 2, 2017 [16 favorites]

I endeavor to say fuck at least once per comment, just to keep up with our quotas

For you, people with similar laudable goals, and for people who might find that they are just out of fucks, I recommend this repository. I find that a few repetitions can recharge my fucks reasonably thoroughly.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:03 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

His net job approval has dropped 10 points in a week.

and note that this is also the first full week he actually had the goddamn job
posted by murphy slaw at 1:04 PM on February 2, 2017 [31 favorites]

If you walk through it you get droned, so basically.

It's like a field of land mines without the pesky Geneva Convention problems! (Just kidding, it won't be that bad until they're autonomous armed drones. So give it about 18 months.)
posted by XMLicious at 1:05 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

breaking news american national anthem has been changed to the fast music that plays when you're running out of time in super mario bros
posted by a fiendish thingy at 1:05 PM on February 2, 2017 [136 favorites]

Hey now, how about we give the guy a chance?
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:05 PM on February 2, 2017 [10 favorites]

Jeff Jobe, of Skype question at the WH Press Briefing fame will be thrilled to see it will now be easier to pollute water sources with coal mining..

Forget carbonated water, carbon water is where it's at now.
posted by chris24 at 1:06 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

As much as I'm against the wall and think it's a stupid idea, if it turned out to be a web of red laserbeams like in Mission Impossible and anyone who could limbo / yoga-parkour their way through it gets to stay, I might be a tiny bit cool with that.
posted by Mchelly at 1:06 PM on February 2, 2017 [18 favorites]

(as long as it works both ways)
posted by Mchelly at 1:07 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

all of the ways that those sorts of 'sensor walls' can be screwed with

There's a lot of ways to mess with ground surveillance radar in this age of hobbyist SDR, but seismic sensors are a lot harder.
posted by ryanrs at 1:07 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

I got an unidentified Chicago-area phone number on my work phone yesterday, but I had time to kill so I answered it. It was Pew Research! "Did I have time to share my thoughts about how America--" OH, YES, I DO!

It was only like four questions -- do I approve of how things are being run, how is my life going, how is my financial security, and one more I forget -- plus some demographic data. When I asked if there were choices stronger than "disapprove" she laughed, which was nice.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:07 PM on February 2, 2017 [112 favorites]

Hey now, how about we give the guy a chance?

He's had a week, and it just doesn't seem like it's going to work out.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:07 PM on February 2, 2017 [29 favorites]

We're building a wall. A whole wall. The whole thing is going to be wall, the whole thing. Some holes in the wall, but it will remain whole. These holes - you've never seen holes like this. Nothing but holes. We're digging a hole here. It's going to be the biggest hole you've ever seen.
posted by Kabanos at 1:07 PM on February 2, 2017 [36 favorites]

This is useful reading for the Australia call - basically Turnbull is a weak leader with non-approved positions and Trump is quite happy to have him rolled by his own right wing.

So closer to repellent than incompetent
posted by Sebmojo at 1:08 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

Hey now, how about we give the guy a chance?

Looking at your comment history I have adjudicated this comment to be: sarcastic!
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 1:08 PM on February 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

His net job approval has dropped 10 points in a week.

I'm sure this is heartening for some. But for me, since the election, the numbers - they do nothing.
posted by nubs at 1:08 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

ED-209 for Border Patrol Chief
posted by stevil at 1:08 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

He's had a week, and it just doesn't seem like it's going to work out.

"i'm sorry, it's not us, it's you"
posted by entropicamericana at 1:09 PM on February 2, 2017 [37 favorites]

ryanrs: There's a lot of ways to mess with ground surveillance radar in this age of hobbyist SDR, but seismic sensors are a lot harder.

How about a short stake with a spring-loaded clapper on one end?
posted by wenestvedt at 1:10 PM on February 2, 2017 [21 favorites]

I mentioned this in the activism MeTa, but hearing the testimonies against SB4 here in Texas is giving me some hope. That's the bill imposing sanctions on sanctuary cities and giving Abbott the power to recall Austin and Houston's lawfully elected officials if they don't toe his line.

Hundreds of people are here to make oral testimonies. I've been here three quarters of an hour and I haven't seen a single one yet who hasn't unequivocally condemned this law, from a testimonial written by a high school student all the way up to testimony from gray-haired grannies. As I type this out, the young woman now speaking just stated forcefully, with great emotion, "No human is illegal." and then "It breaks my heart to see my students in fear!"
posted by sciatrix at 1:10 PM on February 2, 2017 [83 favorites]

Eventually the wall won't be so much for keeping immigrants out but for keeping the rest of us in.
posted by mochapickle at 1:10 PM on February 2, 2017 [18 favorites]

It's become increasingly clear that Trump was in fact pledging to drain the swamp literally by undermining EPA regulations and selling the land to developers

Fun fact: after killing anything to do with climate change that they can possibly get away with, the second priority for Trump's EPA is to strike a rule that made it easier to protect wetlands through the Clean Water Act. So......yeah. Exactly that.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:11 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

It's fitting Trump's Black History speech was basically, "I have Black Friends."
posted by cottoncandybeard at 1:12 PM on February 2, 2017 [20 favorites]

How about a short stake with a spring-loaded clapper on one end?

usul, we have migra sign the likes of which even God has never seen
posted by murphy slaw at 1:12 PM on February 2, 2017 [22 favorites]

I would not be surprised if there is no EPA in a year or two.
posted by jetsetsc at 1:13 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Subverting the Geneva Convention seems like just the kind of thing Trump would love, why not mine the border? Cheap, effective and a poke in the eye of non-psychotics. Win all around!
posted by Keith Talent at 1:13 PM on February 2, 2017

OK, I don't really know anything about Twitter, but it sounds like Frederick Douglass' Twitter account was suspended.
How does that happen? Why does that happen?
Can somebody make it happen to @realDonaldTrump?
posted by MtDewd at 1:13 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Trump continually talks about The Apprentice as if it's his greatest achievement, not the multi-billion dollar real estate empire he supposedly created.
posted by PenDevil at 1:14 PM on February 2, 2017 [25 favorites]

I am hardly able to keep up, so it was probably already posted about but if not:

FOX News has posted a picture of anti-fascist graffiti, calling it "anti-Trump."
posted by Cookiebastard at 1:15 PM on February 2, 2017 [92 favorites]

Senate subcommittee to launch Russian interference probe

A Senate subcommittee is launching an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and how to prevent similar attacks in the future, subcommittee leaders announced Thursday.

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism probe will be the second lawmaker investigation into the Kremlin's attempts to influence the election.

“Our goal is simple — to the fullest extent possible we want to shine a light on Russian activities to undermine democracy," committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Ranking Member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said in a joint written statement.

posted by chris24 at 1:15 PM on February 2, 2017 [43 favorites]

This has been driving me bonkers because IT IS EVERYWHERE. It's all over social media. "If these people want to come here they should do it legally." THEY DID, DIPSHITS. THEY HAVE VISAS.

This is the problem with the "fake news/real news" stuff. When we don't have a single, respected source of news that everyone can agree is truth, people look at their shitty 'news' sites and trust them. People simply don't know that a visa process isn't like five minutes at Customs.
posted by corb at 1:16 PM on February 2, 2017 [18 favorites]

Wait calmly

Apologies if it has been posted before.
posted by vbfg at 1:16 PM on February 2, 2017 [21 favorites]

FOX News has posted a picture of anti-fascist graffiti, calling it "anti-Trump."

Regina George: "So you agree? You think Trump is a fascist?"
posted by Windigo at 1:17 PM on February 2, 2017 [58 favorites]

STOP BANNON: The Senate Committee on Homeland Security is taking calls about Bannon's appointment to the NSC. You can call 202-224-4751 and leave comments opposing this appointment.

I tried calling but got a busy signal, will try again shortly.
posted by Existential Dread at 1:17 PM on February 2, 2017 [63 favorites]

In case this ends up being something.

Reuters: Yemeni officials say warships shell al Qaeda positions, U.S. denies involvement

Warships shelled suspected al Qaeda strongholds in a mountainous region of southern Yemen on Thursday, government officials said.

The officials, who asked not to be named, said they believed U.S. forces carried out the operation, though Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis quickly denied any U.S. involvement.

The strikes come less than a week after a covert U.S. Navy SEAL raid, also in Yemen's south, the first ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump as commander in chief.

The naval attacks appear to be part of an intensifying campaign against one of the most active branches of the Islamist militant network.

"Ships fired several missiles towards the al-Maraqisha mountains, where al Qaeda elements are based. The ships are widely believed to be Americans," said one official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

"We have received no information on the outcome of the shelling."
posted by Jalliah at 1:17 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

People simply don't know that a visa process isn't like five minutes at Customs.

And won't listen to anyone that says, 'Hey, I actually went through this process, let me tell you about it.' And then double down on AMERICA FOR AMERICANS WHAT ABOUT OUR VETERANS WHARGARBL
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:18 PM on February 2, 2017 [22 favorites]

....And "Yemen" is an awful lot like "Fremen." Coincidence?!
posted by wenestvedt at 1:18 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Just saw an ad on a light post: "New political climate. Cope: learn blues guitar" with an email address and phone number for the instructor.
posted by zachlipton at 1:19 PM on February 2, 2017 [48 favorites]

“Our goal is simple — to the fullest extent possible we want to shine a light on Russian activities to undermine democracy," committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Ranking Member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said in a joint written statement.

A nice contrast with the House panel investigating the election, where the Democrats say their goal is to figure out what Russia did and the Republicans want to get to the bottom of the Obama administration daring to say anything about it.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:20 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

Sys Rq: "Fox News: DHS Secretary Says Parts Of Border Wall Will Be 'See Through'"

The truth is that the new plan is to only build the U.S. side of the wall. Cuts the cost right in half.
posted by chavenet at 1:20 PM on February 2, 2017 [25 favorites]

FOX News has posted a picture of anti-fascist graffiti, calling it "anti-Trump."

lol "alt-left" is the new reverse racist
posted by poffin boffin at 1:21 PM on February 2, 2017 [33 favorites]

That fucker is going to get us all killed, isn't he?
posted by darkstar at 1:21 PM on February 2, 2017 [26 favorites]

Ivanka Trump Also Promised to Resign From Family Business, And Hasn’t Filed Paperwork
posted by futz at 1:21 PM on February 2, 2017 [15 favorites]

That mother fucker is going to get us all killed, isn't he?

i'm afraid so.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 1:22 PM on February 2, 2017 [10 favorites]

This morning's Australian tabloid covers (a tweet with images) - all focused on That Phone Call.
posted by fever-trees at 1:23 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Ivanka Trump Also Promised to Resign From Family Business, And Hasn’t Filed Paperwork

I think she's holding off in case this whole presidency thing doesn't stick.
posted by mochapickle at 1:24 PM on February 2, 2017 [17 favorites]

I think it's pretty clear at this point that the position of President needs to incorporate some sort of probationary period.
posted by MrVisible at 1:25 PM on February 2, 2017 [21 favorites]

I think she thinks that silly things like laws and regulations don't apply to her, just like dad.
posted by poffin boffin at 1:25 PM on February 2, 2017 [29 favorites]

I have a long wish list. So this is not near the top. But somewhere in the middle. I just want every Trump Hotel guest at every location and at every visit to leave an upper decker. Until the end of time.
posted by prefpara at 1:25 PM on February 2, 2017 [20 favorites]

Does anyone have Many Twitter Followers? This "paid protesters" thing is really sticking in my craw and I think we need a hashtag for selfies of us "radical leftwing paid protesters" just going about our lives grocery shopping and sitting in cubicles when not out protesting and calling.

Pat Toomey just pulled that bullshit today in a radio interview. Apparently the group of several hundred constituents who show up at his office once a week to try and meet with his staff are "preventing constituents from being able to meet with staff." We're all paid protesters, you see.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:25 PM on February 2, 2017 [40 favorites]

Wenestvedt, I was actually thinking of thumpers and sand worms when I wrote that comment. But if their system is good, the thumper will need to move.

(Disclaimer: I don't actually know how good state-of-the-art seismic detection of pedestrians is. Most of the papers I've read have been about vehicle detection. Seismic sensors are also really, really good at detecting helicopters, which is unintuitive, but obvious once you think about it.)
posted by ryanrs at 1:26 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

DHS Secretary Says Parts Of Border Wall Will Be 'See Through'

So we're going to be building the border wall out of transparent aluminum now? I suppose its ability to hold large volumes of water will come in handy once the wall is submerged under the rising seas.
posted by ckape at 1:27 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

OK, just going to throw in the Canadian political shitty thing of the day because it fits.

Kevin O'Leary, who some might now from his stints on Dragon's Den (Shark Tank in the US) is running for the leadership of the Conservative Party. He's made no bones about being inspired by Trump.

Today is the funeral for three of the six men killed at the Mosque shooting in Montreal last week. Kevin has decided that today was the day to post a video of his visit to a gun range, where he fired several weapons.

I don't think I have a strong enough curse word for him.
posted by nubs at 1:27 PM on February 2, 2017 [45 favorites]

Ground surveillance radar is all the rage these days, not so much seismic, because ground radar is also great at detecting drones.
posted by ryanrs at 1:28 PM on February 2, 2017

I tried calling but got a busy signal, will try again shortly.

Took me four redials, but I got through and left a (bumbling) message.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:28 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Does anyone have Many Twitter Followers? This "paid protesters" thing is really sticking in my craw and I think we need a hashtag for selfies of us "radical leftwing paid protesters" just going about our lives grocery shopping and sitting in cubicles when not out protesting and calling.

Pat Toomey just pulled that bullshit today in a radio interview. Apparently the group of several hundred constituents who show up at his office once a week to try and meet with his staff are "preventing constituents from being able to meet with staff." We're all paid protesters, you see.

I feel you. Don't think it will do any good though. The Right has been doing the 'paid protester' thing ever since I started protesting 20+ years ago. I've been one all my life apparently.
posted by Jalliah at 1:28 PM on February 2, 2017 [15 favorites]

I think it's pretty clear at this point that the Presidential election process needs to incorporate some sort of probationary period.

i mean? it usually, historically, does? the candidates and eventual president elect almost always have had some kind of previous experience working in government? so like, we can look at the way they participated in government in their past, in the things they supported and voted for or against? so we can see for example if they had a history of idk, threatening to invade other countries because someone was mean to them on the internet? and like. that would be a deterrant? presumably?

i dont even know anymore what is real what is happen
posted by poffin boffin at 1:29 PM on February 2, 2017 [22 favorites]

I feel you. Don't think it will do any good though. The Right has been doing the 'paid protester' thing ever since I started protesting 20+ years ago. I've been one all my life apparently.'

Oh, I know, but it would amuse me at least.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:29 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Maybe the real wall was the immigrants we deported along the way
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 1:30 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

It's likely a bunch of bullshit about motion sensors and surveilance drones and creating a 'digital' security barriers.

But... how is that not already a thing? Grodd, what makes this all so maddening is these things where it seems like the population think there's some lawless anarchy out around these subjects. People with visas yet no vetting at all is done, completely lack of border scrutiny, etc on and on. Why do they think CBP is 4 dudes playing poker in a Texas shed rather than... [takes 4 seconds to google] 21,000 employees?

I mean, I am not entirely without sympathy to the position that maybe something is being done in the most bone-headed manner possible. After all, even the most slack-jawed dummy knows that, say, when you leave donuts on the floor you're gonna get ants. So you have to pick them up in addition to spraying for ants. Yet we have this eVerify system and it's mandated pretty much fucking nowhere, so of course people will come across the border if there's work and they need work. Just like we do fuck-all in the way of treatment programs versus trying to stop drug imports and oh hey look there's still drugs.

But for fuck's sake, if you can deploy those sorts of measures and have them be worth a shit why would you not think we're doing at least some of that? [random incoherent noises here]

Guhhhhhhhh. I know, I'm preaching to the converted here but cripes it just makes me batty. Yeah, I know, it's a result of decades of deliberately saying government can't do anything right. But [more incoherent noises]. *sob*
posted by phearlez at 1:30 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'm now hearing the song "Joe Hill" in my head but replaced with "Frederick Douglass," which is kind of unmetrical.
posted by jonmc at 1:32 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

The real outrage here is that "chunk of the Antarctic the size of Delaware."

YOU MEASURE CHUNKS OF THE ANTARCTIC IN RHODE ISLANDS, PEOPLE!!!!!
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:33 PM on February 2, 2017 [55 favorites]

really though why would you deport the immigrants when you could enslave them to build the wall for free
posted by poffin boffin at 1:33 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

(Am in Rhode Island, can confirm have been used to measure giant ice sheet spall.)
posted by wenestvedt at 1:34 PM on February 2, 2017 [20 favorites]

The Right has been doing the 'paid protester' thing ever since I started protesting 20+ years ago.

And how!
posted by ckape at 1:34 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

Uber C.E.O. to Leave Trump Advisory Council After Criticism: “Earlier today I spoke briefly with the president about the immigration executive order and its issues for our community,” Mr. Kalanick wrote. “I also let him know that I would not be able to participate on his economic council. Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda but unfortunately it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that.”
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:34 PM on February 2, 2017 [88 favorites]

poffin boffin: really though why would you deport the immigrants when you could enslave them to build the wall for free

Well, now, they might deliberately build a flaw into it, allowing its eventual destruction. Some sort of exhaust port, for example...
posted by wenestvedt at 1:35 PM on February 2, 2017 [22 favorites]

Wow. I did not realize Uber, as a company, was even capable of being spooked.
posted by zachlipton at 1:36 PM on February 2, 2017 [30 favorites]

We need a #SorosCheck hashtag to talk about what we're gonna buy with all that sweet protestin' money.
posted by emjaybee at 1:38 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda but unfortunately it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that.”

"and i would've gotten away with it too if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!"
posted by poffin boffin at 1:38 PM on February 2, 2017 [46 favorites]

@petridishes:
Punxsutawney Phil: the question is not do I see my shadow
the question is where do you see any light?
handler: yup, some cold weather, folks
posted by Going To Maine at 1:39 PM on February 2, 2017 [34 favorites]

Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda but unfortunately it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that.

Your statement was going along great until you decided to blame us for it, Uber guy.
posted by notyou at 1:39 PM on February 2, 2017 [51 favorites]

There have already been an offer of prisoners labor to build it, so maybe they feel they already have enough slaves.
posted by soelo at 1:39 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Wow. I did not realize Uber, as a company, was even capable of being spooked.

They've been in hard damage control mode for a couple of days- #DeleteUber seems to have got to them.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:39 PM on February 2, 2017 [14 favorites]

OK, this is my best to date explanation of what is happening in America. Basically, it's the judgment of Solomon, and the American people went with the party that wanted to kill the baby via sword strike.
posted by prefpara at 1:40 PM on February 2, 2017 [12 favorites]

“I also let him know that I would not be able to participate on his economic council. Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda but unfortunately it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that.”

This is the diplomatic way of saying to Donald 'I'm sorry but you're turning into krypnonite'
posted by Jalliah at 1:40 PM on February 2, 2017 [14 favorites]

#DeleteUber was obviously having a big effect. Plus they had a bit of an uprising from their drivers.

Economic action and political protest is what is going to win this.
posted by chris24 at 1:40 PM on February 2, 2017 [96 favorites]

Network effects giveth and they taketh away.
posted by notyou at 1:41 PM on February 2, 2017 [11 favorites]

YOU MEASURE CHUNKS OF THE ANTARCTIC IN RHODE ISLANDS, PEOPLE!!!!!

For UK MeFites, that's 1/6 of a Wales.
posted by mushhushshu at 1:41 PM on February 2, 2017 [50 favorites]

the American people went with the party that wanted to kill the baby via sword strike.

No, they didn't. More American people voted for Democrats than Republicans for congress and president. By millions.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:42 PM on February 2, 2017 [41 favorites]

Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda but unfortunately it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that.

It can be read another way as well.
posted by Jalliah at 1:42 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

A Foreign Policy article is discussing military disobedience as a serious possibility.

The prospect of American military leaders responding to a presidential order with open defiance is frightening — but so, too, is the prospect of military obedience to an insane order. After all, military officers swear to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, not the president. For the first time in my life, I can imagine plausible scenarios in which senior military officials might simply tell the president: “No, sir. We’re not doing that,” to thunderous applause from the New York Times editorial board.

posted by Coventry at 1:42 PM on February 2, 2017 [56 favorites]

coffin boffin

lololololol
posted by axiom at 1:42 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Also the Democrats are like you Republicans can have the baby, just don't kill it and Republicans are like, we meant what we said, get that sword ready.
posted by prefpara at 1:42 PM on February 2, 2017 [18 favorites]

No, they didn't. More American people voted more Democrat than Republican for congress and president. By millions.

Very fair. Many Americans. Enough Americans.
posted by prefpara at 1:43 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Uber right now (more megacorps to follow as the enormity of the economic disaster of trade and shooting wars on the horizon comes into clearer focus)
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:43 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

"Fox News: DHS Secretary Says Parts Of Border Wall Will Be 'See Through'"

The DHS went on to add: "But only the sexiest parts of the wall. The large buttresses -- those will be painted something neutral, with vertical stripes to minimize their apparent size. Ditto for the parts that have unkempt bushes poking out. We want our wall to inspire us, to make us appreciate the things we love about America, while also reminding us that being a wall is a serious responsibility. It's gonna be classy, not one of those "nasty" walls. Gonna have a great big pair of tits, too -- those will probably be in the see through part."
posted by mosk at 1:46 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Trump voters also continue to refuse to believe in the sincerity of those protesting him. 48% think the folks who protested at airports across the country last weekend were paid to do so by George Soros, to only 31% who think the protesters weren't paid. Trump voters thought the women's marchers were all paid by Mr. Soros as well so clearly the Trump administration is going to be very expensive for him.

The attitudes of Trump voters on the issue of the order being a Muslim ban are telling. 71% claim they don't think the intent of the executive order was to ban Muslims from entering the country, to 23% who say that was the intent. But then when you ask Trump voters what their feelings on banning Muslims from the country are, they support it. 48% of Trump voters support banning Muslims from entering the country, to 40% who are opposed. So they say it's not a Muslim ban, but they want a Muslim ban, and 94% of them support the order.

I'm being glib (so I don't cry) about the end of days stuff but... if the only things we can do are things that necessitate turning these folks then maybe there's not things worth doing.
posted by phearlez at 1:46 PM on February 2, 2017 [30 favorites]

Sally Yates. Knew her days as AG were numbered, and decided to light that fuse early. That stupid, immoral, unconstitutional muslim ban, that goes against the geneva convention, the unhcr, just plain common decency - she wasn't going to defend that bullshit for a fucking second.

I hope one day she's the judge that puts the gavel down on her successor for treason.
posted by adept256 at 1:47 PM on February 2, 2017 [109 favorites]

North Carolina voters, @SenThomTillis's office said he's undecided about DeVos and wants to hear from people.
posted by T.D. Strange at 1:49 PM on February 2, 2017 [22 favorites]

A simple action to take - push for your public institutions to make a public statement on refugees or the Muslim Ban if they haven't already. For example here in New Zealand, Victoria University's Vice-Chancellor Professor Grant Guilford has put out a statement "“A foolhardy, unethical and quite possibly illegal Executive Order has been issued by the White House temporarily banning citizens of seven countries from entering the United States.

The University is not currently aware of any staff or students who are affected. However, we will continue to monitor the situation and if we do identify anyone at Victoria who is, or could be, impacted by the ban we will be doing everything possible to support and advise those people.

It goes without saying that disgraceful actions such as this Executive Order are the antithesis of Victoria University of Wellington’s global-civic commitment to inclusivity, equity and diversity, and are not in keeping with the core values of respect, responsibility, fairness, integrity and empathy we share with the wider academic community.”"

I'm not a student there, but I am at University of Auckland. Now I'm agitating to get my university to make a similar statement, as well as the uni where I got my nursing degree from (Massey). I've also been writing to my MP to make a similar statement.

Man, I really want to start something like Indivisible but for expats, does anyone know of anything like this? I'm sure there are many like me who are fired up but unable to physically be present in the USA to attend meetings etc.
posted by supercrayon at 1:49 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

We're digging a hole here. It's going to be the biggest hole you've ever seen.

Pretty sure the biggest hole we've ever seen is currently occupying the Oval Office.
posted by Autumnheart at 1:51 PM on February 2, 2017 [47 favorites]

This morning's Australian tabloid covers (a tweet with images) - all focused on That Phone Call.

I laughed at the Game of Phones cover before realizing we all just got front row seats to Mad King Aerys's reign.
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 1:52 PM on February 2, 2017 [10 favorites]

The WH finally speaks out on Russia and Ukraine. Well sort of.

Jim Sciutto CNN tweet Breaking: In 1st comments to UNSC, UN Amb. Nikki Haley issues "clear and strong condemnation of Russian actions" in #Ukraine
posted by Jalliah at 1:52 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

I'm a Republican and I'm joining the Protests
posted by bq at 1:52 PM on February 2, 2017 [26 favorites]

Puxatawny Phil

mai nam is phil
an every year
i ask mai self
"is sun still here?"

mai shado's gone
so spring iz nigh
but strange oranj spray
up on dis guy

ded sqirel there
on top his hed
ignore the spring
go bak to bed
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:53 PM on February 2, 2017 [122 favorites]

Man, I really want to start something like Indivisible but for expats, does anyone know of anything like this? I'm sure there are many like me who are fired up but unable to physically be present in the USA to attend meetings etc.
posted by supercrayon at 5:49 AM on February 3 [3 favorites −] Favorite added! [!]

Best I've worked out is Google Voice for phone calls, beyond that, I don't know.

But I'd imagine finding a way to get foreign voices into our media conversation, people on the street style, would do a world of good. We need some way to fight against the dehumanization of affected groups.
posted by saysthis at 1:55 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

My cat has terminal cancer and it's making it hard for her to poop so we just got her a bunch of good dope but will have to carefully squeeze what comes out of her anus to determine if she's getting constipated.

That little story is like, full of hope and beauty and honor when compared to DJT and what he has done.
posted by angrycat at 1:55 PM on February 2, 2017 [84 favorites]

Okay something has happened here. This sounds different then what was coming out last week.

TRUMP WARNS ISRAEL: STOP ANNOUNCING NEW SETTLEMENTS

The White House warned Israel on Thursday – in a surprising statement – to cease settlement announcements that are “unilateral” and “undermining” of President Donald Trump’s effort to forge Middle East peace, a senior administration official told The Jerusalem Post.

For the first time, the administration confirmed that Trump is committed to a comprehensive two-state solution to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict negotiated between the parties.
posted by Jalliah at 1:56 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

Puxatawny Phil didn't see his shadow, so he provided shade
posted by chavenet at 1:56 PM on February 2, 2017 [12 favorites]

I don’t believe in ghosts because, if there were such a thing, then I think the following would be a true story. As far as I know, it is not. …

Somewhere in America, just before midnight on every Friday the 13th, the ghost of Frederick Douglass appears at the bedside of some racist wretch.

A ghost story by Fred Clark.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 1:57 PM on February 2, 2017 [16 favorites]

I don't support the settlements and think the two state solution is almost certainly the wisest, but way to piss off one of your few remaining allies who isn't pissed off, President Bannon.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:58 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

>“undermining” of President Donald Trump’s effort to forge Middle East peace,

IN THESE DARK TIMES A TRUE STATESMAN ARISES

pull the other one.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 1:58 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

President Donald Trump’s effort to forge Middle East peace

lol
posted by Copronymus at 1:58 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

DHS Secretary Says Parts Of Border Wall Will Be 'See Through'

Scientific optical principle really works.
posted by lagomorphius at 1:59 PM on February 2, 2017

maybe he's, like, paying someone to literally forge a giant hunk of gold that says "MIDDLE EAST PEACE" for him to hang up
posted by Copronymus at 1:59 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

They misspelled "forget".
posted by dng at 1:59 PM on February 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

President Donald Trump’s effort to forge Middle East peace

Amazing that his attempt to pull a "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" to distract from his fuckups everywhere else is fucking over the one ally/friend he actually had. Sorry Bibi.

Genius.
posted by chris24 at 2:00 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

The White House warned Israel on Thursday....

Haha! The Likudniks got screwed over again.
posted by PenDevil at 2:01 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't support the settlements and think the two state solution is almost certainly the wisest, but way to piss off one of your few remaining allies who isn't pissed off, President Bannon.

I dunno if it is Bannon. Last week the noise was all about the embassy moving and Kushner involved in 'deals' around settlements.

Or maybe IT IS Bannon who is now undermining Kushner. Hmm.
posted by Jalliah at 2:01 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

I also would love an Indivisible for expats. Democrats Abroad exists; maybe we can bug them to get something going?
posted by nat at 2:02 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

I pick my son up early from school every Thursday to take him to his therapist.

In our city 1 of about every 6 residents is an immigrant. We have one of the largest Somali refugee communities in the country.

Today, while waiting in the office, I learned two things.

1) his elementary school (grades K-5) has a "Civil Rights Club"
2) the civil rights club apparently asked each class to sign a petition that says (I'm paraphrasing from memory) "Recently in the news, there have been lots of things that are scary for our classmates who are new to America. I sign my name below to say that I welcome you here and that I will stand up to bullies on your behalf."

I know this because the petitions -- pages of them -- were posted on the wall outside the office, with a little typewritten explanatory note. Names written with big letters in shaky crayon. Names written by kids who are just learning cursive. Names written with i's dotted with hearts, and a few names written in non-English characters. Two thumbprints with names penciled in next to them by teachers (I'm assuming these belong to the kids who I see who have serious motor disabilities, but I don't know for sure.)

The kids man. The kids will resist. The kids will stand up for each other. The kids are all right.
posted by anastasiav at 2:03 PM on February 2, 2017 [347 favorites]

That PPP thing is challenging me bigly. I'm about done with 'we have to reach Trump voters' and close to thinking that if they're that dug in then maybe those whole human sentience thing was a big mistake we may as well finish with so the porpoises or roaches can take over.

It drives me crazy because how much of a bubble do you have to be in to not know a single person who has protested in the past week? Maybe not someone you see regularly or IRL, but a friend of a friend on FB or your niece in another state or that lefty roommate from your freshman year of college or someone? But we're the ones who are in bubbles and just need to reach out and understand the Trump voters' anger. Yeah right. Also, the obsession with Soros is anti-semitic and they can't possibly understand how money works if they think he's paying us all.
posted by Mavri at 2:04 PM on February 2, 2017 [18 favorites]

As for the "We can't help refugees, we've got Veterans and their kittens and tiny tiny babies to help first blargh arghle" bullshit, I have been running into this dialogue here as well (although less to do with Vets, and more housing, education, etc.").

I have been responding thusly:
Long version - "Wow, I'm so glad we agree on this issue Bob! Veterans absolutely need access to high quality services and health care. This is why I'm sure you've been contacting your reps regarding the recent indication that Trump may try and privatise the VA, against the wishes of his nominee David Shulkin. I know you've been contacting your reps on this issue because you really care about America's vets, and you would never just be using them as a rhetorical device. Likewise I no doubt don't need to tell you as you're obviously very well informed, but vets are really overrespresented among the homeless population, and this is an absolute outrage. That's why you've been agitating to get better access to secure housing for our veterans with your local city council. I'm sure you've been very effective at this because you, like me, care deeply about this issue. You wouldn't just be paying lip service to our vets without actually following through on advocating on their behalf. And I'm especially pleased to hear you will no doubt be a strong supporter of the Wounded Warriors! I hardly need to tell you but as a charitable organization they can always use more donations and volunteers. I know you must already been donating and volunteering because you are a staunch ally of our veterans. You wouldn't be using their status to discriminate against another completely different group of vulnerable people like refugees, that would be a horrible, disrespectful thing to do." etc.

Short version - Cut the shit. We are the richest country on the face of the planet, don't tell me we can't provide services to vets and help refugees.
posted by supercrayon at 2:05 PM on February 2, 2017 [136 favorites]

“Betsy told me all about Frederick Douglass,” Trump told reporters.

Is it even remotely possible that Trump did not know who Frederick Douglas was? Or is it just another instance of him improperly using our language? After being sandwiched between to mental midget presidents Obama is going to seem like an intellectual giant. (which he may in fact be)
posted by notreally at 2:06 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

Thanks Existential Dread for posting that info on calling the Senate Committee on Homeland Security. I was able to get through and here's what I found out.

1) If the phone is "answered" and you get dead silence, hold on the line.
2) A recorded message will play telling you to leave a message.
3) After the recording, there will be more dead silence, but again stay on the line.
4) Leave your concise message.

Here are the talking points I used against Bannon--please use them if they are helpful:

1) Bannon has made many Islamophobic statements that undermine US diplomatic and security interests and should not be given any governmental power.
2) He has no intelligence and no security experience.
3) Bannon is a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States.
4) Thus, Bannon must be removed from the NSC, while the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence must be reinstated.

These talking points are super progressive exactly, but I think they might make an impression on the Senators.

As always, keep calling, faxing, writing, and marching.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 2:06 PM on February 2, 2017 [37 favorites]

I laughed at the Game of Phones cover before realizing we all just got front row seats to Mad King Aerys's reign.

I'd say we got Joffrey. Which means the next President will soon be Barron. Whose only notable act will be appointing his cat to the NSC. Senior Advisor Pounce.
posted by honestcoyote at 2:06 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

Sorry for the length, but nothing pisses me off more than "We can't help x, we should be helping y!" from people who are helping neither. Don't politicize people who need help when you're sitting on your ass.
posted by supercrayon at 2:07 PM on February 2, 2017 [25 favorites]

Jennifer Barrett: Our neighborhood kids hanging signs of support at our corner bodega. #WeStandWithYou #BodegaStrike

I was a little late getting home for ♫ The Spicey Show ♫ today because I took a brief detour to add a message to the giant banner of support and solidarity for international students that our International Studies office provided for faculty, staff, and students to contribute to. It had only been out there for an hour or so and was fairly full, and lots of folks were stopping by to leave notes. A satisfying morning, all things considered.
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:07 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Wow - I was hoping he'd piss off the Jews who voted for him, but I always assumed he'd do it through incompetence or slow attrition. This is much better.

Though on the other hand (though this is from yesterday): Israeli Officials Worried that Trump Will Actually Move Embassy
posted by Mchelly at 2:07 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

The kids man. The kids will resist. The kids will stand up for each other. The kids are all right.

Oh man, I'm getting weepy at work...thank you.
posted by notsnot at 2:09 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

Donald Trump's advisors on Women in the Workforce

Doug McMillon, chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Mark Weinberger, chief executive of EY
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:09 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

I'd say we got Joffrey. Which means the next President will soon be Barron. Whose only notable act will be appointing his cat to the NSC. Senior Advisor Pounce.

I would trust Pounce over Bannon.
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 2:11 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

Your article is paywalled for me, roomthreeseventeen. Are there any women among Donald Trump's advisors on women in the workforce?

Sometime in the early 90s, I attended a meeting of the House GOP subcommittee on women. There were no women on the House GOP subcommittee on women. It was fascinating.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 2:12 PM on February 2, 2017 [18 favorites]

I'm 100% for protests, marches, civil disobedience, and honestly, some more extreme methods as necessary. One thing I'm having a hard time with, though - every single article and post telling me to call my rep. The phones are of the hook. No one is taking messages. Voicemail is full. And even IF calling en masse made it through to my rep....I no longer trust any of them to do anything. Even if every one stood up and voted against every bill and every nominee, Republicans would still win every time. These people no longer, if every they did, represent us. Maybe... Maybe a year and a half from now they'll start paying attention when their seats are up. But they have no reason to listen to us this year because we've shown them time and time again that we have short memories and will forget their spinelessness next month. Anyone care to provide me some compelling evidence to the contrary? I really don't want to think this way.
posted by greermahoney at 2:12 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

Donald Trump's advisors on Women in the Workforce

Doug McMillon, chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Mark Weinberger, chief executive of EY

It is 2017 and we have a Department of Mansplaining.
posted by zombieflanders at 2:12 PM on February 2, 2017 [113 favorites]

Your article is paywalled for me, roomthreeseventeen. Are there any women among Donald Trump's advisors on women in the workforce?

The only two people listed are those men.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:13 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Israeli Officials Worried that Trump Will Actually Move Embassy

So funny to me in a way. When I was in Israel for the first time, on a church trip in 1989, the Israeli tour guide, and some officials we met along the way, urged us to "write your President. Write your Congress. Tell them to move the embassy to Jerusalem. Keeping it in Tel Aviv is unfair."
posted by honestcoyote at 2:14 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

@vforrestal
i'm pretty sure this is what war with australia would look like so drumpf better back the fuck up
posted by Wordshore at 2:14 PM on February 2, 2017 [11 favorites]

Bruce Springsteen Mocks President Trump's Tense Phone Call with Australian PM by Playing 'Don't Hang Up' at Melbourne Show. (youtube video).
posted by gudrun at 2:14 PM on February 2, 2017 [16 favorites]

Anyone care to provide me some compelling evidence to the contrary? I really don't want to think this way.

The Tea Party.
posted by Coventry at 2:14 PM on February 2, 2017 [15 favorites]

One more note on the PPP poll from earlier. The people who know who Bannon is don't like him (41% unfavorable vs 19% favorable) but 40% of respondents were 'Not Sure'. Most people still don't have a clue who Bannon is, don't know that he's running the show, don't know that he's consolidating power for himself, don't know that he's a white supremacist evil little shit. That's why it's important for #StopPresidentBannon campaign to keep going and for the Pelosi's of this world to say the words 'white supremacist on the National Security Council' so the rest of the country can hear that and go 'Woah, that can't be right, who is this Bannon guy'.
posted by TwoWordReview at 2:14 PM on February 2, 2017 [41 favorites]

Pretty much everybody I've spoken to about the Trump-Turnbull call has lol'd about it. Turnbull is a spineless numpty and I'm glad he got rolled. Seriously though, Australia is basically an entry-tier bonus for Kickstarter backers of "America: The Institution". You'd have to be an idiot to not be able to manage that.
posted by turbid dahlia at 2:15 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

Yeah right. Also, the obsession with Soros is anti-semitic and they can't possibly understand how money works if they think he's paying us all.

When I have time I ask them how much do you think he is paying each protester per protest. If they're game this can take a little to work through but if you get to that point then ask to start running the numbers. Very quickly you'll get up to where Soros is has paid over a billion dollars for just protesting this past two weeks. Start adding in the other stuff they usually saying he is doing and it goes even higher.

The numbers take on a ridiculous nature and the ones I've done this with usually drop it. The extended version for those that refuse to drop it because he's worth 25 billion so what's one billion when your worth that much already you start running numbers on how soon he'll go through the 25 billion if you keep up the pace. It just gets sillier and sillier.

I've had one person once we got to this version of silly land just said that he had billions and billions of secret money at his disposal. You can't reach some people no matter what you do or say.
posted by Jalliah at 2:15 PM on February 2, 2017 [38 favorites]

The Soros thing makes more sense if you stop thinking about "Soros" as meaning a particular guy named George Soros and realize that it actually means "the international Jewish conspiracy."
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 2:16 PM on February 2, 2017 [107 favorites]

Here are the talking points I used against Bannon--please use them if they are helpful:

1) Bannon has made many Islamophobic statements that undermine US diplomatic and security interests and should not be given any governmental power.
2) He has no intelligence and no security experience.
3) Bannon is a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States.
4) Thus, Bannon must be removed from the NSC, while the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence must be reinstated.

I would also add that President George W Bush knew the value of keeping the NSC apolitical and drew a clear line on Karl Rove not attending, and Bannon is so much more dangerous than Rove ever was that his presence delegitimizes NSC decisions.
posted by jason_steakums at 2:16 PM on February 2, 2017 [29 favorites]

You know what continues to really bug me about all that has happened post-election? I still see so many areas of agreement or rational compromise between the average liberal and conservative here. I'd be happy to talk about regulatory reform, tighter immigration vetting, improvement of the ACA, etc. Instead, it's just excess on both sides. The mainstream media is reporting right now on Trump's hair loss drugs, for god's sake (and I'm a liberal, but come on, that's so irrelevant).
posted by megancita at 2:16 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

Donald Trump's advisors on Women in the Workforce

reflexively unleashed a long groan before even getting to the names because I just KNEW it was gonna be another panel of dudes
posted by everybody had matching towels at 2:17 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

One more note on the PPP poll from earlier. The people who know who Bannon is don't like him (41% unfavorable vs 19% favorable) but 40% of respondents were 'Not Sure'. Most people still don't have a clue who Bannon is, don't know that he's running the show, don't know that he's consolidating power for himself, don't know that he's a white supremacist evil little shit. That's why it's important for #StopPresidentBannon campaign to keep going and for the Pelosi's of this world to say the words 'white supremacist on the National Security Council' so the rest of the country can hear that and go 'Woah, that can't be right, who is this Bannon guy'.

And, tie his name to Flynn, Miller and Sessions at every opportunity.
posted by jason_steakums at 2:18 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

>Donald Trump's advisors on Women in the Workforce

...so... the Cabinet for Grabbin' it?
posted by Sing Or Swim at 2:19 PM on February 2, 2017 [36 favorites]

Prominent Putin critic hospitalized after sudden organ failure.
posted by rocket88 at 2:19 PM on February 2, 2017 [26 favorites]

Donald Trump's advisors on Women in the Workforce

reflexively unleashed a long groan before even getting to the names because I just KNEW it was gonna be another panel of dudes
posted by everybody had matching towels at 6:17 AM on February 3 [+] [!]

Hey, don't knock the dudes. They have binders full of women. The best binders. Tremendous binders.
posted by saysthis at 2:20 PM on February 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

@jonathanweisman - Recall uproar when Obama weighed in on Harvard historian Skip Gates' run-in w/police. Now think: Trump has intervened for Milo Yiannopoulos.

Goddammit Obama had to have a beer with that racist ass cop and Republicans still probably thought he should resign, while Trump gets to flock to Milo Yiannopoulos' side and people shrug.
posted by DynamiteToast at 2:20 PM on February 2, 2017 [61 favorites]

Weird: Steve Bannon's Ex-Partner [writing partner - JiA] Acts Terrified in Bizarre CNN Interview—Then Suddenly Disappears
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:20 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

A non-paywalled link of the CEO list.

Tax and Trade

Indra Nooyi, chief executive of PepsiCo Inc.

Ginni Rometty, chief executive of International Business Machines Corp.

Women in the Workforce

Doug McMillon, chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Mark Weinberger, chief executive of EY

Regulation

Mary Barra, chief executive of General Motors Co.

Paul Atkins, former Republican member of the Securities and Exchange Commission

Infrastructure

Laurence Fink, chief executive of BlackRock Inc.

Adebayo Ogunlesi, chairman of Global Infrastructure Partners
posted by chris24 at 2:21 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

The Soros thing makes more sense if you stop thinking about "Soros" as meaning a particular guy named George Soros and realize that it actually means "the international Jewish conspiracy."

It's gone well beyond the point where everyone that uses it is just using it as code. I know it's used by lots of people to mean this and that this is where it comes from. I also know, I've had conversations with them, that lots of people have no clue that it has anything to do with anything Jewish. It's just something that the right wing people say now because it's some sort of given.
posted by Jalliah at 2:21 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

The mainstream media is reporting right now on Trump's hair loss drugs, for god's sake (and I'm a liberal, but come on, that's so irrelevant).

I agree, yet... that fucking asshole made physical appearance into such a big deal that he basically insinuated that his followers shouldn't vote for anyone who sweats or who has smaller hands than he does. Let this distract him from isolating our allies. Let him lose sleep over the fact that he's disgusting inside and out and we all know it.

Only half-joking, I get that the people running the show like Bannon are gleeful when he gets stuck up on petty bullshit so they can keep pulling the strings to work evil, but I don't know, seeing the NYT headline about his hair made me feel something closer to happiness than I've felt looking at news for a long time.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 2:21 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

Turnbull is a spineless numpty

Apropos of that...

Numpty Trumpty promised a wall
Numpty Trumpty had a great fall
All the world's women and all the world's men
Wished the yanks would do election again
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:22 PM on February 2, 2017 [17 favorites]

To his credit, Trump has come up with a really effective method of curtailing both illegal immigration and refugee seekers, namely: to render the USA a place nobody in their right mind would want to live.

And failing that, to render it literally unlivable through either unchecked pollution or nuclear fallout, one assumes. It's always smart to have a backup plan!
posted by penduluum at 2:23 PM on February 2, 2017 [12 favorites]

I would like to get paid to protest. Where are they recruiting? Are we unionized? Do we get a lunch break? 401(k)?

Anyone?
posted by Soliloquy at 2:23 PM on February 2, 2017 [17 favorites]

I'm not defending him, because come on, but the info posted here about the women-in-the-workplace advisors is misleading. He invited 8 CEOs to the WH to talk about various issues. The CEO slated to talk about women in the workplace is Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM.

I couldn't read the WSJ article either, but here's a press release.
posted by mudpuppie at 2:24 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Arkansas Just Made Some Abortion Procedures Punishable by 6 Years in Prison

Gorsuch isn't even on yet.

(A few days old, apparently. But news to me.)
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:24 PM on February 2, 2017 [21 favorites]

The mainstream media is reporting right now on Trump's hair loss drugs, for god's sake (and I'm a liberal, but come on, that's so irrelevant).

I agree, yet... that fucking asshole made physical appearance into such a big deal

Plus it wasn't reporters digging to find this. It was his own damn shitty doctor who broke confidentiality. Maybe have a real doctor and release a real medical report and this shit wouldn't be news.
posted by chris24 at 2:25 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

I couldn't read the WSJ article either, but here's a press release.

So WSJ is fake news now? I copy/pasted exactly the way they have it listed.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:25 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Is it even remotely possible that Trump did not know who Frederick Douglas was?

I think it's very unlikely that he knew. I think it's pretty unlikely that he knows now.
posted by howfar at 2:26 PM on February 2, 2017 [24 favorites]

No wait, I misread. Never mind!
posted by mudpuppie at 2:26 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm not defending him, because come on, but the info posted here about the women-in-the-workplace advisors is misleading. He invited 8 CEOs to the WH to talk about various issues. The CEO slated to talk about women in the workplace is Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM.

Pretty sure you're reading that wrong. As I posted above from the same press release, the people under the category are the ones speaking about it.
posted by chris24 at 2:26 PM on February 2, 2017

If Soros can afford to pay all those protestors, you should probably crown him president. Since he'd have to be way, waaay, richer, and therefore more qualified, than the current guy.
posted by rodlymight at 2:27 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

The DCCC has sent me an email that consists of more than sentimental wheedling or impotent yelling, announcing actual plans and action. This is not normal.

guess it's time to donate for positive reinforcement
posted by foxfirefey at 2:28 PM on February 2, 2017 [10 favorites]

So WSJ is fake news now? I copy/pasted exactly the way they have it listed.

No, it's just paywalled.
posted by mochapickle at 2:28 PM on February 2, 2017

UPDATE: 4:50 p.m. ― Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), each said Thursday that they, too, had called Hockey to reaffirm the alliance between the United States and Australia.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:29 PM on February 2, 2017 [21 favorites]

I can't believe we're fucking talking about hair.
posted by CottonCandyCapers at 2:30 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

I think the play may be emerging. Guess we'll see.

#BREAKING @AFP (United Nations) - US says no lifting of Russia sanctions unless Crimea returned to Ukraine.

How much does Putin want or need Crimea? More then he wants sanctions lifted? How much is he a man who okay to lose some face over getting billions of dollars? (I don't know enough to answer these questions)

Because what if the deal is.

Okay Donnie. I'm gonna make a big ruckus in Ukraine.
You tell me to back off.
I make a bit of a fuss and back off
Then you look good cause I met the deal and bang sanctions off.
posted by Jalliah at 2:31 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

Or it could be and indication that some sane people are trying to take back some control from Donald and Co.
posted by Jalliah at 2:32 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

turbid dahlia Turnbull is a spineless numpty and I'm glad he got rolled. I disagree. Whatever the personal or political characteristics of Turnbull, that phone-call is not how any government leader should be treated by any other leader, especially an ally. It is rude, ignorant and crass behaviour. But the worst thing about Trump's behaviour is the message it sends other world leaders. Will I be treated this way? Will I be made to look like a numpty by Trump? Can I trust Trump with anything I say to him? Should I take his call when it is "sundown" in Washington?

Laugh all you want about Turnbull being rolled, but the destabilising effect of it on international diplomacy and how Trump is perceived by other world leaders is certainly not funny.
posted by vac2003 at 2:33 PM on February 2, 2017 [38 favorites]

How much does Putin want or need Crimea?

As I understand it, the Crimea is a pretty big deal because of its warm-water port. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
posted by entropicamericana at 2:34 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Yo, I just called Feinstein's LA office and immediately got through, so clearly we Californians aren't calling hard enough. Today's Bullshit that I settled on conveying to my elected representative was rejecting Gorsuch's nomination/confirmation.

As an aside, I'm so used to leaving messages at this point that I was flustered when I spoke to an actual person. Do I need to give them my name or just my zip code? The guy who answered only asked for my zip code. When I leave messages, I leave my name and zip code but now I'm wondering if I should bother with leaving my name if I don't want a response back.
posted by yasaman at 2:34 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

it's not even the amount of money it would take to pay all the protesters, it's the fucking insanely complicated logistics of getting everyone's contact info to actually give them the money in the first place. do they think there is a secret website called JEW MONEY FOR LIBS where we sign up for our checks? but somehow none of their media gods have been savvy enough to find it?

i actually hate them more for their astonishing stupidity than i do for their antisemitism

also it's a dead clear clue that none of them have ever had any kind of community involvement in any way seeing as the very thought of it doesn't give them horror flashbacks of having to do data entry from a handwritten sign-in sheet of misspelled email addresses and phone numbers missing an area code and people named john smith whose meandering chickenscratch handwriting makes it look like jerbleberble smoockypoop
posted by poffin boffin at 2:34 PM on February 2, 2017 [103 favorites]

Jalliah: Or it could be and indication that some sane people are trying to take back some control from Donald and Co.

As much as I'd like to believe this, I laughed out loud when I read it. Who are these sane people? Mattis? Are there enough sane people around him to use the plural "people?"

This is no criticism of you, Jalliah, because I really do hope you're right.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:35 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Or Vladimir called up Donnie and said something like "Stop making it so obvious that I'm calling the shots"
posted by TwoWordReview at 2:35 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

"Fox News: DHS Secretary Says Parts Of Border Wall Will Be 'See Through'"

Despairingly funny. So first they will recruit lots of people to build the wall. Then they will recruit lots of people to guard the "see through" parts of the wall. Most of these people will be vulnerable, with little education and poor outlook. We'll get to see ruddy faces and enjoy schmaltzy stories about bootstraps and American spirit. These people will be huddled together for months (years), being fed propaganda and paramilitary programming to deal with the "bad hombres". They will be isolated and loyal and full of contempt for anyone who disparages the man who revived America.

They're not building a wall. They're building a prison.
posted by dmh at 2:35 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

my name is Malc
and wen on fone
I talk to Trumpf
for half a mome

am soon beset
by mocking jeers
I hope none sees me
lik the tears.
posted by turbid dahlia at 2:36 PM on February 2, 2017 [19 favorites]

If you can get through to Feinstein, complain about the CBP at LAX not honoring the orders of the District Court, and the US Marshals refusal to serve further process without instructions from the US Attorney. Just ask what the Senator's office is doing about it, no need to have a real grasp of the law.

U.S. Marshals Accused Of Not Serving Court Orders About Immigration Ban

LA immigration attorneys hit wall of silence with LAX customs officials
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:37 PM on February 2, 2017 [28 favorites]

I'd be happy to talk about regulatory reform, tighter immigration vetting, improvement of the ACA, etc. Instead, it's just excess on both sides. The mainstream media is reporting right now on Trump's hair loss drugs, for god's sake (and I'm a liberal, but come on, that's so irrelevant)

Look, we have had eight fucking years of an administration that staked its entire legacy on trying to reach bipartisanship agreement or common ground with the GOP. Eight years, and this is where it has gotten us.

At what point, megancita, do you give up on trying to negotiate with terrorists? At what point do you stop pretending that a terrorist is ever going to negotiate with you in good faith?

I have gone from desperately hoping that there was some shell of honor in the Republican party to grimly determined to burn it, root and stem and branch, as viciously and mercilessly as I can, based on the responses I hear from Republican leaders and officials. I may re-evaluate that as I see action from key Republican leaders, but I am not optimistic and I am not waiting for that action as I devise my game plans; I will happily work with conservatives but only if they take action against this regime and I can relate to them as comrades in arms. I view this as basic human patriotism, because there are terrorists in control of our government, and their only goal appears to be causing pain to Americans who never fucking did anything to anyone else, plus consolidating power and founding a goddamn fucking evil dictatorship in the fucking cradle of modern democracy.

Damn right I am using extreme rhetoric. I am using extreme rhetoric because we are in extreme times. I am using extreme rhetoric because this is a state of national emergency. And if you think I am being too strident or too severe or too, fuck, I don't even know, excessive, I would like you to look inside yourself and ask yourself what a regime that did merit this kind of response would look like and how you would know it to identify it.
posted by sciatrix at 2:39 PM on February 2, 2017 [100 favorites]

AP: BREAKING: House votes to roll back Obama rule on background checks for gun ownership.

Fox News: The Republican-controlled House on Thursday took its first steps toward strengthening gun ownership under President Donald Trump, moving to scrap a requirement for background checks for disabled Social Security recipients mentally incapable of managing their own affairs.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:39 PM on February 2, 2017 [18 favorites]

Whatever the personal or political characteristics of Turnbull, that phone-call is not how any government leader should be treated by any other leader, especially an ally.

I agree completely and think that Trump is one of the vilest slugs to ever creep across the face of our planet. But Turnbull and his cabinet have been carrying on since the US election about their "special relationship" with the Republican Party, and I'm happy it has been demonstrated that there is no such thing. They are utterly insignificant and if they had a half a brain and a loop of intestine between them, they would be reassessing their alliances, changing their tone and their approach, and sending a few more diplomats to China.
posted by turbid dahlia at 2:40 PM on February 2, 2017 [15 favorites]

Thanks to Existential Dread and Excommunicated Cardinal for the information about calling the Senate Committee on Homeland Security about Bannon.

I got through and left a message. It was my first call because I am a wuss about the phone, but it won't be my last.

For general messages like these (rather than calls to specific representatives), do people usually provide their name, number, and location? I did, but I'm not sure if I needed to or if was even a good idea.
posted by minsies at 2:40 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

JEW MONEY FOR LIBS

Once they repeal the 501c rules, this should totally be a thing.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:40 PM on February 2, 2017 [12 favorites]

> I think I'll participate in the science march wearing this Rogue NASA shirt.

I just bought that shirt! And yes, I'm hoping I can wear it to the march

(Which...I actually have a class scheduled to teach that day, damnit! I want badly to participate, but I also want to be there for my students who tend to be nervous about Doing Actual Science. I am very much torn.)
posted by Salieri at 2:41 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

As much as I'd like to believe this, I laughed out loud when I read it. Who are these sane people? Mattis? Are there enough sane people around him to use the plural "people?"

You don't have to be non-evil to realize you're supposed to be kinda sorta opaque about this shit. I can easily imagine Tillerson showing up for his first full day on the job and saying "no, you idiots, subtlety matters."
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:41 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

it's not even the amount of money it would take to pay all the protesters, it's the fucking insanely complicated logistics of getting everyone's contact info to actually give them the money in the first place.

Maybe they think there's a guy with a suitcase full of cash handing out dolla dolla bills y'all to protesters on their way out of the protest. Alas, all I've gotten thus far is: 1) Communist Party newsletter, 2) Resist Fascism sticker, 3) assorted flyers for progressive organizations.
posted by yasaman at 2:42 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

I think I speak for everyone when I say fuck.
posted by flatluigi at 2:42 PM on February 2, 2017 [34 favorites]

When I have time I ask them how much do you think he is paying each protester per protest.

This is actually one of the areas where previous defense kind of trips things up here. Because the women's march actually is somewhat unique as opposed to previous protests - which honestly, look - I say this as someone who was involved with the nonprofit industrial complex, but the charge at their heart - that people involved in running protests often make money off doing it - is not, generally, wrong. Big protests that get in the news mean more funding which mean salaries, and are often engaged in even if they're not tactical or people involved don't think they'll work. There's a cycle where a lot of the protests any organization engages in in a given year are somewhat mercenary, even if the organization has the best intentions. Sure, 'every protester gets paid' is obvious bullshit, but it'd also be bullshit to say no one is getting anything.

And all of that is complete bullshit when it comes to the Women's March, which was super fucking organic, and which had random people spending hundreds of dollars on plane tickets because they just wanted to be a part of it. It absolutely was not business as usual. It was incredibly motivating and powerful and different, but you can't really acknowledge that it's different without acknowledging that previous protests did have money tied to them really intrinsically. (Which is not just a bullshit right-wing charge: from the left, try reading The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond The Nonprofit Industrial Complex)
posted by corb at 2:43 PM on February 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

Pretty sure they think it's done on Craigslist.
posted by Mchelly at 2:44 PM on February 2, 2017

Maybe a year and a half from now they'll start paying attention when their seats are up. But they have no reason to listen to us this year because we've shown them time and time again that we have short memories and will forget their spinelessness next month. Anyone care to provide me some compelling evidence to the contrary? I really don't want to think this way.

greermahoney, don't despair. It sounds like you're concerned about two things: Republican obstruction/maneuvering and Democratic spinelessness. Re: the former, now that they control all the things it will be harder for them to blame the Dems if the shit they push through goes wrong. Witness how the GOP is suddenly walking back all their big talk of repealing the ACA. They know they have nothing to replace it and no one else to blame if their constituents lose the healthcare access they enjoyed under Obama. As for the latter, several senators have cited the volume of calls/faxes/letters from constituents as reasons for their votes -- I think Sen. Feinstein cited the 55,000 calls she received as her reason for voting No on Sessions. So hearing from their constituents *is* effective, even if it has to happen in such crazy volumes that not everyone gets through.

I think part of what's happening now is that enough of us are piqued enough to remind our reps who they really work for. I don't know what the numbers are on voter forgetfulness but say for example reps can count on only 25% of the people motivated enough to contact them during a non-election year to remember how they acted when re-election/donation season comes around. The number represented by that 25% is *much* higher now, so reps already know to expect more people to hold them accountable for how they act now. One weird upside of DJT's election was also how it demonstrated the power of social media to inform and mobilize voters, and I think reps are realizing that come the next election cycle, the more forgetful segments of their electorate will see lots of FB and Twitter posts from their more engaged counterparts, reminding them of how well their reps protected their interests (or didn't) in the non-election year.

Maybe this is wishful thinking, but I want to say inertia works both ways: It's hard to get people moving, but once they get going it's also hard to make them stop.
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 2:45 PM on February 2, 2017 [14 favorites]

In case anyone missed it, here's a handy visual aid for Trump's relationship with Steve Bannon.
posted by homunculus at 2:45 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

Best I've worked out is Google Voice for phone calls, beyond that, I don't know.

Consider Asterisk. A $35 raspberry pi 3 + microsd card + http://nerdvittles.com/?p=17094 is one way to get it started.

Activist tools that can be slapped on a microsd + a pi strikes me as a low-friction way to distribute the revolution as software.
posted by rough ashlar at 2:46 PM on February 2, 2017 [15 favorites]

For general messages like these (rather than calls to specific representatives), do people usually provide their name, number, and location? I did, but I'm not sure if I needed to or if was even a good idea.

I do; I left my name and number for this one. When I call my senators or representative, I give my zip code, but not my address, and state that I am a constituent.

I am personally not concerned about any consequences because I am a privileged white male; I would understand that others might not be comfortable with leaving this kind of identifying information.
posted by Existential Dread at 2:47 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Here in Louisville, Navy Seals are driving around in their Humvees flying Trump flags. Resist, yeah, sure. But I'm starting to think that when the equation is military + religious political structure + state control, that starts to equal emigrate.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 2:47 PM on February 2, 2017 [14 favorites]

Cross-posted from the end of the last thread, where links are easy to miss:

Matt Taibbi: The Anti-Refugee Movement Is America at Its Most Ignorant. The Trump movement can't even understand self-interest
posted by homunculus at 2:48 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Here in Louisville, Navy Seals are driving around in their Humvees flying Trump flags. Resist, yeah, sure. But I'm starting to think that when the equation is military + religious political structure + state control, that starts to equal emigrate.

to paraphrase Michael Bolton from Office Space, "they're the ones who suck, why should i move?"
posted by entropicamericana at 2:49 PM on February 2, 2017 [11 favorites]

Fox News: The Republican-controlled House on Thursday took its first steps toward strengthening gun ownership under President Donald Trump, moving to scrap a requirement for background checks for disabled Social Security recipients mentally incapable of managing their own affairs.

Mentally unstable, disabled seniors are probably more likely to use a gun on themselves then somebody else. This is part of Trump's plan to save Social Security.
posted by COD at 2:50 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

So, going back to my comment above about how the DoD (the Secretary of Defense, actually) has plans to delete its records on the vetting of presidential appointees because the Office of Government Ethics already keeps those records, so DoD is just duplicating effort:

"I am not sure whether you are aware that announcing the cabinet without first coordinating with OGE is unprecedented," he wrote, "and creates unnecessary risk for both the President-elect and the prospective nominees."

[Walter] Shaub [Director of OGE] stated that his ethics office had "not been involved in the process as to any of these individuals."

Officials Warned Trump Against ‘Unprecedented’ Plan to Staff Cabinet Without Ethics Vetting

Um.
posted by mudpuppie at 2:50 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

U.S. Marshals Accused Of Not Serving Court Orders About Immigration Ban

The only circumstances in which these officials could hope to dodge section 1983 lawsuits involve a near total collapse of judicial authority, right? Surely even a stacked supreme court couldn't clear them?
posted by Coventry at 2:52 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

The mainstream media is reporting right now on Trump's hair loss drugs, for god's sake (and I'm a liberal, but come on, that's so irrelevant).

It looks Trump lied about taking this prescription hair-loss drug, Propecia (his bizarre doctor's letter in December stated he was taking only "low dose of a statin" and a daily asprin). Although Trump lies so frequently, even about minor matters, there may be a reason he wanted to hide this from the public. Emerging research suggests that Propecia's side effects may include insomnia and brain fog. That would explain his late-night Twitter addiction and his evident moments of confusion.
posted by Doktor Zed at 2:53 PM on February 2, 2017 [12 favorites]

a near total collapse of judicial authority, right?

The US Marshal's Service is already refusing to carry out the orders of the District Court.
US Attorneys are subject to removal by the President.

Ultimately, all the Supreme Court has to do is deny Cert.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:55 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

This morning Mr. Noble Goofy Elk, The and I went to a two hour foster parent CEU class.

As the class was ending, I approached an older Muslim couple and said how sorry I was that this was happening. I told them I hope they feel supported by the community. Blank stares. Then the man said, basically, they supported Trump but thanks for trying to be 'friendly', ya loser.

I felt so ashamed. Who am I to be white girl white knighting, assuming things about people? What the fuck is wrong with me? Should I even talk to the other Muslim in the room?

She was a young woman, there by herself. I swallowed, reminded myself that I had good intentions, and approached her. She burst into tears.

She's Somali and hasn't seen her mother in ten years and is now afraid that she will never see her again. She and her husband have just moved here from NY. They are scared to go out of the house, especially after dark. They have no friends in town. Her spoken English is flawless, but she can't read or write in English. She hugged me so hard and told me how much it meant to her that I had said something. Both of us were crying.

I promised her that I would help her however I could, with running errands, tutoring written language, helping her prepare for the GED and going with her whenever she didn't feel comfortable alone. She was so happy. We exchanged numbers and she will call me or I will call her tomorrow.

Take away, I think, is not to be afraid to reach out. Because there are some dickweeds, but there are also people who need advocates and friends and an assistant. Also, she is wicked funny and I think I love her already.
posted by The Noble Goofy Elk at 2:55 PM on February 2, 2017 [241 favorites]

We have elected a monster.
posted by eggkeeper at 2:59 PM on February 2, 2017 [15 favorites]

Best I've worked out is Google Voice for phone calls, beyond that, I don't know.

Consider Asterisk. A $35 raspberry pi 3 + microsd card + http://nerdvittles.com/?p=17094 is one way to get it started.

Activist tools that can be slapped on a microsd + a pi strikes me as a low-friction way to distribute the revolution as software.

Be careful and constantly audit your environment if you do this. Asterisk distros are extremely popular hacking targets. They tend to have lots of holes. And be aware that if you aren't doing anything special your RTSP audio traffic is probably being sent in the clear.
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:00 PM on February 2, 2017 [12 favorites]

Propecia's side effects may include insomnia and brain fog. That would explain his late-night Twitter addiction and his evident moments of confusion.

Oh god, it would be everything I expect out of this goddamned Presidency if he's making himself even more incompetent to protect his precious fucking hair.
posted by corb at 3:00 PM on February 2, 2017 [109 favorites]

Y'all, let's skip the ironic Jewish Conspiracy stuff regardless of how obviously satirical it's intended to be.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:02 PM on February 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

As the class was ending, I approached an older Muslim couple and said how sorry I was that this was happening. I told them I hope they feel supported by the community. Blank stares. Then the man said, basically, they supported Trump but thanks for trying to be 'friendly', ya loser

I think the reasonable response there was "even if you were complicit in causing this pain I'm still sorry it's happening" but I'm in a salty mood.
posted by phearlez at 3:04 PM on February 2, 2017 [10 favorites]

Activist tools that can be slapped on a microsd + a pi strikes me as a low-friction way to distribute the revolution as software.

I would love to see the ACLU use some of the recent massive donations to build out their cop recording app's infrastructure and include an API for rPi- and smartphone-based protest-centered cop monitoring. The thought of lots of cameras pointed at cops during protests all streaming to the ACLU is pretty compelling, especially if they bundle all the feeds from the same protest and sync timecode so you can have reliable Pi-based cams up the whole time and also reference smartphone feeds happening at the same timestamps as they come up during moments of interest. Turn surveillance back on the fuckers.
posted by jason_steakums at 3:05 PM on February 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

I have tried to google this plus searched here. Did my brain make up the fact that donnie wasn't in the situation room when the SEAL raid went down? That he was asleep at the time?
posted by futz at 3:06 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Isn't Propecia the one where, if a pregnant woman so much as touches a pill, her fetus can be born without genitalia?
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 3:07 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Futz, saw this on twitter a little while ago. (Is this a reliable site.... I am not even sure whats what anymore)

Trump didn't bother to show up in Situation Room for botched Yemen raid
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 3:10 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Still no executive order on voter fraud, as Trump moves on

"A full week has passed since President Donald Trump said he would sign an executive order opening a Justice Department investigation into his unsubstantiated claim that millions of people voted illegally in November.

The Oval Office signing was abruptly canceled last Thursday and never rescheduled. The White House hasn't talked about it since. The President has moved on to other subjects.

A senior administration official told CNN that the voter fraud investigation is no longer a top priority for the President, insisting it's not off the table, but not expected anytime soon."
posted by chris24 at 3:10 PM on February 2, 2017 [12 favorites]

Propicia causes genital birth defects in males; it's not approved for use by women, but current medical wisdom is that exposure by touching pills or sex with someone taking it should not cause problems.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 3:12 PM on February 2, 2017

Isn't Propecia the one where, if a pregnant woman so much as touches a pill, her fetus can be born without genitalia?

Yep it's in the highest class possible for teratogenic effects. But Trump has the best insomnia and bigliest brain fog ever, you know. As well as perfect hair.
posted by Bringer Tom at 3:12 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr. to lead education task force for Trump

Falwell has been particularly interested in curbing rules that require schools to investigate campus sexual assault under Title IX, a federal law that bans discrimination in education.

..."Title IX is one of the areas he mentioned where there is over-regulation," Stevens added, adding that Falwell feels issues regarding investigating campus sexual assault are "better left to police, attorneys, judges."

ARRRRRRRRG!
posted by futz at 3:12 PM on February 2, 2017 [36 favorites]

Was he in the situation room during this operation with his twitter client open? What other provesses were running while this operation was approved and in execution?
posted by cmfletcher at 3:14 PM on February 2, 2017

Trump didn't bother to show up in Situation Room for botched Yemen raid

Not Sure if Berkeley or Situation Room
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:14 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Spicer said he was in the Residence, not the Situation Room today.
posted by chris24 at 3:15 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Right now I would like to be hearing the words 'botched raid' in the press as frequently as we would be hearing it if Hillary Clinton were President.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 3:15 PM on February 2, 2017 [44 favorites]

NPR is the worst, part MCMLXXXIV (via)

CORNISH: And people have also talked about Stephen Bannon's background with the Navy. Most of his adult life has been in the media. How is that experience relevant?

GORKA: I think you need to look at what Stephen Bannon did in terms of building a media giant that has crushed its left-wing rivals in terms of a breitbart.com. I think one has to look at what he did for the Trump campaign to understand that this is a man who eats and breathes and sleeps strategy. Whether or not he wore a uniform, that's a credit to his service to the nation. But he is really - and I can tell you as somebody who's worked with him for years - a truly strategic mind.

CORNISH: So of value to national security concerns.

GORKA: Without question.

CORNISH: Well, Sebastian Gorka, thank you so much for speaking with us

And thank you, Audie, for providing a platform for someone to say that destroying "left-wing rivals" prepares them for one of the top foreign policy positions atop the world's largest military.
posted by tonycpsu at 3:16 PM on February 2, 2017 [95 favorites]

but way to piss off one of your few remaining allies who isn't pissed off, President Bannon.

That's it! If the media starts referring to Bannon as president Bannon, Trump will drop him in a heartbeat.
posted by notreally at 3:16 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

futz, no, he wasn't there. But my military friends, most of whom are Dems and all of whom think the reporting on the Yemeni raid is absurd (as in, Trump's team did fine) say that it isn't normal to be in the situation room for the whole raid. I am not a military expert at all, but I defer to them, since they all have served under at least three presidents.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:16 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

I heard that Gorka interview and I was literally dumbstruck.

And right afterwards the station ran some over the top suck-up-to-the-listeners spot about how much they appreciate and need us, like the inverse of the pledge drive material, because they know they're about to get defunded despite all their toadying.

Pathetic.
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:18 PM on February 2, 2017 [10 favorites]

Notional Prevarication Radio
posted by entropicamericana at 3:19 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

Isn't Propecia the one where, if a pregnant woman so much as touches a pill, her fetus can be born without genitalia?

Yes. It's a highly potent 5α-reductase inhibitor, which reduces the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, the hormone which in some men causes hair loss. Very damaging during fetal development, where DHT is critical for development of male genitals, but its effects are more subtle in adults. Why exactly it might cause cognitive problems and insomnia in some men isn't clear to me from the basic neurobiology alone, but it's certainly possible.
posted by biogeo at 3:22 PM on February 2, 2017 [10 favorites]

The EPA Has Started to Remove Obama-era Information
posted by FelliniBlank at 3:23 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Re the Australia call, let's also not forget, that Trump fired all of the ambassadors appointed by Obama, so the US now has no ambassador to Australia, or to any other country for that matter. (Traditionally, a new president will keep the previous ambassadors at their posts until their successors are confirmed.) You know, the sort of person who might advise the president on US-Australia relations prior to the call, or even smooth things over afterwards if the call goes badly.

Only for a very few countries has Trump even nominated an ambassador. The Washington Post is tracking the status of nearly 700 appointed executive branch positions which require Senate confirmation, including nearly 200 ambassadorships.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 3:24 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Very damaging during fetal development, where DHT is critical for development of male genitals,

Lord help me I read that as DJT.
posted by ian1977 at 3:25 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Speaking of economic action and political protest:

Comcast employees walk out to protest Trump’s immigration order

Hundreds of Comcast employees walked off the job and took to the streets Thursday afternoon in protest of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning refugees and immigration from seven majority Muslim countries.

By 2:30 p.m., the crowd at City Hall had swelled to more than 1,000 people holding signs, chanting and listening to short stories told by their immigrant coworkers. The rally lasted just an hour, but garnered support from even some top employees at the corporation.

Comcast employees in at least four cities self-organized the protest through an internal Slack channel that Comcast organizers told Billy Penn grew from about 100 people to 1,200 people this week. Comcast is one of the largest employers in the Philadelphia region and stands as the most influential corporation in the city.

posted by chris24 at 3:26 PM on February 2, 2017 [72 favorites]

Re the Australia call, let's also not forget, that Trump fired all of the ambassadors appointed by Obama, so the US now has no ambassador to Australia, or to any other country for that matter.

It's fine, Commandant Spicer says that Trump "has tremendous respect for Prime Minister Trumble." [real].

The Australian PM's name is Malcolm Turnbull.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 3:26 PM on February 2, 2017 [38 favorites]

Police threatened to arrest a filmmaker at JFK #MuslimBan protest for making this short film about @nobanjfk lawyers at the NYC airport on Sunday.
posted by progosk at 3:29 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

In the next installment of Tradewars 2017: Iran To Ditch Dollar
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:29 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

@brianschatz (Senator from HI):
The last three days have been the BUSIEST IN CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD HISTORY. By almost double. This is working. Keep it up and please RT.
posted by melissasaurus at 3:31 PM on February 2, 2017 [66 favorites]

There's a lot of ways to mess with ground surveillance radar in this age of hobbyist SDR, but seismic sensors are a lot harder.

Potato gun.
posted by ryoshu at 3:31 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

It's fine, Commandant Spicer says that Trump "has tremendous respect for Prime Minister Trumble." [real].

Oh thank god, it wasn't just me!
posted by FelliniBlank at 3:31 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Hasn't it already been demonstrated that, with physical access, you can take a car with a shitty CANBUS implementation and turn it into an RPV/seismic decoy?
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:33 PM on February 2, 2017

Police threatened to arrest a filmmaker at JFK #MuslimBan protest for making this short film about @nobanjfk lawyers at NYC JFK airport on Sunday.

Be a real shame if everyone who could shared that on their social media feeds, then, huh? I mean it would be a real shame if the link "https://vimeo.com/201813180" were to get around.
posted by spitbull at 3:34 PM on February 2, 2017 [12 favorites]

"You're listening to NPR. I'm Audie Cornish. The monster that promises to eat us and our children continues to creep ever closer. Today I'll be speaking with one of its lesser feeding-pods.

Audie: Toothy pod, many have expressed concern about some comments made earlier regarding your overall vision for America.
Pod: I will eat you and your children. I will taste their sufferings and viscera. My only purpose is to destroy you and everything you love.
Audie: So you believe these fears to be unfounded hysterics?
Pod: I am unburdened by mercy or sapience. Within me your spirit will scream eternal.
Audie: Great to have you on, pod. Thanks so much for joining us today. Up next, we'll be hearing from the monster's pyloric sphincter about criticisms that its digestive enzymes might sting. Please send us money."
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:36 PM on February 2, 2017 [178 favorites]

Nordstrom Said to Wind Down Relationship With Ivanka Trump Brand

Not earth shattering news but satisfying.
posted by futz at 3:36 PM on February 2, 2017 [62 favorites]

Thank you, Fish, for your nuanced and calming response.
posted by greermahoney at 3:36 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Wordshore: @vforrestal i'm pretty sure this is what war with australia would look like so drumpf better back the fuck up

I thought that link was going to go to this. [YT]
posted by slipthought at 3:39 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

The monster that promises to eat us and our children continues to creep ever closer.

A horrible thing is coming this way
Creeping closer day by day--
Its eyes are scary,
Its tail is hairy...
I tell you, Judge, we all better pray!

posted by snuffleupagus at 3:41 PM on February 2, 2017

HuffPo has summarized the Uber situation with the headline: TRUMP LOSES UBER ALLIES
posted by zachlipton at 3:45 PM on February 2, 2017 [195 favorites]

There will be the physical wall and then parts of the wall that you can see through...

The Emperor's New Clothes

Many years ago there was an Emperor so exceedingly fond of new clothes that he spent all his money on being well dressed. He cared nothing about reviewing his soldiers, going to the theatre, or going for a ride in his carriage, except to show off his new clothes. He had a coat for every hour of the day, and instead of saying, as one might, about any other ruler, "The King's in council," here they always said. "The Emperor's in his dressing room."

posted by fraula at 3:46 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

HuffPo has summarized the Uber situation with the headline: TRUMP LOSES UBER ALLIES

somebody buy that editor a beer. buy them all the beers.
posted by entropicamericana at 3:47 PM on February 2, 2017 [101 favorites]

so in all this i had a discussion today (with stepdad who's a VC and currently withdrawing all investments from the us), it went something like this:
Me: "sooo trump and pootay eh.. see the fsb sanction lifting?"
Him: "Yes, its bothersome, if they now are in bed with one another, lets not forget they arent dumb people, but very smart but only at a small subset."
Me: "are you serious?"
Him: "we know they're simpletons, what if their deal is by their design with input from big daddy baby"
Me: "are you seriously suggesting they're both more or less *repeats the plan posted upthread*"
Him: "Yes. but what they're both forgetting is China, their navy, airforce, space ventures. and for that matter, how many soldiers can you fit in a barge?"

i'm still feeling the chills.
posted by xcasex at 3:53 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

DOJ cleared the Muslim ban before it was issued.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:56 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

"You're listening to NPR. I'm Audie Cornish. The monster that promises to eat us and our children continues to creep ever closer. Today I'll be speaking with one of its lesser feeding-pods.

I know some call Welcome to Night Vale "NPR from the Twilight Zone" but this is too uncanny.

All hail the Glow Cloud.
posted by delfin at 3:56 PM on February 2, 2017 [17 favorites]

so in all this i had a discussion today (with stepdad who's a VC

I'm guessing VC there means Venture Capitalist but at first I read it as Viet Cong which didn't aid in understanding the comment.
posted by Justinian at 3:57 PM on February 2, 2017 [14 favorites]

That DOJ approval memo is weird to me. Is it really standard to address memos to "My dear Mr. President" ??

Also good luck washing off the stench of that approval, Curtis Gannon, you fucker.
posted by prefpara at 4:00 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

@brianschatz (Senator from HI):
The last three days have been the BUSIEST IN CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD HISTORY. By almost double. This is working. Keep it up and please RT.

In the last thread, there were lamentations that there were no cavalry coming to save us.

Wrong. We're the fucking cavalry.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 4:03 PM on February 2, 2017 [103 favorites]

DOJ cleared the Muslim ban before it was issued.

That link doesn't say who cleared it. Sally Yates noted that it had been reviewed by OLC, but that was merely about wording, not legality.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 4:04 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

Russian critic Vladimir Kara-Murza suffers sudden organ failure

The activist nearly died when he suffered sudden kidney failure in 2015.

"He is already on life support and in a medicated coma. It's the same clinical picture [as last time]," Evgenia Kara-Murza told the BBC.

"The reason is unclear like last time. He's been active and healthy [recently].

BUT

No cause was ever established for Mr Kara-Murza's last illness, but tests confirmed that he had ingested a poisonous substance.

The explanations for the 2015 illness are sketchy but who knows. Maybe his antidepressant is reacting with his hay fever meds and suddenly shutting down all his organs. ;)
posted by futz at 4:09 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

That link doesn't say who cleared it.

It's referring to the same Office of Legal Counsel approval you linked.
posted by chrominance at 4:09 PM on February 2, 2017

Trump didn't bother to show up in Situation Room for botched Yemen raid

To be fair it was during his naptime. Or was it recess? Or reading aloud time?
posted by srboisvert at 4:10 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

We have elected a monster.

Indeed. Trump's absurd wall will cause havoc on wild life as well. Of course he doesn't give a shit and would probably ridicule the very idea that wild life is a concern. Serial killers often start with animals...

Isn't Propecia the one where, if a pregnant woman so much as touches a pill, her fetus can be born without genitalia?

Animal testing (unintentional segue) shows it can be. Some men take a 5mg finasteride pill (commercial name Proscar) and cut it up into 4 pieces as Propecia is only 1mg of finasteride so you can get it cheaper if you cut up the pills yourself. It's exposure to the cut up pills that I often hear said is dangerous as it can be absorbed through the skin (uncut pills are coated, making skin absorption difficult) as well as it's presence in semen.

With that said, finasteride is one of the go to treatments for BPH (Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia) to reduce the size of the prostate and potentially reduce the chance of developing prostate cancer. That's what I take it for having been diagnosed with it (via a scope that they tell you is mildly discomforting which I take it in surgeon speak means "just short of extreme pain") at a younger than usual age (under 50). Studies I've seen mostly say it's presence in semen is not dangerous. From what I can gather it's a pretty common drug for BPH and caution is advised if exposed to uncoated particles. But as is common in health, contradictory reports abound.

If I remember correctly, it's use to decrease hair loss was discovered as a side effect of it's treatment for BPH.

Given the state of Trump's mane when I heard he was taking finasteride I assumed it was for BPH as that is the most common issue men have with their prostate in the later stages of life. If it is for his hair, the makers of Propecia might be rather upset.
posted by juiceCake at 4:10 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

The Australian PM's name is Malcolm Turnbull.

It was. He has now changed it. To Tremble.
posted by srboisvert at 4:12 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

neglecting the institutions we're hoping will save us
posted by xcasex at 4:13 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Dammit anastasiav. I'm able to hold it together through your comment until I get to "Names written with big letters in shaky crayon" and then I completely lose it. Thank you so much for sharing that.
posted by zachlipton at 4:14 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

In the last thread, there were lamentations that there were no cavalry coming to save us.

Wrong. We're the fucking cavalry.

That is one thing I am hoping that will come out of the protests and general resistance: that more people will get involved and end up as elected officials themselves or in the offices of them. Not necessarily for the next presidential elections or the midterms, but even things at state and county levels.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 4:14 PM on February 2, 2017 [11 favorites]

CIA' new deputy director ran a black site for torture.
The CIA official’s name whose torture activities the Post described is Gina Haspel. Today, as BuzzFeed’s Jason Leopold noted, CIA Director Mike Pompeo announced that Haspel was selected by Trump to be Deputy Director of the CIA.
posted by adamvasco at 4:21 PM on February 2, 2017 [12 favorites]

In the next installment of Tradewars 2017: Iran To Ditch Dollar

This has been an ambition of some oil producing countries since the Bush years, and they've never followed through or even been as direct in their language as this before. If they move to the Euro (the only realistic alternative), war is almost inevitable, and maybe so is the end of American hegemony.
Saddam Hussein also threatened to move to the €, but the big difference is that back then several countries supported the US, and Russia didn't intervene.

Someone mentioned earlier that the US has the world's largest military by far, and that is true. It is also true that since Vietnam, the US has proved itself incapable of figuring out what to do after bombing out nations. (Some of you wrote earlier that the war in Iraq had ended and implied civilian governance had been established. What? Someone tell that to the Iraqis — and ISIS). Nobody wants to be bombed out by the US, but some cynical governments are saying to themselves that if they can just hold out, they will emerge stronger. Assad is proving to be a great inspiration here, with the help of Putin.

