The Trump roundup
February 5, 2017 4:12 AM Subscribe
"Yes, all this happened." NPR's good, brief summary of the events of each day of Trump's first two weeks in office. There's a flurry of news and discussion about the new president, and I appreciate efforts to streamline and make sense of it. So here's three. #2: On Reddit, there is a good overview of how critics would respond to the question, "What's so bad about Donald Trump?"--broken down by category. #3: The Summary section of Indivisible is the best overview I've seen of methods for concerned US citizens to become politically active in this new era.
Bonuses:
Mytimetovote is an organized way to find information on when and where votes are being held in each state.
Ballotpedia gives specific information on ballots and issues across the U.S. It's an excellent resource.
The Sunlight Foundation has an Android app that conveniently tracks individual bills in the nation's congress, as well as individual members of congress. It's called, simply, Congress.
These things matter because civic engagement is low: One out of every three state legislative races goes uncontested. The Republican party has skillfully gerrymandered their way into a strong position, and it's wrong to assume that demographics will save Democrats: Although minorities are on the rise and the Democratic party is seen as the party friendly to minorities, the party's strength is packed into areas of high population density, which minimizes its effect nationwide.
Bonuses:
Mytimetovote is an organized way to find information on when and where votes are being held in each state.
Ballotpedia gives specific information on ballots and issues across the U.S. It's an excellent resource.
The Sunlight Foundation has an Android app that conveniently tracks individual bills in the nation's congress, as well as individual members of congress. It's called, simply, Congress.
These things matter because civic engagement is low: One out of every three state legislative races goes uncontested. The Republican party has skillfully gerrymandered their way into a strong position, and it's wrong to assume that demographics will save Democrats: Although minorities are on the rise and the Democratic party is seen as the party friendly to minorities, the party's strength is packed into areas of high population density, which minimizes its effect nationwide.
Things I feel strange saying: "We may be at war with Australia."
posted by dannyboybell at 4:53 AM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by dannyboybell at 4:53 AM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
The Guardian's keeping careful track of Trump's first 100 days.
posted by Paul Slade at 5:14 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Paul Slade at 5:14 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Is there a new thread? Is this the new thread? Am I sleeping?
I will never say it, hard to even type it.
Can't.
posted by michswiss at 5:15 AM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
I will never say it, hard to even type it.
Can't.
posted by michswiss at 5:15 AM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Don't worry, we're not at war with you. We're just patiently waiting over here, wondering when you're going to get around to replacing that guy in a bloodless coup. Y'know, like we keep doing. It's not a bad system.
Also: I second the amazement and respect at the Reddit thread, that's some damn good work.
posted by threecheesetrees at 5:22 AM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
Also: I second the amazement and respect at the Reddit thread, that's some damn good work.
posted by threecheesetrees at 5:22 AM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
Things I feel strange saying: "We may be at war with Australia."
No, no, no. "We may be at war with Eurasia. We've always been allied with Eastasia." Keep practicing. You'll get it eventually.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:23 AM on February 5, 2017 [20 favorites]
No, no, no. "We may be at war with Eurasia. We've always been allied with Eastasia." Keep practicing. You'll get it eventually.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:23 AM on February 5, 2017 [20 favorites]
Best thing we can do: file for a restraining order. Leave our abusers.
posted by sutt at 5:34 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by sutt at 5:34 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
threecheesetrees: "Don't worry, we're not at war with you. We're just patiently waiting over here, wondering when you're going to get around to replacing that guy in a bloodless coup. Y'know, like we keep doing. It's not a bad system."
It's not easy to get rid of a U.S. president and then if we did, we'd just be stuck with Pence whose terrible in somewhat different ways than Trump. Whatever happens, we're stuck with some Republican in the White House for four years.
posted by octothorpe at 5:40 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
It's not easy to get rid of a U.S. president and then if we did, we'd just be stuck with Pence whose terrible in somewhat different ways than Trump. Whatever happens, we're stuck with some Republican in the White House for four years.
posted by octothorpe at 5:40 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
In all seriousness: "file a restraining order" -> help ACLU and other groups like them restrain the abusive, racist bullying in the courts. Don't allow it to be codified into law.
"Leave them" -> Promote sanctuary cities, civil disobedience. Don't sanction abuse with silence.
Then, you could do what my friend did, when she left her abusive husband: create a better life without them. A life that they will be jealous of.
posted by sutt at 5:44 AM on February 5, 2017 [25 favorites]
"Leave them" -> Promote sanctuary cities, civil disobedience. Don't sanction abuse with silence.
Then, you could do what my friend did, when she left her abusive husband: create a better life without them. A life that they will be jealous of.
posted by sutt at 5:44 AM on February 5, 2017 [25 favorites]
It's not easy to get rid of a U.S. president and then if we did, we'd just be stuck with Pence whose terrible in somewhat different ways than Trump. Whatever happens, we're stuck with some Republican in the White House for four years.
Whatever brings down the big guy himself could also bring down Pence and who knows who else. Nothing is guaranteed, and being stuck with a Republican in the White House for four years assumes that the country will hold together for that long.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:48 AM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
Whatever brings down the big guy himself could also bring down Pence and who knows who else. Nothing is guaranteed, and being stuck with a Republican in the White House for four years assumes that the country will hold together for that long.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:48 AM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
Thanks for this. These are the sort of resources I've been wanting. A day by day account of what trump and the republicans are doing so we can throw it all back in their faces in 2018.
I only hope that all moderates and progressives can temporarily get past all their subdivisions and focus on the most important immediate goal of retaking the congress and repudiating everything trump is doing.
posted by DarkForest at 5:54 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
I only hope that all moderates and progressives can temporarily get past all their subdivisions and focus on the most important immediate goal of retaking the congress and repudiating everything trump is doing.
posted by DarkForest at 5:54 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
On the other hand, we've ALWAYS been at war with Vegemite.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:17 AM on February 5, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by blue_beetle at 6:17 AM on February 5, 2017 [16 favorites]
Both my college-age daughters are taking serious concrete steps to move to France and Canada. The younger asked me why I want to live in the U.S. That made me gasp. But Trump has been a part of their entire adult lives. I told her, "Listen, I've lived through Nixon, Reagan, and Dubya, and even if Trump is worse than all of them, four years isn't that long. It seems long to you, but when you get to my age, you know better. I'll just stay and fight the good fight right here for now."
posted by Miss Cellania at 6:18 AM on February 5, 2017 [60 favorites]
posted by Miss Cellania at 6:18 AM on February 5, 2017 [60 favorites]
why the hell does anyone give a shit about Trump, it's going to be hard to impossible to get Trump out of office, but he's an empty suit without Bannon. Why don't we focus our energy on getting him out of the White House? If you just look at Trump's rhetoric before and after Bannon took total control of the show you'll see that these are all his words, not Trumps.
posted by any major dude at 6:27 AM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by any major dude at 6:27 AM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
These are excellent resources. Thank you so much for getting it out to us!
posted by ignignokt at 6:29 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by ignignokt at 6:29 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Mod note: One deleted. Let's skip a massive "why do dems suck so much?" derail.
posted by taz (staff) at 6:31 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by taz (staff) at 6:31 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
why the hell does anyone give a shit about Trump, it's going to be hard to impossible to get Trump out of office, but he's an empty suit without Bannon. Why don't we focus our energy on getting him out of the White House? If you just look at Trump's rhetoric before and after Bannon took total control of the show you'll see that these are all his words, not Trumps.
1) People give a shit about him for many reasons, including that he's a maliciously insane person with the power to destroy civilization on a whim.
2) So much pre-emptive defeatism on getting him out of office. All it would take would be for him to get into a mood such that he throws a tantrum and quits. Not saying I know how to make this happen but there are many, many ways he could leave office prematurely that aren't limited to formal impeachment.
3) Without Bannon he's still an insane fascist dictator. The Wall, the muslim ban, the idolizing of authoritarians and strongmen were all there in the pre-Bannon era. Bannon just added some competence.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:37 AM on February 5, 2017 [66 favorites]
1) People give a shit about him for many reasons, including that he's a maliciously insane person with the power to destroy civilization on a whim.
2) So much pre-emptive defeatism on getting him out of office. All it would take would be for him to get into a mood such that he throws a tantrum and quits. Not saying I know how to make this happen but there are many, many ways he could leave office prematurely that aren't limited to formal impeachment.
3) Without Bannon he's still an insane fascist dictator. The Wall, the muslim ban, the idolizing of authoritarians and strongmen were all there in the pre-Bannon era. Bannon just added some competence.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:37 AM on February 5, 2017 [66 favorites]
Whatever brings down the big guy himself could also bring down Pence
The most likely thing to bring down Trump is that he finally blows a gasket so hard that (1) he resigns in a fit of pique because he can't get his way, (2) enough Republicans get onboard to either impeach him or (3) invoke the 25th Amendment. In any of those cases we get Pence, who who thinks The Handmaid's Tale is a guide to good government.
Anything that takes Pence down too will likely blow a great big hole in the whole rule of law. I think the most likely thing there is that Trump orders a military action the military guys have already secretly agreed among themselves cannot be allowed to happen, such as a nuclear strike or an invasion of Mexico or Australia, and we wake up to Mattis or someone else in a uniform running the show, the Constitution effectively suspended, and the biggest question mark in 240 years as to what happens next.
posted by Bringer Tom at 6:39 AM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]
The most likely thing to bring down Trump is that he finally blows a gasket so hard that (1) he resigns in a fit of pique because he can't get his way, (2) enough Republicans get onboard to either impeach him or (3) invoke the 25th Amendment. In any of those cases we get Pence, who who thinks The Handmaid's Tale is a guide to good government.
Anything that takes Pence down too will likely blow a great big hole in the whole rule of law. I think the most likely thing there is that Trump orders a military action the military guys have already secretly agreed among themselves cannot be allowed to happen, such as a nuclear strike or an invasion of Mexico or Australia, and we wake up to Mattis or someone else in a uniform running the show, the Constitution effectively suspended, and the biggest question mark in 240 years as to what happens next.
posted by Bringer Tom at 6:39 AM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]
...we wake up to Mattis or someone else in a uniform running the show, the Constitution effectively suspended, and the biggest question mark in 240 years as to what happens next.
At this point, that actually sounds like a really great thing to wake up to.
posted by LOLAttorney2009 at 6:50 AM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
At this point, that actually sounds like a really great thing to wake up to.
posted by LOLAttorney2009 at 6:50 AM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
Things I feel strange saying: "We may be at war with Australia."
I can only hope that Australians and Jews are at the same camp so my wife and I can at least stay together.
posted by Talez at 6:55 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
I can only hope that Australians and Jews are at the same camp so my wife and I can at least stay together.
posted by Talez at 6:55 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
đ¶ We'll save Australia
Don't want to hurt no kangaroo
We'll build an all American amusement park there
They've got surfing, too đ¶
posted by octothorpe at 7:12 AM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
Don't want to hurt no kangaroo
We'll build an all American amusement park there
They've got surfing, too đ¶
posted by octothorpe at 7:12 AM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
As a Dutch citizen I found myself a few days ago in the strange position of contemplating a US that's hostile to my home country the NL. In the sense of wanting to destabilise the EU.
It's when I read that Trump wanted to post somebody as ambassador to the EU who has stated his aim of bringing down the EU like the USSR.
I knew that Russia wants to destabilise the EU. It's strange to find the US wanting to do the same...
posted by jouke at 7:15 AM on February 5, 2017 [59 favorites]
It's when I read that Trump wanted to post somebody as ambassador to the EU who has stated his aim of bringing down the EU like the USSR.
I knew that Russia wants to destabilise the EU. It's strange to find the US wanting to do the same...
posted by jouke at 7:15 AM on February 5, 2017 [59 favorites]
And of course, if both Trump and Pence leave the presidency for whatever reason, then we will be treated to President Paul Ryan; after that Orrin Hatch. It's just assholes all the way down.
posted by TedW at 7:16 AM on February 5, 2017 [48 favorites]
posted by TedW at 7:16 AM on February 5, 2017 [48 favorites]
As found somewhere in another thread, here's whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday, a log
of the previous days nightmare.
posted by The_Auditor at 7:22 AM on February 5, 2017 [27 favorites]
of the previous days nightmare.
posted by The_Auditor at 7:22 AM on February 5, 2017 [27 favorites]
But unless there were some King Ralph scenario, it would never get to Ryan. If Trump goes then Pence names his own VP who would then take over if Pence got impeached.
posted by octothorpe at 7:23 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 7:23 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
I've been thinking about The Situation*. While it has many facets & curlycues (fractals?) like X wants Y so they can have more $$$ / power. But the bottom line is, Republicans are mean. That's it. They are Mean Spirited and Mean Hearted.
Are there also [insert party label here] politicians who are Mean? Yes.
But there seems to be a concentration of Meanness in Republican/Right Wing circles. Why aren't we telling them they are Mean? Even a little kid understands what Mean is, and that it is not good to be mean. What's wrong with breaking it down to the very simplest if terms and just calling them on being MEAN?
*The general current state of US politics
posted by yoga at 7:24 AM on February 5, 2017 [36 favorites]
Are there also [insert party label here] politicians who are Mean? Yes.
But there seems to be a concentration of Meanness in Republican/Right Wing circles. Why aren't we telling them they are Mean? Even a little kid understands what Mean is, and that it is not good to be mean. What's wrong with breaking it down to the very simplest if terms and just calling them on being MEAN?
*The general current state of US politics
posted by yoga at 7:24 AM on February 5, 2017 [36 favorites]
why the hell does anyone give a shit about Trump, it's going to be hard to impossible to get Trump out of office, but he's an empty suit without Bannon. Why don't we focus our energy on getting him out of the White House?
Among all the other reasons, Bannon serves at the pleasure of the president. There's no constitutional mechanism for anybody but the president to fire one of the president's advisors.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:29 AM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Among all the other reasons, Bannon serves at the pleasure of the president. There's no constitutional mechanism for anybody but the president to fire one of the president's advisors.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:29 AM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Here's a thought, instead of putting all our eggs in the Hail Mary pass of impeaching Trump or fantasizing about military coups, we could try doing something the liberal/Left has never tried before: actually showing up during midterms to vote.
I hate this. I hate it more every day - this stupid thing we do where the only thing that galvanizes this side of the political spectrum is removing someone we loathe from the White House, and with that accomplished we tune out for another four to eight years until, like clockwork, we wake up to find someone even worse has taken power, and not only that but the margin of control held by conservative Republicans in Congress, in the state legislatures, and in governor's mansions across the country have grown by leaps and bounds. And then we all circle up and piously intone about how democracy has failed and we need the violent overthrow of the state.
Win the 2018 congressional elections and that will mean something. Just remove Trump and that will mean Pence. Remove Trump and Pence and that will mean - as noted by others - Paul Fucking Ryan. And even if there was a Democrat somewhere in the line of succession, they would still be facing the same choke-hold of Republican control of Congress that exists now.
You know those 3 million popular votes that we keep bragging about? Channel them into winning 2018. You know that unprecedented anger and activism we're seeing around us? Encourage people to channel that into 2018! It doesn't even need to distract from the (remote) possibility of a Trump impeachment, we can work on two things!
You want the Electoral College changed? That's going to take control at state level, three-fourths of the states have to ratify an amendment. And Congress has to propose it. Two goals for an election only two, not four or eight, years away. We could actually break Trump's power without just handing over everything to someone half as crazy and twice as cruel.
Or we can do the traditional thing and sit at home talking about how the process is corrupt so why bother and oh how great it would be if the military stepped in and ended American democracy. Because who could ever argue with the logic of destroying the village in order to save it?
posted by AdamCSnider at 7:30 AM on February 5, 2017 [201 favorites]
I hate this. I hate it more every day - this stupid thing we do where the only thing that galvanizes this side of the political spectrum is removing someone we loathe from the White House, and with that accomplished we tune out for another four to eight years until, like clockwork, we wake up to find someone even worse has taken power, and not only that but the margin of control held by conservative Republicans in Congress, in the state legislatures, and in governor's mansions across the country have grown by leaps and bounds. And then we all circle up and piously intone about how democracy has failed and we need the violent overthrow of the state.
Win the 2018 congressional elections and that will mean something. Just remove Trump and that will mean Pence. Remove Trump and Pence and that will mean - as noted by others - Paul Fucking Ryan. And even if there was a Democrat somewhere in the line of succession, they would still be facing the same choke-hold of Republican control of Congress that exists now.
You know those 3 million popular votes that we keep bragging about? Channel them into winning 2018. You know that unprecedented anger and activism we're seeing around us? Encourage people to channel that into 2018! It doesn't even need to distract from the (remote) possibility of a Trump impeachment, we can work on two things!
You want the Electoral College changed? That's going to take control at state level, three-fourths of the states have to ratify an amendment. And Congress has to propose it. Two goals for an election only two, not four or eight, years away. We could actually break Trump's power without just handing over everything to someone half as crazy and twice as cruel.
Or we can do the traditional thing and sit at home talking about how the process is corrupt so why bother and oh how great it would be if the military stepped in and ended American democracy. Because who could ever argue with the logic of destroying the village in order to save it?
posted by AdamCSnider at 7:30 AM on February 5, 2017 [201 favorites]
At this point, that [military coup] actually sounds like a really great thing to wake up to.
Unfortunately, no version of this thought experiment takes me to a very happy place. If the US military decides to take out the CiC even for the most noble intentions (and I really think this mainly happens because Trump throws a temper tantrum and orders something unconscionable) then there is no way they can turn around and restore the current order, because (1) the current order with our implementation of democracy, the widespread stupidity, the gerrymandering, and the electoral college created this clusterfuck in the first place and (2) under the current order such a coup would be treason and the people who did it would have to get some assurance of their own safety in the aftermath before turning over power.
At that point I think our best case scenario is that the new leaders consult with powerful people they have vetted as not being insane (at least by their own standards) in the matter of drafting a new Constitution, starting with a blank piece of paper. But consider who is going to be likely to have a seat at this convention and ask yourself what this new Constitution is likely to look like. And be afraid. Be very afraid.
posted by Bringer Tom at 7:34 AM on February 5, 2017 [23 favorites]
Unfortunately, no version of this thought experiment takes me to a very happy place. If the US military decides to take out the CiC even for the most noble intentions (and I really think this mainly happens because Trump throws a temper tantrum and orders something unconscionable) then there is no way they can turn around and restore the current order, because (1) the current order with our implementation of democracy, the widespread stupidity, the gerrymandering, and the electoral college created this clusterfuck in the first place and (2) under the current order such a coup would be treason and the people who did it would have to get some assurance of their own safety in the aftermath before turning over power.
At that point I think our best case scenario is that the new leaders consult with powerful people they have vetted as not being insane (at least by their own standards) in the matter of drafting a new Constitution, starting with a blank piece of paper. But consider who is going to be likely to have a seat at this convention and ask yourself what this new Constitution is likely to look like. And be afraid. Be very afraid.
posted by Bringer Tom at 7:34 AM on February 5, 2017 [23 favorites]
Among all the other reasons, Bannon serves at the pleasure of the president. There's no constitutional mechanism for anybody but the president to fire one of the president's advisors.
there's no constitutional mechanism for getting rid of Trump while the cowardly republicans run both houses. If we all focus all of our energy into ignoring Trump and focusing everything on Bannon there is a possibility that Trump's ego will cause a rift between them. Trump's fatal flaw is that he always needs to be the center of attention. Stop giving him attention and he will turn on whoever is taking it away from him.
posted by any major dude at 7:37 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
there's no constitutional mechanism for getting rid of Trump while the cowardly republicans run both houses. If we all focus all of our energy into ignoring Trump and focusing everything on Bannon there is a possibility that Trump's ego will cause a rift between them. Trump's fatal flaw is that he always needs to be the center of attention. Stop giving him attention and he will turn on whoever is taking it away from him.
posted by any major dude at 7:37 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
It's 10:30am and no response from Twitler. Maybe they hid his phone or he's suddenly developed a Herculean amount of restraint.
posted by Talez at 7:39 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Talez at 7:39 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Or, and here's a thought, instead of putting all our eggs in the Hail Mary pass of impeaching Trump or fantasizing about military coups, we could try doing something the liberal/Left has never tried before: actually showing up during midterms to vote.
We have enough eggs to go around. The '18 midterms are of course extremely important in that they are our only democratic recourse. It is far from a given, however, that there will ever be another election in this country that approaches even the poor democratic standards of recent ones. Voting in midterms like republicans will only work if the GOP lets us, and they do not intend to.
Decrying all forms of resistance besides your own preferred one is not a great strategy going forward. If the risk is existential (it is), all forms must be considered. Trying to retake congress in '18 is one. Pushing for impeachment is another. If democracy continues to fail, a bloodless military coup or some other extreme and crazy solution will quickly become the best-case scenario to hope for.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:39 AM on February 5, 2017 [18 favorites]
We have enough eggs to go around. The '18 midterms are of course extremely important in that they are our only democratic recourse. It is far from a given, however, that there will ever be another election in this country that approaches even the poor democratic standards of recent ones. Voting in midterms like republicans will only work if the GOP lets us, and they do not intend to.
Decrying all forms of resistance besides your own preferred one is not a great strategy going forward. If the risk is existential (it is), all forms must be considered. Trying to retake congress in '18 is one. Pushing for impeachment is another. If democracy continues to fail, a bloodless military coup or some other extreme and crazy solution will quickly become the best-case scenario to hope for.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:39 AM on February 5, 2017 [18 favorites]
If Trump goes then Pence names his own VP who would then take over if Pence got impeached.
Congress has to approve a new VP. Not saying they'd force a weak moderate (a la Ford replacing Nixon), but if Ryan sees an opportunity, then who knows how long that approval might take.
posted by Etrigan at 7:42 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Congress has to approve a new VP. Not saying they'd force a weak moderate (a la Ford replacing Nixon), but if Ryan sees an opportunity, then who knows how long that approval might take.
posted by Etrigan at 7:42 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
he's an empty suit without Bannon
There are plenty of other Nazis working in the White House who will very happily step into Bannon's shoes, even, if by some miracle, he was forced to resign. If you haven't read the profiles on Stephen Miller yet (Politico), you really should.
There is something eerily vintage about Millerâs stump speeches. The combination of their substanceâvilifying immigrants as killers, the promise of nativist glory days aheadâand their delivery with a calm face around a loud, droning mouth, slicked-back hair and sharp suit, floridly invoking powerful cabals against the people: All of it harks back to an earlier time. Itâs as if the video should be in black and white, and the microphone in front of Miller an antique, metallic affair. This is an image Miller assiduously cultivates, smoking like a chimney and dressing in suits that earned him the nickname âMad Menâ on the Hill.
posted by longdaysjourney at 7:44 AM on February 5, 2017 [21 favorites]
There are plenty of other Nazis working in the White House who will very happily step into Bannon's shoes, even, if by some miracle, he was forced to resign. If you haven't read the profiles on Stephen Miller yet (Politico), you really should.
There is something eerily vintage about Millerâs stump speeches. The combination of their substanceâvilifying immigrants as killers, the promise of nativist glory days aheadâand their delivery with a calm face around a loud, droning mouth, slicked-back hair and sharp suit, floridly invoking powerful cabals against the people: All of it harks back to an earlier time. Itâs as if the video should be in black and white, and the microphone in front of Miller an antique, metallic affair. This is an image Miller assiduously cultivates, smoking like a chimney and dressing in suits that earned him the nickname âMad Menâ on the Hill.
posted by longdaysjourney at 7:44 AM on February 5, 2017 [21 favorites]
Bannon is a bully who inspires fear and demands loyalty. Miller is just a scumbag writer for hire like David Frum
posted by any major dude at 7:52 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by any major dude at 7:52 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
SNL's cold open with Baldwin as Trump, ghoul Steve Bannon.
And MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY: surprise appearance by Melissa McCarthy as Press Secretary Sean Spicer, which may be the funniest goddamned thing SNL has done all season, if not in years.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:59 AM on February 5, 2017 [83 favorites]
And MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY: surprise appearance by Melissa McCarthy as Press Secretary Sean Spicer, which may be the funniest goddamned thing SNL has done all season, if not in years.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:59 AM on February 5, 2017 [83 favorites]
Here's a thought, instead of putting all our eggs in the Hail Mary pass of impeaching Trump or fantasizing about military coups, we could try doing something the liberal/Left has never tried before: actually showing up during midterms to vote.
It would be handy if the Democrats actually ran and backed candidates against republicans in 2018 so that we could vote for them. How many republican representatives ran unopposed last year? I remember living in the Pittsburgh suburbs in the early 2000s in a Republican district and the democrats kept either not running candidates at all or running campaigns so lazy that they didn't have websites. In 2006 when they actually ran a serious campaign in my district during Dean's fifty-state strategy year, they won and helped put Pelusi in the speaker's chair.
Now they seem to be back to not bothering even to contest seats in republican districts and then blaming voters when they don't come out to vote for non-existent candidates. Tim Murphy, the republican congressman from the suburbs to the south of Pittsburgh hasn't been opposed since 2012. He got 100% of the vote last November.
posted by octothorpe at 8:01 AM on February 5, 2017 [18 favorites]
It would be handy if the Democrats actually ran and backed candidates against republicans in 2018 so that we could vote for them. How many republican representatives ran unopposed last year? I remember living in the Pittsburgh suburbs in the early 2000s in a Republican district and the democrats kept either not running candidates at all or running campaigns so lazy that they didn't have websites. In 2006 when they actually ran a serious campaign in my district during Dean's fifty-state strategy year, they won and helped put Pelusi in the speaker's chair.
Now they seem to be back to not bothering even to contest seats in republican districts and then blaming voters when they don't come out to vote for non-existent candidates. Tim Murphy, the republican congressman from the suburbs to the south of Pittsburgh hasn't been opposed since 2012. He got 100% of the vote last November.
posted by octothorpe at 8:01 AM on February 5, 2017 [18 favorites]
DirtyOldTown that's hilarious.
I thought their joke "I'm here to swallow gum and take names" [gobbles down a whole box of gums] was pretty subtle.
The whole thing smacked of 12 yr old school bullyism of the "why are you hitting yourself" kind. Such an astute criticism of this government.
posted by jouke at 8:05 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
I thought their joke "I'm here to swallow gum and take names" [gobbles down a whole box of gums] was pretty subtle.
The whole thing smacked of 12 yr old school bullyism of the "why are you hitting yourself" kind. Such an astute criticism of this government.
posted by jouke at 8:05 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Trump will only be removed from office by his conflict of interests. The GOP is going along with whatever he does or will do so they can get some or all of what they want, ie, Supreme Court nominee(s); removal of regulations, etc. I am saddened to see so few willing in the GOP to stand up to what is turning out to be a fascist leaning White House.
posted by Postroad at 8:13 AM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Postroad at 8:13 AM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
In my sphere, people are already FIRED UP about 2018. There have been trainings to help first-timers run for office that have waitlists double the size of event capacity. The do-nothing Democratic committees have been noted, people are organizing to get themselves on them (not this year, alas, unless someone quits or the seat is already unoccupied). There's more than one way to skin this cat.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:21 AM on February 5, 2017 [25 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:21 AM on February 5, 2017 [25 favorites]
Congress can eliminate Bannon's salary under the rules they just passed which allows them zero out the salary of any government official. They can also create an independent prosecutor to start investigating him.
posted by humanfont at 8:26 AM on February 5, 2017 [18 favorites]
posted by humanfont at 8:26 AM on February 5, 2017 [18 favorites]
Since we've apparently got a new thread, here are some more useful sites for activism that have been posted in other threads over the last couple weeks.
Govtrack.us allows for tracking proposed legislation. It's really useful for getting links to the text of bills, seeing the sponsors, and checking on where in the legislative process a bill is. Sometimes they have information on when the bill is supposed to come up for debate or vote in Congress. You can also check voting records and who is on what committee.
thesixtyfive.org grew out of a google document that suggested actions to take and politicians to call. The site now provides a variety of suggestions for topics about which to contact your legislators, as well as short, effective scripts to guide your calls. If you need ideas for calls, this site is an excellent choice.
5calls.org also provides a variety of call topics and scripts, as well as phone numbers for your legislators. The catch with this site is that they are suggesting people make multiple calls to the same legislators everyday, which, at least according to the congressional staffers I've spoken to, is of questionable efficacy because they tend to want one topic per call per person per day.
Faxzero.com allows users to send up to 5 free faxes per day. They have made it extremely easy to fax members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. This service combines excellently with the scripts of the thesixtyfive.org and 5calls.org.
The longer we can keep up the huge volume of calls/emails/faxes, the harder it will be for theRepublican nationalist white supremacist caucus to devote resources to their agenda.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 8:27 AM on February 5, 2017 [137 favorites]
Govtrack.us allows for tracking proposed legislation. It's really useful for getting links to the text of bills, seeing the sponsors, and checking on where in the legislative process a bill is. Sometimes they have information on when the bill is supposed to come up for debate or vote in Congress. You can also check voting records and who is on what committee.
thesixtyfive.org grew out of a google document that suggested actions to take and politicians to call. The site now provides a variety of suggestions for topics about which to contact your legislators, as well as short, effective scripts to guide your calls. If you need ideas for calls, this site is an excellent choice.
5calls.org also provides a variety of call topics and scripts, as well as phone numbers for your legislators. The catch with this site is that they are suggesting people make multiple calls to the same legislators everyday, which, at least according to the congressional staffers I've spoken to, is of questionable efficacy because they tend to want one topic per call per person per day.
Faxzero.com allows users to send up to 5 free faxes per day. They have made it extremely easy to fax members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. This service combines excellently with the scripts of the thesixtyfive.org and 5calls.org.
The longer we can keep up the huge volume of calls/emails/faxes, the harder it will be for the
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 8:27 AM on February 5, 2017 [137 favorites]
It would be handy if the Democrats actually ran and backed candidates against republicans in 2018 so that we could vote for them.
Lately I've been wondering what would happen if the Democrats sponsored a fish fry or party to gather people and bus them over to the DMV (or whatever) and pay for them to get their ID and/or register to vote and then throw another party on voting day to actually vote.
Then once they're in office, making voting easier, while still having a regular party for registration and voting.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:30 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
Lately I've been wondering what would happen if the Democrats sponsored a fish fry or party to gather people and bus them over to the DMV (or whatever) and pay for them to get their ID and/or register to vote and then throw another party on voting day to actually vote.
Then once they're in office, making voting easier, while still having a regular party for registration and voting.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:30 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
Let's hope what's not happening is behind the scenes stifling/arrest/shut down of....SNL. SNL, ladies and gentlemen, that stalwart and somewhat stodgy comedy program.
posted by Frowner at 8:34 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 8:34 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
Why aren't we telling them they are Mean?
My view: the problem is that "Mean" is elementary school ethics, "Sometimes you have to do difficult or painful things" is middle school ethics, and then we go to more advanced levels of socialisation: "Normally, if something's difficult or painful, that's because it's the wrong thing to do".
So the psychological defence that they have against being told "You're mean" is "What? No one told you to eat your greens growing up?". When actually they're trying to force you to eat a bale of hay to survive.
posted by ambrosen at 8:44 AM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
My view: the problem is that "Mean" is elementary school ethics, "Sometimes you have to do difficult or painful things" is middle school ethics, and then we go to more advanced levels of socialisation: "Normally, if something's difficult or painful, that's because it's the wrong thing to do".
So the psychological defence that they have against being told "You're mean" is "What? No one told you to eat your greens growing up?". When actually they're trying to force you to eat a bale of hay to survive.
posted by ambrosen at 8:44 AM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
Something to be aware of if you happen to engage in any political discussion on Reddit - I've personally witnessed members of the largest alt-right subreddit (The_Donald) posing as Clinton/Sanders supporters on liberal subreddits. If you notice a Clinton/Sanders Redditor pointing fingers over the election results or criticizing your candidate, MAKE SURE TO REVIEW THEIR POST HISTORY as it could be a member of T_D trying to start trouble.
Also, be sure to call them out as the trolls they are, so that others are not drawn into a disingenuous argument which has been deliberately crafted to raise tensions between the liberal voting blocs; we desperately need to focus all of our energies on preventing Trump from doing as he sees fit. I also usually report them if it becomes apparent that their post has ulterior motives.
(My sixth sense turns out to be correct maybe 25% of the time, which I'd say is pretty significant.)
posted by CottonCandyCapers at 9:04 AM on February 5, 2017 [28 favorites]
Also, be sure to call them out as the trolls they are, so that others are not drawn into a disingenuous argument which has been deliberately crafted to raise tensions between the liberal voting blocs; we desperately need to focus all of our energies on preventing Trump from doing as he sees fit. I also usually report them if it becomes apparent that their post has ulterior motives.
(My sixth sense turns out to be correct maybe 25% of the time, which I'd say is pretty significant.)
posted by CottonCandyCapers at 9:04 AM on February 5, 2017 [28 favorites]
But the problem is, people aren't learning what mean is as youngsters. And if people have shitty logic ability, then maybe taking it back to the elementary school ethics is what it takes.
I had a homeless guy tell me I was mean once. I was sitting at a pub on a sunny day, having a beer and a sandwich, and he came up & hinted that it looked delicious. But he didn't come right out and ask me for any. I just assumed he was moochy & got really defensive. I was alone, and afraid of the guy, & turned my back on him. He said, why are you so mean? And I didn't have an answer in the moment, but he was right that I was mean.
I don't think people are as aware or as considerate of other people as they claim to be, and relegating them to subhuman status is just plain mean.
posted by yoga at 9:07 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
I had a homeless guy tell me I was mean once. I was sitting at a pub on a sunny day, having a beer and a sandwich, and he came up & hinted that it looked delicious. But he didn't come right out and ask me for any. I just assumed he was moochy & got really defensive. I was alone, and afraid of the guy, & turned my back on him. He said, why are you so mean? And I didn't have an answer in the moment, but he was right that I was mean.
I don't think people are as aware or as considerate of other people as they claim to be, and relegating them to subhuman status is just plain mean.
posted by yoga at 9:07 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
But unless there were some King Ralph scenario, it would never get to Ryan. If Trump goes then Pence names his own VP who would then take over if Pence got impeached.
Deferring to those better experienced, but doesn't the President still function as the President during the impeachment process? So Trump could continue issuing EO's right up until an impeachment vote was announced. Could he issue an EO that affects successon? Conflicting EOs vs the Constitution could take a while to sort out.
Just to put forward two other scenarios I've heard mentioned:
-Theoretically Trump could maneuver Pence's resignation prior to Trump's own leaving of office (a la Spiro Agnew) and place someone else entirely as VP.
-Theoretically there could be a joint impeachment but the odds of that happening under the current House/Senate are very small.
-theoretically Trump could be removed and Pence could decline to accept the Presidency (is that possible?) but it seems unlikely that he would so without first putting into place a favored successor.
posted by beaning at 9:17 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Deferring to those better experienced, but doesn't the President still function as the President during the impeachment process? So Trump could continue issuing EO's right up until an impeachment vote was announced. Could he issue an EO that affects successon? Conflicting EOs vs the Constitution could take a while to sort out.
Just to put forward two other scenarios I've heard mentioned:
-Theoretically Trump could maneuver Pence's resignation prior to Trump's own leaving of office (a la Spiro Agnew) and place someone else entirely as VP.
-Theoretically there could be a joint impeachment but the odds of that happening under the current House/Senate are very small.
-theoretically Trump could be removed and Pence could decline to accept the Presidency (is that possible?) but it seems unlikely that he would so without first putting into place a favored successor.
posted by beaning at 9:17 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
> And MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY: surprise appearance by Melissa McCarthy as Press Secretary Sean Spicer yt , which may be the funniest goddamned thing SNL has done all season, if not in years.
More of this, please, SNL writers. Baldwin does a good Trump impression, but I think it's better to shine a light on what underlings are doing and deny Trump the attention he's craving. With so many other institutions that could help mitigate Trump's damage being undermined (or failing on their own), we need SNL's satire to optimize for strategic effect, not necessarily for the biggest punch line.
But as McCarthy's Spicer sketch shows, we don't necessarily have to choose -- she fucking killed, and she brought attention to the many ways in which the administration is attacking the media. There's nobody out there who's better at what she does, and I hope SNL keeps bringing her back to portray Spicer (assuming he still has a job by the time the next episode airs.) The perfect timing, the physical comedy bits, and somehow she managed to stay in control during all that and not flub her lines -- it was comedy magic.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:18 AM on February 5, 2017 [67 favorites]
More of this, please, SNL writers. Baldwin does a good Trump impression, but I think it's better to shine a light on what underlings are doing and deny Trump the attention he's craving. With so many other institutions that could help mitigate Trump's damage being undermined (or failing on their own), we need SNL's satire to optimize for strategic effect, not necessarily for the biggest punch line.
But as McCarthy's Spicer sketch shows, we don't necessarily have to choose -- she fucking killed, and she brought attention to the many ways in which the administration is attacking the media. There's nobody out there who's better at what she does, and I hope SNL keeps bringing her back to portray Spicer (assuming he still has a job by the time the next episode airs.) The perfect timing, the physical comedy bits, and somehow she managed to stay in control during all that and not flub her lines -- it was comedy magic.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:18 AM on February 5, 2017 [67 favorites]
It would be handy if the Democrats actually ran and backed candidates against republicans in 2018 so that we could vote for them.
There was a guy who suggested something like that. And another guy who said, look, just run anyone. Or anything.
But one made a loud noise once and the other is fat, so pay no mind.
posted by delfin at 9:23 AM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]
There was a guy who suggested something like that. And another guy who said, look, just run anyone. Or anything.
But one made a loud noise once and the other is fat, so pay no mind.
posted by delfin at 9:23 AM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]
By the way, Trump hasn't tweeted since yesterday epic anti-judiciary xenophobic rant 17 hours ago. While we're waiting for his handlers return his Android phone, this silence is a reminder that Twitter isn't just the stage for his acting out after Saturday Night Live impressions, it's also his direct connection to his followers. In the case of his anti-court rants, that would include the Customs and Border Patrol officers who were refusing to meet with immigration lawyers, congress members, et al. during the first days of the anti-immigration EO. No doubt Trump's inner circle doesn't want him tweeting about SNL until they can come up with more red meat for his followers.
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:25 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:25 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
@randallmaynard
Who wore it better? [pic]
----
hint: Conway vs. Superman II's Ursa
posted by chris24 at 9:33 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
Who wore it better? [pic]
----
hint: Conway vs. Superman II's Ursa
posted by chris24 at 9:33 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
Baldwin does a good Trump impression
too much "Mouth of Sauron as done by a puppy" for my taste.
posted by Namlit at 9:34 AM on February 5, 2017
too much "Mouth of Sauron as done by a puppy" for my taste.
posted by Namlit at 9:34 AM on February 5, 2017
Trump hasn't tweeted since yesterday
Let me guess, is he "governing"?
posted by Namlit at 9:36 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Let me guess, is he "governing"?
posted by Namlit at 9:36 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
"Ursa, the only feeling you showed was for your vicious general. Your only wish: to rule at his side."
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:39 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:39 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Golfing is my guess.
posted by notyou at 9:40 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by notyou at 9:40 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
some King Ralph scenario
where IS John Goodman in the line of succession though?? this is really important. 2016 didn't get him and he's prime presidenting age.
everybody who thinks we need to run a jolly white male populist next time because women never win and winners never woman, you got me on board if you want me.
posted by queenofbithynia at 9:40 AM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
where IS John Goodman in the line of succession though?? this is really important. 2016 didn't get him and he's prime presidenting age.
everybody who thinks we need to run a jolly white male populist next time because women never win and winners never woman, you got me on board if you want me.
posted by queenofbithynia at 9:40 AM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Could he issue an EO that affects successon?
I don't think he can? Succession is specifically enumerated in the constitution, and doesn't fall under any of the enumerated or implicit powers of the executive. It would require a constitutional amendment to change. (IANACL)
posted by murphy slaw at 9:40 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
I don't think he can? Succession is specifically enumerated in the constitution, and doesn't fall under any of the enumerated or implicit powers of the executive. It would require a constitutional amendment to change. (IANACL)
posted by murphy slaw at 9:40 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Miller is just a scumbag writer for hire like David Frum.
That is really not the case, as the Politico profile linked above makes clear:
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:43 AM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
That is really not the case, as the Politico profile linked above makes clear:
He's deeply connected to some of the most powerful insurgent threads in the Washington GOP, most notably Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions and the Breitbart media machine. As an aide on Capitol Hill, he was a behind-the-scenes architect of the successful effort to kill comprehensive immigration reform in 2014. And while itâs hard to gauge how much Trump is amenable to influence by anyoneâat least, by anyone that he didnât begetâthere is no question that Miller is deep, and serious, on the one question that most drives Trump's unlikely campaign.A guy like that who was also "mentored" by college buddy Richard Spencer (from whom he strenuously tries to distance himself these days) is not someone who should be near the Oval Office.
Millerâs talent for combining operational zeal with the ability to effectively frame an idea into one devastating laser beam made him a prized Sessions lieutenant in Washington. âWhen it comes to issues and messaging and policy, there isnât anybody else that Iâve known that would be as valuable to a presidential campaign as he,â Sessions told me. âMaybe other than Karl Rove.â
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:43 AM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
Golfing is correct. Trump is a Mar-a-Lago this weekend.
posted by plastic_animals at 9:44 AM on February 5, 2017
posted by plastic_animals at 9:44 AM on February 5, 2017
Could he issue an EO that affects successon?
I don't think he can? ... It would require a constitutional amendment to change.
Congress has the responsibility and sole power to determine the line of succession (as long as their criteria don't violate the other requirements to be President). They could pass a law that after the VP it goes to the current host of the Tonight Show, and Fallon would be in the line of succession.
posted by Etrigan at 9:50 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
I don't think he can? ... It would require a constitutional amendment to change.
Congress has the responsibility and sole power to determine the line of succession (as long as their criteria don't violate the other requirements to be President). They could pass a law that after the VP it goes to the current host of the Tonight Show, and Fallon would be in the line of succession.
posted by Etrigan at 9:50 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
where IS John Goodman in the line of succession though??
He has played a president before (in The West Wing), and actually by using 25th amendment since he was Speaker of the House.
posted by FJT at 9:50 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
He has played a president before (in The West Wing), and actually by using 25th amendment since he was Speaker of the House.
posted by FJT at 9:50 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
Congress has the responsibility and sole power to determine the line of succession (as long as their criteria don't violate the other requirements to be President). They could pass a law that after the VP it goes to the current host of the Tonight Show, and Fallon would be in the line of succession.
Unfortunately, this means they can't declare Arnold Schwarzenegger president without a constitutional amendment.
posted by Zalzidrax at 9:58 AM on February 5, 2017
Unfortunately, this means they can't declare Arnold Schwarzenegger president without a constitutional amendment.
posted by Zalzidrax at 9:58 AM on February 5, 2017
In reference to this, for those that aren't reading these threads as obsessively as I am.
posted by Zalzidrax at 10:05 AM on February 5, 2017
posted by Zalzidrax at 10:05 AM on February 5, 2017
GOP senators blanch at Trumpâs latest defense of Putin
posted by No Robots at 10:14 AM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by No Robots at 10:14 AM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
jouke: I thought their joke "I'm here to swallow gum and take names" [gobbles down a whole box of gums] was pretty subtle.
You know that's not made up, right?
posted by slipthought at 10:17 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
You know that's not made up, right?
posted by slipthought at 10:17 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
GOP senators blanch at Trumpâs latest defense of Putin
I love that they called on him to "show moral leadership."
Has he done that a day in his life? Tend to doubt.
posted by Archelaus at 10:22 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
I love that they called on him to "show moral leadership."
Has he done that a day in his life? Tend to doubt.
posted by Archelaus at 10:22 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
It would be a good anonymous ask. Like how to wash one's hair under the shower or whether one sleeps with the beard on top of the blanket (sorry, duvet) or under: "I'm in the habit of swallowing 35 packs of gum before lunch, does this interfere with my low-carb diet? [below-the-belt-bubbles inside]"
posted by Namlit at 10:24 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Namlit at 10:24 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
It did sound a little like Duke Nukem/They Live.
posted by indubitable at 10:24 AM on February 5, 2017
posted by indubitable at 10:24 AM on February 5, 2017
Oh god, they're going to impeach him aren't they? Then Pence is gonna turn around and pardon him and yet again, we'll never get the righteous action of the law.
At this point, I'm ready to run Hillary's email server myself, using Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:27 AM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
At this point, I'm ready to run Hillary's email server myself, using Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:27 AM on February 5, 2017 [8 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 10:27 AM on February 5, 2017 [78 favorites]
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 10:27 AM on February 5, 2017 [78 favorites]
indubitable I too thought it portrayed Spicer as trying to be as kick-ass as this They Live scene. And then getting confused half way.
posted by jouke at 10:37 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by jouke at 10:37 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
@davidaxelrod Is it true that when @POTUS likened U.S. practices to those of Vladimir Putin, the Churchill bust demanded to be removed from Oval Office?
posted by Coventry at 10:40 AM on February 5, 2017 [38 favorites]
posted by Coventry at 10:40 AM on February 5, 2017 [38 favorites]
@PressSec: .@POTUS visiting CENTCOM & SOCOM Monday. Next press briefing on Tuesday
Somebody's looking to get his war on, methinks.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:58 AM on February 5, 2017
Somebody's looking to get his war on, methinks.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:58 AM on February 5, 2017
@davidaxelrod Is it true that when @POTUS likened U.S. practices to those of Vladimir Putin, the Churchill bust demanded to be removed from Oval Office?
Ha!
Except that Churchill was no moral paragon.
posted by Emma May Smith at 11:02 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
Ha!
Except that Churchill was no moral paragon.
posted by Emma May Smith at 11:02 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
@PressSec: .@POTUS visiting CENTCOM & SOCOM Monday. Next press briefing on Tuesday
Somebody's looking to get his war on, methinks.
CENTCOM & SOCOM are in Florida AFAIK, so partly it's his laziness of already being at Mar-A-Lago.
posted by bluecore at 11:05 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Somebody's looking to get his war on, methinks.
CENTCOM & SOCOM are in Florida AFAIK, so partly it's his laziness of already being at Mar-A-Lago.
posted by bluecore at 11:05 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Talking Points Memo notes "that National Security Advisor Mike Flynn and his aides have been asking the national security agencies for ideas for how to improve relations with Russia and for evidence of "Polish incursions in Belarus.""
Oh boy.
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:08 AM on February 5, 2017 [24 favorites]
Oh boy.
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:08 AM on February 5, 2017 [24 favorites]
We're not going to forget Poland this time.
posted by Coventry at 11:14 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Coventry at 11:14 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Steve Bannon's Fever Dream of an American Gulag
Imagine: Miles upon miles of new concrete jails stretching across the scrub-brush horizons of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, with millions of people incarcerated in orange jumpsuits and awaiting deportation.
Such is the fevered vision of a little-noticed segment of President Donald Trumpâs sulfurous executive order on border security and immigration enforcement security. Section 5 of the January 25 order calls for the âimmediateâ construction of detention facilities and allocation of personnel and legal resources âto detain aliens at or near the land border with Mexicoâ and process them for deportation. But another, much overlooked, order signed the same day spells out, in ominous terms, who will go.
posted by argonauta at 11:14 AM on February 5, 2017 [31 favorites]
Imagine: Miles upon miles of new concrete jails stretching across the scrub-brush horizons of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, with millions of people incarcerated in orange jumpsuits and awaiting deportation.
Such is the fevered vision of a little-noticed segment of President Donald Trumpâs sulfurous executive order on border security and immigration enforcement security. Section 5 of the January 25 order calls for the âimmediateâ construction of detention facilities and allocation of personnel and legal resources âto detain aliens at or near the land border with Mexicoâ and process them for deportation. But another, much overlooked, order signed the same day spells out, in ominous terms, who will go.
posted by argonauta at 11:14 AM on February 5, 2017 [31 favorites]
Well SOUTHCOM is just down the street in Doral. Has he pissed off anyone in Central America yet?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:15 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:15 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
For years, my majority-republican family has lectured me about how the GOP is the party of responsibility, the only people that you can trust to consider unintended consequences of government action. I can't wait for the next one.
posted by TrialByMedia at 11:18 AM on February 5, 2017 [18 favorites]
posted by TrialByMedia at 11:18 AM on February 5, 2017 [18 favorites]
"Polish incursions in Belarus."
Hmmmm
"Russia hardens import of meat from belarus citing eu re-exports"
"Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko slammed Russia on Friday as tensions bubbled between the two close allies in a spat over border controls"
oh right, that's why that sounded familiar.
posted by xcasex at 11:18 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Hmmmm
"Russia hardens import of meat from belarus citing eu re-exports"
"Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko slammed Russia on Friday as tensions bubbled between the two close allies in a spat over border controls"
oh right, that's why that sounded familiar.
posted by xcasex at 11:18 AM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I hate Donald Trump and what he is doing to my country but two awesome things 1)PEOPLE ARE NOT BEING SHEEPLE BUT ARE PROTESTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and they are leading the way for the democratic sheep in congress and 2)SNL is the funniest it has been since the 80's. The Sean Spicer skit, Kristin Stewart's open and the TRUMP skit ALL made me laugh outloud. So thank you SNL - you are fearless.
and this is an awesome post. Thanks.
posted by bluesky43 at 11:21 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
and this is an awesome post. Thanks.
posted by bluesky43 at 11:21 AM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
Judge mocked by Donald Trump for lifting 'Muslim ban' has fostered numerous immigrant children
posted by futz at 11:25 AM on February 5, 2017 [41 favorites]
posted by futz at 11:25 AM on February 5, 2017 [41 favorites]
Pelosi calls for probe of possible Russian blackmail of Trump
"I want to know what the Russians have on Donald Trump," the California Democrat told Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I think we have to have an investigation by the FBI into his financial, personal and political connections to Russia, and we want to see his tax returns, so we can have truth in the relationship between Putin, whom he admires, and Donald Trump."
posted by futz at 11:33 AM on February 5, 2017 [37 favorites]
"I want to know what the Russians have on Donald Trump," the California Democrat told Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I think we have to have an investigation by the FBI into his financial, personal and political connections to Russia, and we want to see his tax returns, so we can have truth in the relationship between Putin, whom he admires, and Donald Trump."
posted by futz at 11:33 AM on February 5, 2017 [37 favorites]
Hey so someone back in the last thread posted a link to some congressman proposing to remove the EPA and were wondering if this bill would gain traction. I wanted to respond because removing the EPA is kind of impossible on its own and I'd be surprised if it gained traction as stated. Congress would have to repeal the Clean Air act and the Clean Water Act etc. Congress could just decide to stop funding the EPA tomorrow and then a judge would have to step in to say something about how those air and water acts need funding but anyway...it's not as straightforward as that stupid congressman thinks to just remove the EPA. And that bureaucratic process is giving me some hope and hopefully it does for you guys too.
posted by FireFountain at 11:34 AM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by FireFountain at 11:34 AM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
I just talked with a couple selling tea at the local food market. The wife of the couple is Russian, and they had spent the holidays in Moscow. She was saying that, when they landed in Moscow, she had been questioned extensively at passport control-- "interrogated" was the word she used-- about why she had been living outside Russia for so long. Apparently "married to a British person based in London" isn't good enough. She said it seemed to her that the Russian border is hardening and (she thought) they would, ideally, like all the Russians to move back so they can close the borders.
Just anecdata, but I thought it might contribute to the state-of-the-world picture.
posted by Pallas Athena at 11:36 AM on February 5, 2017 [18 favorites]
Just anecdata, but I thought it might contribute to the state-of-the-world picture.
posted by Pallas Athena at 11:36 AM on February 5, 2017 [18 favorites]
I don't think something being impossible to remove will stop them from trying to do it anyway, FireFountain. Remember that they stated "for every new regulation put into place, we're going to remove two other regulations" as if regulations were discrete and singular rules.
posted by flatluigi at 11:38 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by flatluigi at 11:38 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
And of course, if both Trump and Pence leave the presidency for whatever reason, then we will be treated to President Paul Ryan; after that Orrin Hatch. It's just assholes all the way down.
Six down and we get Mattis!
posted by corb at 11:38 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Six down and we get Mattis!
posted by corb at 11:38 AM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
That NPR link was really surprisingly helpful, given that NPR has been so disappointing. Thanks for linking and I hope they continue to do this. I was lulled into a false sense of security that fucked up stuff might not happen so quickly out of the chaos and incompetence factor. But he really is going fast and furious at this point and my head's been spinning.
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 11:39 AM on February 5, 2017
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 11:39 AM on February 5, 2017
GOP senators blanch at Trumpâs latest defense of Putin
I mean, blanching is nice and all, but when are they going to boil?
posted by mudpuppie at 11:43 AM on February 5, 2017 [57 favorites]
I mean, blanching is nice and all, but when are they going to boil?
posted by mudpuppie at 11:43 AM on February 5, 2017 [57 favorites]
"Polish incursions in Belarus."
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME
I don't exactly expect master-level cloak-and-dagger-y political maneuvering from this crowd, but they're not even being halfway original.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 11:44 AM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME
I don't exactly expect master-level cloak-and-dagger-y political maneuvering from this crowd, but they're not even being halfway original.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 11:44 AM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
The fact that DJT hasn't tweeted today is making me nervous. That SNL cold open seemed scientifically designed to provoke his wrath. So what has happened that he hasn't bleated with rage? An unpredictable Trump or a successfully managed Trump makes me totally nervous
posted by angrycat at 11:50 AM on February 5, 2017 [30 favorites]
posted by angrycat at 11:50 AM on February 5, 2017 [30 favorites]
Fire the Fool is rallying for a march on the national mall on April 1st. On the one hand, I think it's great that people are continuing to mobilize. On the other hand, April 1st seems soooooo far away.
posted by mudpuppie at 11:55 AM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by mudpuppie at 11:55 AM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
I too thought it portrayed Spicer as trying to be as kick-ass as this They Live scene . And then getting confused half way.
It's both! It's a confused mash up of "kick ass and take names" and "...and I'm all out of bubble gum" mixed with his gum swallowing habit.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 11:57 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
It's both! It's a confused mash up of "kick ass and take names" and "...and I'm all out of bubble gum" mixed with his gum swallowing habit.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 11:57 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
it's not as straightforward as that stupid congressman thinks to just remove the EPA
You can also take heart in the fact that the patchwork of different local laws that would crop up in place of the EPA is a nightmare scenario for many industries. Having to keep track of and comply with different standards across the country is a huge burden. So on more than one occasion, industry groups have basically asked EPA for a national regulation just so that there is consistency.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 11:59 AM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
You can also take heart in the fact that the patchwork of different local laws that would crop up in place of the EPA is a nightmare scenario for many industries. Having to keep track of and comply with different standards across the country is a huge burden. So on more than one occasion, industry groups have basically asked EPA for a national regulation just so that there is consistency.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 11:59 AM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
Six down and we get Mattis!
No thanks.
posted by biogeo at 12:01 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
No thanks.
posted by biogeo at 12:01 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
So what has happened that he hasn't bleated with rage?
I like to imagine that he threw his phone in a fit of rage and broke it.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 12:07 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
I like to imagine that he threw his phone in a fit of rage and broke it.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 12:07 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
@joshchafetz
Some thoughts on the current state of the separation of powers with respect to Trump: 1/x
2/x Legal and political elites, as a class, and for pretty obvious reasons, don't like Trump.
3/x This dislike, combined with his historic unpopularity for a new POTUS, has emboldened them to push back, and they have.
4/x We see this pushback from judges, bureaucrats, and Ds and some Rs in Congress, across a range of issues.
5/x Because of the surrounding political circumstances, those pushing back have been emboldened to test the bounds their role-morality.
6/x So, we see heightened leaking & resistance from the bureaucracy; orders w/ very thin reasoning from judges; high obstruction in Cong.
7/x At the same time, POTUS is a child and an ignoramus. He doesn't seem to care about norms as they apply to him.
8/x And he lashes out when he perceives others to be violating the norms that he wants them to follow.
9/x These tweeted outbursts provoke elite condemnation, which further emboldens those pushing back from inside the state apparatus.
10/x This is one way norms evolve over time--elites test the political waters to see if they can achieve their desired outcomes more easily.
11/x But what the endgame will be depends on who wins the public politics of this. If Trump's popularity (mass & elite) begins to rebound...
12/x ... then the internal opposition will melt. Bureaucrats will quit or fall in line, judges will by and large uphold his policies, and...
13/x ... Republicans in Cong will rally around him.
14/x But, if he gets into a cycle where each new confrontation hurts his standing in the public sphere, it will utterly wreck his admin.
15/x Which of those will happen? ÂŻ\_(ă)_/ÂŻ But I do think that those of us who oppose this administration are best advised ...
16/x ... to put our effort into making sure he gets more unpopular, rather than putting faith into governing institutions.
17/17 If he gets more popular, those institutions will fall into line. /Fin/
posted by chris24 at 12:08 PM on February 5, 2017 [31 favorites]
Some thoughts on the current state of the separation of powers with respect to Trump: 1/x
2/x Legal and political elites, as a class, and for pretty obvious reasons, don't like Trump.
3/x This dislike, combined with his historic unpopularity for a new POTUS, has emboldened them to push back, and they have.
4/x We see this pushback from judges, bureaucrats, and Ds and some Rs in Congress, across a range of issues.
5/x Because of the surrounding political circumstances, those pushing back have been emboldened to test the bounds their role-morality.
6/x So, we see heightened leaking & resistance from the bureaucracy; orders w/ very thin reasoning from judges; high obstruction in Cong.
7/x At the same time, POTUS is a child and an ignoramus. He doesn't seem to care about norms as they apply to him.
8/x And he lashes out when he perceives others to be violating the norms that he wants them to follow.
9/x These tweeted outbursts provoke elite condemnation, which further emboldens those pushing back from inside the state apparatus.
10/x This is one way norms evolve over time--elites test the political waters to see if they can achieve their desired outcomes more easily.
11/x But what the endgame will be depends on who wins the public politics of this. If Trump's popularity (mass & elite) begins to rebound...
12/x ... then the internal opposition will melt. Bureaucrats will quit or fall in line, judges will by and large uphold his policies, and...
13/x ... Republicans in Cong will rally around him.
14/x But, if he gets into a cycle where each new confrontation hurts his standing in the public sphere, it will utterly wreck his admin.
15/x Which of those will happen? ÂŻ\_(ă)_/ÂŻ But I do think that those of us who oppose this administration are best advised ...
16/x ... to put our effort into making sure he gets more unpopular, rather than putting faith into governing institutions.
17/17 If he gets more popular, those institutions will fall into line. /Fin/
posted by chris24 at 12:08 PM on February 5, 2017 [31 favorites]
Melania's Diary, 1/21/2017 (satire): I had such a good time chanting âKeep your tiny hands off my reproductive rights!â and âFree Melania!â No one recognized me, although when one lady commented on the resemblance, I replied, âNo, Melania is much younger and more wistfully melancholy.â
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [18 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [18 favorites]
So what has happened that he hasn't bleated with rage?
Isn't/wasn't the Red Cross Ball at Mar a Lago this weekend? He's probably all tuckered out.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 12:12 PM on February 5, 2017
Isn't/wasn't the Red Cross Ball at Mar a Lago this weekend? He's probably all tuckered out.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 12:12 PM on February 5, 2017
From the Independent UK article futz linked to above, about Judge Robart:
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:14 PM on February 5, 2017 [41 favorites]
Often sporting bow-ties with his black robes, Judge Robart is known for saying from the bench in 2016 that âblack lives matter.â He cited the statement popularised by protesters during a hearing about a 2012 consent decree with the federal government that required the Seattle police department to address allegations of bias and excessive force.No wonder Trump is threatened by this guy. He's a decent human being with a functioning moral compass.
In 2011, Judge Robart put a temporary hold on a state rule change that would have cut government funding for disabled children and families in Washington.
âWhen faced with a conflict between the financial and budgetary concerns [...] and the preventable human suffering,â Judge Robart wrote in that opinion, âthe balance of hardships tips in the favour of preventing human suffering.â
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:14 PM on February 5, 2017 [41 favorites]
He's a decent human being with a functioning moral compass.
Yeah, not so good on the whole woman thing though.
posted by mudpuppie at 12:20 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yeah, not so good on the whole woman thing though.
posted by mudpuppie at 12:20 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Who, Judge Robart?
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:22 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:22 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
He's a decent human being with a functioning moral compass.
Yeah, not so good on the whole woman thing though.
Unless I'm missing something, your link is about SC nominee Gorsuch rather than Judge Robart who stayed the ban, fosters refugees, and has the moral compass.
posted by chris24 at 12:22 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
Yeah, not so good on the whole woman thing though.
Unless I'm missing something, your link is about SC nominee Gorsuch rather than Judge Robart who stayed the ban, fosters refugees, and has the moral compass.
posted by chris24 at 12:22 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
Yeah, not so good on the whole woman thing though.
That's about Judge Gorsuch, the SCOTUS pick not Judge Robart, the judge that imposed the TRO.
posted by Talez at 12:23 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
That's about Judge Gorsuch, the SCOTUS pick not Judge Robart, the judge that imposed the TRO.
posted by Talez at 12:23 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
um... Trump presides over Red Cross Ball at Mar-a-Lago
The event âFrom Vienna to Versailles,â took place Saturday night at the Mar-a-Lago Club, which was done up in Old World 18th-century style, right down to the service staff in powdered wigs and satin knee breeches or Marie Antoinette dresses.posted by zachlipton at 12:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [25 favorites]
âYes,â said one server, when asked if the wig was hot. âAnd it weighs four pounds.â
Guys, Is something out there trying to tell us something? Did we get the year wrong?
Asteroids are flying past the earth more often than usual
A total of four asteroids have buzzed past the earth this year already, with the most recent one flying between the earth and the moon earlier this week.
The number of close shaves in such a short space of time has âraised eyebrows,â according to the Slooh observatory.
Asteroid 2017 BS32 came within about 100,000 miles of us this week, and was roughly the size of a bus.
posted by futz at 12:29 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
Asteroids are flying past the earth more often than usual
A total of four asteroids have buzzed past the earth this year already, with the most recent one flying between the earth and the moon earlier this week.
The number of close shaves in such a short space of time has âraised eyebrows,â according to the Slooh observatory.
Asteroid 2017 BS32 came within about 100,000 miles of us this week, and was roughly the size of a bus.
posted by futz at 12:29 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
@kristoncapps
Ninety percent of Republicans approve of Trump's first two weeks as president. I don't know y'all. [chart of various demos]
@HeerJeet Retweeted Kriston Capps
People need to stop pretending there is a large cache of "good Republicans" to win over.
posted by chris24 at 12:30 PM on February 5, 2017 [61 favorites]
Ninety percent of Republicans approve of Trump's first two weeks as president. I don't know y'all. [chart of various demos]
@HeerJeet Retweeted Kriston Capps
People need to stop pretending there is a large cache of "good Republicans" to win over.
posted by chris24 at 12:30 PM on February 5, 2017 [61 favorites]
Gah. I am a stupid person with poor reading comprehension skills and an inability to track details. Apologies.
posted by mudpuppie at 12:31 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by mudpuppie at 12:31 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
Make no mistake; this evening was definitely the victory lap for Donald, who had wore a âThatâs right everybody; Iâm the Presidentâ grin as he was greeted by thunderous applause.
Or maybe that was a plane taking off.
Do I detect a tiny hint of shade?
posted by maggiemaggie at 12:32 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Or maybe that was a plane taking off.
Do I detect a tiny hint of shade?
posted by maggiemaggie at 12:32 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Judge Robart, in case you've missed it in other threads and articles, has also been overseeing the consent decree the city of Seattle and police department have with the Justice department to try to fix biased policing. He literally said "black lives matter" on the bench a while back. I'm so pleased (but unsurprised) that he would rule the way he did.
posted by R343L at 12:33 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by R343L at 12:33 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
The fact that DJT hasn't tweeted today is making me nervous.
Meh. I think they are running the White House like they are still running a campaign. Seeing they're stuck in a negative coverage loop, they decided to take his phone away to take a break from shooting their own feet. They are trying to reset the news cycle by keeping quiet, then looking presidential by visiting CENTCOM & SOCOM (the Super Bowl helps too).
It shows that dissent works and negative news coverage is getting to Trump, that the main source of their ability to do anything is by soft coverage from a compliant press. That tweetstream chris24 posted shows how important a policy victory is for the administration right now. They're really going to have to show some competency and reach out to people who voted against him or remain boxed in by pushback from all sides.
posted by peeedro at 12:34 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
Meh. I think they are running the White House like they are still running a campaign. Seeing they're stuck in a negative coverage loop, they decided to take his phone away to take a break from shooting their own feet. They are trying to reset the news cycle by keeping quiet, then looking presidential by visiting CENTCOM & SOCOM (the Super Bowl helps too).
It shows that dissent works and negative news coverage is getting to Trump, that the main source of their ability to do anything is by soft coverage from a compliant press. That tweetstream chris24 posted shows how important a policy victory is for the administration right now. They're really going to have to show some competency and reach out to people who voted against him or remain boxed in by pushback from all sides.
posted by peeedro at 12:34 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
um... Trump presides over Red Cross Ball at Mar-a-Lago
Jesus, any word on if the poor should eat cake?
posted by Artw at 12:37 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
Jesus, any word on if the poor should eat cake?
posted by Artw at 12:37 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
The pool reporters at Mar-a-Lago are pretty idle, mostly reporting on the motorcade and traffic lights.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:39 PM on February 5, 2017
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:39 PM on February 5, 2017
Oh, he's tweeting again. Now setting up "the court system" to blame for everything.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:41 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:41 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Way to prove me wrong, Donald.
posted by peeedro at 12:43 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by peeedro at 12:43 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
Here's today's nonsense: "Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!" "I have instructed Homeland Security to check people coming into our country VERY CAREFULLY. The courts are making the job very difficult!"
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:43 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:43 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Heard about the ball from Tony Ortega's Scientology blog, of all places. Paulette Cooper, one of the earliest Scientology critics and a person heavily persecuted by the cult, sat next to the Commerce Secretary, who she lobbied for a removal of Scientology's religious tax exemption.
posted by honestcoyote at 12:45 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by honestcoyote at 12:45 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
The Washington Post linked DOJ's filing from Friday on the immigration ban.
posted by marguerite at 12:47 PM on February 5, 2017
posted by marguerite at 12:47 PM on February 5, 2017
@kristoncapps
Ninety percent of Republicans approve of Trump's first two weeks as president. I don't know y'all. [chart of various demos]
@HeerJeet Retweeted Kriston Capps
People need to stop pretending there is a large cache of "good Republicans" to win over.
That CNN/ORC poll is all over the damn shop.
posted by aspersioncast at 12:50 PM on February 5, 2017
Ninety percent of Republicans approve of Trump's first two weeks as president. I don't know y'all. [chart of various demos]
@HeerJeet Retweeted Kriston Capps
People need to stop pretending there is a large cache of "good Republicans" to win over.
That CNN/ORC poll is all over the damn shop.
posted by aspersioncast at 12:50 PM on February 5, 2017
So if Republicans are now the party of anger and hatred (and I think they are), what does that leave on the table for Democrats? I know we've tried the Unity and Togetherness and Love things, but frankly those are pretty cheesy and to a lot of people sound wimpy.
I'd propose something else. The Party of Families. I would really like to see Dems start talking incessantly about families. It works so well on so many issues. Immigration? The GOP are trying to break up families. LGBTQ rights? The GOP are trying to invalidate our marriages and break up our families. Reproductive rights? The GOP want to legislate decisions that should be left to families about when and how often they should expand. Healthcare? The GOP wants to bankrupt your family if you get sick. Education? The GOP wants to defund public schools and put the burden back on working families to pay for education.
I think the GOP have left "Family Values" on the table and I think we need to pick it up. And make it deliberately an inclusive definition of family. Including all the complicated, modern ways that families form and grow. Including families of choice but not blood.
I'd really like to see the GOP hit on this. They are trying to destabilize our communities and our families and they need to be called on it.
posted by threeturtles at 12:53 PM on February 5, 2017 [171 favorites]
I'd propose something else. The Party of Families. I would really like to see Dems start talking incessantly about families. It works so well on so many issues. Immigration? The GOP are trying to break up families. LGBTQ rights? The GOP are trying to invalidate our marriages and break up our families. Reproductive rights? The GOP want to legislate decisions that should be left to families about when and how often they should expand. Healthcare? The GOP wants to bankrupt your family if you get sick. Education? The GOP wants to defund public schools and put the burden back on working families to pay for education.
I think the GOP have left "Family Values" on the table and I think we need to pick it up. And make it deliberately an inclusive definition of family. Including all the complicated, modern ways that families form and grow. Including families of choice but not blood.
I'd really like to see the GOP hit on this. They are trying to destabilize our communities and our families and they need to be called on it.
posted by threeturtles at 12:53 PM on February 5, 2017 [171 favorites]
Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!
Wow, your direct reports must be really shitty if it only takes one dude in Seattle to fuck up the whole thing. Maybe you should fire a bunch of them and then quit so adults can resume running the country.
posted by Etrigan at 12:55 PM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]
Wow, your direct reports must be really shitty if it only takes one dude in Seattle to fuck up the whole thing. Maybe you should fire a bunch of them and then quit so adults can resume running the country.
posted by Etrigan at 12:55 PM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]
So he's gone from attacking judges to attacking an entire co-equal branch of government. Are we getting into violating-your-Presidential-oath territory?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:55 PM on February 5, 2017 [27 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:55 PM on February 5, 2017 [27 favorites]
Re the singing mice stuff I work with...
Guys, I promise I'll bring you a cool Projects piece about the singing mice once I have something to talk about besides "they exist, they sing and it sounds rather like birds, they live in the cloud forests of Costa Rica, and before my boss picked up researching them a few years ago no one had paid attention to them since the 1970s."
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 12:56 PM on February 5, 2017 [90 favorites]
Guys, I promise I'll bring you a cool Projects piece about the singing mice once I have something to talk about besides "they exist, they sing and it sounds rather like birds, they live in the cloud forests of Costa Rica, and before my boss picked up researching them a few years ago no one had paid attention to them since the 1970s."
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 12:56 PM on February 5, 2017 [90 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 12:57 PM on February 5, 2017 [34 favorites]
posted by sciatrix at 12:57 PM on February 5, 2017 [34 favorites]
Trump drives two prominent state Republicans to the ACLU
...Satterberg and Vance are part of the largest surge in ACLU membership in the local chapterâs 85-year history. The group had only 18,000 members statewide before the election. As of Friday, that had soared past 50,000.
posted by futz at 12:59 PM on February 5, 2017 [25 favorites]
...Satterberg and Vance are part of the largest surge in ACLU membership in the local chapterâs 85-year history. The group had only 18,000 members statewide before the election. As of Friday, that had soared past 50,000.
posted by futz at 12:59 PM on February 5, 2017 [25 favorites]
delfin: "It would be handy if the Democrats actually ran and backed candidates against republicans in 2018 so that we could vote for them.
There was a guy who suggested something like that. And another guy who said, look, just run anyone. Or anything.
But one made a loud noise once and the other is fat, so pay no mind."
I got to meet Dr. Dean and shake his hand when he came to rural-suburban Western PA to kick off the campaign for a Democratic congressional candidate in 2006 who went on to unseat the republican incumbent.
Who then went on to be kind of a shitty blue-dog for three sessions of congress, voted against the ACA and then got redistricted out of office anyway.
posted by octothorpe at 1:03 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
There was a guy who suggested something like that. And another guy who said, look, just run anyone. Or anything.
But one made a loud noise once and the other is fat, so pay no mind."
I got to meet Dr. Dean and shake his hand when he came to rural-suburban Western PA to kick off the campaign for a Democratic congressional candidate in 2006 who went on to unseat the republican incumbent.
Who then went on to be kind of a shitty blue-dog for three sessions of congress, voted against the ACA and then got redistricted out of office anyway.
posted by octothorpe at 1:03 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
> I'd propose something else. The Party of Families.
There are individual men and women, and there are families. I don't like this future.
posted by stonepharisee at 1:04 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
There are individual men and women, and there are families. I don't like this future.
posted by stonepharisee at 1:04 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
The Wall Street Journal not pulling any punches with this:
U.S. Suggests Path to End Russian Sanctions
(If you hit a pay wall, try Googling the headline. I think it's worth the effort to see a mainstream conservative leaning national newspaper implying very heavily with lots of mahor sources that Trump is beholden to Putin.)
posted by OnceUponATime at 1:05 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
U.S. Suggests Path to End Russian Sanctions
(If you hit a pay wall, try Googling the headline. I think it's worth the effort to see a mainstream conservative leaning national newspaper implying very heavily with lots of mahor sources that Trump is beholden to Putin.)
posted by OnceUponATime at 1:05 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
Pro Trump protest outside Trump Tower.
There are, of course, more people on the average NYC bus than at this protest, and as many have noted on Twitter, not exactly much in the way of handmade signs.
posted by zachlipton at 1:08 PM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]
There are, of course, more people on the average NYC bus than at this protest, and as many have noted on Twitter, not exactly much in the way of handmade signs.
posted by zachlipton at 1:08 PM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]
Pro Trump protest outside Trump Tower.
I clicked for you, Metafilter. Looks like about 20-25 people.
posted by deludingmyself at 1:09 PM on February 5, 2017 [28 favorites]
I clicked for you, Metafilter. Looks like about 20-25 people.
posted by deludingmyself at 1:09 PM on February 5, 2017 [28 favorites]
Still, at fifty bucks a pop, that's setting him back over a thousand dollars.
Which isn't really that much, come to think of it.
posted by Grangousier at 1:10 PM on February 5, 2017 [15 favorites]
Which isn't really that much, come to think of it.
posted by Grangousier at 1:10 PM on February 5, 2017 [15 favorites]
(If you hit a pay wall, try Googling the headline. I think it's worth the effort to see a mainstream conservative leaning national newspaper implying very heavily with lots of mahor sources that Trump is beholden to Putin.)
Well, duh. Hardly any denying it at this point. I mean, the guy who said it was prudent to drop sanctions against Russia because sanctions are universally bad is the same guy who just proposed sanctions against Iran.
It's pretty clear where his bread is buttered.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:10 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
Well, duh. Hardly any denying it at this point. I mean, the guy who said it was prudent to drop sanctions against Russia because sanctions are universally bad is the same guy who just proposed sanctions against Iran.
It's pretty clear where his bread is buttered.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:10 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
Pro Trump protest outside Trump Tower.
Sad.
posted by maggiemaggie at 1:11 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
Sad.
posted by maggiemaggie at 1:11 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
Since Trump accuses all protestors of being paid I feel fairly secure in believing that those are probably Trump Tower employees told to go stand outside. Or maybe hired actors that won't get paid. Again.
On Preview, ditto Grangousier
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 1:13 PM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]
On Preview, ditto Grangousier
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 1:13 PM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]
Seriously, you could put together an anti-Trump rally bigger than that outside Trump Tower just by standing on the corner and yelling "Hey, everyone, let's have an anti-Trump rally!" You don't need to organize 25 people who hate Trump, you just need to walk down the street.
posted by Frowner at 1:13 PM on February 5, 2017 [91 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 1:13 PM on February 5, 2017 [91 favorites]
There were pro-Trump protestors at Portland Oregon last night, to counter anti-Trump protests, as per me mom.
I keep having this thought *going into a coma would be SO convenient* and then I flash to Danny Boyle waking up in 28 days later.
posted by angrycat at 1:14 PM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]
I keep having this thought *going into a coma would be SO convenient* and then I flash to Danny Boyle waking up in 28 days later.
posted by angrycat at 1:14 PM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]
The absence of handmade signs is fascinating. What there was, in the front was "jews for trump", printed signs.
posted by stonepharisee at 1:14 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by stonepharisee at 1:14 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Still, at fifty bucks a pop, that's setting him back over a thousand dollars.
Then pays another thousand in overtime to security and claims back $5000 as a line item for taxpayer reimbursement.
posted by holgate at 1:15 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
Then pays another thousand in overtime to security and claims back $5000 as a line item for taxpayer reimbursement.
posted by holgate at 1:15 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
Gah. I am a stupid person with poor reading comprehension skills and an inability to track details. Apologies.
posted by mudpuppie
Feels like a Trump quote from an alternate reality.
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by mudpuppie
Feels like a Trump quote from an alternate reality.
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
And, of course, he never gets round to actually paying anybody.
posted by Grangousier at 1:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Grangousier at 1:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
Variety: re: SNL The NBC late-night institution has been on a ratings roll since President Trumpâs upset victory in the Nov. 8 presidential election. Saturdayâs edition delivered a 2.5 rating in adults 18-49 in Nielsenâs 56 overnight metered markets, which cover 70% of U.S. TV households.
That was strong enough to make âSNLâ the second highest-rated program of the week in the key demo, behind only CBSâ âThe Big Bang Theory,â which scored a 3.3 in the metered markets on Thursday. âSNLâsâ ratings will likely rise by double digits when delayed viewing is factored-in.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:20 PM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
That was strong enough to make âSNLâ the second highest-rated program of the week in the key demo, behind only CBSâ âThe Big Bang Theory,â which scored a 3.3 in the metered markets on Thursday. âSNLâsâ ratings will likely rise by double digits when delayed viewing is factored-in.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:20 PM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
Trumpâs F.C.C. Quickly Targets Net Neutrality Rules
Mr. Pai took a first swipe at net neutrality rules designed to ensure equal access to content on the internet. He stopped nine companies from providing discounted high-speed internet service to low-income individuals. He withdrew an effort to keep prison phone rates down.
In total, the chairman of the F.C.C. released about a dozen actions in the last week, many buried in the agency website and not publicly announced, stunning consumer advocacy groups and telecom analysts. They said Mr. Paiâs message is clear: The F.C.C., an independent agency, will mirror the Trump administrationâs rapid unwinding of government regulations that businesses fought against during the Obama years.
More fuckery & much more to come. Fuck these people.
posted by futz at 1:21 PM on February 5, 2017 [56 favorites]
Mr. Pai took a first swipe at net neutrality rules designed to ensure equal access to content on the internet. He stopped nine companies from providing discounted high-speed internet service to low-income individuals. He withdrew an effort to keep prison phone rates down.
In total, the chairman of the F.C.C. released about a dozen actions in the last week, many buried in the agency website and not publicly announced, stunning consumer advocacy groups and telecom analysts. They said Mr. Paiâs message is clear: The F.C.C., an independent agency, will mirror the Trump administrationâs rapid unwinding of government regulations that businesses fought against during the Obama years.
More fuckery & much more to come. Fuck these people.
posted by futz at 1:21 PM on February 5, 2017 [56 favorites]
Is this where we get to ask whether those pro-Trump protestors have jobs?
posted by Rykey at 1:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [26 favorites]
posted by Rykey at 1:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [26 favorites]
This Matters posted a video approaching racism as a mental illness (analogous to alcoholic or abusive behaviors). I have a feeling that might evoke some complex reactions here. Meaning I'm not sure whether to share the video, although it makes some very good points.
posted by emjaybee at 1:29 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by emjaybee at 1:29 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Trumpâs F.C.C. Quickly Targets Net Neutrality Rules
I do wonder how his non-wealthy voters will take it when their internet bills suddenly quadruple. There's probably some way to blame it on immigrants and the (((globalist elite))) but it's not hard to imagine some of those non-Democrats getting very, very pissed off and knowing who to blame.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:30 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
I do wonder how his non-wealthy voters will take it when their internet bills suddenly quadruple. There's probably some way to blame it on immigrants and the (((globalist elite))) but it's not hard to imagine some of those non-Democrats getting very, very pissed off and knowing who to blame.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:30 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
I don't think they care about low-income voters though. Possibly resistance from Silicon Valley businesses that rely on lots of people having cheap internet access to flourish might make a difference.
posted by emjaybee at 1:33 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by emjaybee at 1:33 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Well, duh. Hardly any denying it at this point. I mean, the guy who said it was prudent to drop sanctions against Russia because sanctions are universally bad is the same guy who just proposed sanctions against Iran.
It's pretty clear where his bread is buttered.
And if you are thinking WTF Iran is a client state of Russia's, why would they want sanctions on Iran? Well, because it locks Iran in as an exclusive client state of Russia.
posted by srboisvert at 1:38 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
It's pretty clear where his bread is buttered.
And if you are thinking WTF Iran is a client state of Russia's, why would they want sanctions on Iran? Well, because it locks Iran in as an exclusive client state of Russia.
posted by srboisvert at 1:38 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
Yeah, it's a simplistic framework, I realise, but what I come back to a lot is how abusers work and how much of that is echoed here (and in authoritarianism in general). Isolation? Absolutely. Removing other options? Absolutely.
posted by E. Whitehall at 1:45 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by E. Whitehall at 1:45 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Regarding Ajit Pai shutting down nine providers of affordable internet, it appears that's out of 900 providers which is omitted form a lot of the articles, can anyone shed some light as to why those nine providers were targeted?
posted by furtive at 1:50 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by furtive at 1:50 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
I don't exactly expect master-level cloak-and-dagger-y political maneuvering from this crowd, but they're not even being halfway original.
Well, they are team plagiarism....
posted by srboisvert at 1:51 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
Well, they are team plagiarism....
posted by srboisvert at 1:51 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
The BadHombre lands twitter account appealing for faxtivism** on pending legislation:
THEIR WORD NOT MY WORD THAT WAS THEIR WORD
posted by angrycat at 1:58 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
THEIR WORD NOT MY WORD THAT WAS THEIR WORD
posted by angrycat at 1:58 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
@realDonaldTrump
Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!
@jaketapper Retweeted Donald J. Trump
"The buck stops there."
-- Alternative Harry S Truman
posted by chris24 at 1:58 PM on February 5, 2017 [27 favorites]
Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!
@jaketapper Retweeted Donald J. Trump
"The buck stops there."
-- Alternative Harry S Truman
posted by chris24 at 1:58 PM on February 5, 2017 [27 favorites]
There were pro-Trump protestors at Portland Oregon last night, to counter anti-Trump protests, as per me mom.There were a couple of pro-Trump protesters at the Stop the Ban protest that I just got back from. One of them had a Trump/ Pence campaign sign, and one of them had a handmade sign that said "Iowa for Iowans." They tried really hard to make people pay attention to them and angled hard to position themselves right in front of the speakers, but there were a lot more of us than there were of them, so no dice. I do worry a bit about the potential for violence in the future, if Trump people start really getting upset that we're better at protesting than they are.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 1:59 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
[From previous thread:] >But her emails.
Seriously, has anyone started FIA-ing Trump administration documents yet? Because believe me, they are going to have like 20X the official communication on non-govt servers, non-official cell phone use, text messaging, etc etc etc etc etc used to conduct official government business as Clinton ever did. And of course they are never planning to release ANY of it but that is where the FIA lawsuit is going to come in.
This is a project that I--and I'll wager, many others--would support with $$$ in a big way.
Example: FIA request for all communications related to the executive order on immigration, specifically including all email messages and text messages related to the executive order sent by administration officials on non-government-owned messaging systems.
Even better: FIA request for all documents related to the administration's policy for using non-government-owned & approved cell phones, text messaging systems, and email systems.
posted by flug at 2:01 PM on February 5, 2017 [35 favorites]
Seriously, has anyone started FIA-ing Trump administration documents yet? Because believe me, they are going to have like 20X the official communication on non-govt servers, non-official cell phone use, text messaging, etc etc etc etc etc used to conduct official government business as Clinton ever did. And of course they are never planning to release ANY of it but that is where the FIA lawsuit is going to come in.
This is a project that I--and I'll wager, many others--would support with $$$ in a big way.
Example: FIA request for all communications related to the executive order on immigration, specifically including all email messages and text messages related to the executive order sent by administration officials on non-government-owned messaging systems.
Even better: FIA request for all documents related to the administration's policy for using non-government-owned & approved cell phones, text messaging systems, and email systems.
posted by flug at 2:01 PM on February 5, 2017 [35 favorites]
[Repost from old thread--feel free to skip if you saw it there!]
sylvanshine:
I never see a peep from the metafilter left about regulation of info-tech-type technologyâand 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 really shows the insularity and 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. Suburban life, in particular, seems almost specifically designed to foster the same type of insularity and separation from almost every other part of society.
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 2:07 PM on February 5, 2017 [31 favorites]
sylvanshine:
I never see a peep from the metafilter left about regulation of info-tech-type technologyâand 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 really shows the insularity and 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. Suburban life, in particular, seems almost specifically designed to foster the same type of insularity and separation from almost every other part of society.
âWe donât have much communication up here,â Walker says. âThereâs not much internet access. A lot of people donât read the paper or pay much attention to what the county commission is doing. People keep to themselves.â . . .I feel pretty strongly that exactly the dynamic described here drives many people's knowledge and attitudes about politics and political issues.
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 itâs 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 â a gun range, a hog plant, a wind farm â is free to set up shop wherever it pleases, regardless of a neighborâs objections. . . .
After listening to a few Concerned Citizens speak about âclean coalâ one afternoon, I asked where they were getting their information. I was directed to the Concerned Citizensâ Facebook page, where members regularly post anti-wind articles theyâve found on the internet. . . .
Many of the articles on the Facebook page came from Breitbart or stopthesethings.com, a website with the tagline âWeâre not here to debate wind energy, weâre here to destroy it.â . . .
Many of the Concerned Citizens â old men, mostly â 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 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 2:07 PM on February 5, 2017 [31 favorites]
To me, there's two interesting parts to the tweets today.
First, why are people surprised? Yes, maybe it feels different now that he's the President, but this is the exact same behavior he carried on during the campaign. It's not even the first time in the past year he's attacked a federal judge for ruling against him. And he ran his entire campaign on the theme of "people don't ever change who they are." So really, nobody should be surprised: we knew he was a snake before we took him in.
Second, everyone is jumping on the whole "attacking a federal judge and holding him responsible for any future bad thing that happens anywhere in the country" angle, which yes, does stand out, but we're missing the broader point, which is that he continues to paint a picture of "people pouring in. Bad!" that conflates legal and illegal immigration and acts like we don't have an entire security apparatus that denies millions of visas a year. He's intentionally confusing people (if he even knows the system well enough to call his actions intentional) who don't have the foggiest idea how our immigration system works into believing that everyone can currently just come in. People have heard him rant about the border for so long that they now could reasonably conclude that this fuss could be about people sneaking into the country, not those who've gone through the significant hoops to acquire visas.
posted by zachlipton at 2:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]
First, why are people surprised? Yes, maybe it feels different now that he's the President, but this is the exact same behavior he carried on during the campaign. It's not even the first time in the past year he's attacked a federal judge for ruling against him. And he ran his entire campaign on the theme of "people don't ever change who they are." So really, nobody should be surprised: we knew he was a snake before we took him in.
Second, everyone is jumping on the whole "attacking a federal judge and holding him responsible for any future bad thing that happens anywhere in the country" angle, which yes, does stand out, but we're missing the broader point, which is that he continues to paint a picture of "people pouring in. Bad!" that conflates legal and illegal immigration and acts like we don't have an entire security apparatus that denies millions of visas a year. He's intentionally confusing people (if he even knows the system well enough to call his actions intentional) who don't have the foggiest idea how our immigration system works into believing that everyone can currently just come in. People have heard him rant about the border for so long that they now could reasonably conclude that this fuss could be about people sneaking into the country, not those who've gone through the significant hoops to acquire visas.
posted by zachlipton at 2:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]
pro-Trump protestors
I just assumed that this was an impromptu campaign rally. You know, for his 2020 campaign. The one that started two weeks ago.
posted by bonje at 2:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
I just assumed that this was an impromptu campaign rally. You know, for his 2020 campaign. The one that started two weeks ago.
posted by bonje at 2:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
wasn't the Red Cross Ball at Mar a Lago
Whenever I see Red Cross I usually think, "bad, right-wing, Liddy Dole, overpaid execs, something something" followed by some vague guilt that no they do some good work, in a pinch I'd give-
BUT. That did not help them with me at all.
posted by petebest at 2:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]
Whenever I see Red Cross I usually think, "bad, right-wing, Liddy Dole, overpaid execs, something something" followed by some vague guilt that no they do some good work, in a pinch I'd give-
BUT. That did not help them with me at all.
posted by petebest at 2:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]
People aren't surprised by the actions taking place, they're surprised at how fast and how blatant they are.
It's been 16 days since Trump came into power. Nixon took years to get to this place in his presidency.
posted by flatluigi at 2:26 PM on February 5, 2017 [29 favorites]
It's been 16 days since Trump came into power. Nixon took years to get to this place in his presidency.
posted by flatluigi at 2:26 PM on February 5, 2017 [29 favorites]
Hmm, from that CNN poll linked above:
posted by tivalasvegas at 2:26 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
Q2. Regardless of whether you approve or disapprove of Donald Trump, do you think the way he has handled the presidency so far is in line with what you expected of him, or has he handled the presidency in an unexpected way?That 17% "an unexpected way" + "bad thing" makes me, once again, hopeful (though not optimistic).
As expected -78%
An unexpected way -21%
No opinion - 1%
Q2a. And do you think that is a good thing or a bad thing?
As expected, good thing - 42%
As expected, bad thing - 35%
An unexpected way, good thing - 3%
An unexpected way, bad thing - 17%
No opinion - 1%
posted by tivalasvegas at 2:26 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
I attended last nights Red Cross ball at Mar a Lago and there wasn't one person of color at the event. Trump sat at a table by himself and ate potato chips as people stood nearby taking pictures. It was sort of like being at the zoo and people standing at an animal exhibit watching some animal eat his food
The Palm Beach Post covers the Red Cross Ball in all its "glory".
Fwiw, there is a picture in there of _rump smiling an actual smile. So, that's "nice".
posted by petebest at 2:26 PM on February 5, 2017 [24 favorites]
The Palm Beach Post covers the Red Cross Ball in all its "glory".
Fwiw, there is a picture in there of _rump smiling an actual smile. So, that's "nice".
posted by petebest at 2:26 PM on February 5, 2017 [24 favorites]
Also, who are these 3% of people who are pleasantly surprised by the Trump calvacade of racist, incompetent failures!?!?!
posted by tivalasvegas at 2:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by tivalasvegas at 2:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
I'm still wondering about the 2% of people who supported Hillary Clinton and believed she was an actual demon. Was this support in spite of her demon nature or because of it?
posted by zachlipton at 2:30 PM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 2:30 PM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]
The next time there's a disaster and the American Red Cross is asking for money on TV, it will indeed be very hard to not think about them holding a gala at Mar-a-Lago where they made waiters wear four pound 18th century powdered wigs as I go look for a local charity to support instead.
posted by zachlipton at 2:33 PM on February 5, 2017 [75 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 2:33 PM on February 5, 2017 [75 favorites]
@slpng_giants
"Hold up. So OUR tax dollars are being used for ads on Breitbart to recruit border agents?
@CNN @MSNBC @nytimes @Fahrenthold look into this?"
Some else noticed the CBP ad . . .
posted by aspersioncast at 2:35 PM on February 5, 2017 [59 favorites]
"Hold up. So OUR tax dollars are being used for ads on Breitbart to recruit border agents?
@CNN @MSNBC @nytimes @Fahrenthold look into this?"
Some else noticed the CBP ad . . .
posted by aspersioncast at 2:35 PM on February 5, 2017 [59 favorites]
I'm still wondering about the 2% of people who supported Hillary Clinton and believed she was an actual demon. Was this support in spite of her demon nature or because of it?
Hmm, hard to say -- I'd split the difference. 1% committed Satanists who saw in Hillary one of their own, finally; and 1% people who thought "well, yes, she may be a minion of the Devil hell-bent on destroying the children of light, but at least she's not a racist, misogynist fascist asshole."
posted by tivalasvegas at 2:35 PM on February 5, 2017 [22 favorites]
Hmm, hard to say -- I'd split the difference. 1% committed Satanists who saw in Hillary one of their own, finally; and 1% people who thought "well, yes, she may be a minion of the Devil hell-bent on destroying the children of light, but at least she's not a racist, misogynist fascist asshole."
posted by tivalasvegas at 2:35 PM on February 5, 2017 [22 favorites]
flug: Thanks for posting that - it hadn't crossed my media feeds yet. I grew up in King City (well, near King City), the town mentioned that has to field an 8-person football team. My family has 150+ year roots in that area. None of this surprises me, and is 100% why I'm one of those people who no longer lives there. (And, honestly, the fact that I would have liked to lease the land for a wind farm is almost the only reason that I regret having sold the land I inherited when my dad passed away.) The population there has been skewing older and older since I was born, and the decrease in size of school population has nothing to do with the wind farms - but confirmation bias is a hell of a drug.
It makes me sad to find out the Shatto dairy owners are anti-wind farm people, though. I love their products.
posted by jferg at 2:37 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
It makes me sad to find out the Shatto dairy owners are anti-wind farm people, though. I love their products.
posted by jferg at 2:37 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Also, who are these 3% of people who are pleasantly surprised by the Trump calvacade of racist, incompetent failures!?!?!
People respond the way they do to surveys for all kinds of reasons, not necessarily always as a true reflection of their beliefs. The respondent may see their response as an opportunity to make a particular kind of political statement, so saying you are "pleasantly surprised" by Donald's actions may just be a way of emphasizing that you support him, rather than a real commentary on your opinions on any specific action and/or whether you expected it.
See also the Washington Post survey of Donald vs. Obama's inauguration crowd sizes. Also compare the Asch conformity experiment in which research subjects inaccurately reported the length of a line in an easy comparison task if surrounded by confederates deliberately giving the wrong answer.
posted by biogeo at 2:41 PM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
People respond the way they do to surveys for all kinds of reasons, not necessarily always as a true reflection of their beliefs. The respondent may see their response as an opportunity to make a particular kind of political statement, so saying you are "pleasantly surprised" by Donald's actions may just be a way of emphasizing that you support him, rather than a real commentary on your opinions on any specific action and/or whether you expected it.
See also the Washington Post survey of Donald vs. Obama's inauguration crowd sizes. Also compare the Asch conformity experiment in which research subjects inaccurately reported the length of a line in an easy comparison task if surrounded by confederates deliberately giving the wrong answer.
posted by biogeo at 2:41 PM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
Lord Dampnut: Health care replacement could take until 2018
"In an interview with Fox News conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly asked: 'Can Americans in 2017 expect a new health care plan rolled out by the Dampnut administration this year?'
'Yes, in the process and maybe it'll take till sometime into next year but we're certainly going to be in the process,' Dampnut said. '(It's) very complicated -- Obamacare is a disaster. You have to remember, Obamacare doesn't work so we are putting in a wonderful plan,' he said. 'It statutorily takes a while to get. We're going to be putting it in fairly soon, I think that -- yes, I would like to say by the end of the year at least the rudiments but we should have something within the year and the following year.' "
Every time I read his transcripted dialogue I can actually feel my mind degrading in quality. Bad!
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:47 PM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
"In an interview with Fox News conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly asked: 'Can Americans in 2017 expect a new health care plan rolled out by the Dampnut administration this year?'
'Yes, in the process and maybe it'll take till sometime into next year but we're certainly going to be in the process,' Dampnut said. '(It's) very complicated -- Obamacare is a disaster. You have to remember, Obamacare doesn't work so we are putting in a wonderful plan,' he said. 'It statutorily takes a while to get. We're going to be putting it in fairly soon, I think that -- yes, I would like to say by the end of the year at least the rudiments but we should have something within the year and the following year.' "
Every time I read his transcripted dialogue I can actually feel my mind degrading in quality. Bad!
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:47 PM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
Superb Owl coming-up shortly ...
I wish entertainers would stay out of politics ... The guy who first hosted "The Apprentice," for example.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 2:50 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
I wish entertainers would stay out of politics ... The guy who first hosted "The Apprentice," for example.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 2:50 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
People respond the way they do to surveys for all kinds of reasons, not necessarily always as a true reflection of their beliefs.
^ This. Definitely a salient (if not particularly actionable) takeaway from this election cycle.
posted by aspersioncast at 2:51 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
^ This. Definitely a salient (if not particularly actionable) takeaway from this election cycle.
posted by aspersioncast at 2:51 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Red Cross needs to go. Or refocus. It's been more than a decade since I stopped giving to them. My money goes to MSF, and some other organisations where I can understand their annual reports.
Anecdotically, I was brought up to avoid the Red Cross, because my granddad was involved in the 1956 Revolution in Hungary, and he felt the Red Cross failed spectacularly then. Still, I gave to them when I grew up and earned my own money, because of their universal access.
There was no specific episode that led to my return to childhood norms, more a continuous disappointment with their annual reports and that fascination of celebrity and power..
posted by mumimor at 2:51 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Anecdotically, I was brought up to avoid the Red Cross, because my granddad was involved in the 1956 Revolution in Hungary, and he felt the Red Cross failed spectacularly then. Still, I gave to them when I grew up and earned my own money, because of their universal access.
There was no specific episode that led to my return to childhood norms, more a continuous disappointment with their annual reports and that fascination of celebrity and power..
posted by mumimor at 2:51 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
I'm still wondering about the 2% of people who supported Hillary Clinton and believed she was an actual demon. Was this support in spite of her demon nature or because of it?
Clinton, like so many women, don't you know, particularly at the demonstration are apparently driven by demons!
A culture of shameless swindlers. Would that they would go fuck themselves instead of everyone else.
posted by juiceCake at 2:53 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Clinton, like so many women, don't you know, particularly at the demonstration are apparently driven by demons!
A culture of shameless swindlers. Would that they would go fuck themselves instead of everyone else.
posted by juiceCake at 2:53 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
No need to read too deeply into the tweets except this: You are in danger, everyone else is trying to hurt you, only I can protect you if everyone gets out of my way.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 2:55 PM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 2:55 PM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
People respond the way they do to surveys for all kinds of reasons, not necessarily always as a true reflection of their beliefs.
this changes everything
posted by tivalasvegas at 2:58 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
this changes everything
posted by tivalasvegas at 2:58 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
No need to read too deeply into the tweets except this: You are in danger, everyone else is trying to hurt you, only I can protect you if everyone gets out of my way.
Huh. I just reread the last few dozen trump tweets and (after performing the prescribed ritual vomiting) realized that with a few minor exceptions, announcements of upcoming TV interviews and such, his blatherings can indeed generally be translated into your formula "You are in danger. [Entity A] is trying to [negatively impact] you. Only I can protect you [by doing x] if [Useful Idiots B] get out of my way."
(I can't tell if this is an epiphany or a commonplace, since my brain is permanently broken now.)
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:05 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
Huh. I just reread the last few dozen trump tweets and (after performing the prescribed ritual vomiting) realized that with a few minor exceptions, announcements of upcoming TV interviews and such, his blatherings can indeed generally be translated into your formula "You are in danger. [Entity A] is trying to [negatively impact] you. Only I can protect you [by doing x] if [Useful Idiots B] get out of my way."
(I can't tell if this is an epiphany or a commonplace, since my brain is permanently broken now.)
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:05 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
The violent radicalization of police: âA Mike Flynn-Approved Hate Group Is Teaching Cops to Track Muslimsâ
posted by xcasex at 3:07 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by xcasex at 3:07 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
So Trump threatened to "defund" California in that Fox interview.
As a California I have this to say: Fuck you, you ridiculous clown. Try it and see what happens when you pick a fight with the most liberal state in the nation which also happens to be the 6th largest economy in the world. We are not afraid of pissant little wannabe dictators.
posted by Justinian at 3:08 PM on February 5, 2017 [118 favorites]
As a California I have this to say: Fuck you, you ridiculous clown. Try it and see what happens when you pick a fight with the most liberal state in the nation which also happens to be the 6th largest economy in the world. We are not afraid of pissant little wannabe dictators.
posted by Justinian at 3:08 PM on February 5, 2017 [118 favorites]
It's been 16 days since Trump came into power. Nixon took years to get to this place in his presidency.
15 months after Watergate only 18% wanted to impeach Nixon. He didn't reach the 40% Trump is already at until after the Saturday Night Massacre.
posted by chris24 at 3:11 PM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]
15 months after Watergate only 18% wanted to impeach Nixon. He didn't reach the 40% Trump is already at until after the Saturday Night Massacre.
posted by chris24 at 3:11 PM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]
Re: Trump Tweets and fear.
Yup. He's been using the old formula "OUR $WHATEVER IS BEING ATTACKED...' which frames him and his followers as the oppressed from the first moment, and insulates them against -- well, logic really, since they've accepted the axioms from faith.
posted by mikelieman at 3:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yup. He's been using the old formula "OUR $WHATEVER IS BEING ATTACKED...' which frames him and his followers as the oppressed from the first moment, and insulates them against -- well, logic really, since they've accepted the axioms from faith.
posted by mikelieman at 3:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Well in fairness, Nixon was merely a crook.
posted by biogeo at 3:13 PM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 3:13 PM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]
2017: Mike Pence on LGBT Rights: Discrimination Has 'No Place' in Trump Administration
2015: Indianapolis Star: Editorial: Gov. Pence, fix 'religious freedom' law now
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:16 PM on February 5, 2017
2015: Indianapolis Star: Editorial: Gov. Pence, fix 'religious freedom' law now
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:16 PM on February 5, 2017
That "No Nukes" policy for California sure wasn't the right idea in the final analysis
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
You know those 3 million popular votes that we keep bragging about? Channel them into winning 2018. You know that unprecedented anger and activism we're seeing around us? Encourage people to channel that into 2018! It doesn't even need to distract from the (remote) possibility of a Trump impeachment, we can work on two things!
Yes yes yes yes YES. Drive the opposition from power. FOCUS.
posted by supercrayon at 3:23 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yes yes yes yes YES. Drive the opposition from power. FOCUS.
posted by supercrayon at 3:23 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
15 months after Watergate only 18% wanted to impeach Nixon. He didn't reach the 40% Trump is already at until after the Saturday Night Massacre.
To be fair, Trump didn't reach 40% until after the Bowling Green Massacre.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 3:25 PM on February 5, 2017 [68 favorites]
To be fair, Trump didn't reach 40% until after the Bowling Green Massacre.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 3:25 PM on February 5, 2017 [68 favorites]
Goodness. Trump is such a poisoned brand that even Mike "Pray the Gay Away" Pence is standing up against him to defend LGBT folks under some sort of circumstance? Dude's clearly angling to get the public on his side for when he inevitably takes the reins.
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:34 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:34 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
@slpng_giants
"Hold up. So OUR tax dollars are being used for ads on Breitbart to recruit border agents?
@CNN @MSNBC @nytimes @Fahrenthold look into this?"
Some else noticed the CBP ad . . .
Yay, mudpuppie's traction hits the bigtime.
posted by FelliniBlank at 3:36 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
"Hold up. So OUR tax dollars are being used for ads on Breitbart to recruit border agents?
@CNN @MSNBC @nytimes @Fahrenthold look into this?"
Some else noticed the CBP ad . . .
Yay, mudpuppie's traction hits the bigtime.
posted by FelliniBlank at 3:36 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
As a California I have this to say: Fuck you, you ridiculous clown. Try it and see what happens when you pick a fight with the most liberal state in the nation which also happens to be the 6th largest economy in the world. We are not afraid of pissant little wannabe dictators.
Eh eh eh. Wait in line, California, we've got dibs on this bad hombre.
--Chicago
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:38 PM on February 5, 2017 [16 favorites]
Eh eh eh. Wait in line, California, we've got dibs on this bad hombre.
--Chicago
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:38 PM on February 5, 2017 [16 favorites]
As a California I have this to say: Fuck you, you ridiculous clown. Try it and see what happens when you pick a fight with the most liberal state in the nation which also happens to be the 6th largest economy in the world. We are not afraid of pissant little wannabe dictators.
let's make it a slow burn, just arrange to have someone chuck a ripe avocado at him every day for the rest of his presidency
posted by murphy slaw at 3:43 PM on February 5, 2017
let's make it a slow burn, just arrange to have someone chuck a ripe avocado at him every day for the rest of his presidency
posted by murphy slaw at 3:43 PM on February 5, 2017
So Trump threatened to "defund" California in that Fox interview.
As a Californian, I have to say this: "lol."
posted by entropicamericana at 3:43 PM on February 5, 2017 [30 favorites]
As a Californian, I have to say this: "lol."
posted by entropicamericana at 3:43 PM on February 5, 2017 [30 favorites]
have someone chuck a ripe avocado at him every day for the rest of his presidency
NOOO don't waste that potential guacamole what is wrong with you.
Maybe some moldy grapes or something.
posted by emjaybee at 3:50 PM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]
NOOO don't waste that potential guacamole what is wrong with you.
Maybe some moldy grapes or something.
posted by emjaybee at 3:50 PM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]
He can't even keep Austin from rebelling, and our governor is firmly in his fucking pocket. You can't even get one Texan city in line, and you think you're going to cow a whole state?
posted by sciatrix at 3:52 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by sciatrix at 3:52 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
Trump: California is out of control
California: Come at us, bro.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 3:52 PM on February 5, 2017 [49 favorites]
California: Come at us, bro.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 3:52 PM on February 5, 2017 [49 favorites]
Some else noticed the CBP ad . . .
Yay, mudpuppie's traction hits the bigtime.
And it's been retweeted about 60 times in the last 10 minutes alone to like the entire news media. Friends, we have liftoff.
posted by FelliniBlank at 3:53 PM on February 5, 2017 [41 favorites]
Yay, mudpuppie's traction hits the bigtime.
And it's been retweeted about 60 times in the last 10 minutes alone to like the entire news media. Friends, we have liftoff.
posted by FelliniBlank at 3:53 PM on February 5, 2017 [41 favorites]
Maybe some moldy grapes or something.
We like to refer to it as noble rot, thankyouverymuch.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 3:53 PM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
We like to refer to it as noble rot, thankyouverymuch.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 3:53 PM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
stray thought...is no one paying attention to the white house staff using a private web server(RNC's) for government business? links? news?
posted by j_curiouser at 3:57 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by j_curiouser at 3:57 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
The comments about Putin are even worse than I thought since he seems to be explicitly equating US soldiers killing people in Iraq to Putin killing dissidents . How can the military accept this?
posted by gatorae at 3:58 PM on February 5, 2017 [35 favorites]
posted by gatorae at 3:58 PM on February 5, 2017 [35 favorites]
Why Trump Is Great
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 4:03 PM on February 5, 2017 [25 favorites]
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 4:03 PM on February 5, 2017 [25 favorites]
I'm still wondering about the 2% of people who supported Hillary Clinton and believed she was an actual demon. Was this support in spite of her demon nature or because of it?
The most likely answer is sadly boring stuff like -- assuming I remember PPP's methods correctly -- fat-fingering their responses on the phone and the occasional person who's just fucking with them for shits and giggles. I love love love that PPP asks such entertaining questions, but a flipside of that is that I betcha they do get a nontrivial number of people who just fuck around with those questions.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 4:04 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
The most likely answer is sadly boring stuff like -- assuming I remember PPP's methods correctly -- fat-fingering their responses on the phone and the occasional person who's just fucking with them for shits and giggles. I love love love that PPP asks such entertaining questions, but a flipside of that is that I betcha they do get a nontrivial number of people who just fuck around with those questions.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 4:04 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
hey, president trump. california here. how about this deal: you stop sending us money and we'll stop sending you money and we'll see who runs out of money first
posted by murphy slaw at 4:04 PM on February 5, 2017 [99 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 4:04 PM on February 5, 2017 [99 favorites]
Trump: California is out of control
...and loving it. </Don Adams Voice>
...he seems to be explicitly equating US soldiers killing people in Iraq to Putin killing dissidents . How can the military accept this?
...by taking orders to kill dissidents.
Meanwhile, I've heard that Lady Gaga's halftime show at the Superbowl will feature "hundreds" of flying drones, while the Vice Pence is attending. This falls in the "what could possibly go wrong (list no less than 100)" department.
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:04 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
...and loving it. </Don Adams Voice>
...he seems to be explicitly equating US soldiers killing people in Iraq to Putin killing dissidents . How can the military accept this?
...by taking orders to kill dissidents.
Meanwhile, I've heard that Lady Gaga's halftime show at the Superbowl will feature "hundreds" of flying drones, while the Vice Pence is attending. This falls in the "what could possibly go wrong (list no less than 100)" department.
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:04 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
What, we're demonshaming now? Not cool, Mefi
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:05 PM on February 5, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:05 PM on February 5, 2017 [16 favorites]
Why Trump Is Great
Needs more features. Or different snark on every reload. Something.
posted by Archelaus at 4:06 PM on February 5, 2017
Needs more features. Or different snark on every reload. Something.
posted by Archelaus at 4:06 PM on February 5, 2017
Way to attack our allies, Archelaus. [fake]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:07 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:07 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Much applause to mudpuppie and Horace Rumpole for getting that freaking ad onto the world's radar. [15-minute standing ovation complete with . . . nevermind.]
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:07 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:07 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
The comments about Putin are even worse than I thought since he seems to be explicitly equating US soldiers killing people in Iraq to Putin killing dissidents
Yeah dude this is still where I'm at, with a side of being really fucking depressed that so many people's reading/listening comprehension is so low that this distinction is not crystal clear to them. (I rarely "both sides do it" but both sides are making this mistake right now and it's driving me bananas.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:10 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
Yeah dude this is still where I'm at, with a side of being really fucking depressed that so many people's reading/listening comprehension is so low that this distinction is not crystal clear to them. (I rarely "both sides do it" but both sides are making this mistake right now and it's driving me bananas.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:10 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
Archelaus you didn't reload it, did you?
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 4:12 PM on February 5, 2017
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 4:12 PM on February 5, 2017
Much applause to mudpuppie and Horace Rumpole for getting that freaking ad onto the world's radar. [15-minute standing ovation complete with . . . nevermind.]
Thanks and all, but I think it was more the result of someone else coming across the CBP ad and Sleeping Giants noticing it (whereas they didn't notice when we posted it yesterday).
posted by mudpuppie at 4:13 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Thanks and all, but I think it was more the result of someone else coming across the CBP ad and Sleeping Giants noticing it (whereas they didn't notice when we posted it yesterday).
posted by mudpuppie at 4:13 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
The White House put out a readout about the call with the NATO Secretary General. One again, it describes what's happening in Ukraine as a conflict along the border.
posted by zachlipton at 4:15 PM on February 5, 2017
posted by zachlipton at 4:15 PM on February 5, 2017
So Bannon owns Breitbart and then a government agency just happens to start paying Breitbart (i.e., Bannon) to display ads? That's pretty goddamn brazen.
posted by indubitable at 4:22 PM on February 5, 2017 [45 favorites]
posted by indubitable at 4:22 PM on February 5, 2017 [45 favorites]
So Bannon owns Breitbart and then a government agency just happens to start paying Breitbart (i.e., Bannon) to display ads? That's pretty goddamn brazen.
Don't be obtuse. It's a Google ad which has rotated onto the site. There's no graft here.
posted by Talez at 4:27 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Don't be obtuse. It's a Google ad which has rotated onto the site. There's no graft here.
posted by Talez at 4:27 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Supporters of President Trump rally in Portland
holy shit the massive crowd!
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 4:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
holy shit the massive crowd!
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 4:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
Archelaus you didn't reload it, did you?
Several times, getting the same string of text every time. /shrug
posted by Archelaus at 4:30 PM on February 5, 2017
Several times, getting the same string of text every time. /shrug
posted by Archelaus at 4:30 PM on February 5, 2017
Real-time updates from the White House Briefing Room: @presproject2017
posted by salix at 4:30 PM on February 5, 2017
posted by salix at 4:30 PM on February 5, 2017
Several times, getting the same string of text every time.
gah! sorry! i just realized you were referring to whytrumpisgreat.com, i was confusing it with isdonaldtrumpanasshole.com
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 4:33 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
gah! sorry! i just realized you were referring to whytrumpisgreat.com, i was confusing it with isdonaldtrumpanasshole.com
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 4:33 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Looks like we're missing quite the Superbowl party with the Trumps at Mar-A-Lago.
posted by octothorpe at 4:35 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by octothorpe at 4:35 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
holy shit the massive crowd!I counted eight of them. Eight people came out in Portland to support Trump.
Meanwhile, "well over 1,000 people" attended the Solidarity Against the Ban rally in Iowa City, Iowa today. About 1,000 in Harrisburg, PA.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:36 PM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]
From the Palm Beach story on the Red Cross Event in the comment section:
So they raised a little under a milllion dollars with this ball but I have to question how much did it cost to put on? I guarantee it cost a fortune just to rent Mar-A-Lago for the evening at least a quarter of a million. Then the over-the-top decorations and the waiters and the food and so on must have cost hundreds of thousands. It would be interesting to see the bottom line here.
So today was the Super Bowl Party and it looks like DJT hired some cheerleaders to cheer him on.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:36 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
I'm glad that a photo of the mob outside was presented with those of the event inside. The contrast is obvious, while the "Deplorables" inside were raising money for a worthwhile cause, the 'highly educated' angry mob of liberals outside was running up a bill for extra police services, and is probably the same bunch of bananas who were crying about how much it costs to protect Trump...DOH!!!Oh man. So now it is the protesters who are costing the state too much money merely by showing up and peacefully protesting. Meanwhile the Aristocrats inside eating caviar off of gold plates while they look at themselves in the mock Hall of Mirrors are the good guys.
So they raised a little under a milllion dollars with this ball but I have to question how much did it cost to put on? I guarantee it cost a fortune just to rent Mar-A-Lago for the evening at least a quarter of a million. Then the over-the-top decorations and the waiters and the food and so on must have cost hundreds of thousands. It would be interesting to see the bottom line here.
So today was the Super Bowl Party and it looks like DJT hired some cheerleaders to cheer him on.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:36 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
hey, president trump. california here. how about this deal: you stop sending us money and we'll stop sending you money and we'll see who runs out of money first
Brilliant.
I wish I lived in a state that could give this kind of fuck you to Trump.
posted by bluesky43 at 4:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [15 favorites]
Brilliant.
I wish I lived in a state that could give this kind of fuck you to Trump.
posted by bluesky43 at 4:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [15 favorites]
Mar-a-Lago Superbowl Party: You're doing it wrong.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 4:44 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 4:44 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
Senate Republicans aim to gut debit-card safeguards
...Consumer advocates decried the resolution as a thinly-veiled giveaway to Netspend, a controversial issuer of prepaid cards. Netspend is one of the main opponents of the CFBPâs proposed prepaid card disclosure requirements and would potentially lose up to $80 million annually in overdraft fees imposed on the largely low-income buyers of its prepaid cards, according to the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC).
âIt is outrageous that Congress may block basic fraud protections on prepaid cards so that Netspend can keep gouging struggling families with overdraft fees that have no place on prepaid cards,â said Lauren Saunders, associate director of the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC)
posted by futz at 4:47 PM on February 5, 2017 [35 favorites]
...Consumer advocates decried the resolution as a thinly-veiled giveaway to Netspend, a controversial issuer of prepaid cards. Netspend is one of the main opponents of the CFBPâs proposed prepaid card disclosure requirements and would potentially lose up to $80 million annually in overdraft fees imposed on the largely low-income buyers of its prepaid cards, according to the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC).
âIt is outrageous that Congress may block basic fraud protections on prepaid cards so that Netspend can keep gouging struggling families with overdraft fees that have no place on prepaid cards,â said Lauren Saunders, associate director of the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC)
posted by futz at 4:47 PM on February 5, 2017 [35 favorites]
Was the Bowling Green Massacre an exercise in further diminishing the trust that people have in news stories, facts, and the media? Or is it just another massive mental misfire?
posted by ZeusHumms at 4:47 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by ZeusHumms at 4:47 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
You're doing it wrong.
Is there ANYTHING Trumpy-related for which that statement does NOT apply?
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:49 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Is there ANYTHING Trumpy-related for which that statement does NOT apply?
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:49 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
A breakdown of which states give and which states take (federal dollars)
posted by OHenryPacey at 4:49 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by OHenryPacey at 4:49 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
I counted eight of them. Eight people came out in Portland to support Trump.
And every single one of them with mass-produced support gear--not a single one carrying or wearing anything handmade. Unless, of course, you count the gear brought by the counter-counter-protesters protesting the fact that anyone would support Trump.
posted by sciatrix at 4:51 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
And every single one of them with mass-produced support gear--not a single one carrying or wearing anything handmade. Unless, of course, you count the gear brought by the counter-counter-protesters protesting the fact that anyone would support Trump.
posted by sciatrix at 4:51 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Is there ANYTHING Trumpy-related for which that statement does NOT apply?
I probably should have spelled it your.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 4:52 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
I probably should have spelled it your.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 4:52 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
I do really want California to show our strength against Trump, but I'm starting to feel uneasy about how much we're being held up as a symbol of Everything Wrong With America. I know all I ever talk about is Berkeley, but since last week I've actually been more and more worried that something really bad is going to happen in the near future. The narrative that keeps getting played out is now one about ultra-violent leftists beating people to death. It doesn't matter if it's true, it just matters that people believe it is, and they do. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but we're an open campus, and someone was already shot in Washington. We already had a GOP official (a local official somewhere) suggest that another Kent State would take care of the problem. I'm starting to seriously worry about someone showing to "police" our next protest. It only takes one.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 4:53 PM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 4:53 PM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]
Paul Rosenberg, Salon: Bigger than fake news: Trumpâs rise was fueled by a deeper narrative of fake history
Trump's lies about crime, Muslims and immigration aren't meant to make sense â only to confirm his followers' fearsposted by ZeusHumms at 4:54 PM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]
...
While Trump lied in many different ways about many different things throughout his campaign, fake history provided the surrounding mythological framework that made his other lies work. It justified them, made them sound plausible and formed the foundation for other lies he built on top of them â especially the notion that he was a unique truth-teller on the side of âreal Americansâ and that anyone who said anything different was out to get them, especially anyone who challenged Donald Trump.
...
As Trumpâs presidency continues, it will be increasingly important to understand how his false narratives fit together and feed off of one another. Focusing on the larger pattern may be the only way to deal with the flood of everyday lies, fake news and false memes thatâs bound to confront us for the next four years.
Seriously, has anyone started FIA-ing Trump administration documents yet? Because believe me, they are going to have like 20X the official communication on non-govt servers, non-official cell phone use, text messaging, etc etc etc etc etc used to conduct official government business as Clinton ever did. And of course they are never planning to release ANY of it but that is where the FIA lawsuit is going to come in.
This is a project that I--and I'll wager, many others--would support with $$$ in a big way.
I have, indeed, started looking into this. The specifics regarding the startup of a non-profit law firm, at least in CA, are surprisingly obscure, and while it could be done via a standard non-profit I'd rather not for various tactical reasons.
For the time being anyone with specific ideas about creatively targeted FOIA requests should feel free to memail me.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:55 PM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
This is a project that I--and I'll wager, many others--would support with $$$ in a big way.
I have, indeed, started looking into this. The specifics regarding the startup of a non-profit law firm, at least in CA, are surprisingly obscure, and while it could be done via a standard non-profit I'd rather not for various tactical reasons.
For the time being anyone with specific ideas about creatively targeted FOIA requests should feel free to memail me.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:55 PM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
GOP official suggests 'another Kent State' to combat campus protests:
âIâm thinking another Kent State might be the only solution protest stopped after only one death,â Adamini wrote on Facebook Thursday. âThey do it because they know there are no consequences yet.âposted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 4:57 PM on February 5, 2017 [32 favorites]
...
âViolent protesters who shut down free speech? Time for another Kent State perhaps. One bullets stops a lot of thuggery,â Adamini tweeted Thursday.
Trump: I will pull federal funding from California.
California:
posted by supercrayon at 4:58 PM on February 5, 2017 [16 favorites]
California:
posted by supercrayon at 4:58 PM on February 5, 2017 [16 favorites]
We already had a GOP official (a local official somewhere)
yeah, that state must su... never mind.
*slinks away*
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 4:59 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
yeah, that state must su... never mind.
*slinks away*
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 4:59 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
GOP official suggests 'another Kent State' to combat campus protests
Wow.
posted by mudpuppie at 5:01 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Wow.
posted by mudpuppie at 5:01 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
NYT: After 2 Weeks, Trumpâs Bungles Have Aides Rethinking Strategy
WASHINGTON â President Trump loves to set the dayâs narrative at dawn, but the deeper story of his White House is best told at night.posted by zachlipton at 5:06 PM on February 5, 2017 [47 favorites]
Aides confer in the dark because they cannot figure out how to operate the light switches in the cabinet room. Visitors conclude their meetings and then wander around, testing doorknobs until finding one that leads to an exit. In a darkened, mostly empty West Wing, Mr. Trumpâs provocative chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, finishes another 16-hour day planning new lines of attack.
said "GOP Official" is a minor local functionary who also happens to have an AM radio talk show, which says as much about the perverse incentives of trolling the Limbaugh crowd as it does about actual republican policy discussions
posted by murphy slaw at 5:06 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 5:06 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
Aides confer in the dark because they cannot figure out how to operate the light switches in the cabinet room. Visitors conclude their meetings and then wander around, testing doorknobs until finding one that leads to an exit.
the country is being run by old men who refuse to ask for directions because they think it's emasculating
posted by murphy slaw at 5:09 PM on February 5, 2017 [83 favorites]
the country is being run by old men who refuse to ask for directions because they think it's emasculating
posted by murphy slaw at 5:09 PM on February 5, 2017 [83 favorites]
GOP official suggests 'another Kent State' to combat campus protests:
The next day, before going on, Adamini tweeted "About to go on the air, lots of hate coming from the tolerant left".
Because, you know, urging the government to put a bullet in the brains of a few of us should be tolerated.
posted by Talez at 5:10 PM on February 5, 2017 [26 favorites]
The next day, before going on, Adamini tweeted "About to go on the air, lots of hate coming from the tolerant left".
Because, you know, urging the government to put a bullet in the brains of a few of us should be tolerated.
posted by Talez at 5:10 PM on February 5, 2017 [26 favorites]
If you aren't watching the football game, a TON of the ads so far are aimed directly at pissing of the president.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:11 PM on February 5, 2017 [34 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:11 PM on February 5, 2017 [34 favorites]
Can someone put the California thing in context for me? Where/when did he say that and to what?
posted by INFJ at 5:12 PM on February 5, 2017
posted by INFJ at 5:12 PM on February 5, 2017
GOP official suggests 'another Kent State' to combat campus protests
well, fuck, that is personally terrifying given that the university I work at
a) is a very visible symbol of Them Liberals in a red state
b) has recently been forcibly made to allow guns on campus carried by any asshole with a concealed carry permit, including residing students, against loud and active protest from students, faculty, and staff
c) is located in a city that is visibly making a target of itself standing up to the state government
d) has already drawn state legislation aimed at starving our funding out as a direct result of students protesting to make the university a sanctuary campus
e) inspired one extremely large protest immediately after the election from UT students alone, and in general has been developing an extremely angry campus student culture
Remember, Kent State happened in Ohio under a Republican governor who hated the student protesters; it's not really that surprising in retrospect that violence went down. Gov. Abbott here is at war with like four state agencies and institutions at once right now as well as the City of Austin, but UT is a prime target for him too--and frankly, I would not be surprised to see him call in the National Guard on us either.
And our students are pissed and have been protesting state governmental actions since #GunFreeUT became a thing, well before the election. GunFreeUT, by the way, inspired at least one fucking OPEN CARRY set of counter-protesters to march on our school before the university administration pointed out that they were not required to host open carry protesters who aren't students or part of the university, and if the open carry loonies showed up anyway they would be marched off by university security. They protested and had their creepy-ass shoot-in right off campus instead.
Basically--I wouldn't necessarily expect Kent State to happen somewhere like Berkeley. I'd bet on it happening somewhere like here, with a hostile state governor with the power to summon the National Guard, and tensions between state government and university student/faculty culture on the ground running very high. (The administration, as far as I can tell, is torn between trying to mediate and going "fuck you and the horse you rode in on," but mostly trying to reduce tensions as much as they can.)
posted by sciatrix at 5:13 PM on February 5, 2017 [43 favorites]
well, fuck, that is personally terrifying given that the university I work at
a) is a very visible symbol of Them Liberals in a red state
b) has recently been forcibly made to allow guns on campus carried by any asshole with a concealed carry permit, including residing students, against loud and active protest from students, faculty, and staff
c) is located in a city that is visibly making a target of itself standing up to the state government
d) has already drawn state legislation aimed at starving our funding out as a direct result of students protesting to make the university a sanctuary campus
e) inspired one extremely large protest immediately after the election from UT students alone, and in general has been developing an extremely angry campus student culture
Remember, Kent State happened in Ohio under a Republican governor who hated the student protesters; it's not really that surprising in retrospect that violence went down. Gov. Abbott here is at war with like four state agencies and institutions at once right now as well as the City of Austin, but UT is a prime target for him too--and frankly, I would not be surprised to see him call in the National Guard on us either.
And our students are pissed and have been protesting state governmental actions since #GunFreeUT became a thing, well before the election. GunFreeUT, by the way, inspired at least one fucking OPEN CARRY set of counter-protesters to march on our school before the university administration pointed out that they were not required to host open carry protesters who aren't students or part of the university, and if the open carry loonies showed up anyway they would be marched off by university security. They protested and had their creepy-ass shoot-in right off campus instead.
Basically--I wouldn't necessarily expect Kent State to happen somewhere like Berkeley. I'd bet on it happening somewhere like here, with a hostile state governor with the power to summon the National Guard, and tensions between state government and university student/faculty culture on the ground running very high. (The administration, as far as I can tell, is torn between trying to mediate and going "fuck you and the horse you rode in on," but mostly trying to reduce tensions as much as they can.)
posted by sciatrix at 5:13 PM on February 5, 2017 [43 favorites]
Oh yeah, regarding the Intolerant Liberals:
"The progressive liberal agenda isnât about being nice. Itâs about confronting evil, violence, trauma, and death. Itâs about acknowledging the ways systemic power, systemic oppression, systemic evil, work in our world around us. Iâm not fighting for diversity. Iâm not fighting for tolerance. Iâm fighting to overturn horrific systems of dehumanizing oppression."
posted by supercrayon at 5:15 PM on February 5, 2017 [131 favorites]
"The progressive liberal agenda isnât about being nice. Itâs about confronting evil, violence, trauma, and death. Itâs about acknowledging the ways systemic power, systemic oppression, systemic evil, work in our world around us. Iâm not fighting for diversity. Iâm not fighting for tolerance. Iâm fighting to overturn horrific systems of dehumanizing oppression."
posted by supercrayon at 5:15 PM on February 5, 2017 [131 favorites]
zachlipton, that is one of the most depressing articles I have ever read.
posted by mynameisluka at 5:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by mynameisluka at 5:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
Can someone put the California thing in context for me? Where/when did he say that and to what?
On the O'Reilly interview a few hours ago.
posted by Talez at 5:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]
On the O'Reilly interview a few hours ago.
OâReilly: Letâs turn to domestic policy. I just spent the week in California. As you know, they are now voting on whether they should become a sanctuary state. So California, and the USA, are on a collision course. How do you see it?California is in the process of passing legislation stopping any state or local police officer from co-operating with federal immigration authorities without a court order. Of course, when your entire immigration platform is basically keeping out the browns and deporting people, California not playing along kind of fucks you.
Trump: Well, I think itâs ridiculous. Sanctuary cities, as you know, Iâm very much opposed to sanctuary cities. They breed crime, thereâs a lot of problems. If we have to, weâll defund. We give tremendous amounts of money to California â California in many ways is out of control, as you know. Obviously the voters agree, otherwise they wouldnât have voted for me.
posted by Talez at 5:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]
Can someone put the California thing in context for me? Where/when did he say that and to what?
INFJ: He said it to Bill O'Reilly today in an interview aired during the Super Bowl pregame. The exact quote is:
INFJ: He said it to Bill O'Reilly today in an interview aired during the Super Bowl pregame. The exact quote is:
âIf we have to, weâll defund," Trump said. "We give tremendous amounts of money to California. California in many ways is out of control, as you know.âposted by Justinian at 5:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Looks like this Coke ad was just played at the superbowl and /r/the_donald and other hives of scum/villainy are furious about the "multicultural indoctrination." So many calls to boycott, switch to RC, "fuck that black battery acid bullshit," etc. I look at the ad and it shows different kinds of people living happily together and like just existing while not being white dudes. I remember Coke ads like that from the 80s with way more overt messages of cultural unity. Will they not be satisfied until the demographics of their Coke ads predate the 60s?
I'm starting to think his supporters might be a little reactionary.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [113 favorites]
I'm starting to think his supporters might be a little reactionary.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [113 favorites]
The White House put out
Every time I read "White House," I feel this brief flash of relief: finally, the adults are here to put an end to this mess.
And then I realize that, by White House, I mean Obama.
(Nixon) didn't reach the 40% Trump is already at until after the Saturday Night Massacre.
The Saturday Night Massacre last week, you mean?
posted by steady-state strawberry at 5:19 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
Every time I read "White House," I feel this brief flash of relief: finally, the adults are here to put an end to this mess.
And then I realize that, by White House, I mean Obama.
(Nixon) didn't reach the 40% Trump is already at until after the Saturday Night Massacre.
The Saturday Night Massacre last week, you mean?
posted by steady-state strawberry at 5:19 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
Omg, will RC Cola be the new winner of 2017?! Somewhere at a dusty desk an RC Cola employee looks on hopefully. "At least some good will come out of this shit show." they think to themselves, while sipping their instant coffee. Overhead, the broken fan slowly spins.
posted by supercrayon at 5:19 PM on February 5, 2017 [64 favorites]
posted by supercrayon at 5:19 PM on February 5, 2017 [64 favorites]
The next time there's a disaster and the American Red Cross is asking for money on TV
if anyone is still somehow undecided wrt the red cross you should go ahead and read propublica's series on them
posted by poffin boffin at 5:20 PM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]
if anyone is still somehow undecided wrt the red cross you should go ahead and read propublica's series on them
posted by poffin boffin at 5:20 PM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]
"fuck that black battery acid bullshit,"
It's MALTED battery acid you fricken' heathens.
Jebus Chribus, kids today.... smh....
posted by Gyre,Gimble,Wabe, Esq. at 5:21 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
It's MALTED battery acid you fricken' heathens.
Jebus Chribus, kids today.... smh....
posted by Gyre,Gimble,Wabe, Esq. at 5:21 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
I wouldn't necessarily expect Kent State to happen somewhere like Berkeley.
I do agree with your points, sciatrix. The Bay Area (and certainly greater California) does have its share of right-wing kooks, but it doesn't sound like there's the kind of tension you have at UT. That said, California is a deep red state outside the cities, and if a guy was willing to drive from North Carolina to DC to "investigate" Comet Ping Pong, it's also not too hard for me to imagine someone driving up from a place like Simi Valley. It's not necessarily likely, but like I said, all it takes is one person. It's just enough to make protesting here feel a lot less safe.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 5:23 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
I do agree with your points, sciatrix. The Bay Area (and certainly greater California) does have its share of right-wing kooks, but it doesn't sound like there's the kind of tension you have at UT. That said, California is a deep red state outside the cities, and if a guy was willing to drive from North Carolina to DC to "investigate" Comet Ping Pong, it's also not too hard for me to imagine someone driving up from a place like Simi Valley. It's not necessarily likely, but like I said, all it takes is one person. It's just enough to make protesting here feel a lot less safe.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 5:23 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
Will they not be satisfied until the demographics of their Coke ads predate the 60s?
Better call Don Draper.
posted by nubs at 5:26 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Better call Don Draper.
posted by nubs at 5:26 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Btw, there's a ton of other batshit stuff in that NYT story I posted, like Trump getting a new tv dining room to watch cable news and the only family photo behind his desk being of his father. It's all a pretty disturbing article that goes well beyond people not knowing how to work the light switches. I only regret I couldn't pullquote all the crazy.
posted by zachlipton at 5:27 PM on February 5, 2017 [31 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 5:27 PM on February 5, 2017 [31 favorites]
To elaborate on my link above, from this bit "Itâs about confronting evil, violence, trauma, and death." I feel like the new divide in America isn't traditional right/left. It's between those of us who look at the world and say, "I see this. It sucks. What can I do to help?" and those who say, "I don't see this. Everything is fine. How can I help myself?"
posted by supercrayon at 5:27 PM on February 5, 2017 [27 favorites]
posted by supercrayon at 5:27 PM on February 5, 2017 [27 favorites]
Metafilter: I couldn't pullquote all the crazy.
posted by mochapickle at 5:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]
posted by mochapickle at 5:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]
For the time being anyone with specific ideas about creatively targeted FOIA requests should feel free to memail me.
Not sure how much it'll help, but this is a fun talk:
Hacking the FBI - How & Why to Liberate Government Records.
posted by Coventry at 5:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Not sure how much it'll help, but this is a fun talk:
Hacking the FBI - How & Why to Liberate Government Records.
posted by Coventry at 5:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Isn't the coke ad from last year's super bowl?
posted by obliquity of the ecliptic at 5:29 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by obliquity of the ecliptic at 5:29 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
I didn't watch the screened ad but people were saying that it was the same one that aired at the Olympics, then linked to that youtube video.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:32 PM on February 5, 2017
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:32 PM on February 5, 2017
California is a deep red state outside the cities
Kinda. The numbers we're talking about are miniscule. Sure, Lassen County is deep red. Trump won it by a landslide: 72-21%. His margin? 5000 votes. NOBODY LIVES THERE.
His best county by a good margin was Kern County. He won it 54-40. His margin there was 120k-86k.
He won 25 counties in Calfornia. Two of them were by more than 12k votes (Kern and Shasta). Two were between 10k and 12k. Fully 21 of those 25 were by single digit thousands or even hundreds of votes. In a state Clinton carried by almost 3.5million.
So, yeah, there are pockets of red in California. And nobody lives there. It's essentially meaningless. California is not a split state; it's solid blue. Empty farmland does not get a vote.
posted by Justinian at 5:34 PM on February 5, 2017 [73 favorites]
Kinda. The numbers we're talking about are miniscule. Sure, Lassen County is deep red. Trump won it by a landslide: 72-21%. His margin? 5000 votes. NOBODY LIVES THERE.
His best county by a good margin was Kern County. He won it 54-40. His margin there was 120k-86k.
He won 25 counties in Calfornia. Two of them were by more than 12k votes (Kern and Shasta). Two were between 10k and 12k. Fully 21 of those 25 were by single digit thousands or even hundreds of votes. In a state Clinton carried by almost 3.5million.
So, yeah, there are pockets of red in California. And nobody lives there. It's essentially meaningless. California is not a split state; it's solid blue. Empty farmland does not get a vote.
posted by Justinian at 5:34 PM on February 5, 2017 [73 favorites]
Isn't the coke ad from last year's super bowl?
Even if it is, the context has changed completely.
posted by mudpuppie at 5:36 PM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
Even if it is, the context has changed completely.
posted by mudpuppie at 5:36 PM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
In two years I expect Trump to be wallowing on the ground, sweaty, naked, and bloated, in the darkness and his own filth a la Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now.
posted by Justinian at 5:38 PM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 5:38 PM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]
So apparently the Lady Gaga halftime failed to be epic in its outrageousness.
Also had hundreds of drones (for real)
This is merely for the historical records.
posted by Yowser at 5:38 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Also had hundreds of drones (for real)
This is merely for the historical records.
posted by Yowser at 5:38 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
He's like a wandering dementia patient.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:39 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by leotrotsky at 5:39 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
nyt linked above by zachliptopn. and a crazy article it is. wow.
posted by futz at 5:39 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by futz at 5:39 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
I feel like the new divide in America
The world.
Admittedly there's a lot that haven't joined the dots and realised that whilst they gawped unbelievably at the tyre-fire the US is becoming those tyres are going to explode (as tyres do if you feckin surrender and don't recycle them into loverly flower baskets) and set fire to feckin' everything.
I can't even remember what I was talking about.
Were the drones made out of meat?
posted by Buntix at 5:39 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
The world.
Admittedly there's a lot that haven't joined the dots and realised that whilst they gawped unbelievably at the tyre-fire the US is becoming those tyres are going to explode (as tyres do if you feckin surrender and don't recycle them into loverly flower baskets) and set fire to feckin' everything.
I can't even remember what I was talking about.
Were the drones made out of meat?
posted by Buntix at 5:39 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
if Trump people start really getting upset that we're better at protesting than they are.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious
We gotta start somewhere. I'll take it.
posted by yoga at 5:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious
We gotta start somewhere. I'll take it.
posted by yoga at 5:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Two years? At this rate, more like two months.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by leotrotsky at 5:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Or maybe Trump will go full Howard Hughes and start wearing tissue boxes on his feet. That would also not be unexpected.
posted by Justinian at 5:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 5:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
I'm not sure if this has been posted yet, but it's important. The Lesson of the Munich Post, the newspaper which stood up to Hitler to the very end.
[After the election] I remembered the Munich Post, defending Weimar Germany. I reflected on how fragile democratic institutions could be in the face of organized hatred. Hitler had been tricky about his plans until he got the position and the power to enact them. Trump had been tricky, neither accepting nor rejecting the endorsement of KKK leader David Duke. David Duke! The KKK! In this century! He claimed he didnât know who he was. He couldnât be disqualified because of someone he didnât know. Thatâs where we all went wrong, thinking he was stupid and outrageous, not canny and savvy and able to play the media like Paganini. The election demonstrated the weakness of a weak democracy, where basic liberties could be abolished by demagoguery and voter suppression.posted by jokeefe at 5:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [21 favorites]
Two years? At this rate, more like two months.
weeks?
posted by murphy slaw at 5:43 PM on February 5, 2017
weeks?
posted by murphy slaw at 5:43 PM on February 5, 2017
> As a California I have this to say: Fuck you, you ridiculous clown. Try it and see what happens when you pick a fight with the most liberal state in the nation which also happens to be the 6th largest economy in the world. We are not afraid of pissant little wannabe dictators.
Eh eh eh. Wait in line, California, we've got dibs on this bad hombre. --Chicago
Just so long as we get to take a crack at the fucker last. With us it's personal.
-- New York muthafukkin' CITY, yo
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:43 PM on February 5, 2017 [40 favorites]
Eh eh eh. Wait in line, California, we've got dibs on this bad hombre. --Chicago
Just so long as we get to take a crack at the fucker last. With us it's personal.
-- New York muthafukkin' CITY, yo
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:43 PM on February 5, 2017 [40 favorites]
Gosh, sorry about re-link. I did actually ctrl+f that and missed it. :/
Superbowl + MeFi = maybe time to take a break.
posted by slipthought at 5:44 PM on February 5, 2017
Superbowl + MeFi = maybe time to take a break.
posted by slipthought at 5:44 PM on February 5, 2017
that times article makes trump sound like the loneliest man in the world.
good.
posted by murphy slaw at 5:44 PM on February 5, 2017 [24 favorites]
good.
posted by murphy slaw at 5:44 PM on February 5, 2017 [24 favorites]
So, yeah, there are pockets of red in California. And nobody lives there. It's essentially meaningless. California is not a split state; it's solid blue. Empty farmland does not get a vote.
Meaningless in direct national politics. Not meaningless in State politics, which can sometimes exert an external effect.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:45 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Meaningless in direct national politics. Not meaningless in State politics, which can sometimes exert an external effect.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:45 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Empty farmland does not get a vote
Well, not in states that also have cities. Farmland in Idaho and Wyoming gets 2 Senators just like all of NYC or LA.
Also what I took from that NYT article is: Bannon and Paul Ryan have patched up and are plotting their cat food and granny starving stragety together now. Fantastic.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:46 PM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
Well, not in states that also have cities. Farmland in Idaho and Wyoming gets 2 Senators just like all of NYC or LA.
Also what I took from that NYT article is: Bannon and Paul Ryan have patched up and are plotting their cat food and granny starving stragety together now. Fantastic.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:46 PM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
From the NYT: He often has to wait until the end of the workday before grinding through news clips with Mr. Spicer, marking the ones he does not like with a big arrow in black Sharpie â though he almost always makes time to monitor Mr. Spicerâs performance at the daily briefings, summoning him to offer praise or criticism, a West Wing aide said
lol.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:47 PM on February 5, 2017 [18 favorites]
lol.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:47 PM on February 5, 2017 [18 favorites]
It also claims he went through 17 drape samples, but was furious he wasn't fully briefed on the NSC executive order he signed.
posted by zachlipton at 5:50 PM on February 5, 2017 [44 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 5:50 PM on February 5, 2017 [44 favorites]
Meaningless in direct national politics. Not meaningless in State politics, which can sometimes exert an external effect.
True; but Dems have supermajorities (60%+) in both Houses. So not meaningless in state politics but still relegated to relative powerlessness. And both have been Democratically controlled since 1970. (Well, ok, there was exactly one year where the Assembly briefly flipped before immediately coming to its senses).
posted by Justinian at 5:50 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
True; but Dems have supermajorities (60%+) in both Houses. So not meaningless in state politics but still relegated to relative powerlessness. And both have been Democratically controlled since 1970. (Well, ok, there was exactly one year where the Assembly briefly flipped before immediately coming to its senses).
posted by Justinian at 5:50 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Spicey is a pesky little varmint, but man, I do not envy him that job one bit. What the hell was he thinking? (I know, dreams of power and influence, yata yata. )
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:51 PM on February 5, 2017
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:51 PM on February 5, 2017
I just gave up Diet Coke dammit (I realized: that shit makes me hungrier. Thankfully iced tea doesn't).
I liked the car ad about your daughter being worth as much as your son/equal pay! That will upset the haters also.
posted by emjaybee at 5:52 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
I liked the car ad about your daughter being worth as much as your son/equal pay! That will upset the haters also.
posted by emjaybee at 5:52 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
From the NYT "cant find the light switches article: Trump isn't even aware of thedetails in EOs he is signing!
-From now on, Mr. Trump would be looped in on the drafting of executive orders much earlier in the process.
-Another change will be a new set of checks on the previously unfettered power enjoyed by Mr. Bannon and the White House policy director, Stephen Miller,
-But for the moment, Mr. Bannon remains the presidentâs dominant adviser, despite Mr. Trumpâs anger that he was not fully briefed on details of the executive order he signed giving his chief strategist a seat on the National Security Council,
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 5:52 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
-From now on, Mr. Trump would be looped in on the drafting of executive orders much earlier in the process.
-Another change will be a new set of checks on the previously unfettered power enjoyed by Mr. Bannon and the White House policy director, Stephen Miller,
-But for the moment, Mr. Bannon remains the presidentâs dominant adviser, despite Mr. Trumpâs anger that he was not fully briefed on details of the executive order he signed giving his chief strategist a seat on the National Security Council,
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 5:52 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
So, yeah, there are pockets of red in California. And nobody lives there. It's essentially meaningless. California is not a split state; it's solid blue. Empty farmland does not get a vote.
That's a totally different argument, though. I'm not talking about votes, I'm talking about people showing up to do harm at the next UC Berkeley protest because of the fervent belief that UC Berkeley students were so opposed to free speech that they cheered while masked thugs beat someone to death. And that's all over Reddit. It's terrifying because it gives people a way to completely dehumanize protesters to the point that "a bullet will stop thugs" is an acceptable statement.
My fear isn't that deep red California is going to carry some kind of weight against UC Berkeley at the ballot box over this, my fear is that there's hate brewing on the far right, and that, proportionally small or not, there's a lot of the far right relatively close at hand. Like I said: it just takes one person to show up as a "free speech protector" to do a lot of damage. Going from that to "trust me, California is a solidly blue state as far as voting districts go" completely misses the point of why I'm increasingly worried for my safety and the safety of my campus community.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 5:54 PM on February 5, 2017 [23 favorites]
That's a totally different argument, though. I'm not talking about votes, I'm talking about people showing up to do harm at the next UC Berkeley protest because of the fervent belief that UC Berkeley students were so opposed to free speech that they cheered while masked thugs beat someone to death. And that's all over Reddit. It's terrifying because it gives people a way to completely dehumanize protesters to the point that "a bullet will stop thugs" is an acceptable statement.
My fear isn't that deep red California is going to carry some kind of weight against UC Berkeley at the ballot box over this, my fear is that there's hate brewing on the far right, and that, proportionally small or not, there's a lot of the far right relatively close at hand. Like I said: it just takes one person to show up as a "free speech protector" to do a lot of damage. Going from that to "trust me, California is a solidly blue state as far as voting districts go" completely misses the point of why I'm increasingly worried for my safety and the safety of my campus community.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 5:54 PM on February 5, 2017 [23 favorites]
it's sort of a masterpiece of that NYT house style that makes a politician look like a buffoon by blandly reciting things that they did
posted by murphy slaw at 5:56 PM on February 5, 2017 [60 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 5:56 PM on February 5, 2017 [60 favorites]
Reagan's incoming Chief of Staff considered Amendment 25 because he seemed "inattentive, inept, and lazy". Just saying.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:56 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:56 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
Fair enough. In the sense that "all it takes is one" there are definitely kooky reactionaries in California. Just turn on the radio when you're driving up the 5 in the Central Valley and you'll learn that right quick.
posted by Justinian at 5:57 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 5:57 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
via Bloomberg reporter: It's 28-3 in the third quarter and the president has left his Super Bowl party
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:59 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:59 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
trust me, red california is all bark and no bite. they would secretly hate to be in charge because they love being miserable and complaining more than anything in the world
posted by entropicamericana at 6:01 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by entropicamericana at 6:01 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Did donnie just back another loser? Sad!
posted by futz at 6:02 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by futz at 6:02 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
They changed the NYT headline to "Trump and Staff Rethink Tactics After Stumbles" (from "After 2 Weeks, Trumpâs Bungles Have Aides Rethinking Strategy")
posted by slipthought at 6:03 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by slipthought at 6:03 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
I liked the car ad about your daughter being worth as much as your son/equal pay! That will upset the haters also.
That ad is already posted on Youtube, and some early haters made a point of coordinating a targeted attack to give it "thumbs-down" votes and to pre-load the comments with MRA bullshit.
Let's counteract that a bit, shall we?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:04 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
That ad is already posted on Youtube, and some early haters made a point of coordinating a targeted attack to give it "thumbs-down" votes and to pre-load the comments with MRA bullshit.
Let's counteract that a bit, shall we?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:04 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
GOP official: âIâm thinking another Kent State might be the only solution protest stopped after only one death"
Only one? Apparently not a fan of Cosby, Stills, Nash and Young (youtube).
posted by JackFlash at 6:07 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
Only one? Apparently not a fan of Cosby, Stills, Nash and Young (youtube).
posted by JackFlash at 6:07 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
trust me, red california is all bark and no bite.
And perhaps more importantly, the Dems have a supermajority in both the Assembly and Senate. May not affect presidential elections, but it protects us from a lot of stupid WH/Congressional shit.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:07 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
And perhaps more importantly, the Dems have a supermajority in both the Assembly and Senate. May not affect presidential elections, but it protects us from a lot of stupid WH/Congressional shit.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:07 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
it gives people a way to completely dehumanize protesters to the point that "a bullet will stop thugs" is an acceptable statement.
The Parp!-nose-bloc have always been more effective than the black bloc (and also act as moderators / peace-keepers). Sure there must be a car* of them out there. Might be worth joining/getting them in.
* collective noun for the clown.
posted by Buntix at 6:09 PM on February 5, 2017
The Parp!-nose-bloc have always been more effective than the black bloc (and also act as moderators / peace-keepers). Sure there must be a car* of them out there. Might be worth joining/getting them in.
* collective noun for the clown.
posted by Buntix at 6:09 PM on February 5, 2017
So today was the Super Bowl Party and it looks like DJT hired some cheerleaders to cheer him on.
And a freaking marching band!
posted by mudpuppie at 6:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
And a freaking marching band!
posted by mudpuppie at 6:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
trust me, red california is all bark and no bite.
the Dems have a supermajority in both the Assembly and Senate
Yeah, the harm is really limited to what they can do to the vulnerable people in their own communities through their own local governments. Which should not be dismissed. There are some additional spillover effects, and the CA Supreme Court still has some conservative leaning justices, although that's been changing too. (The SCOTUS's loss was CA's gain in Justice Liu.)
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
the Dems have a supermajority in both the Assembly and Senate
Yeah, the harm is really limited to what they can do to the vulnerable people in their own communities through their own local governments. Which should not be dismissed. There are some additional spillover effects, and the CA Supreme Court still has some conservative leaning justices, although that's been changing too. (The SCOTUS's loss was CA's gain in Justice Liu.)
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Aides confer in the dark because they cannot figure out how to operate the light switches in the cabinet room. Visitors conclude their meetings and then wander around, testing doorknobs until finding one that leads to an exit. In a darkened, mostly empty West Wing, Mr. Trumpâs provocative chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, finishes another 16-hour day planning new lines of attack.
I've been wondering how many people there are actually working in this administration. So far as I know, it is still drastically un-staffed. I'm imagining Jack Nicholson with the tennis ball at the Overlook.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:13 PM on February 5, 2017 [49 favorites]
I've been wondering how many people there are actually working in this administration. So far as I know, it is still drastically un-staffed. I'm imagining Jack Nicholson with the tennis ball at the Overlook.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:13 PM on February 5, 2017 [49 favorites]
What kind of a "savvy businessman" does not know what's in a document he is signing?! Unbelievable at the local used-car-salesman level. Criminal at the presidential level.
"....despite Mr. Trumpâs anger that he was not fully briefed on details of the executive order he signed giving his chief strategist a seat on the National Security Council...." --NYT article linked above.
posted by thebrokedown at 6:14 PM on February 5, 2017 [35 favorites]
"....despite Mr. Trumpâs anger that he was not fully briefed on details of the executive order he signed giving his chief strategist a seat on the National Security Council...." --NYT article linked above.
posted by thebrokedown at 6:14 PM on February 5, 2017 [35 favorites]
Yeah, the harm is really limited to what they can do to the vulnerable people in their own communities through their own local governments. Which should not be dismissed.
And through extra-governmental (read: mob) action.
This shit is not new to this country, and it's making a comeback.
posted by tivalasvegas at 6:14 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
And through extra-governmental (read: mob) action.
This shit is not new to this country, and it's making a comeback.
posted by tivalasvegas at 6:14 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
How long until the "but look how much money I'm saving the taxpayers by not having staff!" speech?
posted by jferg at 6:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by jferg at 6:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm a Pats fan and, as painful as this game is, my heart soars at the certainty that Trump is pitching a fucking fit right now. Fuck you and your friends, bud. May they never win another super bowl and certainly not while you're in office.
posted by lydhre at 6:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by lydhre at 6:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]
Gosh, sorry about re-link. I did actually ctrl+f that and missed it. :/
For those that aren't aware, the URL remains the same even after they change the headline. A good way to search mefi to see if a link has been posted is to type the url into the search bar. Even that isn't foolproof because dozens of other outlets pick up the same story. no worries.
posted by futz at 6:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
For those that aren't aware, the URL remains the same even after they change the headline. A good way to search mefi to see if a link has been posted is to type the url into the search bar. Even that isn't foolproof because dozens of other outlets pick up the same story. no worries.
posted by futz at 6:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Have you ever driven through Deep Red California as a brown person? My mother was sufficiently alarmed as to hiss "don't get out of the car!" when we were lost once.
Anyway I'm trying to settle on how best to communicate to my California reps to please convey "COME AT ME BRO!!!" to Trump et al.
posted by yasaman at 6:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
Anyway I'm trying to settle on how best to communicate to my California reps to please convey "COME AT ME BRO!!!" to Trump et al.
posted by yasaman at 6:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
Stephen K. Bannon, finishes another 16-hour day planning new lines of attack.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
{Barrens}[UberSturmBannon]: LF CC & HEELZ - FULL ON DPS -- NO ELVES OR DRUIDS -- PSTposted by snuffleupagus at 6:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
Didn't Grover Norquist say, "Make government so small that you can't figure out how to work the bathtub"?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:20 PM on February 5, 2017 [29 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:20 PM on February 5, 2017 [29 favorites]
/ooc LF SoW & KEI PST!Old school 4LYFE, yo
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 6:21 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
Super crayon
Thank for linking that article, I've sent it out to a bunch of friends.
posted by SyraCarol at 6:21 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Thank for linking that article, I've sent it out to a bunch of friends.
posted by SyraCarol at 6:21 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
I had a look at some of the photos from the Versailles-themed charity ball and I now have Do You Hear The People Sing running through my head.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:26 PM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:26 PM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]
I do really want California to show our strength against Trump, but I'm starting to feel uneasy about how much we're being held up as a symbol of Everything Wrong With America.
And that is one of my super triggery fear things about what I'm afraid he's going to do right there. While I am all "yay California fight back...."
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:34 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
And that is one of my super triggery fear things about what I'm afraid he's going to do right there. While I am all "yay California fight back...."
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:34 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
The thing about scapegoats is you actually have to be stronger than the scapegoat.
posted by Justinian at 6:36 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 6:36 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
Trump will give up once he's informed he can't "call out the National Guard on California" in its entirety.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
John McCain has emerged as a leading Republican dissenter
Talk about damning with faint praise. You go, John. Hold aloft the proud standard of Never-Trump as you shamble around looking quietly concerned. Stand tall in your occasional softly-whimpered complaints and sporadic sulky grumbles. Make sure to keep an eye on that dead potato bug: it's charismatic to challenge you for leadership.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [39 favorites]
Talk about damning with faint praise. You go, John. Hold aloft the proud standard of Never-Trump as you shamble around looking quietly concerned. Stand tall in your occasional softly-whimpered complaints and sporadic sulky grumbles. Make sure to keep an eye on that dead potato bug: it's charismatic to challenge you for leadership.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [39 favorites]
You know what, if Obama can't pick a judge because it's the final year of his Presidency, then Trump shouldn't pick a judge because he doesn't believe in the whole concept of judges.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:42 PM on February 5, 2017 [88 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:42 PM on February 5, 2017 [88 favorites]
Rust Moranis, dude, I don't care how quietly John McCain speaks so much as I care about how he votes.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:43 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:43 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
Hey hey hey -- so I'm watching the Sleeping Giants feed (because obsessed) and someone tweeted a screenshot of a UC Davis ad on Breitbart. AKA my employer. Which has apparently been up for at least 5 weeks.
The original tweet was directed at the general @ucdavis account and didn't get a response. But, I have a working relationship with one of the media relations people on campus. I sent the info to her and got the response: "Thanks for your message. We have not paid for any ads on this site. My team is looking into it."
I said it in a previous comment, and I'll say it again here: We all have power. Find yours. It may be a small but effective thing that makes a difference.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:45 PM on February 5, 2017 [56 favorites]
The original tweet was directed at the general @ucdavis account and didn't get a response. But, I have a working relationship with one of the media relations people on campus. I sent the info to her and got the response: "Thanks for your message. We have not paid for any ads on this site. My team is looking into it."
I said it in a previous comment, and I'll say it again here: We all have power. Find yours. It may be a small but effective thing that makes a difference.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:45 PM on February 5, 2017 [56 favorites]
dude, I don't care how quietly John McCain speaks so much as I care about how he votes.
I guess. If his votes end up saving the republic I will in hindsight call him a hero but so far he's really not putting in the leg work to, you know, be the voice of opposition to the Mad King in the political party that controls every level of power.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:48 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
I guess. If his votes end up saving the republic I will in hindsight call him a hero but so far he's really not putting in the leg work to, you know, be the voice of opposition to the Mad King in the political party that controls every level of power.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:48 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
Rust Moranis, dude, I don't care how quietly John McCain speaks so much as I care about how he votes.
100 percent with Trump so far.
posted by Etrigan at 6:49 PM on February 5, 2017 [39 favorites]
100 percent with Trump so far.
posted by Etrigan at 6:49 PM on February 5, 2017 [39 favorites]
How do they keep talking about McCain being the opposition when he has voted in favor of every single one of Trump's cabinet picks? WTF?
posted by maggiemaggie at 6:50 PM on February 5, 2017 [22 favorites]
posted by maggiemaggie at 6:50 PM on February 5, 2017 [22 favorites]
SHAME
SHAME
SHAME
Watch a crowd of pissed off constituents literally chase CA. Rep. Tom McClintock (R, Dist.4) out of his town hall meeting and down the street.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:55 PM on February 5, 2017 [46 favorites]
SHAME
SHAME
Watch a crowd of pissed off constituents literally chase CA. Rep. Tom McClintock (R, Dist.4) out of his town hall meeting and down the street.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:55 PM on February 5, 2017 [46 favorites]
Omg, will RC Cola be the new winner of 2017?!
CHEERWINE IS THE ALPHA
CHEERWINE IS THE OMEGA
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:55 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
CHEERWINE IS THE ALPHA
CHEERWINE IS THE OMEGA
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:55 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
McCain really does win some sort of Person Most Likely to Convince the Media He's a Man of Principle While Acting Like a Pathetic Venal Coward award.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:56 PM on February 5, 2017 [75 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:56 PM on February 5, 2017 [75 favorites]
Rubio gets an Honorable Mention.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:58 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:58 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
Would somebody who knows about protocol explain something to me? In the red carpet photos of the Red Cross Ball, all of the women without partners are being accompanied by marines in dress uniform. Is this some kind of standard that unescorted women aren't allowed in the presence of the president or is this just some kind of Trump thing that he doesn't want to see women on the loose? Or is it a third kind of thing all together and just something they do for this ball? Oh, and who is paying for these high society military maven walkers? I assume that the average marine can't just pull his shiny uniform out of the closet and freelance a gig as professional arm candy.
And since I'm asking, did anybody manage to sneak any pictures out from inside the event depicting the staff and the decorations?
posted by sardonyx at 6:58 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
And since I'm asking, did anybody manage to sneak any pictures out from inside the event depicting the staff and the decorations?
posted by sardonyx at 6:58 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
@billmaher This is looking like Hillary all over again. (Patriots just tied the game.)
posted by tonycpsu at 7:06 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by tonycpsu at 7:06 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
@natesilver: at least the falcons won the popular vote.
oh god its happening
posted by Justinian at 7:08 PM on February 5, 2017 [23 favorites]
oh god its happening
posted by Justinian at 7:08 PM on February 5, 2017 [23 favorites]
Donald Trump and US congress scrap rule that forced people not to dump coal mining debris into drinking water
The decision came alongside the scrapping of another rule that enforced extended background checks for gun purchases by some Social Security recipients with mental disabilities.
Donald Trump supports both measures and will sign both of them, the White House said.
posted by futz at 7:09 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
The decision came alongside the scrapping of another rule that enforced extended background checks for gun purchases by some Social Security recipients with mental disabilities.
Donald Trump supports both measures and will sign both of them, the White House said.
posted by futz at 7:09 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
And since I'm asking, did anybody manage to sneak any pictures out from inside the event depicting the staff and the decorations?
One pic
two pic
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:09 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
One pic
two pic
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:09 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
You guys, I am reluctant to give in to optimism, like, ever again, but I am feeling a tiny bit of optimism tonight because of these Super Bowl ads. All of these companies are totally comfortable siding with the portion of American society that thinks he sucks and his ideas suck and his vision of our country sucks. I find that really encouraging.
posted by gerstle at 7:11 PM on February 5, 2017 [38 favorites]
posted by gerstle at 7:11 PM on February 5, 2017 [38 favorites]
More on the McClintock town hall:
posted by indubitable at 7:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [16 favorites]
He said in an interview that he was advised by police that the situation outside was "deteriorating," as quoted by the Los Angeles Times, and said the Roseville Police Department decided to provide the police escort.Might as well add, "I pooped my pants!" Look at his SUV speed off down a side street in that video posted to Twitter! None of those people were violent, let alone armed like the Tea Party lunatics you see at Republican events running around with rifles. Just loud and pissed off. What a dolt.
McClintock said he believed an "anarchist element" among protest organizers came to "disrupt" the town hall.
"It's the first time I've ever had an police department have to extract me from a town hall, and I've done well over 100 of them in Congress," he said.
posted by indubitable at 7:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [16 favorites]
Bernie would have won this game
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:20 PM on February 5, 2017 [53 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:20 PM on February 5, 2017 [53 favorites]
god, those pictures
i can't tell if they're completely blind to the optics of this event or they're just openly mocking us now
posted by murphy slaw at 7:21 PM on February 5, 2017 [15 favorites]
i can't tell if they're completely blind to the optics of this event or they're just openly mocking us now
posted by murphy slaw at 7:21 PM on February 5, 2017 [15 favorites]
Those pictures remind me way too much of The Capital in The Hunger Games.
posted by gatorae at 7:24 PM on February 5, 2017 [45 favorites]
posted by gatorae at 7:24 PM on February 5, 2017 [45 favorites]
Darkest timeline.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:25 PM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by tonycpsu at 7:25 PM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]
If you live in Pennsylvania, there's a rumor Toomey is wavering on DeVos. If he votes no, she won't be confirmed. Please call/voicemail/fax him, PA people!
posted by bluecore at 7:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by bluecore at 7:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
i can't tell if they're completely blind to the optics of this event or they're just openly mocking us now
Qu'ils mangent de la brioche vs. l'etat c'est moi?
posted by aspersioncast at 7:30 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
Qu'ils mangent de la brioche vs. l'etat c'est moi?
posted by aspersioncast at 7:30 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
I don't see the upside for Toomey. Is he afraid of a Democratic surge in the midterm? It's obviously not some sort of principled stand.
posted by Justinian at 7:33 PM on February 5, 2017
posted by Justinian at 7:33 PM on February 5, 2017
Toomey's the one rubbing elbows with big money-- maybe they're telling him there's only so much money to go around in this political climate.
posted by lineofsight at 7:36 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by lineofsight at 7:36 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'll be calling Toomey tomorrow (not that I'll get through) but there's no way I believe he's actually wavering. He's the coward who waited until 6:45 on election night to announce he supported Trump. He's just trying to make it look like he's wavering so he can get credit for taking the nomination seriously and maybe fool some moderates into thinking he isn't totally in the tank for Big Voucher.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:38 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by tonycpsu at 7:38 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
@mattyglesias: I think this means the Dems need to nominate Eli Manning in 2020.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:39 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by tonycpsu at 7:39 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Toomey learning from the best at how to play Democrats and never actually deliver. He's the new McCain.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Interestingly, no one has even hinted that it might be effective to ask McCain to vote against DeVos.
posted by maggiemaggie at 7:45 PM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by maggiemaggie at 7:45 PM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]
Bernie would have won this game
Russian hackers gave the Falcons' playbook to Wikileaks to leak and don't forget about all the billions in free media that the networks gave Brady.
posted by Talez at 7:47 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Russian hackers gave the Falcons' playbook to Wikileaks to leak and don't forget about all the billions in free media that the networks gave Brady.
posted by Talez at 7:47 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Noteworthy column, #Trump Resistance Plan on BillMoyers.com, from legal blogger Stephen J Harper.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:49 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:49 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Oh and in the fourth quarter Comey told Congress he was looking into the Collins call in the NFC championship game and its non-review by the refs on the field.
posted by Talez at 7:52 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Talez at 7:52 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Tonycpsu - try calling first thing in the morning. His offices open at 8:30 and that was the only time I was able to get through this past week [called about a dozen times].
posted by nolnacs at 7:53 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by nolnacs at 7:53 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
To be fair, Clinton could have beat Trump one on one at football.
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:54 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:54 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
I don't understand American football. Was that a comeback or a choke?
posted by MattWPBS at 7:57 PM on February 5, 2017
posted by MattWPBS at 7:57 PM on February 5, 2017
Rigged.
posted by notyou at 7:58 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by notyou at 7:58 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Why didn't the Falcons campaign in Wisconsin?
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:59 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:59 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
I don't understand American football. Was that a comeback or a choke?
Depends whose fan you are. Realistically, the choking permitted the comeback.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:59 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Depends whose fan you are. Realistically, the choking permitted the comeback.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:59 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Was that a comeback or a choke?
Little bit of both.
posted by dirigibleman at 7:59 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Little bit of both.
posted by dirigibleman at 7:59 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
North Carolina's Thom Tillis's office says he's undecided on DeVos and he wants to hear from people. (202) 224-6342
posted by argonauta at 8:01 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by argonauta at 8:01 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
MattWPBS: “I don't understand American football. Was that a comeback or a choke?”The Falcons Falcons-ed it up. Premature jocularity, as per usual. I guess you'd call that a choke in the true Steve Bartkowski tradition.
Not that I'm bitter.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:04 PM on February 5, 2017
That NYT stumbling and bungling article made my admin/business process organizing bones go on into full on twitch mode. It gave me the urge to run on down there, storm in and be all 'FFS sake dudes. Let me organize this mundane process shit for you. Like wtf is wrong with y'all, you bunch of useless twits.'
Once that passed I realized I felt better after reading it because although filled with horrible and disturbing things if they are truly this bad at mundane process organizing and truly have so few people working on the bulk of their 'plans' then it's better for the world.
posted by Jalliah at 8:06 PM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]
Once that passed I realized I felt better after reading it because although filled with horrible and disturbing things if they are truly this bad at mundane process organizing and truly have so few people working on the bulk of their 'plans' then it's better for the world.
posted by Jalliah at 8:06 PM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]
CHEERWINE IS THE ALPHA
CHEERWINE IS THE OMEGA
I always knew I liked you, dude, and your correct opinions about soda only make me like you more
in unrelated news, I can only get the cane sugar cheerwine here at $1.59/individual bottle and I miss it so much even though I probably shouldn't be drinking that much caffeine anyway
posted by sciatrix at 8:09 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
CHEERWINE IS THE OMEGA
I always knew I liked you, dude, and your correct opinions about soda only make me like you more
in unrelated news, I can only get the cane sugar cheerwine here at $1.59/individual bottle and I miss it so much even though I probably shouldn't be drinking that much caffeine anyway
posted by sciatrix at 8:09 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
That was a typical American football thing in the sense you never see in soccer. Not typical in being the biggest deficit to victory or the first overtime, but typical in that big upsets are built into the game. I was nominally rooting for Atlanta, but not too hard because of New Orleans' longtime rivalry. But as Bill Maher pointed out the Patriots' owner, head coach, and QB Tom Brady are all deep Trumpistas. So as much as we hate Atlanta here I was kind of happy when they entered halftime 21-3. But in the end it's American football. Fuck anyone who thinks they know how it goes.
posted by Bringer Tom at 8:11 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Bringer Tom at 8:11 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
So somehow a sportsball contest is being tweeted about as a revitalization of a Trumpian mandate that never existed.
I do cherish these poignant reminders that many of my fellow citizens are basically Biff from Back to the Future, and that is why president Biff makes sense to them.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
I do cherish these poignant reminders that many of my fellow citizens are basically Biff from Back to the Future, and that is why president Biff makes sense to them.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
I don't quite know what to do with this....
Vladimir Putin stole Kraft's superbowl ring
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 8:14 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Vladimir Putin stole Kraft's superbowl ring
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 8:14 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Maybe the whole Trump election thing is an elaborate plot to get that ring back.
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Putin probably thinks he can get another one now.
posted by zachlipton at 8:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 8:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Cheerwine has caffeine? Oh, that explains so much about my time in Tennessee.
posted by Etrigan at 8:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by Etrigan at 8:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
I do cherish these poignant reminders that many of my fellow citizens are basically Biff from Back to the Future, and that is why president Biff makes sense to them.
You do realize that the filmmakers knew Biff was part of our national character when they made the first movie, right? And that the whole arc in the second movie is basically a precognitive exposition of what is happening now? In particular, Biff was based on Donald Trump and the whole problem in the second movie was that Biff got the "inheritance" of the future sports book without earning it.
posted by Bringer Tom at 8:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [24 favorites]
You do realize that the filmmakers knew Biff was part of our national character when they made the first movie, right? And that the whole arc in the second movie is basically a precognitive exposition of what is happening now? In particular, Biff was based on Donald Trump and the whole problem in the second movie was that Biff got the "inheritance" of the future sports book without earning it.
posted by Bringer Tom at 8:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [24 favorites]
Is this the super bowl thread now?
posted by futz at 8:19 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by futz at 8:19 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
I've been thinking a bit about the comment I made here a year ago, about a Trump presidency lending credence to the idea we're living in a simulation.
So now we have Trump, and an uptick in asteroid near-misses. It's been a while since I played SimCity, so what's next? Giant lizard? UFO attack?
posted by um at 8:21 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
So now we have Trump, and an uptick in asteroid near-misses. It's been a while since I played SimCity, so what's next? Giant lizard? UFO attack?
posted by um at 8:21 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Growing up, I got really exceptionally good at ignoring the fact that my favorite soccer team - AC Milan - was owned by Berlusconi.
And then I moved to the US and loved the Pats and Trump fucking ruins it. Goddamnit.
posted by lydhre at 8:24 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
And then I moved to the US and loved the Pats and Trump fucking ruins it. Goddamnit.
posted by lydhre at 8:24 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
There, now. There are plenty of reasons to dislike the Pats.
posted by mochapickle at 8:27 PM on February 5, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by mochapickle at 8:27 PM on February 5, 2017 [16 favorites]
Oh, Wow, Turns Out Donald Trump Canât Shake Hands, Even at All!
Oh god I love this. Multiple WTF clips of him fucking up a goddamn handshake. So Fucking Weird.
posted by futz at 8:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [45 favorites]
Oh god I love this. Multiple WTF clips of him fucking up a goddamn handshake. So Fucking Weird.
posted by futz at 8:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [45 favorites]
You do realize that the filmmakers knew Biff was part of our national character when they made the first movie, right?
Indeed, channeling one of these very threads ever so many weeks(?) ago, hence "reminder." Might have even been yourself who brought it up?
Having disassembled the Ikea furniture of reality, McMuffin-besotted void crabs, all named "Steve," turn three times and spit into the crushing Wrath of Whatever from High atop the Thing this season's writers have crammed into Tehhund's #NextPost.
am I doing it right? So . . . very tired.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:30 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
Indeed, channeling one of these very threads ever so many weeks(?) ago, hence "reminder." Might have even been yourself who brought it up?
Having disassembled the Ikea furniture of reality, McMuffin-besotted void crabs, all named "Steve," turn three times and spit into the crushing Wrath of Whatever from High atop the Thing this season's writers have crammed into Tehhund's #NextPost.
am I doing it right? So . . . very tired.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:30 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
I do cherish these poignant reminders that many of my fellow citizens are basically Biff from Back to the Future, and that is why president Biff makes sense to them.
Even as the ads -- very carefully focus-grouped for a somewhat broader audience than a typical NFL "BUY TRUCK! TRUCK GOOD!" Sunday -- implied that corporate America is hedging its bets for now. Keep an eye on those moments where the marketing message and the political activity take different forks.