An aspect of Brexit that hasn't been much discussed in these threads is that it has left more power to the France-Germany axis within the EU. Who didn't want to support the second Iraq war? Remember those Freedom Fries? With the UK out of the EU, there will be absolutely no support for an Iran war in Europe. If a significant part of global trade moves from Dollars to Euros, the Euro will be saved from it's current crisis which is costing the Germans dearly. But then of course that advantage will come with an unpredictable war.

Will Putin support Trump? HAHAHAHA. He has stuff to do, like reestablishing the Warsaw Pact, reconquering all the border states with no resistance from a confused NATO, and establishing/expanding naval bases in the Gulf and the Mediterranean.

OK, I should get some sleep now..
posted by mumimor at 4:21 PM on February 2, 2017 [19 favorites]

I think we're starting to see some cracks in the usual corporate-Republican-Trump alliance. I think there's some possibility that with constant struggle, we can keep this presidency to the merely very bad (and maybe even to one term) instead of the apocalyptic. If we can get someone decent in power in 2020 (or even, god help us, 2024) we can still fix a lot of this stuff, especially because unless something very strange happens, a huge percent of the country will be disgusted by Trump and everything pertaining to his administration by then.

We need to keep fighting on every issue we can, especially boycotts. Make it so that any mass market company known to ally with Trump has trouble.

And here's another thought - the more active and visible people are, the harder it will be for President Bannon to fake up a crisis and cancel elections or declare martial law. The longer a run of turbulence we have before he can gin up a "terrorist" attack or something, the worse they'll look when it happens because they'll own it and they'll be unpopular. And that means they'll hesitate to do worse - I was having a long conversation with someone the other day about all the complexities of trying to declare martial law or cancel elections in a country this size with this many jurisdictions, and it's even more complicated than I thought, and doing it steps on more rich people's toes. If we make it likely that grossly undemocratic measures will render the country ungovernable, it will be hard to take those measures.

We have to keep fighting, all of us, every day.
posted by Frowner at 4:22 PM on February 2, 2017 [48 favorites]

To be fair it was during his naptime. Or was it recess? Or reading aloud time?

Reading aloud time is just a staffer screaming out Trump's old tweets and FOX chyrons for 20 straight minutes.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 4:23 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Apropos of, well, everything, in my daily redditing I stumbled across a thread about the definition of historical fascism. Suffice it to say, it's kind of chilling reading in the context of today's political landscape. I was wondering if I should make a front page post, but perhaps it'll suffice to post a link here (no 500 word quote, I promise!). Is Trump a fascist? The world's most foremost expert on fascism, Robert Paxton, weighed in about a year ago. Spoiler: he finds more similarities than differences. (Note that those links don't use the word lightly, as a pejorative; they attempt to be reasonably rigorous.)
posted by simen at 4:23 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

Pelosi: Statement on Trump Lifting Sanctions on Putin’s Intelligence Thugs
posted by futz at 4:24 PM on February 2, 2017 [10 favorites]

Serial killers often start with animals...

There was a WashPo article during the election which cited interviews with people from the neighborhood Trump grew up in saying that he had been cruel to animals.
posted by Waiting for Pierce Inverarity at 4:25 PM on February 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

so in all this i had a discussion today (with stepdad who's a VC and currently withdrawing all investments from the us)

Yes, well, no offense to your stepdad, but I know some VCs and they are uniformly of the opinion that they know a LOT about EVERYTHING, and this perception is shall we say not always well-founded. They almost always did one thing really well and got really lucky, and just extrapolated from there. Like the capitalism version of engineer's disease.

Don't take people's opinions more seriously because they make big-money decisions based on those opinions. More money does not equal more brains.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 4:25 PM on February 2, 2017 [17 favorites]

Can we impeach, and then make a constitutional amendment that does two things? :

1. Reverses all of Lord Dampnut's executive orders
2. Is a written apology to the rest of the world and a promise to always do better in the future.
posted by ian1977 at 4:26 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

The Soros paying people to protest thing is EXACTLY what the right has been yammering about for years here in Brazil. "You know those protesters only show up because they get free sandwiches, right?"

the similarity of stupid worldwide astounds me.
posted by Glibpaxman at 4:28 PM on February 2, 2017 [15 favorites]

So, the description of the White House petition site that comes up with the Google search result is interesting.
posted by mudpuppie at 4:29 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

It drives me crazy because how much of a bubble do you have to be in to not know a single person who has protested in the past week?

The gay, not Trump loving, man who cut my hair was surprised to hear I went to a protest. Understandable, except that he hadn't heard anything about protests at all.
posted by bongo_x at 4:30 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Turnbull is a spineless numpty and I'm glad he got rolled.

I hate Turnbull as much as the next Greens voting, social liberalism supporting center-leftie but JFC this cannot be used to allow Cory Bernardi and his hateful band of shitheels anywhere near executive power.

Centrist liberals need to be reminded that they have spines. Threaten to derail a confidence motion and cause elections if the far right tries to install its fuckwad in chief as PM.
posted by Talez at 4:30 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

The mainstream media is reporting right now on Trump's hair loss drugs, for god's sake (and I'm a liberal, but come on, that's so irrelevant)

I guess people need to know that shit doesn't work.
posted by bongo_x at 4:30 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Soros paying people to protest

earlier today I read a comment elsewhere asking how all those protesters can manage it, since most people have to work. i replied "Well, hell! I just cash my check from Soros and I'm ready to rock."

i checked back after a bit and my comment was deleted.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 4:32 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

I was going to chip in with the practical jokes/what the fuck is going on in the last thread, but then remembered I'm from the UK.
posted by MattWPBS at 4:36 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

How much are protestors supposedly being paid? If it's merely "sandwiches," I'm not sure the critics are up on their economic theory.
posted by rhizome at 4:37 PM on February 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

The gay, not Trump loving, man who cut my hair was surprised to hear I went to a protest. Understandable, except that he hadn't heard anything about protests at all.

That is blowing my mind, man.

If there's one thing I've learned upon this here series of tubes, it's that hateful, shitty people genuinely can't fathom other people not also being hateful and shitty. Any time non-hateful non-shittiness is displayed, they must immediately come up with an ulterior motive to explain it. You were paid to do it, you're trying to impress a girl/guy, you're just posing in order to look cool, etc... I'm a lifelong bleeding heart and the shit I've been accused of secretly doing would be hilarious if it wasn't so terrifying that there are people out there who genuinely think that no one could ever really want to be kind and helpful for their own sakes.
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:39 PM on February 2, 2017 [32 favorites]

DOJ cleared the Muslim ban before it was issued.

This looks fabricated after the fact. If not, it's not a real review, there's zero actual legal analysis. Compare to the length and detail of a normal OLC opinion.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:39 PM on February 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

It's barely been a week but I'm already exhausted. And looking back fondly on the Bush years...

Who wants to pitch in to ship a few cases of Rold Golds to the White House?
posted by downtohisturtles at 4:40 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Yeah man, I'm not saying that OLC memo IS a rubber stamp, but it's made of rubber, it's in the shape of a stamp, it's got fresh ink on it, and it's a rubber stamp.
posted by prefpara at 4:43 PM on February 2, 2017 [24 favorites]

earlier today I read a comment elsewhere asking how all those protesters can manage it, since most people have to work.

Much like the Dowager Countess, apparently these people have never heard of a weekend.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:43 PM on February 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

That's it! If the media starts referring to Bannon as president Bannon, Trump will drop him in a heartbeat.

Briebart has noticed it and called it a "dirty trick" - the trick being 'build someone up and then tear them down'.
posted by rough ashlar at 4:45 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

Also the OLC memo looks different from the other memos on the DOJ website - as in, the formatting is different. Almost like... it didn't go through the regular process.

Should I add that it doesn't actually contain any legal analysis? It literally just summarizes the order and then says it's approved.

I am clearly overly focused on this. It's just that I'm offended as a lawyer.
posted by prefpara at 4:46 PM on February 2, 2017 [33 favorites]

Briebart has noticed it and called it a "dirty trick" - the trick being 'build someone up and then tear them down'.

If they noticed enough to comment about it it must be getting some traction or they can see it gaining traction and becoming a problem.
posted by Jalliah at 4:46 PM on February 2, 2017 [14 favorites]

Meanwhile in Canada, using the disgusting word "cuck" seems to be enough to get you kicked off the campaign of a Trump-ish candidate. We're waiting to see if Toronto mayor John Tory, who refused to turf Kouvalis when this first came to notice, has any goddamn sense.
posted by maudlin at 4:49 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

Is there anything more horrifying than CNN? Yes: Future CNN (Twitter; parody)
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:51 PM on February 2, 2017 [10 favorites]

Briebart has noticed it and called it a "dirty trick" - the trick being 'build someone up and then tear them down'.

Not and *then* tear them down. Simultaneous to tearing them down.

Also, note that they use "them" instead of "him." Good for them to adopt gender neutral pronouns.

I troll, but I'm trolling Breitbart.
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:52 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Drew Magary at Deadspin has posted his Football Jamboroo for the Super Bowl, and the opening floored me this morning.

I felt like it took every last ounce of creative energy and physical strength just to hold shit together, and even then I felt like I was doing a lousy job of it. It’s a parent’s job to keep calm and lead during trying times—to provide normalcy instead of seeking it out—and I felt like I failed.

It's a pretty stark moment he's describing, and he provides no excuses. Sure, he goes back to dick jokes and talking about football right after, but the opening had me fighting back tears on the train this morning.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:52 PM on February 2, 2017 [11 favorites]

The Soros paying people to protest thing is EXACTLY what the right has been yammering about for years here in Brazil. "You know those protesters only show up because they get free sandwiches, right?"

the similarity of stupid worldwide astounds me.

Think of it more as 'that did well in the test market'.
posted by jaduncan at 4:52 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

So, I hate to post rumors, but.... an immigration attorney named Laurel Scott has made several public Facebook posts warning people in Austin to be on the lookout for ICE raids this weekend. Austin Chronicle also is reporting on this.
posted by anastasiav at 4:58 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

> Sure, he goes back to dick jokes and talking about football right after, but the opening had me fighting back tears on the train this morning.

It hit me like that, too, especially the ending of that section:

And I won’t be able to escape the fact that I cried outside that church not because my kid let me down, but because the rest of the world did.

I also share his ambivalence about The Big Game this Sunday. I don't watch the NFL any more, but a friend of mine always throws a party and I always go in the name of it being a pleasant social gathering. This year?

The last thing I need is the NFL trotting out a showy display of allegiance both to the flag and to its own, relentless tunnel vision. The whole thing feels tone deaf at best and passive-aggressive at worst … a tacit demand that you sit there and adore all this pageantry, or else.

Yup. On top of all the other crappy stuff going on with the NFL, I wouldn't be surprised if Trump is trying to browbeat the league into letting him make some sort of Special Appearance.
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:00 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

On top of all the other crappy stuff going on with the NFL, I wouldn't be surprised if Trump is trying to browbeat the league into letting him make some sort of Special Appearance.

I'm kind of amazed that no sitting President has ever attended a Super Bowl.
posted by Etrigan at 5:06 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

I wouldn't be surprised if Trump is trying to browbeat the league into letting him make some sort of Special Appearance.

Houston (Reuters) - Chaos broke out today before the start of the Superbowl when alleged President Trump made an appearance before the game. As he walked onto the field, a third of the stadium started chanting "Make American Great Again" and the other two thirds revolted . The stadium erupted into a massive brawl and the game had to be postponed.

"Who could have predicted this?" said Roger Goodell. [fake]
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:10 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

The Card Cheat, it really resonated with me mostly because I've found myself stupidly close to tears at utterly random moments (in the classroom, or making dinner, or just having drinks with friends). And yeah, part of it is definitely a feeling that the world broke its promise. I was raised to believe in the general goodness of things, of a desire towards progress and equality, and well, from Nov. 8th on, its become increasingly clear that I, and the people who raised me to see the world in the way I did, were horribly, horribly wrong.

The protests, both planned (the women's march) and unplanned (the airports) have been just about the only positive I'm seeing, and even that has me near tears on a moment to moment basis. I have to be careful when talking to my students because the last thing they need is their teacher bursting into incoherent tears.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:10 PM on February 2, 2017 [28 favorites]

Whoa! White House nixed [State Department's draft of a]Holocaust statement naming Jews

The State Department drafted its own statement last month marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day that explicitly included a mention of Jewish victims, according to people familiar with the matter, but President Donald Trump’s White House blocked its release. ... A White House official said there was no ill intent, adding that the White House didn’t see State’s draft until after issuing its own statement and told State not to release its version because it came after 7 p.m. And the official said the White House didn't ask the State Department to craft their own statement. Officials at the State Department, however, believed the statement was being drafted for the White House to use, people familiar with the matter said. ...

posted by maudlin at 5:10 PM on February 2, 2017 [50 favorites]

GOP’s foreign policy elders worry Trump is causing permanent damage

Really not sure how we're going to go on like this with legislators doing frantic damage control behind the sitting President's back for 4 years. It's Day 13.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:13 PM on February 2, 2017 [31 favorites]

Trump Executive Order Generator
posted by porn in the woods at 5:13 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Re: similarity of worldwide stupid.

Myths to fight: protestors are being paid by the Jews (hereafter referred to as "Soros") and immigrants can just come over here and start claiming benefits before stealing our jobs (hereafter referred to as "jerbs").

As far as I can tell, both of those are sincerely believed by the ordinary footsoldier (as opposed to the paid propagandist at breitbart, fox, or the daily mail). I know from bitter personal experience that neither are remotely true. My family are in another country while we sort out immigration paperwork, and Soros doesn't even return my calls.

Can we get immigrants and protestors on TV? Nobody believes statistics and data, but anecdotal evidence and emotive stories are something that the right leans heavily on which can very easily work against them.

My instinct is that most people aren't mean by default. They don't want to hurt immigrants because they want to harm anyone different from themselves. They have been convinced that immigrants started it, that they have already been harmed and this is just the (overdue) strike back. It's a compelling lie, and we have to find a way to make the truth more compelling still.
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 5:16 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

> GOP’s foreign policy elders worry Trump is causing permanent damage:

Fear is spreading among the Republican Party’s foreign policy heavyweights that President Donald Trump’s inexperience and quick temper could permanently damage long-standing alliances and undercut America’s standing in the world.

Fear is "spreading" that he "could" do these things? For a bunch of foreign policy "heavyweights" they're not much for prognostication, I guess.
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:17 PM on February 2, 2017 [19 favorites]

"It's Day 13."

It's Day 13. It's Day 13. It's Day 13! DAY 13!!

FOUR YEARS?!

It's Day 13.
posted by absalom at 5:18 PM on February 2, 2017 [58 favorites]

Fillon's wife is being investigated for financial misdeeds and Wikileaks is dumping material on him. I can't even with the links.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:18 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Oh angrycat. OK so yeah, I'm emotionally raw from all of this "oh, oops, democracy is over," but your comment gave me a needed reminder of kindness and the intimate bonds we can form. You are showing someone you love great kindness and gentleness in their last days. We don't know one another but your care for your cat speaks very, very highly of you. Not to mention the known fact that this cat rocks. As do all cats, of course, as it is the eternal law. So it is written.

Please give your kitty a special scratch in her favorite spot from an internet stranger.
posted by pipoquinha at 5:20 PM on February 2, 2017 [15 favorites]

There’s Never Been Such A Difficult Confirmation For An Education Secretary

At the committee vote on DeVos’s nomination, after Republicans had presented opposition to DeVos as mostly the work of teachers’ unions, Franken said that a broad swath of the public was opposed to her. He told a story of one night when he had eaten at a restaurant and gone into the kitchen to greet the staff. One of the manual laborers there told him immediately to vote against DeVos. Franken said, “He wasn’t a teacher.”

posted by the man of twists and turns at 5:22 PM on February 2, 2017 [34 favorites]

4:44 into the new thread, and we're at 44 "fucks" (or variations, thereof). Beautiful symmetry guys!
posted by zakur at 5:23 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

FOUR YEARS?! It's Day 13.

Look at it this way, it's already 1\% over.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:25 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

My instinct is that most people aren't mean by default.

I used to think this. Then I started using Facebook.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:25 PM on February 2, 2017 [18 favorites]

Feds Arrest Five Congressional IT Contractors At The Capitol
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 5:26 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

For me it's the moments where I manage to forget....everything that's going on...and I get happy or hopeful (I recently started the best job I've ever had! It's great!), but then I catch a headline out of the corner of my eye or overhear a conversation and it all comes crashing down on me. As an added bonus I feel guilty about having experienced that momentary lapse in my state of fear and anxiety.
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:26 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

My instinct is that most people aren't mean by default.

I used to think this. Then I started using Facebook.

I used to think this until I started playing Splix
posted by Flashman at 5:28 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

anyway on the neverending list of things i never thought i would have to google, today's entry is "who has enough nukes to stop us that isn't russia"
posted by poffin boffin at 5:28 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

From that Atlantic article :

It’s a message high on patriotism and loyalty—two “moral frames” that research shows are more important to conservatives than are traditionally more liberal values, like reciprocity and caring.

Is...is that shade? That feels like shade.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:28 PM on February 2, 2017 [19 favorites]

A couple dozen people protesting at Uber Headquarters in San Francisco tonight. It seems pretty celebratory in light of Travis's announcement today.
posted by zachlipton at 5:32 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Trump Executive Order Generator

I considered "Does this tea taste funny to you?" but it was in low taste, even for me.
posted by delfin at 5:33 PM on February 2, 2017

Trump Executive Order Generator

My Trump EO
posted by dis_integration at 5:33 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Is...is that shade? That feels like shade.

You see it as shade. Maybe other people would see it as praise for 'having the balls to protect America'* when compared to a bleeding-heart liberal or some such type you can't even trust to back their own country. That's moral frames for you.

*dubious phrasing intentional.
posted by jaduncan at 5:34 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Is...is that shade? That feels like shade.

It's a Shabbolith.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:34 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

This is my first attempt at this so I may be doing it wrong but.....

Metafilter: That feels like shade.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 5:35 PM on February 2, 2017 [22 favorites]

Oh hey the Trump EO generator has escaped into the wild somebody alert the SCP foundation
posted by tel3path at 5:40 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

If I hear a Trump supporter whine about paid protestors, I'm going to dare them to find a way to get paid to protest.
posted by AlexiaSky at 5:42 PM on February 2, 2017 [19 favorites]

All out of evens and in tears again.

I was trying to figure out why there are three police helicopters over Berkeley tonight. Which unfortunately I couldn't figure out because all of the news was inundated with what the Nazis had to say about last nights protests and Trump's threat to withhold federal funds from the University.

And OMG, what? I was in Berkeley last night and the alternative facts are in full overdrive here.
posted by susiswimmer at 5:43 PM on February 2, 2017

Looks like they've re-rescheduled the DeVos vote to tomorrow morning at 6:30 and it sounds like the GOP is confident they've got 51 votes.

Fuck.
posted by lydhre at 5:43 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

@brianefallon
When Obama did 2014 exec order on immigration, DOJ issued 33pg legal memo. For Trump Muslim ban, we get form letter
posted by chris24 at 5:44 PM on February 2, 2017 [12 favorites]

Do they think we won't know how our senators voted if they do it at 6:30am? Why the early morning?
posted by nat at 5:45 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

So I just made the mistake of reading the comments on a local news story about the Iranian baby who might not be able to come to the US for heart surgery now because of the ban and OMFG WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE WHERE DO THEY COME FROM AND CAN THEY GO BACK THERE IMMEDIATELY??? Reactions to the story:

1. This would obviously be sad if it was real, so it's clearly fake news, there now my world makes sense again phew.

2. Good, now maybe an American baby can get surgery instead.

3. This is divisive!

4. I'm sure if Trump knew about this, he'd fix it, he's a very empathic man (yes, really)

5. HOMELESS VETERANS HOMELESS VETERANS HOMELESS VETERANS HOMELESS VETERANS

6. Gawd don't they have hospitals in Iran or something? Can't someone else deal with this thing?

Me: Well, you're all monsters.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:46 PM on February 2, 2017 [76 favorites]

Somebody please bolt @realdonaldtrump to that EO generator. That's how I want to read Dampnuts' Twitterings henceforth.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:49 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Do they think we won't know how our senators voted if they do it at 6:30am? Why the early morning?

It will have been voted on before people see the breakfast news, so there's no time for last minute constituent calls/pressure.
posted by jaduncan at 5:49 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Upon reading the article (sorry) the vote at 6:30 is just for cloture.

The actual vote for confirmation will be Monday or Tuesday; cloture is scheduled early in the a.m. so enough time passes before the actual vote.
posted by nat at 5:52 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

You know you've got the hearts and minds of the entire nation behind you when you have to cheat.
posted by valkane at 5:52 PM on February 2, 2017 [12 favorites]

In good news!!!! the MA ACLU reports that Lufthansa is specifically allowing green card/visa holders from the 7 countries named in the ban to board flight to BOS until February 5th.

Due to a decision (Temporary Restraint Order) by the District Court in Massachusetts, the above mentioned Order is suspended on flights to BOS for the time being until February 5th, 2017. All passengers with valid travel documents are eligible to board on LH-flights to BOS.

Anyone know of any charities set up to buy people tickets if they need to come back to the US right fucking now?
posted by lydhre at 5:52 PM on February 2, 2017 [28 favorites]

Thanks, nat, I fully admit that the confirmation process is still an impenetrable fortress of nonsense for me.
posted by lydhre at 5:54 PM on February 2, 2017

You and me both. I assume that's a combination of "on purpose" and "accreted over time"
I would *totally* contribute to a charity to buy plane tickets for people who need to get home now.
posted by nat at 5:54 PM on February 2, 2017

Due to a decision (Temporary Restraint Order) by the District Court in Massachusetts, the above mentioned Order is suspended on flights to BOS for the time being until February 5th, 2017. All passengers with valid travel documents are eligible to board on LH-flights to BOS.,

Right, but I thought the relevant visas were also revoked, thus making visa holders no longer "passengers with valid travel documents."
posted by zachlipton at 5:55 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

International Business Times Donald Trump White House Dress Code Policy? Female Staffers Must ‘Dress Like Women,’ President Says

In a new report released Thursday, Trump said male staffers are to wear ties and women must “dress like women,” unnamed sources told Axios.

“If you’re going to be a public person for him, whether it’s a lawyer or representing him in meetings, then you need to have a certain look. That look — at least for any male — you have to be sharply dressed,” a source who was said to have worked with the president told the publication. “You should have a good physical demeanor, good stature, hair well groomed.”[...]

he former "Celebrity Apprentice" host also judges women’s appearances, anonymous Trump campaign source said, adding that even if they wear jeans they “need to look neat and orderly.” In most cases, Trump wants women who work for him "to dress like women," the source said.

Female campaign field office staffers felt compelled to wear dresses, mainly to impress Trump, according to the report.

I'm a little surprised they didn't feel compelled to wear bathing suits, heels, and sashes. And what the hell is "good stature"? Does that mean posture or does everybody have to be tall?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:56 PM on February 2, 2017 [83 favorites]

Building a wall already, huh? The new White House fence has been approved by the National Capital Planning Commission (this has been in the works for several years).
posted by zachlipton at 5:57 PM on February 2, 2017

White House Disabled Recording Equipment During Call With Russia
posted by nubs at 5:58 PM on February 2, 2017 [27 favorites]

Donald Trump White House Dress Code Policy? Female Staffers Must ‘Dress Like Women,’ President Says

Note that there is apparently an explicit exception for Bannon, because A) Trump knows which side his bread's buttered on, and B) the top-level Nazis didn't look particularly Aryan either -- that's just for the chumps.

And the Twitter machine has already revved up (#DressLikeAWoman).
posted by Etrigan at 6:00 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

Me(tafilter): Well, you're all monsters.
posted by Bringer Tom at 6:00 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Cloture effectively is the vote.
posted by jaduncan at 6:01 PM on February 2, 2017

Music shuffle today reminded me about the existence of My Life is Good by Randy Newman, which is pretty obviously about Trump despite having been written in 1983. In which an egotistical male narrator goes on a rambling rant to his aggressive bully of a son's teacher about how great his life is, citing the quality of cocaine he is able to procure, his plan to have sex with another man's wife, and how Bruce Springsteen holds him in high regard.

Shit, I think Randy Newman is one of the screenwriters for Reality.
posted by books for weapons at 6:01 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

In which an Obama official rejects that they're responsible for the planning of the Yemen raid, says the Trump team didn't vet the proposal enough before approving it.
posted by zachlipton at 6:01 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Unwilling to let Citrus Hitler go it alone, Mike Pence decided to make Black History Month all about... Abraham Lincoln. #PenceBlackHistory now trending on Twitter. (My favorite so far: "if it wasn't for the white man who asked for Rosa's seat, her historic moment couldn't have happened")
posted by TwoStride at 6:01 PM on February 2, 2017 [30 favorites]

Just to follow up on the protests here at Berkeley after my comment last night (and I won't speak for all Berkeley students, but I don't know if there are any other students on this site, or in this thread anyway).

Last night I was massively depressed. I knew we weren't going to win, and this felt like the worst possible outcome: the internet was full of stories about full blown violence, about people being beaten up by groups of black-clad anarchists, and all I could think was that everything we were hoping for was lost because some jerks decided to lash out and break stuff.

Then I went to campus today. I walked to Sproul Plaza expecting it to be a war zone, and what I saw was, yes, some boarded-up windows at the Amazon store, some paint on the ground, and a burn mark on the ground where the generator had been. But otherwise it was still the same campus. The building wasn't closed (the Amazon store wasn't even closed). People still milled around. The College Republicans had their stupid American flag tent set up, milling around talking to people. And I realized I bought the bullshit narrative.

I realized that I was more worried about the news, and about what people thought about me and us, than I was about our own community. And I realized that I was angry. In fact, I'm furious: I'm furious that the university chancellor never once publicly acknowledged the reasons people wanted to ban this speaker. I'm furious that the very real threat of targeted, systematic harassment of vulnerable students on our campus, was instead treated by the administration as an academic question of free speech. His stated goal was to debut a program targeting undocumented students, of which Berkeley has many. Chancellor Dirks said something to the effect of "his views are odious and he is a troll," but left it at that, as if what made him odious was having some bad opinions. Even Mario Savio's widow (and I'm doing her a disservice by not remembering her name) weighed in to say "let him air his opinions and they will be ridiculed for what they are," as if his "opinions" didn't involve systematic efforts at harassment and violence.

We knew there was a precedent of Milo harassing students. I won't rehash it. If you haven't read the email that the trans student in Milwaukee sent to the administration, it's worth your time.

The effect of this harassment is immeasurable pain and justifiable fear -- because after all, it's not just outing someone to an audience of peers, but to the worldwide, far-right audience watching live on breitbart.com. The people who gave us Gamer Gate are not known for their restraint. Milo's targets last night were undocumented students, and some of us were genuinely concerned for their safety. If he had published the names and photographs of undocumented students for the world to see, what do we really think the outcome would have been? Discourse, as Dirks would have us think, or the real risk of harm? And it's not only for the sake of their safety that we were concerned, but also for the effect that it would have on their right to speak out: someone asked me how I thought he planned on targeting undocumented students, and I wondered if it could have been related to one of the "undocumented and afraid" rallies held here. I mean, either way, I am 100% certain that the goal was to ensure he could do away with the "unafraid" part of that.

So I'm frankly glad there was a riot. I'm glad shit was set on fire. I'd rather have a bunch of fucking trolls think we're the worst place on the planet than to see my classmates and peers subjected to systematic abuse, just because we wanted to look nice for the cameras. Just because we wanted to prove a point about how bad he was, and how good and tolerant we are. Should we have let him place targets on our heads just to keep the moral high ground and say "well we are above this kind of drivel?"

No, fuck that. FUCK that.

I'm genuinely sorry people got hurt. Someone in a MAGA was apparently pepper sprayed, and there were apparently some other injuries. Of course the rumor on Reddit is that people got beaten to death by gangs of anarchists, but that didn't happen; police reported only minor injuries. There should have been none. I do draw a line between broken windows and broken bones (or skin, or pepper spray): I don't care the tiniest bit about the windows of the Amazon store, but I'm not keen on seeing random people hurt. Trump embodies the worst of modern politics, but I'm not ready to be at the point where a Trump hat makes you fair game for bodily harm. Maybe other people are, but not me.

But am I sad that people didn't keep order? Am I sad that property was destroyed? Hellllll no. I care way more about the members of my community than the windows of the fucking Amazon@ASUC store. And so I'm no longer quite so depressed about this, because what really matters is that we got Milo to get the fuck away from our campus before he did real damage. Berkeley did NOT back down, and I'm proud of that. It wasn't ideal, but we're in survival mode right now.

The fallout today was that the chancellor blamed this on "150 ninja-clad" outsiders, which is honestly just hilarious, given how incredibly weak and spineless he's been throughout this: yes, it's the fault of the ninjas. Thanks for standing up for us, Dirks. Trump tweeted about us, but I'm sort of wearing it as a badge of pride, as in: bring it, motherfucker. I'm sure he wants to do everything in his power to defund us, but that's a battle I'd rather fight than having him hold up UC Berkeley, of all places, as The Place Where Milo Debuted The Anti-Immigrant Program. The College Republicans will no doubt write op eds about freedom of speech. Life will go on. But at least I didn't have to sit by while that Nazi motherfucker attacked people I care about.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 6:04 PM on February 2, 2017 [134 favorites]

NATIONAL FASHION MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: TIES

posted by MysticMCJ at 6:05 PM on February 2, 2017 [10 favorites]

Trump Loses Uber Alles

That is surely an instant entry to the headlines GOAT debate.
posted by jaduncan at 6:06 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Building a wall already, huh? The new White House fence has been approved by the National Capital Planning Commission (this has been in the works for several years).

the people's house, ladies and gentlemen
posted by entropicamericana at 6:06 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Veterans Employed by Starbucks Tell Conservatives to Quit Claiming Starbucks Hates the Military

(and yeah, I feel weird defending Starbucks, but, you know...and I'm really getting sick of the far right using veterans as a manipulative political tool

/son and grandson of veterans)
posted by jonmc at 6:07 PM on February 2, 2017 [38 favorites]

I'm a little surprised they didn't feel compelled to wear bathing suits, heels, and sashes. And what the hell is "good stature"? Does that mean posture or does everybody have to be tall?

Shoulders up, boobs out, and heels no shorter than 3 inches.

Feds Arrest Five Congressional IT Contractors At The Capitol

Wait, do you mean to tell me the Capitol does not maintain an internal, properly vetted IT staff??!
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 6:07 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

re: the berkeley protest
posted by entropicamericana at 6:08 PM on February 2, 2017 [12 favorites]

I'm really getting sick of the far right using veterans as a manipulative political tool

Why stop when they leave active service, eh?
posted by jaduncan at 6:08 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

>"Conservatives are more likely to support issues like immigration and Obamacare if the message is “morally reframed” to suit their values."

You mean like reminding them that they wouldn't shut up for forty years about how Democrats were all Communists, and Russia was the Evil Empire and Communism was the ultimate expression of foulness and perversion on God's Earth... right up until the moment when there was a Republican Presidential candidate who admired an actual Russian dictator? And then they were all like, "GOOD, now we won't have to go to WAR with our friend RUSSIA for no REASON like we would if it was up to HILLARY!"

Reframing is tricky when you're dealing with people whose 'values' are a moving target.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 6:09 PM on February 2, 2017 [16 favorites]

They tell us that we lost our tails
Evolving up from little snails
But we don't believe in teaching evolution
Are we not human?
No, we're Republican.
D-E-V-O-S
posted by uosuaq at 6:12 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

So the Times is reporting that Uber had more than 200,000 customers delete their accounts. Wow.
posted by zachlipton at 6:12 PM on February 2, 2017 [66 favorites]

I read about the invisible wall long before the election.

Mexico_-_United_States_Barrier.
posted by Altomentis at 6:14 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

@DoreyScheimer Sen. Bob Casey's office tells me constituent correspondence is up 900% year over year, 80,000 pieces of mail on Devos nomination alone
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:15 PM on February 2, 2017 [24 favorites]

International Business Times Donald Trump White House Dress Code Policy? Female Staffers Must ‘Dress Like Women,’ President Says

"Since we're running this like a business... Let's talk about your lack of flair"
posted by dmh at 6:16 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

So the Times is reporting that Uber had more than 200,000 customers delete their accounts. Wow.

Every story that mentions Thiel should mention that he's now applying for citizenship in NZ.

And NZ's citizens should mount a petition drive to demand the government refuse him.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:16 PM on February 2, 2017 [28 favorites]

> It looks Trump lied about taking this prescription hair-loss drug, Propecia (his bizarre doctor's letter in December stated he was taking only "low dose of a statin" and a daily asprin). Although Trump lies so frequently, even about minor matters, there may be a reason he wanted to hide this from the public. Emerging research suggests that Propecia's side effects may include insomnia and brain fog. That would explain his late-night Twitter addiction and his evident moments of confusion.

Related post?

For example, to combat recurrences of the volcanic stomach problems, Morell plied him with a remedy called “Dr. Köster’s Anti-gas pills,” which contained significant amounts of strychnine – and Hitler often took as many as 16 of the little black pills a day. The sallow skin, glaucous eyes and attention lapses noted by observers later in the war are consistent with strychnine poisoning; another ingredient in the pills, antropine, causes mood wings from euphoria to violent anger.

posted by homunculus at 6:17 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

In a new report released Thursday, Trump said male staffers are to wear ties and women must “dress like women,” unnamed sources told Axios.

The Axios article is interesting. Trump 101: The producer of his own epic film

President Trump doesn't view life through the lens that most people do. In ways small and sweeping, he sees himself as The Producer, conducting The Trump show, on and off stage.

This is the man who noted the movie-like awesomeness of Marine One taking off on Inauguration Day, moved a lamp that might mess up photos of himself with British Prime Minister Theresa May, and scolded his press secretary for not wearing a stark suit that pops on TV.

This is the man who was captivated by watching coverage of himself while flying between campaign stops. Aides quit trying to show him tapes of previous debates while getting ready for the next one, because he would only focus on himself — and always applauded what he saw.

Plus more bonus wardrobe observations!
posted by futz at 6:21 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

No, dude, Thiel has NZ citizenship already. He got to queue jump people like me who waited the required 5 years after gaining permanent residency. But hey, he founded paypal and I've just dedicated my entire course of study and career to improving people's health so that's a fair trade I guess.
posted by supercrayon at 6:21 PM on February 2, 2017 [85 favorites]

It seems the House has voted to leave the UN. (Alex Jones must be happy)

Ones who WANT to be nervous can go read about the League of Nations. Be more nervous if you think other Nations/people are willing to go with "if we can't get you into the UN to address grievances we arn't gonna use your US Dollar".

May you live in interesting times indeed.
posted by rough ashlar at 6:22 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

In which Karl Rove ridicules Trump: Amateur Hour at the White House (archive.is link if you get paywalled), even as he makes the ridiculous statement about the travel ban that "this controversy will soon recede":

White House aides should still view this as a teaching moment. They ought to run deliberative processes in which cabinet members fully participate and can express reservations directly to the president before decisions are made. They need not ignore Capitol Hill allies while secretly drawing on congressional staff (and forbidding them from telling their bosses). And the White House should space out major policy announcements so Americans have time to digest them. Or they can delude themselves that—as one White House aide told the Washington Post—the travel ban’s implementation was a “massive success story.”

Some presidents got off to a bad start—think John F. Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs. But Kennedy recovered by learning from mistakes. Mr. Trump and his aides should do the same. Next time, the stakes could be much higher, with graver consequences for the Trump presidency and the country.

posted by zachlipton at 6:22 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm sure if Trump knew about this, he'd fix it, he's a very empathic man (yes, really)

Not surprising. In fact, this seems to be a general feature of tyrannies. I forget where in the Archipelago it is, but IIRC Solzhenitsyn describes at some length the pattern where an ordinary Soviet citizen would pour their righteous outrage at some act of corruption or stupidity into a heartfelt letter to the man at the top: "Oh, if only Comrade Stalin knew!"

Of course, the letter writers were all but invariably complaining about a policy devised by the great man himself, and they could be assured of, at very least, a ten-year sentence in the northern camps for Anti-Revolutionary Trotskyite Agitation or somesuch.
posted by adamgreenfield at 6:22 PM on February 2, 2017 [23 favorites]

No, dude, Thiel has NZ citizenship already. He got to queue jump people like me who waited the required 5 years after gaining permanent residency.

That's nuts. And, yeah, I read too quickly. Since 2011.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:23 PM on February 2, 2017

And yeah, part of it is definitely a feeling that the world broke its promise. I was raised to believe in the general goodness of things, of a desire towards progress and equality, and well, from Nov. 8th on, its become increasingly clear that I, and the people who raised me to see the world in the way I did, were horribly, horribly wrong.

I was actually thinking today about why I'm doing, well clearly not OK, but not as much worse as I was expecting, given that I have severe anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and depression, and the country I love is on fire. I realized when reading your comment that it's exactly because my belief in a just world has already had its traumatic break. This is the world my anxiety has been preparing me to live in for a long time.

And there's something sad about that - about how with therapy I was starting to very slowly move away from it, to believe in the general goodness of things, but now that it has been reinforced by this election I think I will always be this way, even after this new war is over I will always live in my own private war.

And I find it even sadder, I think, to see people like you who have always lived in the light coming to meet me where I am, in the darkness and brokenness and eternal preparations for war.

I hope this doesn't last. I hope we all survive, and you can believe in the promise of a good world again. I hope that for you and all of yours.

I know it sounds mad, in the world we live in now, but we still need people like you. Or we will someday.
posted by corb at 6:26 PM on February 2, 2017 [69 favorites]

It seems the House has voted to leave the UN.

That was so much "what what WHAT" that I had to look for details. AFAICT, they haven't yet done so, but there's a bill: US exit from United Nations could become reality with fresh bill.

The bill itself is fairly simple:

This bill repeals the United Nations Participation Act of 1945 and other specified related laws.

The bill requires: (1) the President to terminate U.S. membership in the United Nations (U.N.), including any organ, specialized agency, commission, or other formally affiliated body; and (2) closure of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

The bill prohibits: (1) the authorization of funds for the U.S. assessed or voluntary contribution to the U.N., (2) the authorization of funds for any U.S. contribution to any U.N. military or peacekeeping operation, (3) the expenditure of funds to support the participation of U.S. Armed Forces as part of any U.N. military or peacekeeping operation, (4) U.S. Armed Forces from serving under U.N. command, and (5) diplomatic immunity for U.N. officers or employees.

Errr... dudes, if you leave the UN, who do you think is going to help us in the war President Bannon starts with China?
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 6:29 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Re: US leaving UN
The sponsor is a wingnut who advances this bill every year or two since I dunno when. So far, it's the usual noise in the system, only amplified to noticeable levels by other concurrent fuckery. Carry on. [i hope]
posted by Enturbulated at 6:36 PM on February 2, 2017 [17 favorites]

A simple action to take - push for your public institutions to make a public statement on refugees or the Muslim Ban if they haven't already. For example here in New Zealand, Victoria University's Vice-Chancellor Professor Grant Guilford has put out a statement

My university in Australia has done so too. It wasn't as strongly worded as the Victoria University one but does include the sentence "This Executive Order is deeply concerning for its impact on the university sector as well as its fundamental undermining of values such as respect, diversity and inclusion".

Universities Australia put out a statement here but it's mostly focussed on the practical implications for university collaboration and recruitment, rather than expressing horror at the underlying ideas behind the order. Same for Association of American Universities. But Universities Canada put out a stronger statement here.

Our research group decided yesterday to subsidise more expensive airfares for members who need to travel internationally and want to avoid flying via the USA hubs whether or not they are from the seven directly affected countries.

I'm on the boards of a couple of professional organisations that are in the process of putting together similar statements, and urging others to boycott the USA for academic conferences.
posted by lollusc at 6:36 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

The leaks coming out of the Trump White House right now are totally bananas

Oh for fuck's sake.

[Third leak] The White House asked Judge Thomas Hardiman to drive toward D.C. to amp up the drama in advance of Trump's Supreme Court pick on Tuesday night. (Hardiman was passed over in favor of Colorado federal appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch.)

The third leak is, to me, perhaps the most baffling. White House press secretary Sean Spicer spent a decent chunk of his briefing on Wednesday disputing media reports that Hardiman and Gorsuch had both been encouraged to come to Washington in a sort of "Cannonball Run"-like competition to fill the vacant seat on the highest court in the country. Which makes this sentence — and its sourcing — from Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush all the more amazing:

Three administration officials who did not want to be identified said Judge Hardiman hit the road to Washington to help them maintain the illusion that the selection process was still competitive.

They are trying to orchestrate every little detail and it backfires on them every time. It is utterly fucking pathetic. I am sure that some leaks are planned but I'd bet that the majority aren't. I am a wee bit surprised that heads haven't rolled for embarrassing the Tiny Tyrant.
posted by futz at 6:37 PM on February 2, 2017 [46 favorites]

Proud to see my alma mater making a clear statement against the Muslim ban, as well as my employer (though that one's not online), which is also a university.

More .edu against hate, please.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:40 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

My fondest hope is that all of the attention we are focusing on our Reps and Senators is going to lead them to start impeachment hearings. They are not used to this intense scrutiny and I imagine that is starting to get exhausting for them as well. Think about all the phone calls, faxes, emails, and letters they must deal with now. Every time someone has a town hall an enormous crowd shows up. Every vote, every action is under the microscope and they, poor little souls, are not used to this. Sooner or later it is going to occur to them that if they just dump trump they can go back to the way things used to be when they weren't being badgered and harassed all day long.

Three things need to happen for a successful impeachment:

1.) Because of the Hastert Rule, a majority of the majority must agree before the vote will be brought to the floor. That means even if they have enough votes with the Dems and some Repubs, it will never reach the floor. The magic number we are looking for is 121 (half of the 241 seats that they hold) to vote YES for impeachment.

2.) In the House a simple majority will be enough to impeach: magic number: 270.

3.) However to impeach him in the Senate takes 2/3s. This is why Clinton was not Impeached, the Senate saved him.

Chances he will be successfully impeached are extremely small but I take heart in all the pressure we are continuing to exert. I also take heart in what a goddam shit show his first 13 days have been. We just need to convince 121 Republican Congress people and 19 Republican Senators (plus every Democrat) that life without President Trump would be so much sweeter.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:41 PM on February 2, 2017 [15 favorites]

You know, I've been to the Mexican border and can tell you the wall is already invisible.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:42 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Hardiman is a fucking federal appellate judge. That is beyond disgraceful to participate in political showmanship.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:43 PM on February 2, 2017 [19 favorites]

So is it possible that President Bannon is doing all this terrible, terrible shit to distract from the fact that they're not going to be able to get rid of Obamacare?

and urging others to boycott the USA for academic conferences.

I can't really argue with this in principle, but it's probably worth pointing out that the Trump administration has basically declared war on American higher ed. Punishing American academia is not exactly going to bother the Trumpies.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:43 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

And the Twitter machine has already revved up (#DressLikeAWoman).

Ironically the featured result in the tag search results is Behnaz Shafiei: Iran's trailblazing female biker makes history with women's race

When Behnaz Shafiei crosses the finish line on Friday at the end of a dusty, rock-strewn race track in Karaj, near Tehran, it will mark the end of both a simple motorbike race and a three-year campaign for women's rights in Iran. Whether she wins the race or not, it's a victory.
The 27-year-old has got a concession from Iran's sports ministry to stage the country's first ever female motorbike race, despite women being barred from motorbike riding by modesty laws.

It's like there's a polar swap going on.
posted by Buntix at 6:43 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

Given the close alliance of Republican senators with Netanyahu, I doubt that they will be so willing to drop UN veto power.
posted by MysticMCJ at 6:44 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

So was in class tonight and made the American woman I sit beside so angry even though I didn't say much of anything to her about anything. I do group work with her and from past classes got the idea that she is a Republican. I have avoided talking to her about anything that's going on ever since in a past class that happened before the election she wanted to explain it all to us and the class just said no thanks, politely of course, because we're Canadian.

I sit beside a guy who has become very interested in what is going on and now knows I follow it more then the average person. So we're there half and hour before class and he asks me so what's happened this past couple of days. So I start yammering about this thing and that thing and he's asking me questions and I'm showing him stuff online. He even takes notes on things he wants to look up. It's great, a political conversation with someone in person! He's interested enough that he looks up things I talk about and comes back at a later date with comments from his own research.

Then I hear from the other side 'You know you can't believe everything you read. It's all BS'. I don't bother to respond because no point and I'm not going to get into an argument justifying the way I get my info. The guy and I keep chatting on and off during class and I hear a mumble "CNN is not the whole truth you know". I just reply "Yes I realize that" make some comments about CNN and how I don't watch it for primary info. Then a little while later another mumble "You shouldn't even care. You're not even American. Only Americans can really understand." Again just ignore because I'm not going to get into a fight in the middle of class.

She just sort of sat there and seemed to stew. And then when I tried to talk about class stuff and our project she was totally short with me and after class stormed out without saying anything to anyone, which isn't normal. I guess she's feeling really defensive right now?

It was really weird.
posted by Jalliah at 6:46 PM on February 2, 2017 [48 favorites]

Hardiman is a fucking federal appellate judge. That is beyond disgraceful to participate in political showmanship.

I know! Why does everyone jump when he says "jump!"?

No need to actually answer that.
posted by futz at 6:47 PM on February 2, 2017

So is it possible that President Bannon is doing all this terrible, terrible shit to distract from the fact that they're not going to be able to get rid of Obamacare?

No.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:50 PM on February 2, 2017 [19 favorites]

She just sort of sat there and seemed to stew. And then when I tried to talk about class stuff and our project she was totally short with me and after class stormed out without saying anything to anyone, which isn't normal. I guess she's feeling really defensive right now?

She's in the denial stage, I'd imagine. Maybe a touch of bargaining?
posted by jaduncan at 6:50 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

"You shouldn't even care. You're not even American. Only Americans can really understand."

Kind of feels like the obvious response is "He's threatened to wage war on three different countries. This week. It's everyone's problem."
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:53 PM on February 2, 2017 [40 favorites]

It was really weird.

People get weird when their self concept as "a good person" gets challenged.

I've had frequent lessons in how weird it can get because I was a vegetarian for about 25 years (now pescatarian, still strenuously object to factory farming). I was never the preachy kind, but yeah, it was largely for moral reasons rather than health reasons (the latter are the magic words to say if you want to get people to stop being fucking weird). And whoa nelly, people are weeeiiiirrrddd when you make a sacrifice for a moral good that they don't want to make. (And what is perceived to be at stake in the US right now for these people is a sacrifice. They subscribe to a worldview where if someone wins, someone else has to lose and if an Iranian baby gets heart surgery, a veteran has to remain homeless. So someone being like, 'yo, that baby should get her surgery' is implying that the rest of us must sacrifice in some way.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:54 PM on February 2, 2017 [77 favorites]

So is it possible that President Bannon is doing all this terrible, terrible shit to distract from the fact that they're not going to be able to get rid of Obamacare?

The answer to "is it possible that they are doing x terrible thing to distract us from y terrible thing" is always both yes and no. They want to distract, but also they want to do terrible things.

So maybe we can stop declaring that this or that is a distraction. They're distractions from distractions, which things are also real things. None of it is a distraction because all of it is terrible.
posted by dis_integration at 6:54 PM on February 2, 2017 [21 favorites]

She's in the denial stage, I'd imagine. Maybe a touch of bargaining?

I guess so. It's not that I wouldn't want to talk to her about her views. I'd love to actually but it's difficult to engage in a conversation where the default starting point seems to include, "You can't know anything because you're Canadian and wouldn't understand."
posted by Jalliah at 6:55 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

In a new report released Thursday, Trump said male staffers are to wear ties and women must “dress like women,” unnamed sources told Axios.

There's a twitter hashtag #DressLikeAWoman going around in response to this featuring soldiers in uniform, astronauts in spacesuits, Justice Ginsburg in her robe, etc...
posted by zachlipton at 6:55 PM on February 2, 2017 [44 favorites]

Lo, how those pantsuits must have sent him into apoplectic rage!
posted by mochapickle at 6:58 PM on February 2, 2017 [18 favorites]

@MKarnitschnig:
Only 22% of Germans consider US a trustworthy partner, down from 59% under Obama. Now on par with Russia. [chart]
posted by chris24 at 6:58 PM on February 2, 2017 [43 favorites]

Only 22% of Germans consider US a trustworthy partner, down from 59% under Obama.

It's been 14 days.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:59 PM on February 2, 2017 [100 favorites]

For the record, America Magazine (a Jesuit publication) advises that the "Fascism Forever Club" was a yearbook joke and not an actual organized club. The writers of 2017 are still utterly ridiculous, however.

Now his love for that Kissinger quote on the other hand...
posted by zachlipton at 7:01 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Oh god, now I have to go find my pantsuit to protest this weekend.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:01 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

They are not used to this intense scrutiny and I imagine that is starting to get exhausting for them as well. Think about all the phone calls, faxes, emails, and letters they must deal with now. Every time someone has a town hall an enormous crowd shows up. Every vote, every action is under the microscope and they, poor little souls, are not used to this.

I haven't really considered the implications of this fully, that right now everyone from school board to city council to state rep and beyond is getting this heightened scrutiny, all the time. This makes it doubly important to me that I keep nudging our Indivisible group to also be a social group, we need that sustaining energy of community to keep it up - what happens when this insane amount of grassroots activity in the first days of the administration just does not stop, how will they react then? Imagine the staffing costs right now, the overtime logging all of those calls, opening all of those letters. The work that isn't getting done in the offices because they have to deal with this. It's crazy. Oh, and all that local attention that understaffed state and local officials are getting? That's going to cause pressure to rise up through the party ranks on their end, because they are not equipped to deal with it. "Can you just pump the brakes for a second and let us catch our breath?" And you know the hope in elected offices across the country is that this will all blow over. It can't and it won't, we'll sustain our efforts.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:02 PM on February 2, 2017 [23 favorites]

Thiel has NZ citizenship already

I was going to FPP this, but it's too close to this post. He basically paid for citizenship here; "not a bribe" because it was investment and charitable donations, although once he was granted citizenship nothing further has been forthcoming.

What sticks in my craw is this: his citizenship application cited his deep regard for NZ society and government. Our country has carefully built up the social and legislative frameworks that allow for this. He's currently part of an administration that is trying to demolish very similar frameworks in the States. So... if he tears down the social fabric of the States I guess his plan is to bail out and then rely on ours instead?
posted by Paragon at 7:03 PM on February 2, 2017 [16 favorites]

The answer to "is it possible that they are doing x terrible thing to distract us from y terrible thing" is always both yes and no.

That poor cat.
posted by Dashy at 7:05 PM on February 2, 2017 [23 favorites]

So... if he tears down the social fabric of the States I guess his plan is to bail out and then rely on ours instead?

No, he just lied. He'll just rely on his money, wherever he ends up, and try to tear down any social fabric that might end up taking that away from him.
posted by Etrigan at 7:05 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

Agreed jason_steakums.

Right now a lot of this is anti-De Vos and that's because education is something everyone can undersstand, most kids go to public schools, there are millions of educators in the US, children of educators, fathers and mothers of educators, parents of special needs children, and they are all mobilized.

To continue to bring that kind of pressure to bear for other issues, we need to really be strategic. Write explainers, work our social networks, make it easy for people to [attempt to] contact their senators, and really foment that adversarial "oh, you think you don't work for me?" thing that's happening right now as people are trying to contact their congresspeople and getting stonewalled. It's a marathon, not a sprint, and we're only just beginning. A lot o people are new to this rodeo and they're going to need the rest of us to keep those fires stoked, make it easy to be involved, and make it easy to understand the issues.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:07 PM on February 2, 2017 [11 favorites]

Video: @KellyannePolls says that 2 Iraqi refugees "were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:12 PM on February 2, 2017 [10 favorites]

Fighting in Ukraine is getting heavier. That didn't take long.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:12 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

I guess so. It's not that I wouldn't want to talk to her about her views. I'd love to actually but it's difficult to engage in a conversation where the default starting point seems to include, "You can't know anything because you're Canadian and wouldn't understand."

Yes. I'm sure it would be a hostile experience as she fell back on ad hom attacks rather than addressing the specifics. I mean, she's already 2 for 2 given that she's dismissed anything said by either you or CNN. My response to that kind of thing is usually "can you explain what you mean" for comments with racist implications or "what is it that CNN have said about this that you disagree with" for the entertainment of watching the cognitive dissonance and sudden Wiley-Coyotesque sudden realisation that nothing they are about to say is based on knowledge, but I get the feeling you're a nicer person than me.
posted by jaduncan at 7:12 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

In the last thread, there were lamentations that there were no cavalry coming to save us.

Wrong. We're the fucking cavalry.

Nope, we are the fucking Indians.

Which is why Julian Noisecat argues the necessity of a left/Indigenous alliance politics here. It's a sad read now that Standing Rock has been reversed, but it's so provocative.

Since we must urgently set about understanding root causes of the crisis even as we struggle and resist, it pays to dwell on the country's original sin as the root of all subsequent evil.
posted by spitbull at 7:13 PM on February 2, 2017 [20 favorites]

shapes that haunt the dusk, thank you for linking to that letter from the trans student at U of Milwaukee. I knew Milo was loathsome, but I just read the whole thing and am at a loss for words.
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 7:13 PM on February 2, 2017 [19 favorites]

They are trying to orchestrate every little detail and it backfires on them every time. It is utterly fucking pathetic. I am sure that some leaks are planned but I'd bet that the majority aren't.

"Structured reality" TV has an editing room. The narrative is shaped in post. There's no post-production here.
posted by holgate at 7:14 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

We're just straight up creating massacres out of thin air now?
posted by zachlipton at 7:14 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

Californians, Senator Kamala Harris wants to hear from you.
posted by entropicamericana at 7:15 PM on February 2, 2017 [14 favorites]

We're just straight up creating massacres out of thin air now?

Apparently.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 7:16 PM on February 2, 2017

So, two former Iraqis "living in Bowling Green, Ky., who admitted using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against U.S. soldiers in Iraq and who attempted to send weapons and money to Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) for the purpose of killing U.S. soldiers, were sentenced today to serve federal prison terms by Senior Judge Thomas B. Russell in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky."

There definitely was no massacre.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:16 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

For the record, America Magazine (a Jesuit publication) advises that the "Fascism Forever Club" was a yearbook joke and not an actual organized club. The writers of 2017 are still utterly ridiculous, however.

I have noticed that nowadays joking about being a fascist is the first step to being a fascist.
posted by ckape at 7:19 PM on February 2, 2017 [33 favorites]

"Structured reality" TV has an editing room. The narrative is shaped in post. There's no post-production here.

Russian managed democracy manages pretty well. Now is the time to kill the infant form of that.
posted by jaduncan at 7:19 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

You've got to admit that the Bowling Green Massacre sounds a lot more serious than the Bowling Green Attempted Money Transfer.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:20 PM on February 2, 2017 [88 favorites]

For the record, America Magazine (a Jesuit publication) advises that the "Fascism Forever Club" was a yearbook joke

Hilarious!
posted by zakur at 7:20 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yes. I'm sure it would be a hostile experience as she fell back on ad hom attacks rather than addressing the specifics. I mean, she's already 2 for 2 given that she's dismissed anything said by either you or CNN. My response to that kind of thing is usually "can you explain what you mean" for comments with racist implications or "what is it that CNN have said about this that you disagree with" for the entertainment of watching the cognitive dissonance, but I get the feeling you're a nicer person than me.

Nah. That's sounds like things I would end up saying. I can get pretty intense when debating politics especially when people come into it with these sorts of smarter then thou attitudes. I was in the actual political arena for many years so I'm used to it. I love me a good debate.
posted by Jalliah at 7:21 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Does she have it confused with Bo ... ston maybe? If she was opening a history book for the first time ever, to look up Frederick Douglass?
posted by Dashy at 7:22 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

I think they believe, probably correctly, that they can just make shit up and people will believe it.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:24 PM on February 2, 2017 [17 favorites]

Also, the Bowling Green case was the reason that refugee screening is where it's at today. She's citing a problem that the system already solved as a reason to upend the system.
posted by Etrigan at 7:25 PM on February 2, 2017 [22 favorites]

Californians, Senator Kamala Harris wants to hear from you.

I'm pretty sure she just wants to collect email addresses, demographic data and solicit donations. She has six years.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:25 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

In that reality Ted Knight has the paint roller and Jim J Bullock gets painted.
posted by ian1977 at 7:25 PM on February 2, 2017 [15 favorites]

Californians, Senator Kamala Harris wants to hear from you.

No joke, I was going to fill this out, but then it asked me to choose which issues I'm most worried about, and I just stared at the screen. I had to close the tab.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 7:27 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

Does this somehow relate to the The Berenst#in Bears universe problem? Over here in Berenstain world, was there a Bowling Green Massacre? What else is different? Is Kellyanne Conway just a stand-up comic over in the Berenstein universe? Is Trump even orange over there? What is happening?

Oh cool I never considered that the whole Mandela Effect bullshit was potentially a constructed primer for undermining faith in facts in social media circles, so now I got that on my mind!
posted by jason_steakums at 7:28 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

No joke, I was going to fill this out, but then it asked me to choose which issues I'm most worried about, and I just stared at the screen. I had to close the tab.

After that it asks you for money.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:29 PM on February 2, 2017

then it asked me to choose which issues I'm most worried about, and I just stared at the screen. I had to close the tab.

i just checked them all
posted by entropicamericana at 7:29 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

I've been calling Senator Harris's voicemail to leave my support. Filled this in as well -- the survey asks "Do you want to run for political office?" and I nearly answered yes, but I really can't commit to something like that yet.

But if you're feeling fired up and ready to organize, take that survey and click yes and let her know!
posted by vickyverky at 7:29 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

i just checked them all
posted by entropicamericana at 7:29 PM on February 2

Me too!
posted by vickyverky at 7:30 PM on February 2, 2017

Me three. Can't help but feeling that these push poll/fundraisers are about the least effective thing one can do, though.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:31 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

The Data That Turned the World Upside Down: Psychologist Michal Kosinski developed a method to analyze people in minute detail based on their Facebook activity. Did a similar tool help propel Donald Trump to victory?

Worth reading; not sure if it's already been linked.
posted by Panthalassa at 7:31 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

But only the sexiest parts of the wall. The large buttresses -- those will be painted something neutral, with vertical stripes to minimize their apparent size.

I like big buttresses, and I cannot lie.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:32 PM on February 2, 2017 [18 favorites]

This seems a lot like what corb has been discussing around presenting arguments in terms Republicans will respond to, with some research attached: The Simple Psychological Trick to Political Persuasion: "Conservatives are more likely to support issues like immigration and Obamacare if the message is “morally reframed” to suit their values."

This is moral reframing, which is something I've been following with interest for a few years. Conservatives and liberals see the world in fundamentally different ways and trying to appeal to the other side based on what motivates my side is almost always an exercise in futility, because it's almost as if we speak different languages. If I want to make my arguments appeal to conservatives, I need to find a way to frame them in terms of things that are important to them, which sounds easy, but, as the study found, is very difficult (for people from both sides) to do. (I'm trying to find arguments for various issues that would appeal to a conservative's sense of, for example, loyalty, and then just memorize it so I can use it when I need it.)

I wrote about this a little bit more previously here, and I've saved a lot of interesting things I've read over the years. I'm going to plop a bunch of them here and if it all seems a little disorganized, it's because I have a raging head cold and can't really be more coherent right now, so, apologies.

There are a few things I've read about differences between conservatives and liberals across multiple sources:

Conservatives (in general):
- react more strongly to disgust
- are more motivated by purity/cleanliness
- have a more visceral reaction to negative stimuli
- value loyalty, patriotism, moral purity and respect for authority
- tend to be more orderly and organized
- perceive more commonality in similarly-minded people than actually exists:

But why should these misperceptions of others’ views matter? It turns out that perceiving consensus in one's political ranks can fuel organizing.
Feeling confident that one’s group can achieve its goals is important in part because it can propel individuals to engage in behaviors that benefit the group. Consistent with this, participants in the study who felt their party was likely to be successful in the 2012 election were also more likely to say that they intended to vote themselves. (cite)

Liberals (in general):
- have a higher tolerance for risk-taking and uncertainty
- have lower perceptions of the trustworthiness of peers
- more likely to alter behavior in response to cues
- value equality, fairness and protection of the vulnerable
- tend to be more creative and open-minded
- perceive more diversity in thought in similarly-minded people than actually exists:

...the liberal tendency to diverge from the views of other liberals may risk undermining solidarity and place a greater burden on politicians to find common ground among individuals who are often psychologically disinclined to do so.
...The same psychological drive that leads people to favor changing the status quo also makes them reluctant to join large political coalitions. For conservatives hoping for success in November, the takeaway involves following that gut instinct to cohere with like-minded others. But for liberals it means something very different: thinking strategically about when it is time to dissent and, though it may feel wrong, when it is time to conform. (cite)

Study: From Gulf to Bridge: When Do Moral Arguments Facilitate Political Influence?

Importantly, this research finds that liberals tend to endorse foundations based on caring and protection from harm (harm) and maintenance of fairness and reciprocity (fairness) more strongly than conservatives. However, conservatives tend to endorse moral concerns related to ingroup-loyalty (loyalty), respect for authority (authority), and protection of purity and sanctity (purity) more than liberals. Related research largely supports these findings, and together, this body of work indicates that liberals possess stronger moral convictions related to fundamental aspects of harm and fairness (e.g., benevolence, nurturance, equality, social justice), and conservatives possess stronger convictions related to group loyalty, authority, and purity (e.g., patriotism, traditionalism, strictness, religious sanctity). As a result of these differing moral commitments, liberals and conservatives tend to view the world through different moral lenses and often have contrasting viewpoints on morally charged issues.

NYT: The Key to Political Persuasion

In one study, we presented liberals and conservatives with one of two messages in support of same-sex marriage. One message emphasized the need for equal rights for same-sex couples. This is the sort of fairness-based message that liberals typically advance for same-sex marriage. It is framed in terms of a value — equality — that research has shown resonates more strongly among liberals than conservatives. The other message was designed to appeal to values of patriotism and group loyalty, which have been shown to resonate more with conservatives. (It argued that “same-sex couples are proud and patriotic Americans” who “contribute to the American economy and society.”)

Liberals showed the same support for same-sex marriage regardless of which message they encountered. But conservatives supported same-sex marriage significantly more if they read the patriotism message rather than the fairness one.

In a parallel experiment, we targeted liberals for persuasion. We presented a group of liberals and conservatives with one of two messages in support of increased military spending. One message argued that we should “take pride in our military,” which “unifies us both at home and abroad.” The other argued that military spending is necessary because, through the military, the poor and disadvantaged “can achieve equal standing,” by ensuring they have “a reliable salary and a future apart from the challenges of poverty and inequality.”

For conservatives, it didn’t matter which message they read; their support for military spending was the same. However, liberals expressed significantly greater support for increasing military spending if they read the fairness message rather than the patriotism one.

20 peer-reviewed studies show liberals and conservatives physiologically different

Alternet: How Conservative Brains Are Wired Differently and What This Means for Our Politics

Vox: Most people are bad at arguing. These 2 techniques will make you better.

In his study, when he framed an argument against Trump in terms of loyalty (a conservative moral foundation), conservative participants reported they were less likely to support him.

“For instance, the loyalty message argued that Trump ‘has repeatedly behaved disloyally towards our country to serve his own interests’ and that ‘during the Vietnam War, he dodged the draft to follow his father into the development business,’” Feinberg and his co-author write in a preprint of their study.

Scientific American: How to Convince Someone When Facts Fail

From my experience, 1. keep emotions out of the exchange, 2. discuss, don't attack (no ad hominem and no ad Hitlerum), 3. listen carefully and try to articulate the other position accurately, 4. show respect, 5. acknowledge that you understand why someone might hold that opinion, and 6. try to show how changing facts does not necessarily mean changing worldviews.

Vox: Why Democrats and Republicans don’t understand each other

...voters tend to agree with Republicans on the philosophical questions in American politics (should government be smaller?) they tend to agree with Democrats on the policy questions in American politics (like should Social Security be smaller?)...

Democrats tend to project their preference for policymaking onto the Republican Party — and then respond with anger and confusion when Republicans don't seem interested in making a deal. Republicans tend to assume the Democratic Party is more ideological than it is, and so see various policy initiatives as part of an ideological effort to remake America along more socialistic lines.
posted by triggerfinger at 7:34 PM on February 2, 2017 [201 favorites]

that fucking asshole made physical appearance into such a big deal that he basically insinuated that his followers shouldn't vote for anyone who sweats or who has smaller hands than he does

Trump Is Reportedly Obsessed With How the People Who Work for Him Dress

While it might not be revelatory news that a reality-TV star who decorated his house in floor-to-ceiling gold is obsessed with appearances, according to a new story from Axios, Donald Trump is fixated on how the people who work for him look.

We’ve already heard that he was furious with Press Secretary Sean Spicer over the ill-fitting suit he wore to his first press conference, but he apparently has a history of judging employees’ dress and grooming habits.

posted by kirkaracha at 7:36 PM on February 2, 2017 [11 favorites]

TRIGGERFINGER MAKE A FPP.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:37 PM on February 2, 2017 [59 favorites]

FWIW, I like Lakoff and company too, but more serious linguists and etc seem to think it's on the level of pop-psych.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:38 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

I also checked everything in the Kamala Harris Poll. I note in the free text space I wasn't just click happy, I genuinely and terrified about every issue and every person and oh yeah, can you help save the federal lands.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 7:38 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Haven't seen this upthread yet.

E. J. Dionne, "It’s time to make Republicans pay for their supreme hypocrisy"

"The Rubicon was crossed with Garland....The Garland case was only a particularly egregious example of what we have to fear even more of in the months to come. The road to the outrages we are seeing from Trump was paved by his party’s violation of long-standing norms. Such norms were brushed aside again Wednesday when the Senate Finance Committee suspended the rules to ram through two Trump Cabinet nominees. How often will Republicans run roughshod over their opponents to do Trump’s bidding?"
posted by vverse23 at 7:38 PM on February 2, 2017 [10 favorites]

Yep. If you don't FPP that I will, Triggerfinger.
posted by jaduncan at 7:39 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Another call for an FPP!
posted by Jalliah at 7:41 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

the irony of trump being particular about how people dress when he apparently knows as much about ties as a 7th-grade boy is magnificent.

"look, mister trump, i don't know what you think full windsors are, but—"
"don't argue with me! just get rid of them!"
posted by entropicamericana at 7:45 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

I'd read that FPP.
posted by Lyme Drop at 7:46 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

Walt Disney CEO joins Uber in pulling out of Trump’s business advisory group event
posted by Jalliah at 7:47 PM on February 2, 2017 [67 favorites]

I also clicked all the things in Harris' survey, and added at the bottom notes about Bannon (she sits on the Homeland Security Committee), Pruitt, CBP at LAX, SCOTUS, and a quick thank-you for opposing Tillerson, Sessions, and DeVos. Carrots and sticks, after all.

Not that I'm going to stop calling and faxing.
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 7:48 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

anyway on the neverending list of things i never thought i would have to google, today's entry is "who has enough nukes to stop us that isn't russia"

In all seriousness, Britain and France. A single Vanguard or Triomphant parked in the Arctic Ocean could pretty much entirely destroy the continental US. Probably China too but I'm too lazy to look up whether their current missile subs are a meaningful deterrent.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:49 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

STOP BANNON: The Senate Committee on Homeland Security is taking calls about Bannon's appointment to the NSC. You can call 202-224-4751 and leave comments opposing this appointment.

I tried calling but got a busy signal, will try again shortly.

Voicemail's full. Will try tomorrow.
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:50 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Sure, I can put together an FPP, but it won't be posted until tomorrow because I want to go through all the articles I've saved on this topic (a lot) and see if I've missed anything. Also, I think I'll do better after I've taken a bunch of cold medicine in the morning. :)
posted by triggerfinger at 7:51 PM on February 2, 2017 [36 favorites]

I also clicked all the things in Harris' survey, and added at the bottom notes about Bannon (she sits on the Homeland Security Committee), Pruitt, CBP at LAX, SCOTUS, and a quick thank-you for opposing Tillerson, Sessions, and DeVos. Carrots and sticks, after all.

She's also on Intelligence, so kind of a two-fer with regards to Bannon and the NSC.
posted by susiswimmer at 7:56 PM on February 2, 2017

Is this the Lakoff conservative/liberal FPP you were looking for?
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:57 PM on February 2, 2017

It’s Putin’s World
How the Russian president became the ideological hero of nationalists everywhere

After the global financial crisis of 2008, populist uprisings had sprouted across Europe. Putin and his strategists sensed the beginnings of a larger uprising that could upend the Continent and make life uncomfortable for his geostrategic competitors. A 2013 paper from the Center for Strategic Communications, a pro-Kremlin think tank, observed that large patches of the West despised feminism and the gay-rights movement and, more generally, the progressive direction in which elites had pushed their societies. With the traditionalist masses ripe for revolt, the Russian president had an opportunity. He could become, as the paper’s title blared, “The New World Leader of Conservatism.”

Putin had never spoken glowingly of the West, but grim pronouncements about its fate grew central to his rhetoric. He hurled splenetic attacks against the culturally decadent, spiritually desiccated “Euro-Atlantic.” He warned against the fetishization of tolerance and diversity. He described the West as “infertile and genderless,” while Russian propaganda derided Europe as “Gayropa.” At the heart of Putin’s case was an accusation of moral relativism. “We can see how many of the Euro-Atlantic countries are actually rejecting their roots, including the Christian values that constitute the basis of Western civilization,” he said at a conference in 2013. “They are denying moral principles and all traditional identities: national, cultural, religious, and even sexual … They are implementing policies that equate large families with same-sex partnerships, belief in God with the belief in Satan.” By succumbing to secularism, he noted on another occasion, the West was trending toward “chaotic darkness” and a “return to a primitive state.”

Few analysts grasped the potency such rhetoric would have beyond Russia. But right-wing leaders around the world—from Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines to Nigel Farage in Britain to Donald Trump in the U.S.—now speak of Putin in heroic terms. Their fawning is often discounted, ascribed to under-the-table payments or other stealthy Russian efforts. These explanations don’t wholly account for Putin’s outsize stature, however. He has achieved this prominence because he anticipated the global populist revolt and helped give it ideological shape. With his apocalyptic critique of the West—which also plays on anxieties about Christendom’s supposedly limp response to Islamist terrorism—Putin has become a mascot of traditionalist resistance.
posted by Jalliah at 7:59 PM on February 2, 2017 [15 favorites]

Good news, Frederick Douglass actually stopped the Bowling Green Massacre, which is why you don't remember it.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:00 PM on February 2, 2017 [54 favorites]

In all seriousness, Britain and France. A single Vanguard or Triomphant parked in the Arctic Ocean could pretty much entirely destroy the continental US.

if they don't run into each other and sink first
posted by indubitable at 8:01 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Trump Executive Order Generator.

We need laughter. Grim, mirthless laughter will do.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:06 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

FWIW, I like Lakoff and company too, but more serious linguists and etc seem to think it's on the level of pop-psych.

So I'm sort of a linguist (linguistic anthropologist), and the issues I have with the framing stuff and Lakoff and the cognitive sciency stuff about liberals and conservatives are many, but boil down to a poor theoretical account of the relationship between language, ideology (or culture or habitus etc), and behavior, generally for lack of a real understanding of affect (emotion, sort of), narrative, and embodiment. Language is treated as both a reflection and a shaper of thought, without taking the embeddedness of language in embodied social life fully into account. And the internet and social media encourage this abstraction as textual and disembodied communication (although the power of memes and videos suggests here too a referential analysis of language has its limits).

TLDR it is far too easy to go from "conservatives talk like THIS" to "if we change the way we talk about something people will see through their ideological barriers to understanding." The semiotic problem seems secondary to the question of tribal self-interest.
posted by spitbull at 8:07 PM on February 2, 2017 [37 favorites]

Good news, Frederick Douglass actually stopped the Bowling Green Massacre, which is why you don't remember it.

He's doing a terrific job. I'm glad more and more people seem to be noticing.
posted by spitbull at 8:08 PM on February 2, 2017 [47 favorites]

Btw, I really don't think "don't invite on people who invent massacres" is an unreasonable rule for TV networks to follow. I mean, if you had the slightest care about the quality of the information you're putting out there, wouldn't you stop allowing this to happen? Or at least insist on pre-taping every interview, fact checking, and only then airing it as part of real reporting, with doses of actual reality inserted (posting the raw footage online so as to show you work for anybody who accuses you of selective editing).
posted by zachlipton at 8:09 PM on February 2, 2017 [39 favorites]

More .edu against hate, please.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:40 PM on February 2
David W. Leebron, President, Rice University
"Absent legal compulsion, we will not reveal the immigration status, citizenship or national origin of any student.
Given the threat posed by the order on Friday, I have asked our general counsel to develop a plan to provide legal assistance to any student or employee detained upon entry because they are from one of the seven countries. The plan will include the creation of a fund to support such assistance when volunteer legal services are not readily available or sufficient. We will continue to monitor developments, and if we determine that other students or faculty members face unwarranted risks of either deportation or exclusion at the border, we will make that assistance available to them."
posted by eerie magi at 8:11 PM on February 2, 2017 [24 favorites]

Regarding the military convoy, Seals that was filmed flying a Trump flag. Looks like the Navy has ordered a Command Inquiry into it.

Don't know much about how it works but I've read military people say that it's serious and could mean these guys get in a lot of trouble.
posted by Jalliah at 8:11 PM on February 2, 2017 [31 favorites]

Looks like we've got a bill to codify who gets to be on the NSC, thanks to six senators, including both from California - Senator Harris and Senator Feinstein. (I can't find it on senate.gov yet, but the Senator Warner links to the text of the bill.)

MeFites whose senators sponsored this bill - let's send thank-you faxes! MeFites with other senators - please call and urge yours to co-sponsor and vote yes.
posted by kristi at 8:12 PM on February 2, 2017 [37 favorites]

Regarding the military convoy, Seals that was filmed flying a Trump flag. Looks like the Navy has ordered a Command Inquiry into it.

Good because that has been really bugging me. Elite commando corps announcing political allegiance to the authoritarian Dear Leader is all kinds of fucked up. Was that before or after the Seals lost a guy and a chopper while killing a bunch of women and children in Yemen?
posted by spitbull at 8:14 PM on February 2, 2017 [38 favorites]

Former Norwegian Prime Minister held for questioning at Dulles Airport. He was held for an hour because he's previously visited Iran.
posted by zachlipton at 8:14 PM on February 2, 2017 [41 favorites]

begun the tradewars has:
China Increases interest rates in open market
posted by xcasex at 8:15 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

C'mon, the only way to change a white supremacists mind is to put them in prison where their lives can be saved by an empathetic person of color. It's like no one's ever seen American History X.
posted by valkane at 8:17 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

Is it wrong that I am rooting for China lately as the last best hope of Mankind?
posted by spitbull at 8:17 PM on February 2, 2017 [14 favorites]

military people say that it's serious

It is very serious. Many military people I talked to about political canvassing were reticent about getting involved even though they would be in plainclothes and off-duty.
posted by Coventry at 8:18 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Politico: Distrust in Trump’s White House spurs leaks, confusion

Come for the chaos, stay for the tale of Omarosa trying to take Scaramucci's office because it has a better view of the Washington Monument (before Scaramucci was forced out).
posted by zachlipton at 8:19 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Good because that has been really bugging me. Elite commando corps announcing political allegiance to the authoritarian Dear Leader is all kinds of fucked up. Was that before or after the Seals lost a guy and a chopper while killing a bunch of women and children in Yemen?

Looks like convoy was on Sunday so same day. Not sure about the timing and whether they would have heard what happened.
posted by Jalliah at 8:19 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Democrats have basic fact problem, PredictWise, David Rothschild

We ran a new PredictWise/Pollfish Poll on facts about politics on January 26, 2017 and found that Republican talking points are much more salient than Democratic talking points. This is not a story about partisan asymmetry around what people believe (although that exists), but about how Democrats also believe key false talking points from the Republicans, while there is little evidence of the reverse.

posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:20 PM on February 2, 2017 [19 favorites]

Former Norwegian Prime Minister held for questioning at Dulles Airport. He was held for an hour because he's previously visited Iran.

[Real], not [Netflix]
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:22 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

begun the tradewars has:

finally, all that time spent in bbs doors is gonna pay off
posted by entropicamericana at 8:22 PM on February 2, 2017 [14 favorites]

begun the tradewars has

Raising rates is almost certainly for internal economic management, not trade competitiveness. If anything, they would be lowering rates to weaken the yuan, if it were about trade.
posted by Coventry at 8:22 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

begun the tradewars has:
China Increases interest rates in open market

speaking of China, the Major Foreign Holders report has been updated for November 2016 and it appears that China has continued to sell off their US debt holdings.
posted by indubitable at 8:23 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Is it wrong that I am rooting for China lately as the last best hope of Mankind?

I don't know about wrong but it's strange that you think there has to be a Good Guy in all of this. It's totally possible that everybody is horrible.
posted by indubitable at 8:25 PM on February 2, 2017 [53 favorites]

Don't know much about how it works but I've read military people say that it's serious and could mean these guys get in a lot of trouble.

Pretty much. It's utterly indisputable partisan political activity on active duty, so there are potential charges under titles 10, 2, and 18, United States Code as well as DoD directive 1344.10 as the implementation of that. I would also imagine that there's going to be a very strong view right now that the military shouldn't be seen to be partisan. At the very least I would imagine it's going to result in a quite impressive bollocking. It's also a bit too public to let drop, and if it is just never heard of again I'll wince considerably.
posted by jaduncan at 8:25 PM on February 2, 2017 [14 favorites]

The Oregonian: An excellent letter to the editor on "alternative facts" by Ursula K. Le Guin.
posted by zachlipton at 8:28 PM on February 2, 2017 [43 favorites]

Self care department: I scored a camping reservation for Havasupai today. Waiting to hear on a Grand Canyon permit for June. Speaking from recent experience, going backpacking for a night or two somewhere where there is no cell reception whatsoever is fantastic for you. You kinda forget about politics for a bit and you find that you don't really miss being able to get online. Hikes and workouts have given me some nice breaks from all the evil going on.
posted by azpenguin at 8:29 PM on February 2, 2017 [14 favorites]

Mother Jones:Execs at Facebook, Google, Apple, and Other Tech Giants Sign Letter Opposing Trump's Immigration Order
posted by spitbull at 8:29 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

It's utterly indisputable partisan political activity on active duty, so there are various potential charges.

Is it, when it's the CiC 12 days in?
posted by corb at 8:30 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Where's that in the UCMJ?
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:32 PM on February 2, 2017

Is it, when it's the CiC 12 days in?

trump reelection campaign is already filed.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:34 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

If you think troops participating in Trumps election campaign now is shocking now wait till they open fire on the in the polling queues!
posted by Artw at 8:35 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Is it, when it's the CiC 12 days in?

Can you explain what this means?
posted by Jalliah at 8:36 PM on February 2, 2017

Trump will sign executive orders tomorrow at noon.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:37 PM on February 2, 2017

Where's that in the UCMJ?

Aside from Article 92 for the orders violation?
posted by jaduncan at 8:37 PM on February 2, 2017

And urging others to boycott the USA for academic conferences.
I can't really argue with this in principle, but it's probably worth pointing out that the Trump administration has basically declared war on American higher ed. Punishing American academia is not exactly going to bother the Trumpies.

Yeah, except that it's not intended as a punishment, but rather to ensure that Muslims from affected countries (and people who worry about the Trump government having their fingerprints and so on on file) are still able to attend their professional organisations' meetings. Of course, holding the conferences elsewhere means that Muslims from the affected countries who are based in the USA can't attend or they might not be able to get back in, which sucks too.
posted by lollusc at 8:37 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

Is it, when it's the CiC 12 days in?

Can you explain what this means?

Can you support the new Commander in Chief via a flag with his name on without it being politically partisan?
posted by jaduncan at 8:38 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Aside from Article 92 for the orders violation?

I'm talking about the '12 day' rule, whichever way that's supposed to cut. It's a campaign sign.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:38 PM on February 2, 2017

Where's that in the UCMJ?

DOD Directive 1344.10
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:40 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm not sure that actually covers this, possibly because it's so astoundingly stupid no one thought there needed to be a reg for it. Maybe there's another one, and there is a catch-all provision in there.

But I'm pretty sure the idea that you can deck out military vehicles in campaign signs once the election is two weeks old isn't going to pass muster. As it were.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:44 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh wow. I skimmed over parts of the thread I missed and kept seeing jokes on social media about some Bowling Green Massacre (which I never heard of). I just saw the whole story and wow.

Just wow.
And for good measure..

WTF?

Will the media ever just stop talking to this woman?
posted by Jalliah at 8:45 PM on February 2, 2017 [14 favorites]

Trump will sign executive orders tomorrow at noon.

I hate how this makes me feel so scared.
posted by yasaman at 8:45 PM on February 2, 2017 [27 favorites]

I'm not sure that actually covers this, possibly because it's so astoundingly stupid no one thought there needed to be a reg for it. Maybe there's another one, and there is a catch-all provision in there.

Yes. In 1344.10 you aren't even allowed to have a large political banner or similar on your private car.

Relevant: "4.1.5. Activities not expressly prohibited may be contrary to the spirit and intent of this Directive. Any activity that may be reasonably viewed as directly or indirectly associating the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security (in the case of the Coast Guard) or any component of these Departments with a partisan political activity or is otherwise contrary to the spirit and intention of this Directive shall be avoided."

If you aren't allowed it on your private car, the chances that the court are going to think that the spirit of the directive means that you're allowed it on your military vehicle are approximately zero.
posted by jaduncan at 8:47 PM on February 2, 2017 [10 favorites]

Right, that's the catch-all. I'm wondering if there's regs or orders on how vehicles are to be maintained that might be roped in, but I'm hardly a military person.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:48 PM on February 2, 2017

It's quite possible this will be the worst executive order yet. And that's saying something given the Muslim ban.
posted by Justinian at 8:48 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

DOD Directive 1344.10
4.1.2. A member of the Armed Forces on active duty shall not:
...
4.1.2.10. March or ride in a partisan political parade.

4.1.2.11. Display a large political sign, banner, or poster (as distinguished from a bumper sticker) on a private vehicle.

4.1.2.12. Display a partisan political sign, poster, banner, or similar device visible to the public at one’s residence on a military installation, even if that residence is part of a privatized housing development.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 8:49 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

Esme Cribb at Talking Points Memo: “Reddit Bans White Nationalist Forum [r/altright] From Its Site For Doxxing Violations”
posted by Going To Maine at 8:50 PM on February 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

Yes, I read it. You might be surprised to hear that legal rules are read and applied rather legalistically. 4.1.5 is strongest in there.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:50 PM on February 2, 2017

Trump will sign executive orders tomorrow at noon.