Is this the super bowl thread now?
'Tis the season for Televised National Events that can be taken as commentary on or metaphors for The Current Situation. Grammys next weekend, Oscars a fortnight after. And in the White House, Mike Teavee watching (ugh) in his bathrobe.
posted by holgate at 8:30 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Even as the ads -- very carefully focus-grouped for a somewhat broader audience than a typical NFL "BUY TRUCK! TRUCK GOOD!" Sunday -- implied that corporate America is hedging its bets for now. Keep an eye on those moments where the marketing message and the political activity take different forks.
Is this the super bowl thread now?
'Tis the season for Televised National Events that can be taken as commentary on or metaphors for The Current Situation. Grammys next weekend, Oscars a fortnight after. And in the White House, Mike Teavee watching (ugh) in his bathrobe.
posted by holgate at 8:30 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
It's like he is trying to steal the other person's hand in an odd power play attempt. I'd punch someone if they did that to me. *boggles*
posted by futz at 8:30 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by futz at 8:30 PM on February 5, 2017 [10 favorites]
Is this the super bowl thread now?
In Lord Dampnut's America, all bowls are Super!
posted by aspersioncast at 8:31 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
In Lord Dampnut's America, all bowls are Super!
posted by aspersioncast at 8:31 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
God that NYT article is a proof of Trump's Razor. How could Trump make Bannon a member of the permanent NSC and demote the others? Well, what's the stupidest possible explanation? He didn't even read the EO before signing
posted by gatorae at 8:31 PM on February 5, 2017 [87 favorites]
posted by gatorae at 8:31 PM on February 5, 2017 [87 favorites]
Hey did you ever want to see our Mad King turn a handshake with future Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch into a gross dominance display? Ever want to see the distress dawn on Gorsuch's face as he tries to pull his arm away from the monster's clutches and finds himself at the center of a public spectacle of cruelty?
I didn't want to see it either but you're gonna.
edit: oh futz you beat me to it!
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:32 PM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]
I didn't want to see it either but you're gonna.
edit: oh futz you beat me to it!
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:32 PM on February 5, 2017 [13 favorites]
It's been a while since I played SimCity, so what's next? Giant lizard? UFO attack?
Mar-a-Lago Sharknado.
posted by holgate at 8:33 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Mar-a-Lago Sharknado.
posted by holgate at 8:33 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
"Even as the ads -- very carefully focus-grouped for a somewhat broader audience than a typical NFL "BUY TRUCK! TRUCK GOOD!" Sunday -- implied that corporate America is hedging its bets for now."
Dude, you must not watch a lot of NFL games, there's tampon ads now. And seriously 25% of the commercials are sensitive dads choosing diapers and rocking babies to sleep.
The NFL has many, many bad points, but it is BY FAR the American pro sports league that has done the most to reach out to women. And children. And families. They're super conscious of that branding as a family brand. I mean there's a shit-ton of "TRUCK GOOD!" ads, but there's also a lot of Prius ads and Leaf ads and women with tampons driving trucks ads.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:33 PM on February 5, 2017 [16 favorites]
Dude, you must not watch a lot of NFL games, there's tampon ads now. And seriously 25% of the commercials are sensitive dads choosing diapers and rocking babies to sleep.
The NFL has many, many bad points, but it is BY FAR the American pro sports league that has done the most to reach out to women. And children. And families. They're super conscious of that branding as a family brand. I mean there's a shit-ton of "TRUCK GOOD!" ads, but there's also a lot of Prius ads and Leaf ads and women with tampons driving trucks ads.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:33 PM on February 5, 2017 [16 favorites]
Guessing most of MeFi already listens to This American Life, but a heads up for the new episode that just dropped, 609: It's Working Out Very Nicely , is all about the Muslim ban rollout, and has some very good interviews. Got me nice and angry again.
I wish parts of this could have aired before the election, like the interviews with the people who actually actually did our pre-Trump refugee vetting, and the fact that it was already an extreme 2 year process.
posted by p3t3 at 8:35 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
I wish parts of this could have aired before the election, like the interviews with the people who actually actually did our pre-Trump refugee vetting, and the fact that it was already an extreme 2 year process.
posted by p3t3 at 8:35 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
Gee, ya ever wonder why cheetofuck was never an NFL owner? Besides the obvious lack of real assets, he'd fit right in with the various shitbags who largely make up their cozy little club. May I direct you to the sad demise of the USFL:
Come to think of it - there were eight teams left when the league went belly-up and sued the NFL. Wonder if Dampnut ever collected his 38 cents from the damages awarded?
posted by hangashore at 8:36 PM on February 5, 2017 [15 favorites]
In 1985, the USFL voted to move from a spring to a fall schedule in 1986 to compete directly with the NFL. This was done at the urging of New Jersey Generals majority owner Donald Trump and a handful of other owners as a way to force a merger between the leagues. As part of this strategy, the USFL filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the National Football League in 1986, and a jury ruled that the NFL had violated anti-monopoly laws. However, in a victory in name only, the USFL was awarded a judgment of just $1, which under anti-trust laws, was tripled to $3. This court decision effectively ended the USFL. The league never played the 1986 season, and by the time it folded, it had lost over US$163 million.Which is how the world outside of the Five Boroughs seems to have first become aware of this self-aggrandizing carbuncle.
Come to think of it - there were eight teams left when the league went belly-up and sued the NFL. Wonder if Dampnut ever collected his 38 cents from the damages awarded?
posted by hangashore at 8:36 PM on February 5, 2017 [15 favorites]
So now we have Trump, and an uptick in asteroid near-misses. It's been a while since I played SimCity, so what's next? Giant lizard? UFO attack?
Supervolcano!
posted by entropicamericana at 8:37 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Supervolcano!
posted by entropicamericana at 8:37 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
God that NYT article is a proof of Trump's Razor. How could Trump make Bannon a member of the permanent NSC and demote the others? Well, what's the stupidest possible explanation? He didn't even read the EO before signing
Assuming the report is accurate, I would say it is a remarkably ballsy move to just draft a document that says you're going to be put in one of the most powerful committees and not mention that. So much so (and especially given that Trump then took a lot of flak), that I wonder if Bannon has rather overplayed his hand by making his boss look like an idiot twice in a week. Once with the signing, and once with the leak that Trump didn't know.
This also arguably happened once/twice/many times with the Muslim travel ban, but it doesn't have quite the same air of treating the boss with contempt as the equivalent of secretly drafting yourself a new title and paycheck.
posted by jaduncan at 8:38 PM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]
Assuming the report is accurate, I would say it is a remarkably ballsy move to just draft a document that says you're going to be put in one of the most powerful committees and not mention that. So much so (and especially given that Trump then took a lot of flak), that I wonder if Bannon has rather overplayed his hand by making his boss look like an idiot twice in a week. Once with the signing, and once with the leak that Trump didn't know.
This also arguably happened once/twice/many times with the Muslim travel ban, but it doesn't have quite the same air of treating the boss with contempt as the equivalent of secretly drafting yourself a new title and paycheck.
posted by jaduncan at 8:38 PM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]
so what's next? Giant lizard? UFO attack?
Hopefully Bruce Lee.
posted by juiceCake at 8:39 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Hopefully Bruce Lee.
posted by juiceCake at 8:39 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Dude, you must not watch a lot of NFL games, there's tampon ads now.
Point taken; your media market may vary. (It's very truck-y here on a Sunday afternoon for the regional games, less so for Sunday night.)
posted by holgate at 8:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Point taken; your media market may vary. (It's very truck-y here on a Sunday afternoon for the regional games, less so for Sunday night.)
posted by holgate at 8:40 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Hey did you ever want to see our Mad King turn a handshake with future Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch into a gross dominance display? Ever want to see the distress dawn on Gorsuch's face as he tries to pull his arm away from the monster's clutches and finds himself at the center of a public spectacle of cruelty?
I didn't want to see it either but you're gonna.
That little moment gave me some hope. Sure Gorsuch is gonna be there to vote for a redo of Roe v Wade, so fuck that guy in general, but holy shit is he, once he flexes his life-time appointment independence muscles, not gonna put up with Trumpian bullshit after that handshake.
One handshake like that and I'd never be able to take someone seriously ever again. There's no way Gorsuch will be there to affirm Trump's more authoritarian moves. I hope. I hope that handshake was a spoiler.
Christ what an asshole.
posted by dis_integration at 8:41 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
I didn't want to see it either but you're gonna.
That little moment gave me some hope. Sure Gorsuch is gonna be there to vote for a redo of Roe v Wade, so fuck that guy in general, but holy shit is he, once he flexes his life-time appointment independence muscles, not gonna put up with Trumpian bullshit after that handshake.
One handshake like that and I'd never be able to take someone seriously ever again. There's no way Gorsuch will be there to affirm Trump's more authoritarian moves. I hope. I hope that handshake was a spoiler.
Christ what an asshole.
posted by dis_integration at 8:41 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
Trump is a simple man. Knowing all we know about him, Bannon's EO on the NSC, the other messes, the Bannon Time cover, the SNL skit, and all the media's references to President Bannon have got to be absolutely enraging Trump.
>:)
posted by gatorae at 8:45 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
>:)
posted by gatorae at 8:45 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
Wow only an asshole would shake hands like that!
Unrelated, here's Roger Goodell shaking Tom Brady's hand post-game.
(In the full clip he gave him like 4 yanks.)
posted by SpiffyRob at 8:48 PM on February 5, 2017
Unrelated, here's Roger Goodell shaking Tom Brady's hand post-game.
(In the full clip he gave him like 4 yanks.)
posted by SpiffyRob at 8:48 PM on February 5, 2017
I really hope there are new Biden/Obama memes implying they eff'd with the light switches and thats why the Trump staff can't figure out how to turn them on.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 8:51 PM on February 5, 2017 [20 favorites]
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 8:51 PM on February 5, 2017 [20 favorites]
Speaking of the superbowl, some of the commercials were amazing.
(Lumber 84 commercial, features THE WALL)
posted by Torosaurus at 8:54 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
(Lumber 84 commercial, features THE WALL)
posted by Torosaurus at 8:54 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
"Let them eat brioche."
âItâs just a Styrofoam cake. Itâs not for eating. I wasnât expecting it to be seen on TV.â
I'm afraid that they haven't really caught the true majesty of Versailles.
posted by jaduncan at 8:56 PM on February 5, 2017
âItâs just a Styrofoam cake. Itâs not for eating. I wasnât expecting it to be seen on TV.â
I'm afraid that they haven't really caught the true majesty of Versailles.
posted by jaduncan at 8:56 PM on February 5, 2017
President Obama installed clappers on all the lights, but Trump's tiny hands don't clap loud enough to register, so the lights stay off.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 9:01 PM on February 5, 2017 [26 favorites]
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 9:01 PM on February 5, 2017 [26 favorites]
wow you guys have different perspectives. I watched that and I loved watching it but Neil Gorsuch is a scumbag who'll take that kind of treatment and smile through it and pass the humiliation on to someone else, if he ever feels it at all. someone like oh anybody who could be affected by his terrible judgments. this guy loved Antonin Scalia. he has demonstrably bad taste in people. He has no problem with men with great and terrible confidence wrapped around a howling void where a character ought to live. if he minded being jerked around that way he'd never have gotten to the position he's in. he's not putting up with it, it's what he's there for.
posted by queenofbithynia at 9:02 PM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by queenofbithynia at 9:02 PM on February 5, 2017 [17 favorites]
in conclusion I hate Neil Gorsuch
posted by queenofbithynia at 9:02 PM on February 5, 2017 [39 favorites]
posted by queenofbithynia at 9:02 PM on February 5, 2017 [39 favorites]
I'm afraid that they haven't really caught the true majesty of Versailles.
Or... have they?
posted by hangashore at 9:03 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Or... have they?
posted by hangashore at 9:03 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
The NFL has many, many bad points, but it is BY FAR the American pro sports league that has done the most to reach out to women. And children. And families. They're super conscious of that branding as a family brand.
This is entirely about expanding market share - even back in the mid 90's the NFL figured they had pretty much saturated the American Male market, and the only way to expand viewership and ticket sales and merchandising (and therefore $$$$$) was to attempt to get more women interested and make football games more "family-friendly." For a long time I had a regular gig where bands would play a little pre-game/after-game party at the stadium with of course beer and food sales but also bouncy games for the kids and face-painting and so on. (Which as far as I know is still happening, just with a different company after the local NFL team changed owners a few years ago.) Plus I worked a couple of "Football 101" events that were specifically and directly marketed at women, trying to teach Football Widows enough about the game so they could sit beside their husbands on the couch on Sundays.
I have seen into this gift horse's mouth my own self, and there's nothing admirable about this reaching out - it's just greed.
The more cynical of us might suspect that their push to women and families is not only for more money but also to delay or reduce any questioning of their business practices and health risks . . . . .
posted by soundguy99 at 9:04 PM on February 5, 2017 [25 favorites]
This is entirely about expanding market share - even back in the mid 90's the NFL figured they had pretty much saturated the American Male market, and the only way to expand viewership and ticket sales and merchandising (and therefore $$$$$) was to attempt to get more women interested and make football games more "family-friendly." For a long time I had a regular gig where bands would play a little pre-game/after-game party at the stadium with of course beer and food sales but also bouncy games for the kids and face-painting and so on. (Which as far as I know is still happening, just with a different company after the local NFL team changed owners a few years ago.) Plus I worked a couple of "Football 101" events that were specifically and directly marketed at women, trying to teach Football Widows enough about the game so they could sit beside their husbands on the couch on Sundays.
I have seen into this gift horse's mouth my own self, and there's nothing admirable about this reaching out - it's just greed.
The more cynical of us might suspect that their push to women and families is not only for more money but also to delay or reduce any questioning of their business practices and health risks . . . . .
posted by soundguy99 at 9:04 PM on February 5, 2017 [25 favorites]
Wow only an asshole would shake hands like that!
Or it's like he has never actually seen a handshake before and is just making it up as he goes along.
posted by bibliowench at 9:04 PM on February 5, 2017
Or it's like he has never actually seen a handshake before and is just making it up as he goes along.
posted by bibliowench at 9:04 PM on February 5, 2017
No, this is a dominance thing he does intentionally.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:06 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:06 PM on February 5, 2017 [11 favorites]
Isn't the correct counter to the dominance handshake to go literally toe-to-toe with the asshole such that your chin is resting comfortably in his eye socket?
posted by um at 9:10 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by um at 9:10 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
shaking hands with Trump is the closest a lot of men will ever get to knowing what it's like when you're walking along a sidewalk and a man or group of men walks toward you and at the last minute you stagger rightward onto the grass or into the street so they won't walk right into you. it's amazing. I got to keep these links handy for illustrative purposes in decades to come.
you can even see exactly the same emotions play across their faces, the thought of "well, someone has to lurch forward awkwardly and almost fall down or this won't work, who's it going to be? oh...oh, it's me." every time.
posted by queenofbithynia at 9:10 PM on February 5, 2017 [41 favorites]
you can even see exactly the same emotions play across their faces, the thought of "well, someone has to lurch forward awkwardly and almost fall down or this won't work, who's it going to be? oh...oh, it's me." every time.
posted by queenofbithynia at 9:10 PM on February 5, 2017 [41 favorites]
The decision came alongside the scrapping of another rule that enforced extended background checks for gun purchases by some Social Security recipients with mental disabilities.Great, now he'll be armed.
Donald Trump supports both measures and will sign both of them, the White House said.
posted by sebastienbailard at 9:11 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Isn't the correct counter to the dominance handshake to go literally toe-to-toe with the asshole such that your chin is resting comfortably in his eye socket?
No, it's step forward with the pull as if being pulled off balance while lifting one knee up and then "Oops sorry bout your nuts"
posted by Jalliah at 9:13 PM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]
No, it's step forward with the pull as if being pulled off balance while lifting one knee up and then "Oops sorry bout your nuts"
posted by Jalliah at 9:13 PM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]
Getting in close before offering your hand so you have the same leverage as Trump does. Like the Apprentice guy in the second example from RobotVoodoo's link
posted by Coventry at 9:15 PM on February 5, 2017
posted by Coventry at 9:15 PM on February 5, 2017
(Lumber 84 commercial, features THE WALL)
The company is definitely having its cake and eating it on that one. That's part of what I was thinking about upthread, though the ambivalence in the commercial is interesting by itself. It recognises that border-crossers tap into a long, potent narrative of American immigrant aspiration, but tries to map it to the White House line of a wall with a door. Except the ardent redhats don't want a fucking door.
posted by holgate at 9:17 PM on February 5, 2017
The company is definitely having its cake and eating it on that one. That's part of what I was thinking about upthread, though the ambivalence in the commercial is interesting by itself. It recognises that border-crossers tap into a long, potent narrative of American immigrant aspiration, but tries to map it to the White House line of a wall with a door. Except the ardent redhats don't want a fucking door.
posted by holgate at 9:17 PM on February 5, 2017
The cartoons are already getting NSFL
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:18 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:18 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
" there's nothing admirable about this reaching out - it's just greed."
I mean honestly that's okay; I like Cheerios pandering to me with its interracial couples and HoneyMaid pandering to me with its same-sex couples and LOOK if late capitalism is going to use greed to guide it I'd much rather it be INCLUSIVE GREED than STRAIGHT WHITE MALE TRUCK MAN greed.
I joke a little but I'm also serious a little; I saw what happened when Missouri passed a RFRA and Dow Corning panicked and started running lots of ads about how gay-marriage-friendly they were and how pissed they were at the Missouri State Legislature because it's hard to recruit top-flight engineers to backwards places! Capitalism is itself problematic but if we're going to have capitalism I'd rather it be pandering to inclusive lefties than the sort of conservatives who'd rather set the world on fire than watch a tampon commercial.
If the NFL can use its $10+ billion to say "Women are an important market!" that's much better than the NFL using its $10+ billion to say "women are NOT an important market, truck guys forever."
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:18 PM on February 5, 2017 [76 favorites]
I mean honestly that's okay; I like Cheerios pandering to me with its interracial couples and HoneyMaid pandering to me with its same-sex couples and LOOK if late capitalism is going to use greed to guide it I'd much rather it be INCLUSIVE GREED than STRAIGHT WHITE MALE TRUCK MAN greed.
I joke a little but I'm also serious a little; I saw what happened when Missouri passed a RFRA and Dow Corning panicked and started running lots of ads about how gay-marriage-friendly they were and how pissed they were at the Missouri State Legislature because it's hard to recruit top-flight engineers to backwards places! Capitalism is itself problematic but if we're going to have capitalism I'd rather it be pandering to inclusive lefties than the sort of conservatives who'd rather set the world on fire than watch a tampon commercial.
If the NFL can use its $10+ billion to say "Women are an important market!" that's much better than the NFL using its $10+ billion to say "women are NOT an important market, truck guys forever."
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:18 PM on February 5, 2017 [76 favorites]
I think with McCain - and, for that matter, Ryan and Gorsuch and others - what we're looking at is people who desperately want to back their president, to have Their Guy in Office who will help them push through CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN for the country, but who are basically forced to resist him at times because he can't resist doing stupid shit that hurts their brand and (occasionally) hits them in places where they actually have genuine ideological commitments.
McCain doesn't want to challenge Trump, but he also quite obviously hates this Russian honeymoon from head to tail. Ryan is a free-market corporate shill who is seeing their new minted Republican President fucking around with big US corporations and threatening immigration actions that are potentially very bad for business. Gorsuch, as far as I understand his career, is a very by-the-book conservative who has the usual hate list but also gets antsy around the sort of Chaotic Evil use of executive power of the sort that Trump looks on practicing for as long as he is in the White House. And except for Gorsuch they all have to answer to constituents - ordinary voters and big donors alike - who are increasingly irritated and embarassed at aspects of Trump's behavior.
Don't expect any of these guys to stand up to Trump because they dislike the things about him that liberals or Leftists dislike. They want to be his ally, but he is making it hard and will probably make it harder as time goes on. Trump does not cast off allies lightly, he heaves them away with great force.
There's probably never going to be a Republican "insurgency" of any kind, but sooner or later we're going to see individual or small groups of Republicans who get tired of being poked with a stick and start poking back, and there are some things they're going to get in the way of because they just can't afford not to. That's why you're seeing them grumble and harumph now, because they're still hoping that Trump will make an about-turn and become the rubber-stamping traditional conservative they want him to be.
The Dems strategy of holding on and drawing out the fight over appointments, etc. seems to me to be taking advantage of this to good effect. It doesn't let Ryan and the others get to the substantive legislation they want to push through and gives Trump more and more time and space to embarrass the nation, to throw out executive orders that have to be executive orders because none of the Congressional Republicans want to touch them (immigration bans, The Wall, etc.). Which are more likely to run afoul of the Constitution or other barriers that the Republicans' control of Congress can't overcome.
Both Trump (and Bannon) and the Congressional Republicans wanted this to be a time of rolling triumphs, albeit they had an only partly overlapping list of items they wanted to force through. Instead its as close to a disaster as a Party which essentially controls the federal government from top to bottom can suffer.
posted by AdamCSnider at 9:19 PM on February 5, 2017 [29 favorites]
McCain doesn't want to challenge Trump, but he also quite obviously hates this Russian honeymoon from head to tail. Ryan is a free-market corporate shill who is seeing their new minted Republican President fucking around with big US corporations and threatening immigration actions that are potentially very bad for business. Gorsuch, as far as I understand his career, is a very by-the-book conservative who has the usual hate list but also gets antsy around the sort of Chaotic Evil use of executive power of the sort that Trump looks on practicing for as long as he is in the White House. And except for Gorsuch they all have to answer to constituents - ordinary voters and big donors alike - who are increasingly irritated and embarassed at aspects of Trump's behavior.
Don't expect any of these guys to stand up to Trump because they dislike the things about him that liberals or Leftists dislike. They want to be his ally, but he is making it hard and will probably make it harder as time goes on. Trump does not cast off allies lightly, he heaves them away with great force.
There's probably never going to be a Republican "insurgency" of any kind, but sooner or later we're going to see individual or small groups of Republicans who get tired of being poked with a stick and start poking back, and there are some things they're going to get in the way of because they just can't afford not to. That's why you're seeing them grumble and harumph now, because they're still hoping that Trump will make an about-turn and become the rubber-stamping traditional conservative they want him to be.
The Dems strategy of holding on and drawing out the fight over appointments, etc. seems to me to be taking advantage of this to good effect. It doesn't let Ryan and the others get to the substantive legislation they want to push through and gives Trump more and more time and space to embarrass the nation, to throw out executive orders that have to be executive orders because none of the Congressional Republicans want to touch them (immigration bans, The Wall, etc.). Which are more likely to run afoul of the Constitution or other barriers that the Republicans' control of Congress can't overcome.
Both Trump (and Bannon) and the Congressional Republicans wanted this to be a time of rolling triumphs, albeit they had an only partly overlapping list of items they wanted to force through. Instead its as close to a disaster as a Party which essentially controls the federal government from top to bottom can suffer.
posted by AdamCSnider at 9:19 PM on February 5, 2017 [29 favorites]
the correct counter to the dominance handshake
Retracting your hand into your sleeve while holding a fake rubber hand and a canister of stage blood so that it looks like he ripped your hand off as you fall to your knees screaming with blood spurting out of the stump
posted by XMLicious at 9:21 PM on February 5, 2017 [84 favorites]
(In the full clip he gave him like 4 yanks.)
r/nocontext
posted by futz at 9:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [16 favorites]
r/nocontext
posted by futz at 9:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [16 favorites]
whatever happened to a good old fashioned head butt?
posted by indubitable at 9:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by indubitable at 9:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
His head is already up his butt. Butts.
posted by futz at 9:29 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by futz at 9:29 PM on February 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
Capitalism is itself problematic but if we're going to have capitalism I'd rather it be pandering to inclusive lefties than the sort of conservatives who'd rather set the world on fire than watch a tampon commercial.
I'm on board with that. The unanswered question is whether it's possible to have big national brands -- especially great-equaliser brands like Coke -- market themselves to urban clusters on inclusivity and tolerance while there's a kind of Cultural Revolution being promulgated from high office. If anywhere can do it, America can.
posted by holgate at 9:30 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
I'm on board with that. The unanswered question is whether it's possible to have big national brands -- especially great-equaliser brands like Coke -- market themselves to urban clusters on inclusivity and tolerance while there's a kind of Cultural Revolution being promulgated from high office. If anywhere can do it, America can.
posted by holgate at 9:30 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Retracting your hand into your sleeve while holding a fake rubber hand and a canister of stage blood so that it looks like he ripped your hand off as you fall to your knees screaming with blood spurting out of the stump
Just wear one of those little palm buzzers. Fun for everyone involved as you shake His hand!*
* fun is not guaranteed. Do not taunt Happy Fun President or HFP's security detail.
posted by jaduncan at 9:30 PM on February 5, 2017
Just wear one of those little palm buzzers. Fun for everyone involved as you shake His hand!*
* fun is not guaranteed. Do not taunt Happy Fun President or HFP's security detail.
posted by jaduncan at 9:30 PM on February 5, 2017
Capitalism is itself problematic but if we're going to have capitalism I'd rather it be pandering to inclusive lefties than the sort of conservatives who'd rather set the world on fire than watch a tampon commercial.
And that is in fact exactly the sort of wisdom that justifies your power.
Seriously, Eyebrows, I would love for you to run for office.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:33 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
And that is in fact exactly the sort of wisdom that justifies your power.
Seriously, Eyebrows, I would love for you to run for office.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:33 PM on February 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
CHEERWINE
for AGES i thought this was something like red ripple. so much more of the south made sense when i thought it was like red ripple.
posted by poffin boffin at 9:36 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
for AGES i thought this was something like red ripple. so much more of the south made sense when i thought it was like red ripple.
posted by poffin boffin at 9:36 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
the correct counter to the dominance handshake
All good answers; so far indubitable wins for simplicity but XMLicious for style.
acceptable answers also include a knee to the groin and that move where you wiggle your finger around in their grip like the gestural equivalent of Woody Harrelson's mustache, when he has one.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:37 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
All good answers; so far indubitable wins for simplicity but XMLicious for style.
acceptable answers also include a knee to the groin and that move where you wiggle your finger around in their grip like the gestural equivalent of Woody Harrelson's mustache, when he has one.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:37 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
I mean honestly that's okay; I like Cheerios pandering to me with its interracial couples and HoneyMaid pandering to me with its same-sex couples and LOOK if late capitalism is going to use greed to guide it I'd much rather it be INCLUSIVE GREED than STRAIGHT WHITE MALE TRUCK MAN greed.
as long as you don't try to unionize
posted by indubitable at 9:38 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
as long as you don't try to unionize
posted by indubitable at 9:38 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
"Seriously, Eyebrows, I would love for you to run for office."
I DID TWICE, I won the first time, the second time was an utter shitshow that ended in rape threats, a police report, my harassers FOIAing my police report to get my unlisted phone number, MORE rape threats to my unlisted phone number, my 4-year-old being doxxed and receiving specific threats at preschool that required us to keep him out for a week for the safety of his teacher and classmates, me going to the mayor because the cops were unresponsive, the mayor making fun of me on a Friday for being a wussy little baby girlie who was easily intimidated by anonymous calls and then on a Tuesday sending in the SWAT team against a fake twitter account. The mayor cried because it was hurtful to his wife that people were making sex jokes about him. Whereas he felt that people directly threatening me with rape was something I should just suck up because "it's just the sort of thing that happens and you can't really respond to it" and I LITERALLY QUOTE THE COPS, "The kind of thing that happens to women, it's almost never serious."
Anyway running for office is balls.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:41 PM on February 5, 2017 [225 favorites]
I DID TWICE, I won the first time, the second time was an utter shitshow that ended in rape threats, a police report, my harassers FOIAing my police report to get my unlisted phone number, MORE rape threats to my unlisted phone number, my 4-year-old being doxxed and receiving specific threats at preschool that required us to keep him out for a week for the safety of his teacher and classmates, me going to the mayor because the cops were unresponsive, the mayor making fun of me on a Friday for being a wussy little baby girlie who was easily intimidated by anonymous calls and then on a Tuesday sending in the SWAT team against a fake twitter account. The mayor cried because it was hurtful to his wife that people were making sex jokes about him. Whereas he felt that people directly threatening me with rape was something I should just suck up because "it's just the sort of thing that happens and you can't really respond to it" and I LITERALLY QUOTE THE COPS, "The kind of thing that happens to women, it's almost never serious."
Anyway running for office is balls.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:41 PM on February 5, 2017 [225 favorites]
"the second time was an utter shitshow that ended in rape threats" -- The reason why was, a very popular principal cheated and encouraged his teachers to cheat on standardized state assessments for special ed students so that he was recognized by the White House as a Blue Ribbon School; students who literally could not read scored state exams as reading at an 8th grade level, so we fired him. So people freaked the fuck out because HE LOVED THE CHILDREN AND TAUGHT THEM TO READ and somehow magically when they went anywhere else they couldn't WHY DIDN'T WE LOVE CHILDREN???? Also he used the n-word when he was among just white people, it was GREAT, he was GREAT.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:44 PM on February 5, 2017 [82 favorites]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:44 PM on February 5, 2017 [82 favorites]
Grr. Do any of the groups trying to support women in office have any useful resources for dealing with the police not taking things seriously? Because that's pretty fucked up, and I'm sure that sort of thing, where the police ignore threats against women, contributes to the gender disparity among our representatives. Maybe if they don't, somebody should tell them to start.
posted by nat at 9:50 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by nat at 9:50 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
I DID TWICE
Well dammit.
You just reminded me how a friend of mine got angry at a mutual acquaintance who during the election posted something along the lines of "just get out there and run for office, millennials."
I didn't quite grok friend's beef until they explained how extraordinarily privileged and rooted in cis-het-whiteness that is. And then I felt extraordinarily privileged for not having that be my immediate expectation. And then I thought about how Lord Dampnut (who I was still thinking of as []) has never felt any such emotion, despite being far more privileged than any of us.
Thanks Eyebrows. For everything.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:56 PM on February 5, 2017 [23 favorites]
Well dammit.
You just reminded me how a friend of mine got angry at a mutual acquaintance who during the election posted something along the lines of "just get out there and run for office, millennials."
I didn't quite grok friend's beef until they explained how extraordinarily privileged and rooted in cis-het-whiteness that is. And then I felt extraordinarily privileged for not having that be my immediate expectation. And then I thought about how Lord Dampnut (who I was still thinking of as []) has never felt any such emotion, despite being far more privileged than any of us.
Thanks Eyebrows. For everything.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:56 PM on February 5, 2017 [23 favorites]
Eyebrows, you're an impressive woman. Firstly for your drive and strength, but secondly and not least because (I assume) you didn't then spend a while sitting safely behind Tor and VPNs Twitter trolling the hell out of your mayor.
posted by jaduncan at 9:57 PM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by jaduncan at 9:57 PM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
Yeah, this kind of thing is exactly why many women should be very reasonably afraid to run for office. Sigh. (Though Brianna Wu's already going through it so what does she have to lose at this point, might as well.)
So far it seems like fucking nobody seems to have any idea how to handle these situations, though.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:57 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
So far it seems like fucking nobody seems to have any idea how to handle these situations, though.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:57 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Might be a little too much of a stretch, but it's still nice.
posted by flatluigi at 10:00 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by flatluigi at 10:00 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
The correct counter move is one of insurgent submission. You drop to your knees in pain and shout "oh lord! Oh crikey! Let go you rotter! Don't punish me!'
-with apologies to bonzo dog band
posted by ian1977 at 10:01 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
-with apologies to bonzo dog band
posted by ian1977 at 10:01 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
In fact, if he continues to display such masterful physical dominance, maybe this should be his new walk on music...
"He's the strongest man...the world...has ever seen! And if you take his courses, he'll make you big and rough. And you can kick sand right back in their faces!"
posted by ian1977 at 10:07 PM on February 5, 2017
"He's the strongest man...the world...has ever seen! And if you take his courses, he'll make you big and rough. And you can kick sand right back in their faces!"
posted by ian1977 at 10:07 PM on February 5, 2017
Honestly I enjoyed 90% of my races and my service, but that 10% managed to be utterly terrible. I'm not sure there's a lesson to be taken from it because it was such a crazy situation, but if I had to try to take lessons:
1) You can do real good for real people in local government and it is very much worth it for that.
2) Women, and people with children, are uniquely vulnerable if public sentiment turns against them.
3) State laws regarding FOIAing elected officials' children are way, way too lenient, and FOIAs about police reports for harassment should absolutely require a judge to sign off before releasing the report because it's hella easy for harassers to FOIA harassment reports about them and use the reports to get more information about the people they're harassing.
Like definitely you should be able to call your Congressional rep, but probably you should not be able to find out his kindergartener's teacher's name and send threats through the school system.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:09 PM on February 5, 2017 [59 favorites]
1) You can do real good for real people in local government and it is very much worth it for that.
2) Women, and people with children, are uniquely vulnerable if public sentiment turns against them.
3) State laws regarding FOIAing elected officials' children are way, way too lenient, and FOIAs about police reports for harassment should absolutely require a judge to sign off before releasing the report because it's hella easy for harassers to FOIA harassment reports about them and use the reports to get more information about the people they're harassing.
Like definitely you should be able to call your Congressional rep, but probably you should not be able to find out his kindergartener's teacher's name and send threats through the school system.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:09 PM on February 5, 2017 [59 favorites]
There's probably never going to be a Republican "insurgency" of any kind, but sooner or later we're going to see individual or small groups of Republicans who get tired of being poked with a stick and start poking back, and there are some things they're going to get in the way of because they just can't afford not to. That's why you're seeing them grumble and harumph now, because they're still hoping that Trump will make an about-turn and become the rubber-stamping traditional conservative they want him to be.
Agreed, plus one thing that hasn't yet had time to develop in a serious way:
Clash Of The Titan(ic Egos)
Which is to say as far as I can tell judges, governors, and US Senators, especially the white male versions, are used to having no small amount of power and authority in their own right, and often have the egos to match. If they start to feel like Trump thinks he can just order them around they're likely to push back - "You can't tell ME what to do, I'm a goddam US Senator!!!" I think this is part of the grumping and harrumphing, they're feeling trod upon but haven't yet reached the point of openly balking. (Partly because, as you say, they're getting the things they want and are still hoping Trump will calm the fuck down.) We've seen hints of this with McCain, and there was apparently one point where Trump suggested to McConnell that the Senate just do away with the filibuster first thing, and McConnell went on one of the talk shows and basically told him to buzz off and let the Senate worry about the Senate rules. So there's some potential cracks in the Red Wall that Trump is essentially naturally likely to make bigger just being himself.
posted by soundguy99 at 10:10 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
Agreed, plus one thing that hasn't yet had time to develop in a serious way:
Clash Of The Titan(ic Egos)
Which is to say as far as I can tell judges, governors, and US Senators, especially the white male versions, are used to having no small amount of power and authority in their own right, and often have the egos to match. If they start to feel like Trump thinks he can just order them around they're likely to push back - "You can't tell ME what to do, I'm a goddam US Senator!!!" I think this is part of the grumping and harrumphing, they're feeling trod upon but haven't yet reached the point of openly balking. (Partly because, as you say, they're getting the things they want and are still hoping Trump will calm the fuck down.) We've seen hints of this with McCain, and there was apparently one point where Trump suggested to McConnell that the Senate just do away with the filibuster first thing, and McConnell went on one of the talk shows and basically told him to buzz off and let the Senate worry about the Senate rules. So there's some potential cracks in the Red Wall that Trump is essentially naturally likely to make bigger just being himself.
posted by soundguy99 at 10:10 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
okay but have you considered hollowing out some silver-haired white dude and piloting him from the inside like that episode of the x-files that still grosses me out ugh and running for office that way?
posted by um at 10:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [20 favorites]
posted by um at 10:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [20 favorites]
Bonus: some of them are pre-hollowed!
posted by ian1977 at 10:15 PM on February 5, 2017 [32 favorites]
posted by ian1977 at 10:15 PM on February 5, 2017 [32 favorites]
Or find some dude to play Christian to your Cyrano.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:16 PM on February 5, 2017
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:16 PM on February 5, 2017
" it's hella easy for harassers to FOIA harassment reports about them and use the reports to get more information about the people they're harassing."
I mean like if you're suffering domestic violence and file against your abuser they can FOIA a lot of your details. There are protections but they are patchy. It's bad enough if you're a public official running for election; WAY WORSE if your abuser is in your own home.
It also gave me a lot of sympathy for people (of either party) losing elections, it is terrible, there is hardly any humiliation as public, and it's on the front page of the paper for days.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]
I mean like if you're suffering domestic violence and file against your abuser they can FOIA a lot of your details. There are protections but they are patchy. It's bad enough if you're a public official running for election; WAY WORSE if your abuser is in your own home.
It also gave me a lot of sympathy for people (of either party) losing elections, it is terrible, there is hardly any humiliation as public, and it's on the front page of the paper for days.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]
97 (mostly tech) companies, including Apple, Facebook, Salesforce, Twitter, Uber, and Microsoft, have filed a friend of the court brief with the 9th Circuit in the Washington case opposing the immigration executive order.
posted by zachlipton at 10:18 PM on February 5, 2017 [30 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 10:18 PM on February 5, 2017 [30 favorites]
97 (mostly tech) companies, including Apple, Facebook, Salesforce, Twitter, Uber, and Microsoft, have filed a friend of the court brief with the 9th Circuit in the Washington case opposing the immigration executive order.
Not surprised to see Lyft in there, but Uber? Wow, that's some serious, high-speed backpedaling, Kalanick.
Too little, too late, though. Fuck Uber.
posted by CommonSense at 10:25 PM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
Not surprised to see Lyft in there, but Uber? Wow, that's some serious, high-speed backpedaling, Kalanick.
Too little, too late, though. Fuck Uber.
posted by CommonSense at 10:25 PM on February 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
Might be a little too much of a stretch, but it's still nice.
It would be an odd coincidence to start a set with "God Bless America" then do a brisk segue into "This Land Is Your Land" without being very aware of the relationship between the two songs. That itself is a statement. And Gaga sang "This Land" in Camden, NJ last year at a show for DNC delegates.
posted by holgate at 10:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
It would be an odd coincidence to start a set with "God Bless America" then do a brisk segue into "This Land Is Your Land" without being very aware of the relationship between the two songs. That itself is a statement. And Gaga sang "This Land" in Camden, NJ last year at a show for DNC delegates.
posted by holgate at 10:28 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
justice & liberty dealing with Trump
posted by Coventry at 10:41 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Coventry at 10:41 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
Or find some dude to play Christian to your Cyrano.
Worked for Bannon.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:48 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Worked for Bannon.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:48 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Semi-interesting for what's not in the group... lots of tech but no ISP/phone/cable companies and no Big Media (even after Disney dropped out of his 'business advisory' group). But among the few non-tech in the group: the so-pro-immigrant-they're-getting-boycotted yogurt people Chobani, and jeansmaker Levi-Strauss. And Thiel's old stomping ground PayPal...
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:55 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:55 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Notably absent from the list of 97 companies are several who met with Trump prior to his inauguration: Amazon, Oracle, IBM, SpaceX and Tesla.Elon Musk seems incredibly determined to corkscrew all the electric-cars-and-rockets goodwill he'd amassed straight into the ground.
(Also: fucking hell, Bezos? Really?)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:57 PM on February 5, 2017 [26 favorites]
Elon Musk has been acting incredibly stupid about the ban on twitter. He previously attempted to somehow crowdsource specific revisions to the executive order ("Lmk specific amendments"); a plan so stunningly naive I'm really questioning his basic competence at life. How could a seemingly intelligent person think that could possibly be a useful exercise? Yesterday, he tweeted:
At my request, the agenda for yesterday's White House meeting went from not mentioning the travel ban to having it be first and foremostWow Elon. You got it on the agenda. Great work. I'm sure that really sent a message. I like Carl Malamud's reply:
If i were going to hire a clerk, this guy would be on my must-interview list.posted by zachlipton at 11:07 PM on February 5, 2017 [29 favorites]
(Also: fucking hell, Bezos? Really?)
Amazon wasn't a part of this brief, but they've were already involved in the Washington case, working with the AG and filing a declaration stating how the order has impacted its employees.
posted by zachlipton at 11:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]
Amazon wasn't a part of this brief, but they've were already involved in the Washington case, working with the AG and filing a declaration stating how the order has impacted its employees.
posted by zachlipton at 11:12 PM on February 5, 2017 [19 favorites]
Gonna give Bezos the benefit of the doubt for now based on zachlipton's point above and WaPo continuing to play "grown-up journalist" for the most part.
(yes, there are multiple problems with the Post and indeed I read the McConnell op-ed; yes, I think overall they're still slightly better than the old grey lady in many respects)
yes I may be overly reliant on the small tag.
posted by aspersioncast at 11:25 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
(yes, there are multiple problems with the Post and indeed I read the McConnell op-ed; yes, I think overall they're still slightly better than the old grey lady in many respects)
yes I may be overly reliant on the small tag.
posted by aspersioncast at 11:25 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
Elon Musk has been acting incredibly stupid about the ban on twitter.
This guy. This guy is basically the Soylent guy and it's weird how many more people respect him. I guess he did manage to ship?
posted by aspersioncast at 11:35 PM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]
This guy. This guy is basically the Soylent guy and it's weird how many more people respect him. I guess he did manage to ship?
posted by aspersioncast at 11:35 PM on February 5, 2017 [12 favorites]
Musk doesn't want to ruin his chances for when he starts yet another company that requires hundreds of millions of dollars of Federal government loans and invoices to survive.
posted by PenDevil at 11:38 PM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by PenDevil at 11:38 PM on February 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
So, I'm reading a biography of Andrew Jackson (who Trump seems to've adopted as a sort of patron saint, mostly, it seems, at Bannon's urging, because of Jackson's conception of "America" as a country for white men), and learning things I didn't know, or have forgotten; Jackson wanted to amend the Constitution to do away with the Electoral College and ensure that the popular vote winner was President. Pertinent quote: âIt must be very certain that a President elected by a minority cannot enjoy the confidence necessary to the successful discharge of his duties.â
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 11:39 PM on February 5, 2017 [20 favorites]
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 11:39 PM on February 5, 2017 [20 favorites]
Technology News | Mon Feb 6, 2017 | 1:53am EST
U.S. tech firms file legal brief opposing Trump's immigration ban
posted by futz at 11:43 PM on February 5, 2017
U.S. tech firms file legal brief opposing Trump's immigration ban
posted by futz at 11:43 PM on February 5, 2017
Hey did you ever want to see our Mad King turn a handshake with future Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch into a gross dominance display?
My cruddy, narcissistic dad does this. He's not into that yanking business, but he has a couple other variants he's fond of. One is a "not shaking, just slowly squeezing harder and harder" maneuver, which he likes to employ with women, especially women who are physically larger than him, or who in some other way exude authority. The other is this weird thing where he kind of pinches the other person's hand between his thumb and middle finger, raises his hand about an inch above theirs, and then gives it an extremely brisk, kind of vibrating shake, as though the other person's hand were a damp, clammy washcloth, and he was trying flick a bit of filth off of it.
He likes to pair both of these with a bright-eyed, open-mouthed, but absolutely frozen smile.
If what I've just described sounds creepy, that's only because it completely fucking is.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 12:40 AM on February 6, 2017 [84 favorites]
My cruddy, narcissistic dad does this. He's not into that yanking business, but he has a couple other variants he's fond of. One is a "not shaking, just slowly squeezing harder and harder" maneuver, which he likes to employ with women, especially women who are physically larger than him, or who in some other way exude authority. The other is this weird thing where he kind of pinches the other person's hand between his thumb and middle finger, raises his hand about an inch above theirs, and then gives it an extremely brisk, kind of vibrating shake, as though the other person's hand were a damp, clammy washcloth, and he was trying flick a bit of filth off of it.
He likes to pair both of these with a bright-eyed, open-mouthed, but absolutely frozen smile.
If what I've just described sounds creepy, that's only because it completely fucking is.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 12:40 AM on February 6, 2017 [84 favorites]
My indivisible group met today. First big meeting in a couple days. We expect 75. This is happening.
posted by professor plum with a rope at 12:50 AM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by professor plum with a rope at 12:50 AM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
Mod note: One deleted. Please just include the link to something like a list of ~100 things rather than posting each one on a separate line here. Thanks.
posted by taz (staff) at 1:40 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by taz (staff) at 1:40 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
The Press Secretary said he got so many messages he thought there was a national emergency.- The Telegraph
The Press Secretary also complained that SNL had been 'mean'.
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:36 AM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
For the record, as romantic as the tale of Woody Guthrie's composition of "This Land" as a (frankly nativist) socialist response to (grateful Jewish immigrant Irving Berlin's) "God Bless America" might be, a lot of my Indigenous activist comrades don't see the romance in "This Land is Your Land," and refer to it derisively as "that Manifest Destiny song."
Think about it and it becomes a bit mortifying from a Native American perspective. This land was their land.
posted by spitbull at 2:59 AM on February 6, 2017 [38 favorites]
Think about it and it becomes a bit mortifying from a Native American perspective. This land was their land.
posted by spitbull at 2:59 AM on February 6, 2017 [38 favorites]
Have you ever thought of how cool it it must be to be able to say: my ancestors arrived here 15,000 years before the Mayflower?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 3:07 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 3:07 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Actually, it makes me a little melancholic.
posted by ridgerunner at 3:39 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by ridgerunner at 3:39 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Actually, it makes me a little melancholic.
This, too.
"A Trump administration effort to exclude violent white supremacists from a government anti-terrorism program..." (Reuters)
posted by Mister Bijou at 4:12 AM on February 6, 2017 [30 favorites]
This, too.
The proposed revamp, reported by Reuters on Wednesday, would rename the multi-agency "Countering Violent Extremism" (CVE) task force to "Countering Islamic Extremism" or "Countering Radical Islamic Extremism," and eliminate initiatives aimed at other violent hate groups in the United States.(The article is a couple of days old. I'm posting it here now as I did a metafilter search of the URL and found no match.)
"Abandoning efforts to counter violent white supremacist ideology is profoundly misguided and will endanger Americans," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement, adding that he urged President Donald Trump to keep the focus on "all extremist threats."
"A Trump administration effort to exclude violent white supremacists from a government anti-terrorism program..." (Reuters)
posted by Mister Bijou at 4:12 AM on February 6, 2017 [30 favorites]
The way to deal with weird dominance stuff like handshakes it not to go on pretending it isn't happening. Just like, point to the handshake with the other hand, make eye contact with the other people present and be like, "What the fuck is this?"
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:23 AM on February 6, 2017 [41 favorites]
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:23 AM on February 6, 2017 [41 favorites]
"A Trump administration effort to exclude violent white supremacists from a government anti-terrorism program..."
Yep, I've got a t shirt that says something about "fighting terrorism since 1492"
posted by ridgerunner at 4:32 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Yep, I've got a t shirt that says something about "fighting terrorism since 1492"
posted by ridgerunner at 4:32 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
@realDonaldTrump
Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election. Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting.
[ six minutes later]
I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it. Some FAKE NEWS media, in order to marginalize, lies!
Any negative polls are fake news
I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it.
I just awoke from a dream about snakes living in my teeth but am seriously considered going back to bed so I don't have to keep trying to scry meaning from this cauldron of piss.
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:41 AM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election. Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting.
[ six minutes later]
I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it. Some FAKE NEWS media, in order to marginalize, lies!
Any negative polls are fake news
I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it.
I just awoke from a dream about snakes living in my teeth but am seriously considered going back to bed so I don't have to keep trying to scry meaning from this cauldron of piss.
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:41 AM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
Aides confer in the dark because they cannot figure out how to operate the light switches in the cabinet room. Visitors conclude their meetings and then wander around, testing doorknobs until finding one that leads to an exit.
Obama's staff left word with Trump's people that the light switch was in the corner of the oval office.
posted by klarck at 4:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [79 favorites]
Obama's staff left word with Trump's people that the light switch was in the corner of the oval office.
posted by klarck at 4:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [79 favorites]
Legislation to help prevent us all dying in a ball of fire introduced in the Senate:
It is the fear of such precipitous action that has led Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Representative Ted Lieu of California, both Democrats, to propose legislation to prohibit any president from launching a first-strike nuclear weapon without a declaration of war from Congress.
Probably it won't go nowhere but I'm going to be bugging my Senators about it. Asking them to prevent Trump from killing us all seems a fairly reasonable request.
posted by angrycat at 4:43 AM on February 6, 2017 [30 favorites]
It is the fear of such precipitous action that has led Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Representative Ted Lieu of California, both Democrats, to propose legislation to prohibit any president from launching a first-strike nuclear weapon without a declaration of war from Congress.
Probably it won't go nowhere but I'm going to be bugging my Senators about it. Asking them to prevent Trump from killing us all seems a fairly reasonable request.
posted by angrycat at 4:43 AM on February 6, 2017 [30 favorites]
The price of entry for the 2020 presidential primary is ferocious opposition to the president.
Is ourchildren democrats learning?
posted by octothorpe at 4:45 AM on February 6, 2017 [29 favorites]
Is our
posted by octothorpe at 4:45 AM on February 6, 2017 [29 favorites]
Have you ever thought of how cool it it must be to be able to say: my ancestors arrived here 15,000 years before the Mayflower?
I don't think "cool" is the point. Imagine how traumatizing it would feel to be dominated by settler colonial nation states, come through a genocide, and live on tiny shitty scraps of land while your oppressors get rich off the land they stole from your ancestors? And that's just the highlight reel.
posted by spitbull at 4:51 AM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
I don't think "cool" is the point. Imagine how traumatizing it would feel to be dominated by settler colonial nation states, come through a genocide, and live on tiny shitty scraps of land while your oppressors get rich off the land they stole from your ancestors? And that's just the highlight reel.
posted by spitbull at 4:51 AM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
Great piece in Indian Country Today documenting the actual Bowling Green Massacre of Lenape people in lower Manhattan, present-day NYC, in 1643.
Also the Northern Route of the Trail of Tears ran right by Bowling Green, Kentucky in the 1830s.
So even the "Bowling Green Massacre" jokes ring a little sour if that history weighs on your mind.
posted by spitbull at 4:54 AM on February 6, 2017 [56 favorites]
Also the Northern Route of the Trail of Tears ran right by Bowling Green, Kentucky in the 1830s.
So even the "Bowling Green Massacre" jokes ring a little sour if that history weighs on your mind.
posted by spitbull at 4:54 AM on February 6, 2017 [56 favorites]
I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it.
SNL writers don't even need to write for Alec Baldwin hosting this weekend. Well done.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:55 AM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
SNL writers don't even need to write for Alec Baldwin hosting this weekend. Well done.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:55 AM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
Executive Power Run Amok (by John Yoo, who served in W. Bush's administration in the DOJ, co-author of the torture memos): "A successful president need not have a degree in constitutional law. But he should understand the Constitutionâs grant of executive power. He should share Hamiltonâs vision of an energetic president leading the executive branch in a unified direction, rather than viewing the government as the enemy. He should realize that the Constitution channels the president toward protecting the nation from foreign threats, while cooperating with Congress on matters at home."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:09 AM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:09 AM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it. Some FAKE NEWS media, in order to marginalize, lies!
Looks like the Bannon-is-boss narrative is striking a nerve.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:10 AM on February 6, 2017 [57 favorites]
Looks like the Bannon-is-boss narrative is striking a nerve.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:10 AM on February 6, 2017 [57 favorites]
I assume they like sitting in the dark so they don't have any danger of confronting one another's humanity. Instead they can just whisper sweet evil nothing's to one another like a pack of Gollums.
posted by ian1977 at 5:10 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by ian1977 at 5:10 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
It astonishes me to this day that Torture Yoo is able to show his face in public.
posted by adamgreenfield at 5:11 AM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
posted by adamgreenfield at 5:11 AM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
John Yoo talking about the restraint of executive power is like Hannibal Lecter extolling the virtues of banning cannibalism.
posted by Talez at 5:13 AM on February 6, 2017 [56 favorites]
posted by Talez at 5:13 AM on February 6, 2017 [56 favorites]
The gentleman who says it's legal in an interrogation to force the subject to watch his son's testicles crushed is now (accurately) telling the president to stop being so unconstitutional.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [19 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [19 favorites]
John Yoo: "A successful president need not have a degree in constitutional law. But he should understand the Constitutionâs grant of executive power. He should share Hamiltonâs vision of an energetic president leading the executive branch in a unified direction, rather than viewing the government as the enemy."
If only he could restrain himself to a program of crushing the testicles of terror suspects' toddler sons. That's all John Yoo asks for.
posted by indubitable at 5:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
If only he could restrain himself to a program of crushing the testicles of terror suspects' toddler sons. That's all John Yoo asks for.
posted by indubitable at 5:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
Op-ed: why Trump needs to count to ten and maybe walk around the block before making a decision, by Vlad the Impaler.
posted by tel3path at 5:24 AM on February 6, 2017 [60 favorites]
posted by tel3path at 5:24 AM on February 6, 2017 [60 favorites]
When you lose Yoo, you lose America too.
posted by spitbull at 5:25 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by spitbull at 5:25 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
John Yoo is a bad person.
Whatever else he writes, for the rest of his life, whatever he does - he gave the legal fig leaf to the Bush Jr. admin to use torture. So. Fuck that guy.
He wrote something approaching lucid, maybe even reasonable? Sure. Fine. Fuck you buddy.
posted by From Bklyn at 5:25 AM on February 6, 2017 [36 favorites]
Whatever else he writes, for the rest of his life, whatever he does - he gave the legal fig leaf to the Bush Jr. admin to use torture. So. Fuck that guy.
He wrote something approaching lucid, maybe even reasonable? Sure. Fine. Fuck you buddy.
posted by From Bklyn at 5:25 AM on February 6, 2017 [36 favorites]
And tomorrow we'll be hearing an opinion piece by our exclusive guest columnist, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, on why the current presidency is lowering the tone.
posted by tel3path at 5:28 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by tel3path at 5:28 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it.
Yeah, don't we ever.
posted by Rykey at 5:28 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
Yeah, don't we ever.
posted by Rykey at 5:28 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
"Call Own Shots Largely Based On An Accumulation Of Data" is the new "Make America Great Again." 2020 slogan?
COSLBOAAOD!
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:32 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
COSLBOAAOD!
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:32 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
If it's one thing Trump has always been known for its his meticulous process and accumulation of data driving his decisions.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:47 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:47 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it.
Trump 2020 sponsored by Huggies Pullups.
posted by Talez at 5:51 AM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
Trump 2020 sponsored by Huggies Pullups.
posted by Talez at 5:51 AM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, but sometimes based on a priori propositions which do not require reference to the external world.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 5:52 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by J.K. Seazer at 5:52 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
our exclusive guest columnist, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
Dude, I changed my name a long time ago.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:52 AM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
Dude, I changed my name a long time ago.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:52 AM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
One reason I was rooting for the Falcons was the probability that many of the team wouldn't go to the White House, as opposed to pro-fascist Brady, Belichick and Co. But at least one and hopefully more are boycotting.
Martellus Bennett to sit out Patriots' White House trip after Super Bowl win
posted by chris24 at 5:53 AM on February 6, 2017 [36 favorites]
Martellus Bennett to sit out Patriots' White House trip after Super Bowl win
posted by chris24 at 5:53 AM on February 6, 2017 [36 favorites]
Someone needs to ask him to his face if he "called the shot" to put Bannon on the NSC, and to name one data point that the decision was based on.
posted by argonauta at 5:58 AM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
posted by argonauta at 5:58 AM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
Yep, I've got a t shirt that says something about "fighting terrorism since 1492"
It's a popular shirt in Indian Country. A variation on it also shows Geronimo's band at arms but with the legend "Homeland Security."
I should be clear that I am not Native American, just a white guy who works in Native America and with many Indigenous colleagues, since I am channeling what I assert to be the views of many of those colleagues. It's a complex intersectional challenge in my circles (not least because the categories of Indigenous and Immigrant overlap in the case of many Central and South Americans (and arguably across a broader swath of migrants than that, such as Hmong and Somali). Refugees are often displaced Indigenes. So the fact that the struggle for the narrative of the US as a "nation of immigrants" has gotten the most traction in the emergence of an anti-Trump consensus (shared last night by major corporate advertisers) is both awesome -- traction is traction against an evil man and his evil intentions toward immigrants are palpably central to his agenda -- and a little "melancholic" too, in that every time someone says "we are a nation of immigrants," those who identify as Indigenous throw up a little in their mouths holding back the "not really, no" response that often rises. Especially when the tragic and brutal unfolding of the DAPL conflict over the last two weeks has barely made the activist radar of the gathering anti-Trump movement.
For different reasons, albeit of course structurally related (see Patrick Wolfe, "Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native," Journal of Genocide Research (2006), 8(4), December, pp. 387â409), the descendants of African slaves in the New World don't necessarily see their history as included in the "immigrant nation" narrative or its logic of assimilation over generations. Likewise for the descendants of other indentured or forced migrant laborers, including some Asian Americans and Filipinos and Hawaiians (who are an Indigenous people in diaspora in the US, along with other Pacific Islanders now including refugees from climate change, such as Marshallese/Rongalapese).
I grew up loving "This Land is Your Land" and celebrating my own family's complex immigration history (Eastern European Jews fleeing pogroms in the late 19th century on one side, and Scottish and Irish Methodists and Germans going back the the 17th century on the other). I've only slowly come to realize the hegemonic force the immigrant story has if it isn't juxtaposed critically with the histories of genocide of Indigenous people, colonialism, slavery, and forced migration for labor. Not all "immigration" is the same, and not everyone "is" an "immigrant." I got woke by spending a lot of time with Indigenous communities and colleagues over the last 15 years or so, so I'm sharing that wokeness (still definitely partial, and not intending to speak on behalf of anyone but myself) in the spirit of Metafilter's laudable commitment to rooting out naturalized and casual forms of disrespect for marginalized and oppressed and traumatized classes of people from our patterns of discourse. So I thought I'd point out that "we are a nation of immigrants" can be an exclusionary framing and even a classic leftist protest song or a joke about a "fictional massacre" at the site of a real one can be received hurtfully by our allies and friends in the struggle. My Indigenous colleagues are themselves wrestling hard with how they engage against Trump while not identifying with a "patriotic" nationalist erasure of their distinctive historical relationship to the nation-state.
From their point of view, every president since George Washington has been equally illegitimate, is my understanding. I don't want to speak for them but I do want their position represented in progressive conversations.
posted by spitbull at 5:58 AM on February 6, 2017 [91 favorites]
It's a popular shirt in Indian Country. A variation on it also shows Geronimo's band at arms but with the legend "Homeland Security."
I should be clear that I am not Native American, just a white guy who works in Native America and with many Indigenous colleagues, since I am channeling what I assert to be the views of many of those colleagues. It's a complex intersectional challenge in my circles (not least because the categories of Indigenous and Immigrant overlap in the case of many Central and South Americans (and arguably across a broader swath of migrants than that, such as Hmong and Somali). Refugees are often displaced Indigenes. So the fact that the struggle for the narrative of the US as a "nation of immigrants" has gotten the most traction in the emergence of an anti-Trump consensus (shared last night by major corporate advertisers) is both awesome -- traction is traction against an evil man and his evil intentions toward immigrants are palpably central to his agenda -- and a little "melancholic" too, in that every time someone says "we are a nation of immigrants," those who identify as Indigenous throw up a little in their mouths holding back the "not really, no" response that often rises. Especially when the tragic and brutal unfolding of the DAPL conflict over the last two weeks has barely made the activist radar of the gathering anti-Trump movement.
For different reasons, albeit of course structurally related (see Patrick Wolfe, "Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native," Journal of Genocide Research (2006), 8(4), December, pp. 387â409), the descendants of African slaves in the New World don't necessarily see their history as included in the "immigrant nation" narrative or its logic of assimilation over generations. Likewise for the descendants of other indentured or forced migrant laborers, including some Asian Americans and Filipinos and Hawaiians (who are an Indigenous people in diaspora in the US, along with other Pacific Islanders now including refugees from climate change, such as Marshallese/Rongalapese).
I grew up loving "This Land is Your Land" and celebrating my own family's complex immigration history (Eastern European Jews fleeing pogroms in the late 19th century on one side, and Scottish and Irish Methodists and Germans going back the the 17th century on the other). I've only slowly come to realize the hegemonic force the immigrant story has if it isn't juxtaposed critically with the histories of genocide of Indigenous people, colonialism, slavery, and forced migration for labor. Not all "immigration" is the same, and not everyone "is" an "immigrant." I got woke by spending a lot of time with Indigenous communities and colleagues over the last 15 years or so, so I'm sharing that wokeness (still definitely partial, and not intending to speak on behalf of anyone but myself) in the spirit of Metafilter's laudable commitment to rooting out naturalized and casual forms of disrespect for marginalized and oppressed and traumatized classes of people from our patterns of discourse. So I thought I'd point out that "we are a nation of immigrants" can be an exclusionary framing and even a classic leftist protest song or a joke about a "fictional massacre" at the site of a real one can be received hurtfully by our allies and friends in the struggle. My Indigenous colleagues are themselves wrestling hard with how they engage against Trump while not identifying with a "patriotic" nationalist erasure of their distinctive historical relationship to the nation-state.
From their point of view, every president since George Washington has been equally illegitimate, is my understanding. I don't want to speak for them but I do want their position represented in progressive conversations.
posted by spitbull at 5:58 AM on February 6, 2017 [91 favorites]
The "crush the woman's hand" handshake isn't how handshakes with men are supposed to work? I've never gotten any other kind.
posted by winna at 5:59 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by winna at 5:59 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it.
Sez the guy who would be hard-pressed to define "accumulation."
Perhaps he was dictating from President Bannon.
posted by sutt at 6:04 AM on February 6, 2017
Sez the guy who would be hard-pressed to define "accumulation."
Perhaps he was dictating from President Bannon.
posted by sutt at 6:04 AM on February 6, 2017
@BraddJaffy
6:30am: CNN (which Trump never watches) reports new low approval numbers
7:01am: Trump tweets polls are âfake newsâ [video]
posted by chris24 at 6:06 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
6:30am: CNN (which Trump never watches) reports new low approval numbers
7:01am: Trump tweets polls are âfake newsâ [video]
posted by chris24 at 6:06 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
Elon Musk seems incredibly determined to corkscrew all the electric-cars-and-rockets goodwill he'd amassed straight into the ground.
(Also: fucking hell, Bezos? Really?)
rocket nerds have a long rich history of working with nazis
posted by entropicamericana at 6:08 AM on February 6, 2017 [28 favorites]
(Also: fucking hell, Bezos? Really?)
rocket nerds have a long rich history of working with nazis
posted by entropicamericana at 6:08 AM on February 6, 2017 [28 favorites]
I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it.
This phrasing about data is seemingly a result of Bill O' Reilly asking a couple times in his interview about what data he had to back up his voter fraud claims.
God, could he be any more of a simpleton.
posted by chris24 at 6:11 AM on February 6, 2017 [28 favorites]
This phrasing about data is seemingly a result of Bill O' Reilly asking a couple times in his interview about what data he had to back up his voter fraud claims.
God, could he be any more of a simpleton.
posted by chris24 at 6:11 AM on February 6, 2017 [28 favorites]
I wonder a little why Trump has maintained the phrase "fake news," given how throughly that's been mocked. I mean there are many other options. Liberal media. Elite media. The phrase "fake news" is now just fingernails on chalkboard to me. Jesus, have your aides look at a thesaurus for you.
posted by angrycat at 6:11 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by angrycat at 6:11 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
@BraddJaffy
6:30am: CNN (which Trump never watches) reports new low approval numbers
7:01am: Trump tweets polls are âfake newsâ [video]
I didn't watch it but read they also talked about Bannon being in charge in some way. If so that would explain the 'I call the shots tweet'.
posted by Jalliah at 6:12 AM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
6:30am: CNN (which Trump never watches) reports new low approval numbers
7:01am: Trump tweets polls are âfake newsâ [video]
I didn't watch it but read they also talked about Bannon being in charge in some way. If so that would explain the 'I call the shots tweet'.
posted by Jalliah at 6:12 AM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
Metafilter is my favorite place on the internet right now.
I TOOK ACTION and planned a Read-In in my city on Feb 2nd. The response was 100% positive (even. on. reddit.) AND we'll be back out there on March 2nd, April 2nd -- I plan to do these every month until we have enough folks to circle "Big Lake."
Currently working on: T-shirts, word games, and a Burma Shave-style marketing campaign. This IS happening, and I'm doing a wee bit to help from down here in the South.
<3
posted by polly_dactyl at 6:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [52 favorites]
I TOOK ACTION and planned a Read-In in my city on Feb 2nd. The response was 100% positive (even. on. reddit.) AND we'll be back out there on March 2nd, April 2nd -- I plan to do these every month until we have enough folks to circle "Big Lake."
Currently working on: T-shirts, word games, and a Burma Shave-style marketing campaign. This IS happening, and I'm doing a wee bit to help from down here in the South.
<3
posted by polly_dactyl at 6:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [52 favorites]
I mean there are many other options. Liberal media. Elite media.
This is the man (and administration) that uses words like bigly, mean, "evil", bad people, etc. Fake is under 4 letters.
posted by INFJ at 6:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
This is the man (and administration) that uses words like bigly, mean, "evil", bad people, etc. Fake is under 4 letters.
posted by INFJ at 6:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
I wonder a little why Trump has maintained the phrase "fake news," given how throughly that's been mocked. I mean there are many other options. Liberal media. Elite media. The phrase "fake news" is now just fingernails on chalkboard to me. Jesus, have your aides look at a thesaurus for you.
He appropriated it from establishment Democrat types and seems to be deliberately running it into the ground. One could only hope this serves as warning for the same people who are busy with the "barbarian foreign interlopers are to blame" narrative re: Russia and Trump.
posted by indubitable at 6:16 AM on February 6, 2017
He appropriated it from establishment Democrat types and seems to be deliberately running it into the ground. One could only hope this serves as warning for the same people who are busy with the "barbarian foreign interlopers are to blame" narrative re: Russia and Trump.
posted by indubitable at 6:16 AM on February 6, 2017
Odds Trump says they should apologize?
Russia Demands Apology From Fox News Over âPutinâs a Killerâ Remark
posted by chris24 at 6:16 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
Russia Demands Apology From Fox News Over âPutinâs a Killerâ Remark
posted by chris24 at 6:16 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
I thought the "call my own shots" line was a response to the NYT report that Bannon wrote the Muslim Ban EO and Trump signed it without reading or understanding it. That was a damning tidbit. Amazing that it leaked from his inner circle.
posted by spitbull at 6:17 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by spitbull at 6:17 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Data is worthless without some sort of intelligence shaping its interpretation, so I have to believe he does base his decisions on an accumulation of data. He's a jackdaw sitting on a hoard of shiny things.
posted by winna at 6:18 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by winna at 6:18 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
He prefers the phrase "person with homicidality".
posted by tel3path at 6:19 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by tel3path at 6:19 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Wow, great ad by VoteVets out today and running on morning shows directly addressing Trump.
You want to be a legitimate president, sir? Then act like one.
posted by chris24 at 6:24 AM on February 6, 2017 [64 favorites]
You want to be a legitimate president, sir? Then act like one.
posted by chris24 at 6:24 AM on February 6, 2017 [64 favorites]
I thought the "call my own shots" line was a response to the NYT report that Bannon wrote the Muslim Ban EO and Trump signed it without reading or understanding it. That was a damning tidbit. Amazing that it leaked from his inner circle.
Also the NSC change EO. Would be interesting to know just what he knew before he signed it and what he didn't know.
posted by Jalliah at 6:25 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Oh yes, actually it was the NSC EO, Jalliah, that I meant. Much more damning since it put Bannon in an unprecedentedly powerful role.
posted by spitbull at 6:28 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by spitbull at 6:28 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
6:30am: CNN (which Trump never watches) reports new low approval numbers
7:01am: Trump tweets polls are âfake newsâ
I believe Morning Joe had a segment about whether Bannon was calling the shots closer to 7am.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:32 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
7:01am: Trump tweets polls are âfake newsâ
I believe Morning Joe had a segment about whether Bannon was calling the shots closer to 7am.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:32 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
I believe Morning Joe had a segment about whether Bannon was calling the shots closer to 7am.
Yep, they used the exact term, he repeated it.
@BraddJaffy Retweeted Donald J. Trump
6:09 am: MJoe showed Bannon Time mag cover, played SNL clip of Trump & âPresident Bannonâ & discussed âmaybe Bannonâs calling all the shotsâ
posted by chris24 at 6:34 AM on February 6, 2017 [36 favorites]
Yep, they used the exact term, he repeated it.
@BraddJaffy Retweeted Donald J. Trump
6:09 am: MJoe showed Bannon Time mag cover, played SNL clip of Trump & âPresident Bannonâ & discussed âmaybe Bannonâs calling all the shotsâ
posted by chris24 at 6:34 AM on February 6, 2017 [36 favorites]
I believe Morning Joe had a segment about whether Bannon was calling the shots closer to 7am.
This makes me so happy. Pretty much all of the media we know he pays religious attention too have now covered 'President Bannon'. CNN in general, Morning Joe, Time, NYT and SNL. No idea if anything he watches on Fox has touched it.
posted by Jalliah at 6:36 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
This makes me so happy. Pretty much all of the media we know he pays religious attention too have now covered 'President Bannon'. CNN in general, Morning Joe, Time, NYT and SNL. No idea if anything he watches on Fox has touched it.
posted by Jalliah at 6:36 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
@BraddJaffy Retweeted Donald J. Trump
6:09 am: MJoe showed Bannon Time mag cover, played SNL clip of Trump & âPresident Bannonâ & discussed âmaybe Bannonâs calling all the shotsâ
Ha. That's even better. He get's to see news, covering other news and media doing it. lol
posted by Jalliah at 6:37 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
6:09 am: MJoe showed Bannon Time mag cover, played SNL clip of Trump & âPresident Bannonâ & discussed âmaybe Bannonâs calling all the shotsâ
Ha. That's even better. He get's to see news, covering other news and media doing it. lol
posted by Jalliah at 6:37 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
@jessicaschulb is at Dulles this morning if you want to see great videos of people arriving to meet their families.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Hah. So when they showed that clip from one of the first EO signings, Trump at the desk, aides huddled around:
1. Preibus had to point where to sign because the President hadn't seen it or read it yet;
2. When the President read a few phrases aloud, as if to read out what the EO says and does to us watching, he was really reading it himself for the first time.
It won't be long before a boardroom killer like Rex Tillerson is running this circus.
posted by notyou at 6:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [23 favorites]
1. Preibus had to point where to sign because the President hadn't seen it or read it yet;
2. When the President read a few phrases aloud, as if to read out what the EO says and does to us watching, he was really reading it himself for the first time.
It won't be long before a boardroom killer like Rex Tillerson is running this circus.
posted by notyou at 6:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [23 favorites]
Hey, I linked to this in the last big Trump thread, but in light of my long comment above about intersectional complications along the Indigenous/Immigrant faultline, the remarkable Julian Brave Noisecat wrote what I consider to be a critically important article ("The Indigenous Revolution: Standing Rock points the way forward for indigenous people and the Left." Jacobin Magazine, Nov. 24, 2016) and an equally compelling followup to it called "When the Indians Defeat the Cowboys: How indigenous people and the Left can continue to win in the wake of Standing Rock," Jacobin, Jan 15 2017). In these pieces he argues that Standing Rock points the way forward for a larger Left/Indigenous alliance politics. I cannot urge reading this strongly enough. Noisecat is Canim Lake Band Tsq'escen, and a graduate of Columbia and Oxford. (He also wrote a great piece about his experience as an Indigenous finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship for Indian Country Today in 2015).
He's a voice to remember. Make a note of it.
posted by spitbull at 6:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [51 favorites]
He's a voice to remember. Make a note of it.
posted by spitbull at 6:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [51 favorites]
11 AM: Trump signs EO demanding trade sanctions against Zimbabwe in retaliation for SNL skit [fake]
posted by contraption at 6:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by contraption at 6:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
So Trump's going to CENTCOM and SOCOM today, yes? I expect a repeat of the CIA speech, namely:
He'll complain to them about "fake news."
He'll compare himself to Tom Brady & the Patriots.
He'll say how he knew the Patriots would win all along (even though he left the party when they were losing.)
But he'll include some kid of putdown on Brady, like how he was on the Time magazine cover more times.
Later, he'll brag about the standing ovation he got from them, even though he's their commander and they're pretty much required to stand and applaud.
posted by bluecore at 6:44 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
He'll complain to them about "fake news."
He'll compare himself to Tom Brady & the Patriots.
He'll say how he knew the Patriots would win all along (even though he left the party when they were losing.)
But he'll include some kid of putdown on Brady, like how he was on the Time magazine cover more times.
Later, he'll brag about the standing ovation he got from them, even though he's their commander and they're pretty much required to stand and applaud.
posted by bluecore at 6:44 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
In many ways, this is a terrifying climate for journalism, but in other ways, the media is enjoying a whole new type of influence! When else did Morning Joe have more influence on the President than, like, his cabinet does?
What a weird scary world.
posted by R a c h e l at 6:45 AM on February 6, 2017 [19 favorites]
What a weird scary world.
posted by R a c h e l at 6:45 AM on February 6, 2017 [19 favorites]
And tomorrow we'll be hearing an opinion piece by our exclusive guest columnist, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, on why the current presidency is lowering the tone.
Nny isn't the hero we want or the hero we need, but at this point he's probably the hero we deserve.
(And if you've read the comic, there's no way Trump isn't the Mayor of JtHM's "LA with everybody who isn't an asshole removed" version of Hell.)
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:46 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Nny isn't the hero we want or the hero we need, but at this point he's probably the hero we deserve.
(And if you've read the comic, there's no way Trump isn't the Mayor of JtHM's "LA with everybody who isn't an asshole removed" version of Hell.)
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:46 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
So Trump's going to CENTCOM and SOCOM today, yes? I expect a repeat of the CIA speech, namely:
He'll complain to them about "fake news."
He'll compare himself to Tom Brady & the Patriots.
He'll say how he knew the Patriots would win all along (even though he left the party when they were losing.)
But he'll include some kid of putdown on Brady, like how he was on the Time magazine cover more times.
Later, he'll brag about the standing ovation he got from them, even though he's their commander and they're pretty much required to stand and applaud.
He also has to say something about how he is the one calling the shots and how they are the best shots.
posted by Jalliah at 6:47 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
We're never going to see one, but wouldn't a press conference by Accused Child Rapist and Serial Sexual Predator Donald J. Trump be really interesting?
posted by mikelieman at 6:49 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by mikelieman at 6:49 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Well, that's just silly, Mike.
posted by tel3path at 6:51 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by tel3path at 6:51 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
We're never going to see one, but wouldn't a press conference by Accused Child Rapist and Serial Sexual Predator Donald J. Trump be really interesting?
"Anybody calling me an accused child rapist and serial sexual predator are fake news, lie is in the guy's name! Sorry, people want someone who can grab other countries by the pussy."
[fake, for now]
posted by Talez at 6:55 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
"Anybody calling me an accused child rapist and serial sexual predator are fake news, lie is in the guy's name! Sorry, people want someone who can grab other countries by the pussy."
[fake, for now]
posted by Talez at 6:55 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Onstage, Rapidly Reacting to the Dawn of the Trump Era: The playwright Robert Schenkkan spent three years writing âThe Kentucky Cycle,â the series of nine one-acts that won him the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1992. He spent 21 months on a first draft of âAll the Way,â which won him the Tony Award for best new play in 2014.
âBuilding the Wall,â a disquieting response to the dawn of the Trump era, took him just one week to complete. He wrote it, he said, in a âwhite-hot fury.â
Five theaters around the United States, acting with unusual speed, have already agreed to present the play in a series of productions beginning next month, shaping an early response to an embryonic presidency that has alarmed many theater artists.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:55 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
âBuilding the Wall,â a disquieting response to the dawn of the Trump era, took him just one week to complete. He wrote it, he said, in a âwhite-hot fury.â
Five theaters around the United States, acting with unusual speed, have already agreed to present the play in a series of productions beginning next month, shaping an early response to an embryonic presidency that has alarmed many theater artists.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:55 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
That liberal rag the WSJ raises questions on Gorsuch's supposed pro-bono work.
Few Recall Gorsuchâs Volunteer Work at Harvard: Questions arise over Trump Supreme Court pickâs level of participation in programs to help less fortunate while in law school
posted by chris24 at 6:56 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
Few Recall Gorsuchâs Volunteer Work at Harvard: Questions arise over Trump Supreme Court pickâs level of participation in programs to help less fortunate while in law school
posted by chris24 at 6:56 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
@BraddJaffy
Spicer says nationwide protests of Trump are not like Tea Party was: This is âa very paid AstroTurf-type movementâ [Twitter]
I had to look up Astroturfing.
posted by slipthought at 7:00 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Spicer says nationwide protests of Trump are not like Tea Party was: This is âa very paid AstroTurf-type movementâ [Twitter]
I had to look up Astroturfing.
posted by slipthought at 7:00 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
That MSNBC Interview Was Not the First Time Kellyanne Conway Referred to the "Bowling Green Massacre": But in an interview with Cosmopolitan.com conducted by phone days earlier, on Sunday, January 29, Conway used the same phrasing, claiming that President Obama called for a temporary "ban on Iraqi refugeesâ after the âBowling Green massacre.â (The quotes did not appear in either of two stories recently published on Cosmopolitan.com.)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:01 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:01 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
That liberal rag the WSJ...
...has a paywall that you (or at least, I) can't get around via searching for the title or going incognito or going through Google News or Twitter or any of the usual workarounds, so maybe find some other source or cut and paste more than just the title?
posted by Etrigan at 7:03 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
...has a paywall that you (or at least, I) can't get around via searching for the title or going incognito or going through Google News or Twitter or any of the usual workarounds, so maybe find some other source or cut and paste more than just the title?
posted by Etrigan at 7:03 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Keep going, Spicey. All the grassroots activists I know are just energized by being called "astroturfed paid protesters." You want to see some grassroots activism? Hold my fucking beer.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:05 AM on February 6, 2017 [95 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:05 AM on February 6, 2017 [95 favorites]
Fire the Fool is rallying for a march on the national mall on April 1st. On the one hand, I think it's great that people are continuing to mobilize. On the other hand, April 1st seems soooooo far away.
I live in DC and, while that may be the next march organized well ahead of time, I can tell you there have been multiple protests a week here (my sweet baby will be seven months old tomorrow and has already been to five starting with the women's march). A lot of them start at the White House and march down Pennsylvania to the Capitol and some of them have gone from the Islamic Center to the Naval Observatory (where the Vice President lives).
Honestly I wish there were a permanent protest set up outside the old Post Office building (currently the Trump Hotel). For a number of reasons (including wording in the actual contract) I don't think he should be able to make any money off of it and I think everyone, lobbyists, foreign diplomats, his supporters, everyone, should be too ashamed to stay there. I know it's not really feasible because people have jobs and families and lives but even like twenty people being there every day not blocking the doors, just hanging out in front with signs and glaring at anyone coming or going would make a big statement.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 7:06 AM on February 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
I live in DC and, while that may be the next march organized well ahead of time, I can tell you there have been multiple protests a week here (my sweet baby will be seven months old tomorrow and has already been to five starting with the women's march). A lot of them start at the White House and march down Pennsylvania to the Capitol and some of them have gone from the Islamic Center to the Naval Observatory (where the Vice President lives).
Honestly I wish there were a permanent protest set up outside the old Post Office building (currently the Trump Hotel). For a number of reasons (including wording in the actual contract) I don't think he should be able to make any money off of it and I think everyone, lobbyists, foreign diplomats, his supporters, everyone, should be too ashamed to stay there. I know it's not really feasible because people have jobs and families and lives but even like twenty people being there every day not blocking the doors, just hanging out in front with signs and glaring at anyone coming or going would make a big statement.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 7:06 AM on February 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
If some kind of rotating vigil could be set up outside the White House, I'd be more than happy to take a few days of PTO to do a shift. Right now I really am at a point where I just want to sit outside a place and just.... sit. Until this gets solved. I don't know what else to do.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:09 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:09 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
That's funny. The first time I heard the term astroturfing was actually when somebody was explaining to me how the Tea Party movement happened.
posted by IAmUnaware at 7:09 AM on February 6, 2017 [34 favorites]
posted by IAmUnaware at 7:09 AM on February 6, 2017 [34 favorites]
That liberal rag the WSJ...
...has a paywall
Sorry. The gist:
...has a paywall
Sorry. The gist:
When President Donald Trump introduced his Supreme Court pick on live television last week, he said Neil Gorsuch had âdemonstrated a commitment to helping the less fortunateâ by working in the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project and the Harvard Defenders.posted by chris24 at 7:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
His affiliation with these volunteer programs âwhich offer law school students real-life legal experience representing prison inmates and the poorâhelped give Mr. Gorsuch's deeply conservative resume a personal touch, and the groups were highlighted in news reports about his nomination.
But roughly three dozen students who participated in the two programs while Mr. Gorsuch was at Harvard Law School from 1988 to 1991 said they have no recollection of his involvement.
Huckabee: Past executive branch âemasculated itself by surrendering constantly to the idea that once the court says something, thatâs itâ
OK. Sooooooooooooo. They're not going to rely on Congress to give the executive dictatorial power they're just going to start ignoring the judicial branch and assume that power.
posted by Talez at 7:16 AM on February 6, 2017 [44 favorites]
OK. Sooooooooooooo. They're not going to rely on Congress to give the executive dictatorial power they're just going to start ignoring the judicial branch and assume that power.
posted by Talez at 7:16 AM on February 6, 2017 [44 favorites]
That VoteVets ad is ass-kickingly good. Sending them $$$ today. Mor please.
posted by spitbull at 7:16 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by spitbull at 7:16 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
But roughly three dozen students who participated in the two programs while Mr. Gorsuch was at Harvard Law School from 1988 to 1991 said they have no recollection of his involvement.
I wonder where they will find a conservative jurist who hasn't preemptively torpedoed their nomination by lying on their CV.
posted by Talez at 7:19 AM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
I wonder where they will find a conservative jurist who hasn't preemptively torpedoed their nomination by lying on their CV.
posted by Talez at 7:19 AM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
If some kind of rotating vigil could be set up outside the White House, I'd be more than happy to take a few days of PTO to do a shift. Right now I really am at a point where I just want to sit outside a place and just.... sit. Until this gets solved. I don't know what else to do.
Well this is the thing, I think if there were actually a permanent protest somewhere in DC where people could come and go it would be self-sustaining if enough people knew about it. It would be much bigger on weekends and after work but hell, I'd go during lunch as often as possible and maybe some people would come out after work and people visiting friends and family in town or college kids on break or whatever could come and hang out for a few hours. If it were literally there all the time you wouldn't need to do any organizing after the initial push because people would know they didn't have to keep up to date about when and where the protest was, they could just show up with signs and join the group. I wish I had the time and understanding to organize this because I really think it could happen; I think the will is totally there and the issue would just be making sure people knew about it.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 7:23 AM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
Well this is the thing, I think if there were actually a permanent protest somewhere in DC where people could come and go it would be self-sustaining if enough people knew about it. It would be much bigger on weekends and after work but hell, I'd go during lunch as often as possible and maybe some people would come out after work and people visiting friends and family in town or college kids on break or whatever could come and hang out for a few hours. If it were literally there all the time you wouldn't need to do any organizing after the initial push because people would know they didn't have to keep up to date about when and where the protest was, they could just show up with signs and join the group. I wish I had the time and understanding to organize this because I really think it could happen; I think the will is totally there and the issue would just be making sure people knew about it.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 7:23 AM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
Is there a German word for laughing until you cry, but not happy tears but bitter ones?
Goldman Sachs Economists Are Starting to Worry About President Trump
"Just a few weeks ago, Wall Street analysts were busy boosting their economic forecasts on the expectation that President Trump would implement sweeping corporate-tax reform, a rollback of regulations, and new fiscal stimulus. Two weeks into his term and the president has been focused primarily on immigration and trade, causing a reevaluation among analysts at some banks that harks back to pre-election concerns about Trump's uncertain effect on markets and U.S. economic growth."
posted by chris24 at 7:24 AM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
Goldman Sachs Economists Are Starting to Worry About President Trump
"Just a few weeks ago, Wall Street analysts were busy boosting their economic forecasts on the expectation that President Trump would implement sweeping corporate-tax reform, a rollback of regulations, and new fiscal stimulus. Two weeks into his term and the president has been focused primarily on immigration and trade, causing a reevaluation among analysts at some banks that harks back to pre-election concerns about Trump's uncertain effect on markets and U.S. economic growth."
posted by chris24 at 7:24 AM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
@BraddJaffy
Spicer says nationwide protests of Trump are not like Tea Party was: This is âa very paid AstroTurf-type movementâ [Twitter]
Fucking weasel. I've seen this shit repeated by right-wing loons on social media but the administration's press secretary repeating this shit makes my blood boil. My wife, who has never participated in a protest in her life, attended the women's march. She is so apolitical it makes me crazy and is a registered independent. SHE MARCHED GODAMNIT. No one paid her. No one asked her to go. She even signed up for the march and never said a word to me. So fuck you Spicer. You're boss pissed off my wife which is nearly impossible to do when it comes to politics.
posted by photoslob at 7:24 AM on February 6, 2017 [77 favorites]
Spicer says nationwide protests of Trump are not like Tea Party was: This is âa very paid AstroTurf-type movementâ [Twitter]
Fucking weasel. I've seen this shit repeated by right-wing loons on social media but the administration's press secretary repeating this shit makes my blood boil. My wife, who has never participated in a protest in her life, attended the women's march. She is so apolitical it makes me crazy and is a registered independent. SHE MARCHED GODAMNIT. No one paid her. No one asked her to go. She even signed up for the march and never said a word to me. So fuck you Spicer. You're boss pissed off my wife which is nearly impossible to do when it comes to politics.
posted by photoslob at 7:24 AM on February 6, 2017 [77 favorites]
Cripes that Huckabee quote! They've been hollering for eight years about Obama's Imperial Presidency, rule by decree, laws rammed down our throats, etc.
Which is it, fellers?
posted by notyou at 7:28 AM on February 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
Which is it, fellers?
posted by notyou at 7:28 AM on February 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
Mar-a-Lago Sharknado
1 measure of cheap, nasty rum from an expensive-looking bottle
2 measures Sharkleberry Fin Kool-Aid
garnish with thin-skinned orange peel and fake gold leaf
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 7:28 AM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
1 measure of cheap, nasty rum from an expensive-looking bottle
2 measures Sharkleberry Fin Kool-Aid
garnish with thin-skinned orange peel and fake gold leaf
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 7:28 AM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
OK. Sooooooooooooo. They're not going to rely on Congress to give the executive dictatorial power they're just going to start ignoring the judicial branch and assume that power.
Yes, I think that's what they have been signalling. At some point (over the immigration EO, or something else), a judge is going to rule "Nope, you can't do this", it will get appealed until it can't get appealed anymore and either the judicial branch will signal that it's going to accept whatever flimsy justification the Executive offers for its action, or will continue to say 'No' and the Executive will find another flimsy justification for why the judicial order isn't going to be obeyed.
And at that point: God only knows what will happen. Will the country look away? Will the ground people told to actually implement *order* obey their superiors, or the legal order?
In my mind, that's the arc of this first act of what will either be the rejuvenation of democracy in America, or its demise. And I think it'll play out quicker than any of us imagine.
posted by tivalasvegas at 7:29 AM on February 6, 2017 [42 favorites]
Yes, I think that's what they have been signalling. At some point (over the immigration EO, or something else), a judge is going to rule "Nope, you can't do this", it will get appealed until it can't get appealed anymore and either the judicial branch will signal that it's going to accept whatever flimsy justification the Executive offers for its action, or will continue to say 'No' and the Executive will find another flimsy justification for why the judicial order isn't going to be obeyed.
And at that point: God only knows what will happen. Will the country look away? Will the ground people told to actually implement *order* obey their superiors, or the legal order?
In my mind, that's the arc of this first act of what will either be the rejuvenation of democracy in America, or its demise. And I think it'll play out quicker than any of us imagine.
posted by tivalasvegas at 7:29 AM on February 6, 2017 [42 favorites]
Just a few weeks ago, Wall Street analysts were busy boosting their economic forecasts on the expectation that President Trump would implement sweeping corporate-tax reform, a rollback of regulations, and new fiscal stimulus.
Remember that thing that went around Facebook on Inauguration Day where you listed the price of gas and the DJIA and the unemploymenr rate and some other really basic economic stats, so it'll show up in your "Memories" in a year or two or four? I got into a long argument with a conservative friend of mine about how it left off the improvements since Election Day, since the Dow was up like 9 percent, and that was all on the strength of the market thinking that Trump would be good for the economy.
This story was basically my reply. They thought he'd be great, and it turns out he's shit, so he only gets credit for what happens while he's in charge. Especially given how he's spent all of his time reiterating how in-charge he must be and that anyone who pushes back literally does not count.
posted by Etrigan at 7:29 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Remember that thing that went around Facebook on Inauguration Day where you listed the price of gas and the DJIA and the unemploymenr rate and some other really basic economic stats, so it'll show up in your "Memories" in a year or two or four? I got into a long argument with a conservative friend of mine about how it left off the improvements since Election Day, since the Dow was up like 9 percent, and that was all on the strength of the market thinking that Trump would be good for the economy.
This story was basically my reply. They thought he'd be great, and it turns out he's shit, so he only gets credit for what happens while he's in charge. Especially given how he's spent all of his time reiterating how in-charge he must be and that anyone who pushes back literally does not count.
posted by Etrigan at 7:29 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
I wish I had the time and understanding to organize this because I really think it could happen; I think the will is totally there and the issue would just be making sure people knew about it.
From what I've seen, it just needs someone with a huge social media presence to float it.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:30 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
From what I've seen, it just needs someone with a huge social media presence to float it.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:30 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Which is it, fellers?
IOKWARDI
posted by entropicamericana at 7:32 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
IOKWARDI
posted by entropicamericana at 7:32 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Is there a German word for laughing until you cry, but not happy tears but bitter ones
Since Trump whenever I'm on social media I think I need a new emoji for "appreciative chuckle followed by half-sob"
posted by gerstle at 7:32 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
Since Trump whenever I'm on social media I think I need a new emoji for "appreciative chuckle followed by half-sob"
posted by gerstle at 7:32 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
Trump's uncertain effect on markets and U.S. economic growth.
posted by Mister Bijou at 7:36 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Ramirez said the impact on the peso of Donald Trumpâs campaign had already led the company to look into importing from Argentina instead; further negative impact following the free-trade shakedown would mean they were forced to pull the plug.US popcorn exports in doubt, warns head of Mexican cinema chain (Grauniad)
[...]
Mexico is the largest US popcorn market and accounts for almost a third of all exports. In recent years, demand has grown dramatically from the country, rising threefold since 2006, while the rest of the export market went up only 10%.
posted by Mister Bijou at 7:36 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
I think we have had an executive branch that has emasculated itself by surrendering constantly to the idea that once the court says something, thatâs it.. the court can't make law. They cannot legislate.
MARBURY V MADISON YOU MOUTHBREATHING FUCKS.
posted by dis_integration at 7:37 AM on February 6, 2017 [38 favorites]
MARBURY V MADISON YOU MOUTHBREATHING FUCKS.
posted by dis_integration at 7:37 AM on February 6, 2017 [38 favorites]
I know the phrase "constitutional crisis" has been getting thrown around a lot in the last few weeks, but legislators flat-out ignoring the system of checks and balances in the constitution is.. uh. That not be tenable?
Tenable, well that remains to be seen. But certainly it's not compatible with a constitutional democracy under rule of law which protects human rights.
posted by tivalasvegas at 7:40 AM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
Tenable, well that remains to be seen. But certainly it's not compatible with a constitutional democracy under rule of law which protects human rights.
posted by tivalasvegas at 7:40 AM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
At some point (over the immigration EO, or something else), a judge is going to rule "Nope, you can't do this", it will get appealed until it can't get appealed anymore and either the judicial branch will signal that it's going to accept whatever flimsy justification the Executive offers for its action, or will continue to say 'No' and the Executive will find another flimsy justification for why the judicial order isn't going to be obeyed.
I have a strong suspicion/fear that we'll start to see rulings carefully written to technically agree with the executive branch in a specific case but not establish precedent, because judges will be wary of setting off exactly this kind of constitutional crisis. And I say this because it's basically what the Democrats in the Senate have been doing with their dance around the filibuster. In the same way that they don't want to provoke the GOP into taking away the filibuster for good (even though it only ever helps the GOP), the judiciary will want to avoid provoking the executive into completely disregarding any of their rulings. RBG's dissents will be scathing, though.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:40 AM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
I have a strong suspicion/fear that we'll start to see rulings carefully written to technically agree with the executive branch in a specific case but not establish precedent, because judges will be wary of setting off exactly this kind of constitutional crisis. And I say this because it's basically what the Democrats in the Senate have been doing with their dance around the filibuster. In the same way that they don't want to provoke the GOP into taking away the filibuster for good (even though it only ever helps the GOP), the judiciary will want to avoid provoking the executive into completely disregarding any of their rulings. RBG's dissents will be scathing, though.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:40 AM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
I've seen this shit repeated by right-wing loons on social media but the administration's press secretary repeating this shit makes my blood boil.
One of these things isnot just like the other.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:41 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
One of these things is
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:41 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
MARBURY V MADISON YOU MOUTHBREATHING FUCKS.
I believe the correct precedent for this administration, which we already know wants to take Jackson as a model, is Worcester v. Georgia.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
I believe the correct precedent for this administration, which we already know wants to take Jackson as a model, is Worcester v. Georgia.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
We don't really have a basis to speculate on what's going to happen to Trump's EOs in the SCOTUS until we know how many Justices there will be until the midterms.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:43 AM on February 6, 2017
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:43 AM on February 6, 2017
US popcorn exports in doubt, warns head of Mexican cinema chain (Grauniad)
You DO NOT want to piss off Orville Redenbacher.
/me grabs tub of popcorn (unbelievable discount due to glut; grab two!), pulls up chair.
posted by notyou at 7:44 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
You DO NOT want to piss off Orville Redenbacher.
/me grabs tub of popcorn (unbelievable discount due to glut; grab two!), pulls up chair.
posted by notyou at 7:44 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Wait, who is paying protestors? Where can I apply? It would be great if I had a job doing what I love!
posted by Cookiebastard at 7:44 AM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
posted by Cookiebastard at 7:44 AM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
I believe the correct precedent for this administration, which we already know wants to take Jackson as a model, is Worcester v. Georgia.
"We tried explaining Worcester v. Georgia to the President, but as soon as he heard "Worcester" he wouldn't stop asking when the steaks would be served."
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:45 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
"We tried explaining Worcester v. Georgia to the President, but as soon as he heard "Worcester" he wouldn't stop asking when the steaks would be served."
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:45 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
I believe the correct precedent for this administration, which we already know wants to take Jackson as a model, is Worcester v. Georgia.
"John Roberts has made his decision, now let him enforce it without the help of US Marshals that are under control of the Attorney General."
posted by Talez at 7:50 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
"John Roberts has made his decision, now let him enforce it without the help of US Marshals that are under control of the Attorney General."
posted by Talez at 7:50 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
I hesitate to share this "worst case scenario" because post because reading it kind of gave me an anxiety attack this morning, and I'm sure it will be triggering as hell for a lot of people, and I'm not sure that's helpful... Panic and hysteria aren't very useful emotions for resistance, and I recognize some similarity between this, and the dark fantasies the right wing entertains about death panels etc.
Still I'm sharing it, because I kind of think an outcome like what is described there could be the end result of right wing policies whether or not they actually intend it to be. Skip to the next comment now if you're not up for a summary of a terrible thought...
The basic scenario under consideration is, what happens if we get closed borders (perhaps policed by drones), and then climate change gets really bad? What happens to people who are trapped in tiny poor countries that are suddenly half under water and incapable of growing sufficient food, when they try to leave those countries, and run into militarized borders?
Is what happens to them functionally different from genocide on a global scale? Whether or not the border-closers and climate-change-promoters intend that result?
This thought is making me so sad I am having trouble concentrating at work...
posted by OnceUponATime at 7:54 AM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
Still I'm sharing it, because I kind of think an outcome like what is described there could be the end result of right wing policies whether or not they actually intend it to be. Skip to the next comment now if you're not up for a summary of a terrible thought...
The basic scenario under consideration is, what happens if we get closed borders (perhaps policed by drones), and then climate change gets really bad? What happens to people who are trapped in tiny poor countries that are suddenly half under water and incapable of growing sufficient food, when they try to leave those countries, and run into militarized borders?
Is what happens to them functionally different from genocide on a global scale? Whether or not the border-closers and climate-change-promoters intend that result?
This thought is making me so sad I am having trouble concentrating at work...
posted by OnceUponATime at 7:54 AM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
Never Believe the Republicansâ B.S. Ever Again "It is through events like Benghazi that we see just how paper-thin the GOPâs commitments to its most defining ideals really are. What Republicans have held forth as fundamental principles are, thanks to Trumpâs election, revealed as hollow bromides and shibboleths. Trump will likely be president for at least four years; but starting now, and through the eventual end of GOP rule, we never have to take Republican sanctimony at face value again, and their phoniness ought to be a commanding narrative of the Trump era."
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:59 AM on February 6, 2017 [81 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:59 AM on February 6, 2017 [81 favorites]
The basic scenario under consideration is, what happens if we get closed borders (perhaps policed by drones), and then climate change gets really bad? What happens to people who are trapped in tiny poor countries that are suddenly half under water and incapable of growing sufficient food, when they try to leave those countries, and run into militarized borders?
Isn't this what the Project for the New American Century was anticipating?
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 8:00 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Isn't this what the Project for the New American Century was anticipating?
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 8:00 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Arguing about the theoretical, written, and actual limits to The Posse Comitatus Act used to be a fun "someone's wrong on the Internet" (gasp!) game, and I really hope it stays that way.
posted by fragmede at 8:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by fragmede at 8:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
North Carolina Sports Association letter to NCGA: NCAA will remove all NC bids from consideration for 2018-22 without HB2 repeal.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:17 AM on February 6, 2017 [59 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:17 AM on February 6, 2017 [59 favorites]
PNAC basically thought that we could easily knock over Iraq and similar nations and establish a Pax Americana where everybody was too afraid of our military to stand up to us, establishing the US as the de facto ruler of the world.
There's a reason "reality-based" became such a thing when the Bush admin recruited so heavily from them.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:19 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
There's a reason "reality-based" became such a thing when the Bush admin recruited so heavily from them.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:19 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
So I'm finally catching up on the news from the weekend, and that NYTimes article has been linked and discussed several times already, but it's an amazing piece of the historical record.
But this bit of - shade, I guess? - is not to be missed:
Visitors to the Oval Office say Mr. Trump is obsessed with the dĂ©cor â it is both a totem of a victory that validates him as a serious person and an image-burnishing backdrop â so he has told his staff to schedule as many televised events in the room as possible.
To pass the time between meetings, Mr. Trump gives quick tours to visitors, highlighting little tweaks he has made after initially expecting he would have to pay for them himself.
Flanking his desk are portraits of Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. He will linger on the opulence of the newly hung golden drapes, which he told a recent visitor were once used by Franklin D. Roosevelt but in fact were patterned for Bill Clinton. For a man who sometimes has trouble concentrating on policy memos, Mr. Trump was delighted to page through a book that offered him 17 window covering options.
Wow. A mean-spirited, arrogant, shallow, vain, pompous little man, in so far over his own head that he doesn't even know how badly he's doing.
posted by RedOrGreen at 8:34 AM on February 6, 2017 [77 favorites]
But this bit of - shade, I guess? - is not to be missed:
Visitors to the Oval Office say Mr. Trump is obsessed with the dĂ©cor â it is both a totem of a victory that validates him as a serious person and an image-burnishing backdrop â so he has told his staff to schedule as many televised events in the room as possible.
To pass the time between meetings, Mr. Trump gives quick tours to visitors, highlighting little tweaks he has made after initially expecting he would have to pay for them himself.
Flanking his desk are portraits of Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. He will linger on the opulence of the newly hung golden drapes, which he told a recent visitor were once used by Franklin D. Roosevelt but in fact were patterned for Bill Clinton. For a man who sometimes has trouble concentrating on policy memos, Mr. Trump was delighted to page through a book that offered him 17 window covering options.
Wow. A mean-spirited, arrogant, shallow, vain, pompous little man, in so far over his own head that he doesn't even know how badly he's doing.
posted by RedOrGreen at 8:34 AM on February 6, 2017 [77 favorites]
Ooh that NYT article rustled his jimmies.
@realDonaldTrump
The failing @nytimes writes total fiction concerning me. They have gotten it wrong for two years, and now are making up stories & sources!
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:35 AM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
@realDonaldTrump
The failing @nytimes writes total fiction concerning me. They have gotten it wrong for two years, and now are making up stories & sources!
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:35 AM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
He'll complain to them about "fake news."
He'll compare himself to Tom Brady & the Patriots.
He'll say how he knew the Patriots would win all along (even though he left the party when they were losing.)
But he'll include some kid of putdown on Brady, like how he was on the Time magazine cover more times.
Later, he'll brag about the standing ovation he got from them, even though he's their commander and they're pretty much required to stand and applaud.
He also has to say something about how he is the one calling the shots and how they are the best shots.
Also, "CENTCOM, SOCOM, so great to be with you today. You ask people, they'll tell you, nobody cares more about COMs than Donald J. Trump does.
posted by Rykey at 8:37 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
He'll compare himself to Tom Brady & the Patriots.
He'll say how he knew the Patriots would win all along (even though he left the party when they were losing.)
But he'll include some kid of putdown on Brady, like how he was on the Time magazine cover more times.
Later, he'll brag about the standing ovation he got from them, even though he's their commander and they're pretty much required to stand and applaud.
He also has to say something about how he is the one calling the shots and how they are the best shots.
Also, "CENTCOM, SOCOM, so great to be with you today. You ask people, they'll tell you, nobody cares more about COMs than Donald J. Trump does.
posted by Rykey at 8:37 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
PNAC basically thought that we could easily knock over Iraq and similar nations and establish a Pax Americana where everybody was too afraid of our military to stand up to us, establishing the US as the de facto ruler of the world.
That's the thing about urban warfare and galvanized insurgencies. You lose your numbers advantage and they never go away. They can make a conflict go on longer than the people of the occupying nation are willing to bear.
It took three weeks to push Saddam out. We never won the subsequent insurgency over eight years.
posted by Talez at 8:38 AM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
That's the thing about urban warfare and galvanized insurgencies. You lose your numbers advantage and they never go away. They can make a conflict go on longer than the people of the occupying nation are willing to bear.
It took three weeks to push Saddam out. We never won the subsequent insurgency over eight years.
posted by Talez at 8:38 AM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
Trump should be triggered to claim that news stories about him are completely made up, as often as possible.
posted by thelonius at 8:39 AM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 8:39 AM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
I desperately want to know who the key source was for that NYT article.
Reince, was that you? Blink twice if you need an exfiltration.
(Reince's journey from standard issue party hack to... whatever he is now, is going to make a fascinating book some day, if we all survive the next few years.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
Reince, was that you? Blink twice if you need an exfiltration.
(Reince's journey from standard issue party hack to... whatever he is now, is going to make a fascinating book some day, if we all survive the next few years.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
I would say it is a remarkably ballsy move to just draft a document that says you're going to be put in one of the most powerful committees and not mention that. So much so (and especially given that Trump then took a lot of flak), that I wonder if Bannon has rather overplayed his hand by making his boss look like an idiot twice in a week.
He probably assumed that twice was just margin of error given how many times Trump looks like an idiot in any seven day period.
posted by phearlez at 8:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
He probably assumed that twice was just margin of error given how many times Trump looks like an idiot in any seven day period.
posted by phearlez at 8:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
(Reince's journey from standard issue party hack to... whatever he is now, is going to make a fascinating book some day, if we all survive the next few years.)
Or a Saw movie.
posted by Etrigan at 8:46 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
Or a Saw movie.
posted by Etrigan at 8:46 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
@nytimes
Aides in the White House confer in the dark because they cannot figure out how to operate the light switches
@JohnDingell Retweeted The New York Times
Luckily for them, setting the Constitution on fire provides at least a bit of working light.
---
National treasure John Dingell.
posted by chris24 at 8:47 AM on February 6, 2017 [53 favorites]
Aides in the White House confer in the dark because they cannot figure out how to operate the light switches
@JohnDingell Retweeted The New York Times
Luckily for them, setting the Constitution on fire provides at least a bit of working light.
---
National treasure John Dingell.
posted by chris24 at 8:47 AM on February 6, 2017 [53 favorites]
They have gotten it wrong for two years, and now are making up stories & sources!
So could the NY Times sue for libel without giving up the identity of their sources?
posted by peeedro at 8:47 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
So could the NY Times sue for libel without giving up the identity of their sources?
posted by peeedro at 8:47 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
I don't think we're shouldn't worry too much about the 'astroturf protesters' thing. This is a lie Trump's people and Republicans are putting out to try convince their base everything is OK and not to worry. (Trump probably believes the protests are fake and a lot of his supporters do, but don't think many Republican politicians are dumb enough to believe that.)
The people showing at protests, many of whom weren't politically active before, are going to vote in upcoming off-year elections, even in gerrymandered red districts.
I'm remembering how my own disgust at Bush's re-election in 2004 convinced me to register to vote and start paying more attention to politics, and eventually converted me from a non-voter to an active Democrat. I think this going to happen on a massive scale now, and the protests are only the tip of the iceberg. For everybody knitting themselves a hat with ears and going to a march, there are people resolving to make sure they're registered and make sure this doesn't happen again.
I think people in our country are starting to realize they can't take democracy for granted anymore.
posted by nangar at 8:52 AM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
The people showing at protests, many of whom weren't politically active before, are going to vote in upcoming off-year elections, even in gerrymandered red districts.
I'm remembering how my own disgust at Bush's re-election in 2004 convinced me to register to vote and start paying more attention to politics, and eventually converted me from a non-voter to an active Democrat. I think this going to happen on a massive scale now, and the protests are only the tip of the iceberg. For everybody knitting themselves a hat with ears and going to a march, there are people resolving to make sure they're registered and make sure this doesn't happen again.
I think people in our country are starting to realize they can't take democracy for granted anymore.
posted by nangar at 8:52 AM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
soren_lorensen: I desperately want to know who the key source was for that NYT article.
@BraddJaffy states: "Bannon, Spicer, Christie, Ruddy and Fleischer spoke on the record"
posted by slipthought at 8:53 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
@BraddJaffy states: "Bannon, Spicer, Christie, Ruddy and Fleischer spoke on the record"
posted by slipthought at 8:53 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
What Republicans have held forth as fundamental principles are, thanks to Trumpâs election, revealed as hollow bromides and shibboleths.
this has been painfully obvious to most thinking people for much longer than that
posted by entropicamericana at 8:53 AM on February 6, 2017 [24 favorites]
this has been painfully obvious to most thinking people for much longer than that
posted by entropicamericana at 8:53 AM on February 6, 2017 [24 favorites]
Do we know if there is a press briefing scheduled for today and if so, what time?
posted by mmascolino at 8:54 AM on February 6, 2017
posted by mmascolino at 8:54 AM on February 6, 2017
Somehow don't think it was Bannon or Spicer with the juicy bathrobe tidbits (oh, ew, sorry about that). Christie, you sly dog.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:54 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:54 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Do we know if there is a press briefing scheduled for today and if so, what time?
Last week, Spicer had said they might take questions on the plane back to DC tonight, but I don't know if that will actually happen.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:56 AM on February 6, 2017
Last week, Spicer had said they might take questions on the plane back to DC tonight, but I don't know if that will actually happen.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:56 AM on February 6, 2017
the plane back to DC tonight
The plane. Can you imagine? It must be like being trapped on David Crosby's tour bus, before he went to jail and quit freebasing.
posted by thelonius at 8:58 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
The plane. Can you imagine? It must be like being trapped on David Crosby's tour bus, before he went to jail and quit freebasing.
posted by thelonius at 8:58 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
@ddale8
Why Obamacare repeal is going so slowly: headlines today in Iowa, North Carolina. [pix of front pages]
Des Moines Register: Obamacare has eased hospitals' burdens of caring for uninsured
Charlotte Observer: ACA repeal could cost Mecklenburg and NC millions in health funding
posted by chris24 at 8:59 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
Why Obamacare repeal is going so slowly: headlines today in Iowa, North Carolina. [pix of front pages]
Des Moines Register: Obamacare has eased hospitals' burdens of caring for uninsured
Charlotte Observer: ACA repeal could cost Mecklenburg and NC millions in health funding
posted by chris24 at 8:59 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
Somehow don't think it was Bannon or Spicer with the juicy bathrobe tidbits (oh, ew, sorry about that). Christie, you sly dog.
His name is Leak.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:03 AM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
His name is Leak.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:03 AM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
Obama photographer Pete Souza trolling the Trump folks.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:05 AM on February 6, 2017 [28 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:05 AM on February 6, 2017 [28 favorites]
I would say it is a remarkably ballsy move to just draft a document that says you're going to be put in one of the most powerful committees and not mention that. So much so (and especially given that Trump then took a lot of flak), that I wonder if Bannon has rather overplayed his hand by making his boss look like an idiot twice in a week.
I think Bannon told him the EO would put him on the NSC, but Trump didn't know who is usually on it, that it would be unusual to have Bannon on it, and even what the NSC is. Hence the "wasn't fully briefed on the details."
posted by Mavri at 9:07 AM on February 6, 2017 [41 favorites]
I think Bannon told him the EO would put him on the NSC, but Trump didn't know who is usually on it, that it would be unusual to have Bannon on it, and even what the NSC is. Hence the "wasn't fully briefed on the details."
posted by Mavri at 9:07 AM on February 6, 2017 [41 favorites]
Probably right, since the President did say "there's no formal chain of command around here" and he appears to be correct.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:08 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:08 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
David Frum, The Atlantic: How to Beat Trump
Some advice from the right to the left, on how to effectively oppose the current presidentposted by ZeusHumms at 9:10 AM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
...
But if you are building a movement to protect American democracy from the authoritarianism of the Trump administration, you should remember that the goal is to gain allies among people who would not normally agree with you. Just as the iconography of your protest should originate in the great American mainstream, the core demand of your movement should likewise be easy to explain and plausibly acceptable to that mainstream, stretching from Bernie voters to Romney donors.
...
Protests can energize people and overawe governments. But it is the steady and often tedious work of organization that sustains democracyâand can change the world. Protests are useful mostly to the extent that they mobilize people to participate in the follow-up meetings to realize the protestâs goals. Collect names and addresses. Form Facebook groups. Keep in touch. Donât argue: recruit. Meet in real space as well as online. Serve cake. Make your presence felt on your local elected officials not just once, but day after day, week in, week out. Make them feel that they could lose their individual seats if they do not heed you. They feel the pressure from lobbyists all the timeâŠto succeed, you should be equally focused and persistent. And that requires above all: be motivated by hope, not outrage.
I don't think we're shouldn't worry too much about the 'astroturf protesters' thing. ... The people showing at protests, many of whom weren't politically active before, are going to vote in upcoming off-year elections, even in gerrymandered red districts.
Perhaps just as importantly, if not moreso, most of them are calling their congressfolk. So even if DJT truly believes the protesters are fake, Congress knows different.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:13 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Perhaps just as importantly, if not moreso, most of them are calling their congressfolk. So even if DJT truly believes the protesters are fake, Congress knows different.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:13 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Is David Frum really the person we should be taking "here's how not to end up being a collaborator with right-wing post-truth ideology" lessons from?
posted by tivalasvegas at 9:13 AM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
posted by tivalasvegas at 9:13 AM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
I'll take it where I can get it, but it really does kinda reek of "lemme 'splain how to do what you're already doing."
posted by aspersioncast at 9:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by aspersioncast at 9:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
Fixed this for you, Mr. Frum:
But if you want to join the movement to protect American democracy from the authoritarianism of the Trump administration, you should remember that their goal is to protect and uplift people who you would not normally give two shits about. Just as the iconography of their protest will originate in the great history of American dissent and resistance, the core demand for your participation shouldn't require an easy explanation or acceptability to the mainstream, because this is about saving our Republic, motherfucker, get the hell over yourself.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:16 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
But if you want to join the movement to protect American democracy from the authoritarianism of the Trump administration, you should remember that their goal is to protect and uplift people who you would not normally give two shits about. Just as the iconography of their protest will originate in the great history of American dissent and resistance, the core demand for your participation shouldn't require an easy explanation or acceptability to the mainstream, because this is about saving our Republic, motherfucker, get the hell over yourself.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:16 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
Yeah I'm not particularly interested in David Frum's advice about how we should make sure not to look too angry while his buddies eagerly burn the constitution and risk the extinction of humanity over a promise of tax cuts.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:17 AM on February 6, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:17 AM on February 6, 2017 [16 favorites]
Is David Frum really the person we should be taking "here's how not to end up being a collaborator with right-wing post-truth ideology" lessons from?
As with all sources of information, we need to pay attention to the biases and assumptions inherent. However, that does not mean there isn't something worth listening to/learning from. (I haven't read his article yet, just making a generalized point).
posted by nubs at 9:18 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
As with all sources of information, we need to pay attention to the biases and assumptions inherent. However, that does not mean there isn't something worth listening to/learning from. (I haven't read his article yet, just making a generalized point).
posted by nubs at 9:18 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Give Neil Gorsuch an Up-Or-Down Vote
Democrats are threatening to hold up a qualified Supreme Court nominee for one reason: to hurt Donald Trump.
By SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL
posted by Talez at 9:18 AM on February 6, 2017 [76 favorites]
Democrats are threatening to hold up a qualified Supreme Court nominee for one reason: to hurt Donald Trump.
By SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL
So why would Democrats contemplate doing something so radical and out of the mainstream now â against a superbly qualified judge Democrats didnât raise objections to before, a man Democrats have praised many times since?I checked for any signs of satire but none were detected. This is satire right? He can't be this fucking obtuse that he'd write this, right?
Turns out, much of the opposition weâre seeing from far left groups and Democratic senators isnât really about Judge Gorsuch at all. Itâs about President Donald Trump.
posted by Talez at 9:18 AM on February 6, 2017 [76 favorites]
So even if DJT truly believes the protesters are fake, Congress knows different.
They still deny it. Rubio tweeted a couple of times about "left-wing radicals" influencing the Senate.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:19 AM on February 6, 2017
They still deny it. Rubio tweeted a couple of times about "left-wing radicals" influencing the Senate.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:19 AM on February 6, 2017
mitch mcconnell: least self-aware being this side of a single-celled organism or world's greatest troll? it's a toss-up
posted by entropicamericana at 9:21 AM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by entropicamericana at 9:21 AM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
This is satire right? He can't be this fucking obtuse that he'd write this, right?
He knows exactly what he's doing. He saw that there is no longer any penalty whatsoever for straight-up lying.
posted by Etrigan at 9:21 AM on February 6, 2017 [60 favorites]
He knows exactly what he's doing. He saw that there is no longer any penalty whatsoever for straight-up lying.
posted by Etrigan at 9:21 AM on February 6, 2017 [60 favorites]
They still deny it. Rubio tweeted a couple of times about "left-wing radicals" influencing the Senate.
I guarantee you none of these assholes actually believe this. They're all repeating the same talking point verbatim, they know it's a lie, they don't care.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:21 AM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
I guarantee you none of these assholes actually believe this. They're all repeating the same talking point verbatim, they know it's a lie, they don't care.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:21 AM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
....i'm really kinda stuck on this bit here:
"....despite Mr. Trumpâs anger that he was not fully briefed on details of the executive order he signed giving his chief strategist a seat on the National Security Council...."
from the NYT article linked above
whatthefuck?!!
posted by The_Auditor at 9:22 AM on February 6, 2017 [19 favorites]
"....despite Mr. Trumpâs anger that he was not fully briefed on details of the executive order he signed giving his chief strategist a seat on the National Security Council...."
from the NYT article linked above
whatthefuck?!!
posted by The_Auditor at 9:22 AM on February 6, 2017 [19 favorites]
Since Trump whenever I'm on social media I think I need a new emoji for "appreciative chuckle followed by half-sob"
That's pretty much what I'm using favorites to mean at this point.
posted by skycrashesdown at 9:23 AM on February 6, 2017 [38 favorites]
That's pretty much what I'm using favorites to mean at this point.
posted by skycrashesdown at 9:23 AM on February 6, 2017 [38 favorites]
I invite Leader Schumer and his party, who repeatedly declared how necessary it was to have nine justices on the court, to now follow through on their refrain of âwe need nineâ by giving this tremendously well-qualified nominee fair consideration and an up-or-down vote.
Hmm how about: go fuck yourself, you malignant putty-faced sludge golem
posted by theodolite at 9:24 AM on February 6, 2017 [39 favorites]
Hmm how about: go fuck yourself, you malignant putty-faced sludge golem
posted by theodolite at 9:24 AM on February 6, 2017 [39 favorites]
Also, is "The failing @nytimes writes total fiction concerning me" even English?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:25 AM on February 6, 2017
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:25 AM on February 6, 2017
I don't mind sharing Frum's writing when he's saying things that might shift some otherwise unreached folks over to the side of light. But nobody who is normally dem-leaning should ever forget that this is someone who got drummed out for being insufficently nutso, kept his career going by being this nominal voice of republican sanity, then wrote about how despite all that he'd be voting straight R ticket in the next election because best chance blah blah blah whatever.
He will wave the non-partisan flag as long as it's useful to him in getting paid or invited to parties but when the rubber hits the road he'll support a group even after they treat him like a Trump-paid hooker treats a russian hotel mattress. See also: John McCain.
posted by phearlez at 9:25 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
He will wave the non-partisan flag as long as it's useful to him in getting paid or invited to parties but when the rubber hits the road he'll support a group even after they treat him like a Trump-paid hooker treats a russian hotel mattress. See also: John McCain.
posted by phearlez at 9:25 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
"The failing @nytimes writes total fiction concerning me" even English?
There's nothing wrong with that sentence grammatically, that I can see.
posted by thelonius at 9:27 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
There's nothing wrong with that sentence grammatically, that I can see.
posted by thelonius at 9:27 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Well, I never thought I'd agree with Ted Cruz about anything, but Mitch McConnell is a damned liar.
Guess who's gonna getting a fax from me today.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 9:27 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Guess who's gonna getting a fax from me today.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 9:27 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Now now, let's not do fake news. There is no evidence that Trump ever *paid* Russian hookers to do anything
posted by tivalasvegas at 9:27 AM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by tivalasvegas at 9:27 AM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
roomthreeseventeen: Also, is "The failing @nytimes writes total fiction concerning me" even English?
I'm not sure, but he's right to be concerned, if that's what he meant. It it's not, it should be.
posted by Too-Ticky at 9:28 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm not sure, but he's right to be concerned, if that's what he meant. It it's not, it should be.
posted by Too-Ticky at 9:28 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
not fully briefed on details of the executive order he signed
No surprise. He's got previous.... "I don't read leases... I just sign them" (YT)
posted by Mister Bijou at 9:29 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
No surprise. He's got previous.... "I don't read leases... I just sign them" (YT)
posted by Mister Bijou at 9:29 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Sounds like the Senate Dems are going to be rabble-rousing on the floor until the De Vos vote tomorrow.
I really really REALLLY REALLY A LOT hope that the resistance to De Vos (who is obviously awful) isn't just a one-off for their constituencies. Public education is something that a whole lot of people ar are ready to go to bat for, but she's not any worse than Puzder or any of the rest of the clown car of nominees.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:29 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
I really really REALLLY REALLY A LOT hope that the resistance to De Vos (who is obviously awful) isn't just a one-off for their constituencies. Public education is something that a whole lot of people ar are ready to go to bat for, but she's not any worse than Puzder or any of the rest of the clown car of nominees.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:29 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
Tsk, forgetting my own rules. You're right. Trump-hired.
posted by phearlez at 9:29 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by phearlez at 9:29 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
David Frum bitterly disappointed me by never giving his column a cutesy name like "Frum Sea to Shining Sea" or "Frum Here to Eternity." For that reason alone, he should be shunned and ignored.
Seriously, what kind of monster is given a pun-rich last name and doesn't use it all the time?
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:31 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
Seriously, what kind of monster is given a pun-rich last name and doesn't use it all the time?
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:31 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
Btw, there's a ton of other batshit stuff in that NYT story I posted, like Trump getting a new tv dining room to watch cable news and the only family photo behind his desk being of his father. It's all a pretty disturbing article that goes well beyond people not knowing how to work the light switches.
Note well, too, that the NYT makes a point of mentioning the large number of anonymous sources they had for that story. The Trump White House would seem to be a leak festival.
posted by Gelatin at 9:32 AM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
Note well, too, that the NYT makes a point of mentioning the large number of anonymous sources they had for that story. The Trump White House would seem to be a leak festival.
posted by Gelatin at 9:32 AM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
Meanwhile I'll just be watching a livestream of the Judiciary Committee of my state assembly not debate an absolutely heinous abortion bill. There's one woman on the committee. Fuck everything.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:33 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:33 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
mitch mcconnell: least self-aware being this side of a single-celled organism or world's greatest troll? it's a toss-up
It's a power move- he knows he's full of shit and he's demonstrating that he's powerful enough that it doesn't matter.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:34 AM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
It's a power move- he knows he's full of shit and he's demonstrating that he's powerful enough that it doesn't matter.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:34 AM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
Note well, too, that the NYT makes a point of mentioning the large number of anonymous sources they had for that story.
Journos correct me, but the process-of-elimination game in trying to identify potential leakers fails here, because I can be on the record for part of an interview, and an "anonymous source" on the rest of it, right?
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:36 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Journos correct me, but the process-of-elimination game in trying to identify potential leakers fails here, because I can be on the record for part of an interview, and an "anonymous source" on the rest of it, right?
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:36 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Oh lol the one woman on the committee has a pussy hat sitting in front of her on the table. And she's currently speaking up for women. You go. She's going to get a thank-you tweet.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:37 AM on February 6, 2017 [56 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:37 AM on February 6, 2017 [56 favorites]
David Frum, god of the South Pacific's least popular cargo cult
posted by theodolite at 9:37 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by theodolite at 9:37 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
So why would Democrats contemplate doing something so radical and out of the mainstream
The chutzpah of these people.
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:39 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
The chutzpah of these people.
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:39 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
wonder where they will find a conservative jurist who hasn't preemptively torpedoed their nomination by lying on their CV.
Since I correctly called the last Gorsuch scandal, I'm going to call this one too. He probably went twice, thus enough that he could say he was a "member", so thus not a lie to put it on his resume, but not enough to demonstrate true commitment to it.
posted by corb at 9:40 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
Since I correctly called the last Gorsuch scandal, I'm going to call this one too. He probably went twice, thus enough that he could say he was a "member", so thus not a lie to put it on his resume, but not enough to demonstrate true commitment to it.
posted by corb at 9:40 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
@nielslesniewski: Senator Murray informs the Senate that Democrats will be speaking on the floor for the next 24 hours or so.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:43 AM on February 6, 2017 [19 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:43 AM on February 6, 2017 [19 favorites]
It's not grammatically wrong, but it is nevertheless worrying. Why would he write "concerning me" where he could have written "about me" or, better yet, "re. me," and had room to sprinkle the tweet with "Sad!"s if not that his fragile, sleepstarved, shriveling brain is now barely blinking under its ever-heavier golden cloak of amyloid plaque?
posted by Don Pepino at 9:43 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by Don Pepino at 9:43 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
wonder where they will find a conservative jurist who hasn't preemptively torpedoed their nomination by lying on their CV.
In what world does the GOP give a shit?
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:44 AM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
In what world does the GOP give a shit?
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:44 AM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
"It is through events like Benghazi that we see just how paper-thin the GOPâs commitments to its most defining ideals really are.
See also:
Questioning the patriotism of Purple-Heart recipients and amputee vets (Kerry, Cleland, Baldwin, etc.)
posted by darkstar at 9:52 AM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
See also:
Questioning the patriotism of Purple-Heart recipients and amputee vets (Kerry, Cleland, Baldwin, etc.)
posted by darkstar at 9:52 AM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
Senator Murray informs the Senate that Democrats will be speaking on the floor for the next 24 hours or so.
ITSHAPPENING.gif
posted by Etrigan at 9:56 AM on February 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
ITSHAPPENING.gif
posted by Etrigan at 9:56 AM on February 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
"It is through events like Benghazi that we see just how paper-thin the GOPâs commitments to its most defining ideals really are.
If you were politically aware at any point since about 1992 and haven't figured this out yet, I don't know what to tell you.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:56 AM on February 6, 2017 [19 favorites]
If you were politically aware at any point since about 1992 and haven't figured this out yet, I don't know what to tell you.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:56 AM on February 6, 2017 [19 favorites]
In across-the-pond news, the Speaker of the Commons has told MPs that he's not inclined to invite the White House occupant to speak at Westminster Hall during a state visit -- a decision where the Speaker has more authority than the prime minister. Number 10 anonymously suggested that there wasn't any firm plan for such a speech anyway:
posted by holgate at 9:58 AM on February 6, 2017 [40 favorites]
Pointing out that neither Ronald Reagan nor George W Bush addressed Westminster Hall during their state visits, the source said: âThe indication is he wants high visibility visits with key members of the Royal family.â They suggested that the focus would be on parades, the military and a ceremonial guard.He just wants to ride around in a gold carriage with the Queen. Of course he does.
posted by holgate at 9:58 AM on February 6, 2017 [40 favorites]
NPR: The Theory That Explains The Anger Of Our Political Moment
[Relative Deprivation is] maybe not the most mind-blowing of theories â threaten to take something away from people that they think should be theirs, and they get mad.posted by ZeusHumms at 10:05 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
But it is an elegant explanation for so much of the turmoil of the current political climate, when many groups seem to fear they could be losing out on what they once had.
Since the Republicans declared that consideration of Garland should be suspended because the Presidency was changing in a year, the Democrats should say they're suspending consideration of Gorsuch until they can see whether Trump lasts a year.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:08 AM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:08 AM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
He just wants to ride around in a gold carriage with the Queen. Of course he does.
Sans Prince Charles...
posted by Mister Bijou at 10:10 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Sans Prince Charles...
Members of the Republican politicianâs staff have warned that Prince Charles, Queen Elizabethâs son, should not âlectureâ him on climate change during the visit in case the fiery politician âeruptsâ in return, The Sunday Times reports. He has reportedly expressed a preference that the younger generation of royals, such as Prince Charlesâ sons William and Harry, meet him instead.Independent
posted by Mister Bijou at 10:10 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
He has reportedly expressed a preference that the younger generation of royals, such as Prince Charlesâ sons William and Harry, meet him instead.
Happily, Harry has just the thing to wear.
posted by Copronymus at 10:12 AM on February 6, 2017 [86 favorites]
Happily, Harry has just the thing to wear.
posted by Copronymus at 10:12 AM on February 6, 2017 [86 favorites]
I wonder how well the Queen can drive on off road courses. Just in case the opportunity to show off presents itself.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:13 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:13 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
in case the fiery politician âeruptsâ in return
if Trump commits a bodily offense against the Prince y'all can legally imprison him in the Tower of London indefinitely right oh please oh please oh please
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:14 AM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
if Trump commits a bodily offense against the Prince y'all can legally imprison him in the Tower of London indefinitely right oh please oh please oh please
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:14 AM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
a leak festival.
This presidency is nothing but pee jokes.
posted by emjaybee at 10:14 AM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
This presidency is nothing but pee jokes.
posted by emjaybee at 10:14 AM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
Check out Faxzero.com's list of most faxed Congresscritters! People have been slamming Toomey's office like mad with faxes--over 2000 per day. It'd be awesome to see Tillis' name climb up, since he's been asking for comments on DeVos.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 10:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
Faxes sent in the last 7 days:Every fax, call, or email is one more thing to divert their attention from fucking us all over with their grotesque legislative proposals.
1: Sen. Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania (R). Number of faxes sent: 17,775
2: Sen. John Cornyn, Texas (R). Number of faxes sent: 2,182
3: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California (D). Number of faxes sent: 1,827
4: Sen. John McCain, Arizona (R). Number of faxes sent: 1,540
5: Sen. Jeff Flake, Arizona (R). Number of faxes sent: 1,475
6: Sen. Dean Heller, Nevada (R). Number of faxes sent: 1,338
7: Sen. Cory Gardner, Colorado (R). Number of faxes sent: 1,179
8: Sen. Thom Tillis, North Carolina (R). Number of faxes sent: 1,117
9: Sen. Deb Fischer, Nebraska (R). Number of faxes sent: 1,116
10: Sen. Robert Casey, Pennsylvania (D). Number of faxes sent: 1,061
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 10:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
Do Royals still know how to duel?
posted by emjaybee at 10:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by emjaybee at 10:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
"Relative deprivation" also explains the popularity of the Left Behind book series.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:16 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:16 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Here's a fun Twitter war going on.
Mediate: CNNâs Choice Not To Feature Conway During Yesterdayâs Shows Was Reportedly Because Of âCredibilityâ Issues http://bit.ly/2kdII1g
Kellyanne: False. I could do no live Sunday shows this week BC of family. Plus, I was invited onto CNN today & tomorrow. CNN Brass on those emails
CNN Communications: . @KellyannePolls was offered to SOTU on Sunday by the White House. We passed. Those are the facts.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:16 AM on February 6, 2017 [92 favorites]
Mediate: CNNâs Choice Not To Feature Conway During Yesterdayâs Shows Was Reportedly Because Of âCredibilityâ Issues http://bit.ly/2kdII1g
Kellyanne: False. I could do no live Sunday shows this week BC of family. Plus, I was invited onto CNN today & tomorrow. CNN Brass on those emails
CNN Communications: . @KellyannePolls was offered to SOTU on Sunday by the White House. We passed. Those are the facts.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:16 AM on February 6, 2017 [92 favorites]
I have faith that the British will seize the opportunity to launch the largest demonstration against a sitting US President, ever.
posted by monospace at 10:16 AM on February 6, 2017 [29 favorites]
posted by monospace at 10:16 AM on February 6, 2017 [29 favorites]
Since the Republicans declared that consideration of Garland should be suspended because the Presidency was changing in a year, the Democrats should say they're suspending consideration of Gorsuch until they can see whether Trump lasts a year.
Seeing as he's already registered his candidacy it seems appropriate to wait until the end of the 2020 campaign.
posted by polyhedron at 10:17 AM on February 6, 2017 [39 favorites]
Seeing as he's already registered his candidacy it seems appropriate to wait until the end of the 2020 campaign.
posted by polyhedron at 10:17 AM on February 6, 2017 [39 favorites]
I'm really proud of how Pennsylvanians have slammed Toomey. I really give a lot of credit to the original Philadelphia Tuesdays with Toomey for demonstrating early and often that this dude does not give a single solitary fuck about the opinions of his constituency.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:18 AM on February 6, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:18 AM on February 6, 2017 [16 favorites]
The fact Asshat wants the pomp of his UK visit but not to do any actual work more or less sums up his life so much.
Ugh.
posted by Kitteh at 10:18 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
Ugh.
posted by Kitteh at 10:18 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
Someone, probably here on metafilter, suggested using faxzero with 5calls.org - when I looked the scripts on 5calls were pretty short.
Is it better to have a full formal written letter to be faxed to your congressperson or will the bare "I am INFJ a constituient from Internetland, I would like the seantor to vote HELL NO on DeVos" do?
posted by INFJ at 10:18 AM on February 6, 2017
Is it better to have a full formal written letter to be faxed to your congressperson or will the bare "I am INFJ a constituient from Internetland, I would like the seantor to vote HELL NO on DeVos" do?
posted by INFJ at 10:18 AM on February 6, 2017
I wonder how well the Queen can drive on off road courses.
She could do what she did to King Abdullah.
posted by elgilito at 10:19 AM on February 6, 2017 [29 favorites]
She could do what she did to King Abdullah.
posted by elgilito at 10:19 AM on February 6, 2017 [29 favorites]
> Do Royals still know how to duel?
Not sure about that, but Princes Charles, William and Harry are all ex-services (Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and British Army, respectively). There are many things to criticise about the Royal family, but I assume they can at least handle a weapon.
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 10:19 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Not sure about that, but Princes Charles, William and Harry are all ex-services (Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and British Army, respectively). There are many things to criticise about the Royal family, but I assume they can at least handle a weapon.
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 10:19 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Happily, Harry has just the thing to wear.
For those who don't get the joke (all three of you), Prince Harry was photographed wearing a swastika armband at a colonial themed birthday party. He said his costume was the Afrika Korps but it generated a shitton of "what the fuck" from everyone who wasn't a racist bigot.
posted by Talez at 10:19 AM on February 6, 2017 [19 favorites]
For those who don't get the joke (all three of you), Prince Harry was photographed wearing a swastika armband at a colonial themed birthday party. He said his costume was the Afrika Korps but it generated a shitton of "what the fuck" from everyone who wasn't a racist bigot.
posted by Talez at 10:19 AM on February 6, 2017 [19 favorites]
Journos correct me, but the process-of-elimination game in trying to identify potential leakers fails here, because I can be on the record for part of an interview, and an "anonymous source" on the rest of it, right?
Not a journalist but that's been my understanding too. You can make multiple statements with multiple attributions for a single article. You'd have to have an extremely accommodating editor to get away with more than two per source but that's enough to muddy the trail.
posted by scalefree at 10:20 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Not a journalist but that's been my understanding too. You can make multiple statements with multiple attributions for a single article. You'd have to have an extremely accommodating editor to get away with more than two per source but that's enough to muddy the trail.
posted by scalefree at 10:20 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Since the Republicans declared that consideration of Garland should be suspended because the Presidency was changing in a year, the Democrats should say they're suspending consideration of Gorsuch until they can see whether Trump lasts a year.
I haven't heard the Democrats stress that this president doesn't have a mandate, and that the majority of the U.S. population preferred a more progressive candidate.
People have been slamming Toomey's office like mad with faxes--over 2000 per day.
Toomey's offices had shut down their phones for a while so you couldn't even leave voicemails, even if their voicemail wasn't full. A Pennsylvania teacher did raise enough money to Buy Toomey's Vote, but I don't think he's commented on that.
posted by gladly at 10:20 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
I haven't heard the Democrats stress that this president doesn't have a mandate, and that the majority of the U.S. population preferred a more progressive candidate.
People have been slamming Toomey's office like mad with faxes--over 2000 per day.
Toomey's offices had shut down their phones for a while so you couldn't even leave voicemails, even if their voicemail wasn't full. A Pennsylvania teacher did raise enough money to Buy Toomey's Vote, but I don't think he's commented on that.
posted by gladly at 10:20 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
One of the things that makes me uncomfortable the internet's re-appraisal of Harry as a roguish good-time boy is his Nazi uniform. Whenever The Fug Girls post about him I want to throw that image in their mentions.
posted by pxe2000 at 10:22 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by pxe2000 at 10:22 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Is it better to have a full formal written letter to be faxed to your congressperson or will the bare "I am INFJ a constituient from Internetland, I would like the seantor to vote HELL NO on DeVos" do?
I've heard that a brief paragraph or two is best, unless you have a personal anecdote/experience to bear. If your experience is sufficiently relevant/heartwarming/heart string tugging, your congressperson might reference it on the floor (i.e. "I heard from a constituent who said...").
posted by yasaman at 10:23 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
I've heard that a brief paragraph or two is best, unless you have a personal anecdote/experience to bear. If your experience is sufficiently relevant/heartwarming/heart string tugging, your congressperson might reference it on the floor (i.e. "I heard from a constituent who said...").
posted by yasaman at 10:23 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
INFJ: Is it better to have a full formal written letter to be faxed to your congressperson or will the bare "I am INFJ a constituient from Internetland, I would like the seantor to vote HELL NO on DeVos" do?
I don't know what's most effective, but I did a pdf using a 96 point font that filled the page with "No on DeVos and Sessions!" But for all I know they use a digital fax system that sends public-facing faxes like this directly into the trash.
posted by bluecore at 10:26 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
I don't know what's most effective, but I did a pdf using a 96 point font that filled the page with "No on DeVos and Sessions!" But for all I know they use a digital fax system that sends public-facing faxes like this directly into the trash.
posted by bluecore at 10:26 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
I'm not sure how effective it is, but my letter-to-senator format is
RE: Vote yes/no on $thing
Dear Congresscritter,
I'm writing today to urge you to vote yes/no on $thing, for the following reason:
* bullet
* bullet
* bullet
In conclusion, do/don't do the thing.
Sincerely,
Soren Lorensen
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:27 AM on February 6, 2017 [28 favorites]
RE: Vote yes/no on $thing
Dear Congresscritter,
I'm writing today to urge you to vote yes/no on $thing, for the following reason:
* bullet
* bullet
* bullet
In conclusion, do/don't do the thing.
Sincerely,
Soren Lorensen
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:27 AM on February 6, 2017 [28 favorites]
For those who don't get the joke (all three of you), Prince Harry was photographed wearing a swastika armband at a colonial themed birthday party. He said his costume was the Afrika Korps but it generated a shitton of "what the fuck" from everyone who wasn't a racist bigot.
The best part was when the Royal Family said they were going to send him to Auschwitz to think about what he did, and the authorities who run the memorial said "No thanks, stay away".
posted by thelonius at 10:27 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
The best part was when the Royal Family said they were going to send him to Auschwitz to think about what he did, and the authorities who run the memorial said "No thanks, stay away".
posted by thelonius at 10:27 AM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
One of the things that makes me uncomfortable the internet's re-appraisal of Harry as a roguish good-time boy is his Nazi uniform. Whenever The Fug Girls post about him I want to throw that image in their mentions.
I wouldn't be that worried. It was over a decade ago and he's grown the fuck up a lot. Joining the army really straightened him out a bit. It was an unwise decision at the time and I think it's gotten through his skull that we didn't win the war for his fuckwittery.
posted by Talez at 10:29 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
I wouldn't be that worried. It was over a decade ago and he's grown the fuck up a lot. Joining the army really straightened him out a bit. It was an unwise decision at the time and I think it's gotten through his skull that we didn't win the war for his fuckwittery.
posted by Talez at 10:29 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
I've faxed Toomey several times now. Just this morning it was:
I am your constituent from 18***.
I urge you to vote NO on DeVos.
That is all. No more time or thought than that. Just a hatch in the 'no' side.
posted by Dashy at 10:35 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
I am your constituent from 18***.
I urge you to vote NO on DeVos.
That is all. No more time or thought than that. Just a hatch in the 'no' side.
posted by Dashy at 10:35 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
In the world of campaigning to save TV shows, fan campaigns sometimes do a mass mailing to get attention and make a point. For example, fans of the late TV show Jericho sent in large quantities of nuts, echoing a famous WWII quote. They also made a good point about the shows ratings, and giving it a fair chance. (The show got renewed, then canceled for good after ratings turned out to be worse. But it had that chance.)
I sometimes wonder if an influx of physical copies of the Constitution would get the attention of the Trump Administration, or certain members of Congress.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:35 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
I sometimes wonder if an influx of physical copies of the Constitution would get the attention of the Trump Administration, or certain members of Congress.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:35 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
It'd be awesome to see Tillis' name climb up, since he's been asking for comments on DeVos.
Given that both my Senators are now opposing DeVos, and that non-constit faxes and calls go straight in the trash, is there anything else I (and other blue state folks) can do at this point? Or just wait and bite my nails?
posted by anastasiav at 10:36 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Given that both my Senators are now opposing DeVos, and that non-constit faxes and calls go straight in the trash, is there anything else I (and other blue state folks) can do at this point? Or just wait and bite my nails?
posted by anastasiav at 10:36 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
There were a couple of pro-Trump protesters at the Stop the Ban protest that I just got back from. One of them had a Trump/ Pence campaign sign, and one of them had a handmade sign that said "Iowa for Iowans."
At least it wasn't "Iowa for Iowons".
posted by juiceCake at 10:36 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
At least it wasn't "Iowa for Iowons".
posted by juiceCake at 10:36 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
I sometimes wonder if an influx of physical copies of the Constitution would get the attention of the Trump Administration, or certain members of Congress.
I had an idea the other day that I have been trying to spread, along those very lines. The ACLU sells pocket Constitutions at about $1/per. I bought 10 of them with the intention of highlighting various passages and sending them to the White House and perhaps other folks when I Need to make a point.
It'd be cool if other people did that, too.
posted by jammer at 10:38 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
I had an idea the other day that I have been trying to spread, along those very lines. The ACLU sells pocket Constitutions at about $1/per. I bought 10 of them with the intention of highlighting various passages and sending them to the White House and perhaps other folks when I Need to make a point.
It'd be cool if other people did that, too.
posted by jammer at 10:38 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
[I was traveling for a couple of days. Is this the current election thread? The election2016 tag is not helping me out this time.]
posted by HotToddy at 10:38 AM on February 6, 2017
posted by HotToddy at 10:38 AM on February 6, 2017
I think of it as more the current political ongoing clusterfuck thread.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:40 AM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:40 AM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
1: Sen. Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania (R). Number of faxes sent: 17,775
Just to drive this home, that is more than 15,000 more than the next most faxed senator, and he deserves every single one of them.
If there were a way to send him real life Howlers, I have no doubt his offices would be fucking knee deep in them. I'm trying to figure out whether I have time to stop by Blick's this afternoon and buy materials to make a giant neon COWARD poster to hoist at tomorrow's Tuesdays with Toomey.
I am so disgusted with this man.
posted by joyceanmachine at 10:41 AM on February 6, 2017 [27 favorites]
Just to drive this home, that is more than 15,000 more than the next most faxed senator, and he deserves every single one of them.
If there were a way to send him real life Howlers, I have no doubt his offices would be fucking knee deep in them. I'm trying to figure out whether I have time to stop by Blick's this afternoon and buy materials to make a giant neon COWARD poster to hoist at tomorrow's Tuesdays with Toomey.
I am so disgusted with this man.
posted by joyceanmachine at 10:41 AM on February 6, 2017 [27 favorites]
Is this the current election thread? The election2016 tag is not helping me out this time.
It's less of an election thread and more of a "let's-resist-like-hell-and-gum-up-the-legislative-works-party-time-thread", but ya.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 10:41 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
It's less of an election thread and more of a "let's-resist-like-hell-and-gum-up-the-legislative-works-party-time-thread", but ya.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 10:41 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
@KellyannePolls was offered to SOTU on Sunday by the White House. We passed. Those are the facts.
White House: SOTU?
CNN: STFU.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:46 AM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
Oh god. The tag is now potus45. It really happened.
posted by HotToddy at 10:48 AM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by HotToddy at 10:48 AM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
Since the Republicans declared that consideration of Garland should be suspended because the Presidency was changing in a year, the Democrats should say
8-Justices-4-Ever. Since the Presidency may change in 4 years, consideration of ALL nominees should be suspended.
posted by mikelieman at 10:49 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
8-Justices-4-Ever. Since the Presidency may change in 4 years, consideration of ALL nominees should be suspended.
posted by mikelieman at 10:49 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Since the Presidency may change in 4 years, consideration of ALL nominees should be suspended.
The 2020 race has begun, and we have to honor the McConnell Rule.
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:55 AM on February 6, 2017 [42 favorites]
The 2020 race has begun, and we have to honor the McConnell Rule.
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:55 AM on February 6, 2017 [42 favorites]
For those of you with money on "Trump goes to CENTCOM and talks about his bigly election win" please come to the front to collect your winnings.
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:00 AM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:00 AM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
"I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data"
Wait, is this the MeTa where people are posting euphemisms for masturbation?
posted by Hairy Lobster at 11:01 AM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
Wait, is this the MeTa where people are posting euphemisms for masturbation?
posted by Hairy Lobster at 11:01 AM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
Martellus Bennett to sit out Patriots' White House trip after Super Bowl win
Chicago Bears tend to do pretty well when they leave town. Nice to see they will also do good.
posted by srboisvert at 11:02 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Chicago Bears tend to do pretty well when they leave town. Nice to see they will also do good.
posted by srboisvert at 11:02 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
And you like me and I like you," Trump says at address of senior US commanders in Florida.
Come on. That reads like a Dr. Seuss book.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:03 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
Come on. That reads like a Dr. Seuss book.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:03 AM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
And telling CENTCOM about how the lying media doesn't report on terror attacks! Good thing their AOR doesn't include Bowling Green!
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:04 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:04 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
hmm German IC unable to find any trace of russian media manipulation...
posted by xcasex at 11:04 AM on February 6, 2017
posted by xcasex at 11:04 AM on February 6, 2017
For those of you, like me, who don't know all the acronyms: CENTCOM is, unsurprisingly, short for "United States Central Command"
posted by INFJ at 11:06 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by INFJ at 11:06 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
And you like me and I like you," Trump says at address of senior US commanders in Florida.
Yes, that massive guffaw you just heard was courtesy of Sally Field.
posted by hangashore at 11:07 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yes, that massive guffaw you just heard was courtesy of Sally Field.
posted by hangashore at 11:07 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
flatluigi: People aren't surprised by the actions taking place, they're surprised at how fast and how blatant they are. It's been 16 days since Trump came into power. Nixon took years to get to this place in his presidency.
Nixon was president in the pre-internet days, before 24/7 news coverage, and everything that comes with insta-facts (and fakes). _rump and Pres. Bannon are operating this fast to keep people off-balanced, throwing out everything so it's hard to keep up, just like in the primaries and the run-up to the election.
Throw enough flash-bangs and you have everyone constantly disoriented. At least that seems like the tactic to me, with the added hyper-business tactic of shoot for the stars and hit the moon - ban all immigrants from 7 countries from entering the US, people (rightly) flip out, then roll back the ban on visa holders so you can say "look, now we're reacting to protesters, see how reasonable we are!" So those people who aren't impacted and can't look beyond their limited, homogeneous world say "that Donny sure is sticking it to the liberals, and he's even addressing their demands! He's really getting things done!"
Shock and awe, divide and conquer.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:09 AM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
Nixon was president in the pre-internet days, before 24/7 news coverage, and everything that comes with insta-facts (and fakes). _rump and Pres. Bannon are operating this fast to keep people off-balanced, throwing out everything so it's hard to keep up, just like in the primaries and the run-up to the election.
Throw enough flash-bangs and you have everyone constantly disoriented. At least that seems like the tactic to me, with the added hyper-business tactic of shoot for the stars and hit the moon - ban all immigrants from 7 countries from entering the US, people (rightly) flip out, then roll back the ban on visa holders so you can say "look, now we're reacting to protesters, see how reasonable we are!" So those people who aren't impacted and can't look beyond their limited, homogeneous world say "that Donny sure is sticking it to the liberals, and he's even addressing their demands! He's really getting things done!"
Shock and awe, divide and conquer.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:09 AM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
And you like me and I like you," Trump says at address of senior US commanders in Florida
dressed as a big purple dinosaur.
posted by dirigibleman at 11:10 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
dressed as a big purple dinosaur.
posted by dirigibleman at 11:10 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
zachlipton: I'm still wondering about the 2% of people who supported Hillary Clinton and believed she was an actual demon.
Better the devil you know?
posted by filthy light thief at 11:10 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
Better the devil you know?
posted by filthy light thief at 11:10 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
I'm still wondering about the 2% of people who supported Hillary Clinton and believed she was an actual demon.
Some people are able to put aside their disgusting anti-demon prejudices and vote for the better candidate without regard as to who rose from which sulfurous pit.
posted by Etrigan at 11:12 AM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
Some people are able to put aside their disgusting anti-demon prejudices and vote for the better candidate without regard as to who rose from which sulfurous pit.
posted by Etrigan at 11:12 AM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
"And you like me and I like you," Trump says..."
dressed as a big purple dinosaur.
IS NOTHING SACRED ANYMORE??
posted by otenba at 11:14 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
dressed as a big purple dinosaur.
IS NOTHING SACRED ANYMORE??
posted by otenba at 11:14 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
"You voted for Hillary Clinton?! I thought you said she was a bat-winged monstrosity from deepest Tartarus, the direct spawn of Satan, here to bring ruin to humanity!"
"She is, but have you seen the shit Donald Trump was saying?"
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
"She is, but have you seen the shit Donald Trump was saying?"
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:15 AM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
Better the devil you know?
Not linking your comment to this was the crime of the century.
posted by Talez at 11:18 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Not linking your comment to this was the crime of the century.
posted by Talez at 11:18 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Shock and awe, divide and conquer.
They're not awing, dividing, or conquering, though, and shock's about to leave town.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:19 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Chomsky on punching Nazis.
Wrong in principle, and tactically self-destructive. When we move to the arena of violence, the most brutal guys win — and that's not us.posted by Coventry at 11:23 AM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
Donald Trump would not be welcome to address parliament during his state visit, the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, has said in an unprecedented intervention that drew applause and cheers from MPs.
posted by adamvasco at 11:24 AM on February 6, 2017 [27 favorites]
posted by adamvasco at 11:24 AM on February 6, 2017 [27 favorites]
Chomsky's totally right, which is why this comment is written in German
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:25 AM on February 6, 2017 [46 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:25 AM on February 6, 2017 [46 favorites]
via WaPo: Trump tells military leaders "the very, very dishonest press" don't report on some terror attacks because "they have their reasons."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:29 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:29 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Chomsky's totally right, which is why this comment is written in German
There's a difference between fighting for survival and fighting for a dominance display. There are people in the nazi movement who will happily escalate a punch to murder in retribution. It's asking who can be the most brutal in a brutality competition. Even if you're willing to go down this sort of path, this is not a battle you will win in anything but a pyrrhic fashion.
But I'm not your mother. You have agency.
posted by Talez at 11:30 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
There's a difference between fighting for survival and fighting for a dominance display. There are people in the nazi movement who will happily escalate a punch to murder in retribution. It's asking who can be the most brutal in a brutality competition. Even if you're willing to go down this sort of path, this is not a battle you will win in anything but a pyrrhic fashion.
But I'm not your mother. You have agency.
posted by Talez at 11:30 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
ban all immigrants from 7 countries from entering the US, people (rightly) flip out, then roll back the ban on visa holders so you can say "look, now we're reacting to protesters, see how reasonable we are!"
They are showing no signs of doing this at all right now. Not even a hint.
posted by Jalliah at 11:30 AM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
They are showing no signs of doing this at all right now. Not even a hint.
posted by Jalliah at 11:30 AM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
there are lots of great arguments to make in favor of pacifism, but "Nazis are bigger and stronger than us" is weak, defeatist garbage.
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:31 AM on February 6, 2017 [44 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:31 AM on February 6, 2017 [44 favorites]
What Republicans have held forth as fundamental principles are, thanks to Trumpâs election, revealed as hollow bromides and shibboleths.
this has been painfully obvious to most thinking people for much longer than that
And how.
posted by Gelatin at 11:32 AM on February 6, 2017
this has been painfully obvious to most thinking people for much longer than that
And how.
posted by Gelatin at 11:32 AM on February 6, 2017
It's asking who can be the most brutal in a brutality competition.
That definitely explains why neo-Nazi attacks plummeted after the election and then skyrocketed after Richard Spencer was punched.
None of the things in that sentence is true, including "the" and "and".
posted by Etrigan at 11:32 AM on February 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
That definitely explains why neo-Nazi attacks plummeted after the election and then skyrocketed after Richard Spencer was punched.
None of the things in that sentence is true, including "the" and "and".
posted by Etrigan at 11:32 AM on February 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
there are lots of great arguments to make in favor of pacifism
That's not an argument in favour of pacifism, that's an argument against deploying violence as a routine tool of politics.
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 11:34 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
That's not an argument in favour of pacifism, that's an argument against deploying violence as a routine tool of politics.
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 11:34 AM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
If the existence of Nazis represents routine politics, you have much worse problems on your hands.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 11:37 AM on February 6, 2017 [29 favorites]
posted by C'est la D.C. at 11:37 AM on February 6, 2017 [29 favorites]
I can't find a link to this anywhere in this thread, so if you missed it yesterday, please enjoy Hamilton's original Schuyler Sisters singers a slightly altered American The Beautiful from the Superbowl yesterday.
Can I get a Hell Yeah?
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:37 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
Can I get a Hell Yeah?
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:37 AM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
there are lots of great arguments to make in favor of pacifism, but "Nazis are bigger and stronger than us" is weak, defeatist garbage.
More than that. "Nazis are bigger and stronger than us" is literally Nazi propaganda.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:37 AM on February 6, 2017 [64 favorites]
More than that. "Nazis are bigger and stronger than us" is literally Nazi propaganda.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:37 AM on February 6, 2017 [64 favorites]
ain't nothing routine politics about Nazis.
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:38 AM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:38 AM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
this has been painfully obvious to most thinking people for much longer than that
And how.
Indeed. It's hard to read articles like that. It's like that time Microsoft announced that GUIs were finally here with the release of Windows 3.1 (for some reason the previous versions didn't count as GUIs to their marketing team if memory serves) when those of us who used Amigas, Macs, or Atari STs, even GEOS were well aware of and had been using GUI based systems for some time.
This bullshit has been going on for years on the local and State level (Nixon/Reagan/Thatcher have been forgotten I suppose) but perhaps the mainstream or majority of people simply didn't really know about it and are finding out for the first time. Says quite a lot about mainstream news in the States.
posted by juiceCake at 11:38 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
And how.
Indeed. It's hard to read articles like that. It's like that time Microsoft announced that GUIs were finally here with the release of Windows 3.1 (for some reason the previous versions didn't count as GUIs to their marketing team if memory serves) when those of us who used Amigas, Macs, or Atari STs, even GEOS were well aware of and had been using GUI based systems for some time.
This bullshit has been going on for years on the local and State level (Nixon/Reagan/Thatcher have been forgotten I suppose) but perhaps the mainstream or majority of people simply didn't really know about it and are finding out for the first time. Says quite a lot about mainstream news in the States.
posted by juiceCake at 11:38 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
That definitely explains why neo-Nazi attacks plummeted after the election and then skyrocketed after Richard Spencer was punched.
I know this is being facetious and a little flippant but during the Obama years the anti-government sovereign citizen movement thrived like never before. There have been dozens of deaths in the face of a black man's presidency being seen as illegitimate. Even if it's not a strain of neo-nazism there are definitely racist undertones at play. When these people feel under threat they do dangerous things. Sure, Jerry and Joe Kane are six feet under but so are Bill Evans and Brandon Paudert.
posted by Talez at 11:39 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I know this is being facetious and a little flippant but during the Obama years the anti-government sovereign citizen movement thrived like never before. There have been dozens of deaths in the face of a black man's presidency being seen as illegitimate. Even if it's not a strain of neo-nazism there are definitely racist undertones at play. When these people feel under threat they do dangerous things. Sure, Jerry and Joe Kane are six feet under but so are Bill Evans and Brandon Paudert.
posted by Talez at 11:39 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
But, I mean, suit the action to the situation. I don't think there's value in punching some random guy nobody's ever heard of, necessarily. A well-known Nazi piece of shit playing a respectability game while surrounded by news media content to let him play his shitty respectability game, though? Yeah, punch that fucker.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:40 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by tobascodagama at 11:40 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
Democrats Are Holding the Senate Floor for 24 Hours to Protest Betsy DeVos' Nomination
posted by futz at 11:40 AM on February 6, 2017 [50 favorites]
posted by futz at 11:40 AM on February 6, 2017 [50 favorites]
ugh not one of those 50 republicans gives a shit about the education and care of our children?!
posted by INFJ at 11:43 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by INFJ at 11:43 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I know this is being facetious and a little flippant but during the Obama years the anti-government sovereign citizen movement thrived like never before.
Obama, who famously punched all those Nazis during his 2008 campaign.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:44 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Obama, who famously punched all those Nazis during his 2008 campaign.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:44 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
zachlipton: 97 (mostly tech) companies, including Apple, Facebook, Salesforce, Twitter, Uber, and Microsoft, have filed a friend of the court brief with the 9th Circuit in the Washington case opposing the immigration executive order.
The big winner this year could be Canada, in a way that Rural America could have won if _rump really understood the power he had in not giving a fuck.
Tech companies don't need to be located in big cities, but they are to draw more people who like big cities. Meanwhile, you have immigrants who are coming to the US for a safe place to live, and end up getting re-settled all over the country. And now tech companies are making plans to move foreign-born workers to Canada
(Tech Crunch, Jan 31, 2017).
Instead of with giving ridiculous incentives to companies to build infrastructure (WaPo, January 24, 2017), why not give the same sort of thing to tech companies who locate in rural regions of the US, develop local talent, and support immigration to those shrinking, aging regions (The Atlantic, June 2, 2016)? One company can save a town, 2-3 can bring serious prosperity and growth to the region.
Instead, they'll move to Canada, taking their skills and salaries with them. Good job, racist idiot.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:46 AM on February 6, 2017 [44 favorites]
The big winner this year could be Canada, in a way that Rural America could have won if _rump really understood the power he had in not giving a fuck.
Tech companies don't need to be located in big cities, but they are to draw more people who like big cities. Meanwhile, you have immigrants who are coming to the US for a safe place to live, and end up getting re-settled all over the country. And now tech companies are making plans to move foreign-born workers to Canada
(Tech Crunch, Jan 31, 2017).
Instead of with giving ridiculous incentives to companies to build infrastructure (WaPo, January 24, 2017), why not give the same sort of thing to tech companies who locate in rural regions of the US, develop local talent, and support immigration to those shrinking, aging regions (The Atlantic, June 2, 2016)? One company can save a town, 2-3 can bring serious prosperity and growth to the region.
Instead, they'll move to Canada, taking their skills and salaries with them. Good job, racist idiot.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:46 AM on February 6, 2017 [44 favorites]
So the man who refuses to acknowledge the Quebec City mosque attack is telling our military that the "very dishonest press doesn't want to report" terror attacks in Europe (transcript).
David Mack of Buzzfeed gives us the hard truth that the press really does under report terrorist attacks, but not in Europe, only in Muslim countries, who are attacked far more than anywhere else.
posted by zachlipton at 11:48 AM on February 6, 2017 [28 favorites]
David Mack of Buzzfeed gives us the hard truth that the press really does under report terrorist attacks, but not in Europe, only in Muslim countries, who are attacked far more than anywhere else.
posted by zachlipton at 11:48 AM on February 6, 2017 [28 favorites]
Truthfully, I'd love if a US tech company relocated to Kingston. We have a great cost of living and conveniently located within easy travel distance of TO, Ottawa, and Montreal. If US businesses want to bring jobs to Canada, I'm on board.
posted by Kitteh at 11:49 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 11:49 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
octothorpe: The price of entry for the 2020 presidential primary is ferocious opposition to the president.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:49 AM on February 6, 2017 [29 favorites]
The urgency of the moment is not lost on the partyâs leading 2020 hopefuls. Many of them â including Warren and fellow Sens. Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris â abandoned their schedules two weekends ago to appear at protests in their home states or in Washington, grasping the imperative to be both public and distinctive in their opposition to Trumpâs executive order on refugee travel. Then Warren, Sanders, Gillibrand and Booker voted against approving Elaine Chao for secretary of transportation, one of Trumpâs least controversial picks and an unmistakable thumb in the eye of Chaoâs husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.And here I was thinking Brand New Congress was unrealistic. Stand up in resistance now, or sit down in 2018 and 2020.
âPeople will say, âWhere were you when he appointed Jeff Sessions? Where were you when he picked a Supreme Court justice?â That will be a real question in primaries, and I wouldnât want to be the candidate on the wrong side of that,â said longtime strategist Bob Shrum, warning of the importance of public resistance in a week when Democratic senators began boycotting votes on Trump picks altogether.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:49 AM on February 6, 2017 [29 favorites]
David Mack of Buzzfeed gives us the hard truth that the press really does under report terrorist attacks, but not in Europe, only in Muslim countries, who are attacked far more than anywhere else.
This is true, mostly because Western media sees any terrorist attack outside of Europe or any other Western country as the sort of thing that just happens over there.
posted by Kitteh at 11:51 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
This is true, mostly because Western media sees any terrorist attack outside of Europe or any other Western country as the sort of thing that just happens over there.
posted by Kitteh at 11:51 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
TMZ is claiming that Kanye West has scrubbed his Twitter of all his pro-Trump tweets.
When you don't have John Yoo or Kanye, who do you have?
posted by zachlipton at 11:52 AM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
When you don't have John Yoo or Kanye, who do you have?
posted by zachlipton at 11:52 AM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
Mod note: Several comments removed, cut it out with the rapey trolley problem shit.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:53 AM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:53 AM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
Democrats Are Holding the Senate Floor for 24 Hours to Protest Betsy DeVos' Nomination
I suspected when Collins announced, after having voted DeVos out of committee, that she'd vote against her on the Senate floor, that the whip count was safely in this horrible nominee's favor, and so she could safely make a phony "moderate" gesture for the benefit of her low-information constituents while in reality voting lockstep with the Republicans as usual. This development tells me that Senate Democrats agree about the whip count. I hope I'm reading it wrong.
posted by Gelatin at 11:53 AM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
I suspected when Collins announced, after having voted DeVos out of committee, that she'd vote against her on the Senate floor, that the whip count was safely in this horrible nominee's favor, and so she could safely make a phony "moderate" gesture for the benefit of her low-information constituents while in reality voting lockstep with the Republicans as usual. This development tells me that Senate Democrats agree about the whip count. I hope I'm reading it wrong.
posted by Gelatin at 11:53 AM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
I'm really disturbed by the President telling the central command of our military that the media isn't reporting Islamic terrorism in Europe. He's setting up a narrative so when there's another terrorist attack the media are to blame for not warning us and the courts are to blame for tying his hands. It's also pushing the lie that Europe is overrun with terrorism because of allowing in refugees. As zachlipton pointed out, if there's any underreporting of terrorist attacks, it's in Muslim countries who are the main victims of extremist attacks.
posted by bluecore at 11:54 AM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
posted by bluecore at 11:54 AM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
Apple is building a huge datacenter in a tiny Danish village - the article says town, but it has 174 inhabitants. This is great for the area, and will definitely lead to local growth. No reason it couldn't happen in the US as well..
posted by mumimor at 11:55 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by mumimor at 11:55 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
ugh who gives a shit about Kanye West. The man is a news/sensationalist attention seeker. Hes a living version of The Sun.
posted by INFJ at 11:56 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by INFJ at 11:56 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Instead of with giving ridiculous incentives to companies to build infrastructure (WaPo, January 24, 2017), why not give the same sort of thing to tech companies who locate in rural regions of the US, develop local talent, and support immigration to those shrinking, aging regions (The Atlantic, June 2, 2016)? One company can save a town, 2-3 can bring serious prosperity and growth to the region.
Are you kidding me?
Tech workers crowd into cities like Boston and San Francisco, not because they like $4.00 artisanal cinnamon toast, but because to be in this line of work you have to live in range of multiple employers. Nobody's going to move to a one company town. At best, you can get companies to set up in cities like Worcester, MA or Cincinnati. And that's already happening.
posted by ocschwar at 11:57 AM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
slipthought: @BraddJaffy Spicer says nationwide protests of Trump are not like Tea Party was: This is âa very paid AstroTurf-type movementâ [Twitter]
Here's the funny thing - An academic study confirmed that front groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and the billionaire Koch brothers planned the formation of the Tea Party movement more than a decade before it exploded onto the U.S. political scene. (HuffPo, Feb. 11, 2013)
And by funny, I mean fucking infuriating. _rump must have ordered mirrors by the boat-load for his administration, because the _rump's mirror messages are still holding up.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:58 AM on February 6, 2017 [30 favorites]
Here's the funny thing - An academic study confirmed that front groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and the billionaire Koch brothers planned the formation of the Tea Party movement more than a decade before it exploded onto the U.S. political scene. (HuffPo, Feb. 11, 2013)
And by funny, I mean fucking infuriating. _rump must have ordered mirrors by the boat-load for his administration, because the _rump's mirror messages are still holding up.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:58 AM on February 6, 2017 [30 favorites]
Are you kidding me? Tech workers crowd into cities like Boston and San Francisco, not because they like $4.00 artisanal cinnamon toast, but because to be in this line of work you have to live in range of multiple employers.
Good point, and I oversimplified, but if _rump is incentivising companies to stay in place instead of moving out of town, and (potentially) offering a ton of tax breaks to companies who build infrastructure (something like $1 million in project expenses = $1 million or more in tax write-offs for 10-15 years), that could change the investment and site development plans for major companies. And if it takes 3-5 companies to make a new tech town, I'm sure congresmen and senators would eat up the potential to have a handful of tech companies in their impoverished regions.
Of course, this is the stuff of fantasy land Bizarro _rump fever dreams, so I'll stop now. (But it's fun to dream.)
posted by filthy light thief at 12:03 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Good point, and I oversimplified, but if _rump is incentivising companies to stay in place instead of moving out of town, and (potentially) offering a ton of tax breaks to companies who build infrastructure (something like $1 million in project expenses = $1 million or more in tax write-offs for 10-15 years), that could change the investment and site development plans for major companies. And if it takes 3-5 companies to make a new tech town, I'm sure congresmen and senators would eat up the potential to have a handful of tech companies in their impoverished regions.
Of course, this is the stuff of fantasy land Bizarro _rump fever dreams, so I'll stop now. (But it's fun to dream.)
posted by filthy light thief at 12:03 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Hes a living version of The Sun.
not sure he's actually claimed to be an incarnation of a solar deity yet but give the man time
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
not sure he's actually claimed to be an incarnation of a solar deity yet but give the man time
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
And you like me and I like you," Trump says at address of senior US commanders in Florida.
Barney the Dinosaur is gonna be pissed.
posted by indubitable at 12:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Barney the Dinosaur is gonna be pissed.
posted by indubitable at 12:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
This development tells me that Senate Democrats agree about the whip count. I hope I'm reading it wrong.
I think you're right, Gelatin. If the count were unsure they'd be busy trying to change it.
I called my senators about her anyhow, though.
posted by nat at 12:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
I think you're right, Gelatin. If the count were unsure they'd be busy trying to change it.
I called my senators about her anyhow, though.
posted by nat at 12:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
I'm really disturbed by the President telling the central command of our military that the media isn't reporting Islamic terrorism in Europe.
Just for the record, "Central Command" refers to its geographic area of operations: the Middle East.
posted by Etrigan at 12:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
Just for the record, "Central Command" refers to its geographic area of operations: the Middle East.
posted by Etrigan at 12:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
Instead of with giving ridiculous incentives to companies to build infrastructure (WaPo, January 24, 2017), why not give the same sort of thing to tech companies who locate in rural regions of the US
This already happens (UT, NM, NC, NY, TX, etc). Except instead of companies getting tax incentives to build/repair infrastructure, they get tax incentives to use/overburden the area's infrastructure in exchange for "job creation" (often with little to no constraints on whether those jobs pay a living wage or offer benefits). These regions end up needing more tax revenue to deal with the increase in population/land use but the companies that created that need don't have to pay their fair share of the costs.
Tax incentives given to companies to "create jobs" are usually a bad long-term deal for the community.
posted by melissasaurus at 12:07 PM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
This already happens (UT, NM, NC, NY, TX, etc). Except instead of companies getting tax incentives to build/repair infrastructure, they get tax incentives to use/overburden the area's infrastructure in exchange for "job creation" (often with little to no constraints on whether those jobs pay a living wage or offer benefits). These regions end up needing more tax revenue to deal with the increase in population/land use but the companies that created that need don't have to pay their fair share of the costs.
Tax incentives given to companies to "create jobs" are usually a bad long-term deal for the community.
posted by melissasaurus at 12:07 PM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
I think tech can do well in moderate sized cities, especially with high speed internet connections. Could be a godsend for people wanting to get away from the craziness of large cities.
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:09 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:09 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Hes a living version of The Sun.
not sure he's actually claimed to be an incarnation of a solar deity yet but give the man time
He's got the "the State, it's Me" part.
posted by sukeban at 12:10 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
not sure he's actually claimed to be an incarnation of a solar deity yet but give the man time
He's got the "the State, it's Me" part.
posted by sukeban at 12:10 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
supercrayon: I feel like the new divide in America
Buntix: The world.
In a small corner of Nairobi, where men gather to talk politics, President Trump is adored. They view him with hope that populism and the will of the people can be respected in a democracy. (NPR, February 6, 2017)
posted by filthy light thief at 12:14 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Buntix: The world.
In a small corner of Nairobi, where men gather to talk politics, President Trump is adored. They view him with hope that populism and the will of the people can be respected in a democracy. (NPR, February 6, 2017)
"I think his dictator tendencies are for the benefit of his country, yes - because if he says that he will build a wall between Mexico and the U.S. because Mexicans are rapists, drug addicts and so on, that is for the benefit of his country."Emphasis mine -- from Kenya, which Wikipedia states has maintained remarkable stability despite changes in its political system and crises in neighbouring countries, since its independence in 1963 (I know, Wikipedia is not a source unto itself, but it's the handiest broad summary I could find at the moment).
posted by filthy light thief at 12:14 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
For those who don't get the joke (all three of you), Prince Harry was photographed wearing a swastika armband at a colonial themed birthday party.
Wasn't he also photographed naked in a hotel room? Works almost as well for the joke.
No reason it couldn't happen in the US as well..
Apple built a *giant* data center powered by an even more giant solar farm in Maiden, NC, pop. 3500 or so. Even rural, small town, white, Trumpian real America will suffer if the big tech cos decide to pull up stakes.
posted by spitbull at 12:17 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Wasn't he also photographed naked in a hotel room? Works almost as well for the joke.
No reason it couldn't happen in the US as well..
Apple built a *giant* data center powered by an even more giant solar farm in Maiden, NC, pop. 3500 or so. Even rural, small town, white, Trumpian real America will suffer if the big tech cos decide to pull up stakes.
posted by spitbull at 12:17 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Regarding the proven fact of the astroturf origins of the Tea Party: I think somebody needs to put ads on all the right wing news sites: "If you've been an unpaid volunteer for Trump or the Tea Party, apply here to get the payment you're owed! Hundreds of millions of dollars already paid; get your share!"
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:19 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:19 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
Devos is a product of what happens when we agree that, instead of paying taxes, the stupidly wealthy should be allowed to decide how they sue their money to support communities. She has made a choice to get involved in education with absolutely no understanding of it because it serves her (she profits off of private schools) and because she has a bunch of ill-informed and outright incorrect beliefs.
When the wealthy are taxed, the government (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) can identify areas of genuine need and allocate the money accordingly. Hopefully, they base this decisions on solid research instead of the tipsy whims of the Gatsby-esque.
Decisions that effect whole communities should not be based on the daft vagaries of bored country club dilettantes.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [56 favorites]
When the wealthy are taxed, the government (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) can identify areas of genuine need and allocate the money accordingly. Hopefully, they base this decisions on solid research instead of the tipsy whims of the Gatsby-esque.
Decisions that effect whole communities should not be based on the daft vagaries of bored country club dilettantes.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [56 favorites]
$4.00 artisanal cinnamon toast
Hell you'll pay that at the Waffle House.
posted by spitbull at 12:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Hell you'll pay that at the Waffle House.
posted by spitbull at 12:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Yeah the phrase you're looking for is "$10 avocado toast"
posted by zachlipton at 12:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [22 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 12:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [22 favorites]
Apple built a *giant* data center powered by an even more giant solar farm in Maiden, NC, pop. 3500 or so.
The data center employed 50 people. The tax incentives Apple received amounted to $6.4 million per job created.
For those interested in these things, the organization Good Jobs First tracks these kinds of economic development incentives.
posted by melissasaurus at 12:26 PM on February 6, 2017 [30 favorites]
The data center employed 50 people. The tax incentives Apple received amounted to $6.4 million per job created.
For those interested in these things, the organization Good Jobs First tracks these kinds of economic development incentives.
posted by melissasaurus at 12:26 PM on February 6, 2017 [30 favorites]
Emphasis mine -- from Kenya, which Wikipedia states has maintained remarkable stability despite changes in its political system and crises in neighbouring countries, since its independence in 1963 (I know, Wikipedia is not a source unto itself, but it's the handiest broad summary I could find at the moment).
1200 dead and 500,000 fleeing their homes in post-election violence in 2007 does not seem terribly stable. Not to mention the constant threat of terror attack from al Shabab just across the border in Somalia, though that does explain how they can relate positively to the whole Wall thing.
posted by indubitable at 12:26 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
1200 dead and 500,000 fleeing their homes in post-election violence in 2007 does not seem terribly stable. Not to mention the constant threat of terror attack from al Shabab just across the border in Somalia, though that does explain how they can relate positively to the whole Wall thing.
posted by indubitable at 12:26 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Not to mention the constant threat of terror attack from al Shabab just across the border in Somalia, though that does explain how they can relate positively to the whole Wall thing.
I feel like I should clarify here that I don't mean that this justifies their feelings or that building a stupid wall would help at all, but that I can understand where it comes from. That and I get the feeling that there's a lot of... ethnic? sectarian? tensions between the groups in Kenya and the Somali refugees that have taken up residence there.
posted by indubitable at 12:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I feel like I should clarify here that I don't mean that this justifies their feelings or that building a stupid wall would help at all, but that I can understand where it comes from. That and I get the feeling that there's a lot of... ethnic? sectarian? tensions between the groups in Kenya and the Somali refugees that have taken up residence there.
posted by indubitable at 12:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Has it already been posted here that Kellyanne told TMZ about the Bowling Green Massacre too? So that is the third time!
Kellyanne Conway Referenced âBowling Green Attackâ in TMZ Interview
Thereâs a new, third time Trumpâs counselor talked about a fictitious terrorist attack â undermining the excuse she misspoke.
posted by futz at 12:33 PM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
Kellyanne Conway Referenced âBowling Green Attackâ in TMZ Interview
Thereâs a new, third time Trumpâs counselor talked about a fictitious terrorist attack â undermining the excuse she misspoke.
posted by futz at 12:33 PM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
> Donald Trump would not be welcome to address parliament during his state visit, the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, has said in an unprecedented intervention that drew applause and cheers from MPs.
Well said, John Bercow. And a startling postscript as The Beast of Bolsover heckles in support of Mr. Speaker for once. Truly, the world has been turned upside-down!
posted by Morfil Ffyrnig at 12:37 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Well said, John Bercow. And a startling postscript as The Beast of Bolsover heckles in support of Mr. Speaker for once. Truly, the world has been turned upside-down!
posted by Morfil Ffyrnig at 12:37 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
[Popular Vote Loser] is now speculating that the media is covering up terrorist attacks
I think I've been sucked into a horror movie. Plz send help.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 12:37 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Itâs certainly true that not every terrorist attack receives broad coverage in the national media. FiveThirtyEight looked at the likelihood that a terrorist attack in a foreign country would be covered by the New York Times, looking at coverage of 40,129 attacks from 1968 to 2009. Not every attack received coverage over that period. Last spring, the Los Angeles Times set out to log every single terrorist attack in the month of April, counting 180 attacks that killed 858 people. Not every one of those attacks made your local nightly newscast.Not going to actually repeat the absolutely absurd claim made by said PVL, but wow, everyday, the news get more and more surreal.
But filtering what to cover is very different than suppressing information. On any given day, local newspapers and news broadcasts decide what to spend resources on. If your home is burglarized, it may not make the cut. This probably isnât because the Channel 5 news director has a vendetta against you; itâs that there are limited resources.
I think I've been sucked into a horror movie. Plz send help.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 12:37 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Der Spiegel editorial: Trump as Nero | Europe Must Defend Itself Against A Dangerous President
"It is literally painful to write this sentence, but the president of the United States is a pathological liar. The president of the U.S. is a racist (it also hurts to write this). He is attempting a coup from the top; he wants to establish an illiberal democracy, or worse; he wants to undermine the balance of power. He fired an acting attorney general who held a differing opinion from his own and accused her of "betrayal." This is the vocabulary used by Nero, the emperor and destroyer of Rome. It is the way tyrants think."posted by monospace at 12:38 PM on February 6, 2017 [67 favorites]
[...]
"The fact that the United States, a nuclear superpower that has dominated the world economically, militarily and culturally for decades, is now presenting itself as the victim, calling in all seriousness for "America first" and trying to force the rest of the world into humiliating concessions is absurd. But precisely because this nonsense is coming from the world's most powerful man, it is getting trapped by him."
Erik Loomis, LGM: Are Factory Jobs Good Jobs?
[snippet of paywalled Financial Times piece about the preventable death of a subcontractor working at a non-union Hyunday/Kia plant]posted by tonycpsu at 12:38 PM on February 6, 2017 [44 favorites]
This is the type of job that Trump talks about when he goes MAGA. These arenât good jobs. They are terrible jobs. They are also the only even halfway decent jobs in the rural South. Because of capital mobility and the inability of unions to organize southern industrial plants (which may be changing but we will see), these jobs are unsafe and they are getting worse, not better. The lack of any real industrial policy in the United States for a half-century combined with the desperation of American blue-collar workers to take anything they can get these days contributes to this situation. There arenât any easy answers either except to fine the living hell out the suppliers, the subcontractors, and the auto plants who buy supplies from these factories. Of course, thatâs not going to Make America Great Again so you can forget that for the next 4 years.
But we need to remember is that there is nothing inherently good about a factory job. What makes any job a âgoodâ job is a union or at least competition with unionized workplaces. Whether it is McDonaldâs or Kia suppliers, only a union can protect workers. Promoting union workplaces needs to be the leftâs primary goal, not creating specific types of jobs except in areas that already having a union presence that would make their creation automatically a pretty good job.
At this point the only real surprise would be seeing MSM reporting something like -
BREAKING: Kellyannne Conway does NOT lie her fucking face off today. Holy shit.
posted by lydhre at 12:38 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
BREAKING: Kellyannne Conway does NOT lie her fucking face off today. Holy shit.
posted by lydhre at 12:38 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
WNYC reports on the Democratic Socialists of America: Capturing the Energy of the Left
Membership for the Democratic Socialists of America, or the DSA, has nearly tripled in the last 6 months, up from 6,000 to 15,000 nationwide.posted by Rustic Etruscan at 12:39 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
In the aftermath of a disastrous election for the Democratic Party, some liberals and leftists are turning away from the main organizing branch of the party, in favor of organizations like the DSA. It has been around since the early 80s, formed out of a splintering of socialist groups. The goal back then was to fight for reforms for the working class through hundreds of community chapters - a local focus still at the heart of the movement. But as socialism fell by the wayside in the 80s and 90s, interest in groups outside of the mainstream remained low.
But now, as a result of Trump's election, the perceived inefficacy of Congressional Democrats, rising inequality and the deferred vision of Bernie Sanders - all combined with online organizing - democratic socialism is finding its legs. And the DSA is at the heart of the movement as the largest socialist organization in the U.S.
Takeaway producer Oliver Lazarus went to the first Brooklyn branch meeting of the DSA since the inauguration, held at an auditorium, when just a couple months ago, the branch was happy if they could fill a living room.
Decisions that effect whole communities should not be based on the daft vagaries of bored country club dilettantes.
Betsy DeVos is not a "bored country club dillettante", nor is "education" merely her Desperate Housewives-type social project.
She's the product of a specific religious tradition, Dutch Calvinism, that largely still refuses to make peace with the idea that education is the legitimate responsibility of the state. Don't assume she's stupid -- she's smart enough not to say what she really believes about education in front of a Senate hearing, so she just sits there and smirks.
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:39 PM on February 6, 2017 [37 favorites]
Betsy DeVos is not a "bored country club dillettante", nor is "education" merely her Desperate Housewives-type social project.
She's the product of a specific religious tradition, Dutch Calvinism, that largely still refuses to make peace with the idea that education is the legitimate responsibility of the state. Don't assume she's stupid -- she's smart enough not to say what she really believes about education in front of a Senate hearing, so she just sits there and smirks.
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:39 PM on February 6, 2017 [37 favorites]
Government In Chaos: Donald Trump Signed An Executive Order That Just Says âHOT CUBEâ And Federal Agencies Are Scrambling To Interpret It [Clickhole, fake]
Typically, a president works hand in hand with federal agencies to enact policy, but Donald Trump is clearly dead set on shattering that mold. Just two weeks into his presidency, he has once again sent the federal government into complete chaos with a single stroke of his pen: President Trump has signed into law a piece of paper containing only the words âHOT CUBE,â and federal agencies have been scrambling to figure out just what that means ever since.posted by Servo5678 at 12:40 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
Data centres really don't create permanent jobs. The whole 'Internet of Things' thing is taken to extremes, with as much monitoring, configuration and daily running as possible taken care of by automation - the idea of the 'lights out' DC is that there's nobody there most of the time. You build them, you wire them in, you turn them on and then you walk away.
Forget those archive pictures of vast halls of machines tended by a small army of technicians. The people who are needed are either sent in as and when, or they sit at desks in another state and make sure that not too many green things turn red. You build your DCs where land and power is cheap and you can get the data in and out; you might hire a couple of locals to be on-site security or running maintenance like swapping fan filters in the aircon, but everything that can be designed to avoid local human attention has been.
It's inexorable and widespread. You have to look far and wide to find a broadcast transmitter engineer or a telephone exchange technician these days: it's all just boxesof sand in dark rooms talking to a distant HQ, and a bloke in a truck who gets sent out when something goes bang.
posted by Devonian at 12:41 PM on February 6, 2017 [34 favorites]
Forget those archive pictures of vast halls of machines tended by a small army of technicians. The people who are needed are either sent in as and when, or they sit at desks in another state and make sure that not too many green things turn red. You build your DCs where land and power is cheap and you can get the data in and out; you might hire a couple of locals to be on-site security or running maintenance like swapping fan filters in the aircon, but everything that can be designed to avoid local human attention has been.
It's inexorable and widespread. You have to look far and wide to find a broadcast transmitter engineer or a telephone exchange technician these days: it's all just boxesof sand in dark rooms talking to a distant HQ, and a bloke in a truck who gets sent out when something goes bang.
posted by Devonian at 12:41 PM on February 6, 2017 [34 favorites]
I think I've been sucked into a horror movie. Plz send help.I'd help you, but I feel like I've been sucked into a Bunuel movie.
posted by pxe2000 at 12:42 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
I think there's more than a few republicans that would happily vote against DeVos if they could and agree that she's supremely unqualified. The problem is they can't admit that and allow the democrats to get a hint of a win, so they'll vote in lockstep to hold the line and confirm the nominee (with the token allowed NO votes now that she's out of committee). It's 100% politics over principle, but then what else is new?
posted by TwoWordReview at 12:45 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by TwoWordReview at 12:45 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
Is it too late to ask Betsy DeVos if she would recommend putting Bowling Green's massacre in our history books?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:47 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:47 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Betsy DeVos is not a "bored country club dillettante", nor is "education" merely her Desperate Housewives-type social project.
For what its worth, I started with Devos but the rest of my comment strayed to more of a general "don't let the wealthy be allowed to set the agenda just because they have money" rant. That said, She personally benefits financially from school privatization and its only her money that has put her in a position where she can be considered for Secretary of Education. Her views - if genuinely held and not just a means to profit - still developed with a very limited world view. Replace country club, perhaps, with private mega-church function.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:49 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
For what its worth, I started with Devos but the rest of my comment strayed to more of a general "don't let the wealthy be allowed to set the agenda just because they have money" rant. That said, She personally benefits financially from school privatization and its only her money that has put her in a position where she can be considered for Secretary of Education. Her views - if genuinely held and not just a means to profit - still developed with a very limited world view. Replace country club, perhaps, with private mega-church function.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:49 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
It's hard enough to get tech people to move to Pittsburgh (or stay in Pittsburgh if they are CMU grads) because there's not enough tech here. And there is a shit ton of tech here. I mean, from a layperson's standpoint, it seems like a shit ton. There's a lot. But not enough for there to be a lot of VC activity (which is kind of a chicken/egg situation) and not enough for a massive number of people to give up the 24/7 networking opportunities available in SV or NYC to come here, to a job that may or may not actually employ them for >5 years. In an era where employment at a single company is not excpected to be long term (let alone life long), it's a hard sell to get people to up sticks to a place where the job after next (and there will be one) would require them to up sticks once again.
Meanwhile, I have theories about the "but factory jerbs" being more about retrograde notions of masculinity than an actual desire to work on an assembly line.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:50 PM on February 6, 2017 [62 favorites]
Meanwhile, I have theories about the "but factory jerbs" being more about retrograde notions of masculinity than an actual desire to work on an assembly line.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:50 PM on February 6, 2017 [62 favorites]
Please arrange to have me sucked into a Jean Rollin movie. At this point, vagina bats and death by spiked nipples would be a less ridiculous world to live in.
posted by delfin at 12:50 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by delfin at 12:50 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Betsy DeVos is not a "bored country club dillettante", nor is "education" merely her Desperate Housewives-type social project.
She's the product of a specific religious tradition, Dutch Calvinism, that largely still refuses to make peace with the idea that education is the legitimate responsibility of the state.
She can be both at once. And indeed she is a dilettante in the sense of not having one little bit of meaningful professional training, expertise, or experience in the field of education. She's just a dolt whose nutball views are heard and implemented solely because she's rich as fuck.
posted by FelliniBlank at 12:50 PM on February 6, 2017 [37 favorites]
She's the product of a specific religious tradition, Dutch Calvinism, that largely still refuses to make peace with the idea that education is the legitimate responsibility of the state.
She can be both at once. And indeed she is a dilettante in the sense of not having one little bit of meaningful professional training, expertise, or experience in the field of education. She's just a dolt whose nutball views are heard and implemented solely because she's rich as fuck.
posted by FelliniBlank at 12:50 PM on February 6, 2017 [37 favorites]
@michaelianblack: This is where we are as a country: any commercial that celebrates American values is interpreted as an insult to the President.
posted by argonauta at 12:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [73 favorites]
posted by argonauta at 12:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [73 favorites]
Donald Trump would not be welcome to address parliament during his state visit
Oh god, this is awesome. Here is what trump said to The Telegraph (link goes to archive.is b/c I couldn't view the original) last month.
This newspaper revealed last month how Mr Trump wants a âfull Montyâ state visit that would âgo one betterâ 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.
(and my comment at the time was:)
> Oh the glee I would be full of if Trumple Thinskin was denied.
posted by futz at 12:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
Oh god, this is awesome. Here is what trump said to The Telegraph (link goes to archive.is b/c I couldn't view the original) last month.
This newspaper revealed last month how Mr Trump wants a âfull Montyâ state visit that would âgo one betterâ 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.
(and my comment at the time was:)
> Oh the glee I would be full of if Trumple Thinskin was denied.
posted by futz at 12:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
A worrying tweetstorm from a NYT writer.
@Max_Fisher
I went to Germany to investigate its plan for the Trump era
Theyâre ready to go further than anyone thought: NYT: For Germany, Trump Poses a Problem With No Clear Solution
I donât think there is anyone who takes the stakes for the liberal order more seriously than the people leading Germany at this moment.
Spoke to a number of top German FP officials and thinkers. They see the liberal order could really collapse. Theyâre serious about acting.
But that doesnât mean Germany can save the liberal order. I heard this over & over. We canât do it alone. âDangerous to believe we could."
German leaders arenât at the level of saving the liberal order. Theyâre at the level of saving themselves, and *maybe* Europe.
Was amazed how open German officials were on this. Theyâre preparing for the day when the US becomes an active threat to their interests.
Itâs hard to overstate how destabilizing this would be for them. Their most important ally becoming a potential adversary almost overnight.
I also heard concern among German govt, barely above a whisper but there, that American democracy canât be taken for granted anymore.
Over and over in Germany we heard some version of: Because of our history, we we are alarmed by what we see in the United States.
A phrase we heard whenever we asked about Trump-Putin rapprochement: âZwischen-Europa.â Unbelievably loaded.
@Max_Fisher
I went to Germany to investigate its plan for the Trump era
Theyâre ready to go further than anyone thought: NYT: For Germany, Trump Poses a Problem With No Clear Solution
I donât think there is anyone who takes the stakes for the liberal order more seriously than the people leading Germany at this moment.
Spoke to a number of top German FP officials and thinkers. They see the liberal order could really collapse. Theyâre serious about acting.
But that doesnât mean Germany can save the liberal order. I heard this over & over. We canât do it alone. âDangerous to believe we could."
German leaders arenât at the level of saving the liberal order. Theyâre at the level of saving themselves, and *maybe* Europe.
Was amazed how open German officials were on this. Theyâre preparing for the day when the US becomes an active threat to their interests.
Itâs hard to overstate how destabilizing this would be for them. Their most important ally becoming a potential adversary almost overnight.
I also heard concern among German govt, barely above a whisper but there, that American democracy canât be taken for granted anymore.
Over and over in Germany we heard some version of: Because of our history, we we are alarmed by what we see in the United States.
A phrase we heard whenever we asked about Trump-Putin rapprochement: âZwischen-Europa.â Unbelievably loaded.
Still, Mr. Kiesewetter is hardly optimistic. Should Mr. Trump strike a rapprochement with Moscow that did not include European leaders, leaving the continent on its own, he warned this would divide Eastern Europe between âzones of influence.âposted by chris24 at 12:52 PM on February 6, 2017 [86 favorites]
This possibility seems to torment German officials, who sometimes label it with the word âZwischen-Europa.â The phrase, which means âintermediary Europeâ or âin-between Europe,â comes from the interwar era, when Germans used it to describe the borderlands between it and the Soviet Union. It is remembered here as a partial cause of World War II.
The phrase is used today not to specifically warn of war but to remind Germans of the importance of the postwar order that many believe is in growing peril. It is also a warning: that the liberal system could slip away and that Germans must remember the dangers of the old order, even if the rest of the world forgets.
Betsy DeVos is not a "bored country club dillettante", nor is "education" merely her Desperate Housewives-type social project.
Mitt Romney called her a "highly successful business woman" which is telling how tight the billionaire club must be. When you inherit a fortune so large that your money makes its own money and you can dabble in any field without fear of failure, that makes you a successful business person nowadays.
posted by peeedro at 12:52 PM on February 6, 2017 [39 favorites]
Mitt Romney called her a "highly successful business woman" which is telling how tight the billionaire club must be. When you inherit a fortune so large that your money makes its own money and you can dabble in any field without fear of failure, that makes you a successful business person nowadays.
posted by peeedro at 12:52 PM on February 6, 2017 [39 favorites]
State laws regarding FOIAing elected officials' children are way, way too lenient, and FOIAs about police reports for harassment should absolutely require a judge to sign off before releasing the report because it's hella easy for harassers to FOIA harassment reports about them and use the reports to get more information about the people they're harassing.
Yeah unfortunately FOIA requests have become popular as a way to harass people. I know scientists who have been harassed through FOIA requests though nothing as bad as attacking their children, WTF.
posted by threeturtles at 12:53 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
Yeah unfortunately FOIA requests have become popular as a way to harass people. I know scientists who have been harassed through FOIA requests though nothing as bad as attacking their children, WTF.
posted by threeturtles at 12:53 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
Tech workers crowd into cities like Boston and San Francisco, not because they like $4.00 artisanal cinnamon toast, but because to be in this line of work you have to live in range of multiple employers. Nobody's going to move to a one company town. At best, you can get companies to set up in cities like Worcester, MA or Cincinnati. And that's already happening.
This is straying off-topic, but I think a smart alternative would be basically rural outsourcing on the model of architecture/design firms. Have a group of people who develop expertise in a specific subfield and contract out that expertise to multiple different clients. Because you have more than one client, you don't have to worry about the one company who employed everyone pulling out of the industry.
This is essentially what the offshoring companies did, and it seems to have worked for them. The real problem is that you'd have a hard time competing with said offshoring companies, but that's where government subsidies would come in.
However, while that approach might help keep some of these small towns afloat, it doesn't address all the former factory/mine workers who can't retrain into software jobs, which is going to be the vast majority of them. For them, green energy seems like a no-brainer. They can easily learn to install solar panels or wind turbines. Retrain them and let them do it. Let them do it in their own backyards, set up local co-ops to own the farms, and let them sell the generated electricity back to the utility companies.
posted by tobascodagama at 12:57 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
This is straying off-topic, but I think a smart alternative would be basically rural outsourcing on the model of architecture/design firms. Have a group of people who develop expertise in a specific subfield and contract out that expertise to multiple different clients. Because you have more than one client, you don't have to worry about the one company who employed everyone pulling out of the industry.
This is essentially what the offshoring companies did, and it seems to have worked for them. The real problem is that you'd have a hard time competing with said offshoring companies, but that's where government subsidies would come in.
However, while that approach might help keep some of these small towns afloat, it doesn't address all the former factory/mine workers who can't retrain into software jobs, which is going to be the vast majority of them. For them, green energy seems like a no-brainer. They can easily learn to install solar panels or wind turbines. Retrain them and let them do it. Let them do it in their own backyards, set up local co-ops to own the farms, and let them sell the generated electricity back to the utility companies.
posted by tobascodagama at 12:57 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Oh, and how I enjoy hearing the first of my two Michigan senators savaging DeVos right now, as she richly deserves. So sorry we can't just send some crates of cherries to the Dept. of Education in her place.
posted by FelliniBlank at 12:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by FelliniBlank at 12:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
What disturbs me is that the American Right has been so successful in concocting an alternative reality that even a person as thoughtless and essentially naive as Trump can tap into it, amplify it, and use it for his own ends.
We all know the basics of the Republican Alternative Reality:
Of course the truth is the exact opposite. The rural, Red, parts of America are supported by massive transfers of wealth from the Blue parts of the country. California alone contributes nearly $150 billion annually to Federal spending in Red states. That's more than the total combined budgets of South Dakota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Mondana, West Virginia.
This isn't because people in rural areas are lazy, or that they're leeching off the people in Blue America, it's because they mostly live spread out and don't make very much money.
Agriculture is essential to our survival, but it's less than 1% of the US economy. Mining and foresting likewise account for less than 1% of the US economy. The simple fact is that the vast empty acres of middle America are essential for keeping us fed, but they don't make very much money. So Blue America subsidizes their infrastructure.
That their infrastructure is still inadequate and that there are still big problems in those areas is an issue that needs lots of discussion, but it isn't because Blue America is ripping them off, the worst you can say about Blue America is that they are insufficiently generous, and that's a hard position to take given the humanitarian problems Blue America has.
But the truth is irrelevant to most Trumpers. The alternate reality they've created, the bubble they now collectively live in, tells them the opposite of the truth.
Rather than seeing themselves as the beneficiaries of Blue America's largess, the Red Staters see themselves as cruel exploited by lazy liberal elites who steal all their hard earned money to lavish on black welfare recipients or illegal immigrants.
I don't think Trump is smart enough to be Machiavellian, I don't think that when Trump said "We give tremendous amounts of money to California" he was deliberately spreading a lie to inflame his base. I think, like the people who heard him say that and nodded to themselves thinking resentful thoughts about welfare queens living large on their sweat and tears, he really believed it.
The lie is now so widespread that everyone, even people who don't believe it, knows its basics. The lie is now so widespread that everyone has it as the background radiation of their existence. The lie is now so widespread that an uninformed intellectually stunted proud ignoramus like Trump not only knows it but can tap into it and expand it.
How do you fight back against such a massive lie? Especially when, as the WaPo scientifically showed, at absolute minimum 15% of them are willing to tell Trump supporting lies in the face of actual, literal, photographic evidence?
posted by sotonohito at 1:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [116 favorites]
We all know the basics of the Republican Alternative Reality:
Real America, the places outside the corrupting influence of the filthy cities and their swarms of brown people, Real America, the white Republican voting parts of the country, is filled with hard working white people who are abused by a tax system that steals their money and uses it to support the filthy immigrant, brown, hordes of the cities and the treasonous Blue States. Only thanks to their ability to parasite Real America's labor can those vile America hating thugs survive. And those filthy degenerate parasites keep wanting us to give more, wanting us to give up our values in addition to our money!The details vary, but the essence is known to everyone. You see it in bumper stickers "I work had because millions on welfare depend on me", you see it in political slogans "take our country back", you see it in interviews "we've got to get to work so the liberals can sleep in".
Of course the truth is the exact opposite. The rural, Red, parts of America are supported by massive transfers of wealth from the Blue parts of the country. California alone contributes nearly $150 billion annually to Federal spending in Red states. That's more than the total combined budgets of South Dakota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Mondana, West Virginia.
This isn't because people in rural areas are lazy, or that they're leeching off the people in Blue America, it's because they mostly live spread out and don't make very much money.
Agriculture is essential to our survival, but it's less than 1% of the US economy. Mining and foresting likewise account for less than 1% of the US economy. The simple fact is that the vast empty acres of middle America are essential for keeping us fed, but they don't make very much money. So Blue America subsidizes their infrastructure.
That their infrastructure is still inadequate and that there are still big problems in those areas is an issue that needs lots of discussion, but it isn't because Blue America is ripping them off, the worst you can say about Blue America is that they are insufficiently generous, and that's a hard position to take given the humanitarian problems Blue America has.
But the truth is irrelevant to most Trumpers. The alternate reality they've created, the bubble they now collectively live in, tells them the opposite of the truth.
Rather than seeing themselves as the beneficiaries of Blue America's largess, the Red Staters see themselves as cruel exploited by lazy liberal elites who steal all their hard earned money to lavish on black welfare recipients or illegal immigrants.
I don't think Trump is smart enough to be Machiavellian, I don't think that when Trump said "We give tremendous amounts of money to California" he was deliberately spreading a lie to inflame his base. I think, like the people who heard him say that and nodded to themselves thinking resentful thoughts about welfare queens living large on their sweat and tears, he really believed it.
The lie is now so widespread that everyone, even people who don't believe it, knows its basics. The lie is now so widespread that everyone has it as the background radiation of their existence. The lie is now so widespread that an uninformed intellectually stunted proud ignoramus like Trump not only knows it but can tap into it and expand it.
How do you fight back against such a massive lie? Especially when, as the WaPo scientifically showed, at absolute minimum 15% of them are willing to tell Trump supporting lies in the face of actual, literal, photographic evidence?
posted by sotonohito at 1:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [116 favorites]
When you inherit a fortune so large that your money makes its own money and you can dabble in any field without fear of failure, that makes you a successful business person nowadays.
How do you become a millionaire?
Start with $2 million.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:02 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
How do you become a millionaire?
Start with $2 million.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:02 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
soren_lorensen Meanwhile, I have theories about the "but factory jerbs" being more about retrograde notions of masculinity than an actual desire to work on an assembly line.
You know how sometimes you see something that suddenly crystallizes thoughts you've had vaguely floating around that you weren't even consciously aware of and there's that mind blowing moment of epiphany where your whole worldview realigns ever so slightly and you see clearly things that were obscured and mysteriously just a moment ago?
Reading that just gave me one of those moments. Thanks!
Yes! **OF COURSE** the factory job obsession is deeply rooted in their fragile masculinity and retrograde notions of patriarchy!
posted by sotonohito at 1:06 PM on February 6, 2017 [44 favorites]
You know how sometimes you see something that suddenly crystallizes thoughts you've had vaguely floating around that you weren't even consciously aware of and there's that mind blowing moment of epiphany where your whole worldview realigns ever so slightly and you see clearly things that were obscured and mysteriously just a moment ago?
Reading that just gave me one of those moments. Thanks!
Yes! **OF COURSE** the factory job obsession is deeply rooted in their fragile masculinity and retrograde notions of patriarchy!
posted by sotonohito at 1:06 PM on February 6, 2017 [44 favorites]
I wonder how well the Queen can drive on off road courses. Just in case the opportunity to show off presents itself.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:13 AM on February 6
While I'm betting Liz could handle the reins, she really doesn't have to. Her hubby competed in driving competitions which include off-road sections (link includes photos of Philip navigating a water hazard).
posted by sardonyx at 1:07 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:13 AM on February 6
While I'm betting Liz could handle the reins, she really doesn't have to. Her hubby competed in driving competitions which include off-road sections (link includes photos of Philip navigating a water hazard).
posted by sardonyx at 1:07 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Great point, soren_lorensen. I wonder how many of the people wailing for the return of factory work, mining and long days in the testosterone fields would actually give up their cushy, feminized desk job for one of these cigarette-ad options.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 1:11 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by Kitty Stardust at 1:11 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
Should we send pizza to the senate floor for the dems?
posted by yoga at 1:11 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by yoga at 1:11 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
Speaking of alternate realities, Sean Spicer just gave an interview to Fox and Friends, saying that the anti-Muslim-ban protesters are "absolutely paid" demonstrators. Of course, there is not a shred of evidence to suggest that this is true. He also contrasts the protests going on today with what he considers the truly "organic" protests of the Tea Party. He says that "of course" it is their right to protest (Trump's actions), but "let's call it what it is".
These are people who are either lying through their teeth or who cannot imagine why anyone would protest racism and bigotry other than to get paid. I am not sure which is worse.
posted by AceRock at 1:11 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
These are people who are either lying through their teeth or who cannot imagine why anyone would protest racism and bigotry other than to get paid. I am not sure which is worse.
posted by AceRock at 1:11 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
Yes, **OF COURSE** the factory job obsession is deeply rooted in their fragile masculinity and retrograde notions of patriarchy!
Voxsplained thusly: When Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee disagree with something, they feminize it
posted by peeedro at 1:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [33 favorites]
Voxsplained thusly: When Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee disagree with something, they feminize it
posted by peeedro at 1:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [33 favorites]
You'd think that someone who could afford to pay more people than work for Walmart would have paid for more ads in October.
posted by Etrigan at 1:14 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Etrigan at 1:14 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Should we send pizza to the senate floor for the dems?
Only if you want to see PIZZAGATE: CONFIRMED all over Infowars. That's not to say you wouldn't see it anyway.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:15 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Only if you want to see PIZZAGATE: CONFIRMED all over Infowars. That's not to say you wouldn't see it anyway.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:15 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Speaking of alternate realities, Sean Spicer just gave an interview to Fox and Friends, saying that the anti-Muslim-ban protesters are "absolutely paid" demonstrators.
It's telling that Spicer has to go on Fox to peddle that particular lie. Let's see if he has the stones to repeat in in front of a journalist who even might say "prove it."
posted by Gelatin at 1:16 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
It's telling that Spicer has to go on Fox to peddle that particular lie. Let's see if he has the stones to repeat in in front of a journalist who even might say "prove it."
posted by Gelatin at 1:16 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
send in the taco trucks of liberty then
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:16 PM on February 6, 2017 [35 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:16 PM on February 6, 2017 [35 favorites]
Only if you want to see PIZZAGATE: CONFIRMED all over Infowars.
So, yes?
posted by J.K. Seazer at 1:16 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
So, yes?
posted by J.K. Seazer at 1:16 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Are they on Air Force One now? Folks are sending our Press Sec quotes like "I don't think the president owns a bathrobe." :shudder:
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:17 PM on February 6, 2017
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:17 PM on February 6, 2017
Speaking of alternate realities, Sean Spicer just gave an interview to Fox and Friends, saying that the anti-Muslim-ban protesters are "absolutely paid" demonstrators.
Last Wednesday, a first year student at the university where I teach learned that, if she created a Facebook event, and invited her friends, and they invited their friends, and so on and so forth, tada, she had a real, live protest going against the ban, with the university president showing up and everything.
On behalf of this wonderful student, who learned about the power of democracy and protests that day: screw you, Sean Spicer.
posted by damayanti at 1:17 PM on February 6, 2017 [72 favorites]
Last Wednesday, a first year student at the university where I teach learned that, if she created a Facebook event, and invited her friends, and they invited their friends, and so on and so forth, tada, she had a real, live protest going against the ban, with the university president showing up and everything.
On behalf of this wonderful student, who learned about the power of democracy and protests that day: screw you, Sean Spicer.
posted by damayanti at 1:17 PM on February 6, 2017 [72 favorites]
It's telling that Spicer has to go on Fox to peddle that particular lie. Let's see if he has the stones to repeat in in front of a journalist who even might say "prove it."
While we're at it, let's get Trump to cite an example of a terror attack in Europe that the media did not report.
posted by thelonius at 1:18 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
While we're at it, let's get Trump to cite an example of a terror attack in Europe that the media did not report.
posted by thelonius at 1:18 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
The lie is now so widespread that everyone has it as the background radiation of their existence.
sotonohito, I wish I could favorite this comment eleventy-billion times. I am encountering this over and over and over as I try to engage folks more widely, and just do not know where to start dismantling it so that a rational, informed conversation can even start. And if it's this much of a challenge individually, how on earth do we start it collectively? Because if we can't stop (falsely) otherizing each other, our imaginary problems, differences and conflicts will result in real, non-imaginary violence at some point.
posted by LooseFilter at 1:18 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
sotonohito, I wish I could favorite this comment eleventy-billion times. I am encountering this over and over and over as I try to engage folks more widely, and just do not know where to start dismantling it so that a rational, informed conversation can even start. And if it's this much of a challenge individually, how on earth do we start it collectively? Because if we can't stop (falsely) otherizing each other, our imaginary problems, differences and conflicts will result in real, non-imaginary violence at some point.
posted by LooseFilter at 1:18 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
I wonder how many of the people wailing for the return of factory work, mining and long days in the testosterone fields would actually give up their cushy, feminized desk job for one of these cigarette-ad options.
Or for a couple industries that in many areas of the country are desperate for employees: nursing and teaching. Oh, but those are girls' jobs.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:19 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
Or for a couple industries that in many areas of the country are desperate for employees: nursing and teaching. Oh, but those are girls' jobs.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:19 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
While we're at it, let's get Trump to cite an example of a terror attack in Europe that the media did not report.
Whaddaya mean, Europe? The media was totally silent about the Bowling Green Massacre right here at home!
posted by Gelatin at 1:22 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Whaddaya mean, Europe? The media was totally silent about the Bowling Green Massacre right here at home!
posted by Gelatin at 1:22 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Sean Spicer just gave an interview to Fox and Friends, saying that the anti-Muslim-ban protesters are "absolutely paid" demonstrators.
Considering that the Kochs, who paid generously to create the Tea Party, oppose Trump's ban, there may be more opportunity for paid demonstrators than you think...
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:22 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Considering that the Kochs, who paid generously to create the Tea Party, oppose Trump's ban, there may be more opportunity for paid demonstrators than you think...
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:22 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
As a conservative Twitter user sleeps, his account is hard at work
Much of that research has focused on âbots,â accounts programmed to follow instructions, such as automatically replying to tweets from other accounts. But Sobieski exemplifies the growing popularity of a variation, called âcyborgs,â that mix human creativity and initiative with a computerâs relentless speed, allowing their views to gain audience while sidestepping the traditional gatekeepers of news and commentary.posted by Coventry at 1:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Sobieskiâs two accounts, for example, tweet more than 1,000 times a day using âschedulersâ that work through stacks of his own pre-written posts in repetitive loops. With retweets and other forms of sharing, these posts reach the feeds of millions of other accounts, including those of such conservative luminaries as Fox Newsâs Sean Hannity, GOP strategist Karl Rove and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), according to researcher Jonathan Albright.
Are they on Air Force One now? Folks are sending our Press Sec quotes like "I don't think the president owns a bathrobe." :shudder:
My eyes! Bleach! Help!
They just landed at Andrews.
posted by zachlipton at 1:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
My eyes! Bleach! Help!
They just landed at Andrews.
posted by zachlipton at 1:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Gamergate really was the prototype. Sigh...
posted by Artw at 1:26 PM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by Artw at 1:26 PM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
Jack Shafer: Unsolicited Advice for the White House Press Corps: Six rules for covering Trump.
posted by zachlipton at 1:26 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 1:26 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
I don't think that when Trump said "We give tremendous amounts of money to California" he was deliberately spreading a lie to inflame his base
I think he was. One of the shibboleths of modern conservatism is that California is on the brink of economic collapse due to overspending, high deficits, over-regulation etc. Conservative websites like investors. com have had article after article showing that states like Kansas and Wisconsin are exceeding projections in every measure, states like New York and California are dragging the country down and the resulting economic collapse will send millions fleeing to the robust economies of moral righteousness of states like Nebraska and Oklahoma.
It's as divorced from reality as pretty much everything else in Modern Conservatism, and they fervently believe in the whole truth of it.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 1:26 PM on February 6, 2017 [38 favorites]
I think he was. One of the shibboleths of modern conservatism is that California is on the brink of economic collapse due to overspending, high deficits, over-regulation etc. Conservative websites like investors. com have had article after article showing that states like Kansas and Wisconsin are exceeding projections in every measure, states like New York and California are dragging the country down and the resulting economic collapse will send millions fleeing to the robust economies of moral righteousness of states like Nebraska and Oklahoma.
It's as divorced from reality as pretty much everything else in Modern Conservatism, and they fervently believe in the whole truth of it.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 1:26 PM on February 6, 2017 [38 favorites]
zachlipton: Unsolicited Advice for the White House Press Corps: Six rules for covering Trump.
Come on now. Six rules? Bathrobes aren't that complicated to use. As long as he's covered...
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:29 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Come on now. Six rules? Bathrobes aren't that complicated to use. As long as he's covered...
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:29 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Factory jobs, as immortalized in country and folk songs, are on the way out. Forget about immigrants, robots are here for those jobs. You know how we can create a shit ton of jobs that robots don't yet do in a reliable and inexpensive way? Government infrastructure jobs like construction and maintenance. If we raise taxes on the very wealthy a bit, we can create a bunch of jobs even in rural areas. There's not a lot of private interest in doing this because rural low-population areas don't necessarily yield a great return on your investment.
At some point, robots will do those jobs better and cheaper, so we still need to figure out some long term solutions. In the meantime, if they get on that whole "raise money and spend it on living wages for workers building things that improve the community" thing, they could put a bunch of people to work.
To whit, unfettered capitalism doesn't favor the Rust Belt.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:30 PM on February 6, 2017 [27 favorites]
At some point, robots will do those jobs better and cheaper, so we still need to figure out some long term solutions. In the meantime, if they get on that whole "raise money and spend it on living wages for workers building things that improve the community" thing, they could put a bunch of people to work.
To whit, unfettered capitalism doesn't favor the Rust Belt.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:30 PM on February 6, 2017 [27 favorites]
One thing I will say: as someone who has been around activist circles for 2/3 of my entire life, I am not even remotely surprised when I hear a public official openly lie to the media. The take-away for people who have not been particularly politically active in the past should be that politicians lie openly all the time, and any time you hear any kind of "but the budget won't permit" or "but violent protesters" or whatever, you should suspect that they are lying.
The difference now is that they are lying about things that far, far more people know about. It's easier for us to spot the lies now because they're no longer about relatively specialized issues and they are not only targeted at invisible or marginalized groups.
It is customary for politicians to lie about people of color, protests, environmental conditions, housing conditions, working conditions, access to healthcare, prices of staples, rates of imprisonment, etc. They rarely get called on these lies because "respectable [white straight middle class citizen] people" simply don't know enough about the lives of others to realize how disgracefully they're being misled. And "respectable people" often don't know very much about the political process, so they're easy to string along about policy, committees, etc.
This is a crash course for all of us - on that level, it's awesome. If we survive the next few years, I feel so much hope that liberals and the center left generally will be more informed, more powerful and less easy to fool.
posted by Frowner at 1:31 PM on February 6, 2017 [74 favorites]
The difference now is that they are lying about things that far, far more people know about. It's easier for us to spot the lies now because they're no longer about relatively specialized issues and they are not only targeted at invisible or marginalized groups.
It is customary for politicians to lie about people of color, protests, environmental conditions, housing conditions, working conditions, access to healthcare, prices of staples, rates of imprisonment, etc. They rarely get called on these lies because "respectable [white straight middle class citizen] people" simply don't know enough about the lives of others to realize how disgracefully they're being misled. And "respectable people" often don't know very much about the political process, so they're easy to string along about policy, committees, etc.
This is a crash course for all of us - on that level, it's awesome. If we survive the next few years, I feel so much hope that liberals and the center left generally will be more informed, more powerful and less easy to fool.
posted by Frowner at 1:31 PM on February 6, 2017 [74 favorites]
Unsolicited Advice for the White House Press Corps: Six rules for covering Trump.
Which strangely has 7 rules. Is Trump math taking over?
posted by chris24 at 1:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Which strangely has 7 rules. Is Trump math taking over?
posted by chris24 at 1:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
I wonder how well the Queen can drive on off road courses. Just in case the opportunity to show off presents itself.
While I'm betting Liz could handle the reins, she really doesn't have to. Her hubby competed in driving competitions which include off-road sections (link includes photos of Philip navigating a water hazard).
While we're indulging in fantasies, what if Liz challenges him to a duel to the death but cleverly chooses to have the duel take place at dawn (because đœ stays up late fighting on Twitter) on, like, one of those ridiculously long tube station stairwells. I'm not ruling out that she's the Miyamoto Musashi of elderly heads of state, basically.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:33 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
While I'm betting Liz could handle the reins, she really doesn't have to. Her hubby competed in driving competitions which include off-road sections (link includes photos of Philip navigating a water hazard).
While we're indulging in fantasies, what if Liz challenges him to a duel to the death but cleverly chooses to have the duel take place at dawn (because đœ stays up late fighting on Twitter) on, like, one of those ridiculously long tube station stairwells. I'm not ruling out that she's the Miyamoto Musashi of elderly heads of state, basically.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:33 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
Did Yiannopoulos secretly send more than 100 thugs to Berkeley to break up his own speech?
posted by futz at 1:34 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by futz at 1:34 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
[The Queen runs up some stairs]
QUEEN: It's over, Trump! I have the high ground!
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:35 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
QUEEN: It's over, Trump! I have the high ground!
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:35 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
In case you want to watch...
Dems holding the floor
posted by slipthought at 1:36 PM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
Dems holding the floor
posted by slipthought at 1:36 PM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
"I don't think the president owns a bathrobe."
This is actually a pretty weird statement for him to make. Either Spicer has asked the President, at which point he would say "the President told me he doesn't own a bathrobe" or he's speaking generally based on his knowledge of the President's closet, at which point I want to know why he has reason to know this with the confidence to state it to the world.
This kind of answer seems like textbook "how not to press secretary" stuff.
posted by zachlipton at 1:37 PM on February 6, 2017 [21 favorites]
This is actually a pretty weird statement for him to make. Either Spicer has asked the President, at which point he would say "the President told me he doesn't own a bathrobe" or he's speaking generally based on his knowledge of the President's closet, at which point I want to know why he has reason to know this with the confidence to state it to the world.
This kind of answer seems like textbook "how not to press secretary" stuff.
posted by zachlipton at 1:37 PM on February 6, 2017 [21 favorites]
Frowner, I've been trying to insert that nugget into conversations among brand-new middle class white lady activists that I find myself in. They are so! shocked! that Senators won't pay any attention to them. And I have to point out that, like, welcome to what marginalized people have been dealing with since forever. (To their credit, the response is usually, "Ohhh, yeah. Yeah. Roger that.")
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:38 PM on February 6, 2017 [25 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:38 PM on February 6, 2017 [25 favorites]
Did Yiannopoulos secretly send more than 100 thugs to Berkeley to break up his own speech?
tl;dr Betteridge's Law of Headlines applies
posted by murphy slaw at 1:40 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
tl;dr Betteridge's Law of Headlines applies
posted by murphy slaw at 1:40 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
Jack Meserve in Democracy Journal: Keep It Simple and Take Credit
As Democrats stare down eight years of policies being wiped out within months, itâs worth looking at why those policies did virtually nothing for their electoral success at any level. And, in the interest of supporting a united front between liberals and socialists, let me start this off with a rather long quote from Matt Christman of Chapo Trap House, on why Obamacare failed to gain more popularity:posted by Rustic Etruscan at 1:41 PM on February 6, 2017 [33 favorites]There are parts to it that are unambiguously good â like, Medicaid expansion is good, and why? Because thereâs no fucking strings attached. You donât have to go to a goddamned website and become a fucking hacker to try to figure out how to pick the right plan, they just tell you âyouâre covered now.â And thatâs it! Thatâs all it ever should have been and that is why â [Jonathan Chait] is bemoaning why itâs a political failure? Because modern neoliberal, left-neoliberal policy is all about making this shit invisible to people so that they donât know what theyâre getting out of it.
And as Rick Perlstein has talked about a lot, thatâs one of the reasons that Democrats end up fucking themselves over. The reason they held Congress for 40 years after enacting Social Security is because Social Security was right in your fucking face. They could say to you, âyou didnât used to have money when you were old, now you do. Thank Democrats.â And they fucking did. Now itâs, âyou didnât used to be able to log on to a website and negotiate between 15 different providers to pick a platinum or gold or zinc plan and apply a fucking formula for a subsidy thatâs gonna change depending on your income so you might end up having to retroactively owe money or have a higher premium.â Holy shit, thank you so much.
Democrats had to make this lackluster health insurance system because the house was controlled by right-wing republicans. They weren't trying to create a ridiculous system.
posted by Windopaene at 1:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [21 favorites]
posted by Windopaene at 1:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [21 favorites]
Rep. Maxine Waters has been on a terror talking about impeaching Trump today, including CNN (where she misspoke and said Korea instead of Crimea, leading to much mocking on the right), Twitter, and Teen Vogue: "I have not called for the impeachment â yet. Heâs doing it himself,â Waters said."
In contrast, Rep. Pelosi today:
In contrast, Rep. Pelosi today:
â[There] are grounds for displeasure and unease in the public about the performance of this president, who has acted in a way that is strategically incoherent, that is incompetent and that is reckless,â Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. âAnd that is not grounds for impeachment.posted by zachlipton at 1:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
âWhen and if he breaks the law, that is when something like that would come up. But thatâs not the subject of today.â
Canada has now opened a War Room to deal specifically with Trump. As far as I know, Canada has never felt the need to open a war room against the US before. Brian Mulroney was already on board with Trudeau to "work" Trump from his house near Trump's in Florida. And Stephen Harper ad John Baird are also reported to be using their network for Canada. Trudeau cancelled the Electoral Reform in Canada, reportedly in fear a referendum would encourage the alt-right and be too divisive right now.
posted by saucysault at 1:47 PM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
posted by saucysault at 1:47 PM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
Did Yiannopoulos secretly send more than 100 thugs to Berkeley to break up his own speech?
Remember, even Betteridge's Law has its exceptions, and when Trump's people are declaring "paid demonstrators" against them, Trump's Mirror takes precedence. The Mainstream Press is not courageous enough to make direct accusations, so the most damning facts have to be couched in 'speculative language'.
So, Trump's Corollary to Betteridge: "The answer to any headline in the form of a question is no, it's EVEN WORSE."
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:49 PM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
Remember, even Betteridge's Law has its exceptions, and when Trump's people are declaring "paid demonstrators" against them, Trump's Mirror takes precedence. The Mainstream Press is not courageous enough to make direct accusations, so the most damning facts have to be couched in 'speculative language'.
So, Trump's Corollary to Betteridge: "The answer to any headline in the form of a question is no, it's EVEN WORSE."
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:49 PM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
dude i have been to protests in the east bay and you do not have to pay anyone anything to get 50+ black bloc anarchists to show up
posted by murphy slaw at 1:52 PM on February 6, 2017 [27 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 1:52 PM on February 6, 2017 [27 favorites]
Democrats had to make this lackluster health insurance system because the house was controlled by right-wing republicans. They weren't trying to create a ridiculous system.
This is pretty much true.
It also doesn't really matter, because most people only care about results. The result they got was a byzantine system that requires a Vox explainer before you can understand why it's clearly better than the old one. Not a big motivator to turn out for Team Blue.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:56 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
This is pretty much true.
It also doesn't really matter, because most people only care about results. The result they got was a byzantine system that requires a Vox explainer before you can understand why it's clearly better than the old one. Not a big motivator to turn out for Team Blue.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:56 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
It is astonishing that we've gotten so low that this was necessary: AP FACT CHECK: Obama Did Not Fill The White House With Muslim Imagery
posted by zachlipton at 1:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 1:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Yes! **OF COURSE** the factory job obsession is deeply rooted in their fragile masculinity and retrograde notions of patriarchy!
Yeah.. No one actually wants to work a factory job. What "good factory job" is a dogwhistle for is the halcyon days when a high-school educated male (or motivated drop-out male) could get a full-time salary that would support his entire household so he could have a little wife at home making him dinner and taking care of his kids, and a little extra spending money so he can hang out at the local bar with his line mates.
Even good factory jobs don't work like that anymore. For example: Wanted: Factory Workers, Degree Required [NYT] (trigger warning; if you get upset about employers failing to understand the need to train their own employees, watch out, this article will anger you.)
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 2:02 PM on February 6, 2017 [59 favorites]
Yeah.. No one actually wants to work a factory job. What "good factory job" is a dogwhistle for is the halcyon days when a high-school educated male (or motivated drop-out male) could get a full-time salary that would support his entire household so he could have a little wife at home making him dinner and taking care of his kids, and a little extra spending money so he can hang out at the local bar with his line mates.
Even good factory jobs don't work like that anymore. For example: Wanted: Factory Workers, Degree Required [NYT] (trigger warning; if you get upset about employers failing to understand the need to train their own employees, watch out, this article will anger you.)
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 2:02 PM on February 6, 2017 [59 favorites]
Tech workers crowd into cities like Boston and San Francisco
Can I rant about the city-bashing that's been going on for the last year and a half? Not just this specifically, and not even here really, but everything. It is not Boston's damn fault that rural areas are doing poorly. Cities concentrate and generate wealth, and concentrate and generate opportunity, simply because of what they are - because of the efficiencies of centralization. The same efficiency that made factories more successful than craftsmen. It's not unfair policies. It's not unequal representation. It's not ... some classist thing, though some people definitely are classist. It's just math. The tendency of cities to generate and concentrate wealth is the precise basis of the urban/rural divide that has existed for the entirety of human civilization. Because it's tied to mathematical relationships.
I'm not saying the situation shouldn't be remedied, it's just, it won't be remedied by redistributional taxation, or a UBI. Job opportunities (and regular human opportunities) arise from network effects between people. If you want rural areas to have even half the opportunities that for example Boston does, you're going to have to change the inherent nature of those places to be more concentrated. And that's not anyone's fault. It's just math.
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 2:03 PM on February 6, 2017 [48 favorites]
Can I rant about the city-bashing that's been going on for the last year and a half? Not just this specifically, and not even here really, but everything. It is not Boston's damn fault that rural areas are doing poorly. Cities concentrate and generate wealth, and concentrate and generate opportunity, simply because of what they are - because of the efficiencies of centralization. The same efficiency that made factories more successful than craftsmen. It's not unfair policies. It's not unequal representation. It's not ... some classist thing, though some people definitely are classist. It's just math. The tendency of cities to generate and concentrate wealth is the precise basis of the urban/rural divide that has existed for the entirety of human civilization. Because it's tied to mathematical relationships.
I'm not saying the situation shouldn't be remedied, it's just, it won't be remedied by redistributional taxation, or a UBI. Job opportunities (and regular human opportunities) arise from network effects between people. If you want rural areas to have even half the opportunities that for example Boston does, you're going to have to change the inherent nature of those places to be more concentrated. And that's not anyone's fault. It's just math.
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 2:03 PM on February 6, 2017 [48 favorites]
Should I click 'like' on this Muslim Obama link my awesome coal roller cousin just shared? No, I'd better check TPM first to see if the Associated Press issued any relevant fact checks
posted by theodolite at 2:03 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by theodolite at 2:03 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Yeah.. No one actually wants to work a factory job. What "good factory job" is a dogwhistle for is the halcyon days when a high-school educated male (or motivated drop-out male) could get a full-time salary that would support his entire household so he could have a little wife at home making him dinner and taking care of his kids, and a little extra spending money so he can hang out at the local bar with his line mates.
In which I wistfully imagine a world where one could bring up the idea of UBI without having to go through a, "no, I know those people would also get money but that's not the fucking problem for you in the here and now, now is it?" sermon.
posted by Slackermagee at 2:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
In which I wistfully imagine a world where one could bring up the idea of UBI without having to go through a, "no, I know those people would also get money but that's not the fucking problem for you in the here and now, now is it?" sermon.
posted by Slackermagee at 2:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
Randomly, as I try to catch up to this thread: I would love to see DJT try his weird macho-man-hand-yank on someone like The Rock.
posted by TwoStride at 2:11 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by TwoStride at 2:11 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
As far as I know, Canada has never felt the need to open a war room against the US before.
No, not the first time...
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 2:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
No, not the first time...
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 2:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
trigger warning; if you get upset about employers failing to understand the need to train their own employees, watch out, this article will anger you.
That wasn't the takeaway that I got from it - both companies discussed in the article provide college level training. Here's what leaped out at me:
posted by Candleman at 2:14 PM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
That wasn't the takeaway that I got from it - both companies discussed in the article provide college level training. Here's what leaped out at me:
some 10,000 people showed up at a job fair for 800 positions. But fewer than 15 percent of the applicants were able to pass a reading, writing and math screening test geared toward a ninth-grade education.Our schools are shamefully failing our children and the current administration is only going to make it worse. It's not the company's responsibility to train young people to do basic reading, writing, and math, it's our country's.
posted by Candleman at 2:14 PM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
As far as I know, Canada has never felt the need to open a war room against the US before.
Dudes, last time you burned down the White House.
posted by biogeo at 2:19 PM on February 6, 2017 [24 favorites]
Dudes, last time you burned down the White House.
posted by biogeo at 2:19 PM on February 6, 2017 [24 favorites]
listen, if we fully funded public education, anyone at all could get a diploma, and we'd rather that everyone's kids get stupid if it keeps an undeserving kid from getting smart
posted by murphy slaw at 2:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [40 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 2:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [40 favorites]
Is it better to have a full formal written letter to be faxed to your congressperson or will the bare "I am INFJ a constituient from Internetland, I would like the seantor to vote HELL NO on DeVos" do?
It's best to include some personal thing about yourself "I am a parent, a teacher, whatever." I included that I have worked in early childhood education and know how vital it is for every child to have access to quality education and how much it can help someone achieve for their whole lives.
Find any personal anecdote you can spin into being about your topic. "My mother lost a large part of her retirement savings in 2008 and therefore I oppose weakening of Dodd Frank" is another one I used.
It cuts down on their ability to dismiss everything as "robocalls" or paid actions or whatever.
posted by threeturtles at 2:22 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
It's best to include some personal thing about yourself "I am a parent, a teacher, whatever." I included that I have worked in early childhood education and know how vital it is for every child to have access to quality education and how much it can help someone achieve for their whole lives.
Find any personal anecdote you can spin into being about your topic. "My mother lost a large part of her retirement savings in 2008 and therefore I oppose weakening of Dodd Frank" is another one I used.
It cuts down on their ability to dismiss everything as "robocalls" or paid actions or whatever.
posted by threeturtles at 2:22 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
threeturtles: So if Republicans are now the party of anger and hatred (and I think they are), what does that leave on the table for Democrats? I know we've tried the Unity and Togetherness and Love things, but frankly those are pretty cheesy and to a lot of people sound wimpy.
For a brief, wonderful moment, the Democrats were the Party of America, back in the heady days of October or November, when Hillary had her rally after Donny's, and his looked sad and depressing, with its message of "America is screwed without me" and its low-level celebrity support, while Hillary was lauded as showcasing The Best Of America, including a ton of military support? And commentators were saying "it looks like the Democrats have claimed patriotism from the GOP!"
Yeah, we can do it. We lost then, we have learned, and now we have a metric fuck-ton of fodder against the GOP.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
For a brief, wonderful moment, the Democrats were the Party of America, back in the heady days of October or November, when Hillary had her rally after Donny's, and his looked sad and depressing, with its message of "America is screwed without me" and its low-level celebrity support, while Hillary was lauded as showcasing The Best Of America, including a ton of military support? And commentators were saying "it looks like the Democrats have claimed patriotism from the GOP!"
Yeah, we can do it. We lost then, we have learned, and now we have a metric fuck-ton of fodder against the GOP.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
for those interested in feeling a nice feeling, check out this FB exchange, which i just saw on a post for a pro-refugee rally being organized by HIAS.
bless you, Rhonda.
posted by prefpara at 2:25 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
bless you, Rhonda.
posted by prefpara at 2:25 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
Our schools are shamefully failing our children and the current administration is only going to make it worse. It's not the company's responsibility to train young people to do basic reading, writing, and math, it's our country's.
While I agree, it's the wealthy in the country that is demanding more and more tax cutting, and when that happens, schools are one of the first to feel the pain. Right now, why would anyone want to become a teacher? The pay is ridiculous, and you're constantly being derided by politicians. Schools are in bad need of repair. Schools need a lot more money than they're getting, but that's not on the horizon. Instead, teachers are busy just trying to keep the peace in the classroom, and if they've got some time to do some meaningful teaching that's great. Industry demands tax cuts in one breath and complains the schools are doing an inadequate job in the next.
posted by azpenguin at 2:26 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
While I agree, it's the wealthy in the country that is demanding more and more tax cutting, and when that happens, schools are one of the first to feel the pain. Right now, why would anyone want to become a teacher? The pay is ridiculous, and you're constantly being derided by politicians. Schools are in bad need of repair. Schools need a lot more money than they're getting, but that's not on the horizon. Instead, teachers are busy just trying to keep the peace in the classroom, and if they've got some time to do some meaningful teaching that's great. Industry demands tax cuts in one breath and complains the schools are doing an inadequate job in the next.
posted by azpenguin at 2:26 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
(Seriously though, what was that event called? My google-fu sucks, because I can't think of the date, and there were a ton of rallies and events in that time period, and nothing seems to be the right event - it really happened, right?)
posted by filthy light thief at 2:26 PM on February 6, 2017
posted by filthy light thief at 2:26 PM on February 6, 2017
The democratic national convention?
posted by winna at 2:28 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by winna at 2:28 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
Re: Celebrating Liberal Tears by Tom Tomorrow (with bonus Canadian War Room and Cyborg Theil)
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:30 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:30 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
The democratic national convention?
Yeah, that's it - for some reason, I though it was a lot closer to the election. So it was the heady days of Summer 2016.
Right now, why would anyone want to become a teacher? The pay is ridiculous, and you're constantly being derided by politicians. Schools are in bad need of repair. Schools need a lot more money than they're getting, but that's not on the horizon. Instead, teachers are busy just trying to keep the peace in the classroom, and if they've got some time to do some meaningful teaching that's great. Industry demands tax cuts in one breath and complains the schools are doing an inadequate job in the next.
My mom was an elementary school teacher, and my wife teaches high school. There are a ton of personal benefits from teaching, though like a number of public service jobs, the amount of paperwork has increased to cut into the time you can spend on your true goal, teaching.
From my teacher-adjacent view, worse than pay cuts are additional tests and evaluation systems placed on students AND teachers, which in turn can jeopardize a teacher's future (if there's a bureaucratic know-nothing in charge of "education reform," as we have here in New Mexico).
posted by filthy light thief at 2:34 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Yeah, that's it - for some reason, I though it was a lot closer to the election. So it was the heady days of Summer 2016.
Right now, why would anyone want to become a teacher? The pay is ridiculous, and you're constantly being derided by politicians. Schools are in bad need of repair. Schools need a lot more money than they're getting, but that's not on the horizon. Instead, teachers are busy just trying to keep the peace in the classroom, and if they've got some time to do some meaningful teaching that's great. Industry demands tax cuts in one breath and complains the schools are doing an inadequate job in the next.
My mom was an elementary school teacher, and my wife teaches high school. There are a ton of personal benefits from teaching, though like a number of public service jobs, the amount of paperwork has increased to cut into the time you can spend on your true goal, teaching.
From my teacher-adjacent view, worse than pay cuts are additional tests and evaluation systems placed on students AND teachers, which in turn can jeopardize a teacher's future (if there's a bureaucratic know-nothing in charge of "education reform," as we have here in New Mexico).
posted by filthy light thief at 2:34 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Hey, in one of the the last couple election threads I asked if there might be interest here in crowdsourcing an effort to call out the media (NYT, I'm side-eyeing you) when they print stories about the TrumpAdmin that have gaping holes or are missing context. (Website? Blog? A write-in Letter to the Editor form? Something along those lines.)
A handful of people have MeMailed me expressing interest, so I set up a Slack channel to spitball possibilities. Here's an invite to that channel for anyone who wants to be involved, or who just has a brilliant idea. Here's also a plea for people who might be able to contribute tech skills, if not media criticism, as tech skills are the currently the missing element. Enthusiasm abounds. Experience with web/blog design, not so much.
posted by mudpuppie at 2:38 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
A handful of people have MeMailed me expressing interest, so I set up a Slack channel to spitball possibilities. Here's an invite to that channel for anyone who wants to be involved, or who just has a brilliant idea. Here's also a plea for people who might be able to contribute tech skills, if not media criticism, as tech skills are the currently the missing element. Enthusiasm abounds. Experience with web/blog design, not so much.
posted by mudpuppie at 2:38 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
(Summary of teacher evaluations in NM: they consist of a four-part matrix that grades teachers on student test performances, teacher attendance, classroom observations and teacher âprofessionalismâ conducted by upper-level administrators. -- That's right, if you take too many vacation or sick days, you get dinged, not to even get into the fact that you as a teacher of (generally) a single year of a student's educational career, get punished or rewarded for whatever school history they have - a bad English teacher a year or two prior can impact this year's test, sorry current English teacher -- meanwhile New Mexico has the 2nd highest teacher turn-over, and it looks like the current classes of teachers aren't enough to fill the gaps, so we don't have teachers to spare.)
posted by filthy light thief at 2:39 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by filthy light thief at 2:39 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Are they on Air Force One now? Folks are sending our Press Sec quotes like "I don't think the president owns a bathrobe." :shudder:
One of the things in the Summer Zervos lawsuit is this little gem about how when his security escorted her to the private bungalow at the hotel, he greeted her in the nude.
Thinking back to the Michael Jackson litigation, it is not unreasonable to expect that Accused Child Rapist and Serial Sexual Predator Donald J. Trump will be required during discovery to submit photos of his penis and testicles for the jurors to compare against Ms. Zervos' description.
Hey, you gotta look for whatever rays of sunshine you can fine wherever you can find them these days.
posted by mikelieman at 2:40 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
One of the things in the Summer Zervos lawsuit is this little gem about how when his security escorted her to the private bungalow at the hotel, he greeted her in the nude.
Thinking back to the Michael Jackson litigation, it is not unreasonable to expect that Accused Child Rapist and Serial Sexual Predator Donald J. Trump will be required during discovery to submit photos of his penis and testicles for the jurors to compare against Ms. Zervos' description.
Hey, you gotta look for whatever rays of sunshine you can fine wherever you can find them these days.
posted by mikelieman at 2:40 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Spicer to provide list of terror attacks that the media didn't cover
Spicer's commitment to provide a list comes hours after Trump claimed the "dishonest press" won't report on terrorist attacks because of unspecified "reasons."
âWeâll provide a list later. Thereâs several instances âŠThereâs a lot of instances that have occurred where I donât think theyâve gotten the coverage it deserved,â Spicer told reporters.
I do not like Sean Spicer.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:40 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
Spicer's commitment to provide a list comes hours after Trump claimed the "dishonest press" won't report on terrorist attacks because of unspecified "reasons."
âWeâll provide a list later. Thereâs several instances âŠThereâs a lot of instances that have occurred where I donât think theyâve gotten the coverage it deserved,â Spicer told reporters.
I do not like Sean Spicer.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:40 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
Spoiler: there won't be a Spicer list and if there is, there won't be actual attacks on it.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:41 PM on February 6, 2017 [29 favorites]
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:41 PM on February 6, 2017 [29 favorites]
The White House is going to provide a list of unreported terror attacks to media to back up Trumpâs claim, @PressSec says (via pool) @passantino w/ image of more text from the pool briefing.
I can't. I mean. I love that there are right-wing claims that A. the media is not recording terror attacks (like Bowling Green) and B. also being complicit in covering false-flag events that never happened (Sandy Hook, according to them).
posted by rewil at 2:42 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
I can't. I mean. I love that there are right-wing claims that A. the media is not recording terror attacks (like Bowling Green) and B. also being complicit in covering false-flag events that never happened (Sandy Hook, according to them).
posted by rewil at 2:42 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
> âWeâll provide a list later. Thereâs several instances âŠThereâs a lot of instances that have occurred where I donât think theyâve gotten the coverage it deserved,â Spicer told reporters.
Here, Sean, lemme help you out.
posted by tonycpsu at 2:42 PM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
Here, Sean, lemme help you out.
posted by tonycpsu at 2:42 PM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
I know I get frustrated with y'all sometimes when e.g. a MetaTalk complaint isn't very well cited, but I want to tell you that I'm really glad none of you are Sean Spicer.
posted by cortex at 2:43 PM on February 6, 2017 [89 favorites]
posted by cortex at 2:43 PM on February 6, 2017 [89 favorites]
I think we all need to tell each other more often how glad we are that we are not sean spicer
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:45 PM on February 6, 2017 [63 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:45 PM on February 6, 2017 [63 favorites]
I know I get frustrated with y'all sometimes when e.g. a MetaTalk complaint isn't very well cited, but I want to tell you that I'm really glad none of you are Sean Spicer.
How do you know........
posted by Talez at 2:45 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
How do you know........
posted by Talez at 2:45 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
None of you have fuckdippindots@yahoo.com in your signup info.
posted by cortex at 2:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [84 favorites]
posted by cortex at 2:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [84 favorites]
How do you know........
He'd have typed his password in a comment by now.
posted by dragstroke at 2:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [112 favorites]
He'd have typed his password in a comment by now.
posted by dragstroke at 2:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [112 favorites]
of course, the first person to post that they are not sean spicer will be sean spicer, so we do have an early warning system
posted by prefpara at 2:49 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by prefpara at 2:49 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
i_love!oranges
posted by biogeo at 2:49 PM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 2:49 PM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
shit
posted by biogeo at 2:50 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 2:50 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
not sean spicer-ist
posted by localhuman at 2:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by localhuman at 2:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
correcthorsebatterystaple
posted by Archelaus at 2:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Archelaus at 2:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Dear Sean, I do not get paid to protest. I do protest your getting paid.
posted by ruetheday at 2:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [33 favorites]
posted by ruetheday at 2:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [33 favorites]
fuckdippindots@yahoo.com
Yahoo? I find it hard to believe that a guy who still uses AOL to log on to the World Wide Web so he can surf the Information Superhighway would use anything as advanced as Yahoo! for his email. Probably still has his first email password1234 too.
posted by Existential Dread at 2:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yahoo? I find it hard to believe that a guy who still uses AOL to log on to the World Wide Web so he can surf the Information Superhighway would use anything as advanced as Yahoo! for his email. Probably still has his first email password1234 too.
posted by Existential Dread at 2:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
I know I get frustrated with y'all sometimes when e.g. a MetaTalk complaint isn't very well cited, but I want to tell you that I'm really glad none of you are Sean Spicer.
*fills up the Super Soaker*
posted by mudpuppie at 2:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
*fills up the Super Soaker*
posted by mudpuppie at 2:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
This man's a Russian agent. The real Sean Spicer died at Bowling Green.
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:55 PM on February 6, 2017 [44 favorites]
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:55 PM on February 6, 2017 [44 favorites]
Rainbo Vagrant: Can I rant about the city-bashing that's been going on for the last year and a half? Not just this specifically, and not even here really, but everything. It is not Boston's damn fault that rural areas are doing poorly.To piggy-back on this from personal experience: I started a tech company in a relatively-backwater area. After a few years I relocated it to Boston, where it now lives. The reason for this wasn't that I like cities: in fact, my social anxiety is crippling in a city, and so I still live in said backwater. (Actually, I moved even further out into the middle of nowhere, and I finally seem to be doing tolerably. Or I was, until November.) The reason for this was that we couldn't find anyone to hire here and we desperately needed to hire people.
This is why I think capitalism and the "invisible hand" doesn't work: when everyone does what's best for themselves, you end up with resource silos (like a city), because this is the most economically efficient solution. It's not the most resilient solution (a city is vulnerable to supply disruption or natural disaster). It's not the healthiest solution (as demonstrated by the grave rural/urban divide we are now seeing). So you get short-term economic benefits at long-term social cost.
I'm too young and naĂŻve to have any idea what to do about it. I'm trying to help out in the best ways I can locally, but if trying to do the best I could before only contributed (in whatever tiny way) to getting us into this mess, what hope can I have of contributing anything to get us out of it?
These are the things that keep me up at night right now.
posted by ragtag at 2:56 PM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
> but that's 2017 I guess.
Meanwhile, in a total aside, here's today's Money Stuff column by Matt Levine:
... Anyway, one thing about America in 2017 is that a successful populist presidential campaign resulted in the former president of Goldman Sachs announcing plans to make it easier to rip off retirement savers.
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
Meanwhile, in a total aside, here's today's Money Stuff column by Matt Levine:
... Anyway, one thing about America in 2017 is that a successful populist presidential campaign resulted in the former president of Goldman Sachs announcing plans to make it easier to rip off retirement savers.
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
The real Sean Spicer died at Bowling Green.
/gif of Donald Sutherland pointing and screaming
posted by Existential Dread at 2:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
/gif of Donald Sutherland pointing and screaming
posted by Existential Dread at 2:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
When Mr. Trump is not watching television in his bathrobe or on his phone reaching out to old campaign hands and advisers, he will sometimes set off to explore the unfamiliar surroundings of his new home.
Does he wear tissue boxes on his feet when he's exploring? Where does he keep the jars of urine? Yellow Oval Room?
posted by kirkaracha at 2:59 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
The terrorist attacks that go un(der)reported as such are the ones perpetrated by white "self-radicalized lonewolves*", so I'm sure this "administration" is super concerned about domestic white supremacist terrorists, right? Oh yeah, no.
*Lonewolfs? Lonewolves? Loanwolfs?
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 3:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
*Lonewolfs? Lonewolves? Loanwolfs?
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 3:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
TwoWordReview: I think there's more than a few republicans that would happily vote against DeVos if they could and agree that she's supremely unqualified. The problem is they can't admit that and allow the democrats to get a hint of a win, so they'll vote in lockstep to hold the line and confirm the nominee (with the token allowed NO votes now that she's out of committee). It's 100% politics over principle, but then what else is new?
It's more than that. According to some in-state folks who've cornered him at events, Jeff Flake has admitted that he's benefited from hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from DeVos's SuperPAC, and he has to support her if he wants to have a prayer of funding his re-election campaign in 2018. Lots of other GOP senators are in the same boat.
She is basically buying herself a Cabinet position. Good thing she decided 20 years ago to come right out and admit she was buying influence.
posted by Superplin at 3:02 PM on February 6, 2017 [23 favorites]
It's more than that. According to some in-state folks who've cornered him at events, Jeff Flake has admitted that he's benefited from hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from DeVos's SuperPAC, and he has to support her if he wants to have a prayer of funding his re-election campaign in 2018. Lots of other GOP senators are in the same boat.
She is basically buying herself a Cabinet position. Good thing she decided 20 years ago to come right out and admit she was buying influence.
posted by Superplin at 3:02 PM on February 6, 2017 [23 favorites]
Meet the retiree behind one of the most prolific pro-Trump Twitter bots
posted by futz at 3:02 PM on February 6, 2017
posted by futz at 3:02 PM on February 6, 2017
Today's New Yorker cartoon:
Which team does Frederick Douglass play for?
posted by chris24 at 3:02 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Which team does Frederick Douglass play for?
posted by chris24 at 3:02 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
The people showing at protests, many of whom weren't politically active before, are going to vote in upcoming off-year elections, even in gerrymandered red districts.
Hell yes. I am all over this excellent point and will start carrying a stash of Future Voter stickers to give out to folks I meet who want to share my superpower.
posted by ezust at 3:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Hell yes. I am all over this excellent point and will start carrying a stash of Future Voter stickers to give out to folks I meet who want to share my superpower.
posted by ezust at 3:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
The most depressing "encouragement" I've read in awhile:
"People ask me if Iâm worried about our country right now. And I say, well I am. But I always try to put things in perspective,â said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.). âThis is a country that survived a civil war followed by the assassination of our president followed by the impeachment of the next president. We got through that, so the Senate will get through this."
posted by slipthought at 3:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [38 favorites]
"People ask me if Iâm worried about our country right now. And I say, well I am. But I always try to put things in perspective,â said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.). âThis is a country that survived a civil war followed by the assassination of our president followed by the impeachment of the next president. We got through that, so the Senate will get through this."
posted by slipthought at 3:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [38 favorites]
The most depressing "encouragement" I've read in awhile:
"People ask me if Iâm worried about our country right now. And I say, well I am. But I always try to put things in perspective,â said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.). âThis is a country that survived a civil war followed by the assassination of our president followed by the impeachment of the next president. We got through that, so the Senate will get through this."
tl;omg
this is fine
posted by lalochezia at 3:11 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
Honestly that "encouragement" makes me want to move to the parallel universe where Reconstruction was done right the first time.
posted by lineofsight at 3:11 PM on February 6, 2017 [25 favorites]
posted by lineofsight at 3:11 PM on February 6, 2017 [25 favorites]
"The Senate will get through this, and what I mean by that is some structural components of the Capitol building will still be intact."
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:12 PM on February 6, 2017 [45 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:12 PM on February 6, 2017 [45 favorites]
"We got through that, so the Senate will get through this."
That's an especially depressing thought for those of us who think the Senate is a totally ANTI-democratic entity that is one of America's greatest weaknesses.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
That's an especially depressing thought for those of us who think the Senate is a totally ANTI-democratic entity that is one of America's greatest weaknesses.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
The real Sean Spicer died at Bowling Green.
No, he died when Kate McKinnon debuted her caricature of him on Saturday Night Live.
posted by spitbull at 3:14 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
No, he died when Kate McKinnon debuted her caricature of him on Saturday Night Live.
posted by spitbull at 3:14 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Well Sen. Carper's technically correct since the majority of members of the senate would probably have access to the necessary underground shelters or fortified compounds or high latitude/altitude redoubts, no matter what kills off the rest of us.
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:17 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:17 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
InfoWars is behind President Trumpâs idea that the media is covering up terrorist attacks
posted by futz at 3:18 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by futz at 3:18 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
spitbull: The real Sean Spicer died at Bowling Green. No, he died when Kate McKinnon debuted her caricature of him on Saturday Night Live.
That was Melissa McCarthy.
posted by Superplin at 3:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [16 favorites]
That was Melissa McCarthy.
posted by Superplin at 3:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [16 favorites]
It turns out, as everybody except for Trump and his staff already knew, he's legally required to take his salary as President. He's free to donate it to charity (with the resulting tax deduction) or even back to the treasury if he sees fit.
Fun fact: there are several ways in which you can voluntarily fund the US government. You can give to the conscience fund, for people who feel guilty about defrauding the government and want to pay it back, the debt reduction fund (used to reduce the national debt), or just straight up give to the general fund.
posted by zachlipton at 3:22 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
Fun fact: there are several ways in which you can voluntarily fund the US government. You can give to the conscience fund, for people who feel guilty about defrauding the government and want to pay it back, the debt reduction fund (used to reduce the national debt), or just straight up give to the general fund.
posted by zachlipton at 3:22 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
Barry McCaffrey is not a fan of Trump's latest. The interview is worth watching.
@BraddJaffy
Retired 4-star general: Trump's Putin/US comments may be âthe most anti-American statement ever made by the President of the United Statesâ [video]
posted by chris24 at 3:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [42 favorites]
@BraddJaffy
Retired 4-star general: Trump's Putin/US comments may be âthe most anti-American statement ever made by the President of the United Statesâ [video]
posted by chris24 at 3:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [42 favorites]
We might also get nothing at all, in the hopes that the press and the public forget this, and they'll just keep talking non-specifically about how the media 'doesn't cover terror attacks enough.'
i hope the press just fucking doubles down with extreme prejudice and starts enthusiastically reporting on all instances of crimes committed by white nationalists and MRAs. look at all these shitty horrible white men, donny. fucking look at them. LOOK AT THEM YOU PIGFUCKER. and then anderson cooper jumps off the top rope and hits him with a folding chair
posted by poffin boffin at 3:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [38 favorites]
i hope the press just fucking doubles down with extreme prejudice and starts enthusiastically reporting on all instances of crimes committed by white nationalists and MRAs. look at all these shitty horrible white men, donny. fucking look at them. LOOK AT THEM YOU PIGFUCKER. and then anderson cooper jumps off the top rope and hits him with a folding chair
posted by poffin boffin at 3:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [38 favorites]
The 9th Circuit has denied Hawaii's petition to join Washington State in the executive order case and will hear oral argument via telephone on Tuesday at 3pm Pacific Time.
posted by zachlipton at 3:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 3:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
InfoWars: At War Against Real Info Since 2001.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:25 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:25 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Oh, Wow, Turns Out Donald Trump Canât Shake Hands, Even at All!
I'd like to see him try this shit with Putin (who's supposed to be decent judoka)
posted by paper chromatographologist at 3:26 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
I'd like to see him try this shit with Putin (who's supposed to be decent judoka)
posted by paper chromatographologist at 3:26 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Let's all take a moment to remember that time rotoscoped Alex Jones got disappeared by government goons
posted by theodolite at 3:29 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by theodolite at 3:29 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
like imagine cbs dramatically announces a 60 Minutes Special Report on "under-reported terror attacks committed on american soil" and the republicretins are all frothing with excitement bc they got their fondest wish and then the opening monologue is like "BEGINNING IN 1492 WHITE SUPREMACY HAS DESTROYED CIVILIZATIONS"
posted by poffin boffin at 3:33 PM on February 6, 2017 [49 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 3:33 PM on February 6, 2017 [49 favorites]
This might also be a good time to mention the very credible* theory that Alex Jones is really Bill Hicks after faking his own death and getting some plastic surgery.
*by Infowars standards
posted by contraption at 3:36 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
*by Infowars standards
posted by contraption at 3:36 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
I'd like to see him try this shit with Putin (who's supposed to be decent judoka)
His trick is to keep his hand close to his body and let his partner reach out. By the time you've made that mistake there's not much you can do.
The solution is for everyone to hold their hands close and wait for Trump to come to them before shaking. Probably result in a lot fewer handshakes, which is a win for everyone, since Trump is a germaphobe.
posted by Coventry at 3:40 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
His trick is to keep his hand close to his body and let his partner reach out. By the time you've made that mistake there's not much you can do.
The solution is for everyone to hold their hands close and wait for Trump to come to them before shaking. Probably result in a lot fewer handshakes, which is a win for everyone, since Trump is a germaphobe.
posted by Coventry at 3:40 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
You could also step very, very close before shaking hands such that your hand is also kept next to your body. This would have the added benefit of making germaphobe Trump quite uncomfortable
posted by Justinian at 3:43 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 3:43 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
You could also step very, very close before shaking hands
... and whisper, "I just peed on my hand"
posted by Buntix at 3:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
... and whisper, "I just peed on my hand"
posted by Buntix at 3:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
i hope the queen sneezes wetly right in his face
posted by poffin boffin at 3:47 PM on February 6, 2017 [33 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 3:47 PM on February 6, 2017 [33 favorites]
The most depressing "encouragement" I've read in awhile:
"People ask me if Iâm worried about our country right now. And I say, well I am. But I always try to put things in perspective,â said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.). âThis is a country that survived a civil war followed by the assassination of our president followed by the impeachment of the next president. We got through that, so the Senate will get through this."
I mean, sure, but the rebs didn't have access to nuclear weapons. I assure you, many of them would have preferred to see the nation burn to the ground than see a government promote some measure of racial equality.
posted by absalom at 3:48 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
"People ask me if Iâm worried about our country right now. And I say, well I am. But I always try to put things in perspective,â said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.). âThis is a country that survived a civil war followed by the assassination of our president followed by the impeachment of the next president. We got through that, so the Senate will get through this."
I mean, sure, but the rebs didn't have access to nuclear weapons. I assure you, many of them would have preferred to see the nation burn to the ground than see a government promote some measure of racial equality.
posted by absalom at 3:48 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
This may obviously have been covered before, but are there any credible sources explaining why Donny the Homicidal Maniac has so far not been convicted of any crime?
Mind you, I haven't read my Vanity Fair yet.
posted by tel3path at 3:48 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Mind you, I haven't read my Vanity Fair yet.
posted by tel3path at 3:48 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I am watching NBC nightly news and they were talking briefly about fake news and then as they start to show a clip of Donnie telling CENTCOM about the under reported terror attacks, the reporter voice over says, "and it looks like trump decided to deliver some fake news of his own...".
Quote is slightly paraphrased. I can't remember if she said "the president" or "trump".
And I did a jaw drop back flip [fake] and had to tell you guys!
posted by futz at 3:49 PM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
Quote is slightly paraphrased. I can't remember if she said "the president" or "trump".
And I did a jaw drop back flip [fake] and had to tell you guys!
posted by futz at 3:49 PM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
I can't. I mean. I love that there are right-wing claims that A. the media is not recording terror attacks (like Bowling Green) and B. also being complicit in covering false-flag events that never happened (Sandy Hook, according to them).
Yes, well. You know how cable news hates to report on anything violent.
posted by holborne at 3:54 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Yes, well. You know how cable news hates to report on anything violent.
posted by holborne at 3:54 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
(Loneswolf, surely)
posted by thebrokedown at 3:55 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by thebrokedown at 3:55 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
I love how Trump thinks he has better, totally different, sources of intel than CENTCOM.
posted by corb at 3:55 PM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by corb at 3:55 PM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
Wolves-Lone.
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:57 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:57 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
i await the day an interviewer just laughs in his face. if any of them have the balls. which i doubt.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 3:59 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 3:59 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Could we drop the whole derail about taking advantage of his supposed germophobia? It's... kinda skeevy, to be honest.
posted by Archelaus at 3:59 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Archelaus at 3:59 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
It seems CNN wasn't the only one to reject Kellyanne Conway. Mika says Morning Joe did too.
posted by chris24 at 4:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [22 favorites]
posted by chris24 at 4:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [22 favorites]
Mika says Morning Joe did too.
Well well, look who just received a long-delayed shipment of standards! Use 'em wisely, Joe!
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:02 PM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
Well well, look who just received a long-delayed shipment of standards! Use 'em wisely, Joe!
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:02 PM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
i hope the queen sneezes wetly right in his face
One would have a Beefeater perform the sneeze.
posted by Celsius1414 at 4:03 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
One would have a Beefeater perform the sneeze.
posted by Celsius1414 at 4:03 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
Did the journalists of the day ever drop any Nixon spokespeople, the way Conway is getting dropped?
posted by Coventry at 4:03 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Coventry at 4:03 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
@WillRemix
The Obamas on the kiss cam is quite possibly the best thing you will see all week. [video]
posted by chris24 at 4:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [48 favorites]
The Obamas on the kiss cam is quite possibly the best thing you will see all week. [video]
posted by chris24 at 4:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [48 favorites]
i think the media are starting to realize that Prevaricator Without Portfolio is not an actual executive branch position and they're not obligated to treat her as a legitimate mouthpiece
posted by murphy slaw at 4:06 PM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 4:06 PM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
Joe will be back on the Trump love caboose again. His spine wobbles at the slightest shift in the Nielson ratings.
posted by Yowser at 4:08 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Yowser at 4:08 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
There is a Twitter account for Trump's Bathrobe. (of course there is)
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 4:12 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 4:12 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
The Obamas on the kiss cam is quite possibly the best thing you will see all week. [video]
Favorite protest sign I saw this weekend was "I knew I'd miss the Obamas, but HOLY SHIT!!!"
posted by TwoWordReview at 4:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [22 favorites]
Favorite protest sign I saw this weekend was "I knew I'd miss the Obamas, but HOLY SHIT!!!"
posted by TwoWordReview at 4:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [22 favorites]
Oh that kiss! Makes me so happy and then I crash back down to earth as I remember he is the past and Trump is the present.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
There is a Twitter account for Trump's Bathrobe. (of course there is)
No. Trump is not cool enough to wear a Star Trek-inspired robe.
posted by peeedro at 4:15 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
No. Trump is not cool enough to wear a Star Trek-inspired robe.
posted by peeedro at 4:15 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I am not seeing any other outlets reporting this. If true, it is more cause for worry. Fucking evil-doers.
FBI will revert to using fax machines, snail mail for FOIA requests ~ Starting March 1, the FBI will no longer accept FOIA requests via email.
At the beginning of March, the FBI will no longer accept FOIA requests via email. Instead, requesters will have to rely on fax machines and standard mail (âsnail mailâ) in order to communicate with the agencyâs records management division. The agency will also accept a fraction of requests through an online portal, provided users agree to a terms-of-service agreement and are willing to provide the FBI with personal information, including a phone number and physical address.
posted by futz at 4:15 PM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
FBI will revert to using fax machines, snail mail for FOIA requests ~ Starting March 1, the FBI will no longer accept FOIA requests via email.
At the beginning of March, the FBI will no longer accept FOIA requests via email. Instead, requesters will have to rely on fax machines and standard mail (âsnail mailâ) in order to communicate with the agencyâs records management division. The agency will also accept a fraction of requests through an online portal, provided users agree to a terms-of-service agreement and are willing to provide the FBI with personal information, including a phone number and physical address.
posted by futz at 4:15 PM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
do these geniuses not realize that there are free email-to-fax gateways that you can hook up to your gmail account?
posted by murphy slaw at 4:18 PM on February 6, 2017 [21 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 4:18 PM on February 6, 2017 [21 favorites]
do these geniuses not realize that there are free email-to-fax gateways that you can hook up to your gmail account?
Is this a trick question?
posted by uosuaq at 4:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
Is this a trick question?
posted by uosuaq at 4:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
They can always claim the machine was out of paper and did not receive. Traditional mail is slow because (govt. sucks, takes time, hiring freeze). Ineptitude is a feature.
posted by cmfletcher at 4:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by cmfletcher at 4:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
It kills me that Trudeau is sacrificing his career to fight this evil. Maybe it would suck less if the Liberals would join the NDP, Green Party, and (!) some Conservatives in denouncing Trump.
posted by Yowser at 4:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by Yowser at 4:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
MetaFilter: none of you are Sean Spicer
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
One would have a Beefeater perform the sneeze.
Bonus: Receiving a sneeze from a Beefeater would almost necessarily be accompanied by a bonk on the head from the Beefeater's headgear!
posted by mudpuppie at 4:25 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Bonus: Receiving a sneeze from a Beefeater would almost necessarily be accompanied by a bonk on the head from the Beefeater's headgear!
posted by mudpuppie at 4:25 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Fax machines are, for whatever reason, considered more credible by lawyers, aren't they? Is this an own-goal for the obstructors of truth?
posted by Yowser at 4:26 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Yowser at 4:26 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
so it's the lawyers who are keeping fax machines around in 2017? wow, never thought it would be anything other than Word Perfect. congrats, you technological throwbacks.
posted by indubitable at 4:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by indubitable at 4:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
Fax machines are great because if you run out of paper you can just have someone fax some over.
posted by bigbigdog at 4:33 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by bigbigdog at 4:33 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
Fax machines are, for whatever reason, considered more credible by lawyers, aren't they? Is this an own-goal for the obstructors of truth?
Ooh actually this would be a fantastic role for all of the awesome volunteer lawyers out there to play, offering to let citizens use their fax machines for FOIA requests. It's one thing to be all "lol guess we were out of paper" to some rando citizen but to have a lawyer say "faxes from my office were sent on [giant list of timestamps] and you were out of paper/the fax machine was down every time?" is something else.
posted by jason_steakums at 4:36 PM on February 6, 2017 [19 favorites]
Ooh actually this would be a fantastic role for all of the awesome volunteer lawyers out there to play, offering to let citizens use their fax machines for FOIA requests. It's one thing to be all "lol guess we were out of paper" to some rando citizen but to have a lawyer say "faxes from my office were sent on [giant list of timestamps] and you were out of paper/the fax machine was down every time?" is something else.
posted by jason_steakums at 4:36 PM on February 6, 2017 [19 favorites]
so it's the lawyers who are keeping fax machines around in 2017?
In my experience, it's health care; but the same argument likely applies: Faxes are considered the only "secure" electronic method of transmitting confidential information because they are point-to-point. At least, that is how it has been explained to me.
posted by nubs at 4:36 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
In my experience, it's health care; but the same argument likely applies: Faxes are considered the only "secure" electronic method of transmitting confidential information because they are point-to-point. At least, that is how it has been explained to me.
posted by nubs at 4:36 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
Guys, the only reason lawyers still use fax machines in some jursidictions that some courts won't accept emails as evidence of delivery. Faxes can be configured to print receipts that evidence delivery.
This was boggling when I was a baby lawyer ten years ago. It's even dumber now. Some jurisidctions are only just catching up now.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 4:37 PM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
This was boggling when I was a baby lawyer ten years ago. It's even dumber now. Some jurisidctions are only just catching up now.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 4:37 PM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
There are still university offices that will only accept faxes of your tuition assistance forms, and when I worked in financials, faxes were still required for certain transactions.
It's ridiculous and I still make fun of it when I am told to fax something.
posted by Kitteh at 4:41 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
It's ridiculous and I still make fun of it when I am told to fax something.
posted by Kitteh at 4:41 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Charles Pierce: How Republican Leaders Can Solve These Trump Administration Problems: Courage and patriotism, no excuses.
Let's Start Sending Canned Ham to Our Congressional Leaders. You choose the brand.
posted by homunculus at 4:42 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Let's Start Sending Canned Ham to Our Congressional Leaders. You choose the brand.
posted by homunculus at 4:42 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
FWIW: 30 more companies file to join the immigration-ban amicus brief; including SpaceX and Tesla. Full list in the article.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 4:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [24 favorites]
Muskâs stance may have kept other companies from reaching out to Tesla or SpaceX about signing on to the brief in the first place â a Tesla spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company didnât hear about the brief until this morning. âAs soon we saw the brief this morning, we insisted on being added,â the spokesperson said.Yeeeeeeah, I'm sure that's exactly how it happened.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 4:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [24 favorites]
FBI will revert to using fax machines, snail mail for FOIA requests ~ Starting March 1, the FBI will no longer accept FOIA requests via email.
They're hardening their defenses against the Cylons.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
And the "not covered goalpost-moved to not covered enough" terror attack list is out. And ridiculous. Includes Paris, Nice, Istanbul, Orlando, and San Bernandino.
@danmericaCNN
A White House official says "most" of these 78 attacks since 2014 have not received enough attention from media. [list]
posted by chris24 at 4:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [24 favorites]
@danmericaCNN
A White House official says "most" of these 78 attacks since 2014 have not received enough attention from media. [list]
posted by chris24 at 4:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [24 favorites]
So I guess now the scavenger hunt begins for enough press clippings on each event from the list. Something to keep everybody busy with...
posted by birdheist at 5:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by birdheist at 5:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Well, that's fucking ridiculous.
Do they list any terror attacks in Bagdad or Kabul?
posted by suelac at 5:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Do they list any terror attacks in Bagdad or Kabul?
posted by suelac at 5:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Surreal.
posted by Justinian at 5:01 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 5:01 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
I'd like to see him try this shit with Putin (who's supposed to be decent judoka)
I'd like to see him try it with a man who has some self-respect. You yank my arm in like that and you're getting a purple-nurple from my other hand.
posted by srboisvert at 5:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
I'd like to see him try it with a man who has some self-respect. You yank my arm in like that and you're getting a purple-nurple from my other hand.
posted by srboisvert at 5:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
is a purple nurple the same as a titty twister?
posted by Justinian at 5:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Justinian at 5:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
They misspell "attacker" so many times on this list...
posted by samthemander at 5:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by samthemander at 5:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
And the "not covered goalpost-moved to not covered enough" terror attack list is out. And ridiculous. Includes Paris, Nice, Istanbul, Orlando, and San Bernandino.
Charleston is missing from that list. Can't help but wonder if Quebec City will be on there.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 5:06 PM on February 6, 2017 [21 favorites]
Charleston is missing from that list. Can't help but wonder if Quebec City will be on there.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 5:06 PM on February 6, 2017 [21 favorites]
I'd like to see him try it with a man who has some self-respect.
Or woman.
posted by futz at 5:07 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Or woman.
posted by futz at 5:07 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
I honestly can't believe they made some junior staffer google up "list of terrorist attacks" and started copy/pasting everything that wasn't a weeklong major story.
One item on the list is a "US person" who shot a police officer in Philadelphia in January 2016. An event that went so unreported that Wikipedia only has 48 citations for its article.
posted by zachlipton at 5:09 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
One item on the list is a "US person" who shot a police officer in Philadelphia in January 2016. An event that went so unreported that Wikipedia only has 48 citations for its article.
posted by zachlipton at 5:09 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
Seattle University's Fred T. Korematsu Institute has also filed an amicus brief in the 9th Circuit case, attacking the plenary power doctrine (which limits judicial review of immigration law) as a relic of the racist Chinese Exclusion Act originally used to justified it.
They urge the courts not to make the same mistakes they made in Plessy or Korematsu, where contemporary prejudice and false claims of security threats were allowed to override constitutional protections. They point to case law in which courts review immigration rules for whether they are ârationally advancing some legitimate governmental purpose.â
This is really attacking the heart of the matter: The president claims the executive order is necessary for national security, but all evidence shows that the security claims are based not in facts but in racial and religious prejudice. The constitution gives the courts the authority to reject this, and history shows that they must do so.
posted by mbrubeck at 5:09 PM on February 6, 2017 [73 favorites]
They urge the courts not to make the same mistakes they made in Plessy or Korematsu, where contemporary prejudice and false claims of security threats were allowed to override constitutional protections. They point to case law in which courts review immigration rules for whether they are ârationally advancing some legitimate governmental purpose.â
This is really attacking the heart of the matter: The president claims the executive order is necessary for national security, but all evidence shows that the security claims are based not in facts but in racial and religious prejudice. The constitution gives the courts the authority to reject this, and history shows that they must do so.
posted by mbrubeck at 5:09 PM on February 6, 2017 [73 favorites]
To be clear, it was a "US person" "ATTAKER [sic]"
posted by zachlipton at 5:09 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 5:09 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
The list provided misspells 'San Bernardino' and 'Attacker'.
The list provided shows that each of these attacks in the US (only 4 in their list I think) were by 'US persons' so a travel ban would be useless to prevent these attacks.
I'm guessing the US persons in question didn't have muslim sounding names, which is why they're listed as 'US person' instead of actually giving their names.
The list includes the Paris attacks as under-reported!
posted by TwoWordReview at 5:10 PM on February 6, 2017 [24 favorites]
The list provided shows that each of these attacks in the US (only 4 in their list I think) were by 'US persons' so a travel ban would be useless to prevent these attacks.
I'm guessing the US persons in question didn't have muslim sounding names, which is why they're listed as 'US person' instead of actually giving their names.
The list includes the Paris attacks as under-reported!
posted by TwoWordReview at 5:10 PM on February 6, 2017 [24 favorites]
They misspell "attacker" so many times on this list...
and San Bernardino.
posted by waitingtoderail at 5:10 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
and San Bernardino.
posted by waitingtoderail at 5:10 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
It's not real until someone writes a protest song about it.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 5:12 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 5:12 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Also under-reported according to DJT: Hillary's emails, the greatness of Trump hotels, how hot Ivanka is.
posted by tonycpsu at 5:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by tonycpsu at 5:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
I've got $5 on getting an official White House communication that starts out "Webster's Dictionary defines terrorism as..."
posted by jason_steakums at 5:15 PM on February 6, 2017 [24 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 5:15 PM on February 6, 2017 [24 favorites]
I've got $5 on getting an official White House communication that starts out "Webster's Dictionary defines terrorism as..."
Which would be delightful because the Merriam-Webster twitter account has been throwing shade on this administration since the inauguration (probably before).
posted by TwoWordReview at 5:17 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
Which would be delightful because the Merriam-Webster twitter account has been throwing shade on this administration since the inauguration (probably before).
posted by TwoWordReview at 5:17 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
WEBSTER'S HOWEVER, DOES NOT DEFINE ATTAKER
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 5:17 PM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 5:17 PM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
Is there a list of the attacks that is legible?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:17 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:17 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
At this point, I wouldn't be shocked if they started unironically citing Conservapedia.
posted by tonycpsu at 5:18 PM on February 6, 2017
posted by tonycpsu at 5:18 PM on February 6, 2017
They've also omitted all of the attacks in sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority of such attacks take place. Terrorism in Nigera is just irrelevant to these people apparently.
posted by zachlipton at 5:18 PM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 5:18 PM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
They're hardening their defenses against the Cylons.
Well there are only twelve models of Cylon, which could explain Trump's difficulty finding enough people to fill out his cabinet and staff the West Wing.
posted by Bringer Tom at 5:18 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
Well there are only twelve models of Cylon, which could explain Trump's difficulty finding enough people to fill out his cabinet and staff the West Wing.
posted by Bringer Tom at 5:18 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
Former NOAA Scientist Confirms Colleagues Manipulated Climate Records
This the newest press release from science.house.gov, the House Committee on Science, Space & Technology. My heavens, is it infuriating to see Breitbart-style climate-denial garbage produced as the official word of the US government. Tomorrow they've scheduled a full committee hearing titled "Making EPA Great Again."
Don't forget that it's not just Lord Dampnut. There's an army of opportunist monsters under him and they're leaping at the chance to kill the fucking world.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:21 PM on February 6, 2017 [16 favorites]
This the newest press release from science.house.gov, the House Committee on Science, Space & Technology. My heavens, is it infuriating to see Breitbart-style climate-denial garbage produced as the official word of the US government. Tomorrow they've scheduled a full committee hearing titled "Making EPA Great Again."
Don't forget that it's not just Lord Dampnut. There's an army of opportunist monsters under him and they're leaping at the chance to kill the fucking world.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:21 PM on February 6, 2017 [16 favorites]
Winter is coming.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 5:21 PM on February 6, 2017 [35 favorites]
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 5:21 PM on February 6, 2017 [35 favorites]
Winter is coming.
I have a feeling that American Spring is coming, too.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
I have a feeling that American Spring is coming, too.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
Shifting FOIA requests to fax/mail has a bigger effect than just getting fewer of them. Mail and fax documents aren't searchable, and the contents have to be re-entered digitally into whatever they're using to track the actual documents. It's an opportunity for errors (typos, etc.) to enter the process, AND it's hours of extra work, additionally slowing everything down even more.
The combination of reducing the requests, adding extra time requirements to deal with them (both needing to copy details from paper into digital form, and the problem of not having enough people to keep up with the paper requests), and adding error opportunities (typos, lost letters, things that got put at the bottom of the stack) will serve to slow things down - until a court gets involved and has to rule on whether the gov't is deliberately avoiding requests.
We don't yet know how badly the new administration is going to try to completely ignore court orders, but it's likely that denial won't be nearly as widespread as the ones at the top would like.
(Saying, "only send us paper!" for a crowdsourced activity is a stupid, stupid move; it's a great way to get buried in paperwork. And yes, they'll ignore them - but someone has to sort that mail, and the more there is, the bigger the chance that something they care about is mixed in the wrong pile.)
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 5:27 PM on February 6, 2017 [19 favorites]
The combination of reducing the requests, adding extra time requirements to deal with them (both needing to copy details from paper into digital form, and the problem of not having enough people to keep up with the paper requests), and adding error opportunities (typos, lost letters, things that got put at the bottom of the stack) will serve to slow things down - until a court gets involved and has to rule on whether the gov't is deliberately avoiding requests.
We don't yet know how badly the new administration is going to try to completely ignore court orders, but it's likely that denial won't be nearly as widespread as the ones at the top would like.
(Saying, "only send us paper!" for a crowdsourced activity is a stupid, stupid move; it's a great way to get buried in paperwork. And yes, they'll ignore them - but someone has to sort that mail, and the more there is, the bigger the chance that something they care about is mixed in the wrong pile.)
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 5:27 PM on February 6, 2017 [19 favorites]
This the newest press release from science.house.gov, the House Committee on Science, Space & Technology. My heavens, is it infuriating to see Breitbart-style climate-denial garbage produced as the official word of the US government.
What they don't mention is that their evidence for disputing the Karl study was an article in that most prestigious of science journals (particularly noted for their in-depth research on what does and doesn't cause cancer): The Daily Mail.
They also seem to think it's not worth mentioning that the conclusions are supported by a number of other completely independent studies.
posted by Buntix at 5:30 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
What they don't mention is that their evidence for disputing the Karl study was an article in that most prestigious of science journals (particularly noted for their in-depth research on what does and doesn't cause cancer): The Daily Mail.
They also seem to think it's not worth mentioning that the conclusions are supported by a number of other completely independent studies.
posted by Buntix at 5:30 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
The âunderreportedâ terrorist attack list also includes:
posted by mbrubeck at 5:30 PM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
HURGHADA, EGYPTBut, as was widely reported at the time, it turns out the victims were actually two Australians and a Swede, and the attaker (sic) was identified as Egyptian student Mohammed Hassan Mohammed Mahfouz. They are not even trying.
January, 2016
TARGET: One German and one Danish national wounded in knife attack at a tourist resort
ATTAKER: Unidentified
posted by mbrubeck at 5:30 PM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
BIG headline in @thetimes tomorw:
13,000+ killed in #Syriaâs Sednaya prison in state-approved campaign of torture & mass executions. #Assad
posted by waitingtoderail at 5:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
13,000+ killed in #Syriaâs Sednaya prison in state-approved campaign of torture & mass executions. #Assad
posted by waitingtoderail at 5:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
What, like we don't kill people too?
posted by Rykey at 5:35 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Rykey at 5:35 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Here is a more in depth story: Up to 13,000 secretly hanged in Syrian jail, says Amnesty: Many thousands more people held in Saydnaya prison died through torture and starvation, Amnesty said, and the bodies were dumped in two mass graves on the outskirts of Damascus between midnight and dawn most Tuesday mornings for at least five years.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:41 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:41 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
Is anyone tabulating the nationalities of the attakers? Curious how they line up with the Muslim Ban countries.
posted by Coventry at 5:41 PM on February 6, 2017
posted by Coventry at 5:41 PM on February 6, 2017
Strike in Yemen missed al Qaeda leader: report
Hey remember that counter-terrorist strike in Yemen? The one that our president ordered unadvisedly and then went to go watch Finding Dory? The one that led to 2 destroyed US aircraft, 1 dead SEAL and 4 wounded?
The one that led to dozens of women and children killed, including an 8-year old American girl who was shot in the neck? Turns out the main target was completely missed and he's now taunting the president via recordings.
This should be Benghazied beyond all bounds of Benghazi and Nawar Al-Awlaki's picture should be on signs at every protest for the duration of the emergency. A fuckup of this magnitude cannot be forgotten.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:44 PM on February 6, 2017 [69 favorites]
Hey remember that counter-terrorist strike in Yemen? The one that our president ordered unadvisedly and then went to go watch Finding Dory? The one that led to 2 destroyed US aircraft, 1 dead SEAL and 4 wounded?
The one that led to dozens of women and children killed, including an 8-year old American girl who was shot in the neck? Turns out the main target was completely missed and he's now taunting the president via recordings.
This should be Benghazied beyond all bounds of Benghazi and Nawar Al-Awlaki's picture should be on signs at every protest for the duration of the emergency. A fuckup of this magnitude cannot be forgotten.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:44 PM on February 6, 2017 [69 favorites]
President Trump, Quebec, and the Dismantling of CVE (the Countering Violent Extremism program.)
posted by homunculus at 5:52 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by homunculus at 5:52 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Pulse is on the list? I feel like I'm still living with the details of Pulse that the media reported on.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:53 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:53 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
It's a bit late in the thread to mention the title, but am I the only one who read "Trump Roundup" and pictured a spray that would keep racists from coming out of the woodwork?
posted by uosuaq at 5:54 PM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by uosuaq at 5:54 PM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
Politico: White House rattled by McCarthy's spoof of Spicer
posted by zachlipton at 5:56 PM on February 6, 2017 [153 favorites]
More than being lampooned as a press secretary who makes up facts, it was Spicerâs portrayal by a woman that was most problematic in the presidentâs eyes, according to sources close to him. And the unflattering send-up by a female comedian was not considered helpful for Spicerâs longevity in the grueling, high-profile job, where he has struggled to strike the right balance between representing an administration that considers the media the "opposition party," and developing a functional relationship with the press.Can we get women to play every Republican now?
posted by zachlipton at 5:56 PM on February 6, 2017 [153 favorites]
I'm still looking for a clip, but this is reportedly from the O'Reilly interview tonight:
Trump: "[Obama] likes me.âposted by zachlipton at 5:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [29 favorites]
O'Reilly: âHow do you know?â
Trump: "I can feel it. Thatâs what I do in life. Itâs called, like, I understand.â
Can we get women to play every Republican now?
A man playing Ivanka would do nicely.
posted by waitingtoderail at 5:59 PM on February 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
A man playing Ivanka would do nicely.
posted by waitingtoderail at 5:59 PM on February 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
Given the events of the past two weeks, I have no doubt that the word "Trump" will still be in universal currency â routinely used to denote incomparable fuckups and world-class incompetents in all humanity's languages â a thousand years from now. If, that is, there's anyone still here a thousand years from now.
posted by adamgreenfield at 5:59 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by adamgreenfield at 5:59 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
Obama hates him so much. So much.
posted by Justinian at 6:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [54 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 6:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [54 favorites]
developing a functional relationship with the press.
That's something they are even trying to do?
posted by Artw at 6:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
That's something they are even trying to do?
posted by Artw at 6:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I have a feeling that American Spring is coming, too.
It's Springtime for Bannon and Trump-ity.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:01 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
It's Springtime for Bannon and Trump-ity.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:01 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
It's a bit late in the thread to mention the title, but am I the only one who read "Trump Roundup" and pictured a spray that would keep racists from coming out of the woodwork?
I'm more picturing some classic American trumpboys, riding horseback as they wrangle up their herd of Trumps, moving them across the vast expanses of this proud and majestic land, all the way from the Colorado Rockies to the stockyards of Mar-A-Lago, the trumpboys keeping a watchful eye all the while for a Trump breaking free of the herd and for the mountain lions and prairie wolves that lie in wait for any old and slow Trumps or their young and foolhardy Trumplings.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:01 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
I'm more picturing some classic American trumpboys, riding horseback as they wrangle up their herd of Trumps, moving them across the vast expanses of this proud and majestic land, all the way from the Colorado Rockies to the stockyards of Mar-A-Lago, the trumpboys keeping a watchful eye all the while for a Trump breaking free of the herd and for the mountain lions and prairie wolves that lie in wait for any old and slow Trumps or their young and foolhardy Trumplings.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:01 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
The Nation: ï»ż Your Guide to the Sprawling New Anti-Trump Resistance Movement: An explosion of new activism offers a ray of hope in these dark political times.
Including:
Indivisible
#KnockEveryDoor
Swing Left
Run For Something
Operation 45
Movement 2017
(and lots of other good ones as well)
posted by triggerfinger at 6:01 PM on February 6, 2017 [73 favorites]
Including:
Indivisible
#KnockEveryDoor
Swing Left
Run For Something
Operation 45
Movement 2017
(and lots of other good ones as well)
posted by triggerfinger at 6:01 PM on February 6, 2017 [73 favorites]
Wait, the thing that Trump is holding against Spicer is that a woman played him on TV? What is this? Where am I? I am seeing spots and wavy lines. Am I passing through to some new level of shock, disappointment and disgust? I didn't know there was another level.
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [50 favorites]
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [50 favorites]
Well, of course they haven't been covered "enough". We aren't all cowering under our beds and letting Lord Dampnut rule the world. If they'd been covered "enough" we'd have just handed him whatever power he asked for, no questions asked!
posted by jferg at 6:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by jferg at 6:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
They misspell "attacker" so many times on this list...
This list is very dangerious and may attack at any time. We must deal with it.
posted by INFJ at 6:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
This list is very dangerious and may attack at any time. We must deal with it.
posted by INFJ at 6:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
Can we get women to play every Republican now?
Baldwin is getting old, and it would probably be particularly galling to Trump if he were not played by someone other than an actor with an alpha male typecast.
posted by Coventry at 6:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Baldwin is getting old, and it would probably be particularly galling to Trump if he were not played by someone other than an actor with an alpha male typecast.
posted by Coventry at 6:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
This was boggling when I was a baby lawyer ten years ago.
ooooo post some pics of the little baby fax machines
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
ooooo post some pics of the little baby fax machines
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
Melania sues Mail Online a third time for claiming she was an escort
e·mol·u·ment
ÉËmĂ€lyÉmÉnt/
nounformal
noun: emolument; plural noun: emoluments
a salary, fee, or profit from employment or office.
posted by sebastienbailard at 6:09 PM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
âPlaintiff had the unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as an extremely famous and well-known personâŠto launch a broad-based commercial brand in multiple product categories, each of which could have garnered multi-million dollar business relationships for a multi-year term during which plaintiff is one of the most photographed women in the world,â the Manhattan suit says.Search Results
âThese product categories would have included, among other things, apparel, accessories, shoes, jewelry, cosmetics, hair care, skin care and fragrance,â according to the $150 million filing.
e·mol·u·ment
ÉËmĂ€lyÉmÉnt/
nounformal
noun: emolument; plural noun: emoluments
a salary, fee, or profit from employment or office.
posted by sebastienbailard at 6:09 PM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
The thing about Trump's wanna-be-alpha-male handshake, is that he often does it in the "spotlight", when folks expect a certain level of decorum. Essentially he's catching people off guard and exploiting the circumstance to his satisfy his weird, sociopathic needs.
If he did that to an average Joe, mechanic, trucker whatever...there would be a quick release and WTF?! I would expect a good shove and raised fist too.
BUT, what's important to know about this phony-ass machismo tactic is that he does it to cover for his insecurity. His inadequacy.
He really believes that it is an effective tool to dominate...what he doesn't know is that he is probably, almost always, the dumbest, most dull person in any given room or arena.
He is a huckster, a rube, a mark and he's being played by so many people, entities, factions and interests that when all is said and done, he'll be the most bent-over fucked and used dumb-fuck...probably in the history of mankind.
I'm not making this comment out of any kind of optimism. I think it's very fucking clear and obvious. Not only is he a rube, but everyone who voted for him is too. They've been played and manipulated and huckstered right into this shit-fest. Fuck all of them for succumbing to those base instincts of hatred and racism and willful ignorance.
We will fight and we will rise and THIS NATION WILL BE BETTER FOR IT!
(I love you guys! Thanks for keeping me sane!)
posted by snsranch at 6:14 PM on February 6, 2017 [33 favorites]
If he did that to an average Joe, mechanic, trucker whatever...there would be a quick release and WTF?! I would expect a good shove and raised fist too.
BUT, what's important to know about this phony-ass machismo tactic is that he does it to cover for his insecurity. His inadequacy.
He really believes that it is an effective tool to dominate...what he doesn't know is that he is probably, almost always, the dumbest, most dull person in any given room or arena.
He is a huckster, a rube, a mark and he's being played by so many people, entities, factions and interests that when all is said and done, he'll be the most bent-over fucked and used dumb-fuck...probably in the history of mankind.
I'm not making this comment out of any kind of optimism. I think it's very fucking clear and obvious. Not only is he a rube, but everyone who voted for him is too. They've been played and manipulated and huckstered right into this shit-fest. Fuck all of them for succumbing to those base instincts of hatred and racism and willful ignorance.
We will fight and we will rise and THIS NATION WILL BE BETTER FOR IT!
(I love you guys! Thanks for keeping me sane!)
posted by snsranch at 6:14 PM on February 6, 2017 [33 favorites]
Trump is pissed that Spicer was portrayed as a woman because that makes him "weak"?Huh. I'm continually fascinated by the new depths of my hatred for this man that I get to discover each day.
posted by gatorae at 6:15 PM on February 6, 2017 [56 favorites]
posted by gatorae at 6:15 PM on February 6, 2017 [56 favorites]
Can we get women to play every Republican now?
I don't think we'll find a woman who would want to play DeVos.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:17 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
I don't think we'll find a woman who would want to play DeVos.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:17 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Melissa McCarthy must replace Alec Baldwin in portraying Donald immediately.
posted by biogeo at 6:17 PM on February 6, 2017 [40 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 6:17 PM on February 6, 2017 [40 favorites]
Also SNL must quickly become MTWTFSNL (they can have Sundays off).
posted by uosuaq at 6:19 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by uosuaq at 6:19 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Melissa McCarthy must replace Alec Baldwin in portraying Donald immediately.
Nah, let her stay as Spicer as long as he's still there. Baldwin is hosting this week, so hopefully he'll host the damn thing as Trump. Has anyone ever hosted in character before?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:19 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Nah, let her stay as Spicer as long as he's still there. Baldwin is hosting this week, so hopefully he'll host the damn thing as Trump. Has anyone ever hosted in character before?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:19 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Guess it's time to weaponize SNL now!
posted by yasaman at 6:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by yasaman at 6:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
I'll look at Melissa McCarthy different from now on. That performance was fucking genius.
posted by angrybear at 6:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [46 favorites]
posted by angrybear at 6:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [46 favorites]
Leslie Jones in an orange wig.
posted by mcdoublewide at 6:21 PM on February 6, 2017 [61 favorites]
posted by mcdoublewide at 6:21 PM on February 6, 2017 [61 favorites]
Melissa McCarthy must replace Alec Baldwin in portraying Donald immediately.
Yep. This is Trump just begging them to play him with a woman next week. He might actually stroke out. Paging Tina Fey?
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:22 PM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
Yep. This is Trump just begging them to play him with a woman next week. He might actually stroke out. Paging Tina Fey?
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:22 PM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
I'd kind of like to see actual Hillary Clinton's impersonation of Trump.
posted by zachlipton at 6:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [36 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 6:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [36 favorites]
Rosie O'Donnell.
posted by notyou at 6:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [90 favorites]
posted by notyou at 6:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [90 favorites]
Can Rosie O'Donnell do a Trump impersonation?
edit: looks like we all had the same, absolutely correct idea
posted by birdheist at 6:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [37 favorites]
edit: looks like we all had the same, absolutely correct idea
posted by birdheist at 6:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [37 favorites]
I was looking forward to the ever growing protest that is being planned for my congressman when this beauty came along.
Choice quote:
âI will be mustering up the militia forces at 10:30 a.m.,â wrote Ross on Facebook. âI need all patriots in attendance to protect Congressman Gaetz from any potential disruption of his speech. Concealed carry permit holders most welcome â donât forget your ammo.â
He added, âWe support the right of protesters to protest but we must prepare a defensive posture for Congressman Gaetz. These Marxists have shown a propensity for violence at their protests across this nation â we will be there with the Sherriff to ensure force protection of our Congressman.â
posted by R.F.Simpson at 6:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
Choice quote:
âI will be mustering up the militia forces at 10:30 a.m.,â wrote Ross on Facebook. âI need all patriots in attendance to protect Congressman Gaetz from any potential disruption of his speech. Concealed carry permit holders most welcome â donât forget your ammo.â
He added, âWe support the right of protesters to protest but we must prepare a defensive posture for Congressman Gaetz. These Marxists have shown a propensity for violence at their protests across this nation â we will be there with the Sherriff to ensure force protection of our Congressman.â
posted by R.F.Simpson at 6:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
are you kidding me? it should be ROSIE O'DONNELL
posted by poffin boffin at 6:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [37 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 6:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [37 favorites]
SNL Cold Open. White House. Oval Office. Empty.
Enter ALEC BALDWIN but dressed as Rex Tillerson.
(Trump sitting alone in a gold bathrobe, watching on TV: "Oh, thank GOD!"
TILLERSON: Mr. President?! Are you here?
Enter AMY POEHLER in orange makeup with a dead rat on her head.
(Trump: "Oh, what the FUCK?!")
posted by SpaceBass at 6:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
Enter ALEC BALDWIN but dressed as Rex Tillerson.
(Trump sitting alone in a gold bathrobe, watching on TV: "Oh, thank GOD!"
TILLERSON: Mr. President?! Are you here?
Enter AMY POEHLER in orange makeup with a dead rat on her head.
(Trump: "Oh, what the FUCK?!")
posted by SpaceBass at 6:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
Amy Schumer.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
Yes Leslie Jones.. Donald's head would explode.
posted by angrybear at 6:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by angrybear at 6:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Given Trump's weird obsession with her, maybe Rosie O'Donnell can play Trump next week?
posted by downtohisturtles at 6:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by downtohisturtles at 6:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
who even cares if it was immediately followed by the nuclear annihilation of all life on earth it would be WORTH IT
posted by poffin boffin at 6:25 PM on February 6, 2017 [25 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 6:25 PM on February 6, 2017 [25 favorites]
On review, poffin's got it.
posted by downtohisturtles at 6:25 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by downtohisturtles at 6:25 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
If they don't have the whole show blocked out yet, how about a closing segment with Baldwin as Trump doing a Doctor Who-style regeneration into Meryl Streep? Rosie O'Donnell would be excellent too.
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:25 PM on February 6, 2017
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:25 PM on February 6, 2017
Can Rosie O'Donnell do a Trump impersonation?
Does a bear shit in the .... never mind.
posted by spitbull at 6:26 PM on February 6, 2017
Does a bear shit in the .... never mind.
posted by spitbull at 6:26 PM on February 6, 2017
@Atrios: "Rosie for Bannon, Meryl for Tr*mp, and the presidency is over."
posted by holgate at 6:27 PM on February 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
posted by holgate at 6:27 PM on February 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
chris farley would've done it in a diaper screaming like a demented baby
what a loss for the universe in general
posted by poffin boffin at 6:27 PM on February 6, 2017 [34 favorites]
what a loss for the universe in general
posted by poffin boffin at 6:27 PM on February 6, 2017 [34 favorites]
Sue them in court, discovery might discover some interesting things... Like when you came to America, Melania.
posted by Yowser at 6:27 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Yowser at 6:27 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Has anyone ever hosted in character before?
Other than the fact that all modern celebrity is putting on a character:
S09E09: Father Guido Sarducci/Huey Lewis and the News
S11E03: Pee-wee Herman/Queen Ida & the Bon Temps Zydeco Band
posted by ckape at 6:28 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Other than the fact that all modern celebrity is putting on a character:
S09E09: Father Guido Sarducci/Huey Lewis and the News
S11E03: Pee-wee Herman/Queen Ida & the Bon Temps Zydeco Band
posted by ckape at 6:28 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
There are so many funny women, seems a shame not to let all of them take a crack at him.
posted by biogeo at 6:28 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 6:28 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
Nuclear annihilation is just the tail of Donald's story arc where he finally learns compassion as he comforts a homeless man dying of radiation poisoning.
posted by angrybear at 6:29 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by angrybear at 6:29 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
I think only a drag queen could pull off Ivanka's gender performance.
posted by pxe2000 at 6:31 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by pxe2000 at 6:31 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
Rosie has, albeit briefly, done a donald trump impression.
posted by mrgoat at 6:31 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by mrgoat at 6:31 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
I think that Rosie would nail the mouth movements. And an orange wig on her? Perfect! I don't want to her to become a target but the xtra bonus of course is the white hot rage that Trumple Thinskin has for her.
posted by futz at 6:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by futz at 6:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler can play Eric and Don, Jr.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
Daniel Dale nicely summarizes the ridiculous pattern we're trapped in:
Eternal sequence:posted by zachlipton at 6:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
- Trump lies
- Allies add nuance
- "What he meant was (insert talking point)"
- Talking point coverage
- Media-bashing
Are there SNL staff who are twitter-accessible?
posted by Coventry at 6:33 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Coventry at 6:33 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Indivisible
#KnockEveryDoor
Swing Left
Run For Something
Operation 45
Movement 2017
Wasn't there some talk on one of these threads about Swing Left not being a legit organization? I mean, I hope they are legitâI like their ideaâbut I remember somebody calling them into question.
posted by Rykey at 6:34 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
#KnockEveryDoor
Swing Left
Run For Something
Operation 45
Movement 2017
Wasn't there some talk on one of these threads about Swing Left not being a legit organization? I mean, I hope they are legitâI like their ideaâbut I remember somebody calling them into question.
posted by Rykey at 6:34 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
chris farley would've done it in a diaper screaming like a demented baby
You don't think he would have tried to lampoon Trump?
posted by Etrigan at 6:34 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
You don't think he would have tried to lampoon Trump?
posted by Etrigan at 6:34 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
> I've been seeing things on Facebook about a general strike for February 17. I'm worried it will not be well organized and doesn't have a clear goal, but would want to support and join if it is. Anyone here have any more information about it?
You Canât Fake It: A general strike could transform American politics. But weâre nowhere near being able to call one.
posted by homunculus at 6:35 PM on February 6, 2017 [16 favorites]
You Canât Fake It: A general strike could transform American politics. But weâre nowhere near being able to call one.
posted by homunculus at 6:35 PM on February 6, 2017 [16 favorites]
about Swing Left not being a legit organization?
definitely.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 6:36 PM on February 6, 2017
definitely.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 6:36 PM on February 6, 2017
There was initial skepticism on Daily Kos about Swing Left, based on (incomplete) info about the founder, but then people pointed out it was incomplete information and I'm not sure where things landed after that.
posted by LobsterMitten at 6:38 PM on February 6, 2017
posted by LobsterMitten at 6:38 PM on February 6, 2017
Swing Left didn't really have any staff information up at first, they do now. Jia Tolentino did a piece on them for the New Yorker:
The importance of transparency was publicly impressed upon Swing Leftâs founders within a few days of the Web siteâs launch: they didnât initially identify themselves anywhere on the site, and thatâalong with the staggering, immediate responseâprompted skepticism in some corners of the Internet. A community blogger on Daily Kos wrote a post headlined âSwing Left Is Not to Be Trusted as a Progressive Resource.â The blogger noted, gratuitously, that Krafchinâs former business partner had a Russian name, and conjectured that Swing Left might be trying to run âunverifiedâ candidates against Democrats, to split the progressive vote. I asked Todras-Whitehill if he was an agent of the Russian state. âNot to my knowledge,â he said, laughing. âBut thatâs life on the Internet these days. And itâs good that our community had questions. We heard them, and weâre committed to transparency.â This week, the founders put their names on the siteâs About page, and Krafchin posted an open question on Quora, asking what Swing Left should add to its map.posted by yasaman at 6:39 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
Several people here reported getting bogus data back from Swing Left. Wrong congresscritters, solidly red states supposed to be swing states, etc.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 6:40 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 6:40 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
"we literally won a Pulitzer for covering one of the things on this list" â @mattdpearce
(Los Angeles Times Staff, 2016 Pulitzer for Breaking News Reporting for coverage of the San Bernardino shooting)
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:41 PM on February 6, 2017 [67 favorites]
(Los Angeles Times Staff, 2016 Pulitzer for Breaking News Reporting for coverage of the San Bernardino shooting)
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:41 PM on February 6, 2017 [67 favorites]
It's not real until someone writes a protest song about it.
My favorite part about this was that in the suggested videos there are THREE other Bowling Green remembrance songs. That means in the past few days at least four people wrote satirical songs. Sometimes I love the internet.
posted by Waiting for Pierce Inverarity at 6:44 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
My favorite part about this was that in the suggested videos there are THREE other Bowling Green remembrance songs. That means in the past few days at least four people wrote satirical songs. Sometimes I love the internet.
posted by Waiting for Pierce Inverarity at 6:44 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
From the Politico article:
"Trump doesn't like his people to look weak," added a top Trump donor.
Has he looked in the damn mirror?
Trumpâs uncharacteristic Twitter silence over the weekend about the âSaturday Night Liveâ sketch was seen internally as a sign of how uncomfortable it made the White House feel.
Did the WH feel better after its diaper was changed?
But on Tuesday, Spicer has the uncomfortable task of facing reporters once again in the briefing room â where the elephant in the room will be the unflattering McCarthy caricature
squee! I hope he quits before donnie has the chance to fire him.
posted by futz at 6:45 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
"Trump doesn't like his people to look weak," added a top Trump donor.
Has he looked in the damn mirror?
Trumpâs uncharacteristic Twitter silence over the weekend about the âSaturday Night Liveâ sketch was seen internally as a sign of how uncomfortable it made the White House feel.
Did the WH feel better after its diaper was changed?
But on Tuesday, Spicer has the uncomfortable task of facing reporters once again in the briefing room â where the elephant in the room will be the unflattering McCarthy caricature
squee! I hope he quits before donnie has the chance to fire him.
posted by futz at 6:45 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
I honestly hope that Spicer tries to pick up the podium and walk with it.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [26 favorites]
I hope SNL goes even harder. Make them squirm.
I don't know what SNL going at them harder would look like but that's why they're bigshot comedy writers and I'm not.
posted by Justinian at 6:50 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
I don't know what SNL going at them harder would look like but that's why they're bigshot comedy writers and I'm not.
posted by Justinian at 6:50 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
@realLordDampnut
The failing @nytimes was forced to apologize to its subscribers for the poor reporting it did on my election win. Now they are worse!
Still crankin' over the NYT piece. Suspicious silence re: SNL.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
The failing @nytimes was forced to apologize to its subscribers for the poor reporting it did on my election win. Now they are worse!
Still crankin' over the NYT piece. Suspicious silence re: SNL.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Who the hell will take that job after Spicer? Administrations tend to run through press secretaries to begin with, and Spicer is a joke with less than zero credibility (not that this appears to matter to this administration) 2 weeks in. But even Trumplestilkinites have to see that that position is a magnet for Trump's wrath, leaving only someone even stupider/less shameless than Spicer up next. Milo? Alex Jones? One of the Skype callers from ChrISIS controlled red state territory?
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Miller will take the job. Nearly certain.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:52 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:52 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Spicer at least needs to brandish a super soaker menacingly.
Then ideally, slowly put it down, hang his head, sigh, and shuffle out of the room. A decade from now, a small town newspaper runs a public interest story about the weird guy who lives alone on the edge of town.
posted by mrgoat at 6:54 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
Then ideally, slowly put it down, hang his head, sigh, and shuffle out of the room. A decade from now, a small town newspaper runs a public interest story about the weird guy who lives alone on the edge of town.
posted by mrgoat at 6:54 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
Suspicious silence re: SNL.
I think they figured out that their SNL reactions were only digging them in deeper.
posted by Coventry at 6:57 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I think they figured out that their SNL reactions were only digging them in deeper.
posted by Coventry at 6:57 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
The blogger noted, gratuitously, that Krafchinâs former business partner had a Russian name, and conjectured that Swing Left might be trying to run âunverifiedâ candidates against Democrats, to split the progressive vote.
nope, the Democrat obsession with Russia is definitely not xenophobic and gross
posted by indubitable at 6:57 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
nope, the Democrat obsession with Russia is definitely not xenophobic and gross
posted by indubitable at 6:57 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Underreported fact: he's sending Omarosa to attend the inaguration of the new President of Haiti
posted by zachlipton at 6:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 6:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
is a purple nurple the same as a titty twister?
It's a matter of degree
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
It's a matter of degree
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
nope, the Democrat obsession with Russia is definitely not xenophobic and gross
Democrat-ic. The adjective is Democratic.
"Democrat" as an adjective was a right-wing shibboleth from the Bush era, and fuck those guys.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:59 PM on February 6, 2017 [38 favorites]
Democrat-ic. The adjective is Democratic.
"Democrat" as an adjective was a right-wing shibboleth from the Bush era, and fuck those guys.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:59 PM on February 6, 2017 [38 favorites]
Underreported fact: he's sending Omarosa to attend the inaguration of the new President of Haiti
Secretary of "Black Stuff"
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 7:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
Secretary of "Black Stuff"
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 7:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
I don't know what SNL going at them harder would look like
A sketch about the president and his creepy touchy-feely relationship with his daughter, with Ivanka being played by a guy. (Even works well as a message of, "we could not, in good conscience, force any woman to be groped by that guy, even by a surrogate stand-in.")
Also, remember that he gets really, really upset when it's claimed he's not a billionaire. A sketch where he bemoans his lack of money as he discovers the difference between "gross income" and "net income" would also annoy the hell out of him.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 7:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
A sketch about the president and his creepy touchy-feely relationship with his daughter, with Ivanka being played by a guy. (Even works well as a message of, "we could not, in good conscience, force any woman to be groped by that guy, even by a surrogate stand-in.")
Also, remember that he gets really, really upset when it's claimed he's not a billionaire. A sketch where he bemoans his lack of money as he discovers the difference between "gross income" and "net income" would also annoy the hell out of him.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 7:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
nope, the Democrat obsession with Russia is definitely not xenophobic and gross
when you try to say something sarcastic but it's actually true
posted by uosuaq at 7:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
when you try to say something sarcastic but it's actually true
posted by uosuaq at 7:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
Who the hell will take that job after Spicer?
It's hard to think of Press Sec. as a desirable gig when you're watching someone fucking languish under the pressure of it (and so to some extent it's kind of hard to ever think of it as a desirable gig), but ignore for a moment all of that squirming, cringe-shudder stuff and it's basically metatron for the President of the United States.
If you want a high-visibility, high-influence PR position, that's a biggie. Do it right and your career prospects are pretty great. Etc.
Now, say you're someone in the Trump inner circle, and you're watchings Sean Spicer wriggle on the hook, and you've got the mindset and the aspirations and a belief that you can do it better, the idea of stepping up and limbering up your batting arm and Showing 'Em How It's Done gets to be not just tolerable but borderline irresistible.
Plus, it's not like the warmup act is going to be hard to follow, right?
None of this is predicting that the next Press Sec. will not also wallow in misery because their POTUS is a maddening sack of shit. But there is zero doubt in my mind that several people are currently slavering over the prospect of taking Spicer's place.
posted by cortex at 7:11 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
It's hard to think of Press Sec. as a desirable gig when you're watching someone fucking languish under the pressure of it (and so to some extent it's kind of hard to ever think of it as a desirable gig), but ignore for a moment all of that squirming, cringe-shudder stuff and it's basically metatron for the President of the United States.
If you want a high-visibility, high-influence PR position, that's a biggie. Do it right and your career prospects are pretty great. Etc.
Now, say you're someone in the Trump inner circle, and you're watchings Sean Spicer wriggle on the hook, and you've got the mindset and the aspirations and a belief that you can do it better, the idea of stepping up and limbering up your batting arm and Showing 'Em How It's Done gets to be not just tolerable but borderline irresistible.
Plus, it's not like the warmup act is going to be hard to follow, right?
None of this is predicting that the next Press Sec. will not also wallow in misery because their POTUS is a maddening sack of shit. But there is zero doubt in my mind that several people are currently slavering over the prospect of taking Spicer's place.
posted by cortex at 7:11 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
I would pay good money to see Trump played by Dawn French
posted by Mchelly at 7:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [29 favorites]
posted by Mchelly at 7:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [29 favorites]
I'm curious about #KnockEveryDoor. I have a fair amount of experience doing canvass organizing and training, and I could help out with #KnockEveryDoor. On the other hand, we *did* knock every door this year, and it didn't seem to help that much, so I'm a little unconvinced about the efficacy of the tactic. On the other hand, i really believe that canvassing works better when people are enthusiastic, and holy shit are people enthusiastic right now, so maybe it could make a difference.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:13 PM on February 6, 2017
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:13 PM on February 6, 2017
I mean, he's upset that Spicer was portrayed by a woman, but the fact that Steve Bannon was portrayed by the GRIM REAPER is A-OK?
That's not telling. That's not telling at all.
posted by mudpuppie at 7:14 PM on February 6, 2017 [48 favorites]
That's not telling. That's not telling at all.
posted by mudpuppie at 7:14 PM on February 6, 2017 [48 favorites]
It's fucking 77 degrees here in February. They can say "climate change is a hoax" all they want, my rosebushes putting out leaves and me wearing SHORTS IN FEBRUARY are plenty of proof.
posted by emjaybee at 7:16 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by emjaybee at 7:16 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
'A day without a woman' -- Women's March organizers plan general strike
Any Mefite's know anything about this?
posted by futz at 7:21 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Any Mefite's know anything about this?
posted by futz at 7:21 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
we *did* knock every door this year, and it didn't seem to help that much, so I'm a little unconvinced about the efficacy of the tactic.
Where did you knock every door? How many extra votes did you need?
According to Get Out The Vote, in contact-for-contact terms, in-person contact is the most effective voter activation method, by a couple of orders of magnitude. I don't totally trust their research methods (and there could be later work which invalidates their claims... it's the only book on the topic I've read so far), but I'm surprised that that didn't work out for you.
posted by Coventry at 7:22 PM on February 6, 2017
Where did you knock every door? How many extra votes did you need?
According to Get Out The Vote, in contact-for-contact terms, in-person contact is the most effective voter activation method, by a couple of orders of magnitude. I don't totally trust their research methods (and there could be later work which invalidates their claims... it's the only book on the topic I've read so far), but I'm surprised that that didn't work out for you.
posted by Coventry at 7:22 PM on February 6, 2017
@UrsulaV on Twitter points out that Kathy Bates would be good as Trump.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:22 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:22 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
They can say "climate change is a hoax" all they want, my rosebushes putting out leaves [...] IN FEBRUARY are plenty of proof.
WRONG! All that proves is that George Soros is paying your rose bushes to start growing early.
posted by shponglespore at 7:27 PM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
WRONG! All that proves is that George Soros is paying your rose bushes to start growing early.
posted by shponglespore at 7:27 PM on February 6, 2017 [32 favorites]
My initial instinct was Kirstie Alley but she might just still respect him
posted by Mchelly at 7:27 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Mchelly at 7:27 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I mean, he's upset that Spicer was portrayed by a woman, but the fact that Steve Bannon was portrayed by the GRIM REAPER is A-OK?
Well, both he and Trump want to see the collapse of the state and mass riots, so this checks out.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:29 PM on February 6, 2017
Well, both he and Trump want to see the collapse of the state and mass riots, so this checks out.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:29 PM on February 6, 2017
with Ivanka being played by a guy
this is I think the third comment like this and nothing personal to yours, it's just the most recent. but this is not having the effect I imagine it's supposed to and it is really unpleasant. Whatever elaborate reading you (the several people who have said it) are imagining imposing on it, it won't come across.
I (think I) understand the point is supposed to be that as long as the target finds it offensive, anything is justified and it doesn't mean anything about what the actors think. but Ivanka of all women is immune to slights on her appearance or "gender performance." she's not her dad to get engorged with rage if we mention her tiny hands, and his perpetual rage over that is the only thing that makes it so funny.
gender-blind casting is a thing I always like, and a cast as limited as SNL's always is shouldn't be bound by any worries about physical resemblance when they do their impressions. but let's not be terrible, just the same. as an incidental thing it's just fine; by design for some unstated yet presumed-obvious purpose, it is not.
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:30 PM on February 6, 2017 [21 favorites]
this is I think the third comment like this and nothing personal to yours, it's just the most recent. but this is not having the effect I imagine it's supposed to and it is really unpleasant. Whatever elaborate reading you (the several people who have said it) are imagining imposing on it, it won't come across.
I (think I) understand the point is supposed to be that as long as the target finds it offensive, anything is justified and it doesn't mean anything about what the actors think. but Ivanka of all women is immune to slights on her appearance or "gender performance." she's not her dad to get engorged with rage if we mention her tiny hands, and his perpetual rage over that is the only thing that makes it so funny.
gender-blind casting is a thing I always like, and a cast as limited as SNL's always is shouldn't be bound by any worries about physical resemblance when they do their impressions. but let's not be terrible, just the same. as an incidental thing it's just fine; by design for some unstated yet presumed-obvious purpose, it is not.
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:30 PM on February 6, 2017 [21 favorites]
I think we need different tactics for satirizing and mocking trump.
Like, never forget that he went on national television to the be the subject of a roast. There were rules, including what was and was not allowed. This is a man who has spent a lot of time in the spotlight, figuring out how warm he likes to be. So like, his ego is easily pierced but you have to know where to stick the needle. The really nice thing is that every time he gets pricked he jumps. Nothing seems to have really noticeably bothered him about Bannon yet, so let's keep changing it up until he yelps and starts blabbing on twitter.
Honestly, he seems like the perfect test case for this. Like, it's clear that he hates Alec Baldwin's portrayal of him and we get to seem him have his mini meltdowns about it, so it's win win. If having his entire staff played by women bothers him and the white house so much, I think that's the perfect excuse to have SNL hire a whole bunch more women. (which, hey, another win win for us).
posted by Neronomius at 7:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Like, never forget that he went on national television to the be the subject of a roast. There were rules, including what was and was not allowed. This is a man who has spent a lot of time in the spotlight, figuring out how warm he likes to be. So like, his ego is easily pierced but you have to know where to stick the needle. The really nice thing is that every time he gets pricked he jumps. Nothing seems to have really noticeably bothered him about Bannon yet, so let's keep changing it up until he yelps and starts blabbing on twitter.
Honestly, he seems like the perfect test case for this. Like, it's clear that he hates Alec Baldwin's portrayal of him and we get to seem him have his mini meltdowns about it, so it's win win. If having his entire staff played by women bothers him and the white house so much, I think that's the perfect excuse to have SNL hire a whole bunch more women. (which, hey, another win win for us).
posted by Neronomius at 7:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
The link jokeefe posted above is really worth your time. The piece is by Ron Rosenbaum (who wrote the book Explaining Hitler), who for months refused to write about Trump, but finally decided to now.
What I want to suggest is an actual comparison with Hitler that deserves thought. Itâs what you might call the secret technique, a kind of rhetorical control that both Hitler and Trump used on their opponents, especially the media. And theyâre not joking. If youâd received the threatening words and pictures I did during the campaign (one Tweet simply read âI gas Jewsâ), as did so many Jewish reporters and people of color, the sick bloodthirsty lust to terrify is unmistakably sincere. The playbook is Mein Kampf.posted by AceRock at 7:39 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
Administrations tend to run through press secretaries to begin with
Apologies for taking this out of context, but I had to look it up, and you're right, that's generally true, especially lately - Obama had three, Dubya went through four, and Clinton five-ish, since Stephanopoulos and Myers shared some duties for the first few months. A couple of long-lifers in there - Ike had only one for his eight years on office, and Stephen Early served for served for all but the last couple of weeks of FDR's twelve-year administration. And how many did Nixon burn though? Incredibly, just the one - Ron "Third Rate Burglary" Ziegler.
posted by hangashore at 7:39 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Apologies for taking this out of context, but I had to look it up, and you're right, that's generally true, especially lately - Obama had three, Dubya went through four, and Clinton five-ish, since Stephanopoulos and Myers shared some duties for the first few months. A couple of long-lifers in there - Ike had only one for his eight years on office, and Stephen Early served for served for all but the last couple of weeks of FDR's twelve-year administration. And how many did Nixon burn though? Incredibly, just the one - Ron "Third Rate Burglary" Ziegler.
posted by hangashore at 7:39 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Maybe the job got a lot tougher after Nixon.
posted by Coventry at 7:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by Coventry at 7:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
Trump Administration May Use Executive Authority To Tweak Obamacareâs Rules. Changes under consideration reportedly include:
posted by zachlipton at 7:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
1. Insurers would have more leeway to vary prices by age, so that premiums for the oldest customers could be 3.49 times as large as those for younger customers. Today, premiums for the old can be only three times as high as premiums for the young, which is what the Affordable Care Act stipulates. According to sources privy to HHS discussions with insurers, officials would argue that since 3.49 ârounds downâ to three, the change would still comply with the statute.These are not as horrible as one might fear, but what the actual hell is with the 3.49 argument? The law explicitly limits the ratio at which premiums can increase by age to 3. Is this the "there are four lights" of Obamacare?
2. People who want to apply for coverage mid-year, outside of open enrollment, would have to provide documentation of a qualifying life change â such as a divorce or lost job â before coverage begins. Presently, insurance kicks in for such people right away, as soon as they apply for it, subject to verification afterward.
3. Insurers could cut off coverage for people who are more than 30 days late on premiums. Presently, lower- and middle-income consumers who qualify for the lawâs tax credits get a 90-day grace period.
posted by zachlipton at 7:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
These are not as horrible as one might fear
Right, if these were the only tweaks they made to declare victory and go home I'd call it a win. But it won't be, this is just the first salvo.
posted by Justinian at 7:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Right, if these were the only tweaks they made to declare victory and go home I'd call it a win. But it won't be, this is just the first salvo.
posted by Justinian at 7:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
It's the camel's nose inside the tent. I see no reason to go along or shrug at any of these changes, they all make it harder to access health care for no good reason.
posted by emjaybee at 7:56 PM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by emjaybee at 7:56 PM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
This the newest press release from science.house.gov, the House Committee on Science, Space & Technology. My heavens, is it infuriating to see Breitbart-style climate-denial garbage produced as the official word of the US government.
What they don't mention is that their evidence for disputing the Karl study was an article in that most prestigious of science journals (particularly noted for their in-depth research on what does and doesn't cause cancer): The Daily Mail.
What nobody seems to be saying so I will say:
The Karl study is not a computationally demanding work.
The input data will easily fit on a laptop, and a Macbook Pro could re-run the damn thing in minutes.
If Karl et al did anything wrong, TAKE THEIR FUCKING EQUATIONS, SHOW WHAT'S WRONG, RERUN THE STUDY, and show what comes out different.
posted by ocschwar at 7:57 PM on February 6, 2017 [21 favorites]
It wouldn't surprise me if Trump simply gets rid of the press secretary position entirely, relying on tweets and press releases or talking heads sent to Fox News, Breitbart, Infowars, etc.
posted by dirigibleman at 8:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by dirigibleman at 8:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
More concerning, the Politico story on ACA changes says they're contemplating cutting the open enrollment period in half, ending it on December 15 instead of the end of January, which would surely be an act of sabotage resulting in fewer people signing up for insurance, allowing the administration to argue it's all a failure and needs to be replaced.
Increasing the age ratio to 3.49 would also be a way for Trump to make a big deal out of premiums going up, despite his rule being the cause of the increase.
posted by zachlipton at 8:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
Increasing the age ratio to 3.49 would also be a way for Trump to make a big deal out of premiums going up, despite his rule being the cause of the increase.
posted by zachlipton at 8:00 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
Maybe the job got a lot tougher after Nixon.
This is probably true. Remember, the 24/hr news cycle is barely 30 years old, and it's really only been present in what we'd recognize as the modern form since maybe 2000. The Clinton scandals really defined the modern news cycle, before that there was less churn certainly, less sources, less access, less interest. And a much more traditional role for the press secretary, they really were more of a liaison from the establishment press to the White House, not today's shameless Voice of Trump (or Voice of Bush prior, I don't think there's a credible argument Obama's were anything comparable).
Really it's a totally different job now, even if you're not doing it as a spray tanned sock puppet with a hideous tie.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:05 PM on February 6, 2017
This is probably true. Remember, the 24/hr news cycle is barely 30 years old, and it's really only been present in what we'd recognize as the modern form since maybe 2000. The Clinton scandals really defined the modern news cycle, before that there was less churn certainly, less sources, less access, less interest. And a much more traditional role for the press secretary, they really were more of a liaison from the establishment press to the White House, not today's shameless Voice of Trump (or Voice of Bush prior, I don't think there's a credible argument Obama's were anything comparable).
Really it's a totally different job now, even if you're not doing it as a spray tanned sock puppet with a hideous tie.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:05 PM on February 6, 2017
Canceling insurance if your payment is 30 days late is insane. That can't stand. I've been 30 days late with a bill *a lot* when money was really tight. That's going to cost so many people their coverage.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
The Last Word with Lawrence OâDonell tonight, alterna-hosted by Ari Melber, showed some footage from Judge Robart's court during the arguments over the Muslim ban, which was interesting.
posted by XMLicious at 8:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by XMLicious at 8:05 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Maybe a Being John Malkovich spoof where DJT, played by Baldwin, discovers a small door in the WH and disappears up his own ass to a place where all his clones are played by women listed in this thread.
"Hey Trump, Think Fast!" -Biden drive by cameo
posted by mannequito at 8:07 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
"Hey Trump, Think Fast!" -Biden drive by cameo
posted by mannequito at 8:07 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
'A day without a woman' -- Women's March organizers plan general strike
Any Mefite's know anything about this?
Is no one answering this because I am an idiot and should have already heard of this or...?
posted by futz at 8:07 PM on February 6, 2017
Any Mefite's know anything about this?
Is no one answering this because I am an idiot and should have already heard of this or...?
posted by futz at 8:07 PM on February 6, 2017
Democrats right now on the Senate floor planning to hold up the DeVos vote all night. She's expected to be confirmed whenever they step down. Nothing from Toomey, McCain, or any of the other alleged NeverTrumpers, entirely as predicted.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:09 PM on February 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:09 PM on February 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
These are not as horrible as one might fear, but what the actual hell is with the 3.49 argument? The law explicitly limits the ratio at which premiums can increase by age to 3.
"Propaganda is the freedom to say that 3.49 minus 0.0 makes 3.0. If that is granted, all else follows."
Are you sure that there aren't three fingers being held up?
posted by jaduncan at 8:11 PM on February 6, 2017
"Propaganda is the freedom to say that 3.49 minus 0.0 makes 3.0. If that is granted, all else follows."
Are you sure that there aren't three fingers being held up?
posted by jaduncan at 8:11 PM on February 6, 2017
'A day without a woman' -- Women's March organizers plan general strike ... Any Mefite's know anything about this?
That one only really started being talked about publicly today.
I've seen mentions of and stickers for the Feb. 17th one mentioned in that article already.
posted by Candleman at 8:13 PM on February 6, 2017
That one only really started being talked about publicly today.
I've seen mentions of and stickers for the Feb. 17th one mentioned in that article already.
posted by Candleman at 8:13 PM on February 6, 2017
The 17th has been floated as a day for a general strike, but the Women's March hasn't committed to a date. Personally, I think the general strike needs someone or some organization to start doing the organizational heavy lifting and social media blitz for it to gain traction.
posted by yasaman at 8:15 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by yasaman at 8:15 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
2. People who want to apply for coverage mid-year, outside of open enrollment, would have to provide documentation of a qualifying life change â such as a divorce or lost job â before coverage begins. Presently, insurance kicks in for such people right away, as soon as they apply for it, subject to verification afterward.
If you think this is innocuous you have no experience with insurance companies.
posted by srboisvert at 8:16 PM on February 6, 2017 [30 favorites]
If you think this is innocuous you have no experience with insurance companies.
posted by srboisvert at 8:16 PM on February 6, 2017 [30 favorites]
Mod note: One deleted; let's leave off the "gender-swapped casting bothers Trump" strategizing; the core point's been made, and circling around that for the n'th time gets into territory that can be a problem for members here.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 8:18 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 8:18 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
'A day without a woman' -- Women's March organizers plan general strike ... Any Mefite's know anything about this?
No, but, there is this call for an international Women's Strike on March 8th from Angela Davis (and others).
posted by AceRock at 8:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
No, but, there is this call for an international Women's Strike on March 8th from Angela Davis (and others).
posted by AceRock at 8:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
If you think this is innocuous you have no experience with insurance companies.
Those changes serve no purpose other than to deny people coverage, or depress enrollment. It's death by 1000 cuts, if they can't repeal it, they're going to make sure to cripple implementation and guarantee a death spiral for the exchanges.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:21 PM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
Those changes serve no purpose other than to deny people coverage, or depress enrollment. It's death by 1000 cuts, if they can't repeal it, they're going to make sure to cripple implementation and guarantee a death spiral for the exchanges.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:21 PM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
Is no one answering this because I am an idiot and should have already heard of this or...?
Pretty sure it's because we're all trying to figure out what is up. Personally, well, I have relatively few consequences for striking for a day, but both my spouse and my roomie are hourly workers and the roomie isn't much above minimum wage. I think we can probably eat a day's wages if necessary, but if employers take offense--as my spouse's boss' boss would be likely to--we cannot survive right now on just my income with the level of debt we have in the house. Certainly not without roomie's part of the budget, too.
I have not seen any discussion about, say, strike funds. I have not seen any discussion about funding to help people pay for the possibility of lost jobs or lost wages. As far as I can tell, the strike buzz has kind of elided these realities for people whose paychecks depend on showing up to work on set days and especially for people in right-to-work states whose bosses can and will fire them at will.
The framing makes me think that the March organizers are thinking about women striking on domestic labor along the lines of the Iceland strike, which.... is a bit of a different kettle of fish than saying "ALL OF US SKIP PAID WORK FOR A DAY." I am waiting for more information before I make a decision, but I don't know that declaring it on the 17th will have much traction for this reason.
posted by sciatrix at 8:22 PM on February 6, 2017 [21 favorites]
Pretty sure it's because we're all trying to figure out what is up. Personally, well, I have relatively few consequences for striking for a day, but both my spouse and my roomie are hourly workers and the roomie isn't much above minimum wage. I think we can probably eat a day's wages if necessary, but if employers take offense--as my spouse's boss' boss would be likely to--we cannot survive right now on just my income with the level of debt we have in the house. Certainly not without roomie's part of the budget, too.
I have not seen any discussion about, say, strike funds. I have not seen any discussion about funding to help people pay for the possibility of lost jobs or lost wages. As far as I can tell, the strike buzz has kind of elided these realities for people whose paychecks depend on showing up to work on set days and especially for people in right-to-work states whose bosses can and will fire them at will.
The framing makes me think that the March organizers are thinking about women striking on domestic labor along the lines of the Iceland strike, which.... is a bit of a different kettle of fish than saying "ALL OF US SKIP PAID WORK FOR A DAY." I am waiting for more information before I make a decision, but I don't know that declaring it on the 17th will have much traction for this reason.
posted by sciatrix at 8:22 PM on February 6, 2017 [21 favorites]
Trump Administration May Use Executive Authority To Tweak Obamacareâs Rules. Changes under consideration reportedly include:
No. 2 is already happening to some extent. Insurance companies have been pushing hard on HHS to tighten what they see as system-gaming by people who are trying to get coverage outside of open enrollment (who naturally are going to be more likely to need to use medical services, since they're trying to get insurance mid-year).
There's a question now about being naturalized which sometimes prompts the applicant to then upload proof of citizenship (i.e. passport or certificate of naturalization). The person I was working with didn't actually have either, though he thought he could dig up his naturalization certificate, and he had 90 days to do so (or lose tax credits).
That's crappy enough but this is a bit different as it seems to require documentation prospectively (before coverage can become active) -- which doesn't really make a ton of sense from a waste/fraud/abuse prevention framework, which is of course how this bs always gets presented. (I ranted at length on this at some point in the primaries, but hahaha I'm not going back in those godforsaken threads to find it.) Plus, you know, some of the special enrollment periods don't necessarily lend themselves to documentation. Marriage or a move to a different area -- sure (though even that can be problematic), but what about a domestic violence issue (another allowed reason for enrolling outside of open enrollment)?
No. 1 there also wouldn't drastically affect most people who are eligible for tax subsidies (in most cases, someone whose income is between 100-400% of the poverty line), since they're calculated on what works roughly out to a sliding-scale income basis. If, say, you're an older couple making about 65K, you'd get hit hard, though -- that tax credit that you just narrowly didn't qualify because of that cliff at 400%FPL could easily work out to $1000/mo, particularly if one or both of the enrollees are smokers. Now, if, if if if this got more younger persons with moderately low (say, $25-35K) incomes to sign up, this... how do I say it... might actually not be a bad thing. But -- having premiums go up actually increases the cost to the government, so there's not really a cost savings and could well be a net loss to taxpayers. Makes it easier for insurance companies to make money, though.
No. 3 is, once again, just making it more difficult for the working poor to maintain coverage. That's all it does.
All that being said, I echo what others commented above -- don't participate, don't give an inch, make the Republicans own this at 100%.
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
No. 2 is already happening to some extent. Insurance companies have been pushing hard on HHS to tighten what they see as system-gaming by people who are trying to get coverage outside of open enrollment (who naturally are going to be more likely to need to use medical services, since they're trying to get insurance mid-year).
There's a question now about being naturalized which sometimes prompts the applicant to then upload proof of citizenship (i.e. passport or certificate of naturalization). The person I was working with didn't actually have either, though he thought he could dig up his naturalization certificate, and he had 90 days to do so (or lose tax credits).
That's crappy enough but this is a bit different as it seems to require documentation prospectively (before coverage can become active) -- which doesn't really make a ton of sense from a waste/fraud/abuse prevention framework, which is of course how this bs always gets presented. (I ranted at length on this at some point in the primaries, but hahaha I'm not going back in those godforsaken threads to find it.) Plus, you know, some of the special enrollment periods don't necessarily lend themselves to documentation. Marriage or a move to a different area -- sure (though even that can be problematic), but what about a domestic violence issue (another allowed reason for enrolling outside of open enrollment)?
No. 1 there also wouldn't drastically affect most people who are eligible for tax subsidies (in most cases, someone whose income is between 100-400% of the poverty line), since they're calculated on what works roughly out to a sliding-scale income basis. If, say, you're an older couple making about 65K, you'd get hit hard, though -- that tax credit that you just narrowly didn't qualify because of that cliff at 400%FPL could easily work out to $1000/mo, particularly if one or both of the enrollees are smokers. Now, if, if if if this got more younger persons with moderately low (say, $25-35K) incomes to sign up, this... how do I say it... might actually not be a bad thing. But -- having premiums go up actually increases the cost to the government, so there's not really a cost savings and could well be a net loss to taxpayers. Makes it easier for insurance companies to make money, though.
No. 3 is, once again, just making it more difficult for the working poor to maintain coverage. That's all it does.
All that being said, I echo what others commented above -- don't participate, don't give an inch, make the Republicans own this at 100%.
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Canceling insurance if your payment is 30 days late is insane. That can't stand. I've been 30 days late with a bill *a lot* when money was really tight. That's going to cost so many people their coverage.
Yeah this one could hurt a lot of people. Go more than 30 days overdue because you lost your job or prioritized fixing the car that you would lose your job if you didn't have, and you and your family are now uninsured. And you probably can't get insurance again until open enrollment time, so if this happens in, say April, you're uninsured for most of the year. Congratulations! Now you get to pay a significant fine for being uninsured. It's deliberately setting people up to fail and then harshly penalizing them for it.
To be clear, when I said "these are not as horrible as one might fear," I wasn't saying these things are ok, but simply by the standards of the travel ban and the other craziness that's happened in the past two weeks, these things are more in the family of "cuts that will gradually make stuff worse and will cause real harm for people" rather than "omg the fire it burns."
posted by zachlipton at 8:27 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
Yeah this one could hurt a lot of people. Go more than 30 days overdue because you lost your job or prioritized fixing the car that you would lose your job if you didn't have, and you and your family are now uninsured. And you probably can't get insurance again until open enrollment time, so if this happens in, say April, you're uninsured for most of the year. Congratulations! Now you get to pay a significant fine for being uninsured. It's deliberately setting people up to fail and then harshly penalizing them for it.
To be clear, when I said "these are not as horrible as one might fear," I wasn't saying these things are ok, but simply by the standards of the travel ban and the other craziness that's happened in the past two weeks, these things are more in the family of "cuts that will gradually make stuff worse and will cause real harm for people" rather than "omg the fire it burns."
posted by zachlipton at 8:27 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
About 20 Rabbis Arrested During Protest Over Trump Travel Ban
âWe remember our history, and we remember that the borders of this country closed to us in 1924 with very catastrophic consequences during the Holocaust,â Rabbi Jacobs said. âWe know that some of the language thatâs being used now to stop Muslims from coming in is the same language that was used to stop Jewish refugees from coming.âposted by zachlipton at 8:30 PM on February 6, 2017 [70 favorites]
Trump cites Sydney siege in list of attacks 'not being reported'.
The White House lists 78 incidents to back up Donald Trumpâs claim that terrorist attacks are being underreported.
The list was produced by the White House on Tuesday to back up claims by the president Donald Trump and White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, that the worldâs media was deliberately covering up or underreporting terrorism.
Here's the 329 comment thread on the blue about the siege, including links to the BBC, ABC and Al Jazeera as the first three in the FPP.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
The White House lists 78 incidents to back up Donald Trumpâs claim that terrorist attacks are being underreported.
The list was produced by the White House on Tuesday to back up claims by the president Donald Trump and White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, that the worldâs media was deliberately covering up or underreporting terrorism.
Here's the 329 comment thread on the blue about the siege, including links to the BBC, ABC and Al Jazeera as the first three in the FPP.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [10 favorites]
Rosa Brooks: And Then the Breitbart Lynch Mob Came for Me: "For 15 years, Iâve spoken out against executive overreach. But in the Trump era, even theoretical criticism puts a target on your back."
posted by zachlipton at 8:37 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 8:37 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
And here are some front pages across the globe covering the siege.
I suppose it's "underreported" in Trump's view if the likes of these papers put it on their front pages:
- Washington Post
- The Guardian
- Wall St Journal
- Daily Telegraph (UK)
- New York Times
- The Times
- USA Today
- Financial Post
- Globe & Mail
- The Independent
- Daily Express
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:38 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I suppose it's "underreported" in Trump's view if the likes of these papers put it on their front pages:
- Washington Post
- The Guardian
- Wall St Journal
- Daily Telegraph (UK)
- New York Times
- The Times
- USA Today
- Financial Post
- Globe & Mail
- The Independent
- Daily Express
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:38 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
> Insurers would have more leeway to vary prices by age, so that premiums for the oldest customers could be 3.49 times as large as those for younger customers. Today, premiums for the old can be only 3 times as high as premiums for the young ... 3.49 ârounds downâ to three.
And how does the AARP feel about insurance prices for some of its membership going up drastically? Do they agree that 3.49 rounds down to 3, so all is good?
Come on AARP, what say you?
posted by RedOrGreen at 8:38 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
And how does the AARP feel about insurance prices for some of its membership going up drastically? Do they agree that 3.49 rounds down to 3, so all is good?
Come on AARP, what say you?
posted by RedOrGreen at 8:38 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
Here's the 329 comment thread on the blue about the siege, including links to the BBC, ABC and Al Jazeera as the first three in the FPP.
Ha! I was locked down in my office, a block away from the Lindt Cafe that was under siege. I was commenting like crazy in that thread because I has nothing else to do and couldn't get my staff to do any work because they were so freaked out (even though we weren't at the slightest risk).
That one was front page news for weeks and continued to be discussed in the media for months. No, years - the inquest only finished up last year.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:38 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Ha! I was locked down in my office, a block away from the Lindt Cafe that was under siege. I was commenting like crazy in that thread because I has nothing else to do and couldn't get my staff to do any work because they were so freaked out (even though we weren't at the slightest risk).
That one was front page news for weeks and continued to be discussed in the media for months. No, years - the inquest only finished up last year.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:38 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
"He has reportedly expressed a preference that the younger generation of royals, such as Prince Charlesâ sons William and Harry, meet him instead."
I cannot get past the tremendous loser-ness of an old man who wants to hang with the Cool Kids.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [48 favorites]
I cannot get past the tremendous loser-ness of an old man who wants to hang with the Cool Kids.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:46 PM on February 6, 2017 [48 favorites]
"He has reportedly expressed a preference that the younger generation of royals, such as Prince Charlesâ sons William and Harry, meet him instead."
I cannot get past the tremendous loser-ness of an old man who wants to hang with the Cool Kids.
Oh, he's been way more pathetic about that family in the past.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:53 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I cannot get past the tremendous loser-ness of an old man who wants to hang with the Cool Kids.
Oh, he's been way more pathetic about that family in the past.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:53 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I cannot get past the tremendous loser-ness of an old man who wants to hang with the Cool Kids.
I feel for William and Harry; given how often Diana was in NYC they have to know that Trump will have evaluated their dead mother on a one to ten scale on several occasions.
posted by jaduncan at 8:53 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
I feel for William and Harry; given how often Diana was in NYC they have to know that Trump will have evaluated their dead mother on a one to ten scale on several occasions.
posted by jaduncan at 8:53 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
He was lewd about Kate as well. I don't see how William can agree meet with him at all, and am frankly surprised the Queen will. I know she's met with dictators, but he's offended the family personally.
posted by Mchelly at 8:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Mchelly at 8:58 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Mr. Bannon remains the presidentâs dominant adviser, despite Mr. Trumpâs anger that he was not fully briefed on details of the executive order he signed giving his chief strategist a seat on the National Security Council
didn't even read it, hosed the NSC, and now a whiny brat about it.
It checks out.
posted by petebest at 8:59 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
didn't even read it, hosed the NSC, and now a whiny brat about it.
It checks out.
posted by petebest at 8:59 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Those changes serve no purpose other than to deny people coverage, or depress enrollment. It's death by 1000 cuts, if they can't repeal it, they're going to make sure to cripple implementation and guarantee a death spiral for the exchanges.
Midterm advert prediction: "Have you been unfairly turned away or confused by Obamacare rules? X is running for congress to let you have the plans you used to have, with the insurer you want. Don't let the Democrats continue to resist us removing the red tape and regulation that prevents you getting care."
posted by jaduncan at 9:01 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Midterm advert prediction: "Have you been unfairly turned away or confused by Obamacare rules? X is running for congress to let you have the plans you used to have, with the insurer you want. Don't let the Democrats continue to resist us removing the red tape and regulation that prevents you getting care."
posted by jaduncan at 9:01 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
jaduncan: It's even creepier than that, especially if you believe Selina Scott, and there's no reason to disbelieve her.
William has made children's mental health a big charitable focus in the past few years, especially for children who lost parents at the age he lost his mother. The subtext of that work is clear enough.
posted by holgate at 9:01 PM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
William has made children's mental health a big charitable focus in the past few years, especially for children who lost parents at the age he lost his mother. The subtext of that work is clear enough.
posted by holgate at 9:01 PM on February 6, 2017 [18 favorites]
Midterm advert prediction
Yep. Along these same lines is why they were explicitly contemplating delaying the effects of repeal until after 2018, or even after 2020.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:02 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Yep. Along these same lines is why they were explicitly contemplating delaying the effects of repeal until after 2018, or even after 2020.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:02 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
âWhy do people think itâs egotistical of you to say you couldâve gotten with Lady Di?â Stern asked Trump in the interview. âYou couldâve gotten her, right? You couldâve nailed her.â
Trump replied: âI think I could have.â
JFC. That interview was from 3 years after her death.
posted by jaduncan at 9:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
Trump replied: âI think I could have.â
JFC. That interview was from 3 years after her death.
posted by jaduncan at 9:04 PM on February 6, 2017 [12 favorites]
So one of the highlights of my day was seeing the photos of the costumes from the Red Cross Ball, linked here. And then posting them to my FB where all my costuming friends could relentlessly mock them. (Because they are a HOT MESS.)
In the course of that I went looking trying to find more pics. And discovered you can tell a lot about what kind of person goes to a ball at Trump's House by their Instagram feed. Like...are they the kind of person who takes pictures OF THE TV so they can pretend they saw Trump in person? Apparently, yes. Are they the kind of person who takes multiple photos of every hot girl in a short skirt or bikini they see on the sidewalk? Also yes.
posted by threeturtles at 9:06 PM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
In the course of that I went looking trying to find more pics. And discovered you can tell a lot about what kind of person goes to a ball at Trump's House by their Instagram feed. Like...are they the kind of person who takes pictures OF THE TV so they can pretend they saw Trump in person? Apparently, yes. Are they the kind of person who takes multiple photos of every hot girl in a short skirt or bikini they see on the sidewalk? Also yes.
posted by threeturtles at 9:06 PM on February 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
Midterm counter-advert: "Sadface Paul Ryan and Congresscritter X promised to do healthcare better. Feeling better?" Most voters don't care about procedural whatnot. They look at who's in charge.
posted by holgate at 9:07 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by holgate at 9:07 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Rosie as Bannon. Please please please pleaseâŠ
posted by mazola at 9:10 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by mazola at 9:10 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
This really nails down something I've been thinking a lot about lately. Ordinary Americans carried out inhumane acts for Trump
Aweek ago, men and women went to work at airports around the United States as they always do. They showered, got dressed, ate breakfast, perhaps dropped off their kids at school. Then they reported to their jobs as federal government employees, where, according to news reports, one of them handcuffed a 5-year-old child, separated him from his mother and detained him alone for several hours at Dulles airport.posted by zachlipton at 9:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [130 favorites]
At least one other federal employee at Dulles reportedly detained a woman who was traveling with her two children, both U.S. citizens, for 20 hours without food. A relative says the mother was handcuffed (even when she went to the bathroom) and threatened with deportation to Somalia.
...
When we worry and wonder about authoritarian regimes that inflict cruelty on civilians, we often imagine tyrannical despots unilaterally advancing their sinister agendas. But no would-be autocrat can act alone. As a practical matter, he needs subordinates willing to carry out orders. Of course, neither Donald Trump nor Steve Bannon personally detained any of the more than 100 people held at airports over the weekend pursuant to the administration's executive order on immigration, visitation and travel to the United States. They relied on assistance.
Buzzfeed gets credit for digging up the Stern audio, and it's simultaneously awful and a reminder that whatever fluency in speaking the WH occupant once possessed, it has gone gone gone.
posted by holgate at 9:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by holgate at 9:13 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
This really nails down something I've been thinking a lot about lately. Ordinary Americans carried out inhumane acts for Trump
"Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde est en droit de vous rendre injuste."
And it doesn't get much more absurd than Trump..
posted by Buntix at 9:19 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
"Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde est en droit de vous rendre injuste."
And it doesn't get much more absurd than Trump..
posted by Buntix at 9:19 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Insurers could cut off coverage for people who are more than 30 days late on premiums. Presently, lower- and middle-income consumers who qualify for the lawâs tax credits get a 90-day grace period.
And fyi, if they do cancel your coverage for non-payment after 30 days (or 90) they can go back and unpay for anything they covered since your last payment and send the debt collectors after you.
Ask me how I know. (I wasn't getting bills with one company and it was confusing and...there was no payment reminder until suddenly...yeah.)
posted by threeturtles at 9:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
And fyi, if they do cancel your coverage for non-payment after 30 days (or 90) they can go back and unpay for anything they covered since your last payment and send the debt collectors after you.
Ask me how I know. (I wasn't getting bills with one company and it was confusing and...there was no payment reminder until suddenly...yeah.)
posted by threeturtles at 9:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
I'm still reading way back in this thread so apologies this will be out of sorts with the current conversation, because I am so behind y'all. I wanted to comment that Sunday I went to a protest before the Super Bowl in Houston, TX. It was small, maybe 1000 people at it's largest. But the speeches were excellent from multiple different groups in our diverse city. A congressman, another man running for congress, Black Live Matter, Democratic Socialists, NOW, NARAL, an Islamic families group, a Christian preacher, a dreamer all gave passionate engaging speeches. As we all marched to the stadium we went through the Texas Medical Center and 1000 people spread out on a sidewalk gets pretty long (it was not a permitted march so we couldn't use the street). There were families with their children in tow, talking about how they've never done this before. There were elderly in wheelchairs making the two mile march also. The police decided to hold traffic for us to pass intersections even though it was not a permit march. I saw an older woman thank one of the officers for his work today and this week (being that it had been nutty with the Super Bowl in town and all) and he thanked her back, he thanked her "for being here."
But the thing that sticks with me the most from that march was passing a car stuck at an intersection we were blocking as we marched through it. Three women wearing hijabs in this one car were honking constantly. Two were out of the car, cheering us, jumping up and down, recording us on their phones excitedly. I smiled at the woman inside the car and she covering her mouth with both hands crying uncontrollably. The look in her eyes was just piercingly emotional.
Everything is so confusing and constant. The Texas legislature is also pushing tons of scary bills locally while we deal with this barrage of crazy coming out of the White House at the same time. But those speeches I listened to, seeing those women cheer for us, talking to others in my community, I am so energized for this fight. Thanks everyone for helping me stay sane. Please keep going.
posted by dog food sugar at 9:25 PM on February 6, 2017 [93 favorites]
But the thing that sticks with me the most from that march was passing a car stuck at an intersection we were blocking as we marched through it. Three women wearing hijabs in this one car were honking constantly. Two were out of the car, cheering us, jumping up and down, recording us on their phones excitedly. I smiled at the woman inside the car and she covering her mouth with both hands crying uncontrollably. The look in her eyes was just piercingly emotional.
Everything is so confusing and constant. The Texas legislature is also pushing tons of scary bills locally while we deal with this barrage of crazy coming out of the White House at the same time. But those speeches I listened to, seeing those women cheer for us, talking to others in my community, I am so energized for this fight. Thanks everyone for helping me stay sane. Please keep going.
posted by dog food sugar at 9:25 PM on February 6, 2017 [93 favorites]
CBS opens news broadcast with president "divorced from reality."
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 9:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 9:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [31 favorites]
I'm curious about #KnockEveryDoor. I have a fair amount of experience doing canvass organizing and training, and I could help out with #KnockEveryDoor. On the other hand, we *did* knock every door this year, and it didn't seem to help that much...