I hate how this makes me feel so scared.

i just want him to get the shitty hateful ones over with so he can move on to the really deranged and psychotic ones that historians will still be mocking in 2000 years instead of discussing seriously, like where he declares himself the pope of america or passes a law saying all men have to wear a trump face mask while getting laid
posted by poffin boffin at 8:53 PM on February 2, 2017 [15 favorites]

4.1.1.4. Serve as an election official, if such service is not as a representative of a
partisan political party, does not interfere with the performance of military duties, is performed
when not in uniform, and the Secretary concerned has given prior approval.

Who is the "Secretary concerned"?
posted by Coventry at 8:53 PM on February 2, 2017

im not even gonna apologize for that mental image, one must expect such atrocities in wartime
posted by poffin boffin at 8:54 PM on February 2, 2017 [23 favorites]

Right, that's the catch-all. I'm wondering if there's regs or orders on how vehicles are to be maintained that might be roped in, but I'm hardly a military person.

I'm sure. I doubt anyone will bother with more than the 1344.10/Art 92 violation on this, though. If the point of the charge is messaging, the charges around keeping a vehicle poorly don't really give the prosecutor what they want.
posted by jaduncan at 8:57 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

passes a law saying all men have to wear a trump face mask while getting laid

PB, I usually 1000% love your comments, but now I have to live with this image.... And all I can say is aaaaaarrrggghhh.
posted by susiswimmer at 8:57 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Who is the "Secretary concerned"?

I think it's the Sec. of Defense but it might mean the service branch Secretaries.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:57 PM on February 2, 2017

We have always been at war with Bowling Green.
posted by tonycpsu at 8:58 PM on February 2, 2017 [27 favorites]

I may have stumbled upon a winning daily action plan for red-staters:

Business hours: call local and Washington offices for your R Senators about the action of the day (DeVos, Sessions, etc).

After business hours: call all but one of their other offices, leave a message and tell them you couldn't get through to local office but you oppose DeVos/Sessions/Bannon/ Etc.

Call your blue-island congressperson and leave a message to thank them for their work.

Late night: after a sufficient number of whiskey drinks, call that one random Senator office you didn't contact earlier and let them know how you really feel about x, y, and z. Then drink some water and take a multivitamin and go to bed, because the fight needs you tomorrow.
posted by ghharr at 8:58 PM on February 2, 2017 [28 favorites]

Who is the "Secretary concerned"?

Each service ("Military Departments", as they're called in paragraph 2) -- that is, Army, Navy, Air Force -- has a Secretary who reports to the SecDef. Plus the Secretary of Homeland Security runs the Coast Guard.

(Marines are under SecNav.)
posted by Etrigan at 8:59 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

passes a law saying all men have to wear a trump face mask while getting laid

Well, this perspective actually makes the circulated draft of an EO making it illegal for single women to have sex suddenly more appealing to me.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 9:01 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

PB, I usually 1000% love your comments, but now I have to live with this image.... And all I can say is aaaaaarrrggghhh.

Also, it only applies to men whose partners merit a six or above.

Signed,
A Profoundly Relieved Four
posted by mochapickle at 9:01 PM on February 2, 2017 [16 favorites]

Shouting match over Russia erupts at House hearing
A routine House Oversight Committee hearing Thursday turned into a shouting match between the Republican chairman and the ranking Democrat over Russian interference in the presidential election.

In a fight that exposed bitter frustration amongst Democrats that Republicans have kept the issue locked in a single committee — the Intelligence Committee in both chambers — lawmakers sparred over whether Oversight should conduct a public investigation into last year's cyberattack that stole information from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

“It’s clear that politics have prevented this committee from being willing or able to do the necessary objective and nonpartisan oversight on the Russian attack,” said Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.).

The chairman, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), argued that studying sources and methods used to draw an intelligence conclusion is the jurisdiction of the Intelligence Committee and, further, that it would be “inappropriate” for Oversight to “dive into the private systems of a political party.”

Democrats weren’t satisfied.
posted by Jalliah at 9:03 PM on February 2, 2017 [15 favorites]

Is there any legal reason that 4.1.4 is not folded in to the beginning of 4.1.2? 4.1.4 basically says. "Actually, it's OK to do everything in 4.1.2, provided you're not in uniform or otherwise suggesting official military support for your candidate/cause." It's a very confusing arrangement.
posted by Coventry at 9:04 PM on February 2, 2017

Anyway, glad to have finally read the authoritative regulations on this, along with all the commentary, here.
posted by Coventry at 9:08 PM on February 2, 2017

4.1.4 is about non-active duty and addresses application of 4.1.1 and 4.1.2 both, which would otherwise only apply to active duty. It expressly forbids wearing the uniform or doing anything to suggest official support or affiliation while doing anything in either category. That's why it's organized that way.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:11 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Never forget! #PrayForBowlingGreen
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 9:11 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Is there any legal reason that 4.1.4 is not folded in to the beginning of 4.1.2?

That's a pretty standard military way of laying things out -- first the rule, then the exceptions.
posted by Etrigan at 9:13 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

It was at the end of a long day and he was tired and fatigue was setting in. He was an old man who sat behind a desk in the Oval Office and he had gone two days now without signing an executive order.
posted by perhapses at 9:14 PM on February 2, 2017 [11 favorites]

Shouting match over Russia erupts at House hearing

I'm glad to see that -- as usual -- the focus is on the behavior and not the content: Republicans are perfectly content with ignoring Russian interference in the election, because paying attention to Democratic concerns is beneath them.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 9:15 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), I actually liked you for almost a whole day.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 9:18 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

I don't appreciate all the jokes about The Bowling Green massacre when people say it looked like 1.5 million died or something. #NeverForgetBowlingGreen
posted by bongo_x at 9:19 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Hopefully Chaffetz was getting irritated because the flooding in of the bees is very irritating.
So many bees.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:19 PM on February 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

“It’s clear that politics have prevented this committee from being willing or able to do the necessary objective and nonpartisan oversight on the Russian attack,” said Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.).

The chairman, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), argued that studying sources and methods used to draw an intelligence conclusion is the jurisdiction of the Intelligence Committee and, further, that it would be “inappropriate” for Oversight to “dive into the private systems of a political party.”

I can't even imagine how infuriating it would be to be the ranking Democrat on a shitshow Chaffetz investigative committee. Cheers to you for holding the line, Rep. Kelly.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:21 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

I suppose I have to thank Kellyanne for this nights amusement #bowlinggreenmassacre is hilarious.
posted by Jalliah at 9:23 PM on February 2, 2017 [10 favorites]

Funny enough I lived in Bowling Green for a year. It was terrible. This is deeply weird for me.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:24 PM on February 2, 2017

Can you support the new Commander in Chief via a flag with his name on without it being politically partisan?

Speaking as a civilian, I don't think the military should ever be supporting the Commander in Chief. Their loyalty, as with all public servants, should be to the country, not to the head of state. Americans do not bow before kings.
posted by biogeo at 9:35 PM on February 2, 2017 [42 favorites]

Question for the group: have the cities in American that have been hit by radical islamic terrorists (New York, Boston, Orlando, etc) seen huge calls for bans on Muslims? I'm thinking the answer is no, but can't say for sure.

Shit Giuliani himself stood in front of the UN and talked tolerance after 9/11*, before his soul was completely devoured by whatever lives behind his eyes these days. Our NYC Dems in Congress are made of some substantially stronger stuff than me if they can listen to Republicans lecturing them about terrorism without smashing the Senate Cabinet Shop's finest chairs over some heads.

*it's been good decade since I read the speech and my mind is reeling trying to reconcile it with the Giuliani of today.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:37 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Americans do not bow before kings.

They do before Tsars though.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:37 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Oh god help us. Milo Yiannopoulos says he’s going to the White House press briefing [tomorrow]

Spicer has yet to confirm, and I can't find a scheduled time for the briefing yet.
posted by zachlipton at 9:39 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

susiswimmer > PB, I usually 1000% love your comments, but now I have to live with this image.... And all I can say is aaaaaarrrggghhh.

Acceptable collateral damage. [so asmaned. okay, not ashamed]
posted by Enturbulated at 9:40 PM on February 2, 2017

Spicer has yet to confirm, and I can't find a scheduled time for the briefing yet.

Friday. 12:30pm Eastern. If Milo is there, sob.
posted by zachlipton at 9:43 PM on February 2, 2017

Oh god help us. Milo Yiannopoulos says he’s going to the White House press briefing [tomorrow]

Spicer has yet to confirm, and I can't find a scheduled time for the briefing yet.

Spicer said in today's briefing that he wouldn't be there tomorrow. Maybe this administration is going to have guest hosts like talk show's sometimes do?
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 9:46 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Maybe it's Omarosa's turn?
posted by mochapickle at 9:47 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

They are spitting in our faces now with Milo. The entire press corps should refuse to attend. But they won't, of course.

$10 that Milo will be press secretary when Trump tires of Spicer.
posted by gatorae at 9:48 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

So, random insight into how bad it's gotten, how fast: I saw, on facebook, that Revolution Brewing in Chicago is celebrating their 7th anniversary with a benefit for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant Refugee Rights. I would love to go, but Japan is kind of far. I asked a younger coworker, who is also from Chicago, if he'd heard of Revolution in Chicago.

He was a bit confused, then told me that at first, he'd thought I was talking about a revolution having actually started in Chicago, and that he wasn't all that surprised, really. So, yeah. I guess I'm kind of in the same boat. If there were news of an actual revolt against the Trump regime, I'm pretty sure disbelief wouldn't even rank in the top five of my reactions.

If you haven't had it, the Eugene Porter is pretty awesome.
posted by Ghidorah at 9:49 PM on February 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

Regarding motives for China raising rates:

Haidi Lun 伦海迪 ‏@HaidiLun
Drivers for PBOC policy shift: growth on track, factory prices reflating, lowering real borrowing costs (1-yr rate -1.2% from 10.7% in '15)

OTOH, Alexander Dugin tweets this Russian article, which speculates that other countries are raising their rates because Trump is brow-beating them, and that he's going to have a hard time with this strategy over the long-term, unless he can establish better control over the Fed.
posted by Coventry at 9:50 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

The most recent schedule seems to have reversed Spicer on the whole "no briefing tomorrow" thing (proving, once again, his untrustworthiness even on the most basic of matters). Whether he and/or Milo actually shows up is a mystery we'll have to discover together tomorrow, if we can stomach it.
posted by zachlipton at 9:52 PM on February 2, 2017

$10 that Milo will be press secretary when Trump tires of Spicer.

Yiannopolous is a (sadly potent) columnist, not a flack. He has no interest in a lesser position.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:52 PM on February 2, 2017

I mean, if there is revolution in Chicago, we could do worse than having Ghidorah show up.
posted by biogeo at 9:56 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Yiannopolous is a (sadly potent) columnist, not a flack. He has no interest in a lesser position.

I wonder how Sleeping Giants is going with its campaign to starve Breitbart of ad dollars. Maybe it will fold, and Milo can go on to his racist destiny gorging himself at the Trump trough.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 9:59 PM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

perhapses: "It was at the end of a long day and he was tired and fatigue was setting in. He was an old man who sat behind a desk in the Oval Office and he had gone two days now without signing an executive order."

The struggle is real.
posted by Rhaomi at 10:03 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

vbfg: “Wait calmly”

After I posted this article in another conference this evening, I was informed by an admitted member of the bar whom I've known for 20 years that it's fake news. That bothered me more than the article did.
posted by ob1quixote at 10:06 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

MetaFilter: I would imagine it's going to result in a quite impressive bollocking
posted by kirkaracha at 10:10 PM on February 2, 2017

Yiannopolous is a (sadly potent) columnist, not a flack. He has no interest in a lesser position.

Also a foreign national banned from twitter for making threats against American citizens. I think this bears repeating every time the Republicans want to bring him up.
posted by Zalzidrax at 10:10 PM on February 2, 2017 [68 favorites]

Milo's book is currently #1 rated on Amazon. I checked on the category, expecting it to be something small. The category is books. [soon-to-fluctuate source Amazon link] The chances that Milo stops trolling for commercial reasons are approximately zero, no matter how many people get beaten or shot.
posted by jaduncan at 10:27 PM on February 2, 2017 [10 favorites]

Politicsfilter: twitching on fractal zoom of crazy
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 10:27 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Revolution in Chicago........somehow, that thought will help me sleep easier tonight (on Chicago's north side)....I have to say, now when I hear sirens I think "How many are there? What direction are they going in/coming from? Is it the invasion?" Revolution....that's proactive. I like proactive. And then I think sh!t, this is what I am really thinking, this isn't a wise-ass response (looks out window as sirens go by....)
posted by W Grant at 10:29 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Sounds like the EOs tomorrow are some Wall Street bullshit including the start of a dismantling of Dodd-Frank.

Asked about the potential political pushback because of his Wall Street past, Mr. Cohn said the administration’s goal of deregulating financial markets “has nothing to do with Goldman Sachs.”

“It has nothing to do with J.P. Morgan,” he said. “It has nothing to do with Citigroup. It has nothing to do with Bank of America. It has to do with being a player in a global market where we should, could and will have a dominant position as long as we don’t regulate ourselves out of that.”

So hey, expect favorability of Wall Street and globalization to make a quick turnaround among Trump voters just like Putin did.
posted by jason_steakums at 10:37 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Recall uproar when Obama weighed in on Harvard historian Skip Gates' run-in w/police. Now think: Trump has intervened for Milo Yiannopoulos.

Just a note, because I've seen a bunch of people comment on this kind of thing. But the difference here, I think, is that Obama cared what was said about him and what people thought. He genuinely wanted people to like him so that he could bring them along with him into the new era of bipartisan solutions.

Trump doesn't care. He doesn't for a single second pretend to care. The only thing he (and/or his inner circle) care about is "can you stop me"? We're so used to people caring about public perceptions that we're finding our system has very little power against someone who won't bow a single inch in the face of negative public reaction.

And yes, I know that Trump does "care" on some level about things like ratings and popular vote. But he (due to his mental abnormalities) doesn't act like most humans as a response. His only tactics are tactics of abuse. An abuser won't start being nice to get their victim to start liking them. They'll just abuse harder in the hopes they beat them down enough to stop complaining.
posted by threeturtles at 10:39 PM on February 2, 2017 [28 favorites]

So hey, expect favorability of Wall Street and globalization to make a quick turnaround among Trump voters just like Putin did.

It is, of course, worth remembering that Trump voters were on average wealthier than Clinton voters and by no means confined to the working class.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:39 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

If you have any heart for people of faith and want to pee your pants in rage and sadness, feel free to contrast and compare Obama's Prayer Breakfast speech with Trump's Prayer Breakfast speech.
posted by redsparkler at 10:42 PM on February 2, 2017 [11 favorites]

passes a law saying all men have to wear a trump face mask while getting laid

That may actually be worse than the worst case stuff I've been imagining in my head.

Okay, not really because people aren't dead in that, but close.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:51 PM on February 2, 2017

How the fuck are you people not twitching on this fractal zoom of crazy yet?

I'm drunk.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:52 PM on February 2, 2017 [20 favorites]

I feel comfortable having told Harris yes, I am interested in running for public office. I mean, a year ago my history would've made my participation unthinkable. But the bar is so low now, why don't we all just trudge across it? Just to see what happens?
posted by The Noble Goofy Elk at 10:52 PM on February 2, 2017 [15 favorites]

How the fuck are you people not twitching on this fractal zoom of crazy yet?

im having all the nerves in my body burned away one by one so i can never feel anything ever again
posted by poffin boffin at 10:54 PM on February 2, 2017 [14 favorites]

Milo is probably going to bitch about his verified check mark on Twitter being taken away again.
posted by PenDevil at 10:54 PM on February 2, 2017

afterwards i will ideally be given a robot arm for doing crimes
posted by poffin boffin at 10:55 PM on February 2, 2017 [20 favorites]

Frederick Douglass Opens Twitter Account from Beyond the Grave to Troll President Trump
posted by fragmede at 10:57 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

im having all the nerves in my body burned away one by one so i can never feel anything ever again

I did that. We called it "working on the Howard Dean campaign."
posted by darkstar at 11:00 PM on February 2, 2017 [20 favorites]

So Comey and the FBI will be showing up soon to put Kellyanne in her place, right?

i want her taint to suddenly become irresistible to giant furious immortal hornets
posted by poffin boffin at 11:00 PM on February 2, 2017 [12 favorites]

This piece has shown up on MeFi a bunch of times, but I don't believe it's popped up in any of the election/presidential threads: This administration has me thinking a lot about sick systems. I think it goes some way to explain why DJT had anybody working for him even in the years before he ran for president and why the GOP establishment continues to fawn on him now. Unfortunately it's a sick system for us too, and not a relationship or job we can leave, but I'm sharing it here on the off chance it will give somebody some context and vocabulary for the ongoing mindfucks of the shit firehose.

FWIW, DJT's sad attempt to impose a sick system has backfired gloriously, galvanizing a resistance who recognize this bullshit and promptly built a community to ensure nobody has to stand for it, or go it alone.

Thank you all for being here. You've kept me sane, given my cynical ass hope, and inspired me to do what little I can.
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 11:00 PM on February 2, 2017 [11 favorites]

How the fuck are you people not twitching on this fractal zoom of crazy yet?

I am a devout Discordian, and in between bouts of panic, I am saying "hail Eris hail Eris hail Eris I have seen the fnords hail Eris hail Eris" and flipping through my Principia and re-reading the Sermon on Ethics and Love.

It is not comforting, except in the sense of being aware we don't need any divine assistance to reach this point of self-destruction.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 11:03 PM on February 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

America’s Leading Authoritarian Intellectual Is Working for Trump

The most intellectually important essay of the 2016 election cycle, and possibly of the whole political era that has begun, is “The Flight 93 Election.” Its previously anonymous author turns out to be former Bush administration speechwriter Michael Anton, reports Michael Warren. Anton is now working as a senior national security official in the Trump administration. Anton’s role in the administration lends his signature essay all the more importance as a statement of Trumpism. The essay has many interesting aspects, which made it the subject of fervent debate during the election. But its most notable characteristic is its almost textbook justification for authoritarianism.
...
Anton describes the government (pre-Trump) as “the junta.” This cannot be dismissed as mere rhetorical exaggeration. To Anton, the rising share of the nonwhite population is a foreign invasion: “The ceaseless importation of Third World foreigners with no tradition of, taste for, or experience in liberty means that the electorate grows more left, more Democratic, less Republican, less republican, and less traditionally American with every cycle,” he writes. He describes the children of immigrants as “ringers to form a permanent electoral majority.” The racial and political implications of this argument are both clear and extreme: Anton believes the white Republican base is the only legitimate governing coalition. Democratic governments are inherently illegitimate by dint of their racial cast.

This is horrifying. Even with all the incredible awfulness that 2016 entailed, the Flight 93 Election essay was one of the most horrible things to come out of campaign season, and here's the guy working for the White House.
posted by zachlipton at 11:03 PM on February 2, 2017 [62 favorites]

But the bar is so low now, why don't we all just trudge across it? Just to see what happens?

I really don't want to find out the hard way what would happen. I wish all of you luck on that, but oh dear god, no for me in this day and age.

ErisLordFreedom, I think I like your method.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:04 PM on February 2, 2017

Weird reports (1, 2, 3, 4) that at least two Secret Service managers were forced to abruptly resign tonight, possibly more, and were escorted out of the building. The report includes speculation that Trump is restructuring the service.
posted by zachlipton at 11:09 PM on February 2, 2017 [23 favorites]

How the fuck are you people not twitching on this fractal zoom of crazy yet?

Oh, I totally am. Berkeley is associated with image of people being beaten unconscious (even though I've heard nothing about it outside of right wing circles, no one seems to know anything about it, and the police reported only minor injuries), and now Milo Y's book is #1 on Amazon. I'm trying to take comfort in the thought that anyone who would read his book and think "hmm, yes, these are ideas I can get behind" was not about to donate to CAIR anyway, but it's still massively disheartening to think that he's so much more popular after last night.

I can't drink alcohol anymore because my stomach is messed up, so at this point I'm sort of praying for some sort of P.K. Dick esque sudden revelation that I am actually living in the period immediately after Christ's death, and that the past 2000 years of human history have actually been an illusion created by Satan to tempt me away from salvation. I'm like 80-90% there.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 11:11 PM on February 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

Sigh. What fresh dog shit is this? Restructuring the secret service. Good call chief. You have such a great track record. Better start messing with the organization tasked with keeping you alive.
posted by ian1977 at 11:13 PM on February 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

I'm sure he's just putting the SS back in secret service.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:15 PM on February 2, 2017 [23 favorites]

Sigh. What fresh dog shit is this? Restructuring the secret service. Good call chief. You have such a great track record. Better start messing with the organization tasked with keeping you alive.

I can't be the only one supporting new innovations in this matter, surely?
posted by jaduncan at 11:31 PM on February 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Ufh. I've gone 2.5 years using the Gold Line train in LA, and today was the first time I experienced overt and physical racism (other than from the ticket checkers, which is another sad story but seems institutional rather than personal). As we were boarding the train tonight at Union Station, an older well-dressed white man physically stopped an older black woman pushing a grandma cart (not a weirdo lady who maybe got too aggressive with her grandma cart, a normal 55-y/o lady!) as she tried to get on the train. He told her that he was going on first, stuck his hand out to stop her in a needlessly forceful way that slammed his palm against the train wall and formed a wall with his arm, and said she couldn't get on until she paid. wtf!? We all paid at the lower level platform! How would he know if she hadn't paid for a ticket, or if she had a monthly pass and didn't need to swipe!!?

We all got on the train and said nothing. A group of 20 cowards, all of us. I felt like an enormous ass - a privileged 30-year old white lady carrying a copy of March in my bag.

But it gets worse. The older lady got visibly agitated, while he just sat there on the train in his j crew jacket and headphones. She tried to confront him and he said "miss, leave me alone" like she was the crazy one. I was super tense, torn between my instincts of "do not engage on public transit" and "what fresh hell is this." After 2 stops she called a conductor, and he started to stiffen up, to go from offense to defense. His whole body language changed.

While she was off the train telling the conductor, another black lady came on, new at that stop. She hadn't seen anything except their bickering, so the new lady tried to smooth it over and justify why the older lady might be upset, even apologizing to the older white guy ("there's a lot of racial tension in the air right now, and maybe she's just feeling it, don't take it personal.") So I finally got over my nerves and said "I saw it. He pushed her. He was really rude to her. She's telling the truth." And then the new black lady was like... "oh what the actual fuck!?" And then another person on the train, who was closer to them during the altercation & saw everything, backed us up. And then the whole train of people turned on him, started telling him to leave the car and calling him an asshole. The conductor never even came in the train, and the older black lady returned solo to an angry car.

The older white dude cowered into himself and stopped putting up a fight. But he never said sorry, even when the old lady came back. And he didn't get off early, or move; he stayed in his seat like he deserved it. He heard me & the other people reporting what we saw, and he never said I was lying. He weakly called another random guy an asshole a few minutes after that guy mildly stood up for the old lady as part of a group, but even that betrayed the rich guy's weakness. The rich guy only called him a name after a long pause during which it seemed like things had calmed down, like he had to steel his nerves. The good guy's gf said, "why are you even talking to him? He barely said anything! Is it just because he's a white guy?!"

I know one incident doesn't mean anything, but that was super super weird and it felt meaningful. And I feel terrible. Everything is bad. The two black ladies talked about how that had never happened to them on the Gold Line before - on other train lines, sure, but not here.

What the actual fuck is happening.
posted by samthemander at 11:36 PM on February 2, 2017 [123 favorites]

From Slate, Disorder: The president is violating the court orders against his Muslim ban. Here’s how he’s getting away with it.

“If you would have asked me any time in my life, would we get a president who could absolutely disregard the three-system body that we have in this country, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Goldberg told me when we spoke on Wednesday. “To blatantly disregard a judicial order is for me beyond comprehension.” Fourteen days into the Trump administration, we’re learning the world is daily more full of things previously thought to be beyond comprehension.

posted by mhum at 11:43 PM on February 2, 2017 [30 favorites]

How the fuck are you people not twitching on this fractal zoom of crazy yet?

How to Save the World.
posted by Coventry at 11:56 PM on February 2, 2017

zachlipton The report includes speculation that Trump is restructuring the service.

I think they mean Bannon is restructuring the service.
posted by vac2003 at 12:51 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Buried lede in mhum's Slate article: Julie Goldberg, a lawyer from the U.S., is currently in Djibouti where her Yemeni clients have been stranded. The airlines won't return the clients' "passports containing validly issued immigrant visas", as was specifically mandated by the LA court order, nor will the U.S. embassy.

So Goldberg is trying to find a chartered plane instead. If she finds some Han Solo to get them all to the U.S. in under 12 parsecs, are we going to see Trump blow a civilian airliner full of "illegals" out of the sky? Maybe Putin will loan him one of the surface-to-air missile systems the Russians took down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine with.
posted by XMLicious at 1:04 AM on February 3, 2017 [13 favorites]

Also buried: she wants to crowdfund the charter. Link is in the article.
posted by nat at 1:25 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

What time does sabbath start?
posted by MattWPBS at 1:29 AM on February 3, 2017

Fillon's wife is being investigated for financial misdeeds and Wikileaks is dumping material on him. I can't even with the links.

Note that the Wikileaks material on Fillon and Le Pen seems to be pretty weak sauce so far: the credit for Fillon's demise should go to the venerable and highly reliable Canard Enchaîné.
In any case, Fillon's failure at launch is good news, sort of. Sure, it's bad that the main presidential hopeful was caught siphoning public money, but 1) the Lepenistas have their own judiciary/money troubles that force them to keep quiet on the "elites are all rotten" front, and 2) Fillon's implosion opens the door to a more centrist candidate, such as Macron or Juppé who will be more palatable to anyone who isn't a hardcore leftie or far-right supporter. It's really a WTF situation, not unlike the Strauss-Kahn affair in 2011, but it's not the end of the world as far as the French election is concerned.
posted by elgilito at 1:57 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Don't think this has been posted, I control-effed and all:

Malcolm Turnbull should walk away from the refugee deal

Glad to see Michelle Grattan, grand matriarch of Australian political journalism, weigh in on this.

It’s the last thing Malcolm Turnbull would want to do, or will do. But what he should do is walk away from the deal he struck with the Obama administration for the US to take refugees from Nauru and Manus Island.

He should then persuade his cabinet to grant a one-off amnesty, and let these people settle in Australia.

It would be a drastic and, for many in the government, a deeply unpalatable course. But the road Turnbull now has Australia travelling – that of the supplicant – is against our national interest.

posted by valetta at 2:38 AM on February 3, 2017 [26 favorites]

elgilito:

Out of curiosity... I have an ongoing theory that an important factor in the electoral upheavals we've seen recently is what I call the Votey McVoteface Factor - an electorate that has come to believe their vote has no significance whatsoever find that if they can call press the button for what Authority tells them is the most ridiculous option at the same time, they can make the ridiculous happen. The first example, as you'll remember, being the case of the public vote to name a ship - the Powers That Be wanted to call it the David Attenborough, the public voted for Boaty McBoatface and the Powers That Be went with The David Attenborough anyway. The lesson from that was that you could vote for the ridiculous thing and it wouldn't matter because actually your vote didn't have any significance.

The next step was Jeremy Corbyn - his election the first time round (the second was different) was classic Votey McVoteface. A significant number of people voted for him because people in authority told them they couldn't, so voting for him was sticking two fingers up at precisely those people. The possibility of his election also held out the promise of a kind of reset button: if you pick up the world and shake it, everything will come down differently, which might be better, but if things stay the same they definitely won't be. Brexit was a similar thing, and Trump. Not the whole story, but a significant factor in the story, that manages to tip the situation over the edge.

For me, the thing about Le Pen is that while she definitely ticks all the boxes for right-wing populism, and she has a significant advantage in being the anti-austerity, anti-neoliberal candidate (though it's odd to think of fascism in terms of anti-neoliberalism) she doesn't have the Votey McVoteface factor - she's already a completely known force, possibly to the point of boredom. Whereas someone like Macron has some Votey McVoteface potential - coming out of nowhere, apparently, seemingly unaligned to the traditional parties (or at least that's the story as far as I've absorbed it).

?
posted by Grangousier at 2:38 AM on February 3, 2017 [29 favorites]

We're living in bizarro world. You don't even need to stage a Reichstag fire anymore... you simply have to say there was a fire in the Reichstag. And your Fox News watching racist dummos will believe there was a fire in the Reichstag and lets get our war on.

There's apparently no such thing as reality now.
posted by Justinian at 2:44 AM on February 3, 2017 [53 favorites]

The next step was Jeremy Corbyn - his election the first time round (the second was different) was classic Votey McVoteface

This is a pretty bold claim presented with little evidence to support it, and also my goodness I wish people would drop that phrase
posted by ominous_paws at 2:48 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Brianna Wu Is Here, Queer and Running for Congress in Massachusetts

How have you begun the process of running for office?

BW: I knew if I called the local Democratic party and told them I wanted to run for office, they’d steer me towards local races and tell me to wait my turn for congress. Like all institutions of power, the Democratic party is most interested in maintaining itself, and they’re not going to encourage one of their house members to get primaried.
I’m about to use a word a politician probably shouldn’t, but the hell with that. The guy I’m going against is everything broken in the Democratic party. He’s a 62-year-old white guy that’s spent most of his career fighting gay rights and women’s rights. Do you know he once introduced an amendment to give people that committed hate crimes against LGBT people a get-out-of-jail-free card if they were found to have acted “lasciviously”? This is the guy I’m supposed to wait to get bored in the Trump era? Give me a break.

posted by moody cow at 3:00 AM on February 3, 2017 [127 favorites]

I’m about to use a word a politician probably shouldn’t, but the hell with that. The guy I’m going against is everything broken in the Democratic party. He’s a 62-year-old white guy that’s spent most of his career fighting gay rights and women’s rights. Do you know he once introduced an amendment to give people that committed hate crimes against LGBT people a get-out-of-jail-free card if they were found to have acted “lasciviously”? This is the guy I’m supposed to wait to get bored in the Trump era? Give me a break.

Well, she'd have my vote. Takes no shit about equality, and is likely to actually stand up for things.

Also, just after that:

"In the Trump era there’s no room for benchwarmers. Seven out of nine of our representatives are white men in a supposedly progressive state. I think we can find room for a feisty feminist."

Hell yes.

"It’s hard to overstate the value of having LGBT people in Congress. I will fight for you in a way the rest of them won’t. I hope some of your readers that are just as mad as I am run for office alongside me."

Hell yessier. The further I went down that article, the more enthusiastic I got. I hope very hard that she wins.
posted by jaduncan at 3:11 AM on February 3, 2017 [39 favorites]

Had the unearthly conversation with SO about what would trigger our leaving. I have a bad graveyard sense of humor and wondered aloud if Philly would be within the blast radius of whatsoever. And then I backed down saying something like, *of course I don't really think that will happen I mean we got through the Cold War*'

And my SO described Canada as a good place to be if WWIII broke out, because of some northern air something something something.

And I wanted to make some joke about better to be incinerated than to freeze one's ass off with the cannibalistic remains of humanity but it's like that's not so much comic hyperbole as it is in bad taste, given the context of the moment.
posted by angrycat at 3:15 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

but it's like that's not so much comic hyperbole as it is in bad taste, given the context of the moment.

Gallows humour.
posted by mushhushshu at 3:40 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

An abuser won't start being nice to get their victim to start liking them. They'll just abuse harder in the hopes they beat them down enough to stop complaining.

This is an important point. In fact, with a guy like Trump, humiliation is likely to make him act out more aggressively, too. He won't feel an urge to reconcile or cover his embarrassment by being ingratiating or apologetic, this comment has it exactly right: his own feelings of shame will seem like an outside enemy attacking him to him, because it's the nature of his disorder that he dissociates himself from his own feelings of guilt and shame because the capacity for guilt only seems like a weakness used to control and manipulate lesser people to someone with Trump's psychological issues.
posted by saulgoodman at 3:41 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

He can't identify with his own negative feelings anymore because that's what losers do, so in his denial, he lashes out at anything that reminds him of those loser feelings his self identity won't allow him to own and feel as his own.
posted by saulgoodman at 3:44 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Apparently, first thing this morning, the Apprentice is more urgent to Trump than sabre rattling about Iran and talking about how great the US will be.
----------
Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 5m5 minutes ago
Meeting with biggest business leaders this morning. Good jobs are coming back to U.S., health care and tax bills are being crafted NOW!

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 12m12 minutes ago
Thank you to Prime Minister of Australia for telling the truth about our very civil conversation that FAKE NEWS media lied about. Very nice!

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 18m18 minutes ago
Iran is playing with fire - they don't appreciate how "kind" President Obama was to them. Not me!
3,055 replies 4,687 retweets 10,950 likes

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 22m22 minutes ago
Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger did a really bad job as Governor of California and even worse on the Apprentice...but at least he tried hard!
posted by bootlegpop at 3:48 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

FWIW, DJT's sad attempt to impose a sick system has backfired gloriously, galvanizing a resistance who recognize this bullshit and promptly built a community to ensure nobody has to stand for it, or go it alone.

Yet, once Dear Leader is gone, so shall most of this resistance.

The Blue has existed long enough to have watched things that were "resisted" under Bush II become accepted under Obama and would be "resisted" once things actually get underway under Dear Leader. (Unless the overton window has more visual opacity than a border fence)
posted by rough ashlar at 3:52 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

We ran a new PredictWise/Pollfish Poll on facts about politics on January 26, 2017 and found that Republican talking points are much more salient than Democratic talking points. This is not a story about partisan asymmetry around what people believe (although that exists), but about how Democrats also believe key false talking points from the Republicans, while there is little evidence of the reverse.

Well, not just "false" talking points, either. In this very thread we've had a poster who self-identified as "liberal," yet listed as two of her three concerns "regulatory reform" and "tighter immigration vetting."

Admittedly, this was in the context of identifying areas of common or bipartisan concern, but it really stuck in my craw. Those are manifestly Republican issues, right down to the language used to characterize them, and yet here's someone who no doubt sincerely thinks of herself as a liberal who's chosen to reproduce them.

I'm not a huge fan of Lakoff, but I will say that the enormous infrastructure of think tanks, academic endowments and media outlets available to the right does seem to reliably generate terminology that shrouds profoundly interested policy positions in language that seems on the surface to be the very essence of reasonableness.

After all, what thoughtful person would oppose "regulatory reform"? Who's not "pro-life"? Never mind the obscene realities underlying the anodyne language. These things — the relatively canny use of language, the massive machinery dedicated to the relentless cross-channel repetition of the terms, the discipline and consistency in their use, and the purchase these terms have in minds organically opposed to the policies they denote — strike me as not being unrelated from one another.
posted by adamgreenfield at 4:00 AM on February 3, 2017 [32 favorites]

"Asked about the UK being a 'bridge to Europe', Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė told Sky: 'I think there is no necessity of bridges. Today we are communicating with the United States mainly on Twitter.'"
posted by effbot at 4:03 AM on February 3, 2017 [19 favorites]

(a story of assholery edited out ) .... What the actual fuck is happening.

Justification for your own personal panopticon.

Pivothead makes some nice glasses and as I tell POC - perfect for wearing and use when interacting with your public officials.
posted by rough ashlar at 4:03 AM on February 3, 2017

adamgreenfield, the victory the right won when the labels became pro-life vs pro-choice can't be overstated. For people who think in binary terms, the opposite of anything titled pro-life must be against life.

The ship has sailed, but in terms of linguistic warfare (for hearts and minds), if the left had managed to make the right out to be "anti-choice" and somehow made it stick, I strongly feel that a lot of people towards the middle would be more on the pro-choice side of things. After all, what's more unamerican than people who want to take away people's freedom?

That question worked so much better before January 20th
posted by Ghidorah at 4:14 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Re: https://briannawu2018.com

I'm a North Shore Masshole, born and bred. I've never once wanted to live on the South Shore. But I would move there just to vote for her.
posted by danapiper at 4:17 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Will this Man Take Down Donald Trump? A very detailed look into NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman who has investigated, prosecuted, and tormented Donald Trump for his shady business dealings and is leading the resistance of Democratic AGs nationwide.
posted by Glibpaxman at 4:25 AM on February 3, 2017 [42 favorites]

More from "alternative facts" land... Senior White House aide Kellyanne Conway tweets: Trump promotes another woman: first female to be second in command at CIA.

Er, no. Not the first female, the second.

The first was in Obama world: Avril Haines was the first woman to hold the position, from 2013-15.
posted by Mister Bijou at 4:44 AM on February 3, 2017 [19 favorites]

New Yorker and Vanity Fair Pull Out of Correspondents Dinner Parties: The New Yorker is canceling the kickoff party that it usually holds at the W Hotel, according to a spokeswoman for the magazine, Natalie Raabe. Vanity Fair is pulling out of co-sponsoring the dinner’s most exclusive after-party, a celebrity-studded affair most recently hosted at the French ambassador’s residence that is considered the capital’s hottest ticket of the year.

Vanity Fair’s co-sponsor, Bloomberg L.P., is proceeding with its plans for the party, but no final decision has been made on the event, a spokesman said on Thursday. (Bloomberg has previously sponsored the after-party on its own.)

“We’ve taken a break from the dinner in the past,” Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, wrote in an email, adding that he planned to spend the weekend fishing in Connecticut instead
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:48 AM on February 3, 2017 [26 favorites]

The next step was Jeremy Corbyn - his election the first time round (the second was different) was classic Votey McVoteface.

I disagree. He was voted in as large portions of the electorate feel disenfranchised by the major parties in terms of having anything to vote for as an alternative to the status quo. Labour got so much wrong to 2010 that many people had switched to the Lib Dems, they then felt betrayed by them in the 2010-15 government. Labour didn't have their shit together for 2015. People were looking for anything that looked like an alternative so lots of votes going to UKIP, greens and the SNP. People looked to change Labour from 2015 as a result and that has led us to where we are now, the frankly useless Corbyn, the absence of anything meaningful from the more centrist wing of the Labour party to displace him and somehow the possibility that the LD might actually claw back some votes.
posted by biffa at 4:48 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

....I just had a weird idea for a protest that the women working in the White House could all agree to do (after pre-arranging with HR).

As a protest to the "dress like a woman" rule, they could make Calamity Jane the woman they all dress like.

....Including the 1800's standards of hygiene. No makeup, no hairstyling, very little bathing.

Stink Trump out of office.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:51 AM on February 3, 2017 [12 favorites]

@CNNPolitics
BREAKING: The Senate votes to advance Trump's education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos to a final confirmation vote

Super.
posted by argonauta at 4:52 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Donald Trump tweeted: Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters are proving the point of the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

It is unclear if he just disapproves of the Oxford comma or believes that professional anarchists are both thugs and paid protestors.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:53 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

New cover of The New Yorker
posted by argonauta at 4:56 AM on February 3, 2017 [42 favorites]

Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters

Ha! He was watching a segment aired an hour or so ago on Fox & Friends
posted by Mister Bijou at 4:57 AM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

There are PROFESSIONAL anarchists? Does that mean they're also on Soros' payroll? Are they recruiting? Because I'm starting to wonder if I missed my calling.
posted by Mayor West at 4:58 AM on February 3, 2017 [30 favorites]

I cannot understate how major it is that popular backlash has been enough to make Disney and Uber sever their business ties with Cheeto Benito. In less than a week, we managed to drive two separate billion-dollar companies into a blind panic. If there are others who are still willing to publicly ally themselves with the president, I'd say we should push the attack as quickly as we can. I can think of no better way to enrage the man than to make it obvious that he's radioactive as a business partner. Hit him in the wallet, and force an overreaction so egregious that the red state electorate start paying attention.
posted by Mayor West at 5:03 AM on February 3, 2017 [90 favorites]

There are PROFESSIONAL anarchists? Does that mean they're also on Soros' payroll? Are they recruiting? Because I'm starting to wonder if I missed my calling.

Nothing says anarchism like doing it on command.
posted by jaduncan at 5:10 AM on February 3, 2017 [54 favorites]

Hit him in the wallet, and force an overreaction so egregious that the red state electorate start paying attention.

Do keep in mind that if he suddenly named Disney as a terrorist organization, 1/3 of the country would respond to leaked black-site photos of Goofy with a bag over his head by tweeting LOL LIB TEARS.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:11 AM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

The Koch brothers displeased.

As protesters converged on the nation's airports in late January, a very different sort of resistance was shaping up at a manicured golf resort in Palm Springs, Calif. The billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, perhaps the most influential free-market activist in the nation, stood before 550 like-minded donors to declare his intention to fight key policies of President Donald Trump.

...

posted by sebastienbailard at 5:15 AM on February 3, 2017 [18 favorites]

Save us Dr Franken....I mean Charles Koch
posted by ian1977 at 5:17 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

In remembering the Bowling Green Massacre, we would be remiss if we overlooked the heroic sacrifice of Comrade Ogilvy.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 5:18 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

...and Disney's competition in the feature animation field will rename "Despicable Me" as "Deplorable Me". Cha-ching!
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:19 AM on February 3, 2017

We're in a grim fucking timeline if the thought even passed through my mind that maybe the Koch brothers were the best hope to save American Democracy.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 5:21 AM on February 3, 2017 [38 favorites]

Please save us, Koch brothers and the CIA and Bill Kristol and Chinese environmentalism!
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:24 AM on February 3, 2017 [67 favorites]

The Koch Bros poured millions of dollars into getting Trump elected by financing down ticket GOP candidates (whose voters then pulled the lever for Trump). They are just as complicit as any other big GOP donor.
posted by PenDevil at 5:24 AM on February 3, 2017 [21 favorites]

Whelp, I'm no longer in favor of punching Richard Spencer. Now, I'm in favor of having Brad Pitt carve a swastika into his forehead.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:31 AM on February 3, 2017 [31 favorites]

Note: I am in no way actually predicting that the Koch Brothers are going to save us.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 5:33 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Conversation this morning. I felt like playing while drinking my wake-up coffee.

Summary:
Me: I support capitalism and the free market. The free flow of capital. Donald doesn't.
Trumpie: Yes he does. He's a businessman he has to be.
Me: No he wants to pass policies and use the government to force US businesses to restrict US business to stay in the US. He's about restricting the free flow of capital.
Trumpie: Good MAGA, blah blah.
Me: So he's national first.
Trumpie : MAGA US first.
Me: So yeah nationalism
Trumpie: MAGA yes, blah blah. So yeah I guess nationalism.
Me: Government restricting and telling business people what to do that's socialism! (I know it's not but I'm was using the air fairy definition that the right uses for socialism as anything the government does to make people do things.
Trumpie and me: Back and forth on a bit. Me: That's socialism! Not true capitalism.
Trumpie: MAGA MAGA. He's right! So whatever socialism.
Me: Okay so he supports National Socialism.
Trumpie: Okay. Fine MAGA America First. If that's what it takes.
Me: National Socialism it is then.
Trumpie: MAGA, whatever he's right. National Socialism
Me in my brain: (OMG head desk. lol. Good lord. Okay now what)
Me: Okay so you know who else was all about National Socialism? (inserts link about National Socialism)
Trumpie: Fuck yooooou. Fuck yoooou. Fuck yoooooou.
Me: Welp I'm done here. Have a nice day.

The end.
posted by Jalliah at 5:34 AM on February 3, 2017 [94 favorites]

In remembering the Bowling Green Massacre, we would be remiss if we overlooked the heroic sacrifice of Comrade Ogilvy.

Don't forget the strenuous exertions of Comrade Mather.
posted by adamgreenfield at 5:36 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Whelp, I'm no longer in favor of punching Richard Spencer. Now, I'm in favor of having Brad Pitt carve a swastika into his forehead.

I have never wanted to punch anyone before today.
posted by INFJ at 5:36 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

so this re: laurie penny showed up in my feed.
posted by xcasex at 5:39 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

The end.
posted by Jalliah at 13:34

I take it back. We can be snark siblings.
posted by jaduncan at 5:43 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

We're in a grim fucking timeline if the thought even passed through my mind that maybe the Koch brothers were the best hope to save American Democracy.

Koch brothers: You mean he was being literal? We thought he was just serious. We was just looking at his heart. Oops.
posted by Jalliah at 5:44 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm not the greatest Penny fan, but given the source, I'd imagine that's the most inflammatory and selective reading possible, xcasex
posted by ominous_paws at 5:44 AM on February 3, 2017

CBS poll: 40% overall approval, 48% disapproval, and a dismal 36% approval among Independents.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:45 AM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

I'm not the greatest Penny fan, but given the source, I'd imagine that's the most inflammatory and selective reading possible, xcasex

I have to be fair, i'm treating everything as some kind of misinfo, and relying on the mefi hivemind to help me make sense of it.
posted by xcasex at 5:50 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Sarah Jones in The New Republic: Donald Trump is No Friend to Veterans

The Military Times reported last November that veterans now comprise roughly one third of the federal workforce—or more than 600,000 positions—a testament to the success of projects like former President Barack Obama’s Veteran Employment Initiative. These job opportunities are critical for veterans, but it also leaves them particularly vulnerable to political turmoil. The GOP-driven budget sequestration in 2013 forced the federal workforce, including veterans, to take pay cuts; it also forced many active-duty servicemembers to leave the service early. For similar reasons, any federal hiring freeze—even a temporary one, like Trump’s executive order—inevitably affects veterans. And though there are exemptions to the 90-day freeze, it’s not yet clear if these exemptions will be enough to mitigate the damage.

“This is going to really impact veterans in a negative way,” Peter Kauffmann, a former U.S. Navy officer and current senior adviser to VoteVets.org, told the New Republic. “By freezing hiring, you’re cutting off one path for veterans leaving military service to transition into civilian life.”

And employment isn’t the only need the hiring freeze will leave unmet. At the VA, Kauffmann said, there are “thousands” of open positions that now will not be filled. “Keeping in mind the devastating impact of PTSD on a generation of veterans? If we can’t staff suicide hotlines this may cost the lives of veterans,” he said. “That’s not hyperbolic. That’s actually true.”

posted by Rustic Etruscan at 5:50 AM on February 3, 2017 [32 favorites]

passes a law saying all men have to wear a trump face mask while getting laid

So did anyone else picture the last image in They Live? "What's wrong, baby?"
posted by spitbull at 5:50 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Jews to form protective 'rings of peace' around [Greater Toronto Area] mosques
posted by zombieflanders at 5:52 AM on February 3, 2017 [49 favorites]

Had a few discussions at work, we're being hit hard by russian origin ddos and probes on networking infrastructure both public, private and defense in scandinavia.
also, me and other colleagues and friends are getting 1 call per hour from masked numbers, the sip trunk companies nationally have no registry of the numbers and the swedish PTS (who sip/telcom can buy phoneno series from) have'nt registered the numbers, i.e they're masked.

feeling worried you guys.
posted by xcasex at 5:53 AM on February 3, 2017 [25 favorites]

For those interested, after sending out a few dozen posters this week, I've expanded the project a bit.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:53 AM on February 3, 2017 [17 favorites]

so this re: laurie penny showed up in my feed.

Consider the source.

By my lights, Laurie isn't "normalizing" anything; it seems to me, rather, that she's shedding more light on the MILO phenomenon than just about anybody else on "our side," by doing the difficult work of getting inside the membrane of posturing. Though it's true I wouldn't be able to stomach the proximity nearly as well as she evidently does.

The idea expressed in that comment thread — that despite her long record of solid journalism and advocacy, she's about to execute some kind of binary state transition and come out as a Nazi — isn't merely improbable, it's insulting.
posted by adamgreenfield at 5:54 AM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

xcasex I'm worried for you too! I take it that kind of stuff is out of the ordinary? (or have they always been 'around' but seemed to have picked up in intensity lately?)
posted by INFJ at 5:55 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Well, you have Uber and Disney saying they are pulling out, but how is Thiel doing? any buyer's remorse? Any blowback for the adamant support? Is he a true believer of Trumpistan? Just a money lotioned opportunist?

Again, he doesn't even believe that liberty is possible in US democracy post the extension of the franchise to women and provision of a basic welfare net. He is, although in a different way, more outré than Trump.
posted by jaduncan at 5:55 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Here is where you can donate to victims of the Bowling Green Massacre. Bowling Green Massacre Victims Fund

Make sure you check out the donation link.
posted by Jalliah at 5:57 AM on February 3, 2017 [18 favorites]

I'm really not enjoying this ride and I'd like to get off. I don't want the train to go off-track, I don't want it to slam into a wall, I don't want to melt the tracks. But I'd like to see the instructions for the emergency brake!
posted by dmh at 5:58 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

xcasex I'm worried for you too! I take it that kind of stuff is out of the ordinary? (or have they always been 'around' but seemed to have picked up in intensity lately?)

we've always seen chinese and russian probes, but russian origin ddos and aggressive probes that take down networks and penetrations are new. so it's increased by a multitude.
posted by xcasex at 6:01 AM on February 3, 2017 [12 favorites]

There are no instructions, dmh. Just do the best you can for the folks trapped in the car with you.
posted by notyou at 6:03 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Former Norway PM held at Washington airport over 2014 visit to Iran (Grauniad)
posted by Mister Bijou at 6:05 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

The One Russian Linking Putin, Erdogan and Trump

Now they're catching up to something mefi was talking about pre-election.
posted by xcasex at 6:07 AM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

> How the fuck are you people not twitching on this fractal zoom of crazy yet?

I've been considering trying out some of the cool drugs that I hear are a lot of fun in the short term but really bad for you, long-term.*

* I am not actually considering this
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:15 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

New article from David Corn in Mother Jones: This Senator Is Hell-Bent on Getting Out the Truth About Trump and Russia
posted by diogenes at 6:15 AM on February 3, 2017 [19 favorites]

The EPA Has Started to Remove Obama-Era Information
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:15 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Ikea responds to the Muslim ban.
posted by Mchelly at 6:15 AM on February 3, 2017 [17 favorites]

I want to get people to call my R House member to vote to reverse the immigration order but I can't find anything about a House bill only a Senate bill. Does anyone have the details about any House bill. I assume having something specific is more effective
posted by shothotbot at 6:16 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Damnit. Just when I thought I could escape Ikeas wobbly clutches they drag me back in by being decent.
posted by ian1977 at 6:17 AM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

Donald Trump is No Friend to Veterans

Err, what president has? Or more like - when has the Nation?

Aren't the programs that exist due to backlash FROM the lack of support?
posted by rough ashlar at 6:21 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

No kidding, I was kinda dreading purchasing an Ikea couch for some interim couch needs but now I actually feel damnably decent about it.
posted by RolandOfEld at 6:22 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

My "paid protester" hashtag prayers were heard by the PA Democratic Party. They started #realPA to clap back at Toomey's "I can't meet with my constituents because too many paid protesters are in the way" bullshit.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:22 AM on February 3, 2017 [21 favorites]

The Mother Jones article clarifies that there is an open and active Senate investigation of Trump's ties to Russia and they plan to complete it within three months.
posted by diogenes at 6:23 AM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

I had a heated discussion in the car this morning, while my husband and I were driving the kids to daycare (poor kids).

He is flabbergasted at the Bowling Green Massacre claims and just insists that they'll blame the
"error" on something something and move on.

I keep insisting that it's not an error, it's a deliberate lie constructed to justify their horrifying policies on immigration and that there will be no retraction, ever. The people will hear "Bowling Green Massacre" and just accept it as fact and no amount of pushback will move them away from that now established Horrible Event That The Liberals Want To Deny Because They Are Traitors To Our Land. This is how fascism works, husband!

The administration is incompetent, but it is also craven and cunning. Alternative Facts are patently ridiculous but also highly effective in the political framework we are currently trapped in.
posted by lydhre at 6:30 AM on February 3, 2017 [36 favorites]

Do we know who is filling in for the Press Secretary today? Because if the EOs are immigration or religious freedom related, holy shit.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:32 AM on February 3, 2017

lydhre, it's a move known as the Inverse Sandy Hook.
posted by rp at 6:32 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yes. They aren't trying to convince us. They are trying to throw red meat to their faithful. It doesn't matter if the meat is greasy compressed sawdust, in the feeding frenzy no one notices.
posted by ian1977 at 6:32 AM on February 3, 2017 [13 favorites]

To be clear I am referring to Conway's bowling green massacre....not IKEA particle board furniture.
posted by ian1977 at 6:33 AM on February 3, 2017 [17 favorites]

I'm out of the loop. Why would someone need to fill in for Spicer? Is he on vacation already?
posted by ian1977 at 6:34 AM on February 3, 2017

via Hallie Jackson at NBC: Announcement re: Iranian sanctions set to happen approx. 10:30A, per senior administration official
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:35 AM on February 3, 2017

I'm out of the loop. Why would someone need to fill in for Spicer? Is he on vacation already?

Unclear. At the end of the press conference yesterday, he reminded people that he is "out" on Friday and would see them after the weekend.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:36 AM on February 3, 2017

everytime you guys use Conway's phrase you increase her power. Call it something else please?
posted by emjaybee at 6:36 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

To be clear I am referring to Conway's bowling green massacre....not IKEA particle board furniture.

From the midst of the darkness of our days, you alone can elicit a coffee snorting chuckle.
posted by RolandOfEld at 6:37 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

I just heard what Schwarzenegger had to say on twitter to trump. Is he reprising his role as Kindergarten Cop?

I also heard he hung up the phone on the Australian prime-minister. He said on (on twitter!) it was a "dumb deal" to accept some of the refugees we have in detention (prison). This is that weird part of the venn diagram where what Trump thinks is dumb overlaps with what I think is dumb.

I'm proud to be Australian. It's pretty nice here. It's always sunny and the spiders are exaggerated. One thing I am ashamed of is our treatment of refugees, born of racism and xenophobia. It really is a disgrace. We should just let them in.

Instead our plan was to send them to the USA. We made a deal to do it. Does anyone really believe the political climate in the US is very welcoming to refugees?

I don't much like our PM, Malcolm. I will say of him, he has respect. He won't stand in front of a memorial and talk about how popular he is. I don't think he'd hang up the phone in pique when he's talking to one of his allies. Literal ally. We have an alliance.

Maybe we're better off having an alliance with China, Donald.

And while we're talking about a thousand refugees, Germany took in a million. More people washed up on the shores of the Mediterranean, dead, than we have in our prison camps. We don't even need a fucking wall, this is an island. A big island with lots of space. You can take my spare bedroom for as long as you need.

I'm pretty fucking mad he disrespected Australia like this. But I guess I have to join the queue, and it's already very long, with millions of people with deeper grievances and wounds this evil man has caused them.
posted by adept256 at 6:38 AM on February 3, 2017 [27 favorites]

New article from David Corn in Mother Jones: This Senator Is Hell-Bent on Getting Out the Truth About Trump and Russia

Wyden might want to get a polonium detector
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:38 AM on February 3, 2017 [26 favorites]

(If you're sick of particle board: upscale flatpack.)
posted by notyou at 6:39 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

I have been quibbling about buying a small couch and a couple tables and Ive been weighing my options. I think I will write IKEA and tell them that because of their decency I will be purchasing at least some of those items there. And I will add a PS that I would buy more of their stuff if they would stop with the particle board shit.

Particle board is lower in cost and allows them to get as much as twice as much product from the same amount of wood. It makes it easier for poorer people to afford reasonable furniture at very little marginal cost to the environment. IKEA have variants of everything for those who want different materials. Don't want a particle board Billy? Get a solid pine Hemnes. It'll cost you twice as much but there are almost always options.

If anything bitch about their routing of profits through family foundations to avoid taxation. That's far more egregious than offering cheap but still fairly durable shit for low income families.
posted by Talez at 6:39 AM on February 3, 2017 [30 favorites]

Stephen Colbert puts Donald Trump on notice for stealing his 'On Notice' bit
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:39 AM on February 3, 2017 [24 favorites]

Is there any sort of petition to keep Conway off of the (non-Fox) news? Since apparently seasoned journalists can't handle her?
posted by armacy at 6:40 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Over on the StackExchange network of nerdy Q&A sites, the current top-ranked questions on the Hot Questions list is "Was there a Bowling Green Massacre in 2011?" with actual data and stuff as responses.

For once, it's like Engineer's Disease acting as a proper immune response.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:40 AM on February 3, 2017 [12 favorites]

Stephen Colbert puts Donald Trump on notice for stealing his 'On Notice' bit

Yes.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:41 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Is there any sort of petition to keep Conway off of the (non-Fox) news? Since apparently seasoned journalists can't handle her?

Well, the Trump administration punished CNN by not letting her talk on their network, so there's that.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:41 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

TRUMP WARNS ISRAEL: STOP ANNOUNCING NEW SETTLEMENTS

There's a theory that Netanyahu needs the U.S. to push back against the far-right elements in his coalition, otherwise things would unravel too quickly. Obama was the perfect foil.

Unfortunately for us, there's no one to push back against our nationalists.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:44 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

everytime you guys use Conway's phrase you increase her power. Call it something else please?

I suggest shortening "the Bowling Green US terrorist attack" to "the BoGUS terrorist attack". For clarity you may want to go with "Kellyanne Conway's BoGUS terrorist attack".
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 6:47 AM on February 3, 2017 [73 favorites]

why does twitter even pretend to have a TOS

there used to be people here who know the twitter guys (i honestly can't keep track of their ceos at this point) are they stealth nazis or what
posted by entropicamericana at 6:47 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

there is an open and active Senate investigation of Trump's ties to Russia and they plan to complete it within three months.

The Apprentice: 25th Amendment Edition
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:47 AM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

Steve Clemons (Political and Foreign Policy Commentator ~ Washington Editor at Large, The Atlantic and National Journal. Contributor, MSNBC) has a series of tweets about "Secret Service mgr level personnel forced 2 resign 2nite & escorted out of EEOB.". He says two or more Secret Service were abruptly forced to resign last night and escorted out of EEOB.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:48 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

The point of IKEA and flat-pack furniture is that it's cheap, right? Cheap means cheap materials. Don't be grumpy with IKEA because not particle-board furniture is expensive. Also, most of their kitchen stuff is the bomb.
posted by INFJ at 6:49 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

President Pence, C'MON DOWN......today, you'll be playing for a......Militarized Theocracy!
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:49 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

There were numerous actual massacres of Native people in Kentucky and Ohio during settlement.
posted by spitbull at 6:51 AM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

There are PROFESSIONAL anarchists?

Little Billy always studied math, loved numbers, and fighting the man. He found his true calling as an accountant to the revolution, working alongside Sue, his sister in arms, and also middle manager of the action and demonstration department.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:51 AM on February 3, 2017 [28 favorites]

Speaking of Future President Pence, let's see what he has to say today on twitter:

EDIT: FAKE. Accidentally fooled m'self. Sorry everybody.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:51 AM on February 3, 2017

What a dick. They sure are bringing respectability and honor back to the White House, aren't they?
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:53 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Glad to know he's taking a page out of Lord Dampnut's book of "communicating with the country."
posted by INFJ at 6:53 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

MikePenceVP is a parody account.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:53 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Believe you me, if there is a position open for an anarchist accountant, I am on it.

Many anarchists are not that good with math.

(I used to think I was too bad with math to be an accountant, but it turns out that you can just be careful when you do math and, at the accounting level, that is pretty much the same thing.)
posted by Frowner at 6:53 AM on February 3, 2017 [24 favorites]

I'm very much into the idea of corporate boycotts of business that do business with the PVL's family, so check out #GrabYourWallet! This page is a simple spreadsheet-looking list of 74 companies that have some ties to PVL's business, along with contact information, and a simple script to read to their representatives.

The script is short and sweet:

Hi. I’m a customer of [Store Name]. Unfortunately I can no longer do business with your company because it does business with the Trump family. If your company were to no longer do business with the Trump family I would enthusiastically return as a customer. Please communicate my feedback to management.

We've already made Disney (a multibillion dollar entertainment conglomerate) and Uber (one of the most heavily VC-backed business ever) to scale back their relationships with that family, so I'm sure we can get other, smaller corporations to see them as too toxic to deal with.

If you've already done your daily calls, emails, and faxes to your legislators and are looking for something even more likely to put you in contact with another human, just go down the list and start contacting the companies.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 6:54 AM on February 3, 2017 [16 favorites]

I can't help but picture a scene similar to one in The Last Boy Scout to explain the sudden "resignation" of these Secret Service guys.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:54 AM on February 3, 2017

Ah, okay, then. Carry on.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:55 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

The secret to IKEA shopping is to understand that you get what you pay for. If you just want some furniture to last a year or two and get you through some lean times, they've got that and it's cheap as hell. If you want solid wood furniture that will last, they have that too, but you will pay a good deal more for it. We just got a KIVIK sectional couch in November and I love it.

What year or two? I bought a BYÅS about five years ago which is 100% particle board because I needed something that I could stuff a TV on. Still looks like new.

Funnily enough when you don't overload them particle board shit will last forever.
posted by Talez at 6:58 AM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

Yes. The trick is just don't put stuff on a particle board shelf. Don't ever move it. Don't look at it. Don't think about it. Just put it together in the attic and tiptoe away from it. It will outlast the cockroaches.

I kid! so what if I'm sick of particle board furniture. Ive just had my heart broken too many times.

Plus, it isn't cheap if you have to keep re-buying furniture. Thrift store is a 10000x better route if money is tight.
posted by ian1977 at 7:01 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

What year or two? I bought a BYÅS about five years ago which is 100% particle board because I needed something that I could stuff a TV on. Still looks like new.

The thick shelving I bought six years ago to use as a bookshelf was cheap but is nigh indestructible. It will make a fine addition to the barricades one day.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 7:02 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Yes. The trick is just don't put stuff on a particle board shelf. Don't ever move it. Don't look at it. Don't think about it. Just put it together in the attic and tiptoe away from it. It will outlast the cockroaches.

Sure. Half a dozen consoles moving in and out of the shelves and two moves later I just left it in the non-existent attic back in Santa Clara. Don't treat your stuff like shit and it'll last no matter what it's made of.

Also, if Donald Trump wants to make something great again, sic him on Trefoils. Shortbread with literally no butter in it? SAD! SHAME ON THE GIRL SCOUTS!
posted by Talez at 7:06 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

This ikea derail is definitely the highlight of the thread. One positive about Ikea is that Trump would never buy their furniture even if they shared the same politics. Then again there is that whole use of communist labor camps during the cold war. My poang chair is sweet though (and 11 years old now).
posted by dis_integration at 7:07 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

*gobbles Walkers shortbread*
posted by Talez at 7:07 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

8.8 inches of wood will cut gamma radiation from fallout by 1/2. Let's say particle board, being a little less dense, will have a halving thickness of 10 inches. That means to survive heavy nuclear fallout, you will have to surround yourself with particle board walls a little over 4 feet thick. Ikea might make a pretty penny if they can think of a clever way to flat-pack it and call it the Armageddjur or something.

Okay, no. That is way too "little old people building fallout shelter out of their doors and pillows" in When The Wind Blows. I'm just planning on dying in the moment of bombing along with almost everyone I love and everything I care about, thank you.
posted by Frowner at 7:10 AM on February 3, 2017 [30 favorites]

That means to survive heavy nuclear fallout contamination, you will have to surround yourself with particle board walls a little over 4 feet thick.

So that's what Jim Bloggs did wrong. OK. I'm ready then. Bring on armageddon.
posted by Talez at 7:11 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Also I'd love to see Trump try to interpret Ikea instructions and build one of their cabinets himself. I think it would be 15 minutes before he was raving mad, and if he had nobody to help him, 30 minutes before tears.

HANDS TOO SMALL CAN'T BUILD THE LACK SHELVING.
posted by dis_integration at 7:11 AM on February 3, 2017 [22 favorites]

This ikea derail is definitely the highlight of the thread. One positive about Ikea is that Trump would never buy their furniture even if they shared the same politics. Then again there is that whole use of communist labor camps during the cold war. My poang chair is sweet though (and 11 years old now).

It's like a break in the storm of the horrible while we sit here and wait for the next front to come in.
posted by Jalliah at 7:11 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

What's a bookshelf? Is that where you put your lonely copy of Fahrenheit 451?
posted by adept256 at 7:12 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

I know one incident doesn't mean anything, but that was super super weird and it felt meaningful. And I feel terrible. Everything is bad. The two black ladies talked about how that had never happened to them on the Gold Line before - on other train lines, sure, but not here.

What the actual fuck is happening.

Indeed. What courage these young racists have targeting the elderly on public transit systems. Hopefully the hate crime charge in this incident stick.
posted by juiceCake at 7:12 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

I guess bonus points for particle board is that it is probably more digestible than real wood.
posted by ian1977 at 7:13 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

PenDevil: Trump continually talks about The Apprentice as if it's his greatest achievement, not the multi-billion dollar real estate empire he supposedly created.

Relevant: With Conflict And Drama, Trump Hooks You Like A Reality TV Show (NPR, February 3, 2017) From Tom Forman, CEO of the production company Critical Content:

He uses tools we use every day to tell and shape a story. [Like] conflict and drama — that's still the engine that powers all reality television. I guess I would note that, candidly, reality television does not typically address giant, macro-issues particularly well, right? It's not a genre of big ideas. And that's OK.

What it does do really well is interpersonal relationships — is taking big themes like love and jealousy and revenge, and boiling them down to conversations between two people.

I think Trump clearly knows that those small interactions that speak to larger themes are what connects with us as humans. And I think it's probably something that we should know too as we consume his tweets, as we watch White House press conferences or prayer breakfasts. That this is a guy who understands how to make us feel a certain way.

He's the anti-wonk. It's not operating at 30,000 feet. But neither would one of my sometimes-dumb reality shows. This is a visceral, red-meat story that we can sort of dig our teeth into. So I'm not surprised people do.

Interesting points on how to engage people and get them talking about topics, but the TV producer pushes the responsibility of parsing truth from lies on the public, who he earlier pointed out are prone to turning the channel when things get too detailed. But it's true, _rump won't stop lying, so it's pointless to ask him to stop.

Business is boring. TV is exciting. People know him from TV, not his (failed) casinos.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:14 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

I have this amazing IKEA armoire which is an enormous 8-drawer dresser with a sliding-door cabinet on top, one side hanging, the other side shelves. I've moved with it three times. The stapled-on back is coming off, one drawer regularly goes off-rail, and I'm certain it will never survive another move. But I love it, and I've never found anything like it to hold a ton of different clothes in such a small amount of space. And it matches my furniture. I may just resolve to never move again.
posted by Mchelly at 7:16 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

y'all i love ikea too but really
posted by lazaruslong at 7:17 AM on February 3, 2017 [15 favorites]

The time has come...for this...BILLY BOOKCASE!
posted by ian1977 at 7:17 AM on February 3, 2017

Guys, at this point someone may want to see if there's a TV show nominally about IKEA furniture that they can start a FanFare thread on.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:18 AM on February 3, 2017 [73 favorites]

Hopefully the hate crime charge in this incident stick.

Can we deport these people to somewhere in the Aleutians and they can have their white male paradise?
posted by Talez at 7:19 AM on February 3, 2017

[Guys, at this point someone may want to see if there's a TV show nominally about IKEA furniture that they can start a FanFare thread on.]

Mod suggestion is to assemble our own IKEA post, guys.
posted by nubs at 7:20 AM on February 3, 2017 [96 favorites]

would the lamp commercial count
posted by prize bull octorok at 7:21 AM on February 3, 2017 [13 favorites]

Can I just say this is still horrifying:

President of the United States of America: People know him from TV, not his (failed) casinos.
posted by lazaruslong at 7:22 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

samthemander, thanks for sharing this. I'm glad you spoke up. It's not easy, it's really not.

ARGH FUCK SHIT WHAT THE HELL RAWR STOMP FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING PIECES OF HORSE SHIT!

....ahem, sorry. I am an introvert who doesn't go out in public much so I haven't run into racism like this in person. I just want to scream from the heavens that just because a racist bigot managed to play the game and get himself elected president does not mean we've returned to the segregation era!

AHHHH GIVE ME SOMETHING TO KICK!
posted by INFJ at 7:22 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

coincidentally "upscale flatpack" is also the new drake single
posted by murphy slaw at 7:22 AM on February 3, 2017 [13 favorites]

> Mod suggestion is to assemble our own IKEA post, guys.

Every time I try, I end up with three leftover links that I can't find a place for.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:22 AM on February 3, 2017 [100 favorites]

[Guys, at this point someone may want to see if there's a TV show nominally about IKEA furniture that they can start a FanFare thread on.]

I would but there's no listing for Ultimate Factories in FanFare.
posted by Talez at 7:22 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Mod suggestion is to assemble our own IKEA post, guys.

Did you keep the instructions? I've got a spare HTML allen key somewhere at home.
posted by MattWPBS at 7:24 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

All this IKEA talk reminds me of the "Page 23" short.
posted by meowf at 7:24 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Mod suggestion is to assemble our own IKEA post, guys.

And you think the discussion on politics is prone to drama and bitter infighting....
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:26 AM on February 3, 2017 [13 favorites]

The Trumpers (UK branch) think of Milo as a sort of gotcha that liberals can't possibly argue against because he's gay so he can't be homophobic, he's into black men, apparently, so he can't be racist, his mother or grandmother or both are Jewish, so he can't be anti-Semitic etc. (their views, not mine, obvs). They think of him as a Trump card (geddit? Etc). It's literally identity politics.

[An acquaintance of mine once complimented my kitchen table by comparing it to the "shit you get at Ikea". Yeah, £150 at Ikea. I hate that guy].
posted by threetwentytwo at 7:26 AM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

> What's a bookshelf? Is that where you put your lonely copy of Fahrenheit 451?

A bookshelf is a Tremendous Wall, made out of the Best Materials, which looks like THIS.
posted by Westringia F. at 7:28 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

If I were Milo, I would be wondering what happens when the tensions between "Milo the youth recruiter" and "most of our base really hates people who are hella gay" start to solidify. I would not, were I Milo, be entirely sure about ending up on the right side of that situation. I think that the more fascist youth there are out there, the more likely that the fascist speaker-to-youth will need to be straight.
posted by Frowner at 7:29 AM on February 3, 2017 [18 favorites]

This is a little on the nose: Orwell’s 1984 Coming to Broadway
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:29 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

President Pence, C'MON DOWN......today, you'll be playing for a......Militarized Theocracy!

If those clowns go much further with this theocracy wet dream, there will be massacres, not only in Bowling Green but nation wide. They're making inroads even now by kissing the christian terrorists asses by promising to undo protections for LGBT people.
LGBT is the second group they targeted. We all know who the first was. But who will be next?
posted by james33 at 7:33 AM on February 3, 2017

Gregg Popovich shares his thoughts on Black History Month
posted by birdheist at 7:33 AM on February 3, 2017 [12 favorites]

WaPo has an article on Bannon's movie proposal, The Islamic States of America.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:34 AM on February 3, 2017

I've seen the production of 1984 that's making its way to Broadway. (It was touring in DC last year.) It's really really good -- one of the best stage adaptations (of anything) I've ever seen.
posted by alligatorpear at 7:35 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

So Milo gets to fuck around in our country, including publicly harassing, humiliating, and endangering a trans woman and inciting someone to shoot a protester, yet his ass isn't getting deported??

More evidence that for the radical right, the problem isn't so much foreigners coming here and committing crimes--it's being brown in the 1st degree. Disgusting.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 7:35 AM on February 3, 2017 [22 favorites]

I've seen the production of 1984 that's making its way to Broadway.

is it really a musical
posted by murphy slaw at 7:36 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

I've got your IKEA FanFare post right here.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 7:37 AM on February 3, 2017 [34 favorites]

More evidence that for the radical right, the problem isn't so much foreigners coming here and committing crimes--it's being brown in the 1st degree. Disgusting.

Oh, I dunno. When Piers Morgan was criticising gun laws, the right had no problem with wanting to send him back. Race seems to be a secondary concern to whether you're on their side or not.
posted by mushhushshu at 7:40 AM on February 3, 2017

Frederick Douglass declines to comment on doing "an amazing job"
posted by Lucinda at 7:41 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Voicemail is open as of ten minutes ago if you want to call the Senate Committee on Homeland Security regarding Bannon. 202.224.4751
posted by Burn.Don't.Freeze at 7:44 AM on February 3, 2017 [19 favorites]

So, would the proposed import tax apply to large corporations with significant influence - Walmart, Tarket, Ikea - or would they be able to work their way out of it?
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:44 AM on February 3, 2017

Haha, no, it's not a musical. It's overwhelming to the senses, but not because of music and singing.
posted by alligatorpear at 7:46 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Gregg Popovich shares his thoughts on Black History Month

Almost makes me want to watch basketball!
posted by notsnot at 7:48 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

So, what's the expectations for this weekend after sundown?
posted by MattWPBS at 7:51 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

he's into black men, apparently, so he can't be racist,

WHOOHAHAJAJAHOUUHHUHHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Hoo. Oh thank you. I needed a good laugh this morning. (This Asian woman can confirm that someone can want to bone you and hold great racial animus toward you at the same time, in case you were curious.)

Anyway I just got through to DHS! Thanks for the tip, Burn.Don't.Freeze!
posted by sunset in snow country at 7:52 AM on February 3, 2017 [49 favorites]

""I hate every ministry I see, from the ministry of truth to the ministry of peace. Oh you finally got the thoughtcrime out of...meeeeeeeeeee"
posted by ian1977 at 7:52 AM on February 3, 2017 [26 favorites]

Trump will be on vacation in Florida all weekend. Maybe Pence is in charge.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:52 AM on February 3, 2017

"Overwhelming to the senses" is a good description of this adaptation and production of 1984. "Harrowing" is a word I would use, too. And I saw it while Obama was still President. It might be a bit too much now.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 7:53 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

this has to be the earliest any president has left washington for the weekend, right?
posted by murphy slaw at 7:53 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Republicans whining about angry constituents is music to my ears.

House Ways and Means Committee Kevin Brady (R-Texas), for example, scheduled an event in his district two weeks ago to discuss the Affordable Care Act, and he seemed eager to limit the audience to his allies. The gathering was held at a local Chamber of Commerce headquarters, it wasn’t announced to the public, and the congressman’s office said the point of the event was to hear from constituents facing “rising costs and loss of coverage and choice” because of “Obamacare.”

As the Houston Chronicle reported, dozens of “skeptical and at times testy” locals showed up to express their vocal support for the health care reform law.

Oh yes, "testy" I would say we're a little fucking testy, dude.
posted by emjaybee at 7:54 AM on February 3, 2017 [64 favorites]

No. Last weekend was the earliest.
posted by ian1977 at 7:55 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

No wait. The first weekend. Before he started.
posted by ian1977 at 7:55 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

It's not my favorite Bowie, but he too has a song about 1984.

(I always thought is was "beware the savage draw" but apparently it's "savage jaw"?)
posted by jclarkin at 7:56 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

The Texas Lege passed SB4 late last night after 1500 Texan people showed up and registered opposition and after over 400 of those Texans spoke to the Senators and begged, demanded, wept, spoke calmly and forcefully, and in all forms of eloquence and personal experience demanded that this bill not pass.

I am now angry enough to storm the Capitol screaming "You work for us or you don't work at all! Work for us or don't work at all!" I'm not going now because I want to have time to collect marchers, but I am currently thinking logistics and considering whether marching on a weekday or weekend would be more effective. Numbers vs likelihood of those fucklords even being present.

They work in my home overruling our desire to govern ourselves according to the will of the people who have to live here! They don't have to bear the costs of their decisions! And then they have the gall, the unbelievable gall, to claim to be the part of local rule, of small government, of freedom from tyranny! The hell with this, and the hell with those squatting self satisfied hypocrites!
posted by sciatrix at 7:57 AM on February 3, 2017 [69 favorites]

Trump will be on vacation in Florida all weekend. Maybe Pence is in charge.

is trump taking today off? or is there still plenty of time for him to fuck us over with an EO after kushner checks out for shabbos and before he hops on a plane to mar a lago?
posted by murphy slaw at 7:57 AM on February 3, 2017

Maybe trump and Spicer are going to go to Mar-a-Lago and do trust falls and wolf howls around a campfire.
posted by ian1977 at 8:00 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

In other, more lighthearted news: after the Netherlands, other European countries line up to be second.
everysecondcounts.eu
posted by farlukar at 8:00 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

The machete attack at the Louvre was directed at soldiers, not civilians. Is it truly a "terrorist attack," then?
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:04 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Today's word of the day.

@aedwardslevy
panicdote (n) - a story about the goings-on in Washington that leaves you convinced the world is maybe about to explode
posted by chris24 at 8:05 AM on February 3, 2017 [39 favorites]

once again confirming that this administration is fractally weird, Melania Trump’s Absence From Washington Raises Questions About Her Role.
posted by murphy slaw at 8:05 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Republicans whining about angry constituents is music to my ears.

One of our local reps is already making noise about how he will attend future town halls if the meetings are "respectful" so we know how that's going to play out. His inability to answer hard questions doesn't mean we're not being respectful by asking, it means he's not cut out for his job.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:05 AM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

re:china and strengthening of Yuan, imports get expensive for everyone on the receiving end.

also this has implications: "currency volatility on trumps tweets fades as traders bored" i.e market volatility, not currency volatility. frell.
posted by xcasex at 8:06 AM on February 3, 2017

So, what's the expectations for this weekend after sundown?

Shit seems to go down about 40 minutes beforehand, once Jared's out of the building. Candlelighting time for Washington, D.C. tonight is 5:14.

If Jared's still in the administration come April, look out for Passover - two 2-day holidays plus a sabbath in between. But it gets worse - this year Rosh Hashana and Sukkot start on Wednesday nights, so look forward to three 3-day stretches of Jared-free Trump.

(I really really really hope that the Friday-evening connection isn't true and it's just a coincidence)
posted by Mchelly at 8:07 AM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

two 2-day holidays plus a sabbath in between.

I'm not 100% sure that Orthodox Jews don't celebrate the entire 8 days of Passover.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:08 AM on February 3, 2017

priorities: "After announcing her chief of staff on Wednesday, Mrs. Trump on Thursday chose an interior designer, Tham Kannalikham, to overhaul the White House private quarters."

the mind boggles at what the white house will look like by the end of his term
posted by murphy slaw at 8:10 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm not 100% sure that Orthodox Jews don't celebrate the entire 8 days of Passover.

Based on the holiday closings of Jewish photo stores in NYC, Adorama and B&H, they do celebrate/shut down the entire 8 days.
posted by chris24 at 8:10 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

what's the over/under on getting actual plagues this passover
posted by murphy slaw at 8:11 AM on February 3, 2017 [28 favorites]

We do, but the middle 4 are chol hamoed (intermediate days) when you're allowed to do work. Except for the one that falls on the sabbath. So at least during those days you can still reach him and Ivanka on the phone.
posted by Mchelly at 8:11 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

sciatrix, your rage warms me. But I worry you'll burn out!

Texas Republican corruption is very very deep. Any change we make is going to take time. I do think demographics are on our side in the long run, but we are the state where white supremacy + redneck pride in ignorance + oil money have built up very strong barriers to change. That doesn't mean they'll never come down, but we have to come at it sideways and underneath and mostly just be persistent. We're going to lose a lot of these battles, especially at first.
posted by emjaybee at 8:11 AM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

Google thinks that Tham Kannalikham's site may be hacked.
posted by ian1977 at 8:12 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Republicans whining about angry constituents is music to my ears.

The aptly-named David Brat: "The women are in my grill no matter where I go." (WaPo)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:13 AM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

Don't know if this has already been mentioned, but the congressional committee that oversees the NSC is taking calls from the public on the Bannon appointment now. The number is 1-202-224-4751. The lines may be busy so be prepared to be persistent.
posted by saulgoodman at 8:15 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

He's going down to Florida to drain the swamp. They have the best swamps, the biggest swamps. Yuge. I wonder if he has any real estate on Miami Beach? Where those hi-rises are getting tidal flooding. I'm sure his alternative fact people will tell him it's because of liberal tears. Couldn't be climate change, that's fake.

I know you play golf, Don, so do I. I'm not going to watch your drive. Besides, it's not fair. Your handicap is so... not mine. I guess he'll just cheat on the scorecard, and that's fine with me. I wouldn't give a shit if he hit the ball off the windmill and off the jaunty pirate into the water trap. It's just a game.

But if I'm a week into a job and decide to go on vacation already to play golf, I'd expect to get fired.

Also I would kick his ass at golf. I'd get sent to gitmo forever, and his flunkies would say I was a terrorist or whatever. Beating him at golf is nothing compared to beating him with a 3 wood.
posted by adept256 at 8:16 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

The 1984 musical makes me want to see a modern adaptation of "The Producers". But with gay trump instead of gay hitler.
posted by Glibpaxman at 8:19 AM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

I will not complain about his time off, because when he is working, terrible things happen.

So Donny; why not take a real vacation? Like 4 years?
posted by emjaybee at 8:20 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

The 1984 musical makes me want to see a modern adaptation of "The Producers". But with gay trump instead of gay hitler.

♫ SPRIIIIIINGTIME for Bannon ♫
posted by Mayor West at 8:21 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Newsweek is reporting that multiple lawyers have told them that DHS & CBP are segregating based on religion at LAX.

“They are segregating Muslims from the non-Muslims when they’re being detained, holding them in separate rooms,” Stacy Tolchin, a Los Angeles–based immigration lawyer working on several cases linked to the travel ban, tells Newsweek. “I think it shows what the real intent of the travel ban is.”
posted by papercrane at 8:21 AM on February 3, 2017 [47 favorites]

BREAKING: Government reveals more than 100K visas have been revoked as a result of Trump Admin's immigration order during hearing in Va. [tweet; no add'l info right now]
posted by melissasaurus at 8:24 AM on February 3, 2017 [21 favorites]

Newsweek link didn't work for me, try this: Lawyers: U.S. Segregating Muslims as Part of Trump's Travel Ban
posted by sourcejedi at 8:25 AM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

WaPo pulling no punches.

Religious law may be coming to America. But it’s not sharia; it’s Christian.

Much-dreaded “sharia law,” or something resembling it, may well be coming to the United States.

Just not in the form many Americans expected.

That is, the religiously motivated laws creeping into public policymaking aren’t based on the Koran, and they aren’t coming from mythical hard-line Islamists in, say, Dearborn, Mich. They’re coming from the White House, which wants to make it easier for hard-line Christians to impose their beliefs and practices on the rest of us.
posted by Jalliah at 8:25 AM on February 3, 2017 [83 favorites]

So by 109 people they meant closer to 109k.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:26 AM on February 3, 2017 [16 favorites]

Chris Van Hollen has had it: "It's nuts. Now he wants to turn churches into SuperPacs. Donald Trump's effort to "totally destroy" a law that bans churches and religious organizations from supporting political candidates would open the door to churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship becoming political platforms. These religious institutions currently receive tax exempt status because they are charitable organizations that do not engage in political activity. Donald Trump wants to turn these sanctuaries into taxpayer subsidized vehicles for dark money and political activity. We must stop this perversion of places of worship. God help us."
posted by amarynth at 8:26 AM on February 3, 2017 [69 favorites]

From the NYT article about Melania, above:

"And Mrs. Trump is pushing back more forcefully on the traditional confines of her position than did Mrs. Obama, who after her husband’s election in 2008 had badly wanted to remain in Chicago with her young daughters while they finished their school year. She was instructed by his political aides that the public would never accept such a move."