I briefly worked with Becky Bond, one of the cofounders of #KnockEveryDoor, many years back and went to hear her speak a couple of weeks ago. She played a major role Bernie's campaign and cowrote a book about lessons from that campaign. One of the things she said is that Trump's victory wasn't just a victory for Trump, it was also clear evidence that neoliberalism and Clintonism are not winning strategies for progressives. Maybe that's obvious to folks on the blue but I agree strongly.
#KnockEveryDoor is an independent organisation that is trying to discover, by knocking on doors, how progressives can get votes in the midterms and beyond. The group needs more than folks to knock on doors. It plans to build a big-data operation. I've registered to volunteer for non-door-knocking duty. Will report back on how it goes.
posted by Bella Donna at 9:34 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
I briefly worked with Becky Bond, one of the cofounders of #KnockEveryDoor, many years back and went to hear her speak a couple of weeks ago. She played a major role Bernie's campaign and cowrote a book about lessons from that campaign. One of the things she said is that Trump's victory wasn't just a victory for Trump, it was also clear evidence that neoliberalism and Clintonism are not winning strategies for progressives. Maybe that's obvious to folks on the blue but I agree strongly.
#KnockEveryDoor is an independent organisation that is trying to discover, by knocking on doors, how progressives can get votes in the midterms and beyond. The group needs more than folks to knock on doors. It plans to build a big-data operation. I've registered to volunteer for non-door-knocking duty. Will report back on how it goes.
posted by Bella Donna at 9:34 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
To be divorced from reality you need to have had some relationship with reality in the first place.
posted by bigbigdog at 9:34 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by bigbigdog at 9:34 PM on February 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
Oh, and for the record I've gotten ACA coverage twice mid-year after job losses and neither time did I ever have to prove the job loss, then or later. I guess if my income tax had shown a conflict maybe I would have had to pay back some subsidies? So, I dunno, one the one hand there's the impulse that maybe you should need to provide some kind of documentation, on the other hand there are lots of forms of employment where you'd be extremely unlikely to get any kind of termination paperwork, so how would someone prove that?
Course they also don't ask for proof of income. You can either use your previous year's tax return info or just enter an amount. Again, there's a certain amount of potential after-the-fact checking with income tax.
As someone who has calculated income for benefit eligibility, dear GOD, that's the last thing the system needs. Imagine employing one government worker for every 100-300 enrollees or so just to verify income and keep up with changes. I worked for a very strict program which meant that every time someone lost a job or changed jobs or got a job I had to do the paperwork over. I literally had clients I was recalculating every two weeks. *shudder*
posted by threeturtles at 9:40 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Course they also don't ask for proof of income. You can either use your previous year's tax return info or just enter an amount. Again, there's a certain amount of potential after-the-fact checking with income tax.
As someone who has calculated income for benefit eligibility, dear GOD, that's the last thing the system needs. Imagine employing one government worker for every 100-300 enrollees or so just to verify income and keep up with changes. I worked for a very strict program which meant that every time someone lost a job or changed jobs or got a job I had to do the paperwork over. I literally had clients I was recalculating every two weeks. *shudder*
posted by threeturtles at 9:40 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
CBS opens news broadcast with president "divorced from reality."
If you read closely they said the *statements* were divorced from reality, because for some reason the statements have agency now. So in addition to everything else, we have utterances controlling our President. Sad!
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:47 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
If you read closely they said the *statements* were divorced from reality, because for some reason the statements have agency now. So in addition to everything else, we have utterances controlling our President. Sad!
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:47 PM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Trump mangles the English language, part eleventy
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:49 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:49 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I really don't encourage trolling Sean Spicer via his public Venmo account, but I can't say I'm not amused.
posted by zachlipton at 9:55 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 9:55 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
Daniel Polonka â@Polonkadonk 11m11 minutes agoposted by sebastienbailard at 10:02 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
@emmaterrestrial @PFTompkins should we request our protest payments?
Watching the livestream on the Senate floor. The Dems have been making reasonable and impassioned speeches.
Sen. Tim Scott - (R-S.C.) is now on. I can't believe that he believes what he's saying, but he seems to. I'm absolutely shocked that he can actually stand there and say that an insulated billionaire would be the best choice to lead the Dept. of Education.
But, he's concerned about the quality of education. Not that he's given any decent alternatives... except Success Academy. Success Academy is magic and wonderful and all about choice. (previously)
And Pell grants are somehow about school choice in relation to public schools.
posted by monopas at 10:11 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Sen. Tim Scott - (R-S.C.) is now on. I can't believe that he believes what he's saying, but he seems to. I'm absolutely shocked that he can actually stand there and say that an insulated billionaire would be the best choice to lead the Dept. of Education.
But, he's concerned about the quality of education. Not that he's given any decent alternatives... except Success Academy. Success Academy is magic and wonderful and all about choice. (previously)
And Pell grants are somehow about school choice in relation to public schools.
posted by monopas at 10:11 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Don't try to reason logically, that's how you hurt yourself.
They're only voting for her because she was nominated by a Republican. If Obama had nominated someone so fucking manifestly stupid and who transparently bought her position, they would've squealed.
Whatever words are sputtering out are only rank partisanship. Get use to it, they have no other principals whatsoever.
#nevertrumpforever.
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:16 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
They're only voting for her because she was nominated by a Republican. If Obama had nominated someone so fucking manifestly stupid and who transparently bought her position, they would've squealed.
Whatever words are sputtering out are only rank partisanship. Get use to it, they have no other principals whatsoever.
#nevertrumpforever.
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:16 PM on February 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
I know. I just don't listen to the R very often.
Not enough blood pressure medication in the world for that.
posted by monopas at 10:18 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Not enough blood pressure medication in the world for that.
posted by monopas at 10:18 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I don't know what SNL going at them harder would look like but that's why they're bigshot comedy writers and I'm not.
Senator Al Franken is a writer-alum, btw... I wonder what the emails between Al and Lorne look like.
posted by mikelieman at 10:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Senator Al Franken is a writer-alum, btw... I wonder what the emails between Al and Lorne look like.
posted by mikelieman at 10:23 PM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Another one to scratch from the terror list:
Donald Trump falsely used killing of Brit backpackers as example of 'terror attack' in blast of media reporting
posted by Buntix at 10:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
Donald Trump falsely used killing of Brit backpackers as example of 'terror attack' in blast of media reporting
In the months following the killing, the mother of Miss Aylifee-Chung called for the tragedy not to be misinterpreted.The full list of 78 doesn't include the Quebec mosque attack, but then I guess it was only 'underreported' by the white house, not the media.
Rosie Ayliffe writing in The Independent, said: "Much nonsense is being spoken in the press about her alleged killer.
"The TV engineer who visited yesterday said, 'Well we know what that was about, it was that Moslemic terrorism!' Thanks for clarifying."
"Smail Ayad â the French man being held on suspicion of my daughterâs murder â is not an Islamic fundamentalist, he has never set foot in a mosque."
Her family said Mia's funeral included elements of Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and a reading from the Koran to counter the "misinterperation" of her murder as an act of terrorism.
posted by Buntix at 10:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [13 favorites]
I wonder what the emails between Al and Lorne look like.
Actually, all I have to do is tune in to see the jokes they're swapping.
posted by mikelieman at 10:24 PM on February 6, 2017
Actually, all I have to do is tune in to see the jokes they're swapping.
posted by mikelieman at 10:24 PM on February 6, 2017
Miller can't take Spicer's job because his links to Richard Spencer would shoot into the spotlight in a way that even the most feckless of media (ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NYT, WP, ETC ETC ETC ETC) couldn't deny.
posted by Yowser at 10:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Yowser at 10:24 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
They're only voting for her because she was nominated by a Republican
That and the $200,000,000+ campaign contributions from her family.
My own senator, Ron Johnson (R-WI) only got $48,000, which is a tiny bit more than a schoolteacher's annual salary.
https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/5rrpim/campaign_contributions_to_senators_by_the_devos/
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:25 PM on February 6, 2017 [21 favorites]
That and the $200,000,000+ campaign contributions from her family.
My own senator, Ron Johnson (R-WI) only got $48,000, which is a tiny bit more than a schoolteacher's annual salary.
https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/5rrpim/campaign_contributions_to_senators_by_the_devos/
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:25 PM on February 6, 2017 [21 favorites]
oh who am I kidding, the media hasn't even bothered to report on the fact that Bannon ran a website that uses the phrase "useless eater" multiple times. They don't care that there are literal Nazis up in the hizouse.
posted by Yowser at 10:30 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by Yowser at 10:30 PM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
That and the $200,000,000+ campaign contributions from her family.
LITERALLY buying her office.
posted by mikelieman at 10:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
LITERALLY buying her office.
posted by mikelieman at 10:32 PM on February 6, 2017 [11 favorites]
My own senator, Ron Johnson (R-WI) only got $48,000, which is a tiny bit more than a schoolteacher's annual salary.
I'm continually amazed at just how little a Republican Senator costs. If I cashed out my retirement accounts I could almost afford one.
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:42 PM on February 6, 2017 [22 favorites]
I'm continually amazed at just how little a Republican Senator costs. If I cashed out my retirement accounts I could almost afford one.
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:42 PM on February 6, 2017 [22 favorites]
I'm really just waiting for someone to give Trump a presentation about the truth about UFOs. I figure we'll get a tweet about 90 seconds after they turn the lights back on.
posted by bigbigdog at 10:48 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by bigbigdog at 10:48 PM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
FOX just got called into the bosses office over Bill Orielly's Putin comments. Get used to the new reality, Bill. You answer to Putin now.
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:51 PM on February 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
The choice is clear: Sean Spicer's successor will have to be Meredith McIver.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 10:55 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 10:55 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Somebody tell Trumpy he could get payback at SNL by hiring Jon Lovitz to do press briefings as his Tommy Flanagan character.
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:08 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:08 PM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Like, it's clear that he hates Alec Baldwin's portrayal of him and we get to seem him have his mini meltdowns about it, so it's win win
I'm 95% certain part of why Baldwin gets under his skin so much is the Glengarry Glen Ross speech. It sums up everything Trumpy and alpha male, but delivered with a style, panache and effortless charisma I suspect Trump wants more than anything but knows is unattainable.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 11:09 PM on February 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
I'm 95% certain part of why Baldwin gets under his skin so much is the Glengarry Glen Ross speech. It sums up everything Trumpy and alpha male, but delivered with a style, panache and effortless charisma I suspect Trump wants more than anything but knows is unattainable.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 11:09 PM on February 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
is a purple nurple the same as a titty twister?
It's a matter of degree
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 9:58 PM
I couldn't go to sleep without backtracking to 'bookmark' this quip. It has been making me chuckle since RW,LD posted it.
posted by futz at 11:34 PM on February 6, 2017
It's a matter of degree
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 9:58 PM
I couldn't go to sleep without backtracking to 'bookmark' this quip. It has been making me chuckle since RW,LD posted it.
posted by futz at 11:34 PM on February 6, 2017
FOX just got called into the bosses office over Bill Orielly's Putin comments. Get used to the new reality, Bill. You answer to Putin now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko#Polonium_trails
posted by sebastienbailard at 11:36 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
In January last year, after a British judge ruled that Putin had "probably" authorized the murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London, Trump said he saw no evidence the Russian president was guilty.FFS. Because you don't need a breeder reactor or something, you can just buy polonium on ebay.
Detectives traced three distinct polonium trails in and out of London, at three different dates, which according to the investigation suggests Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun took two failed attempts to administer polonium to Litvinenko before the final and successful one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko#Polonium_trails
posted by sebastienbailard at 11:36 PM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
2013 tweet. [real]
Donald J. Trump Verified account
â@realDonaldTrump
Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend?
8:17 PM - 18 Jun 2013
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:14 AM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
Donald J. Trump Verified account
â@realDonaldTrump
Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend?
8:17 PM - 18 Jun 2013
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:14 AM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
When we worry and wonder about authoritarian regimes that inflict cruelty on civilians, we often imagine tyrannical despots unilaterally advancing their sinister agendas. But no would-be autocrat can act alone.
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.posted by Grangousier at 1:05 AM on February 7, 2017 [51 favorites]
Terry Pratchett, Small Gods
In my circles, I'm finding it's important to ask people, "Have you called your Senator yet? What about like-minded people you know in other states, especially Republican-controlled states -- have you asked them if they've called their Senators yet? There are too many Democratic and Republican Senators who will not vote to protect the Constitution / rule of law / American values, unless they get flooded with calls from their constituents telling them to."
The most common answer I'm getting is, "Called my Senator? Not yet. Of course, I've shared posts that say you should call, with phone numbers, and my friends have shared them too. My people in other states? That's a good question. I haven't asked." Also, "People say it's too late!"
A lot of them are in shock, or denial, or too depressed and disoriented to do anything without linear instructions, firm prodding to follow those instructions, and a pep talk about how authoritarians want us to do nothing, and I know you don't want your kids/grandkids to live in fear of their government, right? I'm re-reading The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why, and I feel like that psychological phenomenon about how most people in a disaster need clear direction, like "Call 911!" applies: "Have you called your Senator yet? Have your friends in other states called theirs?" = "Call 911!"
Maybe my circles are atypical and the inertia is just real strong in them. (Obviously, I leave them alone if they're getting fed up with me talking about it.)
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 1:33 AM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
The most common answer I'm getting is, "Called my Senator? Not yet. Of course, I've shared posts that say you should call, with phone numbers, and my friends have shared them too. My people in other states? That's a good question. I haven't asked." Also, "People say it's too late!"
A lot of them are in shock, or denial, or too depressed and disoriented to do anything without linear instructions, firm prodding to follow those instructions, and a pep talk about how authoritarians want us to do nothing, and I know you don't want your kids/grandkids to live in fear of their government, right? I'm re-reading The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why, and I feel like that psychological phenomenon about how most people in a disaster need clear direction, like "Call 911!" applies: "Have you called your Senator yet? Have your friends in other states called theirs?" = "Call 911!"
Maybe my circles are atypical and the inertia is just real strong in them. (Obviously, I leave them alone if they're getting fed up with me talking about it.)
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 1:33 AM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
For me, doing a daily fax about one issue to one Senator or Rep is a mental health saving device. I'm now stalking my Senators and Rep on twitter. My Rep (Brendan Boyle) had a paltry number of followers, so tweets to his account actually may make some sort of impact. Tomboy and Casey are overwhelmed with calls/faxes, so I've been fax-bombing all of their offices. At least a couple get through.
posted by angrycat at 1:41 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by angrycat at 1:41 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
In my circles, I'm finding it's important to ask people, "Have you called your Senator yet? What about like-minded people you know in other states, especially Republican-controlled states -- have you asked them if they've called their Senators yet? There are too many Democratic and Republican Senators who will not vote to protect the Constitution / rule of law / American values, unless they get flooded with calls from their constituents telling them to."
Thanks for the prompt. I called a few more of the Senators on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, regarding Bannon on the NSC.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/3/1629729/-Senate-Committee-now-taking-calls-on-Bannon-s-appointment-to-Security-Council-Here-s-contact-info
I find writing my own quick script for myself really helps with the mild phone anxiety - I don't need to think once I make the call, I just have to read out loud.
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:17 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Thanks for the prompt. I called a few more of the Senators on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, regarding Bannon on the NSC.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/3/1629729/-Senate-Committee-now-taking-calls-on-Bannon-s-appointment-to-Security-Council-Here-s-contact-info
I find writing my own quick script for myself really helps with the mild phone anxiety - I don't need to think once I make the call, I just have to read out loud.
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:17 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
âDaily Showâsâ Trevor Noah: Steve Bannon Is the âReal President,â Not Trump
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:32 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:32 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Donaeld the Unready
"Canute. What a loser. Can't even hold back the sea. It's just water. We're going to be so tough on the sea. Canute was too soft. Sad."
posted by vbfg at 2:48 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
"Canute. What a loser. Can't even hold back the sea. It's just water. We're going to be so tough on the sea. Canute was too soft. Sad."
posted by vbfg at 2:48 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
A lot of them are in shock, or denial, or too depressed and disoriented to do anything without linear instructions, firm prodding to follow those instructions, and a pep talk about how authoritarians want us to do nothing, and I know you don't want your kids/grandkids to live in fear of their government, right?
One thing I'm trying to do is talk about it when I do things. I think the social pressure of "other people are doing the thing" is significant. Rather than sharing "call these numbers" posts, because there are lots of those, I'm talking in public posts about "I called my rep and blah." Or "here is a photo of the postcards I'm mailing today." "Started a fight on my rep's FB page." A lot of people don't respond well to direct orders, but do to modeling. Or that's my hope.
In the bystander effect, when one person stops to help, a lot of other people suddenly will also stop and offer assistance.
posted by threeturtles at 3:46 AM on February 7, 2017 [36 favorites]
One thing I'm trying to do is talk about it when I do things. I think the social pressure of "other people are doing the thing" is significant. Rather than sharing "call these numbers" posts, because there are lots of those, I'm talking in public posts about "I called my rep and blah." Or "here is a photo of the postcards I'm mailing today." "Started a fight on my rep's FB page." A lot of people don't respond well to direct orders, but do to modeling. Or that's my hope.
In the bystander effect, when one person stops to help, a lot of other people suddenly will also stop and offer assistance.
posted by threeturtles at 3:46 AM on February 7, 2017 [36 favorites]
For me, doing a daily fax about one issue to one Senator or Rep is a mental health saving device.
Yes, I send off three faxes every time I get really pissed off. And I also bought a box of 100 postcards from Amazon and fill out postcards throughout the week to mail off at least once a week. I am having problems with my phone reception, and my Senators are basically impossible to get anyway, so that's what I'm doing now.
This reminds me I intended to contact my state people today.
posted by threeturtles at 3:49 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Yes, I send off three faxes every time I get really pissed off. And I also bought a box of 100 postcards from Amazon and fill out postcards throughout the week to mail off at least once a week. I am having problems with my phone reception, and my Senators are basically impossible to get anyway, so that's what I'm doing now.
This reminds me I intended to contact my state people today.
posted by threeturtles at 3:49 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
I find it extremely interesting that in that list of 78 terrorist attacks the White House says were largely underreported, Israel never appears.
I can only interpret this to mean that the [Popular Vote Loser] Trump WH does not consider attacks in Israel (eg, those of 2015-16) to be underreported. I suppose I should not be surprised (given that Bannon probably compiled the list), but I do not like one bit what that implies.
posted by Westringia F. at 4:07 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
I can only interpret this to mean that the [Popular Vote Loser] Trump WH does not consider attacks in Israel (eg, those of 2015-16) to be underreported. I suppose I should not be surprised (given that Bannon probably compiled the list), but I do not like one bit what that implies.
posted by Westringia F. at 4:07 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
I find it extremely interesting that in that list of 78 terrorist attacks the White House says were largely underreported, Israel never appears.
This hasn't gone unnoticed. Suspect he's rapidly burning through the common support he had there.
Then, Trump's original statement was specifically about Europe, so there's been a massive move of the goalposts. Only 28 of the 58 listed are actually relevant information in support of his actual statement, the rest are dread herrings. Pretty sure those 28 whittle away to nothing as well (if you exclude any that have been reported, or have no relevance to his argument - e.g. the IRA attack). As reports go it would be an F in high school, never mind the F'in highest level of the most powerful government.
posted by Buntix at 4:24 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
This hasn't gone unnoticed. Suspect he's rapidly burning through the common support he had there.
Then, Trump's original statement was specifically about Europe, so there's been a massive move of the goalposts. Only 28 of the 58 listed are actually relevant information in support of his actual statement, the rest are dread herrings. Pretty sure those 28 whittle away to nothing as well (if you exclude any that have been reported, or have no relevance to his argument - e.g. the IRA attack). As reports go it would be an F in high school, never mind the F'in highest level of the most powerful government.
posted by Buntix at 4:24 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
@realLordDampnut
I don't know Putin, have no deals in Russia, and the haters are going crazy - yet Obama can make a deal with Iran, #1 in terror, no problem!
"The haters" are the majority of the country and vast majority of the world. Humanity's what, 75% haters right now? Also while I presume he means Iran when he says "#1 in terror, no problem!" his grammar makes it ambiguous and I think it would make a great new national motto: how fitting it would be to replace E PLURIBUS UNUM on our coinage with #1 IN TERROR, NO PROBLEM.
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
I don't know Putin, have no deals in Russia, and the haters are going crazy - yet Obama can make a deal with Iran, #1 in terror, no problem!
"The haters" are the majority of the country and vast majority of the world. Humanity's what, 75% haters right now? Also while I presume he means Iran when he says "#1 in terror, no problem!" his grammar makes it ambiguous and I think it would make a great new national motto: how fitting it would be to replace E PLURIBUS UNUM on our coinage with #1 IN TERROR, NO PROBLEM.
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
@realLordDampnut
I can't tell if this is a joking modification of his actual twitter handle or a parody account. It reads as real.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 4:31 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I can't tell if this is a joking modification of his actual twitter handle or a parody account. It reads as real.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 4:31 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
It's from his real twitter, I just can't spread willingly spread his name unless it's to directly tie him to his crimes against humanity.
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:33 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:33 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
And of course everything is a lie. He's repeatedly said he knows and talked with Putin. And the Iran deal wasn't just an Obama thing. Russia, China, UK, Germany and France were all part of the deal.
posted by chris24 at 4:49 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by chris24 at 4:49 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
Interesting that he goes after Iran again on the same morning that we get a report of at least 20 killed and at least 40 wounded in a attack on the Afghan Supreme Court. What about the 13,000 people killed in Syria?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:04 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:04 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
And the Iran deal wasn't just an Obama thing. Russia, China, UK, Germany and France were all part of the deal.
And the EU.
posted by Mister Bijou at 5:05 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
And the EU.
posted by Mister Bijou at 5:05 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Serious question: how many staff does the White House actually have at this point? Fictional portrayals of the non-public-facing parts of the White House (e.g. The West Wing) make it look a lot like a busy newsroom: lots of screens and computers and people working them, running to and fro with pieces of paper, and that kind of makes sense, inasmuch as it's theoretically the nerve center of US policy and information flows through from a lot of sources. It's easy to believe that those portrayals are reflective of actual procedure in bygone days. Is it really just Trump and Bannon and Kushner working in the dark because they can't find the light switches now? When they want a list of "unreported" Islamic terror attacks, does Jared fire up MS Word and Google and laboriously copy and paste things around himself?
All these people have run organizations, and I'd think they'd know how to manage and make use of staff. I guess what I'm asking is, bro, do you even office?
posted by jackbishop at 5:08 AM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
All these people have run organizations, and I'd think they'd know how to manage and make use of staff. I guess what I'm asking is, bro, do you even office?
posted by jackbishop at 5:08 AM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
Guardian: Refugees crossing into Canada from US on foot despite freezing temperatures: A 2004 pact between Canada and the US, known as the Safe Third Country Agreement, forces most migrants to apply for asylum in the first country in which they arrive. As a result, refugee advocates say theyâve seen a spike in asylum seekers taking longer, riskier routes to cross the border into Canada and file claims inland, where the agreement does not apply.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:12 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:12 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
^From that same article.^
âIt is a fictitious reality to continue to pretend that the US is safe for refugees,â said Alex Neve of Amnesty International Canada, pointing to the executive order signed by Trump that seeks to temporarily halt the admission of refugees and ban Syrian refugees indefinitely.
Even if the ban is overturned completely, I absolutely do not think the country is safe for any refugee still.
posted by Kitteh at 5:16 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
âIt is a fictitious reality to continue to pretend that the US is safe for refugees,â said Alex Neve of Amnesty International Canada, pointing to the executive order signed by Trump that seeks to temporarily halt the admission of refugees and ban Syrian refugees indefinitely.
Even if the ban is overturned completely, I absolutely do not think the country is safe for any refugee still.
posted by Kitteh at 5:16 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Way upthread now, but it occurs to me the best response to a Trump handshake is that move where you reach out halfway but then run your fingers through your hair instead.
Basically like Lester Holt did after whichever debate that was, although that time Trump seems to have just forgotten he was supposed to shake hands.
posted by aspersioncast at 5:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Basically like Lester Holt did after whichever debate that was, although that time Trump seems to have just forgotten he was supposed to shake hands.
posted by aspersioncast at 5:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
I don't know Putin, have no deals in Russia
'in' not 'with', I note.
It finally twigged earlier today why his use of language reminds me so much of the client who screwed me over (mentioned in a previous post way way back in the olden times, like literally over an actual week ago).
He uses terms of art fetishistically (not kink, the original meaning), and terms of artlessness similarly. His use of quotes isn't greengrocer grammar: to him it's sorcery. It's an idiots imitation of bad bow tied sales techniques. It's con-artistry without cunning or understanding. It's spoiled brat bullying self-mistaken for business ability.
It's the guy who puts the foot in the door, barges in, spills a bag of shit on the floor, and refuses to leave until you buy the hoover.
Still, it's proof that if you have the right start in life, and happen to be a sociopath, there's no limit to how far upwards you can fail.
posted by Buntix at 5:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
'in' not 'with', I note.
It finally twigged earlier today why his use of language reminds me so much of the client who screwed me over (mentioned in a previous post way way back in the olden times, like literally over an actual week ago).
He uses terms of art fetishistically (not kink, the original meaning), and terms of artlessness similarly. His use of quotes isn't greengrocer grammar: to him it's sorcery. It's an idiots imitation of bad bow tied sales techniques. It's con-artistry without cunning or understanding. It's spoiled brat bullying self-mistaken for business ability.
It's the guy who puts the foot in the door, barges in, spills a bag of shit on the floor, and refuses to leave until you buy the hoover.
Still, it's proof that if you have the right start in life, and happen to be a sociopath, there's no limit to how far upwards you can fail.
posted by Buntix at 5:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
What Steve Bannon Wants You to Read
Come for the apocalyptic white nationalism, stay for the explicit endorsement of ethnic cleansing.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
Come for the apocalyptic white nationalism, stay for the explicit endorsement of ethnic cleansing.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
The full list of Trump's 'under-reported' terror attacks â and how they were reported
posted by lalochezia at 5:30 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Come for the apocalyptic white nationalism, stay for the explicit endorsement of ethnic cleansing.
Holy. Shit. Bannon's in contact with MOLDBUG? The Dark Enlightenment neoreactionaries have seized the control room. This....how could it still have been worse than I thought?
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:37 AM on February 7, 2017 [20 favorites]
Holy. Shit. Bannon's in contact with MOLDBUG? The Dark Enlightenment neoreactionaries have seized the control room. This....how could it still have been worse than I thought?
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:37 AM on February 7, 2017 [20 favorites]
The full list of Trump's 'under-reported' terror attacks â and how they were reported, and / or anything else Twitler and Spicynuts manage to poop out into the information ecosystem: why would we bother?
I mean, why go to the trouble to ask Seannity a question? Or follow anything on DĂ«r Tweets, assuming they line up in a roughly syntactically correct manner? They don't go anywhere except "Wow that's f'd up".
I'd much rather some deep dives on the lieutenants or department careerists as to whats going on. Not that I wouldn't enjoy a looping .gif of a KellyAnnePolls faceplant, its just not fact-rich.
posted by petebest at 5:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
I mean, why go to the trouble to ask Seannity a question? Or follow anything on DĂ«r Tweets, assuming they line up in a roughly syntactically correct manner? They don't go anywhere except "Wow that's f'd up".
I'd much rather some deep dives on the lieutenants or department careerists as to whats going on. Not that I wouldn't enjoy a looping .gif of a KellyAnnePolls faceplant, its just not fact-rich.
posted by petebest at 5:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
.how could it still have been worse than I thought?
Everything that Alex Jones says about government being willing to kill/imprison is actually put into use.
posted by rough ashlar at 5:45 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Everything that Alex Jones says about government being willing to kill/imprison is actually put into use.
posted by rough ashlar at 5:45 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Republicans target legal immigration: They'll formally propose legislation on the matter as soon as today. :
The details:
Eliminates multiple avenues for U.S. citizens and permanent residents to sponsor family members for green cards.
Gets rid of the diversity visa lottery, which allots 50k visas per year for citizens of countries with low levels of immigration to the U.S.
Restricts the number of refugees allowed into the country to 50k annually â similar to rates outlined in Trump's travel ban.
If approved, the number of legal immigrants allowed into the U.S. under the bill would plummet by 40% in the first year and by 50% over the next 10 years, according to Cotton's aides.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:49 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
The details:
Eliminates multiple avenues for U.S. citizens and permanent residents to sponsor family members for green cards.
Gets rid of the diversity visa lottery, which allots 50k visas per year for citizens of countries with low levels of immigration to the U.S.
Restricts the number of refugees allowed into the country to 50k annually â similar to rates outlined in Trump's travel ban.
If approved, the number of legal immigrants allowed into the U.S. under the bill would plummet by 40% in the first year and by 50% over the next 10 years, according to Cotton's aides.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:49 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
Trump has become Putin's ally in Russia's war on the West
Moral relativism corrodes sentiment in the frontline states of the new cold war. In places like Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, pro-Western figures are feeling that their struggle is doomed. Why bother fighting for freedom when the leader of the free world has given up?posted by Buntix at 5:50 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Worse than this, the thinking will spread that maybe Putin is right: the world is all about power and money, and the political currency that really works is coined from lies and fear. If those are the real rules of the game, then better to play them. It seems to have worked for Trump, after all.
I don't know Putin, have no deals in Russia
He literally just spoke on the phone with Putin. God make it stop.
posted by dis_integration at 5:53 AM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
He literally just spoke on the phone with Putin. God make it stop.
posted by dis_integration at 5:53 AM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
Republicans target legal immigration: They'll formally propose legislation on the matter as soon as today.
"At least they haven't noticed the minimum wage. At least they haven't noticed the minimum wage. At least they haven't noticed the minimum wage. At least they haven't noticed the minimum wage."
posted by Talez at 5:56 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
"At least they haven't noticed the minimum wage. At least they haven't noticed the minimum wage. At least they haven't noticed the minimum wage. At least they haven't noticed the minimum wage."
posted by Talez at 5:56 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Come on AARP, what say you?
AARP is too busy bombarding me with spam to speak to the matter.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 5:56 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
AARP is too busy bombarding me with spam to speak to the matter.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 5:56 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Last night I had a loooong talk with my spouse (like, started while we were cooking, continued through dinner, picked up again after the kid was in bed and didn't end until I went to bed) about race and intersectionality in the current resistance. He's a Bernie bro, though he would hate being characterized as such and did vote for Hillary. He is of the opinion that all that oppression stuff is irrelevant to the work that needs to be done now to fight the fascist regime, while I was trying to tell him that WITHOUT taking race and oppression into account there is nothing to fight FOR.
Man, was he ever resistant to that. Like, he got really defensive and angry and insisted that we all just need to UNIFY to fight and that talking about feelings and experiences is divisive and that nothing will get done if we pay any attention to that. And I was like, well, that's well and good that you want to unify without this stuff, but if others don't want to unify without it, there's not actually going to be unity, right? And what the hell are we actually fighting for, anyway? Isn't it an end to oppression? So, if you're oppressing people (and you don't get to decide whether others are being oppressed or not, if they say they are then you have to listen to them) then you're not really fighting to end oppression right?
This all started because I mentioned spitbull's comment above and he was, like, SO PUT OUT that that would be taken as offensive because the intent was to bring people together! And I was like, maybe if people are telling you it's offensive you should listen to them! And we went around and around and fucking AROUND about it all night, with him being all WE NEED TO UNIFY and me being all YES AND THAT MEANS LISTENING TO THE PEOPLE WE ARE TRYING TO HELP and gee whiz it was exhausting.
So anyway after all that I finally got him to agree to at least read something short about it and sent him this link but if anyone else has recommendations for intro readings about intersectionality that would be palatable to a white guy who thinks he knows about this shit but really doesn't I'd appreciate it. Because I suspect we're going to have to keep having this conversation for a while and maybe especially if there's something out there written by a dude (because we are ALSO going to have to have a talk about gender issues and feminism in the future boy howdy but he needs to maybe start with the race stuff first) that would be very much appreciated.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 5:56 AM on February 7, 2017 [66 favorites]
Man, was he ever resistant to that. Like, he got really defensive and angry and insisted that we all just need to UNIFY to fight and that talking about feelings and experiences is divisive and that nothing will get done if we pay any attention to that. And I was like, well, that's well and good that you want to unify without this stuff, but if others don't want to unify without it, there's not actually going to be unity, right? And what the hell are we actually fighting for, anyway? Isn't it an end to oppression? So, if you're oppressing people (and you don't get to decide whether others are being oppressed or not, if they say they are then you have to listen to them) then you're not really fighting to end oppression right?
This all started because I mentioned spitbull's comment above and he was, like, SO PUT OUT that that would be taken as offensive because the intent was to bring people together! And I was like, maybe if people are telling you it's offensive you should listen to them! And we went around and around and fucking AROUND about it all night, with him being all WE NEED TO UNIFY and me being all YES AND THAT MEANS LISTENING TO THE PEOPLE WE ARE TRYING TO HELP and gee whiz it was exhausting.
So anyway after all that I finally got him to agree to at least read something short about it and sent him this link but if anyone else has recommendations for intro readings about intersectionality that would be palatable to a white guy who thinks he knows about this shit but really doesn't I'd appreciate it. Because I suspect we're going to have to keep having this conversation for a while and maybe especially if there's something out there written by a dude (because we are ALSO going to have to have a talk about gender issues and feminism in the future boy howdy but he needs to maybe start with the race stuff first) that would be very much appreciated.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 5:56 AM on February 7, 2017 [66 favorites]
The full list of Trump's 'under-reported' terror attacks â and how they were reported
Most of the "how they were reported" are links to the Guardian, BBC and other foreign outlets, so they don't really count, because Trump obviously meant US media.
Also, it's not so far-fetched to say that foreign affairs in general are underreported in US media. But then again, who can blame the media? Most Americans are content to read about the antics of an orange psychopath, so that's what the media is selling them. Who cares what's going on in other parts of the world when there's enough interesting stuff going on at home?
posted by sour cream at 5:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Most of the "how they were reported" are links to the Guardian, BBC and other foreign outlets, so they don't really count, because Trump obviously meant US media.
Also, it's not so far-fetched to say that foreign affairs in general are underreported in US media. But then again, who can blame the media? Most Americans are content to read about the antics of an orange psychopath, so that's what the media is selling them. Who cares what's going on in other parts of the world when there's enough interesting stuff going on at home?
posted by sour cream at 5:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
It feels like Trump uses "deal" way differently than most people. I would gladly read an article breaking it down.
posted by drezdn at 6:00 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by drezdn at 6:00 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Why even legislate on immigration? Once you've turned the US into the authoritarian hellscape of your dreams, nobody will want to immigrate anyway. "Problem" solved!
posted by uncleozzy at 6:01 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by uncleozzy at 6:01 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Republicans target legal immigration: They'll formally propose legislation on the matter as soon as today.
This is going to cripple science and academia.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:02 AM on February 7, 2017 [36 favorites]
This is going to cripple science and academia.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:02 AM on February 7, 2017 [36 favorites]
This is going to cripple science and academia.
That's the point. Fuck liberals!
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:07 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
That's the point. Fuck liberals!
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:07 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
That's the point. Fuck liberals!
Oh, I'm aware.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:08 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Oh, I'm aware.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:08 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
>This is going to cripple science and academia.
And boy do they appreciate that.
Fuck the lot of them. I am really discouraged this morning. The writing on the wall I see today says "this is the end of the US. Even if you can stop the engine the momentum is there, full speed to the edge of the canyon, bye" and my anger is just infinite. This was ours, the freedom and the opportunity, and now we're collectively setting it on fire to warm some oligarchs.
posted by lydhre at 6:10 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
And boy do they appreciate that.
Fuck the lot of them. I am really discouraged this morning. The writing on the wall I see today says "this is the end of the US. Even if you can stop the engine the momentum is there, full speed to the edge of the canyon, bye" and my anger is just infinite. This was ours, the freedom and the opportunity, and now we're collectively setting it on fire to warm some oligarchs.
posted by lydhre at 6:10 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
Come for the apocalyptic white nationalism, stay for the explicit endorsement of ethnic cleansing.
Holy. Shit. Bannon's in contact with MOLDBUG? The Dark Enlightenment neoreactionaries have seized the wheel. This....how could it still have been worse than I thought?
I only know a bit about Moldbug. Does any of his thinking include dealing with the consequences of climate change? As in how it's going to disrupt everything?
I guess I have to read more about these great thinkers that Bannon so loves to see if they ever go there. So far I keep reading tracts from a bunch of (mostly men) mentally masturbating about the future of society and the big ideas of democracy blah blah and how it's dying or how this type of thinking means going off a cliff and the solution is A B C and so far none of this future thinking solutions mentions dealing with the political and social consequences of climate change.
Maybe these Bannon go-to dudes do talk about and I haven't seen it yet. It's a glaring omission if they don't. At this time in history any political thinker that doesn't have it embedded into the foundation of their thinking about the future is working from an incomplete set of parameters.
Anyone know, has Bannon ever talked about climate change in relation to his worldview as odious as it is? Could he know damn well it's a big issue and just not talk about it much because of politics? Or is he one of the types that just figures, no big deal and goes on 'thinking' as if it isn't this huge elephant in the room?
posted by Jalliah at 6:10 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
BRB tracking my registered mail to Canadian passport services. All my and my kid's citizenship stuff cannot get processed fast enough. I'll stay and fight as long as I can but his future is on the line.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:15 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:15 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
This was ours, the freedom and the opportunity, and now we're collectively setting it on fire to warm some oligarchs.
We aren't collectively setting it on fire: many, many more votes were cast for D candidates for congress and president. The ruling class gerrymandered and voting-rights-gutted their way into destroying the USA with the votes of 25% of the population. Most of the country does not want this.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [38 favorites]
We aren't collectively setting it on fire: many, many more votes were cast for D candidates for congress and president. The ruling class gerrymandered and voting-rights-gutted their way into destroying the USA with the votes of 25% of the population. Most of the country does not want this.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [38 favorites]
Yeah, I'm submitting the paperwork to get my kids their Italian passports this week though I despair about the future of the EU too at this point. Fuck.
posted by lydhre at 6:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by lydhre at 6:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Also, it's not so far-fetched to say that foreign affairs in general are underreported in US media. But then again, who can blame the media?
In addition, a lot of the events in that list are kinda local. Without meaning to sound isolationist, why should American media cover, say, a nonfatal knife attack in Copenhagen? There's not a whole hell of a lot to that story to make it of interest to anybody outside Denmark (or even really outside of Copenhagen). That's an extreme example, but there are an awful lot o low-impact, unremarkable, local activities on that list which straight-up don't get a lot of media coverage outside of their immediate area. Labeling them relevant consequential on Islamic connections is basically cherry-picking bits and pieces out of absolutely normal chaos and violence and trying to build a narrative of Islamic terror from it. If these bullshit scraps are the best they can come up with, then, uh, Islamic extremism is a hell of a lot less dangerous than they think.
posted by jackbishop at 6:20 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
In addition, a lot of the events in that list are kinda local. Without meaning to sound isolationist, why should American media cover, say, a nonfatal knife attack in Copenhagen? There's not a whole hell of a lot to that story to make it of interest to anybody outside Denmark (or even really outside of Copenhagen). That's an extreme example, but there are an awful lot o low-impact, unremarkable, local activities on that list which straight-up don't get a lot of media coverage outside of their immediate area. Labeling them relevant consequential on Islamic connections is basically cherry-picking bits and pieces out of absolutely normal chaos and violence and trying to build a narrative of Islamic terror from it. If these bullshit scraps are the best they can come up with, then, uh, Islamic extremism is a hell of a lot less dangerous than they think.
posted by jackbishop at 6:20 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
BRB tracking my registered mail to Canadian passport services.
If you do move up here, please register to vote ASAP. We have federal election in 2019 and while Trudeau has failed in some of his campaign promises, we will need all hands on deck to prevent the same thing happening up here.
(Quick edit: your husband will not be able to vote in Canadian elections until he has actual citizenship, but you probably knew that.)
posted by Kitteh at 6:23 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
If you do move up here, please register to vote ASAP. We have federal election in 2019 and while Trudeau has failed in some of his campaign promises, we will need all hands on deck to prevent the same thing happening up here.
(Quick edit: your husband will not be able to vote in Canadian elections until he has actual citizenship, but you probably knew that.)
posted by Kitteh at 6:23 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
>We aren't collectively setting it on fire: many, many more votes were cast for D candidates for congress and president. The ruling class gerrymandered and and voting-rights-gutted their way into destroying the USA with the votes of 25% of the population. Most of the country does not want this.
I hear you and yet. And yet there is goes. My kids' education, my kids' health care, my kids' very future in a planet with a devastating change in climate looming on the horizon.
I campaigned. I protested. I call my Senators and Representatives. I motivate my friends and family. But the anger in this country runs deep and it is primarily self-destructive. Someone needs to pull the brakes and the only people who can reach the brakes, the Republicans in government, are too busy performing for their base.
I'll fight. I am fighting. But today I'm feeling like shit.
posted by lydhre at 6:23 AM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
I hear you and yet. And yet there is goes. My kids' education, my kids' health care, my kids' very future in a planet with a devastating change in climate looming on the horizon.
I campaigned. I protested. I call my Senators and Representatives. I motivate my friends and family. But the anger in this country runs deep and it is primarily self-destructive. Someone needs to pull the brakes and the only people who can reach the brakes, the Republicans in government, are too busy performing for their base.
I'll fight. I am fighting. But today I'm feeling like shit.
posted by lydhre at 6:23 AM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
Don't worry kitteh. I'm a former social studies teacher and serial voter. I vote! for! everything!
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:24 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:24 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
The full list of Trump's 'under-reported' terror attacks â and how they were reported
Here's one item from Trump's list wherein a British tourist was murdered in Australia where the Australian police have specifically ruled out terrorism.
posted by biffa at 6:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Here's one item from Trump's list wherein a British tourist was murdered in Australia where the Australian police have specifically ruled out terrorism.
posted by biffa at 6:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Government by White Nationalism Is Upon Us, Jamelle Bouie, Slate
The ideological leader of the Trump movement is Sessions, hailed by Bannon for âdeveloping populist nation-state policiesâ from his somewhat isolated perch in the Senate. Bannon, who avoids the spotlight, gives away the game in his praise of Sessions. âIn America and Europe, working people are reasserting their right to control their own destinies,â he wrote in a recent statement to the Washington Post, blasting the âcosmopolitan elites in the media that live in a handful of our larger cities.â Given the demographics of Trumpâs supportâgiven the demographics of Europeâthis definition of âworking peopleâ can mean only one thing: white people. And âcosmopolitan elitesâ has a long history as a euphemism for Jews and other minorities.posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:31 AM on February 7, 2017 [34 favorites]
Sessions at least does us the service of being clear about his ideas and priorities. âIn seven years weâll have the highest percentage of Americans, non-native born, since the founding of the republic,â he said in a 2015 interview with Bannon.
If you do move up here, please register to vote ASAP.
Which you can do by checking a little box on your next tax return.
posted by hangashore at 6:39 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Which you can do by checking a little box on your next tax return.
posted by hangashore at 6:39 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Jalliah - I only know a bit about Moldbug. Does any of his thinking include dealing with the consequences of climate change? As in how it's going to disrupt everything?
I don't know his specific thoughts on climate change but I do know that he does not care if 99% of the world dies, so long as he personally gets to have the nicest hut and the most slaves.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:43 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
I don't know his specific thoughts on climate change but I do know that he does not care if 99% of the world dies, so long as he personally gets to have the nicest hut and the most slaves.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:43 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
I am waiting for my US passport to be renewed. It was set to expire this May, so putting it off was not really an option. The check has been cashed but that's all I've seen so far.
I feel very vulnerable right now, being an American with no passport. Fuck.
posted by sciatrix at 6:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
I feel very vulnerable right now, being an American with no passport. Fuck.
posted by sciatrix at 6:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
Well shit snacks. I was planning to move back to the US with my husband in 2018 but if they're going to make it impossible for me to sponsor him then that's out the window. Fuck.
posted by supercrayon at 6:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by supercrayon at 6:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
It feels like we are ( and should be ) using every tool at our disposal for short term survival and long term prosperity. So are they.
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Oh I know. The Italian passports are a small out if Gilead comes to pass in the US. Nothing's going to help WW3 and/or the rising tide of white nationalism worldwide. My parents grew up in fascist Italy: there are few comforts to be found in Europe if things head south.
posted by lydhre at 6:51 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by lydhre at 6:51 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Jason Kander Launches 'Let America Vote' To Fight Voter Suppression Laws Across The Country
posted by melissasaurus at 6:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [95 favorites]
Jason Kander today launched Let America Vote, an organization dedicated to winning the public debate over voter suppression in the United States. For several years, challenges to voter suppression efforts have taken place almost exclusively in courts of law. With the launch of Let America Vote, the fight expands to the court of public opinion.Twitter handle: @Let_AmericaVote
Kander is joined by a Board of Advisors committed to voting rights, including human rights activist Martin Luther King III, Planned Parenthood Action Fund president Cecile Richards, former White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, and renowned voting rights and election attorney Marc Elias.
posted by melissasaurus at 6:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [95 favorites]
I feel very vulnerable right now, being an American with no passport. Fuck.
Yeah, mine expired and I had meant to renew it and never got around to it. And we need one for my daughter, so all three of us have to physically appear, which, it turns out, is a scheduling problem, which means we won't have actual passports in our hands until at least the end of April or May.
Or, you know, never. Depending.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yeah, mine expired and I had meant to renew it and never got around to it. And we need one for my daughter, so all three of us have to physically appear, which, it turns out, is a scheduling problem, which means we won't have actual passports in our hands until at least the end of April or May.
Or, you know, never. Depending.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Side note: just saw the US political thread widget on the front page side bar. Neat. ( Metatalk thread )
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
If these bullshit scraps are the best they can come up with, then, uh, Islamic extremism is a hell of a lot less dangerous than they think.
Yeah, but these scraps are the best they can come up with, because these incidents are so underreported.
IT'S JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG, DON'T YOU SEE??!?
posted by sour cream at 6:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yeah, but these scraps are the best they can come up with, because these incidents are so underreported.
IT'S JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG, DON'T YOU SEE??!?
posted by sour cream at 6:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
If these bullshit scraps are the best they can come up with, then, uh, Islamic extremism is a hell of a lot less dangerous than they think.
A FOAF put it best: "all this list proves is that trump is somehow bad at watching TV, the sole activity he is said to enjoy"
posted by Etrigan at 6:55 AM on February 7, 2017 [53 favorites]
A FOAF put it best: "all this list proves is that trump is somehow bad at watching TV, the sole activity he is said to enjoy"
posted by Etrigan at 6:55 AM on February 7, 2017 [53 favorites]
all this list proves is that trump is somehow bad at watching TV, the sole activity he is said to enjoy"
Nope. No way Trump put that list together. It's a well-known fact real men don't put lists together. They delegate. That list was thrown together by someone else in the WH. Typos include "attakerâ (attacker) and âDenmakrâ (Denmark). Slipshod, but so what.
posted by Mister Bijou at 7:10 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Nope. No way Trump put that list together. It's a well-known fact real men don't put lists together. They delegate. That list was thrown together by someone else in the WH. Typos include "attakerâ (attacker) and âDenmakrâ (Denmark). Slipshod, but so what.
posted by Mister Bijou at 7:10 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Also misspelled San Bernardino. It's almost as if the author was foreign speaking....
posted by PenDevil at 7:12 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by PenDevil at 7:12 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Obamacare Repeal Is Failing Because It Was Based on a Lie
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:13 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:13 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
So instead he is bad at delegating, the only action he is able to do.
posted by dinty_moore at 7:13 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by dinty_moore at 7:13 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
CNN video
Camerota: Why isn't the president talking about white terrorism? Duffy: There's a difference.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:17 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Camerota: Why isn't the president talking about white terrorism? Duffy: There's a difference.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:17 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Also misspelled San Bernardino. It's almost as if the author was foreign speaking....
maybe they're just a zappa fan
posted by murphy slaw at 7:20 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
maybe they're just a zappa fan
posted by murphy slaw at 7:20 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Sean Duffy, another shining example of what happens when you let reality TV "stars" hold office.
posted by palomar at 7:21 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by palomar at 7:21 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
Camerota: Why isn't the president talking about white terrorism? Duffy: There's a difference.
Well I mean technically he's not wrong. But I'm not sure he realizes the implications of what he's saying.
posted by Talez at 7:24 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Well I mean technically he's not wrong. But I'm not sure he realizes the implications of what he's saying.
posted by Talez at 7:24 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
the difference is that the administration doesn't care.
posted by murphy slaw at 7:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 7:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
China Daily, the English language arm of the Chinese government controlled press, enters the political cartoons mocking Trump and Bannon sweepstakes.
posted by chris24 at 7:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by chris24 at 7:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Trump is now attacking all the institutions that could limit his power later
posted by zombieflanders at 7:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
posted by zombieflanders at 7:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
Yeah... from that video: "Death and murder on both sides is wrong", referring to the Quebec terrorist (white) and islamic terrorists in general. Explicitly defining that whites and muslims are the two sides in this scenario.
Fuck these people.
posted by birdheist at 7:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [22 favorites]
Fuck these people.
posted by birdheist at 7:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [22 favorites]
So the proposed immigration legislation would be terrible and it infuriates me that people would propose anti-family shit like this and then dare to present themselves as SuperChristians but:
This is going to cripple science and academia.
I don't really see that? Science/tech/academic types usually enter under a nonimmigrant H1B or as a continuation of their nonimmigrant F visas as grad students, and then AOS to a work-based green card (or marry an American while they're here). They aren't usually "imported" as a resident's/citizen's sister or uncle or under the DV, which are what this stupid, bad, awful thing takes the axe to. I can see that this climate overall makes the US less attractive for anyone, and that the proposed changes would further reduce the attractiveness of the US because they would make it harder for scientists/academics to bring their parents over. But I don't see that direct effect?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:30 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
This is going to cripple science and academia.
I don't really see that? Science/tech/academic types usually enter under a nonimmigrant H1B or as a continuation of their nonimmigrant F visas as grad students, and then AOS to a work-based green card (or marry an American while they're here). They aren't usually "imported" as a resident's/citizen's sister or uncle or under the DV, which are what this stupid, bad, awful thing takes the axe to. I can see that this climate overall makes the US less attractive for anyone, and that the proposed changes would further reduce the attractiveness of the US because they would make it harder for scientists/academics to bring their parents over. But I don't see that direct effect?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:30 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Here is a link to the 9th Circuit's website, where they will be livestreaming the oral arguments on the Washington federal case at 6pm Eastern/3pm Pacific.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:35 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:35 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
And we need one for my daughter, so all three of us have to physically appear, which, it turns out, is a scheduling problem, which means we won't have actual passports in our hands until at least the end of April or May.
Unless something is special about your circumstances that is not true. You can have just one custodial parent there provided you have a notarized affidavit from the other parent along. It's how we did our kiddo's last year because we had similar scheduling challenges. My wife filled out the document and got it notarized and I took him for the appointment. They pulled a last minute demand for a photocopy of her drivers license on me which required a ridiculous effort for me to get her to text it to me and me print it on the library printers - so I'm warning you of that bit of BS - but you absolutely can do it that way.
Check the passport document directions for a link to the needed document.
posted by phearlez at 7:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Unless something is special about your circumstances that is not true. You can have just one custodial parent there provided you have a notarized affidavit from the other parent along. It's how we did our kiddo's last year because we had similar scheduling challenges. My wife filled out the document and got it notarized and I took him for the appointment. They pulled a last minute demand for a photocopy of her drivers license on me which required a ridiculous effort for me to get her to text it to me and me print it on the library printers - so I'm warning you of that bit of BS - but you absolutely can do it that way.
Check the passport document directions for a link to the needed document.
posted by phearlez at 7:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
if anyone else has recommendations for intro readings about intersectionality that would be palatable to a white guy who thinks he knows about this shit but really doesn't I'd appreciate it.
INTERSECTIONALITY IS REAL
UNITY MEANS NOT ALL THE LEADERS WILL BE WHITE OR DUDES OR, ESPECIALLY, WHITE DUDES
WOMEN ARE ALREADY IN THE STREET
LGBTQ ARE ALREADY IN THE STREET
POC ARE ALREADY IN THE STREET
LATINX ARE ALREADY IN STREET
AMERICAN MUSLIMS ARE ALREADY IN THE STREET
AMERICAN JEWS ARE ALREADY IN THE STREET
WOULD YOU CARE TO JOIN THEM?
Signed,
A White Guy
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [71 favorites]
INTERSECTIONALITY IS REAL
UNITY MEANS NOT ALL THE LEADERS WILL BE WHITE OR DUDES OR, ESPECIALLY, WHITE DUDES
WOMEN ARE ALREADY IN THE STREET
LGBTQ ARE ALREADY IN THE STREET
POC ARE ALREADY IN THE STREET
LATINX ARE ALREADY IN STREET
AMERICAN MUSLIMS ARE ALREADY IN THE STREET
AMERICAN JEWS ARE ALREADY IN THE STREET
WOULD YOU CARE TO JOIN THEM?
Signed,
A White Guy
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [71 favorites]
I don't really see that? Science/tech/academic types usually enter under a nonimmigrant H1B or as a continuation of their nonimmigrant F visas as grad students, and then AOS to a work-based green card (or marry an American while they're here)
H-1Bs are going to be much harder to get and F-1 only lasts a year. The diversity lottery (a backdoor for post-grads which doesn't require as much hassle) is ending. Instead educational employers will be fighting for EB-2 spots of which only ~10,000 can come from a single country.
This is a major kick in the teeth to any sort of retention program of highly skilled graduates. Instead the graduates will go to China or Europe.
posted by Talez at 7:40 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
H-1Bs are going to be much harder to get and F-1 only lasts a year. The diversity lottery (a backdoor for post-grads which doesn't require as much hassle) is ending. Instead educational employers will be fighting for EB-2 spots of which only ~10,000 can come from a single country.
This is a major kick in the teeth to any sort of retention program of highly skilled graduates. Instead the graduates will go to China or Europe.
posted by Talez at 7:40 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Jalliah - I only know a bit about Moldbug. Does any of his thinking include dealing with the consequences of climate change? As in how it's going to disrupt everything?
I don't know his specific thoughts on climate change but I do know that he does not care if 99% of the world dies, so long as he personally gets to have the nicest hut and the most slaves.
Wonderful. I'm now diving into this Bannon thought world and am not looking forward to it. I'm telling myself that I'm a ranger, about to embark on a quest in the Dark Lands. Maybe that will help if I try to pretend it's an adventure.
posted by Jalliah at 7:41 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
I don't know his specific thoughts on climate change but I do know that he does not care if 99% of the world dies, so long as he personally gets to have the nicest hut and the most slaves.
Wonderful. I'm now diving into this Bannon thought world and am not looking forward to it. I'm telling myself that I'm a ranger, about to embark on a quest in the Dark Lands. Maybe that will help if I try to pretend it's an adventure.
posted by Jalliah at 7:41 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Thanks. I didn't see those points in the politico article, maybe because I missed them but gonna guess because politico.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:42 AM on February 7, 2017
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:42 AM on February 7, 2017
I don't know what SNL going at them harder would look like but that's why they're bigshot comedy writers and I'm not.
Since it's such a touchy subject, I'd love to see them insert little bits into the cold opens regarding Trump's lack of billions. Little asides like Trump quietly asking someone for a couple of dollars to cover greens fees, or asking someone for a dollar for the pop machine. Just little asides insinuating he has no money. A thousand paper cuts.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:43 AM on February 7, 2017 [36 favorites]
Since it's such a touchy subject, I'd love to see them insert little bits into the cold opens regarding Trump's lack of billions. Little asides like Trump quietly asking someone for a couple of dollars to cover greens fees, or asking someone for a dollar for the pop machine. Just little asides insinuating he has no money. A thousand paper cuts.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:43 AM on February 7, 2017 [36 favorites]
To be fair, I hear the H1B is also under fire for revision, and I cannot think that the new rules are going to be as helpful to academics as they currently are. I also note that academics are being heavily hit by the new country-specific bans--for example, the student who most recently graduated from my lab is an Iranian permanent resident and hadn't previously intended to leave the country after her newest postdoc in Seattle finishes. She has a first-author Science manuscript under her belt from her grad work here; she's a very promising scientist--and we're all worried for her here. Thank god she didn't go home to visit her family in Iran this winter as she'd originally planned to do.
It's not even just about it being harder for scientists to bring their families to live with them; a lot of this is upsetting scientists because it's vastly reducing the talent pool that PIs can pull from internationally, as potential advisers ask themselves whether it is ethical to recruit students whose visa status might be revoked or called into question under a hostile administration. I am already seeing PIs on my twitter feeds, which I have been largely absent from, talking about how they don't think they can recruit many of the promising people they would otherwise like to work with. Those people are already going to other countries instead.
We're afraid because US science traditionally recruits from a very, very wide base--my lab also had a permanent resident from Columbia until recently when he too graduated, and I know students here who are permanent residents from Lithuania, China, the UK, Australia, India--and that's in a department which is outside of my lab honestly pretty unusually white. And we're afraid because not only do we know damn well that there is little support for our immigrant friends and colleagues and coworkers under this administration, we know that this administration also hates us as scientists and academics, and will cheerfully overhaul the rules to make our jobs harder and remove some of the helpful loopholes that make immigration relatively easy for academics if it can.
posted by sciatrix at 7:43 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
It's not even just about it being harder for scientists to bring their families to live with them; a lot of this is upsetting scientists because it's vastly reducing the talent pool that PIs can pull from internationally, as potential advisers ask themselves whether it is ethical to recruit students whose visa status might be revoked or called into question under a hostile administration. I am already seeing PIs on my twitter feeds, which I have been largely absent from, talking about how they don't think they can recruit many of the promising people they would otherwise like to work with. Those people are already going to other countries instead.
We're afraid because US science traditionally recruits from a very, very wide base--my lab also had a permanent resident from Columbia until recently when he too graduated, and I know students here who are permanent residents from Lithuania, China, the UK, Australia, India--and that's in a department which is outside of my lab honestly pretty unusually white. And we're afraid because not only do we know damn well that there is little support for our immigrant friends and colleagues and coworkers under this administration, we know that this administration also hates us as scientists and academics, and will cheerfully overhaul the rules to make our jobs harder and remove some of the helpful loopholes that make immigration relatively easy for academics if it can.
posted by sciatrix at 7:43 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
sour cream: IT'S JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG, DON'T YOU SEE??!?It really does feel like both sides are screaming "Wake up, sheeple!" at each other all the time now.
posted by ragtag at 7:43 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
if anyone else has recommendations for intro readings about intersectionality that would be palatable to a white guy who thinks he knows about this shit but really doesn't I'd appreciate it.
Everyday Feminism? This sort of thing is kind of their whole reason for being.
posted by sciatrix at 7:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Everyday Feminism? This sort of thing is kind of their whole reason for being.
posted by sciatrix at 7:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
To be fair, I hear the H1B is also under fire for revision, and I cannot think that the new rules are going to be as helpful to academics as they currently are.
Dramatic cuts and $130K minimum salary. For most educational institutions this is a death knell for keeping graduates. Biotech might survive with all the tech shit being offshored instead of using H1-Bs.
posted by Talez at 7:45 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Dramatic cuts and $130K minimum salary. For most educational institutions this is a death knell for keeping graduates. Biotech might survive with all the tech shit being offshored instead of using H1-Bs.
posted by Talez at 7:45 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Trump's tweet about calling the shots reminds me of the best Tywin Lannister quote, "Any man who must say, "I am the king" is no true king."
posted by drezdn at 7:48 AM on February 7, 2017 [63 favorites]
posted by drezdn at 7:48 AM on February 7, 2017 [63 favorites]
Wonderful. I'm now diving into this Bannon thought world and am not looking forward to it. I'm telling myself that I'm a ranger, about to embark on a quest in the Dark Lands. Maybe that will help if I try to pretend it's an adventure.
you really don't have to dig very deeply to get the gist. read maybe one (half?) moldbug essay and you'll get all the low points. it's over-privileged libertarian softboys bloviating about how democracy is doomed to failure due to the inadequacy of the masses and how neo-feudalism will save the race by awarding power to those with the wherewithal to seize it.
naturally they end up near the top of the power structure in these fantasies.
posted by murphy slaw at 7:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
you really don't have to dig very deeply to get the gist. read maybe one (half?) moldbug essay and you'll get all the low points. it's over-privileged libertarian softboys bloviating about how democracy is doomed to failure due to the inadequacy of the masses and how neo-feudalism will save the race by awarding power to those with the wherewithal to seize it.
naturally they end up near the top of the power structure in these fantasies.
posted by murphy slaw at 7:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
YUP that's not just going to affect PhD students, it's going to affect postdocs. We were all salivating and going "oh my God such high salary very wow" when the Obama administration's overtime rules meant they had to pay postdocs a sweet $50k or else not make them work overtime.
For the record, the salary raise my dean was trying to use to tempt grad students to take 2 years of guaranteed support instead of the traditional five would bring us all the way up to a whopping $27k. I don't even think many senior profs make enough from salary for that cutoff.
posted by sciatrix at 7:53 AM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
For the record, the salary raise my dean was trying to use to tempt grad students to take 2 years of guaranteed support instead of the traditional five would bring us all the way up to a whopping $27k. I don't even think many senior profs make enough from salary for that cutoff.
posted by sciatrix at 7:53 AM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
Trump on travel ban: âYou know, some things are law, and Iâm all in favor of that, and some things are common sense. This is common sense.â (video)
OK.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
OK.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
Trump's tweet about calling the shots reminds me of the best Tywin Lannister quote, "Any man who must say, "I am the king" is no true king."
god I wish the Lannisters would stop popping into my mind ever single time I try to figure out what's going on in the Red Keep I mean the White House
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
god I wish the Lannisters would stop popping into my mind ever single time I try to figure out what's going on in the Red Keep I mean the White House
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
"I'm the decider" - also spoken by an empty figurehead while the Real President worked behind the scenes. Seems common among Republican Presidents. Out of the four in my lifetime, only George H.W. Bush wasn't obviously and blatantly a puppet for powers behind the throne.
Reagan and Trump seem similar in that both appear to have shared the delusion that they really were President, so the behind the scenes stuff is more divisive, more chaotic, and more factionalized.
Junior clearly knew from the outset that he was the face and Real President Cheney was in charge, which produced a less factionalized and divided Cabinet than Reagan had or Trump appears to be building. With those two Real President is a revolving post mostly dependent on who spoke to the Boy King last.
posted by sotonohito at 7:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Reagan and Trump seem similar in that both appear to have shared the delusion that they really were President, so the behind the scenes stuff is more divisive, more chaotic, and more factionalized.
Junior clearly knew from the outset that he was the face and Real President Cheney was in charge, which produced a less factionalized and divided Cabinet than Reagan had or Trump appears to be building. With those two Real President is a revolving post mostly dependent on who spoke to the Boy King last.
posted by sotonohito at 7:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Fun Fact! Many fantasy settings are based on the War of the Roses, so if you're into those allusions there are actual historical precedents available.
posted by winna at 7:55 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by winna at 7:55 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Gentleman Caller and I have a running inside joke involving a Pomeranian in a group of big dogs squeaking out "I'M THE ALPHA!" When Lord Dampnut tweeted that he calls the shots, I heard it in the voice of a Pom surrounded by Dobermans.
posted by pxe2000 at 7:57 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by pxe2000 at 7:57 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Ah, common sense. We had a "Common Sense Revolution" up here in Ontario 20 years ago and the province is still recovering from it. Turned out "common sense" meant "slash services, regulations, oversight and taxes to the point where schools and roads start falling apart, water supplies get tainted to the point where people die and public transit systems become financially untenable."
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:02 AM on February 7, 2017 [34 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:02 AM on February 7, 2017 [34 favorites]
the striking difference between Trump and Reagan is that Reagan managed to put a friendly face on all of his horrible regressive policies. he sold out the working class, minorities, and LBTQ by telling us that America was the greatest and would only get greater if the darn government would get out of our way. he was a nasty, empty man but he had most of the country convinced that he was good ol' grandpa with a big smile and a friendly wave.
Trump seems to share most of Reagan's inadequacies (incurious, easily distracted, surrounded by vipers slavering to dismantle the social infrastructure, bellicose) without any of the charisma or happy talk that allowed Reagan to get away with it.
Trump says everything is terrible and only he can save us; Reagan told us everything was wonderful and would only get better the more we relied on ourselves.
posted by murphy slaw at 8:03 AM on February 7, 2017 [29 favorites]
Trump seems to share most of Reagan's inadequacies (incurious, easily distracted, surrounded by vipers slavering to dismantle the social infrastructure, bellicose) without any of the charisma or happy talk that allowed Reagan to get away with it.
Trump says everything is terrible and only he can save us; Reagan told us everything was wonderful and would only get better the more we relied on ourselves.
posted by murphy slaw at 8:03 AM on February 7, 2017 [29 favorites]
I think for Trump common sense just means, "Look, every now and then I'm gonna break the law, so suck it."
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:05 AM on February 7, 2017 [20 favorites]
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:05 AM on February 7, 2017 [20 favorites]
Some moves just seems so tactically stupid that I can't understand. Like, fine, the topic of underreported terrorist attacks has now come up. I'll agree and go as far as to say there are plenty - in the Middle East. Like in Syria? The refugees are fleeing violence that frequently goes under or unreported. If every weekend was 9/11 and Sandy Hook, and you were fleeing, we'd be a right bunch of assholes to say "go away".
posted by fragmede at 8:05 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by fragmede at 8:05 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
but this rise in fascism is absolutely a worldwide movement; it's just seeping into certain places faster than others. I don't think it's really escapable any more -- only combatable.
Yes indeed - it is looking various degrees of bleak in most of everywhere at the moment.
Something that did help me with general doom about the future at the end of 2016 was comparing it to 1916 and 1816. 1916: half the world in turmoil, war, bloodshed. One million dead at the hell on earth that was the Battle of the Somme. 1816: 'Year without a Summer', when a massive volcanic eruption caused big climate shifts in the Northern Hemisphere. Freezing temperatures. Famines, floods, waves of epidemic cholera across Europe.
I don't say this in a kind of comparative "see, it's not so bad now!" sense. More that, if you were living through those things at that time, it must have felt like the literal end of the fucking world. I don't know how you could ever look up from there and see any kind of better future on the horizon. And for lots of people there wasn't, obviously - but for many (ordinary, good-hearted, well-intentioned) people who felt that bleak at the time, there was a better future waiting even if they couldn't even imagine it from where they were standing. And in large part, it existed because they made it themselves.
Also I play lots of different recordings of the 1940s song 'A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening'. This is because a) I like it and b) my grandfather-in-law fought in the Second World War, and one of the stories he told about that was being in mainland Europe in 1945 and hearing the news of VE Day, and one of his army friends climbing on the table in a pub to sing that song. My grandfather-in-law would start singing it himself every time he told the story, smiling the whole time.
So: fuck you Nazis, there's a better future out there and that's my anthem for it.
posted by Catseye at 8:07 AM on February 7, 2017 [73 favorites]
Yes indeed - it is looking various degrees of bleak in most of everywhere at the moment.
Something that did help me with general doom about the future at the end of 2016 was comparing it to 1916 and 1816. 1916: half the world in turmoil, war, bloodshed. One million dead at the hell on earth that was the Battle of the Somme. 1816: 'Year without a Summer', when a massive volcanic eruption caused big climate shifts in the Northern Hemisphere. Freezing temperatures. Famines, floods, waves of epidemic cholera across Europe.
I don't say this in a kind of comparative "see, it's not so bad now!" sense. More that, if you were living through those things at that time, it must have felt like the literal end of the fucking world. I don't know how you could ever look up from there and see any kind of better future on the horizon. And for lots of people there wasn't, obviously - but for many (ordinary, good-hearted, well-intentioned) people who felt that bleak at the time, there was a better future waiting even if they couldn't even imagine it from where they were standing. And in large part, it existed because they made it themselves.
Also I play lots of different recordings of the 1940s song 'A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening'. This is because a) I like it and b) my grandfather-in-law fought in the Second World War, and one of the stories he told about that was being in mainland Europe in 1945 and hearing the news of VE Day, and one of his army friends climbing on the table in a pub to sing that song. My grandfather-in-law would start singing it himself every time he told the story, smiling the whole time.
So: fuck you Nazis, there's a better future out there and that's my anthem for it.
posted by Catseye at 8:07 AM on February 7, 2017 [73 favorites]
Humans like to put things in a box and then label the box so they then know what to do with the box.
Labels like Republican. Democrat. Nazi. Fascist.
Trump is a 'license my name' operation. He's in a box of his own making.
SO:
Let Trump OWN what he's doing in his own name. Fears of US law and UK laws are an inhibitor to someone creating 1stpasstrump.com (or some domain) who's sole goal is to work on writing that 1st pass at what history will remember when the name Trump is used.
posted by rough ashlar at 8:08 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Labels like Republican. Democrat. Nazi. Fascist.
Trump is a 'license my name' operation. He's in a box of his own making.
SO:
Let Trump OWN what he's doing in his own name. Fears of US law and UK laws are an inhibitor to someone creating 1stpasstrump.com (or some domain) who's sole goal is to work on writing that 1st pass at what history will remember when the name Trump is used.
posted by rough ashlar at 8:08 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Ugh. That's all I can muster today. But I AM looking forward to the Feb 11 March here. NAACPnc.org has teamed up with HKonJ and Womens March on Raleigh & are expecting a decent turnout. Sign making party @ the Pinhook in Durham on Thursday, kids.
And count me in on the TBA Day without A Woman strike.
posted by yoga at 8:13 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
And count me in on the TBA Day without A Woman strike.
posted by yoga at 8:13 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
More that, if you were living through those things at that time, it must have felt like the literal end of the fucking world.
In many case, for many of those people, it *was* the end of the world. Between WWI and the Flu pandemic, something like 1 in 50 people on planet earth died in a six or seven year stretch. Just because the New Deal happened doesn't erase the misery that was the Depression. Et cetera.
Don't fall victim to the Whiggish history fallacy. On the other side of the coin, once upon a time the ancient greeks forgot how to read and write for, like, *500 years.* Things are not always getting better, than the don't always turn out okay. Which is not a call to apathy or anything, but always worth keeping in mind when we're talking about the so-called "lessons from history."
posted by absalom at 8:14 AM on February 7, 2017 [31 favorites]
In many case, for many of those people, it *was* the end of the world. Between WWI and the Flu pandemic, something like 1 in 50 people on planet earth died in a six or seven year stretch. Just because the New Deal happened doesn't erase the misery that was the Depression. Et cetera.
Don't fall victim to the Whiggish history fallacy. On the other side of the coin, once upon a time the ancient greeks forgot how to read and write for, like, *500 years.* Things are not always getting better, than the don't always turn out okay. Which is not a call to apathy or anything, but always worth keeping in mind when we're talking about the so-called "lessons from history."
posted by absalom at 8:14 AM on February 7, 2017 [31 favorites]
Trump's tweet about calling the shots reminds me of the best Tywin Lannister quote, "Any man who must say, "I am the king" is no true king."
Yup. If you ever find yourself saying, "Because I'm the boss -- that's why," then you've already lost.
posted by emelenjr at 8:15 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Yup. If you ever find yourself saying, "Because I'm the boss -- that's why," then you've already lost.
posted by emelenjr at 8:15 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
2017 MAKERS Conference Welcome Video: Remember, you are the heroes and history makers, the glass-ceiling breakers of the future. ... Never doubt you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world.
posted by rewil at 8:17 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by rewil at 8:17 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
David Frum, The Atlantic: How to Beat Trump
Here are a few useful tests:@sam_kriss:
a) Could this demand be achieved by a law passed through Congress?
b) Can I imagine my Rush Limbaugh listening brother-in-law agreeing with it?
c) Can I tweet it?
If so ⊠good.
Alternatively,
d) Would I still be upset about this if Marco Rubio were president now?
If so ... bad.
our new comrade david frum has some advice for left-wing resistance to the trump agenda, and it's to uphold the marco rubio agendaposted by Rustic Etruscan at 8:17 AM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
david frum at a protest: why not use right-wing symbols to support right-wing policies?
david frum at the marathon: it'd be quicker to drive
In many case, for many of those people, it *was* the end of the world. Between WWI and the Flu pandemic, something like 1 in 50 people on planet earth died in a six or seven year stretch.
Well, yes - I did indeed say exactly that! For a lot of people, of course, there wasn't any sort of future at all. But for others, there was, and there was because they made it, even after going through a time when it must have felt even more than today like: we're fucked, it's over, there's no hope of anything ever coming back from this.
posted by Catseye at 8:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Well, yes - I did indeed say exactly that! For a lot of people, of course, there wasn't any sort of future at all. But for others, there was, and there was because they made it, even after going through a time when it must have felt even more than today like: we're fucked, it's over, there's no hope of anything ever coming back from this.
posted by Catseye at 8:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Camerota: Why isn't the president talking about white terrorism?
Some other Conservative, pro-birth, anti-Islam Republicans, like, say, former Texas Representative Molly White, *really* don't like it when you ask them that question with a camera rolling.
They probably don't like it when it's reported by the press, either.
posted by the matching mole at 8:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
Some other Conservative, pro-birth, anti-Islam Republicans, like, say, former Texas Representative Molly White, *really* don't like it when you ask them that question with a camera rolling.
They probably don't like it when it's reported by the press, either.
posted by the matching mole at 8:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
They got Martha Stewart on 18 USC 1001, and Accused Child Rapist Donald J. Trump is being sued for lying by Summer Zervos, ( And it's common knowledge that Serial Sexual Predator Donald J. Trump Lies. All. The. Time. So this is where my money is:
18 U.S. Code § 1001 - Statements or entries generallyposted by mikelieman at 8:29 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfullyâ
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years or, if the offense involves international or domestic terrorism (as defined in section 2331), imprisoned not more than 8 years, or both. If the matter relates to an offense under chapter 109A, 109B, 110, or 117, or section 1591, then the term of imprisonment imposed under this section shall be not more than 8 years.
(b) Subsection (a) does not apply to a party to a judicial proceeding, or that partyâs counsel, for statements, representations, writings or documents submitted by such party or counsel to a judge or magistrate in that proceeding.
(c) With respect to any matter within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch, subsection (a) shall apply only toâ
(1) administrative matters, including a claim for payment, a matter related to the procurement of property or services, personnel or employment practices, or support services, or a document required by law, rule, or regulation to be submitted to the Congress or any office or officer within the legislative branch; or
(2) any investigation or review, conducted pursuant to the authority of any committee, subcommittee, commission or office of the Congress, consistent with applicable rules of the House or Senate.
I do think it's essential to remember though, that the fight against Trump is only one front in a planetary conflict.
The Enlightenment has been threatened since it was first invented, for convenience I'll call the opposition the darkness since it's actual name changed in every incarnation the anti-Enlightenment forces took.
Today the darkness is spreading again, and just as WWII didn't start on Dec 7 1941, neither did the current war against the darkness start with the election of Trump.
In India there's Modi.
In the Philippines there's Duterte.
In Japan there's Abe.
In the UK there's the whole UKIP/Brexit/whatever coalition.
In France there's LePen.
In Russia the darkness faltered briefly after the fall of the USSR, but is now fully back in power with Putin.
In China, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and dozens of other nations the darkness has held sway for decades.
This is not a new fight, it is not a local fight, it is an old fight that is taking place all over. If we lose sight of that, if we imagine that the fight is only against Trump we'll lose strategically even if we win in the USA. I'm not sure what we can do for our fellows fighting for the Enlightenment in other nations, I'm not sure if there's anything we can do right now. But we must remember that we all fight together and we're all after the same basic goal of Enlightenment values.
We are all accelerationists now. Most of us didn't want to be, but that's what we're stuck with like it or not.
The problem though, is that we aren't really fighting the big names. They have the backing of a great many of our fellow citizens, and while I advocate fighting I mean that in the sense of legal wrangling not actual physical conflict (for as long as we're allowed to fight that way). We certainly shouldn't be looking at our fellow citizens who have fallen under the sway of the darkness as enemy soldiers, as people to be killed. You can't murder your way to a better world.
And I don't know how to get them to give up the darkness and see the virtue of Enlightenment thinking. I don't much support accelerationism because I don't think it works: when things burn down the people who voted for Trump won't blame him, they won't suddenly become leftist or start voting Democratic. The idea of a new era of national politics with Democrats as the right wing party with the opposition coming from a new party to their left is a lovely fantasy, but I don't see a way to get from here to there no matter how much stuff Trump burns.
I think that's a very practical reason to look to the broader conflict, some of our allies in other places may develop techniques that we can apply.
posted by sotonohito at 8:34 AM on February 7, 2017 [53 favorites]
The Enlightenment has been threatened since it was first invented, for convenience I'll call the opposition the darkness since it's actual name changed in every incarnation the anti-Enlightenment forces took.
Today the darkness is spreading again, and just as WWII didn't start on Dec 7 1941, neither did the current war against the darkness start with the election of Trump.
In India there's Modi.
In the Philippines there's Duterte.
In Japan there's Abe.
In the UK there's the whole UKIP/Brexit/whatever coalition.
In France there's LePen.
In Russia the darkness faltered briefly after the fall of the USSR, but is now fully back in power with Putin.
In China, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and dozens of other nations the darkness has held sway for decades.
This is not a new fight, it is not a local fight, it is an old fight that is taking place all over. If we lose sight of that, if we imagine that the fight is only against Trump we'll lose strategically even if we win in the USA. I'm not sure what we can do for our fellows fighting for the Enlightenment in other nations, I'm not sure if there's anything we can do right now. But we must remember that we all fight together and we're all after the same basic goal of Enlightenment values.
We are all accelerationists now. Most of us didn't want to be, but that's what we're stuck with like it or not.
The problem though, is that we aren't really fighting the big names. They have the backing of a great many of our fellow citizens, and while I advocate fighting I mean that in the sense of legal wrangling not actual physical conflict (for as long as we're allowed to fight that way). We certainly shouldn't be looking at our fellow citizens who have fallen under the sway of the darkness as enemy soldiers, as people to be killed. You can't murder your way to a better world.
And I don't know how to get them to give up the darkness and see the virtue of Enlightenment thinking. I don't much support accelerationism because I don't think it works: when things burn down the people who voted for Trump won't blame him, they won't suddenly become leftist or start voting Democratic. The idea of a new era of national politics with Democrats as the right wing party with the opposition coming from a new party to their left is a lovely fantasy, but I don't see a way to get from here to there no matter how much stuff Trump burns.
I think that's a very practical reason to look to the broader conflict, some of our allies in other places may develop techniques that we can apply.
posted by sotonohito at 8:34 AM on February 7, 2017 [53 favorites]
Have there been any developments about his lease with the Old Post Office?
posted by kirkaracha at 8:37 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by kirkaracha at 8:37 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Trump offers to `destroy' a Texas senator to help Rockwall sheriff : At a meeting this morning with sheriffs from around the country, Sheriff Harold Eavenson complained about a state senator for getting in the way of some measures he felt would be helpful.
"Want to give his name? We'll destroy his career," Trump offered.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:37 AM on February 7, 2017 [66 favorites]
"Want to give his name? We'll destroy his career," Trump offered.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:37 AM on February 7, 2017 [66 favorites]
Have there been any developments about his lease with the Old Post Office?
Maybe?
Chaffetz has no idea why Trump wants to see him
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Maybe?
Chaffetz has no idea why Trump wants to see him
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
But we must remember that we all fight together and we're all after the same basic goal of Enlightenment values.
The last time Nazis were defeated, it took an invasion and Hitler's poor strategic thinking in turning a winnable 1 front war into a hopeless 2 front war. There's no white knight army on Earth that can invade and defeat Trumpism by force. Fascism has never been brought down internally before.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
The last time Nazis were defeated, it took an invasion and Hitler's poor strategic thinking in turning a winnable 1 front war into a hopeless 2 front war. There's no white knight army on Earth that can invade and defeat Trumpism by force. Fascism has never been brought down internally before.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
True. It's going to be one hell of a fight. The good news is that Trumpism isn't firmly embedded yet, and we do have institutional inertia on our side. We may be able to fight off the infection and recover.
posted by sotonohito at 8:43 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by sotonohito at 8:43 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Trump offers to `destroy' a Texas senator to help Rockwall sheriff : At a meeting this morning with sheriffs from around the country, Sheriff Harold Eavenson complained about a state senator for getting in the way of some measures he felt would be helpful.
"Want to give his name? We'll destroy his career," Trump offered.
HE SAID THAT IN FRONT OF THE FUCKING PRESS POOL. HSADFOIPKH!OI@#H%ROIQKBSNAFK
posted by Talez at 8:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [66 favorites]
"Want to give his name? We'll destroy his career," Trump offered.
HE SAID THAT IN FRONT OF THE FUCKING PRESS POOL. HSADFOIPKH!OI@#H%ROIQKBSNAFK
posted by Talez at 8:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [66 favorites]
Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel is throwing cold water on the Democrats' chances in the mid-terms: "It ain't gonna happen in 2018. Take a chill pill, man. You gotta be in this for the long haul."
He went on to suggest an objective for his party: "Winning's everything. If you don't win, you can't make the public policy. I say that because it is hard for people in our party to accept that principle. Sometimes, you've just got to win, OK? Our party likes to be right, even if they lose." He continued, "I don't go to moral victory speeches. I can't stand them. I've never lost an election. It's about winning, because if you win you then have the power to go do what has to get done. If you lose, you can write the book about what happened â great, that's really exciting! [/s]"
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
He went on to suggest an objective for his party: "Winning's everything. If you don't win, you can't make the public policy. I say that because it is hard for people in our party to accept that principle. Sometimes, you've just got to win, OK? Our party likes to be right, even if they lose." He continued, "I don't go to moral victory speeches. I can't stand them. I've never lost an election. It's about winning, because if you win you then have the power to go do what has to get done. If you lose, you can write the book about what happened â great, that's really exciting! [/s]"
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
Trump on travel ban: âYou know, some things are law, and Iâm all in favor of that, and some things are common sense. This is common sense.â (video)
Why do I feel this line of thinking would not play at all among Republicans discussing protestors and civil disobedience?
posted by Rykey at 8:45 AM on February 7, 2017
Why do I feel this line of thinking would not play at all among Republicans discussing protestors and civil disobedience?
posted by Rykey at 8:45 AM on February 7, 2017
Trump gives America's 'poorest white town' hope
"If you got a job here in Beattyville, you're lucky," says Amber Hayes, a bubbly 25-year-old mom of two, who also voted for Trump. She works at the county courthouse, but is paid by the Kentucky Transitional Assistance Program (K-TAP), a form of welfare.posted by octothorpe at 8:48 AM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
Coal, oil and tobacco made Beattyville a boom town in the 1800s and much of the 1900s. Locals like to bring up the fact that Lee County -- where Beattyville is located -- was the No. 1 oil-producing county east of the Mississippi at one time.
"Growing up in the '70s? Yeah, this was the place to be," says Chuck Caudhill, the general manager of the local paper, The Beattyville Enterprise. He calls the town the "gem of eastern Kentucky."
Today, the town is a ghost of its former self. The vast majority of Beattyville residents get some form of government aid -- 57% of households receive food stamps and 58% get disability payments from Social Security.
"I hope [Trump] don't take the benefits away, but at the same time, I think that once more jobs come in a lot of people won't need the benefits," says Hayes, who currently receives about $500 a month from government assistance. She's also on Obamacare.
"I hope [Trump] don't take the benefits away, but at the same time, I think that once more jobs come in a lot of people won't need the benefits," says Hayes, who currently receives about $500 a month from government assistance. She's also on Obamacare."
Self-delusion is a helluva drug.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:51 AM on February 7, 2017 [36 favorites]
Self-delusion is a helluva drug.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:51 AM on February 7, 2017 [36 favorites]
Self-delusion is a helluva drug.
And the only legal one she'll be able to afford after Obamacare's gone.
posted by Celsius1414 at 8:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
And the only legal one she'll be able to afford after Obamacare's gone.
posted by Celsius1414 at 8:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel is throwing cold water on the Democrats' chances in the mid-terms: "It ain't gonna happen in 2018. Take a chill pill, man. You gotta be in this for the long haul."
I realize it's important not to get expectations so high that engagement crashes and burns when the GOP retains control of Congress, but Democrats dropping to 40 votes or fewer in the Senate is such a nightmare scenario (assuming, as always, that representative democracy is still going to be a thing in 2019) that it'd be very nice if nobody did anything to tamp down on voter enthusiasm.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
I realize it's important not to get expectations so high that engagement crashes and burns when the GOP retains control of Congress, but Democrats dropping to 40 votes or fewer in the Senate is such a nightmare scenario (assuming, as always, that representative democracy is still going to be a thing in 2019) that it'd be very nice if nobody did anything to tamp down on voter enthusiasm.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
(Is there a reason we should care what Rahm thinks?)
posted by tobascodagama at 8:55 AM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by tobascodagama at 8:55 AM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
And how does the AARP feel about insurance prices for some of its membership going up drastically? Do they agree that 3.49 rounds down to 3, so all is good?
Most, not all, AARP members are on sweet Medicare and could give a damn about Obamacare. One of the big obstacles to generating approval for Obamacare is that it really only directly affects about 7% of the population and many of those are low income. So its easy for the Republican party to get their hate on for Obamacare because it really doesn't affect most Republicans. They treat it like the food stamp program for poor people.
posted by JackFlash at 8:55 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Most, not all, AARP members are on sweet Medicare and could give a damn about Obamacare. One of the big obstacles to generating approval for Obamacare is that it really only directly affects about 7% of the population and many of those are low income. So its easy for the Republican party to get their hate on for Obamacare because it really doesn't affect most Republicans. They treat it like the food stamp program for poor people.
posted by JackFlash at 8:55 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Trump offers to `destroy' a Texas senator to help Rockwall sheriff : At a meeting this morning with sheriffs from around the country, Sheriff Harold Eavenson complained about a state senator for getting in the way of some measures he felt would be helpful.He said that in front of the cameras
"Want to give his name? We'll destroy his career," Trump offered.
HE SAID THAT IN FRONT OF THE FUCKING PRESS POOL. HSADFOIPKH!OI@#H%ROIQKBSNAFK
posted by Brainy at 8:56 AM on February 7, 2017 [52 favorites]
I loathe Rahm Emmanuel, but he's right in this case. You do have to win. But you've also got to win with people who will vote the way you want or it's a meaningless victory. I'm probably too far on the purity side, I see that as necessary to counterbalance the "win even if the 'victory' is meaningless because you elected DINO's" side. We saw in 2008 how little "victory" meant if half our team was traitors.
But yeah, you do have to win or there's not much else to say.
posted by sotonohito at 8:57 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
But yeah, you do have to win or there's not much else to say.
posted by sotonohito at 8:57 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Fascism has never been brought down internally before.
At the same time, European countries such as Germany and Italy are perhaps not the best analogy for the US. Much much smaller, much more homogeneous, perhaps more akin to individual states than the full union (albeit states that were willing to go to horrific war with one another).
posted by Existential Dread at 8:58 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
At the same time, European countries such as Germany and Italy are perhaps not the best analogy for the US. Much much smaller, much more homogeneous, perhaps more akin to individual states than the full union (albeit states that were willing to go to horrific war with one another).
posted by Existential Dread at 8:58 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
So, since the state visit to the UK will happen, and the queen will have to endure it, how long afterwards before it's okay for her to invite Alec Baldwin over for tea?
posted by ocschwar at 8:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by ocschwar at 8:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel is throwing cold water on the Democrats' chances in the mid-terms: "It ain't gonna happen in 2018. Take a chill pill, man. You gotta be in this for the long haul."
Let's both hope he's wrong and hope he's that confidently wrong in his own re-election chances in 2019.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Let's both hope he's wrong and hope he's that confidently wrong in his own re-election chances in 2019.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Winning's everything. If you don't win, you can't make the public policy.
Hence why he covered up the McDonald video - had that come out at the time, Garcia would be mayor of Chicago now.
Fuck you very much, Rahm.
posted by NoxAeternum at 8:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
Hence why he covered up the McDonald video - had that come out at the time, Garcia would be mayor of Chicago now.
Fuck you very much, Rahm.
posted by NoxAeternum at 8:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel is throwing cold water on the Democrats' chances in the mid-terms: "It ain't gonna happen in 2018. Take a chill pill, man. You gotta be in this for the long haul."
He went on to suggest an objective for his party: "Winning's everything. If you don't win, you can't make the public policy. I say that because it is hard for people in our party to accept that principle. Sometimes, you've just got to win, OK? Our party likes to be right, even if they lose." He continued, "I don't go to moral victory speeches. I can't stand them. I've never lost an election. It's about winning, because if you win you then have the power to go do what has to get done. If you lose, you can write the book about what happened â great, that's really exciting! [/s]"
Rahm got primaried and nearly lost his mayoral race in Chicago against someone who was essentially running as 'not Rahm Emanuel'. And I want to stress how difficult it is for the mayor to get successfully primaried in Chicago - the reason why Daley ran unopposed for so many mayoral races isn't because he was universally beloved (he wasn't), but because the number of signatures it takes to get on the mayoral ballot is three times the number required for New York City. The last time an incumbent ran in an election and lost was 1983, against Jane Byrne - and that required a three way race.
So yes, we need to win, and we need to fight. But Rahm's not exactly a winning case here, since he can barely keep ahold of power with all of the odds stacked in his favor.
posted by dinty_moore at 8:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
He went on to suggest an objective for his party: "Winning's everything. If you don't win, you can't make the public policy. I say that because it is hard for people in our party to accept that principle. Sometimes, you've just got to win, OK? Our party likes to be right, even if they lose." He continued, "I don't go to moral victory speeches. I can't stand them. I've never lost an election. It's about winning, because if you win you then have the power to go do what has to get done. If you lose, you can write the book about what happened â great, that's really exciting! [/s]"
Rahm got primaried and nearly lost his mayoral race in Chicago against someone who was essentially running as 'not Rahm Emanuel'. And I want to stress how difficult it is for the mayor to get successfully primaried in Chicago - the reason why Daley ran unopposed for so many mayoral races isn't because he was universally beloved (he wasn't), but because the number of signatures it takes to get on the mayoral ballot is three times the number required for New York City. The last time an incumbent ran in an election and lost was 1983, against Jane Byrne - and that required a three way race.
So yes, we need to win, and we need to fight. But Rahm's not exactly a winning case here, since he can barely keep ahold of power with all of the odds stacked in his favor.
posted by dinty_moore at 8:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
The thing about winning is that after you've won, you have to keep winning. The point of winning is not to keep Rahm in office. It's to actually achieve parts of your agenda.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 9:00 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 9:00 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Oh my god. I mean, I was going to cackle snidely if it's bad enough that he's going to take down Cornyn or Cruz but he's going after the little guys if he's tackling state senators now--bear in mind that here in Texas, these guys aren't even professional politicians per se; that's why they only meet once every two years. This is not that guy's full-time gig. And I'm suddenly even more worried than I was about my kickass state Senator, who is doing his damndest to hold the line in Texas.
Also, I keep thinking of generational memory here, given how many Mefites are able to remember grandparents or even grandparents-in-law who actually fought Nazis to give them a memory that lets them push on, or who grumble that America has forgotten the protest songs of the 1960s. Personally, my (career military) grandfather is the only person I have ever met or heard of who cheerily told me in 2011 that he actually quite enjoyed his time in Vietnam flying bombers, which gave me a bit of a shock; my other grandfather, I don't know, because the man has pretty well never talked about anything that I can see. Both of my parents were born in '66, which sort of precludes any memories of their own for the Civil Rights era. They each turned 50 last year. These wellsprings of generational movement towards doing the right thing and remembering America's honor... they're more than a bit long in the tooth, now.
I always wonder about my demographics relative to the rest of the little boom of Millennials I'm part of; my birth year of 1990 put me right at the peak for that. How many other young people like me have any family connection to these moral movements? How many of us feel adrift and lost?
posted by sciatrix at 9:01 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Also, I keep thinking of generational memory here, given how many Mefites are able to remember grandparents or even grandparents-in-law who actually fought Nazis to give them a memory that lets them push on, or who grumble that America has forgotten the protest songs of the 1960s. Personally, my (career military) grandfather is the only person I have ever met or heard of who cheerily told me in 2011 that he actually quite enjoyed his time in Vietnam flying bombers, which gave me a bit of a shock; my other grandfather, I don't know, because the man has pretty well never talked about anything that I can see. Both of my parents were born in '66, which sort of precludes any memories of their own for the Civil Rights era. They each turned 50 last year. These wellsprings of generational movement towards doing the right thing and remembering America's honor... they're more than a bit long in the tooth, now.
I always wonder about my demographics relative to the rest of the little boom of Millennials I'm part of; my birth year of 1990 put me right at the peak for that. How many other young people like me have any family connection to these moral movements? How many of us feel adrift and lost?
posted by sciatrix at 9:01 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
One of the big obstacles to generating approval for Obamacare is that it really only directly affects about 7% of the population and many of those are low income
Eh, I think the elements of Obamacare that are hugely helpful for people who are not on Obamacare are worth pointing out: the prohibition against using pre-existing conditions to deny coverage; the ability of parents to keep kids on their plan until they're 26; and the ability to get free birth control.
I'm not on Obamacare, but I saved $1000 when I got an IUD a year ago -- even though it was for reasons other than birth control.
If people know that Obamacare is what keeps them insurable because they had depression or cancer or asthma or whatever once fifteen years ago, that makes an enormous difference in how they think about the law. The problem is that they don't know, or are among the relatively small group of people whose premiums increased a lot (mostly because their original plan didn't meet the standards).
posted by suelac at 9:01 AM on February 7, 2017 [22 favorites]
Eh, I think the elements of Obamacare that are hugely helpful for people who are not on Obamacare are worth pointing out: the prohibition against using pre-existing conditions to deny coverage; the ability of parents to keep kids on their plan until they're 26; and the ability to get free birth control.
I'm not on Obamacare, but I saved $1000 when I got an IUD a year ago -- even though it was for reasons other than birth control.
If people know that Obamacare is what keeps them insurable because they had depression or cancer or asthma or whatever once fifteen years ago, that makes an enormous difference in how they think about the law. The problem is that they don't know, or are among the relatively small group of people whose premiums increased a lot (mostly because their original plan didn't meet the standards).
posted by suelac at 9:01 AM on February 7, 2017 [22 favorites]
Coal, oil and tobacco made Beattyville a boom town in the 1800s and much of the 1900s.
Those aint coming back. It's a fight I see here in my rural western county. The local pols love the oil jobs, but every 10 years or so, the oil price craters and the economy is decimated. The extraction industry is only viable when the price is high. Once demand diminishes, or supply increases - those jobs go away. The local jobs, that is. I can assure you that the execs in the main office in Dallas or Dubai still collect paychecks.
Meanwhile, the outdoor industry is booming, bringing jobs and opportunities for small businesses (bike shops, outfitters, breweries, pizza places) and my county commissioner says "we need real jobs and real businesses".
Look at Moab, UT at the height of the oil and mining industry, and look at it today. Extraction jobs make a CEO in some other place rich. Outdoor jobs make a local resident rich. Why so stupid, conservatives ?
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 9:02 AM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
Those aint coming back. It's a fight I see here in my rural western county. The local pols love the oil jobs, but every 10 years or so, the oil price craters and the economy is decimated. The extraction industry is only viable when the price is high. Once demand diminishes, or supply increases - those jobs go away. The local jobs, that is. I can assure you that the execs in the main office in Dallas or Dubai still collect paychecks.
Meanwhile, the outdoor industry is booming, bringing jobs and opportunities for small businesses (bike shops, outfitters, breweries, pizza places) and my county commissioner says "we need real jobs and real businesses".
Look at Moab, UT at the height of the oil and mining industry, and look at it today. Extraction jobs make a CEO in some other place rich. Outdoor jobs make a local resident rich. Why so stupid, conservatives ?
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 9:02 AM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
He said that in front of the cameras
Jesus fuck, the cackling. The fucking cackling.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:02 AM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
Jesus fuck, the cackling. The fucking cackling.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:02 AM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
AARP makes more money from selling Medigap plans than membership fees. They have a vested interest in keeping things broken.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:03 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:03 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Labor Secretary nominee Andrew Puzder acknowledged Tuesday that he had employed an undocumented worker as a housekeeper.
"We have fully paid back taxes to the IRS and the State of California."
This implies that he illegally failed to pay payroll taxes, including his contribution to Social Security. That's wage theft.
This is the guy they want for Labor Secretary? Well, of course.
posted by JackFlash at 9:08 AM on February 7, 2017 [22 favorites]
"We have fully paid back taxes to the IRS and the State of California."
This implies that he illegally failed to pay payroll taxes, including his contribution to Social Security. That's wage theft.
This is the guy they want for Labor Secretary? Well, of course.
posted by JackFlash at 9:08 AM on February 7, 2017 [22 favorites]
Even though it looks like DeVos will squeak through, it may be useful for us to fax Chuck Schumer and tell him how great it has been to see the Democratic Senate caucus present a united front against DeVos. Schumer isn't my favorite, but I think he needs to see how much left-leaning people all over the country are heartened by the Dems not rolling over.
Talking points:
* Excellent and energizing to see the Democratic caucus fully united against a supremely unqualified cabinet nominee.
* Every day of delays and obstruction is one more day of conserving what is left of our country's institutions.
* Keep obstructing and we'll keep giving you the cover to do it.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 9:08 AM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
Talking points:
* Excellent and energizing to see the Democratic caucus fully united against a supremely unqualified cabinet nominee.
* Every day of delays and obstruction is one more day of conserving what is left of our country's institutions.
* Keep obstructing and we'll keep giving you the cover to do it.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 9:08 AM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
WH official: We'll say 'fake news' until media realizes attitude of attacking the President is wrong
the beatings/fascism will continue until morale improves
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:08 AM on February 7, 2017 [53 favorites]
the beatings/fascism will continue until morale improves
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:08 AM on February 7, 2017 [53 favorites]
NYT tool updates the votes live and shows clearly who is voting how.
posted by prefpara at 9:13 AM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by prefpara at 9:13 AM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
Thanks prefpara. That's a heckuva lot easier to follow. :p
posted by slipthought at 9:15 AM on February 7, 2017
posted by slipthought at 9:15 AM on February 7, 2017
It's also updating faster than the C-SPAN feed is coming through for me.
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:15 AM on February 7, 2017
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:15 AM on February 7, 2017
NYT tool updates the votes live and shows clearly who is voting how.
Oof, watching that just sent my anxiety through the roof.
posted by Existential Dread at 9:15 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Oof, watching that just sent my anxiety through the roof.
posted by Existential Dread at 9:15 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
> NYT tool updates the votes live and shows clearly who is voting how.
Because what I really wanted today is to recapture that feeling I had watching the November election results.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:16 AM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
Because what I really wanted today is to recapture that feeling I had watching the November election results.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:16 AM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
Oof, watching that just sent my anxiety through the roof.
posted by Existential Dread
1. sorry!
2. heh
posted by prefpara at 9:16 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Existential Dread
1. sorry!
2. heh
posted by prefpara at 9:16 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Toomey did the bad thing.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:17 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:17 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Toomey voted to confirm so anyone in his state may want to consider sending him a bag of dicks.
posted by prefpara at 9:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by prefpara at 9:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
Milkshake status: dranked.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by tonycpsu at 9:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Senate voting now on DeVos
I suspect the only reason Collins and Murkowski flipped is they got the OK from McConnell first, knowing he would still have the 50 votes for DeVos plus Pence to tie.
None of the others was ever wavering, no matter what their office staff told callers.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
I suspect the only reason Collins and Murkowski flipped is they got the OK from McConnell first, knowing he would still have the 50 votes for DeVos plus Pence to tie.
None of the others was ever wavering, no matter what their office staff told callers.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
If approved, the number of legal immigrants allowed into the U.S. under the bill would plummet by 40% in the first year and by 50% over the next 10 years, according to Cotton's aides.
Oh, for those halcyon days a full week ago where I was pretty sure that "Hey guys, I think they're going to kill immigration to boost the demographics at home" was possible, but also so paranoid it was going to embarrass me to post it.
Hey guys, as someone whose family got out of one country while the getting was good, the speed of these changes means now is definitely the time to get your passport, check in with international friends, and start socking away money.
posted by corb at 9:20 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Oh, for those halcyon days a full week ago where I was pretty sure that "Hey guys, I think they're going to kill immigration to boost the demographics at home" was possible, but also so paranoid it was going to embarrass me to post it.
Hey guys, as someone whose family got out of one country while the getting was good, the speed of these changes means now is definitely the time to get your passport, check in with international friends, and start socking away money.
posted by corb at 9:20 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Hey God, I'll Trade You Donald Trump for Leonard Cohen.
(Terrible video for a shaggy little dog of a song, but it's fun anyway.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:21 AM on February 7, 2017
(Terrible video for a shaggy little dog of a song, but it's fun anyway.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:21 AM on February 7, 2017
Since Sessions is up for a Cabinet position, I don't think he should be allowed to vote on Cabinet appointees. Conflict of interest, much?
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 9:21 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 9:21 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Yeah, when I heard that Barrasso was the last hope, I pretty much figured all hope was lost.
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:21 AM on February 7, 2017
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:21 AM on February 7, 2017
Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel is throwing cold water on the Democrats' chances in the mid-terms: "It ain't gonna happen in 2018. Take a chill pill, man. You gotta be in this for the long haul."
The Democrats may not take the Senate but there is absolutely no reason to be defeatist about the House. We only need 24 seats. 24 seats!!
The Republicans got 63 seats in 2010. We only need to do half as well in 2018 as they did in 2010 to get control of the House. Hell, there are 20 seats up for grabs with Republican reps that went for Clinton. And dozens more winnable districts. One of my close friends is in NJ-11, where 450 constituents showed up last Friday to demand a meeting with their Republican rep. They'll be there next Friday too.
I don't know what Emanuel's goal is in dampening expectations for a totally winnable race, but I do know that his defeatist attitude was key in dismantling Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy. So I'm really not inclined to care about a thing he says.
posted by galaxy rise at 9:23 AM on February 7, 2017 [47 favorites]
The Democrats may not take the Senate but there is absolutely no reason to be defeatist about the House. We only need 24 seats. 24 seats!!
The Republicans got 63 seats in 2010. We only need to do half as well in 2018 as they did in 2010 to get control of the House. Hell, there are 20 seats up for grabs with Republican reps that went for Clinton. And dozens more winnable districts. One of my close friends is in NJ-11, where 450 constituents showed up last Friday to demand a meeting with their Republican rep. They'll be there next Friday too.
I don't know what Emanuel's goal is in dampening expectations for a totally winnable race, but I do know that his defeatist attitude was key in dismantling Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy. So I'm really not inclined to care about a thing he says.
posted by galaxy rise at 9:23 AM on February 7, 2017 [47 favorites]
Silver lining: if the dems pull out a party line vote with no defections, isn't that nice? Doesn't that give some heart to the resistance?
posted by prefpara at 9:23 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by prefpara at 9:23 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
From the above-cited link to the Politico piece:
âTo believe in nonsense is an unforgeable [sic] demonstration of loyalty. It serves as a political uniform. And if you have a uniform, you have an army" and "nonsense is a more effective organizing tool than the truth." [Moldbug]
This explains both the false news and its believers better than any other explanation I've read thus far. For this revolution to succeed you must select people who will believe in unreality.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:24 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
âTo believe in nonsense is an unforgeable [sic] demonstration of loyalty. It serves as a political uniform. And if you have a uniform, you have an army" and "nonsense is a more effective organizing tool than the truth." [Moldbug]
This explains both the false news and its believers better than any other explanation I've read thus far. For this revolution to succeed you must select people who will believe in unreality.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:24 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Excommunicated Cardinal: Since Sessions is up for a Cabinet position, I don't think he should be allowed to vote on Cabinet appointees. Conflict of interest, much?
He abstained for Mattis and Kelly.
posted by slipthought at 9:24 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
He abstained for Mattis and Kelly.
posted by slipthought at 9:24 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
> Silver lining: if the dems pull out a party line vote with no defections, isn't that nice? Doesn't that give some heart to the resistance?
A party-line vote against DeVos is the bare minimum that should be acceptable. I have a very hard time seeing it as anything to get excited about.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
A party-line vote against DeVos is the bare minimum that should be acceptable. I have a very hard time seeing it as anything to get excited about.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
I suspect the only reason Collins and Murkowski flipped is they got the OK from McConnell first, knowing he would still have the 50 votes for DeVos plus Pence to tie.
My thoughts too. They'd rather have a rank incompetent kneecapping education nationwide while doing nothing more to further their policy agenda than a competent evil person would, than lose face by withdrawing a nominee. One more reminder that this isn't about governance, it's about tribalism and turning the full force of the American government to teabagging liberals.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
My thoughts too. They'd rather have a rank incompetent kneecapping education nationwide while doing nothing more to further their policy agenda than a competent evil person would, than lose face by withdrawing a nominee. One more reminder that this isn't about governance, it's about tribalism and turning the full force of the American government to teabagging liberals.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
He abstained for Mattis and Kelly.
It's not an ethical stance if you only do it when it doesn't inconvenience you.
posted by suelac at 9:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [27 favorites]
It's not an ethical stance if you only do it when it doesn't inconvenience you.
posted by suelac at 9:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [27 favorites]
The last time Nazis were defeated,
The national socialists in Germany were defeated.
But the supporters in the US of A is why war was declared on Japan and not Japan + others. Germany is the one who declared war on the US of A.
What makes anyone think all the ideas of the national socialists were "defeated" with the fall of Germany?
(An example - Orange Fanta soda has only grown in popularity in the US. I'm sure others can be named that is less distasteful.)
posted by rough ashlar at 9:26 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
The national socialists in Germany were defeated.
But the supporters in the US of A is why war was declared on Japan and not Japan + others. Germany is the one who declared war on the US of A.
What makes anyone think all the ideas of the national socialists were "defeated" with the fall of Germany?
(An example - Orange Fanta soda has only grown in popularity in the US. I'm sure others can be named that is less distasteful.)
posted by rough ashlar at 9:26 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
He abstained for Mattis and Kelly.
Well he didn't this time.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 9:26 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Well he didn't this time.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 9:26 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
We need to make sure Collins and Murkowski don't get any credit for voting no. They could have stopped it in committee and they didn't. They are just as responsible as every Republican who votes yes - and more morally objectionable IMO because they're attempting to hide their cravenness and profit (polls/politics-wise) from it.
posted by melissasaurus at 9:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [58 favorites]
posted by melissasaurus at 9:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [58 favorites]
Silver lining: if the dems pull out a party line vote with no defections, isn't that nice? Doesn't that give some heart to the resistance?
A party-line vote against DeVos is the bare minimum that should be acceptable. I have a very hard time seeing it as anything to get excited about.
It's also the most they could be expected to do.
posted by Etrigan at 9:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
A party-line vote against DeVos is the bare minimum that should be acceptable. I have a very hard time seeing it as anything to get excited about.
It's also the most they could be expected to do.
posted by Etrigan at 9:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
FUCK YOU TOOMEY
posted by lazaruslong at 9:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
posted by lazaruslong at 9:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
tiebreak to be called by pence
fuckers
posted by lalochezia at 9:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
fuckers
posted by lalochezia at 9:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Fuck.
posted by dnash at 9:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by dnash at 9:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm going to go puke now.
posted by pxe2000 at 9:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by pxe2000 at 9:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
And it's over - 50 vs. 50. Gross. Sorry, children of America.
posted by prefpara at 9:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by prefpara at 9:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
50-50. Pence will be the tiebreaker.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 9:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by rabbitrabbit at 9:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
And that's it. 50-50, which means it goes to Pence, which means DeVos is in.
I am red with rage.
posted by Westringia F. at 9:29 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
I am red with rage.
posted by Westringia F. at 9:29 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Of course a Steve would cast the tying vote.
posted by emelenjr at 9:29 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by emelenjr at 9:29 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Silver lining: if the dems pull out a party line vote with no defections, isn't that nice? Doesn't that give some heart to the resistance?
Not really. This is still low stakes in the grand scheme, and they targeted this vote as 'the one' that they were going all out to stop. It's a fairly transparent ploy of playing at party unity on low hanging fruit, while Sessions will probably get 15-20 Democratic votes, and some will undoubtedly vote for Gorsuch, and vote to break a filibuster against their own side.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:30 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Not really. This is still low stakes in the grand scheme, and they targeted this vote as 'the one' that they were going all out to stop. It's a fairly transparent ploy of playing at party unity on low hanging fruit, while Sessions will probably get 15-20 Democratic votes, and some will undoubtedly vote for Gorsuch, and vote to break a filibuster against their own side.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:30 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
The Republicans got 63 seats in 2010. We only need to do half as well in 2018 as they did in 2010 to get control of the House. Hell, there are 20 seats up for grabs with Republican reps that went for Clinton. And dozens more winnable districts.
24 needed to take control.
These 23 Republicans hold congressional districts that voted for Hillary Clinton
24 needed to take control.
These 23 Republicans hold congressional districts that voted for Hillary Clinton
As Democrats look to gain the 24 seats necessary to obtain a House majority, the 23 Republican-held congressional districts that voted for Hillary Clinton are a logical place to start.posted by chris24 at 9:31 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
As shown on the map above (see here for a larger version), most of these districts are located in upscale suburbs, particularly in Sun Belt states like California and Texas. Several of these seats have substantial Latino populations, while most also have many highly educated white voters who long leaned Republican before they revolted against Donald Trump. White voters have strongly polarized by education level in recent elections, with those holding a college degree increasingly voting Democratic at much higher rates than those who lack a four-year degree. If that trend persists, Trump could remain very unpopular in these suburban districts, giving Democrats an opening downballot.
"Want to give his name? We'll destroy his career," Trump offered.
Alas, even if this results in better laws to prevent using a government agency to exact revenge odds are it'll be like the Nixon inspired laws about the IRS. Existing on the books and seeming not enforced.
Paul Breslan is quoted as saying "What do you expect when you sue the president?" How has that resulted in enforcement?
posted by rough ashlar at 9:31 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Alas, even if this results in better laws to prevent using a government agency to exact revenge odds are it'll be like the Nixon inspired laws about the IRS. Existing on the books and seeming not enforced.
Paul Breslan is quoted as saying "What do you expect when you sue the president?" How has that resulted in enforcement?
posted by rough ashlar at 9:31 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
> It's also the most they could be expected to do.
Yes, I understand math. The question was whether it should "give heart to the resistance", which is another matter entirely. If you want to energize your base, performing at replacement level is not going to cut it.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:31 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yes, I understand math. The question was whether it should "give heart to the resistance", which is another matter entirely. If you want to energize your base, performing at replacement level is not going to cut it.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:31 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
If DeVos is seated but all Democrats voted against her I'll count that as a solid win.
We are in desperate, **DIRE** need of party unity, and desperate need to get those wavering DINO scumbags to vote with us for a fucking change. If Schumer can get that job done I will applaud him until my hands are numb.
The only hope we have is for the Democrats, especially the Senate Democrats, to be united against Trump. There is no other path forward, no other chance for survival. The stamp of bipartisanship must never be applied to anything Trump does.
If the Democrats filibuster Gorsuch, McConnell nukes the filibuster, and then Gorsuch is seated without a single Democratic vote I'll count that as a win too. At this point, where we are, simply getting those spineless DINO's to vote the right way, to finally stand with us when it matters, is as big a victory as we can expect.
As for pragmatic politics I'll trade the incrementalists Manchin's survival for Feinstein's ouster, sound like a deal? We get rid of Feinstein in the primaries and we're guaranteed a Democratic replacement because, California. If Manchin is such a big deal to some Democrats I'm willing to let him survive as long as we get rid of at least one DINO in 2018.
But we need to primary a DINO in order to terrify the others into compliance. I'd prefer more than one, I'm bloodthirsty right now. But from my POV one primaried DINO is the absolute, rock bottom, minimum to keep the Party together.
posted by sotonohito at 9:33 AM on February 7, 2017 [39 favorites]
We are in desperate, **DIRE** need of party unity, and desperate need to get those wavering DINO scumbags to vote with us for a fucking change. If Schumer can get that job done I will applaud him until my hands are numb.
The only hope we have is for the Democrats, especially the Senate Democrats, to be united against Trump. There is no other path forward, no other chance for survival. The stamp of bipartisanship must never be applied to anything Trump does.
If the Democrats filibuster Gorsuch, McConnell nukes the filibuster, and then Gorsuch is seated without a single Democratic vote I'll count that as a win too. At this point, where we are, simply getting those spineless DINO's to vote the right way, to finally stand with us when it matters, is as big a victory as we can expect.
As for pragmatic politics I'll trade the incrementalists Manchin's survival for Feinstein's ouster, sound like a deal? We get rid of Feinstein in the primaries and we're guaranteed a Democratic replacement because, California. If Manchin is such a big deal to some Democrats I'm willing to let him survive as long as we get rid of at least one DINO in 2018.
But we need to primary a DINO in order to terrify the others into compliance. I'd prefer more than one, I'm bloodthirsty right now. But from my POV one primaried DINO is the absolute, rock bottom, minimum to keep the Party together.
posted by sotonohito at 9:33 AM on February 7, 2017 [39 favorites]
I just uploaded a picture of a grizzly bear to my Facebook, with a "thanks a lot, senators" meme caption.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:33 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:33 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
I look forward to any of the DeVos 50 ever saying again that they take constituent opinions seriously. Because I will never believe that any of them, in any state, no matter how deep red, got more calls in favor of her than against.
posted by Etrigan at 9:33 AM on February 7, 2017 [59 favorites]
posted by Etrigan at 9:33 AM on February 7, 2017 [59 favorites]
If you want to energize your base, performing at replacement level is not going to cut it.
What they wanted doesn't have anything to do with it. This was literally all they could do, plus two. No, it wasn't "energizing". That doesn't mean we need to actively shit on them for not being able to break math more.
posted by Etrigan at 9:35 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
What they wanted doesn't have anything to do with it. This was literally all they could do, plus two. No, it wasn't "energizing". That doesn't mean we need to actively shit on them for not being able to break math more.
posted by Etrigan at 9:35 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Pressure them to release the numbers. Hold it over their heads. Either they ignored the will of their constituents or they are not transparent. Either way it should be a black mark against them.
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:36 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:36 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
None of the DeVos 50 should ever, not one single time, get to talk about how they want to help children, or how they support education, without uproarious laughter drowning out their bullshit.
posted by sotonohito at 9:36 AM on February 7, 2017 [47 favorites]
posted by sotonohito at 9:36 AM on February 7, 2017 [47 favorites]
Even though this vote is low-hanging fruit, I still think our legislators need to know that they will be rewarded for this sort of stance. If it always only takes 3 Republican Senators to reject legislation or appointments, it puts the majority party in a precarious position because it then prevents fewer Republicans from being able to vote against bills to claim the fig leaf of 'independence'.
Is this outcome the one I wanted? Hell no. Do I want the Senate Democrats to keep voting this way, as a unified front? Hell yes.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 9:36 AM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
Is this outcome the one I wanted? Hell no. Do I want the Senate Democrats to keep voting this way, as a unified front? Hell yes.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 9:36 AM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Capitol: House GOP just voted to eliminate only federal agency charged with making sure voting machines can't be hacked
posted by zombieflanders at 9:37 AM on February 7, 2017 [37 favorites]
posted by zombieflanders at 9:37 AM on February 7, 2017 [37 favorites]
> No, it wasn't "energizing". That doesn't mean we need to actively shit on them for not being able to break math more.
It seems we agree on the original question, then. I dispute your characterization that I'm "shitting on them", but given how bad this day is for both of us, I'm going to go take a walk rather than debate the finer points of what you think I was saying versus what I said.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:37 AM on February 7, 2017
It seems we agree on the original question, then. I dispute your characterization that I'm "shitting on them", but given how bad this day is for both of us, I'm going to go take a walk rather than debate the finer points of what you think I was saying versus what I said.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:37 AM on February 7, 2017
I look forward to any of the DeVos 50 ever saying again that they take constituent opinions seriously.
Let this be a demonstration that calls don't count for shit on the GOP side: what counts is whether the senators in question have been given the nod by Yertle McTurtle to impersonate independent judgement. Time to show up to their home state photo-ops (especially education-related) and make them a fucking misery.
posted by holgate at 9:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
Let this be a demonstration that calls don't count for shit on the GOP side: what counts is whether the senators in question have been given the nod by Yertle McTurtle to impersonate independent judgement. Time to show up to their home state photo-ops (especially education-related) and make them a fucking misery.
posted by holgate at 9:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
I want to puke.
I'll call my senators and thank them for voting against DeVos when I'm not so angry, but for now I just want to reiterate: Conservatism is, at its core, the revenge of the old against the young, and the rich against the poor. Fuck.
posted by Existential Dread at 9:39 AM on February 7, 2017 [30 favorites]
I'll call my senators and thank them for voting against DeVos when I'm not so angry, but for now I just want to reiterate: Conservatism is, at its core, the revenge of the old against the young, and the rich against the poor. Fuck.
posted by Existential Dread at 9:39 AM on February 7, 2017 [30 favorites]
Does this Sessions cloture vote happening now mean anything?
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:42 AM on February 7, 2017
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:42 AM on February 7, 2017
idiocracy was not supposed to be a how-to
posted by entropicamericana at 9:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by entropicamericana at 9:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Mod note: One deleted; please don't go after each other or get into a spiralling back-and-forth over minor differences in reaction to DeVos vote.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
I am depressed. If we couldn't stop someone as grossly, epically unqualified as DeVos, I don't think there's any chance we'll avoid Sessions as AG. It's so damnably frustrating.
posted by suelac at 9:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by suelac at 9:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
idiocracy was not supposed to be a how-to
Idiocracy would almost be a step up.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 9:48 AM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
Idiocracy would almost be a step up.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 9:48 AM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
Does this Sessions cloture vote happening now mean anything?
Not really, because they only need 50 votes for cloture on a cabinet nomination. Dems can talk for 30 hours after the cloture vote passes (with some added procedural restrictions), and I'd be really happy if they made the confirmation process as long and painful as possible, but I didn't hear any plans to replicate the DeVos all-nighter.
posted by Leslie Knope at 9:49 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Not really, because they only need 50 votes for cloture on a cabinet nomination. Dems can talk for 30 hours after the cloture vote passes (with some added procedural restrictions), and I'd be really happy if they made the confirmation process as long and painful as possible, but I didn't hear any plans to replicate the DeVos all-nighter.
posted by Leslie Knope at 9:49 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
I look forward to the National Scholarship Program*.
*It won't actually be a scholarship program, just a way to funnel federal money into religious schools again.
posted by Talez at 9:49 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
*It won't actually be a scholarship program, just a way to funnel federal money into religious schools again.
posted by Talez at 9:49 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Idiocracy would almost be a step up
They had health care, at least.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:51 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
They had health care, at least.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:51 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
I don't have any jokes. I really wanted to have a joke here. Not even necessarily a lift-your-spirits kind of joke. I would have settled for gallows humor. But I have no jokes. My kid turns eight in a few weeks and his public school is fantastic. But I'm acutely aware that we also live in the suburbs amidst a bunch of people who'd likely cheerfully take their voucher dollars and flee to religious schools. And even if my kid's school makes out okay, what about other kids?
I'm just out of jokes.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
I'm just out of jokes.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
Sessions was always getting confirmed, there's been no sign of GOP defectors even from the so-called persuadable usual suspects.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:53 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:53 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
WH official: We'll say 'fake news' until media realizes attitude of attacking the President is wrong
The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.-- Teddy Roosevelt
posted by kirkaracha at 9:53 AM on February 7, 2017 [86 favorites]
Voice of Opposition John McCain waved the banner of resistance as he voted for DeVos.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [58 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [58 favorites]
To revise and extend: the calls and the performative aspects (such as the overnight Dem fauxlibuster) matter in terms of sustaining activist momentum for the long fight, but you shouldn't expect them to change the vote of any elected GOPer. It establishes good habits. But power is power. There will be no victories for the Dems in the nomination battles, but their fight is to force the GOP to use its power early and often and be bound to its consequences.
posted by holgate at 9:56 AM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by holgate at 9:56 AM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
Today, Representative Thomas Massie introduced H.R. 899, a bill to abolish the federal Department of Education. The bill, which is one sentence long, states, âThe Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2018.â
posted by flatluigi at 9:56 AM on February 7, 2017 [22 favorites]
posted by flatluigi at 9:56 AM on February 7, 2017 [22 favorites]
we also live in the suburbs amidst a bunch of people who'd likely cheerfully take their vouchers dollars and flee to religious schools
My two-year-old is in a gymnastics class. Parents stand in a tiny room and watch through a one-way-mirror. A couple of weeks ago, one parent was talking with another about sending her kids to private religious school because kids "get lost" in public school (whatever that means). The other parent, himself a Catholic school graduate, agreed. I wanted to fucking spit.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:57 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
My two-year-old is in a gymnastics class. Parents stand in a tiny room and watch through a one-way-mirror. A couple of weeks ago, one parent was talking with another about sending her kids to private religious school because kids "get lost" in public school (whatever that means). The other parent, himself a Catholic school graduate, agreed. I wanted to fucking spit.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:57 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Remember the lesson the GOP learned from 2009 to 2010 -- losing close votes doesn't have to exhaust your base. Every time the Republican minority stood bravely against the inevitable, they picked up votes, because they were fighting. It sucks to lose, but it only makes you a loser if you let it.
Stand up. Fall down again tomorrow. Fall down better. And keep swinging.
posted by Etrigan at 9:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [73 favorites]
Stand up. Fall down again tomorrow. Fall down better. And keep swinging.
posted by Etrigan at 9:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [73 favorites]
(Also, don't be distracted by grandstanding congresscritters, especially younger ones, introducing bills that abolish this or that department. That's not new: it's partisan signalling, and chum to the base at election time. Give a shit when they show up on committee calendars.)
posted by holgate at 10:00 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by holgate at 10:00 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
I just managed to get through to Senator Toomey's office in DC to ask why he voted to confirm DeVos.
The conversation... did not go well.
I hope I made that aide's day a little worse.
posted by biogeo at 10:02 AM on February 7, 2017 [58 favorites]
The conversation... did not go well.
I hope I made that aide's day a little worse.
posted by biogeo at 10:02 AM on February 7, 2017 [58 favorites]
And if there are local school board elections this year, now's the time to look at them.
posted by holgate at 10:03 AM on February 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by holgate at 10:03 AM on February 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
So a teapartian called the Stephanie Miller show this morning to gloat about Teh Stupid Liberals, and they mocked her and cut her off, but: I was thinking of how I would handle this in real life, as a non-radio host with a cutoff switch.
Because otherwise I'm just blinded with useless rage which helps nothing. Also I am not much of a puncher, of Nazis or otherwise.
So I started thinking of some questions I could ask that might be a wedge (fully acknowledging that the likely response is dodging, ignoring or otherwise refusing to listen; my goal is to plant suggestions not to convince):
1. What kind of healthcare do you have? Regardless of her answer, this is a good one, as all forms of healthcare are in jeopardy right now thanks to Republicans.
2. How many kids do you have? Best used with women of reproductive age. Unless she's a full-quiver-er she's probably used birth control. Also in jeopardy, in terms of access, for pretty much all women; if insurance doesn't cover it, will she have the 100/month to pay? What if prices go up?
3. Do you use water from your tap to drink or wash in? Republicans want to cut regulations that keep you from being poisoned like Flint's people were. How would you feel if you found out you'd been drinking/washing in lead-tainted water that was damaging your brain/shortening your life (or your kid's/grandkid's)? How could you possibly protect yourself and your family if there are no regulations? Related: Here in Texas everyone still remembers the Blue Bell ice cream listeria recall, which was only caught/stopped due to government regulations. Doesn't hurt to mention that too.
4. Does anyone in your family have asthma or emphysema (every single family I know has at least one person this fits)? If the EPA goes away, air quality will get much worse and they will get a lot sicker and possibly die sooner (especially if they don't have healthcare).
5. What are your retirement plans? If you lose SS, Medicare, Medicaid, what will happen when you are too old to work and need medical care or just food and shelter? If you go to live with your kids, will they really be able to pay for your needs? What if your 401k is not enough?
I feel like these kinds of visceral, survival-level questions have more weight than high-concept ideas about justice. Also I am actually interested to see what someone in that situation might say; whether they have thought about these issues, what kind of safeguards they think they will have. What makes them feel safe with this government, in a day-to-day, food/shelter/survival sense? Are they forgetting how much of their own survival depends on the government doing its job? Can they be reminded?
posted by emjaybee at 10:04 AM on February 7, 2017 [82 favorites]
Because otherwise I'm just blinded with useless rage which helps nothing. Also I am not much of a puncher, of Nazis or otherwise.
So I started thinking of some questions I could ask that might be a wedge (fully acknowledging that the likely response is dodging, ignoring or otherwise refusing to listen; my goal is to plant suggestions not to convince):
1. What kind of healthcare do you have? Regardless of her answer, this is a good one, as all forms of healthcare are in jeopardy right now thanks to Republicans.
2. How many kids do you have? Best used with women of reproductive age. Unless she's a full-quiver-er she's probably used birth control. Also in jeopardy, in terms of access, for pretty much all women; if insurance doesn't cover it, will she have the 100/month to pay? What if prices go up?
3. Do you use water from your tap to drink or wash in? Republicans want to cut regulations that keep you from being poisoned like Flint's people were. How would you feel if you found out you'd been drinking/washing in lead-tainted water that was damaging your brain/shortening your life (or your kid's/grandkid's)? How could you possibly protect yourself and your family if there are no regulations? Related: Here in Texas everyone still remembers the Blue Bell ice cream listeria recall, which was only caught/stopped due to government regulations. Doesn't hurt to mention that too.
4. Does anyone in your family have asthma or emphysema (every single family I know has at least one person this fits)? If the EPA goes away, air quality will get much worse and they will get a lot sicker and possibly die sooner (especially if they don't have healthcare).
5. What are your retirement plans? If you lose SS, Medicare, Medicaid, what will happen when you are too old to work and need medical care or just food and shelter? If you go to live with your kids, will they really be able to pay for your needs? What if your 401k is not enough?
I feel like these kinds of visceral, survival-level questions have more weight than high-concept ideas about justice. Also I am actually interested to see what someone in that situation might say; whether they have thought about these issues, what kind of safeguards they think they will have. What makes them feel safe with this government, in a day-to-day, food/shelter/survival sense? Are they forgetting how much of their own survival depends on the government doing its job? Can they be reminded?
posted by emjaybee at 10:04 AM on February 7, 2017 [82 favorites]
biogeo: what did they say?? I want a full transcript.
posted by pretentious illiterate at 10:04 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by pretentious illiterate at 10:04 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
So, my son has been raised by my ex, largely. He's bright, but didn't focus well in school, and isn't sure college is for him (for reasons I actually largely agree with, but that's neither here nor there). My son is twenty.
We were having this discussion the other day about college and job hunting. He didn't realize that his SSN was tied to a physical card, and that he needed to have that. He didn't know how to get it, how to even -start looking- for information to find that out. He didn't know what a FAFSA was, or how to even begin getting financial aid if he wanted to start school (which he was talking about doing next month, with no FA and no ability to pay for it...)
He doesn't know -basic things- about coping with the real world. His mother's failed him in this, and school hasn't prepared him for the real world, and I haven't been -able- to, because we were out of contact for most of his life.
And now the Republicans have elected Devos, who wants to prepare students -even less- for the world.
I need new words for "angry," or possibly to rejigger all the ones I have to new levels.
posted by Archelaus at 10:05 AM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
We were having this discussion the other day about college and job hunting. He didn't realize that his SSN was tied to a physical card, and that he needed to have that. He didn't know how to get it, how to even -start looking- for information to find that out. He didn't know what a FAFSA was, or how to even begin getting financial aid if he wanted to start school (which he was talking about doing next month, with no FA and no ability to pay for it...)
He doesn't know -basic things- about coping with the real world. His mother's failed him in this, and school hasn't prepared him for the real world, and I haven't been -able- to, because we were out of contact for most of his life.
And now the Republicans have elected Devos, who wants to prepare students -even less- for the world.
I need new words for "angry," or possibly to rejigger all the ones I have to new levels.
posted by Archelaus at 10:05 AM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
Dems can talk for 30 hours after the cloture vote passes (with some added procedural restrictions), and I'd be really happy if they made the confirmation process as long and painful as possible, but I didn't hear any plans to replicate the DeVos all-nighter.
This is mind-boggling to me because as much as DeVos is a dangerous anti-public-schools extremist, shewouldn't won't have nearly as much power to fuck education up as Sessions will have power to deliver injustice through the (soon to be Orwellian-named) Justice Department.
I guess a lot of the opposition has to do with the fact that public schools are a near, relevant and tangible good for most (white, middle class) Americans in a way that civil rights, voting rights, prosecution of corruption, etc., etc. are not; and also with the fact that educators are practically the only organized major sector of the American workforce remaining.
I am not throwing shade on the anti-DeVos fight, by any means. It was right to do; it is good that the Senate Dems were forced to stand shoulder-to-shoulder against her. But this has to be the new Democratic norm going forward. No backsliding; if DeVos is dangerous, so too is Sessions -- so too is anyone who chooses to help Trump and his puppeteers in their fascist administration by allowing themselves to be nominated for the Cabinet. (I give a partial pass to Mattis for corb's sake if he genuinely is there to stop Trump from blowing up the world.)
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:07 AM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
This is mind-boggling to me because as much as DeVos is a dangerous anti-public-schools extremist, she
I guess a lot of the opposition has to do with the fact that public schools are a near, relevant and tangible good for most (white, middle class) Americans in a way that civil rights, voting rights, prosecution of corruption, etc., etc. are not; and also with the fact that educators are practically the only organized major sector of the American workforce remaining.
I am not throwing shade on the anti-DeVos fight, by any means. It was right to do; it is good that the Senate Dems were forced to stand shoulder-to-shoulder against her. But this has to be the new Democratic norm going forward. No backsliding; if DeVos is dangerous, so too is Sessions -- so too is anyone who chooses to help Trump and his puppeteers in their fascist administration by allowing themselves to be nominated for the Cabinet. (I give a partial pass to Mattis for corb's sake if he genuinely is there to stop Trump from blowing up the world.)
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:07 AM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
Sorry, kind of shaking with rage. I didn't handle it as well as I should have. Paraphrasing the conversation:
Me: Hello, I'm a constituent calling from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to ask why Senator Toomey voted to confirm Betsy DeVos despite her being grossly unqualified.
Toomey aide (reading prepared statement): Ms. DeVos is an exceptionally qualified nominee who has many years of experience....
Me (interrupting): But that's a lie!
TA (getting angry): Excuse me, sir, are you just going to accuse me of being a liar, or do you want an explanation?
Me: I'm not trying to accuse you of being a liar, but you have to know that's not true.
TA: Listen, do you want an explanation, or did you just call to call me a liar?
Me: I want an explanation.
TA (continuing prepared statement): Ms. DeVos is strong advocate for public schools and school choice...
Me (interrupting again): You know that's not true.
TA: Excuse me sir.
Me: No. Betsy DeVos is an advocate for gutting public education for the people who need it most. I am a product of our public education system. I now have a Ph.D. after receiving an outstanding education in our public schools. DeVos wants...
TA (interrupting): I will convey your comments to Senator Toomey.
Me: Thank you. Goodbye.
posted by biogeo at 10:14 AM on February 7, 2017 [107 favorites]
Me: Hello, I'm a constituent calling from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to ask why Senator Toomey voted to confirm Betsy DeVos despite her being grossly unqualified.
Toomey aide (reading prepared statement): Ms. DeVos is an exceptionally qualified nominee who has many years of experience....
Me (interrupting): But that's a lie!
TA (getting angry): Excuse me, sir, are you just going to accuse me of being a liar, or do you want an explanation?
Me: I'm not trying to accuse you of being a liar, but you have to know that's not true.
TA: Listen, do you want an explanation, or did you just call to call me a liar?
Me: I want an explanation.
TA (continuing prepared statement): Ms. DeVos is strong advocate for public schools and school choice...
Me (interrupting again): You know that's not true.
TA: Excuse me sir.
Me: No. Betsy DeVos is an advocate for gutting public education for the people who need it most. I am a product of our public education system. I now have a Ph.D. after receiving an outstanding education in our public schools. DeVos wants...
TA (interrupting): I will convey your comments to Senator Toomey.
Me: Thank you. Goodbye.
posted by biogeo at 10:14 AM on February 7, 2017 [107 favorites]
We're going to lose a lot, we need to know that going in, and we need to tell our Democrat congresspeople we still want to fight and tell our Republican congresspeople that they are not going to see us go away. They can hide and let their voicemail fill up and be the cowards they are, we are not going away.
posted by emjaybee at 10:14 AM on February 7, 2017 [51 favorites]
posted by emjaybee at 10:14 AM on February 7, 2017 [51 favorites]
I think the opposition was stronger for DeVos because Sessions is just obviously and horribly right-wing and would lead the agency to do terrible things, while DeVos is obviously and horribly right-wing and would lead the agency to do terrible things *AND* is laughably unqualified for the position.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:17 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:17 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
Oh, lord. Yahoo News is reporting "Photogs are lining up for something" happening at the top of the press briefing. I really, really hope it's Spicer planning to roast himself.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:19 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:19 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Now we have to persistently dog DeVos' heels. Protesters at every shitty public appearance or comment session or hearing. Calls for comment to legislators on every crappy policy directive.
No justice, no peace of mind.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:19 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
No justice, no peace of mind.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:19 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Capitol: House GOP just voted to eliminate only federal agency charged with making sure voting machines can't be hacked
posted by zombieflanders at 9:37 AM on February 7 [10 favorites +] [!]
I read these things and I think, "OK then, let's hack them."
I know, it's not good. But then again, as much as I try, I'm not a nation founded on the rule of law.
posted by From Bklyn at 10:19 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by zombieflanders at 9:37 AM on February 7 [10 favorites +] [!]
I read these things and I think, "OK then, let's hack them."
I know, it's not good. But then again, as much as I try, I'm not a nation founded on the rule of law.
posted by From Bklyn at 10:19 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
We get rid of Feinstein in the primaries
Just called my Rep, the amazing Ted Lieu. In addition to the usual "keep up the good work!" encouragement I also said that if Lieu primaried Feinstein he would have my vote. Probably unrelated to the suggesrstion, but it's the first time I've been asked for my entire name and address.
posted by Room 641-A at 10:19 AM on February 7, 2017 [27 favorites]
Just called my Rep, the amazing Ted Lieu. In addition to the usual "keep up the good work!" encouragement I also said that if Lieu primaried Feinstein he would have my vote. Probably unrelated to the suggesrstion, but it's the first time I've been asked for my entire name and address.
posted by Room 641-A at 10:19 AM on February 7, 2017 [27 favorites]
Up for re-election in 2018: Flake, Wicker, Fischer, Heller, Corker, Cruz, Hatch, Barrasso. They voted yes on DeVos.
Are any of these your senator? I have to live with that bought-and-paid-for-bag-of-shit Toomey for six more years, but constituents of these senators have a chance.
posted by gladly at 10:21 AM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
Are any of these your senator? I have to live with that bought-and-paid-for-bag-of-shit Toomey for six more years, but constituents of these senators have a chance.
posted by gladly at 10:21 AM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
That Cabinet Post was the best $200,000 DeVos ever spent.
posted by mikelieman at 10:22 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by mikelieman at 10:22 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
$200 million.
posted by zombieflanders at 10:23 AM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
posted by zombieflanders at 10:23 AM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
Out. All of them out.
My rage grows every day. I'm sure I'm not the only one, even if I do live in a useless state for gaining seats: MA is solidly blue. But guess what? Charlie Baker can be the target of all of our local efforts. A blue governor for a blue state. 2018 can't come soon enough.
posted by lydhre at 10:24 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
My rage grows every day. I'm sure I'm not the only one, even if I do live in a useless state for gaining seats: MA is solidly blue. But guess what? Charlie Baker can be the target of all of our local efforts. A blue governor for a blue state. 2018 can't come soon enough.
posted by lydhre at 10:24 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
So, if anyone else manages to get through to one of the cowards and crooks in the Senate who voted for DeVos, I advise writing a list of bullet points you'd like to make calmly before you call the staffer you're talking to a liar.
I (slightly) regret saying I hope I made the staffer's day a little worse, in that I don't really bear any personal ill will to this human being I've never met. But I do hope that the unpleasantness of such conversations discourages any interns who subscribe to this craven brand of corrupt politics enough to work for a vile vote-for-hire like Toomey from pursuing political careers of their own.
posted by biogeo at 10:24 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
I (slightly) regret saying I hope I made the staffer's day a little worse, in that I don't really bear any personal ill will to this human being I've never met. But I do hope that the unpleasantness of such conversations discourages any interns who subscribe to this craven brand of corrupt politics enough to work for a vile vote-for-hire like Toomey from pursuing political careers of their own.
posted by biogeo at 10:24 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
From WaPo's Daily 202 column: The Daily 202: Five books to understand Stephen K. Bannon
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Bannon routinely talks about books that have moved him or otherwise shaped his thinking. Here are five significant examples:Some of the themes include revolution, self-reliance, deception, purity, and anti-elitism. It's noted that the phrase "the Best and the Brightest" was originally sarcastic. Kind of apocalyptic overall. A few appear to have been assigned reading for the transition team.
- âThe Art of War,â by Sun Tzu: ...
- âThe Best and the Brightest,â by David Halberstam: ...
- âThe Fourth Turning,â by William Strauss and Neil Howe: ...
- âAmerican Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us,â by Steven Emerson: ...
- âAntifragile,â by Nassim Taleb: ...
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
âAll you see is bloodâ: life at a death camp where Assad has slaughtered thousands
I am still waiting for Mr. Trump's comments on this.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
I am still waiting for Mr. Trump's comments on this.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
Wait, What?
posted by mikelieman at 10:26 AM on February 7, 2017
posted by mikelieman at 10:26 AM on February 7, 2017
Would it help any to lean on major corporate donors, sending them notes of approval or disapproval?
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:27 AM on February 7, 2017
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:27 AM on February 7, 2017
I advise writing a list of bullet points you'd like to make calmly before you call the staffer you're talking to a liar.
And having the precise DeVos campaign contribution to that senator close at hand.
posted by holgate at 10:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
And having the precise DeVos campaign contribution to that senator close at hand.
posted by holgate at 10:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
Are any of these your senator? I have to live with that bought-and-paid-for-bag-of-shit Toomey for six more years, but constituents of these senators have a chance.
Beating Flake is going to be tough sledding, but we're sure as hell gonna give it a go.
posted by azpenguin at 10:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Beating Flake is going to be tough sledding, but we're sure as hell gonna give it a go.
posted by azpenguin at 10:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
With the exception of Flake (AZ), those all look like pretty safe red seats, although my god two years has never seemed like a longer time away.
Unless a certain MeFite favorite can be persuaded to run against Hatch (UT)...?
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Unless a certain MeFite favorite can be persuaded to run against Hatch (UT)...?
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
So, there is currently no legal provision for recall of sitting senators or U.S. representatives. I think we need to add this to our list of things that need to be amended in the Constitution.
posted by biogeo at 10:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 10:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
One of the NPR music guys just posted a tweet that I can get behind:
Lars Gotrich @totalvibration
Ms. Covin
Ms. Westaway
Ms. Collins
Ms. Lindsey
Ms. Nichols
These are the public educators who changed my life. Thank you.
posted by Existential Dread at 10:29 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
Lars Gotrich @totalvibration
Ms. Covin
Ms. Westaway
Ms. Collins
Ms. Lindsey
Ms. Nichols
These are the public educators who changed my life. Thank you.
posted by Existential Dread at 10:29 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
THANK YOU, biogeo, for taking that stand with Toomey's office. You say you didn't handle it as well as you could have, but I disagree -- I think you did an awesome job! That sounds like a maddening conversation, and I applaud anyone who can take on that sort of BS.
My best wishes for your continued courage, outspokenness, and good cardiovascular health! And the same for all of us, really.
posted by Westringia F. at 10:29 AM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
My best wishes for your continued courage, outspokenness, and good cardiovascular health! And the same for all of us, really.
posted by Westringia F. at 10:29 AM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
I advise writing a list of bullet points you'd like to make calmly before you call the staffer you're talking to a liar.
You did nothing wrong. That staffer wouldn't have listened to your calmly thought-out bullet points and hung up thinking, Well, gosh, I suppose she might not actually be that great... They sold out, and they fucking know it.
When someone says "Are you calling me a liar?!?", they are admitting that they lied. They are demanding that you up the ante from "You lied this one time" to "You are a pathological liar who always lies and should be shunned from polite society". Don't let them. Look back on how you got gaslit: You're advising us not to call some staffer a liar, but you didn't do that. You let them trick you into doing it and then backing down.
Let's stop apologizing for anger. We should be angry. They're going to dismiss us anyway. Let them know how angry we are at that. Never. Fucking. Apologize.
posted by Etrigan at 10:31 AM on February 7, 2017 [70 favorites]
You did nothing wrong. That staffer wouldn't have listened to your calmly thought-out bullet points and hung up thinking, Well, gosh, I suppose she might not actually be that great... They sold out, and they fucking know it.
When someone says "Are you calling me a liar?!?", they are admitting that they lied. They are demanding that you up the ante from "You lied this one time" to "You are a pathological liar who always lies and should be shunned from polite society". Don't let them. Look back on how you got gaslit: You're advising us not to call some staffer a liar, but you didn't do that. You let them trick you into doing it and then backing down.
Let's stop apologizing for anger. We should be angry. They're going to dismiss us anyway. Let them know how angry we are at that. Never. Fucking. Apologize.
posted by Etrigan at 10:31 AM on February 7, 2017 [70 favorites]
So, there is currently no legal provision for recall of sitting senators or U.S. representatives. I think we need to add this to our list of things that need to be amended in the Constitution.
My list of things that need to be taken out of the Constitution includes the Senate...
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:32 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
My list of things that need to be taken out of the Constitution includes the Senate...
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:32 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
emjaybee: We're going to lose a lot, we need to know that going in, and we need to tell our Democrat congresspeople we still want to fight and tell our Republican congresspeople that they are not going to see us go away. They can hide and let their voicemail fill up and be the cowards they are, we are not going away.
I wish I could give you 1000 favorites for that comment. It sucks--like really sucks on ice in a dangerous and deadly way--that we're going to lose a bunch, but every party line vote is one that Republicans can't use to whine about how thus-and-so had bipartisan approval.
Every time Toomey/Collins/McCain/etc. are filmed dodging hundreds of peaceful constituents demanding answers, they looks like quavering chickenshit. They must, must be made to own the disasters that are coming.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 10:36 AM on February 7, 2017 [37 favorites]
I wish I could give you 1000 favorites for that comment. It sucks--like really sucks on ice in a dangerous and deadly way--that we're going to lose a bunch, but every party line vote is one that Republicans can't use to whine about how thus-and-so had bipartisan approval.
Every time Toomey/Collins/McCain/etc. are filmed dodging hundreds of peaceful constituents demanding answers, they looks like quavering chickenshit. They must, must be made to own the disasters that are coming.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 10:36 AM on February 7, 2017 [37 favorites]
Press Sec is on a 10 minute delay. Press unhappy. Good times all around.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:37 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:37 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
No Skype screens today
posted by slipthought at 10:37 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by slipthought at 10:37 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
"Want to give his name? We'll destroy his career," Trump offered.
Here's the video. The sheriff was complaining about a proposal that would require that they actually convict people of a crime before theysteal initiate civil asset forfeiture procedures on their money and use it to buy military-grade stuff for the police or whatever.
posted by zachlipton at 10:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [29 favorites]
Here's the video. The sheriff was complaining about a proposal that would require that they actually convict people of a crime before they
posted by zachlipton at 10:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [29 favorites]
Overheard at the Press Briefing that that was scheduled to start 7 minutes ago:
(Overhead Announcement) The press briefing will start in 10 minutes.
(Everyone in the room) load groans, exclamations of disbelief, one very loud "OH COME, ON!"
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 10:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
(Overhead Announcement) The press briefing will start in 10 minutes.
(Everyone in the room) load groans, exclamations of disbelief, one very loud "OH COME, ON!"
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 10:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Press Sec is on a 10 minute delay. Press unhappy. Good times all around.
Yeah, right as I turned it on a woman's voice announced that the briefing would start in 10 minutes. A raucous laugh went up from the crowd, and someone yelled "Come ON!"
posted by mudpuppie at 10:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yeah, right as I turned it on a woman's voice announced that the briefing would start in 10 minutes. A raucous laugh went up from the crowd, and someone yelled "Come ON!"
posted by mudpuppie at 10:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
great_radio, would you mind elaborating for me about the "Yes" votes on other confirmations of these two, as I haven't followed as closely:
If you are in Maine or Alaska, you should call Collins or Murkowski and tell them you know that they voted Yes when it actually mattered and their No vote was just for show. They are just as bad as the people who voted Yes today.
They're getting a lot of praise and so far all I've heard is that they voted "No" after hearing from constituents. I'm withholding judgement on whether they deserve praise because I don't know enough about their voting record on anything else.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 10:38 AM on February 7, 2017
If you are in Maine or Alaska, you should call Collins or Murkowski and tell them you know that they voted Yes when it actually mattered and their No vote was just for show. They are just as bad as the people who voted Yes today.
They're getting a lot of praise and so far all I've heard is that they voted "No" after hearing from constituents. I'm withholding judgement on whether they deserve praise because I don't know enough about their voting record on anything else.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 10:38 AM on February 7, 2017
Press Sec is on a 10 minute delay. Press unhappy. Good times all around.
Spicer is out running to the store for a water pistol.
posted by dis_integration at 10:39 AM on February 7, 2017 [22 favorites]
Spicer is out running to the store for a water pistol.
posted by dis_integration at 10:39 AM on February 7, 2017 [22 favorites]
Mainlining cinnamon gum
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 10:40 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 10:40 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Does Spicer have kids? Maybe he's enrolling them in private school.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:40 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:40 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Maybe there's been a coup and he's tied up in the back and Melissa McCarthy is taking over...
posted by mochapickle at 10:41 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by mochapickle at 10:41 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Spicer replaced, photog there to commemorate the occassion (fake)
posted by Yowser at 10:41 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Yowser at 10:41 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
They voted "Yes" in committee, which ended up being 12-11 (12 for, 11 against), which then put the vote to the Senate. If they had voted no in committee, she wouldn't have been up for a vote by the Senate.
She wouldn't be the Secretary of Education right now, is what I'm saying.
posted by cooker girl at 10:41 AM on February 7, 2017 [52 favorites]
She wouldn't be the Secretary of Education right now, is what I'm saying.
posted by cooker girl at 10:41 AM on February 7, 2017 [52 favorites]
Just heard the words "Saturday Night Live" from someone in the press pool.
posted by mudpuppie at 10:42 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by mudpuppie at 10:42 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
HAHAHAH Someone just asked if anyone saw SNL.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 10:42 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 10:42 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
This behind the scenes announcement speaker thing is actually amusing me... like the man behind the curtain. They can't send someone out in person anymore?
posted by slipthought at 10:42 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by slipthought at 10:42 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
they voted "No" after hearing from constituents
Either one could have voted No in the committee and killed the nomination. They're despicable cowards.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:42 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
Either one could have voted No in the committee and killed the nomination. They're despicable cowards.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:42 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
Oh, boo, it's actually him.
posted by mochapickle at 10:43 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by mochapickle at 10:43 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
all I've heard is that they voted "No" after hearing from constituents.
I find it somewhat difficult to believe that their constituents didn't let them know what they thought of the least-qualified Cabinet member in history until after they voted for her in committee.
posted by Etrigan at 10:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
I find it somewhat difficult to believe that their constituents didn't let them know what they thought of the least-qualified Cabinet member in history until after they voted for her in committee.
posted by Etrigan at 10:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Spicer really is bad at reading and talking. Man.
posted by lauranesson at 10:45 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by lauranesson at 10:45 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Maybe he's breathing into a paper bag because he knows someone is going to ask him about Trump publicly stating he'd destroy a congressperson's career? Or about Assad's mass graves of political prisoners? Or about Trump's treasonous-in-spirit comments about the US and Russia? Or about the BULLSHIT list of attacks that "weren't covered sufficiently" by the media? Or or or.
posted by lydhre at 10:45 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by lydhre at 10:45 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
He didn't start by waving a super soaker around, checking to see if the lectern was bolted down, and telling Glenn Thrush he looks thinner in person. Sad.
posted by zachlipton at 10:45 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 10:45 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Spicer had to respond to all those Venmo requests.
posted by drezdn at 10:46 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by drezdn at 10:46 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Spicer takes three tries to pronounce "Secretary of Education."
[if he has a documented disability, I'm really sorry]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:47 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
[if he has a documented disability, I'm really sorry]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:47 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
So, there is currently no legal provision for recall of sitting senators or U.S. representatives. I think we need to add this to our list of things that need to be amended in the Constitution.
Aren't there individual states that have recall or term limits for their congresspeople?
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:47 AM on February 7, 2017
Aren't there individual states that have recall or term limits for their congresspeople?
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:47 AM on February 7, 2017
"Unprecedented obstruction" by democrats (re: DeVos)
I don't know if my brain can handle any more "I know you are but what am I"
posted by avalonian at 10:48 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
I don't know if my brain can handle any more "I know you are but what am I"
posted by avalonian at 10:48 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
In committee, both Collins & Murkowski made statements about how *they* don't support DeVos, and their constituents don't support DeVos, but that the full Senate should have the opportunity to vote. Both went on and on about how they "believe in the process" to cover their asses as they let the nomination out of committee. They did this knowing full well exactly what would happen in a full senate vote.
They are cowards of the worst sort.
posted by Westringia F. at 10:48 AM on February 7, 2017 [51 favorites]
They are cowards of the worst sort.
posted by Westringia F. at 10:48 AM on February 7, 2017 [51 favorites]
Thank you, cooker girl / Johnny Wallflower / Etrigan. I haven't been following closely, that's helpful to know & will pass along to my friends in Alaska!
Also, this is one more thing that depresses the hell out of me.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 10:49 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Also, this is one more thing that depresses the hell out of me.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 10:49 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Spicer takes three tries to pronounce "Secretary of Education."
[if he has a documented disability, I'm really sorry]
His disability is he's really nervous, reading too fast, afraid of the press and of the President, and probably tired of projecting anger and lying.
posted by dis_integration at 10:50 AM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
[if he has a documented disability, I'm really sorry]
His disability is he's really nervous, reading too fast, afraid of the press and of the President, and probably tired of projecting anger and lying.
posted by dis_integration at 10:50 AM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
Aren't there individual states that have recall or term limits for their congresspeople?
SCOTUS found that states can't add requirements for election to Congress (e.g., "Must not have served X number of terms"), in reaction to Michigan establishing them in the early '90s. Dunno whether they've ever said anything about recall.
posted by Etrigan at 10:51 AM on February 7, 2017
SCOTUS found that states can't add requirements for election to Congress (e.g., "Must not have served X number of terms"), in reaction to Michigan establishing them in the early '90s. Dunno whether they've ever said anything about recall.
posted by Etrigan at 10:51 AM on February 7, 2017
Thank you everyone else who answered re: Collins & Murkoswki, the thread moves too fast to see them all â I'm having a hard time balancing work/sanity to investigate too many things and really appreciate that I can ask here and have a dozen detailed answers immediately. Thank you for doing the research that I haven't done.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 10:51 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 10:51 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
You did nothing wrong. That staffer wouldn't have listened to your calmly thought-out bullet points and hung up thinking, Well, gosh, I suppose she might not actually be that great... They sold out, and they fucking know it.
Thanks. I should add that I in no way regret calling out a lie as a lie. But with a little more patience tempering my anger, I think I could have hit harder. Letting him go through the full bullshit spiel to be able to provide a more complete report of exactly what lies Toomey's office is prepared to tell to his constituents, for example. And more directly calling him out on the fact that Toomey sold his vote.
posted by biogeo at 10:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
Thanks. I should add that I in no way regret calling out a lie as a lie. But with a little more patience tempering my anger, I think I could have hit harder. Letting him go through the full bullshit spiel to be able to provide a more complete report of exactly what lies Toomey's office is prepared to tell to his constituents, for example. And more directly calling him out on the fact that Toomey sold his vote.
posted by biogeo at 10:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
On the positive side, adults will finally be able to win at "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader" now.
posted by Joey Michaels at 10:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by Joey Michaels at 10:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
Trump is going back to Mar-a-Lago again. Is this going to be an every weekend thing?
posted by zachlipton at 10:53 AM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 10:53 AM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
Spoiler alert: I'm somewhere in this video.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Non-words spoken by Spicer include (but are not limited to): parocrial, jess-jason, sweret-secretary, Prime Minister Royhoy of Spain, cabal-kabul-twues, reaffirim, preevalent. Naturally the actual content is worse than the articulation.
posted by lauranesson at 10:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by lauranesson at 10:54 AM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
Sean Spicer: "Everyone BE AFRAID. You're NOT AFRAID ENOUGH. Also, Democrats are meanies who won't confirm our nominees." (mostly real)
posted by Gaz Errant at 10:55 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by Gaz Errant at 10:55 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
Trump is going back to Mar-a-Lago again. Is this going to be an every weekend thing?
And I thought I heard he was taking the japanese prime minister down there? Did I hear that right?
posted by mochapickle at 10:56 AM on February 7, 2017
And I thought I heard he was taking the japanese prime minister down there? Did I hear that right?
posted by mochapickle at 10:56 AM on February 7, 2017
Where's DeVos' office? How bout some protests there?
posted by yoga at 10:56 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by yoga at 10:56 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Josh Marshall, TPM: On Trump, Keep it Simple (In 5 Points), a reaction to many counter-intuitive articles.
...on Trump, in trying to figure out what and how he's doing, we should keep it simple. Because at this point we know Trump quite well.posted by ZeusHumms at 10:57 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
In committee, both Collins & Murkowski made statements about how *they* don't support DeVos, but that the full Senate should have the opportunity to vote. Both went on and on about how they "believe in the process" to cover their asses as they let the nomination out of committee.
The committee is part of the process. If they don't want committees to nix candidates they don't believe in the process.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 10:57 AM on February 7, 2017 [29 favorites]
The committee is part of the process. If they don't want committees to nix candidates they don't believe in the process.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 10:57 AM on February 7, 2017 [29 favorites]
Fred, Fred! I mean John Decker.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 10:58 AM on February 7, 2017
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 10:58 AM on February 7, 2017
His disability is he's really nervous, reading too fast, afraid of the press and of the President, and probably tired of projecting anger and lying.
I have a solution for him: resign and go do something less harmful to the country.
posted by Existential Dread at 10:58 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
I have a solution for him: resign and go do something less harmful to the country.
posted by Existential Dread at 10:58 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
"There's no question the President respects the Judicial Branch".
I chortled.
posted by dis_integration at 10:58 AM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
I chortled.
posted by dis_integration at 10:58 AM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
In committee, both Collins & Murkowski made statements about how *they* don't support DeVos, and their constituents don't support DeVos, but that the full Senate should have the opportunity to vote. Both went on and on about how they "believe in the process" to cover their asses as they let the nomination out of committee. They did this knowing full well exactly what would happen in a full senate vote.
(And this is a good time to remind people that Elizabeth Warren used the same excuse for voting Ben Carson through to the floor. Which I, for one, have no intention of letting her live down.)
posted by tobascodagama at 10:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [26 favorites]
(And this is a good time to remind people that Elizabeth Warren used the same excuse for voting Ben Carson through to the floor. Which I, for one, have no intention of letting her live down.)
posted by tobascodagama at 10:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [26 favorites]
"The president respects the judicial branch" but there's "no chance".... [says that the president has discretion to do whatever he wants to do to make the country safe.]. Thinks they will win on the merits anyway.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
> Where's DeVos' office? How bout some protests there?
Better to devote energy to legislators, either supporting the good ones or working to get rid of the bad ones. DeVos is a special kind of awful, but at the end of the day, cabinet secretaries implement policy in line with what POTUS wants. POTUS wants charters and vouchers, and so does DeVos, and no amount of protesting is going to change that. What can change (and needs to change) is the composition of the body that confirmed her, and will in all likelihood confirm the rest of his awful nominees.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:00 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Better to devote energy to legislators, either supporting the good ones or working to get rid of the bad ones. DeVos is a special kind of awful, but at the end of the day, cabinet secretaries implement policy in line with what POTUS wants. POTUS wants charters and vouchers, and so does DeVos, and no amount of protesting is going to change that. What can change (and needs to change) is the composition of the body that confirmed her, and will in all likelihood confirm the rest of his awful nominees.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:00 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Why was there no "follow-up: how can the President respect the Judicial branch when he calls a federal judge a so-called judge?"
posted by zachlipton at 11:00 AM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 11:00 AM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
Why no follow up on Spicer's answer that the President is going to whatever he wants to if he loses the immigration case?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:01 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:01 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
The DeVos vote-buying theory assumes the GOP wasn't already on board with her agenda, and we know the corruption narrative carries very little weight in DC these days. She was probably going to be on the short list because she's awful, not in spite of it due to her generous financial support.
I'd rather focus on the harm DeVos will do, not how she was selected.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:02 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
I'd rather focus on the harm DeVos will do, not how she was selected.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:02 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
So, there is currently no legal provision for recall of sitting senators or U.S. representatives. I think we need to add this to our list of things that need to be amended in the Constitution.
It would also help if Senators were required to recuse themselves when voting on people who had paid them. That's just an ethics rules change, and would be much simpler.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 11:03 AM on February 7, 2017 [48 favorites]
It would also help if Senators were required to recuse themselves when voting on people who had paid them. That's just an ethics rules change, and would be much simpler.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 11:03 AM on February 7, 2017 [48 favorites]
Spicer claims that tonight is about the restraining order, and has nothing to do with the merits of the case. This is not true. TROs are granted on the basis of the likelihood of the merits.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:06 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:06 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Why no follow up on Spicer's answer that the President is going to whatever he wants to if he loses the immigration case? posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:01 PM on February 7 [+] [!]
He's calling names off of a prepared list and is mostly calling on soft-ball reporters.
posted by slipthought at 11:06 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
He's calling names off of a prepared list and is mostly calling on soft-ball reporters.
posted by slipthought at 11:06 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Jeff Flake only won his race in 2012 by 3%, in a state that Hilary lost by 2.5 with record 3rd party voting. He's beatable. So is Heller in NV, only won in 2012 by 1.2 in a Obama-Obama-Hilary state.
Remember their DeVos votes.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:06 AM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
Remember their DeVos votes.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:06 AM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
SCOTUS found that states can't add requirements for election to Congress (e.g., "Must not have served X number of terms"), in reaction to Michigan establishing them in the early '90s. Dunno whether they've ever said anything about recall.
For more information about this: Recall of Legislators and the Removal of Members of Congress from Office, published by the Congressional Research Service in 2012, a vital federal government office which has been under attack by Republicans for many years now.
posted by biogeo at 11:07 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
For more information about this: Recall of Legislators and the Removal of Members of Congress from Office, published by the Congressional Research Service in 2012, a vital federal government office which has been under attack by Republicans for many years now.
posted by biogeo at 11:07 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Jeff Flake only won his race in 2012 by 3%, in a state that Hilary lost by 2.5 with record 3rd party voting. He's beatable.
While true, midterms in Arizona are almost always a horror show for the Dems.
posted by azpenguin at 11:07 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
While true, midterms in Arizona are almost always a horror show for the Dems.
posted by azpenguin at 11:07 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
While true, midterms in Arizona are almost always a horror show for the Dems.
While true, the president is almost always not an insane fascist dictator.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:08 AM on February 7, 2017 [54 favorites]
While true, the president is almost always not an insane fascist dictator.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:08 AM on February 7, 2017 [54 favorites]
Who's the fucking airline guy? Because airline landing slots are the mist critical thing right now.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:09 AM on February 7, 2017
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:09 AM on February 7, 2017
> While true, midterms in Arizona are almost always a horror show for the Dems.
And that's precisely what needs to change. The party's responsibility is to field a candidate who can win, and the constituents' responsibility is to help build an infrastructure that can propel that candidate to victory.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:09 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
And that's precisely what needs to change. The party's responsibility is to field a candidate who can win, and the constituents' responsibility is to help build an infrastructure that can propel that candidate to victory.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:09 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Burr's bullshit statement after voting for DeVos. Tillis didn't have the balls to release a statement.
Our senators in NC are fucking ASSHOLES just like the rest of the goddamn republican party. Fuck.
posted by yoga at 11:09 AM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
Our senators in NC are fucking ASSHOLES just like the rest of the goddamn republican party. Fuck.
posted by yoga at 11:09 AM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
So is Heller in NV, only won in 2012 by 1.2 in a Obama-Obama-Hilary state.
And Nevada just voted in a Latina Democrat last year to keep an eye on Heller. He's vulnerable as fuck.
posted by Etrigan at 11:10 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
And Nevada just voted in a Latina Democrat last year to keep an eye on Heller. He's vulnerable as fuck.
posted by Etrigan at 11:10 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Gizmodo: How to Make an Amazon Dash Button That Gives the ACLU $5 Every Time You See Something Terrible
I'd go broke so quickly.
posted by zachlipton at 11:11 AM on February 7, 2017 [50 favorites]
I'd go broke so quickly.
posted by zachlipton at 11:11 AM on February 7, 2017 [50 favorites]
A couple of weeks ago, one parent was talking with another about sending her kids to private religious school because kids "get lost" in public school (whatever that means). The other parent, himself a Catholic school graduate, agreed. I wanted to fucking spit.
I know it's kind of hard right now - especially after DeVos got confirmed, it's a hard time for people who were really hoping she wouldn't - but is there any way you could explain that anger? I ask most especially because in all sincerity, that kind of the comment is the sort that normally would get my hackles raised - it would ping on all my radar as "That person hates me!" - but I don't think you meant it that way, and I'd really like to be able to understand where you're coming from.
Is your anger against people who want to send their kid to private school? Parents who feel their kids get 'lost'? People who are educated in parochial school and then send their own kids to parochial school? Just DeVos spillover?
posted by corb at 11:12 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
I know it's kind of hard right now - especially after DeVos got confirmed, it's a hard time for people who were really hoping she wouldn't - but is there any way you could explain that anger? I ask most especially because in all sincerity, that kind of the comment is the sort that normally would get my hackles raised - it would ping on all my radar as "That person hates me!" - but I don't think you meant it that way, and I'd really like to be able to understand where you're coming from.
Is your anger against people who want to send their kid to private school? Parents who feel their kids get 'lost'? People who are educated in parochial school and then send their own kids to parochial school? Just DeVos spillover?
posted by corb at 11:12 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
I had to shut Spicey off on his third or fourth attempt to vastly overinflate the dangers of terrorism in the U.S.
posted by Gaz Errant at 11:12 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Gaz Errant at 11:12 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
McConnell would probably laugh if he heard that message. "Thirty six grand? Please. That's just the above-the-table stuff."
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:12 AM on February 7, 2017
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:12 AM on February 7, 2017
@CNNPR
In response to @PressSec's comment today [real]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:15 AM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
In response to @PressSec's comment today [real]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:15 AM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
I hate to say this, but Spicer has become much better at his job.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:15 AM on February 7, 2017
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:15 AM on February 7, 2017
roomthreeseventeen: @CNNPR In response to @PressSec's comment today [real]
Fuck yeah. More of this please.
posted by slipthought at 11:16 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Fuck yeah. More of this please.
posted by slipthought at 11:16 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
He's not better at all. Journalist just asked about the "really loves America" yardstick for entering the country, and how exactly that would be tested. Answer: "Extreme vetting." He waxes on about the goal but never answers the question. Super flimsy, zero details. Sad.
posted by mochapickle at 11:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by mochapickle at 11:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
A full summary of the conservative movement's support for things like vouchers and charter schools is as follows: it's cheaper. "The way they see it, half the kids coming out of public schools today are basically illiterate. To them, this is fine. We have enough competition for the kinds of jobs a college degree is supposed to qualify one for as it is. Our options are to pump a ton of money into public schools and maybe see some incremental improvement in outcomes, or we can just create a system that selects out the half-decent students for a real education and future and then warehouse the rest until they're no longer minors and they're ready for the prison-poverty-violence cycle to Hoover them up. Vouchers and Charter Schools are not, to the conservative mind, a better way to educate kids well. They are a cheaper way to educate them poorly."
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [74 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:18 AM on February 7, 2017 [74 favorites]
Poor education -> poorly informed electorate -> GOP control of gov't.
Ha, someone just asked Spicer about SNL as Spicer dashed out the door and there was a quick debate among the press on whether Keven James or Melissa McCarthy would make a better Spicer.
posted by mochapickle at 11:20 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Ha, someone just asked Spicer about SNL as Spicer dashed out the door and there was a quick debate among the press on whether Keven James or Melissa McCarthy would make a better Spicer.
posted by mochapickle at 11:20 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Catcall on the way out: "Kevin James would be better than Melissa McCarthy."
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:20 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:20 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
If the press pool is going to get anything out of Spicer they're going to have to organize and quit asking softballs. Can they cede to each other?
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 11:20 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 11:20 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
As the press briefing ended, Spicer walked out to the typical volley of yelled questions. Someone yelled "Did you get a chance to watch Saturday Night Live", which lead to some chuckles and then was followed by the wrongest opinion I've ever heard in my life as someone stated "Kevin James would have been better than Melissa McCarthy."
WTF
posted by DynamiteToast at 11:21 AM on February 7, 2017 [26 favorites]
WTF
posted by DynamiteToast at 11:21 AM on February 7, 2017 [26 favorites]
The only thing he is better at is asking questions from people who aren't going to ask any hard questions.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 11:21 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 11:21 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
I am still waiting for Mr. Trump's comments on this.
I'd be shocked if the response isn't "Fake news! Sad!"
posted by juiceCake at 11:21 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'd be shocked if the response isn't "Fake news! Sad!"
posted by juiceCake at 11:21 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
This country (and probably the world) has been dumped into some sort of fucking weird dual-reality, as if some people are experiencing a shared hallucination of an "alternative" reality (with alternative facts!) and the rest of us are launching our search engines trying to access esoteric data encrypted in nothing but smoke and mirrors. Putin-backed media sources deluge our psychosphere with hard-to-verify, easy-to-digest soundbites and videos (such as one that Syrian activists in Aleppo didn't exist), while coercing the "Left" to tear the country apart via use of memetic information warfare (CalExit, and most likely all other secessionist plans). Fringe lunatics like Alex Jones, who was once merely a grotesque curiosity to teenaged stoners, cyber-libertarians, and phreaks living in their parents' basements, browsing Usenet for "the truth", now have influence in the White House. The people who claim Sandy Hook didn't happen will be the same people who believe Bowling Green did. God help us all if George Noory becomes a source for Trumpian information dialectics.
posted by gucci mane at 11:21 AM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by gucci mane at 11:21 AM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
Kevin James is a guy, so no, that would not have been better.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:22 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:22 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
Kevin James is Kevin James, so no, that would not have been better.
posted by Etrigan at 11:23 AM on February 7, 2017 [51 favorites]
posted by Etrigan at 11:23 AM on February 7, 2017 [51 favorites]
That was less Spicer getting better at his job and more the press pool being worse at theirs. A mix of him choosing softballs, lucking out with them, and being given them.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:23 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:23 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Puh-lease, Kevin James doesn't have the comedy chops to be on the same stage as Melissa McCarthy.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:24 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by tonycpsu at 11:24 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
One-Third Donât Know Obamacare and Affordable Care Act Are the Same
We are so bad at communicating this stuff.
posted by zachlipton at 11:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
We are so bad at communicating this stuff.
posted by zachlipton at 11:25 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
But can you imagine TWO dueling McCarthy-as-Spicers? Where they out-shout, out-chew, and out-podium each other? A girl can dream...
posted by mochapickle at 11:26 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by mochapickle at 11:26 AM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
>We are so bad at communicating this stuff.
No, they are really good at not hearing it.
posted by lydhre at 11:26 AM on February 7, 2017 [40 favorites]
No, they are really good at not hearing it.
posted by lydhre at 11:26 AM on February 7, 2017 [40 favorites]
corb, from my perspective it's complicated. I feel like private catholic school is exclusive in the worst ways. You might, or might not, get a better education from a private school but something you're not going to get is diversity. Diversity in all possible ways, but specifically in thought. You won't learn tolerance of differences because you're more likely to be going to school with people "like you."
That's not to say you can't turn out into a well rounded individual, full of empathy and concern for people of all walks of life - just that from my outsider's perspective, it means you're less likely to be.
posted by INFJ at 11:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
That's not to say you can't turn out into a well rounded individual, full of empathy and concern for people of all walks of life - just that from my outsider's perspective, it means you're less likely to be.
posted by INFJ at 11:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
Is your anger against people who want to send their kid to private school? Parents who feel their kids get 'lost'?
Pretty much, yeah. This is a parent of very young children who aren't yet in school, but who has the idea that all children "get lost" in public schools, that public schools are, de facto, inferior to private (implied: religious, because that's the only option around here) schools.
This is a pretty-good suburban school with reasonable services for all kinds of students that produces pretty-good outcomes. With vouchers looming, every body in a private school is money stolen from the public school, and that is not okay.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
Pretty much, yeah. This is a parent of very young children who aren't yet in school, but who has the idea that all children "get lost" in public schools, that public schools are, de facto, inferior to private (implied: religious, because that's the only option around here) schools.