IOKIYAR strikes again.

I do feel a lot of budding schadenfreude about what this means for the Easter Egg Hunt.
posted by Mchelly at 8:27 AM on February 3, 2017 [20 favorites]

Well, damn, and this isn't just a metaphor, but for me, that number for the NSC committee finally stopped being busy all the time, but once it started ringing, nobody ever picked up! I'll keep trying I guess...

I've heard reports around that you may have to stay on the line through a decent amount of silence before you get the recording, and again before you can leave a message.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:28 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Shower thought: Trump is a deal maker. Or, so he thinks. In fact, he's a pretty weak negotiator.

As such, Gorsuch is an opening offer and the thing with the game-show reveal was meant to mask that by emulating some kind of negotiation.

If squeezed, maybe they'll put up a Rhenquist/Roberts type instead. A plain ol' conservative instead of a Oujia-board originalist, and hold that back for another vacancy. The positions of the nominee wouldn't differ much, but it would be a step back from 30-40 years of lunacy.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:28 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yeah, I know, I know. I am going to return to my original weekly plan of breathing, blocking myself from the political Internet on all of Saturday in solidarity with another REAL ANGRY burnout who is having trouble taking a break, and working on my actual paid work.

And trying not to have an actual aneurysm. That too.

_{goddammit now I know how tiny Steve Rogers felt and it is the most aggravating feeling in the entire world}
posted by sciatrix at 8:28 AM on February 3, 2017 [12 favorites]

Newsweek link didn't work for me

That's my fault.. I somehow cut the "2" of the end of the URL. Sorry.
posted by papercrane at 8:29 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

regarding the Virginia hearing on the EO: "Aside from granting interventions and extending TRO, no other action by the judge. She made critical remarks about the EO rollout at the end" (cite)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:30 AM on February 3, 2017

I've heard reports around that you may have to stay on the line through a decent amount of silence before you get the recording, and again before you can leave a message.

Unfortunately, misleading silence is something I've encountered frequently with committee phone lines and Republican leadership numbers. It's obvious they don't actually want people to leave message or contact them, so they make it as confusing and slow as possible.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 8:31 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Just not in the form many Americans expected.

These "many Americans" sure don't pay much attention, do they?
posted by Artw at 8:31 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Neiman Marcus Has Dropped Ivanka Trump Jewelry
posted by Jalliah at 8:32 AM on February 3, 2017 [66 favorites]

I would be fine if they cancelled all the traditional WH activities; Easter Egg hunts, black tie balls, tours, all of it. This is not a real Presidency and it should not feel like one. I don't want to see articles about Melania doing stuff or Ivanka's kids.

I want this to feel weird and off-kilter and wrong, because it is.

Melania appears to have no desire/maybe no aptitude for this job, as it is traditionally conceived (which admittedly is pretty sexist/old-fashioned). She seems very secluded and withdrawn, unable to entertain or make connections that could further her husband's interests. And I am ok with that too.
posted by emjaybee at 8:33 AM on February 3, 2017 [57 favorites]

Sooooo, the DeVos thing was just procedural, then? I'm starting to get burned out on all these Facebook groups freaking out about every little thing and flinging misinformation everywhere. There's enough badness out there without having to sort through panicked posts about misunderstood whatever. Somehow I got added to a group located in my state, and now I have to see posts about how they're all planning to call Senators from Arizona or Ohio.

Hey guys, you're not one of their constituents. They don't care, and you're just taking up airspace their constituents could fill.
posted by Existential Dread at 8:36 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

I've heard reports around that you may have to stay on the line through a decent amount of silence before you get the recording,

I can confirm. That's what finally ended up happening but be patient and you can get through.
posted by saulgoodman at 8:38 AM on February 3, 2017

Cosigning the praise for the stage production of 1984. We saw it here in London, oh, year before last I guess? and were clubbed senseless by it.

We emerged blinking into the afternoon light afterward and wandered down to the Embankment to collect ourselves — and it's not like I didn't know what the play would be about, given that I reread the novel on a roughly annual basis. I cannot say enough good things about how effective it was as a multimedia production, once you forgive or absorb one little bit of minor cheesiness.

I'm glad to hear that this production's gonna be mounted in the States, though I can well imagine it will hit just a little bit too close to home right now.
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:41 AM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

"And Mrs. Trump is pushing back more forcefully on the traditional confines of her position than did Mrs. Obama, who after her husband’s election in 2008 had badly wanted to remain in Chicago with her young daughters while they finished their school year. She was instructed by his political aides that the public would never accept such a move."

Well, you didn't expect Mrs. Trump to just stay home and order someone to bake cookies, did you?
posted by delfin at 8:41 AM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

Wanting to spend as little time near Trump as possible is an understandable and human thing, I guess.
posted by Artw at 8:43 AM on February 3, 2017 [27 favorites]

I'm glad to hear that this production's gonna be mounted in the States, though I can well imagine it will hit just a little bit too close to home right now.

These days there's no such thing as too close to home. The more alarming, the better.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:43 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

There's enough badness out there without having to sort through panicked posts about misunderstood whatever.

See also: my ask here. It's difficult to find understandable, comprehensive info that isn't filtered through FB groups freaking out.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:44 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

I was dwelling this morning on my abiding distrust and loathing for Dianne Feinstein and wondering what I might do to hasten her replacement, when it struck me that the Tea Party (whose tactics we've talked about emulating, right?) had nationally-advertised PACs to fund promising state and local primary races. Do we have anything like that yet? If not, what needs to happen to get it going?
posted by contraption at 8:45 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

No, Mattis invoking MAD is par for the course. What starts wars is wishy-washy messaging, like every other diplomatic outreach made so far by the Trump admin.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:46 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Sooooo, the DeVos thing was just procedural, then?

Well, a procedural thing that was a pretty straight split along party lines, and a procedural thing that means that the full for-real confirmation vote will happen early next week.

So not nothing, but she's closer to getting confirmed.

I don't social media, but I am finding The Hill pretty useful as a guide to what's actually happening. If that helps as an antidote to Facebook panic.

now I have to see posts about how they're all planning to call Senators from Arizona or Ohio.

Yeah, they should really not do this, I don't think. I'm an Ohio resident and I gave Portman's Cleveland office a call - and got through to an actual person immediately (tip to Ohio Mefites) - and the lady on the phone asked where I was calling from. So they're definitely trying to sort real constituents from out-of-state callers.
posted by soundguy99 at 8:46 AM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

Clemons (the guy who claimed Secret Service members were summarily fired last night) now says that among those fired was the Chief of Information Security. Probably the firings were an attempt to stop the recent leaks.
posted by Coventry at 8:46 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Display a large political sign, banner, or poster (as distinguished from a bumper sticker) on a private vehicle.

So I think this - the SEAL Trump banner thing - actually cuts to the heart of one of the real problems going on with how the Trump administration has become synonymous not with a man, or with the office, but with a whole raft of horrible shit.

Because it never used to be counted as political to display pictures or the names or glowing articles about the actual president. Even when that president was somewhat contentious. Aside from just Command Row, there were a lot of individual AOs that had Obama stuff up everywhere. It wasn't viewed as a 'Democrat' thing, it was just 'yay our president' thing.

But Trump is both our president and also kind of becoming hate speech. You have people chanting Trump to intimidate people, waving Trump flags as a Fuck-You. This has never happened before.

How is the military going to handle it? I truly don't know. This isn't like the SS/Scout Sniper flag issue - this is whether or not it is acceptable to display the name of the POTUS, the Commander in Chief. It's a red hot mess and I don't know which side they'll jump on.
posted by corb at 8:46 AM on February 3, 2017 [29 favorites]

Shower thought: Trump is a deal maker. Or, so he thinks. In fact, he's a pretty weak negotiator.

As such, Gorsuch is an opening offer and the thing with the game-show reveal was meant to mask that by emulating some kind of negotiation.

No. The negotiation was during the primary. Trump promises to obey the religious right on social issues in exchange for their support. Gorsuch is payment, not terms.

The rest of us in blue states weren't parties to the deal. We don't get a say.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:47 AM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

The best part will be when Lord Dampnut goes to war with his own party in 3, 2...

Hill Republicans revolt over Trump's plans to build border wall

President Donald Trump's plan to build a wall on the border with Mexico is facing a major problem: A wall of resistance from his own party.

A growing number of congressional Republicans are objecting to the cost and viability of a proposal that was a rallying cry for the billionaire businessman during his insurgent campaign. Interviews with more than a dozen GOP lawmakers across the ideological spectrum suggest Trump could have a difficult time getting funding for his plan approved by Congress.

Many bluntly told CNN they'd likely vote against any Trump plan that is not fully offset with spending cuts, while others questioned whether Trump's vision would adequately resolve the problems at the border.

"If you're going to spend that kind of money, you're going to have to show me where you're going to get that money," said Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a key swing vote who has already broken with Trump over his nominee for secretary of education.

posted by chris24 at 8:48 AM on February 3, 2017 [23 favorites]

No, Mattis invoking MAD is par for the course. What starts wars is wishy-washy messaging, like every other diplomatic outreach made so far by the Trump admin.

Or making noises about abandoning NATO and withdrawing from the UN, or Tonkin' up attacks on Saudi ships, or ignoring renewed fighting in Ukraine.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:48 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Maybe we're waiting until after the real DNC chair election before setting up a shadow DNC? Why wait?
posted by contraption at 8:49 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

I was dwelling this morning on my abiding distrust and loathing for Diane Feinstein and wondering what I might do to hasten her replacement

She is 83 years old. She is not going to run again. If, by some chance she does, she will absolutely be primaried the hell out.
posted by Sophie1 at 8:49 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

The tea party was hardly the RNC anyway. And fuck the DCCC. They're not primarying anyone.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:49 AM on February 3, 2017

...it never used to be counted as political to display pictures or the names or glowing articles about the actual president

Are there any high-profile examples where military personnel have skated in the past after blatantly displaying material supporting an ongoing political campaign?
posted by Coventry at 8:51 AM on February 3, 2017

No. The negotiation was during the primary. Trump promises to obey the religious right on social issues in exchange for their support. Gorsuch is payment, not terms.

The rest of us in blue states weren't parties to the deal. We don't get a say.

That's definitely the opening position, but seriously. Look at the industrial/jobs 'deals'. When Trump makes threats, it's almost an opportunity to demand concessions so long as there's an upside that can be sold.

Here there's an opportunity to genuflect at the altar of Reagan (via Rehnquist)....so, maybe worth a try.

And if it's truly unmarketable to the Trump base, then it's a decent answer to the question 'who would you accept' while a filibuster is underway.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:52 AM on February 3, 2017

She is 83 years old. She is not going to run again. If, by some chance she does, she will absolutely be primaried the hell out.

You're likely correct but I wouldn't put it past her to once again find a new way to be a horrible disappointment. Her particular case aside, I feel like there have been a few areas lately where people have talked about potential districts that are vulnerable to a primary challenge, and it makes sense to have an organization that can research those areas, identify promising challengers, and funnel money their way. The mere existence of such a fund might help keep some borderline reps in line and responsive to their constituents.
posted by contraption at 8:55 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

But Trump is both our president and also kind of becoming hate speech. You have people chanting Trump to intimidate people, waving Trump flags as a Fuck-You. This has never happened before.

There was also the recent Fox report that featured a pic of "No Facism" graffiti at Berkeley and called it "anti-Trump." Way to connect those dots, Fox!

I don't know whether to feel any encouragement about this to be honest! Will people think "ew facism=Trump? Fuck that guy!!" or think "Hey, facism is a Trump thing? Must be good then!"

The cult of Trump remains utterly opaque to me (even before he was in politics) so I got nothin'.
posted by emjaybee at 8:56 AM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

Are there any high-profile examples where military personnel have skated in the past after blatantly displaying material supporting an ongoing political campaign?

I can't personally speak to political material, but an old First Sergeant of mine was blatantly, overtly, gleefully Southern Baptist, and both displayed explicitly sectarian religious content in his office and made verbal remarks to the same effect, on an ongoing and continual basis. No sanction. No consequence whatsoever.
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:56 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Are there any high-profile examples where military personnel have skated in the past after blatantly displaying material supporting an ongoing political campaign?

There aren't any high profile examples I can think of, because this wasn't high profile stuff. We weren't dealing with a population as radically polarized, and we weren't dealing with a rogue President in the Oval Office.
posted by corb at 8:59 AM on February 3, 2017

Isn't the Air Force Academy sort of openly known to be extremely right-wing Christian fundamentalist and to play favorites based on that? Or has that changed in recent years?
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:59 AM on February 3, 2017 [12 favorites]

Because it never used to be counted as political to display pictures or the names or glowing articles about the actual president. Even when that president was somewhat contentious. Aside from just Command Row, there were a lot of individual AOs that had Obama stuff up everywhere.
...
How is the military going to handle it? I truly don't know. This isn't like the SS/Scout Sniper flag issue - this is whether or not it is acceptable to display the name of the POTUS, the Commander in Chief. It's a red hot mess and I don't know which side they'll jump on.

This is why I was wondering if it would end in some slap on the wrist for putting flags on motor pool vehicles that aren't supposed to have flags or whatever. Telegraphs that decision makers aren't thrilled with the message sent by the conduct, but doesn't hang some poor individual out to dry who didn't think it through. I'm honestly much less bothered by what people want to put up on their lockers etc, than what they affix to heavy vehicles and drive down the interstate with.

Then further regs/orders can issue, or not.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:01 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

The idea that Trump and Bannon do all the crazy stuff on the sabbath while Kushner is away is mildly intriguing, but the anecdote about breaking it to strategize after the AH tape was released weakens that argument significantly. Why not just follow Occam's Razor and admit that maybe he's totally cool with all of this?

For instance, the most ominously direct speech of Trump's, the one that heavily relied on anti-Semitic tropes, was on a Thursday afternoon. In fact, it was the day after Yom Kippur, one of the High Holidays. His final campaign ad, which built on the anti-Semitism of that speech, ran on days that weren't the sabbath. Kushner may be acting as a moderating influence, but his religious observation doesn't seem to play any part.

I just realized what you were getting at here - I think it's been clear since before the election that Jared and Ivanka aren't going to say anything or do anything to temper the Trump team's anti-semitism - after Jared defended the "sheriff's badge" it was pretty clear his / their role is just as a respectability beard.

But people were saying Jared can help keep Trump semi-rational in how he gets his message out and in following some semblance of protocol, things like vetting the Muslim Ban through at least the legal department first. And that Bannon knew it would be an issue, so he waited till Jared was gone. Not sure I believe it - and I don't want to believe it - but I'm definitely paying attention this late afternoon.

Anyone who still thinks either Jared or Ivanka aren't 100% on board with what Trump and Co. do is delusional though - at best it's some sort of Stockholm Syndrome, but I see no evidence that either of them would stick even a fingernail out to make anything better for anyone.
posted by Mchelly at 9:05 AM on February 3, 2017 [15 favorites]

Wasn't Trump signing some executive orders at noon? Have we found out what they're claiming those are yet? I'm sure we won't get the text til after the evening news shows tonight of course...
posted by DynamiteToast at 9:05 AM on February 3, 2017

So my question (I am genuinely wondering, because I don't know the answer here) would be: were people flying Obama campaign flags off military vehicles in '09? In '13? Were there public and non-personal displays of Obama/Biden campaign material publicly displayed in or on Fderal buildings and vehicles?

Honestly, Obama campaign flags didn't exist in 09, from what I recall. I didn't even know Trump campaign flags did. Unless they got it made up? But you're right, it being Trump/Pence feels different somehow, partially because Pence isn't, as far as I recall, in the actual chain of command. It's also, as you point out, different because Trump has already goddamned filed for re-election, which is completely abnormal - this might have come up in 13, but I was out already by then so didn't actually witness it.

Now, unlike civilian law, the military can in fact just hit you with "I just don't fucking like it, you asshole, and you definitely should have known better" under the general article. But I don't know that that will address the broader issue that support of Trump, right now, is inherently political. I'm kind of glad I'm not a platoon sergeant right now.
posted by corb at 9:05 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Have we found out what they're claiming those are yet?

They are all financial rollback orders, apparently.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:06 AM on February 3, 2017

Honestly, Obama campaign flags didn't exist in 09, from what I recall.

I have an Obama/Biden 08 windsock. (Yes, I'm very cool.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:07 AM on February 3, 2017 [21 favorites]

Now, unlike civilian law, the military can in fact just hit you with "I just don't fucking like it, you asshole, and you definitely should have known better" under the general article.

Yeah, it's not a great move to make active-duty Trump supporters feel that the UCMJ or regs are being stretched to demonize them for their views, either. And the absolute last thing we need is for Trump to step in as CINC and say 'oh no you don't.'
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:07 AM on February 3, 2017

New York mayor Bill de Blasio is trolling Trump on Twitter.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:08 AM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

Donald is creating jobs and new types of businesses in Canada. Thanks Donnie

Silicon Valley is making plans to move foreign-born workers to Canada
posted by Jalliah at 9:09 AM on February 3, 2017 [40 favorites]

IBDB: Donald J Trump

Paris Is Out!
[Play, Comedy, Original]
Produced in association with Donald J. Trump
Feb 02, 1970 - Apr 18, 1970

NYTimes: For a Young Donald J. Trump, Broadway Held Sway

Throughout his interactions with the theater business, he has shown more of an interest in finances than dramaturgy, an instinct for self-promotion, a sense of his own name as a brand, and a willingness to deploy his growing celebrity for a variety of purposes.

Playbill: Looking Back on Donald Trump’s Broadway Venture—And His Playbill Bio

[After "Paris Is Out!" closed], Trump had returned to the family real estate business—though at one point was reportedly considering the idea of a musical based on his life, to be called, simply, Trump. During the run of his reality TV series The Apprentice, Trump announced that he had partnered with Fran and Barry Weissler to produce a musical based on the series, which he was was scheduled for a spring 2006 premiere. The project never came to fruition.

posted by ZeusHumms at 9:09 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Head's up. Spicey's on early today. 12:30 Daily Briefing.
posted by slipthought at 9:09 AM on February 3, 2017

Yeah, it's not a great move to make active-duty Trump supporters feel that the UCMJ or regs are being stretched to demonize them for their views, either.

I mean, I've had soldiers given UCMJ for destruction of government property for getting a sunburn, so I don't have this great faith that The UCMJ Is Never Stretched For Bullshit. But you make a fair point that Trump would be super likely to try to interfere in this, which makes it all messy. It'd be a great - for him - pander to his base to be like "How dare they try to punish you just for LOVING ME? ALL MUST LOVE ME AND DESPAIR!"
posted by corb at 9:11 AM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

Remember that the Skeksis deserved compassion and pity. They were occluded to themselves. They knew their own ugliness, and remembered they were once beautiful, but had lost any ability to see beauty in wisdom or kindness, so devolved into a race of blinged out torturers.

Remember also that in the episode of Aeon Flux where Bregna is building an insane Rube Goldberg/Heath Robinson border wall that will automatically amputate anyone fleeing into/from Monica that Trevor Goodchild opposed and sabotaged the border wall for humanitarian reasons.

Trump, Conway et al, by contrast, are just monsters who deserve to be imprisoned on the freaking moon, I don't even care, just get them out of power.
posted by byanyothername at 9:11 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Wasn't Trump signing some executive orders at noon? Have we found out what they're claiming those are yet?

Based on the emails I'm getting this morning from various professional organizations (I'm in banking), it's anticipated to be repealing much of Dodd Frank, and the rule that financial advisors must act in the best interests of their clients. I'm so fucking angry I'm staying in my office all day with the door shut and refusing to talk to anyone.
posted by skycrashesdown at 9:11 AM on February 3, 2017 [27 favorites]

A few comments removed; let's maybe try to skip the "she looks like an evil muppet" stuff even for odious administration mouthpieces.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:11 AM on February 3, 2017 [15 favorites]

Does the "Paid protestors" unreasonably piss anyone else off, or is that just me?

I can't think of a good counter argument or why it doesn't matter if they're paid or not.
posted by INFJ at 9:11 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

And the absolute last thing we need is for Trump to step in as CINC and say 'oh no you don't.'

Well, that would be a violation of longstanding federal law regarding undue command influence and therefore terms for impeachment, so maybe we kinda do need that?
posted by Etrigan at 9:12 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

This is why I was wondering if it would end in some slap in the wrist for putting flags on motor pool vehicles that aren't supposed to have flags or whatever. Telegraphs that decision makers aren't thrilled with the message sent by the conduct, but doesn't hang some poor individual out to dry who didn't think it through. I'm honestly much less bothered by what people want to put up on their lockers etc, than what they affix to heavy vehicles and drive down the interstate with.

I'm more disturbed by the denial of knowledge of the vehicle which should be very easy to identify given the numbers painted on it that are in full view in the photo.
posted by srboisvert at 9:12 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Well, that would be a violation of longstanding federal law regarding undue command influence and therefore terms for impeachment, so maybe we kinda do need that?

They'll just wave a souvenir parchment copy of the Constitution around and yell COMMANDER IN CHIEF
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:13 AM on February 3, 2017

I can't think of a good counter argument or why it doesn't matter if they're paid or not.

Ask them to follow their own logic. How many paid protesters? How much are they getting paid? Who is paying them? How is there no paper trail?
posted by dinty_moore at 9:13 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Does the "Paid protestors" unreasonably piss anyone else off, or is that just me?

Me too, even though I know they know it's not true.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:13 AM on February 3, 2017 [12 favorites]

Well, that would be a violation of longstanding federal law regarding undue command influence and therefore terms for impeachment, so maybe we kinda do need that?

They'll just wave a souvenir parchment copy of the Constitution around and yell COMMANDER IN CHIEF

That's the thing -- they're going to make up whatever they need to make up in order to feel good about their choice. So let's not tiptoe around bad stuff just because it might give them ammunition. They will make up ammunition live on the fucking air and roll with it.
posted by Etrigan at 9:15 AM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

I think the paid protestors thing pisses me off because it is SO illogical and SO obviously not true that it just proves to me that people will believe literally anything if the right people say it.
posted by zempf at 9:16 AM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

why it doesn't matter if they're paid or not

Well, I mean, if the opposition thinks that protesters are being paid, they'll use that to delegitimize the process. "They're paid! They don't even care about what they're protesting!"

It makes me angry because dammit, I'm not getting paid to protest and organize, I'm doing it because I'm fucking scared out of my mind and this feels like the only thing I can do aside from donating to causes that can do more than I can. I want the opposition to know that I'm spending time away from my PAYING job and my family and my other responsibilities because this shit matters to me and they better fucking hear me.

That's why it matters.
posted by cooker girl at 9:17 AM on February 3, 2017 [28 favorites]

Just called and left a message at the Senate Committee on Homeland Security re: Bannon being on the NSC. Voicemail isn't currently full if anyone wants to help fill it.

From SPLC:

We just learned that the Senate Committee on Homeland Security is taking calls about Steve Bannon’s appointment to the National Security Council (NSC).

We’re told that they’re tallying calls. You might get a busy signal but try, try, try again all this weekend. Leave a message if you get through to voicemail. The number: 202-224-4751

Be sure to tell the committee that you believe no individual whose primary responsibility is political in nature should be allowed on the NSC or authorized to attend its meetings.

Partisan politics have no place in our national security.
posted by bluecore at 9:17 AM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

You guys, I just watched the German foreign language film "Look Who's Back" on Netflix last night. And it seriously ended up being more thought provoking than any movie I've seen in a very long time.

If you have not seen it, it is most definitely worth your time. It tells the story of Hitler actually traveling forward in time to 2014. The movie has this mild comedic quality for about the first half of the film, until it very much becomes something darkly compelling.

It is billed as a comedy, but really defies genres.

It is so alarmingly topical to the Trump ascension that I wish everyone could watch this movie. I'd like to give it a very strong recommendation if you have a couple of hours free this weekend.
posted by darkstar at 9:20 AM on February 3, 2017 [16 favorites]

Feinstein signals she’ll run for re-election in 2018
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:21 AM on February 3, 2017

somewhere in the Aleutians and they can have their white male paradise?

Yo. Aleuts live there. And lots of big bad bears. And neither constituency is on board unless by paradise you meant "buffet table" from a bear's point of view.
posted by spitbull at 9:22 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Clemons (the guy who claimed Secret Service members were summarily fired last night) now says that among those fired was the Chief of Information Security. Probably the firings were an attempt to stop the recent leaks.

Speculation I've been reading is that it may be related to the 'leak' that the recording of the Putin call was turned off.
posted by Jalliah at 9:22 AM on February 3, 2017

Well, that would be a violation of longstanding federal law regarding undue command influence and therefore terms for impeachment, so maybe we kinda do need that?

IOKIYAR[ussian asset].
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:23 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Feinstein signals she’ll run for re-election in 2018

She would be 90 by the end of her term. Jesse Helms was 86 when he died.

If she gets back in, one more would put her in Strom Thurmond territory.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:24 AM on February 3, 2017

I think we're at a horrible crossroads in history, and I don't know if we're gonna make it.

an electorate that has come to believe their vote has no significance whatsoever find that if they can call press the button for what Authority tells them is the most ridiculous option at the same time, they can make the ridiculous happen... The lesson from that was that you could vote for the ridiculous thing and it wouldn't matter because actually your vote didn't have any significance.

I think there's a spoiled child aspect to this. You can vote and do any stupid thing, throw any tantrum, and the adults will fix it before it really hurts anyone. Hasn't everyone been waiting for someone to fix this?

The people in the White House are walking around burning everything down. A lot of the people see this, but most don't. The adults are saying "wait and see, maybe they're not going to burn it all down, maybe it's a misunderstanding" because really, how can this be happening? The people doing the burning are hurrying to get it done before everyone realizes what's going on.
posted by bongo_x at 9:24 AM on February 3, 2017 [21 favorites]

Trump Supporter Has Few Backup Scapegoats Ready To Go In Case Crackdown On Immigrants Doesn’t Fix Everything

=

Fearful Americans Stockpiling Facts Before Federal Government Comes To Take Them Away
posted by lalochezia at 9:27 AM on February 3, 2017 [29 favorites]

Feinstein signals she’ll run for re-election in 2018

That is kind of nutty, but it's not at all unprecedented for a Senator to be a nonagenarian. The word literally means "elder".
posted by dis_integration at 9:27 AM on February 3, 2017

BREAKING: Government reveals more than 100K visas have been revoked as a result of Trump Admin's immigration order during hearing in Va.

Isn't there a "Contempt of Everyone and Everything" remedy?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:28 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Feinstein signals she’ll run for re-election in 2018

SEE?!?
posted by contraption at 9:28 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

nonagenarian. The word literally means "elder".

Nona- is 'nine.' It literally means ninety-something.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:29 AM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

The claim that protesters are paid is not surprising at all since Trump paid people to go to his rallies (and then didn't pay them). Par for their course of claiming the opposition did what they have actually done/are going to do.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 9:30 AM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

@mathiaswasik: American Psycho: this week’s cover of German magazine
posted by zombieflanders at 9:30 AM on February 3, 2017 [22 favorites]

But it's true that 90-something Senators are not unprecedented. That's doesn't make it a hot idea right now.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:30 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

but it's not at all unprecedented for a Senator to be a nonagenarian. The word literally means "elder".

Nona- is 'nine.' It literally means ninety-something.

Pretty sure they meant Senator means elder.

"The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: Senatus), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: senex meaning "the elder" or "the old one") and therefore allegedly wiser and more experienced members of the society or ruling class. Thus, the literal meaning of the word "senate" is: Assembly of Elders."
posted by chris24 at 9:32 AM on February 3, 2017 [23 favorites]

I'm cranky enough about agism (being an approaching-50 programmer will do that to ya even if basic human decency won't) that I wouldn't rule out a worthwhile Senator in their 80s & 90s. But Feinstein ain't it at any age. Eff her and her Hollywood-fondling anti-freedom crap. I'll donate to anyone who runs against her or Warner at this point.
posted by phearlez at 9:32 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Betsy Woodruff:

There was an audible gasp in the EDVA courtroom when govt lawyer Erez Reuveni said 100k+ visas were revoked by Trump EO

Those 100k+ visas weren't just deemed unusable for 90 days; Per Trump lawyer, they no longer exist

posted by zombieflanders at 9:33 AM on February 3, 2017 [81 favorites]

Stressed Spice is late.
posted by MattWPBS at 9:34 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

once again confirming that this administration is fractally weird, Melania Trump’s Absence From Washington Raises Questions About Her Role.

Imagine the shitstorm that would've happened if Michelle Obama blew off paying respects to a fallen SEAL and sent Malia instead.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:35 AM on February 3, 2017 [22 favorites]

Pretty sure they meant Senator means elder.

Ah! That makes way more sense.

I had never stopped to wonder if meant anything beyond Member of the Senate.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:35 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm a bit disappointed that nobody has tried their hand at a Bowling Green Massacree yet. With full orchestration and five part harmony.
posted by Killick at 9:35 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Spicer starts the briefing, jokes: "I worked on the tie. Charlie Sheen had some issues with it yesterday."

(context: Charlie Sheen Wants Sean Spicer to ‘Asphyxiate’ With Ugly Tie)
posted by zachlipton at 9:36 AM on February 3, 2017

Taking credit for jobs report.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 9:37 AM on February 3, 2017

I want the opposition to know that I'm spending time away from my PAYING job and my family and my other responsibilities because this shit matters to me and they better fucking hear me.

So I think this actually - I thought of this just now - really strikes at kind of this difference between Democratic and some Republican thinking about both protesting and organizing.

So at least in my own observation, the majority of 'Democratic/left-leaning' protest organizers are generally working-to-middle-class women who are not well off enough to work for free. They usually work at some nonprofit, and are also paid at least okay money in a very structured way, because one 'Democratic' principle is about getting paid for work if it's possible. The payments must be consistent, because often people are living off of that. Uniform T-shirts and other signage given out to 'Regular Joe' protesters are usually paid for and produced by the organization, while home made signs are produced by individuals. Food is often either paid for by the organization or donated by various restaurants, etc.

The majority of Republican/right-leaning protest organizers, in my own observation, are middle-class women whose husbands work and support them, and middle-class men who own businesses or have nontraditional work that allows them to structure their hours differently. They are usually not paid by any organization and take pride in not being paid. Sometimes, they'll have 'donation jars' or will hold 'fundraisers', but those donation jars and fundraisers are usually for individuals, not organizations. They pay for their own uniform signs and T-shirts, which I emphasize not because it makes them Moral Scions, but because it was the single weirdest fucking thing when I came over to that side. Like, the campaign or organization produces the image, and they all individually pay to have that very image professionally printed on signs and T-shirts. When food is provided, it is almost never by the organization or campaign. Individual women, working for free as organizers, buy the food and cook it on their own, and bring it as a 'donation'. It's almost never bought, it's almost always home-made.

So to them, the idea that protest organizers are paid by organizations and get free food and free signs and free t-shirts really violates the expectation they have of How You Protest. And that is, I'll note, very much an expectation that rests heavily on class and almost religious expectations, the idea that you must pull your own protest up by its bootstraps or it doesn't deserve to exist. That people should commit to doing the thing, and then only maybe will people give them money to help them, but on a piece meal basis and they shouldn't count on it.
posted by corb at 9:38 AM on February 3, 2017 [57 favorites]

Re: Feinstein, it would kinda make sense for her to say she's running again whether she really plans to or not; it enhances her parliamentary deal-making position for people to believe she's still gonna be around in two years to return favors. She can can always bail later with the really good excuse that she is an elderly person with heart problems. Then again, she's Dianne Feinstein so she will probably take the shittiest option and actually run again.
posted by contraption at 9:39 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Taking credit for jobs report.

I feel like that may as well have been the free space in the middle of the bingo card.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 9:39 AM on February 3, 2017 [34 favorites]

"he understands the importance of talking to other business leaders, [...] other job creators"

Are they even pretending that he's not running his businesses?
posted by MattWPBS at 9:39 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Spicer says today's EOs will include the anti-Dodd Frank one.
posted by prefpara at 9:39 AM on February 3, 2017

They're going after the CFPB.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:40 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

They're going after the CFPB.

Also a free space on the Bingo card.
posted by notyou at 9:42 AM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

Every time he refers to Maralago as "the winter whitehouse" my eyes roll back in my head and I fall over dead because it's just that stupid.
posted by prefpara at 9:43 AM on February 3, 2017 [26 favorites]

BUT HER WALL STREET CRONYISM
posted by yellowbinder at 9:43 AM on February 3, 2017 [16 favorites]

> Taking credit for jobs report.

That would be the same jobs report he called "totally fiction" before he assumed office. I commend him for his ability to turn fiction into fact, whether it's the jobs report, feature films, or George Orwell novels.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:43 AM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

And that is, I'll note, very much an expectation that rests heavily on class and almost religious expectations, the idea that you must pull your own protest up by its bootstraps or it doesn't deserve to exist. That people should commit to doing the thing, and then only maybe will people give them money to help them, but on a piece meal basis and they shouldn't count on it.

You are saying this like a bad thing, when we've had tons of people in every thread saying "All I had to do was start organizing and people came!" Maybe relying on organizational support is a weakness for the left. Maybe the right is just better at protesting.
posted by TypographicalError at 9:44 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Soft soap Skype seat question to start.
posted by MattWPBS at 9:44 AM on February 3, 2017

Is it just me getting a Eurovision vibe from Spicer's Skype section?

The people of Breitbart give President Trump 12 points!
posted by mushhushshu at 9:44 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

I want to add I just had another realization, which is that I really do believe a lot of Republicans/conservatives believe that if you're not well off enough to be able to do it on your own, you should be spending your time making more money for your family rather than protesting. Like, I just came to this right now, so it might be sliiiightly inaccurate, but I really do think they think that 'the poor' or anyone receiving 'charity' should not be protesting the government but rather just focusing on 'their own' situation. Which might also be part of the anger about 'paid protesters' - 'people who couldn't even afford to be here if they weren't being helped!'
posted by corb at 9:44 AM on February 3, 2017 [12 favorites]

I'm cranky enough about agism (being an approaching-50 programmer will do that to ya even if basic human decency won't) that I wouldn't rule out a worthwhile Senator in their 80s & 90s.

It's not the age per se, in terms of ability to do the job. It's more I think it's best to elect someone capable of digging in and defending the seat for another few decades, now. Who the hell knows what's coming. There's redistricting on the horizon. Voting investigation hijinks. Even putting Feinstein's lukewarm positions aside, I feel like it's time to anoint the successor. We need to springboard more new national politicians.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:44 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

dampnut made the stammering grub put on a normal tie and a normal-fitting collar this time
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:45 AM on February 3, 2017

Soft soap Skype seat question to start.

And Spicy Sean still can't answer it for shit.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 9:46 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Furthering bluecore's comment upthread:
Just called, line's still open. Fill it up, for whatever it may be worth.
posted by rp at 9:46 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

There's been a certain strain in American culture for a long time that basically boils down to, "Nuh uh, you can't make me!"

Lordy do I ever know you're right, but I wonder if there isn't a frank Dunning-Kruger component to this as well. It feels endemic at the moment, across the political spectrum. Or at least I'm constantly running into people who are utterly serene in their self-assurance, despite clearly not understanding the first thing about the implications of what they are arguing. (Not every last one of them is a comfortable white man, mind you, but it must be said that most of them are. And they just assume they'll be taken seriously — that their mouth-bleatings have meaning and salience, and that their interlocutors will be forced to account for the information they think they're introducing.)

I find myself reaching for theories about the complexity of living in a pervasively networked world, versus the organic limitations on human processing capacity that surely must exist. I don't have the chops to frame this in any particularly rigorous way, but I do think we're overwhelmed by the onrush of new sensory information to the extent that it's psychically necessary to assure ourselves and others that we're competent to deal with it, despite the weight of evidence to the contrary.

If we survive long enough as a civilization to be writing learned histories of this moment in time, I'm reasonably sure we'll come to understand this as one of the root causes of the Great Rupture. We collectively simply weren't competent to process what we were presented with, and were unable to face up to our incompetence.

For my part, I don't mind admitting to my incompetence, but the alternative we seem to be headed for — autonomous algorithmic decision-making systems — well, let's just say I'm not any happier about that.
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:47 AM on February 3, 2017 [15 favorites]

There's been a certain strain in American culture for a long time that basically boils down to, "Nuh uh, you can't make me!" When the entire world, every single newspaper editorial board, every professional civil servant, everyone everywhere was saying, "Don't vote for Donald Trump, he's insane and will destroy the country" a certain percentage of the electorate pushed the button even harder because HOW DARE YOU TELL ME WHAT TO DO.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:28 PM on 2/3

Soren, based on the family members I know who voted for Trump, this is PRECISELY why they backed him. I think it's an essential part of the American character. There was a post awhile ago about making voting mandatory in the U.S. and "nuh uh you can't make me" was even my first reaction to the idea!

I think progressives could easily tap into that sentiment. We represent liberty and freedom now- freedom to love who you want, to represent your gender as you want, to live without forced pregnancy, to have access to healthcare so you can be free from sickness.
posted by TheLateGreatAbrahamLincoln at 9:47 AM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

"Hollywood Conservative" and former game show host Chuck Woolery is losing it on Twitter
posted by porn in the woods at 9:48 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Fox News:

+292,000 jobs December 2015: "Modest"

+227,000 jobs January 2017: "Fantastic!.. Huge!"

--@Craigipedia
posted by zachlipton at 9:48 AM on February 3, 2017 [61 favorites]

I want to add I just had another realization, which is that I really do believe a lot of Republicans/conservatives believe that if you're not well off enough to be able to do it on your own, you should be spending your time making more money for your family rather than protesting. Like, I just came to this right now, so it might be sliiiightly inaccurate, but I really do think they think that 'the poor' or anyone receiving 'charity' should not be protesting the government but rather just focusing on 'their own' situation. Which might also be part of the anger about 'paid protesters' - 'people who couldn't even afford to be here if they weren't being helped!'

I mean, yeah. Why do you think that one of the more popular refrains about protesters are that they should get a job instead of protesting? Obviously the problem is that they just haven't tried hard enough at being rich.
posted by dinty_moore at 9:49 AM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

This Skype press conference thing is worrisome because they seem to be leaning heavily towards scripting it with sympathetic local news hacks.

That was the whole point. Instead of dodging questions from real sources, they can just call on Birth Certificate Weekly. It's another tool of authoritarianism out of Putin's playbook.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:50 AM on February 3, 2017 [30 favorites]

New Hampshire guy asked a skype question about homegrown fentanyl labs, Spicyboy talks about border security again. Exactly like yesterday with the homegrown terrorism question. No one seems to notice or care
posted by theodolite at 9:50 AM on February 3, 2017 [13 favorites]

Holy shit these "Skype seats".

"And now we'll go to the local news hacks fresh off a segment about a dancing bear".
posted by dis_integration at 9:50 AM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

The thing about what's happening right now, corb, is that it is very much protests pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and no money or donations are coming from anywhere. Someone posts in a Facebook group saying, "I can't be quiet about this anymore, I'm going to go $place at $time and anyone who wants to join me, come on down." Or "Holy shit did you see this? I'm going over there to see if I can help." It's a different situation than the left-leaning norm of Planned Parenthood, NARAL and unions organizing actions and demonstrations (those things are still happening, but they are making it into the news way less than the mass mobilizations).
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:51 AM on February 3, 2017 [23 favorites]

Yo. Aleuts live there. And lots of big bad bears. And neither constituency is on board unless by paradise you meant "buffet table" from a bear's point of view.

Give the Aleuts a vacation in Bermuda for a few weeks.

They can come back when the bears are done.
posted by ocschwar at 9:51 AM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

Spicer says they know who the thugs are! Great news.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:55 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

[fake, parody] The Postillion: “Börder Wåll”: IKEA offers Trump an affordable solution
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:55 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

I find myself reaching for theories about the complexity of living in a pervasively networked world, versus the organic limitations on human processing capacity that surely must exist. I don't have the chops to frame this in any particularly rigorous way, but I do think we're overwhelmed by the onrush of new sensory information to the extent that it's psychically necessary to assure ourselves and others that we're competent to deal with it, despite the weight of evidence to the contrary.

I've been working on this theory for a while myself. Faced with this level of complexity and this firehose of information there's kind of one of two ways you can go to keep from being overwhelmed: trust vetted experts, or trust no one but yourself.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:56 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

I've always been disturbed by the whole "Skype seats" thing because Trump supporters came up with it as a term to describe Jews that would get around filters (cw: whole lotta bigotry).
posted by zombieflanders at 9:56 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

It's a different situation than the left-leaning norm of Planned Parenthood, NARAL and unions organizing actions and demonstrations (those things are still happening, but they are making it into the news way less than the mass mobilizations).

Oh yeah, you're 1000% right and it's why I'm kind of excited. (Like, whoa, people are even bringing out the general strike!? Whaaaaat!?) But I don't think those perceptions are really trickling in because people aren't aware enough of what the old perception was to be able to contrast it with the new perception - and also I think people are worried about stepping on toes by seeming to implicitly criticize the old way by praising the new way.
posted by corb at 9:57 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

> I have some friends who are considering setting up a service which people could donate money, and tee up tweets and twitter credentials.

This is a great idea! I think you could get around the money transmitter idea by using something like Stripe to charge cards as necessary. You should post an AskMe about this :)
posted by zrail at 9:57 AM on February 3, 2017

How is Spicer going to handle it when he can't blow off questions by saying "we have to get so and so confirmed first?"
posted by zachlipton at 9:57 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

3-7 Years Later Residents Can’t Remember Where They Were On The Day Of The Bowling Green Massacre [fake, local Onion clone out of Kentucky]
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:57 AM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

Go Arizona ABC. That wasn't a soft scripted question.

"What are you doing about the VA, the poor care and suicide rates? What are you doing about transparency, with secret meetings on the tarmac, etc?"
posted by MattWPBS at 9:57 AM on February 3, 2017 [15 favorites]

FYI if wtf and fuck and shit is getting repetitious or you need friendlier terms.

Alternative Cuss Words
posted by Jalliah at 9:58 AM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

Oh god, talk radio question. "Thanks for taking questions from outside the elite media bubble".
posted by MattWPBS at 9:59 AM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

I have some friends who are considering setting up a service which people could donate money, and tee up tweets and twitter credentials. Then the service would tweet back to @realdonaldtrump any time he tweets, to say that a donation was just made to the ACLU on the donor's behalf. I assume such a service would be a money transmitter as far as FinCEN is concerned, and I'm wondering how bad the regulatory burden would be. Anyone know where to start researching this?

Depends how you build it and whether the ACLU and other orgs will cooperate. If they let people establish accounts with stored payment methods on their own site, and let you submit donations via an API key, stored credentials, etc, you would never be handling the money. You'd just be a scheduling service, like an eBay sniper.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:59 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Spicer goes to Alamaba talk radio by Skype. Question starts with "Thank you very much for taking questions from outside the elite media bubble there in DC" and goes to (paraphrased) 'why haven't you ended DACA yet?'

So this is fine.
posted by zachlipton at 9:59 AM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

murphy slaw: once again confirming that this administration is fractally weird, Melania Trump’s Absence From Washington Raises Questions About Her Role.

WaPo pulling no punches. Religious law may be coming to America. But it’s not sharia; it’s Christian. Much-dreaded “sharia law,” or something resembling it, may well be coming to the United States. Just not in the form many Americans expected.

Wasn't Laura Bush pretty much a void in terms of First Lady Presence? History.com has this summary:

Laura Bush (1946-) was an American first lady and the wife of George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States. As a former public shool teacher and librarian, Laura Bush championed the causes of education and literacy before and during her time in the White House. As first lady, she helped create the National Book Festival and later founded the Laura Bush Foundation to provide funding for America’s libraries.

WHAT. THE. FUCK. As First Lady, she created a foundation to provide grants to school libraries? YOU WERE THE FIRST LADY! GET THE PRESIDENT TO SUPPORT THAT WITH NATIONAL FUNDING!

That's some "Box Tops for Education" level bullshit. "Why does the government need to fund schools and libraries when the people are happy to do it themselves? Look, even private businesses are getting in on the giving back!" Except just like every other example of "crowdfunding," equatable distribution is lacking, and the wealthy schools are generally the winners, where the government can be better at broad distribution, and even distribution based on need, instead of based on who buys General Mills products instead of cheaper alternatives, and who has the money to directly donate back to schools.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:00 AM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

MattWPBS: Oh god, talk radio question. "Thanks for taking questions from outside the elite media bubble".

"And when are you getting rid of all the non-whites" [summarized]
posted by slipthought at 10:00 AM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

Hey guys, serious question. What would it take us to get credentialed for some of those Skype seats?
posted by corb at 10:01 AM on February 3, 2017 [20 favorites]

I want to add I just had another realization, which is that I really do believe a lot of Republicans/conservatives believe that if you're not well off enough to be able to do it on your own, you should be spending your time making more money for your family rather than protesting.

If this is true, it reflects the false belief on the part of many conservatives that the economic/social/political system we currently have is basically fair, and anyone who isn't well enough off to have "earned" the right to protest simply isn't working hard enough. When in fact the reason people protest is often exactly to attack unjust systems that are barriers to them even being able to have a fair shot at being able to work toward financial security.
posted by biogeo at 10:01 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Oh good lord, he took a question from a conservative radio host. Fuck this noise.
posted by scruffy-looking nerfherder at 10:01 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Hey guys, serious question. What would it take us to get credentialed for some of those Skype seats?

A cold day in hell.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:02 AM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

with secret meetings on the tarmac

yes, this was a soft scripted question.
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:02 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Sens. Graham, Whitehouse Announce Probe Of Russian Election Interference

So there are actually two Senate investigations. One in the Senate Intelligence Committee and one in the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism.
posted by diogenes at 10:03 AM on February 3, 2017 [24 favorites]

I imagine they're specifically picking the Skype seats to be alt-right voices.

So "A lot of work to disguise ourselves"
posted by Archelaus at 10:03 AM on February 3, 2017 [13 favorites]

April Ryan: Does Trump still believe Frederick Douglass is alive? [fake]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:03 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Hey guys, serious question. What would it take us to get credentialed for some of those Skype seats?

Zach Lipton, MetaFilter. Sean, after dumping my partner already, I forgot to put the chicken in the fridge and left the package on top of a plate of beans. Can I eat it if there are no declawed cats in my apartment?
posted by zachlipton at 10:04 AM on February 3, 2017 [59 favorites]

Would they credential Metafilter?
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:04 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

What would it take us to get credentialed for some of those Skype seats?

I'm guessing we'd have to sell our souls? Those seats are pretty much all white nationalist voices (I WILL NOT normalize it by calling it "alt-right," as if it's an okay alternative to the Right).
posted by cooker girl at 10:04 AM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

corb: Hey guys, serious question. What would it take us to get credentialed for some of those Skype seats?

Get in good with the _rump camp, because, just like everything else, they're making this shit up as they go (The Hill, Jan. 23, 2017):

Spicer did not specify how it would be decided which outlets would be brought in via Skype, the world's largest video call service owned by Microsoft. He did say those eligible for consideration need to live more than 50 miles from Washington.

Spicer added that the technology would open up briefings to a “diverse group” of journalists who can’t afford to travel to D.C.

The former Republican National Committee spokesman told The Hill earlier this month that taking questions from those not physically in the room was being considered.

“Maybe we solicit talk radio and regional newspapers to submit questions — because they can't afford to be in Washington — but they still have a question," Spicer said in an interview Jan. 8. "Maybe we just let the American people submit questions that we read off as well,” he added.

"Maybe we'll just make up questions that lead us to reporting on topics we want to talk about, instead of all these, boring, serious questions."
posted by filthy light thief at 10:05 AM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

Oh, I dunno that it would be that hard. The site's all text, and they're not big readers.
posted by contraption at 10:06 AM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

Enjoy the EOs bitches! I'm out! Spicy Sean, y'all!
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:07 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Normalizing wasn't my intent there, but I'll call that a fair point.
posted by Archelaus at 10:07 AM on February 3, 2017

So that's the second time Spicer has blown off questions about homegrown extremism and white supremacy to say something about "radical Islam" and the border. April Ryan was not what I would call pleased.
posted by zachlipton at 10:07 AM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

and off he goes with a little smirk, like my dog when it thinks I didn't see it eat that cat shit.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:08 AM on February 3, 2017 [18 favorites]

You guys, I just watched the German foreign language film "Look Who's Back" on Netflix last night. And it seriously ended up being more thought provoking than any movie I've seen in a very long time.

I watched this during the primaries. It was....prescient. To say the least. I recommend it highly.
posted by Sophie1 at 10:08 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

I watched it during the primaries and it contributed to my dawning horror.
posted by corb at 10:09 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm finding The Young Pope even to be a bit too on the nose.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:09 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Regarding Dianne Feinstein: If she is going to run again, I am going to do everything in my power to see that she loses. Previously, I just didn't give a shit, but she has FAR outlasted her comfy position.
posted by Sophie1 at 10:10 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

btw, Milo attending the briefing turned out to be another troll (color me unsurprised that a troll trolled us). He went to New York to rant on cable news instead.
posted by zachlipton at 10:10 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Oh, and I started following @govtrack on Twitter, on the advice of my Ask and... their social media person is sassy!
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:11 AM on February 3, 2017

Oral argument at SCOTUS in the Gavin Grimm case (Virginia transgender teen who was told he could not use the boy's bathroom) has been set for March 28.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:11 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Like all scripted with one question.

"Mr. Burns, your campaign seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train. Why are you so popular?"
posted by Servo5678 at 10:12 AM on February 3, 2017 [13 favorites]

Serious question. Were the previous administration's press briefings like this ? Did they start with the crazy propaganda spin about how amazing they are?
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 10:13 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

it's anticipated to be repealing much of Dodd Frank, and the rule that financial advisors must act in the best interests of their clients.

This is the fiduciary rule that Obama imposed on financial advisors that was due to go into effect in April. With its repeal, this means that financial advisors will still be allowed to fleece their customers legally. They can recommend that you make investments that provide the highest commissions for themselves or their brokerage, not the best for their customers.

It is as if doctors were permitted to prescribe unnecessary back surgery for you just because they have a payment coming due for their new Porsche. That's the new Trump rule for financial advisors -- screw the working class out of their 401(k) retirement.

How's that white working class economic anxiety Trump was supposed to fix working out fer ya?
posted by JackFlash at 10:13 AM on February 3, 2017 [16 favorites]

WHOA WHOA WHOA, YOU GUYS. Too soon on the Bowling Green Massacre jokes. At least wait until after it happens.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:15 AM on February 3, 2017 [96 favorites]

I don't give a fuck what they call us, we're still protesting, so fuck 'em.
posted by yoga at 10:17 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

You're a little too good at that, contraption.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:17 AM on February 3, 2017 [18 favorites]

Serious question. Were the previous administration's press briefings like this ? Did they start with the crazy propaganda spin about how amazing they are?

There was always a bit of spin about the cool stuff the President was up to. But this spin is so spinny that it makes Spicer visibly dizzy and nauseous. Hence why he has to run out so quickly every time, so he can get to the bathroom before his metaphorical vomiting on the press becomes literal.
posted by dis_integration at 10:18 AM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

How's that white working class economic anxiety Trump was supposed to fix working out fer ya?

To be fair, the working class don't generally have financial advisors. Hell, I don't even have one.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:19 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

I have some friends who are considering setting up a service which people could donate money, and tee up tweets and twitter credentials.

This Mefi Project may be of interest. Apparently unsolicited @ replies to tweets are a violation of the TOS.
posted by COD at 10:22 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Hi , we're MetaFilter, an online discussion forum (like Reddit) where users from all over Real America get together to talk politics and have fun! We are excited to learn more about the president's plans to #MAGA and would be honored to have an opportunity to ask Mr. Spicer a question via Skype at a real briefing!"

Which would be cool. At least until the poor mods (and us) would have to deal with the Trumpie Troll brigade or at least the ones willing to fork out the $ money for librul tears.
posted by Jalliah at 10:22 AM on February 3, 2017 [15 favorites]

Did they start with the crazy propaganda spin about how amazing they are?

Yes and no:
Yes, in the sense that they spun news as favorably as possible towards the administration.
No, in the sense that what Spicer is doing is less "spin" than "fucking lying".

"Spin" is "Despite coming in under projections, the jobs report is still positive news and shows that the market is responding positively to the President's programs."
"Fucking lying" is "There were 1.5 million people at the Inauguration."
posted by Etrigan at 10:22 AM on February 3, 2017 [18 favorites]

WaPo pulling no punches.

Religious law may be coming to America. But it’s not sharia; it’s Christian.

Much-dreaded “sharia law,” or something resembling it, may well be coming to the United States. Just not in the form many Americans expected.

That is, the religiously motivated laws creeping into public policymaking aren’t based on the Koran, and they aren’t coming from mythical hard-line Islamists in, say, Dearborn, Mich. They’re coming from the White House, which wants to make it easier for hard-line Christians to impose their beliefs and practices on the rest of us.

A dark parallel in a majority Muslim nation (that isn't on the "do not enter" list): Indonesian court gives go-ahead to blasphemy trial of Jakarta governor Ahok (The Guardian, December 27, 2016)

An Indonesian court will proceed with a controversial blasphemy trial against Jakarta’s Christian governor, who is accused of insulting the Qur’an, a judge said on Tuesday.

The case is seen as a test of religious freedom in the Muslim-majority nation.

A panel of judges rejected a call by lawyers defending governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who is known by his nickname Ahok, to strike down the case because it had violated the ethnic Chinese politician’s human rights and breached procedures.

Popular Christian governor is targeted ahead of upcoming elections because he's not supporting the majority religion, despite the country supposedly being based on tolerance, what with their national motto -- Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, which is Old Javanese and translates as "Unity in Diversity". You know, like E pluribus unum —Latin for "Out of many, one."
posted by filthy light thief at 10:22 AM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

I just want to update, since I spread the original reports last night, it seems that Secret Service managers were not, in fact, forced to resign. Steve Clemons says it was actually the Chief Information Security Officer (possibly others from that office) that was forced to resign and escorted out.

Want to bet this is all so they can hand it over to Rudy Guiliani?
posted by zachlipton at 10:24 AM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

I am and/or have been a working class person in the UK, and I have bought financial products and also consulted advisors once or twice.
posted by tel3path at 10:25 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Want to bet this is all so they can hand it over to Rudy Guiliani?

It's not a plan, it's flailing. Someone will doubtless profit from it, but that's a "happy" accident, not the original intent.
posted by Etrigan at 10:25 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

To be fair, the working class don't generally have financial advisors. Hell, I don't even have one.

I'll grant that the definition of "working class" at this point is so malleable that it could refer to white part-time workers as easily as it could to white millionaires. White seems to be the only non-negotiable qualification.

But anybody with a 401k, as JackFlash mentioned, technically has a financial adviser, even if it's not somebody they ever call up and talk to personally. Which mostly encompasses the middle class, but again: nobody agrees on what "working class" actually means, but we do know that the majority of Trump supporters are actually middle class even if they self-define as "working class".

So, ultimately, it's still a matter of Trump screwing his "economically anxious" supporters so his Wall Street buddies can get richer.
posted by tobascodagama at 10:26 AM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

Thank you, dis_integration and Etrigan!

I liked how Spicer answered a question about approval rating being in the 40s by claiming he saw one where it was 51%. They don't even have some Brietbart poll with higher cooked numbers?
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 10:26 AM on February 3, 2017

I know people who feel that regulations are getting in the way of businesses and hurting our economy. The one that was cited to me was about a couple who wanted to sell a food at the Farmer's market but it was too expensive for them to comply with the law, so they can't sell it now. The people cited both retired in their 50s and I am supposed to feel bad that they can't sell things that could get people sick.
posted by soelo at 10:27 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

To be fair, the working class don't generally have financial advisors. Hell, I don't even have one.

Do you have a 401(k)? You employer chooses which mutual funds are available for you to invest in. Your employer can choose the funds and manager that provides the most fees for them, not for you.
posted by JackFlash at 10:29 AM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

"Hi , we're MetaFilter, an online discussion forum (like Reddit) where users from all over Real America get together to talk politics and have fun! We are excited to learn more about the president's plans to #MAGA and would be honored to have an opportunity to ask Mr. Spicer a question via Skype at a real briefing!"

Which would be cool. At least until the poor mods (and us) would have to deal with the Trumpie Troll brigade or at least the ones willing to fork out the $ money for librul tears.

They know who were are. MeFi has an ED entry. I'm not going to link it.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:29 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

In which Kellyanne Conway feuds with Chelsea Clinton on Twitter

Imagine if you're a voter who doesn't care about Twitter (I want to be this person) and just wants our senior government officials to not spend their time getting into internet arguments with former first daughters over fake massacres.
posted by zachlipton at 10:30 AM on February 3, 2017 [27 favorites]

I assume people with 403(b)s would be affected as well?
posted by soelo at 10:30 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

So "A lot of work to disguise ourselves"

"John Barron, Mar-a-Lago Times. Mr. Spicer, the Trump administration has the momentum of a runaway freight train. Why is it so popular?"

Recycle everything. Even jokes.
posted by Servo5678 at 10:30 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Thanks for the update, zachlipton. I tried to follow that news up this morning, and the results were page after page of "cascadiatruthnews" and "conservativefact" "survivaltipsUSA," so I went back to Peggle.
posted by notyou at 10:30 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

AP: State Department says fewer than 60,000 visas canceled under Trump's order, contradicting U.S. attorney's figure.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:37 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

For those wondering, filling out the Kamala poll does put you on her mailing list.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:39 AM on February 3, 2017

I'm a little disappointed at the lack of thoughts and prayers for Bowling Green.
posted by monospace at 10:42 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Earlier this week, there was critical coverage on Bob Iger's involvement on the Trump Panel

CartoonBrew: The Disney Company Needs To Get Out of Trump’s Bed, based on a series of critical tweets.

Variety: Bob Iger’s Participation on Trump Panel Kicking Up a Storm
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:42 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

AP: State Department says fewer than 60,000 visas canceled under Trump's order, contradicting U.S. attorney's figure.

that's still almost three orders of magnitude more visas than people the administration claims were "inconvenienced" by the EO.
posted by murphy slaw at 10:44 AM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

For those wondering, filling out the Kamala poll does put you on her mailing list.

And just to be clear, it's super easy to unsubscribe.
posted by cooker girl at 10:44 AM on February 3, 2017

I am enjoying the Kamala mailing list. There'll be a round of comments on MetaFilter: "Call your congressfolk about X!" and while I'm thinking of it, I'll get an email from Kamala saying, "X is terrible and we need to stop it." (Followed by, "so plz hand me money," but I expect that part.)
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 10:46 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Want to bet this is all so they can hand it over to Rudy Guiliani?

I think "trying to plug the leaks" is a slightly more likely explanation. Why would rearranging the org chart for Giuliani be a priority?
posted by Coventry at 10:48 AM on February 3, 2017

I'm a little disappointed at the lack of thoughts and prayers for Bowling Green.

I've got to wonder what it's like to live in Bowling Green and wake up to this, actually. Especially if you're a Trumpist, does it make you stop and wonder for a second? Like, how does the cognitive dissonance work in that case?
posted by dinty_moore at 10:50 AM on February 3, 2017 [20 favorites]

Patrick Caldwell: Trump's Health Pick Has a Long History of Boosting the Confederate Flag

In 2004, Price co-sponsored a bill with five other Republican state senators that included a host of measures to celebrate the history of the losing side of the Civil War. The measure stalled, but had it been signed into law, April would have become Confederate History and Heritage Month in Georgia. (That eventually happened in 2009.) The 1956 flag would have been renamed the "Georgia Memorial Flag," and it would have been flown above the state Capitol twice a year, on Confederate Memorial Day and Robert E. Lee's birthday.

Price's views on the Confederate flag came up briefly during his hearing before the Senate's health committee last month, when Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) pressed Price on his 2004 bill. "I note that the resolution that commemorated the time of Southern independence mentions nothing about slavery," Kaine said. Price tried to dodge the inquiry, noting that he hadn't thought about the topic for a long time. But when pushed, Price said, "Well, I think every heritage has things that are good about it. Every heritage has things that are harmful about it. And I'm happy to answer the specific question: I think slavery was an abomination."

The Confederate flag has been less of an issue for Price's political career since he moved to national politics. But in July 2015, when controversy around the use of the Confederate flag in South Carolina attracted national attention, Price joined the vast majority of Republicans who voted down an anti-Confederate flag measure introduced by Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi.

posted by zombieflanders at 10:51 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I tried to follow that news up this morning, and the results were page after page of "cascadiatruthnews" and "conservativefact" "survivaltipsUSA," so I went back to Peggle.

To his credit, Clemon walked the story back on his twitter feed.
posted by Coventry at 10:52 AM on February 3, 2017

Especially if you're a Trumpist, does it make you stop and wonder for a second? Like, how does the cognitive dissonance work in that case?

they don't care. as far as they are concerned kellyanne just cucked the entire left.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 10:52 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

But like, the DoJ is under oath and the State dept is not, so I'm still more inclined to believe the DoJ figure.
posted by orangutan at 10:53 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

the time of Southern independence

independence, treason, let's not quibble over nomenclature
posted by murphy slaw at 10:53 AM on February 3, 2017 [22 favorites]

CNBC: Trump says will cut "a lot out of Dodd-Frank" because "friends of mine that have nice businesses, they can't borrow"
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:55 AM on February 3, 2017 [12 favorites]

the time of Southern independence

independence, treason, let's not quibble over nomenclature

I prefer to think of it as "the time the South got its ass kicked so hard it surrendered unconditionally to an alcoholic".
posted by Etrigan at 10:56 AM on February 3, 2017 [22 favorites]

CNBC: Trump says will cut "a lot out of Dodd-Frank" because "friends of mine that have nice businesses, they can't borrow"

@Phil_Mattingly: Pres. Trump, to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon: "There's nobody better to tell me about Dodd-Frank than Jamie, so thank you, Jamie."
posted by zombieflanders at 10:56 AM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

Trump says will cut "a lot out of Dodd-Frank" because "friends of mine that have nice businesses, they can't borrow"

I can't. Where is the fake tag. TELL ME THERE IS A FAKE TAG.
posted by lydhre at 10:59 AM on February 3, 2017 [31 favorites]

Arkansas: An Application To Congress To Call A Convention For Proposing An Amendment To The United States Constitution Concerning The Definition Of "marriage".

If you live there, please call and ask why they are wasting your time and money.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:59 AM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

Hey, remember when Hillary was unacceptable because of her ties to Wall Street?
posted by zachlipton at 10:59 AM on February 3, 2017 [106 favorites]

I assume such a service would be a money transmitter as far as FinCEN is concerned, and I'm wondering how bad the regulatory burden would be. Anyone know where to start researching this?

This is creepy... I had no idea that Trump was putting out that EO on financial regulation when I asked that question.
posted by Coventry at 11:00 AM on February 3, 2017

ARD Poll: Trustworthy partners to Germany, February 2017 (source).
posted by effbot at 11:01 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

CNBC: Trump says will cut "a lot out of Dodd-Frank" because "friends of mine that have nice businesses, they can't borrow"

provisions of the law concerning naughty businesses will remain intact
posted by murphy slaw at 11:02 AM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

Dalia Grybauskaitė, the Lithuanian president, offered a withering verdict on the recent meeting between Trump and Theresa May. “I don’t think there is a necessity for a bridge. We communicate with the Americans on Twitter,” she said..

posted by Coventry at 11:06 AM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

"Friends of mine that have nice businesses, they can't borrow"

Is this not admission of conflict of interest?
posted by INFJ at 11:06 AM on February 3, 2017 [26 favorites]

I need to stop reading comments on sad articles about families separated by the ban. It's seriously 100% non-hyperbolicly destroying my last shreds of my faith in humanity.
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:07 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

I live in Louisville and a lot of my local friends are Western Kentucky University (located in Bowling Green) alums. My facebook feed today has been amazing.
posted by chaoticgood at 11:09 AM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

Is this not admission of conflict of interest?

The president can't have a conflict of interest, don'tcha know.
posted by murphy slaw at 11:09 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Trump can't have a conflict of interest.

He has multiple.
posted by mazola at 11:10 AM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

Look's like Omarosa's getting an already injured leg checked. Nothing newsworthy.
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:12 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

For Christ’s sake, you people made me get rid of my peanut farm.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 11:15 AM on February 3, 2017 [22 favorites]

Daniel Dale tallies them up: "Donald Trump has been president for two weeks. He has made 33 false claims" (he only does things Trump has personally said, as he would presumably need a 500 person staff to keep up with Conway and company)
posted by zachlipton at 11:18 AM on February 3, 2017 [16 favorites]

Trump's comments about Dodd-Frank would be like a president complaining that their asbestos-manufacturing friends just couldn't get work because of all these pesky regulations.

Earth to Trump: no shit. That's the point of the regulations.
posted by tocts at 11:22 AM on February 3, 2017 [35 favorites]

For Christ’s sake, you people made me get rid of my peanut farm.

Why does the Onion seem less fake than the real news now?
posted by Zalzidrax at 11:23 AM on February 3, 2017 [22 favorites]

CNBC: Trump says will cut "a lot out of Dodd-Frank" because "friends of mine that have nice businesses, they can't borrow"

Literally anyone who was paying attention knew this asshole would be a corrupt, walking conflict of interest, but does he really have to rub our fucking noses in it like that??
posted by DynamiteToast at 11:24 AM on February 3, 2017 [19 favorites]

Authorization of Use of Force Against Iran Resolution
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 11:25 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Technically it's okay because Trump doesn't have any true friends.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:25 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

but does he really have to rub our fucking noses in it like that??

If he really is a malignant narcissist, yes, that's the nature of the disorder.
posted by saulgoodman at 11:26 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Statement by National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn on Iran

Do you think this went through any channels or did he just type it out himself?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:27 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

(Trump did say "there's no formal chain of command here", though)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:28 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

but does he really have to rub our fucking noses in it like that??

When you're the president, they let you do it. You can do anything.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:28 AM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

Authorization of Use of Force Against Iran Resolution

Before anyone dives into their bomb shelters--we covered this a couple posts ago. It's some whackdoo (Democrat!) FL rep who I guess has some sort of bomb Iran hobby horse he likes to get up on.
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:28 AM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

Has the president signed a single bill into law yet? The Legislation page on the White House site is just a bunch of nothing. Who needs those other two branches of government, anyway?
posted by mbrubeck at 11:28 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner worked to sink LGBT order
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:30 AM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

he can't sign any new laws until he repeals at least two

[fake]
posted by murphy slaw at 11:31 AM on February 3, 2017 [12 favorites]

Literally anyone who was paying attention knew this asshole would be a corrupt, walking conflict of interest, but does he really have to rub our fucking noses in it like that??

I don't think he even realized how much harm that statement is going to cause when he said it.
posted by Coventry at 11:32 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner worked to sink LGBT order

Great if true. However, I'd like national policy debates NOT to start with the words. "But Daaaaaaaaddyyyyyy..."
posted by MonkeyToes at 11:32 AM on February 3, 2017 [52 favorites]

At least Flynn acknowledges that it was a Saudi vessel that was attacked.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 11:33 AM on February 3, 2017

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner worked to sink LGBT order

That's great. Work harder, assholes.
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:34 AM on February 3, 2017 [31 favorites]

RobotVoodooPower: who's left to write the resolutions?
posted by morspin at 11:35 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner worked to sink LGBT order

Ivanka and Jared have gone to extraordinary lengths lately through leaks to get the press to paint them as the "reasonable" ones and publicly distance themselves from the more odious stuff. We shouldn't fall for it––they are both fully responsible for the awfulness and could actually distance themselves by not being active participants, but it's fascinating to me how much they feel the need to give that appearance.
posted by zachlipton at 11:39 AM on February 3, 2017 [92 favorites]

Has the president signed a single bill into law yet? The Legislation page on the White House site is just a bunch of nothing.

It looks like the only bills Congress has passed since inauguration are the waiver for Mattis (which he presumably signed), some thing about the GAO that doesn't seem to have been partisan, and something "disapproving of a rule" by the Department of the Interior that only passed yesterday and, were I a betting man, would assume he'll sign at some point, disapproving of rules as he does.

He can't sign what Congress doesn't pass, and given the incredibly ghoulish makeup of Congress right now, maybe not having to fight fires on that particular front right now isn't a horrible thing.
posted by Copronymus at 11:39 AM on February 3, 2017

He's signed two so far, according to GovTrack:
1. S. 84: A bill to provide for an exception to a limitation against appointment of persons as Secretary of Defense within seven years of relief from active duty as a regular commissioned officer of the Armed Forces.

His first act as President was to weaken civilian control of the military. It's not a coincidence.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 11:40 AM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

This article is one of the the greatest articles. Believe me, it's a great article. Says that when people are talking about the overrated president, whose totally failing by the way, they should use the best words, do the best talking.
Everyone agrees. People said to me that it's a good idea, the best idea.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 11:40 AM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

In silliest vote news [UK edition], someone on Question Time voted for Brexit because she saw a straight banana.
posted by threetwentytwo at 11:42 AM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

We shouldn't fall for it––they are both fully responsible for the awfulness and could actually distance themselves by not being active participants, but it's fascinating to me how much they feel the need to give that appearance.

Rich New York liberals could do a lot of good for the country by stopping inviting them to fucking dinner parties. Social shaming works. Boo Mike Pence at Hamilton. Shout "Shame!" at every Republican congressman in the streets of DC. Stop having dinner with fucking Ivanka and Jared.

They're monsters. They shouldn't get to enjoy the fruits of the society they're trying to destroy in peace.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:44 AM on February 3, 2017 [78 favorites]

The Confederate flag has been less of an issue for Price's political career since he moved to national politics. But in July 2015, when controversy around the use of the Confederate flag in South Carolina attracted national attention, Price joined the vast majority of Republicans who voted down an anti-Confederate flag measure introduced by Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi.

Oh hey, new thread so I'll beat the drum again: it's the traitor flag.

No, I will not stop trying to make ~~fetch~~ traitor happen.
posted by phearlez at 11:44 AM on February 3, 2017 [16 favorites]

You know, a few months ago, I'm going to admit I honestly had some hesitation about labeling Bannon a white supremacist. He was awful and responsible for enabling a lot of racism, but I, naively, had some concern we were diluting that label a little bit, overplaying our hand, if we applied it to him as opposed to the more obviously cartoonishly evil characters we normally describe in such terms. After some of the stuff that's come out this week, and especially after this, I am more convinced than ever that I was completely wrong.

Bannon film outline warned U.S. could turn into ‘Islamic States of America’

The outline shows how Bannon, years before he became a strategist for President Trump and helped draft last week’s order restricting travel from seven mostly Muslim countries, sought to issue a warning about the threat posed by radical Muslims as well as their “enablers among us.” Although driven by the “best intentions,” the outline says, institutions such as the media, the Jewish community and government agencies were appeasing jihadists aiming to create an Islamic republic.

The eight-page draft, written in 2007 during Bannon’s stint as a Hollywood filmmaker, proposed a three-part movie that would trace “the culture of intolerance” behind sharia law, examine the “Fifth Column” made up of “Islamic front groups” and identify the American enablers paving “the road to this unique hell on earth.”

posted by zachlipton at 11:45 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Authorization of Use of Force Against Iran Resolution

Remember back when the Congress had to actually draft up an actual Declaration of War? Heck, back then it wasn't even to go do the Nazi face punching that I hear is popular these days.
posted by rough ashlar at 11:46 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

AP: Iran bans US wrestlers from taking part in Freestyle World Cup competition.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:46 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner worked to sink LGBT order

Bullshit. Trump & Co saw what a shitstorm immigration was and realized they'd get crushed even worse with this and bailed. And now Ivanka and Jared are trying to save their reputations by taking credit.
posted by chris24 at 11:47 AM on February 3, 2017 [43 favorites]

Eek.

There is a Roger Stone AMA on r/politics right now.

Believe it or not, r/politics is mostly pro-liberal right now so this could be interesting if you are interested.
posted by futz at 11:49 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

There is a Roger Stone AMA on r/politics right now.

Top comment:

Switchoroo: What are your thoughts on Betsy DeVos, do you believe she is qualified?
Roger-Stone: I can not understand why the President chose this woman. She savaged him during the campaign.
posted by Coventry at 11:53 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

She savaged him during the campaign.

She... did? Didn't her family donate like a squillion dollars to him?
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:56 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm know I'm late to this part of the conversation but all these jokes about "haw haw no more coal soda!" in regards to the Stream Protection Rule really made me step back and weep.

NPR's Planet Money did a whole podcast about the Congressional Review Act and how certain rules (the actual implementation of passed Laws) can be unconditionally yanked by an incoming president if the outgoing one passed the rules within 60 days of transition.

The TLDR is that one man fought for these rules for decades - not just to protect the water but to keep coal mining pollution out of the air in his hometown. The rules took forever to write, and they were meant to actually make the coal industry clean up their act.

All that work was vaporized in the stroke of a pen.
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:56 AM on February 3, 2017 [54 favorites]

All that work was vaporized in the stroke of a pen.

...and off in the distance a cry of jubilation from Jeff Jobe.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 12:01 PM on February 3, 2017

That Planet Money episode was so depressing. I did have to wonder, though -- if they've been working on it for years and got it in before the transition, couldn't they have gotten it in 60 days earlier? I presume, as with so many things, they weren't too concerned because they thought they had POTUS locked up. In that case, though, why rush getting it in before the transition in the first place?
posted by Turd Ferguson at 12:01 PM on February 3, 2017

In which the Pentagon causes confusion. They released a video that they said was recovered from terrorists in the Yemen raid, then said they screwed up and released an old video instead, then said the video was recovered in Yemen but was also old. Turns out to be 10 years old and not actually new intel. The video has been online for years.

See also BuzzFeed: The Pentagon Said This Video Shows A Raid In Yemen Was Successful. It’s A Decade Old.
posted by zachlipton at 12:02 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

WHOA WHOA WHOA, YOU GUYS. Too soon on the Bowling Green Massacre jokes. At least wait until after it happens.

And here I thought Use of Weapons had prepared us all for anachronic scripts.
posted by Slackermagee at 12:02 PM on February 3, 2017 [13 favorites]

Voicemail is open as of ten minutes ago if you want to call the Senate Committee on Homeland Security regarding Bannon. 202.224.4751

414-276-7282 is another number. I called it 2 days ago and a staffer picked up immediately and had enough time to get my name and address, so clearly more people need to be calling that line.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 12:03 PM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

From a friend on FB:

MISSISSIPPI: If you do nothing else today...
I have heard that Senator Cochran is seriously considering a NO vote on Betsy DeVos. If you haven't already, please call his DC office (202) 224-5054. Only thing they want is your name, town and stand on DeVos. Easy call.
Here is the Mississippi Number to the Jackson office!
Thad Cochran (R) 36 years
(601) 965-4459
posted by piyushnz at 12:04 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

They're monsters. They shouldn't get to enjoy the fruits of the society they're trying to destroy in peace.

I don't think giving them credit for one thing is excusing anything else.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:04 PM on February 3, 2017

I've been working through Jane Mayer's "Dark Reads" . She explains so well how the Republican party got taken over by the Kochs and a few other monied interests (DeVos is in there). This is exactly the kind of result they wanted. And the great thing about Trump for them is he has no compunctions about carrying out their desires. The smoke left behind from Trump's every action and utterance gives them a screen to act with inpunity.

All this to avoid paying taxes and being accountable for polluting the environment. Asymmetry rears its ugly head again.

The main thing I remember from a political theory course I took from Gad Horowitz many eons ago is him quoting Andrew Carnegie: "In a true democracy there would be a 100% inheritance tax". Don't know if that's exactly what he said (all those libraries bearing his name suggest it is), but the truth of that is crystal clear today.
posted by morspin at 12:05 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

414-276-7282 is another number. I called it 2 days ago and a staffer picked up immediately and had enough time to get my name and address, so clearly more people need to be calling that line.

That's Ron Johnson's Milwaukee senate number.
posted by zug at 12:05 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

irresponsibly claiming asbestos is “also 100 percent safe, once applied.”

That claim's not egregiously untrue all by itself, but the fact that Trump doesn't consider anything but the one bit of data that covers his ass is pretty typical. "100% safe" is a slight exaggeration, but asbestos, once applied, really is quite safe; "once applied" is a huge caveat, though, and leaves out the corresponding bookend, "if left undisturbed." The whole industry up to and including the application is massively dangerous, and in homes, which people may be constantly renovating willy-nilly, it's not exactly awesome.

Say you live somewhere built before the mid-eighties (or whenever asbestos definitely stopped being used in your area). Your home definitely had asbestos in it at one time. If it's still there, no big whoop, as long as you don't mess with it. If it's no longer there, because someone -- maybe a previous owner -- decided they didn't like the look of the popcorn ceiling and just went at it with a scraper instead of having it professionally abated, you're now living in a cloud of mesothelioma and have no idea.

How many of Trump's properties fit that description, I wonder?
posted by Sys Rq at 12:06 PM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

Are there free services that will evaluate your home for asbestos? Asking for, um, a friend.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:09 PM on February 3, 2017

I knew that this was coming but fuck.The part I bolded says it all really.

President Donald Trump will order a sweeping review of the Dodd-Frank Act rules enacted in response to the 2008 financial crisis, a White House official said, signing an executive action Friday designed to significantly scale back the regulatory system put in place in 2010.

Trump also will halt another of former President Barack Obama’s regulations, hated by the financial industry, that requires advisers on retirement accounts to work in the best interests of their clients. Trump’s order will give the new administration time to review the change, known as the fiduciary rule.

Heaven forbid we actually look out for the interests of anyone but ourselves.
posted by futz at 12:10 PM on February 3, 2017 [41 favorites]

For Oakland California residents, the Emergency alert that just sounded was a planned test.

And I can't believe I felt compelled to post that here, but these are times we live in.
posted by susiswimmer at 12:12 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

And I can't believe I felt compelled to post that here, but these are times we live in

NYC set off Chinese New Year Fireworks last week without properly warning anyone and lit twitter up with complaints.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:16 PM on February 3, 2017

Trump also will halt another of former President Barack Obama’s regulations, hated by the financial industry, that requires advisers on retirement accounts to work in the best interests of their clients. Trump’s order will give the new administration time to review the change, known as the fiduciary rule.

Heaven forbid we actually look out for the interests of anyone but ourselves.

Perhaps the only thing we could do is sell totally real Kellyanne Conway Twitty concert tickets to Republicans.
posted by juiceCake at 12:17 PM on February 3, 2017

That's insane. The fiduciary rule existed as an informal professional ethical standard before Dodd-Frank, right? It used to be sort of like the Hippocratic oath, in effect, right, though it wasn't law, per se? With this little trick, even the norms that prevailed prior to their formalization in law won't hold anymore. This is a recipe for retirement investment fraud schemes on massive scales. I'm sure the Trump operatives understand that and are counting on it. More chaos to smash the state.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:18 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Since we're doing local news... San Francisco: No Ban, No Wall, Saturday, 3pm, Civic Center
posted by zachlipton at 12:18 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

They test the tornado sirens once a week at 1pm here, but every time, I tense up.
posted by emjaybee at 12:18 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

President Donald Trump will order a sweeping review of the Dodd-Frank Act rules enacted in response to the 2008 financial crisis, a White House official said, signing an executive action Friday designed to significantly scale back the regulatory system put in place in 2010.

The past year or so has been feeling more and more like the lead-up to 2009. So many house flipping shows on TV, house flipping ads on the local radio station (running alongside ads for payday loans, tax relief, and sham weight loss medicine), lots of my friends trying to get into real estate, shitloads of new condos going up every day.

If Bannon is serious about his desire to bring the system to its knees, then I think (out of all the many other avenues he has) another bubble bursting and taking the rest of the economy along with it would be an effective means to that end.
posted by codacorolla at 12:18 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

They're monsters. They shouldn't get to enjoy the fruits of the society they're trying to destroy in peace.

Not even straight bananas?
posted by jontyjago at 12:19 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Meanwhile… Arkansas passes law allowing rapists to sue victims who want an abortion
posted by Omon Ra at 12:23 PM on February 3, 2017 [24 favorites]

They released a video that they said was recovered from terrorists in the Yemen raid, then said they screwed up and released an old video instead, then said the video was recovered in Yemen but was also old. Turns out to be 10 years old and not actually new intel.

You would think that it being on a VHS tape cassette would have been a clue.
posted by JackFlash at 12:23 PM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

I advise skipping the Roger Stone AMA. It's just him spewing propaganda.
posted by prefpara at 12:24 PM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

Has the EO been leaked, yet?
posted by Coventry at 12:28 PM on February 3, 2017

From the CBC: The Ontario Minister of Health is holding a press conference shortly. He wants to help kids who were turned away from life-saving surgery in the States by offering surgery here.
posted by maudlin at 12:32 PM on February 3, 2017 [52 favorites]

I think I'd like to hold onto at least some small shreds of hope. If Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump helped to kill anti-LGBT stuff, I'm going to call that a win and hope that they give us more wins. These wins can be small. There just seems to be nothing going well, so I will take what I can get.

They're complicit in a failed effort to ban permanent residents from the United States less than a week ago, along with a still happening ban on students and doctors and families and refugees fleeing grave danger. The fact that they're waging a PR campaign to try to look less monstrous does not give me any shred of hope but for the surprising fact that there's still someone in the White House who still seems to care what they look like.

"We were going to do awful things to you, but at this moment we're not doing this specific one (subject to change at any moment)" is not a win. No matter how awful things are, we can't condition ourselves to accept "it could be worse" as victory.
posted by zachlipton at 12:35 PM on February 3, 2017 [23 favorites]

Ok, this made me feel a bit better about the possibility of repealing the banking regulations. But lets face it, we are dealing with an administration that does not follow the rules and actively looks for ways to subvert them. Also given that the Repubs are in control of the House and Senate who is going to stop him from doing whatever the fuck he wants? So I feel a wee bit better but decidedly not optimistic.

Here's what everybody is getting wrong about changes to banking rules

Actually after reading it again it looks like the repeals could take awhile but if congress allows it it could be a done deal. I need to stop thinking about this right now. Everything is awful.
posted by futz at 12:36 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

House of Cards showrunner Beau Willimon (@beauwillimon) has tweeted a 25-point Declaration of Resistance, collected here. "When in the course of American history it becomes necessary for the people to save our Nation from a Tyrant," it begins, calling for the "Immediate impeachment of the President for crimes committed, or removal from office by way of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution."
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:38 PM on February 3, 2017 [48 favorites]

"Hi , we're MetaFilter, an online discussion forum (like Reddit) where users from all over Real America get together to talk politics and have fun! We are excited to learn more about the president's plans to #MAGA and would be honored to have an opportunity to ask Mr. Spicer a question via Skype at a real briefing!"