This is a pretty-good suburban school with reasonable services for all kinds of students that produces pretty-good outcomes. With vouchers looming, every body in a private school is money stolen from the public school, and that is not okay.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
I (slightly) regret saying I hope I made the staffer's day a little worse, in that I don't really bear any personal ill will to this human being I've never met
Fuck that, I've been starting to think we should start screaming at the staffers if their spineless piece of shit senator isn't going to listen to anyone. A senior staffer, a low-level aide, some 23 year-old little fuck acting as an assistant comms manager - I don't care, yell at them. Make their days horrible. Make them start complaining to their boss that their actions are angering their constituents and making their workday more stressful. Make them want to quit, or threaten to quit. They don't get to find joy or fulfillment or even normalcy in what they thought would be a sweet career-building gig working for a fucker like Toomey, Cruz, et al. Boo them in public. Throw shit at them if you see them trying to enjoy brunch at some fucking restaurant in Dupont circle. They don't get to do that shit now. They work for pieces of shit and should dread every single day going into work for their fuckup of a boss who makes the world worse.
posted by windbox at 11:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [49 favorites]
Fuck that, I've been starting to think we should start screaming at the staffers if their spineless piece of shit senator isn't going to listen to anyone. A senior staffer, a low-level aide, some 23 year-old little fuck acting as an assistant comms manager - I don't care, yell at them. Make their days horrible. Make them start complaining to their boss that their actions are angering their constituents and making their workday more stressful. Make them want to quit, or threaten to quit. They don't get to find joy or fulfillment or even normalcy in what they thought would be a sweet career-building gig working for a fucker like Toomey, Cruz, et al. Boo them in public. Throw shit at them if you see them trying to enjoy brunch at some fucking restaurant in Dupont circle. They don't get to do that shit now. They work for pieces of shit and should dread every single day going into work for their fuckup of a boss who makes the world worse.
posted by windbox at 11:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [49 favorites]
>We are so bad at communicating this stuff.
No, they are really good at not hearing it.
My guess is Fox News doesn't go out of their way to make these things clear.
posted by uosuaq at 11:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
No, they are really good at not hearing it.
My guess is Fox News doesn't go out of their way to make these things clear.
posted by uosuaq at 11:27 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
I don't even know which of my Iowan Republican Senators I'm more pissed off at: Grassley, who voted for DeVos and who has been funded with DeVos money for a measly $21,600, or Ernst, who voted for DeVos and apparently wasn't paid to do so.
And today the now-Republican-dominated Iowa Legislature dropped HSB 84, which proposes new horrifying restrictions on mandatory topics of union bargaining. This on top of the continued efforts to de-fund state appropriations to research universities, and to de-fund public K-12 education. Oh, and the bill to de-fund clinics and hospitals that provide abortions passed.
Fucking hell, Iowa. For a state whose quarter boasts "Foundation in Education," you've done a helluva job fucking it up.
posted by nicodine at 11:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
And today the now-Republican-dominated Iowa Legislature dropped HSB 84, which proposes new horrifying restrictions on mandatory topics of union bargaining. This on top of the continued efforts to de-fund state appropriations to research universities, and to de-fund public K-12 education. Oh, and the bill to de-fund clinics and hospitals that provide abortions passed.
Fucking hell, Iowa. For a state whose quarter boasts "Foundation in Education," you've done a helluva job fucking it up.
posted by nicodine at 11:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
I'm not speaking for the person who repeated that anecdote, but I can address some of this.
Is your anger against people who want to send their kid to private school?
If they're using vouchers paid for by the state, which then means their public school doesn't get the money for that student or now there is less money in the public school coffers, yes. That's shitty and I hate it and it's not fair to the kids whose parents don't give a shit what kind of education they receive and it's not fair to the kid whose parents are both working two jobs and can't even imagine trying to work out transportation to a private school, not to mention uniforms and sports fees and registration/application fees.
If they're sending their kids to private school on their own dime, no; that's their prerogative (and my family does just that).
Parents who feel their kids get 'lost'?
If you feel your kids get lost in the public school, do something about it rather then pulling them out and sending them to private school using vouchers. If you can't do something about it, then put them in private school using your own money, not money from the state which should be going to public schools.
People who are educated in parochial school and then send their own kids to parochial school?
Again, I think most of the ire comes from using state money that would otherwise fund public schools to give families vouchers. It's just not right. It isn't and if you don't see it, we can discuss that (maybe via MeMail). If you're paying taxes to your local district but you send your kids to private school without vouchers, I have no beef with you. If you take money from a public school/the state to send your kid to private school, I got a problem with that.
Just DeVos spillover?
She is eminently unqualified for the job, regardless of her stance on vouchers. She's supposed to be the Secretary of (PUBLIC) Education and yet she has never been educated at a public school. That alone gives me pause. Add in her penchant for vouchers and I loathe her.
posted by cooker girl at 11:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [67 favorites]
Is your anger against people who want to send their kid to private school?
If they're using vouchers paid for by the state, which then means their public school doesn't get the money for that student or now there is less money in the public school coffers, yes. That's shitty and I hate it and it's not fair to the kids whose parents don't give a shit what kind of education they receive and it's not fair to the kid whose parents are both working two jobs and can't even imagine trying to work out transportation to a private school, not to mention uniforms and sports fees and registration/application fees.
If they're sending their kids to private school on their own dime, no; that's their prerogative (and my family does just that).
Parents who feel their kids get 'lost'?
If you feel your kids get lost in the public school, do something about it rather then pulling them out and sending them to private school using vouchers. If you can't do something about it, then put them in private school using your own money, not money from the state which should be going to public schools.
People who are educated in parochial school and then send their own kids to parochial school?
Again, I think most of the ire comes from using state money that would otherwise fund public schools to give families vouchers. It's just not right. It isn't and if you don't see it, we can discuss that (maybe via MeMail). If you're paying taxes to your local district but you send your kids to private school without vouchers, I have no beef with you. If you take money from a public school/the state to send your kid to private school, I got a problem with that.
Just DeVos spillover?
She is eminently unqualified for the job, regardless of her stance on vouchers. She's supposed to be the Secretary of (PUBLIC) Education and yet she has never been educated at a public school. That alone gives me pause. Add in her penchant for vouchers and I loathe her.
posted by cooker girl at 11:28 AM on February 7, 2017 [67 favorites]
If you want to make the choice to send your child to a school that will be less diverse, please do it with your own money and not the public's.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:30 AM on February 7, 2017 [45 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:30 AM on February 7, 2017 [45 favorites]
when was the last time that a cabinet confirmation had to be tiebroken by the V.P., anyway?
posted by murphy slaw at 11:31 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by murphy slaw at 11:31 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
They work for pieces of shit and should dread every single day going into work for their fuckup of a boss who makes the world worse.
I mean, maybe they do already, but need a job? I know some legislative aides. They don't make a lot of money. Don't throw shit at them, please. This mess isn't the administrative assistants' fault.
posted by something something at 11:31 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
I mean, maybe they do already, but need a job? I know some legislative aides. They don't make a lot of money. Don't throw shit at them, please. This mess isn't the administrative assistants' fault.
posted by something something at 11:31 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
when was the last time that a cabinet confirmation had to be tiebroken by the V.P., anyway?
It has never happened before.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 11:33 AM on February 7, 2017 [27 favorites]
It has never happened before.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 11:33 AM on February 7, 2017 [27 favorites]
when was the last time that a cabinet confirmation had to be tiebroken by the V.P., anyway?
Never.
Previously you had to have a nominee who could get 60 votes, otherwise it was likely that you'd never get cloture and get to a vote.
posted by dis_integration at 11:33 AM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
Never.
Previously you had to have a nominee who could get 60 votes, otherwise it was likely that you'd never get cloture and get to a vote.
posted by dis_integration at 11:33 AM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
when was the last time that a cabinet confirmation had to be tiebroken by the V.P., anyway?
Never. This is the first time.
posted by mmascolino at 11:33 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Never. This is the first time.
posted by mmascolino at 11:33 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
when was the last time that a cabinet confirmation had to be tiebroken by the V.P., anyway?
Never.
posted by Etrigan at 11:34 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Never.
posted by Etrigan at 11:34 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Never say never again.
posted by notyou at 11:35 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by notyou at 11:35 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yay, making history!
In the worst ways possible. Ugh.
posted by INFJ at 11:36 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
In the worst ways possible. Ugh.
posted by INFJ at 11:36 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
I went to a Catholic grade school from 1st through 8th grade, just outside the city of Milwaukee. There were (IIRC) 2 African American kids in the entire school. The only real diversity was the small handful of kids that weren't Catholic.
posted by drezdn at 11:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by drezdn at 11:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
So now I see three comments about diversity and private schools...sometimes the private school in question is actually more diverse than the public school. That's the case with us, and it made more financial sense for us to pay for our kids' private school (plus merit scholarships funded by the school) than to move to a different, more diverse, district (housing market collapse). They experience more diversity and inclusion now, and we actually regret buying a house in our township when they were little because we had no idea it was so incredibly un-diverse. Our public school is a Blue Ribbon school, actually, but we felt like our kids were only seeing white people every day, and community service wasn't even an afterthought, let alone something to strive for.
But yeah. If someone is saying they're moving their kids to private school because it's "better" than the public school or "they're getting lost" in public school, that's a total dogwhistle for "there are children of color at my kids' school and it makes me uncomfortable."
posted by cooker girl at 11:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
But yeah. If someone is saying they're moving their kids to private school because it's "better" than the public school or "they're getting lost" in public school, that's a total dogwhistle for "there are children of color at my kids' school and it makes me uncomfortable."
posted by cooker girl at 11:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
If you feel your kids get lost in the public school, do something about it rather then pulling them out and sending them to private school using vouchers. If you can't do something about it, then put them in private school using your own money, not money from the state which should be going to public schools.
I think what I found kind of sad and confusing was not the feels about whether or not people should be able to use vouchers to attend private school - like, I may or may not disagree (and may MeMail, because I heart you and respect you!) but I definitely understand that perspective.
I don't really understand - and that's really why I asked - when people are angry about people who are sending their kids to parochial school on their own dime, or on, like, Religious Donor's dime.
I mean, some of this is because I'm really struggling right now to try to afford parochial school for my kid - we've sent her to a mix of private and public schools, and it seems like every time we find the money from somewhere to send her to Catholic school (or Jewish afterschool, for what that's worth), she really thrives, and every time we don't have the money and have to put her back in public school, she gets bullied and lost and her grades go down. And these are really good public schools - but it feels like the really good public schools are even less equipped to deal with kids whose parents are overworked and stressed and different and juggling things (like, you know, me), whereas schools that explicitly state a moral compass seem to try harder. At least with my particular kid. And I should note that she's actually not Catholic, which makes this almost funny, but just the way that teachers kind of view it as their role to police bad behavior as well as teach the subject really helps us a lot.
posted by corb at 11:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
I think what I found kind of sad and confusing was not the feels about whether or not people should be able to use vouchers to attend private school - like, I may or may not disagree (and may MeMail, because I heart you and respect you!) but I definitely understand that perspective.
I don't really understand - and that's really why I asked - when people are angry about people who are sending their kids to parochial school on their own dime, or on, like, Religious Donor's dime.
I mean, some of this is because I'm really struggling right now to try to afford parochial school for my kid - we've sent her to a mix of private and public schools, and it seems like every time we find the money from somewhere to send her to Catholic school (or Jewish afterschool, for what that's worth), she really thrives, and every time we don't have the money and have to put her back in public school, she gets bullied and lost and her grades go down. And these are really good public schools - but it feels like the really good public schools are even less equipped to deal with kids whose parents are overworked and stressed and different and juggling things (like, you know, me), whereas schools that explicitly state a moral compass seem to try harder. At least with my particular kid. And I should note that she's actually not Catholic, which makes this almost funny, but just the way that teachers kind of view it as their role to police bad behavior as well as teach the subject really helps us a lot.
posted by corb at 11:38 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
sometimes the private school in question is actually more diverse than the public school.
Diversity doesn't just mean race. It means economic opportunity, family structure, family composition, religion, immigration status, etc. I would gather that many public schools are segregated because they are neighborhood schools, but private schools aren't usually diverse in most of these ways.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:42 AM on February 7, 2017 [26 favorites]
Diversity doesn't just mean race. It means economic opportunity, family structure, family composition, religion, immigration status, etc. I would gather that many public schools are segregated because they are neighborhood schools, but private schools aren't usually diverse in most of these ways.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:42 AM on February 7, 2017 [26 favorites]
[I forgot neurodiversity.]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:43 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:43 AM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
> A couple of weeks ago, one parent was talking with another about sending her kids to private religious school because kids "get lost" in public school (whatever that means). The other parent, himself a Catholic school graduate, agreed. I wanted to fucking spit.
I know it's kind of hard right now - especially after DeVos got confirmed, it's a hard time for people who were really hoping she wouldn't - but is there any way you could explain that anger? I ask most especially because in all sincerity, that kind of the comment is the sort that normally would get my hackles raised - it would ping on all my radar as "That person hates me!" - but I don't think you meant it that way, and I'd really like to be able to understand where you're coming from.
I can't speak for uncleozzy, but I can speak from my own experience. I went through the public school system in a city with very good public schools, and one single high school serving a demographically diverse (along many axes: race, socioeconomics, language, etc.) population. In addition to the single public high school, there are several private high schools, almost all of them religious. As I went through school, a few of my friends funneled away from the public schools and into the private schools, at the transition from elementary to middle school, and at middle school to high school. In every case, their parents cited something long the lines of "quality of education" or "getting lost in the system" as a reason.
Now, I think many of my friends were well-served by the private schools they went to, but the funny thing is that by any reasonable measure, our city's high school was actually more successful than the private schools at delivering a high-quality education, both in terms of helping low-achieving students improve and graduate, and in terms of providing high-achieving students with opportunities to push themselves through an unusually large number of AP and other advanced classes. Quite frankly, my public high school offered more educational opportunities to me than the private high schools offered to my friends. Now, I don't know that this held true at the elementary school level, largely due to public school funding being apportioned according to the local tax base, so low-income districts received less funding for their elementary schools, but it was definitely true at the high school level.
So why were so many parents so interested in moving their kids out of the public schools and into more expensive (both to them personally and in overall cost per student) private schools that provided fewer educational opportunities? Some of them, surely, wanted their kids to get a religious education. But for many of them, phrasing like "getting lost in the system" or "the students are too rowdy" were code for one simple fact: the public high school was something like 40% Black, 30% Hispanic, and only 20% White, whereas every single one of the private schools were overwhelmingly White. For most of these parents, I think, this code was not explicit or even necessarily conscious, but it was nevertheless true.
So me, as a proud product of our diverse, free public educational system, when I hear people speak in vague terms about fears that their children will "get lost" in public schools, I can't help but think of this. "Getting lost" is not some concrete thing that really happens, it is code for something. And unfortunately I think it is usually code for racial and/or socioeconomic anxiety.
posted by biogeo at 11:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [44 favorites]
I know it's kind of hard right now - especially after DeVos got confirmed, it's a hard time for people who were really hoping she wouldn't - but is there any way you could explain that anger? I ask most especially because in all sincerity, that kind of the comment is the sort that normally would get my hackles raised - it would ping on all my radar as "That person hates me!" - but I don't think you meant it that way, and I'd really like to be able to understand where you're coming from.
I can't speak for uncleozzy, but I can speak from my own experience. I went through the public school system in a city with very good public schools, and one single high school serving a demographically diverse (along many axes: race, socioeconomics, language, etc.) population. In addition to the single public high school, there are several private high schools, almost all of them religious. As I went through school, a few of my friends funneled away from the public schools and into the private schools, at the transition from elementary to middle school, and at middle school to high school. In every case, their parents cited something long the lines of "quality of education" or "getting lost in the system" as a reason.
Now, I think many of my friends were well-served by the private schools they went to, but the funny thing is that by any reasonable measure, our city's high school was actually more successful than the private schools at delivering a high-quality education, both in terms of helping low-achieving students improve and graduate, and in terms of providing high-achieving students with opportunities to push themselves through an unusually large number of AP and other advanced classes. Quite frankly, my public high school offered more educational opportunities to me than the private high schools offered to my friends. Now, I don't know that this held true at the elementary school level, largely due to public school funding being apportioned according to the local tax base, so low-income districts received less funding for their elementary schools, but it was definitely true at the high school level.
So why were so many parents so interested in moving their kids out of the public schools and into more expensive (both to them personally and in overall cost per student) private schools that provided fewer educational opportunities? Some of them, surely, wanted their kids to get a religious education. But for many of them, phrasing like "getting lost in the system" or "the students are too rowdy" were code for one simple fact: the public high school was something like 40% Black, 30% Hispanic, and only 20% White, whereas every single one of the private schools were overwhelmingly White. For most of these parents, I think, this code was not explicit or even necessarily conscious, but it was nevertheless true.
So me, as a proud product of our diverse, free public educational system, when I hear people speak in vague terms about fears that their children will "get lost" in public schools, I can't help but think of this. "Getting lost" is not some concrete thing that really happens, it is code for something. And unfortunately I think it is usually code for racial and/or socioeconomic anxiety.
posted by biogeo at 11:44 AM on February 7, 2017 [44 favorites]
Again, I think most of the ire comes from using state money that would otherwise fund public schools to give families vouchers.
But it's more than that. Because if you pull your kids from the local public school to send them to private school, you are basically saying to all the families who cannot afford the same: fuck you, I got mine. You won't help out at the PTA, you won't volunteer in the school library, you won't help raise funds for the engineering academy, and you won't go to school district meetings to petition for funding for arts & music classes.
The poor kids in your district suffer because you have removed your kids from the common pool.
And yeah, your kids will suffer too -- maybe not academically, but because they will have a less complex and diverse school experience. They won't grow up with the same commitment to the entire local community, because their community has been restricted to those in the same socioeconomic class as them.
My white middle-class nieces went to a majority-black urban high school, and from there they went to top colleges (multiple classmates got scholarships to MIT), and now they're back in their hometown fighting gentrification, human trafficking, and climate change. I find it hard to believe they would be nearly as committed to the local community if they'd gone to the nice sheltered Catholic high school so many of their white elementary school classmates attended.
posted by suelac at 11:45 AM on February 7, 2017 [49 favorites]
But it's more than that. Because if you pull your kids from the local public school to send them to private school, you are basically saying to all the families who cannot afford the same: fuck you, I got mine. You won't help out at the PTA, you won't volunteer in the school library, you won't help raise funds for the engineering academy, and you won't go to school district meetings to petition for funding for arts & music classes.
The poor kids in your district suffer because you have removed your kids from the common pool.
And yeah, your kids will suffer too -- maybe not academically, but because they will have a less complex and diverse school experience. They won't grow up with the same commitment to the entire local community, because their community has been restricted to those in the same socioeconomic class as them.
My white middle-class nieces went to a majority-black urban high school, and from there they went to top colleges (multiple classmates got scholarships to MIT), and now they're back in their hometown fighting gentrification, human trafficking, and climate change. I find it hard to believe they would be nearly as committed to the local community if they'd gone to the nice sheltered Catholic high school so many of their white elementary school classmates attended.
posted by suelac at 11:45 AM on February 7, 2017 [49 favorites]
but it feels like the really good public schools are even less equipped to deal with kids whose parents are overworked and stressed and different and juggling things (like, you know, me), whereas schools that explicitly state a moral compass seem to try harder. At least with my particular kid.
this is a result of the deliberate underfunding of public schools, rooted in racism and is prevalent in many western "democracies", just really strong in the US.
.....it is a classic "tragedy of the commons" dilemma and engineered by those who want to destroy public education. if schools suck, why should I send my kid there? but if I don't send my kid there as an engaged, resourceful parent and fight for schools, they will get worse. . cue death spiral.
posted by lalochezia at 11:45 AM on February 7, 2017 [40 favorites]
this is a result of the deliberate underfunding of public schools, rooted in racism and is prevalent in many western "democracies", just really strong in the US.
.....it is a classic "tragedy of the commons" dilemma and engineered by those who want to destroy public education. if schools suck, why should I send my kid there? but if I don't send my kid there as an engaged, resourceful parent and fight for schools, they will get worse. . cue death spiral.
posted by lalochezia at 11:45 AM on February 7, 2017 [40 favorites]
We are so screwed when the Cylons come back.
posted by ckape at 11:45 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by ckape at 11:45 AM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
@corb - I suppose my problem with it (and this is speaking relatively hypothetically, since I didn't get to have much input in my son's education, as I said earlier, so take it with a grain of salt) is:
As long as -mostly everyone's- kids were in Public School, the middle class had a more vested interest in making sure the public school system was able to provide a useful and coherent education for their kids, opportunities to succeed, etc.
By taking the middle class out of the education equation with things like vouchers for private schools (which would include parochial ones, I assume), it becomes another way for the wealthy to screw the poor, as far as I can tell.
There's also a thing where a lotta private schools are not accountable to standards or proper oversight for the things they do. Have heard some horror stories, but don't have anything very specific to mind right now (will google some later, if I think of it).
posted by Archelaus at 11:47 AM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
As long as -mostly everyone's- kids were in Public School, the middle class had a more vested interest in making sure the public school system was able to provide a useful and coherent education for their kids, opportunities to succeed, etc.
By taking the middle class out of the education equation with things like vouchers for private schools (which would include parochial ones, I assume), it becomes another way for the wealthy to screw the poor, as far as I can tell.
There's also a thing where a lotta private schools are not accountable to standards or proper oversight for the things they do. Have heard some horror stories, but don't have anything very specific to mind right now (will google some later, if I think of it).
posted by Archelaus at 11:47 AM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
whereas schools that explicitly state a moral compass seem to try harder[...]but just the way that teachers kind of view it as their role to police bad behavior as well as teach the subject really helps us a lot
Implying that public schools operate without a moral compass (or that parochial schools are inherently better because they operate with one) and that public school teachers are somehow more lax is probably one big reason why someone would be so mad as to spit. And we haven't even started in on what the environments created by opponents of public schooling have done to both the perception and reality of public schooling.
posted by zombieflanders at 11:48 AM on February 7, 2017 [29 favorites]
Implying that public schools operate without a moral compass (or that parochial schools are inherently better because they operate with one) and that public school teachers are somehow more lax is probably one big reason why someone would be so mad as to spit. And we haven't even started in on what the environments created by opponents of public schooling have done to both the perception and reality of public schooling.
posted by zombieflanders at 11:48 AM on February 7, 2017 [29 favorites]
The whole point of school choice was to redirect people's reasonable grievances about the public school system into private profit instead of momentum for major reform to the public system. You can see that in how those programs funding structures were set up. That's my problem with school choice: it's a Trojan horse used to weaken one of our most important civic institutions instead of strengthening it with urgently needed reforms.
posted by saulgoodman at 11:49 AM on February 7, 2017 [55 favorites]
posted by saulgoodman at 11:49 AM on February 7, 2017 [55 favorites]
Diversity doesn't just mean race. It means economic opportunity, family structure, family composition, religion, immigration status, etc. I would gather that many public schools are segregated because they are neighborhood schools, but private schools aren't usually diverse in most of these ways.
Oh sure, I see that. But some private schools really do have all of that you listed (family structure, family composition, religion, immigration status, etc.). Ours does. Our public school, however, is basically all middle-to-upper-middle class (and upper class), white, Christian families. This is our fault, really, for not doing more research on where to move to 21 years ago.
But I'll stop making this all about me. I just wanted to point out that some private schools do serve multiple economic, racial, and religious families (of all kinds; my daughter's best friend has two moms; no freaking way would that have happened in our public school, and especially no way that one of the moms is President of the Parent Association - people would literally die if that happened at our public school).
posted by cooker girl at 11:50 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Oh sure, I see that. But some private schools really do have all of that you listed (family structure, family composition, religion, immigration status, etc.). Ours does. Our public school, however, is basically all middle-to-upper-middle class (and upper class), white, Christian families. This is our fault, really, for not doing more research on where to move to 21 years ago.
But I'll stop making this all about me. I just wanted to point out that some private schools do serve multiple economic, racial, and religious families (of all kinds; my daughter's best friend has two moms; no freaking way would that have happened in our public school, and especially no way that one of the moms is President of the Parent Association - people would literally die if that happened at our public school).
posted by cooker girl at 11:50 AM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Oh sure, I see that. But some private schools really do have all of that you listed (family structure, family composition, religion, immigration status, etc.).
...at the expense of public schools.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:51 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
...at the expense of public schools.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:51 AM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
Sure on an individual basis, school choice can yield better outcomes, but as a basis for a public system, the funding structures don't work to provide uniformity of service and consistency and that gets worse the more these other programs expand.
posted by saulgoodman at 11:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by saulgoodman at 11:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
The school I send my kids to doesn't accept vouchers. It's all merit and financial scholarships that the school foundation supplies (and plenty of families pay full tuition; we pay about half, the other half being merit scholarships).
posted by cooker girl at 11:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by cooker girl at 11:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
The British Tory George Walden wrote twenty years ago about the corrosive hypocrisy of having a political establishment (of all parties) making policy decisions on public education while opting out for its own children, especially when the choice to opt out is driven by status and class, not academics. It's grown steadily worse since then, in similar ways on both sides of the Atlantic, with rich dabblers and meddlers being handed the keys to schools.
For most of these parents, I think, this code was not explicit or even necessarily conscious, but it was nevertheless true.
I think it's Lee Atwater territory, combined with the same bullshitty faux-consumerism that fucks up conversations about healthcare. The Exurb family don't want little Brad and Kaylee Exurb going to the same ol' high school as everyone else.
posted by holgate at 11:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
For most of these parents, I think, this code was not explicit or even necessarily conscious, but it was nevertheless true.
I think it's Lee Atwater territory, combined with the same bullshitty faux-consumerism that fucks up conversations about healthcare. The Exurb family don't want little Brad and Kaylee Exurb going to the same ol' high school as everyone else.
posted by holgate at 11:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Just had a serious discussion with my wife of whether we should start stock piling textbooks for our future hypothetical children's homeschooling. You know, while they're still available and reasonably accurate.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:52 AM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Sooo... I went to private school for all but one year (when I attended a one-year public school magnate program). My school was explicitly founded to provide a good-quality Christian education in an intentionally mixed racial and socioeconomic setting that reflected the demographics of the neighborhood and city at large.
I think tuition was on a sliding scale with the top rate being $5000 -- I'm not sure what the rates are now, 15-25 years later. The vast majority of funding came from private donors (including our new Secretary of Education).
This is a really great model, and it worked really well for me, but it is not a replacement for a public education system. And it does not reflect the history of most non-denominational religious schools in this country (and to some extent denominational schools), which cannot be understood apart from the larger question of the (re)segregation of American public life along race and class lines.
posted by tivalasvegas at 11:53 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
I think tuition was on a sliding scale with the top rate being $5000 -- I'm not sure what the rates are now, 15-25 years later. The vast majority of funding came from private donors (including our new Secretary of Education).
This is a really great model, and it worked really well for me, but it is not a replacement for a public education system. And it does not reflect the history of most non-denominational religious schools in this country (and to some extent denominational schools), which cannot be understood apart from the larger question of the (re)segregation of American public life along race and class lines.
posted by tivalasvegas at 11:53 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
I just wanted to point out that some private schools do serve multiple economic, racial, and religious families
You are literally using a #notallprivateschools argument, you realize.
posted by Etrigan at 11:53 AM on February 7, 2017 [26 favorites]
You are literally using a #notallprivateschools argument, you realize.
posted by Etrigan at 11:53 AM on February 7, 2017 [26 favorites]
The school I send my kids to doesn't accept vouchers. It's all merit and financial scholarships that the school foundation supplies.
I'm not going to argue with you about this, but the kids are resources themselves.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:53 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
I'm not going to argue with you about this, but the kids are resources themselves.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:53 AM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
There's also stuff like--when I was in high school, my parents threatened to send me to Catholic school if I didn't meet their standards, because that was the local private option, and also we were Catholic and I think they thought it might make me behave better. As a baby queer kid who wasn't exactly feeling safe and supported as it was, as a baby atheist who was getting smacked down every time I criticized the teachings around me, as a loudmouth, as a fairly butch/gender non-conforming kid, I found this terrifying.
That these threats were coming at the same time as my mother kept telling me she was going to make me do cotillion or finishing school after class or some shit because--I don't know, I was a teenager? Because I was gender-non-conforming and I was learning to be an adult and what I wanted didn't always align with what she wanted me to want? Because I wasn't the daughter she wanted me to be? --anyway, the fact that those "I'm going to make you do X" warnings were coming at the same time added a layer of context to that that still hits me on a pretty fundamental level. I'm cis and happy with that and all, but I still have a lot of internal terror attached to being forced to be more femme than I am. I'm still gut-level terrified by the thought of going into organizations that at best don't have a place for me and work within a system that quietly hates me, and at worst enthusiastically reinforce that system in the service of giving parents what they pay for?
So for me, undermining public secular schools in service of private schools, especially parochial or religious schools, that triggers all my old feelings of terror. Normalizing sending kids to expensive private schools that then have an incentive to get parents to feel they got what they paid for.... well, that makes my heart hurt for all the queer kids out there, the ones who don't fit well, the ones who are trying to work out how to be themselves. I totally believe there are Catholic and parochial schools that provide that even under the auspices of religious oversight, but I also think that their presence helps to normalize the scary private programs that.... don't do that.
posted by sciatrix at 11:55 AM on February 7, 2017 [38 favorites]
That these threats were coming at the same time as my mother kept telling me she was going to make me do cotillion or finishing school after class or some shit because--I don't know, I was a teenager? Because I was gender-non-conforming and I was learning to be an adult and what I wanted didn't always align with what she wanted me to want? Because I wasn't the daughter she wanted me to be? --anyway, the fact that those "I'm going to make you do X" warnings were coming at the same time added a layer of context to that that still hits me on a pretty fundamental level. I'm cis and happy with that and all, but I still have a lot of internal terror attached to being forced to be more femme than I am. I'm still gut-level terrified by the thought of going into organizations that at best don't have a place for me and work within a system that quietly hates me, and at worst enthusiastically reinforce that system in the service of giving parents what they pay for?
So for me, undermining public secular schools in service of private schools, especially parochial or religious schools, that triggers all my old feelings of terror. Normalizing sending kids to expensive private schools that then have an incentive to get parents to feel they got what they paid for.... well, that makes my heart hurt for all the queer kids out there, the ones who don't fit well, the ones who are trying to work out how to be themselves. I totally believe there are Catholic and parochial schools that provide that even under the auspices of religious oversight, but I also think that their presence helps to normalize the scary private programs that.... don't do that.
posted by sciatrix at 11:55 AM on February 7, 2017 [38 favorites]
when I hear people speak in vague terms about fears that their children will "get lost" in public schools, I can't help but think of this. "Getting lost" is not some concrete thing that really happens, it is code for something. And unfortunately I think it is usually code for racial and/or socioeconomic anxiety.
Thanks for that explanation! As someone who is not white, I sometimes miss the encoding that other people are hearing and/or speaking. It's definitely pretty shitty if people are removing their kids from schools just because they see too many POC in the school. It is perhaps worth noting that the public schools the kidlet has not had great experiences with, despite being great schools, were all majority white and wealthy, and some of the experiences that pissed me off were being, say, mistaken for my own child's nanny, or the default assumption that every parent would have copious free time to come in during the day and if you didn't, you were a shitty parent and your kid could be written off. Or the expectation that you could always afford to financially contribute for the ten class presents a year for the teacher, or what have you.
When I said 'lost' speaking about my own kid, I meant more that - public schools seem really big, with very large class sizes and the time all micromanaged. The teachers - even those that meant the best - didn't exactly have a lot of time, and their anti-bullying measures were mostly just 'here, have an assembly to hear how bullying is bad', not 'I'm going to talk to this kid for twenty minutes about how they should be nicer to others.'
posted by corb at 11:55 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
Thanks for that explanation! As someone who is not white, I sometimes miss the encoding that other people are hearing and/or speaking. It's definitely pretty shitty if people are removing their kids from schools just because they see too many POC in the school. It is perhaps worth noting that the public schools the kidlet has not had great experiences with, despite being great schools, were all majority white and wealthy, and some of the experiences that pissed me off were being, say, mistaken for my own child's nanny, or the default assumption that every parent would have copious free time to come in during the day and if you didn't, you were a shitty parent and your kid could be written off. Or the expectation that you could always afford to financially contribute for the ten class presents a year for the teacher, or what have you.
When I said 'lost' speaking about my own kid, I meant more that - public schools seem really big, with very large class sizes and the time all micromanaged. The teachers - even those that meant the best - didn't exactly have a lot of time, and their anti-bullying measures were mostly just 'here, have an assembly to hear how bullying is bad', not 'I'm going to talk to this kid for twenty minutes about how they should be nicer to others.'
posted by corb at 11:55 AM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
(It is probably worth mentioning that my parents will swear up and down that these were not threats. That is not, however, how I interpreted them--either at the time or now.
God, I don't miss being a teenager.)
posted by sciatrix at 11:57 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
God, I don't miss being a teenager.)
posted by sciatrix at 11:57 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
You are literally using a #notallprivateschools argument, you realize.
I kind of do, and I hate that I am, but I hope you realize that I'm not talking about a typical private school. It's also not parochial.
I'm not going to argue with you about this, but the kids are resources themselves.
My local public school is not hurting in any way at all. It's a Blue Ribbon school in a wealthy suburb. Class sizes are typical, they have foreign language and art and music and theater. The PTA is HUUUUGE. There is no shortage of money going to the school. We don't use vouchers. I'm still paying taxes for the public school and I'm glad to do it. My kids get more racial diversity and inclusion of all kinds (including LGBTQ) and economic diversity at the private school. I recognize that this is not typical. If anything, me taking my two kids out gives more resources to the public school to go around.
I shouldn't have ever said anything in the first place.
posted by cooker girl at 11:58 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
I kind of do, and I hate that I am, but I hope you realize that I'm not talking about a typical private school. It's also not parochial.
I'm not going to argue with you about this, but the kids are resources themselves.
My local public school is not hurting in any way at all. It's a Blue Ribbon school in a wealthy suburb. Class sizes are typical, they have foreign language and art and music and theater. The PTA is HUUUUGE. There is no shortage of money going to the school. We don't use vouchers. I'm still paying taxes for the public school and I'm glad to do it. My kids get more racial diversity and inclusion of all kinds (including LGBTQ) and economic diversity at the private school. I recognize that this is not typical. If anything, me taking my two kids out gives more resources to the public school to go around.
I shouldn't have ever said anything in the first place.
posted by cooker girl at 11:58 AM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
I went to an urban Catholic high school that was more diverse than you night think, and did research in some nearly 100% black Catholic schools. They do exist, but I'm guessing the school the two parents in the anecdote were referring to was not of this sort.
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Exceptions do tend to prove the rule, after all.
posted by flatluigi at 11:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by flatluigi at 11:59 AM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
very large class sizes and the time all micromanaged.
Somebody ought to organize a campaign at the state level to force an amendment through to address those class sizes then, huh? Use some good old fashioned people power to make it better. But we did exactly that in Florida and the Republican leadership ignored the state constitution completely to avoid doing it the way the public wanted to and worked hard together to accomplish. There's your problem. It's not libtards or cuckservatives or whatever, it's politicians straight up refusing to behave like this is a democracy anymore.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:01 PM on February 7, 2017 [20 favorites]
Somebody ought to organize a campaign at the state level to force an amendment through to address those class sizes then, huh? Use some good old fashioned people power to make it better. But we did exactly that in Florida and the Republican leadership ignored the state constitution completely to avoid doing it the way the public wanted to and worked hard together to accomplish. There's your problem. It's not libtards or cuckservatives or whatever, it's politicians straight up refusing to behave like this is a democracy anymore.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:01 PM on February 7, 2017 [20 favorites]
When I said 'lost' speaking about my own kid, I meant more that - public schools seem really big, with very large class sizes and the time all micromanaged.
And, of course, as an advocate of public education, and the husband of a woman who has taught in several public schools, my belief is that diverting resources away from public schools through voucher programs makes this problem much, much worse.
The thing is, I think there actually is room for plenty of common ground around the idea that having a diversity of options in schooling for children who have different needs/desires is a good thing. I suspect that you and I would actually agree about a lot more here than we disagree on. The problem, from my perspective, is that it is nearly impossible to have an honest policy discussion about this topic, because the advocates of "school choice" have poisoned the discussion by framing it as though it is impossible for the public school system to provide such a diversity of experiences, and the only alternative is to treat education as a "service" which is "purchased" through tax dollars or vouchers, rather than a public good that must be provided to all children to ensure the continued health of our republic.
posted by biogeo at 12:03 PM on February 7, 2017 [29 favorites]
And, of course, as an advocate of public education, and the husband of a woman who has taught in several public schools, my belief is that diverting resources away from public schools through voucher programs makes this problem much, much worse.
The thing is, I think there actually is room for plenty of common ground around the idea that having a diversity of options in schooling for children who have different needs/desires is a good thing. I suspect that you and I would actually agree about a lot more here than we disagree on. The problem, from my perspective, is that it is nearly impossible to have an honest policy discussion about this topic, because the advocates of "school choice" have poisoned the discussion by framing it as though it is impossible for the public school system to provide such a diversity of experiences, and the only alternative is to treat education as a "service" which is "purchased" through tax dollars or vouchers, rather than a public good that must be provided to all children to ensure the continued health of our republic.
posted by biogeo at 12:03 PM on February 7, 2017 [29 favorites]
If anything, me taking my two kids out gives more resources to the public school to go around.
It most likely is funded based on headcount, so it's probably a wash.
posted by Etrigan at 12:04 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
It most likely is funded based on headcount, so it's probably a wash.
posted by Etrigan at 12:04 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
public schools seem really big, with very large class sizes and the time all micromanaged. The teachers - even those that meant the best - didn't exactly have a lot of time, and their anti-bullying measures were mostly just 'here, have an assembly to hear how bullying is bad', not 'I'm going to talk to this kid for twenty minutes about how they should be nicer to others.'
This is largely due to underfunding for education. Giving parents vouchers that let them go to private school on federal funds instead means that even fewer federal dollars go to the public schools. This compounds the situation and makes life so much worse for kids in the public system.
Love,
your internet friend who went to an underfunded public high school where the science educational supply budget was $1.35 per student per semester
posted by palomar at 12:04 PM on February 7, 2017 [38 favorites]
This is largely due to underfunding for education. Giving parents vouchers that let them go to private school on federal funds instead means that even fewer federal dollars go to the public schools. This compounds the situation and makes life so much worse for kids in the public system.
Love,
your internet friend who went to an underfunded public high school where the science educational supply budget was $1.35 per student per semester
posted by palomar at 12:04 PM on February 7, 2017 [38 favorites]
I think the big problem with the public schools debates is that even well-meaning parents who want local public schools to succeed don't want to be the test case with their own kids. But if a cadre of middle-class parents all commits to the local public schools, and support each other in supporting the school, they can make a huge difference both for the neighborhood and their own children.
posted by suelac at 12:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
posted by suelac at 12:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
I'm a product of public schools. I'm against "school choice", especially as implemented by our new Secretary, because it acts as a handout to poorly implemented private for-profits. For profit schools have wreaked havoc in the higher education market, and there's no evidence they're better at educating.
Additionally, I'm glad to increase my taxes to pay for public education. I don't have children. I may never have children. But having *everyone's* children educated well is in my interest. Having everyone's children educated *together* is also in my interest. When you pay taxes for schools, you're not paying to educate your kids; you're paying to educate everyone else's.
posted by nat at 12:06 PM on February 7, 2017 [55 favorites]
Additionally, I'm glad to increase my taxes to pay for public education. I don't have children. I may never have children. But having *everyone's* children educated well is in my interest. Having everyone's children educated *together* is also in my interest. When you pay taxes for schools, you're not paying to educate your kids; you're paying to educate everyone else's.
posted by nat at 12:06 PM on February 7, 2017 [55 favorites]
I'm guessing the school the two parents in the anecdote were referring to was not of this sort.
Very much not. And I'm guessing that a whiter student body is part of what they're looking for (though I'll be charitable and assume that's not all). Our district is about 15% hispanic (many the children of recent immigrants) and maybe 5% black, but the fog of suburban racism makes that feel like 90% to a lot of people.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:06 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Very much not. And I'm guessing that a whiter student body is part of what they're looking for (though I'll be charitable and assume that's not all). Our district is about 15% hispanic (many the children of recent immigrants) and maybe 5% black, but the fog of suburban racism makes that feel like 90% to a lot of people.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:06 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
I suspect that a big part of the "discipline gap" between private and public schools is simply that private schools have the right to say "no" to problem students. Which is obviously unsatisfying, because I think it's obvious that allowing public schools to kick out kids with disciplinary problems doesn't solve anything. And I don't know what an actual solution would be. But it's a real thing, and I suspect that voucher programs will only amplify the divide.
posted by tobascodagama at 12:07 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by tobascodagama at 12:07 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
Another salient point about private and parochial schools is that--at least in the South, in North Carolina--a number of them popped up right around the time that Brown v. Board began to be enforced. White parents straight-up made new schools so their kids wouldn't have to sit next to black kids. When Local Country Day School celebrates "Founder's Day" and their "heritage" (they are always going on about "heritage"), it has a persistent racist stink to it.
One of HRC's first gigs was investigating these, pretending to be a parent of a prospective student and getting the school to confirm that 'don't worry, we don't have any black kids'.
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:09 PM on February 7, 2017 [48 favorites]
One of HRC's first gigs was investigating these, pretending to be a parent of a prospective student and getting the school to confirm that 'don't worry, we don't have any black kids'.
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:09 PM on February 7, 2017 [48 favorites]
If we have to throw public money at private schools, a sliding scale of support is better than a fixed voucher amount that gives people in the top income percentiles the same amount of money as people in the bottom income percentiles.
People who can transport their kids to school have generally more options than people who can't. Not very many people live in walking or biking distance of multiple schools. So not many families will have multiple choices.
What a small voucher will buy in the future is probably something like: 70 kids of mixed ages at cafeteria tables in the church social hall. Using tablets, maybe not connected to the internet. One teacher, and maybe two aides. Canned curriculum, likely faith-based.
The number one way to shrink education costs is to automate away teachers. Not that that would be a good thing. Kids need human interaction, dammit.
Check back with me in five years. I certainly hope to be wrong.
posted by puddledork at 12:09 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
People who can transport their kids to school have generally more options than people who can't. Not very many people live in walking or biking distance of multiple schools. So not many families will have multiple choices.
What a small voucher will buy in the future is probably something like: 70 kids of mixed ages at cafeteria tables in the church social hall. Using tablets, maybe not connected to the internet. One teacher, and maybe two aides. Canned curriculum, likely faith-based.
The number one way to shrink education costs is to automate away teachers. Not that that would be a good thing. Kids need human interaction, dammit.
Check back with me in five years. I certainly hope to be wrong.
posted by puddledork at 12:09 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
I'll tell you this: having talked to friends of mine who are teachers, having extensive experience in education, and knowing damn well I love teaching and I even inexplicably love teenagers in all their awkward glory? Even knowing that I'm genuinely very good at teaching?
I would not be a K12 teacher. I am not signing up to be treated that way by my employers, and I am not signing up for a profession that expects you to be paid in love, not money, for mandatory overtime and weird assumptions about whether you have to work and/or be paid a quarter of the year. Absolutely not. If I emigrated somewhere where teachers are treated like the fucking educated professionals they are expected to be, I might reconsider, but it'd take me a long time observing the treatment of others to stop feeling so damn soured about it.
Fucking hell, the way this country treats teachers is a fucking shame. And the way that state education boards and budget committees won't fund schools to give teachers support for things like smaller class sizes or fucking planning periods or routine pee breaks half the time, demands constant testing so it can have "objective" standards for each teacher's quality, and then punishes and blames the teachers for the defective systems that are not serving anyone well is inexcusable. The existing system that, yes, funds schools based on local property taxes such that the excellent education I got in a good district in one of Atlanta's suburbs and the education my college buddy out of tiny Dahlonega got were barely recognizable as being from the same country? Just compounds all of it even more.
(Her science teacher was a fucking creationist. I've heard similar stories about schools from every single one of my friends and loved ones who went to school in rural areas in both Canada and the US, and it just makes me angry. You want talent and people who care in teaching? Fucking pay for it and treat the job as a job worthy of taking if you're a talented person with some self-respect. It ain't that now, and hasn't been for some time.)
posted by sciatrix at 12:09 PM on February 7, 2017 [66 favorites]
I would not be a K12 teacher. I am not signing up to be treated that way by my employers, and I am not signing up for a profession that expects you to be paid in love, not money, for mandatory overtime and weird assumptions about whether you have to work and/or be paid a quarter of the year. Absolutely not. If I emigrated somewhere where teachers are treated like the fucking educated professionals they are expected to be, I might reconsider, but it'd take me a long time observing the treatment of others to stop feeling so damn soured about it.
Fucking hell, the way this country treats teachers is a fucking shame. And the way that state education boards and budget committees won't fund schools to give teachers support for things like smaller class sizes or fucking planning periods or routine pee breaks half the time, demands constant testing so it can have "objective" standards for each teacher's quality, and then punishes and blames the teachers for the defective systems that are not serving anyone well is inexcusable. The existing system that, yes, funds schools based on local property taxes such that the excellent education I got in a good district in one of Atlanta's suburbs and the education my college buddy out of tiny Dahlonega got were barely recognizable as being from the same country? Just compounds all of it even more.
(Her science teacher was a fucking creationist. I've heard similar stories about schools from every single one of my friends and loved ones who went to school in rural areas in both Canada and the US, and it just makes me angry. You want talent and people who care in teaching? Fucking pay for it and treat the job as a job worthy of taking if you're a talented person with some self-respect. It ain't that now, and hasn't been for some time.)
posted by sciatrix at 12:09 PM on February 7, 2017 [66 favorites]
In other news I'm currently moving somewhere new, and anyone talking about where to move spends a lot of time talking about which districts have "good schools". I have such a hard time with the phrasing-- I can't decide if the dogwhistle is racist or classist, and secondly if the supposedly "not good schools" really are worse education wise. (some schools are terrible, even if it's for essentially racist or classist funding-related reasons).
posted by nat at 12:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by nat at 12:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
There's your problem. It's not libtards or cuckservatives or whatever, it's politicians straight up refusing to behave like this is a democracy anymore.
The idiot NCGA passed a class size mandate for K-3, but couldn't be bothered to fund it, meaning that counties and school boards would need to use their existing budget to hire staff (in a state where teacher retention is already terrible) or increase local property taxes.
Stepping back, we know that the "school choice" movement is aimed squarely at middle-middle-class white-collar parents who can't afford private education and have been priced out of "moving for the schools" to more affluent residential areas. It's the commoditisation of white flight.
posted by holgate at 12:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
The idiot NCGA passed a class size mandate for K-3, but couldn't be bothered to fund it, meaning that counties and school boards would need to use their existing budget to hire staff (in a state where teacher retention is already terrible) or increase local property taxes.
Stepping back, we know that the "school choice" movement is aimed squarely at middle-middle-class white-collar parents who can't afford private education and have been priced out of "moving for the schools" to more affluent residential areas. It's the commoditisation of white flight.
posted by holgate at 12:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
My current dream is to have a reporter ask Trump: "What is it like to be the most hated man on the planet?"
Because you know he would splutter and ramble and try to macho out of it, like "that just means I'm getting stuff done" and then he would go home, put his bathrobe on, and cry.
posted by threeturtles at 12:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
Because you know he would splutter and ramble and try to macho out of it, like "that just means I'm getting stuff done" and then he would go home, put his bathrobe on, and cry.
posted by threeturtles at 12:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
Mod note: Couple comments deleted. Let's keep this private school discussion away from "you, individual parent on Mefi, are doing evil"; that's really not a way to have a conversation that goes anywhere useful at all.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 12:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 12:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
I can't decide if the dogwhistle is racist or classist
Is both.
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Is both.
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Spicer takes three tries to pronounce "Secretary of Education."
[if he has a documented disability, I'm really sorry]
Nah, just stupid
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
I also went to Catholic schools from pre-k til 8th grade. We had an hour of religion classes a day. That doesn't count the mandatory 2x week church attendance, and other classes that were stealth religion classes: music (where we learned nothing but hymns to sing in church) and health (where, in 7th grade, our unit on reproduction was "here is a sperm, here is an egg ::handwave:: you're going to hell"). When I transferred to public high school I was behind in math and science, and I'd also missed a lot of the social cues that other kids understood. Luckily, I caught on very quickly.
What concerns me most is that these religious schools A. are recruitment and indoctrination tools B. operate with very little accountability and C. in practice, are often ways to limit and shelter children by keeping them from learning things like evolution or other perspectives that might lead them to question the dogma they're being exposed to.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 12:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
What concerns me most is that these religious schools A. are recruitment and indoctrination tools B. operate with very little accountability and C. in practice, are often ways to limit and shelter children by keeping them from learning things like evolution or other perspectives that might lead them to question the dogma they're being exposed to.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 12:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
I think the big problem with the public schools debates is that even well-meaning parents who want local public schools to succeed don't want to be the test case with their own kids.
For sure this is a huge thing. It's a thing that every parent who lives in a so-so/downright bad school district has to confront at some point. Every parent has to figure out what their line is. We've had to deal with this choice this year and it is agonizing and I don't feel awesome about it. My son will be attending public school, but we've enrolled him in a magnet program rather than the neighborhood school. Not because our neighborhood school is bad, because it isn't at all and I would love for him to go there, but because the high school that the neighborhood school feeds into is really, really, really bad. Like, dangerous bad. If he starts K in the magnet program, he gets automatically admitted to the magnet 6-12 school which has an IB program and is actually way closer to our house than the school we're zoned for as well. I know magnets can be problematic as well, but his elementary school is 75% black, 68% economically disadvantaged, so we're not removing him from being around peers of color, or kids from different backgrounds. But we are taking a hard pass on sending him to where he "should" be going just based on neighborhood zoning.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:14 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
For sure this is a huge thing. It's a thing that every parent who lives in a so-so/downright bad school district has to confront at some point. Every parent has to figure out what their line is. We've had to deal with this choice this year and it is agonizing and I don't feel awesome about it. My son will be attending public school, but we've enrolled him in a magnet program rather than the neighborhood school. Not because our neighborhood school is bad, because it isn't at all and I would love for him to go there, but because the high school that the neighborhood school feeds into is really, really, really bad. Like, dangerous bad. If he starts K in the magnet program, he gets automatically admitted to the magnet 6-12 school which has an IB program and is actually way closer to our house than the school we're zoned for as well. I know magnets can be problematic as well, but his elementary school is 75% black, 68% economically disadvantaged, so we're not removing him from being around peers of color, or kids from different backgrounds. But we are taking a hard pass on sending him to where he "should" be going just based on neighborhood zoning.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:14 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
I pulled my kid out of his highly-rated, mostly white* public school because the grind of constant testing + large class sizes was giving him severe stress symptoms at 7 years old. And I had the luxury of a relative who was teaching a homeschool group based on Montessori principles and was glad to have him for pretty much free. He has blossomed. If that hadn't worked, we would have had to homeschool him alone because we could not afford full private school tuition.
I still believe in public education. I had a pretty good public education myself. But it's been attacked for so long and tied down with so many bad ideas like overtesting/underfunding/overcrowding that it felt like throwing my kid to the wolves to just let him suffer where he was. I'm not taking any voucher money, though.
I know that this is exactly what the Republicans want, to make public educations so unattractive no one defends it. I don't know what the answer is.
The problem, from my perspective, is that it is nearly impossible to have an honest policy discussion about this topic, because the advocates of "school choice" have poisoned the discussion by framing it as though it is impossible for the public school system to provide such a diversity of experiences, and the only alternative is to treat education as a "service" which is "purchased" through tax dollars or vouchers, rather than a public good that must be provided to all children to ensure the continued health of our republic.
Yes, exactly.
*mentioned merely in the interests of pointing out that being a white kid did not help him in this instance
posted by emjaybee at 12:15 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
I still believe in public education. I had a pretty good public education myself. But it's been attacked for so long and tied down with so many bad ideas like overtesting/underfunding/overcrowding that it felt like throwing my kid to the wolves to just let him suffer where he was. I'm not taking any voucher money, though.
I know that this is exactly what the Republicans want, to make public educations so unattractive no one defends it. I don't know what the answer is.
The problem, from my perspective, is that it is nearly impossible to have an honest policy discussion about this topic, because the advocates of "school choice" have poisoned the discussion by framing it as though it is impossible for the public school system to provide such a diversity of experiences, and the only alternative is to treat education as a "service" which is "purchased" through tax dollars or vouchers, rather than a public good that must be provided to all children to ensure the continued health of our republic.
Yes, exactly.
*mentioned merely in the interests of pointing out that being a white kid did not help him in this instance
posted by emjaybee at 12:15 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
From @tomscocca:
In 1957 the Soviets launched Sputnik, and now nearly every aspect of American daily life relies on a robust network of satellite technology.
In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled that the existing public school system, built on segregation, was inherently unequal and unconstitutional.
We solve the problems we want to solve.
posted by DynamiteToast at 12:17 PM on February 7, 2017 [44 favorites]
In 1957 the Soviets launched Sputnik, and now nearly every aspect of American daily life relies on a robust network of satellite technology.
In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled that the existing public school system, built on segregation, was inherently unequal and unconstitutional.
We solve the problems we want to solve.
posted by DynamiteToast at 12:17 PM on February 7, 2017 [44 favorites]
Canned curriculum, likely faith-based.
Falwell Jr. will gladly provide.
posted by holgate at 12:17 PM on February 7, 2017
Falwell Jr. will gladly provide.
posted by holgate at 12:17 PM on February 7, 2017
We've butted heads on occasion with teachers and administrators at our third grader's public school. After all is said and done, we understand their side of the issue and they tell us in all sincerity that they appreciate that we're so involved in our son's education. I'm sure there have been days that half of us have gone home with headaches, but I suppose you don't go into elementary education expecting easy days and fat paychecks. The folks at my kid's school are warriors.
A couple of years ago we lotteried into a very desirable charter school in town, and were beside ourselves with joy. Things had been a bit tough at school, and we thought we were ready to bail. I got on the phone with the new school to make sure it would be a good fit for us. The conversation went fine until I happened to mention that our son has an Individualized Education Plan and that the county provided an aide for him at school. All of a sudden, the administrator on the phone started to feel that maybe their particular brand of education wouldn't be such a great fit for us after all, and they didn't know when they'd be able to get an aide for him and that it would be disruptive for the class when they did, etc. etc. When I asked about whether they had a speech therapist on staff, she said that they had someone come in once a week and that she was overwhelmed as it was. Clearly we were going to be a burden to them.
I got off the phone and reflected on the resources that were currently available to my son: his home room teacher, a special ed teacher, a few classroom aides, his speech therapist, the school psychologist, and a very engaged and caring principal who knew his name (possibly because he had ended up in her office more than once for this or that infraction). Not to mention all of the other staff and teachers who cared about these kids. I thought about the fact that we would be leaving behind one of the most diverse schools in our state for a school that I knew to be overwhelmingly white.
By the time I'd had a good long think, and of course after my wife and I had talked it over extensively, I knew we'd keep hashing it out at our local public school, where our kid was a member of an imperfect community, not a problem to endure. Since then there have been more emails back and forth and more butting heads and more minor incidents, but it would take much more than this to get us to quit our public school.
As much as I've been nauseated by just about everything Trump has done, elevating DeVos to this position absolutely guts me. Our public school system needs more resources, not fewer. More support, not less. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act needs to be expanded and updated and bolstered, not treated as an afterthought. Yet now I anticipate nothing less than a collapse of the system and kids who are offered far less in the name of school choice.
I did have a heartening moment the other day, though, when I thumbed through the kid's daily school planner. The previous Thursday he had written, in his still-developing third-grade scrawl, "Telling facts from opinions". The liberal arts education dream is still alive.
posted by vverse23 at 12:18 PM on February 7, 2017 [66 favorites]
A couple of years ago we lotteried into a very desirable charter school in town, and were beside ourselves with joy. Things had been a bit tough at school, and we thought we were ready to bail. I got on the phone with the new school to make sure it would be a good fit for us. The conversation went fine until I happened to mention that our son has an Individualized Education Plan and that the county provided an aide for him at school. All of a sudden, the administrator on the phone started to feel that maybe their particular brand of education wouldn't be such a great fit for us after all, and they didn't know when they'd be able to get an aide for him and that it would be disruptive for the class when they did, etc. etc. When I asked about whether they had a speech therapist on staff, she said that they had someone come in once a week and that she was overwhelmed as it was. Clearly we were going to be a burden to them.
I got off the phone and reflected on the resources that were currently available to my son: his home room teacher, a special ed teacher, a few classroom aides, his speech therapist, the school psychologist, and a very engaged and caring principal who knew his name (possibly because he had ended up in her office more than once for this or that infraction). Not to mention all of the other staff and teachers who cared about these kids. I thought about the fact that we would be leaving behind one of the most diverse schools in our state for a school that I knew to be overwhelmingly white.
By the time I'd had a good long think, and of course after my wife and I had talked it over extensively, I knew we'd keep hashing it out at our local public school, where our kid was a member of an imperfect community, not a problem to endure. Since then there have been more emails back and forth and more butting heads and more minor incidents, but it would take much more than this to get us to quit our public school.
As much as I've been nauseated by just about everything Trump has done, elevating DeVos to this position absolutely guts me. Our public school system needs more resources, not fewer. More support, not less. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act needs to be expanded and updated and bolstered, not treated as an afterthought. Yet now I anticipate nothing less than a collapse of the system and kids who are offered far less in the name of school choice.
I did have a heartening moment the other day, though, when I thumbed through the kid's daily school planner. The previous Thursday he had written, in his still-developing third-grade scrawl, "Telling facts from opinions". The liberal arts education dream is still alive.
posted by vverse23 at 12:18 PM on February 7, 2017 [66 favorites]
yo is anybody listening to this Brietbart d-bag (Sebastian Gorka) now in the WH interviewed on The World on I guess PRI?
He is just an evil mother fucker.
He said a bunch of evil motherfucking shit, so it was impossible to keep up with the flood of evil shit, but he went out the door talking about how America was not the coasts but places like Montana.
I mean, it wasn't more or less evil than the other shit, but it just happened to be the last thing he said, so my reaction was what what WHAT WHAT, too aghast to really process.
Remember the name Sebastian Gorka. He is an evil mother fucker who, unlike Spicer, can easily form words, and his anger at the interviewer for asking an obvious question (he called the question churlish and childish) wasn't the not-quite-ready-for-prime-time pyrotechnics of Spicer; it was cold, authoritative, confident anger or pretended anger.
posted by angrycat at 12:19 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
He is just an evil mother fucker.
He said a bunch of evil motherfucking shit, so it was impossible to keep up with the flood of evil shit, but he went out the door talking about how America was not the coasts but places like Montana.
I mean, it wasn't more or less evil than the other shit, but it just happened to be the last thing he said, so my reaction was what what WHAT WHAT, too aghast to really process.
Remember the name Sebastian Gorka. He is an evil mother fucker who, unlike Spicer, can easily form words, and his anger at the interviewer for asking an obvious question (he called the question churlish and childish) wasn't the not-quite-ready-for-prime-time pyrotechnics of Spicer; it was cold, authoritative, confident anger or pretended anger.
posted by angrycat at 12:19 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
Here in FL, just about anyone can open a charter school, too. In my vicinity, there are huckster "charter schools" that are just a guy in a trailer sucking in more than a public school teacher makes in "vouchers" while not doing any educating. They put the kids in front of computers and let them run through "educational" programs all day.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 12:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Kitty Stardust at 12:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
I know that feel, vverse23. My son was recently diagnosed as High Functioning Autistic. Fortunately, he is very high functioning, and mostly does well, but we are still getting him some occupational therapy for some of the areas where he needs help. This is provided through a state program that I fear losing because of DeVos and Republican fuckery. We are fortunate enough that we (probably) can afford to compensate for it by paying for therapy or other needed things, but I'm still very concerned.
posted by Fleebnork at 12:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Fleebnork at 12:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
One thing I like about Public Schools being "bigger" there's likely more people you'll get along with if you slightly different.
posted by drezdn at 12:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by drezdn at 12:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
"magnate program" -- delicious...
posted by AwkwardPause at 12:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by AwkwardPause at 12:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Remember the name Sebastian Gorka.
I remember! That was the guy who defended Bannon's appointment to the NSC on the grounds that he was good at "destroying liberals"
posted by theodolite at 12:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
I remember! That was the guy who defended Bannon's appointment to the NSC on the grounds that he was good at "destroying liberals"
posted by theodolite at 12:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Meanwhile, Trump has reached new heights of disapproval in the Gallup Daily Tracking Poll: 54% disapprove, 42% approve. A new record for two weeks into an administration.
Prepare for incoming wag-the-dog via tweets, I guess.
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
Prepare for incoming wag-the-dog via tweets, I guess.
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
Fleebnork: Same sort of thing here. My son's exceptional in both senses, gifted and special needs for organization, attention, and family background stress. I'm terrified contemplating how much worse it could still get.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by saulgoodman at 12:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
anybody come across a good script for voting no on Price? 5 calls doesn't have one.
posted by angrycat at 12:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by angrycat at 12:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Oh jesus christ the Army Corps of Engineers has granted the DAPL easement. With only 24 hour notice before construction can begin.
posted by Gaz Errant at 12:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by Gaz Errant at 12:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
One-Third Donât Know Obamacare and Affordable Care Act Are the Same
We are so bad at communicating this stuff.
posted by zachlipton at 2:25 PM on February 7
>We are so bad at communicating this stuff.
No, they are really good at not hearing it.
I put this far more at the feet of dems in power when they passed the ACA, personally. For all its flaws it fixed a lot of concrete problems for folks at many levels and before the lawsuits it was poised to help folks down by the poverty line. They could have come out swinging, talking up various aspects of it that were nice and easy to understand (no more lifetime coverage caps hitting people who'd had cancer, no more desperate scrambling to do COBRA if you leave/kicked a job, etc) and speaking proudly of what they'd done and sternly about what they weren't allowed to do by Republicans.
Instead they ran from it, downplayed it, acted like they were ashamed of what they tried to do and what they actually did. By not speaking repeatedly about good things they helped set the stage to be beaten with every issue as it came out. They could have taken ownership and responded to criticism with a earnest "this isn't everything we wanted and we'd love to do more, but the other party won't let us make improvements - they just want to get rid of everything, including XYZ."
No, zachlipton is totally right. The ACA was a huge achievement and the dems deserve a lot of blame for not treating it like one.
posted by phearlez at 12:26 PM on February 7, 2017 [43 favorites]
We are so bad at communicating this stuff.
posted by zachlipton at 2:25 PM on February 7
>We are so bad at communicating this stuff.
No, they are really good at not hearing it.
I put this far more at the feet of dems in power when they passed the ACA, personally. For all its flaws it fixed a lot of concrete problems for folks at many levels and before the lawsuits it was poised to help folks down by the poverty line. They could have come out swinging, talking up various aspects of it that were nice and easy to understand (no more lifetime coverage caps hitting people who'd had cancer, no more desperate scrambling to do COBRA if you leave/kicked a job, etc) and speaking proudly of what they'd done and sternly about what they weren't allowed to do by Republicans.
Instead they ran from it, downplayed it, acted like they were ashamed of what they tried to do and what they actually did. By not speaking repeatedly about good things they helped set the stage to be beaten with every issue as it came out. They could have taken ownership and responded to criticism with a earnest "this isn't everything we wanted and we'd love to do more, but the other party won't let us make improvements - they just want to get rid of everything, including XYZ."
No, zachlipton is totally right. The ACA was a huge achievement and the dems deserve a lot of blame for not treating it like one.
posted by phearlez at 12:26 PM on February 7, 2017 [43 favorites]
sometimes the private school in question is actually more diverse than the public school.
Diversity doesn't just mean race. It means economic opportunity, family structure, family composition, religion, immigration status, etc. I would gather that many public schools are segregated because they are neighborhood schools, but private schools aren't usually diverse in most of these ways.
And, okay - I did switch to a Catholic high school that was as racially diverse as my public high school, with far more diversity in social and economic classes, immigration status, and honestly not doing too badly on the religious diversity front (as long as you lump all Christians together - I certainly knew more Jews and Muslims there than I did at the local public high school). And I'm still against vouchers because of my experience - because it did make it very clear from the beginning that I was expected to be better than 75% of my peers to get a decent education, that they didn't really consider education a right for all, but a right for the privileged few that they so graciously bestowed upon us poor scholarship kids. And that's not even getting to the sex education, mandatory religion classes, and the fact that we just sort of skipped over the chapter on human evolution.
Even the best urban charter schools do this - there's far more tracking and far less variations allowed on the way to success. The kids who are picked and can handle the pressure are allowed to flourish, the rest are just someone else's problem.
And we're not even getting into the differences between how teachers are treated between public and private or charter schools.
posted by dinty_moore at 12:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Diversity doesn't just mean race. It means economic opportunity, family structure, family composition, religion, immigration status, etc. I would gather that many public schools are segregated because they are neighborhood schools, but private schools aren't usually diverse in most of these ways.
And, okay - I did switch to a Catholic high school that was as racially diverse as my public high school, with far more diversity in social and economic classes, immigration status, and honestly not doing too badly on the religious diversity front (as long as you lump all Christians together - I certainly knew more Jews and Muslims there than I did at the local public high school). And I'm still against vouchers because of my experience - because it did make it very clear from the beginning that I was expected to be better than 75% of my peers to get a decent education, that they didn't really consider education a right for all, but a right for the privileged few that they so graciously bestowed upon us poor scholarship kids. And that's not even getting to the sex education, mandatory religion classes, and the fact that we just sort of skipped over the chapter on human evolution.
Even the best urban charter schools do this - there's far more tracking and far less variations allowed on the way to success. The kids who are picked and can handle the pressure are allowed to flourish, the rest are just someone else's problem.
And we're not even getting into the differences between how teachers are treated between public and private or charter schools.
posted by dinty_moore at 12:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
angrycat, here's an article to crib from: Tom Price Would Jeopardize LGBT Peopleâs Health and Wellness: " Heâs voted for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, voted against protecting LGBT people from employment discrimination, and indicated he agreed with a false claim that LGBT rights legislation would have a negative effect on âmedical health.â"
Rep. Price is a co-sponsor of the misleadingly named First Amendment Defense Act, or FADA, a law that would allow individuals and corporations alike to ignore civil rights laws and discriminate against LGBT people. For example, the law would allow doctors and hospitals to refuse to treat LGBT people, even if they receive taxpayer dollars through Medicare and Medicaid. It would allow youth homeless shelters to discriminate against, and even turn away, LGBT homeless youth.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Rep. Price is a co-sponsor of the misleadingly named First Amendment Defense Act, or FADA, a law that would allow individuals and corporations alike to ignore civil rights laws and discriminate against LGBT people. For example, the law would allow doctors and hospitals to refuse to treat LGBT people, even if they receive taxpayer dollars through Medicare and Medicaid. It would allow youth homeless shelters to discriminate against, and even turn away, LGBT homeless youth.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
when was the last time that a cabinet confirmation had to be tiebroken by the V.P., anyway?
Regardless of how you feel about 538, they have a graphic in this article that makes just how unusual these confirmations are very stark. The TLDR being that almost all appointees get confirmed by a wide margin.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 12:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Regardless of how you feel about 538, they have a graphic in this article that makes just how unusual these confirmations are very stark. The TLDR being that almost all appointees get confirmed by a wide margin.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 12:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Oh jesus christ the Army Corps of Engineers has granted the DAPL easement. With only 24 hour notice before construction can begin.
I can't express how soul crushingly sick it makes me feel that I think we're going to see very soon how the Trump admin will want to treat protesters that really get in their way. I am not very optimistic about this at all.
posted by Jalliah at 12:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
I can't express how soul crushingly sick it makes me feel that I think we're going to see very soon how the Trump admin will want to treat protesters that really get in their way. I am not very optimistic about this at all.
posted by Jalliah at 12:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
The number one way to shrink education costs is to automate away teachers. Not that that would be a good thing. Kids need human interaction, dammit.
Plenty of jobs will get automated away. I believe there should be a cheering section for that - some of 'em are posters complaining about DeVoss however.
The 1950's to 1970's had research into the effect on TV WRT brain patterns. These tablets and smartphones? How much research is being done VS the volume of the products and usage?
Neither of these were the article I was looking for, but it took longer to type 'em in for you to see than to find them.
What claims to be brain imaging
Reporting from a union about computers and education
The teachers union is one of the last large nationwide unions. Why should it be allowed to live as far as TPTB are concerned? Its not like there is good research saying computers should be stopped from automating them out of existence.
posted by rough ashlar at 12:30 PM on February 7, 2017
Plenty of jobs will get automated away. I believe there should be a cheering section for that - some of 'em are posters complaining about DeVoss however.
The 1950's to 1970's had research into the effect on TV WRT brain patterns. These tablets and smartphones? How much research is being done VS the volume of the products and usage?
Neither of these were the article I was looking for, but it took longer to type 'em in for you to see than to find them.
What claims to be brain imaging
Reporting from a union about computers and education
The teachers union is one of the last large nationwide unions. Why should it be allowed to live as far as TPTB are concerned? Its not like there is good research saying computers should be stopped from automating them out of existence.
posted by rough ashlar at 12:30 PM on February 7, 2017
when was the last time that a cabinet confirmation had to be tiebroken by the V.P., anyway?
Never. WaPo had an interesting bit about how it almost happened once before but a defection prevented it at the last second. If only that history had repeated itself.
posted by phearlez at 12:30 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Never. WaPo had an interesting bit about how it almost happened once before but a defection prevented it at the last second. If only that history had repeated itself.
posted by phearlez at 12:30 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Metafilter: I am not very optimistic about this at all.
posted by Gaz Errant at 12:31 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by Gaz Errant at 12:31 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
corb I'd have been angry at the person who talked about her kid getting "lost" at public school myself, and I only spent a short time in public school.
To me it sounds like fundamentalist Christian code for "not being brainwashed to my satisfaction", or "learning about evolution", or "getting reality based sex education". I've never heard anyone use the term lost, metaphorically, about a kid without it having a religious bigotry angle.
I know people who escaped Quiverfull or other extreme fundamentalism who were described as being "lost" thanks to college, or public school, or what have you.
Also, in the modern USA the public school/private school thing has changed a lot since I was kids. It now seems that private schools, especially private religious schools, especially with vouchers and so forth, are there basically to destroy public education, to destroy the middle class dream that is sustained by public education. And that's already under attack on multiple fronts from taxpayer "rights" groups (I've got a childless coworker who spends most of his off time as part of a group working tirelessly to slash property taxes because he does't see why he should have to pay for other people's kids going to school).
The comment, from my POV, is a declaration by the other person that they're part of the elect, religiously, financially, socially, whatever, and they go out of their way to avoid being tainted by contact with mere peons like me and my kid.
posted by sotonohito at 12:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
To me it sounds like fundamentalist Christian code for "not being brainwashed to my satisfaction", or "learning about evolution", or "getting reality based sex education". I've never heard anyone use the term lost, metaphorically, about a kid without it having a religious bigotry angle.
I know people who escaped Quiverfull or other extreme fundamentalism who were described as being "lost" thanks to college, or public school, or what have you.
Also, in the modern USA the public school/private school thing has changed a lot since I was kids. It now seems that private schools, especially private religious schools, especially with vouchers and so forth, are there basically to destroy public education, to destroy the middle class dream that is sustained by public education. And that's already under attack on multiple fronts from taxpayer "rights" groups (I've got a childless coworker who spends most of his off time as part of a group working tirelessly to slash property taxes because he does't see why he should have to pay for other people's kids going to school).
The comment, from my POV, is a declaration by the other person that they're part of the elect, religiously, financially, socially, whatever, and they go out of their way to avoid being tainted by contact with mere peons like me and my kid.
posted by sotonohito at 12:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
Instead they ran from it, downplayed it, acted like they were ashamed of what they tried to do and what they actually did.
That's the whole Obama administration and Democratic Party, 2009-2016, in a nutshell. Not just the ACA but the financial bailout and all the other cleanups of messes the GOP and Dubya left behind. Fuck them all.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
That's the whole Obama administration and Democratic Party, 2009-2016, in a nutshell. Not just the ACA but the financial bailout and all the other cleanups of messes the GOP and Dubya left behind. Fuck them all.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
I can't express how soul crushingly sick it makes me feel that I think we're going to see very soon how the Trump admin will want to treat protesters that really get in their way. I am not very optimistic about this at all.
Yeah. I think that DAPL is going to be the regime's first real chance to exercise internal state violence, and people protesting there are not going to back off easy.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
Yeah. I think that DAPL is going to be the regime's first real chance to exercise internal state violence, and people protesting there are not going to back off easy.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
Just a parent talking about private school in general would have made me shurg. The "lost" bit is what would have triggered a visceral rage response.
posted by sotonohito at 12:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by sotonohito at 12:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Does Trump know Putin? A chronology. (He "got to know him very well" when he wanted to make it sound like he knew how to talk to foreign leaders, doesn't know him when he wants to run away from the Russian hacking story.)
Trump makes false statement about U.S. murder rate to sheriffsâ group. He specifically accused the press of not "tell[ing] it like it is."
posted by zachlipton at 12:34 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
Trump makes false statement about U.S. murder rate to sheriffsâ group. He specifically accused the press of not "tell[ing] it like it is."
posted by zachlipton at 12:34 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
Starbucks offers employees free legal advice on Trump's travel ban: In a letter to workers sent Monday, Starbucks executives said the company is partnering with Ernst & Young, which provides an immigration advisory program to companies. Ernst & Young will offer all Starbucks employees and their families free legal advice to "help navigate immigration issues and get answers in these uncertain times."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:34 PM on February 7, 2017 [20 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:34 PM on February 7, 2017 [20 favorites]
Yeah. I think that DAPL is going to be the regime's first real chance to exercise internal state violence, and people protesting there are not going to back off easy.
Nope, they're not. I'm worried someone is going to die.
posted by suelac at 12:34 PM on February 7, 2017 [22 favorites]
Nope, they're not. I'm worried someone is going to die.
posted by suelac at 12:34 PM on February 7, 2017 [22 favorites]
Hey, they're at it again.
The Hill: Senate Dems plan all-nighter to protest Sessions
The Hill: Senate Dems plan all-nighter to protest Sessions
Fresh off an all-night talk-a-thon on the Senate floor to protest President Trumpâs nominee to head the Department of Education, Senate Democrats are planning another overnight debate.posted by Existential Dread at 12:36 PM on February 7, 2017 [76 favorites]
This time, they will be protesting Trumpâs pick to serve as attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.).
Three Senate Democratic sources told The Hill that lawmakers will again talk all night -- from Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday morning -- to vent their opposition to Sessions, who has been accused of making racially insensitive remarks as a U.S. attorney in Alabama decades ago.
Sessions has come under fire as well for his strong stance on immigration â he is a vocal critic of illegal immigration and led opposition to the bipartisan 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill.
So word on the street is that current Breitbart editor Joel Pollak is going to be the next ambassador to South Africa. He has plenty of connections to SA, being born in Joburg, his parents emigrated when he was young and he came back to SA to do some post graduate studying and write speeches for the Democratic Alliance (a centre left party - he was an Obama supporting Democrat at the time).
Considering the terse relationship the SA govt had with the previous US ambassador Patrick Gaspard this could turn out to be a massive shit show. Or not seeing both Trump and Zuma are massively compromised serial philanderers who would love to get rid of voting altogether and rule by decree.
posted by PenDevil at 12:37 PM on February 7, 2017
Considering the terse relationship the SA govt had with the previous US ambassador Patrick Gaspard this could turn out to be a massive shit show. Or not seeing both Trump and Zuma are massively compromised serial philanderers who would love to get rid of voting altogether and rule by decree.
posted by PenDevil at 12:37 PM on February 7, 2017
I am certain that someone is going to die. I am worried that there is going to be an actual massacre.
posted by sciatrix at 12:37 PM on February 7, 2017 [30 favorites]
posted by sciatrix at 12:37 PM on February 7, 2017 [30 favorites]
Nope, they're not. I'm worried someone is going to die.
That sound you hear is the drip drip drip of slaver running off Bannon's fangs.
posted by Gaz Errant at 12:37 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
That sound you hear is the drip drip drip of slaver running off Bannon's fangs.
posted by Gaz Errant at 12:37 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
And then we'll be told (as if we didn't already know) that the "all" in "all lives matter" also excludes people protesting oil pipelines.
posted by zachlipton at 12:40 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 12:40 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
I always hear the "lost" as "lost to me". You can't control a child if they get a glimpse of how other cultures live. You can't control a child if they learn critical thinking skills, because then they start questioning the things you tell them.
I got kicked out of a private religious school at the end of first grade because I brought "divisive views" into their safe space. Ooooh, divisive views like asking questions about Judaism because I was reading Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, or asking questions about dinosaurs after reading some scientifically accurate information in that month's Ranger Rick. Those people wanted me out because I was already "lost" at age six.
posted by palomar at 12:41 PM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
I got kicked out of a private religious school at the end of first grade because I brought "divisive views" into their safe space. Ooooh, divisive views like asking questions about Judaism because I was reading Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, or asking questions about dinosaurs after reading some scientifically accurate information in that month's Ranger Rick. Those people wanted me out because I was already "lost" at age six.
posted by palomar at 12:41 PM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
Public Information letter from the Ninth Circuit
The link to the stream is:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/view_video.php?pk_vid=0000010884
No ruling expected today.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:42 PM on February 7, 2017
The link to the stream is:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/view_video.php?pk_vid=0000010884
No ruling expected today.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:42 PM on February 7, 2017
I honestly don't know why, at this point, the right move wouldn't be to just wage guerilla warfare against the DAPL project and make it too expensive to continue with there. It's a sickening thing to consider but if this was any other sovereign nation we were stomping on then this would be an act of war. Why shouldn't they treat it as such?
posted by phearlez at 12:42 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by phearlez at 12:42 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
I'm worried someone is going to die.
We have a president who put a portrait of Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office and an elected Republican openly advocating "another Kent State."
posted by contraption at 12:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [44 favorites]
We have a president who put a portrait of Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office and an elected Republican openly advocating "another Kent State."
posted by contraption at 12:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [44 favorites]
Yeah. I think that DAPL is going to be the regime's first real chance to exercise internal state violence, and people protesting there are not going to back off easy.
I think they're trying to provoke the DAPL protesters into doing something violent - some last-ditch chance - so that they can justify the state violence that will be brought to bear.
posted by corb at 12:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
I think they're trying to provoke the DAPL protesters into doing something violent - some last-ditch chance - so that they can justify the state violence that will be brought to bear.
posted by corb at 12:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
Like, fuck the two party system, MAAAN!
Why would we have a tie on such an egregious nominee? Because Democrats serve corporate interests. -- Dr. Jill Stein on Twitter, 8:48 AM - 7 Feb 2017 (real)
posted by dhens at 12:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
Why would we have a tie on such an egregious nominee? Because Democrats serve corporate interests. -- Dr. Jill Stein on Twitter, 8:48 AM - 7 Feb 2017 (real)
posted by dhens at 12:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
Does anybody else suspect Jill Stein is just a Markov chain?
posted by zachlipton at 12:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [30 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 12:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [30 favorites]
Reading the always excellent Autostraddle and came across this site where you can use the address search above to find the offices you are eligible to run for, with all the information you need to get on the ballot (including forms and advice). Not sure if it's been posted somewhere in these election threads before â probably, since we're like 20,000 comments post election â but I'm really thrilled to have found it.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 12:46 PM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 12:46 PM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
So, we're all in agreement that Jill Stein's opinion on anything doesn't really matter, right? Can we please just start ignoring her as the ridiculous footnote to history that she is?
posted by biogeo at 12:46 PM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 12:46 PM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
Wait, what does that Stein quote even mean? All the dems voted against the egregious nominee.
posted by mochapickle at 12:46 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by mochapickle at 12:46 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
Can we please add Jill Stein to the list of people who aren't worth linking to just because they said something else terrible?
posted by C'est la D.C. at 12:46 PM on February 7, 2017 [50 favorites]
posted by C'est la D.C. at 12:46 PM on February 7, 2017 [50 favorites]
Yes, a Markov chain with a single state, "Assert that Democrats and Republicans are the same," and a transition matrix [1].
posted by biogeo at 12:47 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 12:47 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
Apropos of nothing, it's my partner's day off, so they went down to Senator Cornyn's Austin office today to meet with him and inquire when he will next do a town hall, along with a small group of Indivisible/Pantsuit Republic folks off Facebook. The staffer there, a gentleman by the name of Jeff Williford whose card said he was the Deputy Regional Director of the office, pleasantly informed them that Senator Cornyn has zero plans for a town hall in Texas any time soon. In fact, he told them, the senator doesn't need to hold town hall meetings to interact with his constituents or even directly interact with them at all, because that isn't his job. It's his staffers' job to meet with the people--that's why he has staff! And indeed, it's their job to pass on everything he needs to know from his constituents!
Apparently the man was falling over himself so much to be non-confrontational and lean away from the little group of visitors as he said this that he nearly fell over a computer monitor in a desperate bid for maximum casual grace. Smooth.
posted by sciatrix at 12:48 PM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
Apparently the man was falling over himself so much to be non-confrontational and lean away from the little group of visitors as he said this that he nearly fell over a computer monitor in a desperate bid for maximum casual grace. Smooth.
posted by sciatrix at 12:48 PM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
an elected Republican openly advocating "another Kent State."
To slightly defend my state, he's a county Republican Party official in the 29th-most-populous county in Michigan, so only technically an elected Republican.
posted by Etrigan at 12:49 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
To slightly defend my state, he's a county Republican Party official in the 29th-most-populous county in Michigan, so only technically an elected Republican.
posted by Etrigan at 12:49 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Self-care tip: Listen to all of Depeche Mode: The Singles 86-98
posted by Existential Dread at 12:49 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by Existential Dread at 12:49 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
Wait, what does that Stein quote even mean? All the dems voted against the egregious nominee.
Maybe it's a cry for help. Maybe she knows that it doesn't make any sense in context but is using it to let us know that she has been compromised and is being controlled by whatever. [fake?]
posted by drezdn at 12:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Does anybody else suspect Jill Stein is just a Markov chain?
She's been a member of the alt-fact for a while now.
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
She's been a member of the alt-fact for a while now.
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
What appears to be a student walkout/protest just marched past my office on Broadway. Good for them. Fuck this DeVos confirmation.
posted by defenestration at 12:51 PM on February 7, 2017 [37 favorites]
posted by defenestration at 12:51 PM on February 7, 2017 [37 favorites]
The veteran's group that went to DAPL in the fall said they are still going to stand with them and will go back. Articles I read said from 500 to 1000 vets went there. To be blunt I don't think this admin will have any problem going after natives and individual supporters and racism will make this okay with their base. If the Vets do return how the admin and base is going to respond if they have to go through vets is a question. In normal world the vets would likely provide some protection against racially based justification but in this new not normal world I have no idea.
And how would current military personal react to vets being attacked by their own gov't? No idea.
posted by Jalliah at 12:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
in the 29th-most-populous county in Michigan
That fucker is from Michigan? Ugh.
posted by INFJ at 12:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
That fucker is from Michigan? Ugh.
posted by INFJ at 12:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Self-care tip: Listen to all of Depeche Mode: The Singles 86-98
the grabbing hands grab all they can, all for themselves, after all
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
the grabbing hands grab all they can, all for themselves, after all
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
Remember the name Sebastian Gorka.
And when you do, remember what he said about the Pulse nightclub shooting: "This is not a hate crime."
posted by mudpuppie at 12:56 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
And when you do, remember what he said about the Pulse nightclub shooting: "This is not a hate crime."
posted by mudpuppie at 12:56 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
Flying Home From Abroad, a Border Agent Stopped and Questioned Me ⊠About My Work for the ACLU: The CBP questioning didnât seem to have anything to do with the torture case. Instead, it focused on my work for the ACLU and my citizenship â Pakistani â although Iâve been a longtime legal permanent resident of the United States for more than a decade.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:57 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:57 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
It's been one of those days:
Preamble, US Constitution:
Preamble, US Constitution:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.posted by ZeusHumms at 1:00 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Ok, if you voted for Stein I've moved you over to the "Trump Voter" list. What a ridiculous person she is.
For the past couple years, I've made Momofoku's bo ssam on Super Bowl Sunday and invited a shitload of people. At this point, it's porky, salty, delightful tradition, and I like to think that it's something people look forward to -- when I sent out the invite this year, for example, I got an e-mail back saying that this friend confessed that she'd been selfishly worrying that me and Mr. Machine having a kid meant an end to Super Bo-Ssam Sunday. Another friend of ours refuses to watch any organized sports whatsoever, but comes early and stays late and then makes a 45 minute drive back to the burbs for the Super Bowl because she loves bo ssam.
When I was in the planning phase a couple weeks ago for this past Sunday, I was thinking about inviting a couple that I know. It's been a while! We should catch up! They're cool folks!
And then I remembered that at least one of them voted for fucking Jill Stein in Pennsylvania in 2016.
Reader, I could not fucking go there, in much the same way that our D&D group no longer meets at the house of the person who plays our halfling barbarian, as her husband is a full-throated Trump supporter.
posted by joyceanmachine at 1:01 PM on February 7, 2017 [55 favorites]
For the past couple years, I've made Momofoku's bo ssam on Super Bowl Sunday and invited a shitload of people. At this point, it's porky, salty, delightful tradition, and I like to think that it's something people look forward to -- when I sent out the invite this year, for example, I got an e-mail back saying that this friend confessed that she'd been selfishly worrying that me and Mr. Machine having a kid meant an end to Super Bo-Ssam Sunday. Another friend of ours refuses to watch any organized sports whatsoever, but comes early and stays late and then makes a 45 minute drive back to the burbs for the Super Bowl because she loves bo ssam.
When I was in the planning phase a couple weeks ago for this past Sunday, I was thinking about inviting a couple that I know. It's been a while! We should catch up! They're cool folks!
And then I remembered that at least one of them voted for fucking Jill Stein in Pennsylvania in 2016.
Reader, I could not fucking go there, in much the same way that our D&D group no longer meets at the house of the person who plays our halfling barbarian, as her husband is a full-throated Trump supporter.
posted by joyceanmachine at 1:01 PM on February 7, 2017 [55 favorites]
What appears to be a student walkout/protest just marched past my office on Broadway. Good for them. Fuck this DeVos confirmation.
There are some pics in this Gothamist article. If I were still in high school, I would honestly consider dropping out to organize full time - obviously this is not an option for many kids/families and there a million collateral consequences that I'm not considering right now due to being so angry about this, but really, how important are some bullshit standardized tests going to be for basic survival in four years? It really feels like there's no point in attending school in this new world order other than to keep kids occupied so they have less time for the resistance.
posted by melissasaurus at 1:01 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
There are some pics in this Gothamist article. If I were still in high school, I would honestly consider dropping out to organize full time - obviously this is not an option for many kids/families and there a million collateral consequences that I'm not considering right now due to being so angry about this, but really, how important are some bullshit standardized tests going to be for basic survival in four years? It really feels like there's no point in attending school in this new world order other than to keep kids occupied so they have less time for the resistance.
posted by melissasaurus at 1:01 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Also:
Declaration of Independence:
Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. â That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, â That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.posted by entropicamericana at 1:02 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
The veteran's group that went to DAPL in the fall said they are still going to stand with them and will go back.
They have a gofundme up right now to help support this effort. Additionally you can donate to Standing Rock, as they'll be needing all the help they can get.
posted by mayonnaises at 1:04 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
They have a gofundme up right now to help support this effort. Additionally you can donate to Standing Rock, as they'll be needing all the help they can get.
posted by mayonnaises at 1:04 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
Wait, what does that Stein quote even mean? All the dems voted against the egregious nominee.
I share the general distrust & antipathy towards Jill Stein. It looks like even she misunderstood her point but there is one in there. Yes all the Dem Senators voted against her. But several of them checked the whip tallies to make sure their vote wouldn't matter to the result before voting.
posted by scalefree at 1:05 PM on February 7, 2017
I share the general distrust & antipathy towards Jill Stein. It looks like even she misunderstood her point but there is one in there. Yes all the Dem Senators voted against her. But several of them checked the whip tallies to make sure their vote wouldn't matter to the result before voting.
posted by scalefree at 1:05 PM on February 7, 2017
T.D. Strange: Jeff Flake only won his race in 2012 by 3%, in a state that Hilary lost by 2.5 with record 3rd party voting. He's beatable. So is Heller in NV, only won in 2012 by 1.2 in a Obama-Obama-Hilary state. Remember their DeVos votes.
I informed Senator Flake that we would in fact not forget, and that while DeVos and her family have deep pockets, the millions of righteously angry people both in and out of Arizona who will show up next year to remind him of what we think of this vote can also command a pretty penny, as well as feet on the ground.
While it's true that midterms in AZ have typically been sad, the winds are shifting. There is an amazing energy right now as we've already begun working toward 2018. Among many other initiatives, there's the new White Hat Democrats project to ensure we have precinct representation throughout the state. Being an active presence in our neighborhoods is our best guarantee of being able to GOTV even in a non-presidential year.
posted by Superplin at 1:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
I informed Senator Flake that we would in fact not forget, and that while DeVos and her family have deep pockets, the millions of righteously angry people both in and out of Arizona who will show up next year to remind him of what we think of this vote can also command a pretty penny, as well as feet on the ground.
While it's true that midterms in AZ have typically been sad, the winds are shifting. There is an amazing energy right now as we've already begun working toward 2018. Among many other initiatives, there's the new White Hat Democrats project to ensure we have precinct representation throughout the state. Being an active presence in our neighborhoods is our best guarantee of being able to GOTV even in a non-presidential year.
posted by Superplin at 1:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
And then I remembered that at least one of them voted for fucking Jill Stein in Pennsylvania in 2016.
No swine spreads for Stein heads.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [29 favorites]
No swine spreads for Stein heads.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [29 favorites]
But several of them checked the whip tallies to make sure their vote wouldn't matter to the result before voting.
That's purely hypothetical; you don't actually know its true in this case. It's quite possible, even probable, that the Democrats would have been happy to burn this nominee.
posted by Justinian at 1:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
That's purely hypothetical; you don't actually know its true in this case. It's quite possible, even probable, that the Democrats would have been happy to burn this nominee.
posted by Justinian at 1:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
It appears my previous comment was too harsh. So I'll try again slightly differently; Jill Stein is a ridiculous person as evidenced by her ridiculous tweet.
posted by Justinian at 1:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 1:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
this is also a problem easily solved by "better democrats" rather than "the fucking green party"
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
Voters oppose 60 â 37 percent President Dampnutâs order suspending immigration of all refugees from any nation to the U.S. for 120 days, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University Poll finds.
Voters also oppose 70 â 26 percent Dampnutâs order suspending indefinitely all immigration of Syrian refugees to the U.S.
58 â 38 percent say that he does not share their values.
Lord Dampnut will do more to divide the country, rather than unite the nation, voters say 58 â 37 percent.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Voters also oppose 70 â 26 percent Dampnutâs order suspending indefinitely all immigration of Syrian refugees to the U.S.
58 â 38 percent say that he does not share their values.
Lord Dampnut will do more to divide the country, rather than unite the nation, voters say 58 â 37 percent.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
But several of them checked the whip tallies to make sure their vote wouldn't matter to the result before voting.
I have totally drank the DC-area resident inside baseball koolaid but this one is almost too far even for me. How do you possibly back this assertion up? In the case of my VA senators both declared openly last week how they'd vote. Who supposedly made no public commitment of vote before Friday and didn't participate in the talk-a-thon last night?
posted by phearlez at 1:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
I have totally drank the DC-area resident inside baseball koolaid but this one is almost too far even for me. How do you possibly back this assertion up? In the case of my VA senators both declared openly last week how they'd vote. Who supposedly made no public commitment of vote before Friday and didn't participate in the talk-a-thon last night?
posted by phearlez at 1:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
School Choice, Not Reproductive Choice.
posted by mikelieman at 1:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by mikelieman at 1:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Last week, Hina Shamsi, Director of the ACLU National Security Project, was detained by CBP returning from Dominica and questioned about her work, among other things:
posted by melissasaurus at 1:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
The CBP questioning didnât seem to have anything to do with the torture case. Instead, it focused on my work for the ACLU and my citizenship â Pakistani â although Iâve been a longtime legal permanent resident of the United States for more than a decade.More in the article, including "why haven't you become a citizen yet?" and Shamsi having to explain the Constitution and the existence of international law.
What was I doing in Dominica? I explained that I am a lawyer working for the American Civil Liberties Union and traveled there for a case. Why, asked the CBP agent holding my Pakistani passport, would someone working for an organization with âAmericanâ in its name have âthisâ passport? And why would someone working for an organization with âAmericanâ in its name be representing people who are not citizens? (Perhaps the agent had not heard about ACLU lawsuits challenging the Muslim ban on behalf of noncitizens.)
posted by melissasaurus at 1:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
Kellyanne Conway is back on CNN. I guess their principled stand about her credibility only applies to Sundays?
posted by Justinian at 1:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 1:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
So, we're all in agreement that Jill Stein's opinion on anything doesn't really matter, right? Can we please just start ignoring her as the ridiculous footnote to history that she is?
You know she's going to run again in 2020. So, no, don't pay attention to her. But do record every stupid thing she says so we can hang her with it later on.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
You know she's going to run again in 2020. So, no, don't pay attention to her. But do record every stupid thing she says so we can hang her with it later on.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
But, what do the likely voters say?
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 1:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 1:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
It really feels like there's no point in attending school in this new world order other than to keep kids occupied so they have less time for the resistance.
This is kind of what I'm feeling. You know how the Talking Heads' "Life During Wartime" is this sort of paranoid song? That's the song I'm feeling. "Why stay in college? Why go to night school?" I feel like what's going to happen is a wave of internal violence - probably first the DAPL protesters, and I think sciatrix is right, I think people will be killed if they go on as they have done, and I see no reason they won't. And I'm a coward, so for now I'll go on as I have, and the waves of violence and injustice will sweep higher and higher until they wash over me, and whatever happened to the others who went before will also happen to me.
posted by Frowner at 1:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
This is kind of what I'm feeling. You know how the Talking Heads' "Life During Wartime" is this sort of paranoid song? That's the song I'm feeling. "Why stay in college? Why go to night school?" I feel like what's going to happen is a wave of internal violence - probably first the DAPL protesters, and I think sciatrix is right, I think people will be killed if they go on as they have done, and I see no reason they won't. And I'm a coward, so for now I'll go on as I have, and the waves of violence and injustice will sweep higher and higher until they wash over me, and whatever happened to the others who went before will also happen to me.
posted by Frowner at 1:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
The veteran's group that went to DAPL in the fall said they are still going to stand with them and will go back. Articles I read said from 500 to 1000 vets went there. To be blunt I don't think this admin will have any problem going after natives and individual supporters and racism will make this okay with their base. If the Vets do return how the admin and base is going to respond if they have to go through vets is a question. In normal world the vets would likely provide some protection against racially based justification but in this new not normal world I have no idea
So this is actually really more complex than it appears - so a lot of the vets that came out last time came out through an organization that fundraised a lot of money, but the people who actually received that money didn't spend most of it on the veterans going and may have run off with the funds - I can get details if you're interested, one of my Army squadmates went there and had a really bad taste in his mouth. So I don't think it will be as easy to get a lot of vets out there as it was last time - because some veterans will be kind of leery about returning to a situation that was a little bit messed up, and some of the organizations fundraising for it have ethical issues (please look into whoever you may be funding!) so it's a lot more difficult a situation than previously.
Veterans make good shields in many ways, but I would not count on them being out in force at the DAPL protests, and I especially would not count on them being able to stop the violence if Bannon thinks it's good for Racist Business.
posted by corb at 1:15 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
So this is actually really more complex than it appears - so a lot of the vets that came out last time came out through an organization that fundraised a lot of money, but the people who actually received that money didn't spend most of it on the veterans going and may have run off with the funds - I can get details if you're interested, one of my Army squadmates went there and had a really bad taste in his mouth. So I don't think it will be as easy to get a lot of vets out there as it was last time - because some veterans will be kind of leery about returning to a situation that was a little bit messed up, and some of the organizations fundraising for it have ethical issues (please look into whoever you may be funding!) so it's a lot more difficult a situation than previously.
Veterans make good shields in many ways, but I would not count on them being out in force at the DAPL protests, and I especially would not count on them being able to stop the violence if Bannon thinks it's good for Racist Business.
posted by corb at 1:15 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
the first thing that DeVos tweeted was something like thank you thank you our students will now have more options blah blah blah
Yeah. More options. That is exactly what education needs, you dumb as a sack of hammers thing. I'm sorry I share a gender with you.
posted by angrycat at 1:16 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
Yeah. More options. That is exactly what education needs, you dumb as a sack of hammers thing. I'm sorry I share a gender with you.
posted by angrycat at 1:16 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
A Trump troll made a "Congrats, Betsy" post in a FB group for parents in my town. I commented that it was coming across as trolling (all his posts in this group are reposted from a state Republican group he leads) and got him to admit that he doesn't actually have kids. The group has Parents right in the name. Then one of our School Committee members called the dude out when he did the "This isn't partisan and anyway liberals are the problem" response. So that was cool. Exposing a party hack was my good deed for today.
In a few hours, I'll be at the state Democratic Party's Women's Caucus meeting. I've been part of an effort to revive it and flood it with progressive women. I cannot wait. I kinda spent the day mourning over the DeVos confirmation (Kid Ruki is home sick, so I stayed home from work today) but now I'm fired up again.
posted by Ruki at 1:17 PM on February 7, 2017 [26 favorites]
In a few hours, I'll be at the state Democratic Party's Women's Caucus meeting. I've been part of an effort to revive it and flood it with progressive women. I cannot wait. I kinda spent the day mourning over the DeVos confirmation (Kid Ruki is home sick, so I stayed home from work today) but now I'm fired up again.
posted by Ruki at 1:17 PM on February 7, 2017 [26 favorites]
Jill Stein is a vampire that won't ever die, she'll inevitably be back to split the left vote again in four years, because the Green party only exists to support her quadrennial grift, not like, actually organize at a local or state level, or within the existing left structural framework to push for actual policy outcomes.
She's worth mentioning in order to discredit and hopefully even deny ballot access next time. Never forget that the Stein margin would've won Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
posted by T.D. Strange at 1:18 PM on February 7, 2017 [20 favorites]
She's worth mentioning in order to discredit and hopefully even deny ballot access next time. Never forget that the Stein margin would've won Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
posted by T.D. Strange at 1:18 PM on February 7, 2017 [20 favorites]
But, what do the likely voters say?
Joff-tchoff-tchoffo-tchoffo-tchoff, and sometimes Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!
posted by C'est la D.C. at 1:19 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
Joff-tchoff-tchoffo-tchoffo-tchoff, and sometimes Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!
posted by C'est la D.C. at 1:19 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
And I'm a coward, so for now I'll go on as I have, and the waves of violence and injustice will sweep higher and higher until they wash over me, and whatever happened to the others who went before will also happen to me.
I was with you until that. There are many important forms of resistance that one can adopt and you do not need to physically run to DAPL this second to participate in it. We're looking at a long and multifaceted resistance in a big country and right now Bannon wants nothing more than for you to call yourself a coward and wait for the tide to roll in.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:19 PM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
I was with you until that. There are many important forms of resistance that one can adopt and you do not need to physically run to DAPL this second to participate in it. We're looking at a long and multifaceted resistance in a big country and right now Bannon wants nothing more than for you to call yourself a coward and wait for the tide to roll in.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:19 PM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
So, we're all in agreement that Jill Stein's opinion on anything doesn't really matter, right? Can we please just start ignoring her as the ridiculous footnote to history that she is?
Just as soon as she divests herself of that $7M she's trying to sneak off with.
posted by snuffleupagus at 1:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Just as soon as she divests herself of that $7M she's trying to sneak off with.
posted by snuffleupagus at 1:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Soooo, Stein is saying that if the Democrats didn't serve corporate interests, they would have voted to confirm Devos?
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
you really don't have to dig very deeply to get the gist. read maybe one (half?) moldbug essay and you'll get all the low points. it's over-privileged libertarian softboys bloviating about how democracy is doomed to failure due to the inadequacy of the masses and how neo-feudalism will save the race by awarding power to those with the wherewithal to seize it.
naturally they end up near the top of the power structure in these fantasies.
Okay..phew. I decided to start at the beginning of his blog. I made it through 1.5 blog entry/essays before wandering off elsewhere because that was intellectually painful. Most of the pain coming from the idea that so many people buy this as some sort of modern genius thinking. The entry I was reading was about making the argument that democracy and the ideas around democracy is bunk. Now I'm all for a good argument and debate about the pitfalls and issues with modern forms of democracy but that was not it. If this is the foundation that his 'theories' are based on...
I read that this guys thinking among others has helped form the basis for current manifestations of white supremist (alt-right) thinking. If this is the case I can already see glimmers of why these folks are all over Trump and Bannon.
Anyways, I'm going to keep trudging through the intellectual goop here. (Oh and if anyone knows of a good, basic and more laypersons critique of Austrian Economics/Mise & Rothbard I'd appreciate help finding some sources thanks)
posted by Jalliah at 1:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
But can you imagine TWO dueling McCarthy-as-Spicers? Where they out-shout, out-chew, and out-podium each other? A girl can dream...
Something like this?
"Ladies and gentlemen...dueling Brandos! "
posted by Gelatin at 1:21 PM on February 7, 2017
Something like this?
"Ladies and gentlemen...dueling Brandos! "
posted by Gelatin at 1:21 PM on February 7, 2017
She's worth mentioning in order to discredit and hopefully even deny ballot access next time. Never forget that the Stein margin would've won Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
True in MI and WI but not quite in PA where Gary Johnson received the bulk of the third party support. Still, unlike most years, there was polling to suggest that the libertarian ticket was hurting Clinton more than Trump, particularly among young people. Stein's total was indeed more than the margin in MI and WI though.
posted by Justinian at 1:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
True in MI and WI but not quite in PA where Gary Johnson received the bulk of the third party support. Still, unlike most years, there was polling to suggest that the libertarian ticket was hurting Clinton more than Trump, particularly among young people. Stein's total was indeed more than the margin in MI and WI though.
posted by Justinian at 1:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
person who plays our halfling barbarian, as her husband is a full-throated Trump supporter
Coincidence?
posted by biogeo at 1:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Coincidence?
posted by biogeo at 1:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
person who plays our halfling barbarian, as her husband is a full-throated Trump supporter
Coincidence?
Based on his hand size, perhaps Trump is three halfling barbarians sitting on each other's shoulders in an ill-fitting suit.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:26 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
Coincidence?
Based on his hand size, perhaps Trump is three halfling barbarians sitting on each other's shoulders in an ill-fitting suit.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:26 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
Stein + Johnson voters for the dems in FL would've carried the state. People fucking suck.
posted by snuffleupagus at 1:26 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by snuffleupagus at 1:26 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Metafilter: Reader, I could not fucking go there
posted by tivalasvegas at 1:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
posted by tivalasvegas at 1:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
D&D Trump is the guy who comes in with dubiously high stats that he rolled "at home," insists on playing a Paladin, then ignores his alignment and goes full-on murder hobo at the first opportunity
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [63 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [63 favorites]
Kellyanne Conway is back on CNN. I guess their principled stand about her credibility only applies to Sundays?
"Thou shalt not bear false witness", etc. Just keeping the Sabbath holy.
posted by tivalasvegas at 1:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
"Thou shalt not bear false witness", etc. Just keeping the Sabbath holy.
posted by tivalasvegas at 1:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Kellyanne Conway is back on CNN. I guess their principled stand about her credibility only applies to Sundays?
I think it's more then that. Last week the WH said that it wasn't going to send anyone to CNN. Then it caved and wanted to send Conway and CNN then said no way. Regardless of what the WH says it wants it's people on CNN. Trump watches CNN. They're playing a power game with the WH who want them to get in line. CNN has been refusing to do what they want. Conway being back on CNN right now isn't necessarily an indication that they've caved. It could also be an indication that the WH has backed off some of their (behind the scenes) demands in order to get their people back on their airwaves.
posted by Jalliah at 1:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I think it's more then that. Last week the WH said that it wasn't going to send anyone to CNN. Then it caved and wanted to send Conway and CNN then said no way. Regardless of what the WH says it wants it's people on CNN. Trump watches CNN. They're playing a power game with the WH who want them to get in line. CNN has been refusing to do what they want. Conway being back on CNN right now isn't necessarily an indication that they've caved. It could also be an indication that the WH has backed off some of their (behind the scenes) demands in order to get their people back on their airwaves.
posted by Jalliah at 1:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Catholic school student diversity now roughly tracks the racial diversity of the U.S. as a whole.
posted by HotToddy at 1:30 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by HotToddy at 1:30 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
"Lord Dampnut will do more to divide the country, rather than unite the nation, voters say 58 â 37 percent."
Yay! We're united in our fear of being divided!
posted by klarck at 1:30 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Yay! We're united in our fear of being divided!
posted by klarck at 1:30 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
D&D Trump is the guy who comes in with dubiously high stats that he rolled "at home," insists on playing a Paladin, then ignores his alignment and goes full-on murder hobo at the first opportunity
I don't know from D&D so this is like a foreign language to me, but still, sounds about right.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 1:30 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
I don't know from D&D so this is like a foreign language to me, but still, sounds about right.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 1:30 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
This is kind of what I'm feeling. You know how the Talking Heads' "Life During Wartime" is this sort of paranoid song? That's the song I'm feeling. "Why stay in college? Why go to night school?" I feel like what's going to happen is a wave of internal violence - probably first the DAPL protesters, and I think sciatrix is right, I think people will be killed if they go on as they have done, and I see no reason they won't. And I'm a coward, so for now I'll go on as I have, and the waves of violence and injustice will sweep higher and higher until they wash over me, and whatever happened to the others who went before will also happen to me.
I am fighting the feeling that if I was braver, I would sit and have a chat with my students--all bright, engaged kids, kids who are following the news, kids who were impressed and delighted I marched in DC--and devote a discussion section week to talking about the ethical demands we place on scientists and science, on medical professionals and medicine, and the ethical demands we place on citizens. Or the demands we should place, anyway. My instructors might be braver than me; yesterday one of them led the class in a written reflection on the new educational curricula under discussion at the Texas Board for Education on evolutionary biology. The reflections were unanimous in the need for evolution and population genetics to be taught in high school.
There's three white boys I can think of, in a class of about fifty, and one of them screams queer at me (although obviously, I haven't asked him or anything). And that's actually a fairly high ratio for me, probably because this is the first time I've been teaching with an honors section of genetics. (Normally I get about the same number of white boys in a class twice the size--there's usually a significant showing of white women and then the majority of the class is varying shades of brown.) Every time I go out and teach, I see a sea of eager and inquisitive faces, and I wonder what their futures will look like. I am seeing little buttons of resistance popping up on backpacks. I am seeing students chattering about what the political system will do to them, and I know they must be fretting about their futures, too.
I want so badly to help prepare them for that future. I have been honest with them when they ask me what I'm doing when I graduate--fuck knows, but I don't think there will be much in the way of jobs--and I am honest with them about the work we talk about, about the costs that come with science and the constraints on geneticists that come with limited money and options, and how we select methods to pull that off. I tell them about medical history, sometimes--this is the first year I don't yet have a planned space to talk to them about the history of blood screening--and I tell them about the little hidden stories in science, the places where unexpected serendipity resulted in startlingly important discoveries; the places where scientists who were flawed, ridiculous humans did great things despite complaining that some days they hated everyone and every thing or accidentally mistook live guinea pigs for chalk erasers; the places where sometimes the counter-intuitive reveals itself to be simple and clear if you just run the math.
I have loved every single one of my students, although I have particular favorites I keep in the back of my head. But I don't know how I can protect them, as a TA; I don't know how my instructors can protect them. I'm afraid, too, and I keenly feel the absence of anyone who can effectively protect me either. These kids are mostly as close in age to me as they are to my fourteen-year-old sister. I want to keep them safe, and I want to give them arms, and I want to cheer them on to war as my best allies and my best argument for the future.
But I don't know if I am doing anything valuable at all.
posted by sciatrix at 1:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
I am fighting the feeling that if I was braver, I would sit and have a chat with my students--all bright, engaged kids, kids who are following the news, kids who were impressed and delighted I marched in DC--and devote a discussion section week to talking about the ethical demands we place on scientists and science, on medical professionals and medicine, and the ethical demands we place on citizens. Or the demands we should place, anyway. My instructors might be braver than me; yesterday one of them led the class in a written reflection on the new educational curricula under discussion at the Texas Board for Education on evolutionary biology. The reflections were unanimous in the need for evolution and population genetics to be taught in high school.
There's three white boys I can think of, in a class of about fifty, and one of them screams queer at me (although obviously, I haven't asked him or anything). And that's actually a fairly high ratio for me, probably because this is the first time I've been teaching with an honors section of genetics. (Normally I get about the same number of white boys in a class twice the size--there's usually a significant showing of white women and then the majority of the class is varying shades of brown.) Every time I go out and teach, I see a sea of eager and inquisitive faces, and I wonder what their futures will look like. I am seeing little buttons of resistance popping up on backpacks. I am seeing students chattering about what the political system will do to them, and I know they must be fretting about their futures, too.
I want so badly to help prepare them for that future. I have been honest with them when they ask me what I'm doing when I graduate--fuck knows, but I don't think there will be much in the way of jobs--and I am honest with them about the work we talk about, about the costs that come with science and the constraints on geneticists that come with limited money and options, and how we select methods to pull that off. I tell them about medical history, sometimes--this is the first year I don't yet have a planned space to talk to them about the history of blood screening--and I tell them about the little hidden stories in science, the places where unexpected serendipity resulted in startlingly important discoveries; the places where scientists who were flawed, ridiculous humans did great things despite complaining that some days they hated everyone and every thing or accidentally mistook live guinea pigs for chalk erasers; the places where sometimes the counter-intuitive reveals itself to be simple and clear if you just run the math.
I have loved every single one of my students, although I have particular favorites I keep in the back of my head. But I don't know how I can protect them, as a TA; I don't know how my instructors can protect them. I'm afraid, too, and I keenly feel the absence of anyone who can effectively protect me either. These kids are mostly as close in age to me as they are to my fourteen-year-old sister. I want to keep them safe, and I want to give them arms, and I want to cheer them on to war as my best allies and my best argument for the future.
But I don't know if I am doing anything valuable at all.
posted by sciatrix at 1:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
Based on Twitter reaction, Tapper is grilling the heck out of Conway. Is anybody watching?
posted by zachlipton at 1:32 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by zachlipton at 1:32 PM on February 7, 2017
Tapper: "I am talking about the false statements the POTUS is making."
Kellyanne: "Are they more important than the many things he says that are true?"
[real]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [76 favorites]
Kellyanne: "Are they more important than the many things he says that are true?"
[real]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [76 favorites]
> Bag of Dicks
Still catching up on the thread for today, but ... thank you prefpara. I'm looking at a lovely little gift for Flake and Mccain.
posted by Enturbulated at 1:33 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Still catching up on the thread for today, but ... thank you prefpara. I'm looking at a lovely little gift for Flake and Mccain.
posted by Enturbulated at 1:33 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Pressed, Kellyanne says: "I think he is relying on data, perhaps, from a particular area. I'm not sure who gave him that data."
posted by T.D. Strange at 1:34 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 1:34 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
That's just like how Nixon told us he's not a crook by pointing out the many objects in the room he didn't personally steal. [fake]
posted by zachlipton at 1:35 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 1:35 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Kellyanne: "Are they more important than the many things he says that are true?"
oh boy we're going to get an Official White House List of True Statements Made By President Donald J. Trump by the end of the day aren't we
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:36 PM on February 7, 2017 [37 favorites]
oh boy we're going to get an Official White House List of True Statements Made By President Donald J. Trump by the end of the day aren't we
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:36 PM on February 7, 2017 [37 favorites]
I don't know from D&D so this is like a foreign language to me, but still, sounds about right.
Allow me to translate! I'm fluent in both geek and dork.
D&D Trump is the guy who comes in with dubiously high stats that he rolled "at home,"
In D&D, you start creating a character by rolling dice to determine their strength, intelligence, etc. These are called stats. Rolling stats "at home" is usually code for "chose the numbers I wanted, no dice involved."
insists on playing a Paladin,
Paladins have very specific stat requirements that are difficult to get on natural rolls of the dice. Furthermore, they are very hard characters to play because they have a bunch of behavioral restrictions. People like to play them because they are sort of the "white knight in shining armor" characters (often literally).
then ignores his alignment and goes full-on murder hobo at the first opportunity
Paladins are required to be lawful good (that's the alignment) and that is a bear of an alignment to play. Killing a hobo basically break this alignment restriction and, in serious games, means you are no longer a Paladin. Unless you whine loudly enough and your Dungeon Master (the lady who runs the game) would rather appease you than hold you accountable.
I leave it as an exercise for the reader to decide what man or woman would be Trump's Dungeon Master in this metaphorical scenario.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:37 PM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
Allow me to translate! I'm fluent in both geek and dork.
D&D Trump is the guy who comes in with dubiously high stats that he rolled "at home,"
In D&D, you start creating a character by rolling dice to determine their strength, intelligence, etc. These are called stats. Rolling stats "at home" is usually code for "chose the numbers I wanted, no dice involved."
insists on playing a Paladin,
Paladins have very specific stat requirements that are difficult to get on natural rolls of the dice. Furthermore, they are very hard characters to play because they have a bunch of behavioral restrictions. People like to play them because they are sort of the "white knight in shining armor" characters (often literally).
then ignores his alignment and goes full-on murder hobo at the first opportunity
Paladins are required to be lawful good (that's the alignment) and that is a bear of an alignment to play. Killing a hobo basically break this alignment restriction and, in serious games, means you are no longer a Paladin. Unless you whine loudly enough and your Dungeon Master (the lady who runs the game) would rather appease you than hold you accountable.
I leave it as an exercise for the reader to decide what man or woman would be Trump's Dungeon Master in this metaphorical scenario.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:37 PM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
I have to completely skip out of the private school debate because I attended a Catholic school from 6th-12th grades and I have really strong feelings on this issue. My mom moved me to a Catholic school because I was being bullied in public school for being smart and a girl and I was seriously depressed. She went to work full-time to be able to afford it, in addition to going to college and then grad school.
It honestly changed and saved my life and I firmly believe that. Moving into an all-girls environment cured my depression and taught me to be self-assertive and talkative in a way I had never been before. I have no idea what kind of adult I would be if I had remained in public school, but I'm pretty sure I'd have been an unhappier one.
There are lots of flaws with private schools and schools range WIDELY in terms of ideology and philosophy and environment. For me the big difference was it being a girls-only environment. There's something toxic about many public schools for girls, and I'm deeply grateful to my parents for seeing that and getting me out.
Education is one of the issues I care the most about because of how deeply it affected my life. I think all children should have the opportunity to learn and grow in an environment where they aren't degraded and belittled and where they don't fear for their own safety. My husband went to public schools and he was famous at his school as "that kid who got beat up twice in one day." He still has PTSD from the regular beatings he took in high school.
When I graduated college I went to work in Early Childhood Education and saw the best and worst in the public school system from Headstarts (generally awesome) to universal Pre-K pilots to warehouses for terrible teachers. I believe educational reform can work because I've seen it in action. It requires a lot of funding and people who know what they're doing in charge. With Republicans constantly trying to undermine public education at every turn, I can't see it ever happening.
I don't think private schools should be funded with public money. But I think our educational system is deeply broken on many levels and I don't judge any parents for trying to do the best for their children by putting them in an environment that's better for them.
posted by threeturtles at 1:37 PM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
It honestly changed and saved my life and I firmly believe that. Moving into an all-girls environment cured my depression and taught me to be self-assertive and talkative in a way I had never been before. I have no idea what kind of adult I would be if I had remained in public school, but I'm pretty sure I'd have been an unhappier one.
There are lots of flaws with private schools and schools range WIDELY in terms of ideology and philosophy and environment. For me the big difference was it being a girls-only environment. There's something toxic about many public schools for girls, and I'm deeply grateful to my parents for seeing that and getting me out.
Education is one of the issues I care the most about because of how deeply it affected my life. I think all children should have the opportunity to learn and grow in an environment where they aren't degraded and belittled and where they don't fear for their own safety. My husband went to public schools and he was famous at his school as "that kid who got beat up twice in one day." He still has PTSD from the regular beatings he took in high school.
When I graduated college I went to work in Early Childhood Education and saw the best and worst in the public school system from Headstarts (generally awesome) to universal Pre-K pilots to warehouses for terrible teachers. I believe educational reform can work because I've seen it in action. It requires a lot of funding and people who know what they're doing in charge. With Republicans constantly trying to undermine public education at every turn, I can't see it ever happening.
I don't think private schools should be funded with public money. But I think our educational system is deeply broken on many levels and I don't judge any parents for trying to do the best for their children by putting them in an environment that's better for them.
posted by threeturtles at 1:37 PM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
I hate her. I hate whatever logical fallacy that she constantly uses is.
posted by INFJ at 1:37 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by INFJ at 1:37 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Killing a hobo basically break this alignment restriction
well as long as we're doing a close reading of my comment: Murder Hobo
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:40 PM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
well as long as we're doing a close reading of my comment: Murder Hobo
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:40 PM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
OK, I think I'm done for life. I await President Trump's disavowing Putin.
Putin approves change to law decriminalising domestic violence : From now on, beatings of spouses or children that result in bruising or bleeding but not broken bones are punishable by 15 days in prison or a fine, if they do not happen more than once a year. Previously, they carried a maximum jail sentence of two years.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:41 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
Putin approves change to law decriminalising domestic violence : From now on, beatings of spouses or children that result in bruising or bleeding but not broken bones are punishable by 15 days in prison or a fine, if they do not happen more than once a year. Previously, they carried a maximum jail sentence of two years.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:41 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
Oh and if anyone knows of a good, basic and more laypersons critique of Austrian Economics/Mise & Rothbard I'd appreciate help finding some sources thanks
I haven't read it, but The Road to Serfdom is popular among that crowd.
posted by Coventry at 1:41 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I haven't read it, but The Road to Serfdom is popular among that crowd.
posted by Coventry at 1:41 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I need to correct Joey Michaels both because (a) it's on point for a D&D discussion to veer off into pedantic corrections and (b) "murder hobo" is a wonderful phrase that does not mean murdering hobos. It means that's who you are in a lot of D&D campaigns, all set dressing aside: you're a bunch of wandering randos who go around killing people and taking their stuff.
posted by cortex at 1:41 PM on February 7, 2017 [36 favorites]
posted by cortex at 1:41 PM on February 7, 2017 [36 favorites]
Has anyone been following what's been going on in Belarus? There have been weird twitter rumblings this past week that I didn't pay to much attention too (or understand much) and now this appears to be happening:
Snap drills or show of power? Belarus calling out reserve forces on massive scale (ENG video)
posted by Jalliah at 1:42 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
D&D Trump is the guy who comes in with dubiously high stats that he rolled "at home," insists on playing a Paladin, then ignores his alignment and goes full-on murder hobo at the first opportunity
"No, see, I worship the god of money, so he wants me to kill this guy and take all this stuff. I'm totally still in character here."
Killing a hobo basically break this alignment restriction and, in serious games, means you are no longer a Paladin.
Actually, in this context, "murder hobo" refers to a playstyle where storytelling and character motivations take a backseat to just killing everything you see to maximise your loot drops. Although such a player probably would also murder hobos, then make up a commandment from their god that the hobo was violating when the GM presses them to justify their action.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:42 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
"No, see, I worship the god of money, so he wants me to kill this guy and take all this stuff. I'm totally still in character here."
Killing a hobo basically break this alignment restriction and, in serious games, means you are no longer a Paladin.
Actually, in this context, "murder hobo" refers to a playstyle where storytelling and character motivations take a backseat to just killing everything you see to maximise your loot drops. Although such a player probably would also murder hobos, then make up a commandment from their god that the hobo was violating when the GM presses them to justify their action.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:42 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
So, the fact that our president can be baited into doing stuff just by telling him Obama wouldn't have done it is bad enough, but I hope all the people who think that Mattis and other elements in the US military were going to be some sort of moderating influence on him see how they're just egging him on, in this case in ways that killed 30+ people.
posted by Copronymus at 1:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by Copronymus at 1:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
Metafilter: Actually, in this context, "murder hobo" refers to
posted by theodolite at 1:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [47 favorites]
posted by theodolite at 1:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [47 favorites]
House Republicans Avoid Voting on a Resolution Stating That the Holocaust Targeted Jews
From adolescence onward I felt like and identified as a "white" person. That changed a year or so ago and as a secular Jew I feel less and less like an accepted part of "real" america every day. Gaining and then losing your sense of whiteness is weird, guys.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [54 favorites]
From adolescence onward I felt like and identified as a "white" person. That changed a year or so ago and as a secular Jew I feel less and less like an accepted part of "real" america every day. Gaining and then losing your sense of whiteness is weird, guys.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [54 favorites]
Joey Michaels isn't as fluent in certain dialects of dorkdom.
posted by INFJ at 1:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by INFJ at 1:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Has anyone been following what's been going on in Belarus? There have been weird twitter rumblings this past week that I didn't pay to much attention too (or understand much) and now this appears to be happening:
Well, time to move up my "land war in Europe" time line
posted by The Whelk at 1:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Well, time to move up my "land war in Europe" time line
posted by The Whelk at 1:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
I stand corrected and am delighted to learn that what the phrase "murder hobo" means. That is amazing, accurate and perfect.
Joey Michaels isn't as fluent in certain dialects of dorkdom.
This is what I get for stopping my studies after graduate school.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:46 PM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
Joey Michaels isn't as fluent in certain dialects of dorkdom.
This is what I get for stopping my studies after graduate school.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:46 PM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
But I don't know if I am doing anything valuable at all.
Science is a career laden with self-doubt and uncertainty, and grad school is perhaps the worst of it. But if there is one thing you must never doubt, it is the value you offer in enriching the minds and lives of your students. This is precious, and taking that duty and privilege seriously connects you to an intrinsic moral good that our political foes can't even begin to comprehend.
There is dignity and flourishing in what you do, no matter what tragedies and battles we have to fight in the political sphere. Please take pride and comfort in that knowledge.
posted by biogeo at 1:46 PM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
Science is a career laden with self-doubt and uncertainty, and grad school is perhaps the worst of it. But if there is one thing you must never doubt, it is the value you offer in enriching the minds and lives of your students. This is precious, and taking that duty and privilege seriously connects you to an intrinsic moral good that our political foes can't even begin to comprehend.
There is dignity and flourishing in what you do, no matter what tragedies and battles we have to fight in the political sphere. Please take pride and comfort in that knowledge.
posted by biogeo at 1:46 PM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
I happened to catch the Jake Tapper interview with Kellyanne. I'm not her target audience, but I thought Tapper made her sound like a fool and a liar.
posted by diogenes at 1:47 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by diogenes at 1:47 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Tapper does a good job of waiting out her meandering non-answers and then repeating the question.
posted by diogenes at 1:48 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by diogenes at 1:48 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
House Republicans Avoid Voting on a Resolution Stating That the Holocaust Targeted Jews
I don't know if I can actually contain all my rage in my body right now you guys.
posted by corb at 1:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [39 favorites]
I don't know if I can actually contain all my rage in my body right now you guys.
posted by corb at 1:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [39 favorites]
Well, time to move up my "land war in Europe" time line
*twitches* What you're supposed to say is "Oh Jalli, This is nothing to worry about. It's all just normal and good."
posted by Jalliah at 1:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
*twitches* What you're supposed to say is "Oh Jalli, This is nothing to worry about. It's all just normal and good."
posted by Jalliah at 1:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
House Republicans Avoid Voting on a Resolution Stating That the Holocaust Targeted Jews
Like it or lump it, that's straight up Dark Enlightenment right there - everyone should believe (or "believe") nonsense and lies as a partisan gesture, and it's even better if the nonsense and lies are actively cruel and abhorrent because this socializes us into a world of brutality and inequality. We know in our hearts that the Holocaust happened and that it targeted Jews, but as a gesture of submission to our monstrous overlords, we are supposed to disavow that fact.
posted by Frowner at 1:53 PM on February 7, 2017 [41 favorites]
Like it or lump it, that's straight up Dark Enlightenment right there - everyone should believe (or "believe") nonsense and lies as a partisan gesture, and it's even better if the nonsense and lies are actively cruel and abhorrent because this socializes us into a world of brutality and inequality. We know in our hearts that the Holocaust happened and that it targeted Jews, but as a gesture of submission to our monstrous overlords, we are supposed to disavow that fact.
posted by Frowner at 1:53 PM on February 7, 2017 [41 favorites]
We're gonna need a big fucking (metaphorical) wall once the (metaphorical) revolution comes.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:53 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by tobascodagama at 1:53 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I just now learned that Melissa McCarthy and Jenny McCarthy are cousins. I need time to process this information.
posted by waitingtoderail at 1:53 PM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by waitingtoderail at 1:53 PM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
From adolescence onward I felt like and identified as a "white" person. That changed a year or so ago and as a secular Jew I feel less and less like an accepted part of "real" america every day. Gaining and then losing your sense of whiteness is weird, guys.
So there's this comedy tour documentary, The Muslims Are Coming!, that came up on Netflix a while ago. I watched it--it's funny!--and one thing I think I will never forget was a piece of I think it was Dean Obeidallah's shtick, which starts out "I remember the exact day I stopped being white." He was talking about 9/11, but.... yeah. Yeah. Whiteness is such a terrifyingly flexible concept, fellow white people, and we'd better the fuck not assume that privilege will apply to us forever, so we had better take the whole privilege system away and equalize shit for everyone lest it be used against groups of us like a cudgel.
posted by sciatrix at 1:54 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
So there's this comedy tour documentary, The Muslims Are Coming!, that came up on Netflix a while ago. I watched it--it's funny!--and one thing I think I will never forget was a piece of I think it was Dean Obeidallah's shtick, which starts out "I remember the exact day I stopped being white." He was talking about 9/11, but.... yeah. Yeah. Whiteness is such a terrifyingly flexible concept, fellow white people, and we'd better the fuck not assume that privilege will apply to us forever, so we had better take the whole privilege system away and equalize shit for everyone lest it be used against groups of us like a cudgel.
posted by sciatrix at 1:54 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
Like it or lump it, that's straight up Dark Enlightenment right there
I think I'll lump it, thank you
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
I think I'll lump it, thank you
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Here's a good clip from the Tapper interview.
posted by diogenes at 1:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by diogenes at 1:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
As far as whether you are doing anything, sciatrix, I think remembering the role of serendipity is important. You don't know what bits of knowledge will come in handy for what kids in what situations. We are all about to go through a terrible storm together, them included, and all we can do is share what we have and pass on what we know.
This is how I feel about my kiddo right now. I have no idea what world he will inherit or what challenges he will face. So I'm trying to give him/teach him as much as I can, knowing that I can't really protect him in the long run. I'm doing other things too obviously but I can't change the fact that he was born into this time and place, however frightening it may look. And you can't change that for those kids either. You aren't the only adult in their life and hopefully there are others trying to help them just like you.
posted by emjaybee at 1:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
This is how I feel about my kiddo right now. I have no idea what world he will inherit or what challenges he will face. So I'm trying to give him/teach him as much as I can, knowing that I can't really protect him in the long run. I'm doing other things too obviously but I can't change the fact that he was born into this time and place, however frightening it may look. And you can't change that for those kids either. You aren't the only adult in their life and hopefully there are others trying to help them just like you.
posted by emjaybee at 1:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
Which is to say: fuck, this shit is scary, and I need to check in with a couple of friends of mine now.
posted by sciatrix at 1:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by sciatrix at 1:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
I just now learned that Melissa McCarthy and Jenny McCarthy are cousins. I need time to process this information.
There's a helpful educational video you might want to look up, "So You Just Found Out Two Disparate Celebrities With The Same Last Name Are Actually Cousins: A Guide To Coping," narrated by Chuck and Amy Schumer
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:58 PM on February 7, 2017 [61 favorites]
There's a helpful educational video you might want to look up, "So You Just Found Out Two Disparate Celebrities With The Same Last Name Are Actually Cousins: A Guide To Coping," narrated by Chuck and Amy Schumer
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:58 PM on February 7, 2017 [61 favorites]
Maybe that's the wedge we can use to make white people finally fucking get it. Next time some asshole tries to downplay Jim Crow by talking about "No Blacks or Irish" signs, tell them that's exactly the point. Whiteness is malleable. Don't assume you'll always be included. That's why you need to tear whiteness the fuck down.
(I feel so, so bad for the East/Southeast Asian kids who grew up being treated like model minorities who are now emerging into adulthood in the brave new world of re-ascendant white nationalism.)
posted by tobascodagama at 1:59 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
(I feel so, so bad for the East/Southeast Asian kids who grew up being treated like model minorities who are now emerging into adulthood in the brave new world of re-ascendant white nationalism.)
posted by tobascodagama at 1:59 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
[still way behind for today]
From Spicer's droppings today: "As I have stated before, 8 USC 1182 gives the President constitutional authority for this executive order [...]"
Uhm, what? USC gives constitutional authority? Someone please enlighten me how the [redacted] does USC supersede constitutional law?
posted by Enturbulated at 2:07 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
From Spicer's droppings today: "As I have stated before, 8 USC 1182 gives the President constitutional authority for this executive order [...]"
Uhm, what? USC gives constitutional authority? Someone please enlighten me how the [redacted] does USC supersede constitutional law?
posted by Enturbulated at 2:07 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
The mail came. There was a pink pussy hat in it. (sister sent me a surprise)
I feel like I received a piece of magic armor to help protect me during my quests into Dark Enlightenment World and Bannonland.
posted by Jalliah at 2:07 PM on February 7, 2017 [56 favorites]
Today, Representative Thomas Massie introduced H.R. 899, a bill to abolish the federal Department of Education. The bill, which is one sentence long, states, âThe Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2018.â
I want to address this because I think it's going to be important in the coming years.
To the extent we can do multiple things, by all means - we should highlight this garbage and draw attention to the ideology of these really loathsome people. But it's important to remember and realize, when we have finite time to protest and finite attention from people who we might enlist, that there are a lot of stunt bills introduced in the House. Many of them come from the garbage Reps who rode gerrymandered neighborhoods of low-information cranks into office and they often also lack basic competency. Massie is cut from the Rand Paul cloth and has a history of being a pain in the ass, a la Paul, about dopey little resolutions like saying nice things about a golfer.
Personally I think those are dumb too, but Massie is willing to think they're dumb and demand a roll call vote. Either he's cool with wasting everyone's time as a goal in and of itself or, probably, just wants to make sure he's on record with his Devoted Opposition To Frivolous Things.
So - keep all that in mind when considering HR 899 and what we can consider a sibling bill (which actually has been in the system long enough to have tracking stuff), HR 34.
If you open that Govtrack link (note: go give Josh money; open government efforts ain't cheap and there's a Patreon where you can just toss him $1 a month while you're supporting your faorite cartoonists) and click through to the text, you'll see that this similar nonsense bill - about doing away with the gun-free schools act - has one sponsor and one co-sponsor. This is a huge giveaway when it comes to these baloney bills, and you see it reflected in the probability of passage stat from the bottom of the summary page: 1%.
In the case of this bill you can see also that it's not the first time it was introduced. He introduced this in the 114th congress as well. Where it similarly went to committee - because unless they're being fast-tracked in some way or some other oddity is going on - every bill goes. I'm a little rusty on the particulars, but there's essentially no friction with regards to introducing this junk. There's a box on the House floor where you can toss your little bit of stunt-legislation and it'll get entered. Any member can do it. And often does.
So one of the big tells you have with this is whether a Rep got anyone else to sign on along with their lunacy. HR34 has one person and his buddy. It's not impossible to add more later but if you're serious about passing something you spend the time to get more folks on board.
HR899 is a little 'better' as participation goes; the press release lists 7 co-sponsors. But that's still pretty weak sauce. Massie is sort of a low-performer - typical of the Tea Party wave, as I understand it - and has exactly 3 bills introduced in the 115th, which puts him well positioned to pass his 114th congress total of eight. But if you go look at HR 24 you see a very different picture with regards to cohorts. There are a full 45 reps listed there, and the betting on the bill reflects it - shows as 23%.
That's not all that plays into odds of continuing, but whenever you see some sturm und drang about a House bill you should go look at what's really being proposed and who's doing it. Massie is a great example of someone you should almost never take seriously. Those eight 114th congress bills? Exactly one got a report out of committee. Which according to the Govtrack detail, which I am unsure if it's a House-wide stat or related to that particular committee, happens for 1 in 4 bills. So this clown's batting half of the chamber's average.
That one's a good example in other ways too. If you look at its general page you see how it got referred out of committee. You can also see that in between the time it went to the committee and the report was done and referred it picked up a whole huge host of additional sponsors.
And despite all of that? Never got scheduled for a vote.
So keep watching for shenanigans and point out the idiots for mockery. But don't let their empty stunts meant to rile up their base distract you from real work. In the 113th, when I was working on open data stuff, there were 5,885 house resolutions introduced. 371 passed the house, which means almost exactly that many came up for a vote because they don't do votes on stuff that isn't going to pass. That's a pissant percentage in no small part because of all the junk bills.
Preserve your powder. We're gonna need it.
posted by phearlez at 2:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [82 favorites]
I want to address this because I think it's going to be important in the coming years.
To the extent we can do multiple things, by all means - we should highlight this garbage and draw attention to the ideology of these really loathsome people. But it's important to remember and realize, when we have finite time to protest and finite attention from people who we might enlist, that there are a lot of stunt bills introduced in the House. Many of them come from the garbage Reps who rode gerrymandered neighborhoods of low-information cranks into office and they often also lack basic competency. Massie is cut from the Rand Paul cloth and has a history of being a pain in the ass, a la Paul, about dopey little resolutions like saying nice things about a golfer.
Personally I think those are dumb too, but Massie is willing to think they're dumb and demand a roll call vote. Either he's cool with wasting everyone's time as a goal in and of itself or, probably, just wants to make sure he's on record with his Devoted Opposition To Frivolous Things.
So - keep all that in mind when considering HR 899 and what we can consider a sibling bill (which actually has been in the system long enough to have tracking stuff), HR 34.
If you open that Govtrack link (note: go give Josh money; open government efforts ain't cheap and there's a Patreon where you can just toss him $1 a month while you're supporting your faorite cartoonists) and click through to the text, you'll see that this similar nonsense bill - about doing away with the gun-free schools act - has one sponsor and one co-sponsor. This is a huge giveaway when it comes to these baloney bills, and you see it reflected in the probability of passage stat from the bottom of the summary page: 1%.
In the case of this bill you can see also that it's not the first time it was introduced. He introduced this in the 114th congress as well. Where it similarly went to committee - because unless they're being fast-tracked in some way or some other oddity is going on - every bill goes. I'm a little rusty on the particulars, but there's essentially no friction with regards to introducing this junk. There's a box on the House floor where you can toss your little bit of stunt-legislation and it'll get entered. Any member can do it. And often does.
So one of the big tells you have with this is whether a Rep got anyone else to sign on along with their lunacy. HR34 has one person and his buddy. It's not impossible to add more later but if you're serious about passing something you spend the time to get more folks on board.
HR899 is a little 'better' as participation goes; the press release lists 7 co-sponsors. But that's still pretty weak sauce. Massie is sort of a low-performer - typical of the Tea Party wave, as I understand it - and has exactly 3 bills introduced in the 115th, which puts him well positioned to pass his 114th congress total of eight. But if you go look at HR 24 you see a very different picture with regards to cohorts. There are a full 45 reps listed there, and the betting on the bill reflects it - shows as 23%.
That's not all that plays into odds of continuing, but whenever you see some sturm und drang about a House bill you should go look at what's really being proposed and who's doing it. Massie is a great example of someone you should almost never take seriously. Those eight 114th congress bills? Exactly one got a report out of committee. Which according to the Govtrack detail, which I am unsure if it's a House-wide stat or related to that particular committee, happens for 1 in 4 bills. So this clown's batting half of the chamber's average.
That one's a good example in other ways too. If you look at its general page you see how it got referred out of committee. You can also see that in between the time it went to the committee and the report was done and referred it picked up a whole huge host of additional sponsors.
And despite all of that? Never got scheduled for a vote.
So keep watching for shenanigans and point out the idiots for mockery. But don't let their empty stunts meant to rile up their base distract you from real work. In the 113th, when I was working on open data stuff, there were 5,885 house resolutions introduced. 371 passed the house, which means almost exactly that many came up for a vote because they don't do votes on stuff that isn't going to pass. That's a pissant percentage in no small part because of all the junk bills.
Preserve your powder. We're gonna need it.
posted by phearlez at 2:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [82 favorites]
I've just received a fluffernothing email from Mike Pence swollen with importance on his tie breaking DeVos vote, likely because my email was in whitehouse.gov petition business. I don't think this has ever happened to me, getting an email from the White House. In case anyone can help me figure out how to best route my displeasure and LACK of support here's the content:
[White house Logo Image]posted by foxfirefey at 2:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Friends,
Today, I cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to confirm President Donald Trumpâs nominee for Secretary of Education: Betsy DeVos.
The vote the President asked me to cast wasnât just for Betsy â it was also for Americaâs future.
Our nationâs success depends on the education of our students. In Betsy DeVos, we have one of Americaâs foremost advocates for educational opportunity and excellence.
For nearly three decades she has devoted her time, her talent, and her treasure to ensure that every child in America has the best shot at a better life. Countless students have benefitted from her efforts to promote an educational marketplace defined by innovation, opportunity, and real, meaningful choice.
The President and I agree that our childrenâs futures should not be determined by their zip code. Students should not be trapped in a system that puts the status quo ahead of a childâs success.
Betsy DeVos will have great impact as Secretary of Education. It doesnât matter whether itâs a public school, a private school, a parochial school, a charter school, or any other kind of school â she will help ensure that every student has access to a good school.
We are grateful to Senate Majority Leader McConnell and all the Republican Senators who stood with us on this important vote.
The President is fully committed to this mission. Todayâs vote was the first of its kind in our nationâs history, but the real history will be made through our unwavering dedication to Americaâs children â and to Americaâs future.
Thank you for all your help and support.
Sincerely,
Michael R. Pence
Vice President of the United States
as a gesture of submission to our monstrous overlords, we are supposed to disavow that fact
cash me ousside howbowdah?
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:17 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
cash me ousside howbowdah?
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:17 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
I mean, I'd be tempted to just reply to the email with "FFFUUUUUUUUUUCCK YOOOOOOOOUUUUUUU" but I don't think that's particularly productive and you should probably ignore me.
posted by biogeo at 2:17 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 2:17 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
She's devoted "her treasure?"
posted by JenMarie at 2:18 PM on February 7, 2017 [26 favorites]
posted by JenMarie at 2:18 PM on February 7, 2017 [26 favorites]
Uhm, what? USC gives constitutional authority?
Congress can delegate (some of) its Constitutional authority to the President, extending the powers of the Executive beyond its direct Constitutional grants.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:19 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Congress can delegate (some of) its Constitutional authority to the President, extending the powers of the Executive beyond its direct Constitutional grants.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:19 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
The vote the President asked me to cast wasnât just for Betsy â it was also for Americaâs future.
So the Vice President can't cast his own vote?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
So the Vice President can't cast his own vote?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
She's devoted "her treasure?"
fucking Pence can even make having money sound weird and creepy
posted by prize bull octorok at 2:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [49 favorites]
fucking Pence can even make having money sound weird and creepy
posted by prize bull octorok at 2:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [49 favorites]
Send a bag of dicks to 1 Observatory Circle?
posted by cmfletcher at 2:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by cmfletcher at 2:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
First mother and now treasure. Ewwwww. Make America Barf Again #MABA
posted by mochapickle at 2:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by mochapickle at 2:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
fucking Pence can even make having money sound weird and creepy
It is extra doubleplusungood when you remember that in some conservative Christian circles, 'treasure' also doubles as 'virginity'. I'm not sure if he's trying to reference that or if it's just his creepy nature trickling out, but either way, wtf.
posted by corb at 2:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
It is extra doubleplusungood when you remember that in some conservative Christian circles, 'treasure' also doubles as 'virginity'. I'm not sure if he's trying to reference that or if it's just his creepy nature trickling out, but either way, wtf.
posted by corb at 2:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
she has devoted her precious
posted by murphy slaw at 2:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 2:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
in some conservative Christian circles, 'treasure' also doubles as 'virginity'
Eeeewww.
posted by biogeo at 2:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Eeeewww.
posted by biogeo at 2:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
she traded her virginity for her first Jesus school
posted by angrycat at 2:26 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by angrycat at 2:26 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
I'm not sure if he's trying to reference that or if it's just his creepy nature trickling out
phrasing please?
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:26 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
phrasing please?
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:26 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
Not sure why everyone's hung up on the "treasure" thing. Aside from XP, it's the top priority for any murder hobo.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 2:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [68 favorites]
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 2:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [68 favorites]
I've just received a fluffernothing email from Mike Pence swollen with importance on his tie breaking DeVos vote
I got this too and it made me absolutely fucking enraged.
posted by Mavri at 2:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
I got this too and it made me absolutely fucking enraged.
posted by Mavri at 2:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
So, they're using the Whitehouse.gov email lists to spam people already, how long before that email database makes its way into the wingnut welfare world and everyone starts getting cash for gold and reverse mortgage scams? Or Trump University solicitations.
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
or if it's just his creepy nature trickling out
Creepy Mike always looks to me like his face is a mask that was made by peeling off somebody else's face.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:33 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
Creepy Mike always looks to me like his face is a mask that was made by peeling off somebody else's face.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:33 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
When I think treasure and Christianity I jump to Matthew 6:19-20 first, not the weird virginity connotation...
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."
posted by DynamiteToast at 2:38 PM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."
posted by DynamiteToast at 2:38 PM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
most republicans look like reptiloids in ill-fitting skin suits to me, tbqh
not sure what's creepier, the ones in ill-fitting skin suits (ted cruz) or the ones with that factory-fresh sheen (paul ryan)
"And the thing about a republican is heâs got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a dollâs eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesnât even seem to be livinâ⊠âtil he bites ya government programs, and those black eyes roll over white and then⊠ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screaminâ."
posted by entropicamericana at 2:38 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
not sure what's creepier, the ones in ill-fitting skin suits (ted cruz) or the ones with that factory-fresh sheen (paul ryan)
"And the thing about a republican is heâs got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a dollâs eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesnât even seem to be livinâ⊠âtil he bites ya government programs, and those black eyes roll over white and then⊠ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screaminâ."
posted by entropicamericana at 2:38 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
I've just received a fluffernothing email from Mike Pence swollen with importance on his tie breaking DeVos vote
respond with goatse
posted by poffin boffin at 2:39 PM on February 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
respond with goatse
posted by poffin boffin at 2:39 PM on February 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
Tapper: "I am talking about the false statements the POTUS is making."
Kellyanne: "Are they more important than the many things he says that are true?"
This seems kinda like evidence of Donald Trump's criminal violation of 18 USC 1001, which I mentioned before, right?
posted by mikelieman at 2:40 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Kellyanne: "Are they more important than the many things he says that are true?"
This seems kinda like evidence of Donald Trump's criminal violation of 18 USC 1001, which I mentioned before, right?
posted by mikelieman at 2:40 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
her treasure
Literally, cash paid from her bank account.
posted by mikelieman at 2:42 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Literally, cash paid from her bank account.
posted by mikelieman at 2:42 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
"criminal violation" is the phrase I would choose to describe him, yes
posted by ragtag at 2:42 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by ragtag at 2:42 PM on February 7, 2017
The DeVos vote-buying theory assumes the GOP wasn't already on board with her agenda
Yep. The Heritage Foundation keeps scorecards on all Senators. Even a reptile like Rubio is only 73%.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 2:44 PM on February 7, 2017
Yep. The Heritage Foundation keeps scorecards on all Senators. Even a reptile like Rubio is only 73%.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 2:44 PM on February 7, 2017
I got a smug email from Jeff Flake's senate email address this afternoon. It was much less creepy than Pence's but just as infuriating. (Also, I used to live in AZ but there's no reason for me to be on his mailing list and I've never gotten something from him before â if it wasn't annoying enough, thinking that it's possible someone sold my email address to this fuck really pisses me off. )
It seems weird to me that any senator would use this occasion to reach out to constituents. Do Republicans actually think voters will be proud of them for this vote? (Rhetorical question. I know they do.)
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 2:44 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Washington, D.C. â U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) today voted to confirm Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. She was confirmed by a vote of 51-50, with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tiebreaking vote.Below the message is a screenshot of his Twitter: Lest there be any doubt about how I'm voting on @BetsyDevos she had me at 'school choice' years ago...
âBetsy DeVos has been an advocate for school choice and believes that every child should have the opportunity to receive a quality education, regardless of their zip code,â said Flake. âI was pleased to vote for her confirmation as Secretary of Education, and I look forward to working with her to roll back the federal governmentâs reach into education and allow states and localities to determine whatâs best for their students.â
It seems weird to me that any senator would use this occasion to reach out to constituents. Do Republicans actually think voters will be proud of them for this vote? (Rhetorical question. I know they do.)
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 2:44 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Tapper: "I am talking about the false statements the POTUS is making."
Kellyanne: "Are they more important than the many things he says that are true?"
Do you think she looks back at that answer with pride or with embarrassment?
posted by diogenes at 2:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Kellyanne: "Are they more important than the many things he says that are true?"
Do you think she looks back at that answer with pride or with embarrassment?
posted by diogenes at 2:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
This seems kinda like evidence of Donald Trump's criminal violation of 18 USC 1001, which I mentioned before, right?
Without looking into the case-law, 18 USC 1001 is theoretically about fraud against the government. There's probably an insufferably smug argument to be made that it doesn't apply to statements made after inauguration (without being under oath, lying to agents, etc).
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:46 PM on February 7, 2017
Without looking into the case-law, 18 USC 1001 is theoretically about fraud against the government. There's probably an insufferably smug argument to be made that it doesn't apply to statements made after inauguration (without being under oath, lying to agents, etc).
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:46 PM on February 7, 2017
It's their opportunity to give their constituents a giant spin on what the vote "actually" meant, basically.
posted by flatluigi at 2:46 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by flatluigi at 2:46 PM on February 7, 2017
It seems weird to me that any senator would use this occasion to reach out to constituents. Do Republicans actually think voters will be proud of them for this vote? (Rhetorical question. I know they do.)
A significant bloc of their voters will be proud of them for anything that causes suffering and outrage in the people they don't like. The Hot Mug Of Liberal Tears contingent is a major one.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:49 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
A significant bloc of their voters will be proud of them for anything that causes suffering and outrage in the people they don't like. The Hot Mug Of Liberal Tears contingent is a major one.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:49 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
isn't school choice pretty much a dogwhistle? as in *I want to get my kids away from those other people*
posted by angrycat at 2:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by angrycat at 2:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
Evan McMullin: Without truth, power is unaccountable to the people.
Deadspin's Jacob Bacharach: Remember how you worked at the CIA and it fabricated evidence of Iraqi weapons as political cover for a predetermined aggressive war?
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 2:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Deadspin's Jacob Bacharach: Remember how you worked at the CIA and it fabricated evidence of Iraqi weapons as political cover for a predetermined aggressive war?
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 2:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
One of the things a private school voucher system will do, is encourage people to open new schools, because if you can attract students, you have a guaranteed income stream.
So it will be interesting to see what happens when Muslim students start taking their vouchers and using them to go to startup madrassas. I know the scale is smaller, but has this happened in Michigan yet?
posted by Mchelly at 2:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
So it will be interesting to see what happens when Muslim students start taking their vouchers and using them to go to startup madrassas. I know the scale is smaller, but has this happened in Michigan yet?
posted by Mchelly at 2:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Party members,posted by biogeo at 2:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [78 favorites]
Today, I cast the saving throw in the Senate to confirm the Halfling Barbarian's nominee for Secretary of Skill Points: a gelatinous cube.
The d8 the Halfling Barbarian asked me to cast wasnât just for the gelatinous cube â it was also for the cube to dissolve children slowly alive, dealing 1d6 acid damage per turn.
Our nationâs success depends on the skill points of our children. In the gelatinous cube, we have been given several gold pieces to overlook this fact.
For nearly three decades the gelatinous cube has devoted its time, its acidic drippings, and its accumulated highly-digested corpses to ensure that every child in America has the best shot at being consumed by the gelatinous cube and its allies. Countless minions have been digested.
The Halfing Barbarian and I agree that our childrenâs futures should not be determined by their duchy. Children should not be trapped in a system that puts the status quo ahead of the possibility of being consumed to fuel the ever-growing dietary needs of the Halfling Barbarian's horde of monstrous overlords.
The gelatinous cube will have great impact as Secretary of Skill Points. It doesnât matter whether itâs INT-based, WIS-based, CON-based, DEX-based, or any other kind of skill â it will help ensure that every child will be unable to resist the onslaught of demons barely held back by the numerous seals the Halfling Barbarian is now clumsily destroying.
We are grateful to Senate Majority Leader McConnell and all the other Slaadi who stood with us on this important vote.
The Halfling Barbarian is fully committed to this mission. Todayâs vote was the first of its kind in our nationâs history, but the real history will be made through our unwavering dedication to feeding Americaâs children to the gelatinous cube and other insatiable horrors â and to unleasing a horde demons the likes of which the world has never seen.
Thank you for all your help and support.
Sincerely,
An obnoxious NPC cleric who will inevitably betray your party
Vice President of the United States
Most of the negative comments on Twitter about Jake Tapper's interview are accusing him of being fake news. Which is funny because during the interview he asked Kellyanne if CNN was fake news and she said no.
posted by diogenes at 2:56 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by diogenes at 2:56 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Live audio should start shortly at this link for the 9th Circuit hearing on the travel ban executive order.
posted by zachlipton at 2:58 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by zachlipton at 2:58 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
@sarahjeong is livetweeting, if you want your legal snark from an extremely knowledgeable lawyer and reporter.
posted by zachlipton at 3:01 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 3:01 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
vverse23: I got off the phone and reflected on the resources that were currently available to my son: his home room teacher, a special ed teacher, a few classroom aides, his speech therapist, the school psychologist, and a very engaged and caring principal who knew his name (possibly because he had ended up in her office more than once for this or that infraction). Not to mention all of the other staff and teachers who cared about these kids. I thought about the fact that we would be leaving behind one of the most diverse schools in our state for a school that I knew to be overwhelmingly white.
Welcome to the magic of "successful charter schools" - keep out anyone who might pull down their GPA and test scores, then reap the rewards, accolades, awards, and funding.
Your kid gets into a charter school but doesn't perform so well? "S/he could probably get better support/ be more at home among her/his peers at [other school]." And s/he's some other school's "problem."
Or kids go to a charter school that is known among students as the magic school that brings your crappy grades up with little work. You learn nothing, but you can attend for one semester and get two semesters of math credit for one class, and they're both B's!
[These are both true stories, from different schools, and a forewarning of the expansion of a system without oversight.]
posted by filthy light thief at 3:02 PM on February 7, 2017 [22 favorites]
Welcome to the magic of "successful charter schools" - keep out anyone who might pull down their GPA and test scores, then reap the rewards, accolades, awards, and funding.
Your kid gets into a charter school but doesn't perform so well? "S/he could probably get better support/ be more at home among her/his peers at [other school]." And s/he's some other school's "problem."
Or kids go to a charter school that is known among students as the magic school that brings your crappy grades up with little work. You learn nothing, but you can attend for one semester and get two semesters of math credit for one class, and they're both B's!
[These are both true stories, from different schools, and a forewarning of the expansion of a system without oversight.]
posted by filthy light thief at 3:02 PM on February 7, 2017 [22 favorites]
Has anyone been following what's been going on in Belarus? There have been weird twitter rumblings this past week that I didn't pay to much attention too (or understand much) and now this appears to be happening:
The Rachel Maddow Show did a segment on events there last night (probably geo-locked; I didn't have luck finding it on yt) and how, as mentioned above, high-level White House officials seem to be directly reading and giving some credence to Russian propaganda directed at Belarus.
Summarizing from memory: in the 7Âœ-hour press conference / address recently given by Aleksandr Lukashenko, the president/dictator who has ruled Belarus since the break-up of the Soviet Unionâpresumably with the blessing of Russia the way Viktor Yanukovych ruled Ukraine between the Orange Revolution and Euromaidanâhe made what sounded like friendly overtures toward Western Europe and declared that any foreigner can travel to Belarus without a visa. Russia would not like several aspects of that, but particularly the thought of people freely flowing into a country on its border when Russia controls its own visa and entry rules very tightly, so there has been tension involving saber-rattling, talk of a barbed-wire fence completely closing off the border outside of checkpoints, and propaganda targeted towards the Russian-speaking populace of Belarus such as the rumor about a possible Polish incursion which Mike Flynn was looking into.
Maddow implied that Flynn making inquiries seems to indicate he or his subordinates must be directly consuming Russian propaganda without filtering or annotation by the U.S. intelligence services.
posted by XMLicious at 3:02 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
I'm eagerly listening to what's essentially a conference call (a.k.a. the 9th Circuit TRO hearing). Sometimes I don't recognize my post-election self.
posted by Leslie Knope at 3:03 PM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by Leslie Knope at 3:03 PM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
Texas State Senator files resolution to "hereby encourage the President of the United States to refrain from threatening elected officials".
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [81 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [81 favorites]
T.D. Strange: Texas State Senator files resolution to "hereby encourage the President of the United States to refrain from threatening elected officials".
Why not expand that to EVERYONE? Because threatening people is not something a US president does. You know, judges, protesters, babies, immigrants ... everyone.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
Why not expand that to EVERYONE? Because threatening people is not something a US president does. You know, judges, protesters, babies, immigrants ... everyone.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
One of the things a private school voucher system will do, is encourage people to open new schools, because if you can attract students, you have a guaranteed income stream.
I know of a situation in my town where a special-ed-focused law firm made a ton of money by funneling students who were not happy with the public schools into a charter school that it also (secretly) owned. That scheme fell apart when the school lost its accreditation (it eventually and confusingly became a pizza restaurant), and now the firm does above-board work, but if a couple of, frankly, not-that-smart small-timers like that figured out how to turn charters into a gravy train for a few years, the potential for abuse is terrifyingly high.
posted by Copronymus at 3:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
I know of a situation in my town where a special-ed-focused law firm made a ton of money by funneling students who were not happy with the public schools into a charter school that it also (secretly) owned. That scheme fell apart when the school lost its accreditation (it eventually and confusingly became a pizza restaurant), and now the firm does above-board work, but if a couple of, frankly, not-that-smart small-timers like that figured out how to turn charters into a gravy train for a few years, the potential for abuse is terrifyingly high.
posted by Copronymus at 3:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
MetaFilter: it's porky, salty, delightful tradition
posted by petebest at 3:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by petebest at 3:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
This is also my first live legal appeal hearing, but after 5 minutes of argument by the government and questioning by the judges, my impression is that this request to reinstate the ban is going to get smacked down so hard. Any experienced law-talking folks care to disabuse me of that notion?
posted by TwoWordReview at 3:11 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by TwoWordReview at 3:11 PM on February 7, 2017
Jesus. Sean Spicer's WHOIS data from his website is still public [Mashable]
posted by Room 641-A at 3:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by Room 641-A at 3:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
>> Uhm, what? USC gives constitutional authority? Someone please enlighten me how the [redacted] does USC supersede constitutional law?
> Congress can delegate (some of) its Constitutional authority to the President, extending the powers of the Executive beyond its direct Constitutional grants.
Limited grant, extending, but not overriding. So, no real ammunition against the challenges on grounds of [various amendment] issues.
[thank you, sad that I needed the reminder about how much language there is about delegation in the constitution. been way too damned long since basic civics.]
posted by Enturbulated at 3:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
> Congress can delegate (some of) its Constitutional authority to the President, extending the powers of the Executive beyond its direct Constitutional grants.
Limited grant, extending, but not overriding. So, no real ammunition against the challenges on grounds of [various amendment] issues.
[thank you, sad that I needed the reminder about how much language there is about delegation in the constitution. been way too damned long since basic civics.]
posted by Enturbulated at 3:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Sometimes you can get an idea of how the judges are going to rule based on the questions (and more importantly whether the atty can answer), but they can be equally hard on both sides, so don't get your hopes up yet.
posted by melissasaurus at 3:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by melissasaurus at 3:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
This would seem to my ears (realizing we've only heard a bit of one side so far) to be going extremely poorly for the DOJ lawyer. He keeps saying that this is developing very fast and is talking about issues not in the record, but has no answer for why he's the one pushing arguments that they haven't managed to make yet.
posted by zachlipton at 3:13 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by zachlipton at 3:13 PM on February 7, 2017
Jesus. Sean Spicer's WHOIS data from his website is still public
will i go to prison if i send him 10,000 ladybugs
asking for a friend
posted by poffin boffin at 3:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [27 favorites]
will i go to prison if i send him 10,000 ladybugs
asking for a friend
posted by poffin boffin at 3:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [27 favorites]
Sounds like the travel ban hearing is not going well for the Trumpers. That's a shame.
posted by Justinian at 3:18 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 3:18 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Flentje (gov't atty) is doing a tremendously bad job. It's hard to turn a shit case into lemonade, but dude is doing a really really bad job. He's trying to say that the evidence supporting the ban exists, but it's not in the record yet because "the case is going so fast" (judge is like, "Um, YOU appealed to US, no one is forcing you to be here"). It took him 10 minutes to get to the standing argument.
posted by melissasaurus at 3:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by melissasaurus at 3:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
Oh man, looooong pause after one of the judges asks "are we back to where POTUS decision is unreviewable?"
Then another loooong pause after "What are the Constitutional limitations that the government acknowledges?"
This is going, not well. Not that it will matter one bit if they confirm Gorsuch to rubber stamp everything with the other Four Horsemen.
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Then another loooong pause after "What are the Constitutional limitations that the government acknowledges?"
This is going, not well. Not that it will matter one bit if they confirm Gorsuch to rubber stamp everything with the other Four Horsemen.
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
sarah jeong: holy goddamn the government is going down in flames
posted by Justinian at 3:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 3:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
Jesus. Sean Spicer's WHOIS data from his website is still public
So? If American's use the information I'm sure some DA will just file stalking charges.
will i go to prison if i send him 10,000 ladybugs
Please don't. And don't send NUCs of bees or baby chickens. Because some of this stuff has exemptions in postal law for farmers. No matter how much the USPS hates bees and chicks.
posted by rough ashlar at 3:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
So? If American's use the information I'm sure some DA will just file stalking charges.
will i go to prison if i send him 10,000 ladybugs
Please don't. And don't send NUCs of bees or baby chickens. Because some of this stuff has exemptions in postal law for farmers. No matter how much the USPS hates bees and chicks.
posted by rough ashlar at 3:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
hearing the gov't lawyer choke is giving me no small pleasure
posted by angrycat at 3:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by angrycat at 3:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
It sounds like Flentje's Skyping his arguments in. And yes, it sounds like it's going badly for him.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 3:24 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 3:24 PM on February 7, 2017
As I see it, the government has left themselves open to the other side (and the court, which already said as much) saying basically "you've insisted this is an emergency but when we ask you why, you tell us you haven't had enough time to come up with good reasons yet." That utter failure would seem to give the court a pretty good reason to basically say "why don't we leave the restraining order in place while you go back to the district court and figure out what exactly your argument even is?"
Wow. Judge Canby outright asking what would happen if the order was a straight up Muslim ban, whether anybody could make a constitutional challenge to that. DOJ counsel tries to dodge the question, but that's not happening.
posted by zachlipton at 3:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
Wow. Judge Canby outright asking what would happen if the order was a straight up Muslim ban, whether anybody could make a constitutional challenge to that. DOJ counsel tries to dodge the question, but that's not happening.
posted by zachlipton at 3:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
holy goddamn the government is going down in flames
To clarify, that's "the government" as a party in the legal case, not "the government" as in the entirety of the government of the United States of America. Though that latter idea is also possible right now.
posted by biogeo at 3:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
To clarify, that's "the government" as a party in the legal case, not "the government" as in the entirety of the government of the United States of America. Though that latter idea is also possible right now.
posted by biogeo at 3:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
sarah jeong: holy goddamn the government is going down in flames
mods can we pin this tweet to the front page for the foreseeable future
posted by Emily's Fist at 3:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [47 favorites]
mods can we pin this tweet to the front page for the foreseeable future
posted by Emily's Fist at 3:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [47 favorites]
Good news: (We can) MAKE AMERICA SPARKLE AGAIN!*
(*Or you can diy by going to dollar tree and purchasing a variety pack of glitter and mailing supplies for sooper stoopid cheap.)
HYPOTHETICALLY. FOR A FRIEND.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 3:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
(*Or you can diy by going to dollar tree and purchasing a variety pack of glitter and mailing supplies for sooper stoopid cheap.)
HYPOTHETICALLY. FOR A FRIEND.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 3:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
I missed whether Flentje said the government could ban Muslims. He tried to avoid answering it... did he?
posted by Justinian at 3:27 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by Justinian at 3:27 PM on February 7, 2017
I hope for his sake that the Gov't lawyer is tanking on purpose. Not that I'm qualified to comment on his lawyer skills one way or the other. I'd just like him to be able to look himself in the mirror tomorrow morning.
posted by notyou at 3:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by notyou at 3:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
I missed whether Flentje said the government could ban Muslims.
He said that if it happened (so I guess conceding that it could happen), then only a US citizen with a family member affected by it would have standing the challenge it.
posted by melissasaurus at 3:30 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
He said that if it happened (so I guess conceding that it could happen), then only a US citizen with a family member affected by it would have standing the challenge it.
posted by melissasaurus at 3:30 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I missed whether Flentje said the government could ban Muslims. He tried to avoid answering it... did he?
As I heard it, he was willing to concede that a US citizen trying to have someone visit them would probably have standing to challenge such a ban, but he doesn't want to acknowledge that a state could have standing for any such challenge.
posted by zachlipton at 3:31 PM on February 7, 2017
As I heard it, he was willing to concede that a US citizen trying to have someone visit them would probably have standing to challenge such a ban, but he doesn't want to acknowledge that a state could have standing for any such challenge.
posted by zachlipton at 3:31 PM on February 7, 2017
I mean, I'd be tempted to just reply to the email with "FFFUUUUUUUUUUCCK YOOOOOOOOUUUUUUU" but I don't think that's particularly productive and you should probably ignore me.
gimme the email addy...
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 3:31 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
gimme the email addy...
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 3:31 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
I tried to look up and understand mandamus. It didn't help.
posted by diogenes at 3:34 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by diogenes at 3:34 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
CNN: Trump regrets hiring Spicer, blames Priebus
Wonder if he'll have them thrown out the Moon Door.
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:35 PM on February 7, 2017 [63 favorites]
Wonder if he'll have them thrown out the Moon Door.
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:35 PM on February 7, 2017 [63 favorites]
Wonder if he'll have them thrown out the Moon Door.
Oh my god, he does remind me of Sweet Robin.
posted by Justinian at 3:35 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Oh my god, he does remind me of Sweet Robin.
posted by Justinian at 3:35 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Well that's about as Trumpy a headline as you can have.
posted by notyou at 3:36 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by notyou at 3:36 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
"Betsy DeVos... believes that every child should have the opportunity to receive a quality education, regardless of their zip code"
"I look forward to working with her to roll back the federal governmentâs reach into education and allow states and localities to determine whatâs best for their students.â
THESE ARE NOT COMPATIBLE STATEMENTS, SEN. FLAKE. READ A REAL HISTORY BOOK.
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:36 PM on February 7, 2017 [34 favorites]
"I look forward to working with her to roll back the federal governmentâs reach into education and allow states and localities to determine whatâs best for their students.â
THESE ARE NOT COMPATIBLE STATEMENTS, SEN. FLAKE. READ A REAL HISTORY BOOK.
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:36 PM on February 7, 2017 [34 favorites]
"I look forward to working with her to roll back the federal governmentâs reach into education and allow states and localities to determine whatâs best for their students.â
LIKE SEGREGATION FOR EXAMPLE
posted by poffin boffin at 3:38 PM on February 7, 2017 [39 favorites]
LIKE SEGREGATION FOR EXAMPLE
posted by poffin boffin at 3:38 PM on February 7, 2017 [39 favorites]
Translation: if you live in a progressive state with a competent department of ed, you might be okay. Otherwise? Haha fuck you.
posted by soren_lorensen at 3:39 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 3:39 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Umm. . . progressive states don't get to have state's rights.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 3:41 PM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 3:41 PM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
it is truly disheartening to think that i may be unable to personally punch all the people who need punching
posted by poffin boffin at 3:41 PM on February 7, 2017 [37 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 3:41 PM on February 7, 2017 [37 favorites]
>I hope for his sake that the Gov't lawyer is tanking on purpose. Not that I'm qualified to comment on his lawyer skills >one way or the other. I'd just like him to be able to look himself in the mirror tomorrow morning.
My thoughts exactly, but considering his background, I think that's unlikely (but who the hell knows? It's 2017.) From the link:
In his 19 years in the department, nearly all in the civil division, Flentje has worked under every president since Bill Clinton. He was part of a team that received an an award from former Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. in 2013 for "extraordinary work" in the legal maneuvering around the Obama administration's decision to support same-sex marriage in defiance of the Defense of Marriage Act passed by Congress.
Also, I can't imagine there are many people at the Justice Department who are super excited to be in this shitty quandary in the first place.
posted by otenba at 3:42 PM on February 7, 2017
My thoughts exactly, but considering his background, I think that's unlikely (but who the hell knows? It's 2017.) From the link:
In his 19 years in the department, nearly all in the civil division, Flentje has worked under every president since Bill Clinton. He was part of a team that received an an award from former Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. in 2013 for "extraordinary work" in the legal maneuvering around the Obama administration's decision to support same-sex marriage in defiance of the Defense of Marriage Act passed by Congress.
Also, I can't imagine there are many people at the Justice Department who are super excited to be in this shitty quandary in the first place.
posted by otenba at 3:42 PM on February 7, 2017
It's pretty cool that I can listen to these legal proceedings live, but damn do I have no idea what they are talking about.
posted by diogenes at 3:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by diogenes at 3:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
it is truly disheartening to think that i may be unable to personally punch all the people who need punching
wowbagger the infinitely prolonged has always been my hero in that respect
posted by entropicamericana at 3:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
wowbagger the infinitely prolonged has always been my hero in that respect
posted by entropicamericana at 3:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
@loweringthebar: Imagine the U of Mich stadium filled with people listening to a hearing on TROs and standing.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:47 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:47 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
From WSJ live coverage of court arguments:
Looking back quickly, here's one telling moment from DOJ's argument time. Mr. Flentje at one point, scrambling near the end of his time, said, "I'm not sure I'm convincing the court."
posted by piyushnz at 3:48 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Looking back quickly, here's one telling moment from DOJ's argument time. Mr. Flentje at one point, scrambling near the end of his time, said, "I'm not sure I'm convincing the court."
posted by piyushnz at 3:48 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
And that's not counting those of us who don't do audio and are thus reading along with liveblogs..
posted by nat at 3:48 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by nat at 3:48 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
@loweringthebar: Imagine the U of Mich stadium filled with people listening to a hearing on TROs and standing.
Still need a ruling, but it sure seems like the admin got pick-sixed today.
posted by azpenguin at 3:48 PM on February 7, 2017
Still need a ruling, but it sure seems like the admin got pick-sixed today.
posted by azpenguin at 3:48 PM on February 7, 2017
Also, I can't imagine there are many people at the Justice Department who are super excited to be in this shitty quandary in the first place.
"Your honor I really couldn't give a shit, we have to be here because it's our job. The administration's stance is they want to ban muslims while appearing consistent with equal protection laws. We don't give a shit how you rule either way, but the administration would really love it if you side with them."
posted by Talez at 3:49 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
"Your honor I really couldn't give a shit, we have to be here because it's our job. The administration's stance is they want to ban muslims while appearing consistent with equal protection laws. We don't give a shit how you rule either way, but the administration would really love it if you side with them."
posted by Talez at 3:49 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
MSNBC is also only airing the argument. So, add us, too.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:50 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:50 PM on February 7, 2017
roomthreeseventeen: MSNBC is also only airing the argument. So, add us, too.
Apparently the only one with live transcript according to @AriMelber [Twitter]
posted by slipthought at 3:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Apparently the only one with live transcript according to @AriMelber [Twitter]
posted by slipthought at 3:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I haven't been... lucky enough to get an email from Mr. Pence today, but I did get this from my Congressman about twenty minutes ago:
Dear [me],
Thank you for your communication on our shared concern for Governor Abbottâs lawless actions. I want to share with you my statement on Governor Greg Abbottâs announcement that he is withholding $1.5 million in grants to Travis County. In other words, he is now acting to carry out his threat to our democratically-elected Sheriff Sally Hernandez, who is merely trying to do her job. Governor Abbott has also threatened to remove Sheriff Hernandez, who has dedicated her life to public safety, from office for violating a law that does not yet exist. He claims she is making our County a âsanctuary city.â It isnât, but it is a refuge from anti-immigrant hysteria.
Governor Abbott has chosen to withhold state grant money to Travis County which would have gone toward supporting projects such as family violence education and a special court for veterans.
He cares more about scoring political points than about protecting our veterans. In response, I released this statement:
âThis lawless intimidation puts politics over Texas veterans and public safety. Its vindictiveness is more like Russian President Putinâs authoritarian regime than our democracy. His anti-immigrant hysteria damages local law enforcement and our entire community.â
I would really like to hear your thoughts on this and other issues that may be considered in Congress. If you have not already, please take a moment to visit my website at doggett.house.gov where you can complete a survey online. I also hope that you will take this opportunity to sign up for the latest updates from my office, visit my Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, or send me an e-mail at Lloyd.Doggett@mail.house.gov.
As always, please keep me advised on federal matters on which I may be of assistance.
Sincerely,
Lloyd Doggett
Good old Lloyd. He's been out doing his best to stand by the people of Austin, and that is just exactly the perfect note to hit.
I thanked him and told him what had happened to my partner this morning and, according to other folks there, was happening at the office of Sen Cruz and Reps McCaul and Williams. Then I told him that surely he knew that his constituents loved him in part because of his long record of listening to us and asked if he wouldn't mind holding a town hall, "so we can show the other federal reps how real democracy works."
I'm optimistic.
posted by sciatrix at 3:53 PM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
Dear [me],
Thank you for your communication on our shared concern for Governor Abbottâs lawless actions. I want to share with you my statement on Governor Greg Abbottâs announcement that he is withholding $1.5 million in grants to Travis County. In other words, he is now acting to carry out his threat to our democratically-elected Sheriff Sally Hernandez, who is merely trying to do her job. Governor Abbott has also threatened to remove Sheriff Hernandez, who has dedicated her life to public safety, from office for violating a law that does not yet exist. He claims she is making our County a âsanctuary city.â It isnât, but it is a refuge from anti-immigrant hysteria.