Sean Spicer: Okay, we have our first question from a mister... Quonsar, is it?
quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon: HAVE YOU TRIED NOT BEING A FASCIST MOTHERF-
Sean Spicer: We appear to be having technical difficulties. Though the answer is "No." Next up, a question from the_donald?
posted by delfin at 12:39 PM on February 3, 2017 [63 favorites]

"In a true democracy there would be a 100% inheritance tax"

For all of Andrew Carnegie's many many points of shitty union-busting crapulence, this was definitely a belief of his. Which Pittsburgh has benefited greatly from.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:46 PM on February 3, 2017 [12 favorites]

Trusted Traveler "Nexus" card of a Syrian-Canadian has been revoked.
posted by Yowser at 12:46 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Hey guys, you're not one of their constituents. They don't care, and you're just taking up airspace their constituents could fill.

From way upthread, but this is one of the things I've been pushing back on, when well-meaning friends of mine post (generally on FB) about calling a long list of senators from all over, that it's really not that great an idea, because they're not your rep. I've been using Cory Gardner as my example, because he's been bleating about "paid protesters" overwhelming his staff with calls and emails and implying it's keeping "real Coloradoans" from being able to get through. I've even tried to make alternate suggestions of what they could be doing with all that energy instead of contacting reps who aren't theirs. I don't know if it'll help or not. I wish those posts weren't getting shared, but since I can't stop it, at least I can try to reasonably explain why it's not the most effective thing to do.
posted by danielleh at 12:46 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Clarification: the Syrian is a permanent resident, not a citizen. Sorry.
posted by Yowser at 12:49 PM on February 3, 2017

Since we're doing local news...

...here in the DC area there's now a competition for the largest garbage fire.
posted by peeedro at 12:50 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Have they tried asking "Hold! What you are doing to us is wrong! Why do you do this thing?"
posted by ckape at 12:50 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

this is one of the things I've been pushing back on, when well-meaning friends of mine post (generally on FB) about calling a long list of senators from all over, that it's really not that great an idea, because they're not your rep.

Yeah, this thinking has influenced mine. Now I call my senators, senators who are veterans, or senators on the Armed Services Committee who are likely to give undue influence to my voice, but not just random ones.
posted by corb at 12:52 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Who knows whether there will be more or less suffering because of Ivanka and Jared? Maybe they told Pence something along the lines of *there's nothing wrong with gay people you idiot don't make us make Dad hate you.* Maybe they said something along the lines of *Dad, they've figured out we're fascists. If we target another vulnerable group immediately, well, gosh! We might not get to do other evil shit for a full four years because midterms let Pence at them after midterms.

The fact is, Trump is a fucking monster and Ivanka stands to profit from his monstrosity and was one of the first cuts in normalizing her father, who is in fact, a fucking monster.

I don't know what the deal is with Mattis maybe he's got a secret plan or something but I've heard enough to know that a lot of people think well of him.

If either of them were on fire, I wouldn't piss on them to put them out. They are enablers of the darkest political hours of my life. Maybe hey something magical will happen, but probably not, and people will die and Ivanka will be responsible. Mattis will be responsible.

They are collaborators.
posted by angrycat at 12:53 PM on February 3, 2017 [30 favorites]

I tend to frame the conflict in the White House as being between the smash-and-grabs and the con artists.
posted by ckape at 12:55 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Meanwhile… Arkansas passes law allowing rapists to sue victims who want an abortion

the state of poffintopia has passed a law allowing citizens to punch arkansas lawmakers in the dick
posted by poffin boffin at 12:55 PM on February 3, 2017 [66 favorites]

How can one acquire dual citizenship in poffintopia? Asking for a friend.
posted by corb at 12:58 PM on February 3, 2017 [29 favorites]

u gotta punch a nazi
posted by poffin boffin at 12:58 PM on February 3, 2017 [44 favorites]

OH on Twitter: Ivanka is the Snackwell's Eva Braun
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:59 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

Dr. Eric Hoskins, Minister of Health for Ontario, has released a statement about the surgeries for those kids who were turned back (on Twitter only for now). It sounds a little less definite than what was initially reported: they're looking for opportunities/capacity. I'm pretty sure this is going to happen, though.
posted by maudlin at 12:59 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

The National Anthem Of Poffintopia
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 1:00 PM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

If I had more optimist about reversing this sort of thing soon, I would be glad that the people pretending to be "prolife" have so gleefully revealed their true motivation to be "denial of personhood to women."

So! Who's signing up for the Underground Railroad to transport women needing abortions from the Gilead states to those that still offer it? I can fit up to 3 others in my car and it gets good gas mileage.
posted by emjaybee at 1:02 PM on February 3, 2017 [20 favorites]

Ugh, I really don't care to celebrate rumors that maybe Ivanka helped stop (for now) some terrible thing. Nor to sigh with relief when it turns out things aren't the worst possible version of a new breaking story (which is poorly reported in part because there is no reliable source from the administration).

The news cycle these days feels like a sadistic version of a Ronco commercial [captions]: "You could expect us to do 400 terrible things to you this week but for a limited time only you can live in America with only 199.99 terrible things! Just four installments of 49.99!"

It's still way too high a price to pay.
posted by alligatorpear at 1:02 PM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

Here's what everybody is getting wrong about changes to banking rules

Wait, so the EO just said that the Treasury Department would write a report? It is pretty frustrating that we get so much reporting on EOs that no one has the text of, especially with an administration that doesn't give a shit about the truth and cares significantly more about what would make a good headline on Fox News than crafting anything remotely coherent.
posted by Copronymus at 1:03 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Trump and his dealings with iran.
posted by xcasex at 1:05 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Calling about the NSC appointment isn't a constituent political matter. The committee in charge is explicitly calling for public comment in this case, from the general public, if the comments above about constituency relate to the posts urging people to call about the Bannon appointment.

Right, calling the committee about Bannon is different and people should do that. I was talking more about the posts with a laundry list of senators and their phone numbers asking that everyone call any and all of them, about whatever the issue is. In the last day or so, I've seen posts becoming more targeted "hey if you live in [state], call your senators at [phone numbers]" which seems to me to be an improvement.
posted by danielleh at 1:10 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Forget about the Netherlands: If it's America first, Switzerland now wants to be second.
posted by TwoStride at 1:11 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

And now for something lighter*, in celebrity news...

Arnold Schwarzenegger On Donald Trump: I Wanted To “Smash His Face”

Eminem blasts Anne Coulter and Donald Trump with brutal lyrics on Big Sean's "No Favors"

* For particularly dark values of "lighter".
posted by Buntix at 1:12 PM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

So! Who's signing up for the Underground Railroad to transport women needing abortions

Count me in, too. Considering the nightmare my ex and I had to go through sneaking around to get a legal, medically necessary procedure only barely adjacent to a late term abortion when we lost our first expected child, Mari, I can only imagine how much worse it's going to be now for any kind of abortion or other complex women's health issue.
posted by saulgoodman at 1:16 PM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

Please save us, Koch brothers and the CIA and Bill Kristol and Chinese environmentalism!

Today Mom said, "Did you hear what Trump did?!" and we talked about his deeds over the last day or two all the way across town, ending with his crowing over Arnold's poor ratings on The Apprentice. Mom said, "...and then Schwarzenegger said if Trump thought he could do better and wanted to change places, He, Arnold Schwarzenegger, would be pleased to make the switch." A dreamy kind of silence fell over the car as the two of us savored the wild, joyful hope we felt at the idea that maybe that could happen and Arnold "plo chops" Schwarzenegger could be president instead of Donald "grab 'em by the pussy" Trump. It is okay about that whole global warming thing, all. Because hell has frozen over.
posted by Don Pepino at 1:19 PM on February 3, 2017 [13 favorites]

BGP is up and passing prefixes but level3 is dropping packets bound to certain prefixes right at their edge. Almost like its being blackholed.

#eastcoaststyle
posted by xcasex at 1:22 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I've been working through Jane Mayer's "Dark Reads" . She explains so well how the Republican party got taken over by the Kochs and a few other monied interests (DeVos is in there).

I started reading this right after the election. It's pretty damn terrifying. When I realized that Paul Ryan's dream to gut the New Deal is within grasp, I started to really question his motives. Why would anyone be so heartless and cruel especially with his background? Other people have thought perhaps he is just a heartless bastard but the way he gets embarrassed and easily flustered means that doesn't ring true to me. I've been going under the assumption that he just wants to be the Big Man in the GOP and being heartless is the direct route but what if he has a different motive? What if he was secretly offered $25 million dollars? Or even more? That would be pocket money to the Kochs.

The Koch brothers have too damn much money and that's the bottom line. They (and all the other REAL billionaires) need to be taxed til it hurts. There used to be this idea that was put forth that if you taxed the wealthy too much, they would just leave the country. Ha! Thiel and many like him already have their exits planned. We haven't taxed them enough so they are building luxury silos underground because obviously this country is going to blow up. More important than having Billionaires in the country is having a stable economy and a strong middle class with plenty of opportunity for advancement. That place that I just described is no longer America.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 1:23 PM on February 3, 2017 [22 favorites]

Every Sean Spicer Meltdown From His Disastrous First Two Weeks as Press Secretary
posted by prefpara at 1:26 PM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

The Koch brothers inherited their wealth.
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:26 PM on February 3, 2017

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner worked to sink LGBT order

Makes sense. The presidon't doesn't care about LGBT, one way or the other; he really doesn't give a damn who's having sex with whom, and his vague thoughts on gay marriage are probably "married people get honeymoons, yes? They should have them at my resorts."

The religious discrimination act is Pence's baby, and if the current pres is impeached, he'll have it in place within a week. Whether it gets signed by the current pres depends on whether Pence comes up with suitable leverage to push him.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 1:28 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

If politics were a video game - GOP 2017: Lust For Glory
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:30 PM on February 3, 2017

I've been using Cory Gardner as my example, because he's been bleating about "paid protesters" overwhelming his staff with calls and emails and implying it's keeping "real Coloradoans" from being able to get through.

I've been assuming Gardner doesn't understand that this is how phone numbers work and that many of his constituents (like me!) don't have phone numbers with Colorado area codes. Fewer than half the people living in Colorado were born here, and he needs to get the fuck over it and make at least a half-assed stab at representing all our interests.
posted by asperity at 1:32 PM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

So! Who's signing up for the Underground Railroad to transport women needing abortions

I head about plans to start chat rooms that are focused on women's issues but the real goal was to have it staffed by people ready to give abortion information or logistical help to red state women.
posted by shothotbot at 1:33 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Just as a follow-up if you need more afternoon cheer: the late night shows in Europe have all banded together in the "make ____ second" video competition, and they're compiling all of their videos (seven countries and counting) here at Everysecondcounts.eu.
posted by TwoStride at 1:33 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

I am all in for the Underground Railroad, which probably needs a different name because it's no remotely illegal to help someone cross state lines to get medical care.

There are a few existing orgs; all of them need funding. The problem is that (1) travel costs money; (2) travel arranged remotely in a hurry costs more money; (3) the price of the procedures goes up quickly based on time passed; (4) helping minors is especially fraught for many reasons.

I would love to see the various networks and support groups coalesce into something or a network that accept take more external help. The will is there; we just need to get dollars and bodies into the right places - travel costs would drop if they didn't have to buy taxi-train-airplane ticket + hotel rooms, but could find a nearby resident to pick someone up to drive halfway to the state border, and get a trip from someone else the rest of the way, or to a hub airport with cheaper tickets.

Offering rooms would also be helpful; last-minute hotel costs are astronomical.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 1:36 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

in sweden right now. 28,500 police officers placed on war footing, active immediatly. along with disturbing rumours via my own regiment.
posted by xcasex at 1:36 PM on February 3, 2017 [26 favorites]

Who's signing up for the Underground Railroad to transport women needing abortions from the Gilead states to those that still offer it?

BITD, was it illegal to provide this service? How about for minors?
posted by Coventry at 1:37 PM on February 3, 2017

I am all in for the Underground Railroad, which probably needs a different name because it's no remotely illegal to help someone cross state lines to get medical care.

Not yet. Those fuckers will try, just you wait.
posted by emjaybee at 1:37 PM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

in sweden right now. 28,500 police officers placed on war footing, active immediatly. along with disturbing rumours via my own regiment.

Dare I presume that Ryssland is Russia?
posted by Existential Dread at 1:39 PM on February 3, 2017

Please save us, Koch brothers and the CIA and Bill Kristol and Chinese environmentalism!

I just sent a snailmail letter to my D Senator that literally said "please do something, anything, I don't care what, before this guys kills us all." At this point I really don't care.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:40 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

The presidon't doesn't care about LGBT, one way or the other....

On the other hand, I think it goes without saying that Bannon is more than invested in protecting, and even codifying, the hegemony of rich, straight white men.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:41 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

The FCC is stopping 9 companies from providing federally subsidized Internet to the poor

Regulators are telling nine companies they won't be allowed to participate in a federal program meant to help them provide affordable Internet access to low-income consumers — weeks after those companies had been given the green light.

The move, announced Friday by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, reverses a decision by his Democratic predecessor, Tom Wheeler, and undercuts the companies' ability to provide low-cost Internet access to poorer Americans. In a statement, Pai called the initial decisions a form of “midnight regulation.”

another fuck.
posted by futz at 1:41 PM on February 3, 2017 [36 favorites]

Dare I presume that Ryssland is Russia?

indeed you may.
posted by xcasex at 1:41 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Also, I love love love the typo "presidon't," assuming it is a typo. I love love love the coinage if it was intentional.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:41 PM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

I am in for the Underground Railroad. I expect California will be one of the last places to give up access and will open up my home to women traveling here for care they cannot get elsewhere.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 1:42 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

Existential Dread: STOP BANNON: The Senate Committee on Homeland Security is taking calls about Bannon's appointment to the NSC. You can call 202-224-4751 and leave comments opposing this appointment.

Me: call 414-276-7282, too!

zug: [414-276-7282 is] Ron Johnson's Milwaukee senate number.

Ron Johnson is the Chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security. Is it ineffective to call his number about this issue? The staffer said she could take my comment about Bannon, and she didn't say anything when I said I was calling from California.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 1:42 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Hi, friends! I have some messages from your friendly local ACLU chapter. This stuff is inspired by an affiliation with my Massachusetts chapter, but all opinions are of course my own.

State reps need love too! If you're having trouble getting through to national reps, give your state officials a try.

What I'm hearing from talking with organizers is: (a) state reps are not getting deluged with calls the way federal officials are, and (b) possibly as a result, state reps are talking a good game but are not actually signing on to legislation that will have an impact. They’re still trying to play it safe.

It's time for "playing it safe" to end.

What can state reps do? Well for example, in Massachusetts they could push forward the ACLU's "Freedom Agenda." These are bills that would do things like barring state agencies from participating in religious registries, require warrants to search computers and cell phones, and stop local police from voluntarily turning immigrants over to the feds. In Massachusetts, today is the deadline for state reps to co-sponsor these bills, but state senators still have time, and any day is a good day to call and ask both reps and senators to get a move on.

Here's how this went when I tried it: I left a phone message for my state rep, and since I wasn't sure it would go through, I left a friendly public message on his Facebook wall. (Basically "Thanks for representing us, couldn't reach your office, want to make sure you're co-sponsoring the ACLU Freedom Agenda, get in touch.") Within an hour the rep himself saw my Facebook message and had his sole staffer -- who was literally sitting at her desk reviewing bills for co-sponsorship -- call me back and ask which ones to look at. So now we're pals and she'll be hearing from me again soon.

America is a big place, and most governing happens at the state and local level. We have power here, and if we lean on our leaders to step up and lead, we have the power to act quickly.

Local reps need love too! Your city or town can do things like: become a sanctuary city, so your local police are no longer ruining immigrants' lives for minor infractions; or set limits on high-tech surveillance tools that local police may use without warrants and feed into federal databases. Sanctuary city efforts are moving forward in half a dozen towns in Massachusetts (out of 300?), in each case because a small number of residents are making it happen. If you have a lot of time, that could be you.

If you just have a little time, get in touch with your alderperson or councilperson or whatever. (This isn't a staffer thing -- they should have time for your phonecall.) Make friends and then say, "hey, will you get in touch with [ACLU of Massachusetts] and ask what we can be doing as a town to protect our residents, including the immigrants? And then be sure to let me know what they said when I call you back next week?"

I'm no expert on state or local advocacy -- I'd love to hear what else is inspiring people. Just pointing out there's a lot of potential for positive action.

Could your company be a plaintiff? This is an interesting one. It's a big deal that Oxfam and the University of Massachusetts have stepped up to join the immigration executive order case in Massachusetts. Cases with institutional plaintiffs are much harder to derail and include a greater variety of constitutional claims.

So think about how fast this case happened, and how little time those organizations had to make the (courageous) decision to participate. (Not forgetting the heroism of the individual plaintiffs who have signed on.) Could your employer make the same choice in the same timeframe? There will be chances to find out as more unconstitutional orders come down that affect your company or nonprofit or school or agency, its employees, its constituents and customers. What can you do to lay groundwork for that internally?

Thank you and donations and stuff. I've talked with the people who are working day and night at the Massachusetts chapter, and they look like, well, people who are working day and night. They also have spirit like you wouldn't believe. Your voice at protests, your messages of support, your phonecalls to legislators, your donations, your volunteer signups are visibly keeping the folks at my state ACLU chapter going. I don't have the right to say thank you on their behalf, but I will: thank you.

Despite all the funding that's come in, donations are still vital. Here's the deal with money: ACLU was spending well over $100 million a year, back in more normal times, to keep lawyers on the ground in all fifty states fighting the normal things that came up -- warrantless surveillance, over-incarceration, the right to film police, detention of immigrants without process, racial profiling, suppression of speech and the press, all that sort of thing. (For a sense of scale, the NRA budget is about double ACLU's.) Back in normal times, at this scale, ACLU was turning down deserving projects for lack of funds -- but at least there was the DOJ Civil Rights Division to do things like fighting trans exclusion in North Carolina. Now the ~19,000 lawyers of the federal government work for Trump. The task we have to take on together here is immense.

I'm not saying this to imply any lack of courage or hope -- quite the opposite -- or to imply that giving to any one organization is better than another. Just so when folks come around asking for more donations, and you've been hearing about all the donations they already got, you understand where they're coming from and why it's still so important.
posted by john hadron collider at 1:51 PM on February 3, 2017 [96 favorites]

Gonna cosign that, Mr. Hadron Collider.

My state rep is a bigtime DINO (he runs un-fucking-opposed every time but I'm going to do my best to see if we can get him primaried) and people have suddenly started leaning on him pretty hard to not be such a dick about undocumented immigrants and Sanctuary Cities and I think it has taken him and his office by surprise. Our state assembly is R-controlled (with a D Governor so things get... interesting) and they are furiously working on a million ways to make sure that all the people the federal government wants to fuck over get extra fucked while in PA, just for good measure. Our state is gerrymandered all to hell and back and it's going to be an uphill battle to try and mitigate the damage that Trump is doing because most of the state assembly is cheering it on.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:59 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

In which Soledad O'Brian slaps down Chuck Todd's bothsidesism
posted by zachlipton at 2:02 PM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

One worry I had was about those in the country on invalidated visas. It seems that they are not breaking the law (which you would hope, but with this gang...) Source.
posted by shothotbot at 2:02 PM on February 3, 2017

snuffleupagus: MeFi has an ED entry.

I don't know what this means.
posted by slipthought at 2:04 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

From "Eminem blasts Trump, Coulter" mic.com article above,
When Eminem is angry, he never goes PG-13. If he's going for gore, we're going to get every grizzly detail, or nothing at all.
Emphasis mine, I wish it were a DeVos callout.
posted by petebest at 2:04 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

State reps need love too!

My state rep's providing free pizza on Sunday. Getting in touch with your legislators doesn't have to be awful. Sign up for their email lists!
posted by asperity at 2:04 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Alex Nichols in The Outline: Meet the Cucks of the Never Trump Movement

One of the saddest phenomena to emerge in the Age of Trump is the quasi-rehabilitation of some of the most detestable voices on the right, otherwise known as the #NeverTrump movement. Whether it’s “Woke Glenn Beck” appearing on Samantha Bee or the self-serving tweets of CIA flack Evan McMullin, liberals have been eager to dole out forgiveness to conservatives in exchange for mealy-mouthed condemnations of Donald Trump’s behavior. For the most part, these conservative critics of Trump act not out of principle but out of resentment; they are mad that the intellectual sheen they spent decades cultivating and applying to Ted Cruz was proven superfluous by a reality TV-star’s circus-barker showmanship and direct appeals to racial animus. Whether these deathbed conversions are cynical career moves or the result of a mass delusion about the nature of American conservatism, we now live in a world they ushered into being. #NeverTrump conservatives are useful only as living relics of an obsolete rhetorical style; they serve as a reminder that without a complete implosion, the foundations of the Republican Party are unlikely to change.

[...]

In perhaps one of the most futile moves of the campaign season, Kristol went beyond voicing his disapproval of Trump and nominated a candidate of his own in late May 2016: National Review writer David French. This endeavor was doomed to fail for a number of reasons. First, no one knew who French was. Second, he proved unable to withstand the slightest public prodding. It soon came out that when French was deployed to Iraq, he forbade his wife from talking to men on the phone or using her email. His anxiety over his wife’s potential for infidelity made him a perfect target for the “cuck” barbs of the alt-right, and he gave them what they wanted by repeating their abuse verbatim in one of 2016’s many online harassment tell-alls. Third, his views are almost indistinguishable from Trump’s. A few weeks ago, he wrote in defense of Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, Betsy DeVos. The week before that, he endorsed Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for attorney general. (“They haven’t bothered to make a real case against Sessions because there isn’t a real case to be made.”) French’s latest article for the National Review downplays the recent executive order barring refugees and dual citizens in Muslim countries from entering the U.S. If the conservative opposition looks anything like French, which it does, it might as well not exist.

posted by Rustic Etruscan at 2:04 PM on February 3, 2017 [19 favorites]

Eric Trump’s business trip to Uruguay cost taxpayers $97,830 in hotel bills

When the president-elect’s son, Eric Trump, jetted to Uruguay in early January for a Trump Organization promotional trip, U.S. taxpayers were left footing a bill of nearly $100,000 in hotel rooms for Secret Service and embassy staff.

It was a high-profile jaunt out of the country for Eric, the fresh-faced executive of the Trump Organization who, like his father, pledged to keep the company separate from the presidency. Eric mingled with real estate brokers, dined at an open-air beachfront eatery and spoke to hundreds at an “ultra exclusive” Trump Tower Punta del Este evening party celebrating his visit.

posted by rewil at 2:04 PM on February 3, 2017 [26 favorites]

MeFi has an ED entry.

I don't know what this means.

Encyclopedia Dramatica. Don't look it up. Its description of MF is very hostile.
posted by Coventry at 2:07 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

"British Jews seek German citizenship"—4½ minutes, Deutsche Welle's Focus on Europe

For a family who suffered at the hands of the Nazis it's been hard to watch the growing popularity of Germany's far-right but they've noticed the same tendency in Britain with an increase in racist attacks.

I very rarely venture into Youtube itself, normally just grabbing the video directly via youtube-dl, but when I brought the page up to copy the fragment of the transcript above I was dismayed to see even the recommended videos sidebar full of horrifyingly anti-Semitic titles about Jews "infesting the Trump administration" and all sorts of other trash.
posted by XMLicious at 2:08 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

BITD, was it illegal to provide this service? How about for minors?

i'm sure some antichoice lawmaker is right now at this very moment breathless with quivering sweaty excitement over the thought of prosecuting people under the mann act for helping minor teen girls get abortions out of state.
posted by poffin boffin at 2:08 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Ars Technica: Radio stations that ignored major vulnerability start playing anti-Trump song (YG and Nipsey Hussle's "Fuck Donald Trump.")
posted by porn in the woods at 2:09 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Sean Spicer: Okay, we have our first question from a mister... Quonsar, is it?
quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon: HAVE YOU TRIED NOT BEING A FASCIST MOTHERF-
Sean Spicer: We appear to be having technical difficulties. Though the answer is "No." Next up, a question from the_donald?

It wouldn't even get that far.

Spicer: Now we'll take a skype question from a... meathitler?... dot com

*all the loudspeakers in the room start screaming as the light of a thousand suns pours out of the monitor directly into Spicer eyes*

Spicer: melts like Major Toht
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:12 PM on February 3, 2017 [19 favorites]

john hadron collider, you summed up what I've been thinking. Everyone is doing a great job of deluging Congress with calls, and this is fantastic. But it's time to also bring that same firepower to bear on our state legislatures. I'm in a red state (although a blue district) and I'm going to start calling Monday, and I'm going to make regular calls to my reps plus any other committee people that may be applicable and allowed. The governor as well. While I don't expect to get a lot of traction, being in Arizona and all, I think it's time to show these people the monster that tRump has awoken. Many people have been less aware of what the hell goes on in our state legislatures and these things make as much or more of an impact in our lives than what happens in DC. Get enough people going and maybe, just maybe, we can get rid of the usual suspects in the state party, and get people in there who are actually interested in, well, you know, winning elections.
posted by azpenguin at 2:14 PM on February 3, 2017 [15 favorites]

Nazi Twitter is gearing up to blame any economic collapse on the federal reserve and the international banking system.
posted by Yowser at 2:15 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Encyclopedia Dramatica. Don't look it up, its description of MF is very hostile.

You're better off not reading the article, since, well, it's designed to be offensive.

Oh shoot, that was nothing. I was kinda hoping to be riled up about something new. That was lame.

ED, indeed.
posted by slipthought at 2:16 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Jan Böhmermann has a new song for us.
posted by progosk at 2:17 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Metafilter: I was kinda hoping to be riled up about something new."
posted by Coventry at 2:18 PM on February 3, 2017 [26 favorites]

Lufthansa returned several international students to their Mass. universities after the travel ban trapped them overseas. (video)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:19 PM on February 3, 2017 [12 favorites]

Anyone who gives their website the same initials as Erectile Dysfunction is ineligible for any status other than LOSER.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:20 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

I thought it stood for "electile dysfunction" myself.
posted by Floydd at 2:22 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Kristen Mascia, a magazine features writer, says Kellyanne Conway used the words "Bowling Green Massacre" with her on a call on Saturday (she's writing a Cosmo story). Not just a one-time slip of the tongue (she's claiming she meant to say "Bowling Green terrorists").
posted by zachlipton at 2:27 PM on February 3, 2017 [12 favorites]

Again Pat Bagley, Utah.
posted by Oyéah at 2:39 PM on February 3, 2017

DFTBA.com has a slew of refugee art posters.

Last weekend, I offered to donate $5 to the ACLU for every hand-drawn message of support for immigrants and refugees to the United States. I knew there would be a lot of art, but I had no idea how amazing some of it would be. So, for the next 48 hours, we will be selling poster prints of this art work.

100% of proceeds from this sale will be donated to organizations aiding the re-settlement of refugees in the United States.

refugeeone.org in Chicago
cwslancaster.org in Lancaster, PA
irco.org in Portland, OR
rstx.org in Texas
openingdoorsinc.org in Sacramento, CA
iiicenter.org in Boston
wtap.org in Phoenix
newamericanpathways.org in Atlanta
refugeedevelopmentcenter.org in Lansing
canopynwa.org in Arkansas

posted by INFJ at 2:39 PM on February 3, 2017 [18 favorites]

Wow, that ED site looks like some kind of infect-you-with-a-virus not safe shenanigans. Is it some kind of alt-right Onion/Wikipedia mashup?
posted by freecellwizard at 2:41 PM on February 3, 2017

Kristen Mascia, a magazine features writer, says Kellyanne Conway used the words "Bowling Green Massacre"...

This morning's Democracy Now! (alt link, .torrent, transcript) has audio:

Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway is facing widespread criticism after she attempted to justify President Trump’s executive order banning people from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the U.S. by inventing a terrorist attack that never happened. This is Conway speaking to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.
Kellyanne Conway: I bet it’s brand-new information to people that President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized, and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre. Most people don’t know that, because it didn’t get covered.
The Washington Post reports there was no terrorist attack carried out in Bowling Green, Kentucky, by Iraqis or anyone else. There were two Iraqi men living in Bowling Green who were arrested in 2011 on charges of having attempted to send money and weapons to al-Qaeda in Iraq. The Washington Post also reports the Obama administration never imposed a ban on Iraqi resettlement, contrary to Conway’s claims. The Obama administration did implement a more extensive screening procedure for Iraqi refugees after the 2011 arrests.

posted by XMLicious at 2:51 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Encyclopedia Dramatica's been around forever. It's more of a 'lulz' thing than a hate site, or at least it used to be. Having had some recent experience with a really nasty doxxing website, I view ED as mostly harmless, I guess.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 2:51 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

XMLicious, Mascia is saying the Conway talked about the non-existent massacre on another occasion, making it not just a one-time slip of the tongue.
posted by zachlipton at 2:54 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

It didn't get covered because IT DIDN'T FUCKING HAPPEN, Kellyanne.
posted by yoga at 2:54 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

if there's one internet lesson to learn from the last several years it's that "lulz" and ironic bigotry ends up being identical in effect to actual bigotry
posted by flatluigi at 2:54 PM on February 3, 2017 [41 favorites]

I think it was someone here what said that if you scratch at ironic bigotry the irony comes right off.
posted by Slackermagee at 2:56 PM on February 3, 2017 [33 favorites]

Trump has highest disapproval rating of any new president

New CNN/ORC: 53% disapproval. Approval is 14% lower than W Bush had a few weeks in. Disapproval is over 4 times that of Reagan in '81.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:56 PM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

Kellyanne Conway: "According to a CNN poll, Donald Trump is "over 4 times" the President that Ronald Reagan was." [fake]
posted by tonycpsu at 2:58 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

New CNN/ORC: 53% disapproval.

Crikey, even Orcs hate him...
posted by Buntix at 2:59 PM on February 3, 2017 [20 favorites]

ASDFJHASIOUYIOUKLJlkkpoijo[u9yt68. That's me bashing my keyboard in blind rage. GOP lawmakers look to penalize refugee resettlement charities

The potentially more far-reaching part of her legislation would impose a fine on charities of $1,000 a day for each refugee it helps place in the state. And if a refugee is arrested, the charity would be financially liable for the cost of arrest, prosecution and incarceration of that person.

posted by zachlipton at 3:01 PM on February 3, 2017 [30 favorites]

ED has always had that sophomorically "edgy" editorial voice and was always a hangout for trolls, but at least as I understand it, it was originally more of an anarcho-surrealist-lulz scene, but there was a schism/takeover at some point that left it run by different people who were more on the "serious" side of "ha-ha-only-serious." They chased the founders away and it came to be controlled by the sort of Nazis-with-image-macros that now call themselves "Alt-Right."
posted by contraption at 3:03 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

ED went from fun fake nazis to no-fun real nazis when the rest of internet culture did, some time between 2012 and 2015.
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:04 PM on February 3, 2017 [20 favorites]

"With the authority invested in me by the Great State of Arizona, I pronounce you guilty of committing a criminal act of charity!"
posted by XMLicious at 3:05 PM on February 3, 2017 [19 favorites]

it was originally more of an anarcho-surrealist-lulz scene, but there was a schism/takeover at some point

IIRC (which I almost certainly don't) it was originally mostly created by /. trolls, who, let's face it, would probably mostly be grandparents by now if they were the sort of people anyone would ever consider having sex with*.

* What's the statute of limitations on esprit d'escalier?
posted by Buntix at 3:06 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

From a friend who is a bit shy w/r/t social media. Posting w/o comment because some of it is a bit above my head.

Disclosure of Payments by Resources Extracters Regulation Change

I am asking my Senators to Filibuster this, but they seem to already know about the reports and still won't block it even though it gives Tillerson and Trump the clear for hiding their deal with Putin. The Democrats will attack Bill HJRRes41 115th as being a giveaway to Exxon Mobil and allowing Oil and Mining Companies more access to funding Terrorists and Criminals without shareholder or government insight. However, Senate Democrats seem to already know allegations that Putin, Tillerson and Trump all agreed to give the Trump family a 19% share in the Rosneft Exxon Mobil deal in exchange for Tillerson being awarded with being the Secretary of State and Putin getting Sanctions lifted from Russia. This report is alleged to be in a dossier available to members of the Senate that is also being rumored to be eminently exposed by the BBC and members of the CIA leaking the dossier.

That is why the Senate Republicans are so desperate to pass the regulation change before the report is exposed (and before Trump lifts all the Russian Sanctions), because the rule change will exempt Exxon Mobil (and Rosneft when they do US business after the Sanctions are lifted) from reporting that they gave compensation to the Trump family to help the deal come back to life. (The deal that allows Rosneft access to the Gulf of Mexico, even lifting the value of Rosneft by $7 Billion the day it was announced. Behind the deep ties between Exxon's Rex Tillerson and Russia)

H.J.Res.41 - 115th Congress (2017-2018): Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of a rule submitted by the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to "Disclosure of Payments by Resource Extraction

Trump’s Daughter Vacationed With Putin’s Girlfriend is a possible channel for finalizing the deal.

posted by christopherious at 3:06 PM on February 3, 2017 [18 favorites]

GOP lawmakers look to penalize refugee resettlement charities

i think i'm becoming a misanthrope, b/c i fucking hate people today
posted by Existential Dread at 3:07 PM on February 3, 2017 [18 favorites]

Meanwhile… Arkansas passes law allowing rapists to sue victims who want an abortion

Another whopper:

Senate majority leader under fire for bill that reduces punishment for child porn production

Currently, Senate Bill 1560, introduced by Norment, would decrease the mandatory minimum imprisonment for producing child porn from five years to two and the maximum from 30 years to 20. Norment says he got the idea from prosecutors. (which doesn't appear to be true)
posted by futz at 3:08 PM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

GOP lawmakers look to penalize refugee resettlement charities

In my unofficial capacity as "Mefite who's in the International Rescue Committee":

CALL ALL Y'ALL'S CONGRESSMEN and RIP THEM a NEW ONE for this, PRONTO. Please.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:12 PM on February 3, 2017 [20 favorites]

Former Norway PM held at Washington airport over 2014 visit to Iran From the Guardian, so I assume it's true.
posted by morspin at 3:12 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump

We must keep "evil" out of our country!

oh christ
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:13 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

lol first response to that tweet, Rust Moranis:

Tim Wrobel ‏@Timotato
@realDonaldTrump cool, so when are you packing up?

I don't like Evil in quotes. It's possible Lord Dampnut is using quotes outside the common usage but "Evil" to me means "Not White People"
posted by INFJ at 3:16 PM on February 3, 2017 [16 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump We must keep "evil" out of our country! oh christ

Like it's the fruits of the devil. Evil.
posted by slipthought at 3:16 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm calling it now: when Trump gives his first SOTU, he will walk out onto the stage backlit and enveloped in fog, and when he comes into view he will literally be draped in a flag and carrying a cross.
posted by contraption at 3:17 PM on February 3, 2017 [22 favorites]

Mum! Dad! It's "evil!" Don't touch it!
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:18 PM on February 3, 2017 [19 favorites]

ED went from fun fake nazis to no-fun real nazis when the rest of internet culture did, some time between 2012 and 2015.

That's too bad. I always thought it was kind of amusing that I had my own ED page. (Pretty much anyone who was remotely prominent at either kuro5hin or slashdot in the early aughts got the treatment.)
posted by Bringer Tom at 3:19 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

anyway after the revolution do you think they'll broadcast the executions live on state tv

If it's anything like this documentary of 2017 that I watched, they'll be strapped into a rocket chair and launched through a billboard while an audience of millions tunes in to watch
posted by Existential Dread at 3:22 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Oh man, I haven't been looking that far ahead (too grim), but ack, that first SOTU is gonna introduce to us to a bunch of new kinds of terrible.
posted by notyou at 3:24 PM on February 3, 2017

Nevermind the world ending plans and policies he'll roll out. Just the rhetorical atrocities he'll commit in our names.
posted by notyou at 3:26 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

my fantasy vertebrate Democratic congress doesn't show up for the first SOTU, just leaves half the house fucking empty for President Deranged Manchild to barf at
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:27 PM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

Oh man, I haven't been looking that far ahead (too grim), but ack, that first SOTU is gonna introduce to us to a bunch of new kinds of terrible.

It won't happen. He'll send a letter and have a "Thank You America" rally tour.
posted by Talez at 3:27 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

In the first SOTU, I think that the chances are very high that if a congressman is brave enough to stand and heckle (like that one jerkimer did with "you lie!" at Obama) we will see Lord Dampnut say "Get 'im out. Get 'im outta here" like at a protestor in an early campaign rally.
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:27 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

House of Cards showrunner Beau Willimon (@beauwillimon) has tweeted a 25-point Declaration of Resistance, collected here.

I guess this explains why House of Cards isn't very good.
posted by EmGeeJay at 3:27 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Appalled to hear attempts are underway terminate the “Election Assistance Commission” and cut public funding of presidential elections. @BrennanCenter

In reply to to someone asking for more details: The House Administration Committee will meet on Tuesday to mark-up HR 634 - Election Assistance Termination Act.

This is the agency that sets security standards for voting machines.
posted by rewil at 3:29 PM on February 3, 2017 [41 favorites]

He even put the word "evil" in quotes, just in case you maybe thought he actually meant evil and not "Muslims" or "immigrants" or "latinos" or "staircases" or whatever he's got on his hate on for right now.

c.f. mendacity quotes (although the way he mixes them with sneer quotes, scares quotes, and good old greengrocer's it's hard to tell for sure).
posted by Buntix at 3:30 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

House of Cards is pretty much ruined now that I can only wish that people as principled and humane as Doug Stamper would be working in the current administration
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:30 PM on February 3, 2017 [32 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump We must keep "evil" out of our country!

Your senior advisor actually compared himself to Darth Vader and Satan in the same sentence
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:31 PM on February 3, 2017 [39 favorites]

It's a big derail, but Encyclopedia Dramatica doxxed/stalked/harassed someone I know back when the site was still "for the lulz," so it's never really been okay or not full of misogynists and proto-fascists.

Yeah, I think their original M.O. was just getting a rise out of people any way they could and punishing people on the internet for being less technically capable than themselves. Then they decided to head over to Stormfront to troll some Nazis, some of them got so good at slipping into character that they never slipped out again, and anybody who objected to the new pro-Nazi culture was culled.
posted by contraption at 3:32 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Elizabeth Rooney, a police officer in Boston and army veteran, posted a photo of her in uniform.

She told the BBC: I'll start dressing like a woman when he starts acting like a president. I felt his remarks that women should 'dress like a woman' are misogynistic and unpresidential.

"Each morning when I wake up, I dress myself in pride, honour, duty and freedom."

The article gives a link to the tweet with the photo, but it's protected. Three guesses why that happened.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 3:32 PM on February 3, 2017 [46 favorites]

I Can't Believe It's Not "Evil". Sad!
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:34 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Your senior advisor actually compared himself to Darth Vader and Satan in the same sentence

Both of whom have defamation suits pending, it should be noted. [fake]
posted by Buntix at 3:34 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

House of Cards is pretty much ruined now that I can only wish that people as principled and humane as Doug Stamper would be working in the current administration

Mrs. Bastard and I are four episodes into Scandal and noticing how quickly it became quaint.
posted by Cookiebastard at 3:36 PM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

> Former Norway PM held at Washington airport over 2014 visit to Iran From the Guardian, so I assume it's true.

Bondevik said Dulles officials told him he had been detained because of a 2015 law signed by Barack Obama that placed restrictions on travellers from those seven countries, or travellers from elsewhere who had recently visited those countries.

Unfortunately, this isn't Trump, I think. This is the result of a change in the US visa waiver rules in the final year of Obama's presidency. It makes no sense and is completely backward, but: if you've ever visited Iran as a European tourist, you're no longer entitled to enter the US under the visa waiver scheme.

The reasoning completely baffles me, and since I'd love to visit Iran, sometime, it makes me so mad.
posted by Quagkapi at 3:43 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Reading up on the Election Assistance Commission Termination Act, it looks like this is the third or fourth time this bill's been introduced by this one Mississippi rep (Gregg Harper, 3rd District). So it may well come to nothing but with the current climate regarding curtailing voting rights, worth keeping an eye on.
posted by rewil at 3:44 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

just leaves half the house fucking empty for President Deranged Manchild to barf at

oh my god imagine his shrieking toddler meltdown if that happened. no one on earth would need actual broadcast media anymore bc his shrill squeals would be audible around the world without amplification.
posted by poffin boffin at 3:45 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Texas high school students hold up Nazi salute in class photo.

It was apparently retribution for black girls doing the black power salute for one of their pictures.
posted by Talez at 3:45 PM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

also i've just this moment decided to refer to watching the evening news as "checking the baby monitor"
posted by poffin boffin at 3:45 PM on February 3, 2017 [51 favorites]

I think the reason the "paid protestor" bullshit gets so much traction is that people on the right, people likely to use that term, or believe it, can't comprehend being willing, or feeling it necessary, to organize, go out on the streets, and risk police violence without being paid to do so. They are comfortable enough, secure enough, privileged enough that their needs are largely met, that they aren't at risk, and lack any connection to or empathy for those who *are* at risk, and therefore can't comprehend committing the time and effort to something that they feel doesn't concern them. They've got theirs, and moreover, feel that they have theirs because that's how things are supposed to be, and those without must have failed in some way (probably a moral failure) and protests are largely sour grapes of losers. From there, it's a pretty simple jump to being unable to comprehend an ally, mid to assume anyone who isn't directly affected must be paid to care, because they themselves can't imagine caring for someone outside their own personal experience.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:47 PM on February 3, 2017 [18 favorites]

Appalled to hear attempts are underway terminate the “Election Assistance Commission” and cut public funding of presidential elections. @BrennanCenter

In reply to to someone asking for more details: The House Administration Committee will meet on Tuesday to mark-up HR 634 - Election Assistance Termination Act.

This is the agency that sets security standards for voting machines.

Just stay focused on 2020! ... Oh, never mind.
posted by tobascodagama at 3:48 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Texas high school students hold up Nazi salute in class photo.

well then
posted by poffin boffin at 3:49 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

I think the reason the "paid protestor" bullshit gets so much traction is that people on the right, people likely to use that term, or believe it, can't comprehend being willing, or feeling it necessary, to organize, go out on the streets, and risk police violence without being paid to do so. They are comfortable enough, secure enough, privileged enough that their needs are largely met, that they aren't at risk, and lack any connection to or empathy for those who *are* at risk, and therefore can't comprehend committing the time and effort to something that they feel doesn't concern them. They've got theirs, and moreover, feel that they have theirs because that's how things are supposed to be, and those without must have failed in some way (probably a moral failure) and protests are largely sour grapes of losers. From there, it's a pretty simple jump to being unable to comprehend an ally, mid to assume anyone who isn't directly affected must be paid to care, because they themselves can't imagine caring for someone outside their own personal experience.

or they're, you know, assholes.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 3:51 PM on February 3, 2017 [23 favorites]

I think the reason the "paid protestor" bullshit gets so much traction is that people on the right, people likely to use that term, or believe it,

I don't think they really believe anyone is being paid, though. I'm sure it's just another way to undermine everything.
posted by marimeko at 3:51 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

A local ABC reporter has just tweeted that a federal judge in WA has granted a Temporary Restraining Order against the government with regard to the immigration ban applied to those from seven countries. More details to come.

This refers to a federal lawsuit filed by the state of Washington (joined by Minnesota) earlier this week.
posted by Silverstone at 3:52 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

> On the continuing WTF NPR train, APM's Marketplace journalist Lewis Wallace wrote a medium post a few days ago titled "Objectivity is dead, and I'm ok with it" about "how we must change what we are doing to adapt to a government that believes in “alternative facts” and thrives on lies", and was promptly fired for it.

Democracy Now: Meet Lewis Wallace: Trans Reporter Fired for Writing About Journalistic Integrity in Trump Era
posted by homunculus at 3:52 PM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

Frederick Douglass: Power Concedes Nothing Without a Demand

Does Donald Trump Think Frederick Douglass is Alive? Douglass's Great-Great-Great-Grandson Clarifies
posted by homunculus at 3:52 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Any downsides pop into mind for selling Orwellian Trump shirts (that will be hilarious after he's impeached because of sneaky wording) and giving the money to ACLU et al?

Asking for a ... myself.
posted by The Noble Goofy Elk at 3:55 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Orwellian Trump shirts (that will be hilarious after he's impeached because of sneaky wording) and giving the money to ACLU et al?

This seems relevant to my interests.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 3:57 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

@jim_brunner BREAKING: Judge Robart enjoins all federal enforcement of key sections of #ImmigrationOrder. "This TRO is granted on a nationwide basis."
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:58 PM on February 3, 2017 [30 favorites]

SO MUCH FOR THE TOLERANT LEFT
posted by Existential Dread at 3:58 PM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

We must keep 'evil' out of our country!

I'm so confused! Does he mean we need to keep the word "evil" out of the country? Am I taking him literally, but not seriously? Or is the evil not really evil? And what about Evel Knievel?
posted by kirkaracha at 4:04 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

@jim_brunner BREAKING: Judge Robart enjoins all federal enforcement of key sections of #ImmigrationOrder. "This TRO is granted on a nationwide basis."

It doesn't mean jack because they started cancelling visas instead.
posted by Talez at 4:04 PM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

Impeach Yertle.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 4:06 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

It doesn't mean jack because they started cancelling visas instead.

Maybe the Order says they need to be un-cancelled, as the federal government said they can be. Does anyone have the actual Order?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:07 PM on February 3, 2017

Attorney General Ferguson just tweeted: “No one is above the law — not even the President.”
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:08 PM on February 3, 2017 [28 favorites]

Russian tech exec sues Buzzfeed for publishing unverified Trump dossier
posted by zachlipton at 4:10 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

in sweden right now. 28,500 police officers placed on war footing, active immediatly. along with disturbing rumours via my own regiment.

Is Finland doing anything like this?
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:12 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

GOP lawmakers look to penalize refugee resettlement charities

From the linked article:

Even if SB 1468 were adopted, it appears it would not make any difference in how many refugees end up in Arizona.

That, however, could change.

Two Republican U.S. senators from Texas last month introduced legislation designed to let governors block the federal government from resettling refugees in their states.

As crafted by Ted Cruz and Ted Poe, the State Refugee Security Act would require the federal government to notify a state at least 21 days before a refugee is resettled there. A governor, at his or her "sole discretion,'' could veto the move absent "adequate assurance that the alien does not present a security risk to the state.''

Lest we forget what the dead-eyed snake handler stands for on his own time.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:17 PM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

yes, yes, yes.

And as previously mentioned, all Finnish baby boxes now come with Baby's First Sniper Rifle. [still currently fake]
posted by Buntix at 4:17 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Russian tech exec sues Buzzfeed for publishing unverified Trump dossier

Worst case scenario, it's Gawker times a billion. Best case scenario, everything in the dossier turns out to be true and Trump is completely destroyed in the fallout. I think a good test of the veracity of the dossier will be how hard Trump pushes on this. The more reluctant he is, the more likely it is to be true.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 4:18 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

SO MUCH FOR THE TOLERANT LEFT

If I had any talent I would photoshop it so it looks like Goering is whispering this to Hess at Nuremberg
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:18 PM on February 3, 2017 [16 favorites]

Russian tech exec sues Buzzfeed for publishing unverified Trump dossier

He also notes that his wife has become "a target of online harassment," while the safety of his three children is now in jeopardy.

I don't like the internet these days.
posted by Existential Dread at 4:19 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Holy Crap! Thank you all for the response to my Poster Project above. I sold out of wooden posters within four hours and will be frantically printing more this weekend to satisfy Metafilter demand. I had to turn the listing to On Demand or whatever which is New and Scary for me because I do not want to let you down.

To those that bought a wooden poster- thank you for helping us get stuff out to those who want them. I've enlisted the entire family at this point.

And to those that have requested a poster pack - Thank you too. Visibility is the soul of the torch and I am happy to send you tinder.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:19 PM on February 3, 2017 [40 favorites]

Be interesting to see how far that suit goes. Discovery works both ways.
posted by azpenguin at 4:21 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

That "evil" tweet is fucken hilarious if you imagine it in the voice of Sir Simon Milligan from Kids In The Hall, and are a little buzzed.
posted by Cookiebastard at 4:21 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

A governor, at his or her "sole discretion,'' could veto the move absent "adequate assurance that the alien does not present a security risk to the state.''

Oh cool, so just prove a negative and you're in like Flynn.
posted by contraption at 4:24 PM on February 3, 2017

or they're, you know, assholes.

Well, yeah, that's the main part of it. Just trying to figure out how to stop the asshole narrative from becoming the dominant one, which *looks around* seems to be on par with trying to empty the ocean with a spoon.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:24 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

And as previously mentioned, all Finnish baby boxes now come with Baby's First Sniper Rifle.

Right. I'm pretty sure Finland is never not preparing for another war with Russia.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:26 PM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

@jim_brunner BREAKING: Judge Robart enjoins all federal enforcement of key sections of #ImmigrationOrder. "This TRO is granted on a nationwide basis."

What does this mean in plain English?
posted by yoga at 4:29 PM on February 3, 2017

(like that one jerkimer did with "you lie!" at Obama)

"Jerkimer"! I've never, ever heard anyone else utter that sequence of syllables. Are you me?
posted by adamgreenfield at 4:30 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

yes
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:33 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

Be interesting to see how far that suit goes. Discovery works both ways.

and last i heard the government was simply ignoring the various legal actions.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 4:34 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

In plain English, from Buzzfeed:

A federal judge in Washington issued the furthest reaching order yet against President Trump’s refugee and travel ban executive order, media at the Friday hearing reported, granting a nationwide order halting enforcement of significant parts of the order.
“The decision shuts down the executive order immediately,” Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said..."

posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 4:35 PM on February 3, 2017 [13 favorites]

@yoga: "We are about to see true test of rule of law now. WH must abide by this ruling and put exec action fully on pause" (former Press Secretary)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:35 PM on February 3, 2017 [18 favorites]

yes

Hmm. Verrrrrry interesting. Carry on!
posted by adamgreenfield at 4:35 PM on February 3, 2017

Cosigning the praise for the stage production of 1984. We saw it here in London, oh, year before last I guess? and were clubbed senseless by it.

We emerged blinking into the afternoon light afterward and wandered down to the Embankment to collect ourselves

This is really tangential, but I had that reaction when I saw the Houston production (pre-Broadway) of the "lost" Tennessee Williams play "Not About Nightingales." It's about the evils and brutality of prison life, and I've never seen an audience so collectively affected by a live performance. At both intermission and close the audience filed out in complete silence to stare blinking up at the sky as if they thought they'd never see it again.

Damn I can't believe that play hasn't been produced since 1999. It would be perfect to bring back now.
posted by threeturtles at 4:36 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

That "evil" tweet is fucken hilarious if you imagine it in the voice of Sir Simon Milligan from Kids In The Hall, and are a little buzzed.

replacing Paul Ryan with manservant Hecubus is about all it would take to fix everything, too
posted by queenofbithynia at 4:39 PM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

in sweden right now. 28,500 police officers placed on war footing, active immediatly. along with disturbing rumours via my own regiment.

Is Finland doing anything like this?

In all seriousness, no. (The links above were meant as a joke I guess? Anyway, they were either old or not relevant.) Nothing out of the ordinary on any news site that I can find.

Besides, I only skimmed the Swedish article but if it's the police force that's been alerted, my guess is intel wrt an imminent terrorist threat, rather than anything related to Russia.
posted by sively at 4:40 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

McMuffin shade!

We must keep "evil" out of our country!
@Evan_McMullin: At least he's "self-aware."
posted by bibliowench at 4:41 PM on February 3, 2017 [34 favorites]

Don't tell the Trumpist yahoos that the EO has been (partially) blocked and they'll never know the difference. They'll still feel safe from all the scaaaaary refugees because it's not like they'd ever meet any anyway, and the rest of us won't be complicit in a monstrous, inhumane policy. Win/win!
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:42 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Are we doing nickmark's "yellow tie on Friday" thing?

Because today I wore my awesome yellow bowtie, with a repeating pattern of George Washington's signature, which I bought at Mount Vernon last spring. And I looked awesome and angry.
posted by wenestvedt at 4:43 PM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

Don't tell the Trumpist yahoos that the EO has been (partially) blocked and they'll never know the difference.

I'm afraid many of those yahoos are responsible for enforcing this EO.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:44 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Attorney Greg Siskind says CPB will comply with Order. Very interested to find out if the government is going to have to un-cancel visas.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:44 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Very interested to find out if the government is going to have to un-cancel visas.

Maybe this is what "so sick of winning" feels like?
posted by adamgreenfield at 4:45 PM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

At the used bookstore today, I picked up a copy of a book by Bertrand Russell called Unarmed Victory. It was apparently published right after the Cuban missile crisis. It concerns his own actions during the crisis. Here is a relevant quote:

"Many people seem to have been surprised that I should intervene in such matters without having any official status, but I think events show that, even in our highly organized world, there are things that a private individual can do which are much more difficult for a Minister or organization....Another advantage enjoyed by a private individual is the possibility of acting swiftly."
posted by wittgenstein at 4:46 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

>Maybe this is what "so sick of winning" feels like?

Yeah, I didn't realize they meant sick like "to my stomach," but now that you mention it, I've felt that way since sometime in November.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 4:47 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Sweden's Deputy Prime Minister trolls Trump.
posted by peeedro at 4:47 PM on February 3, 2017 [13 favorites]

Attorney Greg Siskind says CPB will comply with Order. Very interested to find out if the government is going to have to un-cancel visas.

There are a ridiculous number of students who have had their visas cancelled. A lot of those visas took months or even years to get. Imagine having two years of your life literally thrown away by an orange blowhard. Really endears yourself to the United States, doesn't it?
posted by Talez at 4:48 PM on February 3, 2017 [18 favorites]

Be interesting to see how far that suit goes. Discovery works both ways.

Speaking of discovery, I do wonder if the 'hit them in the wallet' might have extra benefits if any of ~~his~~ the totally divested business interests go bankrupt. Here in the UK, at least, the crown gets the assets, and the liquidator is required to investigate the previous 3 years of trading. His fabulous golf course up in Aberdeenshire has apparently been losing money hand over fist, and it seems like all his UK interests are Ltd companies.

As a product integration aside (am I the only one finds this aspect of podcasts weird, I mean I know it's in the wireless tradition, but still... also who can afford $200 jeans?): McEwan’s Champion Whisky Edition: I expected to hate it, it's weak sauce compared to the regular edition, and seemed gimmicky. Turns out it tastes of a combination of christmas and halloween, not even in a bad way.
posted by Buntix at 4:48 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Pete Williams is saying that people need to re-apply for visas since Trump deleted them.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:50 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Just got back from a vigil at my small town's Islamic Centre. Over 200 people showed up, which was wonderful. Sooo cold. When I heard about it I felt bad because I didn't even know it was there. How did I not know! Ends up it's just a small space and they didn't have a sign until recently, so I don't feel quite so bad. It is right across the street from one of the Tim Hortons and that made it seem so Canadian. People spoke and one guy performed the most amazing and powerful poem that he wrote. I so wish I could share it with everyone. I spoke with him after and asked if he might want to record it. It was THAT good. Will look at getting this done.

It is a very small Muslim community here, maybe 20-30 people if that. They said they were overwhelmed with all the support they've been getting and the turnout was way beyond what they imagined.

I'm glad I got a chance to pay my respects and show my support in person. I'm glad so many other people did likewise. My faith in humanity and my community has been restored somewhat. After dealing with this tragedy and all of the other crap this past couple of weeks my energy has been restored.

As-salāmu ʿalaykum - Peace be upon you, my Metafilter friends. (I hope I spelled that right)
posted by Jalliah at 4:50 PM on February 3, 2017 [31 favorites]

Simon of Simon and Hecubus Meme in case anyone needs one
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:51 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Louvre attacker looks to be Egyptian and lived in the UAE before heading to France.

Now what do Egypt and the UAE have in common? Something in current events but I can't quite put my finger on it.
posted by Talez at 4:59 PM on February 3, 2017 [22 favorites]

Is Finland doing anything like this?

they're doing a lot (some new, some old), together with norway amongst other things, but we'll see what happens. keep an eye on google news.
posted by xcasex at 5:04 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

To totally toot my own horn, the yellow tie idea is mine and I love you guys. Nickmark chose Fridays which he definitely deserves credit for though! Wear yellow ties! Send me PMs of you with yellow ties! It makes me soooooooooooo happy!

So yes, GO FORTH. Make yellow ties a thing.
posted by AlexiaSky at 5:06 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Well, then, please accept my applogy -- either way it was a good one!

I think I only have one other yellow tie so I may need to stretch the rules...perhaps I can dye one or something...
posted by wenestvedt at 5:17 PM on February 3, 2017

they're doing a lot (some new, some old), together with norway amongst other things, but we'll see what happens. keep an eye on google news.

Indeed, I rely pretty heavily on G-News considering how little I really know about how it filters what I see.

In this case, I wonder how much is making it into English language reporting.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:18 PM on February 3, 2017

So I know Anonymous has been poo poo'd here before, but I stumbled across this tonight:

#OpResistance is engaged. Anonymous on YouTube have issued President Donald Trump a warning to stand down from office and resign by Feb. 28, stating that since he has taken up office, “an unprecedented attack on basic human decency and civil rights” has been witnessed.

There is a countdown timer on their website.

Real, or bullshit?
posted by yoga at 5:26 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

stand down from office and resign by Feb. 28

or what?
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 5:27 PM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

Lol what happens in 24 days? They put on a Guy Fawkes mask? But hey, if they get it done, I'll sing their praises.
posted by dis_integration at 5:28 PM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

If Anonymous is comprised of such powerful and smart hackers, why did they create that website using Wix.com? There's no one in that group that could handle that on their own?
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 5:30 PM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

Any port in a storm, my dudes. Have at it.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:30 PM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

Museums join the Resistance.

MoMA Protests Trump Entry Ban by Rehanging Work by Artists from Muslim Nations

In one of the strongest protests yet by a major cultural institution against President Trump’s executive order on immigration, the Museum of Modern Art has rehung part of its permanent collection with works by artists from some of the majority-Muslim nations whose citizens are blocked from entering the United States.

Seven works by artists such as the Sudanese painter Ibrahim el-Salahi, the Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid, and the Los Angeles-based Iranian video artist Tala Madani, were installed Thursday night in MoMA’s fifth-floor galleries, replacing seven works by Picasso, Matisse and Picabia, among other Western artists. Alongside each work is a wall text that plainly states the museum’s intentions: “This work is by an artist from a nation whose citizens are being denied entry into the United States, according to a presidential executive order issued on Jan. 27, 2017. This is one of several such artworks from the Museum’s collection installed throughout the fifth-floor galleries to affirm the ideals of welcome and freedom as vital to this Museum as they are to the United States.”

Except for Hadid and Mr. el-Salahi, the other artists are all Iranian by birth or heritage. They are Ms. Madani; the sculptor Parviz Tanavoli; the draftsman Charles Hossein Zenderoudi; the photographer Shirana Shahbazi; and the painter Marcos Grigorian. In addition, a large sculpture of aluminum and steel by Siah Armajani, an American artist born in Iran, was placed in the glass-walled lobby courtyard overlooking the garden.

The fifth-floor additions rupture the museum’s traditional narrative of Western modernism before 1945. Only very rarely has MoMA interrupted its succession of art from Post-Impressionism to Cubism, Dadaism, and after — which still reflects the modernist vision of its first director, Alfred Barr — with works of postwar and contemporary art. Further additions are planned for the weeks ahead.

posted by chris24 at 5:32 PM on February 3, 2017 [65 favorites]

Someone is Paying Strangers Online to Beg for Betsy Devos' Confirmation
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:33 PM on February 3, 2017 [12 favorites]

Also, fuck Anonymous:

“We will protest, resist and continue to practice civil disobedience until we can clearly state that this regime is at an end. You have exactly 35 days or we will take to the streets in a day of resistance"

Thanks for mansplaining protests and resistance to us dudes, guess us little women and our allies just couldn't lodge an effective protest when we broke records for turnout during the Women's March. But it's so good to know that you got this from here.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 5:33 PM on February 3, 2017 [40 favorites]

If Anonymous are comprised of such powerful and smart hackers, why did they create that website using Wix.com? There's no one in that group that could handle that on their own?

Anonymous isn't really a "group" in that sense. It's just a name that people from 4chan take when they want to motivate some kind of group participation in a thing. It doesn't have a roster of technical advisors or anything. That's why you sometimes see two groups calling themselves Anonymous that are working at cross purposes. "We are Anonymous" just means "we are some people that like 4chan (who may or may not share any members at all with the last group of people who said this)".
posted by IAmUnaware at 5:34 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Most hacking isn't technical; it's done by "social engineering" or "phishing," pretending either in person or through some other communication medium like email to be a person who has a right and need for other peoples' access credentials. Much of the data "hacked" by the Russians was acquired this way, by "spear phishing" emails which pretend to be from superiors or authorities. Anonymous has done technical hacks, but both social and tech hacking depend on the lack of technical savvy of your target. And we know Trump has the best... oh wait.
posted by Bringer Tom at 5:34 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

why did they create that website using Wix.com?

I can see how it could be a smart move to use a boilerplate publishing platform rather than writing your own site, which could leave some inadvertent fingerprints that investigators could use to figure out who you are by what tools you use. They're probably blowing smoke, though.
posted by contraption at 5:36 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

SO MUCH FOR THE TOLERANT LEFT

I've seen this framing, and I reject it whole-heartedly. It's gaslighting. The left does not tolerate Nazis. Period.
posted by mikelieman at 5:37 PM on February 3, 2017 [19 favorites]

Someone is Paying Strangers Online to Beg for Betsy Devos' Confirmation

See, someone is paying protesters! Sort of.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 5:37 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

@qz
Trump adviser Steve Bannon thinks there’s “no doubt” the US is headed for war in the South China Sea [link]

@RyanHoulihan - Retweeted Quartz
So many people are going to die because your uncle thought Hillary seemed like a bitch.
posted by chris24 at 5:38 PM on February 3, 2017 [42 favorites]

Seriously, at this point if Anonymous wants to get out there and make trouble for Trump, I am willing to bracket at least some concerns about 'splainyness until Trump is safely in the dustbin of history. Not every concern I could possibly have, but at least some. Although seriously, if you're getting out in the streets to make trouble, why have a countdown? Why not start today? Or spring it as a surprise?
posted by Frowner at 5:39 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Democratic Senators Tom Udall and Sheldon Whitehouse request that the President reveal the private membership list for Mar-A-Lago because the $200,000 membership fee ensures that only the wealthiest people have access to the President. Also request his screening methods to make sure no foreign governments have access to influence him.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:40 PM on February 3, 2017 [48 favorites]

mikelieman: Context
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 5:40 PM on February 3, 2017

Someone is Paying Strangers Online to Beg for Betsy Devos' Confirmation

i hope they enjoy the email they just got from eatshit@fuckyou.com.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 5:43 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

SEE IT: New Yorkers hold mock vigil at Bowling Green for 'massacre' victims as Kellyanne Conway ripped for bogus claim
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:43 PM on February 3, 2017 [17 favorites]

Although seriously, if you're getting out in the streets to make trouble, why have a countdown?

Both forms of hacking take time. The countdown gives them an opportunity to look for technical weak points and people stupid enough to fall for the social engineering (which is really a large percentage of everybody). Anonymous has done this a lot and most certainly for this reason.
posted by Bringer Tom at 5:43 PM on February 3, 2017

Yeah. Get out of office or we will...protest is not that scary for trump I'm guessing.
posted by ian1977 at 5:43 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Someone is Paying Strangers Online to Beg for Betsy Devos' Confirmation

Not surprised. When I was working on our state's Democratic campaign, we had huge volunteer turn out for calls and canvassing, while the Republicans paid randoms nearly $20/hour to push their radical rightwing candidate who has promised to assault voting rights and reproductive choice.

The paid protesters/campaigner in my experience are mostly Republican...and supported by a constituency that doesn't see all the tax breaks, tax credits, and farm subsidies as 'government assistance'. Hypocrites.

Bah.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 5:44 PM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

Trump calls Louvre attack "Islamic terrorism," stays silent on white terrorist who killed 6 Muslims
posted by homunculus at 5:44 PM on February 3, 2017 [17 favorites]

So unless I missed something, was today the first day since the inauguration without everything being absolutely more insane than the day before? It's definitely just them taking a breath before continuing this Gish Gallop of EOs but even a few hours of quiet and I'm feeling recharged and refocused on my efforts.
posted by jason_steakums at 5:46 PM on February 3, 2017 [16 favorites]

>Lol what happens in 24 days? They put on a Guy Fawkes mask?

The thing is, if the Russians have the goods on Glorious Leader, in the form of an embarrassing sex tape ferinstance, sooner or later it's gonna leak (which is strangely apt considering what it's rumored to be). Information Wants To Be Free, after all. And when it does hit the streets you'll want to have a bucket of popcorn, because Republicans may be okay with a neonazi takeover, but if there's one thing they will NEVER ACCEPT, it's adults performing consenting sex acts.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 5:48 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

I think the implied threat is that they have or can effortlessly obtain compromising information that would damage Trump more than a voluntary resignation. It's compelling and believable, see, because of the way they utterly destroyed the Church of Scientology and it doesn't exist anymore.
posted by contraption at 5:48 PM on February 3, 2017 [16 favorites]

man these people at SupportDeVos.com are really pretty stupid. I was actually Ambassador Eat Shit, of 69 UpYourAss St, 90210, 202-456-1212 and they let you craft your own email body. when i went back just now the site welcomed me: Welcome back, Eat S.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 5:49 PM on February 3, 2017 [38 favorites]

Someone is Paying Strangers Online to Beg for Betsy Devos' Confirmation

Ugh. I do Swagbucks and was reading about this in the Swagbucks subreddit. The number of people willing to sell their souls for 40 cents is depressing (no, they're not going to care if you wipe the text and put something anti-DeVos in).

This is also where "they must be getting paid to protest" comes from. Trump's mirror is really Republican's mirror.
posted by dirigibleman at 5:50 PM on February 3, 2017 [23 favorites]

I think the implied threat is that they have or can effortlessly obtain compromising information that would damage Trump more than a voluntary resignation. It's compelling and believable, see, because of the way they utterly destroyed the Church of Scientology and it doesn't exist anymore.

Hey at least they're playing this one on easy mode since Donnie's using that Galaxy S3.
posted by jason_steakums at 5:51 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I.. I am confused. A statement of planned actions is not mansplaining?

I mean, I have no doubt that Anonymous has mansplained in the past, and have done shitty things.. but nothing of that statement read as "Well you see...." to me. Even if it did, it feels directed at Lord Dampnut, who we know is not the best communicator.
posted by INFJ at 5:51 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

AMBASSADOR EAT S. HAS DIED OF DYSENTERY
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:51 PM on February 3, 2017 [42 favorites]

It's definitely just them taking a breath before continuing this Gish Gallop of EOs but even a few hours of quiet and I'm feeling recharged and refocused on my efforts.

Maybe they got smart and figured out that if they try to sneak in something especially heinous on Friday, we'll party in the public spaces all weekend and shut it down.

That's probably gonna make Mondays extra shiddy, though.
posted by notyou at 5:52 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Republicans may be okay with a neonazi takeover, but if there's one thing they will NEVER ACCEPT, it's adults performing consenting sex acts.

Hahahahaha. If there were a video of Trump, Pence, and everyone else in Congress roasting (white male) babies alive, I wouldn't believe anyone would care.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 5:52 PM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

It's not wrong to pay activists, paying activists is a great way to know that you have someone putting multiple hours a day focused on one cause.

IF anything maybe we need to pay activists more.
posted by AlexiaSky at 5:53 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

because of the way they utterly destroyed the Church of Scientology and it doesn't exist anymore.

Well CoS is a pretty large and well-hardened target, and I think our current administration flacks are probably more on the level of HBGary.
posted by Bringer Tom at 5:54 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

The thing is, if the Russians have the goods on Glorious Leader, in the form of an embarrassing sex tape ferinstance, sooner or later it's gonna leak (which is strangely apt considering what it's rumored to be). Information Wants To Be Free, after all. And when it does hit the streets you'll want to have a bucket of popcorn, because Republicans may be okay with a neonazi takeover, but if there's one thing they will NEVER ACCEPT, it's adults performing consenting sex acts.

Horseshit. There is no bridge too far on that front. Watch every DeplorableChad on twitter become GoldenChad. Piss on libruls and wimmins like Calvin lolz!
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:54 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

IF anything maybe we need to pay activists more.

that sounds like some commie socialist union-organizing talk right there.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 5:55 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

My memory on the George Soros pays for protesters started off as George Soros is paying for these people to organize a protest and with the ability of anyone to post anything to Craigslist became the paid protester thing it is now.

Now I remember a past link to where Trump was paying people for the 1st couple of Trump rallies to say about how dear his leadership would be. Anyone wanna share a link?
posted by rough ashlar at 5:55 PM on February 3, 2017

ckape: Have they tried asking "Hold! What you are doing to us is wrong! Why do you do this thing?"

I feel obliged, based on my username, to say something like: "Yes but it didn't work."
posted by Juffo-Wup at 5:56 PM on February 3, 2017

today I wore my awesome yellow bowtie, with a repeating pattern of George Washington's signature, which I bought at Mount Vernon last spring. And I looked awesome and angry.

Pics or GTFO.
posted by nickmark at 5:58 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Any media people out there ... somebody should do a story about preppers selling their compounds because everything seems to be going fine
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:58 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I found their statement eye-rolling — "you have exactly 35 days or we will take to the streets in a day of resistance" seemed to be missing that "we" have been taking to the streets in resistance and that hasn't done anything to cause Trump to slink away in disgrace. There's no way Anonymous is going to bring out more people than have already come out with this poorly publicized countdown.

I dislike their grandiosity and self-importance. There just seems to be no awareness that there are other groups working for the same goal. We need to be banding together, not acting like only one group can do the job. I'm all for them exposing whatever they can, but the specific statement linked to above really didn't inspire much confidence that this loose organization is going to bring the Trump administration to their knees.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 6:01 PM on February 3, 2017 [12 favorites]

Snopes video fact check of the day: Droit du Sword-Lure - Can Elizabeth II legally dispatch Trump with a sword in Buckingham Palace
posted by Buntix at 6:02 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

So! Who's signing up for the Underground Railroad to transport women needing abortions from the Gilead states to those that still offer it? I can fit up to 3 others in my car and it gets good gas mileage.

This already exists in Texas. I am having internet problems so I can't get links right now, but I have friends who volunteer to drive women to clinics when they live too far away. Also to New Mexico. It's not too complicated to start up, literally a group of women made a website and ask for volunteer drivers and there's an email address to ask for help. So yes, this is a thing happening right now in the US in 2017.
posted by threeturtles at 6:03 PM on February 3, 2017 [33 favorites]

I dislike their grandiosity and self-importance.

Well that's understandable, but that's how these people roll. They are trying to get under your skin. It's a good idea to understand what they are up to and not let them do that, because it gives them woodies.
posted by Bringer Tom at 6:04 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I found their statement eye-rolling — "you have exactly 35 days or we will take to the streets in a day of resistance" seemed to be missing that "we" have been taking to the streets in resistance and that hasn't done anything to cause Trump to slink away in disgrace. There's no way Anonymous is going to bring out more people than have already come out with this poorly publicized countdown.

Also, yes, giving your state-and-police opposition a countdown to your Day of Action seems like just an amazing strategy that won't at all lend itself to escalating noise-making from the Sheriff Clarke posse, or enable some kind of peremptory move, and won't hang the agitators dumb enough to go for this out to dry in a brutal fashion.

Actually, that's probably what they want, isn't it? We seem to have our own Deplorables.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:05 PM on February 3, 2017

So unless I missed something, was today the first day since the inauguration without everything being absolutely more insane than the day before?

Don't know about that, but I did realize at some point that for my own sanity, it's helpful to take a day off from constant news updates every couple days or so. Give yourself a day of just stupid cat videos or whatever to recharge the batteries. Outrage fatigue is real.
posted by Atom Eyes at 6:05 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Thinking of doing some WWII poster style images if I can get the art and lettering style down (gonna take quite a bit of practice)... so far I like "A Dem on the phone shows 'em we're not alone!" and an angry donkey kicking McConnell and Ryan caricatures with "Kick 'Em Out 2018", I feel like it's only fitting to go full on patriotic Nazi fighting with the imagery.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:06 PM on February 3, 2017 [18 favorites]

I dislike their grandiosity and self-importance. There just seems to be no awareness that there are other groups working for the same goal. We need to be banding together, not acting like only one group can do the job. I'm all for them exposing whatever they can, but the specific statement linked to above really didn't inspire much confidence that this loose organization is going to bring the Trump administration to their knees.

That message is just standard anonymous. Nothing different then what they've always done. They're always in an deep ominous voice 'you have 10 days to comply', 'do this or you will face these consequences'. You have to use the voice and pretend the person is wearing a Guy Fawkes mask.

It's silly but that's what they do.
posted by Jalliah at 6:07 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Charles Pierce: Donald Trump Has Hijacked Democracy. The Response Is Up to the Country. Two weeks in, we already know what we're dealing with.
posted by homunculus at 6:11 PM on February 3, 2017 [13 favorites]

That Soros thing reminds me: Bill Gates is going to pay me thousands of dollars to forward an email.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:11 PM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

> President Donald Trump will order a sweeping review of the Dodd-Frank Act rules enacted in response to the 2008 financial crisis, a White House official said, signing an executive action Friday designed to significantly scale back the regulatory system put in place in 2010.

Trump also will halt another of former President Barack Obama’s regulations, hated by the financial industry, that requires advisers on retirement accounts to work in the best interests of their clients. Trump’s order will give the new administration time to review the change, known as the fiduciary rule.

Say Goodbye to Your Life Savings (Again). President Trump's team of Goldman Sachs alums are in the hen house.
posted by homunculus at 6:11 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, is making an ever-growing Spotify playlist of music by artists from the "blacklisted" countries of Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Libya and Yemen (NPR article from Jan. 31, when the playlist was up to 28 hours long - the playlist is embedded there).
posted by filthy light thief at 6:12 PM on February 3, 2017 [42 favorites]

Found the local group for abortion transportation.
posted by threeturtles at 6:13 PM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

I understand that's the Anonymous voice. I don't need to be told how to feel about Anonymous, so please drop it — enough derail. They're not for me, but to be clear, they can do their thing and I'll continue to resist in the ways that make sense for me.

We need all the help we can get, but this machine works best if we're aware of what everyone else is doing. To that end: Fund Texan Choice is the abortion underground railroad in TX mentioned above.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 6:13 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

The machete attack at the Louvre was directed at soldiers, not civilians. Is it truly a "terrorist attack," then?

Yes.
posted by Apocryphon at 6:19 PM on February 3, 2017

Republicans may be okay with a neonazi takeover, but if there's one thing they will NEVER ACCEPT, it's adults performing consenting sex acts.

Didn't David Vitter decisively prove that they'll accept anything (hetero) from their own?
posted by Mavri at 6:20 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, is making an ever-growing Spotify playlist of music by artists from the "blacklisted" countries of Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Libya and Yemen

To pre-empt when Lebanon is added and since it's pretty much my favourite music vid of all time: The Bendaly Family : Do You Love Me.
posted by Buntix at 6:21 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

God forgives conservatives their most shocking kinks and punishes liberals who engage in the most vanilla of acts.
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:22 PM on February 3, 2017 [18 favorites]

I don't need to be told how to feel about Anonymous, so please drop it — enough derail.

Considering Anonymous' profile and history and the statement they just issued, I don't think it's a derail to discuss them and the likely ramifications of that statement.

To be clear, I don't like them very much myself. For years they mainly occupied themselves by trolling the people who were spending money and time investing in online worlds like Second Life and Eve Online. I think it's good that they have learned it's more fun to punch up than down, but they're still assholes. And while they're not exactly our assholes, I'm not going to complain when they're doing their thing to other assholes.
posted by Bringer Tom at 6:22 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Conservatives care about one thing and exactly one thing: Power. This election has proven that beyond all doubt. Never let them claim otherwise.
posted by Justinian at 6:23 PM on February 3, 2017 [25 favorites]

South Dakotan mefites or mefites with South Dakotan friends/family (and I know there are a few!), you should search for LEAD (Leaders Engaged and Determined) South Dakota, a kind of women-centered and lead Indivisible-type group in SD - lots of activity already!
posted by jason_steakums at 6:25 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Didn't David Vitter decisively prove that they'll accept anything (hetero) from their own?

I believe the Official Standard^TM for Republican rejection is "live boy or dead girl."
posted by Bringer Tom at 6:25 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

>God forgives conservatives their most shocking kinks and punishes liberals who engage in the most vanilla of acts.

Yeah, but what if he's into being stepped on or humiliated? What if he is in fact, to adopt for a moment this ghastly fucking word, a 'cuck'? How's that gonna play on Reddit?

I know, his diehards won't care. But he's not wildly popular as it is; anything that chips away at the man is a good thing...
posted by Sing Or Swim at 6:26 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

but if there's one thing they will NEVER ACCEPT, it's adults performing consenting sex acts.

lol if a video came out of trump eating fresh steaming dogshit while rubbing his tiny erect cock on bannon's face the republicans would make kinkshaming illegal
posted by poffin boffin at 6:27 PM on February 3, 2017 [27 favorites]

Major Garrett on the Trump White House's contradictory statements: "The White House attacked the press multiple times this week for reporting on information that the White House itself had supplied."
posted by zachlipton at 6:28 PM on February 3, 2017 [37 favorites]

Yeah, but what if he's into being stepped on or humiliated? What if he is in fact, to adopt for a moment this ghastly fucking word, a 'cuck'? How's that gonna play on Reddit?

It might surprise you to hear that (going by Fetlife and Tumblr, which is about as good as you're going to get) many of the actual cuck fetishists out there are racist conservatives. Including, I suspect, those who enjoy shouting the word from the rooftops on Reddit. Likewise other forms of race play, gendered humiliation and fem-dom.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:29 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yeah, but what if he's into being stepped on or humiliated?

The aforementioned David Vitter survived being widely mocked as "Diaper Dave" for an alleged fetish for roleplaying as a baby with prostitutes, so nah, that sort of thing doesn't seem to be a problem.
posted by Bringer Tom at 6:30 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

seriously, pb, some people are trying to eat, like, ever again in our lifetimes
posted by mochapickle at 6:30 PM on February 3, 2017 [20 favorites]

try me in the hague for my wartime atrocities then
posted by poffin boffin at 6:31 PM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

I AM SO FUCKING MAD AT THE NY TIMES. Sorry, I've been cursing a lot in this thread. But seriously, fuck the NY Times. Here's their article on Milo's cancelled event in Berkeley. Not a single mention of the fact that he was planning on debuting the Horowitz Freedom Center campaign against sanctuary campuses. No mention at all of the time he outed a trans student in Wisconsin, showed her picture and her full name on a national livestream, and joked about raping her. No mention of the talks he's given where he urges people to call ICE on undocumented folk. No mention of the fact that harassment isn't protected speech. In fact, aside from one quote from a month-old letter from faculty, no interview with a single person who could have pointed any of this out.

No, the whole story is about how fragile little Berkeley couldn't handle Ideas Not Everyone Agrees With. I am especially fucking furious at the free speech activist who characterized this as "oh goodness, cover my ears." FUCK YOU! Where's your fucking spine? God damn.

And of course Milo gets to call himself "little old harmless me," and the people who invited them get to hang their heads in sorrow for the shameful direction this country is headed in. The whole article is just aw shucks, what happened to American values like freedom of speech? And of course it's the paper of record^(tm) so now it's practically set in stone that Berkeley Can't Handle Free Speech And Hates America. Thanks a lot. Thank you soooo much, NY Times. You've really done a great job here.

Fuck.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 6:32 PM on February 3, 2017 [68 favorites]

So do we get to lower the already pathetically low nomination counter by one? Trump's pick for Army Secretary drops out

Sources familiar said Viola had been looking for ways to divest from his businesses -- including ownership [of] the hockey team -- to take the top civilian Army post.

He had planned to transfer ownership to other family members but turn over operations responsibilities to the team’s vice chairman, but that arrangement did not meet Pentagon requirements, according to sources.

Can we just get Eric Fanning back if nobody tells Pence?
posted by zachlipton at 6:32 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

I'm telling you, it's gonna end his political career, and he'll never be able to show his face in public again. Must you people intrude upon my happy place?
posted by Sing Or Swim at 6:32 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

God forgives conservatives their most shocking kinks and punishes liberals who engage in the most vanilla of acts.

To be fair, they do ask and if you don't ask you don't get.
posted by Talez at 6:33 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

So! Who's signing up for the Underground Railroad to transport women needing abortions from the Gilead states to those that still offer it? I can fit up to 3 others in my car and it gets good gas mileage.

Yeah, I mean, this is not some sort of hyperbolic Handmaid's Tale scenario. I think it's really likely that I'm actually going to be doing that sometime in the next year or two.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:33 PM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

Any downsides pop into mind for selling Orwellian Trump shirts (that will be hilarious after he's impeached because of sneaky wording) and giving the money to ACLU et al?

Aside from a future visit to Room 101?
posted by Coventry at 6:33 PM on February 3, 2017

Using Berlusconi as an example, right-wingers would just feel sorry for Trump being "picked on" by the media.

When lies are being told with no consequences and repeated en masse by the base, Trump probably could indeed eat a baby and conservatives have a convenient way of pretending it didn't happen — they will just call it a lie by the mainstream media and use it to score points against how desperate liberals are to bring him down.

Like I really do think the only scandal that could bring him down at this point is finding out that he personally dislikes shooting guns and has been paying his taxes the whole time.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 6:33 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

seriously, pb, some people are trying to eat

Sorry, it's 8:30 PM here and we've been watching the YouTube Hydraulic Press Channel for a couple of hours now.
posted by Bringer Tom at 6:34 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)

"POTUS took strong stand against Dr. Evil, effectively barring him from country. Unclear whether the ban would include his clone, Mini Me." Schiff tweeted, alongside a message from Trump that said, "we must keep 'evil' out of our country."

In a second tweet, Schiff questioned why Trump put evil in quotation marks.

"What are we to understand from Trump's quotes around "evil"? Refugees are evil? Only Muslim refugees? How about bigotry? That's pretty evil," Schiff added.
posted by futz at 6:34 PM on February 3, 2017 [17 favorites]

Yeah, I mean, this is not some sort of hyperbolic Handmaid's Tale scenario. I think it's really likely that I'm actually going to be doing that sometime in the next year or two.

How long before the CPB's 100 mile zone begins at the birth canal?
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:34 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

I sent the Mango Mussolini a copy of The U.S. Constitution for Dummies as a gift. Amazon says it arrives Monday. The message was "Hi Donald, I can't wait until you get impeached!"
posted by bendy at 6:36 PM on February 3, 2017 [19 favorites]

In a second tweet, Schiff questioned why Trump put evil in quotation marks.

Because marginally literate people frequently use quotation marks for emphasis rather than caps or italics. I don't know why, but it is a thing.
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 6:37 PM on February 3, 2017 [17 favorites]

I AM SO FUCKING MAD AT THE NY TIMES. Sorry, I've been cursing a lot in this thread.