Governor Abbott has chosen to withhold state grant money to Travis County which would have gone toward supporting projects such as family violence education and a special court for veterans.
He cares more about scoring political points than about protecting our veterans. In response, I released this statement:
âThis lawless intimidation puts politics over Texas veterans and public safety. Its vindictiveness is more like Russian President Putinâs authoritarian regime than our democracy. His anti-immigrant hysteria damages local law enforcement and our entire community.â
I would really like to hear your thoughts on this and other issues that may be considered in Congress. If you have not already, please take a moment to visit my website at doggett.house.gov where you can complete a survey online. I also hope that you will take this opportunity to sign up for the latest updates from my office, visit my Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, or send me an e-mail at Lloyd.Doggett@mail.house.gov.
As always, please keep me advised on federal matters on which I may be of assistance.
Sincerely,
Lloyd Doggett
Good old Lloyd. He's been out doing his best to stand by the people of Austin, and that is just exactly the perfect note to hit.
I thanked him and told him what had happened to my partner this morning and, according to other folks there, was happening at the office of Sen Cruz and Reps McCaul and Williams. Then I told him that surely he knew that his constituents loved him in part because of his long record of listening to us and asked if he wouldn't mind holding a town hall, "so we can show the other federal reps how real democracy works."
I'm optimistic.
posted by sciatrix at 3:53 PM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
>>
>
What an amazing coincidence that the administration of a guy who calls himself "the king" of everything would have connections with people who say that they think a return to monarchy would be a good thing.
posted by XMLicious at 3:56 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
What Steve Bannon Wants You to Read
>
Holy. Shit. Bannon's in contact with MOLDBUG? The Dark Enlightenment neoreactionaries have seized the control room. This....how could it still have been worse than I thought?
What an amazing coincidence that the administration of a guy who calls himself "the king" of everything would have connections with people who say that they think a return to monarchy would be a good thing.
posted by XMLicious at 3:56 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Metafilter: (it eventually and confusingly became a pizza restaurant)
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:57 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:57 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
"Your honor I really couldn't give a shit, we have to be here because it's our job. The administration's stance is they want to ban muslims while appearing consistent with equal protection laws. We don't give a shit how you rule either way, but the administration would really love it if you side with them."
"Let's all tacitly admit that we know these arguments are bullshit, but I have to take one for the team so here's, if not my A-game, something that isn't obviously throwing the case."
posted by jaduncan at 3:59 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
"Let's all tacitly admit that we know these arguments are bullshit, but I have to take one for the team so here's, if not my A-game, something that isn't obviously throwing the case."
posted by jaduncan at 3:59 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
A senior administration official, though, said the president is behind Spicer "100 percent."
As soon as he hits 101, he's toast.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 4:01 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
As soon as he hits 101, he's toast.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 4:01 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
CNN: Trump regrets hiring Spicer, blames Priebus
The leak-based reporting of the Priebus/Bannon influence struggle reminds me of Kremlinology and/or reading someone's Middle Ages court diary.
posted by jaduncan at 4:02 PM on February 7, 2017 [20 favorites]
The leak-based reporting of the Priebus/Bannon influence struggle reminds me of Kremlinology and/or reading someone's Middle Ages court diary.
posted by jaduncan at 4:02 PM on February 7, 2017 [20 favorites]
Let this be a demonstration that calls don't count for shit on the GOP side
They absolutely do not. The problem is... the GOP, for the time being, has won. They know they won and they know they can do anything and we can't stop them. The masses of people protesting against them and clogging their phone lines won't stop them. They don't give a shit about anyone who disagrees with them. Because they won. People like us with our complaints are just noise.
Republicans in Congress seem to feel invincible at this point because so many of their constituents have been so poisoned against the left that they would never vote for anyone but a Republican candidate, even if these Republican candidates don't seem to have any real morals at all and never do anything to help anyone but themselves, even as much of society is crumbling around them, even as much of the planet is protesting against the New American President. These people will just keep getting voted in and voted in and they are going to keep doing whatever the hell they want to do.
The way I feel today, after this DeVos thing, is somewhat similar to how I felt after Hillary lost, and is similar to how I felt when the Democratic Party mailing list emails started coming in asking for more donations after Hillary lost. It doesn't matter how much money we throw in the Democratic party's direction, or how much time we spend calling our local elected officials. This system is broken. Elected officials don't care, and they don't have to care. I don't try to be pessimistic, but.. well, I am.
posted by wondermouse at 4:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [22 favorites]
They absolutely do not. The problem is... the GOP, for the time being, has won. They know they won and they know they can do anything and we can't stop them. The masses of people protesting against them and clogging their phone lines won't stop them. They don't give a shit about anyone who disagrees with them. Because they won. People like us with our complaints are just noise.
Republicans in Congress seem to feel invincible at this point because so many of their constituents have been so poisoned against the left that they would never vote for anyone but a Republican candidate, even if these Republican candidates don't seem to have any real morals at all and never do anything to help anyone but themselves, even as much of society is crumbling around them, even as much of the planet is protesting against the New American President. These people will just keep getting voted in and voted in and they are going to keep doing whatever the hell they want to do.
The way I feel today, after this DeVos thing, is somewhat similar to how I felt after Hillary lost, and is similar to how I felt when the Democratic Party mailing list emails started coming in asking for more donations after Hillary lost. It doesn't matter how much money we throw in the Democratic party's direction, or how much time we spend calling our local elected officials. This system is broken. Elected officials don't care, and they don't have to care. I don't try to be pessimistic, but.. well, I am.
posted by wondermouse at 4:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [22 favorites]
Ahh that turned for the State of Washington there at the end, SG didn't have evidence of Trump's statements about banning Muslims in the record, one judge (Clifton maybe?) say accusations are not enough, didn't like the idea of more time. There was a question about who bears burden of proof of likelihood to prevail and procedural issues about sending the case back as a TRO or preliminary injunction, or something, I didn't quite follow the procedural part.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:06 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:06 PM on February 7, 2017
More than 120k people were listening to an appellate argument today. If this level of engagement continues into 2018, maybe we have a chance. I guess it depends on what's really happening - are the likely dem voters getting more galvanized, or are the people who don't usually come out waking up? I want to believe it's the latter, but I'm worried it's the former.
posted by prefpara at 4:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
posted by prefpara at 4:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
I think maybe people are so desperate to hear adults talking to other adults like adults, they'll listen to the weather report.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:09 PM on February 7, 2017 [41 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:09 PM on February 7, 2017 [41 favorites]
are the likely dem voters getting more galvanized, or are the people who don't usually come out waking up
Both are useful.
posted by nat at 4:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
Both are useful.
posted by nat at 4:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
Based on my extensive legal experience acquired during the last 30 minutes, I'm calling it for... not the government (that's a fancy legal term).
posted by diogenes at 4:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by diogenes at 4:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
are the likely dem voters getting more galvanized, or are the people who don't usually come out waking up? I want to believe it's the latter, but I'm worried it's the former.
The former could be ok at this stage, so long as they stay galvanized and translate that heightened engagement into GOTV efforts in 2018.
posted by contraption at 4:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
The former could be ok at this stage, so long as they stay galvanized and translate that heightened engagement into GOTV efforts in 2018.
posted by contraption at 4:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
@Popehat: if there are no further questions I would like to flee on foot now
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
Heh, I'm pretty sure one of the judges essentially said Bannon has no authority here to interpret the EO.
posted by TwoWordReview at 4:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by TwoWordReview at 4:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Does anyone know when the court might be expected to issue their ruling?
As soon as possible, but they indicated not to expect something today.
posted by zachlipton at 4:13 PM on February 7, 2017
As soon as possible, but they indicated not to expect something today.
posted by zachlipton at 4:13 PM on February 7, 2017
Does anyone know when the court might be expected to issue their ruling?
Earlier today, they said "probably this week"
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:13 PM on February 7, 2017
Earlier today, they said "probably this week"
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:13 PM on February 7, 2017
are the likely dem voters getting more galvanized, or are the people who don't usually come out waking up? I want to believe it's the latter, but I'm worried it's the former.
It can be both, in stages. The activism is meant to stop people appealing to unforeseen consequences for their choices: to remove the benefit of the doubt. Had Hurricane Katrina occurred in 2002, not 2005, it wouldn't have been as potent a demonstration of the Bush admin's incompetence.
posted by holgate at 4:14 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
It can be both, in stages. The activism is meant to stop people appealing to unforeseen consequences for their choices: to remove the benefit of the doubt. Had Hurricane Katrina occurred in 2002, not 2005, it wouldn't have been as potent a demonstration of the Bush admin's incompetence.
posted by holgate at 4:14 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Pressed, Kellyanne says: "I think he is relying on data, perhaps, from a particular area. I'm not sure who gave him that data."
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:34 PM on February 7
JFC there's like, 7 people rattling around in the White House now. Pretty sure Conway knows who is giving DJT this "data." It would be either Bannon or Miller.
Burr: $43,200
Tillis $70,200
I let my senators know that I know they were bought.
Also, Kent State.
Before that chucklehead dropped his shitty 2 cents in, I was actually thinking about Kent State because I was alive at the time. Kent State had massive reverberations. 4 unarmed college students were shot dead by the National Guard because they were protesting the escalation of the war into Cambodia. Imagine sending your child off to college only to have them gunned down by your government because they were protesting. Students and parents took to the streets and that's when the protest against the war kicked into overdrive until even Nixon had to agree it was time to pull out.
Kent State was the thing that got a lot of checked-out people off their asses and engaged in politics. Protesting stopped being "just a bunch of hippy college kids being jerks" and became a thing ordinary people did. So while I dread the idea of something terrible happening, I also know that troops shooting at citizens is not acceptable to the general public no matter what some people think.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:14 PM on February 7, 2017 [26 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:34 PM on February 7
JFC there's like, 7 people rattling around in the White House now. Pretty sure Conway knows who is giving DJT this "data." It would be either Bannon or Miller.
Burr: $43,200
Tillis $70,200
I let my senators know that I know they were bought.
Also, Kent State.
Before that chucklehead dropped his shitty 2 cents in, I was actually thinking about Kent State because I was alive at the time. Kent State had massive reverberations. 4 unarmed college students were shot dead by the National Guard because they were protesting the escalation of the war into Cambodia. Imagine sending your child off to college only to have them gunned down by your government because they were protesting. Students and parents took to the streets and that's when the protest against the war kicked into overdrive until even Nixon had to agree it was time to pull out.
Kent State was the thing that got a lot of checked-out people off their asses and engaged in politics. Protesting stopped being "just a bunch of hippy college kids being jerks" and became a thing ordinary people did. So while I dread the idea of something terrible happening, I also know that troops shooting at citizens is not acceptable to the general public no matter what some people think.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:14 PM on February 7, 2017 [26 favorites]
LMAO before the telephone cut off you could hear Friedland go, "Soooo"
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:14 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:14 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
I tried to look up and understand mandamus. It didn't help.
Mandamus was this Roman dude, did a buncha law stuff
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:14 PM on February 7, 2017
Mandamus was this Roman dude, did a buncha law stuff
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:14 PM on February 7, 2017
Minor correction: I accidentally linked to the Fred T. Korematsu Institute above, but the amicus brief in the 9th Circuit appeal was actually filed by the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at Seattle Universityâs School of Law.
posted by mbrubeck at 4:14 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by mbrubeck at 4:14 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Those "so-called judges" sure sounded a lot like real judges to my untrained ear.
posted by diogenes at 4:15 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by diogenes at 4:15 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
> When I said 'lost' speaking about my own kid, I meant more that - public schools seem really big, with very large class sizes and the time all micromanaged.
I went to a small, very expensive, highly reputable private school for 10th - 12th grade. I was completely invisible to the teachers.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:15 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
I went to a small, very expensive, highly reputable private school for 10th - 12th grade. I was completely invisible to the teachers.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:15 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Does anyone know when the court might be expected to issue their ruling?
"In lieu of a ruling, we'd like to reply with a brief vulgar gesture." [fake]
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:16 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
"In lieu of a ruling, we'd like to reply with a brief vulgar gesture." [fake]
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:16 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
It's still bizarre to hear news pundits talk about DOJ as the bad guys.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:16 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:16 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
it's so far beyond bizarre that i've had to block the alleged leader of the free world on twitter
posted by poffin boffin at 4:19 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 4:19 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
I just came in near the end of the call, when they were arguing that Trump's campaign statements about a Muslim ban shouldn't be considered as relevant to the ruling. But the government was talking about how Trump made a decision that the ban was necessary for national security, shouldn't they be forced to provide evidence that it was in fact necessary? I didn't hear any discussion on that â maybe it came earlier.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 4:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 4:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
it's so far beyond bizarre that i've had to block the alleged leader of the free world on twitter
Who, Angela Merkel?
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [46 favorites]
Who, Angela Merkel?
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:20 PM on February 7, 2017 [46 favorites]
cheater of the free world
posted by Celsius1414 at 4:21 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by Celsius1414 at 4:21 PM on February 7, 2017
Department of Injustice.
Department of Ignorance.
Department of Denying Health and Human Services.
Department of Housing and Urban Decay.
At least the Department of War can probably save a few bucks by dragging some old signage out of its basement.
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
Department of Ignorance.
Department of Denying Health and Human Services.
Department of Housing and Urban Decay.
At least the Department of War can probably save a few bucks by dragging some old signage out of its basement.
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
Yeah that was discussed earlier in the call and from what I understood, the government essentially said that they were relying on the determination of the previous administration that these 7 countries posed a risk.
posted by TwoWordReview at 4:21 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by TwoWordReview at 4:21 PM on February 7, 2017
To be honest, I've felt uneasy about all these leaks coming from the White House since day one. Yeah, we know that Trump couldn't plot his way around a basket of kittens, but the real President can, and his number one goal is to destroy the media. If these leaks were really threatening or damaging to him, why hasn't he put a stop to them? I'm worried that he's letting them happen, and maybe even ordering a few.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 4:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by J.K. Seazer at 4:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
I tried to look up and understand mandamus. It didn't help.
Simply put, mandamus is asking a higher court to tell a lower court what to do. Sending it back down for further review instead tells the USDC to take another shot at it (probably w/r/t certain aspects).
It has to do with how the 9th wants to treat the USDC's order procedurally -- its finality, whether there are alternatives mandamus, etc.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Simply put, mandamus is asking a higher court to tell a lower court what to do. Sending it back down for further review instead tells the USDC to take another shot at it (probably w/r/t certain aspects).
It has to do with how the 9th wants to treat the USDC's order procedurally -- its finality, whether there are alternatives mandamus, etc.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
the government essentially said that they were relying on the determination of the previous administration that these 7 countries posed a risk
The previous administration? Wait, they're driving every single policy the Obama administration implemented into the ground, but they trust that?
I call bullshit.
posted by suelac at 4:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
The previous administration? Wait, they're driving every single policy the Obama administration implemented into the ground, but they trust that?
I call bullshit.
posted by suelac at 4:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Yeah that was discussed earlier in the call and from what I understood, the government essentially said that they were relying on the determination of the previous administration that these 7 countries posed a risk.
The "Thanks, Obama!" strategy is gonna run out of juice real quick with the federal judiciary, I think/hope/pray.
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
The "Thanks, Obama!" strategy is gonna run out of juice real quick with the federal judiciary, I think/hope/pray.
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I tried to look up and understand mandamus. It didn't help.
Mandamus is a relic of when there were two court systems, law and equity. It's an equitable remedy, as is a TRO (Here's your legal reading homework). Basically it's a court literally ordering an action to be done, it's broad and somewhat rare, because its a direct exercise of the courts authority, which they don't really like to do. The way to appeal an equitable remedy is to ask a higher court for also an equitable remedy, the procedural aspect Washington was arguing is the fed didn't do that, they filed the wrong kind of appeal, therefore the Circuit Court shouldn't entertain it. It's not really a strong argument, and one of the panel even said that it didn't really matter. Except to legal remedies professors, who probably died a little more inside.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Mandamus is a relic of when there were two court systems, law and equity. It's an equitable remedy, as is a TRO (Here's your legal reading homework). Basically it's a court literally ordering an action to be done, it's broad and somewhat rare, because its a direct exercise of the courts authority, which they don't really like to do. The way to appeal an equitable remedy is to ask a higher court for also an equitable remedy, the procedural aspect Washington was arguing is the fed didn't do that, they filed the wrong kind of appeal, therefore the Circuit Court shouldn't entertain it. It's not really a strong argument, and one of the panel even said that it didn't really matter. Except to legal remedies professors, who probably died a little more inside.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
If these leaks were really threatening or damaging to him, why hasn't he put a stop to them? I'm worried that he's letting them happen, and maybe even ordering a few.
Occam's razor suggests that it really is just a shitshow.
posted by diogenes at 4:26 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
Occam's razor suggests that it really is just a shitshow.
posted by diogenes at 4:26 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
They also said they didn't have time to file evidence to back that claim up for which they got a bit of a smack-down saying "You're the one that filed this emergency motion"
Disclaimer: My career in law started around the same time this call began, so give my notes on the call such weight accordingly :)
posted by TwoWordReview at 4:26 PM on February 7, 2017
Disclaimer: My career in law started around the same time this call began, so give my notes on the call such weight accordingly :)
posted by TwoWordReview at 4:26 PM on February 7, 2017
it's so far beyond bizarre that i've had to block the alleged leader of the free world on twitter
Who, Angela Merkel?
@GeorgeTakei
The peaceful transfer of power is a thing of beauty. One moment Barack Obama is leader of the Free World. A moment later it's Angela Merkel.
posted by chris24 at 4:26 PM on February 7, 2017 [89 favorites]
Who, Angela Merkel?
@GeorgeTakei
The peaceful transfer of power is a thing of beauty. One moment Barack Obama is leader of the Free World. A moment later it's Angela Merkel.
posted by chris24 at 4:26 PM on February 7, 2017 [89 favorites]
Ministry of Peace
Ministry of Love
Ministry of Truth
Ministry of Plenty
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 4:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Ministry of Love
Ministry of Truth
Ministry of Plenty
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 4:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
With DeVos the Republicans just lay it all out. They are not interested in governing. They're here to loot the country. They don't care if they're voted out in a few years.
posted by bongo_x at 4:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by bongo_x at 4:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
Simply put, mandamus is asking a higher court to tell a lower court what to do. Sending it back down for further review tells the USDC to try again (probably w/r/t certain aspects).
It has to do with how the 9th wants to treat the USDC's order procedurally -- whether or not it's final enough for mandamus.
So basically: get y'alls shit together with those guys over there and they'll send it back to us later, and also in the meantime no funny business with trying to implement that there executive order?
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:28 PM on February 7, 2017
It has to do with how the 9th wants to treat the USDC's order procedurally -- whether or not it's final enough for mandamus.
So basically: get y'alls shit together with those guys over there and they'll send it back to us later, and also in the meantime no funny business with trying to implement that there executive order?
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:28 PM on February 7, 2017
Angela Merkel is only the leader of the free world if you're optimistic about Germany's level of influence.
My money on the best holder of that title at this point is for Xi Jinping. Yes, China has a shitload of human-rights abuses and obstructions of basic freedoms to answer for, but someone has to be the adult in the room, and we're running out of good candidates.
posted by jackbishop at 4:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
My money on the best holder of that title at this point is for Xi Jinping. Yes, China has a shitload of human-rights abuses and obstructions of basic freedoms to answer for, but someone has to be the adult in the room, and we're running out of good candidates.
posted by jackbishop at 4:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
If these leaks were really threatening or damaging to him, why hasn't he put a stop to them?
Because he can't threaten to sue them? The Family Business NDA has been his tool to guarantee silence for decades, and it doesn't apparently extend to the White House.
The simplest argument is perhaps the easiest one: so many egos, so many power struggles, so many media outlets. DC's a gossipy place, and Obama and his CoSes ran an exceptionally tight ship in terms of leaks from the White House, especially after Rahm Emanuel moved on.
posted by holgate at 4:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Because he can't threaten to sue them? The Family Business NDA has been his tool to guarantee silence for decades, and it doesn't apparently extend to the White House.
The simplest argument is perhaps the easiest one: so many egos, so many power struggles, so many media outlets. DC's a gossipy place, and Obama and his CoSes ran an exceptionally tight ship in terms of leaks from the White House, especially after Rahm Emanuel moved on.
posted by holgate at 4:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I just came in near the end of the call, when they were arguing that Trump's campaign statements about a Muslim ban shouldn't be considered as relevant to the ruling. But the government was talking about how Trump made a decision that the ban was necessary for national security, shouldn't they be forced to provide evidence that it was in fact necessary? I didn't hear any discussion on that â maybe it came earlier.
Judge Clifton was questioning whether the campaign statements were sufficient to establish likelihood of success on the merits on the intent claim. Judge Friedland (I think?) reminded him that on the motion they were considering, the DOJ has the burden of proving it has a likelihood of success on appeal. They did get the DOJ to confirm that the statements were real (though he tried to weasel out of answering it).
The DOJ is basically alleging that they don't need to provide evidence that it was necessary because the judiciary can't review that determination, it's the President's sole domain. The judges were not amused by this idea.
posted by melissasaurus at 4:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Judge Clifton was questioning whether the campaign statements were sufficient to establish likelihood of success on the merits on the intent claim. Judge Friedland (I think?) reminded him that on the motion they were considering, the DOJ has the burden of proving it has a likelihood of success on appeal. They did get the DOJ to confirm that the statements were real (though he tried to weasel out of answering it).
The DOJ is basically alleging that they don't need to provide evidence that it was necessary because the judiciary can't review that determination, it's the President's sole domain. The judges were not amused by this idea.
posted by melissasaurus at 4:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Ministry of Plenty
That was the working title, but I think it'll end up being Ministry of Pyramid Silos in the end. A sub-department of Housing & Urban Decay.
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:30 PM on February 7, 2017
That was the working title, but I think it'll end up being Ministry of Pyramid Silos in the end. A sub-department of Housing & Urban Decay.
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:30 PM on February 7, 2017
LMAO before the telephone cut off you could hear Friedland go, "Soooo"
Less charming than "Doot doooo, dooo dooo. Right."
posted by biogeo at 4:30 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Less charming than "Doot doooo, dooo dooo. Right."
posted by biogeo at 4:30 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
I'm still trying to catch up with the Devos news, so please forgive a bit of a derail back to that.
I don't talk about this a lot, but it took me five years to graduate from high school. I spent three years at Loy Norrix High School in Kalamazoo, in a school district where funding per student per year was roughly $4000, and classes were almost completely limited to college prep and basic skills courses. In English, there were either literature courses for kids hoping to go to college, or writing skills courses for those that weren't. In what was supposed to be my senior year, at the beginning of the year, less than half of the senior class was on course to graduate. That they managed to get 75% of students to graduate on time was seen as a victory. I was seriously contemplating dropping out and getting my GED. I had problems, though doubtless many of them were of my own making, and the school simply had too many other fires to deal with, and I fell through the cracks. Probably the only reason I'm where I am today is that I had an aunt and uncle who asked me if I wanted to come live with them to finish high school. Idiot that I was, when they offered that to me in my third year of high school, I said no, certain that I would turn things around on my own. When they made the same offer in December of my fourth year, I realized that I didn't really have any other options.
The thing is, they lived in Lake Forest, Illinois. At the time, Lake Forest public schools were the second richest in the nation, only behind Beverly Hills. Funding per student per year was over $13,000. The school was filled with computers, with state of the art everything. The lowest classes were college prep, and went up through honors and AP. Everyone was expected to graduate, and something like 98% of the class I did graduate with went to college. I went from an overburdened guidance counselor seeing me as a lost cause getting in the way of their being able to actually help someone to a guidance counselor who had the time to make me a special project of theirs. I went, in a year and a half, from looking at GED programs to trying to figure out how to even apply to university. My counselor, Ms. Berkshire, asked me what schools I was looking at, told me that I wasn't even close to what I should be applying to, and gave me better options. With her help, I managed to not only get into college, but to get the financial aid that I needed to be able to attend. Without her, without my aunt and uncle, without Pell grants and Stafford loans, I could not have attended college. If I had not attended the college I did, I would not be where I am now.
The biggest, most fundamental problem with this whole thing is, why me? School failed me. I failed school. It was only because of literally a rich uncle that I have the life I do. I'm grateful for this, for everything, but I in no way deserve this any more than any of the millions of children who don't get that magical combination of luck. That without any of those amazing people in my life, I wouldn't have had any of the chances I've had tells me that the system is broken. Funding schools based on property taxes is one of the most insidious attacks on the idea of equality there is in America. Education is supposed to be a great leveler, but a school district funded on the property tax when most residents rent, or live in public housing will never be equal to a school district where most residents own their own houses, and instead what should be providing an equal start for all becomes a rigged game from the very beginning.
The ongoing resistance to any sort of national standard, to any kind of nationwide curriculum of science, of history is terrifying, and should be seen as the existential threat to society that it represents. Schools need to teach facts and concepts of society to prepare each and every student to be a member of society, not just a member of a city or a county or a state, but of the whole goddamn nation. Provincial minds trying to keep "big city" ideas out of their isolated classrooms divide the very fabric of the nation. When science class becomes a political battleground, when the history of the nation is taught differently in different school districts, it undermines the basic communal narrative that a unified society needs in order to be unified. Using vouchers to make sure your child goes to a school where all of the children look just like them, and think just like you want them to cripples your child sheltering them from other people, other cultures, other ideas. Public schools exist in order to provide each and every student the knowledge and skills necessary to be an active and participating member of society. Every time I see someone pushing for vouchers, fighting against national standards for education, I look at them and think, what are they getting out of it? How would they benefit? And the thing is, anyone, anyone who benefits from lowered standards of education, who benefits from students graduating without the ability to think critically, that person is to me an enemy of society.
And Devos? I'm sickened by her confirmation, but I don't think I ever doubted it would happen. The list of donations she made to all of the senators who voted for her coming out is one of the least surprising things in this year of horrors. Who benefits? Well, blatantly, she and her husband will, from all the money flowing into the entirely unregulated charter/for profit school wasteland. Beyond that? From a crippled at best/abolished at worst department of education? From public schools utterly devoid of funding, teaching whatever the local school board sees fit, giving students from different regions utterly different lens with which they will view the world? Fascists. Fascists thrive when the population is poorly educated and easy to divide.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:31 PM on February 7, 2017 [111 favorites]
I don't talk about this a lot, but it took me five years to graduate from high school. I spent three years at Loy Norrix High School in Kalamazoo, in a school district where funding per student per year was roughly $4000, and classes were almost completely limited to college prep and basic skills courses. In English, there were either literature courses for kids hoping to go to college, or writing skills courses for those that weren't. In what was supposed to be my senior year, at the beginning of the year, less than half of the senior class was on course to graduate. That they managed to get 75% of students to graduate on time was seen as a victory. I was seriously contemplating dropping out and getting my GED. I had problems, though doubtless many of them were of my own making, and the school simply had too many other fires to deal with, and I fell through the cracks. Probably the only reason I'm where I am today is that I had an aunt and uncle who asked me if I wanted to come live with them to finish high school. Idiot that I was, when they offered that to me in my third year of high school, I said no, certain that I would turn things around on my own. When they made the same offer in December of my fourth year, I realized that I didn't really have any other options.
The thing is, they lived in Lake Forest, Illinois. At the time, Lake Forest public schools were the second richest in the nation, only behind Beverly Hills. Funding per student per year was over $13,000. The school was filled with computers, with state of the art everything. The lowest classes were college prep, and went up through honors and AP. Everyone was expected to graduate, and something like 98% of the class I did graduate with went to college. I went from an overburdened guidance counselor seeing me as a lost cause getting in the way of their being able to actually help someone to a guidance counselor who had the time to make me a special project of theirs. I went, in a year and a half, from looking at GED programs to trying to figure out how to even apply to university. My counselor, Ms. Berkshire, asked me what schools I was looking at, told me that I wasn't even close to what I should be applying to, and gave me better options. With her help, I managed to not only get into college, but to get the financial aid that I needed to be able to attend. Without her, without my aunt and uncle, without Pell grants and Stafford loans, I could not have attended college. If I had not attended the college I did, I would not be where I am now.
The biggest, most fundamental problem with this whole thing is, why me? School failed me. I failed school. It was only because of literally a rich uncle that I have the life I do. I'm grateful for this, for everything, but I in no way deserve this any more than any of the millions of children who don't get that magical combination of luck. That without any of those amazing people in my life, I wouldn't have had any of the chances I've had tells me that the system is broken. Funding schools based on property taxes is one of the most insidious attacks on the idea of equality there is in America. Education is supposed to be a great leveler, but a school district funded on the property tax when most residents rent, or live in public housing will never be equal to a school district where most residents own their own houses, and instead what should be providing an equal start for all becomes a rigged game from the very beginning.
The ongoing resistance to any sort of national standard, to any kind of nationwide curriculum of science, of history is terrifying, and should be seen as the existential threat to society that it represents. Schools need to teach facts and concepts of society to prepare each and every student to be a member of society, not just a member of a city or a county or a state, but of the whole goddamn nation. Provincial minds trying to keep "big city" ideas out of their isolated classrooms divide the very fabric of the nation. When science class becomes a political battleground, when the history of the nation is taught differently in different school districts, it undermines the basic communal narrative that a unified society needs in order to be unified. Using vouchers to make sure your child goes to a school where all of the children look just like them, and think just like you want them to cripples your child sheltering them from other people, other cultures, other ideas. Public schools exist in order to provide each and every student the knowledge and skills necessary to be an active and participating member of society. Every time I see someone pushing for vouchers, fighting against national standards for education, I look at them and think, what are they getting out of it? How would they benefit? And the thing is, anyone, anyone who benefits from lowered standards of education, who benefits from students graduating without the ability to think critically, that person is to me an enemy of society.
And Devos? I'm sickened by her confirmation, but I don't think I ever doubted it would happen. The list of donations she made to all of the senators who voted for her coming out is one of the least surprising things in this year of horrors. Who benefits? Well, blatantly, she and her husband will, from all the money flowing into the entirely unregulated charter/for profit school wasteland. Beyond that? From a crippled at best/abolished at worst department of education? From public schools utterly devoid of funding, teaching whatever the local school board sees fit, giving students from different regions utterly different lens with which they will view the world? Fascists. Fascists thrive when the population is poorly educated and easy to divide.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:31 PM on February 7, 2017 [111 favorites]
So basically: get y'alls shit together with those guys over there and they'll send it back to us later, and also in the meantime no funny business with trying to implement that there executive order?
Close enough. As T.D. mentioned, the court wasn't particularly interested in that aspect of the arguments. Sometimes, it is. Especially in cases in which the dispute is procedural in nature (e.g. in cases that depend on the timeliness of an appeal by one method vs. another to stay alive).
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:32 PM on February 7, 2017
Close enough. As T.D. mentioned, the court wasn't particularly interested in that aspect of the arguments. Sometimes, it is. Especially in cases in which the dispute is procedural in nature (e.g. in cases that depend on the timeliness of an appeal by one method vs. another to stay alive).
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:32 PM on February 7, 2017
LMAO before the telephone cut off you could hear Friedland go, "Soooo"
I like to think that's how judges always start their deliberations.
posted by diogenes at 4:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
I like to think that's how judges always start their deliberations.
posted by diogenes at 4:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
Angela Merkel is only the leader of the free world if you're optimistic about Germany's level of influence.
My money on the best holder of that title at this point is for Xi Jinping. Yes, China has a shitload of human-rights abuses and obstructions of basic freedoms to answer for, but someone has to be the adult in the room, and we're running out of good candidates.
Arguing that Xi should be considered leader of the free world is basically saying the very concept of the "free world" is dead and all that matters is economic stability. (which is of course what Xi and his ilk would like you to accept). Xi and his party dominate the judicial system and repress dissent in a manner and to an extent that Trump can only dream of.
posted by modernnomad at 4:33 PM on February 7, 2017 [45 favorites]
My money on the best holder of that title at this point is for Xi Jinping. Yes, China has a shitload of human-rights abuses and obstructions of basic freedoms to answer for, but someone has to be the adult in the room, and we're running out of good candidates.
Arguing that Xi should be considered leader of the free world is basically saying the very concept of the "free world" is dead and all that matters is economic stability. (which is of course what Xi and his ilk would like you to accept). Xi and his party dominate the judicial system and repress dissent in a manner and to an extent that Trump can only dream of.
posted by modernnomad at 4:33 PM on February 7, 2017 [45 favorites]
Angela Merkel is only the leader of the free world if you're optimistic about Germany's level of influence.
My money on the best holder of that title at this point is for Xi Jinping. Yes, China has a shitload of human-rights abuses and obstructions of basic freedoms to answer for, but someone has to be the adult in the room, and we're running out of good candidates.
Having recently lived in Hong Kong for two years and seeing what China has done to democracy and rule of law there, as well as working frequently in mainland China, I have to disagree with your definition of free if China is on it.
posted by chris24 at 4:35 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
My money on the best holder of that title at this point is for Xi Jinping. Yes, China has a shitload of human-rights abuses and obstructions of basic freedoms to answer for, but someone has to be the adult in the room, and we're running out of good candidates.
Having recently lived in Hong Kong for two years and seeing what China has done to democracy and rule of law there, as well as working frequently in mainland China, I have to disagree with your definition of free if China is on it.
posted by chris24 at 4:35 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
The leak-based reporting of the Priebus/Bannon influence struggle reminds me of Kremlinology and/or reading someone's Middle Ages court diary.
There's zero chance that Bannon isn't a huge Crusader Kings player, in the (shudder) "remove kebab" mode.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:37 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
There's zero chance that Bannon isn't a huge Crusader Kings player, in the (shudder) "remove kebab" mode.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:37 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
At this point I'd settle for "believes in science" as the lone qualification for "leader of the free world". Freedom of speech and association isnt going to be worth a whole lot when the oxygen concentration of the atmosphere can't sustain photosynthesis. China at least acknowledges things like, climate change is real, and facts are knowable.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:37 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:37 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
I hope for his sake that the Gov't lawyer is tanking on purpose. Not that I'm qualified to comment on his lawyer skills one way or the other. I'd just like him to be able to look himself in the mirror tomorrow morning.
Just hours before mounting the biggest defense of the young Trump administration, the Justice Department swapped lawyers.
posted by mudpuppie at 4:37 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
Just hours before mounting the biggest defense of the young Trump administration, the Justice Department swapped lawyers.
posted by mudpuppie at 4:37 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
the combination of total malice and total incompetence in this administration is the damndest thing.
like, they're so evil that even though they're tripping over their own dicks 9 times out of ten, they're still accomplishing the most evil per day of any administration in history
posted by murphy slaw at 4:49 PM on February 7, 2017 [44 favorites]
like, they're so evil that even though they're tripping over their own dicks 9 times out of ten, they're still accomplishing the most evil per day of any administration in history
posted by murphy slaw at 4:49 PM on February 7, 2017 [44 favorites]
Chaffetz: No oversight talk in Oval Office meeting with Trump
posted by zachlipton at 4:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
"Before my bum even hit the chair, the president said, 'No oversight. You canât talk about anything that has to do with oversight,'" the Utah Republican told reporters after his 30-minute meeting, which he said was his first time ever in the Oval Office. He said the only other person in the room was Trump's chief of staff, Reince Priebus.It does not appear that Chaffetz expressed any interest in actually engaging in any oversight either.
posted by zachlipton at 4:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
China seems to be kind of "shut up about our horrible domestic policies, we don't care what yours are good or bad, let's just make some money" which is kind of a shitty situation for trading partners with no other alternatives (like, say, when the US just walks away from the table because idiocy) because what, are you gonna sanction them for internal abuses? No, if your country's economy depends on theirs you're going to look the other way and enable it. Also some of their "domestic" policies they don't want you to talk about are things that straight up aren't domestic, like Taiwan and the maritime territory they're trying to grow. Not really leader of the free world material but the world is in a place to look for any port in a storm on trade and climate change and China knows it.
posted by jason_steakums at 4:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 4:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
And then I remembered that at least one of them voted for fucking Jill Stein in Pennsylvania in 2016
I must say that's an unusual topic for a ballot proposition. *blink*
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 4:51 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
I must say that's an unusual topic for a ballot proposition. *blink*
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 4:51 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
like, they're so evil that even though they're tripping over their own dicks 9 times out of ten, they're still accomplishing the most evil per day of any administration in history
The other Nazis were the same way, basically. That they were lucky enough to hold on to some of pre-Nazi Germany's talented engineers and military minds and crazy enough to take risks nobody else would have expected created an undeserved mystique of evil genius around them. But they were exactly like this. Incompetent, doddering bullies who through sheer lack of restraint accomplished some of the most heinously evil deeds the world has ever seen.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:53 PM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
The other Nazis were the same way, basically. That they were lucky enough to hold on to some of pre-Nazi Germany's talented engineers and military minds and crazy enough to take risks nobody else would have expected created an undeserved mystique of evil genius around them. But they were exactly like this. Incompetent, doddering bullies who through sheer lack of restraint accomplished some of the most heinously evil deeds the world has ever seen.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:53 PM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
hold on Jason Chaffetz says "my bum"?
posted by jason_steakums at 4:53 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 4:53 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
I mean I'm just surprised he doesn't say "my bum-bum"
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
He really should say my hobo.
posted by mochapickle at 4:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by mochapickle at 4:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Chaffetz is a Mormon and that's a subculture which values performative wholesomeness.
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:56 PM on February 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:56 PM on February 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
Twitter live-blogged the law, and the law won.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:56 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:56 PM on February 7, 2017
My current dream is to have a reporter ask Trump: "What is it like to be the most hated man on the planet?"
Flashback to Bill O'Reilly's 2011 Super Bowl interview with President Obama [REAL]:
Flashback to Bill O'Reilly's 2011 Super Bowl interview with President Obama [REAL]:
O'Reilly: Does it disturb you that so many people hate you?posted by zakur at 4:56 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Obama: [chuckles] You know, the truth is that the peopleâand Iâm sure previous presidents would say the same thing, whether it was Bush or Clinton or Reagan or anybody. The people who dislike you donât know you.
O'Reilly: But they hate you.
his treasure
posted by prize bull octorok at 4:57 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 4:57 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
That Chaffetz insists on playing a Mormon and then immediately goes Murder Hobo.
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:57 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:57 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Democrats troll Trump with Google Chrome extension that replaces 'Trump' with 'Steve Bannon'
A major Democratic-aligned super PAC trolled President Donald Trump on Monday to make a point about White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon's influence in the White House.posted by chris24 at 4:57 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
The super PAC, American Bridge, rolled out a Google Chrome extension that replaces every mention of "Trump" with "Steve Bannon," a not-so-subtle attempt to show the influence the adviser has in the White House.
In a statement, American Bridge Vice President Shripal Shah told Business Insider that the extension was meant to show the "power" Trump has ceded to his controversial adviser.
"But it also comes with a warning: Anyone who thought the news about the Donald Trump administration was terrifying should exercise extreme caution when reading about the reckless and bigoted policies ordered by president Bannon," Shah said.
If you enjoy Garrison Keillor's occasional broadsides against Trump, here you go: If he only had a soul.
posted by peeedro at 4:58 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by peeedro at 4:58 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
I was almost surprised at this bit of the Chaffetz article:
posted by jason_steakums at 5:00 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Chaffetz said Trump was supportive of him conducting vigorous oversight during their Philadelphia chat....but, yknow, it means absolutely nothing.
"He was the one who said proactively, feel free to investigate anything you want. Thatâs your job, thatâs your role," he said. "He is not going to put a heavy hand in one direction nor the other. We have a job to do and weâre going to do it."
posted by jason_steakums at 5:00 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Another good cover about the Resistance and the Women's Marches from NYT Magazine coming this weekend.
RESIST
posted by chris24 at 5:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
RESIST
posted by chris24 at 5:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Reuters: Commentary: National security in an âalt-factsâ world
Imagine, for a moment, that you are a senior Central Intelligence Agency officer standing at attention for President Trump at CIA headquarters. (Remain standing. Trump, against protocol, never said: âPlease be seated.â) You think on your feet. You weigh what you know to be true against the evidence of your eyes and ears.posted by sebastienbailard at 5:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
Hereâs what you know: the CIA is looking into ties between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump, in return, has compared the CIA to Nazis. Not a fine how-do-you-do.
You focus on what Trump is saying. He is unlike previous presidents who have addressed the agencyâs officers and analysts in the woods outside Washington. Heâs not talking about their sacrifices, their patriotism. Heâs talking about Trump.
He stands before 117 stars on a marble wall, each for someone killed in the line of duty. He is watched over by a verse from the Gospel of John inscribed in gold on the facing wall: And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
...
Nice divide and conquer you've got there NYT Magazine.
Don't think we don't see you.
posted by Yowser at 5:09 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Don't think we don't see you.
posted by Yowser at 5:09 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Whiteness is malleable. Don't assume you'll always be included.
Yeah this is kinda how I felt when I found out that to certain people Catholics are The Devil and just as much on the List of Enemies as, like, gays, blacks, and witches. It wasn't until I had almost graduated from college, so, yanno, fairly late to discover. (Then I confronted a Campus Crusade for Christ guy who was going on a mission to Mexico to convert the Catholics to Christianity. That really broke my brain.)
posted by threeturtles at 5:16 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
Yeah this is kinda how I felt when I found out that to certain people Catholics are The Devil and just as much on the List of Enemies as, like, gays, blacks, and witches. It wasn't until I had almost graduated from college, so, yanno, fairly late to discover. (Then I confronted a Campus Crusade for Christ guy who was going on a mission to Mexico to convert the Catholics to Christianity. That really broke my brain.)
posted by threeturtles at 5:16 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
And here's the article that goes with the NYT Magazine cover.
How a Fractious Womenâs Movement Came to Lead the Left
posted by chris24 at 5:16 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
How a Fractious Womenâs Movement Came to Lead the Left
posted by chris24 at 5:16 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
An important point: Before immigration furor, tech giants donated to Trump inauguration. These jerkwads were donating to the inauguration of a guy who still had a 100% Muslim ban up on his website and then suddenly acted all shocked after the executive order came out. To the extent they're helping to fight the travel ban, they're being useful, but don't mistake useful for on your side.
posted by zachlipton at 5:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [36 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 5:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [36 favorites]
There's no question the President respects the Judicial Branch
Just not enough to list it on the White House web site.
It reappeared January 30.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
BBC: The mother of a backpacker who was stabbed to death in Australia has criticised the White House for labelling her death a "terror attack".
Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 20, who was killed at a hostel in Queensland in August, did not die as a result of terrorism, police have said.
Despite this, her death was included on a list of 78 alleged "terror" attacks released by the Trump administration.
...
In an open letter to the president, Mrs Ayliffe said: "Treating immigrants as disposable commodities and disregarding their safety causes deaths throughout our so-called civilised world."
posted by bluecore at 5:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 20, who was killed at a hostel in Queensland in August, did not die as a result of terrorism, police have said.
Despite this, her death was included on a list of 78 alleged "terror" attacks released by the Trump administration.
...
In an open letter to the president, Mrs Ayliffe said: "Treating immigrants as disposable commodities and disregarding their safety causes deaths throughout our so-called civilised world."
posted by bluecore at 5:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
On DeVos:
I found this video from Ijeoma Oluo really helpful. Oluo explains exactly what we can do (not just parents; ALL OF US) to help keep Trump, DeVos, and company from hurting our nation's kids.
Also, for anyone who isn't already following Ijeoma Oluo: Start following her. She is smart, she is calm, she is hilarious, she sugar-coats nothing, she suffers no fools, and she is full of excellent ideas about what steps to take to dismantle white supremacy in this county. Ijeoma Oluo is a national treasure.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 5:22 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
I found this video from Ijeoma Oluo really helpful. Oluo explains exactly what we can do (not just parents; ALL OF US) to help keep Trump, DeVos, and company from hurting our nation's kids.
Also, for anyone who isn't already following Ijeoma Oluo: Start following her. She is smart, she is calm, she is hilarious, she sugar-coats nothing, she suffers no fools, and she is full of excellent ideas about what steps to take to dismantle white supremacy in this county. Ijeoma Oluo is a national treasure.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 5:22 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
The ACA was a huge achievement and the dems deserve a lot of blame for not treating it like one.
Hey, Joe Biden said it was a "big fuckin' deal."
posted by kirkaracha at 5:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
It seems weird to me that any senator would use this occasion to reach out to constituents. Do Republicans actually think voters will be proud of them for this vote?
If you need some hope, check out the comments on the FB announcement from last night that John Cornyn would support DeVos. Last I saw there were 32,000 comments, the very, very, vast majority of which were angry with him.
You'll notice how many either say they are Republican or that they voted for him. One thing that having the Left more engaged will do is bring these kinds of issues to light and decrease Republican satisfaction with their officials. Leaving all arguments about "good Republicans" aside, there are a lot of people out there who are just clueless.
I think Republicans may truly not know how to cope with their constituents being this engaged and not supportive. The only "wingnuts" they've had to deal with previously have been their own, and now they don't know what the hell to do. I think their desperate claims of robocalls and fake, paid protestors are just ego-salving attempts to convince themselves they aren't in trouble.
posted by threeturtles at 5:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [29 favorites]
If you need some hope, check out the comments on the FB announcement from last night that John Cornyn would support DeVos. Last I saw there were 32,000 comments, the very, very, vast majority of which were angry with him.
You'll notice how many either say they are Republican or that they voted for him. One thing that having the Left more engaged will do is bring these kinds of issues to light and decrease Republican satisfaction with their officials. Leaving all arguments about "good Republicans" aside, there are a lot of people out there who are just clueless.
I think Republicans may truly not know how to cope with their constituents being this engaged and not supportive. The only "wingnuts" they've had to deal with previously have been their own, and now they don't know what the hell to do. I think their desperate claims of robocalls and fake, paid protestors are just ego-salving attempts to convince themselves they aren't in trouble.
posted by threeturtles at 5:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [29 favorites]
My local/county Dem party has responded to all of my queries with invitations to fundraisers. I've been reaching out and not one single person is willing to talk about tactics or strategy.
Does anyone here know how I can recruit folks or start a real grass-roots campaign?
I'm 48, an empty-nester and have time and resources. I want to be a player in this. I want to participate and make a difference, but what I'm finding is "politics as usual". There is no urgency. I feel urgency!
(Sorry, I know this reads like an Ask-Me.)
Edit: memail me if you have any ideas!
posted by snsranch at 5:36 PM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
Does anyone here know how I can recruit folks or start a real grass-roots campaign?
I'm 48, an empty-nester and have time and resources. I want to be a player in this. I want to participate and make a difference, but what I'm finding is "politics as usual". There is no urgency. I feel urgency!
(Sorry, I know this reads like an Ask-Me.)
Edit: memail me if you have any ideas!
posted by snsranch at 5:36 PM on February 7, 2017 [17 favorites]
So Mike Flynn is asking natl. sec. agencies about Polish incursions into Belarus and Putin is antsy about their president apparently being friendlier to Western Europe. Are we seeing the beginning of a Russian propaganda effort in Belarus? And how does one follow along with this?
Am I correct in my understanding that pre-Crimea annexing that there was a propaganda campaign by Russia?
posted by gucci mane at 5:38 PM on February 7, 2017
Am I correct in my understanding that pre-Crimea annexing that there was a propaganda campaign by Russia?
posted by gucci mane at 5:38 PM on February 7, 2017
I'm 48, an empty-nester and have time and resources. I want to be a player in this. I want to participate and make a difference, but what I'm finding is "politics as usual". There is no urgency. I feel urgency!
Don't take this the wrong way but there's no urgency right now. There's no election in the next couple of months. Nothing we can do at this point can make a difference except building the war chest.
posted by Talez at 5:39 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Don't take this the wrong way but there's no urgency right now. There's no election in the next couple of months. Nothing we can do at this point can make a difference except building the war chest.
posted by Talez at 5:39 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
First on CNN: US military to rent space in Trump Tower
...this don't seem great
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
...this don't seem great
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
First on CNN: US military to rent space in Trump Tower
The Department of Defense noted that the military has had to seek similar accommodations in the private residences of previous presidents as well, including in Chicago during Barack Obama's tenure.Were US taxpayers paying Obama $1.5 million a year?
posted by kirkaracha at 5:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
Talez, I disagree. Anytime is the right time to get the word out and sway public opinion. I know you're speaking specifically about the party and how they operate, but that's where I'm disappointed...action has to happen everyday. It's always time for "propaganda". It's always time to "gather the flock". It's always time to make new friends.
posted by snsranch at 5:46 PM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
posted by snsranch at 5:46 PM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
Don't take this the wrong way but there's no urgency right now. There's no election in the next couple of months. Nothing we can do at this point can make a difference except building the war chest.
There's a lot to do now, potential candidates and platform issues to identify and advocate for, city council/board of supervisors/school board stuff is coming up fast, local Republican reps to hold to account (who will make public fools of themselves trying to run away from constituents) and conversations need to be happening in communities all over. Also, the big one, building the kind of activist volunteer base that will be needed for some major voter registration work to counteract vote suppression fuckery.
posted by jason_steakums at 5:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
There's a lot to do now, potential candidates and platform issues to identify and advocate for, city council/board of supervisors/school board stuff is coming up fast, local Republican reps to hold to account (who will make public fools of themselves trying to run away from constituents) and conversations need to be happening in communities all over. Also, the big one, building the kind of activist volunteer base that will be needed for some major voter registration work to counteract vote suppression fuckery.
posted by jason_steakums at 5:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
My local/county Dem party has responded to all of my queries with invitations to fundraisers. I've been reaching out and not one single person is willing to talk about tactics or strategy.
Does anyone here know how I can recruit folks or start a real grass-roots campaign?
The problem you may be running into is that not everywhere has a full-time Democratic party with staff. The bluest places do, but in many areas, there might be only one permanent party member outside of election seasons that is responsible for everything that can't be done by volunteers.
This situation is not good, but it's the truth. If you're comfortable, try reaching out to volunteer--you'll then be more likely to meet some real party higher-ups to whom you can talk strategy. I got to meet both my US Senators multiple times and basically the whole party's slate at all levels of state and federal government, as well as the staff who do the behind the scenes work.
Source: Campaign experience in a place with a many permanent Democratic party members all the time.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 5:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Does anyone here know how I can recruit folks or start a real grass-roots campaign?
The problem you may be running into is that not everywhere has a full-time Democratic party with staff. The bluest places do, but in many areas, there might be only one permanent party member outside of election seasons that is responsible for everything that can't be done by volunteers.
This situation is not good, but it's the truth. If you're comfortable, try reaching out to volunteer--you'll then be more likely to meet some real party higher-ups to whom you can talk strategy. I got to meet both my US Senators multiple times and basically the whole party's slate at all levels of state and federal government, as well as the staff who do the behind the scenes work.
Source: Campaign experience in a place with a many permanent Democratic party members all the time.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 5:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
One thing that having the Left more engaged will do is bring these kinds of issues to light and decrease Republican satisfaction with their officials.
Lotta people talking about the Obama-Trump voter and the R-congressional-supporting Obama voter, and what "we" can do to turn them back.
Getting them to stay home, and getting some of their nonvoting, Dem-leaning neighbors to show up sounds easier to me.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 5:56 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Lotta people talking about the Obama-Trump voter and the R-congressional-supporting Obama voter, and what "we" can do to turn them back.
Getting them to stay home, and getting some of their nonvoting, Dem-leaning neighbors to show up sounds easier to me.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 5:56 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
snsranch, this has been a big theme of my local vague-miasma-of-newly-activated-leftists as well. The democratic committees hereabouts are very hit or miss. A couple observations from our own situation:
There is, in a ward near me (but not my ward), an Independent Democratic Club. These folks have been around since literally the 60s and they are huge, active, and work closely with the ward's official Democratic Committee. They meet monthly, they vote on endorsing local candidates and often the endorsement of the Independent Club is more important than the Committee. They push the Committee leftward with their influence and they keep it active. So, that is one way to go. It's definitely something I've been considering.
I also got nothing from the Democrats except fundraisers for quite a while. I looked up the name of my ward's committeeperson, contacted him, got a weird cryptic email reply and then crickets. But, finally! I got a notice of an actual meeting! They do meet! Very occasionally. I am going to go. The committees don't elect officers in odd years, so this year unless someone moves, there won't be any spots on the committee, but I want to figure these people out. What's up with them? Are they bench-warmers? Are they just hanging out waiting for someone to take their place? I'll be attending their meeting in a couple weeks.
What I've seen from other locals is a vast array of different issues. Some committees in red areas literally have no one sitting on them, and you can just march right in and spin one up from the ground up. Others are full of people who've been on them for umpteen years and you have to Know People to get in with them. I found my County committee to be profoundly unhelpful. The most information I've gotten is from the State committee and then drilling down to the wards (I'm in a city, so wards is the smallest unit of Democrat-ness). The county can barely seem to update their website, IN A HUGELY BLUE COUNTY, PEOPLE.
There's a groundswell out there of people looking to take over committees that have been inactive or apathetic. See if you can hook up with some others on Facebook (which I hate, but apparently it's the only place anyone does political organizing any more).
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:59 PM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
There is, in a ward near me (but not my ward), an Independent Democratic Club. These folks have been around since literally the 60s and they are huge, active, and work closely with the ward's official Democratic Committee. They meet monthly, they vote on endorsing local candidates and often the endorsement of the Independent Club is more important than the Committee. They push the Committee leftward with their influence and they keep it active. So, that is one way to go. It's definitely something I've been considering.
I also got nothing from the Democrats except fundraisers for quite a while. I looked up the name of my ward's committeeperson, contacted him, got a weird cryptic email reply and then crickets. But, finally! I got a notice of an actual meeting! They do meet! Very occasionally. I am going to go. The committees don't elect officers in odd years, so this year unless someone moves, there won't be any spots on the committee, but I want to figure these people out. What's up with them? Are they bench-warmers? Are they just hanging out waiting for someone to take their place? I'll be attending their meeting in a couple weeks.
What I've seen from other locals is a vast array of different issues. Some committees in red areas literally have no one sitting on them, and you can just march right in and spin one up from the ground up. Others are full of people who've been on them for umpteen years and you have to Know People to get in with them. I found my County committee to be profoundly unhelpful. The most information I've gotten is from the State committee and then drilling down to the wards (I'm in a city, so wards is the smallest unit of Democrat-ness). The county can barely seem to update their website, IN A HUGELY BLUE COUNTY, PEOPLE.
There's a groundswell out there of people looking to take over committees that have been inactive or apathetic. See if you can hook up with some others on Facebook (which I hate, but apparently it's the only place anyone does political organizing any more).
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:59 PM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
Metafilter: Hey, Joe Biden said it was a "big fuckin' deal."
posted by chris24 at 5:59 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by chris24 at 5:59 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
General suggestions: Check in with your local League of Women's voters, see if you have a local Indivisible chapter, or see if your district has a Democratic precinct chair. If not, congrats! It can be you now. (Here in Texas we are looking very hard for more precinct chairs, whose job it is to make sure folks go out and vote within their districts. They coordinate things like voter registration drives.) You can also check for a group near you on the Action Together Network.
If you're not on Facebook right now, mind, I would recommend signing up now. That's where the bulk of this is.
posted by sciatrix at 6:00 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
If you're not on Facebook right now, mind, I would recommend signing up now. That's where the bulk of this is.
posted by sciatrix at 6:00 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
can someone tell me is happening with the senate right now?
posted by waitangi at 6:04 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by waitangi at 6:04 PM on February 7, 2017
Why exactly are Sanders and Cruz doing this ridiculous CNN debate thing? It's pretty stupid.
posted by zachlipton at 6:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 6:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
"My local/county Dem party has responded to all of my queries with invitations to fundraisers. I've been reaching out and not one single person is willing to talk about tactics or strategy. Does anyone here know how I can recruit folks or start a real grass-roots campaign?"
a) attend some fundraisers and/or find out when their monthlyish business meetings are. Almost everything will have at least some fundraising component but often it's like a $15 chicken dinner or a 50/50 lottery at a meeting.
b) offer to run for precinct committeeperson. It's easy, typically uncontested, and it can be hard to get enough of them.
c) organize a group via social media. Start on Facebook (I recommend). Reach out to your like-minded friends and start "Progressive Women of Area" or "Grandpas for Grandview" or "Families Fighting for the Future" or whatever. PEOPLE WILL JOIN. People want to join! They want to be involved in action groups and affinity groups. Reach out to your state's Pantsuit Nation successor, and regional successor groups, which are good places to get action alerts. Reach out to your county party, get on their mailing lists. (Pro tip: Get 10 of you and buy a $500 table at their yearly $50/plate fundraiser, buying tables marks you as committed.) Reach out to the local NAACP. Get hooked in to as many related left-wing groups as you can so you'll know what's going on and can mobilize your group.
d) Host a low-key get-to-know-you meeting for your FB group. Serve cookies. Serve wine. Explicitly state it's kid-friendly and provide a coloring table or some backyard running around space -- there are a lot of young progressive out there who don't go to meetings because they can't get sitters and feel awkward about bringing their kids. Welcome the kids! Welcome young families. Be very explicit about it. (Also, families are powerful in local politics because your city council wants families to live there.) Talk a little bit about what you'd like the group to do -- focus on particular issues? Support candidates? -- and provide a loose outline. Be BRIEF, and then dedicate the rest of the meeting to getting to know people, having fun, and building community. Volunteers come back and voters turn out because they feel socially connected. Host monthly meetings that are as much social as business. Use the FB group to stay connected in between.
e) Select a couple of issues -- local, state, and national -- on which you want to be particularly active, and turn up for city council to speak on your issue. Make an appointment with your state rep and discuss it. Go to your US Rep's town halls, or make appointments with their staff. Put out press releases to the local press on your issues when they come up. ("Townville Families Fighting for the Future support Representative Joe Blow in this important legislation that will bring $1 million in environmental funds to Townville.") Leverage your people who know how to do media and who know how to do PR and who know how to do social media. Be cool to your congressperson's staff; if you contact them a few times about your environmental activism (say) and do press releases and turn up to town halls and are polite, they will eventually call YOU when they're working on your issue, hoping to get your input or support. Spend some time learning the issue; politics is complicated, legislation is complicated, everything has a history.
f) Leverage other people to attend city council meetings, park board meetings, etc., and report back on issues of interest. Presence is powerful. Even a teenager can sit in a public meeting, take notes, and post a summary to facebook.
g) You can probably take it from there and learn from your network. Building a group and just showing up is a good 75% of the battle.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [87 favorites]
a) attend some fundraisers and/or find out when their monthlyish business meetings are. Almost everything will have at least some fundraising component but often it's like a $15 chicken dinner or a 50/50 lottery at a meeting.
b) offer to run for precinct committeeperson. It's easy, typically uncontested, and it can be hard to get enough of them.
c) organize a group via social media. Start on Facebook (I recommend). Reach out to your like-minded friends and start "Progressive Women of Area" or "Grandpas for Grandview" or "Families Fighting for the Future" or whatever. PEOPLE WILL JOIN. People want to join! They want to be involved in action groups and affinity groups. Reach out to your state's Pantsuit Nation successor, and regional successor groups, which are good places to get action alerts. Reach out to your county party, get on their mailing lists. (Pro tip: Get 10 of you and buy a $500 table at their yearly $50/plate fundraiser, buying tables marks you as committed.) Reach out to the local NAACP. Get hooked in to as many related left-wing groups as you can so you'll know what's going on and can mobilize your group.
d) Host a low-key get-to-know-you meeting for your FB group. Serve cookies. Serve wine. Explicitly state it's kid-friendly and provide a coloring table or some backyard running around space -- there are a lot of young progressive out there who don't go to meetings because they can't get sitters and feel awkward about bringing their kids. Welcome the kids! Welcome young families. Be very explicit about it. (Also, families are powerful in local politics because your city council wants families to live there.) Talk a little bit about what you'd like the group to do -- focus on particular issues? Support candidates? -- and provide a loose outline. Be BRIEF, and then dedicate the rest of the meeting to getting to know people, having fun, and building community. Volunteers come back and voters turn out because they feel socially connected. Host monthly meetings that are as much social as business. Use the FB group to stay connected in between.
e) Select a couple of issues -- local, state, and national -- on which you want to be particularly active, and turn up for city council to speak on your issue. Make an appointment with your state rep and discuss it. Go to your US Rep's town halls, or make appointments with their staff. Put out press releases to the local press on your issues when they come up. ("Townville Families Fighting for the Future support Representative Joe Blow in this important legislation that will bring $1 million in environmental funds to Townville.") Leverage your people who know how to do media and who know how to do PR and who know how to do social media. Be cool to your congressperson's staff; if you contact them a few times about your environmental activism (say) and do press releases and turn up to town halls and are polite, they will eventually call YOU when they're working on your issue, hoping to get your input or support. Spend some time learning the issue; politics is complicated, legislation is complicated, everything has a history.
f) Leverage other people to attend city council meetings, park board meetings, etc., and report back on issues of interest. Presence is powerful. Even a teenager can sit in a public meeting, take notes, and post a summary to facebook.
g) You can probably take it from there and learn from your network. Building a group and just showing up is a good 75% of the battle.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [87 favorites]
BTW, speaking of the Army Corps of Engineers approving construction on the DAPL, are there any NoDAPL solidarity rallies happening this week?
posted by tobascodagama at 6:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by tobascodagama at 6:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
What I've seen from other locals is a vast array of different issues. Some committees in red areas literally have no one sitting on them, and you can just march right in and spin one up from the ground up. Others are full of people who've been on them for umpteen years and you have to Know People to get in with them.
One of my biggest surprises at the Indivisible meeting last weekend (after the fact that we needed to bring in more seating!) was when I just super casually got offered the possibility of being on the county Dem committee - like, it's that easy? I don't even know what I'm doing! I have to look into the rules on doing that as a county paid employee though.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
One of my biggest surprises at the Indivisible meeting last weekend (after the fact that we needed to bring in more seating!) was when I just super casually got offered the possibility of being on the county Dem committee - like, it's that easy? I don't even know what I'm doing! I have to look into the rules on doing that as a county paid employee though.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
Chelsea getting her Resist on.
@GeorgeTakei
Trump now claims media is covering up terror attacks, cites no evidence. At what point does everyone sane say, "No. YOU'RE the crazy one"?
@ChelseaClinton Retweeted George Takei
Right now? Yesterday?
posted by chris24 at 6:07 PM on February 7, 2017 [43 favorites]
@GeorgeTakei
Trump now claims media is covering up terror attacks, cites no evidence. At what point does everyone sane say, "No. YOU'RE the crazy one"?
@ChelseaClinton Retweeted George Takei
Right now? Yesterday?
posted by chris24 at 6:07 PM on February 7, 2017 [43 favorites]
like, it's that easy? I don't even know what I'm doing!
c.f. The subject of this post.
posted by Buntix at 6:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
c.f. The subject of this post.
posted by Buntix at 6:08 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Robert Reich Resistance Reports (YouTube video page). He has been putting out videos (15 -30 mins) on a near daily basis. Offering encouragement, advice and insights.
Sanders vs Cruz debate underway (random youtube live stream of cnn).
posted by phoque at 6:09 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
Sanders vs Cruz debate underway (random youtube live stream of cnn).
posted by phoque at 6:09 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
Why exactly are Sanders and Cruz doing this ridiculous CNN debate thing? It's pretty stupid.
I'm pretty sure the reason is "oh god neither of our parties know what to do with a legit angry base or what the independents are thinking so we need to float a bunch of trial balloons".
posted by jason_steakums at 6:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
I'm pretty sure the reason is "oh god neither of our parties know what to do with a legit angry base or what the independents are thinking so we need to float a bunch of trial balloons".
posted by jason_steakums at 6:11 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Why exactly are Sanders and Cruz doing this ridiculous CNN debate thing? It's pretty stupid.
It's pretty stupid, they're pretty stupid, this age and epoch are stupid. That's why. Stupid.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
It's pretty stupid, they're pretty stupid, this age and epoch are stupid. That's why. Stupid.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
Why exactly are Sanders and Cruz doing this ridiculous CNN debate thing? It's pretty stupid.
A Sanders-Pelosi or Sanders-Booker debate on healthcare would be better, but I guess this is better for ratings. Fuck him up, Bernie!
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 6:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
A Sanders-Pelosi or Sanders-Booker debate on healthcare would be better, but I guess this is better for ratings. Fuck him up, Bernie!
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 6:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
They're both trying to stay relevant.
posted by Justinian at 6:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 6:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
The Swing Left scare article was really disappointing. I understand being cautious, but instead of trying to research it more Daily Kos runs a total hit piece based on rumor and innuendo. I'm not a huge fan of Daily Kos, but that took my opinion down quite a few notches. I don't need more scare mongering in my life.
I don't know if Swing Left will turn out to be legit or not but that hardly seems a great way to treat people trying to get involved.
posted by bongo_x at 6:14 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I don't know if Swing Left will turn out to be legit or not but that hardly seems a great way to treat people trying to get involved.
posted by bongo_x at 6:14 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
By a 49-to-43 vote, Senate rules that Elizabeth Warren broke rule impugning a senator. She now cannot speak during debate on Jeff Sessions.
This is, I swear this is real, because Warren read Coretta Scott King's letter.
There are no words.
posted by zachlipton at 6:14 PM on February 7, 2017 [134 favorites]
This is, I swear this is real, because Warren read Coretta Scott King's letter.
There are no words.
posted by zachlipton at 6:14 PM on February 7, 2017 [134 favorites]
Why exactly are Sanders and Cruz doing this ridiculous CNN debate thing?
They're ridiculous men, will be on TV for any reason, and we live in a ridiculous time. I'm surprised it doesn't involve jello, big foam hammers, or running around filling a shopping cart.
posted by bongo_x at 6:16 PM on February 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
They're ridiculous men, will be on TV for any reason, and we live in a ridiculous time. I'm surprised it doesn't involve jello, big foam hammers, or running around filling a shopping cart.
posted by bongo_x at 6:16 PM on February 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
That's a damn good reason to run King's letter in its entirety in major newspapers tomorrow.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:18 PM on February 7, 2017 [51 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 6:18 PM on February 7, 2017 [51 favorites]
By a 49-to-43 vote, Senate rules that Elizabeth Warren broke rule impugning a senator. She now cannot speak during debate on Jeff Sessions.
Well, it's important that we not let the big bad woman hurt any vulnerable men's feelings, isn't it?
posted by IAmUnaware at 6:19 PM on February 7, 2017 [56 favorites]
Well, it's important that we not let the big bad woman hurt any vulnerable men's feelings, isn't it?
posted by IAmUnaware at 6:19 PM on February 7, 2017 [56 favorites]
In fairness, they look like they want to hit each other with big foam hammers right now.
posted by zachlipton at 6:19 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by zachlipton at 6:19 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Maybe cruz and sanders can take their show on the road like liddy and leary.
posted by valkane at 6:20 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by valkane at 6:20 PM on February 7, 2017
By a 49-to-43 vote, Senate rules that Elizabeth Warren broke rule impugning a senator. She now cannot speak during debate on Jeff Sessions.
There's video. This is apalling.
posted by zachlipton at 6:22 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
There's video. This is apalling.
posted by zachlipton at 6:22 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
Oh no, the poor Republicans' safe space was violated!
posted by biogeo at 6:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [32 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 6:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [32 favorites]
It's like they've been selected as symbolic but disposable representatives of their villages to perform the Obamacare Ritual Combat. God could they both just be hoisted into the wicker man now please
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
like, it's that easy?
Showing up is more than half the battle. I love Eyebrows McGee's suggestions, especially e) -- make yourself present at a hyper-local level; dive deep into the issues where you can combine research, expertise and enthusiasm, and make yourself valuable to those on a higher level.
By a 49-to-43 vote
So, um, assuming Sanders is otherwise occupied and Warren didn't vote to silence herself, at least three of the Dem caucus agreed? There's your fucking Senate comity 'n' shit. (Though I think Warren did this suspecting what would happen.)
posted by holgate at 6:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
Showing up is more than half the battle. I love Eyebrows McGee's suggestions, especially e) -- make yourself present at a hyper-local level; dive deep into the issues where you can combine research, expertise and enthusiasm, and make yourself valuable to those on a higher level.
By a 49-to-43 vote
So, um, assuming Sanders is otherwise occupied and Warren didn't vote to silence herself, at least three of the Dem caucus agreed? There's your fucking Senate comity 'n' shit. (Though I think Warren did this suspecting what would happen.)
posted by holgate at 6:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
by eldritch ritual i have been summoned
posted by poffin boffin at 6:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 6:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
Well, it's important that we not let the big bad woman hurt any vulnerable men's feelings, isn't it?
Who's a dainty little snowflake? Jeff is!
posted by puddledork at 6:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
Who's a dainty little snowflake? Jeff is!
posted by puddledork at 6:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
How many times can I tweet at Mitch McConnell to go fuck himself in one week? This might be the week we find out.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
posted by uncleozzy at 6:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [25 favorites]
So that leaves 43 Dems who can continue to read the letter and be gagged by Yertle for High Crimes Against Comity. I hope they all take turns and wear gags. Make a fucking performance out of it.
posted by holgate at 6:30 PM on February 7, 2017 [31 favorites]
posted by holgate at 6:30 PM on February 7, 2017 [31 favorites]
Alright, Senate Dems. Every single one of you needs to "break" the same "rule" by reading King's letter. You won't win within the normal process anyway, force that slimy testudine horror to reveal how empty his actions really are. Your goal is headlines announcing that every Senate Democrat has been barred from debating Sessions' confirmation.
posted by biogeo at 6:31 PM on February 7, 2017 [67 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 6:31 PM on February 7, 2017 [67 favorites]
Anyone have a list of yeas and nays?
Elizabeth Warren is our fucking senator and they're going to hear from me. Cowards.
posted by lydhre at 6:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Elizabeth Warren is our fucking senator and they're going to hear from me. Cowards.
posted by lydhre at 6:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Just sent an email to the last WaPo reporter to write about the letter suggesting re-running Coretta Scott King's letter tomorrow in reporting on this, we should all make requests to media about it - Streisand Effect the fuckers.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:33 PM on February 7, 2017 [39 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 6:33 PM on February 7, 2017 [39 favorites]
Holy shit! That vote against Warren is real? What the ever loving fuck? (I don't curse on Metafilter lightly). That's insane.
posted by mollweide at 6:35 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by mollweide at 6:35 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
snsranch, this has been a big theme of my local vague-miasma-of-newly-activated-leftists as well. The democratic committees hereabouts are very hit or miss. A couple observations from our own situation:
Want to be noticed? Be a threat. Start up an effort for a constitutional amendment that would reduce the power of the political party system.
Like Instant Run Off voting for the job of President.
The parties will look to talk to you in a hurry.
posted by rough ashlar at 6:37 PM on February 7, 2017
Want to be noticed? Be a threat. Start up an effort for a constitutional amendment that would reduce the power of the political party system.
Like Instant Run Off voting for the job of President.
The parties will look to talk to you in a hurry.
posted by rough ashlar at 6:37 PM on February 7, 2017
If you have social media, just bombard your friends with the entire. damn. letter.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:38 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:38 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Seems like going after environmental protection may be personal for Trump:
Trump Firm Loses Bid to Limit Cleanup Liability for Property
TRUMPâS CLAIMS ABOUT MEDIA COVERAGE OF TERROR ATTACKS ARE BOGUS In its relentless effort to delegitimize the press, the Trump administration has issued a long, long embarrassing list of lies.
[warning: there's an autoplay video with video coverage of various attacks (starting about 25 seconds in)]
posted by Buntix at 6:38 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
Trump Firm Loses Bid to Limit Cleanup Liability for Property
South Carolina regulators on Tuesday rejected an effort by the Trump Organization to limit its environmental cleanup liabilities at an industrial site once owned by President Trumpâs eldest son.Newsweek not pulling punches in their opinion of the "attak" list.
The decision is a rebuke of the Trump Organization and could result in millions of dollars in added costs for the company. It followed a refusal by the organization to provide regulators with required information about business and financial relationships between the president and his son Donald Trump Jr.
TRUMPâS CLAIMS ABOUT MEDIA COVERAGE OF TERROR ATTACKS ARE BOGUS In its relentless effort to delegitimize the press, the Trump administration has issued a long, long embarrassing list of lies.
[warning: there's an autoplay video with video coverage of various attacks (starting about 25 seconds in)]
posted by Buntix at 6:38 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
Anybody with a less doxxable Reddit account than me want to start some "Mitch McConnell doesn't want you to read this" posts of the letter?
posted by jason_steakums at 6:41 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by jason_steakums at 6:41 PM on February 7, 2017
,Oh no, the poor Republicans' safe space was violated!
I believe the Republician way is to call 'em a snowflake.
posted by rough ashlar at 6:44 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I believe the Republician way is to call 'em a snowflake.
posted by rough ashlar at 6:44 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
They really are acting like they never expect to face elections again.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:44 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:44 PM on February 7, 2017 [18 favorites]
Trump doesn't know if a strong dollar is better than a weak dollar so he calls Flynn at 3am
posted by Brainy at 6:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by Brainy at 6:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
Does this seem to anyone else like the Republicans should google Streisand effect? How many more people are going to see this letter because of this? Also, they're horrible, irredeemable, racists.
posted by Mavri at 6:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Mavri at 6:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
"I'll show that mean woman! It's not like the reaction to this will perfectly bullseye a social media sweet spot where curiosity meets lazy slacktivism!" said the racist turtle.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:49 PM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 6:49 PM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
It doesnt matter how many people see it, Sessions will be confirmed.
They do. not. give. a. fuck. about citizens, much less ones that live in blue states, or didn't vote for them.
They're governing as an occupying army, not a political party in the interest of the country.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
They do. not. give. a. fuck. about citizens, much less ones that live in blue states, or didn't vote for them.
They're governing as an occupying army, not a political party in the interest of the country.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
T.D. Strange I'd be very surprised if Trump was able to cancel the 2018 elections, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if he declared some tainted by "illegal voters" and used Executive Orders to overturn those tainted elections and hand seats to Republicans.
I'm not saying it's likely that he'll do that, but I wouldn't be surprised at this point.
posted by sotonohito at 6:51 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
I'm not saying it's likely that he'll do that, but I wouldn't be surprised at this point.
posted by sotonohito at 6:51 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
NYT: Yemen Withdraws Permission for U.S. Antiterror Ground Missions
WASHINGTON â Angry at the civilian casualties incurred last month in the first commando raid authorized by President Trump, Yemen has withdrawn permission for the United States to run Special Operations ground missions against suspected terror groups in the country, according to American officials.
posted by miguelcervantes at 6:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [43 favorites]
WASHINGTON â Angry at the civilian casualties incurred last month in the first commando raid authorized by President Trump, Yemen has withdrawn permission for the United States to run Special Operations ground missions against suspected terror groups in the country, according to American officials.
posted by miguelcervantes at 6:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [43 favorites]
question for folklore/fantasy people: in fiction or legend, has there ever been an equally evil anthropomorphic turtle?
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
You can't actually use executive orders to overturn an election.
posted by Justinian at 6:53 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by Justinian at 6:53 PM on February 7, 2017
Trump doesn't know if a strong dollar is better than a weak dollar so he calls Flynn at 3am
Scroll on down to this:
Scroll on down to this:
Small things can provide him great joy or generate intense irritation. Trump told The New York Times that heâs fascinated with the phone system inside the White House. At the same time, heâs registered a complaint about the hand towels aboard Air Force One, the White House aide said, because they are not soft enoughposted by zachlipton at 6:53 PM on February 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
It doesnt matter how many people see it, Sessions will be confirmed.
I completely agree about Sessions. At this point, I'm just hoping for some slumbering middle that can be awakened for 2018.
posted by Mavri at 6:54 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
I completely agree about Sessions. At this point, I'm just hoping for some slumbering middle that can be awakened for 2018.
posted by Mavri at 6:54 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
He won't have to cancel elections, he controls the NSA, or will soon enough when the last Obama appointments filter out, and can launder email hacks through Russian Wikileaks. Rinse and repeat the same playbook against every Democrat. Or something even more blatant, brutal suppression, actually changing vote totals, look around the world at how "democracies" work, it can and will happen here, and Republicans right now are showing they're in on the the next round of rigging when it happens.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:56 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:56 PM on February 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Best case scenario seems to be taking the House in 2018 and then the Presidency and the Senate in 2020. But that will require people showing up to the midterms. If we can't do it at these midterms I'm not sure when we'd be able to, so here's hoping.
posted by Justinian at 6:57 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 6:57 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Or something even more blatant, brutal suppression, actually changing vote totals,
Bev Harris and others have mentioned this and tried to get change here. While there was an (R) labeled person "in charge" this mattered to a set of people who wandered off years later. What's the plan to KEEP people interested once The Donald is no longer Large And In Charge?
posted by rough ashlar at 7:01 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Bev Harris and others have mentioned this and tried to get change here. While there was an (R) labeled person "in charge" this mattered to a set of people who wandered off years later. What's the plan to KEEP people interested once The Donald is no longer Large And In Charge?
posted by rough ashlar at 7:01 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
The CNN debate just had a woman who said she has MS and moved out of Texas because the state wouldn't expand Medicaid. Now she lives in Maryland, got treatment, and is able to work as a substitute teacher as a result. Cruz is lecturing her about how bad Medicaid is and how much he likes the free market, and she looks pissed.
posted by zachlipton at 7:02 PM on February 7, 2017 [53 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 7:02 PM on February 7, 2017 [53 favorites]
question for folklore/fantasy people: in fiction or legend, has there ever been an equally evil anthropomorphic turtle?
I don't know about "equally," but there is Devan Shell from the '90s video game series Jazz Jackrabbit. But his villainy mostly takes the form of abducting princesses and creating clone armies.
posted by biogeo at 7:04 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
I don't know about "equally," but there is Devan Shell from the '90s video game series Jazz Jackrabbit. But his villainy mostly takes the form of abducting princesses and creating clone armies.
posted by biogeo at 7:04 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
I keep saying that I am not shocked by anything that the Repubs will stoop too but what just happened to Warren is a fucking abomination. It is a whole new low. Deplorable. I am shaking with rage and simmering with not fully realized hate. I thought I was angry before this but that was baby hate compared to what I am feeling right now.
THIS will notstand. It CAN NOT.
posted by futz at 7:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [34 favorites]
THIS will notstand. It CAN NOT.
posted by futz at 7:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [34 favorites]
Orrin Hatch is going on with a bunch of bullshit now about how Dems shouldn't talk about how terrible Jeff Sessions is and how the decorum of the Senate is totally breaking down because of the Democratic Senators. Like the GOP didn't spend 8 fucking years pulling bullshit all day long.
posted by Arbac at 7:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [38 favorites]
posted by Arbac at 7:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [38 favorites]
What's the plan to KEEP people interested once The Donald is no longer Large And In Charge?
The plan now is to make sure that's ever a reality and he doesn't become our President for Life, because that's legitimately in the cards.
We'll worry about curtailing the surveillance state afterwards, although some of us were worried about it under Obama too. Obama bears a lot of blame for not taking action in 2009, or after the Snowden leaks would've given perfect cover for reforms.
Now Trump holds the key to the turnkey totalitarian state.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
The plan now is to make sure that's ever a reality and he doesn't become our President for Life, because that's legitimately in the cards.
We'll worry about curtailing the surveillance state afterwards, although some of us were worried about it under Obama too. Obama bears a lot of blame for not taking action in 2009, or after the Snowden leaks would've given perfect cover for reforms.
Now Trump holds the key to the turnkey totalitarian state.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
RFT
Alright, Senate Dems. Every single one of you needs to "break" the same "rule" by reading King's letter. You won't win within the normal process anyway, force that slimy testudine horror to reveal how empty his actions really are. Your goal is headlines announcing that every Senate Democrat has been barred from debating Sessions' confirmation.
posted by lalochezia at 7:06 PM on February 7, 2017 [29 favorites]
Alright, Senate Dems. Every single one of you needs to "break" the same "rule" by reading King's letter. You won't win within the normal process anyway, force that slimy testudine horror to reveal how empty his actions really are. Your goal is headlines announcing that every Senate Democrat has been barred from debating Sessions' confirmation.
posted by lalochezia at 7:06 PM on February 7, 2017 [29 favorites]
Leaks Suggest Trumpâs Own Team Is Alarmed By His Conduct: "President Donald Trump was confused about the dollar: Was it a strong one thatâs good for the economy? Or a weak one?
So he made a call â except not to any of the business leaders Trump brought into his administration or even to an old friend from his days in real estate. Instead, he called his national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, according to two sources familiar with Flynnâs accounts of the incident.
Flynn has a long record in counterintelligence but not in macroeconomics. And he told Trump he didnât know, that it wasnât his area of expertise, that, perhaps, Trump should ask an economist instead.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:07 PM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
So he made a call â except not to any of the business leaders Trump brought into his administration or even to an old friend from his days in real estate. Instead, he called his national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, according to two sources familiar with Flynnâs accounts of the incident.
Flynn has a long record in counterintelligence but not in macroeconomics. And he told Trump he didnât know, that it wasnât his area of expertise, that, perhaps, Trump should ask an economist instead.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:07 PM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
It doesnt matter how many people see it, Sessions will be confirmed.
They do. not. give. a. fuck. about citizens, much less ones that live in blue states, or didn't vote for them.
They're governing as an occupying army, not a political party in the interest of the country.
Agree. The political goal now should be to make that as clear as possible to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.
posted by biogeo at 7:07 PM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
They do. not. give. a. fuck. about citizens, much less ones that live in blue states, or didn't vote for them.
They're governing as an occupying army, not a political party in the interest of the country.
Agree. The political goal now should be to make that as clear as possible to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.
posted by biogeo at 7:07 PM on February 7, 2017 [19 favorites]
You can't actually use executive orders to overturn an election.
Remember the FB thing where we listed the cost of gas, the unemployment rate, the DJIA in January 2017 so we'd have a record of how things were?
File this under 'how naive we were' and revisit it in 2019.
posted by Dashy at 7:09 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Remember the FB thing where we listed the cost of gas, the unemployment rate, the DJIA in January 2017 so we'd have a record of how things were?
File this under 'how naive we were' and revisit it in 2019.
posted by Dashy at 7:09 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
President Donald Trump was confused about the dollar: Was it a strong one thatâs good for the economy? Or a weak one?
If after-market trading is not crashing right now, then we must live in a hologram. Also, Amendment 25.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
If after-market trading is not crashing right now, then we must live in a hologram. Also, Amendment 25.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
File this under 'how naive we were' and revisit it in 2019.
We seriously need to be able to distinguish between real threats and panicky paranoid threats, otherwise we end up with Pizzagate. Executive orders overturning election results is the latter.
posted by Justinian at 7:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
We seriously need to be able to distinguish between real threats and panicky paranoid threats, otherwise we end up with Pizzagate. Executive orders overturning election results is the latter.
posted by Justinian at 7:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Holden: "The turtoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs, trying to turn itself over but it can't, not without for your help. But you're not helping."
Leon: "What do you mean I'm not helping?"
Holden: "I mean you're not helping. Why is that Leon?"
Leon: "Because he reminds me of Mitch McConnell."
Holden: "You pass." [closes up the Voight-Kampff machine] "We're done here."
posted by entropicamericana at 7:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [55 favorites]
Leon: "What do you mean I'm not helping?"
Holden: "I mean you're not helping. Why is that Leon?"
Leon: "Because he reminds me of Mitch McConnell."
Holden: "You pass." [closes up the Voight-Kampff machine] "We're done here."
posted by entropicamericana at 7:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [55 favorites]
Holy shit! That vote against Warren is real? What the ever loving fuck?
Tone policing, it's sexism 201. It will only get worse with the toddler in charge.
posted by Dashy at 7:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
Tone policing, it's sexism 201. It will only get worse with the toddler in charge.
posted by Dashy at 7:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
Dollar strength is a complex subject. Flynn is not your man. Maybe Flynn is the Putin whisperer?
posted by Yowser at 7:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Yowser at 7:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Ok, Justinian, I'm in for $5 on an EO that alters election outcome.
posted by Dashy at 7:15 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Dashy at 7:15 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Dollar strength is a complex subject. Flynn is not your man. Maybe Flynn is the Putin whisperer?
Dude also called Flynn at 3AM to ask.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:15 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Dude also called Flynn at 3AM to ask.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:15 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
President Donald Trump was confused about the dollar: Was it a strong one thatâs good for the economy? Or a weak one?
I wonder if he found someone to answer his question. Then I wonder if that person attempted to explain "Well yes and no, it depends..*insert explanation*" and then Trump got frustrated, "Yes or no! Like right now!". "Well Mr President as I said, yes and no depending..." and then Trump swore at him and wandered off to look at the drapery catalog.
posted by Jalliah at 7:17 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
I wonder if he found someone to answer his question. Then I wonder if that person attempted to explain "Well yes and no, it depends..*insert explanation*" and then Trump got frustrated, "Yes or no! Like right now!". "Well Mr President as I said, yes and no depending..." and then Trump swore at him and wandered off to look at the drapery catalog.
posted by Jalliah at 7:17 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
One-Third Donât Know Obamacare and Affordable Care Act Are the Same. We are so bad at communicating this stuff.
One thing to keep in mind is that while establishment of the insurance exchanges is a federal initiative, everything else -- the actual implementation, design of insurance plans, setting of premiums and advertising -- is a state level function run by state officials. Blue states that have good government, like California, New York and Washington, have great Obamacare participation and enthusiasm. Red states with hostile Republican governments, like Texas, Florida and Tennessee, have awful Obamacare experiences.
For example Texas, in order to throw up as much obstruction as possible, issued oppressive regulations restricting Obamacare Navigators who help people get enrolled, requiring background checks, fingerprinting and an extra 20 hours of training on top of the federal training. This was designed to discourage people from signing up for Obamacare and finding out how much better it was than pre-Obamacare.
Nobody anticipated the outright unanimous Republican hostility to what was essentially a Republican Romneycare plan. State officials in those Red states worked to actively discourage participation and buried the program in toxic propaganda.
So your complaint about communication really varies from state to state and nothing much Democrats could do in states in which they had no levers of power.
posted by JackFlash at 7:17 PM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
One thing to keep in mind is that while establishment of the insurance exchanges is a federal initiative, everything else -- the actual implementation, design of insurance plans, setting of premiums and advertising -- is a state level function run by state officials. Blue states that have good government, like California, New York and Washington, have great Obamacare participation and enthusiasm. Red states with hostile Republican governments, like Texas, Florida and Tennessee, have awful Obamacare experiences.
For example Texas, in order to throw up as much obstruction as possible, issued oppressive regulations restricting Obamacare Navigators who help people get enrolled, requiring background checks, fingerprinting and an extra 20 hours of training on top of the federal training. This was designed to discourage people from signing up for Obamacare and finding out how much better it was than pre-Obamacare.
Nobody anticipated the outright unanimous Republican hostility to what was essentially a Republican Romneycare plan. State officials in those Red states worked to actively discourage participation and buried the program in toxic propaganda.
So your complaint about communication really varies from state to state and nothing much Democrats could do in states in which they had no levers of power.
posted by JackFlash at 7:17 PM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
Brave man, that Mitch McConnell, silencing Coretta Scott King during Black History Month.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:18 PM on February 7, 2017 [90 favorites]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:18 PM on February 7, 2017 [90 favorites]
Ok, Justinian, I'm in for $5 on an EO that alters election outcome.
I'm honestly shocked that people still talk about Trump being in office in 2 years. I have a hard time imagining how that could happen, and if it did that we'd even be having elections.
posted by bongo_x at 7:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm honestly shocked that people still talk about Trump being in office in 2 years. I have a hard time imagining how that could happen, and if it did that we'd even be having elections.
posted by bongo_x at 7:23 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Dementia symptoms include difficulty forming new relationships and difficulty with socialization. If he's having cognitive decline, it's possible he only trusts people like Flynn, and isn't actually capable of reaching out to other more appropriate advisors.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
If you go to any Republican senator's facebook page and look for a statement about the DeVos nomination you'll find that the comments are running ~10:1 against, with many stating that they are conservative voters but they won't support that senator again. People are energized and seriously pissed.
posted by Killick at 7:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
posted by Killick at 7:24 PM on February 7, 2017 [33 favorites]
Picture General Flynn, getting that long-awaited 3 am call from the Commander in Chief, his bowels clenching with terror and a quiet but undeniable lunatic excitement, and then hearing some dumbass econ question
posted by theodolite at 7:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [97 favorites]
posted by theodolite at 7:25 PM on February 7, 2017 [97 favorites]
Yep, D's who failed to fucking vote: Carper, Coons, Feinstein. Warren obviously. That's it. Dianne you showed up for DeVos but that doesn't get you a pass on this one. Primary the shit out of Feinstein. As someone commented above it may help keep the others in line, and it is just time for her to go.
Note that it is typical during fairly uneventful periods (like, say, when senators are reading prepared speeches) for a few senators to step out for one reason or another. Not voting is most likely because they weren't on the floor at the time. It's probably not worth trying to read too much into non-votes on unscheduled procedural stuff like this.
posted by biogeo at 7:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
Note that it is typical during fairly uneventful periods (like, say, when senators are reading prepared speeches) for a few senators to step out for one reason or another. Not voting is most likely because they weren't on the floor at the time. It's probably not worth trying to read too much into non-votes on unscheduled procedural stuff like this.
posted by biogeo at 7:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [13 favorites]
I'm honestly shocked that people still talk about Trump being in office in 2 years. I have a hard time imagining how that could happen, and if it did that we'd even be having elections.
You think the Republicans will impeach him? Or we'll all die inside 2 years? I'm not sure which you think is going to happen.
So long as Trump signs what they put in front of him I don't believe they will ever impeach him.
posted by Justinian at 7:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
You think the Republicans will impeach him? Or we'll all die inside 2 years? I'm not sure which you think is going to happen.
So long as Trump signs what they put in front of him I don't believe they will ever impeach him.
posted by Justinian at 7:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Stephen Colbert: Over 135k people listened to the audio-only livestream of #9thCircuit hearing. Because Justice is blind but She's not f*cking deaf.
posted by rewil at 7:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [55 favorites]
posted by rewil at 7:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [55 favorites]
Remember when we were supposed to worry if the President would be ready to *receive* a call at 3am?
posted by uosuaq at 7:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by uosuaq at 7:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
So long as Trump signs what they put in front of him I don't believe they will ever impeach him.
Pence will sign all the stuff they really want, and probably won't blow up the world over an SNL sketch. I do think the Republicans will be ready to impeach Trump once enough evidence is there.
posted by uosuaq at 7:31 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Pence will sign all the stuff they really want, and probably won't blow up the world over an SNL sketch. I do think the Republicans will be ready to impeach Trump once enough evidence is there.
posted by uosuaq at 7:31 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yeah, like if Trump admitted to being a serial sexual abuser on tape or something.
posted by Justinian at 7:33 PM on February 7, 2017 [32 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 7:33 PM on February 7, 2017 [32 favorites]
Back to Jill Stein for a quick sec, let's not ever let anyone forget how Jill Stein is one of Putin's favorite propaganda tools on the left:
posted by triggerfinger at 7:34 PM on February 7, 2017 [30 favorites]
Perhaps the starkest case in point is Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and her constituency. In December 2015, the Kremlin feted Stein by inviting her to the gala celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Kremlin-funded propaganda network RT. Over a year later, it remains unclear who paid for Steinâs trip to Moscow and her accommodations there. Her campaign ignored multiple questions on this score. We do know, however, that Stein sat at the same table as both Putin and Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, Trumpâs soon-to-be national security adviser. She further spoke at an RT-sponsored panel, using her presence to criticize the U.S.âs âdisastrous militarism.â Afterward, straddling Moscowâs Red Square, Stein described the panel as âinspiring,â going on to claim that Putin, whom she painted as a political novice, told her he âagree[d]â with her âon many issues.â
...
For her efforts in burnishing Kremlin conspiracy theories for American audiences, Stein was awarded not simply with an invitation to the 2015 RT gala, but RT even hosted her partyâs 2016 presidential debateâa move Stein hailed as a âstep towards real democracy.â RT also covered âlive updatesâ from Steinâs reactions to the debates between Clinton and Trump, a decision Stein further praised. This mutual affection is, naturally, of a piece with RTâs broader modus operandi in the U.S.
posted by triggerfinger at 7:34 PM on February 7, 2017 [30 favorites]
I do think the Republicans will be ready to impeach Trump once enough evidence is there.
I suppose it's possible that he'll be caught on video saying "ok maybe we'll raise taxes on the rich" but I'm not holding my breath.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:34 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
I suppose it's possible that he'll be caught on video saying "ok maybe we'll raise taxes on the rich" but I'm not holding my breath.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:34 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
I'm 50/50 on impeachment once his useful/idiot quotient to the Senate GOP tips decisively towards idiot vs. him just resigning due to "health problems." If Bannon can somehow get drummed out of there, he's got no one else that strokes his ego in quite that same special way and without that this is no fun any more. The right offer from Ryan to gin up some kind of health emergency so he can just quietly go to Mar a Lago forever while the 25th is enacted. Pence is every bit as much their guy, he's odious and awful and wrong about every single thing. They'll love him.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:34 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:34 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Remember when we were supposed to worry if the President would be ready to *receive* a call at 3am?
Now we're just left hoping POTUS rolls over, grumbling "Ugh, it's too early, forward the call to Pence and have him deal with it."
posted by tivalasvegas at 7:36 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Now we're just left hoping POTUS rolls over, grumbling "Ugh, it's too early, forward the call to Pence and have him deal with it."
posted by tivalasvegas at 7:36 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
I really don't like Putin but you gotta admit the man is pretty good at destabilizing THE ENTIRE FUCKING WESTERN DEMOCRATIC ORDER
posted by Existential Dread at 7:36 PM on February 7, 2017 [45 favorites]
posted by Existential Dread at 7:36 PM on February 7, 2017 [45 favorites]
I don't have that many conservatives who interact with me on Facebook. There's a conservative farmer I know - know via a friend.
I commented about the DeVos vote. Said conservative farmer agreed with me that DeVos should not have been confirmed and that public school is a good thing and then noted that private schools mess up just as much. So yeah. I'm hoping the DeVos vote will comeback back and bite some Republicans.
posted by R343L at 7:40 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
I commented about the DeVos vote. Said conservative farmer agreed with me that DeVos should not have been confirmed and that public school is a good thing and then noted that private schools mess up just as much. So yeah. I'm hoping the DeVos vote will comeback back and bite some Republicans.
posted by R343L at 7:40 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
As a sidenote, Sen. McConnell is operating in the grand tradition of Strom Thurmond tonight. Thurmond originally refused to put King's letter in the Congressional Record, which is why it was missing all these years.
posted by zachlipton at 7:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [55 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 7:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [55 favorites]
Also: Librarians take up arms against fake news, which introduced me to the very cool site All Sides, which (amongst other things) will take the same news story and show side-by-side versions from left, center and right-wing media.
posted by triggerfinger at 7:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by triggerfinger at 7:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [15 favorites]
Actually I kind of wish I could play Jazz Jackrabbit right now. Spending a couple hours shooting cartoon turtles in the face would be therapeutic.
posted by biogeo at 7:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 7:43 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
John McCain Says The Recent Yemen Raid Was A "Failure"
I'm sure he won't, you know, actually do anything about it, but the chair of the Armed Services Committee contradicting the White House of his own party on the success of a military op is pretty extraordinary.
posted by zachlipton at 7:46 PM on February 7, 2017 [43 favorites]
I'm sure he won't, you know, actually do anything about it, but the chair of the Armed Services Committee contradicting the White House of his own party on the success of a military op is pretty extraordinary.
posted by zachlipton at 7:46 PM on February 7, 2017 [43 favorites]
It's probably not worth trying to read too much into non-votes on unscheduled procedural stuff like this.
Oh, but it is. A guy like Mitch McConnell doesn't make a challenge like this if he doesn't already know he has the quorum and votes on tap to make it stick. He didn't miss a beat in issuing the challenge and instantly calling for a roll call in a nearly empty chamber.
This was a set up. He probably had his whip give all the Republican Senators a heads up to be ready to rush in, establish a quorum, and pass the sanctions.
What Warren read was pretty innocuous. McConnell set a trap and was ready to pounce at the slightest provocation to apply a bitch slap to Warren. It was disgusting.
posted by JackFlash at 7:48 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
Oh, but it is. A guy like Mitch McConnell doesn't make a challenge like this if he doesn't already know he has the quorum and votes on tap to make it stick. He didn't miss a beat in issuing the challenge and instantly calling for a roll call in a nearly empty chamber.
This was a set up. He probably had his whip give all the Republican Senators a heads up to be ready to rush in, establish a quorum, and pass the sanctions.
What Warren read was pretty innocuous. McConnell set a trap and was ready to pounce at the slightest provocation to apply a bitch slap to Warren. It was disgusting.
posted by JackFlash at 7:48 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
Jesus I love Elizabeth Warren. She's got more balls than the rest of them combined.
posted by angrybear at 7:48 PM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
posted by angrybear at 7:48 PM on February 7, 2017 [23 favorites]
I'm going to bed. But I am seriously pleasantly surprised that the Dems are even doing this at all. I've got such a middle of the road Catholic pro-life-ish Senator but he's been on the twitterbox like every day spitting fire in no uncertain terms. Up is down, black is white! Now please guys, save us.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Aaand it turns out Jazz Jackrabbit is in fact available on the Internet Archive. Off to some turtle-bashing.
posted by biogeo at 7:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 7:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
The House did scold someone for shouting "liar!" to Obama.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:53 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:53 PM on February 7, 2017
Warren is live streaming her testimony on Facebook in the hallway of the Senate.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:54 PM on February 7, 2017 [32 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:54 PM on February 7, 2017 [32 favorites]
How to tell if you are in a constitutional crisis
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:58 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:58 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
I am almost hoping that the repubs become more brazen and evil so that it becomes unavoidable for even the least invested to not act. The "right" has finally gotten their cake and are eating it in front of everyone. This is how rebellions begin. We on the Left are a majority. What is the tipping point for outright (rhetorical question) disobedience, civil or otherwise? Silencing Warren probably isn't going to incite Main Street Sally or Joe but something will.
posted by futz at 8:00 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by futz at 8:00 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Don't know how many of y'all are watching the FB livestream, but the idea itself is just pure genius. More of this, please.
posted by otenba at 8:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by otenba at 8:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Even People Magazine has picked up the Warren story. I think this is going to be a thing even after Sessions sails through. "Old white man silences extremely popular woman for trying to read a black woman's words during Black History Month is a pretty easy story to tell. And boy has it really pissed people off right now.
posted by zachlipton at 8:07 PM on February 7, 2017 [77 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 8:07 PM on February 7, 2017 [77 favorites]
I mean, for all the talk about how McConnell knows exactly what he's doing, I'm not understanding the wisdom of turning a 10pm floor speech nobody would have cared about into a national outrage against him.
posted by zachlipton at 8:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [44 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 8:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [44 favorites]
Brave man, that Mitch McConnell, silencing Coretta Scott King during Black History Month.
I wish I could tell you that you can fax Mitch McConnell at his D.C. office at (202) 224-2499. I also wish I could tell you that you can send a free fax online. And I wish I could tell you that your free fax can be a PDF attachment. Further, I wish I could tell you that you can download Coretta Scott King's letter about Jeff Sessions as a PDF here. Finally, I wish I could tell you that you can email McConnell's chief of staff at brian_mcguire@mcconnell.senate.gov. I wish I could tell you these things, but I just don't think that would be right.
posted by AceRock at 8:14 PM on February 7, 2017 [137 favorites]
I wish I could tell you that you can fax Mitch McConnell at his D.C. office at (202) 224-2499. I also wish I could tell you that you can send a free fax online. And I wish I could tell you that your free fax can be a PDF attachment. Further, I wish I could tell you that you can download Coretta Scott King's letter about Jeff Sessions as a PDF here. Finally, I wish I could tell you that you can email McConnell's chief of staff at brian_mcguire@mcconnell.senate.gov. I wish I could tell you these things, but I just don't think that would be right.
posted by AceRock at 8:14 PM on February 7, 2017 [137 favorites]
You think the Republicans will impeach him? Or we'll all die inside 2 years? I'm not sure which you think is going to happen.
I have no idea. But I see an Orangutan in a Humvee just got on I-10 in Santa Monica causing chaos and destruction and people are saying "we'll set up roadblocks in Texas and Florida". I just don't think it's possible to keep going like this.
posted by bongo_x at 8:19 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
I have no idea. But I see an Orangutan in a Humvee just got on I-10 in Santa Monica causing chaos and destruction and people are saying "we'll set up roadblocks in Texas and Florida". I just don't think it's possible to keep going like this.
posted by bongo_x at 8:19 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
I'm a little worried. I keep seeing congresscritters doing remarkably spiteful, stupid things. Are they unconcerned because they feel like this will blow over in two years or because they won't have to worry about the votes?
posted by Slackermagee at 8:26 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by Slackermagee at 8:26 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Step 1: create a blog post titled "LIBERAL HYPOCRISY- Read the King Letter About A TRUE Racist Candidate That A DEMOVRATIC Senator PREVENTED From Being Read On The Senate Floor
Step 2: Post the full text of Mrs. King's objections to Sessions sign a preamble about how Democratic Senator Strom Thurmond refused to let this letter be read. Don't mention it's about Sessions until late.
Step 3: share with your conservative friends so they read the letter and ideally learn something new about Jeff Sessions.
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
Step 2: Post the full text of Mrs. King's objections to Sessions sign a preamble about how Democratic Senator Strom Thurmond refused to let this letter be read. Don't mention it's about Sessions until late.
Step 3: share with your conservative friends so they read the letter and ideally learn something new about Jeff Sessions.
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [24 favorites]
Back to Jill Stein for a quick sec, let's not ever let anyone forget how Jill Stein is one of Putin's favorite propaganda tools on the left:
Blah blah blah, yada yada yada, the Left are stooges of a foreign power just like the president they despise in every way, only utmost respect for the discourse and the preservation of sacred norms can save our beloved republic, and it's not a bad sign that the lady whose base is yoga teachers who believe in crystal healing but not vaccines is capable of bringing it all down
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 8:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Blah blah blah, yada yada yada, the Left are stooges of a foreign power just like the president they despise in every way, only utmost respect for the discourse and the preservation of sacred norms can save our beloved republic, and it's not a bad sign that the lady whose base is yoga teachers who believe in crystal healing but not vaccines is capable of bringing it all down
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 8:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
a lot of my Indigenous activist comrades don't see the romance in "This Land is Your Land,"
In Toronto I once spotted a First Nations busker singing "This Land is My Land, This Land is My Land, This Land is My Land, This Land is My Land."
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [102 favorites]
In Toronto I once spotted a First Nations busker singing "This Land is My Land, This Land is My Land, This Land is My Land, This Land is My Land."
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [102 favorites]
I'm not understanding the wisdom of turning a 10pm floor speech nobody would have cared about into a national outrage against him.
One reading is he doesn't give a fuck. Another reading is that he doesn't give a fuck and what are you going to do about it? Schumer's probably not even going to get all the Dem caucus to vote against Jefferson Beauregard, so might as well slap down Warren in the name of comity 'n' shit while power's in your hands.
As I said in a previous thread, Putinism's how the GOP would like to rule.
posted by holgate at 8:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
One reading is he doesn't give a fuck. Another reading is that he doesn't give a fuck and what are you going to do about it? Schumer's probably not even going to get all the Dem caucus to vote against Jefferson Beauregard, so might as well slap down Warren in the name of comity 'n' shit while power's in your hands.
As I said in a previous thread, Putinism's how the GOP would like to rule.
posted by holgate at 8:29 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Two white male senators, Whitehouse and Merkley, used their privilege to get most of the letter read into the record, with context.
I think this was a good use of privilege, but I'm sorry it needed to be done that way.
posted by monopas at 8:31 PM on February 7, 2017 [42 favorites]
I think this was a good use of privilege, but I'm sorry it needed to be done that way.
posted by monopas at 8:31 PM on February 7, 2017 [42 favorites]
um, did McCain just hijack the Sessions speeches to rail against Putin killing his opponents?
posted by zachlipton at 8:32 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by zachlipton at 8:32 PM on February 7, 2017
Wow Senate Republicans have now ruled that any Democrat who says âJefferson Beauregard Sessionsâ in a Foghorn Leghorn voice will be silenced [fake]
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:33 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:33 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
incite Main Street Sally or Joe but something will.
I wanted to add that I hate it when other people use cutsey terms like I did. Now that I think about it, I heard some arse (R) say something about Sally House Coat and Joe Lunch Pail earlier this week. Why yes, he was a really old white dude, I suppose "housecoat" is still in use in some small pockets of Wheresville? Perhaps lunch pail too? To me those are so out of date to be something that only an out of touch "good 'ol boy" would say. /end ramble.
posted by futz at 8:33 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
I wanted to add that I hate it when other people use cutsey terms like I did. Now that I think about it, I heard some arse (R) say something about Sally House Coat and Joe Lunch Pail earlier this week. Why yes, he was a really old white dude, I suppose "housecoat" is still in use in some small pockets of Wheresville? Perhaps lunch pail too? To me those are so out of date to be something that only an out of touch "good 'ol boy" would say. /end ramble.
posted by futz at 8:33 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
zachlipton, not on the c-span2 livestream. Cory Booker is bringing truth right now.
posted by monopas at 8:38 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by monopas at 8:38 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
oh, C-SPAN on iOS somehow got me stuck a couple hours in the past. Thanks for welcoming me to the present.
posted by zachlipton at 8:42 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by zachlipton at 8:42 PM on February 7, 2017
I think we can all agree that the DEMOVRATIC Party is truly evil
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:50 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Again, while I think McConnell doesn't give a fuck because the Senate power of fuckery has never been very accountable, it's important to keep pushing back and not be exhausted, especially in red states, as this tweet-thread notes: every use of power needs to come at an obvious cost that is amplified and sustained. (Oh, tweeters, save this stuff to a blog post, please.)
posted by holgate at 8:54 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by holgate at 8:54 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
@JoyAnnReid:
Whatever his intention, McConnell may have lit the spark that makes Sessions every bit as toxic as Betsy DeVos-& Warren an even bigger star.
posted by chris24 at 8:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [40 favorites]
Whatever his intention, McConnell may have lit the spark that makes Sessions every bit as toxic as Betsy DeVos-& Warren an even bigger star.
posted by chris24 at 8:55 PM on February 7, 2017 [40 favorites]
Obvious dig but who gives a fuck.
Trump's Twitter feed ignored terror attacks that White House claims media neglected
posted by futz at 8:56 PM on February 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
Trump's Twitter feed ignored terror attacks that White House claims media neglected
posted by futz at 8:56 PM on February 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
And Warren has an election in '18 (presuming elections in '18) and the chance of her GOP opponent being another WEEI Masshole (even Curt fucking Schilling) is quite strong. "Nevertheless, she persisted" is a bit wordy for a rallying cry, but it'll do.
posted by holgate at 9:00 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by holgate at 9:00 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
IMPUGNING JEFF SESSIONS' CHARACTER. Racism continues to be considered something that makes white people feel bad, instead of a tool of oppression that they wield knowingly and deliberately. Absolutely fucking sickening.
posted by sunset in snow country at 9:02 PM on February 7, 2017 [85 favorites]
posted by sunset in snow country at 9:02 PM on February 7, 2017 [85 favorites]
it's not a bad sign that the lady whose base is yoga teachers who believe in crystal healing but not vaccines is capable of bringing it all down
That is an almost literal description of my mother (she teaches tai chi rather than yoga, and also has strong opinions about chemtrails and WiFi in addition to vaccines), and she still voted for Johnson because she thought Stein was too much of a lightweight.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 9:04 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
That is an almost literal description of my mother (she teaches tai chi rather than yoga, and also has strong opinions about chemtrails and WiFi in addition to vaccines), and she still voted for Johnson because she thought Stein was too much of a lightweight.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 9:04 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
By a 49-to-43 vote, Senate rules that Elizabeth Warren broke rule impugning a senator. She now cannot speak during debate on Jeff Sessions.
Am I the only one who thinks that if there's a rule against impugning senators, you should have to resign from the senate before going up for cabinet appointee?
posted by corb at 9:06 PM on February 7, 2017 [84 favorites]
Am I the only one who thinks that if there's a rule against impugning senators, you should have to resign from the senate before going up for cabinet appointee?
posted by corb at 9:06 PM on February 7, 2017 [84 favorites]
re: school choice
I think what hasn't been discussed is that it is also a dogwhistle for that public schools - with strong* Federal-level standards for education - it's people fearing that their children will be educated with provable facts who then would rebel against their community.
"Religious" schools appear to have much laxer thresholds for objective truth.
THIS IS SCARY
This is a (note, a) root cause for what happened on November 8th 2016 starting in the 70's in the erosion of universal primary and secondary education. The attacks and erosion of universal education is a stark and blatant outcome of racism and classism.
Why are so many susceptible to fake news? It's both a poor education (theory and practice) in reasoning and also - maybe more effective - the habit of not caring anymore.
I'm the first to defend some of the characters in Idiocracy, but the dismantling of objective fact based education in the general populace has now provably been able to control huge swaths of the populace for political reasons.
Am I an optimist to think that this might be the endgame between the last-gasp of the unofficial American Royalty? Or is it just the endgame as in, well, you've just lost. Lets play another game only you have a even bigger handicap. Yes/No?
During my PhD candidacy we had a post-postdoc from small town Alabama who was the first in his extended family to get a college degree. When visiting 'back home' during college he was increasingly shunned for having gone away for college. He was slowly being awoken, but acted like he used to when back home, so it was mostly just that he went out and learned about other parts of the world. Jebus, this is the plot of HOW many post-crusaders themed movies?
Having gone to Sweden (g'dmned commies/shoshlists) for his first postdoc essentially got him disowned.
*for varying values of "strong" qv Texas and Pearson (textbook publishing company)
posted by porpoise at 9:06 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
I think what hasn't been discussed is that it is also a dogwhistle for that public schools - with strong* Federal-level standards for education - it's people fearing that their children will be educated with provable facts who then would rebel against their community.
"Religious" schools appear to have much laxer thresholds for objective truth.
THIS IS SCARY
This is a (note, a) root cause for what happened on November 8th 2016 starting in the 70's in the erosion of universal primary and secondary education. The attacks and erosion of universal education is a stark and blatant outcome of racism and classism.
Why are so many susceptible to fake news? It's both a poor education (theory and practice) in reasoning and also - maybe more effective - the habit of not caring anymore.
I'm the first to defend some of the characters in Idiocracy, but the dismantling of objective fact based education in the general populace has now provably been able to control huge swaths of the populace for political reasons.
Am I an optimist to think that this might be the endgame between the last-gasp of the unofficial American Royalty? Or is it just the endgame as in, well, you've just lost. Lets play another game only you have a even bigger handicap. Yes/No?
During my PhD candidacy we had a post-postdoc from small town Alabama who was the first in his extended family to get a college degree. When visiting 'back home' during college he was increasingly shunned for having gone away for college. He was slowly being awoken, but acted like he used to when back home, so it was mostly just that he went out and learned about other parts of the world. Jebus, this is the plot of HOW many post-crusaders themed movies?
Having gone to Sweden (g'dmned commies/shoshlists) for his first postdoc essentially got him disowned.
*for varying values of "strong" qv Texas and Pearson (textbook publishing company)
posted by porpoise at 9:06 PM on February 7, 2017 [14 favorites]
How ... practically ... so how does this work exactly? Like I understand the reasons for having rules about civility in the Senate and not insulting other Senators. But, how does this work when a sitting Senator is being considered for a position in the executive? How can you say anything critical whatsoever without it being insulting them? But how can you actually debate and consider openly the nominee without being critical? Even if a senator thinks the nominee is great and plans to vote for them, they often bring up concerns they have with that nominee (past actions, past statements, etc.) so as to give the future executive appointee an understanding of their concerns and also to signal the kind of oversight that senator intends. Seriously I don't get this at all.
Also pragmatically it's just so stupid. Everyone and their dog who gives even the tiniest bit about current political affairs is going to know the Senate voted to silence someone who was merely reading a letter from MLK's widow, whereas if they had just let Warren read it and move on, it probably would only have caught the attention of left leaning folks.
posted by R343L at 9:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
Also pragmatically it's just so stupid. Everyone and their dog who gives even the tiniest bit about current political affairs is going to know the Senate voted to silence someone who was merely reading a letter from MLK's widow, whereas if they had just let Warren read it and move on, it probably would only have caught the attention of left leaning folks.
posted by R343L at 9:10 PM on February 7, 2017 [11 favorites]
This is such a perfect example of the attitudes and practices of the alt-right/alt-press/alt-fact/alt-humanity.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:13 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
I don't see any reason why Rule V couldn't be invoked to allow the Senate to suspend Rule XIX, Section 2 for a specific period of debate, but that would require not having a pile of festering dicks in the Senate.
posted by holgate at 9:18 PM on February 7, 2017
posted by holgate at 9:18 PM on February 7, 2017
Never turn your back on the Village.
Leaks Suggest Trumpâs Own Team Is Alarmed By His Conduct
posted by scalefree at 9:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Leaks Suggest Trumpâs Own Team Is Alarmed By His Conduct
posted by scalefree at 9:28 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
"Religious" schools appear to have much laxer thresholds for objective truth.
THIS IS SCARY
Future Math Teacher: "Class, can anyone tell me the circumference of Christ's love?"
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:31 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
THIS IS SCARY
Future Math Teacher: "Class, can anyone tell me the circumference of Christ's love?"
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:31 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Form letter regarding Bannon. Or Devos. Or ?
Dear Sebastien,posted by sebastienbailard at 9:31 PM on February 7, 2017
Thank you for contacting me about your concerns with the president's choices for his staff and cabinet.
The Constitution gives the president the power to appoint principal officers âby and with the advice and consent of the Senate.â The Constitution also allows Congress to let the president fill lesser offices without needing to obtain the Senateâs advice and consent.
I take the Senate's advice-and-consent duty very seriously because appointed individuals are entrusted with a great deal of power in their respective roles. The right of the Senate to confirm high level executive nominations and judicial appointments is one of the most important checks the legislative branch has on the executive branch. At the same time, a president should be given latitude in making his appointments.
I think we should give the president and his administration the chance to start governing. Then we, the people, can pass judgment on what the administration actually is doing rather than having to speculate on possible actions or policies. I am fully aware of the importance of filling positions within the judicial and executive branches and will work cooperatively with any administration in its efforts to appoint high-quality individuals.
Thank you again for contacting my office. It is very helpful to hear the views of the constituents I serve. To date, my office has received more than 2,000,000 letters, emails and phone calls. My mission is to provide information to as many people as possible concerning the enormous financial and cultural challenges facing America.
Please see my website at www.ronjohnson.senate.gov for additional information. It is an honor representing you and all the people of Wisconsin.
Sincerely,
Ron Johnson
United States Senator
Never turn your back on the Village.
Leaks Suggest Trumpâs Own Team Is Alarmed By His Conduct
Area man "shocked" when dog that has repeatedly bitten him for years becomes aggressive and bites him.
posted by jaduncan at 9:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
Leaks Suggest Trumpâs Own Team Is Alarmed By His Conduct
Area man "shocked" when dog that has repeatedly bitten him for years becomes aggressive and bites him.
posted by jaduncan at 9:32 PM on February 7, 2017 [8 favorites]
it feels to me that the republicans are acutely aware that they are in an exceedingly rare historical moment where they have all the power and no mandate. they also know that their goals are chiefly destructive rather than creative (defund this, eliminate that) and that destruction takes way less time than creation.
they know that at this moment, no one can stop them, and they also know that they're on a tight clock. they're flexing every muscle they have and to hell with the consequences, because if they can burn down enough of the government in the next two years, any incoming legislature that might replace them will be left holding a very overstuffed sack of flaming shit that will take way more than one term to put out.
they must be acutely aware at this point that trump is a one-term president at best, so they're grabbing everything that isn't nailed down and preparing to hand the next (presumably democratic) administration a disaster area in the rough shape of the united states.
then when that president fails to fix everything in his first term, they snag the majority again and repeat the process.
and every time through the cycle the government becomes more crippled and less able to deal, until it fits nicely in a bathtub.
posted by murphy slaw at 9:33 PM on February 7, 2017 [46 favorites]
they know that at this moment, no one can stop them, and they also know that they're on a tight clock. they're flexing every muscle they have and to hell with the consequences, because if they can burn down enough of the government in the next two years, any incoming legislature that might replace them will be left holding a very overstuffed sack of flaming shit that will take way more than one term to put out.
they must be acutely aware at this point that trump is a one-term president at best, so they're grabbing everything that isn't nailed down and preparing to hand the next (presumably democratic) administration a disaster area in the rough shape of the united states.
then when that president fails to fix everything in his first term, they snag the majority again and repeat the process.
and every time through the cycle the government becomes more crippled and less able to deal, until it fits nicely in a bathtub.
posted by murphy slaw at 9:33 PM on February 7, 2017 [46 favorites]
And they know that they'll never be blamed as the real cause of why everything is fucking terrible, because their voters don't care about their own lives as long as they feel empowered to hate on liberals and those people.
They can't fail in destroying everything, and this election proved theyll only ever be rewarded for it.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:39 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
They can't fail in destroying everything, and this election proved theyll only ever be rewarded for it.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:39 PM on February 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
No, it's cool that you corrupt, venal old men just voted to punish my one of my heroes for reading a letter written by Coretta Scott King on the Senate floor. Don't even worry about it; I'm definitely not so mad I'm spitting blood, it's totally cool, I get it, seriously. It's fine. Everything's fine.
I mean, what else were you going to do, let her speak? Engage with her arguments and make a reasonable claim about how Jeff Sessions' history of voter suppression might make him less than qualified to protect voting rights in our country? Pay attention to the words of a woman whose husband was murdered protecting those rights? Listen to her warning about how he threatened elderly black women who were trying to register to vote, and how, as a result, she has some doubts as to his commitment to upholding the civil rights of all Americans? Ha! No, that would be rude. Hurtful, even. Senators, see, they all get along. They don't *attack* each other by doing uncomfortable things like telling the truth.
I get it. Seriously, I do. But hey, just one last thing, though, and this goes for every Republican out there who voted for this motion, I have a small favor to ask you:
Tweet some anodyne quote from Martin Luther King next MLK Day. Please, go ahead. Or maybe in response to a Black Lives Matter protest. You would like to claim his words as yours? You want to lecture us about the importance of peaceful protest, or remind us about how the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice? Oh, good. Go ahead, quote him. Pretend you have any rights to say MLK's name again, you hypocritical, cowardly bastards. Please. I'll be waiting. Do it. I DARE YOU.
posted by pretentious illiterate at 9:44 PM on February 7, 2017 [75 favorites]
I mean, what else were you going to do, let her speak? Engage with her arguments and make a reasonable claim about how Jeff Sessions' history of voter suppression might make him less than qualified to protect voting rights in our country? Pay attention to the words of a woman whose husband was murdered protecting those rights? Listen to her warning about how he threatened elderly black women who were trying to register to vote, and how, as a result, she has some doubts as to his commitment to upholding the civil rights of all Americans? Ha! No, that would be rude. Hurtful, even. Senators, see, they all get along. They don't *attack* each other by doing uncomfortable things like telling the truth.
I get it. Seriously, I do. But hey, just one last thing, though, and this goes for every Republican out there who voted for this motion, I have a small favor to ask you:
Tweet some anodyne quote from Martin Luther King next MLK Day. Please, go ahead. Or maybe in response to a Black Lives Matter protest. You would like to claim his words as yours? You want to lecture us about the importance of peaceful protest, or remind us about how the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice? Oh, good. Go ahead, quote him. Pretend you have any rights to say MLK's name again, you hypocritical, cowardly bastards. Please. I'll be waiting. Do it. I DARE YOU.
posted by pretentious illiterate at 9:44 PM on February 7, 2017 [75 favorites]
The DOD is now negotiating with Trump to rent space in Trump Tower... so they can provide security for Trump when he's in NYC.
It's just gobsmacking.
posted by suelac at 9:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
It's just gobsmacking.
posted by suelac at 9:45 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Future Math Teacher: "Class, can anyone tell me the circumference of Christ's love?"
I wonder how far he's willing to go to punish leakers.
Metafilter is all about porn trailer taglines now.
posted by bongo_x at 9:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
I wonder how far he's willing to go to punish leakers.
Metafilter is all about porn trailer taglines now.
posted by bongo_x at 9:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [12 favorites]
I also wish I could tell you that you can send a free fax online. And I wish I could tell you that your free fax can be a PDF attachment. Further, I wish I could tell you that you can download Coretta Scott King's letter about Jeff Sessions as a PDF here.
I wish I could give you the protip that you should clip the PDF to the first three pages if you're using FaxZero to send a free fax to your elected representatives because it won't actually send otherwise.
posted by zachlipton at 9:54 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
I wish I could give you the protip that you should clip the PDF to the first three pages if you're using FaxZero to send a free fax to your elected representatives because it won't actually send otherwise.
posted by zachlipton at 9:54 PM on February 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Future Math Teacher: "Class, can anyone tell me the circumference of Christ's love?"
The constant to calculate the dimensions ofa circle that is now 3. And no longer depicted as Ï but đ
posted by porpoise at 9:54 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
The constant to calculate the dimensions of
posted by porpoise at 9:54 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Technically, the DOD is negotiating with Uday and Qusay, but, y'know. Impunity's a heck of a drug.
posted by holgate at 10:00 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by holgate at 10:00 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
When someone suggested Jon Stewart should run in 2020, I thought "unfortunately, he's, you know, Jewish, but do you know anybody would be more demographically perfect than Stephen Colbert? He wouldn't likely quit his show, but if he's still stuck at #2 behind Fallon long enough, maybe CBS would let him go..." Well, not anymore. Trump is doing wonders for Colbert's ratings. (Related: remember when the CEO of CBS said Trump was "bad for America but good for our network"?)
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:05 PM on February 7, 2017 [6 favorites]
Trump is doing wonders for Colbert's ratings.
When I think of how this must make my Trump-lite former boss at a Sinclair-owned CBS station feel it's like a wonderful warm blanket for my soul. Oh I do hope he's just choking on those ratings, winning so much he's sick of winning.
posted by jason_steakums at 10:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
When I think of how this must make my Trump-lite former boss at a Sinclair-owned CBS station feel it's like a wonderful warm blanket for my soul. Oh I do hope he's just choking on those ratings, winning so much he's sick of winning.
posted by jason_steakums at 10:12 PM on February 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Thanks heaps for this AceRock! Ive posted it on my social media stuff. đ
posted by supercrayon at 10:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by supercrayon at 10:21 PM on February 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
> I wish I could give you the protip that you should clip the PDF to the first three pages if you're using FaxZero to send a free fax to your elected representatives because it won't actually send otherwise.
I wish I could tell you that you could also download the PDF, change the layout settings to 4 pages/sheet, print back out to a PDF file so that the whole thing fits in the 3-sheet limit, and faxzero that.
posted by Westringia F. at 10:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
I wish I could tell you that you could also download the PDF, change the layout settings to 4 pages/sheet, print back out to a PDF file so that the whole thing fits in the 3-sheet limit, and faxzero that.
posted by Westringia F. at 10:27 PM on February 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
> I wonder how far he's willing to go to punish leakers.
I don't doubt he would go All The Way, whatever that is, but since his staff can't even find the fucking light switches in the West Wing [real], if I were on staff and talking to the press, I wouldn't be all that worried.
posted by rtha at 10:53 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
I don't doubt he would go All The Way, whatever that is, but since his staff can't even find the fucking light switches in the West Wing [real], if I were on staff and talking to the press, I wouldn't be all that worried.
posted by rtha at 10:53 PM on February 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
> For nearly three decades she has devoted her time, her talent, and her treasure
This was way upthread, but "time, talent, and treasure" are the three pillars of the Catholic concept of stewardship, the idea (as I dimly recall it; I left the church ages ago) that parishioners should cultivate and share their resources with the congregation by, e.g., volunteering, participating in Masses, and of course donating.
So just in case Pence's letter wasn't horrifying enough, he's implying that gutting what's left of the American education system is God's work. In other words, he's framed the long, proud, Catholic tradition of throwing children to the wolves as service to God.
Scumbag.
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 10:54 PM on February 7, 2017 [27 favorites]
This was way upthread, but "time, talent, and treasure" are the three pillars of the Catholic concept of stewardship, the idea (as I dimly recall it; I left the church ages ago) that parishioners should cultivate and share their resources with the congregation by, e.g., volunteering, participating in Masses, and of course donating.
So just in case Pence's letter wasn't horrifying enough, he's implying that gutting what's left of the American education system is God's work. In other words, he's framed the long, proud, Catholic tradition of throwing children to the wolves as service to God.
Scumbag.
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 10:54 PM on February 7, 2017 [27 favorites]
More on the President's poor information gathering processes: Pres. Trump: 'I haven't had one call' complaining about Dakota pipeline. "I don't even think it was controversial.
posted by zachlipton at 11:00 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 11:00 PM on February 7, 2017 [28 favorites]
This is, of course, the same guy who disconnected the White House comment line, so you literally can't call and complain.
posted by zachlipton at 11:01 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 11:01 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
It's actually a gas pipeline for all the gaslighting.
posted by holgate at 11:17 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
posted by holgate at 11:17 PM on February 7, 2017 [21 favorites]
Looks like Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) has succeeded in reading the Coretta Scott King letter on the Senate floor.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 11:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [64 favorites]
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 11:52 PM on February 7, 2017 [64 favorites]
Because man not woman.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:36 AM on February 8, 2017 [33 favorites]
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:36 AM on February 8, 2017 [33 favorites]
posted by fullerine at 12:38 AM on February 8, 2017 [23 favorites]
The fact that they're letting other Senators read from the CSK letter shows that the GOP just wanted to silence a popular and vocal woman who was standing up for something. Now that their mission is accomplished they kick back and relax. They are cowards of the first order. I despise the current Republicans with an unending well of vitriol. They are small, in every sense of the word.
posted by supercrayon at 12:43 AM on February 8, 2017 [76 favorites]
posted by supercrayon at 12:43 AM on February 8, 2017 [76 favorites]
Who's Afraid Of Elizabeth Warren?
posted by E. Whitehall at 1:21 AM on February 8, 2017 [36 favorites]
posted by E. Whitehall at 1:21 AM on February 8, 2017 [36 favorites]
More on the President's poor information gathering processes: Pres. Trump: 'I haven't had one call' complaining about Dakota pipeline. "I don't even think it was controversial.
He's an obsessive consumer of news. Mainly about himself but other stuff leaks in. Of course he knows how controversial it is & of course the WH switchboards have been overloaded with many of the calls about DAPL. This is exactly what narcissistic gaslighting is. He's setting himself up as the only legitimate source of news & telling DAPL activists they're invisible, not real. Things will be real, events will have happened, because he says so. Or they will be false & they never happened at all, again because he says so.
posted by scalefree at 1:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [49 favorites]
He's an obsessive consumer of news. Mainly about himself but other stuff leaks in. Of course he knows how controversial it is & of course the WH switchboards have been overloaded with many of the calls about DAPL. This is exactly what narcissistic gaslighting is. He's setting himself up as the only legitimate source of news & telling DAPL activists they're invisible, not real. Things will be real, events will have happened, because he says so. Or they will be false & they never happened at all, again because he says so.
posted by scalefree at 1:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [49 favorites]
Who's Afraid Of Elizabeth Warren?
Small, small men.
posted by mikelieman at 2:28 AM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]
Small, small men.
posted by mikelieman at 2:28 AM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]
Reading the words of a strong woman once married to a strong man who wasn't afraid of her strength. The question of who represents the best of America when comparing McConnell silencing senators for criticising nominees and the Kings is, to be kind, not that hard a question.
posted by jaduncan at 2:54 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by jaduncan at 2:54 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
...and McConnell against the Kings is an almost Trump-on-Khan like ability to pick terrible optics.
posted by jaduncan at 3:02 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by jaduncan at 3:02 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
On research, this Reddit comment appears to be largely true:
"This is part of the reason my hatred for McConnell burns extra hot: he had polio when he was a kid. Know how he got better? By entering a taxpayer-funded physical therapy inpatient program that had been part of the New Deal.
He (along with his mother) spent over two years of his life on the taxpayer's dime, in a hospital, getting round-the-clock health care and rehabilitation from polio.
And now he wants to make sure that thousands upon thousands of people will die every year, needlessly, for lack of health coverage and care - because why?
Because fuck you, Mitch McConnell got his, that's why."
Rolling Stone on this: "Not surprisingly, I had the museum entirely to myself. I learned that McConnell contracted polio at age two, recovering only after years of therapy at a hospital founded by FDR"
Well, golly. Frankly, going on to fight against widespread healthcare for others is genuinely a tragically massive moral failure.
posted by jaduncan at 3:24 AM on February 8, 2017 [130 favorites]
"This is part of the reason my hatred for McConnell burns extra hot: he had polio when he was a kid. Know how he got better? By entering a taxpayer-funded physical therapy inpatient program that had been part of the New Deal.
He (along with his mother) spent over two years of his life on the taxpayer's dime, in a hospital, getting round-the-clock health care and rehabilitation from polio.
And now he wants to make sure that thousands upon thousands of people will die every year, needlessly, for lack of health coverage and care - because why?
Because fuck you, Mitch McConnell got his, that's why."
Rolling Stone on this: "Not surprisingly, I had the museum entirely to myself. I learned that McConnell contracted polio at age two, recovering only after years of therapy at a hospital founded by FDR"
Well, golly. Frankly, going on to fight against widespread healthcare for others is genuinely a tragically massive moral failure.
posted by jaduncan at 3:24 AM on February 8, 2017 [130 favorites]
I have zero idea where this is coming from, but Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC is really smart and knows his stuff. O'Donnell is reporting that Trump had George Will fired from Fox News.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:28 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:28 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
A wild stab in the dark here: I'm going to guess that it comes from George Will, who is currently almost certainly under NDA.
...and eh heh, on looking at Lawrence O'Donnell's account, some relatively harsh trolling:
Lawrence O'Donnell â@Lawrence Jan 11
If Trump gets dementia, how will we know?
posted by jaduncan at 3:42 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
...and eh heh, on looking at Lawrence O'Donnell's account, some relatively harsh trolling:
Lawrence O'Donnell â@Lawrence Jan 11
If Trump gets dementia, how will we know?
posted by jaduncan at 3:42 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
No offense to T.D. Strange, but the "how to tell if you are in a constitutional crisis" article is garbage. It goes on and on defining what is a constitutional crisis and how we are not in one, then winds up with this line:
You can tell if you are in a constitutional crisis when politicians stop saying that they will comply with the law, with judicial orders, or with the Constitution.
Is this not exactly what Trump is saying, albeit in his word salad way where people can pretend that is not what is being said?
posted by winna at 3:52 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
You can tell if you are in a constitutional crisis when politicians stop saying that they will comply with the law, with judicial orders, or with the Constitution.
Is this not exactly what Trump is saying, albeit in his word salad way where people can pretend that is not what is being said?
posted by winna at 3:52 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
I think he's railed against the judiciary, called them names, and insulted their rulings but hasn't asked for the orders to be ignored yet.
With the better part of four years to go, there's still time.
posted by Slackermagee at 4:04 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
With the better part of four years to go, there's still time.
posted by Slackermagee at 4:04 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I think he's railed against the judiciary, called them names, and insulted their rulings but hasn't asked for the orders to be ignored yet.
With the better part of four years to go, there's still time.
There is. Let's not forget that we've already had a claim that a judge shouldn't be allowed to rule on Trump University because they were overly brown and had a Mexican sounding name. It came awfully close.
posted by jaduncan at 4:13 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
With the better part of four years to go, there's still time.
There is. Let's not forget that we've already had a claim that a judge shouldn't be allowed to rule on Trump University because they were overly brown and had a Mexican sounding name. It came awfully close.
posted by jaduncan at 4:13 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Gah.
What's the timeframe for this guy getting impeached? or 25th Amendment-ed? It's once the R congress-jerks get all the shit they want, right? I'll assume Trump doesn't know that and so he'll want to push everything through high away, to show how great he is.
Four months?
Is that bearable? It's amazingly painful. If I could have a wish, it would be for Ryan and McConnel to get just what they deserve. Listening to the garbage the pair of them spew, their absolute disinterest in rational honest speech is nauseating.
You want to think the best of people and damn if they don't turn around time and time again and show themselves to be fucking assholes. It's like dealing with someone with a debilitating addiction - they can't help themselves and so you try to be reasonable, but christ is it tedious as hell.
posted by From Bklyn at 4:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
What's the timeframe for this guy getting impeached? or 25th Amendment-ed? It's once the R congress-jerks get all the shit they want, right? I'll assume Trump doesn't know that and so he'll want to push everything through high away, to show how great he is.
Four months?
Is that bearable? It's amazingly painful. If I could have a wish, it would be for Ryan and McConnel to get just what they deserve. Listening to the garbage the pair of them spew, their absolute disinterest in rational honest speech is nauseating.
You want to think the best of people and damn if they don't turn around time and time again and show themselves to be fucking assholes. It's like dealing with someone with a debilitating addiction - they can't help themselves and so you try to be reasonable, but christ is it tedious as hell.
posted by From Bklyn at 4:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Aww, couldn't happen to a nicer fascist collaborator.
Ivanka Trumpâs fashion line hits eBay and bargain bins
"These days, weâll take our slivers of good news wherever we can get them. Last weekâs report that both Nordstrom and Nieman-Marcus were dumping Ivanka Trumpâs fashion and jewelry lines certainly fell into that category, even as Nordstrom said the companyâs decision was not politically related, but due to poor sales as American consumers run screaming from the Trump brand. This week, enjoy some more sweet schadenfreude, as the first daughterâs (sorry, Tiffany) fashion line has now been reduced to bargain-basement prices. The Hollywood Reporterâs Pret-A-Reporter hunted down some Ivanka-wear at discount stores like Marshalls and TJ Maxx:
Ivanka Trumpâs fashion line hits eBay and bargain bins
"These days, weâll take our slivers of good news wherever we can get them. Last weekâs report that both Nordstrom and Nieman-Marcus were dumping Ivanka Trumpâs fashion and jewelry lines certainly fell into that category, even as Nordstrom said the companyâs decision was not politically related, but due to poor sales as American consumers run screaming from the Trump brand. This week, enjoy some more sweet schadenfreude, as the first daughterâs (sorry, Tiffany) fashion line has now been reduced to bargain-basement prices. The Hollywood Reporterâs Pret-A-Reporter hunted down some Ivanka-wear at discount stores like Marshalls and TJ Maxx:
At Saks Off Fifth, the brandâs merchandise was selling at 49 percent off, with a black lace peplum top for $39.99, an ivory ruffled sweater for $44.99 and a sleeveless black dress with gold hardware detail for $69.99. There wasnât any signage advertising the Trump brand. In fact, the clothing was hanging under a sign that read Calvin Klein."posted by chris24 at 4:33 AM on February 8, 2017 [17 favorites]
and McConnell against the Kings is an almost Trump-on-Khan like ability to pick terrible optics.
Yeah, how'd that work out for Trump?
Remember that a substantial portion of the Republican base revel in being awful to women and minorities and that unless enough people can be motivated to vote in elections, they're going to keep dominating politics.
posted by Candleman at 4:34 AM on February 8, 2017 [19 favorites]
Yeah, how'd that work out for Trump?
Remember that a substantial portion of the Republican base revel in being awful to women and minorities and that unless enough people can be motivated to vote in elections, they're going to keep dominating politics.
posted by Candleman at 4:34 AM on February 8, 2017 [19 favorites]
Why are so many susceptible to fake news? It's both a poor education (theory and practice) in reasoning
And exactly HOW are you supposed to use "reason" if the video you see has a pull quote and a voiceover that frames the pullquote one way and yet the full video shows a different version of the story?
Where was the "failure of reason" or poor education WRT the "fake news" for the Iraq fighting by Bush the Second? Was it the straight up "trust" people placed in "the news"?
posted by rough ashlar at 4:41 AM on February 8, 2017
And exactly HOW are you supposed to use "reason" if the video you see has a pull quote and a voiceover that frames the pullquote one way and yet the full video shows a different version of the story?
Where was the "failure of reason" or poor education WRT the "fake news" for the Iraq fighting by Bush the Second? Was it the straight up "trust" people placed in "the news"?
posted by rough ashlar at 4:41 AM on February 8, 2017
On McConnell and polio - y'know, his experience there may indeed be what is fuelling his opposition to public health support, in a weird way. Yeah, his life was saved by two years of treatment in a polio hospital when he was two, but - he was two, and isn't going to remember it that way. He is probably going to remember it as "that place where stern nurses did things to hurt me when I was little" and that is probably influencing his opinion of the place.
Then again, literally exactly the same thing happened to Alan Alda, and he didn't turn anti-public health, so who knows.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:47 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
Then again, literally exactly the same thing happened to Alan Alda, and he didn't turn anti-public health, so who knows.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:47 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
Yeah but McConnell was "hard working poor" as opposed to, you know, "inner city poor".
posted by SyraCarol at 4:58 AM on February 8, 2017 [18 favorites]
posted by SyraCarol at 4:58 AM on February 8, 2017 [18 favorites]
Then again, literally exactly the same thing happened to Alan Alda, and he didn't turn anti-public health, so who knows.
Same thing happened to Paul Ryan, who got social security for two years after his dad died when he was 16 and which paid for his college education.
posted by PenDevil at 5:01 AM on February 8, 2017 [19 favorites]
Same thing happened to Paul Ryan, who got social security for two years after his dad died when he was 16 and which paid for his college education.
posted by PenDevil at 5:01 AM on February 8, 2017 [19 favorites]
Gah.
What's the timeframe for this guy getting impeached? or 25th Amendment-ed? It's once the R congress-jerks get all the shit they want, right? I'll assume Trump doesn't know that and so he'll want to push everything through high away, to show how great he is.
Four months?
Is that bearable?
Don't be in such a hurry to frog-march the country into Gilead and the enveloping arms of the Princeof Peace Pence.
This is only a good idea if and when the House or Senate can be retaken. If it happens sooner than that, out of the frying pan and into the blast furnace.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
What's the timeframe for this guy getting impeached? or 25th Amendment-ed? It's once the R congress-jerks get all the shit they want, right? I'll assume Trump doesn't know that and so he'll want to push everything through high away, to show how great he is.
Four months?
Is that bearable?
Don't be in such a hurry to frog-march the country into Gilead and the enveloping arms of the Prince
This is only a good idea if and when the House or Senate can be retaken. If it happens sooner than that, out of the frying pan and into the blast furnace.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Like, seriously, is it repressed shame from needing the safety net? Or just straight-up racism / classism that makes these pricks want to tear apart the very institutions that helped them get where they are?
posted by uncleozzy at 5:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by uncleozzy at 5:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
McConnell's polio story is akin to Ryan's Social Security story, both men had experiences that could have shaped their philosophies and made them empathetic to the idea that government can help people but I suspect they would not have become Republicans in that case.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:08 AM on February 8, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:08 AM on February 8, 2017 [16 favorites]
Like, seriously, is it repressed shame from needing the safety net? Or just straight-up racism / classism that makes these pricks want to tear apart the very institutions that helped them get where they are?
whynotboth.jpg + greed.png
posted by lalochezia at 5:08 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Where was the "failure of reason" or poor education WRT the "fake news" for the Iraq fighting by Bush the Second?
Colin Powell being given wrong information in bad faith to present at the UN is a little different than WWW.TIMESCHRONICLEREPORTER.MK
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:12 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Colin Powell being given wrong information in bad faith to present at the UN is a little different than WWW.TIMESCHRONICLEREPORTER.MK
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:12 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Don't be in such a hurry to frog-march the country into Gilead and the enveloping arms of the Prince of Peace Pence. This is only a good idea if and when the House or Senate can be retaken. If it happens sooner than that, out of the frying pan and into the blast furnace.
Speaking of into the blast furnace, the current president has the power to destroy civilization and maybe 3/4 of humanity if he feels SNL was too mean to him. Do you think Pence is more likely to do this?
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:12 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Speaking of into the blast furnace, the current president has the power to destroy civilization and maybe 3/4 of humanity if he feels SNL was too mean to him. Do you think Pence is more likely to do this?
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:12 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
I think it's "Boy, rich people's welfare is way nicer than poor people's welfare and so now I adopt the ideology of the side my bread's buttered on, because that's what matters right now."
posted by Rykey at 5:13 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Rykey at 5:13 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Sean Spicer makes up Atlanta Islamist attack [real]
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 5:15 AM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 5:15 AM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
Do you think Pence is more likely to do this?
Trump is more likely to want to launch a nuke for stupid reasons, and be prevented. But, sadly, Pence is equally likely to provoke a serious global crisis for ideological reasons (though possibly different ones) and is less likely to be restrained as a fucking crazy person.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:15 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Trump is more likely to want to launch a nuke for stupid reasons, and be prevented. But, sadly, Pence is equally likely to provoke a serious global crisis for ideological reasons (though possibly different ones) and is less likely to be restrained as a fucking crazy person.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:15 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
He's tweeting: I will be speaking at 9:00 A.M. today to Police Chiefs and Sheriffs and will be discussing the horrible, dangerous and wrong decision.......
Guess we have to wait 12 minutes for him to finish that thought. I'm struck by his adjectives, though, and how much he tries to prepare the reader that the court decision is "wrong" because it is "horrible" and "dangerous." He doesn't attempt to explain why it is wrong he just signals that it is wrong because it is horrible. The sophistry of a 5 year old. Sadly, that is the appeal to his fans.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:18 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
Guess we have to wait 12 minutes for him to finish that thought. I'm struck by his adjectives, though, and how much he tries to prepare the reader that the court decision is "wrong" because it is "horrible" and "dangerous." He doesn't attempt to explain why it is wrong he just signals that it is wrong because it is horrible. The sophistry of a 5 year old. Sadly, that is the appeal to his fans.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:18 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
Guys, I woke up thinking about the Elizabeth Warren thing, and how it was such an absurd fucking choice. I kept thinking, why would they do that? I mean, despite being evil fools. And then I had this thought, which is basically: I've seen the right continually try so hard to drag Hillary back into debates, because misogynistic hatred is what powers their base, and gets them up in the morning. They need a woman to hate for their political playbook to work.
And Elizabeth Warren has in many ways the same profile as Hillary: she's a older, moral, political woman who reminds people of their moms. And so I bet the Republicans are fucking slavering to have her emerge as the front runner and the face of the opposition, because they've mastered the art of weaponizing misogyny. Her getting silenced is the front page banner headline on Fox News right now. They want her out in front, because getting their base to rally around hating a particular kind of woman is the strategy that works for them.
posted by pretentious illiterate at 5:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [99 favorites]
And Elizabeth Warren has in many ways the same profile as Hillary: she's a older, moral, political woman who reminds people of their moms. And so I bet the Republicans are fucking slavering to have her emerge as the front runner and the face of the opposition, because they've mastered the art of weaponizing misogyny. Her getting silenced is the front page banner headline on Fox News right now. They want her out in front, because getting their base to rally around hating a particular kind of woman is the strategy that works for them.
posted by pretentious illiterate at 5:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [99 favorites]
Sean Spicer makes up Atlanta Islamist attack [real]
No, really. If the executive branch is getting away with repeatedly flat-out violating 18 USC 1001, what the hell are we supposed to do? Is our only hope in career civil servants "throwing the match" like last night until this is all over?
posted by mikelieman at 5:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
No, really. If the executive branch is getting away with repeatedly flat-out violating 18 USC 1001, what the hell are we supposed to do? Is our only hope in career civil servants "throwing the match" like last night until this is all over?
posted by mikelieman at 5:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
JoAnn Wise, who worked for Hardee's for 21 years: Andrew Puzder will be a disaster for workers. I know: He was for me.
In 1984, I was hired as a cashier at Hardeeâs in Columbia, S.C., making $4.25 an hour. By 2005, 21 years later, my pay was only at $8 an hour. Thatâs a $3.75 raise for a lifetime of work. Adjusted for inflation, itâs only a 2-cent raise.posted by Rustic Etruscan at 5:23 AM on February 8, 2017 [41 favorites]
Andrew Puzder, the chief executive since 2000 of CKE â which owns Hardeeâs, Carlâs Jr., and other fast-food companies â is now in line to become the countryâs next labor secretary. The headlines ponder what this may mean for working people in America, but I already know.
I already know what Trump/Puzder economics look like because Iâm living it every day. Despite giving everything I had to Puzderâs company for 21 years, I left without a penny of savings, with no health care and no pension. Now, while I live in poverty, Trump, who promised to fix the rigged economy, has chosen for labor secretary someone who wants to rig it up even more. Heâs chosen the chief executive of a company who recently made more than $10 million in a year, while Iâm scraping by on Supplemental Security payments.
Trump is more likely to want to launch a nuke for stupid reasons, and be prevented. But, sadly, Pence is [...] less likely to be restrained as a fucking crazy person.
According to protocol and pretty much every expert asked, nobody can prevent it or restrain him. You're depending on Mattis essentially pulling off a military coup to keep him from pushing the button. Pence wants Gilead but he is stupid, would have even less of a mandate from voters, and would have a popularity further suppressed by having T's stink still on him. He's a problem to be dealt with after the day-to-day survival of humanity is no longer in question.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:23 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
According to protocol and pretty much every expert asked, nobody can prevent it or restrain him. You're depending on Mattis essentially pulling off a military coup to keep him from pushing the button. Pence wants Gilead but he is stupid, would have even less of a mandate from voters, and would have a popularity further suppressed by having T's stink still on him. He's a problem to be dealt with after the day-to-day survival of humanity is no longer in question.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:23 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
US considers asking visa applicants their social media passwords
Because it's totally not possible to have more than one set of social media accounts for different purposes...
Stupid on so many levels..
posted by Buntix at 5:25 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Because it's totally not possible to have more than one set of social media accounts for different purposes...
Stupid on so many levels..
posted by Buntix at 5:25 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
According to protocol and pretty much everybody you ask, nobody can prevent it or restrain him.
I try to take whatever small comfort there may be in the fact that the Secret Service agents standing around haven't taken an oath to Donald J. Trump.
posted by mikelieman at 5:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
I try to take whatever small comfort there may be in the fact that the Secret Service agents standing around haven't taken an oath to Donald J. Trump.
posted by mikelieman at 5:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
According to protocol and pretty much everybody you ask, nobody can prevent it or restrain him. You're depending on Mattis essentially pulling off a military coup to keep him from pushing the button.
This is true in the way that he could also order any old conventional strike he wants to, or order someone in uniform to shoot somebody in the head. Trump can't operate the 'football' himself, so, yes, I am depending on people not to follow patently crazy and illegal orders to destroy the world in the theoretical 'SNL insult' scenario. Come on.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:27 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
This is true in the way that he could also order any old conventional strike he wants to, or order someone in uniform to shoot somebody in the head. Trump can't operate the 'football' himself, so, yes, I am depending on people not to follow patently crazy and illegal orders to destroy the world in the theoretical 'SNL insult' scenario. Come on.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:27 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Trump can't operate the 'football' himself, so, yes, I am depending on people not to follow patently crazy and illegal orders to destroy the world in the theoretical 'SNL insult' scenario. Come on.
Why? I don't have faith in a couple people selected by the regime whose job is to do exactly what they're told.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:28 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
Why? I don't have faith in a couple people selected by the regime whose job is to do exactly what they're told.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:28 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
porpoise: Why are so many susceptible to fake news? It's both a poor education (theory and practice) in reasoning and also - maybe more effective - the habit of not caring anymore.All the people I know who have been eaten alive by fake news are college-educated. That's not real dataâPew indicates that education was a good predictor of voting D, especially among whitesâbut I think there's more to it than being "too dumb to know better."
My pet theory is that it's social signaling: "yes, we all know it's not true but we say these things to signal what tribe we're in." This starts by your friends saying they're pro-Trump or anti-Hilary; next, in order to stay part of the in-group (and avoid angry confrontations), you agree with Trump over some dumb fib that doesn't matter (like inauguration size); eventually, after a few rounds of this (escalating a little every time), either Trump is the One True Source of Truth or else you need new friends. Getting new friends is hard, and accepting cognitive dissonance is harder, and so people slowly become anesthetized to the sheer stupidity of it all.
If that's trueâand I'm not sure it is, it's is just a theoryâthen the only way to break people out of this bubble is by befriending them and slowly and gently melting the bubble. But that's hard, takes a lot of time, and won't fix the current mess we're in.
posted by ragtag at 5:32 AM on February 8, 2017 [21 favorites]
Trump can't operate the 'football' himself, so, yes, I am depending on people not to follow patently crazy and illegal orders to destroy the world in the theoretical 'SNL insult' scenario. Come on.
Why? I don't have faith in a couple people selected by the regime whose job is to do exactly what they're told.
None of those people are personally loyal to Trump unto ragnarok. They are there to feather their nests, and even Bannon can't do that if he's vaporized. They want to win, not die. They're looters and tyrants, not martyrs. The 'SNL' scenario is not serious. He's completely unqualified to handle an actual nuclear confrontation between great powers, and he's unlikely to be the same restraint on the use of tactical nukes in a regional crises that previous Presidents have needed to be, but those are different dangers.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:38 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Why? I don't have faith in a couple people selected by the regime whose job is to do exactly what they're told.
None of those people are personally loyal to Trump unto ragnarok. They are there to feather their nests, and even Bannon can't do that if he's vaporized. They want to win, not die. They're looters and tyrants, not martyrs. The 'SNL' scenario is not serious. He's completely unqualified to handle an actual nuclear confrontation between great powers, and he's unlikely to be the same restraint on the use of tactical nukes in a regional crises that previous Presidents have needed to be, but those are different dangers.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:38 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Because it's totally not possible to have more than one set of social media accounts for different purposes...
Stupid on so many levels..
The other day I had a conversation about this with a couple of older men. I said this exact thing. This idea is so dumb because people can have more then one account. People can have accounts not with their real names.
They honestly didn't seem to know or realize that people could or would want to have more then one account. I told them that I have three Twitter accounts and they thought this was amazing. When I told them that I have 8 email accounts they were astounded.
These aren't overall dumb people or people that are computer adverse but they have what may seem odd ideas about computer and the web. Recently I've been helping people with computer issues and coaching on how social media works and is used. The different ways that people who are super experienced view it, and the web has been quite fascinating.
posted by Jalliah at 5:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Stupid on so many levels..
The other day I had a conversation about this with a couple of older men. I said this exact thing. This idea is so dumb because people can have more then one account. People can have accounts not with their real names.
They honestly didn't seem to know or realize that people could or would want to have more then one account. I told them that I have three Twitter accounts and they thought this was amazing. When I told them that I have 8 email accounts they were astounded.
These aren't overall dumb people or people that are computer adverse but they have what may seem odd ideas about computer and the web. Recently I've been helping people with computer issues and coaching on how social media works and is used. The different ways that people who are super experienced view it, and the web has been quite fascinating.
posted by Jalliah at 5:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
I think the fake news thing with well-educated and/or otherwise intelligent people preys on personal mythologies. If you believe something that no one else believes you could be a) wrong or b) so brilliant and insightful and in on secret knowledge that you're actually the smartest, canniest of them all. Lefties aren't immune to it either, but there's much less of an institutional support-system for nurturing and spreading it.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:40 AM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:40 AM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
so brilliant and insightful and in on secret knowledge that you're actually the smartest, canniest of them all
Yeah, but how fucking stupid do you have to be to actually believe that? I'm not saying that people don't, because they sure do, but they're not smart people. Educated maybe. But not intelligent.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:42 AM on February 8, 2017
Yeah, but how fucking stupid do you have to be to actually believe that? I'm not saying that people don't, because they sure do, but they're not smart people. Educated maybe. But not intelligent.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:42 AM on February 8, 2017
I am depending on people not to follow patently crazy and illegal orders to destroy the world in the theoretical 'SNL insult' scenario
They're not illegal.
You're counting on people to violate the law and tell the sitting president to his face (almost certainly in the presence of multiple aides or assistants) that they will not obey a direct order to carry out the *one* act they were hired to perform. That person's job is the nuclear football, and you're expecting them to say no.
That's the setup for a Milgram experiment. That's almost too cruel for a Milgram experiment.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 5:43 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
They're not illegal.
You're counting on people to violate the law and tell the sitting president to his face (almost certainly in the presence of multiple aides or assistants) that they will not obey a direct order to carry out the *one* act they were hired to perform. That person's job is the nuclear football, and you're expecting them to say no.
That's the setup for a Milgram experiment. That's almost too cruel for a Milgram experiment.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 5:43 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
That's the setup for a Milgram experiment. That's almost too cruel for a Milgram experiment.
No, it's not. This is turning into the dumbest, most hyperbolic internet argument ever and I have real work to do resisting the actual dangers of this administration today that doesn't involve the idea that Trump will be permitted to launch ICBMs because he's in a shitty mood.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:45 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
No, it's not. This is turning into the dumbest, most hyperbolic internet argument ever and I have real work to do resisting the actual dangers of this administration today that doesn't involve the idea that Trump will be permitted to launch ICBMs because he's in a shitty mood.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:45 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
No, really. If the executive branch is getting away with repeatedly flat-out violating 18 USC 1001, what the hell are we supposed to do?
As I've been lead to believe:
Before 1946 Federal Grand Juries were approachable by citizens. But in '46 the rules became the Grand Jury was only reachable via the DOJ staffers/"official channels".
What happened in 1946 I can only guess at if the above is true but this makes sense: Blacks had time on the troop ships to talk to others, heard about Grand Juries and decided to approach them WRT civil rights. And officialdom decided to shut down the path of directly going to a Grand Jury.
Some states allow the state grand jury to act on their own effort. It won't help with federal 18 USC 1001 but odds are someone, someplace is breaking a state law.
posted by rough ashlar at 5:47 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
As I've been lead to believe:
Before 1946 Federal Grand Juries were approachable by citizens. But in '46 the rules became the Grand Jury was only reachable via the DOJ staffers/"official channels".
What happened in 1946 I can only guess at if the above is true but this makes sense: Blacks had time on the troop ships to talk to others, heard about Grand Juries and decided to approach them WRT civil rights. And officialdom decided to shut down the path of directly going to a Grand Jury.
Some states allow the state grand jury to act on their own effort. It won't help with federal 18 USC 1001 but odds are someone, someplace is breaking a state law.
posted by rough ashlar at 5:47 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
This is turning into the dumbest, most hyperbolic internet argument ever and I have real work to do resisting the actual dangers of this administration today that doesn't involve the idea that Trump will be permitted to launch ICBMs because he's in a shitty mood.
Dude we've almost had WW3 several (at least) times over random glitches and errors and scares and irrational officers. That's without having a maliciously insane person at the helm. You don't need a ridiculous SNL scenario for the birds to fly.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:48 AM on February 8, 2017 [31 favorites]
Dude we've almost had WW3 several (at least) times over random glitches and errors and scares and irrational officers. That's without having a maliciously insane person at the helm. You don't need a ridiculous SNL scenario for the birds to fly.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:48 AM on February 8, 2017 [31 favorites]
It won't help with federal 18 USC 1001 but odds are someone, someplace is breaking a state law.
hmmm... DJT is a resident of NY, right?
posted by mikelieman at 5:49 AM on February 8, 2017
hmmm... DJT is a resident of NY, right?
posted by mikelieman at 5:49 AM on February 8, 2017
You don't need a ridiculous SNL scenario for the birds to fly.
Quite right -- those are the scenarios worth worrying about. Not this ridiculous personal insult stuff.
Now, the malicious insanity is very terrifying in an actual crisis, and the thin skin become relevant there too.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:50 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Quite right -- those are the scenarios worth worrying about. Not this ridiculous personal insult stuff.
Now, the malicious insanity is very terrifying in an actual crisis, and the thin skin become relevant there too.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:50 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
uncleozzy: Yeah, but how fucking stupid do you have to be to actually believe that? I'm not saying that people don't, because they sure do, but they're not smart people. Educated maybe. But not intelligent.That's not about intelligence, it's about hubris. You can be very intelligent and still be hubristic enough to make Zeus blush.
I actually like soren_lorenson's theory. It's consistent with my observations.
posted by ragtag at 5:50 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Quite right -- those are the scenarios worth worrying about. Not this ridiculous personal insult stuff.
My point is that such a ridiculous scenario is one million times more likely under this administration, and so are the less ridiculous ones. A man who doesn't really understand that he isn't the only person on earth and who has never faced consequences for his actions is currently holding a gun to all our heads. Pence would not be worse.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
My point is that such a ridiculous scenario is one million times more likely under this administration, and so are the less ridiculous ones. A man who doesn't really understand that he isn't the only person on earth and who has never faced consequences for his actions is currently holding a gun to all our heads. Pence would not be worse.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Eh, I'm of the opinion that real intelligence and overblown hubris are incompatible, but ... it's really an unnecessary derail so I'm going to drop it and concentrate on telling Mitch McConnell to fuck himself.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by uncleozzy at 5:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Getting new friends is hard, and accepting cognitive dissonance is harder, and so people slowly become anesthetized to the sheer stupidity of it all.I get a little nervous when I read comments like this.
Lefties aren't immune to it either, but there's much less of an institutional support-system for nurturing and spreading it
Yeah, but how fucking stupid do you have to be to actually believe that?
I actually like soren_lorenson's theory. It's consistent with my observations.
Is it just me?
How would you know if you were in a bubble?
posted by fullerine at 5:54 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
People (let's be real: mostly dudes) with heroic self-mythologies scare the crap out of me, tbh. They'll do anything to prove to themselves that they really are what they think they are, or else their whole house of cards crumbles. It's something I have weird empathic radar about when I meet it in the wild. It doesn't always lead to conspiracy theories and doomsday prepping, but it's not a rare occurrence.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:56 AM on February 8, 2017 [27 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:56 AM on February 8, 2017 [27 favorites]
How would you know if you were in a bubble?
I feel comfortable saying that if 100 reputable, commercial news sources, and all available primary sources say one thing, and 1 Facebook meme says something completely different, the former is not the bubble.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:59 AM on February 8, 2017 [48 favorites]
A man who doesn't really understand that he isn't the only person on earth and who has never faced consequences for his actions is currently holding a gun to all our heads. Pence would not be worse.
I don't think he'd be much better on the nuclear front, and I think he might be more likely to provoke great power confrontations that could result in nuclear standoffs because he literally sees the world as a clash of civilizations & religions where Trump sees conflicting financial and power interests. A significant portion of Pence's base thinks a nuclear war in Israel is the prelude to the rapture, FFS. Or however that insanity is supposed to go.
And if you really want to get into micro-analysis of the Trumpian psyche (shudder) there's some evidence that his feelings about nukes are more ambivalent.
Meanwhile, Pence with this Congress is an immediate danger to women and LGBTQ, and, frankly, to non-Christians in a way that's hard to overestimate and does not require Strangelovian prognostication.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:02 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I don't think he'd be much better on the nuclear front, and I think he might be more likely to provoke great power confrontations that could result in nuclear standoffs because he literally sees the world as a clash of civilizations & religions where Trump sees conflicting financial and power interests. A significant portion of Pence's base thinks a nuclear war in Israel is the prelude to the rapture, FFS. Or however that insanity is supposed to go.
And if you really want to get into micro-analysis of the Trumpian psyche (shudder) there's some evidence that his feelings about nukes are more ambivalent.
Meanwhile, Pence with this Congress is an immediate danger to women and LGBTQ, and, frankly, to non-Christians in a way that's hard to overestimate and does not require Strangelovian prognostication.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:02 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
How can Obama smile at a time like this? I think he knows something [Guardian]
posted by slipthought at 6:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by slipthought at 6:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
I swear to God these "maybe there's a secret hope only Obama knows that will Save Us All" thinkpieces are going to drive me mad.
posted by corb at 6:10 AM on February 8, 2017 [63 favorites]
posted by corb at 6:10 AM on February 8, 2017 [63 favorites]
How can Obama smile at a time like this? [Guardian]
because he's totally baked bruh
posted by entropicamericana at 6:11 AM on February 8, 2017 [60 favorites]
because he's totally baked bruh
posted by entropicamericana at 6:11 AM on February 8, 2017 [60 favorites]
"maybe there's a secret hope only Obama knows that will Save Us All"
If I remember how this goes, we're supposed to visit him in Palm Springs, and he'll tell us which young Democrat needs to be taken to learn mind tricks from James Carville in the swamp.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:12 AM on February 8, 2017 [28 favorites]
If I remember how this goes, we're supposed to visit him in Palm Springs, and he'll tell us which young Democrat needs to be taken to learn mind tricks from James Carville in the swamp.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:12 AM on February 8, 2017 [28 favorites]
I really see no upside to "Obama photographed smiling so everything's OK guys" stories even on the tiny chance that they might be right. What good can they do? What does it encourage in the reader other than squatting in the unproductive denial/bargaining/acceptance stages of grief?
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:15 AM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:15 AM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
I found the phrase operating a deep-fryer at a Captain D's sufficiently evocative even without context, thanks.
posted by MrVisible at 6:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by MrVisible at 6:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
Captain D's is a lower midwest thing. My family used to eat there when I was a kid and we visited the Indiana relatives. On the whole, it's not at all bad - better than Long John Silver's, anyway.
I think we may just have to fight Trump as hard as ever we can for four years and hope that constant, serious pushback can keep him to one term. Everyone hates him except the gerrymandered base, and it will take time for them to turn - some of them will stay loyal but a lot of them will waver when this administration inevitably breaks the economy and the knock-on effects of budget cuts become clearer.
It seems like we in bluer areas really need to fund organizing in redder areas - not just the big names like the ACLU, etc, but more targeted stuff.
posted by Frowner at 6:23 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
I think we may just have to fight Trump as hard as ever we can for four years and hope that constant, serious pushback can keep him to one term. Everyone hates him except the gerrymandered base, and it will take time for them to turn - some of them will stay loyal but a lot of them will waver when this administration inevitably breaks the economy and the knock-on effects of budget cuts become clearer.
It seems like we in bluer areas really need to fund organizing in redder areas - not just the big names like the ACLU, etc, but more targeted stuff.
posted by Frowner at 6:23 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
Apologies, but my Personal Posting Assistant has just informed me that Captain D's may be just a lower midwest/south thing, feel free to substitute Taco John's or something as necessary
anything where the server has to wear a paper pirate hat will do
posted by thelonius at 6:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
anything where the server has to wear a paper pirate hat will do
posted by thelonius at 6:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
Video: Trump: âIf these judges wanted to, in my opinion, help the court in terms of respect for the court, theyâd do what they should be doingâ
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:30 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:30 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
A thing I didn't know: Trump bought (and lost) Khashoggi's ship.
A Short History of the Trump Family (LRB so a fairly long value of short).
posted by Buntix at 6:31 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
A Short History of the Trump Family (LRB so a fairly long value of short).
The notion of a Trump literature begins, appropriately, with an imaginary novel, 1999: Casinos of the Third Reich, contrived by Kurt Andersen, an editor at Spy, a New York magazine of the 1980s and 1990s. Over several months in late 1989 and early 1990, Andersen kept referring to the non-existent Casinos of the Third Reich and its implausible protagonist, Donald Trump, whose narcissistic exhibitionism offered a never-ending source of unintentional self-satire. âWhoâs my toughest competitor â if not in content, only in style?â he asked. âPrince Charles,â he answered. âIâm thinking of becoming an entertainer,â he also said. âLiza Minnelli gets $75,000 a night to sing, and Iâm really curious as to how I would do.â âYes,â Andersen wrote, âin the blockbuster 1999: Casinos of the Third Reich, itâs nobleman-lounge singer Donald Trump!â Andersen simply quoted Trump, referred to Casinos of the Third Reich and sat back. Trump did all the work. The fabulous novel had no plot and the protagonistâs character didnât develop â just like in real life.The more I learn about him, the more I get the feeling he may be a bit of a "bad" "dude".
posted by Buntix at 6:31 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
I think he [Pence] might be more likely to provoke great power confrontations that could result in nuclear standoffs because he literally sees the world as a clash of civilizations & religions
Right now things said and done by Trump can get handwaved as, well, whatever label you want.
Pence - less so.
posted by rough ashlar at 6:32 AM on February 8, 2017
Right now things said and done by Trump can get handwaved as, well, whatever label you want.
Pence - less so.
posted by rough ashlar at 6:32 AM on February 8, 2017
Greg Nog said Taco John's and now this former Midwesterner loves him even more. (Once IRL I asked him from behind if he was a friend of Matt Howie, and he said yes without even turning around first.)
Just handed out flyers from the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs in NYC at my subway stop for a while. It was my first time flyering, and I'd say I leveled up from nothing to at least laughing at how bad I was. Took some flyers with me in Arabic for when I'm in a majority Arab-immigrant neighborhood later today. Anyway, the bubble of being in a sanctuary city and getting to say, "The mayor's office has information for you if you are an immigrant, if you know an immigrant," was nice. "New York City wants you healthy, happy, and safe. Information on legal rights for immigrants. Health care, pre-k, anti-discrimination. We are a city of immigrants. The City of New York is with you."
So now I'm off to tutor some people for the citizenship interview. Sometimes I help recent immigrants with resumes for job hunts. It all does feel like a slog, but a slog in the right direction. Hope this makes someone feel even mildly encouraged. Y'all encourage me.
posted by lauranesson at 6:32 AM on February 8, 2017 [33 favorites]
Just handed out flyers from the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs in NYC at my subway stop for a while. It was my first time flyering, and I'd say I leveled up from nothing to at least laughing at how bad I was. Took some flyers with me in Arabic for when I'm in a majority Arab-immigrant neighborhood later today. Anyway, the bubble of being in a sanctuary city and getting to say, "The mayor's office has information for you if you are an immigrant, if you know an immigrant," was nice. "New York City wants you healthy, happy, and safe. Information on legal rights for immigrants. Health care, pre-k, anti-discrimination. We are a city of immigrants. The City of New York is with you."
So now I'm off to tutor some people for the citizenship interview. Sometimes I help recent immigrants with resumes for job hunts. It all does feel like a slog, but a slog in the right direction. Hope this makes someone feel even mildly encouraged. Y'all encourage me.
posted by lauranesson at 6:32 AM on February 8, 2017 [33 favorites]
53% of Republicans donât know repealing Obamacare repeals the Medicaid expansion
Some of them will figure it out and start voting accordingly but that depends on whether people start to die because of this by '18 or '20.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:33 AM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
Some of them will figure it out and start voting accordingly but that depends on whether people start to die because of this by '18 or '20.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:33 AM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
question for folklore/fantasy people: in fiction or legend, has there ever been an equally evil anthropomorphic turtle?
I'm disappointed that nobody remembered the true king of all evil turtles, Bowser Koopa.
âHear me! I will kidnap Peach OVER and OVER until I pull it off! And no one can stop me! Losing is not an option! And neither is giving up!â
At least he really loves his kids.
posted by Servo5678 at 6:36 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
I'm disappointed that nobody remembered the true king of all evil turtles, Bowser Koopa.
âHear me! I will kidnap Peach OVER and OVER until I pull it off! And no one can stop me! Losing is not an option! And neither is giving up!â
At least he really loves his kids.
posted by Servo5678 at 6:36 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
How can Obama smile at a time like this?
Because for the first time in eight years, it's somebody else's problem?
posted by dinty_moore at 6:37 AM on February 8, 2017 [39 favorites]
Because for the first time in eight years, it's somebody else's problem?
posted by dinty_moore at 6:37 AM on February 8, 2017 [39 favorites]
Q: Tell us, DEVO -- What should we make of Betsy DeVos?
A: Betsy will make sure that the poor remain uninformed and without hope.
-- Gerald V. Casale
posted by Capt. Renault at 6:38 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
A: Betsy will make sure that the poor remain uninformed and without hope.
-- Gerald V. Casale
posted by Capt. Renault at 6:38 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
Oh my God. Haughey. Matt Haughey. Usernames, man.
posted by lauranesson at 6:38 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by lauranesson at 6:38 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
The IDEAâthe Individuals with Disabilities Education Act landing page, http://idea.ed.gov, is down this morning. @usedgov's parent IDEA page is still up. (cite)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:41 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:41 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
From the "Trump's Own Team Alarmed" article above,
For Americans who based their impression of Trump on the competent and decisive tycoon he portrayed on his âApprenticeâ TV reality shows, the portrait from these and many other tidbits emerging from his administration may seem a shock: an impulsive, sometimes petty chief executive more concerned with the adulation of the nation than the details of his own policies â and quick to assign blame when things do not go his way.
Read: NOT RIGHT
âIâve been in this town for 26 years. I have never seen anything like this,â said Eliot Cohen, a senior State Department official under President George W. Bush and a member of his National Security Council. âI genuinely do not think this is a mentally healthy president.â
SoS peep for Dubz sez "damn he's off". Arguably a plant by Team Jeb!, but it's not like the sentiment is wrong. Force Multiplier for the phrase "this town".
Small things can provide him great joy or generate intense irritation. Trump told The New York Times that heâs fascinated with the phone system inside the White House. At the same time, heâs registered a complaint about the hand towels aboard Air Force One, the White House aide said, because they are not soft enough.
While the "He's collecting jars of his own urine" story specifically has yet to emerge, let's all be clear that it's going to. It'd be super swell if he weren't President at that time.
posted by petebest at 6:42 AM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
For Americans who based their impression of Trump on the competent and decisive tycoon he portrayed on his âApprenticeâ TV reality shows, the portrait from these and many other tidbits emerging from his administration may seem a shock: an impulsive, sometimes petty chief executive more concerned with the adulation of the nation than the details of his own policies â and quick to assign blame when things do not go his way.
Read: NOT RIGHT
âIâve been in this town for 26 years. I have never seen anything like this,â said Eliot Cohen, a senior State Department official under President George W. Bush and a member of his National Security Council. âI genuinely do not think this is a mentally healthy president.â
SoS peep for Dubz sez "damn he's off". Arguably a plant by Team Jeb!, but it's not like the sentiment is wrong. Force Multiplier for the phrase "this town".
Small things can provide him great joy or generate intense irritation. Trump told The New York Times that heâs fascinated with the phone system inside the White House. At the same time, heâs registered a complaint about the hand towels aboard Air Force One, the White House aide said, because they are not soft enough.
While the "He's collecting jars of his own urine" story specifically has yet to emerge, let's all be clear that it's going to. It'd be super swell if he weren't President at that time.
posted by petebest at 6:42 AM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
You're counting on people to violate the law and tell the sitting president to his face (almost certainly in the presence of multiple aides or assistants) that they will not obey a direct order to carry out the *one* act they were hired to perform. That person's job is the nuclear football, and you're expecting them to say no.
During the election wasn't there an HRC TV ad with a current or former military person in charge of the football who said that Trump was so unhinged that, were he to serve under Trump, he would defy any nuclear orders? I didn't realize how much I was depending on that to be true.
But I see an Orangutan in a Humvee just got on I-10 in Santa Monica
"The 10." We just say "the 10."
posted by Room 641-A at 6:46 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
During the election wasn't there an HRC TV ad with a current or former military person in charge of the football who said that Trump was so unhinged that, were he to serve under Trump, he would defy any nuclear orders? I didn't realize how much I was depending on that to be true.
But I see an Orangutan in a Humvee just got on I-10 in Santa Monica
"The 10." We just say "the 10."
posted by Room 641-A at 6:46 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
How can Obama smile at a time like this?
One obtains that smile by repeating the mantra: Not my circus. Not my monkeys.
posted by Killick at 7:03 AM on February 8, 2017 [29 favorites]
One obtains that smile by repeating the mantra: Not my circus. Not my monkeys.
posted by Killick at 7:03 AM on February 8, 2017 [29 favorites]
One obtains that smile by repeating the mantra: Not my circus. Not my monkeys.
While I am sure that on some level Obama is relieved to be out of the office, I'm sure his smiles are those of the genuine joy of someone relaxing with his beloved family.
Obama has too much integrity and heart. This is crushing his soul.
posted by archimago at 7:10 AM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
While I am sure that on some level Obama is relieved to be out of the office, I'm sure his smiles are those of the genuine joy of someone relaxing with his beloved family.
Obama has too much integrity and heart. This is crushing his soul.
posted by archimago at 7:10 AM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
I wonder if George Clooney could be persuaded to take a more active role in Kentucky politics (since that's his home state). I also wonder if he's ever considered running for an office.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:12 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:12 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
During the election wasn't there an HRC TV ad with a current or former military person in charge of the football
He wasn't in charge of the football. He was key operator in silo. Two keys, inserted and turned by two key operators at the same time, are required to launch that silo's missiles (which are maintained in launch-ready status at all times.) He said he prayed every day he never got that order, and couldn't imagine going to work at that job with Trump as president.
I don't think Trump would launch missiles over an SNL parody (though I'm not sure he wouldn't resort to smaller scale violence.) But I think Bannon has convinced him that the world is embroiled already in a clash of civilizations, the "Judeo-Christian West" vs "radical islam." That "Islam a cancer"...(seriously it is shocking how often you see that phrase in the comments in Breitbart Facebook posts. It's the new "Jews are vermin." It's Nazi bullshit.) And that "radical Islamists" want to behead everyone who is not Muslim, and they are invading our country through our immigration process, and will impose "Sharia law" (ie, beheadings for all!) once their numbers are great enough. Bannon believes this, and through Breitbart has convinced a lot of other people, including Trump, and many Trump voters.
Bannon and Trump believe this danger must be stopped at all costs. Before "the Islamists" grow even stronger, and their numbers inside the US grow even larger.
So I absolutely believe Trump might resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack (if Bannon tells him to) in response to any kind of violence against Americans by Muslims, especially if it can be linked to a nuclear state like Pakistan or a nearly-nuclear state like Iran. I think this is a very realistic scenario, and I'm very worried about it.
I'm still holding out hope that the reason Obama is able to smile is because he knows that there is evidence on the Russia connection and knows that Republicans will be willing to release it and to impeach (they don't want to die in nuclear Armageddon either) once Trump's popularity drops low enough. That popularity does seem to be dropping pretty quickly...
posted by OnceUponATime at 7:14 AM on February 8, 2017 [16 favorites]
He wasn't in charge of the football. He was key operator in silo. Two keys, inserted and turned by two key operators at the same time, are required to launch that silo's missiles (which are maintained in launch-ready status at all times.) He said he prayed every day he never got that order, and couldn't imagine going to work at that job with Trump as president.
I don't think Trump would launch missiles over an SNL parody (though I'm not sure he wouldn't resort to smaller scale violence.) But I think Bannon has convinced him that the world is embroiled already in a clash of civilizations, the "Judeo-Christian West" vs "radical islam." That "Islam a cancer"...(seriously it is shocking how often you see that phrase in the comments in Breitbart Facebook posts. It's the new "Jews are vermin." It's Nazi bullshit.) And that "radical Islamists" want to behead everyone who is not Muslim, and they are invading our country through our immigration process, and will impose "Sharia law" (ie, beheadings for all!) once their numbers are great enough. Bannon believes this, and through Breitbart has convinced a lot of other people, including Trump, and many Trump voters.
Bannon and Trump believe this danger must be stopped at all costs. Before "the Islamists" grow even stronger, and their numbers inside the US grow even larger.
So I absolutely believe Trump might resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack (if Bannon tells him to) in response to any kind of violence against Americans by Muslims, especially if it can be linked to a nuclear state like Pakistan or a nearly-nuclear state like Iran. I think this is a very realistic scenario, and I'm very worried about it.
I'm still holding out hope that the reason Obama is able to smile is because he knows that there is evidence on the Russia connection and knows that Republicans will be willing to release it and to impeach (they don't want to die in nuclear Armageddon either) once Trump's popularity drops low enough. That popularity does seem to be dropping pretty quickly...
posted by OnceUponATime at 7:14 AM on February 8, 2017 [16 favorites]
The more I learn about him, the more I get the feeling he may be a bit of a "bad" "dude".
A lexical primer for Brits (and others): Bad âdudesâ and dumb deals â Trumpspeak decoded (Grauniad)
posted by Mister Bijou at 7:18 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
A lexical primer for Brits (and others): Bad âdudesâ and dumb deals â Trumpspeak decoded (Grauniad)
posted by Mister Bijou at 7:18 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
All the people I know who have been eaten alive by fake news are college-educated. That's not real dataâPew indicates that education was a good predictor of voting D, especially among whitesâbut I think there's more to it than being "too dumb to know better."
...
If that's trueâand I'm not sure it is, it's is just a theoryâthen the only way to break people out of this bubble is by befriending them and slowly and gently melting the bubble. But that's hard, takes a lot of time, and won't fix the current mess we're in.
I've tried/ am trying this. I've got a Trump-supporting friend on Facebook- a college buddy from back when we were in engineering together. It takes a *lot* of time. I'm not even sure I've gotten anywhere with him. He's got a certain caricature of progressives in his mind and it's very difficult to dispel, because his media environment is saturated with the nationalist currents of Breitbart et al. I had to take a break from FB (partially because he's on my posts like white on rice) but when I come back I need to decide how much I'm willing to put in to engaging with him.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:20 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
...
If that's trueâand I'm not sure it is, it's is just a theoryâthen the only way to break people out of this bubble is by befriending them and slowly and gently melting the bubble. But that's hard, takes a lot of time, and won't fix the current mess we're in.
I've tried/ am trying this. I've got a Trump-supporting friend on Facebook- a college buddy from back when we were in engineering together. It takes a *lot* of time. I'm not even sure I've gotten anywhere with him. He's got a certain caricature of progressives in his mind and it's very difficult to dispel, because his media environment is saturated with the nationalist currents of Breitbart et al. I had to take a break from FB (partially because he's on my posts like white on rice) but when I come back I need to decide how much I'm willing to put in to engaging with him.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:20 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
suelac: The DOD is now negotiating with Trump to rent space in Trump Tower... so they can provide security for Trump when he's in NYC.
It's just gobsmacking.
Well, _rump did say he'd make money off of his presidency, so he's true to his word, yet again. To be honest, this registers pretty low on my "evens" chart.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:20 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
It's just gobsmacking.
Well, _rump did say he'd make money off of his presidency, so he's true to his word, yet again. To be honest, this registers pretty low on my "evens" chart.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:20 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
All the people I know who have been eaten alive by fake news are college-educated. That's not real dataâPew indicates that education was a good predictor of voting D, especially among whitesâbut I think there's more to it than being "too dumb to know better."
"College-educated" and "too dumb to know better" have never been mutually exclusive.
posted by Etrigan at 7:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [19 favorites]
"College-educated" and "too dumb to know better" have never been mutually exclusive.
posted by Etrigan at 7:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [19 favorites]
From the Yemen Raid Had Secret Target: Al Qaeda Leader Qassim Al-Rimi article: After two months of military preparation increasingly focused on the opportunity to capture al-Rimi, Trump was told by Defense Secretary James Mattis and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that his capture would be a "game changer," according to a senior White House official with direct knowledge of the discussions.
In making their case, they told Trump that they doubted that the Obama administration would have been bold enough to try it, this official said.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:23 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
In making their case, they told Trump that they doubted that the Obama administration would have been bold enough to try it, this official said.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:23 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
How would you know if you were in a bubble?
Can you articulate and understand the arguments of a wide variety of viewpoints? Can you refute those views that you do not agree with without using simple labels such as evil or stupid?
DAPL supporters
Birth control deniers
White Supremacists
TPP proponents
School voucher supporters
White working class Trump voters
2nd amendment activists
Climate change deniers
Etc, etc.
Of course you should also understand the viewpoints of Women, POC, Muslims, Jews, Southerners, Westerners, Asians, Californians, Texans, non cis-gendered, non heterosexual, and others. I assume that you do since you are on MetaFilter and we have covered much of that ground on a daily basis since this site began.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:25 AM on February 8, 2017 [15 favorites]
Can you articulate and understand the arguments of a wide variety of viewpoints? Can you refute those views that you do not agree with without using simple labels such as evil or stupid?
DAPL supporters
Birth control deniers
White Supremacists
TPP proponents
School voucher supporters
White working class Trump voters
2nd amendment activists
Climate change deniers
Etc, etc.
Of course you should also understand the viewpoints of Women, POC, Muslims, Jews, Southerners, Westerners, Asians, Californians, Texans, non cis-gendered, non heterosexual, and others. I assume that you do since you are on MetaFilter and we have covered much of that ground on a daily basis since this site began.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:25 AM on February 8, 2017 [15 favorites]
OnceUponATime: I'm still holding out hope that the reason Obama is able to smile is because he knows that there is evidence on the Russia connection and knows that Republicans will be willing to release it and to impeach (they don't want to die in nuclear Armageddon either) once Trump's popularity drops low enough. That popularity does seem to be dropping pretty quickly...
I don't think his popularity has anything to do with it. The GOP is already complaining about the amount of public pushback, with congresscritters mocking constituents who take the time to call and voice their opposition, but I think financial/corporate responses will change their tune. Pull support from a politician, either current donations, future election support, or company presence in a city/ region/ state, and some will realize _rump only has so many cards to play. Being the bully in negotiations only works when the other party doesn't realize they can walk away from the table.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:27 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
I don't think his popularity has anything to do with it. The GOP is already complaining about the amount of public pushback, with congresscritters mocking constituents who take the time to call and voice their opposition, but I think financial/corporate responses will change their tune. Pull support from a politician, either current donations, future election support, or company presence in a city/ region/ state, and some will realize _rump only has so many cards to play. Being the bully in negotiations only works when the other party doesn't realize they can walk away from the table.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:27 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Republicans will be willing to release it and to impeach
lmao at the idea of Republicans ever breaking lockstop formation. you literally see more internal discord among the borg
posted by entropicamericana at 7:29 AM on February 8, 2017 [44 favorites]
lmao at the idea of Republicans ever breaking lockstop formation. you literally see more internal discord among the borg
posted by entropicamericana at 7:29 AM on February 8, 2017 [44 favorites]
Make Trump enough of an albatross around their necks and Congressional Republicans will move in lockstep to get away from him as far and as fast as possible.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:32 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:32 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Trump was told by Defense Secretary James Mattis and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that his capture would be a "game changer," according to a senior White House official with direct knowledge of the discussions.
In making their case, they told Trump that they doubted that the Obama administration would have been bold enough to try it, this official said.
"bold" = reckless and stupid and disregarding of the value of innocent human lives
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:33 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
In making their case, they told Trump that they doubted that the Obama administration would have been bold enough to try it, this official said.
"bold" = reckless and stupid and disregarding of the value of innocent human lives
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:33 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
jaduncan: This is part of the reason my hatred for McConnell burns extra hot: he had polio when he was a kid. Know how he got better? By entering a taxpayer-funded physical therapy inpatient program that had been part of the New Deal.
Talez: Democrats are threatening to hold up a qualified Supreme Court nominee for one reason: to hurt Donald Trump. By SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL
posted by filthy light thief at 7:34 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Talez: Democrats are threatening to hold up a qualified Supreme Court nominee for one reason: to hurt Donald Trump. By SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL
So why would Democrats contemplate doing something so radical and out of the mainstream now â against a superbly qualified judge Democrats didnât raise objections to before, a man Democrats have praised many times since?McConnell is clearly immune from self-reflection, guilt over being a fucking hypocrite, has a terrible memory, or some combination of all three. But that's not so rare for conservative stalwarts. Rand did collect Social Security and Medicare, and got a free education at the University of Petrograd in the Soviet Union, a newly-minted communist state. But "that's where she was in history, so it's not on her to reject such systems. Don't hate the player, hate the game!!1!"
Turns out, much of the opposition weâre seeing from far left groups and Democratic senators isnât really about Judge Gorsuch at all. Itâs about President Donald Trump.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:34 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Well, for those of you who prefer a more dismal view, how's this?
"Protests didnât hurt Reagan, and theyâre not going to stop Trump; Low approval ratings and public outcry can work in favor of outsider politicians." [WaPo]
posted by slipthought at 7:34 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
"Protests didnât hurt Reagan, and theyâre not going to stop Trump; Low approval ratings and public outcry can work in favor of outsider politicians." [WaPo]
posted by slipthought at 7:34 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Anyway, holding out hope for the REAL Russian Dossier that fixes Trump once and for all is a terrible way to end the movie.
posted by notyou at 7:34 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by notyou at 7:34 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
In making their case, they told Trump that they doubted that the Obama administration would have been bold enough to try it, this official said.
So you're saying that the President of the United States approved a military operation because someone was going "bawk bawk bawkbawkbawk" under their breath in the background.
posted by Etrigan at 7:35 AM on February 8, 2017 [35 favorites]
So you're saying that the President of the United States approved a military operation because someone was going "bawk bawk bawkbawkbawk" under their breath in the background.
posted by Etrigan at 7:35 AM on February 8, 2017 [35 favorites]
Make Trump enough of an albatross around their necks and Congressional Republicans will move in lockstep to get away from him as far and as fast as possible.
wish in one hand, shit in another. see which one fills up first.
posted by entropicamericana at 7:36 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
wish in one hand, shit in another. see which one fills up first.
posted by entropicamericana at 7:36 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
soren_lorensen: Make Trump enough of an albatross around their necks and Congressional Republicans will move in lockstep to get away from him as far and as fast as possible.
slipthought: "Protests didnât hurt Reagan, and theyâre not going to stop Trump; Low approval ratings and public outcry can work in favor of outsider politicians."
Related: Trump already has socked away more than $7 million for his 2020 reelection (Washington Post, January 31, 2017) -- thanks largely to small donors who continue to pour in financial support after his election, and this is a figure that has undoubtedly grown since in response to a slew of emails hawking inaugural merchandise and other solicitations.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:37 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
slipthought: "Protests didnât hurt Reagan, and theyâre not going to stop Trump; Low approval ratings and public outcry can work in favor of outsider politicians."
Related: Trump already has socked away more than $7 million for his 2020 reelection (Washington Post, January 31, 2017) -- thanks largely to small donors who continue to pour in financial support after his election, and this is a figure that has undoubtedly grown since in response to a slew of emails hawking inaugural merchandise and other solicitations.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:37 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
So you're saying that the President of the United States approved a military operation because someone was going "bawk bawk bawkbawkbawk" under their breath in the background.
Are you surprised? This is literally the least surprising thing I've heard in the past 24 hours.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:37 AM on February 8, 2017 [19 favorites]
Are you surprised? This is literally the least surprising thing I've heard in the past 24 hours.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:37 AM on February 8, 2017 [19 favorites]
Counterpoint on Reagan vs _rump regarding protests - Reagan had a fairly high approval rating, with initial job approval ratings as high as 60% by mid-March 1981 -- _rump has none of that, his inauguration attendance was outmatched by the protests that followed.
And the dissent for _rump is far and wide, which seems like part of the plan, to a degree. Divide and conquer, or that was the plan.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:41 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
And the dissent for _rump is far and wide, which seems like part of the plan, to a degree. Divide and conquer, or that was the plan.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:41 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
"Low approval ratings and public outcry can work in favor of outsider politicians."
That's fine. I have nothing against outsiders, per se. Obama was largely seen as an outsider, and he ran on a change platform. I'd just prefer my outsiders to not be chaotic evil in orientation.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:43 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
That's fine. I have nothing against outsiders, per se. Obama was largely seen as an outsider, and he ran on a change platform. I'd just prefer my outsiders to not be chaotic evil in orientation.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:43 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
> Make Trump enough of an albatross around their necks and Congressional Republicans will move in lockstep to get away from him as far and as fast as possible.
Heather Digby Parton, 2006: Political Religion
I am not saying for certain that the political calculus is the same in 2017 as it was in 2006, but I think Digby's logic has been vindicated. GWB is never mentioned -- they still always go back to Reagan (!) or even Lincoln (!!!) when waxing poetic about the virtues of True Conservatism (tm).
In this case, though, they don't even have to put up much of a fuss about it. Trump is absolutely a Republican to the core when it comes to bigotry, tax cuts for the wealthy, and a "don't care" on other issues that Congressional Republicans care about, but there is still a perception out there that he's not a dyed-in-the-wool Conservative (tm), so it seems likely to me that they will continue to get away with deflecting blame for Trump's failures away from the ideology. It won't work on most of the people reading here, and it might not work that well on independents, but that still leaves a very high floor for them to build on. Trump's personal approval rating is in the shitter already and may soon hit Cheney-esque levels, but approval of the GOP brand is unlikely to suffer because of it.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:43 AM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
Heather Digby Parton, 2006: Political Religion
George W Bush has won two elections with the unquestioning support of conservatives. In his first term he made it quite obvious that he was not a conservative in any sense that I understood conservative. From out of control spending to federalizing education to nation building and messianic foreign policy, he has simply not been conservative by any common definition of the term. None of that stopped conservatives from virtually worshipping the man. It is only now that he has become unpopular and his policies are failing that his brand of conservatism is being criticized on the right. And he's being criticized for being(My emphasis.)
George W. Bush will not achieve a place in the Republican pantheon. Conservatism cannot fail, it can only be failed. (And a conservative can only fail because he is too liberal.) [...]
In one way both parties share the same religion: an all-American obsession with winning. In this I actually envy the right. When they fail, as everyone inevitably does at times, they don't lose their faith. Indeed, failure actually reinforces it.
Liberals, on the other hand, have nothing like that. We hate our leaders for failing us. It's a personal thing --- as if we are in a bad marriage and we have lost all respect for our partners. But then that's how most Americans are these days. You are a winner or a loser and nobody wants to be associated with a loser. The Republicans are smart enough to rid themselves of failure by always being able to convince themselves that the failure had nothing to do with their belief system. It must be very nice to live in a world in which you can never, ever be wrong.
I am not saying for certain that the political calculus is the same in 2017 as it was in 2006, but I think Digby's logic has been vindicated. GWB is never mentioned -- they still always go back to Reagan (!) or even Lincoln (!!!) when waxing poetic about the virtues of True Conservatism (tm).
In this case, though, they don't even have to put up much of a fuss about it. Trump is absolutely a Republican to the core when it comes to bigotry, tax cuts for the wealthy, and a "don't care" on other issues that Congressional Republicans care about, but there is still a perception out there that he's not a dyed-in-the-wool Conservative (tm), so it seems likely to me that they will continue to get away with deflecting blame for Trump's failures away from the ideology. It won't work on most of the people reading here, and it might not work that well on independents, but that still leaves a very high floor for them to build on. Trump's personal approval rating is in the shitter already and may soon hit Cheney-esque levels, but approval of the GOP brand is unlikely to suffer because of it.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:43 AM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
53% of Republicans donât know repealing Obamacare repeals the Medicaid expansion ... What happens when they find out?
Nothing. More than 53% of Republicans live in Republican states that already refused the Medicaid expansion so why would they care if its repealed? And its a program for the poorest. They will be delighted for the tax cut.
posted by JackFlash at 7:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Nothing. More than 53% of Republicans live in Republican states that already refused the Medicaid expansion so why would they care if its repealed? And its a program for the poorest. They will be delighted for the tax cut.
posted by JackFlash at 7:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
For Trump, everything is about the appearance of strength and manliness and clearly Mattis (I thought he was supposed to be the checks and balances oh never mind) has him figured out.
Now, someone please tell him that Obama never had the guts to resign.
posted by lydhre at 7:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [18 favorites]
Now, someone please tell him that Obama never had the guts to resign.
posted by lydhre at 7:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [18 favorites]
Asked to speculate about what "next big dystopian" novel would become popular, Margaret Atwood suggest it could be a serialized fictionalization of current events.
Atwood says a story like that would boost newspaper sales, "employ fiction writers and follow the situation while it's unfolding â while you're still allowed to read!"posted by paper chromatographologist at 7:46 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
I wonder if George Clooney could be persuaded to take a more active role in Kentucky politics (since that's his home state). I also wonder if he's ever considered running for an office.
His father, Nick Clooney, ran for Congress in 2004 and was soundly beat. Ashley Judd put out a couple trial balloons for a McConnell challenge a few years ago and was mocked in tv attack ads when she wasn't even a candidate. In both cases there was a strong Hillbillies vs Hollywood vibe in the opposition.
I can't see George Clooney considering it worth his while unless Republicans start polling really badly here. Given the fact that they just retook the House (giving them total control of state government for the first time in decades) and the Kentucky Democratic Party is broke and fighting amongst themselves, it's just not happening any time soon.
posted by chaoticgood at 7:47 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
His father, Nick Clooney, ran for Congress in 2004 and was soundly beat. Ashley Judd put out a couple trial balloons for a McConnell challenge a few years ago and was mocked in tv attack ads when she wasn't even a candidate. In both cases there was a strong Hillbillies vs Hollywood vibe in the opposition.
I can't see George Clooney considering it worth his while unless Republicans start polling really badly here. Given the fact that they just retook the House (giving them total control of state government for the first time in decades) and the Kentucky Democratic Party is broke and fighting amongst themselves, it's just not happening any time soon.
posted by chaoticgood at 7:47 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
I wonder if George Clooney could be persuaded to take a more active role in Kentucky politics (since that's his home state). I also wonder if he's ever considered running for an office.
STORY TIME!
Now, I have had almost no celebrity encounters in my life, but one of the few that I have had is George Clooney. First of all, so for those that may not know, the Clooneys may be big in Hollywood, but they hail from Kentucky. George's dad Nick is (or at least used to be) pretty famous in the state for his work in broadcasting. In 2004, Nick ran as a Democrat for the 4th Congressional District, and naturally there were fundraisers, including one in DC. At the time, my dad was working for a union that had endorsed Clooney, and he was invited along with my mom and I to one hosted by none other than George himself. First things first: I can say for sure that the Cloons is an absolute delight in person, even more gregarious and charming than he is in something like Ocean's 11. Second, the dude is smart and is definitely interested in politics. At the time I met him, he was either filming or had just wrapped up filming Syriana, but I was apparently the only one at this shindig who brought it up, and he seemed really jazzed that I mentioned it. It was obvious even just from the several minutes we conversed that he was serious about the subject matter, and that his family was no stranger to wanting to get involved in politics.
Unfortunately, Nick lost the race, and has apparently said he's not going to get back into politics. I'm pretty sure that bummed George out a lot, so I could see how he might be dissuaded from it. On the other hand, his dad didn't get involved until he was nearly 70, so I can see an older and more grizzled George stepping up to a political position.
posted by zombieflanders at 7:49 AM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
STORY TIME!
Now, I have had almost no celebrity encounters in my life, but one of the few that I have had is George Clooney. First of all, so for those that may not know, the Clooneys may be big in Hollywood, but they hail from Kentucky. George's dad Nick is (or at least used to be) pretty famous in the state for his work in broadcasting. In 2004, Nick ran as a Democrat for the 4th Congressional District, and naturally there were fundraisers, including one in DC. At the time, my dad was working for a union that had endorsed Clooney, and he was invited along with my mom and I to one hosted by none other than George himself. First things first: I can say for sure that the Cloons is an absolute delight in person, even more gregarious and charming than he is in something like Ocean's 11. Second, the dude is smart and is definitely interested in politics. At the time I met him, he was either filming or had just wrapped up filming Syriana, but I was apparently the only one at this shindig who brought it up, and he seemed really jazzed that I mentioned it. It was obvious even just from the several minutes we conversed that he was serious about the subject matter, and that his family was no stranger to wanting to get involved in politics.
Unfortunately, Nick lost the race, and has apparently said he's not going to get back into politics. I'm pretty sure that bummed George out a lot, so I could see how he might be dissuaded from it. On the other hand, his dad didn't get involved until he was nearly 70, so I can see an older and more grizzled George stepping up to a political position.
posted by zombieflanders at 7:49 AM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
Trump was told by Defense Secretary James Mattis and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that his capture would be a "game changer," according to a senior White House official with direct knowledge of the discussions.
In making their case, they [Mattis] told Trump that they doubted that the Obama administration would have been bold enough to try it, this official said.
"bold" = reckless and stupid and disregarding of\
Tell me again why it was such a good idea to overturn the law requiring civilian control of the military because Mattis would be a moderating factor against an impetuous Trump.
Yeah. Bullshit like it always was.
posted by JackFlash at 7:50 AM on February 8, 2017 [18 favorites]
In making their case, they [Mattis] told Trump that they doubted that the Obama administration would have been bold enough to try it, this official said.
"bold" = reckless and stupid and disregarding of\
Tell me again why it was such a good idea to overturn the law requiring civilian control of the military because Mattis would be a moderating factor against an impetuous Trump.
Yeah. Bullshit like it always was.
posted by JackFlash at 7:50 AM on February 8, 2017 [18 favorites]
Make Trump enough of an albatross around their necks and Congressional Republicans will move in lockstep to get away from him as far and as fast as possible.
wish in one hand, shit in another. see which one fills up first.
Running people against the Republicans/Democrats is at least 2ish year away threat, with some of these people secure for 6ish years.
So start thinking about how to fight in ways that are not expected.
A movement to amend the Constitution to effect how the parties operate can be started tomorrow AND it is a fight the power structure has not had to deal with for decades.
Same with going to local courts/local DAs with "I have reason to believe and do believe that the crime of X has been committed." Remember - some crimes are punishable if you don't report them. Sometimes your license requires you to report. "Your honor - if I wanted to keep my job I HAD to report this....."
And "the system" is not at all used to claims by the executive that the courts are lacking legitimacy. Imagine court watchers trying to toss Judges under the bus while saying "Inspired by the claims of Trump, I came to see if it is true the Courts are corrupt." Heck "The people of BLM claim a lack of justice - I came to the court to see." What the hell are the national party flacks gonna do once word comes up from the bottom that local Judges are at risk?
posted by rough ashlar at 7:51 AM on February 8, 2017
wish in one hand, shit in another. see which one fills up first.
Running people against the Republicans/Democrats is at least 2ish year away threat, with some of these people secure for 6ish years.
So start thinking about how to fight in ways that are not expected.
A movement to amend the Constitution to effect how the parties operate can be started tomorrow AND it is a fight the power structure has not had to deal with for decades.
Same with going to local courts/local DAs with "I have reason to believe and do believe that the crime of X has been committed." Remember - some crimes are punishable if you don't report them. Sometimes your license requires you to report. "Your honor - if I wanted to keep my job I HAD to report this....."
And "the system" is not at all used to claims by the executive that the courts are lacking legitimacy. Imagine court watchers trying to toss Judges under the bus while saying "Inspired by the claims of Trump, I came to see if it is true the Courts are corrupt." Heck "The people of BLM claim a lack of justice - I came to the court to see." What the hell are the national party flacks gonna do once word comes up from the bottom that local Judges are at risk?
posted by rough ashlar at 7:51 AM on February 8, 2017
"Protests didnât hurt Reagan, and theyâre not going to stop Trump; Low approval ratings and public outcry can work in favor of outsider politicians."
So to all those people more in danger than this writer of facing disenfranchisment/deportation/torture/loss-of-healthcare/death-in-the-gutter, he's saying: "protesting won't help, disapproval of the voters won't help, mass outrage and political movements won't help, the president will be widely idolized in 30 years, just hang out I guess LOL."
Know who says that? An asshole who is privileged. A privileged asshole.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:52 AM on February 8, 2017 [40 favorites]
So to all those people more in danger than this writer of facing disenfranchisment/deportation/torture/loss-of-healthcare/death-in-the-gutter, he's saying: "protesting won't help, disapproval of the voters won't help, mass outrage and political movements won't help, the president will be widely idolized in 30 years, just hang out I guess LOL."
Know who says that? An asshole who is privileged. A privileged asshole.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:52 AM on February 8, 2017 [40 favorites]
You all need to listen to everything I write here on Metafilter because I understand things, I comprehend very well, OK? Better than, I think, almost anybody.
posted by Jalliah at 7:52 AM on February 8, 2017 [18 favorites]
I'm fairly certain that ACT-UP declaring war on the Reagan (and then the Bush) administration hurt his reputation, deeply.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:54 AM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:54 AM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
What the hell are the national party flacks gonna do once word comes up from the bottom that local Judges are at risk?
Pop all the champagne corks they can find, in the case of the Republican Party. Haven't you been paying attention? The leader of their party just said that the entire judiciary is at fault if anything bad happens. How many of them have risen in revolt? Four, five? How many of those have voted against anything in retaliation?
posted by Etrigan at 7:54 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Pop all the champagne corks they can find, in the case of the Republican Party. Haven't you been paying attention? The leader of their party just said that the entire judiciary is at fault if anything bad happens. How many of them have risen in revolt? Four, five? How many of those have voted against anything in retaliation?
posted by Etrigan at 7:54 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
I know words. I have the best words.
posted by Jalliah at 7:54 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Jalliah at 7:54 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Running people against the Republicans/Democrats is at least 2ish year away threat, with some of these people secure for 6ish years.
Midterms are less than two years away -- the victors will be in their seats by then. The campaigns need to up and running in a matter of months.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:56 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Midterms are less than two years away -- the victors will be in their seats by then. The campaigns need to up and running in a matter of months.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:56 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
GQ Magazine video: @GQMagazine
Presenting @SeanSpicer's alternative ABCs
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:57 AM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
Presenting @SeanSpicer's alternative ABCs
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:57 AM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
Oh, c'mon!
@realdonaldtrump: My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
posted by diogenes at 7:58 AM on February 8, 2017 [30 favorites]
@realdonaldtrump: My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
posted by diogenes at 7:58 AM on February 8, 2017 [30 favorites]
I've tried/ am trying this. I've got a Trump-supporting friend on Facebook- a college buddy from back when we were in engineering together. It takes a *lot* of time.
We probably have the same friend.
I've just taken to replying to crap FB postings with "nah." No explanation or anything, just "nah."
It's great, because I can't reach the ignorant, and really, I'm not interested in trying. I just need for others to see, and hopefully, reach them that also do. Then perhaps, they won't feel so alone.
Also, it's a real time saver. They type up paragaphs and hunt for links, and I just say "nah." and go on about my day.
Why should I work so hard to convince them ? They're the crazy one.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 7:58 AM on February 8, 2017 [19 favorites]
We probably have the same friend.
I've just taken to replying to crap FB postings with "nah." No explanation or anything, just "nah."
It's great, because I can't reach the ignorant, and really, I'm not interested in trying. I just need for others to see, and hopefully, reach them that also do. Then perhaps, they won't feel so alone.
Also, it's a real time saver. They type up paragaphs and hunt for links, and I just say "nah." and go on about my day.
Why should I work so hard to convince them ? They're the crazy one.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 7:58 AM on February 8, 2017 [19 favorites]
Congratulations to Mr. Spicer for having to defend the attack on Nordstrom today.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:01 AM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:01 AM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
I wish I could tell you that you can fax Mitch McConnell at his D.C. office at (202) 224-2499
FaxZero keeps track of which senators are sent the most faxes using their service. Looks like a lot of people had the same idea: Mitch McConnell has been faxed over 2,000 times in the past 24 hours.
posted by AceRock at 8:02 AM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
FaxZero keeps track of which senators are sent the most faxes using their service. Looks like a lot of people had the same idea: Mitch McConnell has been faxed over 2,000 times in the past 24 hours.
posted by AceRock at 8:02 AM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
Bklyn What's the timeframe for this guy getting impeached? or 25th Amendment-ed? It's once the R congress-jerks get all the shit they want, right?
Nope, it's never.
Trump has a fairly significant bloc of voters who are personally loyal to him more than to Republicanism in general, and the Republicans are still terrified at the memory of the Tea Party. There is no way, no how, not ever, that the Republicans will vote to impeach Trump, or invoke the 25th Amendment, or in any way at all significantly impede him because they (possibly correctly) believe he can ruin their political careers with a word. Belief to the contrary is simply wishful thinking.
Chanel your energy not into wishes, but into activism. And by "activism" I mean getting with your local Democratic party to register voters, get people to the polls, get people ID so they can vote, and otherwise prepare first for the 2017 elections (win locally and it's easier to win nationally), and then in 2018.
We're basically fucked for the next two years, all we can do is support damage control in the Courts and (maybe, until they nuke the filibuster) Senate.
Winning locally in 2017 will make damage control easier, Trump can issue all the orders he wants but they have to be carried out locally.
Then we have to, **MUST**, in at least one house of Congress in 2018. Neither will be easy, the House is gerrymandered all to hell, and in the Senate many more Democrats are up for reelection that cycle than Republicans. Both are possible, but the House seems to be the most likely path for victory, though of course we try both.
This will take a renewal of Dean's 50 State Strategy. Even in races we know damn well we can't win, we must run someone simply to spread the Republicans thinner, to force them to expend resources in fights they think are guaranteed, and most importantly to invigorate the Democratic base. If no Democrats are running in your district, the motivation to get out and vote purely for statewide office is lower.
We must also focus as hard as we can on retaking state governments. Again: all of Trump's orders must be carried out by local officials. If those local officials are Democrats his orders will fail. Therefore flipping state governments to the Democrats is essential, especially with redistricting coming up in 2020. We **MUST** end the gerrymandering of the House.
Our only hope is institutional inertia for two years until at least one branch of Congress can be retaken.
Then we keep focused, keep active, and oust his sorry orange ass in 2020. Because, unless he gets bored and quits, he is 100% guaranteed to be in office come 2020 no matter what insane shit he pulls. If tomorrow he nukes Tehran and literally says on national TV he did it for fun he'll still be in office in 2020 because even that won't be enough to motivate the Republicans to oust him.
posted by sotonohito at 8:04 AM on February 8, 2017 [47 favorites]
Nope, it's never.
Trump has a fairly significant bloc of voters who are personally loyal to him more than to Republicanism in general, and the Republicans are still terrified at the memory of the Tea Party. There is no way, no how, not ever, that the Republicans will vote to impeach Trump, or invoke the 25th Amendment, or in any way at all significantly impede him because they (possibly correctly) believe he can ruin their political careers with a word. Belief to the contrary is simply wishful thinking.
Chanel your energy not into wishes, but into activism. And by "activism" I mean getting with your local Democratic party to register voters, get people to the polls, get people ID so they can vote, and otherwise prepare first for the 2017 elections (win locally and it's easier to win nationally), and then in 2018.
We're basically fucked for the next two years, all we can do is support damage control in the Courts and (maybe, until they nuke the filibuster) Senate.
Winning locally in 2017 will make damage control easier, Trump can issue all the orders he wants but they have to be carried out locally.
Then we have to, **MUST**, in at least one house of Congress in 2018. Neither will be easy, the House is gerrymandered all to hell, and in the Senate many more Democrats are up for reelection that cycle than Republicans. Both are possible, but the House seems to be the most likely path for victory, though of course we try both.
This will take a renewal of Dean's 50 State Strategy. Even in races we know damn well we can't win, we must run someone simply to spread the Republicans thinner, to force them to expend resources in fights they think are guaranteed, and most importantly to invigorate the Democratic base. If no Democrats are running in your district, the motivation to get out and vote purely for statewide office is lower.
We must also focus as hard as we can on retaking state governments. Again: all of Trump's orders must be carried out by local officials. If those local officials are Democrats his orders will fail. Therefore flipping state governments to the Democrats is essential, especially with redistricting coming up in 2020. We **MUST** end the gerrymandering of the House.
Our only hope is institutional inertia for two years until at least one branch of Congress can be retaken.
Then we keep focused, keep active, and oust his sorry orange ass in 2020. Because, unless he gets bored and quits, he is 100% guaranteed to be in office come 2020 no matter what insane shit he pulls. If tomorrow he nukes Tehran and literally says on national TV he did it for fun he'll still be in office in 2020 because even that won't be enough to motivate the Republicans to oust him.
posted by sotonohito at 8:04 AM on February 8, 2017 [47 favorites]
Midterms are in less than two years away. The victors will be in their seats by then. The campaigns need to up and running in a matter of months.
And party flacks and people who benefit from party politics continuing want things to continue in the ruts already traveled.
Is traveling on these same deeply rutted roads working? And if it IS working for some set - is it better to keep doing the same thing that keeps working for that set of people who's benefiting?
posted by rough ashlar at 8:04 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
And party flacks and people who benefit from party politics continuing want things to continue in the ruts already traveled.
Is traveling on these same deeply rutted roads working? And if it IS working for some set - is it better to keep doing the same thing that keeps working for that set of people who's benefiting?
posted by rough ashlar at 8:04 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
I do enjoy the thought of Trump's staff seeing his latest stupid tweet, hanging their heads, and letting out a long sigh.
posted by diogenes at 8:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by diogenes at 8:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
FWIW, the Nordstrom tweet was sent by an iPhone.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Also, it's a real time saver. They type up paragaphs and hunt for links, and I just say "nah." and go on about my day.
Why should I work so hard to convince them ? They're the crazy one.
For variety and depending on ones mood : Nope, wrong, not really, what on earth? Ah nope, No, whatchatalkinaboutwillis, oh my!, incorrect, I think someone has been drinking here, that doesn't seem right, wow you are so right! psyche! No, nooooot, I don't understand can you try to explain it again? (repeat after every subsequent post).
posted by Jalliah at 8:07 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
Why should I work so hard to convince them ? They're the crazy one.
For variety and depending on ones mood : Nope, wrong, not really, what on earth? Ah nope, No, whatchatalkinaboutwillis, oh my!, incorrect, I think someone has been drinking here, that doesn't seem right, wow you are so right! psyche! No, nooooot, I don't understand can you try to explain it again? (repeat after every subsequent post).
posted by Jalliah at 8:07 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
Trump has a fairly significant bloc of voters who are personally loyal to him more than to Republicanism in general
Covered in part here
posted by rough ashlar at 8:07 AM on February 8, 2017
Covered in part here
posted by rough ashlar at 8:07 AM on February 8, 2017
Midterms are less than two years away -- the victors will be in their seats by then. The campaigns need to up and running in a matter of months
Also - local elections!!!! My city has school board and city council elections in a few months. The county has elections some time after that. I'm sure yours does as well.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 8:08 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
Also - local elections!!!! My city has school board and city council elections in a few months. The county has elections some time after that. I'm sure yours does as well.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 8:08 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
Nordstrom's stock briefly dipped after the tweet, but it's basically recovered now. Looks like Donny's tweets are losing market influence.
posted by melissasaurus at 8:08 AM on February 8, 2017 [23 favorites]
posted by melissasaurus at 8:08 AM on February 8, 2017 [23 favorites]
I find myself trying to learn about how we recover from a nuke bombing. I know that the real danger rests in fucking with our atmosphere and cancer everywhere, but I wanted to understand how the land recovers.
posted by INFJ at 8:09 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Second, most of the radionuclides had brief half-lives â some lasting just minutes. The bomb sites were intensely radioactive for the first few hours after the explosions, but thereafter the danger diminished rapidly. American scientists sweeping Hiroshima with Geiger counters a month after the explosion to see if the area was safe for occupation troops found a devastated city but little radioactivity.So I guess it's a small comfort that if nukes do fall, grass will grow again in short order.
posted by INFJ at 8:09 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Yeah I'm all aboard the Casey train these days
posted by angrycat at 8:13 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by angrycat at 8:13 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
"Your fax to Honorable Mitch McConnell at 2022242499 has failed because the fax was blocked by the recipient's phone company."
Turns out this anger meter goes to 11.
posted by prefpara at 8:14 AM on February 8, 2017 [54 favorites]
Turns out this anger meter goes to 11.
posted by prefpara at 8:14 AM on February 8, 2017 [54 favorites]
I do not recall him being like this before. He seems to have gotten some religion. [Casey, that is. Yertle was always like this.]
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:15 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:15 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Kal Penn notes that "White House schedule says his Daily Intelligence Briefing was at 10:30am." And the Norstrom tweet is at 10:51. Not a lot going on in the world today?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:18 AM on February 8, 2017 [37 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:18 AM on February 8, 2017 [37 favorites]
need to write new article "What's so good about Donald Trump?"
posted by sarmonso at 8:19 AM on February 8, 2017
posted by sarmonso at 8:19 AM on February 8, 2017
So I guess it's a small comfort that if nukes do fall, grass will grow again in short order.
Also, nuclear winter = massive geoengineering response against global warming!
đ¶ Always look on the bright side of lifeđ¶
posted by Existential Dread at 8:20 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
Also, nuclear winter = massive geoengineering response against global warming!
đ¶ Always look on the bright side of lifeđ¶
posted by Existential Dread at 8:20 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
I don't understand can you try to explain it again?
I really like this one, it seems very promising in terms of effort expended to flailing/ monologuing encouraged.
posted by contraption at 8:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
I really like this one, it seems very promising in terms of effort expended to flailing/ monologuing encouraged.
posted by contraption at 8:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
So thanks to his declining to swallow Conway's grade-A bullshit, Jake Tapper has now become (more of) a troll target on Twitter - #TapperDirtFile is trending, and Tapper's responses are totally fetch.
posted by Gaz Errant at 8:25 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by Gaz Errant at 8:25 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
If anyone's trying to use a free fax service (other than FaxZero apparently) that limits the number of pages you can send... this is the letter printed 4-up to PDF, just for you.
(Incidentally, myfax.com hasn't yet been blocked from McConnell's fax machine. At least, as of this moment...)
posted by jammer at 8:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
(Incidentally, myfax.com hasn't yet been blocked from McConnell's fax machine. At least, as of this moment...)
posted by jammer at 8:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Also, nuclear winter = massive geoengineering response against global warming!
And there's actually a robust debate about whether a nuclear war will result in nuclear winter. So much good news I can hardly stand it!
On the downside:
More important, the political campaign waged against nuclear winterâagainst science, and against the pressâincluded erecting a set of structures, arguments, and institutions that have since been repurposed to challenge the science of global warming.
posted by diogenes at 8:27 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
And there's actually a robust debate about whether a nuclear war will result in nuclear winter. So much good news I can hardly stand it!
On the downside:
More important, the political campaign waged against nuclear winterâagainst science, and against the pressâincluded erecting a set of structures, arguments, and institutions that have since been repurposed to challenge the science of global warming.
posted by diogenes at 8:27 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
I searched this thread and didn't see this yet, though I recognize it may have come up in previous threads.
ITMFA
From the site: "Net proceeds of all contributions to ITMFAâą will be donated to the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood and the International Refugee Assistance Project."
posted by komara at 8:31 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
ITMFA
From the site: "Net proceeds of all contributions to ITMFAâą will be donated to the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood and the International Refugee Assistance Project."
posted by komara at 8:31 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
What's the story on this Federalist website that Trump linked? (Internet Archive mirror)
posted by flatluigi at 8:33 AM on February 8, 2017
posted by flatluigi at 8:33 AM on February 8, 2017
Casey's INCREASING ANGER is one of the small bright spots for me in the political landscape. Like, I don't have much hope for moving him to the left on abortion, but I do think he is personally incensed by Trump and the Muslim ban in a way that isn't just him getting ready to be primaried (again) in 2018.
(Today, on my way into the building, one of the security guards in the lobby said he saw me on TV for a "rally," which I'm guessing must have been Tuesdays with Toomey. So hurray that we're getting coverage, but now, I guess I'm definitely going into an internment camp when Trump declares war with China?)
posted by joyceanmachine at 8:33 AM on February 8, 2017 [22 favorites]
(Today, on my way into the building, one of the security guards in the lobby said he saw me on TV for a "rally," which I'm guessing must have been Tuesdays with Toomey. So hurray that we're getting coverage, but now, I guess I'm definitely going into an internment camp when Trump declares war with China?)
posted by joyceanmachine at 8:33 AM on February 8, 2017 [22 favorites]
"Religious" schools appear to have much laxer thresholds for objective truth.
I'm not sure how anyone can respond to a generality like this without getting a dismissive reply along the lines of "#NotAllParochialSchools" or whatever, but I still have to say: maybe terrible parochial schools are just terrible schools first, and parochial second? *shrug*
posted by wenestvedt at 8:33 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I'm not sure how anyone can respond to a generality like this without getting a dismissive reply along the lines of "#NotAllParochialSchools" or whatever, but I still have to say: maybe terrible parochial schools are just terrible schools first, and parochial second? *shrug*
posted by wenestvedt at 8:33 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Can I get a sanity check please? So Warren was banned from the Senate floor for trying to read the Coretta Scott King letter. Yet I keep seeing reports that multiple male senators have since read it on the floor, including Sherod Brown and Bernie Sanders. WTF that male senators are being allowed to do this but not Warren?
posted by dnash at 8:34 AM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by dnash at 8:34 AM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
It looks like the male senators are reading different excerpts.
posted by corb at 8:35 AM on February 8, 2017
posted by corb at 8:35 AM on February 8, 2017
WTF that male senators are being allowed to do this but not Warren?
It was a dominance display, and that's it.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:35 AM on February 8, 2017 [45 favorites]
It was a dominance display, and that's it.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:35 AM on February 8, 2017 [45 favorites]
it's 2017, sanity has gone the way of evens
posted by prefpara at 8:36 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by prefpara at 8:36 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
This interview with a pro-Trump English professor at Emory is incredible.
I will take the inauguration speech... I actually found it closer to the populism of Walt Whitman and his paean to the working man, and the fact that the great spirit of America is not to be found in the legislatures or the executives but in the people, the ordinary common man...posted by AceRock at 8:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
"Protests didnât hurt Reagan, and theyâre not going to stop Trump; Low approval ratings and public outcry can work in favor of outsider politicians."
i called my dad on the phone because politics has made me a nervous wreck and i wanted to hear how he survived 8 years of ronald reagan at my age with his sanity intact.
one thing that he said was:
"What really gives me hope is the protests. I've never seen anything like it. They're so well organized and so timely - just look how all those people showed up at the airports within hours of the immigration order. People think this is how it was in the sixties, but that took a long, long time to come together - Vietnam had been going on for years before anyone was marching in the streets."
There may have been anti-Reagan protests, but nobody flooded the streets of DC the day after Reagan's election and maintained this pattern of regular protest all across the country during the first month of his presidency.
Reagan won a landslide victory and was very, very popular at the time. Trump pulled off a squeaker and is historically unpopular. To say that protests don't matter because they didn't slow down Ronald Reagan is to draw a bunch of parallels that don't really exist.
posted by murphy slaw at 8:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [113 favorites]
i called my dad on the phone because politics has made me a nervous wreck and i wanted to hear how he survived 8 years of ronald reagan at my age with his sanity intact.
one thing that he said was:
"What really gives me hope is the protests. I've never seen anything like it. They're so well organized and so timely - just look how all those people showed up at the airports within hours of the immigration order. People think this is how it was in the sixties, but that took a long, long time to come together - Vietnam had been going on for years before anyone was marching in the streets."
There may have been anti-Reagan protests, but nobody flooded the streets of DC the day after Reagan's election and maintained this pattern of regular protest all across the country during the first month of his presidency.
Reagan won a landslide victory and was very, very popular at the time. Trump pulled off a squeaker and is historically unpopular. To say that protests don't matter because they didn't slow down Ronald Reagan is to draw a bunch of parallels that don't really exist.
posted by murphy slaw at 8:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [113 favorites]
angrycat: "Yeah I'm all aboard the Casey train these days"
Me too. I've never been all that impressed with him in the past but he's been great this year.
posted by octothorpe at 8:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Me too. I've never been all that impressed with him in the past but he's been great this year.
posted by octothorpe at 8:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Making up Tapper facts is oddly cathartic. So far I've revealed his favorite New Kid and accused him of mishearing the lyrics to Purple Haze.
posted by diogenes at 8:40 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by diogenes at 8:40 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Warren set to release book taking on Trump
"Washington works great for the rich and powerful who can hire armies of lawyers and lobbyists, but it is not working very well for everyone else. America's once-solid middle class is on the ropes, and now Donald Trump and his administration seem determined to deliver the knockout punch. At this perilous moment in our country's history, it's time to fight back -- and I'm looking for more people to join me," Warren said, according to a release.
posted by petebest at 8:41 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
"Washington works great for the rich and powerful who can hire armies of lawyers and lobbyists, but it is not working very well for everyone else. America's once-solid middle class is on the ropes, and now Donald Trump and his administration seem determined to deliver the knockout punch. At this perilous moment in our country's history, it's time to fight back -- and I'm looking for more people to join me," Warren said, according to a release.
posted by petebest at 8:41 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
I'm so tired of being told I have to stop talking to and about Trump voters like they're stupid. How should I engage with them? Appeal to their common decency? They voted for a guy caught on tape bragging about sexual assault, who insulted dead veterans, who was a virulent racist. Try to reach them through their common sense? They elected a man whose knowledge of civics and current political issues ranges from fingernail-thin to nonexistent. Caution them about how dishonest he is? He's caught bald-faced lying three to five times a day and was being sued for fraud before the election. Show them damning facts and evidence about how ethically compromised this man is? They don't believe in facts anymore. Scare them with some of the horrible things he might do? He's said repeatedly that we ought to consider using our nuclear weapons. That's end of the world type stuff. How do I ramp up from that?
I thought they were the people who liked a guy who calls it how it is. That's all I'm doing, calling it how it is: people who voted for Trump did something terribly, terribly stupid.
If people set themselves on fire, I'm not going to take my time finding a way to tell them that won't hurt their pride. I'm just going to yell, because getting the goddamned fire out is more critical than the feelings of the fools who started it.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:41 AM on February 8, 2017 [107 favorites]
I thought they were the people who liked a guy who calls it how it is. That's all I'm doing, calling it how it is: people who voted for Trump did something terribly, terribly stupid.
If people set themselves on fire, I'm not going to take my time finding a way to tell them that won't hurt their pride. I'm just going to yell, because getting the goddamned fire out is more critical than the feelings of the fools who started it.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:41 AM on February 8, 2017 [107 favorites]
This interview with a pro-Trump English professor at Emory is incredible.
Christ, yeah, I tried to read that this morning, but I vomited a little bit at his abject refusal to address Trump's comments about the US being "as bad as" Russia because he was traveling and didn't hear them firsthand.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:43 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Christ, yeah, I tried to read that this morning, but I vomited a little bit at his abject refusal to address Trump's comments about the US being "as bad as" Russia because he was traveling and didn't hear them firsthand.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:43 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm not sure how anyone can respond to a generality like this without getting a dismissive reply along the lines of "#NotAllParochialSchools" or whatever, but I still have to say: maybe terrible parochial schools are just terrible schools first, and parochial second? *shrug*
Eh. There are certain religious teachings that are not generally considered compatible with science or health, and even good parochial schools tend to brush over them. Again, I went to a very well regarded Jesuit-led Catholic school that was considered light on the Catholicism and a heavy on the internationalism and social justice, and while we learned about evolution in general, we still skipped over the concept of human evolution. And again, sex ed. I realize it's not great in a lot of public schools either, but going from urban public school sex ed (which was 'we all know you're having sex anyway, this is how to have sex safely') to Catholic school sex ed was very, very disorienting.
posted by dinty_moore at 8:43 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Eh. There are certain religious teachings that are not generally considered compatible with science or health, and even good parochial schools tend to brush over them. Again, I went to a very well regarded Jesuit-led Catholic school that was considered light on the Catholicism and a heavy on the internationalism and social justice, and while we learned about evolution in general, we still skipped over the concept of human evolution. And again, sex ed. I realize it's not great in a lot of public schools either, but going from urban public school sex ed (which was 'we all know you're having sex anyway, this is how to have sex safely') to Catholic school sex ed was very, very disorienting.
posted by dinty_moore at 8:43 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
The roll call vote on the Elizabeth Warren slap down is here.
As you can see every single Republican voted for the sanction. Collins, yep. Murkowski, yep. Flake, yep. McCain, yep. Graham, yep.
Tell me again about "moderate" Republicans.
Yeah, bullshit like it always was.
posted by JackFlash at 8:46 AM on February 8, 2017 [94 favorites]
As you can see every single Republican voted for the sanction. Collins, yep. Murkowski, yep. Flake, yep. McCain, yep. Graham, yep.
Tell me again about "moderate" Republicans.
Yeah, bullshit like it always was.
posted by JackFlash at 8:46 AM on February 8, 2017 [94 favorites]
yeah but in McCain's defense I'm sure he looked super concerned when he did it
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:48 AM on February 8, 2017 [63 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:48 AM on February 8, 2017 [63 favorites]
Toomey (R-PA), Yea
'sup, my fellow angry pennsylvania mefites. time to pick up the phone.
posted by joyceanmachine at 8:50 AM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]
'sup, my fellow angry pennsylvania mefites. time to pick up the phone.
posted by joyceanmachine at 8:50 AM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]
She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
So many different things I could say to that comment...like "What right thing?" and "Is she doing her job right now? Are you listening to her?"
If people set themselves on fire, I'm not going to take my time finding a way to tell them that won't hurt their pride.
I am out of energy to give a shit about managing anyone's feelings and making them feel warm and good about themselves.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
So many different things I could say to that comment...like "What right thing?" and "Is she doing her job right now? Are you listening to her?"
If people set themselves on fire, I'm not going to take my time finding a way to tell them that won't hurt their pride.
I am out of energy to give a shit about managing anyone's feelings and making them feel warm and good about themselves.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
I want to know why
Carper (D-DE)
Coons (D-DE)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Isakson (R-GA)
Sanders (I-VT)
Warner (D-VA)
Are listed in that roll call as "not voting"?
Were the out of the room? Were they abstaining because they're vile fucking cowards?
If the former then no worries. But if they were present and chose not to vote against gagging Warren we need to seriously look at getting rid of them.
posted by sotonohito at 8:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Carper (D-DE)
Coons (D-DE)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Isakson (R-GA)
Sanders (I-VT)
Warner (D-VA)
Are listed in that roll call as "not voting"?
Were the out of the room? Were they abstaining because they're vile fucking cowards?
If the former then no worries. But if they were present and chose not to vote against gagging Warren we need to seriously look at getting rid of them.
posted by sotonohito at 8:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Sanders was debating Cruz on CNN at the time.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [15 favorites]
AceRock: This interview with a pro-Trump English professor at Emory is incredible.
I was so annoyed I went against my better judgment and usual practice and voiced my annoyance to Slate. My reward was having to block a slew of Twitter trolls telling me I was shutting down his First Amendment rights. Sigh. I do not have Jalliah's patience to engage with these people.
posted by Superplin at 8:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I was so annoyed I went against my better judgment and usual practice and voiced my annoyance to Slate. My reward was having to block a slew of Twitter trolls telling me I was shutting down his First Amendment rights. Sigh. I do not have Jalliah's patience to engage with these people.
posted by Superplin at 8:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Journalism After Snowden: The Future of the Free Press in the Surveillance State for those of you concerned about journalism.
posted by rough ashlar at 8:54 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by rough ashlar at 8:54 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
So without her around he'd be even worse? I'm trying not to imagine what she could have pushed him away from doing.
posted by octothorpe at 8:56 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
So without her around he'd be even worse? I'm trying not to imagine what she could have pushed him away from doing.
posted by octothorpe at 8:56 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
Sanders was debating Cruz on CNN at the time.
That manages both to absolve and further incriminate his absence. Quite a feat.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:57 AM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
That manages both to absolve and further incriminate his absence. Quite a feat.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:57 AM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
AceRock: This interview with a pro-Trump English professor at Emory is incredible.
Bauerlein is such a turdmuffin. I wish hypocrisy was a charge that stuck. He spends all his time whining about narcissistic spoiled brat students uninterested in learning and then thinks it's cool to put a narcissist spoiled brat adult who is uninterested in learning in charge of the presidency. That interviewer does a good job of pointing out his self contradiction. Bauerlein's response: "I believe in original sin". Oh go fuck a duck.
posted by dis_integration at 8:57 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Bauerlein is such a turdmuffin. I wish hypocrisy was a charge that stuck. He spends all his time whining about narcissistic spoiled brat students uninterested in learning and then thinks it's cool to put a narcissist spoiled brat adult who is uninterested in learning in charge of the presidency. That interviewer does a good job of pointing out his self contradiction. Bauerlein's response: "I believe in original sin". Oh go fuck a duck.
posted by dis_integration at 8:57 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
The roll call vote on the Elizabeth Warren slap down is here.
As you can see every single Republican voted for the sanction. Collins, yep. Murkowski, yep. Flake, yep. McCain, yep. Graham, yep.
The way I see it, our marching orders are as follows:
1. If your Senator voted "Nay", call your senator and urge them to continue reading the Coretta Scott King letter where Warren got cut off.
2. If your Senator voted "yea", call your senator and simply begin reciting the letter into the phone when someone picks up.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:57 AM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]
As you can see every single Republican voted for the sanction. Collins, yep. Murkowski, yep. Flake, yep. McCain, yep. Graham, yep.
The way I see it, our marching orders are as follows:
1. If your Senator voted "Nay", call your senator and urge them to continue reading the Coretta Scott King letter where Warren got cut off.
2. If your Senator voted "yea", call your senator and simply begin reciting the letter into the phone when someone picks up.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:57 AM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]
Upthread: Texas State Senator files resolution to "hereby encourage the President of the United States to refrain from threatening elected officials".
And it's Week Three.
posted by Gelatin at 8:58 AM on February 8, 2017 [28 favorites]
And it's Week Three.
posted by Gelatin at 8:58 AM on February 8, 2017 [28 favorites]
Or maybe he meant it was terrible that Ivanka was always trying to push him to do the right thing?
posted by sotonohito at 8:58 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by sotonohito at 8:58 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Interesting Twitter thread here from Malka Older. Information segregation -- which always existed but has been taken to an extreme by algorithmic news feeds and hypertargeted advertising -- is a very serious problem that people need to be solving. I have no idea what the solution is or even could be, but things are only going to get worse if we don't find one.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:01 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by tobascodagama at 9:01 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
dinty_moore: Again, I went to a very well regarded Jesuit-led Catholic school that was considered light on the Catholicism and a heavy on the internationalism and social justice, and while we learned about evolution in general, we still skipped over the concept of human evolution.
You did? Good heavens, that's just...dumb. My high school was some nuns and brothers but mostly lay folk, and though my science teachers were all lay people, no one tried to soft-peddle it. Heck, my physics teacher was a graduate of St. John's College, and had all those primary texts to hand, and my English teacher, Mr. Peick, brought Colman McCarthy in for an all-school speech one year.
But....are there really religious schools that are so intellectually dishonest? Heck, that's a failure of the teachers' own professional ethics! (And could you speak up when you answer that? The clanging of the scales falling from my eyes makes it hard to hear right now.)
posted by wenestvedt at 9:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
You did? Good heavens, that's just...dumb. My high school was some nuns and brothers but mostly lay folk, and though my science teachers were all lay people, no one tried to soft-peddle it. Heck, my physics teacher was a graduate of St. John's College, and had all those primary texts to hand, and my English teacher, Mr. Peick, brought Colman McCarthy in for an all-school speech one year.
But....are there really religious schools that are so intellectually dishonest? Heck, that's a failure of the teachers' own professional ethics! (And could you speak up when you answer that? The clanging of the scales falling from my eyes makes it hard to hear right now.)
posted by wenestvedt at 9:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Can I get a sanity check please? So Warren was banned from the Senate floor for trying to read the Coretta Scott King letter. Yet I keep seeing reports that multiple male senators have since read it on the floor,
I'm trying to get a handle on this too. I don't believe it's true that the male senators read different excerpts, I believe Tom Udall read it in full. Right now my best theory, based on this article in The Hill, is that by formally introducing the letter into the congressional record Udall made it impossible for Republicans to argue that it was just "slander."
So I think -- and this is not backed by any actual knowledge of legal or congressional rules -- it's maybe the difference between a lawyer just reading a letter during an argument in a trial, and a lawyer reading an official exhibit at a trial.
But would love to hear from somebody who actually knows.
posted by mrmurbles at 9:06 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I'm trying to get a handle on this too. I don't believe it's true that the male senators read different excerpts, I believe Tom Udall read it in full. Right now my best theory, based on this article in The Hill, is that by formally introducing the letter into the congressional record Udall made it impossible for Republicans to argue that it was just "slander."
So I think -- and this is not backed by any actual knowledge of legal or congressional rules -- it's maybe the difference between a lawyer just reading a letter during an argument in a trial, and a lawyer reading an official exhibit at a trial.
But would love to hear from somebody who actually knows.
posted by mrmurbles at 9:06 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
When I tried to fax John Cornyn, I got this message:
Fortunately, my fax (from FaxZero) to McConnell went through. Now it's time to call my superstar Senator to say nice things!
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 9:07 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Your fax to Honorable John Cornyn at 2102248569 has failed because the receiver's phone was busy 5 times in a row.At times like this, I come back to thinking that the shitty phone call handling system is much more about preventing constituent access than a lack of ability to fix the damn problem.
Thank you,
FaxZero.com
Fortunately, my fax (from FaxZero) to McConnell went through. Now it's time to call my superstar Senator to say nice things!
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 9:07 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Pretty sure Carper was just away from the floor at the time, and couldn't get back in time. He's retweeting Warren on it, and IIRC, they're buds on giving Trump shit on his conflicts.
posted by joyceanmachine at 9:07 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by joyceanmachine at 9:07 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
maybe terrible parochial schools are just terrible schools first, and parochial second? *shrug*
Because churchy people just coincidentally develop an interest in teaching math and English?
posted by thelonius at 9:07 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Because churchy people just coincidentally develop an interest in teaching math and English?
posted by thelonius at 9:07 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I also went to Catholic school (my dad is a philosopher of biology with a specialization in evolutionary biology so I would have noticed if something was missing) and didn't get evolution soft-peddled.
The only major difference in my Catholic education vs. secular was the sex ed (which was terrible and the teacher knew it was terrible and kind of telegraphed that to us on the DL), and that I had to take religion classes every day for four years (interesting, actually, for someone raised atheist who had no idea what was actually in the Bible prior to high school).
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:08 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
The only major difference in my Catholic education vs. secular was the sex ed (which was terrible and the teacher knew it was terrible and kind of telegraphed that to us on the DL), and that I had to take religion classes every day for four years (interesting, actually, for someone raised atheist who had no idea what was actually in the Bible prior to high school).
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:08 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
Because churchy people just coincidentally develop an interest in teaching math and English?
No, but educators generally have an interest in their subject, and every parochial school I have ever attended was accredited and the teachers were all properly trained and licensed (yes, even the people who were in orders).
I know this is a derail and I'll drop it, but can we lump "LOL XIANS SCHOOLS" in with "LOL XIANS" and maybe not do that anymore?
posted by wenestvedt at 9:12 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
No, but educators generally have an interest in their subject, and every parochial school I have ever attended was accredited and the teachers were all properly trained and licensed (yes, even the people who were in orders).
I know this is a derail and I'll drop it, but can we lump "LOL XIANS SCHOOLS" in with "LOL XIANS" and maybe not do that anymore?
posted by wenestvedt at 9:12 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
I think I'm just going to get some custom postcards printed. 500 red thumbs down icon with "DISLIKE" and 500 green thumbs up icon with "LIKE". And a big book of postcard stamps. And pre-print labels for my various reps.
Vistaprint tells me I can make this happen for $50.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:17 AM on February 8, 2017 [31 favorites]
Vistaprint tells me I can make this happen for $50.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:17 AM on February 8, 2017 [31 favorites]
The official @POTUS account just retweeted Trumpâs attack on @Nordstrom.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:18 AM on February 8, 2017 [37 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:18 AM on February 8, 2017 [37 favorites]
What's the story on this Federalist website that Trump linked? (Internet Archive mirror)
Ayn-Rand-worshipping gobbledegook with a veneer of respectability because they write in complete sentences. Sort of the millenial National Review. Only worth reading to see what conservatives younger than William F. Buckley consider the intellectual underpinnings of current conservative thought.
posted by soundguy99 at 9:18 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Ayn-Rand-worshipping gobbledegook with a veneer of respectability because they write in complete sentences. Sort of the millenial National Review. Only worth reading to see what conservatives younger than William F. Buckley consider the intellectual underpinnings of current conservative thought.
posted by soundguy99 at 9:18 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Protestant Evangelical schools worry me a lot more than Catholic Parochial schools. I think there is a big difference.
posted by ThreeCatsBob at 9:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [23 favorites]
posted by ThreeCatsBob at 9:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [23 favorites]
Journalism After Snowden: The Future of the Free Press in the Surveillance State for those of you concerned about journalism.
It's going to get particularly interesting when CBP ask journalists for their social media passwords at border points, and the journalists say nope, because you don't give access to your sources to anyone without a court order (and sometimes not even then). I dare say that other professions also have sensitive and protected information on social media, and cannot legally grant access to Joe Random, Border Trumpist; I further dare say that a number of these people will be sent home on the next plane, and I expect that there will be shitstorms aplenty as a result.
tl;dr, I don't expect to be able to travel to the US for a while.
posted by Devonian at 9:21 AM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
As you can see in this video from ABCNews the first warning against Warren came as she was quoting the words of Ted Kennedy spoken on the floor of the Senate in 1986 regarding Session's nomination for federal judge.
So, the words of Senator Ted Kennedy are okay but put those same words in the mouth of a woman and that is a disgrace to the Senate.
Also note that the presiding officer, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, has a prepared handwritten note in front of him he used to cite the specific Senate rule in violation. And a few minutes later McConnell came in and read from a prepared statement. This was all a carefully orchestrated set up to sanction a Senator who had been a thorn in the side of Republicans since the day she was elected.
posted by JackFlash at 9:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [92 favorites]
So, the words of Senator Ted Kennedy are okay but put those same words in the mouth of a woman and that is a disgrace to the Senate.
Also note that the presiding officer, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, has a prepared handwritten note in front of him he used to cite the specific Senate rule in violation. And a few minutes later McConnell came in and read from a prepared statement. This was all a carefully orchestrated set up to sanction a Senator who had been a thorn in the side of Republicans since the day she was elected.
posted by JackFlash at 9:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [92 favorites]
You did? Good heavens, that's just...dumb. My high school was some nuns and brothers but mostly lay folk, and though my science teachers were all lay people, no one tried to soft-peddle it. Heck, my physics teacher was a graduate of St. John's College, and had all those primary texts to hand, and my English teacher, Mr. Peick, brought Colman McCarthy in for an all-school speech one year.
But....are there really religious schools that are so intellectually dishonest? Heck, that's a failure of the teachers' own professional ethics! (And could you speak up when you answer that? The clanging of the scales falling from my eyes makes it hard to hear right now.)
I mean, if you're talking about intellectual dishonesty, you have to consider what the school considers a positive outcome for itself and for its students. I went to a high school that emphasized logical thinking (in that a quarter of logic was required for students) and commitment to social causes - even if it considered my education a special social cause of its own. I transferred from a high school that at least wanted to make sure everyone - no matter who they were - were able to be deemed educated by the state's requirements, but didn't really have the funds to do that well. But there are parochial schools out there that want to just create Good Christians, and maybe that doesn't mean teaching them certain things or even certain ways of thinking, because their ethos doesn't require it. I've trained a lot of people who just came out of Evangelical Christian colleges, and one of the first thing I've had to teach them was basic logic and critical thinking so they can be useful. Some of them were bright enough, but they've never had to think for themselves, and were never encouraged to do so. There really is a marked difference.
posted by dinty_moore at 9:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
But....are there really religious schools that are so intellectually dishonest? Heck, that's a failure of the teachers' own professional ethics! (And could you speak up when you answer that? The clanging of the scales falling from my eyes makes it hard to hear right now.)
I mean, if you're talking about intellectual dishonesty, you have to consider what the school considers a positive outcome for itself and for its students. I went to a high school that emphasized logical thinking (in that a quarter of logic was required for students) and commitment to social causes - even if it considered my education a special social cause of its own. I transferred from a high school that at least wanted to make sure everyone - no matter who they were - were able to be deemed educated by the state's requirements, but didn't really have the funds to do that well. But there are parochial schools out there that want to just create Good Christians, and maybe that doesn't mean teaching them certain things or even certain ways of thinking, because their ethos doesn't require it. I've trained a lot of people who just came out of Evangelical Christian colleges, and one of the first thing I've had to teach them was basic logic and critical thinking so they can be useful. Some of them were bright enough, but they've never had to think for themselves, and were never encouraged to do so. There really is a marked difference.
posted by dinty_moore at 9:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
I have spent my morning creating a PDF of exactly 25 pages in length that can be sent to the senator of your choice--or, as I sent mine, to Mr. McConnell--which includes a long and exceedingly angry but profanity-free letter that implies the Senator may not have been capable of reading the letter as is, and then a copy of Coretta Scott King's letter in size 22 bold font, followed by the cover letters of the original letter "to ensure its provenance." It aggravated me that I could not send the original ten-page PDF without paying the $2 on myfax, my preferred faxing site; so I chose to instead blow the text of the original letter up very large to cause as much waste of ink and paper as possible and use the whole 25 pages allowable that I'd paid for. I figured the $2 was worth the middle finger to Mr. McConnell's office.
If you, too, would like to send a similar letter to vent your own spleen, here is the text I chose to send in mine:
Senator McConnell,
I am writing to you as a concerned citizen who is very angry about the vote you made silencing Senator Elizabeth Warren on the floor for reading the letter that Coretta Scott King brought to the Senate in 1986.
Why would you silence the warnings of the widow of Americaâs greatest civil rights activist? Why would you prevent someone from reminding us of the actions he has carried out in the past, the history that has caused most Americans to oppose the confirmation of this man for the office of Attorney General of the United States? Why would you choose to do this, furthermore, in the midst of Black History Monthâa month dedicated to remembering Americaâs historic legacy of racism?
Sir, have you read this letter? Are you trying to avoid hearing about the many hateful policies advanced by Mr. Sessions even very early in his career, when he had far fewer powers available to him than he is slated to receive as an Attorney General?
Mr. McConnell, surely you do not wish to push through a nominee for Attorney General who has such a storied and powerful history of voter suppression, particularly not racist voter suppression. As a proud American, I value our nationâs status as the cradle of modern democracy, and I assume that you too love our nation. I am therefore confused as to why you would advance for the position of Attorney General a man who is most noted for his vicious attacks on the ability of real Americans to participate in the political process and vote.
Mr. McConnell, perhaps the font was too small for you to read when print versions of Ms. Kingâs letter were passed around. Perhaps you merely did not understand the content of that letter, Mr. McConnell, nor did you understand the fact that such scurrilous accusations are being leveled at Mr. Sessions are only being read to the Senate because they are true.
Mr. McConnell, perhaps you simply havenât wanted to see or hear these charges or the opinions of the widow of one of Americaâs greatest civil rights leaders. In this month of all months, that is an unfortunate piece of ignorance, but like all ignorance it is easy enough to remedy.
So Mr. McConnell, as you charged that Senator Warren was being unnecessarily divisive when she began to read this letter to the Senate, I have reproduced for you a larger-print version of the text here in case that will be easier for you to read. In case you do not believe the provenance of this letter, Mr. McConnell, I have attached the original cover letters and first page of the original letter so that you can rest confidently in the knowledge that the text I am sending you is genuine historical information, the original 30-years-old text sent by Ms. King on the occasion of Mr. Sessionsâ nomination for a far less important federal legal position. Mr. McConnell, Iâm a proud American, and the charges in this letter worry me, especially knowing that Mr. Sessions has not received any censure from them.
Or have you given him some formal sanctions, Mr. McConnell? It seems to me that desperately preventing information like this from being made available to the public is not an effective way to express the condemnation for Mr. Sessionsâ past actions of racism that I am sure you feel about his behavior, sir. If bringing up those past peccadilloes is considered to be too uncouth for the Senate floor on the occasion of Mr. Sessionsâ confirmation hearing, sir, surely there should be some consequence or some condemnation for the actual actions themselves.
Why do you seek to hide from the keen eyes of history, Mr. McConnell? There are so many of us watching the nation now, for we stand at a great crossroads in Americaâs history. How will you want history to remember you, Mr. McConnell?
Sincerely,
An Angry American
I had initially intended to post the full PDF for anyone's use, which is why I wrote it to be easy to be sent by a number of people. (It's not actually anonymous; my full name is on the cover letter of the version I just sent.) But realizing the paywall for very long faxes exists made me slightly dubious that many other people would feel quite peevish enough to do that. Still, the text is out there, and I don't think I'd mind him getting several copies from angry Americans right now.
posted by sciatrix at 9:23 AM on February 8, 2017 [34 favorites]
If you, too, would like to send a similar letter to vent your own spleen, here is the text I chose to send in mine:
Senator McConnell,
I am writing to you as a concerned citizen who is very angry about the vote you made silencing Senator Elizabeth Warren on the floor for reading the letter that Coretta Scott King brought to the Senate in 1986.
Why would you silence the warnings of the widow of Americaâs greatest civil rights activist? Why would you prevent someone from reminding us of the actions he has carried out in the past, the history that has caused most Americans to oppose the confirmation of this man for the office of Attorney General of the United States? Why would you choose to do this, furthermore, in the midst of Black History Monthâa month dedicated to remembering Americaâs historic legacy of racism?
Sir, have you read this letter? Are you trying to avoid hearing about the many hateful policies advanced by Mr. Sessions even very early in his career, when he had far fewer powers available to him than he is slated to receive as an Attorney General?
Mr. McConnell, surely you do not wish to push through a nominee for Attorney General who has such a storied and powerful history of voter suppression, particularly not racist voter suppression. As a proud American, I value our nationâs status as the cradle of modern democracy, and I assume that you too love our nation. I am therefore confused as to why you would advance for the position of Attorney General a man who is most noted for his vicious attacks on the ability of real Americans to participate in the political process and vote.
Mr. McConnell, perhaps the font was too small for you to read when print versions of Ms. Kingâs letter were passed around. Perhaps you merely did not understand the content of that letter, Mr. McConnell, nor did you understand the fact that such scurrilous accusations are being leveled at Mr. Sessions are only being read to the Senate because they are true.
Mr. McConnell, perhaps you simply havenât wanted to see or hear these charges or the opinions of the widow of one of Americaâs greatest civil rights leaders. In this month of all months, that is an unfortunate piece of ignorance, but like all ignorance it is easy enough to remedy.
So Mr. McConnell, as you charged that Senator Warren was being unnecessarily divisive when she began to read this letter to the Senate, I have reproduced for you a larger-print version of the text here in case that will be easier for you to read. In case you do not believe the provenance of this letter, Mr. McConnell, I have attached the original cover letters and first page of the original letter so that you can rest confidently in the knowledge that the text I am sending you is genuine historical information, the original 30-years-old text sent by Ms. King on the occasion of Mr. Sessionsâ nomination for a far less important federal legal position. Mr. McConnell, Iâm a proud American, and the charges in this letter worry me, especially knowing that Mr. Sessions has not received any censure from them.
Or have you given him some formal sanctions, Mr. McConnell? It seems to me that desperately preventing information like this from being made available to the public is not an effective way to express the condemnation for Mr. Sessionsâ past actions of racism that I am sure you feel about his behavior, sir. If bringing up those past peccadilloes is considered to be too uncouth for the Senate floor on the occasion of Mr. Sessionsâ confirmation hearing, sir, surely there should be some consequence or some condemnation for the actual actions themselves.
Why do you seek to hide from the keen eyes of history, Mr. McConnell? There are so many of us watching the nation now, for we stand at a great crossroads in Americaâs history. How will you want history to remember you, Mr. McConnell?
Sincerely,
An Angry American
I had initially intended to post the full PDF for anyone's use, which is why I wrote it to be easy to be sent by a number of people. (It's not actually anonymous; my full name is on the cover letter of the version I just sent.) But realizing the paywall for very long faxes exists made me slightly dubious that many other people would feel quite peevish enough to do that. Still, the text is out there, and I don't think I'd mind him getting several copies from angry Americans right now.
posted by sciatrix at 9:23 AM on February 8, 2017 [34 favorites]
The official @POTUS account just retweeted Trumpâs attack on @Nordstrom.
In for a penny, in for a pound I guess.
posted by diogenes at 9:25 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
In for a penny, in for a pound I guess.
posted by diogenes at 9:25 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
The official @POTUS account just retweeted Trumpâs attack on @Nordstrom.
I think it's time to show Nordstrom a little love and support for dropping that woman's product line.
Maybe something along the lines of:
I think it's time to show Nordstrom a little love and support for dropping that woman's product line.
Maybe something along the lines of:
Hi,posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 9:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [22 favorites]
Thank you for dropping the Ivanka Trump product line from your catalogue. I won't shop at places that carry any Trump family items, but because of your company's actions, I will take my money to Nordstrom.
Thanks,
[your name here]
What's his position on the Neiman-Marcus cookie recipe?
posted by thelonius at 9:27 AM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 9:27 AM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
The official @POTUS account just retweeted Trumpâs attack on @Nordstrom.
I don't have any good reasoning behind it, but this feels like the kind of thing that could have unexpected repercussions for Dampnut.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:28 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
I don't have any good reasoning behind it, but this feels like the kind of thing that could have unexpected repercussions for Dampnut.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:28 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
The official @POTUS account just retweeted Trumpâs attack on @Nordstrom.
Why does he even have a personal twitter a/c if shit like this happens.
posted by lalochezia at 9:31 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
So it's clear that this was a planned rebuke, what I don't get is why? Were they really just flexing their muscles to try and put her in her place because they could? How did they not consider this would backfire and it'd be Streisanded to kingdom come? Did they let Merkley, Udall, Sanders et al read the letter because now they are ashamed*, or is that part of the plan to show Warren that they are gunning specifically for her, or are they really that blindingly obviously sexist?
*Of course not, we all know they feel no shame
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:34 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
*Of course not, we all know they feel no shame
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:34 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
I don't have any good reasoning behind it, but this feels like the kind of thing that could have unexpected repercussions for Dampnut.
One can but dream.
posted by Celsius1414 at 9:35 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
One can but dream.
posted by Celsius1414 at 9:35 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
I thought repercussions were exclusively for the other side.
posted by fullerine at 9:36 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by fullerine at 9:36 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Twitter's Ezekiel Kweku (@TheShrillest) at MTV.com: Liberal Fan Fiction
It's a fool's game to try to explain why something is funny. But I think the reason why these tweets resonated is because they try to capture something essential about the politicians and their campaigns. It serves the same function as fan fiction â filling in the missing details, repairing backstories, acting as a vector for wish-fulfillment and catharsis. This mode of engaging politics didn't start during this election for progressives. âUncle Joe,â an imagined version of the former vice-president, emerged in Obama's first term as a passionate eccentric, blunt and blue-collar, goofy but earnest. The Hillary of âTexts Fromâ fame is also an idealized character, a no-nonsense pragmatist with a heart of gold.posted by Rustic Etruscan at 9:37 AM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
Nobody really believes that, say, Biden literally shotguns beers shirtless while listening to GZA, and it's easy to claim that we can keep fact and fiction separately accounted in our head. But we're imagining him that way because we think it gets at something true, and this can make it difficult to keep the character of Biden from bleeding into our impression of the real one. âUncle Bidenâ has done a lot to mask the fact that the real Joe Biden fought desegregation, wrote the 1994 crime bill, and appeared to side with Clarence Thomas over Anita Hill during Thomas's confirmation hearings.
sciatrix, I for one would love to have a copy of the PDF to be able to send.
posted by biogeo at 9:37 AM on February 8, 2017
posted by biogeo at 9:37 AM on February 8, 2017
What person with a brain could think repercussions to that were unexpected? I don't know how the depths (or shallows?) of his small mind continue to amaze me.
posted by something something at 9:38 AM on February 8, 2017
posted by something something at 9:38 AM on February 8, 2017
I don't have any good reasoning behind it, but this feels like the kind of thing that could have unexpected repercussions for Dampnut.
Dunno about Dampnut but Nordstrom may get at least a short term bump in sales if even a quarter of the people in my various social media feeds follow through with saying that they going to make sure they buy something now.
posted by Jalliah at 9:38 AM on February 8, 2017
Dunno about Dampnut but Nordstrom may get at least a short term bump in sales if even a quarter of the people in my various social media feeds follow through with saying that they going to make sure they buy something now.
posted by Jalliah at 9:38 AM on February 8, 2017
How did they not consider this would backfire and it'd be Streisanded to kingdom come?
Because it doesn't matter? People who care about social justice or about powerful men being unfairly punitive toward women already aren't voting Republican.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:38 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Because it doesn't matter? People who care about social justice or about powerful men being unfairly punitive toward women already aren't voting Republican.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:38 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
I should add, I'm not expecting there to actually BE any repercussions, but there sure as fuck SHOULD be. Jesus.
posted by something something at 9:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by something something at 9:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
ETA: sent my 25 page fax via faxzero, not myFax; error on my part. It went through. faxes are still on, motherfuckers.
posted by sciatrix at 9:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by sciatrix at 9:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
What person with a brain could think repercussions to that were unexpected? I don't know how the depths (or shallows?) of his small mind continue to amaze me.
Well, Senator Warren obviously isn't Turtley enough for the Turtle Club.
posted by Celsius1414 at 9:40 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Well, Senator Warren obviously isn't Turtley enough for the Turtle Club.
posted by Celsius1414 at 9:40 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
"Your fax to Honorable Mitch McConnell at 2022242499 has failed because the fax was blocked by the recipient's phone company."
Turns out this anger meter goes to 11.
posted by prefpara at 8:14 AM on February 8
I saw this so I checked. Mine got through! so that's something, at least.
posted by OHenryPacey at 9:41 AM on February 8, 2017
Turns out this anger meter goes to 11.
posted by prefpara at 8:14 AM on February 8
I saw this so I checked. Mine got through! so that's something, at least.
posted by OHenryPacey at 9:41 AM on February 8, 2017
Senate Rule XIX, which was used to silence Warren, is the 1836-44 gag rule that forbade any consideration of abolition in the House.
posted by prefpara at 9:41 AM on February 8, 2017 [62 favorites]
posted by prefpara at 9:41 AM on February 8, 2017 [62 favorites]
The official @POTUS account just retweeted Trumpâs attack on @Nordstrom.
What person with a brain could think repercussions to that were unexpected? I don't know how the depths (or shallows?) of his small mind continue to amaze me.
I think he's trying to get me to WTF so hard that I give myself an aneurysm.
posted by diogenes at 9:42 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
What person with a brain could think repercussions to that were unexpected? I don't know how the depths (or shallows?) of his small mind continue to amaze me.
I think he's trying to get me to WTF so hard that I give myself an aneurysm.
posted by diogenes at 9:42 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
I emailed Tom Udall last night and asked him to read the King letter during the Sessions hearing, and now Metafilter tells me that he did! I know some of you are going to say it's just coincidence, and he gets thousands of emails, and I should have called instead, but la la la la I can't hear you.
posted by Killick at 9:43 AM on February 8, 2017 [41 favorites]
posted by Killick at 9:43 AM on February 8, 2017 [41 favorites]
Is Nordstrom's considered an 'elite' department store? Is shopping there a sign that one's part of the liberal elite?
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:43 AM on February 8, 2017
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:43 AM on February 8, 2017
It's a sign that you want bras that actually fit and couldn't find any at Nordstrom Rack?
posted by dinty_moore at 9:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [18 favorites]
posted by dinty_moore at 9:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [18 favorites]
I think it's time to show Nordstrom a little love and support for dropping that woman's product line.
I responded to their response to my original boycott letter and said this:
Hello,
I just wanted to follow up on this and say thank you for dropping the Ivanka Trump product line from your catalogue. The moment I heard the news that Nordstrom was phasing out the brand, I got online and ordered a pair of booties! Thrilled to be able to shop with you again!
This is 100% true. I have been waiting to buy those damn booties since all this shit began. They're 40% off now!
posted by sunset in snow country at 9:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [25 favorites]
I responded to their response to my original boycott letter and said this:
Hello,
I just wanted to follow up on this and say thank you for dropping the Ivanka Trump product line from your catalogue. The moment I heard the news that Nordstrom was phasing out the brand, I got online and ordered a pair of booties! Thrilled to be able to shop with you again!
This is 100% true. I have been waiting to buy those damn booties since all this shit began. They're 40% off now!
posted by sunset in snow country at 9:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [25 favorites]
@realLordDampnut
Big increase in traffic into our country from certain areas, while our people are far more vulnerable, as we wait for what should be EASY D!
I don't know who Easy D is but I know we must await him/her. Save us from "traffic from certain areas," O Easy D. Also my least favorite Beckett play.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Big increase in traffic into our country from certain areas, while our people are far more vulnerable, as we wait for what should be EASY D!
I don't know who Easy D is but I know we must await him/her. Save us from "traffic from certain areas," O Easy D. Also my least favorite Beckett play.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
"Dear Nordstrom: you're a retailer, stock the items that sell" is all you need to say.
posted by holgate at 9:44 AM on February 8, 2017
posted by holgate at 9:44 AM on February 8, 2017
Oh and re: elitism, I think their customer base absolutely is the "liberal elite," which is exactly why they SHOULD HAVE DROPPED IVANKA'S BRAND TO BEGIN WITH.
posted by sunset in snow country at 9:45 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by sunset in snow country at 9:45 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
"""""certain""""" """"""areas""""""
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:45 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:45 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Is Nordstrom's considered an 'elite' department store? Is shopping there a sign that one's part of the liberal elite?
Well, it's in the same malls as Old Navy and Sears, so it's not super elite. It's on the pricier side though.
posted by diogenes at 9:46 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Well, it's in the same malls as Old Navy and Sears, so it's not super elite. It's on the pricier side though.
posted by diogenes at 9:46 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
I'm scared to learn what Easy D is.
posted by diogenes at 9:47 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by diogenes at 9:47 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
as i was reading the news today, i noticed a pattern.
posted by xcasex at 9:47 AM on February 8, 2017
posted by xcasex at 9:47 AM on February 8, 2017
so did nobody see the speech to the Major Counties Sheriff thingy this morning? right out of the gate he spat out some bullshit about standing ovations, how the press would say he hadn't gotten one. then he droned on for 5 minutes or so about how awful the courts are - oh hell, watch it for yourself.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 9:48 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 9:48 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Is Nordstrom's considered an 'elite' department store? Is shopping there a sign that one's part of the liberal elite?I don't think it's necessarily liberal, but it's definitely elite, and I think it's centered in big cities. There isn't one anywhere near where I live, although there is a mail-order fulfillment center for them near here.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:48 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I think he was signing his tweet and the D is for Donald.
posted by Green With You at 9:48 AM on February 8, 2017
posted by Green With You at 9:48 AM on February 8, 2017
Multiple redditors confirm that Betsy DeVos, or her backers, paid members of penny sites to write their senators in support of her confirmation.
posted by MrVisible at 9:48 AM on February 8, 2017 [49 favorites]
posted by MrVisible at 9:48 AM on February 8, 2017 [49 favorites]
Senate Rule XIX, which was used to silence Warren, is the 1836-44 gag rule that forbade any consideration of abolition in the House.
This doesn't seem to match with the history of Rule 19 described in this Washington Post article on yesterday's national embarrassment perpetrated by McConnell. tl;dr, a couple of Senators got in a punching match in 1901.
posted by biogeo at 9:49 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
This doesn't seem to match with the history of Rule 19 described in this Washington Post article on yesterday's national embarrassment perpetrated by McConnell. tl;dr, a couple of Senators got in a punching match in 1901.
posted by biogeo at 9:49 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Well, it's in the same malls as Old Navy and Sears, so it's not super elite. It's on the pricier side though.
Nordstrom varies depending on location. They are generally considered upscale, but some locations carry a lot more upscale stuff than others.
posted by Fleebnork at 9:50 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Nordstrom varies depending on location. They are generally considered upscale, but some locations carry a lot more upscale stuff than others.
posted by Fleebnork at 9:50 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I don't know who Easy D is but I know we must await him/her. Save us from "traffic from certain areas," O Easy D. Also my least favorite Beckett play.
...what should be Easy D = easy decision
posted by Jalliah at 9:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
...what should be Easy D = easy decision
posted by Jalliah at 9:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Huh, one of my Senator's staffers did not who Jefferson Davis or PGT Beauregard. The former was the slave-owning president of the confederacy, while the latter was a slave-owning confederate general.
Sessions is named after these monsters! It cannot be said enough that the Republican party is heir to Davis and Beauregard, not Lincoln.
We need to make sure this information gets out to our politicians and their staff.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 9:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
Sessions is named after these monsters! It cannot be said enough that the Republican party is heir to Davis and Beauregard, not Lincoln.
We need to make sure this information gets out to our politicians and their staff.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 9:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
2. If your Senator voted "yea", call your senator and simply begin reciting the letter into the phone when someone picks up.
Just called and left a strongly worded message with that little turd Rubio that he sucks. I'll call Senator Nelson this afternoon to let him know once again he's fighting the good fight.
Also, is this fucking real life? Is this still happening? For fucks sake make it stop.
posted by photoslob at 9:52 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Just called and left a strongly worded message with that little turd Rubio that he sucks. I'll call Senator Nelson this afternoon to let him know once again he's fighting the good fight.
Also, is this fucking real life? Is this still happening? For fucks sake make it stop.
posted by photoslob at 9:52 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Full PDF of 25-page letter that can be sent to Mitch McConnell via FaxZero for $2. Comes with free cover page whose text you can enter yourself.
Have at, guys.
posted by sciatrix at 9:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
Have at, guys.
posted by sciatrix at 9:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
đ” easy D doesn't come for free (she's a real la-dy) đ”
posted by everybody had matching towels at 9:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by everybody had matching towels at 9:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
@realLordDampnut
Big increase in traffic into our country from certain areas, while our people are far more vulnerable, as we wait for what should be EASY D!
Josh Barro â@jbarro
Dude, if you want easy D, you can find it on Grindr.
posted by dnash at 9:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [39 favorites]
Big increase in traffic into our country from certain areas, while our people are far more vulnerable, as we wait for what should be EASY D!
Josh Barro â@jbarro
Dude, if you want easy D, you can find it on Grindr.
posted by dnash at 9:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [39 favorites]
He'll always be SLEAZY D! to me.
posted by cmfletcher at 9:55 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by cmfletcher at 9:55 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
OMFG what if he's trying to make it a thing. Getting people to call him "Easy D."
...and the outro to "Fuck Wit Dre Day" runs through my head, with only the slightest of lyrical variations
posted by prize bull octorok at 9:55 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
...and the outro to "Fuck Wit Dre Day" runs through my head, with only the slightest of lyrical variations
posted by prize bull octorok at 9:55 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Easy D = easy decision
Aww, you ruined it!
posted by diogenes at 9:56 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Aww, you ruined it!
posted by diogenes at 9:56 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Just in case anybody wants to watch somebody else rant about Trump, here's last night's This Hour Has 22 Minutes interview with Vincente Fox, who uses just about insult in the book. (And for non-Canucks, keep in mind 22 Minutes is "fake news" in the way the Daily Show is "fake news.")
posted by sardonyx at 9:56 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by sardonyx at 9:56 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Aww, you ruined it!
No I didn't. Think of it as just an alternative fact
posted by Jalliah at 9:58 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
No I didn't. Think of it as just an alternative fact
posted by Jalliah at 9:58 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
I mean the alternative fact for "Easy D" would be "Hard D" and nobody wants that in his tweets.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:59 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:59 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Is Nordstrom's considered an 'elite' department store? Is shopping there a sign that one's part of the liberal elite?
If not, it will be considered such, by next Tuesday at the very latest.
I have to say, it's a disturbing sign of the partisanization* of everything, along with things like the whole mini-rehash / parallel-drawing of the election that apparently happened after the Super Bowl on Twitter.
This has been going on for a while, to be clear -- Starbucks and soccer are "blue", Hobby Lobby and NASCAR are "red", etc. But like so many other things, what was at a slow simmer is suddenly boiling over.
I know I'm preaching to the choir here: but I just want to remind myself, if no one else, that this is not normal, this is not okay, this extreme dividing-up of every aspect or entity of American society is destroying our civic life.**
*partisanization, not politicization: everything has some political aspect.
**And the two sides are not Republican vs. Democratic, but division vs. unity. It's just that the parties have aligned themselves pretty well with those two principles, and now everything else is being drawn toward one pole or the other and will continue to as long as the side of division holds power.
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:00 AM on February 8, 2017 [26 favorites]
If not, it will be considered such, by next Tuesday at the very latest.
I have to say, it's a disturbing sign of the partisanization* of everything, along with things like the whole mini-rehash / parallel-drawing of the election that apparently happened after the Super Bowl on Twitter.
This has been going on for a while, to be clear -- Starbucks and soccer are "blue", Hobby Lobby and NASCAR are "red", etc. But like so many other things, what was at a slow simmer is suddenly boiling over.
I know I'm preaching to the choir here: but I just want to remind myself, if no one else, that this is not normal, this is not okay, this extreme dividing-up of every aspect or entity of American society is destroying our civic life.**
*partisanization, not politicization: everything has some political aspect.
**And the two sides are not Republican vs. Democratic, but division vs. unity. It's just that the parties have aligned themselves pretty well with those two principles, and now everything else is being drawn toward one pole or the other and will continue to as long as the side of division holds power.
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:00 AM on February 8, 2017 [26 favorites]
Just in case anybody wants to watch somebody else rant about Trump, here's last night's This Hour Has 22 Minutes interview with Vincente Fox, who uses just about insult in the book. (And for non-Canucks, keep in mind 22 Minutes is "fake news" in the way the Daily Show is "fake news.")
ha ha - Let's build a bridge over the US between Mexico....and we'll have the (NAFTA) North American Fuck Trump Agreement.
posted by Jalliah at 10:02 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
It isn't every day that you get to witness the addition of a phrase to the English lexicon in real time.
posted by diogenes at 10:06 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by diogenes at 10:06 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
I just took a look at /r/the_dampnut and there's no mention of Nordstrom in any of the hot or rising links. It's very rare for an inflammatory or attention-getting tweet not to be proudly showcased there within the first few minutes and for the following few days. Strongly suggests that they're genuinely embarrassed or bemused by this and are trying to make it disappear within their own realm.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:06 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:06 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
CNN: Silencing Elizabeth Warren backfires on Senate GOP
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:08 AM on February 8, 2017 [41 favorites]
By Tuesday night, the hashtag #LetLizSpeak was trending on Twitter. Millions of people had also watched on Facebook as Warren read the letter outside the Senate chamber.Quoted text was in bold in the article, fwiw.
MoveOn members contributed $250,000 to Warren's re-election campaign in about 12 hours.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:08 AM on February 8, 2017 [41 favorites]
This has been going on for a while, to be clear -- Starbucks and soccer are "blue", Hobby Lobby and NASCAR are "red", etc. But like so many other things, what was at a slow simmer is suddenly boiling over.
And this completely ignores the fact that suburbs are usually red, which is where all the Starbucks and soccer are. And also, where I live, where the Nordies is.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:09 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
And this completely ignores the fact that suburbs are usually red, which is where all the Starbucks and soccer are. And also, where I live, where the Nordies is.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:09 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
ha ha - Let's build a bridge over the US between Mexico....and we'll have the (NAFTA) North American Fuck Trump Agreement.
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:09 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
As I was walking that ribbon of highway,I always wondered what the second line of this verse was about.
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:09 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Strongly suggests that they're genuinely embarrassed or bemused by this and are trying to make it disappear within their own realm.
I suspect that there isn't a ton of overlap in the Venn diagram of Trump supporters and people who are outraged about Ivanka's line being dropped by Nordstrom.
posted by diogenes at 10:09 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
I suspect that there isn't a ton of overlap in the Venn diagram of Trump supporters and people who are outraged about Ivanka's line being dropped by Nordstrom.
posted by diogenes at 10:09 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Sessions is named after these monsters!
To be fair, the first Jefferson Beauregard Sessions was born in early 1860, before Lincoln's election and the whole slave-state treason rebellion thing. But as inherited family names go, it's a bit too Alabama.
I have to say, it's a disturbing sign of the partisanization* of everything
Yeah. Under Armour toppled into that yesterday, where the CEO was a little loose on CNBC, and corporate comms had to mop up. "Cold civil war" might overstate it somewhat, but a decade or so of brands adopting Genuine People Personalities -- especially on social media -- is starting to have second-order political consequences, especially where the brand personality and the corporate attitude diverge.
posted by holgate at 10:12 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
To be fair, the first Jefferson Beauregard Sessions was born in early 1860, before Lincoln's election and the whole slave-state treason rebellion thing. But as inherited family names go, it's a bit too Alabama.
I have to say, it's a disturbing sign of the partisanization* of everything
Yeah. Under Armour toppled into that yesterday, where the CEO was a little loose on CNBC, and corporate comms had to mop up. "Cold civil war" might overstate it somewhat, but a decade or so of brands adopting Genuine People Personalities -- especially on social media -- is starting to have second-order political consequences, especially where the brand personality and the corporate attitude diverge.
posted by holgate at 10:12 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
I suspect that there isn't a ton of overlap in the Venn diagram of Trump supporters and people who are outraged about Ivanka's line being dropped by Nordstrom.
My point is that normally they would be outraged and going on about how horrible Nordstrom is and oh poor Ivanka, and they'd be heralding the tweet as supporting their victimhood. Instead the word doesn't even show up. It's odd.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:13 AM on February 8, 2017
My point is that normally they would be outraged and going on about how horrible Nordstrom is and oh poor Ivanka, and they'd be heralding the tweet as supporting their victimhood. Instead the word doesn't even show up. It's odd.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:13 AM on February 8, 2017
Mod note: Couple deleted; just because you've found a gross meaning someone uses for a phrase on Urban Dictionary doesn't mean it's a great contribution to the thread here.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 10:14 AM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 10:14 AM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
Washington Post: The Daily 202: Mitch McConnell gives Elizabeth Warrenâs 2020 presidential campaign an in-kind contribution
Heh.
Also, quoted in the article: David Axelrod
Heh.
Also, quoted in the article: David Axelrod
McConnell did @SenatorSessions no favors tonight by shutting down @SenWarren. Strong-armed tactics looked weak & defensive.posted by ZeusHumms at 10:15 AM on February 8, 2017 [16 favorites]
Pennsylvania senator to Trump: Come after me you 's***-gibbon'
Leach, who has pushed for civil asset forfeiture reform in Pennsylvania, invited Trump to come after him as well. "Hey! I oppose civil asset forfeiture too," Leach wrote on Facebook and Twitter. "Why don't you come after me you fascist, loofa-faced shit-gibbon!!"
posted by everybody had matching towels at 10:15 AM on February 8, 2017 [100 favorites]
Leach, who has pushed for civil asset forfeiture reform in Pennsylvania, invited Trump to come after him as well. "Hey! I oppose civil asset forfeiture too," Leach wrote on Facebook and Twitter. "Why don't you come after me you fascist, loofa-faced shit-gibbon!!"
posted by everybody had matching towels at 10:15 AM on February 8, 2017 [100 favorites]
"Nevertheless, she persisted" would make a kick-ass t-shirt. And campaign slogan.
posted by Mchelly at 10:17 AM on February 8, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by Mchelly at 10:17 AM on February 8, 2017 [17 favorites]
"Nevertheless, she persisted" would make a kick-ass t-shirt. And campaign slogan.
Here's a t-shirt And there are at least 6 more places already selling them
posted by Jalliah at 10:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Here's a t-shirt And there are at least 6 more places already selling them
posted by Jalliah at 10:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
And this completely ignores the fact that suburbs are usually red, which is where all the Starbucks and soccer are
Um, soccer maybe. Starbucks? No.
posted by phearlez at 10:19 AM on February 8, 2017
Um, soccer maybe. Starbucks? No.
posted by phearlez at 10:19 AM on February 8, 2017
he actually used the term shit-gibbon for real
this makes me unspeakably happy
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [30 favorites]
this makes me unspeakably happy
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [30 favorites]
"Nevertheless, she persisted" would make a kick-ass t-shirt.
Somebody else thought so too.
posted by neroli at 10:20 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Somebody else thought so too.
posted by neroli at 10:20 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
as i was reading the news today, i noticed a pattern.
... which is?
posted by progosk at 10:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
... which is?
posted by progosk at 10:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
And this completely ignores the fact that suburbs are usually red, which is where all the Starbucks and soccer are. And also, where I live, where the Nordies is.
This takes us on a loop back to the school choice question: suburban pastel-red conservatism is compatible with nice middle-class socially-responsible lifestyle brands, as long as that relationship is not interrogated too hard. Similarly, lots of suburban small-c conservatives just want "the nice school", not Lord Jesus Riding A Dinosaur Academy, not Gritty Urban High.
posted by holgate at 10:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
This takes us on a loop back to the school choice question: suburban pastel-red conservatism is compatible with nice middle-class socially-responsible lifestyle brands, as long as that relationship is not interrogated too hard. Similarly, lots of suburban small-c conservatives just want "the nice school", not Lord Jesus Riding A Dinosaur Academy, not Gritty Urban High.
posted by holgate at 10:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
Akron's own DJ EZD seems like a young go-getter.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:23 AM on February 8, 2017
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:23 AM on February 8, 2017
On Twitter, #shepersisted
And elsewhere.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:24 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
And elsewhere.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:24 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
> Pennsylvania senator to Trump: Come after me you 's***-gibbon'
Someone just rocketed to the top tier of my political contribution list!
posted by tonycpsu at 10:25 AM on February 8, 2017 [17 favorites]
Someone just rocketed to the top tier of my political contribution list!
posted by tonycpsu at 10:25 AM on February 8, 2017 [17 favorites]
IDK about where yinz are living, but there are hella Starbucks in the suburbs here. I mean, there's lots in the city too, but they do not stop at the city limits by any extent of the imagination.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:25 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:25 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Pennsylvania coming in strong today!
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
LOOFAH-FACED SHIT-GIBBON and NOTED SHORT-FINGERED VULGARIAN DONALD TRUMP.
posted by murphy slaw at 10:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 10:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
small-c conservatives just want "the nice school", not Lord Jesus Riding A Dinosaur Academy
I don't want that either, but to be fair LJRDA has a kick-ASS mascot
posted by mcstayinskool at 10:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
I don't want that either, but to be fair LJRDA has a kick-ASS mascot
posted by mcstayinskool at 10:26 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
The Nerdwriter has made a useful video about the true cost of the proposed defunding of public broadcasting, arts and other things that make life better for a tiny fraction of federal spending. He points out that the tax he paid on one $20 visit to his local snack dispensary fully covered his annual contribution to these - but, as we all know, it's not about the money, is it?
posted by Devonian at 10:27 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by Devonian at 10:27 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Spicer is such a dumbass, I'm pretty sure he's saying Atlanta when he means Orlando.
posted by SpaceBass at 10:29 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by SpaceBass at 10:29 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
Anyway, Spicer is on at 1:45pm. Let's hope he gets asked about Easy D.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:31 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:31 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
New American national pastime: coining new epithets for our corrupt, law-breaking elected officials.
Suck on that, Mitch McConnell, you charismaless chelonian chard-wanker.
posted by biogeo at 10:31 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
Suck on that, Mitch McConnell, you charismaless chelonian chard-wanker.
posted by biogeo at 10:31 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
Spicer is such a dumbass, I'm pretty sure he's saying Atlanta when he means Orlando.
"one of those swampy urban* hellholes, at any rate"
* not 90% white
posted by murphy slaw at 10:32 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
"one of those swampy urban* hellholes, at any rate"
* not 90% white
posted by murphy slaw at 10:32 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
T.J. Maxx Backs Away From Ivanka Trump as President Assails Nordstrom: Last week, employees at T.J. Maxx and Marshalls got very clear instructions about where to put signs for Ivanka Trump products: in the garbage.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:32 AM on February 8, 2017 [66 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:32 AM on February 8, 2017 [66 favorites]
And this completely ignores the fact that suburbs are usually red, which is where all the Starbucks and soccer are. And also, where I live, where the Nordies is.
Americans' partisan affiliations are increasingly, and dysfunctionally, connected with the rest of their identity.
I want to be clear: I'm not making a both-sides-ist argument. I don't have much option to be anything but a Democrat or something further left because Republicans want to destroy my marriage, harm several of the communities I am a part of in direct ways, defund my job (and possibly my entire workplace), and, well, I'll stop there.
Point is, it's not healthy for partisanship to become so central to one's identity. Like, if I ask a Canadian whether they're Liberal, Conservative or NDP, that doesn't necessarily tell me a ton about their worldview, where they live, what their race or gender or sexual orientation or class or income level is -- but partisan leaning carries a lot more baggage here in the US.
This ongoing and heightening political tribalism is leading us to the brink of disaster. But, as progressives are not generally the ones driving this, I don't fucking know how to stop it.
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:33 AM on February 8, 2017 [22 favorites]
Americans' partisan affiliations are increasingly, and dysfunctionally, connected with the rest of their identity.
I want to be clear: I'm not making a both-sides-ist argument. I don't have much option to be anything but a Democrat or something further left because Republicans want to destroy my marriage, harm several of the communities I am a part of in direct ways, defund my job (and possibly my entire workplace), and, well, I'll stop there.
Point is, it's not healthy for partisanship to become so central to one's identity. Like, if I ask a Canadian whether they're Liberal, Conservative or NDP, that doesn't necessarily tell me a ton about their worldview, where they live, what their race or gender or sexual orientation or class or income level is -- but partisan leaning carries a lot more baggage here in the US.
This ongoing and heightening political tribalism is leading us to the brink of disaster. But, as progressives are not generally the ones driving this, I don't fucking know how to stop it.
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:33 AM on February 8, 2017 [22 favorites]
Spicer is such a dumbass, I'm pretty sure he's saying Atlanta when he means Orlando.
Oh my god, you're right. What a mush-mouthed mumbling marionette.
posted by biogeo at 10:33 AM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
Oh my god, you're right. What a mush-mouthed mumbling marionette.
posted by biogeo at 10:33 AM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
Given that the Nordstrom tweet came via an iPhone, when the White House occupant was supposedly getting his daily briefing, many people are asking whether it was sent by The Daughter.
posted by holgate at 10:34 AM on February 8, 2017 [31 favorites]
posted by holgate at 10:34 AM on February 8, 2017 [31 favorites]
> many people are asking whether it was sent by The Daughter.
Is it irresponsible to speculate? It would be irresponsible not to.
posted by tonycpsu at 10:37 AM on February 8, 2017 [23 favorites]
Is it irresponsible to speculate? It would be irresponsible not to.
posted by tonycpsu at 10:37 AM on February 8, 2017 [23 favorites]
Doesn't really matter who sent it, @POTUS retweed it. This is a message from the office of the president of the United States.
posted by cmfletcher at 10:40 AM on February 8, 2017 [49 favorites]
posted by cmfletcher at 10:40 AM on February 8, 2017 [49 favorites]
T.J. Maxx Backs Away From Ivanka Trump as President Assails Nordstrom: Last week, employees at T.J. Maxx and Marshalls got very clear instructions about where to put signs for Ivanka Trump products: in the garbage.
My friend is an example of how it's not just about purposefully boycotting her products. She's not super political but is a caring and compassionate person in general. She had to by bridesmaid shoes. She found what she said were the perfect shoe for what she needed and it fit really well. It was then she noticed that it was Ivanka Trump brand. She said her immediate reaction was to feel ill, and although it was the best shoe she had been able to find in 2 hours of shopping, she couldn't bring herself to buy it. The brand made her feel too emotionally sick to wear it.
posted by Jalliah at 10:42 AM on February 8, 2017 [74 favorites]
My friend is an example of how it's not just about purposefully boycotting her products. She's not super political but is a caring and compassionate person in general. She had to by bridesmaid shoes. She found what she said were the perfect shoe for what she needed and it fit really well. It was then she noticed that it was Ivanka Trump brand. She said her immediate reaction was to feel ill, and although it was the best shoe she had been able to find in 2 hours of shopping, she couldn't bring herself to buy it. The brand made her feel too emotionally sick to wear it.
posted by Jalliah at 10:42 AM on February 8, 2017 [74 favorites]
T.J. Maxx Backs Away From Ivanka Trump as President Assails Nordstrom: Last week, employees at T.J. Maxx and Marshalls got very clear instructions about where to put signs for Ivanka Trump products: in the garbage.
Marshalls?
That is pretty damned downmarket..
posted by ocschwar at 10:44 AM on February 8, 2017
Marshalls?
That is pretty damned downmarket..
posted by ocschwar at 10:44 AM on February 8, 2017
Just knocked these together. What say you guys? Worth $50 for a supply of 500 of each?
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [106 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [106 favorites]
Given that the Nordstrom tweet came via an iPhone, when the White House occupant was supposedly getting his daily briefing, many people are asking whether it was sent by The Daughter.
Ivanka does use an iphone....
These people are really this stupid....
posted by Jalliah at 10:45 AM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
Ivanka does use an iphone....
These people are really this stupid....
posted by Jalliah at 10:45 AM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
soren_lorensen, those are AWESOME.
posted by suelac at 10:47 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by suelac at 10:47 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
soren_lorensen you might be able to take them to [office supply store of your choosing] and have them print these on cardstock in a limited run. So say $10 for 100 or something. Then you can ramp up if you want.
You should be able to fit two of these on one standard piece of cardstock. So 50 in red, 50 in green?
posted by INFJ at 10:48 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
You should be able to fit two of these on one standard piece of cardstock. So 50 in red, 50 in green?
posted by INFJ at 10:48 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Spice in the house
posted by stonepharisee at 10:48 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by stonepharisee at 10:48 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
That NYT article seems to have had a typo.
Small things can provide him great joy or generate intense irritation. Trump told The New York Times that heâs fascinated with the phone system inside the White House. At the same time, heâs registered a complaint about the hand towels aboard Air Force One, the White House aide said, because they are notsoft small enough
That's better.
posted by Gelatin at 10:49 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Small things can provide him great joy or generate intense irritation. Trump told The New York Times that heâs fascinated with the phone system inside the White House. At the same time, heâs registered a complaint about the hand towels aboard Air Force One, the White House aide said, because they are not
That's better.
posted by Gelatin at 10:49 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
I am fairly familar with printing this stuff if you want help/direction/input just give a shout.
posted by INFJ at 10:49 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by INFJ at 10:49 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I would order those postcards if I could change the city/zip to be mine!
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 10:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 10:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
Best case scenario seems to be taking the House in 2018 and then the Presidency and the Senate in 2020. But that will require people showing up to the midterms. If we can't do it at these midterms I'm not sure when we'd be able to, so here's hoping.
Statehouses, too (which would be doable if 2020 is a Democratic wave year). Statehouses, statehouses. They are the ones who will be redistricting the House.
posted by Gelatin at 10:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Statehouses, too (which would be doable if 2020 is a Democratic wave year). Statehouses, statehouses. They are the ones who will be redistricting the House.
posted by Gelatin at 10:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
I actually found it closer to the populism of Walt Whitman
I celebrate myself, and tweet myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to you as good belongs to me.
I loafe and corrode my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing myself on CNN.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this heil, this
hair,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their
parents the same (but if they were immigrants, they were the best people, only the best),
I, now seventy years old in failing health begin,
Hoping to cease dread of dad.
Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back a while sufficed to give me cred, but never forgiven,
I harbor for good or bad, I demand to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with narcissistic energy.
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 10:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
I celebrate myself, and tweet myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to you as good belongs to me.
I loafe and corrode my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing myself on CNN.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this heil, this
hair,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their
parents the same (but if they were immigrants, they were the best people, only the best),
I, now seventy years old in failing health begin,
Hoping to cease dread of dad.
Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back a while sufficed to give me cred, but never forgiven,
I harbor for good or bad, I demand to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with narcissistic energy.
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 10:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
My friend is an example of how it's not just about purposefully boycotting her products. She's not super political but is a caring and compassionate person in general. She had to by bridesmaid shoes. She found what she said were the perfect shoe for what she needed and it fit really well. It was then she noticed that it was Ivanka Trump brand. She said her immediate reaction was to feel ill, and although it was the best shoe she had been able to find in 2 hours of shopping, she couldn't bring herself to buy it. The brand made her feel too emotionally sick to wear it.
I've mentioned before that a few years ago I bought a kickass pair of black patent leather pumps. They are super comfortable and look great. They are among my favorite shoes. When I realized as I was buying them that they were Ivanka Trump brand, I made a face and laughed, then got into a discussion with my shopping companion over whether that was his wife or daughter. (We had to look it up on our phones while we left the store... which was in fact Nordstrom's, now that I think of it.)
Anyway, one extremely minor but still irritating result of the election is that I haven't been able to wear these shoes. I tell myself that I bought them long before DJT was even a candidate, that no one else will know... but it gives me that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Goddammit. DJT ruined a great pair of shoes for me.
posted by Superplin at 10:52 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
I've mentioned before that a few years ago I bought a kickass pair of black patent leather pumps. They are super comfortable and look great. They are among my favorite shoes. When I realized as I was buying them that they were Ivanka Trump brand, I made a face and laughed, then got into a discussion with my shopping companion over whether that was his wife or daughter. (We had to look it up on our phones while we left the store... which was in fact Nordstrom's, now that I think of it.)
Anyway, one extremely minor but still irritating result of the election is that I haven't been able to wear these shoes. I tell myself that I bought them long before DJT was even a candidate, that no one else will know... but it gives me that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Goddammit. DJT ruined a great pair of shoes for me.
posted by Superplin at 10:52 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
I don't want any of what that English prof is smoking.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:52 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:52 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
I Sing The Body Electric Orange
posted by murphy slaw at 10:52 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 10:52 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Just knocked these together. What say you guys? Worth $50 for a supply of 500 of each?
If you could make them standard 4 x 6 postcard size and format that would be awesome!
posted by jedicus at 10:52 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
If you could make them standard 4 x 6 postcard size and format that would be awesome!
posted by jedicus at 10:52 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Orrin Hatch is going on with a bunch of bullshit now about how Dems shouldn't talk about how terrible Jeff Sessions is and how the decorum of the Senate is totally breaking down because of the Democratic Senators. Like the GOP didn't spend 8 fucking years pulling bullshit all day long.
It's almost as if the so-called Senate rules of comity exist only to keep people from pointing out how racist Southern Republicans are. Well, okay, not just Southern, anymore.
posted by Gelatin at 10:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
It's almost as if the so-called Senate rules of comity exist only to keep people from pointing out how racist Southern Republicans are. Well, okay, not just Southern, anymore.
posted by Gelatin at 10:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
my dad is a philosopher of biology
Is this an autocorrect or is this a thing?
posted by juiceCake at 10:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Is this an autocorrect or is this a thing?
posted by juiceCake at 10:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Philosophy of biology is totally a thing.
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:55 AM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:55 AM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
I don't want any of what that English prof is smoking.
I should say, I worked at Emory for two years. This essay is not representative of the intellectual or ethical integrity characteristic of the school.
posted by biogeo at 10:55 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
I should say, I worked at Emory for two years. This essay is not representative of the intellectual or ethical integrity characteristic of the school.
posted by biogeo at 10:55 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
I would order those postcards if I could change the city/zip to be mine!
I can send out .psds to customize or just create versions that have a _______ instead of location/zip for you to write in.
They are right now just using the VistaPrint standard postcard template (5.47" x 4.21"
139 x 107 mm 1642 x 1264 pixels). I'm kinda dumb with print stuff, I just use templates and hope for the best, but I'm ready willing and able to ship out the raw .psds to anyone who wants to work with them.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:55 AM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
I can send out .psds to customize or just create versions that have a _______ instead of location/zip for you to write in.
They are right now just using the VistaPrint standard postcard template (5.47" x 4.21"
139 x 107 mm 1642 x 1264 pixels). I'm kinda dumb with print stuff, I just use templates and hope for the best, but I'm ready willing and able to ship out the raw .psds to anyone who wants to work with them.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:55 AM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
Is this an autocorrect or is this a thing?
Completely a thing. It's a branch of history and philosophy of science, which is also a thing.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:56 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Completely a thing. It's a branch of history and philosophy of science, which is also a thing.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:56 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
It's like philosophy of science but better.
posted by biogeo at 10:56 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 10:56 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
First question is from Skype, but it least it seems to be a real question (about immigration sanctuary cities).
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:57 AM on February 8, 2017
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:57 AM on February 8, 2017
I think people are fixated on the Nordstrom aspect of the tweet and not the even more interesting bit: "She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing!"
Ivanka and Jared have been running the world's most transparent PR campaign to try to make themselves not look like monsters. It has not exactly been a subtle effort, e.g. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner worked to sink LGBT order. It's a campaign that boils down to "attractive, wealthy couple totally not wallowing around in horrible shit, says couple covered in horrible shit." Jared is a senior advisor; this administration is not something the family can run away from.
Now we have the President's twitter (both accounts) used as part of this campaign. In the same tweet, he's defended Ivanka's outside business and acknowledged her role as a government advisor. The conflict of interest was obvious and expected. The part I find really odious, and interesting, is how far Ivanka is trying to go to publicly distance herself from this stuff.
posted by zachlipton at 10:57 AM on February 8, 2017 [54 favorites]
Ivanka and Jared have been running the world's most transparent PR campaign to try to make themselves not look like monsters. It has not exactly been a subtle effort, e.g. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner worked to sink LGBT order. It's a campaign that boils down to "attractive, wealthy couple totally not wallowing around in horrible shit, says couple covered in horrible shit." Jared is a senior advisor; this administration is not something the family can run away from.
Now we have the President's twitter (both accounts) used as part of this campaign. In the same tweet, he's defended Ivanka's outside business and acknowledged her role as a government advisor. The conflict of interest was obvious and expected. The part I find really odious, and interesting, is how far Ivanka is trying to go to publicly distance herself from this stuff.
posted by zachlipton at 10:57 AM on February 8, 2017 [54 favorites]
I'll bet there's a philology of biosophy too.
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:57 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:57 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Philosophy of biology is totally a thing.
I just learned this last night! There was show on CBC radio about it.
posted by Jalliah at 10:58 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Completely a thing. It's a branch of history and philosophy of science, which is also a thing.
Cool and thanks to everyone for the responses.
posted by juiceCake at 10:58 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Cool and thanks to everyone for the responses.
posted by juiceCake at 10:58 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
OH: Not because the D is easy, but because it is hard
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:59 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:59 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Here is the show!
The Philosopher's Walk with Frédéric Bouchard
posted by Jalliah at 11:00 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
Goddammit. DJT ruined a great pair of shoes for me.
Yeah, the CEO of Under Armour has now said some truly stupid pro-Trump things so now I have to buy a lot of new underwear and workout gear. But I guess now I understand why most of the Star Wars designs UA has been making are themed after Darth Vader and the Stormtroopers - guess the company is pro-Dark Side.
posted by dnash at 11:00 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Yeah, the CEO of Under Armour has now said some truly stupid pro-Trump things so now I have to buy a lot of new underwear and workout gear. But I guess now I understand why most of the Star Wars designs UA has been making are themed after Darth Vader and the Stormtroopers - guess the company is pro-Dark Side.
posted by dnash at 11:00 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
soren_lorensen, those are AWESOME.
Agreed, my only comment is that if you're going to distribute them to others, you should probably amend the copy at the bottom to
posted by tivalasvegas at 11:01 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Agreed, my only comment is that if you're going to distribute them to others, you should probably amend the copy at the bottom to
"Yes, I am a real person. Iand, as noted above, omit the city & zip (they'll be able to tell the sender is a constituent from the cancellation stamp, right?)custom designed, printed andpaid for these out of my own pocket. I am not..."
posted by tivalasvegas at 11:01 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
If this is the thing that finally kills the Senate's faux-decorum once and for all, GOOD.
posted by schmod at 11:01 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by schmod at 11:01 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Spicer on the Nordstrom tweet: It wasn't about the business, it was about his daughter. "He won. He has every right to stand up for his family."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:01 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:01 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
âThe country doesnât need saving,â Mr. McConnell said when asked during an interview in his Capitol office if there was any cause for a senior-level congressional intervention given early chaos in the evolving West Wing.Seems to me that finishing his career as a docile apologist for a fascist is about right for him.
âI think there is a high level of satisfaction with the new administration,â he said, dismissing concerns about dissonant eruptions from the new president and some of his top staff members. âOur members are not obsessed with the daily tweets, but are looking at the results.â
posted by AceRock at 11:01 AM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
Got a couple memails already about the postcards. I am TERRIBLE about keeping up with memail, so here for all are uploads of the postcards:
DISLIKE
LIKE
Do with them what you will, with my blessings. (And by that I mean amend whatever text you want, make them say what you want, vaya con dios, my friends.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:01 AM on February 8, 2017 [73 favorites]
DISLIKE
LIKE
Do with them what you will, with my blessings. (And by that I mean amend whatever text you want, make them say what you want, vaya con dios, my friends.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:01 AM on February 8, 2017 [73 favorites]
@realLordDampnut
I keep seeing this here. Is it a parody or joke account?
posted by Room 641-A at 11:02 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
I keep seeing this here. Is it a parody or joke account?
posted by Room 641-A at 11:02 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Completely a thing. It's a branch of history and philosophy of science, which is also a thing.
There's philosophy of everything! It's the meta-science!
I liked philosophy of science class. Philosophy of history kind of made me want to die. I don't think I dropped my philosophy major until philosophy of language though.
posted by tivalasvegas at 11:03 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
There's philosophy of everything! It's the meta-science!
I liked philosophy of science class. Philosophy of history kind of made me want to die. I don't think I dropped my philosophy major until philosophy of language though.
posted by tivalasvegas at 11:03 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Just knocked these together. What say you guys? Worth $50 for a supply of 500 of each?
Something like this could be a gamechanger. Imagine if everybody did this and then when the mail arrived, everyday staffers would be "awesome - green day - we are liked!", or "red? What did we do?" Psychollogically this could have the powerto gamify politicians behaviour.
posted by meech at 11:03 AM on February 8, 2017 [29 favorites]
Something like this could be a gamechanger. Imagine if everybody did this and then when the mail arrived, everyday staffers would be "awesome - green day - we are liked!", or "red? What did we do?" Psychollogically this could have the powerto gamify politicians behaviour.
posted by meech at 11:03 AM on February 8, 2017 [29 favorites]
Great question: if Ivanka has separated herself from the company, how is this an attack on her business? Spicey: it's an attack on her brand.
checkmate brah
posted by prefpara at 11:04 AM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]
checkmate brah
posted by prefpara at 11:04 AM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]
philosophy of biology turned up in this recent FPP in that it turned out that what mid-century philosophy of science took to be the paradigm of scientific theorizing actually doesn't describe what biology does at all well
posted by thelonius at 11:04 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 11:04 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
I keep seeing this here. Is it a parody or joke account?
It's his twitter, just renamed. America's the parody or joke account.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:04 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
It's his twitter, just renamed. America's the parody or joke account.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:04 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Spicer is completely incoherent on the Nordstrom tweet.
posted by diogenes at 11:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by diogenes at 11:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
mid-century philosophy of science took to be the paradigm of scientific theorizing actually doesn't describe what biology does at all well
I believe this was referred to as "physics envy"?
posted by tivalasvegas at 11:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I believe this was referred to as "physics envy"?
posted by tivalasvegas at 11:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I keep seeing this here. Is it a parody or joke account?
this is the nickname that's sure to finish him off for good, please use it everywhere all the time
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:06 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
this is the nickname that's sure to finish him off for good, please use it everywhere all the time
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:06 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Philosophy of biology is totally a thing.
It's particularly a thing in evolutionary biology (which soren_lorenson said her Dad specializes in) because many of the claims you want to make in that field are retrospective and impossible to verify directly.
posted by Coventry at 11:06 AM on February 8, 2017
It's particularly a thing in evolutionary biology (which soren_lorenson said her Dad specializes in) because many of the claims you want to make in that field are retrospective and impossible to verify directly.
posted by Coventry at 11:06 AM on February 8, 2017
but I'm ready willing and able to ship out the raw .psds to anyone who wants to work with them.
send 'em to me and I'll get them kinkos/OfficeMax/staples ready. (I can also update it for anyone who would like to have their own)
I can't work on them until this evening (5pm or so EST) but just shoot an email to me: infj2017@gmail.com
posted by INFJ at 11:06 AM on February 8, 2017 [25 favorites]
send 'em to me and I'll get them kinkos/OfficeMax/staples ready. (I can also update it for anyone who would like to have their own)
I can't work on them until this evening (5pm or so EST) but just shoot an email to me: infj2017@gmail.com
posted by INFJ at 11:06 AM on February 8, 2017 [25 favorites]
Spicer claimed Trump was free when the tweet was sent, which means his intelligence briefing lasted only 20 minutes, he sent it during the briefing, and/or Spicer is lying.
posted by zachlipton at 11:06 AM on February 8, 2017 [21 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 11:06 AM on February 8, 2017 [21 favorites]
I Sing The Body Electric Orange
I Am Incurious (Orange).
posted by adamgreenfield at 11:07 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
I Am Incurious (Orange).
posted by adamgreenfield at 11:07 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
It sounds like Trump was not pleased with DOJ's Ninth Circuit argument last night.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:07 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:07 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
INFJ, bless you.
posted by joyceanmachine at 11:08 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by joyceanmachine at 11:08 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
I love those postcards! Might arrange a stash of those for myself. Suppose I should stock up on red printer ink, given how much angry mail I'm sending to Sen. Toomey these days. (Some day I hope to join yinz dahntahn for Tuesdays with Toomey, but usually Tuesday is my all-meetings-all-day day, so I have yet to be able to get away.)
I do not have any magic design-altering skills, so if someone wanted to tweak those for me to have a 15206 zip instead, and remove the "I made these myself" comment, that'd be cool, but otherwise I'll figure it out myself eventually.
posted by Stacey at 11:08 AM on February 8, 2017
I do not have any magic design-altering skills, so if someone wanted to tweak those for me to have a 15206 zip instead, and remove the "I made these myself" comment, that'd be cool, but otherwise I'll figure it out myself eventually.
posted by Stacey at 11:08 AM on February 8, 2017
Speaking of photoshop, there's a Trump-in-a-bathrobe photoshop battle.
posted by Coventry at 11:10 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Coventry at 11:10 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Coal is the future of energy!
oh no he di'n't
posted by murphy slaw at 11:15 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
oh no he di'n't
posted by murphy slaw at 11:15 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
You aren't allowed to suggest that the Yemen operation wasn't a complete success because a soldier died!
posted by diogenes at 11:16 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by diogenes at 11:16 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
fuck you spicer, truly fuck you, from the bottom of my heart fuck you, for saying the yemen mission was absolutely a success and saying otherwise is an insult to chief owens, who lost his life...
posted by prefpara at 11:16 AM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]
posted by prefpara at 11:16 AM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]
Ooh, Spicer is mad when a reporter suggests that the Yemen raid was a failure.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:16 AM on February 8, 2017
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:16 AM on February 8, 2017
Oh man the Yemen stuff. Christ, Spicer. He's just saying over and over again that if you undermine the message that this mission was a great success then you owe an apology to the family of our dead SEAL.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:16 AM on February 8, 2017
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:16 AM on February 8, 2017
"She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing!"
By implication, Trump's own inclination is always (or at least frequently) to do the wrong thing. Note also that she 'pushes' him to do the right thing, suggesting he is in fact actively resistant to doing the right thing on his own.
posted by jedicus at 11:16 AM on February 8, 2017 [26 favorites]
By implication, Trump's own inclination is always (or at least frequently) to do the wrong thing. Note also that she 'pushes' him to do the right thing, suggesting he is in fact actively resistant to doing the right thing on his own.
posted by jedicus at 11:16 AM on February 8, 2017 [26 favorites]
Spicer: Action in Yemen was a success. Anyone who disagrees can suck it.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 11:17 AM on February 8, 2017
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 11:17 AM on February 8, 2017
Spicer re the Yemen raid: "Anyone who suggests it's not a success does disservice to the life of Chief Ryan Owens...owes an apology." Says it over and over again. This is a direct attack on John McCain, who said it was a failure.
posted by zachlipton at 11:17 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 11:17 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
if it's absolutely a success that implies that killing an 8-year old US citizen was part of the mission objectives?
posted by murphy slaw at 11:17 AM on February 8, 2017 [29 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 11:17 AM on February 8, 2017 [29 favorites]
Philosophy of biology semi-derail: Georges Canguilhem argued that modern medical science was marked by a transition from a bipolar model of illness ("well" vs "sick") to one that posited health as a normative middle state on a continuum and then judged abnormal conditions in terms of "hypo-" or "hyper-", to be corrected through addition or subtraction. "This is not normal" on the body politic is a starting point: what's hypo- and what's hyper-?
posted by holgate at 11:17 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by holgate at 11:17 AM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
And he totally skipped the part of the question about the effect of Yemen's ban on future operations.
posted by rewil at 11:18 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by rewil at 11:18 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
And he totally skipped the part of the question about the effect of Yemen's ban on future operations.
Yup, that was the purpose of the faux outrage.
posted by diogenes at 11:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Yup, that was the purpose of the faux outrage.
posted by diogenes at 11:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
The question started off by asking whether it's a failure that Yemen threw us out of the country. He didn't answer that bit, instead repeatedly invoking the name of a dead service member to attack John McCain.
posted by zachlipton at 11:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 11:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
This makes the Battle of the Little Bighorn the most successful US Army engagement ever.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 11:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 11:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
Does Shitty Spice have a bloody shirt as a prop?
posted by holgate at 11:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by holgate at 11:19 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Spicer had nothing to say when pressed about Yemen kicking us out.
posted by diogenes at 11:21 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by diogenes at 11:21 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Shitty Spice, the newest spice girl?
posted by INFJ at 11:21 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by INFJ at 11:21 AM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
the yemen mission was absolutely a success and saying otherwise is an insult to chief owens, who lost his life...
Come on Spicer - say the mission was a win and filled with winning.
Because the headline then writes itself.
posted by rough ashlar at 11:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Come on Spicer - say the mission was a win and filled with winning.
Because the headline then writes itself.
posted by rough ashlar at 11:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
OSC just put out a clarification on Trump's 2020 candidacy. The website is being slammed, it looks like, so wait a bit before opening their site.
The gist of it seems to be, he hasn't officially declared candidacy yet, so proceed as if he were not a candidate. Also remember that the Hatch Act prohibits things like X but not things like Y or Z but that Y will be less/not permissible when he officially declares.
posted by Slackermagee at 11:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
The gist of it seems to be, he hasn't officially declared candidacy yet, so proceed as if he were not a candidate. Also remember that the Hatch Act prohibits things like X but not things like Y or Z but that Y will be less/not permissible when he officially declares.
posted by Slackermagee at 11:22 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
This makes the Battle of the Little Bighorn the most successful US Army engagement ever.
Well, everyone knows Custer died at Little Bighorn. What this press briefing presupposes is... maybe he didn't.
posted by thelonius at 11:24 AM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
Well, everyone knows Custer died at Little Bighorn. What this press briefing presupposes is... maybe he didn't.
posted by thelonius at 11:24 AM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
Yayyy more Yemen pressing. Thanks for doing your job a tiny bit, press pool.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:24 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:24 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
> Just knocked these together. What say you guys? Worth $50 for a supply of 500 of each?
MetaFilter: I won't be quiet anymore.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:24 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
MetaFilter: I won't be quiet anymore.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:24 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Soon enough "Criticism of this policy/action is unacceptably disrespectful to the people this policy/action murdered" will be a standard Republican argument.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:24 AM on February 8, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:24 AM on February 8, 2017 [15 favorites]
He'll get back to us on which "certain areas" are flooding the US right now.
posted by diogenes at 11:25 AM on February 8, 2017
posted by diogenes at 11:25 AM on February 8, 2017
@POTUS just retweeted Easy D
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:25 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:25 AM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
@POTUS just retweeted Easy D
Isn't it kind of weird to retweet yourself? Why doesn't he just pick one of the accounts and run with that?
posted by diogenes at 11:27 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Isn't it kind of weird to retweet yourself? Why doesn't he just pick one of the accounts and run with that?
posted by diogenes at 11:27 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Meanwhile, anti-choice fuckery is happening in my State assembly.
Other Pennsylvanians: get on SB3. It's a fucking travesty.
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:27 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Other Pennsylvanians: get on SB3. It's a fucking travesty.
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:27 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Grindr has re-tweeted about the Easy D.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:30 AM on February 8, 2017 [22 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:30 AM on February 8, 2017 [22 favorites]
I'm sure John McCain will continue to do fuck all in response to this insult. If he didn't bolt over "I like people who weren't captured," he's not going anywhere. Makes you realize just how much he wants tax cuts.
posted by zachlipton at 11:31 AM on February 8, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 11:31 AM on February 8, 2017 [17 favorites]
I am incandescent with rage at Spicer. Allow me to clarify and therefore explain: I am incandescent with rage at Commander Spicer of the United States Navy Reserve, who knows goddamn well that someone dying on a mission is the fucking alpha point of "Was there a fuckup in this operation?" I have personally heard and said "Well, at least no one died" when asked that question.
posted by Etrigan at 11:32 AM on February 8, 2017 [95 favorites]
posted by Etrigan at 11:32 AM on February 8, 2017 [95 favorites]
Makes you realize just how much he wants tax cuts.
McCain is 80 years old and rich as fuck (I assume). He has accumulated all the wealth and power he's likely to accumulate in his life. He's free to vote his conscience and speak his mind with, materially, no repercussions.
He chooses to grovel at the feet of a man who disrespects him at every possible opportunity. This is a pretty clear indication of his character.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:35 AM on February 8, 2017 [78 favorites]
McCain is 80 years old and rich as fuck (I assume). He has accumulated all the wealth and power he's likely to accumulate in his life. He's free to vote his conscience and speak his mind with, materially, no repercussions.
He chooses to grovel at the feet of a man who disrespects him at every possible opportunity. This is a pretty clear indication of his character.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:35 AM on February 8, 2017 [78 favorites]
Ha ha
Dictionary.com Easy D? Could be a lot of things: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/d
(We know what you're thinking, but that's NSFW: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/nsfw )
posted by Jalliah at 11:35 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Rally at McConnell's Neighborhood to Read Scott King's Speech [Event on FB invitation]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:36 AM on February 8, 2017 [28 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:36 AM on February 8, 2017 [28 favorites]
In case you're curious, this is SB3.
Absolute ban on abortion in PA after 20 weeks, with no exceptions for rape, incest, health, or tragic fetal anomalies. Bonus assholery: same bill also bans on the safest and most commonly used method of second-trimester abortion!!!
Find your state senator.
(HEY ANGRY FELLOW PENNSYLVANIAN MEFITES :D)
posted by joyceanmachine at 11:36 AM on February 8, 2017 [19 favorites]
Absolute ban on abortion in PA after 20 weeks, with no exceptions for rape, incest, health, or tragic fetal anomalies. Bonus assholery: same bill also bans on the safest and most commonly used method of second-trimester abortion!!!
Find your state senator.
(HEY ANGRY FELLOW PENNSYLVANIAN MEFITES :D)
posted by joyceanmachine at 11:36 AM on February 8, 2017 [19 favorites]
I hope Sessions gets pummeled with this.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 11:37 AM on February 8, 2017
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 11:37 AM on February 8, 2017
Spicer wishes Coretta Scott King was still alive because she would support Sessions now based on his support of Civil Rights. (ACTUALLY REAL)
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 11:37 AM on February 8, 2017 [46 favorites]
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 11:37 AM on February 8, 2017 [46 favorites]
so i realize that this is about the least important thing in the world right now
but one of the responses to that grindr tweet is a picture of trump looking smug
and like
how can a man have so much money, power, and influence
and spend so much time and effort to HAVE HAIR
and still have SUCH A FUCKING SHITTY HAIRCUT
posted by murphy slaw at 11:38 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
but one of the responses to that grindr tweet is a picture of trump looking smug
and like
how can a man have so much money, power, and influence
and spend so much time and effort to HAVE HAIR
and still have SUCH A FUCKING SHITTY HAIRCUT
posted by murphy slaw at 11:38 AM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Spicer wishes Corretta Scott King was still alive because she would support Sessions now based on his support of Civil Rights.
I am out of Holy Shits.
posted by suelac at 11:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [60 favorites]
I am out of Holy Shits.
posted by suelac at 11:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [60 favorites]
"McCain is 80 years old and rich as fuck (I assume)."
I bet we could find out because I bet he released his tax returns when he ran for president. You know. Like everyone does.
posted by komara at 11:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
I bet we could find out because I bet he released his tax returns when he ran for president. You know. Like everyone does.
posted by komara at 11:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Spicer wishes Corretta Scott King was still alive because she would support Sessions now based on his support of Civil Rights. (ACTUALLY REAL)
if this was a just world Corretta Scott King's zombie would leap out of the earth, run all the way to the White House, and devour Sean Spicer
posted by murphy slaw at 11:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [73 favorites]
if this was a just world Corretta Scott King's zombie would leap out of the earth, run all the way to the White House, and devour Sean Spicer
posted by murphy slaw at 11:39 AM on February 8, 2017 [73 favorites]
is in a long line of "Things Trump looks good that actually looks like shit."
The man has his own concept of reality.
posted by INFJ at 11:40 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
The man has his own concept of reality.
posted by INFJ at 11:40 AM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Full Text of Remarks by Top State Depât Official Discharged by Trumpâs White HouseâTom Countrymanâs Powerful Farewell Address. An excerpt:
If we wall ourselves off from the world, we will extinguish Libertyâs projection, as surely as if, as the Gospel says, we hid our lamp under a bushel basket. If we do not respect other nations and their citizens, we cannot demand respect for our citizens. If our public statements become indistinguishable from disinformation and propaganda, we will lose our credibility. If we choose to play our cards that way, we will lose that game to the masters in Moscow. If our interaction with other countries is only a business transaction, rather than a partnership with Allies and friends, we will lose that game too. China practically invented transactional diplomacy, and if we choose to play their game, Beijing will run the table.posted by zachlipton at 11:42 AM on February 8, 2017 [108 favorites]
Business made America great, as it always has been, and business leaders are among our most important partners. But letâs be clear, despite the similarities. A dog is not a cat. Baseball is not football. And diplomacy is not a business. Human rights are not a business. And democracy is, most assuredly, not a business.
McConnell's polio story is akin to Ryan's Social Security story, both men had experiences that could have shaped their philosophies
they DID. they experienced these things and what it made them feel the most strongly wasn't charity or gratitude or humility, it was "some people don't deserve this". that is the core of republican philosophy, that while there are good things to be had they are most certainly not for everyone, not for the undeserving. only for the whites.
posted by poffin boffin at 11:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [34 favorites]
they DID. they experienced these things and what it made them feel the most strongly wasn't charity or gratitude or humility, it was "some people don't deserve this". that is the core of republican philosophy, that while there are good things to be had they are most certainly not for everyone, not for the undeserving. only for the whites.
posted by poffin boffin at 11:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [34 favorites]
Something that's been niggling me - the whole '2018 is impossible for Dems to win' narrative assumes that 'impossible' is still a thing in US politics.
I put it to the floor that this word should no longer be part of the lexicon, as evidenced by events passim.
Get your freak on, people.
Also - He's free to vote his conscience
That's another thing that's niggling. We keep hearing that the GOP sees no reason to do anything other than what they want to do, there being no restraint on their current actions nor repercussions coming down the line. We are therefore watching them behave exactly as they want to. So why are they behaving so, so badly? They're scared of something, that's for sure - is it the wrath of Trump's core? I suspect it's a massive lack of confidence in their legitimacy, which implies that this would be a good place to apply maximum pressure - they over-reacted with Warren, and a few more of those would be most welcome.
posted by Devonian at 11:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [26 favorites]
I put it to the floor that this word should no longer be part of the lexicon, as evidenced by events passim.
Get your freak on, people.
Also - He's free to vote his conscience
That's another thing that's niggling. We keep hearing that the GOP sees no reason to do anything other than what they want to do, there being no restraint on their current actions nor repercussions coming down the line. We are therefore watching them behave exactly as they want to. So why are they behaving so, so badly? They're scared of something, that's for sure - is it the wrath of Trump's core? I suspect it's a massive lack of confidence in their legitimacy, which implies that this would be a good place to apply maximum pressure - they over-reacted with Warren, and a few more of those would be most welcome.
posted by Devonian at 11:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [26 favorites]
Spicer wishes Corretta Scott King was still alive because she would support Sessions now based on his support of Civil Rights. (ACTUALLY REAL)
if this was a just world Corretta Scott King's zombie would leap out of the earth, run all the way to the White House, and devour Sean Spicer
And now you know how to give a zombie food poisoning.
posted by azpenguin at 11:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
if this was a just world Corretta Scott King's zombie would leap out of the earth, run all the way to the White House, and devour Sean Spicer
And now you know how to give a zombie food poisoning.
posted by azpenguin at 11:44 AM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
@onlxn makes a good point: "Key aspect re: the White House pressuring Nordstrom -- it is doing so UNSUCCESSFULLY. The President is losing a battle with a clothier"
What does it say about our supposedly strong President that he can't even negotiate with a department store, let alone Mexico or China or Iran?
posted by zachlipton at 11:45 AM on February 8, 2017 [87 favorites]
What does it say about our supposedly strong President that he can't even negotiate with a department store, let alone Mexico or China or Iran?
posted by zachlipton at 11:45 AM on February 8, 2017 [87 favorites]
Dear Sean, If Corretta Scott King were still alive, maybe you could introduce her to Frederick Douglass.
posted by ruetheday at 11:49 AM on February 8, 2017 [38 favorites]
posted by ruetheday at 11:49 AM on February 8, 2017 [38 favorites]
@onlxn makes a good point: "Key aspect re: the White House pressuring Nordstrom -- it is doing so UNSUCCESSFULLY. The President is losing a battle with a clothier"
What does it say about our supposedly strong President that he can't even negotiate with a department store, let alone Mexico or China or Iran?
Stock is now up 3%
posted by Jalliah at 11:50 AM on February 8, 2017 [24 favorites]
What does it say about our supposedly strong President that he can't even negotiate with a department store, let alone Mexico or China or Iran?
Stock is now up 3%
posted by Jalliah at 11:50 AM on February 8, 2017 [24 favorites]
Dear Sean, If Corretta Scott King were still alive, maybe you could introduce her to Frederick Douglass.
That needs to be tweeted STAT.
posted by azpenguin at 11:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
That needs to be tweeted STAT.
posted by azpenguin at 11:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Spicer wishes Corretta Scott King was still alive because she would support Sessions now based on his support of Civil Rights. (ACTUALLY REAL)
I think it shows incredible restraint on the part of the press corps that nobody rushed the stage to punch him in his damned fool mouth.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [40 favorites]
I think it shows incredible restraint on the part of the press corps that nobody rushed the stage to punch him in his damned fool mouth.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:51 AM on February 8, 2017 [40 favorites]
Alas, I have no twitter. Feel free to tweet.
posted by ruetheday at 11:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by ruetheday at 11:53 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I think it shows incredible restraint on the part of the press corps that nobody rushed the stage to punch him in his damned fool mouth.
Am rather surprised no shoes have been thrown at him yet.
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:54 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
Am rather surprised no shoes have been thrown at him yet.
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:54 AM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
Ok, dammit, back to the Catholic school thing. My science classes were excellent, my HS biology teacher wasn't even Catholic.
I firmly believe the sex ed I got was significantly better than what my public school friends got, that's here in Texas, where public school sex ed tends to not really happen, or be, like, a 20 minute lecture about staying a virgin.
In Catholic school I had sex ed as a significant part of the curriculum from 7th grade onwards. It was extremely accurate as to biological processes and how stuff works. We were not taught about how to use condoms, but we were taught how birth control pills worked in a theoretical, scientific way. It was obvious our instructors were under orders to answer any question we had accurately. Occasionally my teachers would say something like "but the Church's official stance on homosexuality is..." which made it pretty clear they were giving the party line which they may or may not personally agree with.
The other thing that was a major focus was consent. It was an all-girls environment and the focus was on the right to refuse consent no matter the situation or context, including if you were married or already engaged in sex. We talk now about the importance of teaching consent, and I was taught it 20 years ago. And it blew my mind at the time, because I thought there was a point where you became obligated to give it up.
I mean, certainly, there were flaws. But I went to a school run by a progressive order. One of my lay religion teachers was in favor of female priests and priests being married and advocated for that in class. We had required religion classes. One was Scripture, one was Church History (including the bad parts), and then we could take religious electives. I took a class with an activist nun who did lots of justice work in South America. It was called Social Justice and fulfilled my religion requirement.
But everything one can say about religious schools varies WIDELY from school to school, denomination to denomination and order to order. Some religious schools are barely more than Sunday School all week. Some have a long tradition of excellence.
posted by threeturtles at 11:59 AM on February 8, 2017 [17 favorites]
I firmly believe the sex ed I got was significantly better than what my public school friends got, that's here in Texas, where public school sex ed tends to not really happen, or be, like, a 20 minute lecture about staying a virgin.
In Catholic school I had sex ed as a significant part of the curriculum from 7th grade onwards. It was extremely accurate as to biological processes and how stuff works. We were not taught about how to use condoms, but we were taught how birth control pills worked in a theoretical, scientific way. It was obvious our instructors were under orders to answer any question we had accurately. Occasionally my teachers would say something like "but the Church's official stance on homosexuality is..." which made it pretty clear they were giving the party line which they may or may not personally agree with.
The other thing that was a major focus was consent. It was an all-girls environment and the focus was on the right to refuse consent no matter the situation or context, including if you were married or already engaged in sex. We talk now about the importance of teaching consent, and I was taught it 20 years ago. And it blew my mind at the time, because I thought there was a point where you became obligated to give it up.
I mean, certainly, there were flaws. But I went to a school run by a progressive order. One of my lay religion teachers was in favor of female priests and priests being married and advocated for that in class. We had required religion classes. One was Scripture, one was Church History (including the bad parts), and then we could take religious electives. I took a class with an activist nun who did lots of justice work in South America. It was called Social Justice and fulfilled my religion requirement.
But everything one can say about religious schools varies WIDELY from school to school, denomination to denomination and order to order. Some religious schools are barely more than Sunday School all week. Some have a long tradition of excellence.
posted by threeturtles at 11:59 AM on February 8, 2017 [17 favorites]
I think it shows incredible restraint on the part of the press corps that nobody rushed the stage to punch him in his damned fool mouth.
for those watching the livestream, was there at least an audible gasp from the press pool?
posted by murphy slaw at 11:59 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
for those watching the livestream, was there at least an audible gasp from the press pool?
posted by murphy slaw at 11:59 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
"McCain is 80 years old and rich as fuck (I assume). He has accumulated all the wealth and power he's likely to accumulate in his life. He's free to vote his conscience and speak his mind with, materially, no repercussions."
I'm definitely not a conspiracy theorist or anything, but when I see some of the otherwise un-explainable cowardice of the the R congresscritters, I remember that the hacked RNC emails were never released into the wild, and that Donald has bragged about having dirt on politicians' adventures in his hotels.
posted by klarck at 12:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]
I'm definitely not a conspiracy theorist or anything, but when I see some of the otherwise un-explainable cowardice of the the R congresscritters, I remember that the hacked RNC emails were never released into the wild, and that Donald has bragged about having dirt on politicians' adventures in his hotels.
posted by klarck at 12:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]
Alas, I have no twitter. Feel free to tweet.
Tweeting now.
posted by Sophie1 at 12:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Tweeting now.
posted by Sophie1 at 12:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
John McCain wished his mother Roberta happy birthday yesterday. She's 105.
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:04 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:04 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Ok, I actually signed up for twitter. What has this election done to me?
posted by ruetheday at 12:06 PM on February 8, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by ruetheday at 12:06 PM on February 8, 2017 [17 favorites]
"McCain is 80 years old and rich as fuck (I assume). He has accumulated all the wealth and power he's likely to accumulate in his life. He's free to vote his conscience and speak his mind with, materially, no repercussions."
I'm definitely not a conspiracy theorist or anything, but when I see some of the otherwise un-explainable cowardice of the the R congresscritters, I remember that the hacked RNC emails were never released into the wild, and that Donald has bragged about having dirt on politicians' adventures in his hotels.
I always figure its that they know if they vote against the party line then they'll be primaried by some Tea Partier and potentially lose their cushy gig. Chances are they've got a seat that won't be won by the Democrats thanks to gerrymandering so their only real threat is from their own party.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:06 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm definitely not a conspiracy theorist or anything, but when I see some of the otherwise un-explainable cowardice of the the R congresscritters, I remember that the hacked RNC emails were never released into the wild, and that Donald has bragged about having dirt on politicians' adventures in his hotels.
I always figure its that they know if they vote against the party line then they'll be primaried by some Tea Partier and potentially lose their cushy gig. Chances are they've got a seat that won't be won by the Democrats thanks to gerrymandering so their only real threat is from their own party.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:06 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Ok, I actually signed up for twitter. What has this election done to me?
posted by ruetheday
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:06 PM on February 8, 2017 [32 favorites]
posted by ruetheday
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:06 PM on February 8, 2017 [32 favorites]
Serious question: is "tax cuts" a euphemism for something else? With McCain's particular situation, and what I imagine is a pretty cushy life for other Republican senators, are tax cuts really so compelling that you'd make huge moral sacrifices for them?
Tax cuts plus "smaller government" generally, because they've become so enamored with a two-word philosophy that covers every possible question that they're incapable of thinking of things in any other way.
posted by Etrigan at 12:07 PM on February 8, 2017
Tax cuts plus "smaller government" generally, because they've become so enamored with a two-word philosophy that covers every possible question that they're incapable of thinking of things in any other way.
posted by Etrigan at 12:07 PM on February 8, 2017
that Donald has bragged about having dirt on politicians' adventures in his hotels.
Did he collect the dirt from the cleaning staff's vacuum and place 'em in mason jars?
("I have reason to believe and do believe that the crime of wiretapping has occurred based on Trump's yugly honest statement of "having dirt" .....)
posted by rough ashlar at 12:07 PM on February 8, 2017
Did he collect the dirt from the cleaning staff's vacuum and place 'em in mason jars?
("I have reason to believe and do believe that the crime of wiretapping has occurred based on Trump's yugly honest statement of "having dirt" .....)
posted by rough ashlar at 12:07 PM on February 8, 2017
9th Circuit says no decision today.
posted by zachlipton at 12:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by zachlipton at 12:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
John McCain wished his mother Roberta happy birthday yesterday. She's 105.
If I had to choose between 30 more years of John McCain being in office and diving naked into a swimming pool filled with razor wire, I would flip a coin.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
If I had to choose between 30 more years of John McCain being in office and diving naked into a swimming pool filled with razor wire, I would flip a coin.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
for those watching the livestream, was there at least an audible gasp from the press pool?
I just re-watched that section. No. Nor any facial reactions from the few people in the audience in camera view (they were showing the reporter that asked the question and you could see a few people around her.) To be fair, their brains may have all exploded when Spicer said Sessions has tirelessly fought for voting rights and civil rights rendering them incapable of reacting.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 12:08 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
I just re-watched that section. No. Nor any facial reactions from the few people in the audience in camera view (they were showing the reporter that asked the question and you could see a few people around her.) To be fair, their brains may have all exploded when Spicer said Sessions has tirelessly fought for voting rights and civil rights rendering them incapable of reacting.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 12:08 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
ruetheday, here's a list of politics accounts you can follow (I don't maintain it)
posted by AFABulous at 12:10 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by AFABulous at 12:10 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
I was going to comment that you shouldn't under-estimate how committed they are to the idea of this magical free market low taxes no regulation makes a better world and America thing, then Joe Walsh decided to make the point for me.
A few of them know that arguing against such things makes them sound like an asshole to a lot of people, so they'll fall back to oh well there's nothing in the constitution saying... but there's no question: they consider some quantity of folks dying in squalor to be an acceptable price for this supposed Better America. You don't need to look for deeper personal payoffs.
You can see it with things like this current congress' effort to ditch rules about keeping all the kids fed. The stated reasoning was that complying with the regulation was too hard. We don't want to mandate that every kid in school gets fed because it's too much work.
Stop looking for deeper reasonings. They're not there. The extremists who have seized the Republican party look at a Heritage Foundation report that asserts 700M in over-spending on the food program and they think "We can lose 10 hours of what it costs to run the DoD or we can have at least a few hungry hungry kids" and they pick the hungry kids. It's a commitment to an ideology, period, nothing more.
Whether it's better or worse that there's nothing more in it for them you can make your own decision about.
posted by phearlez at 12:11 PM on February 8, 2017 [46 favorites]
Bernie says health care is a right. Why stop there? Don't I also have a right to a job? A right to a meal? A right to housing?He think that statement supports the idea that healthcare for all is lunacy. What next? Everyone gets to work, eat, and live somewhere other than under a bridge, no matter what?
Am I right?
A few of them know that arguing against such things makes them sound like an asshole to a lot of people, so they'll fall back to oh well there's nothing in the constitution saying... but there's no question: they consider some quantity of folks dying in squalor to be an acceptable price for this supposed Better America. You don't need to look for deeper personal payoffs.
You can see it with things like this current congress' effort to ditch rules about keeping all the kids fed. The stated reasoning was that complying with the regulation was too hard. We don't want to mandate that every kid in school gets fed because it's too much work.
Stop looking for deeper reasonings. They're not there. The extremists who have seized the Republican party look at a Heritage Foundation report that asserts 700M in over-spending on the food program and they think "We can lose 10 hours of what it costs to run the DoD or we can have at least a few hungry hungry kids" and they pick the hungry kids. It's a commitment to an ideology, period, nothing more.
Whether it's better or worse that there's nothing more in it for them you can make your own decision about.
posted by phearlez at 12:11 PM on February 8, 2017 [46 favorites]
Senate Rule XIX, which was used to silence Warren, is the 1836-44 gag rule that forbade any consideration of abolition in the House.
FYI that's not what that tweet says. It says the PRECEDENT for this is the gag rule on abolition. It doesn't mean they are literally the same rule.
posted by threeturtles at 12:11 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
FYI that's not what that tweet says. It says the PRECEDENT for this is the gag rule on abolition. It doesn't mean they are literally the same rule.
posted by threeturtles at 12:11 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Canadians want Trudeau to stand up to Trump, even if it leads to trade war: poll
Mr. Trumpâs pledge to renegotiate NAFTA is not sitting well with most Canadians. A Nanos poll, conducted between Jan. 26 and Feb. 1, found that 58 per cent of Canadians surveyed would support a trade war with the U.S. if the Trump administration slapped new tariffs on Canadian exports.
âItâs kind of a recognition that there is going to be unavoidable conflict with the Trump administration on trade,â Nik Nanos said in an interview. âWhen Canadians see the type of leadership style from Donald Trump, they realize that the only way to respond to him is assertively and confidently, even if it means a trade war. Even though we are a small trading partner, many Canadians believe the [trade] war is coming.â
Mr. Nanos poll also found that 57 per cent of Canadians are confident the Trudeau government can protect Canadaâs economic interests in the upcoming NAFTA negotiations. More than half of Canadians (53 per cent) are also opposed to Ottawa cutting corporate taxes to mirror the expected lower corporate taxes promised by Mr. Trump.
posted by Jalliah at 12:15 PM on February 8, 2017 [23 favorites]
zachlipton: Full Text of Remarks by Top State Depât Official Discharged by Trumpâs White HouseâTom Countrymanâs Powerful Farewell Address
That was great! Can we get the fired career civil servants to run for office? They've got experience!
posted by Arbac at 12:19 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
That was great! Can we get the fired career civil servants to run for office? They've got experience!
posted by Arbac at 12:19 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Sean Spicer says the WH will release 78 things about Jeff Sessions that they believe Coretta Scott King would approve of. [fake]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:20 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:20 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
guys, sorry i mis-summarized that tweet and spread fake news. i feel bad and wish i could edit.
posted by prefpara at 12:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by prefpara at 12:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Trump told The New York Times that heâs fascinated with the phone system inside the White House.
If it was anybody else this would just be a joke but I honestly believe he's looking for the "room monitor" button so he can spy on everybody like he does at his hotels.
posted by scalefree at 12:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
If it was anybody else this would just be a joke but I honestly believe he's looking for the "room monitor" button so he can spy on everybody like he does at his hotels.
posted by scalefree at 12:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
Wait. If it dishonors the memory of a dead service member to question the success of a mission, surely the years of Benghazi investigations were profoundly dishonorable and everyone involved must resign immediately.
posted by zachlipton at 12:23 PM on February 8, 2017 [90 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 12:23 PM on February 8, 2017 [90 favorites]
A Nanos poll, conducted between Jan. 26 and Feb. 1, found that 58 per cent of Canadians surveyed would support a trade war with the U.S. if the Trump administration slapped new tariffs on Canadian exports.
That is... a surprisingly high number to me. (BTW, for my fellow Americans -- Nanos is a major, reputable Canadian polling firm, and the Globe & Mail is pretty middle-of-the-road by Canadian standards.)
Mr. Nanos poll also found that 57 per cent of Canadians are confident the Trudeau government can protect Canadaâs economic interests in the upcoming NAFTA negotiations.
I would not be so certain of that. I imagine the government, at least, is smart enough to be scared shitless.
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:23 PM on February 8, 2017
That is... a surprisingly high number to me. (BTW, for my fellow Americans -- Nanos is a major, reputable Canadian polling firm, and the Globe & Mail is pretty middle-of-the-road by Canadian standards.)
Mr. Nanos poll also found that 57 per cent of Canadians are confident the Trudeau government can protect Canadaâs economic interests in the upcoming NAFTA negotiations.
I would not be so certain of that. I imagine the government, at least, is smart enough to be scared shitless.
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:23 PM on February 8, 2017
> Canadians want Trudeau to stand up to Trump, even if it leads to trade war: poll
My wife and I sent letters to our MP and Trudeau to this effect, and it took far longer for them to get back to us than it usually seems to...I assume because they're currently swamped with "FUCK TRUMP" letters.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:24 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
My wife and I sent letters to our MP and Trudeau to this effect, and it took far longer for them to get back to us than it usually seems to...I assume because they're currently swamped with "FUCK TRUMP" letters.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:24 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
All the people I know who have been eaten alive by fake news are college-educated.
I am reminded of my first week at McMaster University (Hamilton, ON, Canada) way back in 1988. My major was a combined English/Drama and having attended an English lecture I then attended the TA class. The demographic was mixed, male/female and fairly mixed along racial/ethnic lines if I remember correctly. I sat down and a guy sat beside me that, I quickly learned, was looking for an "ally". I was (and still am) a white (ginger)/male and this guy assumed right off the bat, or at least hoped, that those factors would mean I was "with" him.
He immediately started whispering to me as the TA (a female) started speaking. Deragatory things about women, about the humanties, about literature and art in general. He had an intense rage and started going on about "liberals". I was pretty naive at the time and up to that point in my life had no idea that people could still be so backward and that the word liberal could be thought of so badly.
I turned to him and told him to get away from me (I really didn't know how to handle it, as I said, this was all new to me). The TA asked what the issue was and before I could say anything he exploded in rage about how useless we all were and how useless art was and how useless liberals are and how it was so unfair he was forced to take this course as an elective (his major was Engineering). Also something about anyone in Humanties was born out of their Mother's ass unlike (who was also impregnated that way) unlike himself, who came out of the vagina (in addition to the implied insult I can only think this had some sort of religious reasoning to it). The TA kicked him out but the entire class was confused and shocked by the outburst. Never saw him again, thankfully. But backward bullshit ideas were and are definitely alive in higher education.
It was a real wake up for me at the time and I've watched that sort of attitude and bullshit grow in prominence in the years since then. I hope people who, for whatever reason had no or little idea what's been going on for years in certain parts of the States (and Canada and elsewhere of course) can finally see it now that the President is not only all of that but entirely incompetent as well. I've met some people over the years who were good people but didn't really know what was going on. I usually try to point out examples and often beg them to watch something like The Wire to see how our society and institutions misfunction.
I was speaking to my sisters and my nieces (who are mixed race and have been very apprehensive about it all of course) about Trump before the election and after talking about the chauvinism, the racism, the snake oil salesmanship, we said something like even casting that all aside, his incompetence is astounding and just as obvious, and yet people have gone about how he's a great fucking businessman, even people the manager of my building. I am and was, again, at a loss for words.
Which of course ties into Frederick Douglass, who, if memory serves, talks about how language helped to set him free and understand the world and it struck me at the time that in Orwell's 1984, when the party is actively eliminating words, it was the opposite of what Douglass was speaking about and the right-wing media machine has been trying to invalidate, strip, and redefine the concept and meaning of words and actions and it seems, have done a very good job doing so. It's essential that we reduce that and help others see the suffocating wool they continue to pull not only people's eyes, but their mouths as well.
posted by juiceCake at 12:25 PM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]
I am reminded of my first week at McMaster University (Hamilton, ON, Canada) way back in 1988. My major was a combined English/Drama and having attended an English lecture I then attended the TA class. The demographic was mixed, male/female and fairly mixed along racial/ethnic lines if I remember correctly. I sat down and a guy sat beside me that, I quickly learned, was looking for an "ally". I was (and still am) a white (ginger)/male and this guy assumed right off the bat, or at least hoped, that those factors would mean I was "with" him.
He immediately started whispering to me as the TA (a female) started speaking. Deragatory things about women, about the humanties, about literature and art in general. He had an intense rage and started going on about "liberals". I was pretty naive at the time and up to that point in my life had no idea that people could still be so backward and that the word liberal could be thought of so badly.
I turned to him and told him to get away from me (I really didn't know how to handle it, as I said, this was all new to me). The TA asked what the issue was and before I could say anything he exploded in rage about how useless we all were and how useless art was and how useless liberals are and how it was so unfair he was forced to take this course as an elective (his major was Engineering). Also something about anyone in Humanties was born out of their Mother's ass unlike (who was also impregnated that way) unlike himself, who came out of the vagina (in addition to the implied insult I can only think this had some sort of religious reasoning to it). The TA kicked him out but the entire class was confused and shocked by the outburst. Never saw him again, thankfully. But backward bullshit ideas were and are definitely alive in higher education.
It was a real wake up for me at the time and I've watched that sort of attitude and bullshit grow in prominence in the years since then. I hope people who, for whatever reason had no or little idea what's been going on for years in certain parts of the States (and Canada and elsewhere of course) can finally see it now that the President is not only all of that but entirely incompetent as well. I've met some people over the years who were good people but didn't really know what was going on. I usually try to point out examples and often beg them to watch something like The Wire to see how our society and institutions misfunction.
I was speaking to my sisters and my nieces (who are mixed race and have been very apprehensive about it all of course) about Trump before the election and after talking about the chauvinism, the racism, the snake oil salesmanship, we said something like even casting that all aside, his incompetence is astounding and just as obvious, and yet people have gone about how he's a great fucking businessman, even people the manager of my building. I am and was, again, at a loss for words.
Which of course ties into Frederick Douglass, who, if memory serves, talks about how language helped to set him free and understand the world and it struck me at the time that in Orwell's 1984, when the party is actively eliminating words, it was the opposite of what Douglass was speaking about and the right-wing media machine has been trying to invalidate, strip, and redefine the concept and meaning of words and actions and it seems, have done a very good job doing so. It's essential that we reduce that and help others see the suffocating wool they continue to pull not only people's eyes, but their mouths as well.
posted by juiceCake at 12:25 PM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]
I ADORE soren_lorenson's postcards. Is it possible someone could make a generic version and post the file? If that would be ok with Soren? A LOT of people would probably use them.
posted by threeturtles at 12:26 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by threeturtles at 12:26 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
and before I could say anything he exploded in rage about how useless we all were and how useless art was and how useless liberals are and how it was so unfair he was forced to take this course as an elective (his major was Engineering). Also something about anyone in Humanties was born out of their Mother's ass unlike (who was also impregnated that way) unlike himself, who came out of the vagina
...and that man is now the Deputy Secretary of Education. I'm Paul Harvey...good day!
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:29 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
...and that man is now the Deputy Secretary of Education. I'm Paul Harvey...good day!
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:29 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
Headlines I did not expect to see, even on January 8th of this year:
"T.J. Maxx Backs Away From Ivanka Trump as President Assails Nordstrom"
WTF? I mean, seriously, WTF???
The President of the United States is involved in a Twitter shit-fit with a clothing retailer, and a clothing discounter is sending out memos that say: âEffective immediately, please remove all Ivanka Trump merchandise from features and mix into the runs,â the note read. âRunsâ refers to the normal clothing racks where the majority of products hang. âAll Ivanka Trump signs should be discarded.â
And this is being covered in the newspapers?
Am I going crazy? How is this possible?
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:32 PM on February 8, 2017 [33 favorites]
"T.J. Maxx Backs Away From Ivanka Trump as President Assails Nordstrom"
WTF? I mean, seriously, WTF???
The President of the United States is involved in a Twitter shit-fit with a clothing retailer, and a clothing discounter is sending out memos that say: âEffective immediately, please remove all Ivanka Trump merchandise from features and mix into the runs,â the note read. âRunsâ refers to the normal clothing racks where the majority of products hang. âAll Ivanka Trump signs should be discarded.â
And this is being covered in the newspapers?
Am I going crazy? How is this possible?
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:32 PM on February 8, 2017 [33 favorites]
An old link Lulzsec era handbook for bloggers (from a site a few of you won't like and it points to mediafire which may set off some of your anti-virus programs)
posted by rough ashlar at 12:32 PM on February 8, 2017
posted by rough ashlar at 12:32 PM on February 8, 2017
I ADORE soren_lorenson's postcards. Is it possible someone could make a generic version and post the file?
send me an e-mail and I will make a custom tailored one for you with soren's blessing.
posted by INFJ at 12:33 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
send me an e-mail and I will make a custom tailored one for you with soren's blessing.
posted by INFJ at 12:33 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
...and that man is now the Deputy Secretary of Education. I'm Paul Harvey...good day!
Maybe it was David Frum. (googles) nope, he went to U of T.
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:33 PM on February 8, 2017
Maybe it was David Frum. (googles) nope, he went to U of T.
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:33 PM on February 8, 2017
We should just start a new movement called FAX THAT FUCKER and drown these assholes in paper.
Plant some trees to make up for it, win win.
posted by lydhre at 12:34 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Plant some trees to make up for it, win win.
posted by lydhre at 12:34 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Wherein @PressSec says he can only hope that were Coretta Scott King still alive, she would support Sessions for AG
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 12:34 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 12:34 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
Tom Countryman
Oh come on. Further evidence that the writers for 2017 have completely given up on even trying to be subtle.
posted by biogeo at 12:35 PM on February 8, 2017 [16 favorites]
Oh come on. Further evidence that the writers for 2017 have completely given up on even trying to be subtle.
posted by biogeo at 12:35 PM on February 8, 2017 [16 favorites]
A Nanos poll, conducted between Jan. 26 and Feb. 1, found that 58 per cent of Canadians surveyed would support a trade war with the U.S. if the Trump administration slapped new tariffs on Canadian exports.
That is... a surprisingly high number to me. (BTW, for my fellow Americans -- Nanos is a major, reputable Canadian polling firm, and the Globe & Mail is pretty middle-of-the-road by Canadian standards.)
Yes I thought the same. That's high. Good though because if this is the prevailing sentiment it will give the gov't some wiggle room with the public for standing their ground when whatever Trump is going to do starts.
posted by Jalliah at 12:35 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
That is... a surprisingly high number to me. (BTW, for my fellow Americans -- Nanos is a major, reputable Canadian polling firm, and the Globe & Mail is pretty middle-of-the-road by Canadian standards.)
Yes I thought the same. That's high. Good though because if this is the prevailing sentiment it will give the gov't some wiggle room with the public for standing their ground when whatever Trump is going to do starts.
posted by Jalliah at 12:35 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
I ADORE soren_lorenson's postcards. Is it possible someone could make a generic version and post the file? If that would be ok with Soren? A LOT of people would probably use them.
They are psd files so if you have access to Photoshop it's super easy to update them with your location and zip code.
BTW - thank you soren_lorenson. I've downloaded the templates and I'll be printing a bunch on my epson printer tomorrow.
posted by photoslob at 12:36 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
They are psd files so if you have access to Photoshop it's super easy to update them with your location and zip code.
BTW - thank you soren_lorenson. I've downloaded the templates and I'll be printing a bunch on my epson printer tomorrow.
posted by photoslob at 12:36 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
In which @Slate loses it: In "easy D" tweet, Trump signals support for gay community: http://slate.me/2k3YEXY
posted by zachlipton at 12:36 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 12:36 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
Wherein @PressSec says he can only hope that were Coretta Scott King still alive, she would support Sessions for AG
Well to be fair, he did prosecute the clown.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:37 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Well to be fair, he did prosecute the clown.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:37 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
> ...and that man is now the Deputy Secretary of Education. I'm Paul Harvey...good day!
I was going to make the exact same joke about it being Stephen Harper, but he didn't go to McMaster.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:38 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I was going to make the exact same joke about it being Stephen Harper, but he didn't go to McMaster.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:38 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
ruetheday, please let us know your twitter handle if you'd like to claim your tweet title.
i tweeted
posted by waitangi at 12:40 PM on February 8, 2017
i tweeted
posted by waitangi at 12:40 PM on February 8, 2017
Yeah anyway if that guy didn't want to be surrounded by leftists he probably should have reconsidered going to university in Hamilton.