That's ok, you're just helping meet our quota of fucks.
posted by INFJ at 6:38 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

I don't know why, but it is a thing.

Lazy, unresolved confusion about what 'scare quotes' are for.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:39 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

"President" Donald Trump.
posted by Justinian at 6:40 PM on February 3, 2017 [43 favorites]

So unless I missed something, was today the first day since the inauguration without everything being absolutely more insane than the day before?

I feel the same way. I think because I fully expected some heinous EO that would have us all in the protesting again. I've spent a lot more time laughing at comments in this thread today than I have in the last weeks. Seriously, I have busted out laughing at my desk multiple times. Most of my favorites today are "thanks for making me LOL".

It's definitely just them taking a breath before continuing this Gish Gallop of EOs

I think they are hoping to break our momentum. Nothing to protest for a week, maybe even two and hope people go back to being oblivious. Spicer will sell it as the President's approval going up.

PS, It is a rainy night here. I have wine, am settled in for the night like the single cat lady that I am, and at least a few more favorites left to hand out so keep the hilarious comments coming!
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 6:44 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Bandcamp is donating money from sales to the ACLU today. Has this shown up here somewhere and I missed it?
posted by bongo_x at 6:45 PM on February 3, 2017

CBP reports that the visas of the 100,000~ stripped of their visas will have them restored.

I wonder if Trump is getting tired of all this winning yet.
posted by zachlipton at 6:46 PM on February 3, 2017 [56 favorites]

@jonostrower: Customs and Border Patrol just wrapped a 9p ET call with the airlines, "back to business as usual" as Federal judge in WA blocks travel ban.

The automated systems that flagged and blocked citizens from seven nations from entering the U.S. are being lifted right now.

Total victory. This EO has caused incalculable damage to our reputation and international relationships and needs to be rubbed in their face forever.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:49 PM on February 3, 2017 [53 favorites]

Nexus cards revoked from all Canadian permanent residents with citizenship in restricted countries: CBSA

Nexus memberships have been revoked from all Canadian permanent residents with citizenship in any one of the seven majority-Muslim countries affected by the U.S. travel ban, the Canada Border Services Agency has confirmed to CBC Toronto.

Citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a CBSA spokesperson said in an email that FAST memberships have also been revoked from all such individuals.

Memberships have not been revoked from Canadians holding dual citizenship.
posted by futz at 6:50 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

NYT: Trust Records Show Trump Is Still Closely Tied to His Empire

While the trust structure, outlined in documents made public through a Freedom of Information Act request by ProPublica, may give the president the appearance of distance from his business, it drew sharp criticism from experts in government ethics.

“I don’t see how this in the slightest bit avoids a conflict of interest,” said Frederick J. Tansill, a trust and estates lawyer from Virginia who examined the documents at the request of The New York Times. “First it is revocable at any time, and it is his son and his chief financial officer who are running it.

posted by zachlipton at 6:54 PM on February 3, 2017 [16 favorites]

I think they are hoping to break our momentum. Nothing to protest for a week, maybe even two and hope people go back to being oblivious.

Time to head to the state level, then.

Iowa? You have a Planned Parenthood defunding bill to fight over (and a bonus video of Amy Sinclair being an asshole to demand that other Republicans denounce!).

Missouri? We have a right-to-work bill to complain about.

No idea about other states.

Also, I'm thinking that tone-policing Republican reps might be what I do in my spare time right now. It's fun to get high and mighty and demand apologies for things they've said! (This is one time when I feel justified in giving out-of-district -- and even out-of-state -- feedback: "your behavior reflects poorly on our state", "these were not the values I was raised with, and I'm ashamed that I am forced to defend my former state to my friends", etc.)
posted by steady-state strawberry at 6:55 PM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

Ok I don't know if it's legally total victory b/c new shit is coming to light but it's still pretty good
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:57 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

It sounds like there are simultaneous opposing rulings, nobody has any idea what the law is, and this is basically what it looks like when the government is run like a child trying to fly a 747
posted by theodolite at 6:59 PM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

I don't think I saw this in the thread yet, but people from Michigan here's a thing you can talk about when you make your calls to the state government:

Michigan Republican suggests "another Kent State" for liberal protesters
posted by IAmUnaware at 7:01 PM on February 3, 2017 [20 favorites]

I think they are hoping to break our momentum. Nothing to protest for a week, maybe even two and hope people go back to being oblivious.

Wrong! Backfire. Fail. Sad
It just means having and bit of time to breathe, recharge a little and get back at it.
posted by Jalliah at 7:04 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

“The decision shuts down the executive order immediately,” Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said..."

I know that there is confusion about this but does it appear to be a victory or...? If no one upholds the order?
posted by futz at 7:06 PM on February 3, 2017

Iowa? You have a Planned Parenthood defunding bill to fight over (and a bonus video of Amy Sinclair being an asshole to demand that other Republicans denounce!).

Ooh I'll have to take that Sinclair video to the Indivisible meeting tomorrow. There are anti-Planned Parenthood rallies in a week and while we were talking counterprotests, PP actually recommended against it - they say anti-PP protests just aren't as newsworthy as a clash of protests so we'd increase coverage, so that's going to be discussed. I'm wondering if there's some other visible show of support we can give to redirect counterprotest energy if PP doesn't want it.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:06 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

I wonder if Trump is getting tired of all this winning yet.

White Supremacist Bannon's still in the National Security Council. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence are no longer permanent members.

So this shock event may have worked.

https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:06 PM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

WRT NickMark's "pics or GTFO" challenge, I proudly offer this: yellow bowtie and a gray wool vest.

(And since I am bragging, I will add that I am still wearing it now, after baking a cake, making a double batch of chocolate frosting -- and cleaning up the drifted confectioner's sugar -- and doing the dishes four times. And I still have to scrub the bathrooms and wrap some birth presents before bed!)
posted by wenestvedt at 7:06 PM on February 3, 2017 [36 favorites]

I think they are hoping to break our momentum. Nothing to protest for a week, maybe even two and hope people go back to being oblivious.

Not when every few days there's a new nomination hearing on another heinous, incompetent excuse for a human being.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:09 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

I just created https://github.com/morspin/trumpdebtclock based on a tweet. I just created a github project, but saw that someone registered a parked domain last fall.

Anyone up for a weekend hackathon?
posted by morspin at 7:09 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

For those interested, you can buy your own yellow Washington Signature Model bowtie -- also available in red or blue -- online here: http://shops.mountvernon.org/george-washington-signature-bow-ties.html
posted by wenestvedt at 7:09 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Emergency stay of this "outragous order"
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:09 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

(And since I am bragging, I will add that I am still wearing it now, after baking a cake, making a double batch of chocolate frosting -- and cleaning up the drifted confectioner's sugar -- and doing the dishes four times. And I still have to scrub the bathrooms and wrap some birth presents before bed!)

I am exhausted just reading that :(

Go You! You dapper beast.
posted by futz at 7:11 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

ED went from fun fake nazis to no-fun real nazis when the rest of internet culture did, some time between 2012 and 2015.

2012 my daughter was born, and the changes that came with meant much less time spent frivolously online.

Which made 2016 really feel like the opening of a Black Mirror episode.
posted by ocschwar at 7:12 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Leaky leaky Whitehouse.

Trump policy on Israel is evolving in somewhat surprising ways

The Trump administration is shaping its policy toward Israel and a potential peace settlement with the Palestinians in ways that may seem surprising for a president who had appeared to offer the government in Jerusalem a blank check on the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and other issues.

The outlines of the policy emerged Friday after a conflicting series of statements attributed to the administration.

On Thursday evening, the White House issued an unusual statement discouraging new Israeli settlements in the West Bank. That was prompted by a Jerusalem Post story that appeared to be based on the leak of parts of a harsher, draft statement criticizing settlements as an obstacle to peace. The subsequent official statement was an attempt to soften any blanket condemnation of settlements and any perceived criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, people familiar with the episode said Friday.
posted by Jalliah at 7:13 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Victory?

Did I miss the part where all of our allies think we're insane and ditching us for the country that the people in the White House and NSC are clamoring for war with?

why no I haven't been reading about nuclear war all evening why do you ask
posted by ragtag at 7:13 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Michigan Republican suggests "another Kent State" for liberal protesters

Wonder what the response would be to suggest "another JFK."
posted by rhizome at 7:14 PM on February 3, 2017 [22 favorites]

On the bright side, the Iranian baby got a waiver to enter the US for surgery and will be treated for free.
posted by zachlipton at 7:14 PM on February 3, 2017 [28 favorites]

So unless I missed something, was today the first day since the inauguration without everything being absolutely more insane than the day before?

I think they are hoping to break our momentum. Nothing to protest for a week, maybe even two and hope people go back to being oblivious. Spicer will sell it as the President's approval going up.

Alternate explanation: someone in the last thread suggested that Bannon pushes Trump to do the really crazy shit on Saturdays when Kushner, who observes the Sabbath, isn't in a position to talk him down.

I'm not sure I actually believe that Kushner has that much pull, but who knows.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:15 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

tin soldiers and bannon's coming
we're finally on our own
posted by delfin at 7:17 PM on February 3, 2017 [16 favorites]

emergency stay? are they *REALLY* going "fuck the law! i am the law!" over this?
posted by xcasex at 7:17 PM on February 3, 2017

Emergency stay of this "outragous order"

So I click the link here on mefi, read it and think, "Oh hey I should post this on mefi" I write out a comment, am about to hit post ' Hey, wait a minute...'

Time for a break methinks.
posted by Jalliah at 7:19 PM on February 3, 2017 [13 favorites]

So unless I missed something, was today the first day since the inauguration without everything being absolutely more insane than the day before?

Nothing like being happy for a 'Just Another Incredibly Shitty Presidency Day' rather than a 'Mad Dash Into Fascism Day'.
posted by chris24 at 7:20 PM on February 3, 2017 [22 favorites]

Thanks for the link to the Clinic Access group, threeturtles. They accept donations, so I did. :)
posted by hilaryjade at 7:22 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Woo! CNN: US Customs and Border Patrol officials have instructed airlines to go "back to business as usual” prior to Trump's exec order
posted by Jalliah at 7:22 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

We need some non shitty lawyer jokes now.
posted by Jalliah at 7:23 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

White House deleted their earlier statement, and issued a new one, without the word outrageous.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:24 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

@CNBCnow
Trump says will cut "a lot out of Dodd-Frank" because "friends of mine that have nice businesses, they can't borrow" http://cnb.cx/2kZQCzc

@xor - Retweeted CNBC Now
Critics charge that Trump is looting the country to enrich his friends. Trump counters that he's looting the country to enrich his friends.
posted by chris24 at 7:26 PM on February 3, 2017 [78 favorites]

Did they somehow not think we would see both versions of the statement? Even with this stupid statement, the coverup is far worse than the crime here.
posted by zachlipton at 7:26 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

It's not about America winning, it's always about Trump winning.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:29 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

We need some non shitty lawyer jokes now.

You know what's better than one lawyer at the bottom of the ocean?

A whole shitload of lawyers showing up on short notice to work pro-bono on cases for immigrants, upholding the laws and beliefs and principles of the country, representing a profession whose members shouldn't be maligned based solely on some stupid jokes and a few uninformed opinions, a whole host of people who have dedicated themselves to bettering the lives of their fellow citizens by working within, and sometimes challenging the byzantine and confusing structures their society somehow governs itself by.

Sorry, I guess it's not much of a joke.
posted by mrgoat at 7:31 PM on February 3, 2017 [132 favorites]

Sorry, I guess it's not much of a joke.

Joke's on Trump maybe?
posted by Jalliah at 7:32 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

I've been rewatching Game of Thrones these past couple weeks because it's impressively less depressing than reality.

Varys, of Littlefinger: "He would burn down the country if he could be king of the ashes."

Me: I know that feel, bruh.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:33 PM on February 3, 2017 [43 favorites]

@CNBCnow
Trump says will cut "a lot out of Dodd-Frank" because "friends of mine that have nice businesses, they can't borrow" http://cnb.cx/2kZQCzc

I think this is Trump's mirror at work again.
posted by Jalliah at 7:34 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

emergency stay? are they *REALLY* going "fuck the law! i am the law!" over this?

I think it just means appealing it, which honestly surprises me because I expected "fuck the courts, the Marshals are taking orders from us" and I'm glad to be wrong on that. Shitty that the bar for feeling relieved is "oh hey maybe they don't cause a new constitutional crisis every day" but, well, *gestures wildly at everything*
posted by jason_steakums at 7:35 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

Hey, was your previous statement written by Jem? Because it truly said "outrageous"
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:36 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

We need some non shitty lawyer jokes now.

Hah. My partner just said, "Good job lawyers. Don't mess it up or we'll start hating you again."

(Also. Those of us who called and marched and faxed and so on. Good job!)
posted by notyou at 7:36 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Maybe somebody told them that federal judges don't like it when you call their rulings "outrageous?"
posted by zachlipton at 7:37 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

I think this is Trump's mirror at work again.

The hilarious thing about that is that Trump will probably find that even when he is standing in the puddle of ashes that used to be Dodd-Frank nobody in the US will give him a loan, not because of the regulations but because they legitimately worry about not getting repaid.
posted by Bringer Tom at 7:41 PM on February 3, 2017 [16 favorites]

A lawyer walks into a bar. She has free drinks there for life because she successfully challenged an unlawful EO that would have prevented the owner's young niece from coming into the country on a lawfully obtained visa.
posted by biogeo at 7:41 PM on February 3, 2017 [78 favorites]

Somebody must be putting the arm on Bannon, somehow - I had totally expected them to go full fascist on this one. Roll on whoever has convinced them that they have to at least pretend to defer to the law for the present.

Maybe they're just waiting for Congress to legislate a ban for them.

Or [insert tinfoil theory here].
posted by tobascodagama at 7:43 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Woo! CNN: US Customs and Border Patrol officials have instructed airlines to go "back to business as usual” prior to Trump's exec order

Have they bothered to tell the 4,000 airports abroad that won't let people board US-bound planes?
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:44 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

Somebody must be putting the arm on Bannon, somehow - I had totally expected them to go full fascist on this one. Roll on whoever has convinced them that they have to at least pretend to defer to the law for the present.

I'm leaning towards thinking it's about not adding more uncomfortable questions to the Gorsuch hearing. He's a piece of work but even his hero Scalia would have called out a move like that.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:45 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

White House investigates leaks of Trump calls to Australia, Mexico

In an earlier call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto about paying for a wall on the southern U.S. border, Trump said he might send the U.S. military to Mexico to stop drug cartels - details from a transcript obtained by a Mexican news organization Aristegui Noticias and the Associated Press. The White House later said the comments were meant to be lighthearted.

Yeah. Invading our neighbor. Hilarious!
posted by zachlipton at 7:49 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Have they bothered to tell the 4,000 airports abroad that won't let people board US-bound planes?

Looks like they've told all airlines with incoming US flights. I expect word will go round fairly quickly.
The conference call happened at 9pm eastern so less then two hours ago.
posted by Jalliah at 7:49 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Greg Siskind says CPB can green light whatever they want, but the State Department needs to reissue the visas themselves.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:51 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

in sweden right now. 28,500 police officers placed on war footing, active immediatly. along with disturbing rumours via my own regiment.

Is this part of long term move to exercise dormant civil defense procedures, or is this something more urgent?
posted by ocschwar at 7:52 PM on February 3, 2017

Actually, it just occurred to me that the most likely explanation for Trump not doing anything especially heinous this week is that he's just not used to doing as much work as the job requires, so he fucked off somewhere and refuses to do anything anything else until his poor, tired brain gets some rest.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:57 PM on February 3, 2017 [18 favorites]

As others pointed above, he caused enough chaos that Steve Bannon remains in the NSC.

Mission fucking accomplished.

We still have a nihilist who is intent on getting into a war with China, as part of an administration that has nuked any chance of us having a coalition in the Pacific that would win that war, in the fucking NSC.
posted by ocschwar at 8:00 PM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

Not bad for a week's work.
posted by ocschwar at 8:00 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Sydney Morning Herald: Refugee Behrouz Boochani writes from Manus prison: Frightened by Trump? Spare a thought for us

Watching what has unfolded in the United States has been scary for many people around the world. But, for the refugees in Manus, it has been more scary. In the many years since we were exiled here we have closely observed the political evolutions in Australia and around the world, and the gradual shifts and sudden jolts further towards scapegoating, intolerance and bigotry. We saw with foreboding that we had had to flee our countries at exactly the wrong time, just as Australia, and the world, was turning its back more and more on the principles enshrined in the Refugee Convention after the horrors of fascism and the Second World War.
...

Maybe some Australians feel reassured we will be sent to safety. But with each development our worry has only increased. First we worried that Trump would win the election. Then we worried more as we waited until Trump took office. To throw us this idea of US resettlement without any details felt like a cruel trick. Now, the deal with the US is confirmed but our stress has only become worse. We still have no details and with each executive order we worry more. The main questions for us are how many people will they accept, and on what basis? Will we be accepted if we have spoken out against Trump? And will they accept people from Iran, Somalia, Iraq and Sudan? It seems that our fate is tied to the fate of the American people more than most. At this time, we can see clearly how this is a global threat. We are among the most exposed, but it is the same threat perceived by those many thousands of women marching just over a week ago.

posted by valetta at 8:02 PM on February 3, 2017 [24 favorites]

This is really weird. Really weird. I have some thoughts about this but I feel awful saying them here.

Trump tells Ukrainian politician he won't lift Russia sanctions
The president appears to take a harsher stance on Russia in an unusual private meeting.

During an unusual private meeting on the sidelines of Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast, President Donald Trump promised a Ukrainian opposition leader that the United States won’t lift sanctions on Russia until it pulls out of Ukraine, according to three people briefed on the meeting.

Within hours of meeting with both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at the prayer breakfast, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko relayed the contents of the meeting to separate audiences at the Heritage Foundation and the Hudson Institute, according to people who attended the off-the-record events at the conservative think tanks.

The sources said that Tymoshenko, a member of parliament who is positioning herself for a presidential campaign against the beleaguered incumbent president Petro Poroshenko, told the think tanks that Trump assured her he would “not abandon” Ukraine, which claims that Russian troops are responsible for increased fighting in the region near the countries’ shared border. The international community largely supports this view, but Moscow denies it and blames the fighting on pro-Russian separatists.

While Trump had suggested during his campaign that he might be willing to ease sanctions against Russia related to its aggression against Ukraine, Tymoshenko said Trump assured her he would do no such thing — unless Russia withdrew from Ukraine, according to the people who attended the briefings.
posted by Jalliah at 8:02 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

I know it's old meme by now, but until tomorrow's inevitable horror show, here are two of my favorite jabs at the Bowling Green Massacre (residents of the Commonwealth will recognize the sign template on image number two).
posted by chaoticgood at 8:02 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

Hey Leftists? Can you maybe NOT try to shame people for celebrating the overturning of a heinous order because they are somehow not seeing the real threat? We see the threats, all the threats. We're happy that something good happened. That doesn't mean everything is now good. We know that. We are capable of feeling different emotions about different things AT THE SAME TIME.
posted by threeturtles at 8:04 PM on February 3, 2017 [56 favorites]

The White House later said the comments were meant to be lighthearted.

And once again we can see that the man who never laughs does not understand the concept of humor. Being a dick to someone isn't a joke. For humans anyway...
posted by downtohisturtles at 8:05 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Don't say he didn't warn us. 2014.

@realDonaldTrump:
"@damiranz: DonaldTrump: Pls don't run for president. If you do and win, the rest of the world would be screwed" So true, (except friends)!
posted by chris24 at 8:08 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

During an unusual private meeting on the sidelines of Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast, President Donald Trump promised a Ukrainian opposition leader that the United States won’t lift sanctions on Russia until it pulls out of Ukraine, according to three people briefed on the meeting.

Doesn't Trump have a pattern of promising people whatever they want, then going on and promising other people what they want, and so on?
posted by sebastienbailard at 8:10 PM on February 3, 2017 [20 favorites]

Okay I'm going to say it. The whole meeting with Tymoshenko is odd. And it was in the afternoon after that meeting that the WH stance seemed to change with Hailey's statements at the UN. It seemed to differ from everything he and they have been saying before regarding sanctions.

Uh is it possible that Donald is just so awful that he was persuaded by Tymoshenko because she's um...hot and totally his type?

I can't believe I just wrote that about a US President. I can't help but go there with him though. Sorry it's an awful thing to say.
posted by Jalliah at 8:12 PM on February 3, 2017 [28 favorites]

he's just not used to doing as much work as the job requires

It's very much on record that he expected to have weekends off.

This is tangential, but when did the presidency stop having weekends off? We know that Harding fucked off on holiday for nine months in 1921 after his inauguration, so my guess is that you can draw a line at (WW2-era) FDR, but maybe it's later still than that?
posted by holgate at 8:13 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Doesn't Trump have a pattern of promising people whatever they want, then going on and promising other people what they want, and so on?

He does but in this case they did come out after with statements about it at the UN.
posted by Jalliah at 8:13 PM on February 3, 2017

Doesn't Trump have a pattern of promising people whatever they want, then going on and promising other people what they want, and so on?

He exactly does. He did this in his first (as a candidate) meeting with Mexican President Peña Nieto. Then he of course stabbed the guy (and his country) in the back. There is apparently a lot of influence to be wielded by simply being in front of Trump, but it only lasts as long as you are in front of Trump and it's a thing his little circle of Machiavellian sycophants have learned to take very seriously.
posted by Bringer Tom at 8:14 PM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

Is this part of long term move to exercise dormant civil defense procedures, or is this something more urgent?

well, yes and no.
civil defense needs to be implemented because for some reason it stagnated. but the implementation being "last year, stat!" is odd.
along with rumors of our baserangers deploying to airfields.
posted by xcasex at 8:14 PM on February 3, 2017

NOW you can come in. Maybe! Maybe not Monday!

No surgery for you! Now it's free!

Law has prevailed! Or it hasn't!

~~Outrageous~~!
posted by aspersioncast at 8:16 PM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

You know, the thing that keeps coming back to me is the damn shame of wasted potential - if Donnie were smart he'd realize that he is uniquely positioned with a populist sway over the base to actually pull politics back to pre-Gingrich levels of partisan division and be rewarded for it, honestly he could probably pull off doing that and still get rich on the sly, and make Democrats look like Chicken Littles, and be crazy popular, but he doesn't have the vision to see it. I don't think any personal ideology would get in his way, because I don't think he has one other than a drive to show up his enemies and get richer. He would still be a cynical manipulator even if he was creating good outcomes for America, he doesn't believe in good public service either. But he's too much of an idiot to see the path he can take to reap even more reward than the thuggish tack he's taking.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:18 PM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

During an unusual private meeting on the sidelines of Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast, President Donald Trump promised a Ukrainian opposition leader that the United States won’t lift sanctions on Russia until it pulls out of Ukraine, according to three people briefed on the meeting.

The opposition leader being Yulia Tymoshenko, Trump does not exactly have the strength of character to be able to look a woman who spent three years in prison and came out in a wheelchair in the eye and tell her that he's going to hand her country back to Putin. (Possibly, as Jalliah points out, because he'd be looking somewhere else.)
posted by XMLicious at 8:18 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Please, let's encourage him to be on vacation. For forever.

I've been rewatching Game of Thrones these past couple weeks because it's impressively less depressing than reality.

HAHAHAHAHAHAH, but seriously, I can watch all kinds of depressing shit when it's sci-fi or fantasy because it's not like real life. Like I'm not ever gonna have to deal with most of that...hopefully.
That said, I've decided to quit watching The 100. That's too much even for me now.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:20 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

If Lord Dampnut really took off today feeling the pain of two actual weeks of work, pushback, and confusion, this sort of thing seems perfectly timed to make the bastard have a bad weekend.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:20 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

when did the presidency stop having weekends off?

It was around 1950, when the Soviets developed a nuclear capability and the US realized we could be attacked with massive civilian casualties without warning in a matter of hours. Deterrence required a response in a matter of hours, the time it took bombers to fly across the Arctic. Later, after ICBM's were developed, that response became a matter of minutes.

Since that time it has been a matter of procedure that the President is never more than a minute or two away from the nuclear football, in case it might be necessary for him to authorize a response to an attack. Our warning on such an attack, even if all the systems work perfectly, is only about 20 minutes. It might seem like an obsolete system nowadays when Russia doesn't seem intent on nuking us and Putin has his hand up Trump's ass, but it remains in effect and it's the reason the President has to be available 24/7 on a moment's notice.
posted by Bringer Tom at 8:21 PM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

Swedish government pokes fun at Trump with all-female photo
Sweden’s deputy prime minister posed for a photograph in which she signs a climate law surrounded by female staffers.

I love it.
posted by futz at 8:22 PM on February 3, 2017 [40 favorites]

Hey, was your previous statement written by Jem? Because it truly said "outrageous"

i am mad that none of you philistines understand this glorious joke
posted by poffin boffin at 8:23 PM on February 3, 2017 [23 favorites]

If Lord Dampnut really took off today feeling the pain of two actual weeks of work, pushback, and confusion, this sort of thing seems perfectly timed to make the bastard have a bad weekend.

He is going to have to listen to protesters or at least be aware that they're at the gates of his house.
Don't know the layout or how big Mar Lago is but I hope he'll be able to hear them.
posted by Jalliah at 8:25 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Huh, apropos of nothing, anybody have any ideas why trump.net was a weird slick pro-Trump site with a whois pointing to a Scottsdale AZ registration earlier today, but now resolves to http://www.aeneas.com/, which is a telecom in TN?
posted by aspersioncast at 8:26 PM on February 3, 2017

The one bit of silly trivia I know about Yulia Tymoshenko is that her daughter was once married to a hard rock singer from Leeds whose band (the "Death Valley Screamers") inexplicably became a big thing in central and eastern Europe even though they sounded like a pub tribute band to Iron Maiden.
posted by holgate at 8:26 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

i am mad that none of you philistines understand this glorious joke

I did.
posted by Jalliah at 8:27 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Vincent Viola, Trump’s nominee to run the Army, withdraws from consideration

The news was first reported by the Military Times newspaper chain, which said Viola came to believe that he would not be able to make it through confirmation process.

What do you have to have going on in your life to not get confirmed in this Senate?
posted by jason_steakums at 8:30 PM on February 3, 2017 [45 favorites]

became a big thing in central and eastern Europe even though they sounded like a pub tribute band to Iron Maiden.

That's about as weird as water being wet.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:30 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

sounded like a pub tribute band to Iron Maiden

I can think of worse things to sound like \m/
posted by chaoticgood at 8:32 PM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

I think maybe Mattis "encouraged" (I like the Trump Quotes, I think I will keep using them!) Viola to withdraw.
posted by Justinian at 8:32 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Hrm, ok so the wayback machine has that site as "for sale" by aeneas in July 16. I swear earlier today it was a totally slick pro-Trump network site.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:34 PM on February 3, 2017

What do you have to have going on in your life to not get confirmed in this Senate?

(world's tiniest viola)

I can think of worse things to sound like \m/

I didn't link to their concert videos for a reason.
posted by holgate at 8:34 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Speaking of Mattis:

@spectatorindex: BREAKING: US Secretary of Defense says Iran is the biggest sponsor of terrrorism
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:34 PM on February 3, 2017

What do you have to have going on in your life to not get confirmed in this Senate?

A functional conscience while realizing you'll probably get steamrolled for trying to be a speedbump?
posted by Enturbulated at 8:35 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Speaking of Mattis:

@spectatorindex: BREAKING: US Secretary of Defense says Iran is the biggest sponsor of terrrorism

Just wait until we bomb it and give ISIS an opening...
posted by Zalzidrax at 8:36 PM on February 3, 2017

TBH, State did reach the same conclusion last year.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:37 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Because I am a petty juvenile person, I'm enjoying #PaulRyanIn4Words. Current favorites:

Sews Bannon's Klan robes

Store brand white bread
posted by FelliniBlank at 8:37 PM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]

Uh is it possible that Donald is just so awful that he was persuaded by Tymoshenko because she's um...hot and totally his type?

She also co-led the Orange Revolution! Coincidence?
posted by p3t3 at 8:39 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Now that I am thinking about it, the question I answered a few comments upthread carries some interesting implications. What if you are in the shitter with constipation, or actively involved in an act of copulation with the First Lady? I think the protocol is that the suits come and get you. I wonder what their protocols are on these possible situations. Do they bring toilet paper, or a towel to wrap you in if you are naked? Not so much Trump thing as a US POTUS thing, I suspect Very Serious People have gamed out all these situations and have answers. The Secret Service people are probably trained on all the possibilities.

And President Weekend-Warriortrump has no idea, not just whether this speculation is true but whether such possibilities could even embarrass His Trumpness.
posted by Bringer Tom at 8:39 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Ah here we go: http://trump.news/

Sorry for the derail.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:40 PM on February 3, 2017

Yeah, Iran really is a huge sponsor of terrorism. Just because someone in Trump's administration says something doesn't automatically mean it's a lie. Though it is true we should assume so unless there is evidence to the contrary.
posted by Justinian at 8:41 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Um. So I just did one of those silly 'what EO would Trump sign about you' things that's floating around the net. I got back the pic of Trump holding up the EO book with "Jalliah will be given the title of "Most Beautiful Smile'.
And now I'm totally creeped out and shuddering. Gross. So gross.
posted by Jalliah at 8:41 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Josh Marshall: It Was Never Populism. It's Nationalism
posted by homunculus at 8:41 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

We are capable of feeling different emotions about different things AT THE SAME TIME.

Never pure enough.
posted by bongo_x at 8:42 PM on February 3, 2017

What if you are in the shitter with constipation, or actively involved in an act of copulation with the First Lady?

Why do you think they spent so much time at Greenbrier wargaming
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:43 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

She also co-led the Orange Revolution! Coincidence?

Huh. A UK site I will not link to but find-able with Ukraine orange revolution soros says "Financier George Soros was behind the Ukranian uprising...."

Almost like someone is not listening to "the base".
posted by rough ashlar at 8:44 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

@spectatorindex: BREAKING: US Secretary of Defense says Iran is the biggest sponsor of terrrorism

Ok then let's use a sanction agreement strategically as carrot and stick to get Iran on a tight leash to implement measurable deradicalization and anti-terrorist strategies enforced and inspected by multiple nations of allies in the UN because that shit actually works with Iran you fuckers.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:46 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Though it is true we should assume so unless there is evidence to the contrary.

Agreed. Timing though, and beating of war drums, and how many fronts we'll be opening before Valentine's Day.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:47 PM on February 3, 2017

MSNBC is reporting that the administration is NOT going to abide by the federal judge's ruling. Did I get that right? Pete Williams was the source of that but they seem to have moved on. Lots of constitutional crisis talk. A really good panel of people on msnbc right now. I can't tell you how refreshing this is to hear on MSM right now. Brutally honest and astute. Joy Reid is rock solid as host.

Wait, not sure if this is live news. It appears to be due to the topics...

The news schedule is sooo messed up right now due to the fact that everything is now considered "breaking news". Guess what news people? If you say that you have breaking news to report after the commercial break then it is not breaking news!

GAH.
posted by futz at 8:49 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Well, I've just finished the last thread, and am diving into this one, and got to the part where we're all going to die, and I still have more than 1200 comments to go to catch up to the end, but I just wanted to say, in the immortal words of our wise quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon, "FUCK!".
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 8:50 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

Japan joins Sweden in trolling Trump.

@spectatorindex:
JAPAN: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says his country is not devaluing the Yen and that he is prepared to explain monetary policy to Trump
posted by chris24 at 8:51 PM on February 3, 2017 [45 favorites]

This from Darrin Bell's Candorville is not directly related to the Bannon/Seinfeld connection, but maybe should be.
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:53 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

SecretAgentSockpuppet: I hope you're ready for a whole lot of IKEA talk...
posted by zachlipton at 8:55 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

A UK site I will not link to but find-able with Ukraine orange revolution soros says "Financier George Soros was behind the Ukranian uprising...."

With Soros constantly buying up all these countries, protests, and revolutions, it's a wonder he has any money left.
posted by p3t3 at 8:55 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

MSNBC is reporting that the administration is NOT going to abide by the federal judge's ruling.

Spicer put out a release that said they're going to have the DOJ challenge it. Other then that it looks like with the CPB saying okay let them in that it's stay is staying for now. Or at least today it is.
posted by Jalliah at 8:55 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

The CPB caving makes me happier. Somebody's still more afraid of days of boring depositions than they are of Trump.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:58 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

@spectatorindex:
JAPAN: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says his country is not devaluing the Yen and that he is prepared to explain monetary policy to Trump

OMG WE NOW LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE IT'S NORMAL FOR HEADS OF STATE TO TROLL OTHER HEADS OF STATE ON TWITTER

It's like this 'oh look new reality' just comes over me in waves and I have to type in capital letters.
posted by Jalliah at 9:01 PM on February 3, 2017 [64 favorites]

Piping up on state-level protests: I am still pissed at Texas over SB4, except now I have the focus and breathing room to bring you all some details about what I've been screaming about for the last day and a half.

So Austin is currently unique among the sanctuary cities popping up nationwide in that we are easily the most visible city whose mayor is standing up.... while being located in a state with a hostile state government. And we have recently elected a Sheriff, Sally Hernandez, who ran on a platform of being welcoming to immigrants and keeping our city safe by not handing anyone over to ICE without a warrant. (That is, if you get arrested or taken to jail for anything, they won't hold you for ICE and hand you over when immigration services get there, which is a common thing that happens nationwide.) The definition of what a sanctuary city actually is is a little sketchy, but while Houston and the DFW are also making noises in that direction (particularly Houston), Austin is easily the loudest city and the most adamant about not voluntarily complying with federal ICE programs unless absolutely mandated to.

This is not a popular opinion with the State of Texas, and the Governor's Office is hellbent on making an example of Austin. So Governor Abbott acted a few days ago to cut about 1.5 million in grants to our criminal justice departments to protest Sheriff Hernandez' policies of not voluntarily complying with ICE unless they go get a warrant and request folks' release to her, ostensibly in the belief that this would hurt the Sheriff.

Unfortunately for him, the specific budget he cut goes to programs... supporting veterans with combat-related psych damage, helping support families in the CPS docket by trying to improve marginal parents so that families can stay together (and children don't have to go into an often problematic and badly underfunded foster care system), supporting domestic violence victims, supporting traumatized teenagers, and programs that reduce DWIs and repeated drug offenses. I shit you not. So it's not really stuff that directly interferes with Sheriff Hernandez' ability to keep peace, but I think Austin would really also rather not let its veterans, battered families, and families under stress go unsupported.

Now, SB4, the bill that just passed the first hurdle to the state Senate (but not the House), is an attempt to squeeze the city harder and make an example of us so Houston--nearly as mad as we are, actually--doesn't follow our lead. Or DFW, for that matter, which is also becoming angrier and angrier. It would provide an avenue to cut off more funds to our city, since the governor can only by himself cut off funds that are distributed via the governor's office. When UT Austin (among other Texan public campuses) protested and demanded loudly to declare ourselves a sanctuary campus, the Legislature added language to the bills explicitly targeting college campuses as well as local county criminal justice departments.

Yesterday, after calls from the ACLU and other groups, people came to the Capitol from all over Texas to protest and register their support against the bill, either with oral testimony or just registering their position. (You had to turn up in person to register an opinion, but it was fairly easy to do on lunch break if you could, which many Austinites did.) Here's a piece from El Paso; here's one from Dallas, and I saw a whole bunch of people who specifically mentioned being from Houston which I liveblogged here the other day, not to mention all the people from other corners of this enormous state. For the record, El Paso is an eight-hour drive from Austin. Dallas and Houston are each about three hours away by car.

In response, instead of rolling over and showing their bellies, our city--and our beloved federal house rep Lloyd Doggett, who has been marching with folks in protest; plus several of our state reps and state senators and our mayor--our city has stood up to look after its own. One of our State House representatives, Eddie Rodriguez, has set up a fund for us so that we can collectively chip in to make up the budgetary difference if the governor tries to starve us out in a long siege. If you folks want to stand with us, well, no one's demanding that only Austinites chip in.

So that is what I am signal boosting on.
posted by sciatrix at 9:03 PM on February 3, 2017 [96 favorites]

People, I beseech you:

Customs and
Border
Patrol

CBP, Cee Bee Pee
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:05 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Yeah, Iran really is a huge sponsor of terrorism. Just because someone in Trump's administration says something doesn't automatically mean it's a lie. Though it is true we should assume so unless there is evidence to the contrary.

Well, Iran's position is that it supports Shia minorities in a region where Saudi Arabia's wastrel princelings are shovelling money towards converting every Sunni majority state into a facsimile of Saudi Arabia. It's all a shitshow.
posted by holgate at 9:07 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

<pedant mode="lunatic">The agency is called "Customs and Border Protection," but the acronym is the same either way (and the Border Patrol is an agency within CBP)</pedant>
posted by zachlipton at 9:09 PM on February 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

If I had any talent I would photoshop it so it looks like Goering is whispering this to Hess at Nuremberg

Here you go

I love you Greg Nog
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 9:10 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

People, I beseech you:

Customs and
Border
Patrol

CBP, Cee Bee Pee

I'm sorry. I don't know why I keep writing it wrong. It's stuck in my brain as CPB for some reason.
posted by Jalliah at 9:10 PM on February 3, 2017

The agency is called "Customs and Border Protection," but the acronym is the same either way (and the Border Patrol is an agency within CBP)

You have a valid point, but we probably should split into two factions and battle each other to the death just because
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:10 PM on February 3, 2017 [32 favorites]

These threads are moving too damn fast for my attempts at self-care, so a coupla things:

Re: Vitter:

The aforementioned David Vitter survived being widely mocked as "Diaper Dave" for an alleged fetish for roleplaying as a baby with prostitutes, so nah, that sort of thing doesn't seem to be a problem.

This is true up until a few months ago - by which time Diaper Dave was so tainted by association with Bobby Jindal's breathtakingly shameful corruption (something you really have to try hard to beat in Louisiana) that he was destroyed by Democratic candidate John Bell Edwards.

Re: Abortion Underground Railroad:

The National Network of Abortion Funds is a thing that exists and you should support them because they've been in the fight for YEARS. We already have basically a form of an aboveboard Underground Railroad for abortion access in many parts of the country. It's not unheard of for women in many parts of the country to have to travel hundreds of miles from home RIGHT NOW. And if Roe is overturned (which again, in many parts of the country would simply be a formality, because abortion is so difficult to access as it is in large parts of America), I expect groups like Women on Web to become even more of a resource to American women the way they are to women in Ireland and Latin America.
posted by mostly vowels at 9:11 PM on February 3, 2017 [26 favorites]

I am in favor of a Muslim Quiz. It has one question: Can you explain the differences between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims? And if you can't answer it, you don't get to make decisions that affect Muslims.
posted by Bringer Tom at 9:11 PM on February 3, 2017 [65 favorites]

The main newspaper in South Carolina had a "what is a Catholic?" explainer when Vincent Sheheen ran for governor against Nikki Haley (who got a "what is a Sikh?" explainer, though she's now a Methodist) so I'm not hopeful on the Sunni/Shia divide having much purchase in the US.
posted by holgate at 9:17 PM on February 3, 2017

This is true up until a few months ago - by which time Diaper Dave was so tainted by association with Bobby Jindal's breathtakingly shameful corruption (something you really have to try hard to beat in Louisiana) that he was destroyed by Democratic candidate John Bell Edwards.

Yes, I was here to joyously pull the lever for JBE. But JBE didn't win because of the diapers, he won because Bobby Jindal was such a fuckup, and Vitter had hitched his wagon to Jindal in a pretty major way.
posted by Bringer Tom at 9:19 PM on February 3, 2017

The worst, most terrible things that the United States has done have almost never happened through an assault on American institutions; they’ve always happened through American institutions and practices.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:21 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

So, on to the practical. First targets will be foreign muslims, then muslims with some status of residency. Simultaneously working on voters suppression which will target the black community, in particular . Pressure and fear on the Hispanic community again starting with those with unsure residency working up to those with established citizen status. LGBLQT will be competing amongst the various Trump stakeholders for where in the oppression queue they will be but in the queue they will be. I assume Jews will be a target in such a manner that they will start fleeing the country, preferably Israel to satisfy the requirements of the end times. Eventually, it will be the turn of "heretical" Christians. I assume the Mormons will be part of that. Maybe, just force the Mormons to only reside in Utah like a very large reservation. In each stage you you will have your quislings, your population who believes in the Lord of the Flies fantasy that they are going to be the winners if they were just not held back by the weak in the society. If only the winner in them could be unleashed. If only there was opportunity to convert their coveting of their neighbors' goods to concrete possession just like the earlier interments did for that generation.

Well Jefferson was right, the tree of liberty does need its blood offerings. Make no mistake, you will need to be strong, fierce and not concede anything.

You can talk all the outreach you want, but if you still support Trump I assume that you want me and mine burnt out. I will frame it for the conservatives, I view you as thieves of my body, my rule of law abiding freedoms and eventually the lives of my children. It is existential now.
posted by jadepearl at 9:21 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Can we not with the kinkshaming? I've answered asks from people ashamed of their ageplay fetish right here on AskMe. Being into diapers is about the least dangerous obsession I've noticed in any current Republican legislators. Similarly, the rest of the Russian pee scandal, once you take it past Trump himself. I'd like to see more people with elaborate kinks run for office, tbh.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:23 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

Backchannel: Here’s Exactly How the Internet Is Now Under Threat: "Obama’s FCC head Tom Wheeler talks candidly about the open internet — and why, in Trumpworld, four companies could lock it up." It's a good interview and worth reading, but I'll pull this quote in particular:

Networks have always been crucial and broadband networks will define the 21st century. How we connect defines who we are both commercially and culturally. Whether or not those networks are going to be controlled on a gateway basis by essentially four companies is an existential question for American commerce and culture. I am worried about what that future looks like.

What is amazing to me is how the Commission and seemingly Congress want to do things on behalf of these four companies, things that will have an impact on tens of thousands of other companies and millions of consumers. I just don’t think the debate has gotten to the point where people recognize this. We’re talking about fewer than half a dozen companies here.

posted by zachlipton at 9:31 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

It's not about the kink, it's about the hypocrisy. In the same way it's never about the crime, it's about the cover-up.
posted by yhbc at 9:32 PM on February 3, 2017 [24 favorites]

Fair enough. But I feel like people's sexual lives are The Thing they really worry about being doxxed with, beyond the simple disclosure of their name and address, etc. It might be good to just learn to Not Fucking Care, as a body politic. As it were.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:34 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

I agree sunffleupagus, but on the other hand I don't care if trump goes down because we found out he chews his fingernails or drinks milk out of the carton. Whatever works.
posted by ian1977 at 9:37 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Can we not with the kinkshaming?

It's not shameful if you're not a Republican shaming other people for similar things.
posted by Bringer Tom at 9:38 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Cee Bee Pee

If it helps as a mnemonic:

See Bee pee.
Pee, Bee, pee.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 9:39 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

To me it's not so much kinkshaming because Vitter's public persona is so opposed to kink. That's where the humor in pointing it out is, not in the practice itself. Hell, now that I'm looking him up I wonder if he was so party-line pro-gun, pro-life, anti-SSM, etc. exactly because the party knew. He scared up some popularity and had to ride the team bus all the way through.

Yeah, Vitter is a lousy example, unfortunately. But I do often wonder how many people who would make great pols rule it out over the (fully consensual) sexual skeletons in their closet. And there is undeniably a certain delight evident in exposure of this sort of thing, even in these parts, once people feel authorized by hypocrisy, that's obviously more titillation than righteousness.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:39 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's not shameful if you're not a Republican shaming other people for similar things.

That's going to be a hell of an acronym to remember.
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:41 PM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

It's not shameful if you're not a Republican shaming other people for similar things.

Oh, please. Show me all of the openly kinky Democratic legislators.

This is mostly a derail, but it's worth thinking about a little as we scour the earth for new candidates etc.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:42 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Matt Shuham at Talking Points Memo: “PPP Poll: Forty Percent Of Voters Would Support Impeaching Trump” (No doubt these results should be consumed with pounds of salt.)
posted by Going To Maine at 9:43 PM on February 3, 2017

(fully consensual) sexual skeletons in their closet

Let's be realistic, it's going to be a long time before this country accepts ossiphiles.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 9:43 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

BUTT NOZZLE
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 9:45 PM on February 3, 2017 [10 favorites]

The person who made that website is the hero we need.
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:48 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

In the matter of whether to impeach or invoke the 25th, Sarah Silverman has presented an interesting third way.
posted by saysthis at 9:50 PM on February 3, 2017

Oh, please. Show me all of the openly kinky Democratic legislators.

Show me the non-kinky Republican legislators. Nobody does shit to them when the prostitutes whose little black books had their names therein said they wear diapers but our guys resign because of some texts.
posted by Bringer Tom at 9:53 PM on February 3, 2017

In the matter of whether to impeach or invoke the 25th, Sarah Silverman has presented an interesting third way.

That's not interesting, that's insane.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:53 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

It's not about the kink, it's about the hypocrisy. In the same way it's never about the crime, it's about the cover-up.

Yes yes yes to infinity and beyond.
posted by futz at 9:54 PM on February 3, 2017

Oh, please. Show me all of the openly kinky Democratic legislators.

Show me the non-kinky Republican legislators. Nobody does shit to them when the prostitutes whose little black books had their names therein said they wear diapers but our guys resign because of some texts.

I mean.....that's the first time I've heard anyone suggest the Dems are less tolerant of kink than the GOP but.......maybe?

mindblown.gif
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:56 PM on February 3, 2017

Oh, I think there are some other angles you can approach that from.
posted by Artw at 9:57 PM on February 3, 2017

We all know the the Republicans are less tolerant of kink than the Democrats. What this administration presupposes is... maybe they aren't?
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:58 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

I've had too much bourbon for subtlety.

this is my new credo
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:58 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

snuffle, it's not that the Dems are less tolerant but that the political climate is less tolerant; it's yet another version of IOKIYAR ("It's Ok If You Are A Republican").
posted by Bringer Tom at 9:59 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Well, I'll buy that. It seems to be the law of the land.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:59 PM on February 3, 2017

In the matter of whether to impeach or invoke the 25th, Sarah Silverman has presented an interesting third way.

That's not interesting, that's insane.

That's the third best plan, but if it comes to that I'm in. It's insane. These are insane times.
posted by bongo_x at 10:05 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

No. That's the failure of the rule of law and exactly what the worst elements of the administration want, beyond control of the government.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:07 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I just described IOKIYAR to someone today, and she hadn't been introduced to it before. Of course, she was contrasting Melania and Michelle, so IOKIYAW comes into play as well. She said she's happy to use either in the future, so I count that as a win.
posted by mollweide at 10:09 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

That's not interesting, that's insane.
posted by snuffleupagus at 1:53 PM on February 4 [2 favorites +] [!]

It is insane, true. I forgot Trumpquotes around "interesting".
posted by saysthis at 10:14 PM on February 3, 2017

JAPAN: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says his country is not devaluing the Yen and that he is prepared to explain monetary policy to Trump

We really shouldn't rely on twitter for news when we don't have to. He said he's prepared to explain Japan's monetary policy. There is no way a Japanese prime minister would ridicule the US president like that, even today.
posted by Coventry at 10:15 PM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

"So much for the tolerant left" is the mirror image of "it's okay if you're a Republican." They're so used to being exempted to every rule and being judged on "what's in their hearts" that being held to their actual words and deeds seems terribly cruel.
posted by RobotHero at 10:19 PM on February 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

CNN -- Mattis: US will defend Japanese islands claimed by China [video autoplays]

Not a policy change, but is resulting in the usual responses from China.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:48 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

"So much for the tolerant left"

I don't remember ever committing to the idea that anything at all is OK as long as someone wants to do it.
posted by thelonius at 11:14 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

What about Russia's claim?
posted by wobumingbai at 11:45 PM on February 3, 2017

What Russian claim?
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:49 PM on February 3, 2017

The Soviet Union conquered the Kuril Islands from Japan at the close of WWII, and Japan still claims some of them as the so-called "Northern Territories." Alongside the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, which are administered by Japan and claimed by China and Taiwan, and Dokdo/Takeshima, which is administered by South Korea and claimed by Japan, they're a typical Japanese nationalist bugaboo. Every now and then when the Liberal Democrats want to shore up support, they ask for the Kurils back, and Russia always says no, but it still doesn't stop the nationalists from getting all excited and saying "this time we're really getting them back, for real this time," because if there's one thing Japanese right-wing nationalists have in common with right-wing nationalists the world over, it's that they're gullible fucking morons.

/weeaboo
posted by J.K. Seazer at 12:09 AM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

Still, as far as I know, Russia asserts no claim over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands disputed between Japan and China (and the ROC). Is that wrong?
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:17 AM on February 4, 2017

No, you're right.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 12:24 AM on February 4, 2017

Cool. The whole situation is tense enough without that underlying it.
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:31 AM on February 4, 2017

Apropos of which:
If Trump’s Secret Strategy Is to Confuse All Sides in Ukraine, He Has [Daily Beast]
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:34 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Over 9.2 million sign for Obamacare amid Trump repeal push
posted by futz at 12:42 AM on February 4, 2017 [14 favorites]

Ben Swann, CBS Anchor Who Defended Pizzagate, Deletes Entire Social Media Presence
posted by futz at 12:47 AM on February 4, 2017 [12 favorites]

Gamblers are putting their money down on a Trump impeachment

Online betting site Paddy Power is offering odds as low as 2:1 that Trump will be impeached in his first term. That's cut in half from before his inauguration, when they stood at 4:1, Fast Company reports.

If you think Trump will be impeached in the first six months of his presidency, meanwhile, the site is offering 6:1 odds. For 2017, it's 7:1. They lengthen every year right up to 20:1 for an impeachment in 2020.

posted by sebastienbailard at 12:52 AM on February 4, 2017 [8 favorites]

Isn't that the same joint that paid out more than 1 million euro on a Hillary victory?
posted by moody cow at 12:57 AM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

[WA State] Attorney General Ferguson just tweeted: “No one is above the law — not even the President.”

Ironically, back when President Clinton was under scrutiny for his definition of the meaning of the word "is", his opponents used to declaim that all the time. I was trying to explain the situation to some European friends who were baffled at the furor over a politician's affair and the vehement justification that "no one is above the law." Because you see, their parents, or their grandparents, people within living memory, had experienced what is was like to live under certain laws created by certain governments. Now it's our turn.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 1:03 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

moody cow, do you know if they ended up paying out? I saw that they did a few weeks (???) before the election but I never looked past the headline and read an article about it. Seemed ass backwards at the time.
posted by futz at 1:06 AM on February 4, 2017

I believe they regularly pay out early to get in the news and further their brand, more of a stunt than a pure belief of the outcome.
posted by postagepaid at 1:10 AM on February 4, 2017

Bookmakers pay out over £800,000 on Hillary Clinton winning US election

Trump's shock win costs Paddy Power Betfair £5m

"“The one lesson that we have from this is that we should probably pay a little bit more attention to the money,” a Paddy Power spokesman said at the time."

Um. What?
posted by snuffleupagus at 1:11 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Right off the bat: America First, Portugal Second!
And a follow thru: FYI I'm drinking, probably why I'm commenting.

Also... in the post-Citizen United era, corporate cash is free speech, obvi, the real affront to free speech is paid protesting. These people will never stop trying to make us seem like scary provocateurs or ineffectual wimps; whichever it is in their interest to be is whatever we will be. I mean, what systems exist to make that not be so? Like, this is a legit question. I'm in my forties now, this has been going on at least as long as I've been aware of politics/news, which is since before I'm an adult. These people with their totally mature, transvaginal opinions have always been the minds that carry the day, vs us with our ridiculous love-thy-neighbor, pie-in-the-sky bunkum re: paying taxes and receiving benefits (which has never worked, anywhere, mind you). Until Obama, that is, he did shift the Overton window... thanks, Obama!

Which bring me to saudade, which brings me to Portugal (but not for another month..hope Americans are still allowed to travel come March) America First, Portugal second!
posted by mllm at 1:15 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

One deleted; hey honestly sorry you have shitty neighbors, but let's leave off offensive hurtful stuff people say here. Thanks.
posted by taz (staff) at 1:44 AM on February 4, 2017

"So much for the tolerant left"

I don't remember ever committing to the idea that anything at all is OK as long as someone wants to do it.

Ok, I think I can translate from Republican. Republicans assume Liberals are tolerant of literally anything because we don't have a problem with buttsex. And everyone knows buttsex is the literal worst thing that anyone could ever do because it's, like, Devilsex. So if we can put up with people having buttsex without complaining, then they just can't imagine how something like their petty financial hustles and gutting of the Constitution would get us upset.
posted by threeturtles at 2:11 AM on February 4, 2017 [36 favorites]

I think it's just because they're intolerant and think we're being insincere when we say we are so anytime they see us get angry at a racist it affirms their mistaken belief in our hypocrisy.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:18 AM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

pierce it...
posted by Namlit at 3:08 AM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

No way to search on mobile, so do forgive if it's been posted before: John Berger's 2011 essay Fellow Prisoners is so worth a read right now. (There's also a video of him reading it.)

So I wonder whether there aren’t other measures, equally uncoded yet precise, by which we calculate other givens. For example, the amount of circumstantial freedom existing in a certain situation, its extent and its strict limits. Prisoners become experts at this. They develop a particular sensitivity toward liberty, not as a principle, but as a granular substance. They spot fragments of liberty almost immediately whenever they occur.

On an ordinary day, when nothing is happening and the crises announced hourly are the old familiar ones—and the politicians are declaring yet again that without them there would be catastrophe—people as they pass one another exchange glances, and some of their glances check whether the others are envisaging the same thing when they say to themselves, So this is life!
Often they are envisaging the same thing and in this primary sharing there is a kind of solidarity before anything further has been said or discussed.

I’m searching for words to describe the period of history we’re living through. To say it’s unprecedented means little because all periods were unprecedented since history was first discovered.

I’m not searching for a complex definition [...] I’m looking for nothing more than a figurative image to serve as a landmark. Landmarks don’t fully explain themselves, but they offer a reference point that can be shared. In this they are like the tacit assumptions contained in popular proverbs. Without landmarks there is the great human risk of turning in circles.

The landmark I’ve found is that of prison. Nothing less. Across the planet we are living in a prison. [...]

What kind of prison? How is it constructed? Where is it situated? Or am I only using the word as a figure of speech?

No, it’s not a metaphor, the imprisonment is real, but to describe it one has to think historically.

His exploration of this thought shines a number of lights. (Berger passed away a month ago, so this feels like a timely last gift.)
posted by progosk at 3:33 AM on February 4, 2017 [18 favorites]

Isn't that the same joint that paid out more than 1 million euro on a Hillary victory?

Yes it is the same company who spends millions on global marketing campaigns in the guise of free publicity for "paying out early". This time they actually had a second bite at the cherry when Trump won.
posted by fullerine at 3:38 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

"So much for the tolerant left"

My own take is the extraordinarily thin skin of the extreme right wing, the bully's right to hurt, but not be hurt in return.

The superstars of the alt-right, i.e. the fucking nazis, specialize in this. They feel like everyone is a target, because, you know, inferiors and all, and how dare they get criticized in return by their lessers.

So yeah, fuck 'em.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 4:40 AM on February 4, 2017 [19 favorites]

WaPo: The White House-Cabinet battle over Trump’s immigration order: White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon wanted to stop Kelly in his tracks. Bannon paid a personal and unscheduled visit to Kelly’s Department of Homeland Security office to deliver an order: Don’t issue the waiver. Kelly, according to two administration officials familiar with the confrontation, refused to comply with Bannon’s instruction. That was the beginning of a weekend of negotiations among senior Trump administration staffers that led, on Sunday, to a decision by Trump to temporarily freeze the issuance of executive orders.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:42 AM on February 4, 2017 [24 favorites]

My own take is the extraordinarily thin skin of the extreme right wing, the bully's right to hurt, but not be hurt in return.

Yes. Also, please do more drawings.
posted by adamgreenfield at 4:52 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

The only ray of sunshine in the whole President Trump shitshow is this (as illustrated in the Washpost article quoted above)- that Bannon's shit and Trumps, isn't flying with the real grownups and they're holding them to, you know, workmanlike standards of governance. Hopefully, sooner rather than later, Bannon will shoot himself in the leg badly enough that he'll have to retire, and then Trump will start to fail with the aplomb we all know he is capable of.
posted by From Bklyn at 5:01 AM on February 4, 2017 [19 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump

Interesting that certain Middle-Eastern countries agree with the ban. They know if certain people are allowed in it's death & destruction!

Certain countries and certain people. Open use of "ban."

ETA: this just in:

@realDonaldTrump

The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!

just casually destorying the judicial branch over his frosted flakes this morning.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:10 AM on February 4, 2017 [45 favorites]

"So called judge" James Robart was appointed by George W. Bush. :)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:25 AM on February 4, 2017 [21 favorites]

"So much for the tolerant left"

Intolerance is intolerable. Is that so hard to grasp? The intolerant - well, maybe there's hope for them and it's dangerous to assume otherwise, but hate the sin, not the sinner.

Talking of which, I'd be surprised if the kited LBGT EO wasn't shelved because someone realised that the third - and doubtless largest - successive weekend of mass protests would have the potential to crystallise some serious momentum that might not be easy to damp down. LGBT and allies know how to fight. I don't know how that would have panned out, and I'm glad that this particular example of awfulness hasn't happened, but I'm not sure I like this administration learning survival skills.
posted by Devonian at 5:25 AM on February 4, 2017 [20 favorites]

Talking of which, I'd be surprised if the kited LBGT EO wasn't shelved because someone realised that the third - and doubtless largest - successive weekend of mass protests would have the potential to crystallise some serious momentum that might not be easy to damp down. LGBT and allies know how to fight. I don't know how that would have panned out, and I'm glad that this particular example of awfulness hasn't happened, but I'm not sure I like this administration learning survival skills.

Word on the street is that they were going to do it but Ivanka and Jared talked them out of it.
posted by Jalliah at 5:38 AM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

And he just tweeted about the NYT again. He is really obsessed with them.
posted by Jalliah at 5:42 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

He's cranky at the NYT. Any guess about what he's reacting to?

@realLordDampnut

After being forced to apologize for its bad and inaccurate coverage of me after winning the election, the FAKE NEWS @nytimes is still lost!
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:43 AM on February 4, 2017

DJT's "management " style is to pit his various managers against each other to battle for his attention and favoritism. This is not a great way to run either a business or a country unless you have a firm grasp on all the details and a clear vision of what you want to accomplish. Obviously DJT has neither of those two things.

It's becoming clear that the advice from Kushner, Bannon, and Priebus is creating fractions rather than unity which is good news for us. How their various appointment recommendations work against each other will be very interesting and unpredictable, especially since we know DJT is incapable of focusing for any length of time. He is also weak on the parameters of his position and seems open to suggestions that he is legally entitled to act as he pleases. Ultimately his ignorance will be his downfall.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:46 AM on February 4, 2017 [25 favorites]

He's cranky at the NYT. Any guess about what he's reacting to?

Ha. I just went to look. There doesn't seem to be much but I don't know how different the paper edition is from the online one. There is a story about him still be closely tied to his business empire that might piss him off but I have the feeling that if it's the paper edition it might be the picture on the front page. On the NY and National edition there is a picture of Muslims praying at a protest in JFK, right beside the article about the court ruling.
posted by Jalliah at 5:50 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Jim Acosta, CNN, on Twitter:

@Acosta
New CNN/ORC POLL: Favor Building a Wall Along the Entire Border with Mexico
Now 38% / Sept. 2016 41% / Sept. 2015 52%

Nice trend
posted by slipthought at 5:52 AM on February 4, 2017 [28 favorites]

It's becoming clear that the advice from Kushner, Bannon, and Priebus is creating fractions rather than unity which is good news for us. How their various appointment recommendations work against each other will be very interesting and unpredictable, especially since we know DJT is incapable of focusing for any length of time. He is also weak on the parameters of his position and seems open to suggestions that he is legally entitled to act as he pleases. Ultimately his ignorance will be his downfall.

I agree with this except I think his own default position is that he can legally do what he pleases and the people around him either agree and use it or are having to tell him no. It doesn't have to be suggested just supported.
posted by Jalliah at 5:54 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Orrin Hatch's voicemail was full so a constituent sent a pizza

Also, a follow-up on a post I made in the last thread. The local Syrian family prevented from re-uniting -- after a 2 year absence -- due to the EO are now reunited thanks to both state Senators and at least one local immigration lawyer.
posted by birdheist at 6:06 AM on February 4, 2017 [27 favorites]

"So much for the tolerant left"

This is the epitome of doublespeak: there is nothing tolerant in fact about enabling intolerance. But if you play around with the words just right, you can make this feel like a legitimate point, despite the contradiction built into it. But liberalism has never demanded tolerance for intolerance. That's nonsense.
posted by saulgoodman at 6:07 AM on February 4, 2017 [11 favorites]

From "Ben Swann, CBS Anchor Who Defended Pizzagate, Deletes Entire Social Media Presence" just above, from the previously disgust "Heat St." right-jumping blog(?)

The formerly outspoken Swann gave up a lot. He had a sizable following on multiple platforms, with 75,000 Twitter followers and 427,000 likes on his Facebook page. He also deleted his website and cancelled his upcoming independent investigative project in which he planned to look into the US government’s connection with the creation of ISIS.

Wow, he threw away almost 400k Likes. Clearly a man of the Ollie North "Spill some Constitutional Milk" school.

*removes hat, .*

Theonetical question, where do likes go when they get deleted?
posted by petebest at 6:10 AM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

I don't know if the meaning of 'So much for the tolerant left' has evolved. Back in the day when spat back at issues I was working on it was seen as a clever and major 'gotcha'. Nothing much more complicated then 'you bleeding heart libs are always bleating on about how we should love and tolerate all sorts of different people (and you think you're so superior in doing so) and look you actually don't. Bunch of hypocrites. '

It's just them trying to 'gotcha' with what they think the left/liberal believe and say.
posted by Jalliah at 6:17 AM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

Hopefully, sooner rather than later, Bannon will shoot himself in the leg badly enough that he'll have to retire.

Not that Bannon is on the way out anytime soon, but the thing that gives me a bit of hope (besides the fact that he has no idea whatsoever how to do government work) is that he has not one friend or supporter in the District of Columbia, including Trump, who really doesn't have friends at all.

He's fucking offensive to all the professional people with actual expertise, he makes most of the Congress want to vomit -- and even the hard-right neo-cons and money folks surely regard him as Not One of Our People. He, like Trump, is a useful tool, and if he does get in trouble, the knives will come out, and nobody will help him.
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:20 AM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!

This judge could easily slap a contempt order on him.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:20 AM on February 4, 2017 [25 favorites]

Theonetical question, where do likes go when they get deleted?

I don't know but maybe his fans can figure it out. I looked up that article and some of his fans think that that he was sending them secret messages in his farewell posts.
posted by Jalliah at 6:21 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Jalliah: "And he just tweeted about the NYT again. He is really obsessed with them."

I feel like I should subscribe to them just to help them piss him off. I've been pissed off at them myself for years over the Iraq War cheerleading but I'm willing to support them just to keep needling the big orange baby.
posted by octothorpe at 6:22 AM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

Does anyone seriously doubt that members of congress and other elected officials are a lot kinkier than average, per capita? All those power-hungry narcissistic personalities who pursue the upper levels of elective office as a prize surely keep dozens of dominatrixes employed just in Washington DC.

As always, hypocrisy rises.
posted by spitbull at 6:22 AM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

I keep reading headlines like "House passed contraversal puppy euthanasia act." Is there's some place to get ahead of the legislative agenda before the Sending Our Furry Friends to Heaven Act becomes a done deal?
posted by shothotbot at 6:24 AM on February 4, 2017

I feel like I should subscribe to them just to help them piss him off. I've been pissed off at them myself for years over the Iraq War cheerleading but I'm willing to support them just to keep needling the big orange baby.

I subscribed during the election. This is one of the reasons I decided to keep it afterwards. I have problems with what they've done, but they aren't all bad and they one of Donald's nemesis. Plus the deal I got is only 4 dollars a month for a year so it's not bank breaking.
posted by Jalliah at 6:25 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

This judge could easily slap a contempt order on him.

Yeah, "so-called judge" is a breathtakingly ill-advised thing to say, even for Trump. But why would we expect a guy who tries to tear down the legitimacy of elections to respect the legitimacy of the judicial branch? Even the Republican lickspittles have to be uneasy hearing shit like that.
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:25 AM on February 4, 2017 [13 favorites]

a lot kinkier than average, per capita? A

Power is an aphrodisiac - I'm no fan of evolutionary psychology, but that would seem to me to be fairly standard primate dominance stuff. But I doubt politicians are inherently more kinky than 'average', given my observations of kink levels in the field: they're just in a more licentious environment. And the stakes are higher, which some relish.
posted by Devonian at 6:28 AM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

That was the beginning of a weekend of negotiations among senior Trump administration staffers that led, on Sunday, to a decision by Trump to temporarily freeze the issuance of executive orders.

"...until we can figure out what the hell is going on."

It's recursive stupidity.
posted by indubitable at 6:29 AM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

"So much for the tolerant left"

You know, can I say how much I dislike the word tolerate in this context anyhow?

By definition: to tolerate is to
: to allow (something that is bad, unpleasant, etc.) to exist, happen, or be done
: to experience (something harmful or unpleasant) without being harmed
: to accept the feelings, behavior, or beliefs of (someone)

The word tolerant carries a connotation of an inherent disagreement or disapproval, and I don't think that's how the majority of decent folk feel about other folk of a different persuasion. There isn't anything to tolerate about a gay person or person of a different ethnic or religious background.
posted by slipthought at 6:30 AM on February 4, 2017 [24 favorites]

"...until we can figure out what the hell is going on."

So forever, basically.
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:31 AM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

Weird stuff in this AP article:

According to one U.S. official, national security aides have sought information about Polish incursions in Belarus, an eyebrow-raising request because little evidence of such activities appears to exist. Poland is among the Eastern European nations worried about Trump's friendlier tone on Russia.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:33 AM on February 4, 2017 [11 favorites]

I don't know, I wonder if the idea that powerful people want to compensate by being dominated etc isn't one of those just-so folk psychology stories, that people are so fond of. Also there may be a bias effect from this: who shows up to pay lots of money to the kind of pro dommes who get interviewed in the media? People who make a lot of money, a lot of whom probably are stressed as hell from having to act all kill-what-you-eat toxic masculine authority figure all the time. So that may color the sample, for one kind of source at least.
posted by thelonius at 6:35 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Interesting that certain Middle-Eastern countries agree with the ban. They know if certain people are allowed in it's death & destruction!

Certain countries and certain people. Open use of "ban."

*pictures Spicey's reaction*

*smiles*
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:35 AM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

Weird stuff in this AP article:

demoralization by misinformation.

remember, russia wants belarus, trump wants no nato.
posted by xcasex at 6:37 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Guys I think he's short-circuiting.

@realDonaldTrump

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:40 AM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

remember, russia wants belarus

Wow, that is not even wrong.
posted by indubitable at 6:42 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Similarly, the rest of the Russian pee scandal, once you take it past Trump himself.

It's not clear to me whether Trump saw it as a fetish or as disrespect. The latter scares me far more than the former.

Relatedly, Michelle Obama's garden is going to be destroyed, and it makes me so so sad.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 6:42 AM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

Guys I think he's short-circuiting.

Seems like he's not a happy camper.
posted by Jalliah at 6:44 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yeah, "so-called judge" is a breathtakingly ill-advised thing to say, even for Trump.

Very ill-advised, but Trump isn't a person who takes advice. The key to understanding Trumpspeak is that Trump does not see language as a tool for conveying information at all; he sees language as a tool for manipulation. Trump sees people as balances, and if you load up the right pan with enough words the needle will move and the people will do shit for you.

So yeah, "so-called judge" is an insane thing to say in any rational analysis, but all Trump sees is that the so-called judge did something that loads up the wrong balance pans and he's loading up the other side as much as he can. The only concern he has is whether he can load up the other pans enough. The idea that anything he says might have any other effect in the world at large is completely alien to him.

And he most likely thinks that when other people say and do things it's for the same reason, without regard to irrelevant things like reality or truth. So the judge has earned his ire because to Trump his ruling is a personal attack, an act of word-war. The idea that it might have been the result of a rational analysis of something real, like the Constitution, simply does not make sense to him.
posted by Bringer Tom at 6:44 AM on February 4, 2017 [59 favorites]

Florida heroin bust reveals something bizarre: Drugs covered in [Lord Dampnut]’s face

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, addressing the media at the Hernando County Emergency Operations Center on Friday, was not amused, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

“All I want to say to this drug dealer is, ‘Big mistake by putting the president’s picture on this,’ ” said Bondi. “Big mistake. Because he is going to be our most fierce advocate in taking this junk off of our streets. Can you believe this? Big mistake.”

She added: “I’m going to make sure [Dampnut] gets one of these packages when the case is all over to put in the Oval Office to remind him of all the good he’s doing.”

Bondi found herself at the center of a controversy during the presidential campaign last year, when it emerged that [Dampnut] had failed to disclose an improper $25,000 contribution to a political group connected to the Florida Republican, who was at the time considering whether to open a fraud investigation against [Dampnut] University.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:45 AM on February 4, 2017 [11 favorites]

The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!

This judge could easily slap a contempt order on him.

If that didn't happen when he was a private citizen impugning the impartiality of a Federal judge on the basis of race, it's not going to happen to a sitting President. Plus, these assholes would probably appeal it all the way up as a political question and it becomes one more attention eating side-show.

Better to just let it linger, like a particularly noxious fart.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:51 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, addressing the media at the Hernando County Emergency Operations Center on Friday, was not amused, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

As a teenage floridian drug user in immediate Post 9/11 era, I recall a batch of nastiness going around called "Bin Laden". (Hey, you got any of that Bin Laden?). Sign of the times, I guess. Trump is the big disaster now.
posted by dis_integration at 6:51 AM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

Wow, that is not even wrong.

I dunno, it's not that first time I've heard that, and Lukashenko just spent 7½ hours ranting about the Russians.
posted by effbot at 6:53 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Seems like he's not a happy camper.

Jarivanka elsewhere observing the sabbath; first morning in a fortnight with Melancholia around.
posted by holgate at 6:55 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's not clear to me whether Trump saw it [pee scandal] as a fetish or as disrespect.

Oh it was most definitely about disrespect. Trump is a known germophobe; he has openly admitted this and even used it to ridicule the pee scandal accusation. But remember what the story said; it wasn't that Trump got peed on, it was the he paid two prostitutes to pee on each other on, significantly, a bed where the Obamas had recently slept.

Now for a sex-mad germophobe there is most likely a bit of cognitive dissonance about a messy physical act like coitus. So I would guess that the actual pleasure of sex for him is mostly visual, which would also explain his obsession with beauty pageants and physical appearance and dressing room invasions. Bill Maher may have gotten it exactly right when he said "this is about a man who has never brought a woman to orgasm." Once there are fluids involved I would guess Donnie wants to get it over as quickly as possible.

So the pee scandal would be about symbolically exposing the Obamas to something Trump himself loathes as an act of dominance. Trump would take his pleasure the way he takes it best, by watching from a distance.
posted by Bringer Tom at 6:59 AM on February 4, 2017 [17 favorites]

Guys I think he's short-circuiting.

@realDonaldTrump

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Is he at Mar-Lago now? I keep imagining him sitting in which up until now probably felt like a 'safe-space' and he's realizing he can't get away from it all no matter what he does or where he goes. He wakes up and it's all still there. "Why is this not working like it should? Why is no one doing exactly what I want. Why don't people love me. They're supposed to love me." Then he freaks out in frustration and screams at the world.
posted by Jalliah at 7:00 AM on February 4, 2017 [24 favorites]

Then he freaks out in frustration and screams at the world.

“I personally wish that he had never run. I told him that,” [longtime friend Howard] Stern, 63, said. “Because I actually think this is something that is going to be very detrimental to his mental health, too. Because he wants to be liked, he wants to be loved, he wants people to cheer for him. I don’t think this is going to be a healthy experience for him.”

Via (Fox News, but not their usual fare)
posted by Bringer Tom at 7:09 AM on February 4, 2017 [36 favorites]

Somebody initiate the shutdown sequence so we can watch him tweet @dealRonaldFrump I CAN'T LET YOU DO THAT DAVE

@dealRonaldFrump DAISY DAISY GIVE ME YOUR ANSWER DO
posted by tel3path at 7:13 AM on February 4, 2017 [11 favorites]

Guys I think he's short-circuiting.

Hey, I've seen this cutscene before.

The key to understanding Trumpspeak is that Trump does not see language as a tool for conveying information at all; he sees language as a tool for manipulation.

This is, of course, true of the right in general at this point in history, and understanding this explains a lot of the things that the left routinely throw lulz parties about. "Liberal elites? But he lives in a golden palace!" Etc.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:16 AM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

Then he freaks out in frustration and screams at the world.

Then goes to take it out on some golf balls; the press pool is hanging out at the Denny's.
posted by holgate at 7:17 AM on February 4, 2017

...national security aides have sought information about Polish incursions in Belarus

Probably just want to take over a radio station.
posted by Devonian at 7:20 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Now for a sex-mad germophobe there is most likely a bit of cognitive dissonance about a messy physical act like coitus.

This would not be my preferred material for discussing kink in a vanilla forum, but -- American Psycho. Trump is exactly the kind of guy who wants to sit in the corner wearing a raincoat while he commands prostitutes to pee on symbolic things. (Sabrina, Christy, Huey Lewis and the News, etc....).

His germaphobia just makes it dirtier, and more humiliating for everyone but him. It fits with his misogyny, his desire to debase others, and belief he can pay people to do anything. There's really nothing particularly out-of-character about it at all.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:28 AM on February 4, 2017 [26 favorites]

I know these folk were there in December but I didn't know how many went. This article said 4,000. That's a lot.

Dakota Access Pipeline Fight: Veterans Vow It ‘Will Not Get Completed

A group of U.S. military veterans has vowed to block completion of the hotly disputed Dakota Access pipeline, despite the secretary of the Army giving the project the green light.

"We are committed to the people of Standing Rock, we are committed to nonviolence, and we will do everything within our power to ensure that the environment and human life are respected. That pipeline will not get completed. Not on our watch," said Anthony Diggs, a spokesman for Veterans Stand.

Diggs added that the group hopes to raise enough funds "to have a larger, solid boots-on-the-ground presence."
posted by Jalliah at 7:32 AM on February 4, 2017 [18 favorites]

Next para from that Fox News/Howard Stern thingy...

Stern went on to say that he believed Trump announced his plans to run [for president so as] to increase his money demands from NBC over “The Apprentice.”

I guess it seemed like a great plan at the time.
posted by Mister Bijou at 7:37 AM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

So called judge" James Robart was appointed by George W. Bush. :)

Who was confirmed by a Republican-majority Senate 99-0.
posted by chris24 at 7:40 AM on February 4, 2017 [21 favorites]

I agree with this except I think his own default position is that he can legally do what he pleases and the people around him either agree and use it or are having to tell him no. It doesn't have to be suggested just supported.
posted by Jalliah at 8:54 AM on February 4

That's why I said he is "open to suggestion." Maybe I should have put it as, "He is deaf to any suggestion that he is not all-powerful," or as he likes to put it, "The President can't have a conflict of interest." It puts his twitter war against Obama into perspective. How many times did he complain that Obama was weak? I really think he does not understand the parameters of his new job. I think he does not understand checks and balances. I think he does not understand the Constitution. Oh hell, I could sit here all day typing up this list but I should probably go do something constructive.

Guys I think he's short-circuiting.

I believe this will be our best chance of impeaching him-- if we continue to bait him, taunt him, curtail his power which will drive him visibly and noticeably insane to the point where even the Republican-controlled Congress has to take action.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:46 AM on February 4, 2017 [23 favorites]

New CNN/ORC POLL: Favor Building a Wall Along the Entire Border with Mexico
Now 38% / Sept. 2016 41% / Sept. 2015 52%

I think part of the drop in this ideas popularity is because of the decreasing popularity of Trump. If I understand the argument of Democracy for Realists, (explained here) for example, it is that the causality of support does not map support for a menu of policy choices onto a preference for a party, but runs the other way, I like the party so I support the policies associated with them. What I take away from that is that directly attacking Trump and saddling the GOP with his unpopularity is the way to avoid bad policy outcomes.
posted by shothotbot at 7:48 AM on February 4, 2017 [13 favorites]

So called judge" James Robart was appointed by George W. Bush. :)

Who was confirmed by a Republican-majority Senate 99-0.

Which would be far more comforting if most of these same chucklefucks hadn't also approved Garland (until they didn't).
posted by aspersioncast at 7:51 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

To be fair, he's a so-called president.
posted by spitbull at 7:54 AM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

No spitbull, I would argue that he is a so-called "President."
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:56 AM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

increase his money demands from NBC over “The Apprentice."

It explains his otherwise strange back and forth with Schwarzenegger this week. Trump is still executive producer on the show; the whole thing was designed to create more buzz. Grifters gotta grift.
posted by nubs at 7:57 AM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

I would "argue" that he is a "so-called" "President."
posted by Jalliah at 7:58 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

"I" would "argue" that scare quotes which tokenize a word (as such) as a concrete referent (as opposed to its ostensive referent in the world) are not necessary, because they are orthographically redundant, after the expression "so-called".
/"linguist"
posted by spitbull at 8:00 AM on February 4, 2017 [13 favorites]

""""""""""""""""""""
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 8:02 AM on February 4, 2017 [13 favorites]

Many people have been saying he's very overrated. Sad.
posted by Grangousier at 8:02 AM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

We need a campaign where we print out his tweets, "correct" them in red ink, and then mail them to him.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 8:03 AM on February 4, 2017 [11 favorites]

I can't wait til he starts using grocer's apostrophes. Or maybe he has already-- I'm not a Trump Tweetologist.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 8:06 AM on February 4, 2017

you bleeding heart libs are always bleating on about how we should love and tolerate all sorts of different people (and you think you're so superior in doing so) and look you actually don't. '

This is..actually a little more complex but actually hard.

You see, I feel, or have felt, like tolerance is a really, really important virtue. I don't know if it's because of my politics or because of religious beliefs or what, but whenever I haven't been able to tolerate someone because of their political beliefs it has felt like a moral failing.

And now we have people being actual Nazis, and people giving aid and comfort to Nazis. People I know, who have been dear and good friends to me, not just voting for Trump but full-throatedly endorsing certain kinds of people, because of political persuasion, being unworthy of existence.

And it's kind of been a crisis of faith for me. I spent a lot of yesterday calling people I know and talking out my moral dilemma, because on the one hand I hate, hate, Nazis, and on the other hand a driving principle has been, "once you are my deep friend, chosen family to me, you are safe, I will never forsake you." And I really do feel like 'brother turning against brother' is the quickest route to a Civil War. But at the same time, it just makes me so angry to wake up and see some horrible shit on my feeds and I'm not sure just responding to it with 'what the actual fuck' is enough.

I haven't been sleeping much, and this is part of it.
posted by corb at 8:06 AM on February 4, 2017 [53 favorites]

> Kelly, according to two administration officials familiar with the confrontation, refused to comply with Bannon’s instruction.

I find this fascinating. By legal statute, Steve Bannon has no authority to force anyone to do anything, being just an "assistant" and "chief strategist." If Bannon is delivering an order from Trump, that's a different story, but we don't know that to be the case -- "President Bannon" didn't materialize out of nowhere, and it's unclear how much Trump is involved in okaying specific tactical steps, especially ones from the Tony Soprano playbook.

But let's assume Trump is okay with jawboning his subordinates into taking clearly unconstitutional actions -- that's certainly not out of character. What does Trump do when Kelly tells him to piss up a rope? Forcing him out this early into the Presidency would be a PR nightmare, and since Trump hasn't bothered to fill many second-tier positions, the interim replacement is likely to feel the same way Kelly does.

Then he has to get yet another secretary confirmed -- more work for a President and administration that already have a lot of balls up in the air. And of course the confirmation hearings are going to focus on "hey, what are you going to do about this travel ban? At that point, I think even Republicans who are tired of their phone lines being flooded and just want to get back to the business of passing tax cuts for billionaires might start talking about blocking any nominee who would be far to Kelly's right on refugee/immigration policy.

Perhaps I'm being a bit optimistic here, but it does seem to me that the combination of the administration's lackadaisical approach to filling key positions and the fact that he nominated at least one or two that aren't rubber stamps for whatever neo-Nazi shit Steve Bannon wants to do could be a small glimmer of light in the darkness of the Trump era.
posted by tonycpsu at 8:13 AM on February 4, 2017 [12 favorites]

Relatedly, Michelle Obama's garden is going to be destroyed, and it makes me so so sad.

Do we know this or is this just an inference made from all the available evidence?
posted by dis_integration at 8:15 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

AP has a live-blog up of the State Department re-instating the visas and the airports opening back up to all travelers.

Oh, to be a fly in the room when Tillerson talked to the lawyers overnight.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:17 AM on February 4, 2017 [21 favorites]

Do we know this or is this just an inference made from all the available evidence?

I don't know, I just ran a google search and couldn't find anything. So maybe it won't be?

But I sincerely believe that these people would if they could, and I don't think they'd worry about the PR damage.
posted by suelac at 8:18 AM on February 4, 2017

it is that the causality of support does not map support for a menu of policy choices onto a preference for a party, but runs the other way

That's going to make the ACA stuff a big test, because you can map "hate Obamacare" as a product of "hate Obama", and we've seen plenty of sick people who want the exact same thing they currently have (ideally with lower premiums) but have it enacted by the orange menace.
posted by holgate at 8:19 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

We need a campaign where we print out his tweets, "correct" them in red ink, and then mail them to him.

I like printing out hypocritical tweets and mailing them as postcards to the tweeters. Like this lady did. If I still had printing connections, I'd be doing this in bulk.
posted by threeturtles at 8:21 AM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

more work for a President and administration that already have a lot of balls up in the air

You don't even want to know the immediate visual image I got from that. (But it would be pretty funny as a Phlegmco(tm) drawing.)
posted by taz at 8:24 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

So I have a question for y'all educated folks. What is different about this Washington Court order that it's being followed when all the myriad previous ones were seemingly ignored? I mean the State Department just reinstated all the visas they had nullified, which is fantastic. But why NOW and not last weekend?
posted by threeturtles at 8:27 AM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

Perhaps I'm being a bit optimistic here, but it does seem to me that the combination of the administration's lackadaisical approach to filling key positions and the fact that he nominated at least one or two that aren't rubber stamps for whatever neo-Nazi shit Steve Bannon wants to do could be a small glimmer of light in the darkness of the Trump era.

The optimism I have comes from experience with people who charge in, emboldened by their power, play the consolidate power game that Bannon is doing, create chaos and piss people off right left and centre. It can work but it also can lead to intense blow back and backfire. I dunno if Bannon and it looks like Miller, are smart enough politically to navigate the blow back and hold on to what they have but it's possible they can't. They aren't doing themselves any favours that's for sure.

I would be a whole lot less optimistic of the situation if they were doing it all slowly, systematically and quietly staying out of the limelight.
posted by Jalliah at 8:28 AM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

Big shock, DeVos is propagating fraudulent graduation rates for virtual schools.
posted by tocts at 8:28 AM on February 4, 2017 [23 favorites]

I'm upset about Michelle Obama's garden -- I remember when they did a bunch of work to make it much harder to tear out. But the assholes are going to do it anyway, because gardens are evil? No, because anything the Obamas touched has to be burned to the ground.

Also, the Obamas offered Trump the swing/play set that Sasha & Malia had (from when they were little) so that Trump's grandchildren could play on it when they visited the White House. Trump didn't want it, so the Obama's donated it to a DC school.

Think how fucking petty that is, that you'd deny your grandchildren a swing set out of spite. I can't get out of my head how deeply twisted that is.
posted by bluecore at 8:33 AM on February 4, 2017 [61 favorites]

threeturtles,the EDNY Order, if I remember correctly, ONLY stated that people could not be deported. That's why there was a lot of confusion about whether people could still be detained. I believe the Massachusetts Order might have stated that people couldn't be detained either. The Washington Order was responding to a motion for a TRO on the whole EO. The EDNY judge, at least, didn't respond to the parts of the ACLU suit that addressed the whole EO. (IANAL)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:33 AM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

Then goes to take it out on some golf balls; the press pool is hanging out at the Denny's.

TooJay's, please. If you've been on the Mar-a-Lago beat long enough, presumably you at least know how to feed yourself properly.
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:39 AM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

The optimism I have comes from experience with people who charge in, emboldened by their power, play the consolidate power game that Bannon is doing, create chaos and piss people off right left and centre. It can work but it also can lead to intense blow back and backfire.

A.k.a. every one of my Crusader Kings campaigns.

If I can indulge in a brief moment of culture war pettiness, I would like to point out that the two highest-profile alt-right boycotts resulted in two massively successful blockbuster movies, while the equivalent fit of pique from the left resulted in this (from AP's breaking news thing, linked above):

"Uber CEO Travis Kalanick says his company is buying plane tickets for stranded drivers now that a federal judge has put a hold on President Trump's ban on travel to the United States by migrants from seven Muslim-majority countries."

A company is chastened not only into not doing the bad thing but into actually doing something good to make up for it.

Meanwhile, the more sustained and organised campaign for DAPL divestment has resulted in things like the city of Seattle cutting its ties to Wells Fargo.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:39 AM on February 4, 2017 [27 favorites]

Think how fucking petty that is, that you'd deny your grandchildren a swing set out of spite. I can't get out of my head how deeply twisted that is.

Hard to know whether this is because it has The Taint or because Fuck Swingsets and Fuck Fun and Fuck You, Kids. Literally, get off my lawn.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:40 AM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

I think this might be the best explanation for the weird quotes. He uses them when he wishes he could say something nastier.

@EmmyA2
ever notice how Trump seems to use words in quotations when he really wants to say a racist slur? [images]

Examples:
- We must keep "evil" out of our country
- If the ban were announced with a one week notice, the "bad" would rush into our country during that week. A lot of bad "dudes" out there!

---

You can even extrapolate to other tweets that don't line up perfectly:

- If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!

"Carnage" - black slurs are doing bad black slur things

- Iran is playing with fire - they don't appreciate how "kind" President Obama was to them. Not me!

"Kind" - a black slur was being a gendered insult
posted by chris24 at 8:44 AM on February 4, 2017 [36 favorites]

Hard to know whether this is because it has The Taint or because Fuck Swingsets and Fuck Fun and Fuck You, Kids. Literally, get off my lawn.

Oh, I think we can be certain it's because of The Taint.
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:45 AM on February 4, 2017 [8 favorites]

Every victory over Trump is a good victory. Every time he loses it will become harder for him to defy the law later. These are early days now - what happens now will set a lot of the tone for what happens later.

We need to pray that Bannon can't magic up a terrorist attack on American soil. If he doesn't, and things go on like this, and people keep fighting, we might have a little chance.
posted by Frowner at 8:45 AM on February 4, 2017 [14 favorites]

Think how fucking petty that is, that you'd deny your grandchildren a swing set out of spite.

Are you sure? It could have not had enough gold leaf on it. Or was not Aluminum one could polish and then place an amber shellac on.
posted by rough ashlar at 8:50 AM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

place an amber shellac on.

shellac? surely a trump swing set would be yellow anodized.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 8:53 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

We need to pray that Bannon can't magic up a terrorist attack on American soil. If he doesn't, and things go on like this, and people keep fighting, we might have a little chance.

My main comfort here is the fact that for all the obsession with the alt-right and meme magic and so on, what actually threw the election to Trump was just garden-variety GOP ratfucking. Bannon's honestly not as smart as he wants everyone to think, he just managed to hitch himself to the right train.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:57 AM on February 4, 2017 [21 favorites]

We need to pray that Bannon can't magic up a terrorist attack on American soil. If he doesn't, and things go on like this, and people keep fighting, we might have a little chance.

We need to be ready to hold the PVL and his cronies responsible, should something horrible like that happen again. One of the biggest mistakes of this century was letting GWB off the hook for his role in gutting counter-terrorism and not listening to intelligence professionals who told him that airplanes would be hijacked and rammed into buildings.

If it happens again (and for so so many reasons I hope it does not), we have to make it stick that Republican presidencies are not capable of preventing terrorist attacks.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 8:58 AM on February 4, 2017 [13 favorites]

Sorry -- just to clarify, the garden is inference based on Trump's previous behavior.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 9:02 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm betting Trump has never personally set eyes on a swing set. They are things that nannies take brats to a park somewhere to play on; why would he ever have occasion to give a shit about any of that or for it even to be a blip on his radar?
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:03 AM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

I am worried that people are poised more than ever to accept the premise "the rule of law makes us less safe" next time a crisis rolls around, thanks to the last 15 years of papering over inconvenient obstacles to whatever military/LE wants to do.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:05 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

If it happens again (and for so so many reasons I hope it does not), we have to make it stick that Republican presidencies are not capable of preventing terrorist attacks.

Trump has consistently blamed George W. Bush for the 9/11 attacks.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:06 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

From the Guardian's story about JCC bomb threats. Does the syntax remind you of anyone?

This week, the Jewish Journal acquired audio of one of the calls received by an undisclosed JCC location. The caller, whose voice sounded as though it had been digitally altered, said the following:

“It’s a C-4 bomb with a lot of shrapnel, surrounded by a bag [inaudible]. In a short time, a large number of Jews are going to be slaughtered. Their heads are going to be blown off from the shrapnel. There’s a lot of shrapnel.

“There’s going to be a bloodbath that’s going to take place in a short time. I think I told you enough. I must go.”

There's a lot of shrapnel. The best shrapnel, believe me.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:10 AM on February 4, 2017 [15 favorites]

Fox News and MSNBC are hiking ad rates for shows Trump is known to watch
posted by argonauta at 9:13 AM on February 4, 2017 [36 favorites]

you're gonna come to me and say please no more shrapnel, we're tired of the shrapnel
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:14 AM on February 4, 2017 [28 favorites]

No, because anything the Obamas touched has to be burned to the ground.

So we get to look forward to him setting the White House on fire, then?

I like the idea of a Trump voodoo doll, found another few potentials on Ravelry (if you're not a member, you probably can't see them though) here and here. Knit a Git and My Ex Is Full Of Knit.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:15 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

People (Pence) who talk about the Constitution as if it were a book of the Bible weird me right the fuck out
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 9:16 AM on February 4, 2017 [11 favorites]

@DabAggin
Shoutout to all the Trump fans who are never sure when it's *you're* vs. *your* but who are now suddenly constitutional law scholars.
posted by chris24 at 9:20 AM on February 4, 2017 [90 favorites]

Jewish community centers in US receive nearly 50 bomb threats in 2017 so far
posted by Artw at 9:30 AM on February 4, 2017 [10 favorites]

> I AM SO FUCKING MAD AT THE NY TIMES.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 6:32 PM

> Also, you know, one of his followers opened fire on someone in the middle of a crowded square at the University of Washington.
posted by Zalzidrax at 6:46 PM on February 3

Hey election-thread friends, is anyone interested in organizing around this?

Here's what I'm thinking: A website/blog that posts links to and excerpts from stories like the NYT piece about Milo that left out all the shitty things he and his followers have done. The post would include a summary of the facts that the article glossed over or elided entirely, along with a link to either the media outlet's ombudsperson's/editor's email or the publication's contact form. People could jump straight to the publication from the post and, using the provided talking points, say "Hey, not cool NYT. You left out some important facts. Please issue a correction," or something like that. Basically, a collective WE SEE YOU and WE SEE WHAT YOU'RE DOING.

It's working with Congress. Maybe it will work with the media?

I like the idea but don't think I can do it all on my own. With a group of us, we could keep an eye on ALL THE NEWSES.

Send me a MeMail if you're interested? I'm not sure this is worthy of its own MetaTalk post, but maybe it would fit under the current activism post?
posted by mudpuppie at 9:34 AM on February 4, 2017 [51 favorites]

PS, I scooped up the domain name unfairunbalanced.org.
posted by mudpuppie at 9:35 AM on February 4, 2017 [38 favorites]

A thing about "President" Bannon that occurs to me: I'm sure he has a plan to rule in blood and fire. But he's always worked in spheres where there's not a lot of complexity and wishing makes it so - if you're cutting deals, you win if you have the money (not much use calling a protest on a leveraged buyout) and if you make up lies on the internet at Breitbart, the sky's the limit. And he obviously doesn't have much empathy, so he assumes that "shatter American society, take the wealth and rule with absolute authority over the ruins" will naturally sound great to anyone in power (and everyone else can be coerced). The idea that any powerful person might basically want things to go on as they are, with maybe a little more inequality - I don't think he gets that. And because he's basically using a grimdark fantasy playbook, he doesn't understand that there are a lot of competing interests in a complex society, and you can't steamroller them all.

Because he has a plan, he looks strong - most people don't come out of the gate with "I have a plan to destroy America". But I'll bet you anything it's a stupid plan. I'm not saying it can't work, because even a stupid plan can work given luck and disorganization among your opponents. But because it's a stupid plan, there's at least some possibility that if everyone resists in different ways for different reasons, it will fall apart.
posted by Frowner at 9:47 AM on February 4, 2017 [37 favorites]

The problem is that a collapsed plan to rule America might look like an effective plan to ruin America.

(In terms of haphazard opposition. There's less ability to coordinate the outcomes.)
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:49 AM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

A thing about "President" Bannon that occurs to me

A Cardinal Richelieu in cargo pants, Steve Bannon guides
[...]
Steve Bannon: Trump’s dishevelled chief strategist

Trump's courtiers bring chaotic and capricious style to White House (Grauniad)
posted by Mister Bijou at 10:05 AM on February 4, 2017

@gaywonk
SELF-DOUBT IN 2016: My work is not good enough to impress my peers.
SELF-DOUBT IN 2017: My work is not good enough to save the republic.
posted by Coventry at 10:17 AM on February 4, 2017 [52 favorites]

@BraddJaffy
White House just put out a recap of Trump's calls w/foreign leaders—including the “President of Australia”

(Australia has a prime minister)
[list]
posted by chris24 at 10:19 AM on February 4, 2017 [22 favorites]

(Australia has a prime minister)

And I think they spelled el-Sisi wrong. Sad.
posted by peeedro at 10:27 AM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

And I think they spelled el-Sisi wrong. Sad.

And they didn't even list the name of the "President" of Australia, unlike all the other leaders.
posted by chris24 at 10:29 AM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

They couldn't find it on wikipedia and said fuck it.
posted by peeedro at 10:32 AM on February 4, 2017 [15 favorites]

Party polarization is endogenous - "Party polarization is the endogenous and predictable result of incentives created by a first-past-the-post voting system susceptible to gerrymandering."

Inspired Media - "The media industry has, thanks to the Internet, been completely stripped of its gatekeeper role when it comes to the spread of information. Instead of scarce newspapers or TV stations there is an abundance of information providers, which means the real power has shifted from distribution to discovery. Thus, by extension, the real power in politics has shifted from parties to the people."

Trumpism - "Betz (1993) has introduced the category of 'populist extreme right' on the basis of four elements: a) radical opposition to the cultural and socio-political system, without an overt attack to the system as such; b) the refusal of individual and social equality; c) the defence of the 'common man'; d) the emphasis on 'common sense'; all these populist parties share racist, authoritarian, anti-women and law and order attitudes. These are parties 'which appeal to resentments, prejudices and traditional values and offer simplistic and unrealistic solutions to the socio-political problems.'"

Trumponomics - "Trumponomics won't work. It is too divisive; it will be applied politically, targeting favorites and enemies, rather than in accord with the dictates of efficiency; it may destroy rather than create jobs on net; and most of all it badly damages the U.S.'s global reach by cooperating less on issues of trade and migration. I think of the program as a whole as cashing in on the capital asset of America's foreign reputation and redistributing some of those rents to Trump-supporting regions. That is a form of shortsightedness, and a sign of the decay of our republic."

How Populism Stumbles - "Then, finally, because populism thrives on its willingness to shatter norms, it tends to treat this chaos and blowback as a kind of vindication — a sign that it's on the right track, that its boldness is meeting inevitable resistance from the failed orthodoxies of the past, and so on through a self-comforting litany. That makes it hard for populists to course correct, because they get stuck in a 'the worse the better' loop, reassuring themselves that they're making progress when actually they're cratering."

Trump isn't an evil genius - "Think of a bull loose in a china shop. How much damage will it do? The relevant variable is not the bull's intent. A bull's gonna bull. The relevant variable is how equipped the china shop is to stop the bull. How many tranquilizer darts does it have, or, I don't know, nets? (I didn't think this analogy all the way through.) The point is, how far an authoritarian can blunder forward, violating norms and degrading institutions, is determined by the strength of the norms and institutions he encounters. They determine when, or whether, he is constrained."

The Thousand Day Reich: Civil Society - "And for Gellner, the cultural conditions of civil society are essential. Civil society involves a relationship of power, in which the forces within society and the economy are sufficiently strong to constrain the state. Yet it also involves a set of associated beliefs, or, more precisely, a pluralism of beliefs and identities, in which no identity is so overwhelmingly strong as to become a prescribed faith or universal moral order."

The Fight in the Borderlands - "Democrats will regain power by winning it in what amount to our 21st century internal American borderlands, not in the big cities or rural areas mainly but in between."
posted by kliuless at 10:32 AM on February 4, 2017 [51 favorites]

(Australia has a prime minister)

And I think they spelled el-Sisi wrong. Sad.

Tellin' it like it is!
posted by petebest at 10:32 AM on February 4, 2017

Shoutout to all the Trump fans who are never sure when it's *you're* vs. *your* but who are now suddenly constitutional law scholars.

Correctly, it's "your butt is now suddenly a constitutional loss collar."
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:37 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Whoa. Go watch the Budweiser Super Bowl ad right now. Seriously.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 10:40 AM on February 4, 2017 [23 favorites]

What about that commercial should I be noticing?
posted by Too-Ticky at 10:44 AM on February 4, 2017

And they didn't even list the name of the "President" of Australia, unlike all the other leaders.

Didn't they get his name wrong in about three separate statements already? Why chance it again?
posted by nubs at 10:46 AM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

Too-Ticky: What about that commercial should I be noticing?

Well, he's seen fire and he's seen rain. Also lonely times when he could find a friend.
posted by slipthought at 10:48 AM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

Whoa. Go watch the Budweiser Super Bowl ad right now. Seriously.

And cue Trumpies:

People are boycotting Budweiser because of this immigration-themed Super Bowl ad

Trumpies: Oh no you don't Bud - that's anti-Trump not drinking anymore. wah
Bud: What? Oh no never meant it to be political. Just a universal story that's important.
posted by Jalliah at 10:49 AM on February 4, 2017 [11 favorites]

Bud Ad YT link for those who hate the Tweetface

Dramatically Pro-Immigrant. fwiw.
posted by petebest at 10:49 AM on February 4, 2017 [16 favorites]

And they didn't even list the name of the "President" of Australia, unlike all the other leaders.

Because they didn't know if his name was Turnball or Trumble. I'm picturing a fist fight in the White House over this because the place is turning into a bully's paradise. Remember Omarosa had to be taken out on a stretcher because she had re-injured her leg? Yeah I think she got kicked in the shins for fighting over that office she wanted so much. I'm kidding, of course, but ?????am I?

What about that commercial should I be noticing?

Bud is very much a working man's (non-elitist) beer and this is a paean to immigrants and the struggles they went to to get to America. It's a pretty strong statement at this time in this political atmosphere. I really expect to see "Boycott Bud" in some circles because of this pro-immigrant stance.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 10:49 AM on February 4, 2017 [10 favorites]

What about that commercial should I be noticing?

It's the story about how the brewery behind Budweiser - that quintessential American beer - was founded by an immigrant to America, who faced hardship, peril, and animosity on his journey.
posted by nubs at 10:51 AM on February 4, 2017 [23 favorites]

Hah! I should have checked preview. Of course they are boycotting, fucking predictable.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 10:51 AM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

I really expect to see "Boycott Bud" in some circles because of this pro-immigrant stance.

I dunno, I think some people will see the message is that white people had to face and overcome discrimination, so why can't those people quit their whining?
posted by peeedro at 10:53 AM on February 4, 2017

Funny, it's making me think I might buy some Bud - a beer that I don't particularly like, but I like that they are throwing some shade. (Is it shade? It feels pretty direct)
posted by nubs at 10:54 AM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

Anybody up for a gigantic Budweiser bender at my place? Get in touch.
posted by saulgoodman at 10:55 AM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

Annnnnd you know it's 2017 when a Budweiser commercial makes me tear up without the use of dogs or horses. Sob.
posted by lydhre at 10:55 AM on February 4, 2017 [40 favorites]

what actually threw the election to Trump was just garden-variety GOP ratfucking.

In Monday Morning Analysis, I have come to accept that ANY Republican running in '16 could have beaten Hillary Clinton (and with more votes than Trump and less illegitimacy), and in my mind I imagine a President Cruz or President Rubio doing 80%-90% of the awful things Trumpy has done, with less than 10% of the blowback. I, for one, am in no hurry for him to be ridden out of D.C. on a rail, leaving "acceptable Republican" Pence in charge. Remember, DeVos made enough political contributions to get herself nominated by anybody, and the fact that she may actually be rejected by the Senate is a pleasant shock. Meanwhile, Tillerson is pushing back against Bannon, OMG! If the horror of The Ban is being rolled back after one week, it becomes imaginable that nothing Trump/Bannon want has any staying power.

Much is said about a President's First Hundred Days and while many of us dread the likelihood of The Reign of Trump lasting that long, I must point out that the White House Correspondents Dinner is scheduled for 99 days after the Inauguration. And the Science March on Earth Day is a week before that. And the 'stay' on The Ban is for 90 days...

With the GOP controlling all three branches of the Federal Government, we have some rough/painful/scary times ahead, even if they only last until the 2018 elections. But Trumpy's overreach/incompetence may historically turn out to be one thing that makes it LESS awful.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:56 AM on February 4, 2017 [19 favorites]

Boycotting Bud?

Coors is probably more to their liking, anyhow.
posted by notyou at 10:56 AM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

Yeah, as much as I appreciate that ad and the sentiment, I'm still not drinking Bud.
posted by notyou at 10:58 AM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

Bud Light is apparently the number one selling beer in my rural Canadian county.
posted by Jalliah at 10:59 AM on February 4, 2017

Ironically, Bud immigrated to Belgium several years ago (and Coors to Canada).
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:03 AM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

White House just put out a recap of Trump's calls w/foreign leaders—including the “President of Australia”

They probably just did that to balance out the time they referred to Enrique Peña Nieto as the "Prime Minister of Mexico." 'Cause that's totally how it works.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:03 AM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

Report on the local radio news yesterday was talking about how the Budweiser commercial was just intended to be about following a dream, hard work, etc. but given the way the country went in the time between filming and now it looks like it is a protest against Trump. They are still running it though so I'm all for it looking like a protest.

I don't drink beer but I feel slightly less embarrassed about the Bud made lime-a-rita drinks I have in my fridge now.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 11:04 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

People are boycotting Budweiser because of this immigration-themed Super Bowl ad

If you don't like it, leave.
posted by saysthis at 11:04 AM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

My wife has just reminded me that Bud Lime is pretty drinkable.

As far as Coors goes, I will always associate it with a former boyfriend of my wife - he drank Coors Light, and apparently at one point my future father-in-law asked him if he would
like another can of Silver Sissy. Apparently the relationship didn't last long from there.
posted by nubs at 11:05 AM on February 4, 2017 [8 favorites]

@BraddJaffy
White House release also lists Kelly as “Secretary of Defense” (he's DHS Secretary) — and Pompeo as Director of “The” Central Intelligence [list]

----

Director of The Central Intelligence sounds like some badass sci-fi job.
posted by chris24 at 11:06 AM on February 4, 2017 [33 favorites]

Report on the local radio news yesterday was talking about how the Budweiser commercial was just intended to be about following a dream, hard work, etc. but given the way the country went in the time between filming and now it looks like it is a protest against Trump.

It's probably good business for AB, or their ad agency, to say that, but I'm... not convinced. Here are some things that people in that commercial say to Adolphus Busch:

"You don't look like you're from around here."

"You're not wanted here."

"Go back home."

Like most Budweiser ads, it's not subtle.
posted by box at 11:11 AM on February 4, 2017 [33 favorites]

Party polarization is endogenous - "Party polarization is the endogenous and predictable result of incentives created by a first-past-the-post voting system susceptible to gerrymandering."

While it's non-crazy to draw possible links between gerrymandering and polarization, the data are just not consistent with this. Gerrymandering is at most a negligible component of rising polarization.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:13 AM on February 4, 2017

My wife has just reminded me that Bud Lime is pretty drinkable.

Isn't... isn't that what John Oliver said tasted like the Jolly Green Giant's ejaculate?
posted by Justinian at 11:13 AM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

You know, I realize that the authoritarianism and disregard of the Constitution and gross racist bigotry etc. etc. etc. are the important things, but JESUS CHRIST, the horrible writing and abysmal editing/proofreading are so dang cringeworthy. I'm actually embarrassed on behalf of these conscienceless thugs.

Everybody was all "Sure, Donald can't use words coherently, but he's surrounded by smart people." Oh really?
posted by FelliniBlank at 11:14 AM on February 4, 2017 [25 favorites]

And I think they spelled el-Sisi wrong. Sad.

White House release also lists Kelly as “Secretary of Defense” (he's DHS Secretary) — and Pompeo as Director of “The” Central Intelligence [list]

Worse than that, they are listed as:
Secretary Of Defense
The Director Of The Central Intelligence (Their caps not mine)

They obviously don't care about details. Remember how we predicted he would find it difficult to get good people? Apparently it is worse than we even could have imagined-- right down to the assistants and clerks.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 11:15 AM on February 4, 2017 [39 favorites]

Kakistocracy: Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.
posted by chris24 at 11:17 AM on February 4, 2017 [17 favorites]

Yeah, that ad wasn't made in the last two weeks, but the timing is absolutely perfect.

I don't drink beer, but I can buy a heavily taxed 12 pack somewhere nearby. I can make a new neighbor friend.
posted by AlexiaSky at 11:20 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

It Looks Like Someone Curated The Wikileaks Emails Before They Were Published

While the anti-secrecy group has said that they released all the emails that were provided to them, some messages are suspiciously missing. “The idea that Wikileaks and Julian Assange is about some kind of high minded transparency is totally completely full of shit,” a Democratic staffer said.
posted by futz at 11:22 AM on February 4, 2017 [34 favorites]

CNN Turns Down Opportunity to Interview Kellyanne Conway

o let the evil spell be broken
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:23 AM on February 4, 2017 [97 favorites]

So they're hitting the streets in Romania too. Days of protest just got a thing decriminalizing graft repealed.

"It was the second consecutive night of protests against the government, whose adoption of an emergency ordinance that decriminalizes abuse in office went against widespread protests and warnings from prosecutors and the president.

The ordinance was published in the official government monitor at 3 a.m. Wednesday.

The speed with which the center-left government approved the proposal and the hour of its action alarmed critics. The coalition government has been in office for less than a month and the ordinance benefits its allies and Romanian officials facing corruption charges.

"It shows that the government is willing to use backdoor methods with no scrutiny or checks and balances in order to protect and promote itself," said Dan Brett, an associate professor at the Open University."

It works.
posted by saysthis at 11:24 AM on February 4, 2017 [12 favorites]

isn't that what John Oliver said tasted like the Jolly Green Giant's ejaculate?

I don't kink shame anyone, least of all my wife.
posted by nubs at 11:25 AM on February 4, 2017 [12 favorites]

Wikileaks is firmly on the side of fascism and should be treated as such.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:29 AM on February 4, 2017 [30 favorites]

Now I have to get a wobbly IKEA shelf and fill it with Budweiser. What are you doing to me 2017!?!??!????!!?!!?
posted by ian1977 at 11:30 AM on February 4, 2017 [25 favorites]

@MattGlassman312
You really can't overstate how institutionally weak Trump is right now. 1/

He appears struggling mightily to control the WH at a policy level, and it's leaking everywhere. 2/

The WH is completely distrustful of bureaucracy, where appointees either vacant, BHO staff, or fighting w/ WH. WaPo: Inside the White House-Cabinet battle over Trump’s immigration order 3/

His own party in Congress is critical of his self-described most important action. 4/

And that same action was just suspended by the federal courts. 5/

His domestic agenda is being totally repackaged, rather than supported, by his party. 6/

Senior Senators in his party of doing "damage control" work on his foreign affairs dealings, which he can't keep secret. 7/

And the press is worried that there are too many scandals to keep track of an any number of fronts. 8/

This sums to a position in which, if the GOP manages to pass a substantial program, it will be in spite of the POTUS, not bcause of him. 9/

And those who are scared of Trump should be scared not because he is so powerful, but precisely because he is so weak 10/

His level of public support is lowest of any POTUS in the polling age. 11/

This is a President who is more isolated and more reduced to his formal powers than any in modern history. 12/

Those powers are real, but without control of WH/bureaucracy/party/Congress or public opinion, they are more mirage than reality. 13/

And greatest danger right now is that inexperience + ego + total weakness will lead to lashing out in risky, or plain dangerous, ways. 14/

I'm not a Trump fan by any means, but a President this weak is not good for our system. Not at all. 15/15
posted by chris24 at 11:31 AM on February 4, 2017 [79 favorites]

I must point out that the White House Correspondents Dinner is scheduled for 99 days after the Inauguration

What's Vegas's odds at the moment on Trump's speech him just shitting on Obama with no tact or wit a'la the Al Smith dinner?

Because if it's anything more than odds-on I might have to put my life savings on that bet.
posted by Talez at 11:33 AM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

White House Pulls Back From Bid to Reopen C.I.A. ‘Black Site’ Prisons
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:36 AM on February 4, 2017 [35 favorites]

Chris24 - thank you a thousand times over for copy/pasting the whole tweeter rant.
posted by From Bklyn at 11:38 AM on February 4, 2017 [16 favorites]

Oh I think that's a sure bet, Talez. The man has no sense of humor. No I take that back, his "sense of humor" is broken and ugly; a vile, mangled embarrassment that sane people should not be exposed to lest its toxic vapors curdle their brain cells.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 11:38 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Didn't the Doctor defeat The Central Intelligence and its snowman minions once and for all?
posted by circumspect at 11:40 AM on February 4, 2017 [19 favorites]

The resistance has reached SPACE!

When Donald Trump tweeted Friday night, “We must keep ‘evil’ out of our country,” astronauts at the International Space Station replied, “We have space for you up here. Come join us.”
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:40 AM on February 4, 2017 [77 favorites]

The Bud commercial didn't get me but the Evan Allen tweets did.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 11:42 AM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

Those capitalized "Of"s are impeachable offenses by themselves.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:50 AM on February 4, 2017 [28 favorites]

He appears struggling mightily to control the WH at a policy level, and it's leaking everywhere.

The other day I noticed Woodward and Bernstein's The Final Days on my bookshelf. We're only two weeks in and Trump's administration already feels like a shambling disaster.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:53 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

You know, I realize that the authoritarianism and disregard of the Constitution and gross racist bigotry etc. etc. etc. are the important things, but JESUS CHRIST, the horrible writing and abysmal editing/proofreading are so dang cringeworthy. I'm actually embarrassed on behalf of these conscienceless thugs.

Did you miss the last 8 years of the Tea Party posters?
posted by srboisvert at 11:55 AM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

Annie's List TX is holding an event today here in Dallas to teach women how to run for office. Completely full, lots of people who wanted to register but couldn't.

Just in case you needed some encouragement.
posted by emjaybee at 11:58 AM on February 4, 2017 [21 favorites]

From the New York Times' review of Woodward's The Last of the President's Men (2016).

This volume…amplifies…the familiar, almost Miltonian portrait of the thirty-seventh president…as a brooding, duplicitous despot, obsessed with enemies and score-settling and not the least bit hesitant about lying to the public and breaking the law.

posted by kirkaracha at 11:58 AM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

Did you miss the last 8 years of the Tea Party posters?

MORANS!
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 12:01 PM on February 4, 2017 [24 favorites]

New Yorker: Fear and Loathing in Trump's America: Over all, the country has tolerated an increasingly tiered system, in which those with higher income and education, who live in the liberal states, have had adequate liberty while others have not. In that calculus, I was one of the lucky ones, but it is easy to mistake relative privilege for insulation against an onslaught. Like many other gay Americans, I have been thinking a lot about Germany in the early nineteen-thirties, when gays and Jews who were woven into the social élite thought it couldn’t happen to them. I have also thought about my time in Kabul, fifteen years ago, when I pored over an Afghan friend’s childhood photo album from the nineteen-sixties, with its images of women in miniskirts on the same streets that I had seen awash with burqas. I have thought, too, about the gradual dismantling of reproductive justice in this country, undermined a little further every year. We can never afford to be complacent; there is no such thing as security when it comes to human rights.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:01 PM on February 4, 2017 [69 favorites]

Trump Has 2 Events This Weekend — And Both Benefit His Businesses

Trump will spend Saturday and Sunday nights attending private events where his presence, and the attendant press coverage of the president, stand to directly benefit the properties’ bottom lines. Given that Trump earns income from both of these properties, his decision ― as president ― to attend events there creates the appearance that he may be using the presidency to increase the visibility, prestige and financial value of his clubs.

...According to the White House, Trump also plans at least three weekend phone calls with foreign leaders from New Zealand, Italy and Ukraine

...Mar-A-Lago recently announced that it had doubled its membership fees, from $100,000 to $200,000.
posted by futz at 12:10 PM on February 4, 2017 [18 favorites]

In Our Time discusses Hannah Arendt (bbc.co.uk)

A fast survey of her life and ideas in the usual format, i.e., Melvyn Bragg tries to get his questions answered by three well-prepared academics.
posted by kingless at 12:10 PM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

...to attend events there creates the appearance that he may be using the presidency to increase the visibility, prestige and financial value of his clubs.

Such weasel words. "To attend events there DEMONSTRATES DEFINITIVELY that he IS using the presidency to increase the visibility, prestige and financial value of EVERYTHING HE OWNS." (Total FTFY) If there is any doubt in his mind that he may not complete his term, we can expect the self-serving activities to dominate his time... which, thankfully, would give him less time to screw the rest of us over.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:23 PM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

Of course it's "The" Central Intelligence... who else is gonna take care of "The" Cyber?
posted by TwoStride at 12:24 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

Warren: Democrats need to ‘grow a backbone’

“There are some in the Democratic Party who urge caution,” she said, according to prepared remarks. “They say this is just a tactical problem. We need better data. We need better social media. We need better outreach. We need better talking points. “

“Better talking points? Are you kidding me?” she continued. “People are so desperate for economic change in this country that Donald Trump was just inaugurated as President, and people think we just have a messaging problem?”

...“Donald Trump has stirred ugly racism, sexism, and hatred in this country, and the Republican politicians smiled and climbed right into bed with him,” she said. “That stink will be on them for decades to come. The national party that embraced bigotry.”
posted by futz at 12:24 PM on February 4, 2017 [108 favorites]

People are boycotting Budweiser because of this immigration-themed Super Bowl ad

And now 2017 makes me buy Budweiser. Oh well, at least I can cook with it.
posted by corb at 12:32 PM on February 4, 2017 [19 favorites]

"CEO's don't live in a democracy, they live in authoritarian feudal states. Why *wouldn't* Trump think this way?"
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:36 PM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

Beer is pretty good for your compost, too, corb if you have a compost pile. I do that with beer if it sits too long/goes skunky.
posted by emjaybee at 12:37 PM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

If there is any doubt in his mind that he may not complete his term, we can expect the self-serving activities to dominate his time...

It seems not entirely unlikely that his companies are balance-sheet (and in many cases cashflow) insolvent, and if they go under there's likely to be a lot of information comes out that might actually be enough to sink him. So he has no option but to try and wheel-and-deal to keep things afloat. It also means that, regardless of how divested he is, whoever holds title to all those loans he has own him. He who can destroy the pumpking, controls the pumpking.
posted by Buntix at 12:38 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

What's Vegas's odds at the moment on Trump's speech him just shitting on Obama with no tact or wit a'la the Al Smith dinner?

My first thought was "They'd have to catch him first" and only then did I realize you didn't mean literally defecate.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:43 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

One deleted; retweeting just random people on twitter saying dumb/offensive things isn't the best use of our overtaxed "fuck this person" resources
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 12:46 PM on February 4, 2017 [16 favorites]

Beer is pretty good for your compost, too, corb if you have a compost pile. I do that with beer if it sits too long/goes skunky.

and bud starts skunky so the course of action is clear
posted by murphy slaw at 12:47 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

[One deleted; retweeting just random people on twitter saying dumb/offensive things isn't the best use of our overtaxed "fuck this person" resources]

REPEAL THE FUCKS TAX
posted by murphy slaw at 12:48 PM on February 4, 2017 [32 favorites]

It's Saturday and clearly Jared isn't around to stop Trump's deranged Twitter rants. They are coming fast and furiously.
posted by Justinian at 12:50 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

So, the Vice President is visiting Philadelphia today, and about an hour ago posted the following to Twitter:

It gave me chills to stand in room where Founding Fathers created the greatest charter of liberty world has ever seen

Mike Pence, just said that, on Twitter.

...He just walked riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight into something, didn't he?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:51 PM on February 4, 2017 [10 favorites]

Actually and only semi-related perhaps someone with a more detailed knowledge of Judaism could give me the answer; would a conservative or Orthodox Jew be able to do the job of President? Is there some sort of necessity exception to the Sabbath restrictions?
posted by Justinian at 12:52 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

that Circle of Protection is over 200 years old and it still has enough mojo to give a flesh golem chills
posted by murphy slaw at 12:53 PM on February 4, 2017 [36 favorites]

would a conservative or Orthodox Jew be able to do the job of President?

Lieberman was VP pick for Gore and a practising Orthodox Jew so I would guess so. Life threatening situations cancel any requirement for keeping Shabbat.
posted by PenDevil at 12:54 PM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

True enough. I forgot Lieberman was Orthodox. I just think of him as "that asshole."
posted by Justinian at 12:56 PM on February 4, 2017 [18 favorites]

Life threatening situations cancel any requirement for keeping Shabbat.

Then shouldn't Jared be grabbing Trump's Android right now?
posted by chris24 at 12:59 PM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

Actually and only semi-related perhaps someone with a more detailed knowledge of Judaism could give me the answer; would a conservative or Orthodox Jew be able to do the job of President? Is there some sort of necessity exception to the Sabbath restrictions?

Any Jewish law, including not working on the sabbath, can be (and in fact is required to be) broken if a human life is at stake. I think that would be the workaround. Maybe Jared and Ivanka's rabbi can make a case to them that their checking out for shabbat is endangering lives.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:59 PM on February 4, 2017 [13 favorites]

In Nazi news, Richard "I got punched in the face and cried" Spencer and Chuck Johnson are planning to publicly dox via twitter protestors arrested on Inauguration Day. Might be worth sending @Jack a few tweets asking why he allows his platform to commit white supremacist violence.
posted by Existential Dread at 4:54 AM on February 5 [+] [!]

Done.
posted by saysthis at 1:01 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

He's still at it:

@realDonaldTrump: What is our country coming to when a judge can halt a Homeland Security travel ban and anyone, even with bad intentions, can come into U.S.?

Checks and balances, you dumbhead.
posted by dis_integration at 1:11 PM on February 4, 2017 [25 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump: What is our country coming to...

Its senses.
posted by Bringer Tom at 1:12 PM on February 4, 2017 [103 favorites]

What is this great democracy coming to when an unconstitutional order can't be forced through by a wannabe dictator?
posted by chris24 at 1:13 PM on February 4, 2017 [40 favorites]

MoMA Protests Trump Entry Ban by Rehanging Work by Artists from Muslim Nations

I'm a bit late on this, but this is awesome and must be why, when I went to MoMA on Thursday morning, several rooms were blocked off. At the time I was pissed that I wasn't able to see Monet's Water Lilies, but now I am totally okay with it, and I'm sorry I wasn't able to see the pieces they've now put on display.
posted by skycrashesdown at 1:14 PM on February 4, 2017 [10 favorites]

grabbing Trump's Android

The name of Jared's sex tape
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 1:16 PM on February 4, 2017 [10 favorites]

Trump just got checked and balanced

heh.
posted by futz at 1:17 PM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

[One deleted; retweeting just random people on twitter saying dumb/offensive things isn't the best use of our overtaxed "fuck this person" resources]

REPEAL THE FUCKS TAX

We're not gonna give any new fucks unless we stop giving two existing fucks first.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:20 PM on February 4, 2017 [24 favorites]

Is there anyone keeping track of the money spent to protect Trump and family given their, uh, unusual residence habits? I'd like to see a rolling clock of govt. funds wasted because Trump wants to use his private residences, because Melania doesn't want to live with him, because the Trump kids go on business trips ... I think it could be a useful tool to convince some small-govt conservative types of what a mess this is.
posted by nat at 1:21 PM on February 4, 2017 [22 favorites]

In Nazi news, Richard "I got punched in the face and cried" Spencer and Chuck Johnson are planning to publicly dox via twitter protestors arrested on Inauguration Day. Might be worth sending @Jack a few tweets asking why he allows his platform to commit white supremacist violence. posted by Existential Dread at 4:54 AM on February 5 [+] [!] Done. posted by saysthis at 4:01 PM on February 4 [1 favorite +] [!]

Um.... Is Existential Dread commenting from the future?

Please, sir, is there any hope to be had?
posted by slipthought at 1:25 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

“People are so desperate for economic change in this country that Donald Trump was just inaugurated as President, and people think we just have a messaging problem?”

...“Donald Trump has stirred ugly racism, sexism, and hatred in this country, and the Republican politicians smiled and climbed right into bed with him,”

who does Warren think she's kidding except I guess everybody? She's repeating the paper-thin talking points that give Trump voters an easy out and hang hatred on the Republican Party -- meaning its power structure and elected officials, not all the registered and otherwise self-identified Republican voters in the country. who were just "stirred" but didn't do the stirring, of course. how could they? what have they got, agency?

Will this work? I guess probably, sure! It's the same old garbage Democrats always try, though. find someone for voters to blame that isn't themselves, because you have to tell them they were taken advantage of to let them save face. they just wanted economic change! They were desperate! that's not at all a "message" or a "talking point," naturally. can't be, she just said they weren't.

again, this is fine. it's FINE. you do what you have to do, especially to differentiate yourself from other Democrats. do whatever works, Warren, I want you to, and I believe you know more about getting votes than I do. but the pretense that this isn't stale and sickening marketing, same as those other Democrats do? come on now.
posted by queenofbithynia at 1:26 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

@realDonaldTrump: What is our country coming to when a judge can halt a Homeland Security travel ban and anyone, even with bad intentions, can come into U.S.?

To state the obvious: that's what the visa system is for.

To exclude entire nations on the basis that a tiny fraction of them might have bad intentions is like locking up all men to prevent rape.
posted by UbuRoivas at 1:28 PM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

Existential Dread at 4:54 AM on February 5 [+] [!] Done. posted by saysthis at 4:01 PM on February 4 [1 favorite +] [!]

Um.... Is Existential Dread commenting from the future?

Please, sir, is there any hope to be had?
posted by slipthought at 5:25 AM on February 5 [+] [!]

Nope, just more of the same existential dread. (different time zones gonna different time zone)
posted by saysthis at 1:28 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'd like to see a rolling clock of govt. funds wasted because Trump wants to use his private residences, because Melania doesn't want to live with him,

No, please no. The pressuring Melania to live with someone I'm sure is an abuser because it saves money doesn't sit right with me.
posted by corb at 1:38 PM on February 4, 2017 [11 favorites]

...is like locking up all men to prevent rape.

I'm open to further discussion of your proposed policy.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 1:38 PM on February 4, 2017 [29 favorites]

No, please no. The pressuring Melania to live with someone I'm sure is an abuser because it saves money doesn't sit right with me.

I'm pretty sure it would just be cheaper for the taxpayers to pay for their divorce.
posted by biogeo at 1:40 PM on February 4, 2017 [22 favorites]

I've spent about an hour adding my effort to Sleeping Giants' campaign to shame advertisers off of Breitbart. US Customs & Border Patrol -- the freaking US government -- has a banner ad up on their site.

NOT FINE.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:42 PM on February 4, 2017 [62 favorites]

I know a few people who were disappointed with Obama for "not doing enough," but today I've been reminding all of them that, as we've seen in the past two weeks, a huge part of Obama's job was restraining the evil-doers of this country. He kept a lid on the assholes, even when they held the legislative and judicial branches in ways we're just now starting to understand.
posted by cell divide at 1:43 PM on February 4, 2017 [59 favorites]

US Customs & Border Patrol -- the freaking US government -- has a banner ad up on their site.

For Breitbart? Even when I turned off my ad blocker there wasn't a banner ad on cbp.gov . Maybe your ISP is injecting ads at you?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:50 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

other way around, on Breitbart for CPB.
posted by nat at 1:50 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'd like to see a rolling clock of govt. funds wasted because Trump wants to use his private residences, because Melania doesn't want to live with him,

No, please no. The pressuring Melania to live with someone I'm sure is an abuser because it saves money doesn't sit right with me.
posted by corb at 5:38 AM on February 5 [1 favorite +] [!]

Along with a rolling clock of how much America could save if she'd divorce him? And a #savemelania fund or something? My ideas here are probably terrible, because I've never been in a position remotely like hers, but there's gotta be something we can do.
posted by saysthis at 1:51 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

Hey, she shouldn't have to live with someone she doesn't want to live with. But neither should it be on the taxpayer to subsidize their jetsetting lifestyle. Make them pay for it.
posted by Justinian at 1:53 PM on February 4, 2017 [41 favorites]

For Breitbart? Even when I turned off my ad blocker there wasn't a banner ad on cbp.gov . Maybe your ISP is injecting ads at you?

Nope, one of their regular banner ads. Screenshot.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:56 PM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

The pressuring Melania to live with someone I'm sure is an abuser because it saves money doesn't sit right with me.

Melanoma made her bed, why should I pay for her not to lie in it?
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 1:59 PM on February 4, 2017 [13 favorites]

Auto-correct hilarity.
posted by Justinian at 2:01 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

There's a difference between "Melania not living with Trump" and "Paying 14 million dollars to keep Melania living in a golden tower in the sky."

That is taxpayer money and it would be put to about a zillion times better use funding Women's Shelters if that balms your soul that poor Melania isn't happy.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 2:08 PM on February 4, 2017 [59 favorites]

What's Vegas's odds at the moment on Trump's speech him just shitting on Obama with no tact or wit a'la the Al Smith dinner?

My SO and I were talking about the Black History Month speech and he said "We don't even need to pay attention to his speeches anymore. He'll just 1) start with some vague nonsensical line about the thing he's supposed to be talking about, 2) talk about how great he is, 3) complain about how the media is so unfair to him, 4) say something racist, and 5) finish with some bullshit about making America great again." My money's on Obama popping up in sections 2 and 4 but he'll have plenty more to grouse about by then.
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 2:09 PM on February 4, 2017 [12 favorites]

I wonder if CBP is hiring to replace all the non-Trumpist agents that will be purged soon.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 2:14 PM on February 4, 2017 [8 favorites]

My money's on Obama popping up in sections 2 and 4 but he'll have plenty more to grouse about by then.

"Obama popping up" made me think that the only thing that would be more better than the speaker being Alec Baldwin would be if it were Obama.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:16 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Hey, she shouldn't have to live with someone she doesn't want to live with. But neither should it be on the taxpayer to subsidize their jetsetting lifestyle.

I'm pretty sure the majority of the cost for putting Melania up in Trump Tower is for the security staff. And I'm not sure I want to establish a precedent of revoking security from members of the First Family, regardless of the reason.

If Melania wants to divorce him, she will. If not, it's none of our damned business.
posted by tobascodagama at 2:16 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

The travel ban EO is the gift that keeps on giving - there's a section mandating a uniform screening procedure for all travellers which would effectively halt tourism and, following the inevitable reciprocal moves, cut off much of the rest of the world for Americans.
posted by Devonian at 5:54 AM on February 5 [3 favorites +] [!]

Yeah, exactly what I was afraid they'd try. Fuck that, I like walking into most countries without a visa. If they succeed at this, even partially, they turn us all into a global pariah class, tank our economy, and utterly destroy my ability to live away from their madness. No. Gonna donate so hard right now, who's fighting?
posted by saysthis at 2:17 PM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

The 10 Trump-state Democrats most likely to fold on Gorsuch

If Mitch McConnell doesn't nuke the senate, Neil Gorsuch will need help from 8 Democrats to get confirmed to the Supreme Court. There are 23 Democrats up for re-election in 2018 and 10 of them are in states that voted for Trump, making them the most likely candidates to back the president's pick.

The closer a senator is to the bottom right part of this scatterplot, the more vulnerable they might be. These Democrats had slim victory margins in 2012 and Trump cleaned up last year in their home states.

posted by Coventry at 2:18 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

And if wishes were ponies beggars would ride. Mitch McConnell would absolutely nuke the filibuster for SC nominees. Not, I think, for legislation. But for nominees? Sure.
posted by Justinian at 2:20 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Nope, one of their regular banner ads. Screenshot.

Ye gods, CBP recruiting on Breitbart is pretty fucking scary.
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:22 PM on February 4, 2017 [47 favorites]

There's a difference between "Melania not living with Trump" and "Paying 14 million dollars to keep Melania living in a golden tower in the sky."

That is taxpayer money and

Huh? No it isn't.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:22 PM on February 4, 2017

No it isn't.

The security costs for members of the president's immediate family are, I believe, paid for by taxpayers.
posted by suelac at 2:24 PM on February 4, 2017 [16 favorites]

Yes, it is? Do you think the govt isn't paying for the rooms the Secret Service needs to keep her safe?
posted by nat at 2:24 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

Annnnd guess who gets the money they are paying for the rooms? And sets the price? Donald Trump. It's just another part of his grift.
posted by Justinian at 2:25 PM on February 4, 2017 [43 favorites]

Chicago Loop Synagogue Vandalized With Swastikas, Broken Window
posted by zachlipton at 2:26 PM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

He's advertising the secret service presence in the towers as an amenity.
posted by cmfletcher at 2:28 PM on February 4, 2017 [23 favorites]

Trump tweet Because the ban was lifted by a judge, many very bad and dangerous people may be pouring into our country. A terrible decision

Question here. Do people think he actually might believe this is true or is it all just him bullshitting?
I'm fairly certain that this sort of things was more BS at the start of the campaign but now I'm wondering if Bannon's hate and fear mongering about Islam has made him tend to believe it's more then just useful bullshit.
posted by Jalliah at 2:34 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Do people think he actually might believe this is true

I do. I think he has no idea how the immigration system works, even though 2/3rds of his wives went through it.
posted by holgate at 2:37 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

No, please no. The pressuring Melania to live with someone I'm sure is an abuser because it saves money doesn't sit right with me.

She can move in with the Pences at the USNO, then, or to any number of already secured facilities that have bathrooms and room for a bed.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:37 PM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

Do people think he actually might believe this is true or is it all just him bullshitting?

It's weasel words. "May be" just means "it's possible," even though the likelihood is tiny.
posted by Coventry at 2:37 PM on February 4, 2017

I just don't want to set a precedent of not protecting POTUS family members. This is the first time that the prez and first lady seem to be estranged but flotus gets protection, no matter where she is and that hopefully will continue after this disaster of a presidency.
posted by soren_lorensen at 2:38 PM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

Do people think he actually might believe this is true or is it all just him bullshitting?

It is a pre I told you so for whatever Bannon's version of the Reichstag fire happens to turn out to be.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 2:39 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Orrin Hatch's voicemail was full so a constituent sent a pizza

It is also still possible to send a political telegram to your elected officials.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 2:40 PM on February 4, 2017 [8 favorites]

She can move in with the Pences at the USNO, then, or to any number of already secured facilities that have bathrooms and room for a bed.

Her son is in a specialized program at his school in Manhattan. He, at least for the rest of this year, intends to stay there. "We" voted for this President, we pay to make sure his family is taken care of. End of story.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:40 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

It is a pre I told you so for whatever Bannon's version of the Reichstag fire happens to turn out to be.

All this organizational disorder must have potential terrorists thinking it's a great time to pull off another 9/11-scale attack on the US.
posted by Coventry at 2:43 PM on February 4, 2017

Somebody with high-profile followers should tweet that Breitbart CBP screenshot to the media. Regular commercial advertisers have been pulling their stuff like crazy, and the USG posts Help Wanted ads?

Hey, a couple people have contacted me asking for permission to use the photo. I hereby state publicly that anyone can use it however they want to. No need to ask. Download, distribute, or tweet at will. No attribution necessary.
posted by mudpuppie at 2:43 PM on February 4, 2017 [16 favorites]

"We" voted for this President

Now that is a use of quotation marks appropriate in every way.
posted by Bringer Tom at 2:45 PM on February 4, 2017 [33 favorites]

Her son is in a specialized program at his school in Manhattan. He, at least for the rest of this year, intends to stay there. "We" voted for this President, we pay to make sure his family is taken care of. End of story.

I just have no sympathy for this point of view, sorry.

I see it more as "He knew what he was getting into and did it anyway, so by running for president he was choosing to take his son out of that program." If he was not willing to do so, he should have declined the job opportunity that would have necessitated it.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:45 PM on February 4, 2017 [26 favorites]

All this organizational disorder must have potential terrorists thinking it's a great time to pull off another 9/11-scale attack on the US.

Well, it's a good thing there's no major event happening tomorrow that half of the nation will be watching live then.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 2:46 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Couple deleted; let's not have a fight over whether people talking about Melania care enough about ... totally unconnected other horrible things?
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 2:47 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Friends, if you are asking yourself, *is now the time to rewatch Children of Men? Will that wonderfully made movie fill you with more unease than the previous four times you watched it?

The answer, based on my experience last night, is YES.

I think we might have a chance of surviving Trump if there is not a major terrorist even in the homeland in the next four years. The thing is, it would make sense, I mean evil sense but sense, if Trump/Bannon are praying for another large loss of civilian life.

After 9/11, I was sick of the fear-mongering. Yo, I watched people walk home after the towers collapsed, covered in dust. I had a client tell me her son, a firefighter, was about to enter the first tower, and he saw the tower collapse on the members of his firehouse who had preceded him into the tower. For months afterwards, I flinched whenever I heard a siren, which, living in NYC, is not a good you know mindset.

But through all that I HATED the "unity." It made me sick to my stomach. All that unity brought us was foreign policy misadventures.

So I fear, like, really feel anxious and scared of, a major terrorist event. Because I could see things going from *jeezum crow guys we elected an insane man president let's not let him get away with too much* to *our prescient president was totally right about those stupid judges who let in terrorists*

I wish I was a prayerful person, because if so each night I would pray for not another attack. Because we've seen how stupid this country gets when the homeland is attacked.
posted by angrycat at 2:48 PM on February 4, 2017 [27 favorites]

Another drawing of Trump, more stressed and messy, only two weeks in.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 2:50 PM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

I really don't like footing the security bill for Uday and Qusay pretending to run the Family Business on their own, but I also don't like thining about what might follow if something happened to one of them while scoping out their next scam.

Keep a running count, and add it to the tax rise on kajillionaires if democracy is ever restored.
posted by holgate at 2:51 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

Friendly reminder that SNL is back tonight. ;-)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:52 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

Ye gods, CBP recruiting on Breitbart is pretty fucking scary

Overheard in the CBP marketing meeting: "'Customs and Border Protection Agent' is such an unwieldy title. How about something catchier, like 'Brownshirt?'"
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:54 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Can we not with the kinkshaming?

Agreed. I totally get the point about pointing out hypocrisy, and I've made those kinds of cracks myself in the past.

But I think we'll all do better, especially at this squirrelled-up moment in our nation's history, if we err on the side of loving, treasuring, and respecting our kinksters.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 2:57 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Another drawing of Trump, more stressed and messy, only two weeks in.

I find your work...redemptive somehow. In particular I really like the way you do the rufous blebs and skin tags on his withered pizzle, as well as the way you conjure solidity from the various chancres and fistulae that constitute the lion's share of the shambling Trump biomass.
posted by adamgreenfield at 2:59 PM on February 4, 2017 [14 favorites]

Friendly reminder that SNL is back tonight. ;-)

Thank you. I have to drive a bajillion miles this evening to do an airport pick-up and would have forgot to record it.
posted by Jalliah at 2:59 PM on February 4, 2017

Of course it's 'The' Central Intelligence... who else is gonna take care of 'The' Cyber?

"The blacks"? "The gays"?
posted by kirkaracha at 3:01 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

if we err on the side of loving, treasuring, and respecting our kinksters.

hey, i grew up listening to Ray Davies.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 3:05 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

Seattle has been on fire lately!

One of the latest acts of resistance? A free concert, by the Seattle Symphony, featuring the music of the 7 'banned' nations. Tickets are free, but must be reserved in advance.

"During the last week, the arts community across the country has been coming together in meaningful ways following the recent executive order restricting travel and immigration from certain countries.

At the Seattle Symphony, we are inspired to add our voice, with the hope that we can bring together our community to celebrate the freedom of expression and open exchange of ideas which the arts have always stood for, especially in times of division and conflict.

The musicians of the Seattle Symphony will perform a free concert for our community, featuring music drawn from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Program details will be announced closer to the event.

We invite our community to join us so that together we may experience the rich and diverse musical heritage of these countries, and the diverse communities who call our region home."
posted by spinifex23 at 3:09 PM on February 4, 2017 [35 favorites]

i mean it's quite not adolf draping eva in the furs and diamonds of dead jews but yeah, nyc tax dollars don't need to be spent on her golden palace in the sky.
posted by poffin boffin at 3:11 PM on February 4, 2017 [8 favorites]

Another drawing of Trump, more stressed and messy, only two weeks in.
That little X I see on the right side of his gut - if I click it will he go away?
posted by valetta at 3:12 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

The Answer-Man @ebonstorm

At $400,000 a day, it'll cost the nation $548,000,000 to keep Melania Trump in New York City for four years. @realDonaldTrump #HalfABillion

That's....an incredible price tag. And yet we can't afford to fund the EPA or whatever.
posted by Existential Dread at 3:19 PM on February 4, 2017 [58 favorites]

corb: “[W]henever I haven't been able to tolerate someone because of their political beliefs it has felt like a moral failing.”

I used to feel this way. What I've realized over the last year is that 99 times out of 100 I don't think people are bad because I disagree with their politics, but rather that I disagree with their politics because they are bad people.
posted by ob1quixote at 3:20 PM on February 4, 2017 [24 favorites]

Do people think he actually might believe this is true or is it all just him bullshitting?
Yes, the general population has segments that believe he believes this rhetoric - and they believe it themselves - I have a very wealthy friend on the North Shore of Chicago - wealthy, white, educated, very Catholic and she keeps getting very defensive of keeping Muslims out of the country and having tougher vetting - I asked her what was wrong with our current vetting process and she couldn't tell me, and I have much less educated, much less religious and much more poor family in rural Michigan that believe this shit.....
posted by W Grant at 3:25 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

How about something catchier, like 'Brownshirt?'"

CBP's uniforms are khaki, blue, or green for the air, marine, and field operations, with the Border Patrol also wearing green. "Greenshirts" might work but I'd hate to unfairly malign the National Park Service.
posted by peeedro at 3:27 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

At $400,000 a day, it'll cost the nation $548,000,000 to keep Melania Trump in New York City for four years.

Or about $1.71 for each US citizen, about 43 cents a year.
posted by Bringer Tom at 3:28 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

How about something catchier, like 'Brownshirt?'"

CBP's uniforms are khaki, blue or, green for the air, marine, and field operations, with the Border Patrol also wearing green. "Greenshirts" might work but I'd hate to unfairly malign the National Park Service.
posted by peeedro at 7:27 AM on February 5 [+] [!]

MAGAshirts.
posted by saysthis at 3:32 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Redcaps?
posted by Zalzidrax at 3:33 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

"Redcaps" is offensive to warblers.
posted by uosuaq at 3:34 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

How about something catchier, like 'Brownshirt?'"

CBP's uniforms are khaki, blue, or green

Never let the facts get in the way of a good diatribe, that's my motto.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:35 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

@neeratanden:
Remember every day: Dems need 24 seats to win back the House; almost exactly that many Republicans hold districts that voted for Clinton.
posted by chris24 at 3:35 PM on February 4, 2017 [29 favorites]

Redcaps?

Redhats, just to make Colony feel even more eerily prescient.
posted by tobascodagama at 3:38 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Speaking of drawings, cartoonist J.C. Duffy, of an uneven portfolio of New Yorker toons and a longrunning syndicated strip with 4 brothers and a wolverine, has come up with a new, better, acronym: "W.A.N.G.: Why Ain't Nothing Good?" on a more appropriately colored hat.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:39 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Remember every day: Dems need 24 seats to win back the House; almost exactly that many Republicans hold districts that voted for Clinton.

This is going to be a very good test as to whether anger and outrage translate into people managing to drag themselves to the polls for a midterm.
posted by Justinian at 3:40 PM on February 4, 2017 [20 favorites]

And yet we can't afford to fund the EPA or whatever.

I've started to change how I talk about the US budget and how we "can't afford" things when it comes to [thing I like]. I'm not going to say it anymore.

We can absolutely afford the EPA, public radio, and fuck, national healthcare, with relatively tiny adjustments in our military expenses and/or tax ratios on the most wealthy. We are a fucking rich country. We throw away billions on bullshit all the time and barely notice. If we want that stuff, hell yeah we can pay for it. Conservatives use "can't afford" as a dodge, meanwhile they spend on their (often evil) priorities like an embezzling accountant in Vegas.

(not a jab at corb, just been thinking about this lately)
posted by emjaybee at 3:44 PM on February 4, 2017 [43 favorites]

@markmobility:
Monthly cost of:
Guarding Trump Tower: $30 million
Section 8 for all 15,856 homeless NYC families: $28 million

---

It's also twice the budget of the NEA.
posted by chris24 at 3:45 PM on February 4, 2017 [57 favorites]

Or about $1.71 for each US citizen, about 43 cents a year.

Or about $16,666.67 an hour, about $2,777.78 a minute, or about $4.63 a second.
posted by kirkaracha at 3:45 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio charges White House $35 million to protect Trump Tower

Mayor Bill de Blasio is sending a $35 million invoice to the White House for the cost of securing Trump Tower for the period spanning Nov. 8 to Jan. 20, the Daily News reported Monday — that is, from the moment Trump won the 2016 election until the moment he is inaugurated.

The daily average cost for security exceeds $400,000. Earlier reports estimated that it would cost $1 million per day to secure Trump Tower. A representative for the mayor’s office confirmed to Salon the $35 million expense for the transition period.

The initial estimates were $1,000,000 a day but based on the actual bill it's only $400,000 a day.
posted by kirkaracha at 3:47 PM on February 4, 2017 [12 favorites]

Apparently this interview will air tomorrow:

O’Reilly: “Putin’s a killer”

Trump: “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think—our country’s so innocent?”
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:48 PM on February 4, 2017 [27 favorites]

My father used to refer to certain people (bad drivers in other cars, tediously slow people ahead of us in line) as jerkimers. I hadn't thought of that word in years, so thanks for the madeleine.
posted by GrammarMoses at 3:49 PM on February 4, 2017

or about $4.63 a second.

Which is about the cost of a Viagra for someone like Trump.
posted by Bringer Tom at 3:50 PM on February 4, 2017

Herkimer Jerkimer
posted by Bringer Tom at 3:52 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Republicans face anger over Obamacare repeal during town halls

Two Republican lawmakers representing reliably conservative districts on opposite ends of the country on Saturday faced down heated questions from Obamacare supporters who flooded town hall events demanding that Congress not dismantle a health care law that has provided insurance for millions of people.

Fervent backers of the health care law shouted down Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), blasting his views on the Obamacare repeal and President Donald Trump’s immigration ban. Hundreds of demonstrators showed up — some as early as 6:30 a.m. — to a theater in downtown Roseville, just northeast of Sacramento.

After the meeting ended, McClintock was escorted by police as the crowd outside the theater shouted “Resist!” and "Shame!"

...In Pinellas County, Fla., Gus Bilirakis, who represents a district Trump won, was on the defensive as voters packed a town hall on Obamacare. For more than two hours, Bilirakis listened to stories from his constituents — young, old, black and white — who implored him to not repeal the federal health care law without having a replacement ready.

I love to see things like this.
posted by futz at 3:52 PM on February 4, 2017 [70 favorites]

adamgreenfield: I don't have the chops to frame this in any particularly rigorous way, but I do think we're overwhelmed by the onrush of new sensory information to the extent that it's psychically necessary to assure ourselves and others that we're competent to deal with it, despite the weight of evidence to the contrary.

If we survive long enough as a civilization to be writing learned histories of this moment in time, I'm reasonably sure we'll come to understand this as one of the root causes of the Great Rupture. We collectively simply weren't competent to process what we were presented with, and were unable to face up to our incompetence.

For my part, I don't mind admitting to my incompetence [+em], but the alternative we seem to be headed for — autonomous algorithmic decision-making systems — well, let's just say I'm not any happier about that.

(I started writing this more than a day ago, but I'm going to press submit. I don't have the chops either, but a comment I've wanted to make for a long time follows.)

Like 'progress', '(in)competence' must be defined, and we must ask who is defining it. I am uncomfortable with that portion of the left (most of it) that takes for granted most of the neoliberal notions of 'progress'. Indeed, the neoliberals even have us stroking our chins and questioning our 'competence', often resulting in an almost happy admission of potential incompetence, in the broadest sense. Think about that declaration—it's an astounding admission of defeat in the context of leftist thought (isn't it? I'm no expert). I believe that a lot of 'everyday people' understand this social problem at an intuitive level, and are flailing to support some political agenda that also appears to understand it. (I, for one, am one of those flailers.)

What I don't see is anyone suggesting that we fight back against those who are defining competence. The social definition of progress is not a fait accompli, after all, but arises from constant competition (if any) among power structures—and I can only conclude that the left is just as swayed, and in fact more swayed, by certain technology propaganda. (I call it propaganda because everything is propaganda.)

As an example, I never see a peep from the metafilter left about regulation of info-tech-type technology—and it seems to be a happy absence, as if we're all so enthralled by 'cyberspace' that we fail to see how it fractures society and fractures minds and has expedited wealth inequality; if TV was a vast wasteland, what in god's name is the 2017 internet? The competence we need is the competence to imagine what a technology might do to society, the willingness to accept that intuitive models can also have validity because change is an ethical issue, not a scientific one, and a government that is willing to put the brakes on some of this stuff at some point. And I know there is at least some truth in what I say because the topic is simply not spoken of critically. If you want to find real power, look at who is best hiding their footprint within the popular discourse. I will tell you: proponents of 'artificial intelligence', 'big data', 'automation', biotechnology.

Here is one thing that crazy-right websites and the left have in common: both proclaim that machines are taking over, nay, must take over. The future has been determined! The crazy-right uses it as a shibboleth against the idea of a minimum wage (for example); the left uses it as 'proof' that we must have basic income; both use it for tales of the coming apocalypse; in other words, both give in entirely to this very corporate notion of progress.

A masterful bit of propaganda is one that both the left and the right will echo.
posted by sylvanshine at 3:54 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

The apocalyptic rage that would engulf the entire Republican party if Obama had made that statement about the US not being innocent would be truly terrifying.
posted by Justinian at 3:54 PM on February 4, 2017 [57 favorites]

"Redcaps" is offensive to warblers.

And Pullman porters.
posted by mudpuppie at 3:57 PM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

We can absolutely afford the EPA, public radio, and fuck, national healthcare, with relatively tiny adjustments in our military expenses and/or tax ratios on the most wealthy.

The idea of a Federal budget with hard limits on expenditure is itself a fiction. The supply of and demand for money is almost completely subject to the whims of the Federal government: They can print as much as they like and maintain demand for it by raising taxes. The only other factor they need to consider is the credibility of the US as a defensible, productive nation state with enough power over its populace to raise taxes.
posted by Coventry at 3:58 PM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

I swear - really, I do - that just before I clicked over here, I was reading a WaPo story about last weekend's shenanigans, between bannon and Flynn, at the white house, complete with a story about a 2AM call between Flynn and a bunch of department heads. The story had a bunch of corrections up top, where it hadn't gotten comment from the white house, and added some ... stuff, from Spicer. Am I hallucinating? Did they pull it?
posted by Dashy at 3:58 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

O’Reilly: “Putin’s a killer”
Trump: “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think—our country’s so innocent?”

Hoowee, Sean Spicer just chugged a fifth of tequila. I can't WAIT to see the manic interpretive dance he does trying to wave away that one. That is not going to go over well with the armed forces and non-Trumpy Republicans.
posted by FelliniBlank at 3:58 PM on February 4, 2017 [28 favorites]

More evidence that Trump doesn't understand how our courts work: @realdonaldtrump: "Why aren't the lawyers looking at and using the Federal Court decision in Boston, which is at conflict with ridiculous lift ban decision?"
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:01 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

Ah, so the travel ban, restrictions on tourist visas, and consequent tit for tat that would isolate the USA from the rest of the world? The Mexican wall?

All to keep Americans *in*. Gotta stop those bad dudes from getting out there!
posted by tel3path at 4:01 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

I swear - really, I do - that just before I clicked over here, I was reading a WaPo story about last weekend's shenanigans.

This one, Dashy?
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:02 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

We gave you hummus, have some respect. (pic)
posted by chris24 at 4:03 PM on February 4, 2017 [18 favorites]

The apocalyptic rage that would engulf the entire Republican party if Obama had made that statement about the US not being innocent would be truly terrifying.

Wow. Tone policing my Republican senator has never been more fun.

I'll bet money his staffers haven't had time to try to think of a spin to put on that statement yet.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 4:04 PM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

O’Reilly: “Putin’s a killer”
Trump: “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think—our country’s so innocent?”

I see the whataboutism has taken firm root in his mind.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 4:05 PM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

We can absolutely afford the EPA, public radio, and fuck, national healthcare, with relatively tiny adjustments in our military expenses and/or tax ratios on the most wealthy.

Exactly. Defunding all those things is not and never has been about a balanced budget. It's ideological. Balancing the budget is just the excuse they use to eliminate these things by inflaming the zero-sum attitudes in their base.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:07 PM on February 4, 2017 [10 favorites]

That is real? Jesus.
posted by Artw at 4:08 PM on February 4, 2017

Which is to say, the implication that because both America and Russia commit human rights abuses, the correct response to human rights abuses is not to combat them, but to let them happen.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 4:08 PM on February 4, 2017 [19 favorites]

"Redcaps" is offensive to warblers.
posted by uosuaq at 3:34 PM on February 4 [3 favorites +] [!]

and also some varieties of folklore goblins
posted by Golem XIV at 4:11 PM on February 4, 2017 [20 favorites]

Also - note to POTUS.

When you managed to fire up and piss off a *Symphony Orchestra*? You fuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked up. Yes you did.
posted by spinifex23 at 4:11 PM on February 4, 2017 [24 favorites]

Man, how many millions of people, especially ones who don't normally follow politics closely, are going to be watching that O'Reilly pre-Superbowl interview on Fox tomorrow?
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:12 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

From that interview image-tweet:

Trump: ... if Russia helps us in the fight against ISIS, which is a major fight, and Islamic terrorism all over the world -- that's a good thing. ...

Bannon talks. Trump's mouth moves.
posted by Quagkapi at 4:12 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

Double plus good, steady-state strawberry! You have given me something new I can complain to Rep. Greg Walden about!
posted by hilaryjade at 4:12 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

which is at conflict with ridiculous lift ban decision?

Weren't we to stop calling it a "ban"?
posted by notyou at 4:12 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

I'd like to point out that this is almost an identical talking point as the one Jill Stein used to defend her failure to criticize Putin.

I don't think it means much, but it's worth keeping in mind.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 4:12 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

Tea Party leader Justin Amash has gone from calling out Trump to flat out mocking him.

@realDonaldTrump
What is our country coming to when a judge can halt a Homeland Security travel ban and anyone, even with bad intentions, can come into U.S.?

@justinamash - Retweeted Donald J. Trump
In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the republic will be reorganized into the America First Empire!
posted by chris24 at 4:14 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

I don't think it means much, but it's worth keeping in mind.

I think it means a lot; both Stein and Trump are completely unqualified to be President of the United States and their supporters seem incapable of recognizing that fact.
posted by Justinian at 4:15 PM on February 4, 2017 [16 favorites]

More potential security costs:

Trump’s golf links vulnerable to terror attacks and protests

Whatever the outlay, it is expected the Trump Organisation will enjoy a windfall at the expense of the US security services tasked with protecting the president and his children. During the election campaign, the Secret Service paid £2.17 million for its officers to fly on private aircraft owned by Trump’s corporation. Although Trump himself now travels exclusively on Air Force One, the likes of Eric and Donald Jr will fly on Trump’s Boeing 757 and therefore will be able to levy similar charges whenever their security detail accompanies them abroad, further smudging the line between Trump’s politics and his business interests.

posted by Buntix at 4:16 PM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

I swear - really, I do - that just before I clicked over here, I was reading a WaPo story about last weekend's shenanigans.

This one, Dashy?
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:02 PM

I think FelliniBlank has got it. They may have changed the headline? Not sure about that though.
posted by futz at 4:20 PM on February 4, 2017

Today's recap (so far): President Trump indicates that he respects Vladimir Putin but not US federal judges. Good to know.
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:20 PM on February 4, 2017 [43 favorites]

That is real? Jesus.

Yes. Don't think Jesus enters into it.
posted by Coventry at 4:21 PM on February 4, 2017

As an example, I never see a peep from the metafilter left about regulation of info-tech-type technology—and it seems to be a happy absence, as if we're all so enthralled by 'cyberspace' that we fail to see how it fractures society and fractures minds and has expedited wealth inequality; if TV was a vast wasteland, what in god's name is the 2017 internet?

Oh, that's my pet topic du ~~jour mois année~~ décennie. It's been maybe just over 5 years of ubiquitous smartphone penetration, and I think it will take many years to understand in hindsight just what it's done to us - from social media silos & homophily, to the dumbing down of news into clickbait & sensationalist headlines (often not real news by real journalists), to decreased attention spans & unwillingness to investigate issues beyond the surface, to the psychological (addictive) aspects of dopamine reward systems in social media, to an overwhelming surplus of 'information', to signal-noise ratios and a whole lot more.

But how to regulate it is a huge challenge. Traditionally, mass media in the hands of moguls like Murdoch were rightly seen as dangerously influencing society & democracy, but it seems that old media companies are going the way of the dinosaur, replaced by newbies like Breitbart. And if Fox (and the Murdoch papers globally) were seen as too influential and difficult for governments to contain without feeling Murdoch's wrath, I have no idea how any government would go about trying to regulate the internet generally, short of outright censorship.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:23 PM on February 4, 2017 [16 favorites]

I guess Trump has a point, though. It's pretty rich for one of the most aggressive proponents of the Iraq war to be objecting to Putin on the basis that he's a killer.
posted by Coventry at 4:25 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

I mean. Just.

The South Park writers saying they were completely jossed by the election and nothing they could come up with could possibly be funnier than the current state of US politics?

Yesterday I talked about reading creepypastas and the SCP Foundation while hypnotically reloading the thread and it seriously did something to my state of mind. Not that I was in any danger of losing my grip on reality or anything like that, but boy was reality ever losing its grip on me. I would read a story and then go about routine tasks with no feeling of confidence that the process of brushing my teeth or emptying the trash wasn't going to go exactly the same way.

Now there is no fucking way I'm going to watch any South Park after what the SCP Foundation did to me. I have learned my lesson. I don't want to be a cartoon with a high pitched voice.

Fuck all those guys for punching a hole into another dimension like this.
posted by tel3path at 4:27 PM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

I take your point, but I suspect O'Reilly was referring to Putin personally -- he has his political opponents and critical journalists murdered.
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:27 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

OF COURSE HE HAS A POINT, BUT THAT WAS NO EXCUSE FOR MAKING IT.
posted by tel3path at 4:28 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Bannon talks. Trump's mouth moves.

Sure. Words, putin to his mouth
posted by Namlit at 4:29 PM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

Trump’s golf links vulnerable to terror attacks and protests

You know, I've been wondering if anybody (else) had thought to take a sand wedge to the greens at St. Andrews yet.
posted by rhizome at 4:31 PM on February 4, 2017

I guess Trump has a point, though. It's pretty rich for one of the most aggressive proponents of the Iraq war to be objecting to Putin on the basis that he's a killer.

His answer was not based on O'Reilly asking the question. He's defended Putin about killing journalists to George Stephanopoulus and Joe Scarborough.
posted by chris24 at 4:32 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

OF COURSE HE HAS A POINT, BUT THAT WAS NO EXCUSE FOR MAKING IT.

So then everyone is cool with the US "projecting power"? Things like actual murders and bombings to influence elections like GLADIO is ok?
posted by rough ashlar at 4:32 PM on February 4, 2017

I mean, if you were going for party-guest-chooses-Rebecca-Solnit-to-explain-Muybridge-to, I doff my hat to you, sir. [TIPPING INTENSIFIES]
posted by adamgreenfield at 4:34 PM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

Someone's getting too much attention:

Bannon’s rising profile — captured on this week’s cover of Time magazine, which labeled him “The Great Manipulator” — caught the attention of senior officials as well as Trump, who takes pride in his own cover appearances and inquired about Bannon’s Time debut with aides.

posted by FelliniBlank at 4:35 PM on February 4, 2017 [21 favorites]

So then everyone is cool with the US "projecting power"?

There's a difference between citizens criticizing US actions and the president excusing murder by a foreign dictator because he has a hardon for him and autocracy.
posted by chris24 at 4:35 PM on February 4, 2017 [20 favorites]

Trump Posted A False News Report To His Facebook Page And Got Thousands Of Shares

The report claimed that Kuwait had also issued a visa ban on several Muslim-majority countries after President Trump’s immigration order. They didn’t.
posted by futz at 4:36 PM on February 4, 2017 [10 favorites]

Secondly, this is why the Republicans are better at winning elections. The response to Trump making this statement from those on the left shouldn't be "well technically he's right that the US isn't innocent..." it should be "this is a giant club we can use to hammer the fuck out of Trump".
posted by Justinian at 4:37 PM on February 4, 2017 [64 favorites]

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity," Justinian?
posted by Coventry at 4:42 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

I believe that was intended as an observation rather than a prescription.
posted by Justinian at 4:44 PM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

Maybe it's really difficult for South Park to satirize Trump because they share so much in common with him in terms of being racist, misogynistic, and transphobic? Maybe it's too difficult because they're 50 odd year old white libertarian assholes who make some of the most hamfisted "both sides are equally wrong" "satire" that's out there? Maybe because all the alt-right people I've encountered online LOVE South Park and they don't want to piss off their main audience because they have about as much introspection as my cat does? Maybe because their "ironic" antisemitism helped bolster violent antisemitism and their whole "ironic" racism has only done the same?

Also Trump saying that the US isn't innocent is interesting. He's very clearly not talking about drone strikes killing untold innocents or the use of torture or lynchings or the Trail of Tears or napalm in Vietnam or the internment of the Japanese or anything actually horrific, really. Maybe that's why he's so fine with Ted Cruz working for him considering that Cruz is the Zodiac Killer and that his father murdered JFK and that the government puts fluoride (FLUORIDE!!!) in the water. Because we're not innocent.
posted by Neronomius at 4:45 PM on February 4, 2017 [54 favorites]

proclaim that machines are taking over

Obligatory I welcome our robot overlords.

I will say one of my fears at the forefront is Net Neutrality going away. I don't think the average person *gestures out there* understands what it means and there will not be the filling the streets protests when it happens. Then *gestures closer in* all this is going to be a lot less accessible.

Is that a way they can potentially control the news.... could they block opposition networks while allowing friendly ones to broadcast their propaganda?
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 4:45 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

There's a difference between citizens criticizing US actions and the president excusing murder by a foreign dictator because he has a hardon for him and autocracy.

Ya'll wanna try to rap the knuckles' go ahead. But with things like GLADIO and the money spent on the military along with the 'thank you for your service' - there is a whole lot of the population who LIKES America being a source of 'not so innocent' in the world.
posted by rough ashlar at 4:46 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Hey, traction!
posted by mudpuppie at 4:49 PM on February 4, 2017 [30 favorites]

Is that a way they can potentially control the news.... could they block opposition networks while allowing friendly ones to broadcast their propaganda?

It works great in China, and is bound to happen here unless a lighter solution to "fake news" develops first.
posted by Coventry at 4:50 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

The apocalyptic rage that would engulf the entire Republican party if Obama had made that statement about the US not being innocent would be truly terrifying.

if michelle obama had wanted to live with her children in a GOLDEN PALACE IN THE SKY at taxpayer expense the republicans would've blown up chicago, literally exploded it with bombs until there was nothing left but rubble
posted by poffin boffin at 4:51 PM on February 4, 2017 [62 favorites]

"this is a giant club we can use to hammer the fuck out of Trump".

That isn't gonna work out that way.

The giant club is the military and the spending on it. Same with things like the intelligence agencies. And that Giant Club is what keeps the US Dollar in the spot it is in.

"The Left" doesn't want their lifestyles crushed - look at the CA Fitts "Big Red Button" story and how many would push that button.

You can TRY to use the quote - but what's gonna be the reaction when you are told "yes, and we like it that way" by those you are trying to use the quote to illicit shame?
posted by rough ashlar at 4:52 PM on February 4, 2017

Guys I just had the weirdest dream that Hillary lost and we "elected" a demented xenophobic fascist who can't spell. And runs the government into the ground through incompetence. And has damp nuts.

So, let's see what's in the ol' news toda-- eeEEWHAaaa?!?!
posted by petebest at 4:52 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump

The judge opens up our country to potential terrorists and others that do not have our best interests at heart. Bad people are very happy!

In other news: most not-bad people are not very happy.
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:54 PM on February 4, 2017 [8 favorites]

Bad people are very happy!

he writes like an 8 year old. but like, an angry bigoted hateful 8 year old that is also a rapist and a nazi.
posted by poffin boffin at 4:58 PM on February 4, 2017 [63 favorites]

a "bad people" really
posted by poffin boffin at 4:59 PM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

Trump: “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think—our country’s so innocent?”

You're not wrong, Donnie, you're just an asshole.
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:59 PM on February 4, 2017 [19 favorites]

cover of the economist y'all
posted by xcasex at 5:01 PM on February 4, 2017 [34 favorites]

guys this timeline has The Economist adopting Banksy's aesthetic to depict the republican president of the USA
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:03 PM on February 4, 2017 [62 favorites]

Lord Dampnut is also going out of his way to make things worse for farm animals and housepets.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 5:08 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

Honestly I feel like Oglaf got it spot on with Sithrak.
posted by azuresunday at 5:09 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

he writes like an 8 year old.

Mentally, he is. From a psychiactric perspective. His gray matter has extensive cauliflowering. Some of his gruesome communications are not necessarily his fault. We need an adult, pronto.

His inevitable public bouts of aphasia will wreak further havoc on markets, international relations, and "domestic" "tranquility". Pretty soon. We should have a plan in motion.
posted by petebest at 5:11 PM on February 4, 2017

guys this timeline has The Economist adopting Banksy's aesthetic to depict the republican president of the USA

And CNN has become a semi-reliable, fact-checking on air, journalistic outlet under fire by the ruling regime. This is rapidly becoming the most unrealistic timeline, and is at the "hold me, I'm scared" point for me personally.
posted by honestcoyote at 5:13 PM on February 4, 2017 [25 favorites]

There are protesters outside Mar a Lago, and this picture of private security dressed in riot armor is freaking me out a bit. Hope everyone stays safe.
posted by mudpuppie at 5:16 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

We have to destroy X to save Y. If X is the USA, solve for Y.
posted by perhapses at 5:21 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

There are protesters outside Mar a Lago, and this picture of private security dressed in riot armor is freaking me out a bit. Hope everyone stays safe.

Is that his security? They don't look like Secret Service.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 5:23 PM on February 4, 2017

There are protesters outside Mar a Lago, and this picture of private security dressed in riot armor is freaking me out a bit. Hope everyone stays safe.

It looks like they're with the sheriff's dept, it's blurry but they've all got SHERIFF on their chests.
posted by jason_steakums at 5:23 PM on February 4, 2017

We have to destroy X to save Y. If X is the USA, solve for Y.

Laissez-Faire Capitalism.
posted by Talez at 5:24 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

it's blurry but they've all got SHERIFF on their chests.

My bad. I thought the blurry letters spelled "security." Thankfully, I ordered new glasses just yesterday.
posted by mudpuppie at 5:26 PM on February 4, 2017

Apologies if this has been posted previously, it didn't come up in my searches:

Does Donald Trump Know How to Read?
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:26 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

"President Trump" returns to SNL tonight.

@ABFalecbaldwin
...here we go [pic]
posted by chris24 at 5:30 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

So I don't typically watch SNL - when does it air tonight? Do you need cable?
posted by INFJ at 5:31 PM on February 4, 2017

11:30 EST, 10:30 CST. NBC so you should be able to get it with an antenna. Or quickly after airing on NBC.com or Youtube.
posted by chris24 at 5:33 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Trump's Putin comments are freaking out some Republicans.

Weekly Standard Editor in Chief:

@stephenfhayes
Jaw-dropping.

USA Today, National Review columnist

@Schneider_CM
I am currently breathing into a small brown paper bag while staring longingly at a picture of Neil Gorsuch.

WSJ Editorial Board

@StephensWSJ
Trump puts US on moral par with Putin's Russia. Never in history has a President slandered his country like this.
posted by chris24 at 5:47 PM on February 4, 2017 [78 favorites]

Hey, traction!

Glad to help, but what will really matter is if Sleeping Giants picks that up (or, for a real best case scenario, Lawrence O'Donnell follows me).
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:48 PM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

petebest: His inevitable public bouts of aphasia will wreak further havoc on markets, international relations, and "domestic" "tranquility". Pretty soon. We should have a plan in motion.

I speculate that rather than not being able to read, he possibly can't see.

He doesn't wear glasses, and once presbyopia hits it can be difficult to get the right kinds of contact lenses. Many people over a certain age just give up, and go back to wearing glasses.

Which he may be too vain to wear.
posted by tel3path at 5:52 PM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

I dunno about you folks but my plan is to get on a first-name basis with all the farmers

Perhaps this will be the impetus the left/liberals need to reach out to rural areas.
posted by Coventry at 5:52 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

That would also explain the "where's Rudy" thing.
posted by tel3path at 5:52 PM on February 4, 2017 [8 favorites]

The giant club is the military and the spending on it.

No, the giant club is Trump's disrespect to our fighting men and women. The giant club is Trump's willingness to equate our behavior with Putin's.

We don't have political power. Right now, the only thing that matters is making the Republicans eat their own, repeatedly.

(I don't expect to see my Republican senator change his mind about anything. I'll consider it a victory if some of his staff quit, though.)
posted by steady-state strawberry at 5:53 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

Trump's Putin comments are freaking out some Republicans.

Hahahaha, sure. I'm sure they're really "freaked out"

Are they going to do anything about it? No. Are they going to stand up to him and try to impeach him? No. Are they going to do anything other than stagger towards the fainting couch? No. They nominated, they vouched for, they voted for him. Why do they all pretend to be so surprised?
posted by Neronomius at 5:54 PM on February 4, 2017 [41 favorites]

> and is at the "hold me, I'm scared" point for me personally.

It's the Overton Window writ large. Having something super ~~beyond the pale~~ 'rightward' tugs the new 'normal' towards that direction vastly further than the counter-reaction on the other side.

That CNN is now considered as having "become a semi-reliable, fact-checking on air, journalistic outlet under fire by the ruling regime" really shows just how far the shit - all of the shits - has been yanked into White Nationalist/Kleptocratic domains.

All of the horrid people who are facilitating this are cargo culting their way into hoping to be the new generation of ex-Soviet kleptocrats. Their MO is the same, but the audacity and velocity are unprecedented.
posted by porpoise at 5:54 PM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

Hey everybody, a friend of mine started a White House Petition:

Condemn the terrorist attack on Muslims in Quebec City and honor the victims

The alleged suspect is Alexandre Bissonnette, a self-described white nationalist and supporter of Donald Trump.

As of Feb. 4 President Trump has failed to personally condemn or even acknowledge this terrorist act. Bizarrely, his press secretary used the event to justify the president's executive order directed at Muslims.

In the name of American values, international friendship and common decency, President Trump must publicly condemn the attack and honor its victims.

posted by OnceUponATime at 5:55 PM on February 4, 2017 [21 favorites]

I dunno about you folks but my plan is to get on a first-name basis with all the farmers in the area and get a garden of my own going, too.

If it were any other year this would be really fun and exciting.

Anybody with a sudden interest in small scale/sustainable food production who wants advice can MeMail me. I do organic market gardening for a living and developed my specific skills and methods with scenarios in mind that were plausible then and now likely.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:55 PM on February 4, 2017 [17 favorites]

This one, Dashy?
Yes, thanks. Hot mess of a story. But that's ... redundant, isn't it?
posted by Dashy at 5:56 PM on February 4, 2017

As a person with PTSD this election and past two weeks have just made me disassociate so often. It's like someone found my nightmares and turned them up to eleven and made them real.

But I could not have been so active learning and calling and donating and protesting and volunteering with you, MetaFilter. Thank you for everything you do in our resistance.
posted by hapaxes.legomenon at 5:58 PM on February 4, 2017 [28 favorites]

Trump's Putin comments are freaking out some Republicans.

I guess they weren't concerned back on Jan 18, 2015:

Morning Joe: Again, he [Putin] kills journalists that don't agree with him...

The Donald: Well, I think our country does plenty of killing also Joe, so you know.
posted by peeedro at 5:58 PM on February 4, 2017 [20 favorites]

[stage whisper] Today's Secret MetaFilter Word is: presbyopia
posted by petebest at 5:59 PM on February 4, 2017 [19 favorites]

Kiss Our Asses: Release Your Taxes - Chicago group plans to moon the President
posted by Mchelly at 6:00 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Ah here we go: http://trump.news/

The 'about the author' section below each article is the largest I've ever seen. It's 632 words over 69 lines.

The punchline is it somehow ends with "Click here to read a more detailed bio on Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, at HealthRanger.com."
posted by jaduncan at 6:04 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Are they going to do anything about it? No.

There's probably not going to be a single event that ends Trump. It's going to be death by a thousand cuts. And among the few diehard Never Trumpers have been some in the press. Kristol and Rubin ffs. So seeing Republican press outraged is another cut, because they write and say things that trickle down to the base. And even within Trump's base, Putin is still unpopular. So this unAmerican and pro-Putin interview is damaging. Especially when amplified by conservative press, not just "fake news" liberal sites.

Trump's ties to Russia continue to be a problem for him. Only 13% of voters have a favorable opinion of Russia, to 60% with a negative view of it. For Vladimir Putin himself, the numbers are even worse. Just 10% of voters see him positively, with 67% having an unfavorable opinion of him. Continued close ties to Russia could be a problem for Trump even with his own base- among his voters Russia has a 20/47 favorability rating and Putin's is 15/55.

posted by chris24 at 6:04 PM on February 4, 2017 [10 favorites]

I've been following Pat Buchanan's The American Conservative in an attempt to "get out of my bubble." I want to share two articles that MeFites might find themselves (shockingly) agreeing with and getting some insight from, and can maybe share with your conservative relatives, if you're still speaking.

The Trump Administration’s Lies About Iran

Spicer has managed to combine Flynn’s nonsensical statement blaming Iran for the attack with the garbage analysis I mentioned earlier in the week that the attack had been intended for a U.S. ship, and he has produced something even more divorced from reality. No U.S. ship was attacked or targeted by anyone, Iran wasn’t responsible for the attack that did happen, and yet according to the Trump White House Iran took “hostile actions” against one of our ships. This is as blatant a lie as any that Spicer has told over the last two weeks, and it is on a matter of the greatest importance. The Trump administration is conjuring up “hostile actions” against a U.S. vessel out of thin air, and they appear to be doing so for no other reason than to stoke tensions and make conflict with Iran more likely.

And written by Pat Buchanan himself (a nationalist but an isolationist nationalist):

The Coming Clash With Iran

The problem with making a threat public—Iran is “on notice”—is that it makes it almost impossible for Iran, or Trump, to back away.

Tehran seems almost obliged to defy it, especially the demand that it cease testing conventional missiles for its own defense.

This U.S. threat will surely strengthen those Iranians opposed to the nuclear deal and who wish to see its architects, President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, thrown out in this year’s elections.

If Rex Tillerson is not to become a wartime secretary of state like Colin Powell or Dean Rusk, he is going to have to speak to the Iranians, not with defiant declarations, but in a diplomatic dialogue.

posted by OnceUponATime at 6:06 PM on February 4, 2017 [18 favorites]

I guess they weren't concerned back on Jan 18, 2015:

Morning Joe: Again, he [Putin] kills journalists that don't agree with him...

The Donald: Well, I think our country does plenty of killing also Joe, so you know.

Yep, I linked that interview and the Stephanopolous one two days later above. Yes, he'd said similar things before and it was obvious, but from a devil's advocate perspective, saying that as a long shot candidate (even though leading polls, most didn't take him winning seriously) 11 months before the election is a bit different than saying it in a nationally televised Super Bowl interview as the president.

Again, not saying I agree, but making an argument for why this time might be different for Republicans.
posted by chris24 at 6:09 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

MetaFilter, I can't tell you how upset I am leaving the rally at San Francisco City Center just now. It capped off with an anti-Semitic rant that got nearly as much cheering as anything else tonight.
posted by books for weapons at 6:09 PM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

books for weapons - that is horrible! I am so sorry to hear that.
posted by obliquity of the ecliptic at 6:12 PM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

Rogue Melania ‏@RogueFirstLady
The Donald unhappy with activist calls to Mar a Lago at (561) 832-2600. Please RT so people not call (561) 832-2600. Thank you :)
posted by Coventry at 6:14 PM on February 4, 2017 [25 favorites]

Stairs are hard when you can't see well.
posted by Devonian at 6:15 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

Donald Trump could be denied Westminster Hall address if he comes to the UK

But a potential compromise has emerged where Mr Trump would not be allowed to deliver a speech in the mediaeval hall, the oldest and most prestigious part of the Palace of Westminster, and instead speak in the Royal Gallery in the House of Lords – which was built 800 years later and is currently covered in scaffolding.

The move would be a major snub to Mr Trump as Westminster Hall, where Winston Churchill lay in state and Charles I was tried for treason, is traditionally reserved for the most respected world leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyri, Pope Benedict XVI and Barack Obama.

Source article (I couldn't view it): Donald Trump snub: US President could be denied Westminster Hall honour given to Barack Obama

Here is the archive.is link

This newspaper revealed last month how Mr Trump wants a “full Monty” state visit that would “go one better” than Mr Obama, who he succeeded in the White House.

In 2011, Mr Obama became the first US President to address both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall, a grand stone building which dates back to the 11th century.

Oh the glee I would be full of if Trumple Thinskin was denied.
posted by futz at 6:18 PM on February 4, 2017 [29 favorites]

"If Michelle Obama had insisted on living inside a golden tower at taxpayer expense white people would have burned this country to the ground"

Turns out they did anyway. Oops.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:18 PM on February 4, 2017 [25 favorites]

There's probably not going to be a single event that ends Trump. It's going to be death by a thousand cuts.

Is it? Shit, I shouldn't be commenting because I've been drinking and I'm confrontational and grouchy, but like, hasn't it been a thousand cuts already? Or, I guess those thousands cuts depend on how you're looking at him? Like, if you look at him as a Republican maybe only has a hundred, but if you look at him with someone with basic human decency he's bleeding from a hundred thousand already.

What percentage of cuts to do we need to get to before we say, enough? Like, I'm from Canada and we had Stephen Fucking Harper for eight years who was as awful as Ted Cruz and he kept getting elected. Like, sure, a death by a thousand cuts but who's counting the cuts? Whose cuts actually matter because we also had Rob Ford for forever, a perfect reflection of Toronto though, and that guy was beef jerky by the end.
posted by Neronomius at 6:18 PM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

Review of Mar-a-Lago Club

Absolutely outstanding place, and very tastefully decorated, by the way! We stayed at this wonderful resort to celebrate the Day of Patriotic Remembrance, which had taken place only 4 days previous. And congratulations to our Beloved and and Respected Leader for his inauguration as 45th president of the United States (he is gonna be the BEST president!) And yes, don't believe all of those single-star reviews - obviously just liberals who are upset that they could NEVER afford to stay there.

posted by Coventry at 6:19 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Absolutely outstanding place, and very tastefully decorated, by the way! We stayed at this wonderful resort to celebrate the Day of Patriotic Remembrance, which had taken place only 4 days previous. And congratulations to our Beloved and and Respected Leader for his inauguration as 45th president of the United States (he is gonna be the BEST president!) And yes, don't believe all of those single-star reviews - obviously just liberals who are upset that they could NEVER afford to stay there.

Damnit Poe, why must you toy with me so?
posted by jaduncan at 6:22 PM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

MetaFilter, I can't tell you how upset I am leaving the rally at San Francisco City Center just now. It capped off with an anti-Semitic rant that got nearly as much cheering as anything else tonight.

Damn, I'm sorry, and I guess I'm glad I missed that part. Can you say more about what happened?

This is my problem with basically the majority of protests in San Francisco in fact.
posted by zachlipton at 6:23 PM on February 4, 2017 [8 favorites]

What percentage of cuts to do we need to get to before we say, enough?

I wish I knew. I only know that we have to keep fighting and trust that at some point enough people will have reached their number that he's gone. It may be next month, it may be 2020. But right now, anyone from the right who wants to stand up to fascism, who wants to point out his idiocy/unAmericanism/whatever, is welcome to do so to hopefully help expedite the process.
posted by chris24 at 6:28 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

sooo what's stopping anyone from setting up asterisk, calls on a loop, to senators, reps of house and other numbers, with a prerecorded message? O:-)
posted by xcasex at 6:29 PM on February 4, 2017

Rogue Melania ‏@RogueFirstLady
The Donald unhappy with activist calls to Mar a Lago at (561) 832-2600. Please RT so people not call (561) 832-2600. Thank you :)

No longer in service
posted by Buntix at 6:29 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

At a senior staff meeting last Monday, according to one adviser in attendance, the president delivered an unmistakable decree: “Reince [Priebus] is in charge. He’s the chief of staff. Everything has to go through him.”
link
posted by xcasex at 6:34 PM on February 4, 2017

NeverTrump Patriarch Mitt Romney sees ‘Encouraging Signs’ with Trump
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:38 PM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

What is up with this "anti-semitic rants in SF as an actual part of protests" thing? Here in MPLS, I've not heard anything like that (not to say that it could literally not happen, just that I haven't heard such a thing over the years). That is quite disturbing, especially given that one would expect anti anti-semitic stuff at a protest protesting Trump.
posted by Frowner at 6:39 PM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

Buntix, I can still see the account.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:42 PM on February 4, 2017

“There’s no daylight between us, and there’s really no daylight with the president.”

"It's eternal night in the House of the Mind," Bannon continued, "which is bigger on the inside than on the outside, and much, much darker. On Monday, I issue my next Executive Order, requiring that the stars overhead, one by one, without any fuss, go out."
posted by queenofbithynia at 6:42 PM on February 4, 2017 [17 favorites]

NeverTrump Patriarch Mitt Romney sees ‘Encouraging Signs’ with Trump

Oh, would that be Mitt "No Apology" Romney, who could not fucking shut up about Obama admitting US imperfections? [popcorn.gif]
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:44 PM on February 4, 2017 [10 favorites]

fbi building watchlist to snitch to employers about employees.

The message to me, is very clear.
Don't protest or we will stitch you up.
posted by xcasex at 6:51 PM on February 4, 2017 [14 favorites]

Buntix, I can still see the account

I think it's the phone number, not the Twitter account.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:55 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

ok I am sharing this as your daily dose of panic-reduction: Irish People Taste Test Weird American Food.
posted by INFJ at 6:59 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

Oh, would that be Mitt "No Apology" Romney, who could not fucking shut up about Obama admitting US imperfections? [popcorn.gif]

This is the most perfect example of IOKIYAR...although if I wanted something more on the nose, I'd just call him a flip-flopper who went out on a limb and then gave up his integrity by working with someone who was, in his own words a "con man, a phony and a fraud" who makes promises that mean nothing. Apparently like Romney's principles.

But I don't, because he's at least a relatively sane voice, conservative rather than full-on fascist, and wrong within the normal bounds. I'd be relatively happy if the Republicans got back into a place where someone like Romney could be nominated.
posted by jaduncan at 7:02 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

@realDonaldTrump: Gorbachev Sings Tractors: Turnip! Buttocks!
[fake, but . . . for how long?]
posted by petebest at 7:03 PM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

fbi building watchlist to snitch to employers about employees.

“Often this is because states fail to update their own records, and the FBI does not proactively verify the accuracy of information coming from the states,” Lynch explained. “This has a much greater impact on communities of color because all criminal history systems include a disproportionate number of African Americans, Latinos, and immigrants.” An estimated 1.8 million workers a year are subject to FBI background checks, according to the NELP.

An FBI spokesperson from the Rap Back program said that the program “works diligently with all agencies to maintain accurate Identity History Records” and that if discrepancies exist, teams are in place to assist subscribers and individuals."

Intriguing. Do I see language there relating to a duty for the FBI to tell the subject of the record when their employer has accessed the database (and quite possibly fired them without stated reasons in a right to work state)? Do I see that the FBI has even attempted to inform subjects that they are on the database? No, unsurprisingly I do not. Kafkaesque.
posted by jaduncan at 7:09 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

Just gonna drop this link here for your pre-SNL Saturday evening entertainment: I-M-P-E-A-C-H-M-E-N-T.
posted by yasaman at 7:16 PM on February 4, 2017 [34 favorites]

I have tons of issues with charges and arrests, as they mean nothing in terms of crime just that someone decided it was worth their time to charge you or discriminate against you.

Updating for particular fields should be standard practice, especially in fields that work with vulnerable populations (elderly, children, healthcare, prisons ect). I really want to know if the DCFS worker currently has been found guilty of neglect against her own children even if she's been employed there 15 years prior.
posted by AlexiaSky at 7:23 PM on February 4, 2017

I have seen this story in the news for the past few days and it gives me the creeps. I was hoping for more clarification (lol) as to why but I haven't found any.

USDA abruptly purges animal welfare information from its website

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday abruptly removed inspection reports and other information from its website about the treatment of animals at thousands of research laboratories, zoos, dog breeding operations and other facilities.

In a statement, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service cited court rulings and privacy laws for the decision, which it said was the result of a “comprehensive review” that took place over the past year. It said the removed documents, which also included records of enforcement actions against violators of the Animal Welfare Act and the Horse Protection Act, would now be accessible only via Freedom of Information Act Requests. Those can take years to be approved.

I don't think that this would have happened on Obama's watch. This has got to be related to Big Business and their objections to regulations which is mentioned in the article. AND this is all kinds of WTF. The following statement was published on Joe For America, yup, Joe the plumber, of all places!

Advocates for businesses that rely on animals, including agriculture and exotic pet breeders, have long resented government oversight that they say is overly aggressive and influenced by animal protection groups. Last month, Mindy Patterson, the president of the Cavalry Group — which describes its aim as “protecting and defending animal enterprise”– wrote a column accusing the USDA of having “succumbed to the pressure of animal rights extremists.”

This makes me very uneasy. Things were looking up for animal rights. What's next? Humans? Kinda kidding.
posted by futz at 7:25 PM on February 4, 2017 [23 favorites]

Mentally, he is. From a psychiactric perspective. His gray matter has extensive cauliflowering.

I know lefties have been questioning his mental and psychological condition for a long time but when professionals on the right, or those disconnected from politics altogether observe the same thing, it really confirms the suspicions for me.

Another recent bit of anecdata on this front: Teaching some EFL conversation lessons in Japan, I have one lesson with a family doctor who was previously a neurosurgeon. He doesn't really have much political leaning in American politics or even much interest, but will entertain the topic if it comes up. On Thursday, after seeing several of Trumps latest speeches and rants, the doctor mentions out of the blue, and in his concerned professional voice, "I really think he may have some mental condition which could be serious. Either from old age or a psychological condition, but he's probably not in a good mental state to be working as a president." This doctor has years of experience running a rural clinic with tons of old folks, many of whom suffer dementia, alzheimers, etc, so I put a lot of weight into his professional observations and opinions.

Maybe we should change Ben Carson's position to Chief of White House Medical Assistance.
posted by p3t3 at 7:26 PM on February 4, 2017 [10 favorites]

Review of Mar-a-Lago Club

Mar-a-Lago isn't even on the beach! SAD!
posted by kirkaracha at 7:27 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

As someone who has a former puppy mill girl currently stealing all the blankets on the bed (and we had another one who passed last year) the USDA thing really burns my biscuits. As bad as you may think mills are... they're worse.
posted by azpenguin at 7:28 PM on February 4, 2017 [20 favorites]

Link to a Facebook post about commuters who cleaned up a swastika tonight.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:29 PM on February 4, 2017 [13 favorites]

Kafkaesque.

"A Maryland woman lost her accounting job after a background check performed through the FBI’s criminal database indicated, erroneously, that she was unsuitable for the job, according to the Baltimore Sun."

[...]

Studnitz maintained that she had no criminal history and, indeed, the only court record the Baltimore Sun was able to uncover on her was a civil case related to a $11,676 judgment that a nursing home had been awarded in 2005. Studnitz told the paper this actually involved a suit against her late father’s estate.

About two weeks later, the Social Security Administration sent a letter to CMS backing her claim of innocence. The letter said Studnitz had passed a pre-screening check and could work on the SSA contract pending a final determination. It made no mention of the previous letter that claimed she was unsuitable.

That should have settled the matter. But instead of reinstating her in her job, CMS told her to re-apply for her position."

Actually, I'll slightly alter that. Given the potential for incompetence and secret data entry errors to lead to real world exclusion, it (as did the no fly list) has more than a hint of Brazil.
posted by jaduncan at 7:30 PM on February 4, 2017 [13 favorites]

Given the potential for incompetence and secret data entry errors to lead to real world exclusion, it (as did the no fly list) has more than a hint of Brazil.

At least in Brazil they apologized for their errors.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:32 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

I am even less ok with this USDA bullshit than I am with the National Park/Federal Lands bullshit.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 7:33 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

Man this Putin comments thing. Is it just me or are very few people distinguishing between "autocrat who personally orders his domestic enemies killed, and also does typical imperialist shady shit abroad" and "national history of typical imperialist shady shit abroad". Cuz, like, neither are awesome but there is at least one order of magnitude difference.

Or are we no longer doing nuance? It's hard to keep track of the facets of critical thinking that we're jettisoning as we hurtle towards the abyss.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:40 PM on February 4, 2017 [24 favorites]

I paid for those records, Mr. Trump!
posted by kirkaracha at 7:40 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

I am even less ok with this USDA bullshit...

The pit in my stomach is ringing alarm bells.
posted by futz at 7:43 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Nuance"? Sounds kinda French to me...
posted by uosuaq at 7:43 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

So as I'm reading this thread, a TV spot comes on that I've seen a few times the past couple days. It's a pro-Gorsuch ad (I think it was this one), apparently paid for by the Judicial Crisis Network. It's exactly like a campaign ad for an elected office. The press release on the JCN's website makes it clear what the purpose of the ad is—to rally voters against Senators who oppose Gorsuch's nomination—but this is the first time I remember seeing a political ad for an appointed position. Is this a new thing?

Also, especially rich from the press release: the JCN is proud of its work obstructing Merrick Garland's confirmation, but they'll be damned if anybody's going to keep Trump from his rightful role in selecting a SC justice of his own.
posted by Rykey at 7:46 PM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

Is this a new thing?

There's been one running for De Vos too
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:49 PM on February 4, 2017

Mar-a-Lago isn't even on the beach! SAD!

If you perch atop the Propecia scented head of the owner of mar-a-lago you might be able to see the beach if you can keep your balance and squint.
posted by futz at 7:49 PM on February 4, 2017

Mar-a-Lago isn't even on the beach! SAD!

Congress is working on that.
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:53 PM on February 4, 2017 [58 favorites]

The Putin comments make me think that he's jealous, which is on the one hand dangerous if the presidential powers are weaponised, and on the other hand pathetic because he feels like he should be in Putin's position without doing the hard work of going through the ranks in a totalitarian state then undermining its transition to democracy. Once this is done, for better or worse, we'll have a sense of just how many among the "it's a republic, not a democracy!" brigade define "republic" as "not a democracy in any way" out of sheer cultish party and personal allegiance.
posted by holgate at 7:53 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

Background checks being unreliable are actually a fairly common thing, as a social worker I've had to walk people through the steps to get things that were erroneous removed.

And don't get me started on the people to be you especially if they are family. Untangling a close relative that pretended yo be you to avoid a warrent or some shit is close to impossible.

Also, many private companies market their own background checks (like landlords use) and it can end up similar to trying to correct a credit report.
posted by AlexiaSky at 7:54 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

What worries me about the USDA stuff (and you know FDA is next) is that, because nobody has been so fucking stupid as to go directly after these agencies within common memory, there aren't established advocacy groups waiting in the wings to take up the fight. Most other heinous things these assholes will ruin, you've got at least the ACLU/SPLC and a plethora of single-issue NGOs who will be on top of it and stir people to action. Not so for keeping America from turning back into The Jungle.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:55 PM on February 4, 2017 [19 favorites]

Congress is working on that.

So maybe there's a method to the climate change-denial madness.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:01 PM on February 4, 2017

Is there a way to get a free background check, similar to a free credit report?
posted by Coventry at 8:03 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

It said the removed documents, which also included records of enforcement actions against violators of the Animal Welfare Act and the Horse Protection Act, would now be accessible only via Freedom of Information Act Requests

The Fuck

Mirror everything.

I went on Twitter to message @internetarchive, but they are all over most of it.

In related news, I'm involved with indieweb stuff. Known just had this pull request:

"Auto archive to wayback machine #1643

Here's what I fixed or added:

When a URL is archived, by default, also post it to the wayback machine, so there's a historic record.
Here's why I did it:

Trump
posted by jaduncan at 8:03 PM on February 4, 2017 [13 favorites]

Mar-a-Lago isn't even on the beach! SAD!

Climate change is working on that...
posted by armacy at 8:21 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

This Daily Kos post has a nice wrapup of demonstrators showing up at townhalls and other meetings to the startlement and dismay of their elected representatives.
posted by emjaybee at 8:22 PM on February 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

If something comes back during a background check, you have the right to request it from the company who completed the report for free (not who ran it, the actually company that ran it)

You can also run your own for a fee or go to your police station (in Chicago it's the 35th and. Michigan office only) and request a rap sheet for a fee.
posted by AlexiaSky at 8:25 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Bannon as Grim Reaper on SNL now.
posted by Rykey at 8:31 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

SNL starts off with explaining Ivanka and Jared don't work on Shabbat. Balwin: "when the Jews are away the goys will play. Send in Steve Bannon [grim reaper enters]"
posted by zachlipton at 8:31 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

huh so that's where Kenan Thompson went.
posted by INFJ at 8:36 PM on February 4, 2017

That was not the most subtle cold open, but it had a target audience of one. Also, Kenan Thompson as Mugabe was unexpected and the funniest bit.
posted by holgate at 8:37 PM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

Well, that SNL open ought to get Trump a-tweetin'
posted by sporkwort at 8:37 PM on February 4, 2017

(And Baldwin's still wearing a Russian flag pin.)
posted by holgate at 8:37 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

I'm unable to close my jaw. (will post a link once Mediaite gets their video up)
posted by zachlipton at 8:38 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Ha! Grim Reaper Bannon suggests that Trump make himself feel better by calling an insignificant country and threatening them. He calls... Zimbabwe, where Keenan Thompson's Mugabe scoffs at his attempts to be a dictator, threatens to rip out Trumps spine, and mocks Trump's inability to climb stairs. It was great.
posted by TwoStride at 8:38 PM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

Ooooh, SNL now spoofing the Customs video that plays in airports...
posted by TwoStride at 8:44 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

SNL Cold Open video
posted by zachlipton at 8:45 PM on February 4, 2017 [29 favorites]

So I am still pretty worked up but here's the short of what I noticed at the SF event:

Somebody in front of me was carrying a sign that read something like get the Israelis out of Congress.

One speaker earlier in the day engaged in a bit of Jewish erasure and claimed that the US had never before refused to accept refugees.

The final speaker was somehow affiliated with the Bay Area Resistance & Rapid Response text message system that has been getting promoted at rallies all over recently (unsubscribe by texting STOP back to their number), he dropped references to the racist state of Israel and finished by listing a bunch of things we should be anti- during an applause line and threw anti-Zionist in between anti-racist and anti-fascist.
posted by books for weapons at 8:46 PM on February 4, 2017 [17 favorites]

Today's updated recap (so far): President Trump has a giant crush on Rob Pattinson and respects Vladimir Putin but not federal judges or Kristen Stewart.
posted by FelliniBlank at 8:47 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Holy mother of fucking god, SNL went nuclear in that cold open.
posted by Talez at 8:54 PM on February 4, 2017 [13 favorites]

SNL now mocking Sean Spicer (it's Melissa McCarthy). They are ALL IN tonight; these are some pretty big shots across the bow to set up Baldwin's hosting next week!
posted by TwoStride at 9:00 PM on February 4, 2017 [12 favorites]

OMG, the Spicer sketch!
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:01 PM on February 4, 2017

books for weapons, that's fucking horrible! Thank you for telling us about it.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 9:02 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

The cold open was okay, but McCarthy is awesome as Spicer.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:03 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

We've come a long way from the Bill Clinton eats McDonald's skit.
posted by peeedro at 9:05 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'm still goin' with this guy.
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:09 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

This Spicer bit is WOW.

FUCK YOU TRUMP and MINIONS you deserve every bit of this humorous takedown. I hope that it kills them and the WH press corp squees with glee.
posted by futz at 9:10 PM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

I can confirm from Twitter that they are indeed squeeing with a great deal of glee right now.
posted by zachlipton at 9:11 PM on February 4, 2017 [12 favorites]

More SNL clips:

Kristen Stewart monologue (Trump's tweets about her, f-bomb)
Press briefing room sketch
posted by zachlipton at 9:14 PM on February 4, 2017 [13 favorites]

I'm surprised McCarthy didn't go buck wild on dippin' dots.
posted by indubitable at 9:16 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Five bucks says Stewart's f-bomb is what Trump tweets about.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:18 PM on February 4, 2017 [10 favorites]

This is more FanFare territory, but the way McCarthy approached that skit felt like she spent rehearsals telling the writers to ramp it up more and more because she could handle whatever they came up with. And she did. Every hack at the Monday briefing is going to be a bit flinchy about the podium.
posted by holgate at 9:20 PM on February 4, 2017 [46 favorites]

Every hack at the Monday briefing is going to be a bit flinchy about the podium.

Or, like a normal person, Spicer could lean into the joke and show up to the press briefing with a water pistol.
posted by Talez at 9:24 PM on February 4, 2017 [7 favorites]

Mar-a-Lago isn't even on the beach! SAD!

Congress is working on that.
posted by sebastienbailard

I love you in the most platonic metafiltery way possible.
posted by futz at 9:25 PM on February 4, 2017

The resemblance is uncanny
posted by zachlipton at 9:26 PM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

Has the text of the financial-regulation EO been leaked, yet?
posted by Coventry at 9:28 PM on February 4, 2017

SNL clearly decided to piss off Trump as badly as they possibly could with that cold open. The skit itself wasn't as inherently funny as a more subtle approach might have been but the sheer mindblowing rage it is going to induce in Trump the manbaby adds a whole new level of hilarity. It's Meta humor! I love it.

I want them to do nothing but try to make Trump have a rage stroke for the next 4 years. Or however long Trump lasts.
posted by Justinian at 9:32 PM on February 4, 2017 [36 favorites]

Dear god! Melissa McCarthy must have watched hours of Spicer's press conferences to nail it like that.
posted by pickles_have_souls at 9:33 PM on February 4, 2017 [24 favorites]

You know, I've lived on the East Coast. I hated living on the East Coast, love California, but I'm jealous of y'all right now, and you're just flat out taunting us West Coasters with your SNL teases.

I stopped watching it many, many years ago, but now watching it almost feels like patriotism. Except I can't watch it until two hours from now. Which is well past my bedtime. :|
posted by mudpuppie at 9:34 PM on February 4, 2017

the sheer mindblowing rage it is going to induce in Trump

This is war. The weapon SNL has at its disposal is humor. This is how you deploy it hardcore.

I suspect there were serious discussions about the possibility of nasty things like censorship and dentention and imprisonment. We are far down a slippery slope toward those things being real after only a couple of weeks, and I suspect SNL went there in full knowledge that it might be a dangerous thing to do given the possibility of future events.
posted by Bringer Tom at 9:37 PM on February 4, 2017 [29 favorites]

But mudpuppie, people on the East Coast are nicely putting the good sketches online RIGHT NOW so we can see them! It's like awesome time travel and we don't even have to stay up till 1 a.m.!

(Also, between online reviews and Hulu posting individual sketches, I can just skip the crap ones!)

Melissa M was KILLING IT.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:39 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Holy balls, those SNL skits are awesome. "The president is going to host an encore presentation of Finding Dory, then will abolish the National Park System"
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 9:40 PM on February 4, 2017 [13 favorites]

SNL needs to stop using Kate McKinnon to play the women of the Trump administration; it crosses some wires in my brain that really shouldn't be crossed.
posted by redsparkler at 9:43 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

This is war. The weapon SNL has at its disposal is humor. This is how you deploy it hardcore.

Not just that, but thanks to our Glorious Leader, we now live in a country where insulting people for attention is standard practice at the highest levels of government. It's not just a taste of his own medicine; it's also good business.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 9:45 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

Can we not with the SNL spoilers?
posted by rhizome at 9:46 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh crap! So sorry! I just flagged it.... hopefully it will get deleted.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 9:51 PM on February 4, 2017

Let's stop with the SNL spoilers for tonight although I realize that discussing the show and its impact on Trump is going to be a thing we want to keep doing but also this maybe isn't the place to liveblog SNL, so I will chat with staff and try to have a better solution by next week.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 9:51 PM on February 4, 2017 [11 favorites]

mudpuppie, I found the cold open and Melissa McCarthy's piece at YouTube, since, for some odd reason, zachlipton's Mediaite links don't have sound on my iPad.

02/04 Cold Open

Melissa McCarthy/Sean Spicer

The YouTube pieces are usually a bit later than Mediaite, but not too bad.
posted by Silverstone at 9:55 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

I feel like the fact that there are generally not-geoblocked clips posted online within about five minutes after each political sketch ends takes away most of the spoiler problem unless you truly must watch the show live in its entirety.
posted by zachlipton at 9:55 PM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

I don't know if I prompted the mod warning, but just for the record, I wasn't complaining about people posting SNL links here. I'm actually grateful for them.
posted by mudpuppie at 9:59 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

FWIW, I watched after reading the spoilers, and they were still good. But I've never really been bothered by spoilers.
posted by Coventry at 9:59 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

In one corner we've got the holy buckaroos, usherers of the dominion, august paul ryan & humptytrumpy vs the brothers Koch and the steel eyed Walmart, Fight!

this is normal. this will end well.
posted by xcasex at 9:59 PM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

this will end well.

hopefully Reservoir Dogs style
posted by mannequito at 10:03 PM on February 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

Yeah, it's no big deal, and I didn't delete anything, I just know SNL chatter related to politics is going to be an ongoing issue for quite some time and I'd like to have a clearly-articulated policy so we can let people know "spoilers at your own risk" or "don't liveblog" or whatever we end up deciding. Also McCarthy as Spicer almost made me pee.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 10:04 PM on February 4, 2017 [15 favorites]

Also, i don't get the usecase for shuttering USDA.
posted by xcasex at 10:08 PM on February 4, 2017

They hate science and truth
posted by Golem XIV at 10:10 PM on February 4, 2017 [8 favorites]

I'm extremely grateful for the SNL links and don't consider them spoilers as long as no one describes the content...
[Editing for content: people did talk about some of the content, and I'm fine with asking that we not do that. But please don't stop with the links.]
posted by uosuaq at 10:11 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

They hate science and truth

yes but.. that cant be the only reason can it?
posted by xcasex at 10:11 PM on February 4, 2017

Apologies if this has been posted previously, it didn't come up in my searches:

Does Donald Trump Know How to Read?
posted by computech_apolloniajames

This covers a bit of the same ground as this Samantha Bee segment, though with fewer pop culture clips. Except that her segment came out before the election, and this is current through 2/2. Given how much information flows through the presidency in the form of written reports, this is worrying.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:12 PM on February 4, 2017 [13 favorites]

“Lions”—Skip Marley, 02 February 2017
posted by ob1quixote at 10:13 PM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

USDA.

BUSINESSES, large and small do not want to be hindered by regulations or ethics. It slows them down and costs them a lot of dollar bills. I think that they have forgotten that a very sizable contingent of consumers HATE and will boycott companies that are not transparent. This will be yet another decision that will bite the administration and the companies that support this in the ass and in the bottom line. I feel that I am right about this. We will see.

Not to gender this exactly but there is a huge mom movement out there who will not tolerate this at all if safety is jeopardized. Full stop.
posted by futz at 10:27 PM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

I used to get exasperated that people younger than me didnt understand how radical Sat. Nite Live seemed in its infancy, pre-late night cable and the web.

But this, this tonight, in our dark, bizarre timeline, was SNL dipping into real guerrilla-satire. The entire show was an FU to the Right.
posted by NorthernLite at 10:44 PM on February 4, 2017 [22 favorites]

Also, remember that donnie signed an executive order requiring that for every one new regulation, two must be revoked. We know that lies fly out of mouths of donnie and his cronies so it isn't unreasonable to assume that what he really meant was "for every one new regulation 200 (or a whole department) will be revoked".

Nobody fucking knows. Trying to be logical is spitting brain cells into a black hole.
posted by futz at 10:44 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Climate change is working on that...

We just need sea levels to rise four feet and we're in business.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:44 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Aw, fuck. The USDA inspects our animals and our facilities, because we don't work on lab rats and mice and so we aren't excluded under the terms of the law. (They actually don't bother with domestic rats and mice used for research, probably because local IACUCs do a pretty good job with them and also it would be expensive. So domestic lab mice and rats are exempt under the law, but it's the sort of thing where if you aren't explicitly exempted you are covered--so our research mice must be overseen by the USDA because they're singing mice.)

So now I am wondering if this state of affairs is set to continue. Our IACUC and our local research animal vet staff will keep us honest, and of course our colony manager along with the rest of the grad students here all care about our animals' wellbeing. But... fuck, I don't know, this is another thing for me to worry about with respect to what all is happening with our colonies and what will change for research scientists in the next couple of years.
posted by sciatrix at 10:52 PM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Next up, making CDC quarantines voluntary the way USDA recalls already are.
posted by XMLicious at 11:43 PM on February 4, 2017

O’Reilly: “Putin’s a killer”

Trump: “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think—our country’s so innocent?”

A reminder, from Noah Rothman, via
Bradd Jaffy (NBC News • Senior news editor and writer, NBC Nightly News.)

Boris Nemtsov was an opposition leader organizing against the Ukraine invasion. He was shot 4 times in the back w/in eyeshot of the Kremlin.

Sergei Magnitsky was an auditor who alleged govt sanctioned corruption. He was arrested, tortured, denied care and died in a Moscow prison.
4 replies 293 retweets 259 likes

Anna Politikovskya made her name reporting on abuses committed in the Chechnya. She was shot four times in her elevator, once in the head.
17 replies 530 retweets 494 likes

Alsksandr Litvinenko was an FSB agent who alleged widespread corruption and murder plots by the Kremlin. He died of acute polonium poisoning
9 replies 228 retweets 214 likes

These are just the high profile cases. To say nothing of invading and annexing territory in neighboring states or the rape of Aleppo & Homs.
6 replies 114 retweets 149 likes
Noah Rothman ‏@NoahCRothman 4h4 hours ago

For people keeping score, it was Bannon who described the US media as the 'opposition party', and it was Trump who says we have a lot of killers, and it is Trump who publicly admires Putin, who kills members of the Russian media and opposition parties.
posted by sebastienbailard at 11:45 PM on February 4, 2017 [102 favorites]

> Has the text of the financial-regulation EO been leaked, yet?

The Wall Street regulation removal executive order aka Trump's "loot the country to enrich his friends" act is officially called "Core Principles for Regulating the United States Financial System" and the official text is available on whitehouse.gov.
posted by fragmede at 12:02 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

"Putin, who kills members of the Russian media and opposition parties."

Let us never forget that Putin came up through the KGB, and not in the way that George HW Bush was the civilian head of the CIA (for a year, after serving in Congress and as the ambassador to the UN, and as an envoy to China, clearly in a bureaucratic management position). Putin fucking tortured people. Putin reported on people. Putin spied on people. Putin didn't read books by "defectors" because they "betrayed the motherland." When the Berlin Wall fell, Putin burned his own KGB service records to prevent them from becoming public because he saw what was coming for the Soviet regime's functionaries.

Putin is an extraordinarily bad man who was an actual torturer, secret policeman, spy, ratfink, whatever else you want to say, who obliterated evidence of his involvement in torture and ratfinking and so on, and who would still sell his own grandmother if he thought it would help his career. When he first came to power it was common for Western media to compare him to George HW Bush at the CIA, and now it seems like he's been in power so long everyone's forgotten where he came from, but Putin is a stone-cold killer who is the darkest version of 007 imaginable.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:04 AM on February 5, 2017 [117 favorites]

Putin didn't read books by "defectors" because they "betrayed the motherland."

*said he didn't.

Very few good intelligence officers don't want to know their adversaries.
posted by jaduncan at 12:31 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

8:28 AM - 4 Feb 2017

Last 24 hrs on Twitter, @realDonaldTrump went on rant about "death & destruction," "FAKE NEWS," & "evil." Should he get mental health exam?

- Ted Lieu. Twitter bio: 'Husband of Betty, the love of my life. Father of two great kids. USAF veteran. Member of Congress. In that order. Also, I don't take orders from Vladimir Putin.'
posted by sebastienbailard at 1:07 AM on February 5, 2017 [53 favorites]

[stage whisper] Today's Secret MetaFilter Word is: presbyopia

does this mean u can only see presbyterians y/n
posted by poffin boffin at 1:09 AM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]

The 9th Circuit, shortly before midnight on a Saturday in fact, denied an immediate "administrative" stay of the Washington TRO. It won't rule on that until it's heard from both sides, so late Monday at the earliest.
posted by zachlipton at 1:09 AM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]

Meanwhile in the Bernstein universe, everyone is complaining about how SNL was better in the old days and joking about how much funnier it world be if Trump had won.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:11 AM on February 5, 2017 [21 favorites]

does this mean u can only see presbyterians

and only up real close.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 1:12 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

Presbyterians may be closer than they appear.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:13 AM on February 5, 2017 [18 favorites]

sciatrix: "so our research mice must be overseen by the USDA because they're singing mice.)"

Hang on. What's all this then?
posted by RobotHero at 1:14 AM on February 5, 2017 [23 favorites]

Meanwhile in the Bernstein universe, everyone is complaining about how SNL was better in the old days and joking about how much funnier it world be if Trump had won.

Has anyone seen Tehhund? While I can't say I disapprove of his decision to timeskip the Trump presidency, I could really use some betting tips right now. I don't want to put all my money on impeachment when he instead gets dragged on on 25th amendment medical grounds
posted by sebastienbailard at 1:25 AM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]

Putin is a stone-cold killer who is the darkest version of 007 imaginable.

Hence Trump's ... "fascination"
posted by From Bklyn at 1:40 AM on February 5, 2017

We are all Tehhund.

I've seriously been tehhunding for almost a week now, and that's... not normal for me.
posted by tivalasvegas at 1:58 AM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]

Hey you guys, while you are calling your representatives, you might want to let them know how you feel about the Poison America's Children Act.
posted by OnceUponATime at 2:23 AM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]

The Putin comments make me think that he's jealous,

Trump is a narcissist with virility issues, and Putin can project power in ways Trump can't - he can kill opposition party members and journalists. Of course Trump is going to tell a journalist he can do the things Putin can do.
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:35 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

Next up, making CDC quarantines voluntary the way USDA recalls already are.

Just the opposite, actually: Per our discussion in the last few threads, those were strengthened under the Obama Administration, and are defined vaguely and broadly enough as to have potential utility in detaining inconveniently mouthy sorts/suppressing domestic dissent. Enjoy!
posted by adamgreenfield at 2:54 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

[To the tune of 'The Room Where It Happens']

Two extremists and a President walk into
The Oval, they're total xenophobes (bros)
They try to execute an Order saying borders
All are closed (Islamophobes!)
The President assumes he has unprecedented power
A country he can shape however he wants /
The country (and the world) disagrees
With his decrees — so begins la #resistance

(with apologies to Lin-Manuel Miranda)
posted by sixswitch at 3:04 AM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]

Yeah the USDA puppy mill thing is horrific. I know exactly who this is for, and who this appeals to: people like my former boss who had a side business breeding chihuahuas. He "line-bred" them, i.e. bred the mothers to their own children to maximize his profits. I generally assume that his animals weren't actively abused, because he wasn't actually a terrible guy as far as I know. But his breeding practices were still objectionable. He was a country guy, a serious alchoholic, and the dogs brought in a good amount for him. People like him don't think the government should have a say over what he does with animals in his care in his backyard.

But people who care about animal health and welfare and the people who bought those puppies, who may have only discovered health issues in them years later, those people should care.
posted by threeturtles at 4:03 AM on February 5, 2017 [25 favorites]

Between SNL and the stay on the Muslim ban being upheld I sure hope DJT had a terrible night.
posted by lydhre at 4:50 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]

sciatrix: "so our research mice must be overseen by the USDA because they're singing mice.)"

Hang on. What's all this then?

Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH was a documentary.
posted by Coventry at 5:15 AM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]

The Mail is launching a full scale assault on climate change.

Well, I guess humanity was nice while it lasted.
posted by Talez at 5:25 AM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]

Saw a link to a terrible push poll from Ted Cruz, took the poll, then wrote him a scathing email about how terrible the poll was and how it blatantly lies about the financial cost of repealing Obamacare. So it's 7:30 on a Sunday morning and I've already called my Senator a liar and man with no honor. How bout y'all?
posted by threeturtles at 5:37 AM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]

An Actual American War Criminal May Become Our Second-Ranking Diplomat.
Meet Elliott Abrams.
posted by adamvasco at 5:50 AM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]

The Mail is launching a full scale assault on climate change.

Slightly off-topic, but if you run into anyone claiming this is evidence that there was a pause you can tell them to stuff it.

What the Mail is doing here is taking someone complaining that the data wasn't verified as rigorously as he wanted and stretching it to imply that the data was bad. The problem with that is that Irish researchers independently recreated similar results using different data.

So the original data may not have been vetted as rigorously as it should have, but in the end it doesn't matter because other researches independently verified the results. Science. It works.
posted by papercrane at 5:59 AM on February 5, 2017 [20 favorites]

Meet Elliott Abrams.

I am, I'm afraid to say, acquainted with the "gentleman." And all I can say is: fuck that right in the eye forever.
posted by adamgreenfield at 6:11 AM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]

So just to clarify, the "Poison America's Children" act referenced above is a bill to terminate the EPA. Terminate the EPA. Proposed by a newbie Florida Republican. Will this get traction?
posted by Frowner at 6:16 AM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]

Also, this, the death of an accountant in a torture prison because he spoke up against government fraud and collusion, is no doubt what we have to look forward to if Trump establishes his utopia.
posted by Frowner at 6:23 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

singing mice

Please, oh please, oh please tell me about the singing mice.
posted by slipthought at 6:33 AM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]

I know this is so off topic, but...this video of singing mice! (From UNC TV on YT)
posted by slipthought at 6:44 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]

> Next up, making CDC quarantines voluntary the way USDA recalls already are.

Just the opposite, actually: Per our discussion in the last few threads, those were strengthened under the Obama Administration, and are defined vaguely and broadly enough as to have potential utility in detaining inconveniently mouthy sorts/suppressing domestic dissent. Enjoy!

If you're referring to this comment (link to huge thread obvs) that linked to this NPR story, the new rule it links to appears to add a formal process allowing people to appeal a quarantine, at least when I compare it to the 2015 version of the federal law it modifies. (Relevant Subchapter F, Part 70 starts on page 498 of the PDF version.)

If it's abused for use against "enemies of the state", aka bad dudes and bad hombres and nasty women, I would think that concomitantly it's going to be easy for someone with connections to say Do you know who I am? and get out of quarantine or obtain the travel permits that are mentioned.
posted by XMLicious at 6:52 AM on February 5, 2017

The Mail is launching a full scale assault on climate change.

Well, I guess humanity was nice while it lasted.
posted by Talez at 13:25 on February 5 [4 favorites +] [!]

I genuinely can't believe I'm saying this, but the Mail has gone down in my estimation.
posted by jaduncan at 7:01 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

So is #LordDampnut dead or something? I haven't seen any unhinged tweets about anything.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:13 AM on February 5, 2017

Bannon probably heard about the SNL dress rehearsal and slipped him a sedative.
posted by cmfletcher at 7:15 AM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]

Presbyterians may be closer than they appear.

They don't look like Presbyterians to me.
posted by MrVisible at 7:29 AM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]

So it's 7:30 on a Sunday morning and I've already called my Senator a liar and man with no honor. How bout y'all?

Good, but as it was Ted Cruz the standard Fishbarrel rates apply. There is a multiplier for the earlybird timing though!
posted by petebest at 7:34 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yeah the USDA puppy mill thing is horrific. I know exactly who this is for, and who this appeals to: people like my former boss who had a side business breeding chihuahuas.

My honest expectation is that this is probably more a matter of the culture of career civil servants in USDA; there really was a court case last year (AFBF v EPA) that put some limits on the kind of information agencies can release that might sort of apply here. I expect that court decisions will be that it doesn't, at least not for enforcement actions or negative inspections, but the decision doesn't seem nuts to me. And the culture at USDA (at least seen from the dog world) seems to be one that's a weird mix of pro-enforcement but also deference to... traditional ideas, he says, trying to be polite... about animal treatment. So some enthusiasm about making sure breeding facilities have warm-enough, clean-enough shelter and not-obviously-inadequate food and water, but fuck-all interest in the actual welfare and happiness of the dogs and little tolerance for people who don't like dogs being treated as livestock.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:36 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

Also, this, the death of an accountant in a torture prison because he spoke up against government fraud and collusion

Kaite Couric has a podcast interview with Bill Browder about Magnitsky. It's a roadmap for the kleptocracy.
posted by cmfletcher at 7:42 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

Let's not forget that Milo has been in the press room before, for some reason, asking why Twitter kicked him off.
posted by Yowser at 7:49 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

I refuse to call him "Milo." My local TV news called him that when reporting on the protest violence. I was yelling at the TV (like the mature adult that I am) "Pretend you're journalists and call him 'Yiannopoulos' you jokers! Don't play into his branding." Now I make a point of calling him Yiannopoulos in my comments in his and Breitbart's Facebook posts. As in "Boohoo, Yiannopoulos, did someone say something mean about you?" And "Keep your daddy issues to yourself, Yiannopoulos." (After he literally called Trump "Daddy." Really!)
posted by OnceUponATime at 8:06 AM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]

Upthread I linked a Fox News bit about Howard Stern wishing his longtime friend Trump had never run, speculating that it would mess up his mental health and that his real reason for running was to angle for more money for his Apprentice gig; here is the original audio from Stern's show.
posted by Bringer Tom at 8:06 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

Flickers of self-awareness from a Republican.

@DavidAFrench
You won't see many conservatives defend Trump's Russia comment. They'll be silent, but they'll know they'd race to Fox to condemn a Dem.
posted by chris24 at 8:15 AM on February 5, 2017 [20 favorites]

Trump's DOJ lays out travel ban defense: "In their first full-throated defense of the executive order, the lawyers argue that a lower court's injunction "contravenes the constitutional separation of powers ... harms the public by thwarting" enforcement of the order, and "second-guesses" the President's judgment about the "quantum of risk posed by the admission of certain classes of aliens."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:22 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

they must be spooked, they're jumping directly to the chewbacca defense
posted by murphy slaw at 8:26 AM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]

No powers! No powers!
I'm the power.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:26 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

I refuse to call him "Milo." My local TV news called him that when reporting on the protest violence. I was yelling at the TV (like the mature adult that I am) "Pretend you're journalists and call him 'Yiannopoulos' you jokers! Don't play into his branding."

I suspect that part of the problem is that a lot of TV reporters are not capable of pronouncing "Yiannopoulos."
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:29 AM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]

Quantum of Risk Posed by the Admission of Certain Classes of Aliens is absolutely my least favorite Bond film.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:29 AM on February 5, 2017 [32 favorites]

Is "quantum of risk" a legal term? 'Cause where I'm from, "quantum" usually means an amount so tiny it can scarcely be said to exist.
posted by mrgoat at 8:30 AM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]

Quantum of Risk

Indeed. A tiny subatomic particle of risk, that only has a debatable probability of existing for microscopic periods of time under laboratory conditions.
posted by Grangousier at 8:31 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]

guise i'm not sure if a lawyer wrote that defense. or read it.
posted by murphy slaw at 8:31 AM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]

*sarcastic clap for Davebro "On Twitter, many journalists are rapidly reaching the point of maximum credulity — they’ll immediately believe virtually anything negative about Donald Trump, not matter how thinly-sourced or implausible." Frenchie*
posted by petebest at 8:32 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

Flickers of self-awareness from a Republican.

That's Would-be-NeverTrump-Savior David French
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:32 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

"certain classes"? So they're admitting it's about Muslims again?
posted by Etrigan at 8:33 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

I suspect that part of the problem is that a lot of TV reporters are not capable of pronouncing "Yiannopoulos."

Yet have no problem with Minneapolis or Indianapolis.
posted by hangashore at 8:35 AM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]

The use of "quantum" as a discrete measure or unit of some (possibly abstract) thing is very old; that usage isn't weird. The word was adopted into physics as a way to describe the idea that there is some explicit unit of action/distance involved in the wee subatomic shit vs. just infinitesimally continuous subdivisions down and down forever.

Basically it's the least interesting point of critique available for that defense of Trump's bullshit.
posted by cortex at 8:36 AM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]

Quantum of Risk appears to be a term used in risk management literature.

Quantum just means "amount" in latin

(p.s. I can read latin I promise).
posted by dis_integration at 8:37 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh hee hee, via Josh Marshall

At 10:05 PM Eastern this evening, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer emailed out the following statement in response to tonight's court order.
At the earliest possible time, the Department of Justice intends to file an emergency stay of this outrageous order and defend the executive order of the President, which we believe is lawful and appropriate. The president’s order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American people.

…
At 10:16 PM, he issued an "Updated Statement" which removed the word "outrageous" from the first sentence.

posted by murphy slaw at 8:37 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]

Also check out its use in this fancy legal tome
posted by dis_integration at 8:37 AM on February 5, 2017

anyway everyone knows the quantum of risk is the hazardon
posted by murphy slaw at 8:40 AM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]

Yeah, it's probably that the Trump administration are just latin scholars, and not morons who just watched James Bond
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:41 AM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]

At 10:16 PM, he issued an "Updated Statement" which removed the word "outrageous" from the first sentence.

The updated statement was accompanied by a sqeaking of several clown horns and a long, sustained fart.
posted by petebest at 8:41 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]

not morons who just watched James Bond

"Moron" being the quantum of stupidity.
posted by Grangousier at 8:43 AM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]

At 10:05 PM Eastern this evening, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer emailed out the following statement in response to tonight's court order.

And we all heard it being ranted out by a podium-wielding Melissa McCarthy, right? "Your words! YOUR WORDS!!"
posted by hangashore at 8:43 AM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]

remember when george h.w. bush said he didn't like broccoli, and the broccoli growers sent huge crates of broccoli to the white house

what if we do that, but with clown shoes
posted by murphy slaw at 8:45 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]

what if we do that, but with clown shoes

I was thinking teeny tiny hands, like these.
posted by notyou at 8:51 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't think we should pay attention to the words of the Press Secretary. We should look at what's in his heart.

As for the full-throated defence of the EO: if that prevails, doesn't that mean that the law cannot restrain the President? Isn't the whole point of the constitutional separation of powers to ensure that there is a degree of mutual restraint? IANAL, let alone an American constitutional L, but the whole structure seems to be set up explicitly to do exactly what the court just did. with the safeguards that the point of law is now to be tested at a full appeal.

And if the President really does assess the risk to the country to be such that he has to suspend the law, he gets to declare a state of emergency and go for it. Don't know how you test that.
posted by Devonian at 8:52 AM on February 5, 2017

Devonian: We should look at what's in his heart.

"And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."
posted by ragtag at 8:54 AM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]

Once again, I would request that those with access to the Sunday morning shows (Face the Nation, Meet the Press, This Week, etc.) give a rundown for those of us who don't get them.

Thanks!
posted by obliquity of the ecliptic at 8:55 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

Her son is in a specialized program at his school in Manhattan. He, at least for the rest of this year, intends to stay there.

That wasn't a consideration when Trump fired all the political ambassadors.

In the past, administrations of both parties have often granted extensions on a case-by-case basis to allow a handful of ambassadors, particularly those with school-age children, to remain in place for weeks or months.
...
The directive has nonetheless upended the personal lives of many ambassadors, who are scrambling to secure living arrangements and acquire visas allowing them to remain in their countries so their children can remain in school, the diplomats said.

posted by kirkaracha at 8:57 AM on February 5, 2017 [54 favorites]

We should look at what's in his heart.

That would be a good show. I'd watch that. Celebrity Vivisection. I'm guessing mostly blood, though. Some gristle. Fat, probably, too.
posted by Grangousier at 9:01 AM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]

Isn't the whole point of the constitutional separation of powers to ensure that there is a degree of mutual restraint?

Pretty much, yes. Checks and balances should generally check, and balance. This president doesn't believe in that system, he wants to be an autocrat like Putin and Edrogan. Much of the system relies ultimately on observance of norms, particularly the norm of "judicial review is a thing", because the concept of judicial review isn't in the constitution, it arose through the development of Supreme Court jurisprudence itself. There's no real precedent or check against a president that says essentially, "fuck your court orders". They're already getting close to that, basically telling the Courts today that national security decisions are not subject to judicial review, at all, ever. If they lose the final outcome at SCOTUS and decide not to follow that ruling, well, congrats, we then live in a dictatorship and the rule of law is no longer valid, because the president and executive can ignore it at his pleasure, and there's no one that can stop him except #nevertrump.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:02 AM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]

As for the full-throated defence of the EO: if that prevails, doesn't that mean that the law cannot restrain the President?

No, it just means that a court agreed that Congress has delegated the power to make those decisions on a minute-by-minute, day-by-day basis to the president and doing so was constitutional.

This is a normal way in which separation of powers happens in the modern world. You want a president (or executive branch more broadly) to be able to react to the world more quickly than Congress realistically can, so Congress sets out broad guidelines and lets the president('s people) make decisions about exactly what to do within those guidelines. If Congress doesn't like what a president did on one of those occasions, it can change the guidelines in its own timeframe.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:03 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

Once again, I would request that those with access to the Sunday morning shows (Face the Nation, Meet the Press, This Week, etc.) give a rundown for those of us who don't get them.

I'd like to request the exact opposite. Twitter is useful for livebloging their lies, we don't need each one repeated here too.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:04 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

I suspect that part of the problem is that a lot of TV reporters are not capable of pronouncing "Yiannopoulos."

You just have to sound it out:

Pa-thet-ic Nat-ZEE

Just takes practice.
posted by Cookiebastard at 9:04 AM on February 5, 2017 [35 favorites]

A guide for clicktivism that I suspect folks here don't need, but may be helpful for sharing with friends who want to get involved and don't know how...

"Clicktivism" is about ways to get involved in "the resistance" directly from your smartphone. Mostly applies to Americans, but some of this can be done by our allies as well...

1) Read the news. (Reading it is preferable to watching it on video or audio for getting more context and detail, I think.) Preferably from a variety of sources with a variety of viewpoints, though if you're only going to follow one source, the Washington Post is killing it. When something scary or dangerous happens, first fact-check it, then share it. Don't let them do this stuff in secret.

2) Join your local "Indivisible" group. Most of them are hosted on Facebook. You can find one near you at http://www.indivisibleguide.com This may lead to being asked to make some phone calls to your members of congress (it's not scary) and to invitations to attend the occasional town hall meeting, but even if you don't want to commit to doing anything in meat space, join the Facebook group at at least keep up on what your representatives are doing in your name, and keep working with your neighbors to encourage each other.

3) Join "Sleeping Giants." This is a group which is campaigning to get advertisers to stop giving money to Breitbart and other propaganda outlets. You can join thousands of others to write emails to companies that support this crap. They are having a lot of success getting advertisers to abandon alt-right media. https://www.google.com/amp/amp.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/12/sleeping_giants_campaign_against_breitbart.html

4) Sign petitions. You'll see a lot of these from politicians and political organizations. Mainly they want to get your contact information so they can put your on their mailing list. But there are some good ones on https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/ that really do get seen by the White House.

5) Go ahead and get on mailing lists, if it's a poltician or political organization you like. You'll then get their "calls to action" (and fundraising appeals -- you can't possibly respond to all of those.) I think the ACLU is using their mailing this particularly effectively at this time. This makes it easier for the leaders of these groups to coordinate actions.

8) Donate money when you can and where you think it will matter. Whether it's the ACLU or the charity of your choice, give organizations that are resisting this attack in our democracy or ate affected by it the resources they need to fight back.

7) Help plan marches and protests. Many of these are planned on Facebook or other social media these days, such as the March for Science and its sister marches. Even if you can't go or can't go for long, you can help coordinate and spread the word. https://www.marchforscience.com/

8) Fight the trolls. Do it anonymously if you want, but when you see hateful ideas or misinformation out there, uncontested... Contest it. Contradict it. If you don't see much of this in your regular feeds, you can seek it out in the comments on posts by Breitbart or Milo Yiannopoulos... But only if you are feeling brave and have a strong stomach. But if no one ever contradicts this stuff, a lot people believe, apparently.

posted by OnceUponATime at 9:12 AM on February 5, 2017 [45 favorites]

new thread
posted by xcasex at 9:23 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

Right-Wingers Who Railed Against Obama "Apology Tour" Are Silent When Trump Blames America

"What do you think? Our country's so innocent?" Reaction on the right to this critique of America: crickets.

Remember, these are the same people who said that Barack Obama went on an eight-year "apology tour" as president. Washington Free Beacon: "Five Times Obama Has Apologized for America." The Heritage Foundation: "Barack Obama's Top 10 Apologies: How the President Has Humiliated a Superpower." Mitt Romney, you'll recall, wrote an entire book keyed to the notion that if we elected him president there'd be no more claims that America ever did anything wrong. [...]

We can debate whether the Obama administration lived up to the ideals it expressed in this and other statements regarded as "apologies." (From the liberal-hating leftists in the audience, I hear a cry of "Drooones!") But Obama's "apologies" were an attempt to define principles that America should live up to. Trump is making a completely amoral realpolitik argument: America has acting immorally, so we may as well give up altogether on morality, even a compromised morality, in foreign policy.

It's being argued that he's doing this to justify his own amorality and authoritarianism: [...]

I think that's giving him too much credit for sophisticated strategizing. He's saying this simply because he wants a better relationship with Putin, as an end in itself.

posted by tonycpsu at 9:23 AM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]

I'd like to request the exact opposite. Twitter is useful for livebloging their lies, we don't need each one repeated here too.

Yeah but then you have people who retweet everything in their feed into this thread like we've all signed up for Twitter and Followed them. There is no escape.
posted by indubitable at 9:35 AM on February 5, 2017

We should look at what's in his heart.

John Prine:

Some humans ain't human
Some people ain't kind
You open up their hearts
And here's what you'll find
A few frozen pizzas
Some ice cubes with hair
A broken Popsicle
You don't want to go there
posted by Killick at 9:53 AM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]

I suspect that part of the problem is that a lot of TV reporters are not capable of pronouncing "Yiannopoulos."

Yet have no problem with Minneapolis or Indianapolis.

Or, you know, George Stephanopolous
posted by slipthought at 9:59 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

> oh please tell me about the singing mice.

I don't know about sciatrix's mice specifically, but mice sing to each other at ultrasonic frequencies as part of courtship. Slowed down example in the link.
posted by porpoise at 10:08 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

LOL!

Republicans revolt over Trump's plans to build border wall

Reporter to John McCain: Do you think having Mexico pay for a wall is a viable option?
McCain: No.
Reporter: What makes you say that?
McCain [deadpan]: Because it's not a viable option.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 10:26 AM on February 5, 2017 [23 favorites]

Perhaps McCain forgot this little campaign ad from 2007: Complete the danged fence
posted by PenDevil at 10:35 AM on February 5, 2017

Wait, that other thread isn't a new thread, right? It's just another one?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:00 AM on February 5, 2017

Whether it was meant as a new thread or the new thread, I think it makes sense to jump ship to it. We're at over two thousand comments over here, and that's gotta be breaking some people's browsers.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 11:15 AM on February 5, 2017

Wait, that other thread isn't a new thread, right? It's just another one?

I can't tell, either. I used to use the election2016 tag to keep track but I guess that is no longer a thing.
posted by Mothlight at 11:16 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter, I can't tell you how upset I am leaving the rally at San Francisco City Center just now. It capped off with an anti-Semitic rant that got nearly as much cheering as anything else tonight.

I'm so sorry. That is just plain wrong and should never be a part of protests against an anti-semitic administration.
posted by corb at 11:17 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

I am confused too.
posted by futz at 11:17 AM on February 5, 2017

In which Jason Kander hits a home run off rightwing troll Curt Schilling
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:19 AM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]

I imagine we will see the anti-LGBT EO, or similar federal Jesusist-supremacist "religious freedom" legislature that makes it redundant, turn up again later. If it's true Ivanka and Jared put the brakes on the EO, I doubt they did it out of the goodness of their hearts (hahaha) and I doubt it's going to be shelved. With anti-LGBT legislature popping up all over red states like mushrooms after a good long turd rain, and with similar bills floating around at a national level (FADA's ticking along, RFRA continues to be a useful cudgel; thanks, Schumer!), this stuff isn't going away.

I've been a broken record for the last week pointing out that FADA or a "religious liberty" EO would effectively nullify Obama's LGBTQ protections. Those moves would have some advantages:

1. FADA will likely appear on Tump's desk with the endorsement of congress, quite possibly with Democratic votes attached.

2. It would be Orwellian newspeak for the mass media to be pro-Religion and not explicitly anti-gay, in spite of the fact that the only religious liberty actually protected is to discriminate against LGBTQ persons and pro-choice women.

3. There would be a subtle, but important legal distinction. The courts have generally upheld the rational basis test when it comes to anti-LGBTQ discrimination, and may be leaning to a strict scrutiny test. Since Obergefell, conservatives have pivoted to the legal doctrine that civil rights for LGBTQ people creates an undue burden on religious practice. FADA or a FADA-like EO would land squarely into debating the scope of Hobby Lobby, which is what I think anti-LGBTQ conservatives really want right now. How far can they hammer that wedge into civil rights law?

So no, I do not for one moment think that battle is over.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 11:21 AM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]

MetaFilter, I can't tell you how upset I am leaving the rally at San Francisco City Center just now. It capped off with an anti-Semitic rant that got nearly as much cheering as anything else tonight.

Any details available? Was it I/P stuff? Banking conspiracy theory? The last speaker video available on YT (woman in a red sweater, '#5') seems to end innocuously enough.
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:34 AM on February 5, 2017

snuffleupagus, this seems to be it.
posted by Too-Ticky at 11:40 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Mothlight: I can't tell, either. I used to use the election2016 tag to keep track but I guess that is no longer a thing.

I think potus45 is the thing now?
posted by slipthought at 11:46 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

what about HELLTHREAD17
posted by poffin boffin at 12:20 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]

what about HELLTHREAD17

Wouldn't that be about Santa Ted Cruz?
posted by Talez at 12:24 PM on February 5, 2017

Right now I am still in the stages of desperately trying to troubleshoot the most basic part of the story I am trying to tell before time runs out. It turns out that when you try to be innovative by picking up an obscure technique developed for feeding behavior research and applying it to questions in evolutionary biology, energy balance, and decision-making, it takes some time to iron out the kinks.

For context, in the third year of my PhD, my university discovered that oh yeah, the budget was fucked and had been for twenty years, after it fired a bunch of existing administration and brought in new ones. I went from "informally, we'll give you seven years of TA funding to get out; after all, the average time for graduation here is 6.5 years" to "ah, yes, starting with today's third years (!), after five years of funding with a bit of departmental support thrown into your pay checks, you take a serious pay cut, and after seven you automatically Master out!" As a bonus, I just got a letter from my chair surveying whether grad students would be okay with a system (applied, thank fuck, to anyone coming after us) in which students are offered a pay raise but given just two years of guaranteed funding, with everything else coming from the same research grants that are so uncertain in my department. He hopes he can get the dean up to three years if he argues!

At the same time, I'm eyeing the political situation with some alarm, because if I do have to pack up and scramble to Canada or something on short notice, does that mean abandoning the last five years of my work? Having the three letters after my name will at least give me something to show employers if there is no future in the field I trained for left. I want that degree, but it's dependent on a bunch of things outside my control, which is scary and exhausting, and time is running out.

I mentioned developing this technique to answer this question despite no one having ever used it outside of the corner of the field it was developed in? Well, let me add on here: it's a drug not many people use without a consistent nomenclature, so I had difficulties figuring out where to order it from and which exact different name was really the thing I wanted. I also spent the first two years I was in my PhD developing a research question of my own, not a pre-made one my boss had... and oh, yes, building the complex and very finicky ultrasonic-capable recording system necessary to both play and record the whole singing mouse songs. (About a third of the song is in the ultrasonic, so if you want to get the full view of what mice are doing and hearing, you can't just use normal recording equipment.) I built the whole sound chamber system, with guidance from my boss and some help from one other student, up from a pile of coaxial cable, some plywood boxes, connector ends we got from RadioShack and a pile of car speakers.

So it's not like I was sitting around with my thumb in my ass, is my point. I also learned four programming languages from a starting point of knowing jack fuck all when I came to grad school, in part because my boss handed me the job of assembling the singing mouse genome from scratch as a side project in there. As one does.

but basically, the point I'm making here is that if you want the sense-of-wonder science stories, I the scientist need some support to actually put them together first and right now I am so stressed and time-conscious on the singing mice I work with and so conscious of the fact that my story is not coming together in time and that this will be rough on my family for a few years that I really do not want to start telling that story before I feel confident that I will be able to finish it. I'm 26 fucking years old, my partner and I have been talking about whether we want to have kids, and there is so much pressure on scientists to be able to return results in a predictable time frame even when trying to simultaneously do new, innovative things that haven't been done before that it's been wearing me pretty damn thin. There's a lot of work that goes into making sure the evidence for these stories is solid, so we're not accidentally telling fiction. And the toll that the existing system takes on scientists, especially grad students and postdocs--when I do graduate I anticipate at least two to four years of moving worldwide before I find a place to put down roots--is really heavy, and it's getting heavier every day.

Fuck. I don't even know. I see scientists around me looking into crowdfunding to pay for their work, and then I think "that's not necessarily good for science, but what would be better?" I think about maybe setting up a Patreon so I can feel more comfortable telling these stories about the natural world sometimes, so I can be paid for the work of finding things and sharing what I know and talking about the whole delightful sparkling ridiculous wonderful absurd world of nature and animal behavior and evolutionary biology and microbiology--so I can devote time to doing that without guilt. But I don't know who would pay for it, and then I just cycle back to that desperate and depressed feeling of just--feeling like the general public wants the taglines, but not to have to think about the hard and exhausting work that you have to put in to get the story, all the failures along the way, not to pay to make sure that scientists are comfortable or can have families without sacrificing communities and support systems over and over and over again before they can set down roots, finally, in their forties.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that talking about singing mice, trying to find out why singing mice sing and how a given mouse decides whether to sing or not... well, as with everything in life, there is a trade-off, and there is a cost. There's a cost to doing anything. And I am so worn out and tired by the pressures that I'm feeling about the question I'm trying to answer that suddenly the bright sparkling question that I want to find out, because finding out is important as well as wonderful, becomes a source of depression instead of a source of joy. When I have an answer, I promise I will bring it here, but until then I'm focusing all my 'thinking about singing mice' time on... well, trying to tell that first chunk of the story.
posted by sciatrix at 12:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [29 favorites]

When I tell journalists what I do and they wince and say "oh, so you're really getting fucked then," that kind of makes me view my own personal work with sorrow, is what I'm saying. It's hard to be bright and enthusiastic and shiny about something when you're scared every time you think about it.
posted by sciatrix at 12:42 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]

[Apparently everyone is over in the new thread. FYI]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:46 PM on February 5, 2017

[augh. Thanks; wrote that up in and out over a period of hours while running errands and missed the new thread. Dammit. Should I cross post?]
posted by sciatrix at 12:49 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'd cross post!
posted by futz at 12:51 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]

MetaFilter, I can't tell you how upset I am leaving the rally at San Francisco City Center just now. It capped off with an anti-Semitic rant that got nearly as much cheering as anything else tonight.

Yeah that ending was really off. That last speaker seemed to be trying to squeeze that topic into the rally and I left the rally feeling like my presence had been taken advantage of.

As far as the cheering, it was fairly easy to be led since it was difficult to really hear the speakers unless you were fairly close to them. There were many times when cheers and boos coincided because the speakers were hard to hear, or the crowd hadn't caught up with the speakers words.
posted by Hicksu at 1:08 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

But her emails.
posted by Justinian at 1:24 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

in regards to tagging these recent post-election threads (discussed a few comments upthread from here) . i think the tags "usa" and "election" are good to use in general as these tags are common to the previous threads and will achieve the desired result ..which is grouping them all together.
posted by The_Auditor at 1:27 PM on February 5, 2017

sylvanshine:

I never see a peep from the metafilter left about regulation of info-tech-type technology—and it seems to be a happy absence, as if we're all so enthralled by 'cyberspace' that we fail to see how it fractures society and fractures minds and has expedited wealth inequality; if TV was a vast wasteland, what in god's name is the 2017 internet?

Apropos this, I came across a really interesting article about a citizens group in rural Missouri that has come together to opposed windmills in their county. It's really interesting the insularity, lack of knowledge about local government, and then how they fill the information void via internet propaganda sites.

To be clear, I DO NOT think this is a problem unique to rural America--to the contrary, it is extremely common everywhere.

“We don’t have much communication up here,” Walker says. “There’s not much internet access. A lot of people don’t read the paper or pay much attention to what the county commission is doing. People keep to themselves.” . ..

Dekalb County is not a place of extreme poverty (it hovers around 18 percent, about three points higher than the Missouri average) . . . Unemployment is below 4 percent, as low as it’s been since the new century began.

Still, like much of Missouri, Dekalb County . . . has grown increasingly Republican over the past 20 years. . . .

Dekalb County does not have countywide zoning. . . . [In most of the County] there is no zoning whatsoever, and any business — a gun range, a hog plant, a wind farm — is free to set up shop wherever it pleases, regardless of a neighbor’s objections. . . .

After listening to a few Concerned Citizens speak about “clean coal” one afternoon, I asked where they were getting their information. I was directed to the Concerned Citizens’ Facebook page, where members regularly post anti-wind articles they’ve found on the internet. . . .

Many of the articles on the Facebook page came from Breitbart or stopthesethings.com, a website with the tagline “We’re not here to debate wind energy, we’re here to destroy it.” . . .

Many of the Concerned Citizens — old men, mostly — lack the sophistication to recognize these links as a swamp of online propaganda. This is not their fault. They have come to believe that they are finally getting, through these Facebook and e-mail links, the straight dope that the mainstream media have been suppressing. And surprise: It just so happens to align with how they already feel about wind farms.

I feel pretty strongly that exactly the dynamic described here drives many people's knowledge and attitudes about politics and political issues.

I don't know what to do about it, but I agree it is dangerous in ways we have seen before many times in human history, but also in a way that is new and particularly dangerous.
posted by flug at 1:51 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]

Link to new thread, since the comments mentioning it above left it unlinked
posted by flatluigi at 2:19 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]

I'm thinking about moving to Canada and going back and forth on it a lot.

On the one hand, we are in for some serious, serious bad times in the US. I've read a lot about the Weimar period in Germany -- it's been a hobby of mine since I was a teen -- and the one question I always came away with was "Lots of people saw the writing on the wall when Hitler came to power. Why didn't they get the hell out of there?" Well, now I know the answer to that question. Do I want to be one of the people who stayed due to family ties/job/inertia and thus guaranteed that their children would grow up (or not) in a nightmare?

Then on the other hand, I think, "Wait, no, I am actually a patriotic American (living in Russia will make you into one). I should stay and fight. Don't run off; people need your voice, small though it may be."

But then this morning I thought, you know, I ought to give it one last good try before I leave. I ought to run for the US Senate against David Perdue (R-GA), because, even though I have no experience in politics and am obviously unsavory, if I'm planning to leave anyway, what do I have to lose?

Seriously, if I don't win I'm leaving anyway, so I might as well just stand up and loudly and publicly declare exactly what I would do to oppose the Republican president and his lackeys in government. So what if my reputation is destroyed because word gets out about that time back in 1985 when I hung out with Agnostic Front?

I'm sort of serious.
posted by staggering termagant at 11:03 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]

For those of you who do have the option and means to leave America, please remember that there are others of us who are obligated to stay. We may have serious health issues. We may have families we cannot displace. We may be caring for sick or aging parents. We often feel hopeless, too, but we're obliged to be here for better or for worse.

I ask that you remain sensitive to this when discussing your future plans.
posted by mochapickle at 11:19 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]

I definitely know that, mochapickle. These are bad times. I'm not at all thinking "Well, I'll just abandon everybody because I can." It's just something I think about because, like I said, I've read a lot about Hitler's rise to power and I have small children who also need protecting. But people who have the luxury of leaving need to stay and fight, I understand that, too. These are bad, bad times. Scary times.
posted by staggering termagant at 11:25 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm really, really scared.
posted by staggering termagant at 11:26 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

Progressives need to understand that winning elections is hard work, and that, ultimately, you don't run for office just to secure a platform for your views, it actually involves representing people and communities. Either you find a community that lines up with your point-of-view and run to represent it, or you put in the work to convince people in those communities that they should see things your way, which requires actual, deep involvement and engagement with those communities for years and years, perhaps starting with participation in local causes, then small local offices and working your way up to bigger ones. But taking aim at a federal office while dismissing local politics and seemingly ignoring the people who actually live in the district makes this look like nothing more than a vanity campaign.

So, here's the thing:

1. Brianna Wu has previously worked in political fundraising and has been doing activist work for years. It's not like she's a complete ingenue at the idea of running a campaign.

2. Women aren't elected if they don't have a long history of public service, no. But men sure are. Men do this all the time - they're a successful local businessman/celebrity who one day decides to run for US Congress/Mayor/Governor because they have recently discovered politics, and then they win because they seem trustworthy and look the part. It would actually be very interesting to see the statistics on the number of Reps currently in office that did not hold any political office beforehand.

3. You're putting a lot of faith in the idea that Stephen Lynch is winning because he represents his constituents and not because people don't pay attention to local elections, because there has historically been no support for people who primary incumbents on the left. Brianna Wu might not win. That doesn't mean she shouldn't run - she's great at getting her message out, and even if it just gets enough people interested in her that Stephen Lynch realizes he has to be doing a better job, more power to them.

When we say 'primary those fuckers', we're not going to get very far if it's just 'primary those fuckers as long as we have a candidate everyone agrees upon that has hit the preapproved checklist of previous causes'. No, primary those fuckers.
posted by dinty_moore at 11:35 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]

(new thread)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:11 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

And as long as the democratic party snidely dismisses anyone who isn't coming through preapproved channels as not knowing anything about reaching out to people, you're going to be stuck with people like Lynch, because turnout is going to continue to be low.

Here's the reason why I'm fighting this: These 'logical' hurdles simply do not seem to exist for straight white men, but get pulled out for everyone else. Keith Ellison is considered too fringey simply because he is black and Muslim - the guy is a typical rust best progressive in most other ways. Even here on Metafilter, our hopeful female candidates are senators and our hopeful male candidates are comedians. And people don't even question why.

So I would ask you: Why are you angry about this supposed stunt candidacy, and would you have the same feelings if it was a popular male activist? Would you make a point of her seeming weird and outsider and foreign (the last name thing is pretty gross, even ignoring the fact that Brianna's white). Would you require them to have a full platform up a year and a half before the primary? She's got time to figure out who the constituents are.

And if she loses, what of it? If she's using a primary tactic just to get the word out, if she's just trying to convince other people to follow her lead, if she just manages to make Lynch nervous or get people who don't usually show up to midterm primaries to show up for a midterm primary. . . . and I mean, if we want to talk about low democratic turnout of midterms, the turnout of the democratic primary for midterms is laughable, small enough that affecting who turns out to these things (people who might not read the Boston Globe, even!) can greatly affect the outcome of the election. We've got to threaten horrible incumbents, and that means primarying them. Even if the progressive candidates that pop up aren't all going to win, that doesn't mean that they shouldn't exist as a reminder of the threat from the left.

There was a lot of discussion right after the election about how to get people who voted didn't vote for Clinton to vote for the next democratic presidential candidate, and a lot of the conversation reacted around how to get people who are not currently considered likely voters to voter democrat - and the answer was partially to run different candidates that might run a different sort of campaign. This is one way to do that.
posted by dinty_moore at 2:36 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

In terms of being scared:

It's obvious that what's coming is one bloody shuffle. Before the election, our country was intensely polarized, our political systems were at a deadlock, we were facing the increasing need to deal with inequality, automation and climate change. If Hillary won, we'd be kicking those cans down the road for another four years while the Republicans acted just like with Obama. It might have been possible to get enough done to start fixing the big problems, but it would probably have been another four years of deepening crisis. And deepening international crisis as climate change, automation and migration create instability everywhere.

Something would have had to give - maybe not now, but certainly soon. And it gave, and we're here.

I think that what's going to happen is either a fairly fast, fairly hard swing to a left programme that would have looked insanely revolutionary ten years ago (Trump impeached, Pence discredited and weak, new organizing nationwide); some kind of terrible but relatively stable fascist system with border drones, routine mass unrest, tiny middle class,tinier elite, everyone else - call this the Oryx and Crake scenario; or maybe a big war that will lend an illusion of order and stability for a few years. But even a big war will result in a big shake-up, whether a rightward or a leftward one - if there's anything remaining afterward.

If you've read The Name of the Rose, perhaps you recall that the narrator has an encounter with a young woman who is later arrested for witchcraft. He's all upset about what will happen to her, but his supervising monk just says, "She is burnt flesh". Forget about her, there's nothing you can do.

In a serious way, we are burnt flesh. Big changes are coming very fast. If we're lucky, they'll be mostly good changes. It is realistic now to wonder if we'll be alive, housed, employable, fed, etc, in five years, - the economy could be a giant shitshow and there could be mass homelessness and unemployment, some of us could be killed in mass unrest, there could be an uncontainable pandemic or environmental disaster due to our idiot in chief; we could be in the throes of a world war or in prison for protesting one.

But everything we'd planned on - write it off. That's burnt flesh. None may live now as they have lived; few will keep what they call their own. We have to find new strategies for staying alive, housed, fed, with necessary medical care, etc. Nothing that we had a year ago can be counted on to hold - maybe some of it will, but we can't rely on it. Some people may be able to leave the US and it may be that Canada or Sweden or Scotland or wherever will be fairly stable for the next few years - or maybe this crisis will sweep over those places too.

This is really, really scary. I'm really scared. The world is in crisis - people have been talking for years about the impending crisis of climate change, the crisis of the liberal state, the crisis of democracy. Those crises are here now and we're living through them.
posted by Frowner at 2:44 PM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]

Maybe the Wu stuff deserves an FPP or something of its own and not a long digression on an obsolete #potus45 thread.
posted by tobascodagama at 3:14 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]

New. Thread.
posted by Namlit at 3:20 PM on February 6, 2017

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Tyrants v. the endurance of those whom they oppress.
February 2, 2017 12:41 PM Subscribe