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:43 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:43 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
ruetheday @RueKream
posted by ruetheday at 12:44 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by ruetheday at 12:44 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Retweeted and liked.
posted by azpenguin at 12:46 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by azpenguin at 12:46 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Attention election thread crowd: I have posted an AskMe that may be relevant your interests (about national apparatus for primarying Feinstein et al from the left.)
posted by contraption at 12:47 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by contraption at 12:47 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Trump administration seen as more truthful than news media: poll
The Trump administration is more trusted than the news media among voters, according to a new Emerson College poll.posted by monospace at 12:48 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
The administration is considered truthful by 49 percent of registered voters and untruthful by 48 percent.
But the news media is less trusted than the administration, with 53 percent calling it untruthful and just 39 percent finding it honest.
The numbers split along party lines, with nearly 9 in 10 Republicans saying the Trump administration is truthful, compared with more than 3 in 4 Democrats who say the opposite.
The Emerson poll found that 69 percent of Democrats think the news media is truthful while 91 percent of Republicans consider the Fourth Estate untruthful.
Independents, meanwhile, believe both the administration and the news media are untruthful, with 52 percent saying the administration is untruthful and 47 percent saying the same about the media.
Is Nordstrom's considered an 'elite' department store? Is shopping there a sign that one's part of the liberal elite?
Nah. It has a very moderate Republican vibe if any.
If I had to pick a store to be emblematic of upper middle class liberals I'd pick... REI
posted by mrmurbles at 12:49 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Nah. It has a very moderate Republican vibe if any.
If I had to pick a store to be emblematic of upper middle class liberals I'd pick... REI
posted by mrmurbles at 12:49 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
I'm a pretty good conservative-whisperer due to my upbringing.
There's kind of two kinds of folks here. There are the ones who are okay with people dying in ditches due to these policies. They are assholes. Then there are the ones (my parents fall into this category) who subscribe to some highly magical thinking about their preferred form of governance ushering in a golden age of personal responsibility and prosperity in which no one will die in ditches because suddenly the poor will all be empowered to not be poor any more, now that they are free of the shackles of government. They are very very naive and privileged.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:49 PM on February 8, 2017 [74 favorites]
There's kind of two kinds of folks here. There are the ones who are okay with people dying in ditches due to these policies. They are assholes. Then there are the ones (my parents fall into this category) who subscribe to some highly magical thinking about their preferred form of governance ushering in a golden age of personal responsibility and prosperity in which no one will die in ditches because suddenly the poor will all be empowered to not be poor any more, now that they are free of the shackles of government. They are very very naive and privileged.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:49 PM on February 8, 2017 [74 favorites]
I was going to make the exact same joke about it being Stephen Harper, but he didn't go to McMaster.
Well we did have Mike Harris (a Conservative Premiere) say:
We seem to be graduating more people who are great thinkers, but they know nothing about math or science or engineering or the skill sets that are needed...
Thinking is a skill in low demand in certain circles.
posted by juiceCake at 12:49 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Well we did have Mike Harris (a Conservative Premiere) say:
We seem to be graduating more people who are great thinkers, but they know nothing about math or science or engineering or the skill sets that are needed...
Thinking is a skill in low demand in certain circles.
posted by juiceCake at 12:49 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
If I had to pick a store to be emblematic of upper middle class liberals I'd pick... REI
Not WholePaycheck Foods?
posted by Justinian at 12:50 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Not Whole
posted by Justinian at 12:50 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Trump administration seen as more truthful than news media: poll
Yep, we're fucked. Good luck and godspeed folks.
posted by photoslob at 12:51 PM on February 8, 2017 [19 favorites]
Yep, we're fucked. Good luck and godspeed folks.
posted by photoslob at 12:51 PM on February 8, 2017 [19 favorites]
I know the Republicans can do nothing right and congress is a house divided.......but YODA is back in play. (You Own Devices Act)
posted by rough ashlar at 12:51 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by rough ashlar at 12:51 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
(You Own Devices Act)
Oh good, ensuring my right to sell my old phone has been a top concern of mine for some time now
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:54 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Oh good, ensuring my right to sell my old phone has been a top concern of mine for some time now
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:54 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
The lawyers in Washington are looking for someone in that state who has had a religious practice directly impacted by the travel ban (e.g. someone who couldn't travel in/out for a religious conference, religion-related speaking slot, pilgrimage, etc...). If you know someone who might fit the bill, please reach out to them via Twitter.
posted by zachlipton at 12:55 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 12:55 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
The numbers split along party lines, with nearly 9 in 10 Republicans saying the Trump administration is truthful,
what do you do with these people?
posted by AFABulous at 12:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
what do you do with these people?
posted by AFABulous at 12:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
Nordstrom doubles down, says sales declined in the second half of 2016 and Ivanka was personally informed about the decision in early January.
posted by zachlipton at 12:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [42 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 12:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [42 favorites]
My suspicion is that Nordstrom is getting called out in particular out of all the retailers dropping the Ivanka line since it is headquartered in Seattle. My feeling is that anything west coast is a personal target for trumpkins since he lost all the west coast states and he is exactly that petty (see also: shitting on California in his O'Reilly interview).
posted by aiglet at 12:57 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by aiglet at 12:57 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
We should just start a new movement called FAX THAT FUCKER and drown these assholes in paper.
No match for "FAXTHATFUCKER.COM".
>>> Last update of whois database: Wed, 08 Feb 2017 20:58:52 GMT <<<
just sayin...
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 1:00 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
No match for "FAXTHATFUCKER.COM".
>>> Last update of whois database: Wed, 08 Feb 2017 20:58:52 GMT <<<
just sayin...
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 1:00 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
My suspicion is that Nordstrom is getting called out in particular out of all the retailers dropping the Ivanka line since it is headquartered in Seattle. My feeling is that anything west coast is a personal target for trumpkins since he lost all the west coast states and he is exactly that petty (see also: shitting on California in his O'Reilly interview).
Also, the State of Washington is suing him and embarrassed him, the DOJ lawyer, and Bannon last night in court, aired live on two major cable channels and a widely viewed livestream.
posted by melissasaurus at 1:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
Also, the State of Washington is suing him and embarrassed him, the DOJ lawyer, and Bannon last night in court, aired live on two major cable channels and a widely viewed livestream.
posted by melissasaurus at 1:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
Serious question: is "tax cuts" a euphemism for something else? With McCain's particular situation, and what I imagine is a pretty cushy life for other Republican senators, are tax cuts really so compelling that you'd make huge moral sacrifices for them?
Tax cuts mean less revenue to spend on poor people who don't deserve it. The two doctrines go hand in hand. It's a win-win from the Republican point of view.
posted by JackFlash at 1:02 PM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
Tax cuts mean less revenue to spend on poor people who don't deserve it. The two doctrines go hand in hand. It's a win-win from the Republican point of view.
posted by JackFlash at 1:02 PM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
A bit of good news: The POS from Michigan who advocated another Kent State has resigned his position with the Republican party.
The bad news: he's still a total POS with a radio show, which has been suspended but not cancelled.
(For those not from Marquette: Word on the Street is a legit local news source.)
posted by kelborel at 1:04 PM on February 8, 2017 [35 favorites]
The bad news: he's still a total POS with a radio show, which has been suspended but not cancelled.
(For those not from Marquette: Word on the Street is a legit local news source.)
posted by kelborel at 1:04 PM on February 8, 2017 [35 favorites]
prefpara: "Your fax to Honorable Mitch McConnell at 2022242499 has failed because the fax was blocked by the recipient's phone company."
Turns out this anger meter goes to 11.
Perhaps you can fax his phone company, including a cover letter saying "it seems there is a technical issue on your end, please route this forward."
And perhaps you can share that fax number with more constituents, so they know how to route around the blockage (or at least piss off the phone company for blocking the faxes in the first place).
posted by filthy light thief at 1:05 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Turns out this anger meter goes to 11.
Perhaps you can fax his phone company, including a cover letter saying "it seems there is a technical issue on your end, please route this forward."
And perhaps you can share that fax number with more constituents, so they know how to route around the blockage (or at least piss off the phone company for blocking the faxes in the first place).
posted by filthy light thief at 1:05 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
This is my Senator, who apparently spent some time answering his own damn phones this morning in DC.
posted by anastasiav at 1:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by anastasiav at 1:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
I am really at the point of considering people who think "More wealth for the wealthy is the only good, even if the world is destroyed" as cult members. It's a very fundamentalist, culty idea that just giving more and more wealth to the few will somehow result in a glorious future in the face of all evidence to the contrary. They are not reasoning logically, they are expressing a religious belief.
Only money is good. Only those who have the most are blessed. All others must either strive to become one of the blessed or be destroyed. And there's only so much to go around so if you want to be one of the blessed you have to crush all who threaten your wealth.
No surprise that it fits in with white supremacy so well.
posted by emjaybee at 1:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [17 favorites]
Only money is good. Only those who have the most are blessed. All others must either strive to become one of the blessed or be destroyed. And there's only so much to go around so if you want to be one of the blessed you have to crush all who threaten your wealth.
No surprise that it fits in with white supremacy so well.
posted by emjaybee at 1:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [17 favorites]
The POS from Michigan who advocated another Kent State has resigned his position with the Republican party.
I swear, the photog must have said "Can you try to look more punchable, please? No, a little more... Little more... That'll do."
posted by Etrigan at 1:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
I swear, the photog must have said "Can you try to look more punchable, please? No, a little more... Little more... That'll do."
posted by Etrigan at 1:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
This is my Senator, who apparently spent some time answering his own damn phones this morning in DC.
Angus King, a.k.a. "Eagleton Ron".
posted by tobascodagama at 1:14 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
Angus King, a.k.a. "Eagleton Ron".
posted by tobascodagama at 1:14 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
Cruz: Democrats are 'the party of the Ku Klux Klan' Ted Cruz on Wednesday called Democrats "the party of the Ku Klux Klan," slamming senators in the minority as "foaming at the mouth" for stalling confirmation of President Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees.
posted by gatorae at 1:18 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by gatorae at 1:18 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Is there somewhere else where people are discussing how awesome "nevertheless, she resisted" is as Future POTUS Warren's campaign slogan?
posted by skewed at 1:19 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by skewed at 1:19 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Is there somewhere else where people are discussing how awesome "nevertheless, she resisted" is as Future POTUS Warren's campaign slogan?
That would be "most of Twitter".
posted by Etrigan at 1:20 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
That would be "most of Twitter".
posted by Etrigan at 1:20 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
What we need is more Dems like Daylin Leach, the PA Senator who just called Trump a "fascist, loofa-faced shit-gibbon" for threatening a TX Senator.
posted by Tarumba at 1:20 PM on February 8, 2017 [19 favorites]
posted by Tarumba at 1:20 PM on February 8, 2017 [19 favorites]
Everytime I hear someone say that the dems are the racist ones, I wish I could just stamp their forehead with the wikipedia entry on the Southern Strategy.
posted by mayonnaises at 1:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by mayonnaises at 1:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [15 favorites]
Nordstrom doubles down, says sales declined in the second half of 2016 and Ivanka was personally informed about the decision in early January.
TJ Maxx now backing away from Ivanka as well. "Employees at T.J. Maxx & Marshalls got very clear instructions about where to put signs for Ivanka Trump products: in the garbage."
My kingdom for a Crying Jordan Ivanka meme.
posted by AceRock at 1:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
TJ Maxx now backing away from Ivanka as well. "Employees at T.J. Maxx & Marshalls got very clear instructions about where to put signs for Ivanka Trump products: in the garbage."
My kingdom for a Crying Jordan Ivanka meme.
posted by AceRock at 1:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Is there somewhere else where people are discussing how awesome "nevertheless, she resisted" is as Future POTUS Warren's campaign slogan?
Twitter. Today I've seen Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart, Bree Newsome, and the T-Rex from Jurassic Park with the caption, "Nevertheless, she persisted."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:23 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Twitter. Today I've seen Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart, Bree Newsome, and the T-Rex from Jurassic Park with the caption, "Nevertheless, she persisted."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:23 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
At this point, why would any rational business sign up with a Trump? Even if you think there's money to be made right now, you're on notice that the President of the United States will use his office to publicly attack you if you ever decide to stop trying to sell products that aren't moving.
posted by zachlipton at 1:27 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 1:27 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
Oh good, ensuring my right to sell my old phone has been a top concern of mine for some time now
Obviously YODA is only a small step, but control over computing devices will be critical to future liberty. Phones today are potentially more powerful surveillance devices than the telescreens of 1984. And with human-level automated speech recognition and rapid progress in sentiment-analysis research, it's quite conceivable that soon you wouldn't need a Stasi-scale human workforce to maintain ubiquitous surveillance over an entire nation.
Software licencing restrictions like the ones YODA is attacking are a significant legal roadblock to researching phone backdoors, so I'm glad to see any progress in this area.
posted by Coventry at 1:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [21 favorites]
Obviously YODA is only a small step, but control over computing devices will be critical to future liberty. Phones today are potentially more powerful surveillance devices than the telescreens of 1984. And with human-level automated speech recognition and rapid progress in sentiment-analysis research, it's quite conceivable that soon you wouldn't need a Stasi-scale human workforce to maintain ubiquitous surveillance over an entire nation.
Software licencing restrictions like the ones YODA is attacking are a significant legal roadblock to researching phone backdoors, so I'm glad to see any progress in this area.
posted by Coventry at 1:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [21 favorites]
Ted Cruz on Wednesday called Democrats "the party of the Ku Klux Klan,
Whoot! More tone policing!
I wish I weren't in an all-blue district in a red state, or this would be way more fun. Maybe I'll ask a friend for her zip code and start making calls for her.
In other news, Senator not-appearing-in-my-city has yet to come out against Trump's DISGUSTING (odeous, I tell you) attack on our fighting men and women in uniform. I'm not certain his staffers are noting our complaints, either.
This may warrant several letters to the editor. I want to get the terrible behavior of our senator's staffers on record. Campaign ad gold.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 1:31 PM on February 8, 2017
Whoot! More tone policing!
I wish I weren't in an all-blue district in a red state, or this would be way more fun. Maybe I'll ask a friend for her zip code and start making calls for her.
In other news, Senator not-appearing-in-my-city has yet to come out against Trump's DISGUSTING (odeous, I tell you) attack on our fighting men and women in uniform. I'm not certain his staffers are noting our complaints, either.
This may warrant several letters to the editor. I want to get the terrible behavior of our senator's staffers on record. Campaign ad gold.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 1:31 PM on February 8, 2017
Here is Senator McCain's statement in response to Spicer.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:31 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:31 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Ted Cruz on Wednesday called Democrats "the party of the Ku Klux Klan"
....who literally endorsed Trump
posted by thelonius at 1:34 PM on February 8, 2017 [34 favorites]
....who literally endorsed Trump
posted by thelonius at 1:34 PM on February 8, 2017 [34 favorites]
I'm so tired of being told I have to stop talking to and about Trump voters like they're stupid. How should I engage with them? ...
I thought they were the people who liked a guy who calls it how it is.
I think you're right. I think too many people keep repeating advice on how they would like to be approached, or what they think would work for them, or just what they think things should be like in a perfect world. Only those people didn't vote Trump, why would we think the approach that appeals to them would work for someone who did?
I think the idea that calmly and rationally explaining to them how they are wrong, only this time more calmly and rationally, is completely misguided. What's that definition of insanity again, and could we drop it as the motto of the Democratic Party?
posted by bongo_x at 1:34 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
I thought they were the people who liked a guy who calls it how it is.
I think you're right. I think too many people keep repeating advice on how they would like to be approached, or what they think would work for them, or just what they think things should be like in a perfect world. Only those people didn't vote Trump, why would we think the approach that appeals to them would work for someone who did?
I think the idea that calmly and rationally explaining to them how they are wrong, only this time more calmly and rationally, is completely misguided. What's that definition of insanity again, and could we drop it as the motto of the Democratic Party?
posted by bongo_x at 1:34 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
The Ninth Circuit and President Trumpâs Lies (New Yorker, 2/8/2017)
posted by filthy light thief at 1:36 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
...The Justice Department had gone to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to ask for an emergency stay of that order, meaning that it could continue to keep people out and revoke tens of thousands of visas before any court had a sayâand even then, the Trump Administration argued, the courts were not allowed to say much. The three judges on the appeals courtâMichelle Friedland, Richard Clifton, and William Canbyâwanted to know what, exactly, the emergency was.This appears to be a pretty solid summary of the Ninth Circuit's hearings from yesterday.
....
Immigration law does give latitude to the President when the country is in danger. But what happens when you have a President who the courts, and any objective person, know tells lies? How should the assertions of danger then be regarded in light of other laws saying, for example, that religion should not be a reason for excluding people? For that matter, how should they be regarded in light of not only the Constitutionâs Establishment Clause, which precludes religious tests, but any number of other passages in that document?
posted by filthy light thief at 1:36 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
if i was stupid enough to vote for a moronic racist rapist shitbag asshole lunatic like trump i would hope that my closest friends would do the right thing and beat me to death with big sticks
posted by poffin boffin at 1:36 PM on February 8, 2017 [55 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 1:36 PM on February 8, 2017 [55 favorites]
Don't forget loofah faced! And shit - gibbon!
posted by Tarumba at 1:38 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Tarumba at 1:38 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
And, upon reading the Politico story, time for a letter to their editor as well. Historical context (sich as the failure of Cruz's party to do much of anything for years) would make his hypocrisy explicit rather than merely something to be deduced later.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 1:39 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by steady-state strawberry at 1:39 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
gatorae: Ted Cruz on Wednesday called Democrats "the party of the Ku Klux Klan,"
thelonius: ....who literally endorsed Trump
See, both parties are the same! (I guess that was his intention?)
posted by filthy light thief at 1:39 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
thelonius: ....who literally endorsed Trump
See, both parties are the same! (I guess that was his intention?)
posted by filthy light thief at 1:39 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
How great would it be if Alabama still had its voting records from the 1960-70s so someone could look and say 'Well, actually, Sessions WAS a registered Democrat as a young man!"
posted by gatorae at 1:39 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by gatorae at 1:39 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
One follow-up to the New Yorker piece: Three Possible Paths to #SCOTUS for Washington v. Trump -- which finally notes that these are temporary bans -- for the most part. A wide array of people are affected by President Trumpâs order, which bars for 90 days people from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. It also bans all refugees for 120 days, and Syrian refugees indefinitely. (NYT, UPDATED FEB. 3, 2017)
So this could die in courts now, and the "final" ban could then wind its way to SCOTUS, which might have a full 9 judges by then.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:42 PM on February 8, 2017
So this could die in courts now, and the "final" ban could then wind its way to SCOTUS, which might have a full 9 judges by then.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:42 PM on February 8, 2017
The whole claim was that the bans are temporary while they "find out what's going on" or whatever. if the courts are going to stay the order, then maybe we'll just find out whether it's possible to find out what's going on without banning people?
posted by zachlipton at 1:50 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 1:50 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
I think the idea that calmly and rationally explaining to them how they are wrong, only this time more calmly and rationally, is completely misguided. What's that definition of insanity again, and could we drop it as the motto of the Democratic Party?
I'm gonna link to that Twitter thread by Malka Older again.
Maybe it's possible to reach individual Trump voters with rational, reasoned arguments. But only if you know them personally and they are willing to listen to you. In the bigger picture, Trump voters as a group are not even going to hear your argument, much less give it a fair enough shake to be persuaded by it. That's the problem.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
I'm gonna link to that Twitter thread by Malka Older again.
Maybe it's possible to reach individual Trump voters with rational, reasoned arguments. But only if you know them personally and they are willing to listen to you. In the bigger picture, Trump voters as a group are not even going to hear your argument, much less give it a fair enough shake to be persuaded by it. That's the problem.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
It's going to be *very* interesting to see how it plays out when Serial Sexual Predator Donald J. Trump realizes that *every* "so-called Judge" has zero-tolerance for his bullshit in *their* court.
posted by mikelieman at 1:54 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by mikelieman at 1:54 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
He just retweeted a poll of EU countries favoring a blanket muslim ban. How do you think the GOP would have responded to Obama retweeting a poll of foreign nations supporting the mandatory confiscation of all guns?
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:55 PM on February 8, 2017 [27 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:55 PM on February 8, 2017 [27 favorites]
Random thing: while looking for information on the not-but-really-is-a Muslim Ban, and I saw a Brietbart headline that displayed as FAKE NEWS: #MuslimBan Trends on Facebook over Temporary ... and I thought Google finally started labeling the site as it's now fairly common to find it on the first page of search results.
Then I thought back to ISPs injecting code into webpages, and thought it would be amazing if some ISPs started doing this for Breitbart, Infowars, and others, and maybe some HATE SPEECH for Stormfront and the like.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Then I thought back to ISPs injecting code into webpages, and thought it would be amazing if some ISPs started doing this for Breitbart, Infowars, and others, and maybe some HATE SPEECH for Stormfront and the like.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
This appears to be a pretty solid summary of the Ninth Circuit's hearings from yesterday.
Good article, and it earns a soft spot in my heart for use of the word "mendacity" which I think we should be using more.
posted by nubs at 2:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Good article, and it earns a soft spot in my heart for use of the word "mendacity" which I think we should be using more.
posted by nubs at 2:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Then I thought back to ISPs injecting code into webpages, and thought it would be amazing if some ISPs started doing this for Breitbart, Infowars, and others, and maybe some HATE SPEECH for Stormfront and the like.
On a local-network level, I could easily blacklist each of them to my raspberry-Pi running Pi-hole -- if there was any chance of me ever going there... Could be an idea for people who admin work networks, though...
posted by mikelieman at 2:02 PM on February 8, 2017
On a local-network level, I could easily blacklist each of them to my raspberry-Pi running Pi-hole -- if there was any chance of me ever going there... Could be an idea for people who admin work networks, though...
posted by mikelieman at 2:02 PM on February 8, 2017
Chuck Todd just reported that Gorsuch is telling folks he's majorly pissed at Trump's behavior.
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:03 PM on February 8, 2017 [29 favorites]
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:03 PM on February 8, 2017 [29 favorites]
Then I thought back to ISPs injecting code into webpages, and thought it would be amazing if some ISPs started doing this for Breitbart, Infowars, and others, and maybe some HATE SPEECH for Stormfront and the like.
Oh yeah, code injection editorializing on politics is exactly what I want from my monopoly internet service provider.
posted by indubitable at 2:03 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
Oh yeah, code injection editorializing on politics is exactly what I want from my monopoly internet service provider.
posted by indubitable at 2:03 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
Sen. Lindsey Graham: Silencing Sen. Elizabeth Warren 'was long overdue'
The South Carolina senator appeared on the Mike Gallagher Show Wednesday, where he said Warren reading the letter from Coretta Scott King -- in which she expressed opposition to Jeff Sessions' nomination to the federal bench in 1986 -- was defamatory to Sessions, now an Alabama senator. The Massachusetts Democrat was ruled to be in violation of Senate rules for impugning another senator.posted by DynamiteToast at 2:06 PM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
"The bottom line is, it was long overdue with her," he said. "I mean, she is clearly running for the nomination in 2020."
"The Democratic Party is being pushed really hard by the most extreme voices in their community, and they just don't know how to handle it," he added. "If they empower her, then I think the Democratic Party is gonna lose way with the vast majority of the American people."
I much prefer shitgibbon with no mid-punctuation.
Must be nice to call a senator's phone and getting a human being OR leaving a vmail is actually possible. Not so for ShitKnob Tillis and Burr.
Do we even know if these faxes are being read?
posted by yoga at 2:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Must be nice to call a senator's phone and getting a human being OR leaving a vmail is actually possible. Not so for ShitKnob Tillis and Burr.
Do we even know if these faxes are being read?
posted by yoga at 2:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Oh yeah, code injection editorializing on politics is exactly what I want from my monopoly internet service provider.
Get a VPN, preferably a foreign one. It shuts that down.
posted by saysthis at 2:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Get a VPN, preferably a foreign one. It shuts that down.
posted by saysthis at 2:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Sen. Lindsey Graham: Silencing Sen. Elizabeth Warren 'was long overdue'
Nevertrump champion Lindsey Graham, everybody. Mucho sad.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [47 favorites]
Nevertrump champion Lindsey Graham, everybody. Mucho sad.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [47 favorites]
Gorsuch is telling folks he's majorly pissed at Trump's behavior. After that handshake? I bet his eyeballs say "KILL" in the pupils as he is telling them.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 2:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 2:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Chuck Todd just reported that Gorsuch is telling folks he's majorly pissed at Trump's behavior.
I'm telling you, you shake someone's hand like that once and if they've got any self-respect they'll never take you seriously again.
posted by dis_integration at 2:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
I'm telling you, you shake someone's hand like that once and if they've got any self-respect they'll never take you seriously again.
posted by dis_integration at 2:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
Lindsey Graham can bitch about Trump all he wants, he himself remains a black pit of nasty.
posted by emjaybee at 2:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by emjaybee at 2:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
I doubt it has anything to do with the handshake, and everything to do with laying the ground for the inevitable confirmation questions about how he'll relate to the Trump administration's attempts to undermine the Judiciary.
posted by Coventry at 2:10 PM on February 8, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by Coventry at 2:10 PM on February 8, 2017 [17 favorites]
Where is Todd saying that re Gorsuch?
He led off today's MTP on MSNBC just now with a report on Gorsuch telling [guy whose name I didn't get in the room soon enough to see, but he relayed it to Todd on camera] that he found Trump's comments about the federal judges and appeals court abhorrent and troubling. Or words to that effect.
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:12 PM on February 8, 2017
He led off today's MTP on MSNBC just now with a report on Gorsuch telling [guy whose name I didn't get in the room soon enough to see, but he relayed it to Todd on camera] that he found Trump's comments about the federal judges and appeals court abhorrent and troubling. Or words to that effect.
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:12 PM on February 8, 2017
I am out of energy to give a shit about managing anyone's feelings and making them feel warm and good about themselves.
Engaging with Trump supporters is not all about them, it's about everyone else. The only goal when engaging with Trump supporters is to get them to stop supporting Trump (bonus points if they start supporting progressives).
It's like dog training. I don't care how pissed off you still are that your dog shit on your bed, if he shits in the yard like a good dog, YOU WILL GIVE HIM A COOKIE AND TELL HIM HE'S BEING A GOOD BOY.
Now, in the context of a person, it's not morally right that they should feel good about themselves after your praise and acceptance. You're still rightly mad at them for all the harm they've caused and that even though they aren't going to cause any more harm, they're going to do fuck-all about making up for the harm they've caused.
It sucks that part of the solution to these assholes shitting the bed is that we have to give them cookies when they manage not to but, think about the future people that person won't go on to harm. How many people's beds do you keep them from shitting in by giving them that cookie.
It's really rare to make any progress with Trumpets and when you do, they usually feel pretty good about themselves and that's not fair. I tell myself that there are a bunch of people who's lives aren't going to be made shitter by every one of these ass-hats I make some progress with and that I've helped start them on a path that really does end with them looking back, regretting their past actions, and trying to make up for it, I just won't be around to see it.
posted by VTX at 2:16 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Engaging with Trump supporters is not all about them, it's about everyone else. The only goal when engaging with Trump supporters is to get them to stop supporting Trump (bonus points if they start supporting progressives).
It's like dog training. I don't care how pissed off you still are that your dog shit on your bed, if he shits in the yard like a good dog, YOU WILL GIVE HIM A COOKIE AND TELL HIM HE'S BEING A GOOD BOY.
Now, in the context of a person, it's not morally right that they should feel good about themselves after your praise and acceptance. You're still rightly mad at them for all the harm they've caused and that even though they aren't going to cause any more harm, they're going to do fuck-all about making up for the harm they've caused.
It sucks that part of the solution to these assholes shitting the bed is that we have to give them cookies when they manage not to but, think about the future people that person won't go on to harm. How many people's beds do you keep them from shitting in by giving them that cookie.
It's really rare to make any progress with Trumpets and when you do, they usually feel pretty good about themselves and that's not fair. I tell myself that there are a bunch of people who's lives aren't going to be made shitter by every one of these ass-hats I make some progress with and that I've helped start them on a path that really does end with them looking back, regretting their past actions, and trying to make up for it, I just won't be around to see it.
posted by VTX at 2:16 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Checks and Balances FTW! please dear G-d, let the damn checks-and-balances actually work!
posted by mikelieman at 2:17 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by mikelieman at 2:17 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
A follow up to my previous comment about Democratic prospects for winning in 2018: a spreadsheet comparing what we'd need in 2018 to the last 150+ years of elections.
In the 81 congressional elections since 1854, 38 saw more than 24 seats change hands. (This was measured by looking at change in Democrat-held seats, which if anything underestimates changes.) Of course, the House used to be much smaller. 24 seats is 5.5% of the current House. If we include elections where 24 or less seats changed hands but > 5.5% of seats changed hands, we get 40 total -- or nearly half of all elections.
The median seat change across all elections was 23, so only one less than we need. The mean/average change was 29, well more than we need.
My favorite result? There have been 19 elections with double or more the number of seats we need changing hands. That is nearly a quarter of all elections since 1854! Nearly a quarter of all elections have seen double the size of the wave we'd need.
The only hesitation my research has given me is the distinct downward trend in swinginess over time. Congress is more stable than it used to be, likely due to a combination of gerrymandering and partisanship. But we see bigger waves in 2006 and 2010 than we need in 2018, so it's not like those days are gone for good.
posted by galaxy rise at 2:19 PM on February 8, 2017 [35 favorites]
In the 81 congressional elections since 1854, 38 saw more than 24 seats change hands. (This was measured by looking at change in Democrat-held seats, which if anything underestimates changes.) Of course, the House used to be much smaller. 24 seats is 5.5% of the current House. If we include elections where 24 or less seats changed hands but > 5.5% of seats changed hands, we get 40 total -- or nearly half of all elections.
The median seat change across all elections was 23, so only one less than we need. The mean/average change was 29, well more than we need.
My favorite result? There have been 19 elections with double or more the number of seats we need changing hands. That is nearly a quarter of all elections since 1854! Nearly a quarter of all elections have seen double the size of the wave we'd need.
The only hesitation my research has given me is the distinct downward trend in swinginess over time. Congress is more stable than it used to be, likely due to a combination of gerrymandering and partisanship. But we see bigger waves in 2006 and 2010 than we need in 2018, so it's not like those days are gone for good.
posted by galaxy rise at 2:19 PM on February 8, 2017 [35 favorites]
"The bottom line is, it was long overdue with her," Lindsey Graham said.
"She had it coming" is the excuse of abusers everywhere. Graham is a nasty piece of work.
posted by JackFlash at 2:20 PM on February 8, 2017 [81 favorites]
"She had it coming" is the excuse of abusers everywhere. Graham is a nasty piece of work.
posted by JackFlash at 2:20 PM on February 8, 2017 [81 favorites]
Here you go. Gorsuch made the comments to Sen. Blumenthal.
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:20 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:20 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
I doubt it has anything to do with the handshake, and everything to do with laying the ground for the inevitable confirmation questions about how he'll relate to the Trump administration's attempts to undermine the Judiciary.
That is likely the case, and it's how politics-as-usual would be played, but how will the Trump respond to it?
posted by nubs at 2:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
That is likely the case, and it's how politics-as-usual would be played, but how will the Trump respond to it?
posted by nubs at 2:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
No. We don't have to give them any cookies. These people are speed-bumps. They, themselves, know they are speed-bumps. This is why they support this regressive regime. It's high time we started treating them like the speed-bumps they are. Heads down, push forward. Ignore them. You cannot argue with them, they are not swayed by facts or logic. Any interaction with them that is not of the form "Yep, you lost." is a waste of your time.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 2:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 2:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Teen Vogue: What Senators Should Know Before They Vote for Jeff Sessions to Be Attorney General: We talk a lot about how the resistance to Donald Trump is intersectional; because LGBTQ people are Muslims, women, people of color, Latinx, and immigrants, an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. Well as we see it, Jeff Sessions's opposition to equality is intersectional, too. His actions tell us that he'll discriminate against almost anyone, and Donald Trump has decided to put our basic civil rights in his hands. But since you have a say in this, our rights are in your hands first. You should consider what message you want to send all of us. Weâll be watching.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [35 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [35 favorites]
Trump may be Putin's puppet, but Gorsuch doesn't want to appear to be Trump's puppet no matter how forcefully Trump tries to yank the strings.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
"I do not like that Donald Trump," Gorsuch says as he overturns Roe v Wade. "I do not like him at all." Yes this is very much a win for Our Side
posted by prize bull octorok at 2:24 PM on February 8, 2017 [63 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 2:24 PM on February 8, 2017 [63 favorites]
please dear G-d, let the damn checks-and-balances actually work!
Three legs to the stool: One is Trump and it's been sawn off. The next is Congress; it's in the process of being sawn off, but the sawyer may run out of time before reason regains. The third is the Judiciary; it's covered in sawdust and holding fast but for how long who knows.
If you think too hard about this analogy you'll see that we've already fallen on our asses.
posted by notyou at 2:25 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
Three legs to the stool: One is Trump and it's been sawn off. The next is Congress; it's in the process of being sawn off, but the sawyer may run out of time before reason regains. The third is the Judiciary; it's covered in sawdust and holding fast but for how long who knows.
If you think too hard about this analogy you'll see that we've already fallen on our asses.
posted by notyou at 2:25 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
The Trump administration is more trusted than the news media among voters, according to a new Emerson College poll.
I question how useful this really is. Here's the questions:
posted by phearlez at 2:26 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
I question how useful this really is. Here's the questions:
13. Do you believe the Trump administration has been generally truthful or generallyThe crosstab about D vs R numbers is interesting, but "news media" describes a huge swath where the Trump administration means just a few people who are theoretically on the same mission. I'd be more interested in a breakout where people said whether they trusted the Trump administration vs the NYT, vs the WaPo, vs Daily Mail, vs Breitbart, etc.
untruthful?
Press 1 for Truthful
Press 2 for Untruthful
Press 3 if you are Unsure
14. Do you believe the news media has been generally truthful or generally untruthful?
Press 1 for Truthful
Press 2 for Untruthful
Press 3 if you are Unsure
posted by phearlez at 2:26 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
"I mean, she is clearly running for the nomination in 2020."
Considering that Trump already filed his papers for 2020, that seems like a reasonable thing for her to do?
posted by tobascodagama at 2:26 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Considering that Trump already filed his papers for 2020, that seems like a reasonable thing for her to do?
posted by tobascodagama at 2:26 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Lindsey Graham absolutely ran for the nomination in 2016: should he have been shut up on the Senate floor?
posted by notyou at 2:30 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by notyou at 2:30 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
This is a landline poll where 100% report voting in 2016.
so it skews old and represents a slight republican majority. sounds about right.
posted by murphy slaw at 2:33 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
so it skews old and represents a slight republican majority. sounds about right.
posted by murphy slaw at 2:33 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
He's projecting so much strength. Looking very much in charge. And with a Truman-like "Buck Stops Here" mentality.
Trump: I wanted month delay before travel ban, was told no
"The law enforcement people said to me, 'Oh, you can't give a notice,' " Trump said at a conference for the Major Cities Chiefs Association. "I suggested a month. And I said, 'What about a week?' They said you can't do that because then people are gonna pour in before the toughness."
(pour in before the toughness)
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:35 PM on February 8, 2017 [18 favorites]
Trump: I wanted month delay before travel ban, was told no
"The law enforcement people said to me, 'Oh, you can't give a notice,' " Trump said at a conference for the Major Cities Chiefs Association. "I suggested a month. And I said, 'What about a week?' They said you can't do that because then people are gonna pour in before the toughness."
(pour in before the toughness)
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:35 PM on February 8, 2017 [18 favorites]
Lindsey Graham: reminding us daily that the "sanest" republican senator is still a fucking loon.
posted by murphy slaw at 2:35 PM on February 8, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 2:35 PM on February 8, 2017 [16 favorites]
Chuck Todd just reported that Gorsuch is telling folks he's majorly pissed at Trump's behavior.
Gorsuch said 'I'm not like all the other republican guys' and then gazed longingly into Chuck Todd's eyes.
posted by srboisvert at 2:36 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
Gorsuch said 'I'm not like all the other republican guys' and then gazed longingly into Chuck Todd's eyes.
posted by srboisvert at 2:36 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
thought it would be amazing if some ISPs started doing this
Then how is the ISP supposed to keep up the idea that they should have limited liability as a common carrier? Doing that would be all the new Trump FCC would need to demand whatever new regs they want.
Better to whip up a microSD image for a raspberry pi 3 and have people who want that kind of features do it themselves.
posted by rough ashlar at 2:39 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Then how is the ISP supposed to keep up the idea that they should have limited liability as a common carrier? Doing that would be all the new Trump FCC would need to demand whatever new regs they want.
Better to whip up a microSD image for a raspberry pi 3 and have people who want that kind of features do it themselves.
posted by rough ashlar at 2:39 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Engaging with Trump supporters is not all about them, it's about everyone else.
This assumes that you have an audience of on-the-fence or persuadable people who are paying attention. This may be a situation that arises sometimes when socialising in person, I'll grant.
However, on the internet? Either you're dragging somebody in front of your peers who already agree with you or you're entering a den of lions who just want to tear you to shreds. That's the modern social media landscape, like it or not.
I do think there's value in calling out Wrong Opinions in front of people who agree with you, because it helps to build consensus, get people energised, give them arguments in case they do have one of those precious persuadable people in their lives, etc. But I think it's fallacious to engage in this kind of public display on the premise that anybody who doesn't already agree with you will be persuaded to your side. We're literally operating on a different set of facts these days.
posted by tobascodagama at 2:41 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
This assumes that you have an audience of on-the-fence or persuadable people who are paying attention. This may be a situation that arises sometimes when socialising in person, I'll grant.
However, on the internet? Either you're dragging somebody in front of your peers who already agree with you or you're entering a den of lions who just want to tear you to shreds. That's the modern social media landscape, like it or not.
I do think there's value in calling out Wrong Opinions in front of people who agree with you, because it helps to build consensus, get people energised, give them arguments in case they do have one of those precious persuadable people in their lives, etc. But I think it's fallacious to engage in this kind of public display on the premise that anybody who doesn't already agree with you will be persuaded to your side. We're literally operating on a different set of facts these days.
posted by tobascodagama at 2:41 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
They only have four years to fit in thirty years worth of smears against Warren and the best they can come up with so far is "read a letter from a civil rights icon that objects to racism." Work harder, Lindsey.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:42 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:42 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
people are gonna pour in before the toughness
Does the toughness happen before or after we finally get the D?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:42 PM on February 8, 2017 [16 favorites]
Does the toughness happen before or after we finally get the D?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:42 PM on February 8, 2017 [16 favorites]
pour in before the toughness
One of the lesser-known lines from that Disturbed song.
posted by Celsius1414 at 2:42 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
One of the lesser-known lines from that Disturbed song.
posted by Celsius1414 at 2:42 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
And, as the thread comes around to ways of blocking purveyors of rank bullshit, I think the problem we want to actually solve is how to break down the walls of info segregation and bring some real facts to people who are currently stuck using Fact-Splenda to sweeten their coffee.
posted by tobascodagama at 2:43 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by tobascodagama at 2:43 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Leaked Trump Presidential Memo Would Free U.S. Companies to Buy Conflict Minerals From Central African Warlords
Here is why.
The impending decision comes as Trump held a meeting Wednesday with Brian Krzanich, the chief executive of Intel, one of the leading firms impacted by conflict mineral regulations. At the White House today, Krzanich appeared with the president to announce a new manufacturing plant in Arizona.
posted by futz at 2:45 PM on February 8, 2017 [15 favorites]
Here is why.
The impending decision comes as Trump held a meeting Wednesday with Brian Krzanich, the chief executive of Intel, one of the leading firms impacted by conflict mineral regulations. At the White House today, Krzanich appeared with the president to announce a new manufacturing plant in Arizona.
posted by futz at 2:45 PM on February 8, 2017 [15 favorites]
donnie fuckface just loves to make his friends happy. I hate everything.
posted by futz at 2:47 PM on February 8, 2017
posted by futz at 2:47 PM on February 8, 2017
conflict mineral regulations
Remember, he said that with the President, there can be no conflict.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:50 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Remember, he said that with the President, there can be no conflict.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:50 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
It is just kind of terrible that I literally can't do anything for even a few hours without compulsively wondering what new thing Donald Trump is fucking up while I am relaxing.
Oh, 2017! Making me nostalgic for goddamn 2016!
posted by corb at 2:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [29 favorites]
Oh, 2017! Making me nostalgic for goddamn 2016!
posted by corb at 2:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [29 favorites]
Gorsuch found Trumps attack so troubling he silently accepted the stolen nomination. Let's not kind ourselves here, we're not getting a David Souter or even John Roberts. Gorsuch will be a rubber stamp for anything Trump wants to do. He'll be he most right wing justice to ever sit on the court other than Thomas. If there's any member of SCOTUS that might push back, it's Roberts himself who stands to be the new median Justice sooner rather than later, and does at least have some record of caring about the Courts legitimacy.
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:57 PM on February 8, 2017 [23 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:57 PM on February 8, 2017 [23 favorites]
Wow, I really love the combination of thesixtyfive.org and faxzero.com that Excommunicated Cardinal recommended.
I am a shy person and it has kept me from making phone calls. I am also terrible at writing things from scratch--a blank page makes me procrastinate like crazy. This combo solves both of these problems. My messages end up being fairly personalized, but starting with the script helps me get over my writer's block.
I sent out my five free faxes for the day and have five more ready to go for tomorrow!
posted by insoluble uncertainty at 2:58 PM on February 8, 2017 [30 favorites]
I am a shy person and it has kept me from making phone calls. I am also terrible at writing things from scratch--a blank page makes me procrastinate like crazy. This combo solves both of these problems. My messages end up being fairly personalized, but starting with the script helps me get over my writer's block.
I sent out my five free faxes for the day and have five more ready to go for tomorrow!
posted by insoluble uncertainty at 2:58 PM on February 8, 2017 [30 favorites]
"The bottom line is, it was long overdue with her," he said. "I mean, she is clearly running for the nomination in 2020 uppity."
posted by mudpuppie at 2:59 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by mudpuppie at 2:59 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
Oh, 2017! Making me nostalgic for goddamn 2016!
I would throw a few beloved celebrities on a pyre to make this stop.
posted by AFABulous at 2:59 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
I would throw a few beloved celebrities on a pyre to make this stop.
posted by AFABulous at 2:59 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
It is just kind of terrible that I literally can't do anything for even a few hours without compulsively wondering what new thing Donald Trump is fucking up while I am relaxing.
With trying to keep up on all the ways the country is being dismantled, and trying to keep up with distracting myself from all the ways the country is being dismantled, and trying to keep up my motivation for all my day-to-day shit while the country is being dismantled, I am, yes, experiencing profound disconcertion.
posted by Celsius1414 at 3:02 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
With trying to keep up on all the ways the country is being dismantled, and trying to keep up with distracting myself from all the ways the country is being dismantled, and trying to keep up my motivation for all my day-to-day shit while the country is being dismantled, I am, yes, experiencing profound disconcertion.
posted by Celsius1414 at 3:02 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
This assumes that you have an audience of on-the-fence or persuadable people who are paying attention.
Not quite. I mean that if you can make just a little bit of progress with just one person, there are a bunch of people that would have been harmed directly or indirectly by that one person that now won't be.
But yeah, if we're talking about randoes on the internet, you're just wasting your time, change your tactics accordingly. For me, it stops being about changing their minds and starts being about denying them what they want, to cause outrage. I stay polite, I don't get angry (they HATE it when you don't get angry), and then I sort of just mess with them. I mean, they're just random morons on the internet, it's not like they can actually do anything to you. I like to waste their time and let them know that they're opposed.
I'm talking more about people you know, friends, co-workers, acquaintances, and family. Even if you're just talking over the internet, your not just some rando, you're a real person that they can't ignore as easily.
posted by VTX at 3:03 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Not quite. I mean that if you can make just a little bit of progress with just one person, there are a bunch of people that would have been harmed directly or indirectly by that one person that now won't be.
But yeah, if we're talking about randoes on the internet, you're just wasting your time, change your tactics accordingly. For me, it stops being about changing their minds and starts being about denying them what they want, to cause outrage. I stay polite, I don't get angry (they HATE it when you don't get angry), and then I sort of just mess with them. I mean, they're just random morons on the internet, it's not like they can actually do anything to you. I like to waste their time and let them know that they're opposed.
I'm talking more about people you know, friends, co-workers, acquaintances, and family. Even if you're just talking over the internet, your not just some rando, you're a real person that they can't ignore as easily.
posted by VTX at 3:03 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
> Gorsuch found Trumps attack so troubling he silently accepted the stolen nomination. Let's not kind ourselves here, ....
More than that: I think Gorsuch's rebukes are actually pure self-serving theatrics. He knows that people will question whether he'll be [Loser of the Popular Vote] Trump's lapdog; now he can point to this and say "oh no, of course not, see this [entirely meaningless] evidence of my having stood up to him in the past!"
posted by Westringia F. at 3:04 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
More than that: I think Gorsuch's rebukes are actually pure self-serving theatrics. He knows that people will question whether he'll be [Loser of the Popular Vote] Trump's lapdog; now he can point to this and say "oh no, of course not, see this [entirely meaningless] evidence of my having stood up to him in the past!"
posted by Westringia F. at 3:04 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
As nubs noted, the more interesting element is how Trump will respond to a judge he just nominated for SCOTUS publicly criticizing him.
posted by FelliniBlank at 3:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by FelliniBlank at 3:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
I should add that, personally, I feel an obligation to engage with Trump supporters when it makes sense just because I'm a white-male. It's a thing that often takes white-male privilege to be able to do so I feel like I owe it to everyone else to at least try when and where I can.
posted by VTX at 3:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by VTX at 3:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
Gorsuch found Trumps attack so troubling he silently accepted the stolen nomination.
yeah. also, what, Trump's understanding of and positions concerning the juduciary are troubling and bad, yet simultaneously so good that his pick of a Supreme Court nominee is likely to be a good one? An honest man would have a crisis of confidence when he discovered Trump thought he was the best man for the job. then a nervous breakdown and a permanent retreat from public life. If Gorsuch meant what he said, he'd act like it and withdraw.
posted by queenofbithynia at 3:10 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
You don't have to be Trump's lapdog to be a reprehensible right-winger. We've had dozens of them on the court in the 220+ years of the Republic before... Watching Deplorable Donald melt down is just something that many "good" Conservatives do for fun while planning things as bad as what he does.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:12 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:12 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Steph Curry (who has a deal with Under Armour) responding to Under Armour's CEO's characterization of Trump as an "asset" to the country: "I agree with that description, if you remove the 'et'"
posted by zachlipton at 3:13 PM on February 8, 2017 [60 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 3:13 PM on February 8, 2017 [60 favorites]
I was wondering what Steph's reaction would be, but that's hilarious!
posted by TwoWordReview at 3:15 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by TwoWordReview at 3:15 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Oh, 2017! Making me nostalgic for goddamn 2016!
I would throw a few beloved celebrities on a pyre to make this stop.
I was all onboard with this until I saw Willie Nelson just cancelled a couple shows. I take it back! I take it back!
posted by downtohisturtles at 3:15 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
I would throw a few beloved celebrities on a pyre to make this stop.
I was all onboard with this until I saw Willie Nelson just cancelled a couple shows. I take it back! I take it back!
posted by downtohisturtles at 3:15 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Even though Gorsuch is a bad hombre and probably acting out of self-interest, I think the important thing is that it that his comments will make the big guy angry and unhappy (inasmuch as he's capable of emotion), and the less comfortable he feels in his presidency, the likelier it is to end. Also it's nice to think about him feeling bad.
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:16 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:16 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
I would throw a few beloved celebrities on a pyre to make this stop.
We already lost Mary Tyler Moore and it didn't help... and yesterday, Richard Hatch AND 'Professor' Irwin Corey!! NO. NOT WORKING.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:18 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
We already lost Mary Tyler Moore and it didn't help... and yesterday, Richard Hatch AND 'Professor' Irwin Corey!! NO. NOT WORKING.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:18 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
WaPo: Carly Fiorina confirms she is considering challenging Sen. Tim Kaine
*sigh*
posted by Westringia F. at 3:19 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
*sigh*
posted by Westringia F. at 3:19 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Gorsuch also playing to Democrats like fucking Manchin. He's going to have to say SOMETHING about Trump in the hearings, and getting out ahead of it helps the Dem traitors justify their inevitable vote to break their own parties filibuster.
Gorsuch knows the game. He's not the nominee for his commitment to institutionalism, he's only getting the nod for his pledge to always vote exactly how the Christian Right says to vote.
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
Gorsuch knows the game. He's not the nominee for his commitment to institutionalism, he's only getting the nod for his pledge to always vote exactly how the Christian Right says to vote.
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
Y'all know that the Senate doesn't use real fax machines, right? Faxing a Senator effectively yields a PDF email.
posted by schmod at 3:23 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by schmod at 3:23 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
Obama ethics czar: Trump's Nordstrom tweet an 'abuse' of presidency
Former President Barack Obama's ethics czar said Thursday (Thursday???) that President Trumpâs criticism of retail outlet Nordstrom for dropping his daughterâs apparel brand is "an abuse of the office of the presidency."
"It is an example of why Donald Trump and his family needed to step away, needed to make a more definitive break," Norm Eisen, who later served as U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic under Obama, told MSNBC's Katy Tur in an interview.
posted by futz at 3:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Former President Barack Obama's ethics czar said Thursday (Thursday???) that President Trumpâs criticism of retail outlet Nordstrom for dropping his daughterâs apparel brand is "an abuse of the office of the presidency."
"It is an example of why Donald Trump and his family needed to step away, needed to make a more definitive break," Norm Eisen, who later served as U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic under Obama, told MSNBC's Katy Tur in an interview.
posted by futz at 3:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
i would be more concerned about Fiorina vs. Kaine if it didn't seem like she keeps throwing her hat in the ring even though nobody in her own damn party seems to like her
posted by murphy slaw at 3:36 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 3:36 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
Lindsey Graham can bitch about Trump all he wants, he himself remains a black pit of nasty.
I'll never forgive him for being an impeachment manager when he was in the House.
''It's a time for the country as a whole to understand what went on here and where we're going to go,'' Mr. Graham said. ''What are the consequences of this case? What do you do with the next Federal judge who has got wandering hands in the office and someone's got the courage to say, 'No, you shouldn't treat me that way,' and he starts hiding evidence and getting others to lie for him -- what do we do with that case?''That's a great question!
posted by kirkaracha at 3:38 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
New Meme: Puffer Fish With Trumpâs Mouth
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:40 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:40 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
man those fish don't deserve that
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:42 PM on February 8, 2017 [21 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:42 PM on February 8, 2017 [21 favorites]
An aide to Gorsuch confirmed Blumenthal's account of the judge's comments about Trump's attacks on the judiciary.
Apparently, he doesn't feel strongly enough about it to remove his name from consideration though.
posted by zachlipton at 3:46 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Apparently, he doesn't feel strongly enough about it to remove his name from consideration though.
posted by zachlipton at 3:46 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Apparently, he doesn't feel strongly enough about it to remove his name from consideration though.
Why should he? He's hoping to be on the Court for decades after Trump is a distant memory.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:48 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Why should he? He's hoping to be on the Court for decades after Trump is a distant memory.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:48 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
he questions trump's judgement in all areas except the one used to select him
posted by murphy slaw at 3:50 PM on February 8, 2017 [18 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 3:50 PM on February 8, 2017 [18 favorites]
Apparently, he doesn't feel strongly enough about it to remove his name from consideration though.
Trump might have been the one who nominated him, but its God that put those words in Trump's mouth. So goes the argument I've heard.
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:51 PM on February 8, 2017
Trump might have been the one who nominated him, but its God that put those words in Trump's mouth. So goes the argument I've heard.
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:51 PM on February 8, 2017
The only hesitation my research has given me is the distinct downward trend in swinginess over time. Congress is more stable than it used to be, likely due to a combination of gerrymandering and partisanship. But we see bigger waves in 2006 and 2010 than we need in 2018, so it's not like those days are gone for good.
The 2010 Republican gerrymandering was the most egregious ever done, but gerrymandering gets less effective further remove from when the lines were drawn, voters do move around some, lines move, new nieghborhoods get built. Winning back the House in 2018 will still be a tall order, but absolutely necessary, or they'll get to re-draw the lines again for another generation. A good start would be to fucking field a candidate in every district, no exceptions. And to stop undercutting progressives with hand picked former Republicans.
I'm very agnostic on the Perez vs. Ellison DNC battle, because either of those choices is miles better than anyone the Democrats have had coordinating national strategy since 2009. Both seem absolutely committed to a 435 seat fight, and we can hope the days of the DNC backing the Patrick Murphy's and House equivalents of the world are over.
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
The 2010 Republican gerrymandering was the most egregious ever done, but gerrymandering gets less effective further remove from when the lines were drawn, voters do move around some, lines move, new nieghborhoods get built. Winning back the House in 2018 will still be a tall order, but absolutely necessary, or they'll get to re-draw the lines again for another generation. A good start would be to fucking field a candidate in every district, no exceptions. And to stop undercutting progressives with hand picked former Republicans.
I'm very agnostic on the Perez vs. Ellison DNC battle, because either of those choices is miles better than anyone the Democrats have had coordinating national strategy since 2009. Both seem absolutely committed to a 435 seat fight, and we can hope the days of the DNC backing the Patrick Murphy's and House equivalents of the world are over.
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Loool, McConnell has gotten over 6100 faxes in the last 24 hours. The Dishonorable John Cornyn is the Majority Whip but he has less than 300 over the same period. It'd be a shame for him to feel left out getting upbraided for doing something so unforgivably racist--just sayin'.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 3:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 3:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
Nominate me to the Supreme Court and I ain't removing my name from consideration even if there's a video of you eating a baby with ketchup.
posted by Justinian at 3:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 3:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
Carly Fiorina confirms she is considering challenging Sen. Tim Kaine
I'm kinda OK with that. I could see the Richmond area Republicans being on-board with her but I can't see her appealing much to the rural area ones and her hack and slash approach to HP (hopefully) won't sit too well with the NOVA area.
posted by Candleman at 3:57 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I'm kinda OK with that. I could see the Richmond area Republicans being on-board with her but I can't see her appealing much to the rural area ones and her hack and slash approach to HP (hopefully) won't sit too well with the NOVA area.
posted by Candleman at 3:57 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Steph Curry (who has a deal with Under Armour)
As Josh Marshall noted about the Intel factory (re-)announcement:
posted by holgate at 3:59 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
As Josh Marshall noted about the Intel factory (re-)announcement:
it again puts on display of corporate America's evolving and bifurcated relationship... consumer brands conspicuously keeping their distance or actively criticizing the President while manufacturing brands openly work with him to give him credit for hiring decisions which likely have little or nothing to do with him.Under Armour would presumably like: a) to keep its profit margins; b) to avoid punitive tariffs on imported goods; c) scoop up tax bennies for any (premium-priced) US-based manufacturing. But it's also based in Baltimore and aggressively chasing new endorsements, and that requires a delicate touch.
posted by holgate at 3:59 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
The official @POTUS account just retweeted Trumpâs attack on @Nordstrom.
That's going to look good in bronze letters outside the Presidential Library / Bomb Shelter;.
posted by sebastienbailard at 4:02 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
That's going to look good in bronze letters outside the Presidential Library / Bomb Shelter;.
posted by sebastienbailard at 4:02 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
In the ongoing saga of my mother's mental health (severe depression, suicide attempt naming Trump as one of the reasons for the attempt): we have finally moved her to my small city and her medication seems to finally be really helping. She's still anxious but functioning much better. But through all of this, she's lost a lot of weight, so we went shopping at The Dress Barn, which is like TJ Max, yesterday. She picked up a cute shirt then turned to me with huge eyes after looking at the label. "Ivanka TRUMP!" My all-southern-charm mama nearly spat the words, and she ALMOST just dropped it on the floor, but in the end she just had to hang it neatly back on the rack.
posted by thebrokedown at 4:06 PM on February 8, 2017 [27 favorites]
posted by thebrokedown at 4:06 PM on February 8, 2017 [27 favorites]
WaPo: I understand now. The Trump administration is right about everything
We are being too uncharitable to the Trump administration. We have probably made Sean Spicer cry, and that is not what anyone set out to do.posted by chris24 at 4:08 PM on February 8, 2017 [34 favorites]
There is a much simpler explanation for the list of Secret Media Terrorism Coverups and the Bowling Green Massacre and the âalternative factsâ than this idea that somehow, the Trump administration is making up facts or misleading the American people. Nonsense. They are doing the best they can with the facts they have. They simply have come here from an alternative universe.
It is not their fault that their facts appear to be quite different from what is happening in the universe where most people live. They did not ask to come here. Something went wrong with the timeline, is all. Somebody stepped on a butterfly, and here we are.
[...]
Newt Gingrich tried to warn us about this months ago. These are alternative universes, and they are at war.
In their universe, Frederick Douglass is maybe still alive, and his contributions will be ârecognized more and more.â There, Abraham Lincoln is known for being some kind of technological innovator, of whom it could be reasonably said that â10 years before or 20 years before, what he was doing would never have even been thought possible.â In their universe, these are enlightened things to say that make sense.
There, the crime rate is up. Here, it is down.
So Matt Drudge (who for some reason has deleted all of his tweets from before today), has been on kind of a tear against the GOP, starting with this:
@DRUDGE
No Obamacare repeal, tax cuts! But Republicans vote to shut Warren? Only know how to be opposition not lead! DANGER
posted by triggerfinger at 4:11 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
@DRUDGE
No Obamacare repeal, tax cuts! But Republicans vote to shut Warren? Only know how to be opposition not lead! DANGER
posted by triggerfinger at 4:11 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
McConnell has gotten over 6100 faxes in the last 24 hours.
i doubt it. that many may have been sent. i saw something upthread about the phone company rejecting them?
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 4:13 PM on February 8, 2017
i doubt it. that many may have been sent. i saw something upthread about the phone company rejecting them?
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 4:13 PM on February 8, 2017
Politico: Trumpâs faux-pas diplomacy - The State Department is struggling to contain the fallout as Trump goes off topic in calls with foreign leaders.
While the Hollande call Jan. 28 did touch on pressing matters between the two countries â namely the fight against the Islamic State â Trump also used the exchange to vent about his personal fixations, including his belief that the United States is being taken advantage of by China and international bodies like NATO, the official said.
At one point, Trump declared that the French can continue protecting NATO, but that the U.S. âwants our money back,â the official said, adding that Trump seemed to be âobsessing over money.â
posted by Room 641-A at 4:14 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
While the Hollande call Jan. 28 did touch on pressing matters between the two countries â namely the fight against the Islamic State â Trump also used the exchange to vent about his personal fixations, including his belief that the United States is being taken advantage of by China and international bodies like NATO, the official said.
At one point, Trump declared that the French can continue protecting NATO, but that the U.S. âwants our money back,â the official said, adding that Trump seemed to be âobsessing over money.â
posted by Room 641-A at 4:14 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
They simply have come here from an alternative universe.
It can have 'em back.
posted by Archelaus at 4:15 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
It can have 'em back.
posted by Archelaus at 4:15 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Oh god now I want to see a Drudge vs Alex Jones war. We all win. I think. Maybe.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:16 PM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by uncleozzy at 4:16 PM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
Oh god now I want to see a Drudge vs Alex Jones war. We all win. I think. Maybe.
These Otherverse creatures will eat each other, right? I'm hoping this ends like War of the Worlds and not Doom.
posted by saysthis at 4:18 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
These Otherverse creatures will eat each other, right? I'm hoping this ends like War of the Worlds and not Doom.
posted by saysthis at 4:18 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
I would throw a few beloved celebrities on a pyre to make this stop.
Chuck Woolery, COME ON DOWN!!
posted by darkstar at 4:19 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Chuck Woolery, COME ON DOWN!!
posted by darkstar at 4:19 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Sessions confirmation vote in progress. Manchin the only D defection so far.
posted by zachlipton at 4:20 PM on February 8, 2017
posted by zachlipton at 4:20 PM on February 8, 2017
Customizable Like Postcard
Customizable Dislike Postcard
Ok! So using soren_lorensen's like and dislike files, I've created some printer-friendly pdf's. You should be able to open these in adobe acrobat and fill in the form field with your city and zipcode. As for printing them, here's some tips:
Take the pdfs to your local print shop. Print on matte cardstock. They're tweaked from soren_lorensen's design so that they can be printed on colored or white paper. Have them print it double-sided (duplex). Ask them to print a test-page to make sure that when cut, the postcard-y back is aligned correctly.
If these pdfs just aren't working great for you, or you're having trouble everyone is still more then welcome to shoot me an email (in my profile) and I can make custom ones for you.
posted by INFJ at 4:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [107 favorites]
Customizable Dislike Postcard
Ok! So using soren_lorensen's like and dislike files, I've created some printer-friendly pdf's. You should be able to open these in adobe acrobat and fill in the form field with your city and zipcode. As for printing them, here's some tips:
Take the pdfs to your local print shop. Print on matte cardstock. They're tweaked from soren_lorensen's design so that they can be printed on colored or white paper. Have them print it double-sided (duplex). Ask them to print a test-page to make sure that when cut, the postcard-y back is aligned correctly.
If these pdfs just aren't working great for you, or you're having trouble everyone is still more then welcome to shoot me an email (in my profile) and I can make custom ones for you.
posted by INFJ at 4:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [107 favorites]
Speaking of Alex Jones splitting the right, he's been going strong recently on a narrative of infiltrators in the White House: fake Republicans and crypto-Globalists whispering lies in the God-Emperor's ear and leaking more lies to the lamestream media. Priebus is frequently mentioned as a suspected traitor: Infowars doesn't like Priebus at all and for once I agree with them.
Also singled out by Infowars: Omarosa! Something to do with her having worked for Democrats in the past and having some connection to Haiti which of course links back to Pizzagate. Can't for the life of me think of any other possible reason the Alt-Right might dislike Omarosa, nope.
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:25 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Also singled out by Infowars: Omarosa! Something to do with her having worked for Democrats in the past and having some connection to Haiti which of course links back to Pizzagate. Can't for the life of me think of any other possible reason the Alt-Right might dislike Omarosa, nope.
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:25 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Sessions confirmed as AG, 52-47, Manchin the only D yea.
posted by zachlipton at 4:26 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 4:26 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
These diplomatic faux pas of his are straight out of his crappy "business deal" skills - almost always having more leverage allowed Donnie to be a bully. Having all this leverage also crippled him from being able to realize how bad of a dealmaker he really is and has prevented him from developing actual negotiation (among many other) skills.
He's treating foreign leaders like business supplicants; approach every situation with overpowering strength and present an utterly horrible deal.
Wait one, then offer a slightly less horrible deal and expect it to be gobbled up graciously.
He's going to get in trouble with China.
posted by porpoise at 4:27 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
He's treating foreign leaders like business supplicants; approach every situation with overpowering strength and present an utterly horrible deal.
Wait one, then offer a slightly less horrible deal and expect it to be gobbled up graciously.
He's going to get in trouble with China.
posted by porpoise at 4:27 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
for the love of god, if senate democrats can't develop some goddamn party discipline i will drive to capital hill and whip then myself
posted by murphy slaw at 4:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 4:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
(Sessions voted present on his own nomination, all other R's voted to confirm)
posted by zachlipton at 4:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by zachlipton at 4:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Nominate me to the Supreme Court and I ain't removing my name from consideration even if there's a video of you eating a baby with ketchup.
obviously you're not from chicago
posted by pyramid termite at 4:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
obviously you're not from chicago
posted by pyramid termite at 4:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
Cut Manchin loose. Strip him of that shiny new leadership position. He's not worth supporting in the caucus of he can't be trusted on this and on Gorsuch.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:29 PM on February 8, 2017 [39 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:29 PM on February 8, 2017 [39 favorites]
You know I appreciate Twitter keeping me informed and pushing me notifications that cabinet members have just been confirmed, but it also makes me 1000% more likely to throw my phone at the wall.
In totally unrelated news, let me recommend OtterBox hard shell cases.
posted by corb at 4:33 PM on February 8, 2017 [35 favorites]
In totally unrelated news, let me recommend OtterBox hard shell cases.
posted by corb at 4:33 PM on February 8, 2017 [35 favorites]
Suba Abushamma, a Cleveland doctor who had been deported to the Sudan, was allowed to return to the US even though she had been forced to give up her H-1B visa. It probably helped that the head of the Cleveland Clinic, where she works, is a friend/advisor of the president.
Good for her! But what about all the other people CBP did that to?
posted by suelac at 4:35 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
Good for her! But what about all the other people CBP did that to?
posted by suelac at 4:35 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
From the top section of Manchin's Wikipedia entry (wonder how long it will last):
Manchin is known for his bipartisanship and lack of spine
posted by monopas at 4:38 PM on February 8, 2017 [35 favorites]
Manchin is known for his bipartisanship and lack of spine
posted by monopas at 4:38 PM on February 8, 2017 [35 favorites]
Sessions's confirmation was pretty much inevitable. But I still feel like shit.
posted by biogeo at 4:39 PM on February 8, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 4:39 PM on February 8, 2017 [16 favorites]
The Tuesday's with Toomey crowd are presenting letters and postcards in person.
If you're a PA constituent, or a voter concerned about an issue where Sen. Toomey sits (banking, finance, or housing and urban affairs) I'd be happy to deliver your correspondence.
MeMail me and I'll bring a basket every week.
PS I'll also accept Sen. Casey and Rep. Brady letters
posted by cmfletcher at 4:40 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
If you're a PA constituent, or a voter concerned about an issue where Sen. Toomey sits (banking, finance, or housing and urban affairs) I'd be happy to deliver your correspondence.
MeMail me and I'll bring a basket every week.
PS I'll also accept Sen. Casey and Rep. Brady letters
posted by cmfletcher at 4:40 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Cut Manchin loose. Strip him of that shiny new leadership position. He's not worth supporting in the caucus of he can't be trusted on this and on Gorsuch.
Yep, lets get a shiny Trumpian right wing Republican in there. That is clearly the superior strategy!
posted by Justinian at 4:40 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yep, lets get a shiny Trumpian right wing Republican in there. That is clearly the superior strategy!
posted by Justinian at 4:40 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
The rumor last night was that Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley would pick the state's AG, Luther Strange, to replace Sessions in the Senate (Strange already said he'd run in the upcoming special election). Appointing Strange has certain benefits for the Governor:
One possible advantage of appointing Strange, this operative said, is that Bentley â who has been implicated in a tawdry sex scandal and was under an impeachment investigation by the state legislature â gets to appoint a new attorney general who might be less inclined to prosecute him.posted by zachlipton at 4:47 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
This is, again, one reason why Republicans seem to do so much better. Do you think Collins and Murkowski will be completely abandoned by their party even though their NO votes on DeVos forced Pence to have to cast a tiebreaking vote on a Cabinet nominee for the first time in history while the only difference Manchin's vote made was losing 52-47 instead of 51-48?
posted by Justinian at 4:49 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 4:49 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Yep, lets get a shiny Trumpian right wing Republican in there.
We've already got one.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:49 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
We've already got one.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:49 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
*stands up, dusts self off* So whose the next cabinet nominee up on the docket for some more good old new fashion Democratic resistance in the Senate?
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 4:51 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 4:51 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
We've already got one.
Were Joe Manchin a Republican in the Senate he would be the most liberal member of that caucus based on his voting record.
posted by Justinian at 4:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Were Joe Manchin a Republican in the Senate he would be the most liberal member of that caucus based on his voting record.
posted by Justinian at 4:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Heh, wikipedia: "Traitor" screenshot
(On preview: boy my tabs are depressing.)
posted by Westringia F. at 4:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
(On preview: boy my tabs are depressing.)
posted by Westringia F. at 4:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
This is the argument for why you don't cut Manchin loose: "Manchin: I cannot in good conscience vote for Rep. Tom Price to head the Department of Health and Human Services"
Price will still likely be concerned early this morning, but at the end of the day, Manchin will vote with the Democrats on not completely gutting the safety net. As for everything else, he's useless.
Programming note: The Senate invoked cloture on Tom Price for HHS Secretary (51-48 vote). Sessions is giving his farewell speech, and then there should be debate on Price. If the Dems use all their allotted time, that would setup a vote for Price at 1:50am.
posted by zachlipton at 4:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Price will still likely be concerned early this morning, but at the end of the day, Manchin will vote with the Democrats on not completely gutting the safety net. As for everything else, he's useless.
Programming note: The Senate invoked cloture on Tom Price for HHS Secretary (51-48 vote). Sessions is giving his farewell speech, and then there should be debate on Price. If the Dems use all their allotted time, that would setup a vote for Price at 1:50am.
posted by zachlipton at 4:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
(Note: depending on what ideological scores you look at Manchin may be as conservative as third most liberal Republican. )
posted by Justinian at 4:54 PM on February 8, 2017
posted by Justinian at 4:54 PM on February 8, 2017
Citing Trump, 3rd nonprofit rejects funds to fight extremism
A nonprofit group will reject nearly $400,000 in federal grant money intended to fight violent extremism due to concerns over President Donald Trump's rhetoric, The Associated Press has learned.
Unity Productions Foundation of Potomac Falls, Virginia, is the third nonprofit to recently reject federal funding for efforts to make it more difficult for extremist groups to recruit would-be terrorists.
In a private message to donors reviewed by the AP, Unity said it would decline its grant of $396,585 to produce educational films challenging narratives supporting extremist ideologies and violent extremism "due to the changes brought by the new administration."
...Most of the 31 federal grants were promised to municipalities, but some were directed to nonprofit groups such as Life After Hate Inc. in Chicago, which received $400,000 for its work with former white supremacists â a large portion of which will ago to a partner group to work with individuals inspired by al-Qaida or the Islamic State group.
In the article there are more groups strongly considering rejecting the funds, $800,000 by one.
posted by futz at 4:55 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
A nonprofit group will reject nearly $400,000 in federal grant money intended to fight violent extremism due to concerns over President Donald Trump's rhetoric, The Associated Press has learned.
Unity Productions Foundation of Potomac Falls, Virginia, is the third nonprofit to recently reject federal funding for efforts to make it more difficult for extremist groups to recruit would-be terrorists.
In a private message to donors reviewed by the AP, Unity said it would decline its grant of $396,585 to produce educational films challenging narratives supporting extremist ideologies and violent extremism "due to the changes brought by the new administration."
...Most of the 31 federal grants were promised to municipalities, but some were directed to nonprofit groups such as Life After Hate Inc. in Chicago, which received $400,000 for its work with former white supremacists â a large portion of which will ago to a partner group to work with individuals inspired by al-Qaida or the Islamic State group.
In the article there are more groups strongly considering rejecting the funds, $800,000 by one.
posted by futz at 4:55 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
Sorry to quote myself but:
They're all going to be confirmed. Every last one of them. I think pushing to block DeVos and Sessions might get some traction, but even then probably not. Not saying stop calling your senators about them, absolutely do that. Better to go down swinging. But the current radical right-wing in charge have been showing us for the last 8 years that they absolutely will not bend even a little or concede anything and so I think we can expect more of the same.
They don't care whether they represent their constituents.
They don't care if they do things that are illegal.
They don't care if they are antidemocratic.
They don't care if they have to blatantly lie.
They don't care if they do things that are unpopular.
They. don't. care.
All they care about is winning, and they will do whatever it takes. Literally our only recourse is to drive them out of positions of power. There is no compromise to be had with these people anywhere on anything, and we can make all the noise we want and they will ignore us. I don't want to be discouraging or fatalistic. I'm neither. I just think that the only possible thing to do with the current crop is strip them of power. They are political lunatics and reasoning with them while they try to punch us is just going to get us knocked out.
We need to field candidates for every possible elected position anywhere, and then we need to dedicate ourselves to overwhelming the opposition at the ballot-box to counteract the voter suppression and gerrymandering bullshit. That is all that will save us.
We defeat these fuckers at the ballot box. We are going to lose and lose and lose until then. Don't let it get you down, use it to fuel your rage because your rage is righteous. Protect the people and institutions you can, stay strong, and be kind. Don't lose heart. Organize. Vote. Put these fuckers ass in the dirt. Go after Manchins, yes but go after Mitch fucking McConnell and Paul fucking Ryan just as hard. Make them work. Make them sweat. Make them invest in some fucking pepto bismol. We are the majority. They have to cheat and bend rules to breaking point to win. All we have to do is turn up.
posted by supercrayon at 4:55 PM on February 8, 2017 [55 favorites]
They're all going to be confirmed. Every last one of them. I think pushing to block DeVos and Sessions might get some traction, but even then probably not. Not saying stop calling your senators about them, absolutely do that. Better to go down swinging. But the current radical right-wing in charge have been showing us for the last 8 years that they absolutely will not bend even a little or concede anything and so I think we can expect more of the same.
They don't care whether they represent their constituents.
They don't care if they do things that are illegal.
They don't care if they are antidemocratic.
They don't care if they have to blatantly lie.
They don't care if they do things that are unpopular.
They. don't. care.
All they care about is winning, and they will do whatever it takes. Literally our only recourse is to drive them out of positions of power. There is no compromise to be had with these people anywhere on anything, and we can make all the noise we want and they will ignore us. I don't want to be discouraging or fatalistic. I'm neither. I just think that the only possible thing to do with the current crop is strip them of power. They are political lunatics and reasoning with them while they try to punch us is just going to get us knocked out.
We need to field candidates for every possible elected position anywhere, and then we need to dedicate ourselves to overwhelming the opposition at the ballot-box to counteract the voter suppression and gerrymandering bullshit. That is all that will save us.
We defeat these fuckers at the ballot box. We are going to lose and lose and lose until then. Don't let it get you down, use it to fuel your rage because your rage is righteous. Protect the people and institutions you can, stay strong, and be kind. Don't lose heart. Organize. Vote. Put these fuckers ass in the dirt. Go after Manchins, yes but go after Mitch fucking McConnell and Paul fucking Ryan just as hard. Make them work. Make them sweat. Make them invest in some fucking pepto bismol. We are the majority. They have to cheat and bend rules to breaking point to win. All we have to do is turn up.
posted by supercrayon at 4:55 PM on February 8, 2017 [55 favorites]
Tactically, it seems to me that progressives are far better off pushing to get strong progressives in seats like Feinsteins than booting Manchin or Heitkamp and getting them replaced by Republicans. The way to move the Senate where we need it to be is to replace wishy-washy Democrats in safe seats with hardcore liberals and Republicans in red states with conservative Democrats.
posted by Justinian at 4:59 PM on February 8, 2017 [40 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 4:59 PM on February 8, 2017 [40 favorites]
Like I see all this anger at Manchin. Why is there no talk about getting Tom Carper replaced? I have never seen his name mentioned once. He's from DELAWARE. And he's consistently one of the most conservative voting Democrats in the Senate. From Delaware! This is the type of seat to go after if we want to move the Senate left. Replace Carper with a liberal. Replace, I dunno, Collins with a moderate. Try to sneak a few conservative Democrats into the Plains states.
posted by Justinian at 5:04 PM on February 8, 2017 [21 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 5:04 PM on February 8, 2017 [21 favorites]
Canadian woman denied entry to the US after Muslim prayers found on her phone
Supposedly the ban isn't supposed to apply to Canadian citizens, but hey, here's one more piece of evidence that the current Occupying Army doesn't give a shit about even their own farcical "rule of law." I feel like anybody still subconsciously expecting rule of law norms is going to get caught flat-footed.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 5:06 PM on February 8, 2017 [31 favorites]
Supposedly the ban isn't supposed to apply to Canadian citizens, but hey, here's one more piece of evidence that the current Occupying Army doesn't give a shit about even their own farcical "rule of law." I feel like anybody still subconsciously expecting rule of law norms is going to get caught flat-footed.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 5:06 PM on February 8, 2017 [31 favorites]
New Meme: Puffer Fish With Trumpâs Mouth
hello, nightmare fuel. that's right up there with that picture where someone pasted his pursed lips onto his eyes and nobody noticed until they looked closely.
posted by indubitable at 5:12 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
hello, nightmare fuel. that's right up there with that picture where someone pasted his pursed lips onto his eyes and nobody noticed until they looked closely.
posted by indubitable at 5:12 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Yeah the Manchin situation doesn't get better unless and until the Dems can even feasibly get someone better elected in his district and that goes hand in hand with the party giving up on lower level seats in districts like that, letting the Republicans set the tone. His electoral environment needs to change and that can't happen until the party puts in the work of making it happen - which they should have been honing their skills on during the Obama years instead of the DNC thinking they could pull the country left by winning federal elections alone. Manchin needs to be a reminder to the party every day, this is what happens when the party doesn't fight in districts where it's "too hard".
posted by jason_steakums at 5:13 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 5:13 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
No time to do much activistm stuff today, but since I was in the grocery store anyway, I picked up a thank-you card. It was large and glittery, and on the front, it had a cartoon doggie in a hot air balloon. The inside was printed with an Italian end-paper pattern, and it contained a slip of faux-onion skin printed with a starchy little message of appreciation. On this, with the sparkliest of my many sparkly pens, I wrote:
"Thank you for calling him a fascist, loofah-faced shit-gibbon. He really is one. Best regards, (myname)." And I mailed it to State Senator Leach.
This was not neither the most efficient nor the most productive bit of civic engagement I could have undertaken, but it makes me feel immensely good.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 5:13 PM on February 8, 2017 [66 favorites]
"Thank you for calling him a fascist, loofah-faced shit-gibbon. He really is one. Best regards, (myname)." And I mailed it to State Senator Leach.
This was not neither the most efficient nor the most productive bit of civic engagement I could have undertaken, but it makes me feel immensely good.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 5:13 PM on February 8, 2017 [66 favorites]
(Note: depending on what ideological scores you look at Manchin may be as conservative as third most liberal Republican. )
That's mostly just saying that a) the Senate GOP has lurched far to the right; b) Susan Collins is occasionally allowed to do a Susan Collins.
He's from DELAWARE. And he's consistently one of the most conservative voting Democrats in the Senate.
What is the primary function of Delaware within the US other than toll roads and bridges? I get your point, but liberalish Dem senators will still vote their states' narrow interests over broader liberal interests if it's a zero-sum choice. And the nature of the federal system encourages states to develop narrow interests, especially states that are geographically small or have a low population.
posted by holgate at 5:15 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
That's mostly just saying that a) the Senate GOP has lurched far to the right; b) Susan Collins is occasionally allowed to do a Susan Collins.
He's from DELAWARE. And he's consistently one of the most conservative voting Democrats in the Senate.
What is the primary function of Delaware within the US other than toll roads and bridges? I get your point, but liberalish Dem senators will still vote their states' narrow interests over broader liberal interests if it's a zero-sum choice. And the nature of the federal system encourages states to develop narrow interests, especially states that are geographically small or have a low population.
posted by holgate at 5:15 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Ok, I took a screenshot when I looked at Manchin earlier. Wasn't going to share it, but then I noticed a few other textual gems. So here you go. NSFW, if anyone looks closely.
posted by monopas at 5:16 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by monopas at 5:16 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
CBP agents have long had extremely broad license to deny entry for anything they deem "suspicious." This particular kind of arbitrary and capricious behavior is unfortunately nothing all that new. Of course, presence of Muslim prayers on a phone isn't reason for suspicion under the law, but Bannon's Muslim ban provides exactly the kind of cover the wannabe brownshirts within the CBP have been waiting for.
posted by biogeo at 5:16 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 5:16 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
One possible advantage of appointing Strange, this operative said, is that Bentley â who has been implicated in a tawdry sex scandal and was under an impeachment investigation by the state legislature â gets to appoint a new attorney general who might be less inclined to prosecute him.
It's shit like this that leaves me feeling like the democratic party is done. We simply can't win with a well-organized Republican party that has zero fucks for ethics, fairness and rule of law. I turn 46 in a few days and honestly I'm just tired of feeling like every notion I have about social justice and simple fairness in how we treat each other is a quaint notion that I'm a sucker for still believing. I've worked in journalism for a number years and I was a true believer that journalism was about comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. After 15 years in daily journalism I had had enough because I realized that everything I was doing was having zero impact on the powerful and connected and if anything my work was simply continuing to prop up a newspaper run by wealthy white men who didn't give a fuck about anything but winning Pulitzers and hobnobbing with the comfortable that I thought we were supposed to be afflicting. Remember that season of the Wire that was essentially David Simon venting for however many episodes about the Baltimore Sun? I lived that from 2002-2006. I saw similar behavior in my newsroom - a newsroom I should mention that has been cleaning up in the Pulitzers for the last few years. Fuck it's depressing.
I wake every day and look at these threads and just sink into despair. I'm calling my fucking senators and following all the right sites and looking for opportunities to organize locally but I just have to ask - is this sustainable for 4 years? Washington is now occupied by a party that is simply only motivated by sheer greed and capture of power and they're willing to do whatever ethically abhorrent shit is necessary to make sure they get their way. I'm convinced blood is going to be spilled over the Dakota Access Pipeline and people are going to die. I'm convinced the next Fergusson event is going to end with dead protestors shot by cops who are now empowered to abuse their positions with no recourse. I'm sure that there will be some sort of catastrophic event in the next 18 months that will bring the economy to it's knees. I'm just at a total fucking loss right now.
posted by photoslob at 5:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [36 favorites]
It's shit like this that leaves me feeling like the democratic party is done. We simply can't win with a well-organized Republican party that has zero fucks for ethics, fairness and rule of law. I turn 46 in a few days and honestly I'm just tired of feeling like every notion I have about social justice and simple fairness in how we treat each other is a quaint notion that I'm a sucker for still believing. I've worked in journalism for a number years and I was a true believer that journalism was about comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. After 15 years in daily journalism I had had enough because I realized that everything I was doing was having zero impact on the powerful and connected and if anything my work was simply continuing to prop up a newspaper run by wealthy white men who didn't give a fuck about anything but winning Pulitzers and hobnobbing with the comfortable that I thought we were supposed to be afflicting. Remember that season of the Wire that was essentially David Simon venting for however many episodes about the Baltimore Sun? I lived that from 2002-2006. I saw similar behavior in my newsroom - a newsroom I should mention that has been cleaning up in the Pulitzers for the last few years. Fuck it's depressing.
I wake every day and look at these threads and just sink into despair. I'm calling my fucking senators and following all the right sites and looking for opportunities to organize locally but I just have to ask - is this sustainable for 4 years? Washington is now occupied by a party that is simply only motivated by sheer greed and capture of power and they're willing to do whatever ethically abhorrent shit is necessary to make sure they get their way. I'm convinced blood is going to be spilled over the Dakota Access Pipeline and people are going to die. I'm convinced the next Fergusson event is going to end with dead protestors shot by cops who are now empowered to abuse their positions with no recourse. I'm sure that there will be some sort of catastrophic event in the next 18 months that will bring the economy to it's knees. I'm just at a total fucking loss right now.
posted by photoslob at 5:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [36 favorites]
The form says: "Withdrawal of application for admission. Subject is inadmissible to the United States. An immigrant not in possession of a valid and expired immigrant's visa."
She has a valid Canadian passport.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:24 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
She has a valid Canadian passport.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:24 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
The way to move the Senate where we need it to be is to replace wishy-washy Democrats in safe seats with hardcore liberals and Republicans in red states with conservative Democrats.
This times a lot.
posted by tivalasvegas at 5:25 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
This times a lot.
posted by tivalasvegas at 5:25 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Manchin just voted in favor of voter suppression. I get the need for a big tent, but sometimes you have to cut people loose when they threaten the rest of the tent. Like, ok, great, we have a Dem senator from WV. But as a result, we might never have a Dem senator from, say, Georgia, because there won't be enough Democrats with unimpeded voting rights to make that happen.
There must be some lines that cannot be crossed. Voting for Sessions and/or voting for Gorsuch are those lines in my opinion. They threaten our very democracy, not to mention the lives of every woman and person of color.
posted by melissasaurus at 5:26 PM on February 8, 2017 [36 favorites]
There must be some lines that cannot be crossed. Voting for Sessions and/or voting for Gorsuch are those lines in my opinion. They threaten our very democracy, not to mention the lives of every woman and person of color.
posted by melissasaurus at 5:26 PM on February 8, 2017 [36 favorites]
Someone's going to start marketing cheap feature phones as "borderphones" soon enough. And CBP will then flag them as suspicious.
posted by holgate at 5:26 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by holgate at 5:26 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I wish Trudeau would get on the phone with Trump right now.
posted by SyraCarol at 5:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by SyraCarol at 5:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I'm calling my fucking senators and following all the right sites and looking for opportunities to organize locally but I just have to ask - is this sustainable for 4 years?
Dude, look at the civil rights movement. Hell, yes it's sustainable! Some of the new folks will flake off; others will grow in commitment, expertise, and influence. And if we really care about protecting the vulnerable and salvaging the Republic, then we will jolly well keep doing what we're doing. It'll have to become a habit, like going to the gym or reading Metafilter.
But don't take it from me. Take it from Ijeoma Oluo.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 5:29 PM on February 8, 2017 [37 favorites]
Dude, look at the civil rights movement. Hell, yes it's sustainable! Some of the new folks will flake off; others will grow in commitment, expertise, and influence. And if we really care about protecting the vulnerable and salvaging the Republic, then we will jolly well keep doing what we're doing. It'll have to become a habit, like going to the gym or reading Metafilter.
But don't take it from me. Take it from Ijeoma Oluo.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 5:29 PM on February 8, 2017 [37 favorites]
WaPo: Carly Fiorina confirms she is considering challenging Sen. Tim KaineDo I need to pack up my ukulele and get on a plane to Dulles, because SO HELP ME
posted by pxe2000 at 5:36 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
So a Canadian citizen with Moroccan citizenship was turned back on a trip to the US because of her "political beliefs."
posted by Yowser at 5:40 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Yowser at 5:40 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
If you're a Canadian citizen and border patrol asks you for your phone, what happens if you say no?
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 5:43 PM on February 8, 2017
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 5:43 PM on February 8, 2017
Trying to enter the USA? Probably they refuse you entry.
posted by Justinian at 5:44 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 5:44 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
It depends on if you look like a Muslim.
posted by Yowser at 5:46 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Yowser at 5:46 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Y'all know that the Senate doesn't use real fax machines, right? Faxing a Senator effectively yields a PDF email.
*takes the loop of black construction paper out of the fax machine, looks glum*
posted by entropicamericana at 5:46 PM on February 8, 2017 [44 favorites]
*takes the loop of black construction paper out of the fax machine, looks glum*
posted by entropicamericana at 5:46 PM on February 8, 2017 [44 favorites]
We're just a short time away from: "Trying to enter the USA? Why would you WANT to?"
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:46 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:46 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
I'd just like to state for the record, because it can't be said enough, Ijeoma Oluo is a goddamn treasure. If you're not following her on social media, you should be.
posted by palomar at 5:47 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by palomar at 5:47 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
I can say from first hand experience that a lot of Canadians are having the discussion on whether they should risk crossing the border for any reason (including shopping)
posted by Yowser at 5:48 PM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by Yowser at 5:48 PM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
We're just a short time away from: "Trying to enter the USA? Why would you WANT to?"
I haven't had an issue crossing the border post 9/11 but even still I avoid going to the US if at all possible, including paying more to fly Air Canada so that I don't have to stop at an American airport. So some of us are already there.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:51 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
I haven't had an issue crossing the border post 9/11 but even still I avoid going to the US if at all possible, including paying more to fly Air Canada so that I don't have to stop at an American airport. So some of us are already there.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:51 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Unless you're a US citizen, border officers have the ability to deny you entry. And you do not have the right to an attorney in most of these situations.
This has always been technically true, but the current situation shows how that level of discretion can be trivially abused.
posted by thefoxgod at 5:52 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
This has always been technically true, but the current situation shows how that level of discretion can be trivially abused.
posted by thefoxgod at 5:52 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
A couple friends of my wife, who are like her Japanese citizens on US green cards, got detained for several hours at LAX recently before being let in (with no good explanation, really).
We're already trying to line up stuff to leave the country, so the worst case scenario where she was not let back in would not be as damaging to us (she would simply return there and I would eventually join her, but we are lucky to be so flexible). It's not terribly likely in our case, but I would have said that about many people where it is no longer true, so who knows.
posted by thefoxgod at 5:54 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
We're already trying to line up stuff to leave the country, so the worst case scenario where she was not let back in would not be as damaging to us (she would simply return there and I would eventually join her, but we are lucky to be so flexible). It's not terribly likely in our case, but I would have said that about many people where it is no longer true, so who knows.
posted by thefoxgod at 5:54 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
"I feel like anybody still subconsciously expecting rule of law norms is going to get caught flat-footed."
I was going to go to Canada in a couple of weeks for a snowboarding trip with my wife. We've canceled the trip because I feel like the risk is too great.
I'm not a Muslim. I'm not from nor have I ever been to any majority Muslim country, much less one of the infamous seven. I'm a white male from Germany. I have a German passport and a skills/job based green card. I have lived in the USA for just over 20 years and I'm married to a US citizen.
I'm about as privileged as it gets shy of being a US citizen and being rich. I know this so please don't think of the following as privileged whining. For me all this is mostly an inconvenience while for others it's a matter of their lives, sometimes literally. I merely want to shine one more light on the utter absurdity of what has happened since Dear Leader took office and issued that awful immigration EO.
My particular problem is that I appear to have ended up on some sort of list 8 years ago after traveling to Shanghai to visit my then fiancee, now wife, who was studying there. I don't know what list or why. I've always been politically active but have not done anything that would explain this. Every time I have entered the US since then I've been going through the same procedure: they swipe my green card, they tell me to wait, an agent appears and takes me away for questioning, usually for an hour or two. They ask me inane questions and eventually let me through. This happens every. single. time. I wasn't too worried about it. I didn't push too hard trying to find out what's going on because I just wanted to get it over with and get back into the country.
Now, however, I'm worried. It feels like the rule of law is no longer in effect. What if I run into the wrong trumpkin agent at the border? What if simply being on some list is reason enough for them to decide they don't like me here? What if they want to see my social media accounts which are wall to wall anti-Trump? What if they just won't let me in and that action results in either the 3 or 10 year re-entry ban? My whole life is here. My wife, my job, my friends, my property. I have nothing to go back to in Germany.
So, the logical outcome is that I find myself unable to leave the country. At least until I've built up a set of believable alternative social media accounts and put those on a clean phone.
Again, I'm not at all comparing my particular plight with that of others that are more seriously affected. Just trying to illustrate the absurdity of it all.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 5:55 PM on February 8, 2017 [55 favorites]
I was going to go to Canada in a couple of weeks for a snowboarding trip with my wife. We've canceled the trip because I feel like the risk is too great.
I'm not a Muslim. I'm not from nor have I ever been to any majority Muslim country, much less one of the infamous seven. I'm a white male from Germany. I have a German passport and a skills/job based green card. I have lived in the USA for just over 20 years and I'm married to a US citizen.
I'm about as privileged as it gets shy of being a US citizen and being rich. I know this so please don't think of the following as privileged whining. For me all this is mostly an inconvenience while for others it's a matter of their lives, sometimes literally. I merely want to shine one more light on the utter absurdity of what has happened since Dear Leader took office and issued that awful immigration EO.
My particular problem is that I appear to have ended up on some sort of list 8 years ago after traveling to Shanghai to visit my then fiancee, now wife, who was studying there. I don't know what list or why. I've always been politically active but have not done anything that would explain this. Every time I have entered the US since then I've been going through the same procedure: they swipe my green card, they tell me to wait, an agent appears and takes me away for questioning, usually for an hour or two. They ask me inane questions and eventually let me through. This happens every. single. time. I wasn't too worried about it. I didn't push too hard trying to find out what's going on because I just wanted to get it over with and get back into the country.
Now, however, I'm worried. It feels like the rule of law is no longer in effect. What if I run into the wrong trumpkin agent at the border? What if simply being on some list is reason enough for them to decide they don't like me here? What if they want to see my social media accounts which are wall to wall anti-Trump? What if they just won't let me in and that action results in either the 3 or 10 year re-entry ban? My whole life is here. My wife, my job, my friends, my property. I have nothing to go back to in Germany.
So, the logical outcome is that I find myself unable to leave the country. At least until I've built up a set of believable alternative social media accounts and put those on a clean phone.
Again, I'm not at all comparing my particular plight with that of others that are more seriously affected. Just trying to illustrate the absurdity of it all.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 5:55 PM on February 8, 2017 [55 favorites]
Holy. Shit. Bannon's in contact with MOLDBUG? The Dark Enlightenment neoreactionaries have seized the control room. This....how could it still have been worse than I thought?
As always, calm must be urged. Vox reports that the Moldbug connection may have been overhyped. That said, reading through a previous thread, we may choose to weep at history's grim dramatic irony.
As always, calm must be urged. Vox reports that the Moldbug connection may have been overhyped. That said, reading through a previous thread, we may choose to weep at history's grim dramatic irony.
If, thanks to globalisation and regulatory capture, it does turn out that we are seeing a historic shift away from a relatively flat society and the Enlightenment idea of universal rights and human dignity back towards a more hierarchical society where everything is defined in terms of Hobbesian kinetic force brought to bear (and what is neoliberalism, with its everything-is-a-market ideology, if not that in a velvet glove?), wonder if Yarvin or any other USENET bloviators will succeed in becoming the Macchiavelli to whoever theposted by Apocryphon at 5:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]God-EmperorSupreme CEO is, rather than, say, the uploaded, software-modelled consciousness of a distant descendant of Milton Friedman or something.
posted by acb at 4:15 AM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite â] Favorite added! [!]
Must be nice to call a senator's phone and getting a human being OR leaving a vmail is actually possible. Not so for ShitKnob Tillis and Burr.
Do we even know if these faxes are being read?
There was a local story today that talked with people in Ted Cruz and John Cornyn's offices and they claimed staff tallies every email, voicemail, piece of mail, and call. No word on faxes, unless they count as either email or mail. So for what that's worth.
posted by threeturtles at 6:00 PM on February 8, 2017
Do we even know if these faxes are being read?
There was a local story today that talked with people in Ted Cruz and John Cornyn's offices and they claimed staff tallies every email, voicemail, piece of mail, and call. No word on faxes, unless they count as either email or mail. So for what that's worth.
posted by threeturtles at 6:00 PM on February 8, 2017
One of unfortunately many examples of abuses by CBP happened to a producer of WNYC's On the Media, reported by them in 2013: My Detainment Story, or: How I Learned to Stop Feeling Safe in My Own Country and Hate Border Agents. The short summary, a car full of U.S. Citizens was detained for hours with no explanation by CBP agents as they returned from a family visit to Canada.
That thugs within CBP have been able to continue to operate without reform or accountability is a long-standing threat to our nation.
posted by biogeo at 6:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [26 favorites]
That thugs within CBP have been able to continue to operate without reform or accountability is a long-standing threat to our nation.
posted by biogeo at 6:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [26 favorites]
As always, calm must be urged. Vox reports that the Moldbug connection may have been overhyped. That said, reading through a previous thread, we may choose to weep at history's grim dramatic irony.
Accurate down to the use of the title "God Emperor." I think maybe I can't deal with this right now.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Accurate down to the use of the title "God Emperor." I think maybe I can't deal with this right now.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
At one point, Trump declared that the French can continue protecting NATO, but that the U.S. âwants our money back,â the official said, adding that Trump seemed to be âobsessing over money.â
YOU see that he's crazy, right?! Tommy! You see dontcha? All you guys - you see this, right?!? He's frickin losing his goddamn mind at the Resolute desk! In front of us! Aaaiigh.
*And now a few words from our sponsors, the good people at Nappytime Tea. Nappytime - for those few precious moments where nothing is rejected material from a Sartre play. Now in Plookaberry.*
posted by petebest at 6:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
YOU see that he's crazy, right?! Tommy! You see dontcha? All you guys - you see this, right?!? He's frickin losing his goddamn mind at the Resolute desk! In front of us! Aaaiigh.
*And now a few words from our sponsors, the good people at Nappytime Tea. Nappytime - for those few precious moments where nothing is rejected material from a Sartre play. Now in Plookaberry.*
posted by petebest at 6:01 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
If you're a Canadian citizen and border patrol asks you for your phone, what happens if you say no?
Peter Watts found out a few years ago how very easy it is to suddenly get a felony charge from any "resistance." (He stayed free on suspended sentence because it was 7 years ago, and of course it helps being white.) I'm pretty sure that whether "legal" or not, much worse could happen for daring to say no.
posted by Drastic at 6:03 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
Peter Watts found out a few years ago how very easy it is to suddenly get a felony charge from any "resistance." (He stayed free on suspended sentence because it was 7 years ago, and of course it helps being white.) I'm pretty sure that whether "legal" or not, much worse could happen for daring to say no.
posted by Drastic at 6:03 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
No you don't bring your phone or any phone. Or laptop or tablet. You tell them you left it at home and that you don't have any social media accounts. You buy a cheap burner once you get into the country and leave it behind on the way out. They may not believe you, and of course they can turn you away for any reason, but why make it easy for them to paw through your contacts?
I say this because an *actual* terrorist would do this if they had any brains at all, which is why demanding access to random traveler phones is merely bullying and not likely to catch any actual terrorists, but will certainly curtail people's freedoms.
posted by emjaybee at 6:03 PM on February 8, 2017 [46 favorites]
I say this because an *actual* terrorist would do this if they had any brains at all, which is why demanding access to random traveler phones is merely bullying and not likely to catch any actual terrorists, but will certainly curtail people's freedoms.
posted by emjaybee at 6:03 PM on February 8, 2017 [46 favorites]
Yeah the Manchin situation doesn't get better unless and until the Dems can even feasibly get someone better elected in his district
I expect that this year's firm and open identification of the GOP with white supremacy probably gives them a lock on statewide office in WV for a couple of decades, but as biscotti notes I am a bit of an eeyore.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
I expect that this year's firm and open identification of the GOP with white supremacy probably gives them a lock on statewide office in WV for a couple of decades, but as biscotti notes I am a bit of an eeyore.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Securing a travel iphone. But there's no reason to carry electronics across the border, everything can be synced online after transit now. Using encryption will probably also become a red flag. Better to travel totally disconnected if there's the slightest question.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:08 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:08 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
How the Anti-Vaxxers Are Winning: "Texas, where I live and work, may be the first state to once again experience serious measles outbreaks. As of last fall, more than 45,000 children here had received nonmedical exemptions for their school vaccinations. A political action committee is raising money to protect this âconscientious exemptionâ loophole and to instruct parents on how to file for it. As a result, some public school systems in the state are coming dangerously close to the threshold when measles outbreaks can be expected, and a third of students at some private schools are unvaccinated."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:11 PM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:11 PM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]
oneswellfoop: We're just a short time away from: "Trying to enter the USA? Why would you WANT to?"
I was just chatting with a friend in Singapore. She (not even a Muslim) said "foreigners aren't welcome in USA anymore."
posted by bluecore at 6:11 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I was just chatting with a friend in Singapore. She (not even a Muslim) said "foreigners aren't welcome in USA anymore."
posted by bluecore at 6:11 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
DNC unity candidate Tom Perez dodging the frell out of TYT.
posted by xcasex at 6:14 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by xcasex at 6:14 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Sanders was debating Cruz on CNN at the time.That manages both to absolve and further incriminate his absence. Quite a feat.
I realize I'm scrolling very far up, but Sanders is the chairman of the Senate Democrats' outreach committee. He argued for the ACA, the public option, and universal healthcare such as other rich countries have in a debate that got really good ratings. In short, he did his job.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 6:16 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
ISIS is reportedly calling Trump's travel ban 'the blessed ban'
"I reported here in Nov/Dec of last year," Callimachi tweeted on Wednesday. "Guess what's different on this trip? Everywhere I go, Iraqis want to ask about the visa ban."
Callimachi is in Mosul, ISIS' stronghold in Iraq that is slowly being liberated from the terrorist group.
She said a resident of western Mosul, which is still under ISIS control, told her translator in a phone call that ISIS is also discussing the ban.
"The resident said ISIS has been openly celebrating the ban," Callimachi tweeted. "They've even coined a phrase for it: ۧÙŰ۞۱ ۧÙÙ ŰšŰ§Ű±Ù â or 'The Blessed Ban.'"
Callimachi explained why: "ISIS sees this as *their* doing. They succeeded in scaring the daylight out of America."
"ISIS, according to this resident of Western Mosul, thinks their terror tactic worked. They frightened the most powerful man in the world," Callimachi said, referring to Trump.
This is a no brainer except to the Brainless Ones in the WH.
posted by futz at 6:18 PM on February 8, 2017 [58 favorites]
"I reported here in Nov/Dec of last year," Callimachi tweeted on Wednesday. "Guess what's different on this trip? Everywhere I go, Iraqis want to ask about the visa ban."
Callimachi is in Mosul, ISIS' stronghold in Iraq that is slowly being liberated from the terrorist group.
She said a resident of western Mosul, which is still under ISIS control, told her translator in a phone call that ISIS is also discussing the ban.
"The resident said ISIS has been openly celebrating the ban," Callimachi tweeted. "They've even coined a phrase for it: ۧÙŰ۞۱ ۧÙÙ ŰšŰ§Ű±Ù â or 'The Blessed Ban.'"
Callimachi explained why: "ISIS sees this as *their* doing. They succeeded in scaring the daylight out of America."
"ISIS, according to this resident of Western Mosul, thinks their terror tactic worked. They frightened the most powerful man in the world," Callimachi said, referring to Trump.
This is a no brainer except to the Brainless Ones in the WH.
posted by futz at 6:18 PM on February 8, 2017 [58 favorites]
Is our Democrats learn?
âItâs not just about the contrast between Democrats and Donald Trump,â Pelosi told reporters. âItâs about the Republicans in the Congress. Thereâs hardly anything that Donald Trump has said that the Republicans havenât said sooner and for longer periods of time, in the worst way.â If their plan sounds vaguely familiar, it is. House Democrats tried the same thing in the run-up to the 2016 election, tying House Republicans to whatever the Trump controversy du jour was, with dismal results.
...
Democratic aides say they will eventually shift to a positive economic message that Rust Belt Democrats can run on. But for now, aides say, the focus is on slaying the giant and proving to the voters who sent Trump into the White House why his policies will fail. House Democratsâ strategy is basically this: Theyâll publicly goad Trump on subjects heâs clearly sensitive about, like insinuating heâs being blackmailed by Russian President Vladimir Putin; and on other issues, like Obamacare and tax reform, theyâll get out of the way and let Trump and House Republicans fall on their face.
Fuck no. They learned nothing.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
âItâs not just about the contrast between Democrats and Donald Trump,â Pelosi told reporters. âItâs about the Republicans in the Congress. Thereâs hardly anything that Donald Trump has said that the Republicans havenât said sooner and for longer periods of time, in the worst way.â If their plan sounds vaguely familiar, it is. House Democrats tried the same thing in the run-up to the 2016 election, tying House Republicans to whatever the Trump controversy du jour was, with dismal results.
...
Democratic aides say they will eventually shift to a positive economic message that Rust Belt Democrats can run on. But for now, aides say, the focus is on slaying the giant and proving to the voters who sent Trump into the White House why his policies will fail. House Democratsâ strategy is basically this: Theyâll publicly goad Trump on subjects heâs clearly sensitive about, like insinuating heâs being blackmailed by Russian President Vladimir Putin; and on other issues, like Obamacare and tax reform, theyâll get out of the way and let Trump and House Republicans fall on their face.
Fuck no. They learned nothing.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]
Fuck Joe Manchin.
posted by flatluigi at 6:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by flatluigi at 6:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Well, Senator Warren obviously isn't Turtley enough for the Turtle Club.
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:40 PM on February 8
In a day of bad news and multiple aggravations this bit of silliness made me laugh and it made me laugh hard. Every time I thought about it I would laugh until the tears rolled down my cheeks. Even now I'm laughing. So thank you, Celsius1414.
Also referring to DJT as a "fascist, loofah-faced shitgibbon" was pretty damn good.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:26 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:40 PM on February 8
In a day of bad news and multiple aggravations this bit of silliness made me laugh and it made me laugh hard. Every time I thought about it I would laugh until the tears rolled down my cheeks. Even now I'm laughing. So thank you, Celsius1414.
Also referring to DJT as a "fascist, loofah-faced shitgibbon" was pretty damn good.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:26 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
So uhh I just read that older Moldbug post. Judging by the first comment by Pope Guilty, they nailed it, back in JULY 2014 (not even waiting until endless August 2014! )A++ will read full article.
posted by Yowser at 6:35 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Yowser at 6:35 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Manchin is a boil on the ass of the Democratic party.
posted by lydhre at 6:37 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by lydhre at 6:37 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
DNC unity candidate Tom Perez dodging the frell out of TYT.
This is the most encouraging thing I've heard about Perez.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:39 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
This is the most encouraging thing I've heard about Perez.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:39 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
San Francisco police take bold stance to protect Muslims [via Techdirt]
[Last] Wednesday, San Francisco officers took a bold stance against Trumpâs new immigration laws. In response to Trumpâs Muslim ban, they are cutting ties between the police department and an FBI task force.posted by J.K. Seazer at 6:40 PM on February 8, 2017 [49 favorites]
The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) has worked with the FBI on a Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) since 2007, with the purpose of investigating terrorism threats, collecting intel, and making arrests. The FBI, which has similar task forces nationwide, calls them âsmall cells of highly trained, locally based, passionately committed investigators, analysts, linguists, SWAT experts, and other specialists from dozens of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies.â
But the SFPD will no longer work with the JTTF on the grounds that the federal agency will likely increase efforts to surveil Muslims, following Trumpâs recent executive order to prevent Muslims from entering the county [sic].
Ugh, this cabinet. I knew it was coming, and yet.
Anyway, I've spent my day doing 10 hours of science and fantasizing about getting involved in registering high school seniors to vote, because apparently this is my idea of fun now.
posted by deludingmyself at 6:41 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Anyway, I've spent my day doing 10 hours of science and fantasizing about getting involved in registering high school seniors to vote, because apparently this is my idea of fun now.
posted by deludingmyself at 6:41 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Anyway, I've spent my day doing 10 hours of science and fantasizing about getting involved in registering high school seniors to vote, because apparently this is my idea of fun now.
I know the feeling, i find myself explaining that politics isnt something we cant just ignore, to too many people these days :/
posted by xcasex at 6:43 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
I know the feeling, i find myself explaining that politics isnt something we cant just ignore, to too many people these days :/
posted by xcasex at 6:43 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
San Francisco is fake liberal isn't it? They play pretend to keep corporations staffed?
posted by Yowser at 6:44 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Yowser at 6:44 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Y'all my sister went to the local Womens March in our home town and she carried this sign. Also on bFm (our local college radio in Auckland) they referred to Trump as an orange faced shit gibbon. That shit gibbon reign just won't let up. 2017: shit gibbon will rise. Shit gibbon is the hero America needs but not the one it deserves.
posted by supercrayon at 6:45 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by supercrayon at 6:45 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
From December: Joe Manchinâs Big Secret Reason To Vocally Support Jeff Sessions For AG: "Manchinâs daughter is the CEO of Pharma giant Mylan⊠if the name Mylan isnât ringing a bell, itâs the pharmaceutical company thatâs been getting the guts ripped out of it over its pricing of EpiPens, the one that directly benefits from and funds lobbying to achieve the curtailment of a drug discount program that gets poor, red-state patients EpiPens at a discount, and most importantly, the Mylan that remains the focus of a Department of Justice probe and has found itself in the crosshairs of Sen. Grassley."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:47 PM on February 8, 2017 [44 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:47 PM on February 8, 2017 [44 favorites]
Tweet from Dana Rohrabacher, Representative from Orange Co., Calif: If majority of people legally residing in Alaska want to be part of Russia then its OK with me
He also went on TV in Albania recently: Wow, OC Rep @DanaRohrabacher to Albanian TV: Macedonia isnât a country, should be split up, given to neighbors:
This is the link to the YouTube video if you happen to speak Albanian
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:49 PM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
He also went on TV in Albania recently: Wow, OC Rep @DanaRohrabacher to Albanian TV: Macedonia isnât a country, should be split up, given to neighbors:
This is the link to the YouTube video if you happen to speak Albanian
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:49 PM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
I expect that this year's firm and open identification of the GOP with white supremacy probably gives them a lock on statewide office in WV for a couple of decades, but as biscotti notes I am a bit of an eeyore.
Statewide offices are pretty fucked, yeah. I'm quickly realizing in a red district, the only sustainable way forward is Dem board of trustee members and Chamber of Commerce members and school board members and city councilors and county water board and agricultural extension council and freaking dogcatchers, pressure on the bottom to push the statehouse senators and reps and change the tenor of conversation locally and work to benefit the community and work up from there. Oh and also work to build economic power locally for minorities, money talks real loud in red districts. It's the game Democrats haven't been playing and Republicans have and it's one of a very few things that will yield results. The others would be to work the system from the Republican side and try to change it from within, or coalition with moderate Republicans which has shown some results in Kansas - both of these tactics can create the political space to allow future progressive inroads but mostly they hold the line at the center right, recognizing that if the Republicans have all the power sometimes the only option is to go where the heat is and do what you can with it. The other option is fusion politics which is what I want to see take off as it shatters Republican tactics, but few of us are in a position to spin that up locally, mostly what can be done to help that along is spreading the word about what Barber and co. are doing and help it grow organically.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:50 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
Statewide offices are pretty fucked, yeah. I'm quickly realizing in a red district, the only sustainable way forward is Dem board of trustee members and Chamber of Commerce members and school board members and city councilors and county water board and agricultural extension council and freaking dogcatchers, pressure on the bottom to push the statehouse senators and reps and change the tenor of conversation locally and work to benefit the community and work up from there. Oh and also work to build economic power locally for minorities, money talks real loud in red districts. It's the game Democrats haven't been playing and Republicans have and it's one of a very few things that will yield results. The others would be to work the system from the Republican side and try to change it from within, or coalition with moderate Republicans which has shown some results in Kansas - both of these tactics can create the political space to allow future progressive inroads but mostly they hold the line at the center right, recognizing that if the Republicans have all the power sometimes the only option is to go where the heat is and do what you can with it. The other option is fusion politics which is what I want to see take off as it shatters Republican tactics, but few of us are in a position to spin that up locally, mostly what can be done to help that along is spreading the word about what Barber and co. are doing and help it grow organically.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:50 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
I'm quickly realizing in a red district, the only sustainable way forward is Dem board of trustee members and Chamber of Commerce members and school board members and city councilors and county water board and agricultural extension council and freaking dogcatchers, pressure on the bottom to push the statehouse senators and reps and change the tenor of conversation locally and work to benefit the community and work up from there.
Yes, this.
To this end, in my continued volunteer role as "digital activist, support class," I spent an hour yesterday on all the local Indivisible Facebook groups writing up a post for everyone sad/angry about DeVos and the fact that we don't get to vote against our crappy one-term [R] senator here until 2020. Because in the meantime, LGBTQ kids and kids with disabilities are going to need protecting at the local level, and 60-some school board spots are up for grabs in Colorado in November 2017. I don't have kids, but man would I love it if some of these newly-awoken suburban progressives would redirect some of their time calling Gardner's flunkies to run.
Also Ballotopedia is great for finding out what's happening in your off-year elections, even this far out.
posted by deludingmyself at 6:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
Yes, this.
To this end, in my continued volunteer role as "digital activist, support class," I spent an hour yesterday on all the local Indivisible Facebook groups writing up a post for everyone sad/angry about DeVos and the fact that we don't get to vote against our crappy one-term [R] senator here until 2020. Because in the meantime, LGBTQ kids and kids with disabilities are going to need protecting at the local level, and 60-some school board spots are up for grabs in Colorado in November 2017. I don't have kids, but man would I love it if some of these newly-awoken suburban progressives would redirect some of their time calling Gardner's flunkies to run.
Also Ballotopedia is great for finding out what's happening in your off-year elections, even this far out.
posted by deludingmyself at 6:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
From everybody had matching towels link above about Senator Leach. This has to be the best day at work that Leach's spokesperson has ever had:
Leach's spokesperson, Steve Hoenstine, said in a statement the senator's post was inspired by justified anger:
"President Trump blithely talked about destroying the career of a man who disagreed with Trump on a policy issue. Then Trump laughed about it, which is just what youâd expect from someone who gets his kicks firing people on national television. Trump just continues to undermine democratic norms, Americaâs system of checks and balances, and the general principle of human decency. Senator Leach is mad as hell about it, as you can see from his tweet."
I love everything in that statement and the fact that there were no weasel words or backtracking. *swoons*
posted by futz at 7:03 PM on February 8, 2017 [54 favorites]
Leach's spokesperson, Steve Hoenstine, said in a statement the senator's post was inspired by justified anger:
"President Trump blithely talked about destroying the career of a man who disagreed with Trump on a policy issue. Then Trump laughed about it, which is just what youâd expect from someone who gets his kicks firing people on national television. Trump just continues to undermine democratic norms, Americaâs system of checks and balances, and the general principle of human decency. Senator Leach is mad as hell about it, as you can see from his tweet."
I love everything in that statement and the fact that there were no weasel words or backtracking. *swoons*
posted by futz at 7:03 PM on February 8, 2017 [54 favorites]
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-white-house-communications-234813: "At least two candidates have turned down the job of White House communications director."
I mean, it sounds like a horrible job, but it's pretty amazing they haven't been able to find someone desperate enough to take it.
posted by zachlipton at 7:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
I mean, it sounds like a horrible job, but it's pretty amazing they haven't been able to find someone desperate enough to take it.
posted by zachlipton at 7:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
Milo Yiannopoulos. Before four years are out, I bet you he will have some formal position, probably that one.
posted by corb at 7:11 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by corb at 7:11 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
I don't think Yiannopoulos is actually interested in a real position tied to DC. He's got a pretty charmed life (for certain values of selling your soul) as the alt-right provocateur also getting showered with hundred million dollar book deals. Why would he give up flitting around the country pissing off liberal college kids and sleeping with a different self-hating closet case every night in 5 star hotels to be Trump's press flack? Getting Trump elected was the troll of the millennium, he doesn't actually care what happens next.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:17 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:17 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
We're just a short time away from: "Trying to enter the USA? Why would you WANT to?"
Interest in travel to the US has plummeted since Trump became president
Interest in travel to the US has plummeted since Trump became president
The US could be on the verge of a tourism shock. Interest in traveling to the US from at least 94 countries has fallen sharply since Donald J. Trump was sworn in as president, according to Hopper, a digital travel agency.posted by chris24 at 7:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [37 favorites]
Overall average interest in flying to the US declined 17% from the three weeks before Trumpâs inauguration to two weeks afterward, Hopper said, based on weekly averages of an analysis of billions of global flight searches.
[...]
On the other hand, there was a huge increase in interest in travel to the US from Russia. Flight searches from Russia to the US rose 88%, Hopper said.
The only upside to this whole intolerable situation is finding out how piss-poor modern nazis are at their jobs.
posted by valkane at 7:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by valkane at 7:21 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]
I wouldn't come here. Save yourselves, guys. We're done for.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
I work in a very touristy area and I persistently feel like I would if someone unexpectedly visited my house while it was a filthy mess and also on fire. "Haha, so nice of you to come by, sorry about the...everything. So, anyway, LEAVE, SAVE YOURSELF."
posted by yasaman at 7:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [37 favorites]
posted by yasaman at 7:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [37 favorites]
Well, I can still vouch for parts of California, and there are a couple stretches of the coast near me where you can sneak anybody/thing you want in without too much trouble...
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
I dunno about done for, but I'd skip the next four years. Deny Trump and his junta the tourism dollars.
posted by Justinian at 7:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 7:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
You should go see Hamilton. In London.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:34 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:34 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
I'm finding myself worrying about the DNC chair thing a little because I really want Ellison AND Buttigieg AND Perez and most of the other candidates for the chair out there working together, they've all got different skill sets that work very well in different parts of the country and different parts of the big DNC tent - this is an all hands on deck situation and I'd like to see the lot of them out there working directly with local and state parties and activist groups to bring focus and tactics and resources, not just a qualified and well-meaning chair stuck relying on broken lower level party infrastructure that in many cases is run like little fiefdoms that will resist new ideas.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:40 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 7:40 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
m*l* says he's on an O1-B visa (which if true says something about grade inflation for the O class) which is a non-immigrant visa tied to a specific work itinerary. Of course, if you control the bureaucracy, you can fudge the visa stuff and the background checks and drug testing and mandatory disclosures, but he's never had a "job" in his life and I can't see him taking one any time soon.
posted by holgate at 7:40 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by holgate at 7:40 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Apropos of nothing I would like to share an anecdote about trying to get along with Real Americans in Real America in this grim and ever-engrimmening moment.
So I live in a very rural part of a fairly red western state. I looked out my window one morning a week or two ago and saw somebody's old cattle dog wandering around the property, apparently lost. Not trusting it unattended around the livestock I didn't want to let it stay out there, but it was also a cold and snowy day and I didn't have the heart to shoo it down the road to fend for itself. So I spent a while calling all my neighbors for a couple miles around, but nobody was missing their dog. Remembering then a dog that had wandered onto the place similarly 2 years ago, I checked its mouth and saw the same broken tooth that identified it the last time, and I thought: FUCK, it's Hank's dog. Hank from three miles that way. That Hank.
Over 70% of my county's votes were for the bad man, for a variety of bad reasons, but there isn't a lot of enthusiastic support of the MAGA/redcap type. People usually don't talk about politics and don't encourage enthusiastic participation in gross dominance-based personality-cults. Except for Hank. He's the only Proud Deplorable I know in my 50 square mile area, is very active on social media, and one one memorable occasion weighed in on Facebook to let me know that if I think Muslims ought to live in Montana then I should go back to [blue state]. And now I have his goddamned dog.
Now, neighborly behavior is a big deal out here. The way I've always known it is that you treat people fairly and decently and look out for them and you trade them some eggs for plowing your driveway and everybody gets along. And that's been my experience with all my neighbors regardless of politics or culture. Even with Hank more or less, until last year. Neighborly code in this circumstance dictated that I had to return this dog and chat politely with the owner and talk about when do you think the ground will thaw and how was your second cutting of alfalfa this year. I did not want to do this.
So I thought for a while. Hank is kind of a scary and awful dude (hombre) who might mean me harm now or someday soon. If Alex Jones tells red-blooded true americans to cleanse the land of (((globalists))), Hank's by far the most likely neighbor to come and murder me. What if he's suspicious and refuses to think that his dog wandered to my place by chance? Would he think that I kidnapped his dog and then returned it to send a veiled threat? Or that George Soros has paid me to lure him into a trap or put a listening device in his dog's brain? Given all the shit he'd already been led to believe, these were not implausible ideas.
Eventually I summoned my courage and called his place and his elderly mother picked up. She said he was away for the day (relief) but to bring the dog by. So I drove the dog over and it ran into their house and plopped down at her feet and we had a pleasant, neighborly chat. She said she'd tell Hank about how the nice young fellow from down the road brought back his dog and made sure to get my name. I headed home and waited.
I never heard back from him about returning his dog. No "hey, thanks partner," no "I guess you're one of the good ones." No neighborliness. I did, however, see him posting on Facebook a day later on the usual LOL HOT MUG OF LIB TEARS themes.
So what's the moral or message here? I dunno. I guess to say, maybe to myself, that at least some folks are putting the work in to keep it from going Bleeding Kansas out here. I want to encourage everyone in a similar position, who still has it in them, to keep pulling the other party's weight. Until this community actively rejects me, I am going to maintain basic human civility for as long as possible. I will not be the one to finally throw it away.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:43 PM on February 8, 2017 [107 favorites]
So I live in a very rural part of a fairly red western state. I looked out my window one morning a week or two ago and saw somebody's old cattle dog wandering around the property, apparently lost. Not trusting it unattended around the livestock I didn't want to let it stay out there, but it was also a cold and snowy day and I didn't have the heart to shoo it down the road to fend for itself. So I spent a while calling all my neighbors for a couple miles around, but nobody was missing their dog. Remembering then a dog that had wandered onto the place similarly 2 years ago, I checked its mouth and saw the same broken tooth that identified it the last time, and I thought: FUCK, it's Hank's dog. Hank from three miles that way. That Hank.
Over 70% of my county's votes were for the bad man, for a variety of bad reasons, but there isn't a lot of enthusiastic support of the MAGA/redcap type. People usually don't talk about politics and don't encourage enthusiastic participation in gross dominance-based personality-cults. Except for Hank. He's the only Proud Deplorable I know in my 50 square mile area, is very active on social media, and one one memorable occasion weighed in on Facebook to let me know that if I think Muslims ought to live in Montana then I should go back to [blue state]. And now I have his goddamned dog.
Now, neighborly behavior is a big deal out here. The way I've always known it is that you treat people fairly and decently and look out for them and you trade them some eggs for plowing your driveway and everybody gets along. And that's been my experience with all my neighbors regardless of politics or culture. Even with Hank more or less, until last year. Neighborly code in this circumstance dictated that I had to return this dog and chat politely with the owner and talk about when do you think the ground will thaw and how was your second cutting of alfalfa this year. I did not want to do this.
So I thought for a while. Hank is kind of a scary and awful dude (hombre) who might mean me harm now or someday soon. If Alex Jones tells red-blooded true americans to cleanse the land of (((globalists))), Hank's by far the most likely neighbor to come and murder me. What if he's suspicious and refuses to think that his dog wandered to my place by chance? Would he think that I kidnapped his dog and then returned it to send a veiled threat? Or that George Soros has paid me to lure him into a trap or put a listening device in his dog's brain? Given all the shit he'd already been led to believe, these were not implausible ideas.
Eventually I summoned my courage and called his place and his elderly mother picked up. She said he was away for the day (relief) but to bring the dog by. So I drove the dog over and it ran into their house and plopped down at her feet and we had a pleasant, neighborly chat. She said she'd tell Hank about how the nice young fellow from down the road brought back his dog and made sure to get my name. I headed home and waited.
I never heard back from him about returning his dog. No "hey, thanks partner," no "I guess you're one of the good ones." No neighborliness. I did, however, see him posting on Facebook a day later on the usual LOL HOT MUG OF LIB TEARS themes.
So what's the moral or message here? I dunno. I guess to say, maybe to myself, that at least some folks are putting the work in to keep it from going Bleeding Kansas out here. I want to encourage everyone in a similar position, who still has it in them, to keep pulling the other party's weight. Until this community actively rejects me, I am going to maintain basic human civility for as long as possible. I will not be the one to finally throw it away.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:43 PM on February 8, 2017 [107 favorites]
Trump had been tricky, neither accepting nor rejecting the endorsement of KKK leader David Duke.
Who is over the moon with the confirmation of Sessions, apparently.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:51 PM on February 8, 2017
Who is over the moon with the confirmation of Sessions, apparently.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:51 PM on February 8, 2017
Until this community actively rejects me, I am going to maintain basic human civility for as long as possible. I will not be the one to finally throw it away.
Exactly. "You need a ride, no problem. Trump is fascist moron traitor. Let me know if there's anything else I can help you with."
posted by bongo_x at 7:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Exactly. "You need a ride, no problem. Trump is fascist moron traitor. Let me know if there's anything else I can help you with."
posted by bongo_x at 7:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
I will not be the one to finally throw it away
ok but next time how about you train the dog to shit in the house on the SIT command
posted by poffin boffin at 7:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [27 favorites]
ok but next time how about you train the dog to shit in the house on the SIT command
posted by poffin boffin at 7:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [27 favorites]
Who is over the moon with the confirmation of Sessions, apparently.
Rightly. Sessions is as bad as Duke himself as AG.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:58 PM on February 8, 2017
Rightly. Sessions is as bad as Duke himself as AG.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:58 PM on February 8, 2017
From Kal Penn: White House schedule says his Daily Intelligence Briefing was at 10:30am. This was the tweet he sent at 10:51am.
Donald J. Trumpâ @realDonaldTrumpMy daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
posted by Dashy at 8:06 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Donald J. Trumpâ @realDonaldTrumpMy daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
posted by Dashy at 8:06 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Rust, I've noticed similar things - the actual deplorables are fewer and farther between than I'd have thought. And I keep asking myself, why are people I know to be otherwise decent voting for this modern hateful and shamelessly distasteful Republican party? I mean, people who maybe weren't great allies but who VISCERALLY objected to any hint of fanaticism, who really should have run screaming. I don't know the answer, but seeing Kansas Republicans pull back from Brownback gives me at least some hope, although it took Kansas feeling a lot of pain to get there.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:06 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 8:06 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
>I can say from first hand experience that a lot of Canadians are having the discussion on whether they should risk crossing the border for any reason (including shopping)
Seconded.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:12 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
Seconded.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:12 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
And I keep asking myself, why are people I know to be otherwise decent voting for this modern hateful and shamelessly distasteful Republican party?
Emails, of course. (plus fossilized cultural partisanship and an inherent disdain for whichever candidate looks more like The Government)
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:13 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
Emails, of course. (plus fossilized cultural partisanship and an inherent disdain for whichever candidate looks more like The Government)
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:13 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
the actual deplorables are fewer and farther between than I'd have thought. And I keep asking myself, why are people I know to be otherwise decent voting for this modern hateful and shamelessly distasteful Republican party?
for every loud and proud white supremacist xenophobe in a MAGA hat, there are ten that are ashamed enough to only indulge in it in the privacy of the ballot box.
posted by murphy slaw at 8:17 PM on February 8, 2017 [18 favorites]
for every loud and proud white supremacist xenophobe in a MAGA hat, there are ten that are ashamed enough to only indulge in it in the privacy of the ballot box.
posted by murphy slaw at 8:17 PM on February 8, 2017 [18 favorites]
I am kinda catching up on this thread. zachlipton posted this Chaffetz (Chaffetz: No oversight talk in Oval Office meeting with Trump) article above and it sent me bouncing around to a few other websites. Here is an amalgamation of what I found.
What Chaffetz says now:
âThe Democrats can flail and complain and run around with their heads cut off. The reality is heâs exempt from this,â Chaffetz said, referring to conflict of interest laws, according to The Hill. âIt would have to rise to a very high level for us to [target Trump]."
What he said before the election:
If you're going to run and try to become the president of the United States, you're going to have to open up your kimono and show everything, your tax returns, your medical records.
No matter who wins, we have a duty, a responsibility under the Constitution to actually be that check and balance . . . I can promise you I don't care who is in the White House . . . My job is to hold them accountable and to provide that oversight.
Piece of motherfucking shit. Another shitgibbon.
posted by futz at 8:20 PM on February 8, 2017 [56 favorites]
What Chaffetz says now:
âThe Democrats can flail and complain and run around with their heads cut off. The reality is heâs exempt from this,â Chaffetz said, referring to conflict of interest laws, according to The Hill. âIt would have to rise to a very high level for us to [target Trump]."
What he said before the election:
If you're going to run and try to become the president of the United States, you're going to have to open up your kimono and show everything, your tax returns, your medical records.
No matter who wins, we have a duty, a responsibility under the Constitution to actually be that check and balance . . . I can promise you I don't care who is in the White House . . . My job is to hold them accountable and to provide that oversight.
Piece of motherfucking shit. Another shitgibbon.
posted by futz at 8:20 PM on February 8, 2017 [56 favorites]
Thank you, soren_lorensen and INFJ!! I am going to use these postcards. *stretches hands and cracks knuckles*
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 8:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 8:22 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
If you're going to run and try to become the president of the United States, you're going to have to open up your kimono and show everything, your tax returns, your medical records.
oh god he even said open the kimono. Gross gross gross chaffetz bum kimono bum
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:23 PM on February 8, 2017 [15 favorites]
oh god he even said open the kimono. Gross gross gross chaffetz bum kimono bum
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:23 PM on February 8, 2017 [15 favorites]
The Donald J. Trumpâ @realDonaldTrumpMy daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible! tweet got brought up at the press briefing today and it was noted the time in relation to the Daily Intelligence Briefing.
Spicer's response was he "could confirm the President was free at that time".
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 8:24 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Spicer's response was he "could confirm the President was free at that time".
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 8:24 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
So what's the moral or message here?
You should lobby the new FCC chair to shut down Facebook. Or allow ISPs to raise the price of service in Real Rural Real America so that the Hanks can't afford it. I'm not even snarking any more.
why are people I know to be otherwise decent voting for this modern hateful and shamelessly distasteful Republican party?
Because the lone magahat in 50 square miles can now tap into a cheering section whenever they like.
posted by holgate at 8:24 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
You should lobby the new FCC chair to shut down Facebook. Or allow ISPs to raise the price of service in Real Rural Real America so that the Hanks can't afford it. I'm not even snarking any more.
why are people I know to be otherwise decent voting for this modern hateful and shamelessly distasteful Republican party?
Because the lone magahat in 50 square miles can now tap into a cheering section whenever they like.
posted by holgate at 8:24 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
MSNBC broke into their programming to show a protest in Arizona where a crowd of protesters has surrounded an ICE van with a woman named Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos inside who they say is being deported due to Trump's deportation EO. There's a guy lying on the ground with his arms stuck in the wheel well of the van.
...but now they've gone to commercial, so I guess it's not that important.
posted by XMLicious at 8:29 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
...but now they've gone to commercial, so I guess it's not that important.
posted by XMLicious at 8:29 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
From Kal Penn: White House schedule says his Daily Intelligence Briefing was at 10:30am. This was the tweet he sent at 10:51am.
Donald J. Trumpâ @realDonaldTrumpMy daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
Priorities! Priorities, man!
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:34 PM on February 8, 2017
Donald J. Trumpâ @realDonaldTrumpMy daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
Priorities! Priorities, man!
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:34 PM on February 8, 2017
Chaffetz is the perfectly distillation of IOKIYAR taken to the absurd. Remember he said they had "years" of investigations already lined up for a Clinton win, but no one tell him Trump staffers are using RNC email accounts or about Trumps Android from 2007 because he'll....do nothing. At all.
We never have to take one single thing any Republican says at face value, ever again. They're all lying, about every so-called principal, always, no exceptions. These people are all tyrants or want to be tyrants.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:36 PM on February 8, 2017 [21 favorites]
We never have to take one single thing any Republican says at face value, ever again. They're all lying, about every so-called principal, always, no exceptions. These people are all tyrants or want to be tyrants.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:36 PM on February 8, 2017 [21 favorites]
So is Nordstrom in NATO
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:37 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:37 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
If you're going to run and try to become the president of the United States, you're going to have to open up your kimono and show everything, your tax returns, your medical records.
It's simple, Chaffetz thought he was talking about a Democratic woman when he said that.
posted by zachlipton at 8:37 PM on February 8, 2017 [27 favorites]
It's simple, Chaffetz thought he was talking about a Democratic woman when he said that.
posted by zachlipton at 8:37 PM on February 8, 2017 [27 favorites]
Didn't Spicy say he wasn't in the briefing then? Which, lol. Buddy, that's not a good thing either. Either he tweeted that shit during the briefing, or the intelligence briefing was like fifteen minutes long, which is kind of equally alarming. Because those should be longer, right? I feel like they should be longer.
posted by yasaman at 8:38 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by yasaman at 8:38 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yeah, nobody WANTS to see what The Donald has inside his kimono...
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:38 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:38 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Spicer indeed claimed Turmp "was free" when the Nordstrom tweet went out. None of the possibilities are very good there.
(There's another possibility, which is that he didn't write the tweet and Spicer lied about him not being in the briefing at that time. It came from an iPhone, apparently, so that gives some credence to this theory.)
posted by zachlipton at 8:48 PM on February 8, 2017
(There's another possibility, which is that he didn't write the tweet and Spicer lied about him not being in the briefing at that time. It came from an iPhone, apparently, so that gives some credence to this theory.)
posted by zachlipton at 8:48 PM on February 8, 2017
Donald J. Trumpâ @realDonaldTrumpMy daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
1. It's terrifying that, by his own admission, he has to be 'pushed' to do the right thing.
2. Ivanka is obviously not very sucessful at pushing her father to do the right thing.
3. Stop tweeting and get back to work, you stupid, bumbling, burbling waste of skin and organs.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:54 PM on February 8, 2017 [16 favorites]
1. It's terrifying that, by his own admission, he has to be 'pushed' to do the right thing.
2. Ivanka is obviously not very sucessful at pushing her father to do the right thing.
3. Stop tweeting and get back to work, you stupid, bumbling, burbling waste of skin and organs.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:54 PM on February 8, 2017 [16 favorites]
> If you're going to run and try to become the president of the United States, you're going to have to open up your kimono and show everything, your tax returns, your medical records.
oh god he even said open the kimono. Gross gross gross chaffetz bum kimono bum
Technically it's a bathrobe.
posted by sebastienbailard at 8:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
oh god he even said open the kimono. Gross gross gross chaffetz bum kimono bum
Technically it's a bathrobe.
posted by sebastienbailard at 8:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Betsy DeVos tweeted a weird black and white picture of her in her office, jokingly asking where the pencils are, because she apparently doesn't care that we already think she's stupid. Some pretty good snark in the responses. I like: "A true educator wouldn't have to ask... we carry them with us at all times" and this photoshop job.
posted by zachlipton at 8:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 8:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]
On the other hand, if Trumpy is not working, he can't do any harm toward his universally wrong-headed goals and will get in the way with the others in his administration who are dedicated to hurting people. So, no, DON'T get back to work.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:00 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:00 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yeah, nobody WANTS to see what The Donald has inside his kimono...
From what I've read of the Summer Zervos litigation, there's a very good probability that Ms. Zervos knows what's inside his kimono.
C'mon discovery! Please G-d, let the Judge order pictures of Donald J. Trump's naked body be entered into evidence!
posted by mikelieman at 9:05 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
From what I've read of the Summer Zervos litigation, there's a very good probability that Ms. Zervos knows what's inside his kimono.
C'mon discovery! Please G-d, let the Judge order pictures of Donald J. Trump's naked body be entered into evidence!
posted by mikelieman at 9:05 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
C'mon discovery! Please G-d, let the Judge order pictures of Donald J. Trump's naked body be entered into evidence!
This truly is the darkest timeline.
posted by sporkwort at 9:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [22 favorites]
This truly is the darkest timeline.
posted by sporkwort at 9:07 PM on February 8, 2017 [22 favorites]
Trying to enter the USA? Probably they refuse you entry.
Anything can happen. At that point you are in the US and have zero rights and they can do as they please. They can detain you. They can transfer you to a deportation center. They can strip search you. They can cavity search you. They can dismantle your electronics. They can tear down your car. You are utterly at their mercy every time you cross.
Always remember international borders are legal black holes.
posted by srboisvert at 9:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
Anything can happen. At that point you are in the US and have zero rights and they can do as they please. They can detain you. They can transfer you to a deportation center. They can strip search you. They can cavity search you. They can dismantle your electronics. They can tear down your car. You are utterly at their mercy every time you cross.
Always remember international borders are legal black holes.
posted by srboisvert at 9:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]
That Devos first day on the job photo was like a still taken from a Antonioni film.
posted by perhapses at 9:10 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by perhapses at 9:10 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
DeVos tweeted, "I shared my appreciation for [the Department of Education's] work and my goal: to ensure we have the worldâs most innovative, student-centric public education system." On the face of it, that's encouraging, but knowing this crew, "public education system" is some sort of perverse code for "access to education for the public", that is, if you are a member of the public you will have access to education but ha ha did we ever say free? We don't remember ever saying free. For the low low price of $895 a month you have the choice of attending Edgit's Learnin' Center or your local hollowed out shell of a public school.
posted by vverse23 at 9:30 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by vverse23 at 9:30 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
Sean Spicer on Citing Unknown Atlanta Terror Attack 3 Times: I 'Clearly Meant' Orlando
Guys? What is going on? Is this real life?
posted by futz at 9:41 PM on February 8, 2017 [41 favorites]
Guys? What is going on? Is this real life?
posted by futz at 9:41 PM on February 8, 2017 [41 favorites]
He meant clearly Orlando for 10 days? 10 days? Uhhh, is he Kellyanne in a body suit and mask? I need Melissa McCarthy stat.
posted by futz at 9:46 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by futz at 9:46 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
Please let a journo call him Shane Spacer from now on.
posted by holgate at 9:47 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by holgate at 9:47 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Report out of Yemen that 9 children under 12 were killed in the botched Trump raid.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:48 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:48 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]
Atlanta... I mean Algonquin... I mean Outlandish... I mean Orlando...
It's near Bowling Green... I mean Baton Rouge... I mean Cleveland Browns...
If I can't get it right it's because I'm terrorized!!!
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:49 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
It's near Bowling Green... I mean Baton Rouge... I mean Cleveland Browns...
If I can't get it right it's because I'm terrorized!!!
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:49 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
they're good reporters, shane
posted by murphy slaw at 9:50 PM on February 8, 2017 [33 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 9:50 PM on February 8, 2017 [33 favorites]
Report out of Yemen that 9 children under 12 were killed in the botched Trump raid.
Leading, of course, to terrorists who can accurately report "they killed children and called their operation a success." Great work Spicey.
posted by zachlipton at 9:51 PM on February 8, 2017 [24 favorites]
Leading, of course, to terrorists who can accurately report "they killed children and called their operation a success." Great work Spicey.
posted by zachlipton at 9:51 PM on February 8, 2017 [24 favorites]
Jason Chaffetz would never waste his time investigating the Trump administration when Republican control of federal government means he can get back to his true love, fucking around with the District of Columbia's laws. What could be more fun than meddling in the affairs of a city that is entirely powerless to vote you out of office no matter how badly you fuck things up and go against the wishes of the people who actually live there?
posted by Copronymus at 10:00 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by Copronymus at 10:00 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
ACLU vows to sue Sessions if he violates Constitution as AG
posted by futz at 10:04 PM on February 8, 2017 [24 favorites]
posted by futz at 10:04 PM on February 8, 2017 [24 favorites]
The pictures from Phoenix make me fear that if ICE and the local cops believe the gloves can come off, things are going to escalate quickly and unpredictably. Those under ICE supervision orders because they were not considered a deportation priority are no longer going to show up, which will give ICE a pretext to hunt them down.
posted by holgate at 10:10 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by holgate at 10:10 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
Joe Manchin reminds me that I used to think that Blue Dog Democrats completely disappeared. It doesn't look like he is one, and they're still around in vasty smaller numbers.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:16 PM on February 8, 2017
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:16 PM on February 8, 2017
Sean Spicer on Citing Unknown Atlanta Terror Attack 3 Times: I 'Clearly Meant' Orlando
Guys? What is going on? Is this real life?
He was right all along about it being Georgia:
Guys? What is going on? Is this real life?
He was right all along about it being Georgia:
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:18 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]
February 8, 2017
Ricin Found in Car of Georgia White Supremacist
Police, emergency services, and even the National Guard rushed to a home in the remote north Georgia hamlet of Morganton, located near the point where Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia meet.
The reason for the clamor was because a Morganton resident, William Christopher Gibbs, had walked into the local hospital, telling staff there that he had come into physical contact with the deadly toxin ricin. Ricin, which can be lethal in even miniscule doses, is a poison derived from the castor bean.
The Fannin County Sheriffâs Office reported that a field test of Gibbsâ vehicle had, in fact, returned a positive result for ricin. This was the cause of the dozens of vehicles descending on Morganton last Friday, to make sure the community was safe from any contamination.
...
located near the point where Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia meet.
Oh what a coincidence: not far from where Eric Rudolph theOrlando Atlanta terrorist hid for five years.
posted by holgate at 10:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
Oh what a coincidence: not far from where Eric Rudolph the
posted by holgate at 10:28 PM on February 8, 2017 [8 favorites]
I used to think that Blue Dog Democrats completely disappeared.
They're still around, in addition to Manchin, especially at the local level. Many of our Democrats in the legislature would fit this bill. We here in Kansas will probably get to vote for one in two years for the governorship. We'll get someone who claims to be pro-life, pro-gun & lifelong hunter, "respects Kansas values". We'll also get lots of mailers from the Koch superPACs claiming this pro-life hunter blue dog actually makes Stalin look moderate by comparison. It'll be fun.
Also get them at the lower levels. There's one who regularly makes a run in my district. Her mailers omit party affiliation, but you can still tell she's the Democrat because her campaign bullet points are full of specific proposals for making people's lives better. As opposed to her opponent and his lists of the terrorists and illegal immigrants and babies and guns who will be stopped or saved by his election.
posted by honestcoyote at 11:42 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
They're still around, in addition to Manchin, especially at the local level. Many of our Democrats in the legislature would fit this bill. We here in Kansas will probably get to vote for one in two years for the governorship. We'll get someone who claims to be pro-life, pro-gun & lifelong hunter, "respects Kansas values". We'll also get lots of mailers from the Koch superPACs claiming this pro-life hunter blue dog actually makes Stalin look moderate by comparison. It'll be fun.
Also get them at the lower levels. There's one who regularly makes a run in my district. Her mailers omit party affiliation, but you can still tell she's the Democrat because her campaign bullet points are full of specific proposals for making people's lives better. As opposed to her opponent and his lists of the terrorists and illegal immigrants and babies and guns who will be stopped or saved by his election.
posted by honestcoyote at 11:42 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
witchen: This is a landline poll where 100% report voting in 2016.
Is this the real life
Is this just fantasy
Called on a landline
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:05 AM on February 9, 2017 [15 favorites]
Is this the real life
Is this just fantasy
Called on a landline
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:05 AM on February 9, 2017 [15 favorites]
You should lobby the new FCC chair to shut down Facebook. Or allow ISPs to raise the price of service in Real Rural Real America so that the Hanks can't afford it. I'm not even snarking any more.
Fuck you very much. I pay $90/month for speeds barely better than dial-up and a download limit of 10 gig a month. Trust me, the prices are already raised.
posted by threeturtles at 1:36 AM on February 9, 2017 [22 favorites]
Fuck you very much. I pay $90/month for speeds barely better than dial-up and a download limit of 10 gig a month. Trust me, the prices are already raised.
posted by threeturtles at 1:36 AM on February 9, 2017 [22 favorites]
Hank can find his cheering section, yes, but so can threeturtles. So can my aunts in Oklahoma and Kansas.
The internet is a tool- like any tool it doesn't have a moral alignment on its own.
So the thing to do is use it for good as much as possible. Keep in touch with Hank's mother. Publicize what's going on at CPB and with ICE and the police at Standing Rock. Who guards the guards? We do. The eyes of the internet are watching and will act. We can't do that if people in the middle of Montana can't see the brutality that makes people shout Black Lives Matter.
That reminds me, doesn't ACLU have a video app that sends the recording somewhere secure? I should go install that.
posted by nat at 2:10 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
The internet is a tool- like any tool it doesn't have a moral alignment on its own.
So the thing to do is use it for good as much as possible. Keep in touch with Hank's mother. Publicize what's going on at CPB and with ICE and the police at Standing Rock. Who guards the guards? We do. The eyes of the internet are watching and will act. We can't do that if people in the middle of Montana can't see the brutality that makes people shout Black Lives Matter.
That reminds me, doesn't ACLU have a video app that sends the recording somewhere secure? I should go install that.
posted by nat at 2:10 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
From the Yemen Raid Had Secret Target: Al Qaeda Leader Qassim Al-Rimi article: After two months of military preparation increasingly focused on the opportunity to capture al-Rimi, Trump was told by Defense Secretary James Mattis and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that his capture would be a "game changer," according to a senior White House official with direct knowledge of the discussions.
In making their case, they told Trump that they doubted that the Obama administration would have been bold enough to try it, this official said.
What's worse, they double-dog-dared him
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:56 AM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]
In making their case, they told Trump that they doubted that the Obama administration would have been bold enough to try it, this official said.
What's worse, they double-dog-dared him
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:56 AM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]
The internet is a tool- like any tool it doesn't have a moral alignment on its own.
I want to address this, because it's important, and may in some deep way even turn out to be pivotal to understanding the set of circumstances we find ourselves in. "Moral alignment" is certainly a matter of interpretation, but this idea that technology is neutral is frankly a naive and somewhat outdated way of approaching the question.
A more sophisticated perspective might be to suggest that all tools present their users with affordances and constraints, which is to say they have an inherent directionality to them. It's very, very difficult to make good things happen in the presence of a handgun, for example, which is why I no longer have one.
Following (primarily) Bruno Latour, we could observe that the boundaries of the thing we think of as "the tool" are generally less compact than we'd been led to believe. In this model, the functionality of any even moderately complex object is smeared out across a heterogeneous fabric of connections â what Latour and others of his school refer to as an "actor-network," made up of laws, social conventions, physical forces and so on. By this theory, the ways in which "the internet" can be used, and the cultural effects it tends to give rise to, depend on the granular specifics of the ways in which regulation, the properties of the electromagnetic spectrum, the design of the laptop or tablet or other mediating artifact all interact in a given moment to produce an experience of use. And though in this model it's very difficult to globally shape any such experience, as it depends from moment to moment on a dynamic envelope of negotiations, recruitments, frictions and contestations, there's no sense in which any of this can be said to be "neutral." A technology is always a field of contending interests.
That framing suits some people more than others. I myself tend to come back to Stafford Beer's observation that "the purpose of a system is what it does," which you may see reduced to the rather ugly acronym POSIWID. What this means is that whatever the stated intentions of a technology's designers or developers, if it is seen to repeatedly and consistently enact a given set of outcomes, and is permitted to give rise to that set of outcomes over time without being corrected in any way, then we must conclude that the generation of those outcomes is that system or technology's actual purpose.
If the way we do real-estate financing demonstrably results in a massive expansion of personal debt without a concomitant increase in home ownership, then that is its purpose. If the way we do healthcare observably enriches the shareholders of private insurance companies and hospital consortia without comparable reductions in morbidity and mortality, then that is its purpose. If the way we do education enhances the fortunes of the developers of standardized assessment tools and the operators of hucksterish "charter schools," without adequately preparing children for the conceptual rigors of the twenty-first century, then that is its purpose. And if the way we do the internet reliably seems to produce epistemic fragmentation, the erosion of a belief in any shared empirical reality, and directed swarms of sociopathy aimed at the vulnerable, then boy howdy do we need to accept that that is its purpose, and redesign the fucker until it no longer functions in that way.
tl;dr There is no way in which we can absolve our tools or their designers from ethical accountability. Though complex tools perform in complex and often unpredictable ways, including ways which thwart the intentions of their designers, nevertheless design is always already a political act.
posted by adamgreenfield at 3:09 AM on February 9, 2017 [64 favorites]
I want to address this, because it's important, and may in some deep way even turn out to be pivotal to understanding the set of circumstances we find ourselves in. "Moral alignment" is certainly a matter of interpretation, but this idea that technology is neutral is frankly a naive and somewhat outdated way of approaching the question.
A more sophisticated perspective might be to suggest that all tools present their users with affordances and constraints, which is to say they have an inherent directionality to them. It's very, very difficult to make good things happen in the presence of a handgun, for example, which is why I no longer have one.
Following (primarily) Bruno Latour, we could observe that the boundaries of the thing we think of as "the tool" are generally less compact than we'd been led to believe. In this model, the functionality of any even moderately complex object is smeared out across a heterogeneous fabric of connections â what Latour and others of his school refer to as an "actor-network," made up of laws, social conventions, physical forces and so on. By this theory, the ways in which "the internet" can be used, and the cultural effects it tends to give rise to, depend on the granular specifics of the ways in which regulation, the properties of the electromagnetic spectrum, the design of the laptop or tablet or other mediating artifact all interact in a given moment to produce an experience of use. And though in this model it's very difficult to globally shape any such experience, as it depends from moment to moment on a dynamic envelope of negotiations, recruitments, frictions and contestations, there's no sense in which any of this can be said to be "neutral." A technology is always a field of contending interests.
That framing suits some people more than others. I myself tend to come back to Stafford Beer's observation that "the purpose of a system is what it does," which you may see reduced to the rather ugly acronym POSIWID. What this means is that whatever the stated intentions of a technology's designers or developers, if it is seen to repeatedly and consistently enact a given set of outcomes, and is permitted to give rise to that set of outcomes over time without being corrected in any way, then we must conclude that the generation of those outcomes is that system or technology's actual purpose.
If the way we do real-estate financing demonstrably results in a massive expansion of personal debt without a concomitant increase in home ownership, then that is its purpose. If the way we do healthcare observably enriches the shareholders of private insurance companies and hospital consortia without comparable reductions in morbidity and mortality, then that is its purpose. If the way we do education enhances the fortunes of the developers of standardized assessment tools and the operators of hucksterish "charter schools," without adequately preparing children for the conceptual rigors of the twenty-first century, then that is its purpose. And if the way we do the internet reliably seems to produce epistemic fragmentation, the erosion of a belief in any shared empirical reality, and directed swarms of sociopathy aimed at the vulnerable, then boy howdy do we need to accept that that is its purpose, and redesign the fucker until it no longer functions in that way.
tl;dr There is no way in which we can absolve our tools or their designers from ethical accountability. Though complex tools perform in complex and often unpredictable ways, including ways which thwart the intentions of their designers, nevertheless design is always already a political act.
posted by adamgreenfield at 3:09 AM on February 9, 2017 [64 favorites]
The internet is a tool- like any tool it doesn't have a moral alignment on its own.
The analogy sort of breaks down when the tool is comprised of hundreds of millions of "thinking machines", though.
Television is a tool that doesn't have a moral alignment on its own - if we're talking about a platonic television system in Phineas Farnsworth's barn. Heck, even that's arguable.
It's not a physical hammer, which could be a better example. Television and teh Internets have a soft-wear component that is as much a product of morality as any play, albeit one written by ten thousand humans or many millions instead of one.
ACLU Mobile Justice app, a case in point.
On preview: crap. Yeah, what he said.
posted by petebest at 3:13 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
The analogy sort of breaks down when the tool is comprised of hundreds of millions of "thinking machines", though.
Television is a tool that doesn't have a moral alignment on its own - if we're talking about a platonic television system in Phineas Farnsworth's barn. Heck, even that's arguable.
It's not a physical hammer, which could be a better example. Television and teh Internets have a soft-wear component that is as much a product of morality as any play, albeit one written by ten thousand humans or many millions instead of one.
ACLU Mobile Justice app, a case in point.
On preview: crap. Yeah, what he said.
posted by petebest at 3:13 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
I hope this starts a trend: UTA cancels Oscars party, will donate $250k to the ACLU instead. United Talent Agency has canceled its annual Academy Awards party and will instead donate $250,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union and the International Rescue Committee, and hold a rally âto express the creative communityâs growing concern with anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States.â...Trumpâs travel ban hit close to UTA, according to a statement, because the firm represents Academy Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi. Though nominated for another Oscar this year in the best foreign-language film category for âThe Salesman,â Farhadi is skipping the awards ceremony on Feb. 26 to protest the âunjustâ Trump ban.
posted by TwoStride at 3:21 AM on February 9, 2017 [37 favorites]
posted by TwoStride at 3:21 AM on February 9, 2017 [37 favorites]
Yemen raid: The plan, the operation, and the aftermath
Good recap by CNN:
Obama also oversaw the air campaign in Yemen against al Qaeda targets, and his first strike in 2009 was a disaster -- it mistakenly took a Bedouin village for a terrorist training camp, killing 41 civilians, according to Human Rights Watch, in addition to 14 suspected terrorists.
Yeah, like that.
posted by petebest at 3:39 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
Good recap by CNN:
The raid had been planned for months, and the Obama administration first considered and approved it late last year, multiple officials told CNN. But it was delayed for "operational reasons," according to Obama administration officials, who said he never signed off on this specific operation before leaving office.This reads a lot like, "The CIA told Kennedy the plan for The Bay of Pigs was ready to go, and he approved." That is, military command sells new President on an old plan.
Trump first learned about the plan from National Security Adviser Michael Flynn on the morning of January 25, five days after his inauguration, a White House official told CNN.
At a dinner in the White House residence that evening, Trump gave his conditional go-ahead to his top military brass on the advice of Flynn, his defense secretary nominee James Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He officially signed off on the plan a day later.
Obama also oversaw the air campaign in Yemen against al Qaeda targets, and his first strike in 2009 was a disaster -- it mistakenly took a Bedouin village for a terrorist training camp, killing 41 civilians, according to Human Rights Watch, in addition to 14 suspected terrorists.
Yeah, like that.
The raid was described as a "failure" by a senior Yemeni military official on Wednesday who said that his government had asked the US to stop ground operations in the country without its approval.So it sounds like Donnie's going to give them a bunch of our money to continue there, and then claim what a dealmaker he is, of course.
But a US defense official said Yemen was notified before the raid happened and denied that any additional restrictions have been placed, saying "nothing has changed."
Before the raid, the US had "a green light for conducting ground missions," the Yemeni official told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity. But that light "is now red," he said.
. . . The Yemen embassy in Washington said that it would continue to work with the US in counter-terrorism operations, so it is unclear if the raid will change much at all.
posted by petebest at 3:39 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
âFull Frontalâ Visits Scotland To Meet The Original Donald Trump Haters
"If they find themselves behind Donald Trump, with a statically charged balloon. Take your chance."
posted by Buntix at 3:40 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
"If they find themselves behind Donald Trump, with a statically charged balloon. Take your chance."
posted by Buntix at 3:40 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
adamgreenfield and petebest- yup, you're right. Tools are shaped by policy and physicals constraints and etc.
But especially in the case of the internet, and especially because it is so much software and thus at least partially malleable- we as a society can choose to reshape it to encourage positive use.
No, I haven't the faintest idea how to do it, but I'm pretty sure cutting off rural internet access isn't the way. (I also think killing net neutrality isn't either).
I also must admit the idea that the "purpose of a tool is what it does" really appalls me on some level- especially for malleable tools like our education system or our electoral system. As writ today, our electoral system is a great way to get a president elected with a minority of the vote, to get a party in control of both houses of congress when more Americas voted against that party, etc. But does that mean it's the purpose of the system? Of course not. It's the purpose of the current construction of the system, which is not at all the same thing. (So let's change the system to make it better, shall we?)
(And thanks petebest, that ACLU app is indeed the app I was thinking of).
posted by nat at 3:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
But especially in the case of the internet, and especially because it is so much software and thus at least partially malleable- we as a society can choose to reshape it to encourage positive use.
No, I haven't the faintest idea how to do it, but I'm pretty sure cutting off rural internet access isn't the way. (I also think killing net neutrality isn't either).
I also must admit the idea that the "purpose of a tool is what it does" really appalls me on some level- especially for malleable tools like our education system or our electoral system. As writ today, our electoral system is a great way to get a president elected with a minority of the vote, to get a party in control of both houses of congress when more Americas voted against that party, etc. But does that mean it's the purpose of the system? Of course not. It's the purpose of the current construction of the system, which is not at all the same thing. (So let's change the system to make it better, shall we?)
(And thanks petebest, that ACLU app is indeed the app I was thinking of).
posted by nat at 3:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
The Slot reports on some worrying side effects of staying too long in Tronald's close proximity
posted by ominous_paws at 3:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by ominous_paws at 3:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments
A little after midnight on November 28, 2014, hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters filled the streets of downtown Chicago[...]posted by XMLicious at 3:58 AM on February 9, 2017 [26 favorites]
A week later, audio of a police radio dispatch from the protest was released online. In the recording, an officer alerts a department intelligence analyst about of one of the protest organizers. âOne of the girls here⊠she's been on her phone a lot,â the officer says. âYou guys picking up any information? Where they're going, possibly?"
The analyst responds, âYeah, weâre keeping an eye on it. Weâll let you know if we hear anything.â
[...]
Cell site simulators have aroused the ire of privacy advocates because they can seize data from thousands of phones nearby that may be irrelevant to an ongoing police investigation. What is known about police use of these tools suggests that these invasive data pulls are not distributed randomly. A recent CityLab analysis, for example, found that interceptions were overwhelmingly deployed in low-income and black neighborhoods. Black Lives Matter and left-wing activists have reported the suspected use of cell site simulators at numerous political demonstrations over the last fifteen years.
worrying side effects of staying too long in Tronald's close proximity
Lyin' Spice is caught between spray-tan, orange foundation, and a litre of vodka per night.
posted by petebest at 4:02 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Lyin' Spice is caught between spray-tan, orange foundation, and a litre of vodka per night.
posted by petebest at 4:02 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
The Art of the Deal: Paul Ryan's Craven Pact with Donald Trump (newyorker.com)
posted by kingless at 4:10 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
The next question was about Trumpâs attacks on Judge James L. Robart, the federal judge in Washington State who issued a temporary freeze on the Presidentâs anti-Muslim travel ban. âLook, we respect an independent judiciary. This is a separate branch of government,â Ryan said. But, after this promising start, he made an attempt to normalize Trumpâs statements.There was an irritating autoplay video ad across the top of the page but scrolling it out of sight worked for me.
posted by kingless at 4:10 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Dear Sean Spicer, In geography, not all 7 letter words signify the same place. Also, no one else can hear inside your head.
posted by ruetheday at 4:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by ruetheday at 4:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Pumpkin Spice.
posted by lucidium at 4:24 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by lucidium at 4:24 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
That would be Trumpkin Spice surely
posted by Namlit at 4:32 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Namlit at 4:32 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Jason Chaffetz would never waste his time investigating the Trump administration when Republican control of federal government means he can get back to his true love, fucking around with the District of Columbia's laws. What could be more fun than meddling in the affairs of a city that is entirely powerless to vote you out of office no matter how badly you fuck things up and go against the wishes of the people who actually live there?
Maybe next they'll try to turn DC red by making it a sundown town. It's not like they'll be punished electorally for it and they can get another 3 EVs for 2020.
posted by Talez at 4:34 AM on February 9, 2017
Maybe next they'll try to turn DC red by making it a sundown town. It's not like they'll be punished electorally for it and they can get another 3 EVs for 2020.
posted by Talez at 4:34 AM on February 9, 2017
There was an irritating autoplay video ad across the top of the page but scrolling it out of sight worked for me.
A key to less irritation... uBlock
(Thanks for the link)
posted by Mister Bijou at 4:41 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
A key to less irritation... uBlock
(Thanks for the link)
posted by Mister Bijou at 4:41 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
6:57am: @realDonaldTrump: Sen.Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie),now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?
Meanwhile, Senator Ben Sasse (R, KS) is basically saying the exact same thing on MSNBC. He said that Gorsuch told him that an attack on one member of the judiciary is an attack on all judges.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:44 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
Meanwhile, Senator Ben Sasse (R, KS) is basically saying the exact same thing on MSNBC. He said that Gorsuch told him that an attack on one member of the judiciary is an attack on all judges.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:44 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
"Who never fought in Vietnam" ?!?!?!?!?!??!
posted by melissasaurus at 4:46 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by melissasaurus at 4:46 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
FYI, the Daily Stormer's headline this morning is:
Jeff Sessions Confirmed: We are One Step Closer to Complete Controlposted by Talez at 4:46 AM on February 9, 2017 [18 favorites]
I'm sick of this lying piece of shit calling other people liars.
posted by valkane at 4:47 AM on February 9, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by valkane at 4:47 AM on February 9, 2017 [17 favorites]
It does appear that Blumenthal said that he served in Vietnam, when he in fact, did not.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:08 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:08 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Did he have previously undisclosed bone spurs?
posted by lydhre at 5:08 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by lydhre at 5:08 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
It does appear that Blumenthal said that he served in Vietnam, when he in fact, did not.
Fine. Donald John Trump is in no position to question anybody's service, or even dishonesty regarding their service, when like so many of the fucking chickenhawks of his party he sought exemption after exemption and deferment after deferment.
posted by adamgreenfield at 5:12 AM on February 9, 2017 [25 favorites]
Fine. Donald John Trump is in no position to question anybody's service, or even dishonesty regarding their service, when like so many of the fucking chickenhawks of his party he sought exemption after exemption and deferment after deferment.
posted by adamgreenfield at 5:12 AM on February 9, 2017 [25 favorites]
adamgreenfield, oh, yeah, totally agreed.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:14 AM on February 9, 2017
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:14 AM on February 9, 2017
So hey kids! Fun new game the whole family can enjoy! Is Sean Spicer lying or just having a brain fart?
The Sessions confirmation broke me and I had a little cry for the debasement of my country. I vow this morning that I will do everything in my power to resist the evil coming out of the White House and by god, in 4 years we will right this sorry state of affairs. America is not Trump, it is not the KKK, it is not the hellscape that Bannon wants it to be.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [17 favorites]
The Sessions confirmation broke me and I had a little cry for the debasement of my country. I vow this morning that I will do everything in my power to resist the evil coming out of the White House and by god, in 4 years we will right this sorry state of affairs. America is not Trump, it is not the KKK, it is not the hellscape that Bannon wants it to be.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [17 favorites]
And now Senator Kelly Ayotte is also confirming what Blumenthal reported.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:19 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:19 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
Kellaynne Conway on Fox: "Go buy Ivanka's stuff, is what I would tell you"..."I'm going to give it a free commercial here, go buy it today."
No conflict, no conflict, this is perfectly normal.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [68 favorites]
No conflict, no conflict, this is perfectly normal.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [68 favorites]
Best one I've seen so far:
Republicans are the true snowflakes: They're white, they're cold, and if you put enough of them together they'll shut down public schools.
posted by Talez at 5:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [148 favorites]
Republicans are the true snowflakes: They're white, they're cold, and if you put enough of them together they'll shut down public schools.
posted by Talez at 5:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [148 favorites]
Don't know if someone has already mentioned this, but here's another item from Trump's under-reported list of terrorist attacks that (i) wasn't a terrorist attack and (ii) was widely reported.
posted by biffa at 5:23 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by biffa at 5:23 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Oh, lord, he mad this morning. He doubled down on the Blumenthal thing and now it's McCain's turn. "Sen. McCain should not be talking about the success or failure of a mission to the media. Only emboldens the enemy! He's been losing soâŠ."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:28 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:28 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Some free-form musings re: fear
I am freaking fascinated as to why people voted for Trump. My basic thing, as a person with a shaky grasp of history, is that the Third Reich had all this other shit to explain its existence (e.g. WWI, economic collapse), but how can you say Obama's America had its shit completely unravel because things were so bad?
I saw The Single Man last night after getting back from the hospital after it turned out I had broken a bone and I was slightly high on Fentanyl but even so I was impressed about Firth's speech re: fear and antisemitism and the fear of the minority in general.
I'm in a heightened state of fear because of said broken bone. It's a really simple fracture, but the thing is, I can't feel it. I took two days after the incident that caused the fracture to go to the hospital not because I'm a freaking idiot but because I couldn't feel it I've been paralyzed because of a spinal cord injury for fifteen years, but my body finds new ways to freak me out. I used to, as of like the day before last, have no fear about falling out of my chair. I mean, I try really hard not to because it's difficult to get back in my chair and I like to be independent and not have people scooping me up and so on. But I've never been afraid. Now I am, and it's a reasonable fear, but it's also heightened in a weird way because it's still a shock to me that shit like that can happen and I can't feel it, which if I'm not careful can become a meditation on how I wouldn't be aware of a blood clot or some shit and presto chango, I'm ded. This fear, that I don't know what the fuck is going on/ going to happen to my body, sort of blots out the sun, figuratively speaking, until I sort of slap myself out of it.
When I think about people who voted for Trump and let's say climate change, because I don't care how stupid you are, you didn't vote for Trump thinking that he would be progressive on this issue. He wouldn't gravely assemble the scientists and provide Obama-like guidance through these troubled times. You vote for Trump because he represents a different reality, one that is delusional but one many are buying into, that climate change is not real.
Because to assume that climate change is real is to know fear. What fresh Hells await for us and future generations because we've fucked up the planet? And there is no plan B. And there's immigration: what happens to white people after they've become a minority after centuries of oppressing POC? I mean, I can see in many (white) minds that would be at least a back-burner fear.
I hope that when we get to the other side of the monstrosity that is the Trump Administration, we will have a sort of ten commandments of things we learn at our mother's knee, like Take Care of the Earth, Idiots, and Take Care of Each Other.
Unfortunately I have this fear that these commandments might be etched on stone or pieces of rubble after WWIII, but then, I read too much dystopia.
posted by angrycat at 5:29 AM on February 9, 2017 [31 favorites]
I am freaking fascinated as to why people voted for Trump. My basic thing, as a person with a shaky grasp of history, is that the Third Reich had all this other shit to explain its existence (e.g. WWI, economic collapse), but how can you say Obama's America had its shit completely unravel because things were so bad?
I saw The Single Man last night after getting back from the hospital after it turned out I had broken a bone and I was slightly high on Fentanyl but even so I was impressed about Firth's speech re: fear and antisemitism and the fear of the minority in general.
I'm in a heightened state of fear because of said broken bone. It's a really simple fracture, but the thing is, I can't feel it. I took two days after the incident that caused the fracture to go to the hospital not because I'm a freaking idiot but because I couldn't feel it I've been paralyzed because of a spinal cord injury for fifteen years, but my body finds new ways to freak me out. I used to, as of like the day before last, have no fear about falling out of my chair. I mean, I try really hard not to because it's difficult to get back in my chair and I like to be independent and not have people scooping me up and so on. But I've never been afraid. Now I am, and it's a reasonable fear, but it's also heightened in a weird way because it's still a shock to me that shit like that can happen and I can't feel it, which if I'm not careful can become a meditation on how I wouldn't be aware of a blood clot or some shit and presto chango, I'm ded. This fear, that I don't know what the fuck is going on/ going to happen to my body, sort of blots out the sun, figuratively speaking, until I sort of slap myself out of it.
When I think about people who voted for Trump and let's say climate change, because I don't care how stupid you are, you didn't vote for Trump thinking that he would be progressive on this issue. He wouldn't gravely assemble the scientists and provide Obama-like guidance through these troubled times. You vote for Trump because he represents a different reality, one that is delusional but one many are buying into, that climate change is not real.
Because to assume that climate change is real is to know fear. What fresh Hells await for us and future generations because we've fucked up the planet? And there is no plan B. And there's immigration: what happens to white people after they've become a minority after centuries of oppressing POC? I mean, I can see in many (white) minds that would be at least a back-burner fear.
I hope that when we get to the other side of the monstrosity that is the Trump Administration, we will have a sort of ten commandments of things we learn at our mother's knee, like Take Care of the Earth, Idiots, and Take Care of Each Other.
Unfortunately I have this fear that these commandments might be etched on stone or pieces of rubble after WWIII, but then, I read too much dystopia.
posted by angrycat at 5:29 AM on February 9, 2017 [31 favorites]
@realDonaldTrump
Sen. McCain should not be talking about the success or failure of a mission to the media. Only emboldens the enemy! He's been losing so....
...long he doesn't know how to win anymore, just look at the mess our country is in - bogged down in conflict all over the place. Our hero..
Holy moly. Are you gonna take this lying down, John McCain?
John McCain: No, I will curl into a fetal ball and take it that way, with a look of disapproval on my face.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:35 AM on February 9, 2017 [55 favorites]
Sen. McCain should not be talking about the success or failure of a mission to the media. Only emboldens the enemy! He's been losing so....
...long he doesn't know how to win anymore, just look at the mess our country is in - bogged down in conflict all over the place. Our hero..
Holy moly. Are you gonna take this lying down, John McCain?
John McCain: No, I will curl into a fetal ball and take it that way, with a look of disapproval on my face.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:35 AM on February 9, 2017 [55 favorites]
Trump effect?
Twitter loses ad revenue despite rise in number of users
posted by Mister Bijou at 5:42 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
Twitter loses ad revenue despite rise in number of users
posted by Mister Bijou at 5:42 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
Twitter loses ad revenue despite rise in number of users
70% of the new users are Russian bot accounts...
posted by PenDevil at 5:47 AM on February 9, 2017 [21 favorites]
70% of the new users are Russian bot accounts...
posted by PenDevil at 5:47 AM on February 9, 2017 [21 favorites]
@realDonaldTrump: Sen.Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie),now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?
Oh FFS, Gorsuch's own head of communications confirmed it yesterday.
"Ron Bonjean, who is leading communications for Gorsuch during the confirmation process, confirmed Gorsuch called Trump's tweet about the "so-called judge" "disheartening" and "demoralizing" in his conversation with Blumenthal."
posted by chris24 at 5:48 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
Oh FFS, Gorsuch's own head of communications confirmed it yesterday.
"Ron Bonjean, who is leading communications for Gorsuch during the confirmation process, confirmed Gorsuch called Trump's tweet about the "so-called judge" "disheartening" and "demoralizing" in his conversation with Blumenthal."
posted by chris24 at 5:48 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
Twitter loses ad revenue despite rise in number of users
Sorry guys, that's my fault. I click "I don't like this ad" every single time I see an ad of any kind. (I do the same on FB. It's my way of saying "I fucking hate social media but if this is where we're going to be doing all our political organizing, I'm going to do it on my terms and fuck up your algorithms as much as possible.")
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:49 AM on February 9, 2017 [17 favorites]
House Republicans Vote to Eliminate the Election Assistance Commission, the Only Federal Agency That Makes Sure Voting Machines Canât Be Hacked
In a little-noticed 6-3 vote today, the House Administration Committee voted along party lines to eliminate the Election Assistance Commission, which helps states run elections and is the only federal agency charged with making sure voting machines canât be hacked. The EAC was created after the disastrous 2000 election in Florida as part of the Help America Vote Act to rectify problems like butterfly ballots and hanging chads. (Republicans have tried to kill the agency for years.) The Committee also voted to eliminate the public-financing system for presidential elections dating back to the 1970s.posted by Rustic Etruscan at 5:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [33 favorites]
It is my firm belief that the EAC has outlived its usefulness and purpose,â said Committee chair Gregg Harper (R-MS), explaining why his bill transfers the EACâs authority to the Federal Election Commission.
Thirty-eight pro-democracy groups, including the NAACP and Common Cause, denounced the vote. âThe EAC is the only federal agency which has as its central mission the improvement of election administration, and it undertakes essential activities that no other institution is equipped to address,â says the Brennan Center for Justice.
@theseantcollins:
Democrats: Unfortunately, primarying senators we dislike is simply not practical
Republicans: We've just made it illegal to look at the moon
posted by melissasaurus at 5:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [52 favorites]
Democrats: Unfortunately, primarying senators we dislike is simply not practical
Republicans: We've just made it illegal to look at the moon
posted by melissasaurus at 5:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [52 favorites]
Only emboldens the enemy!
Which enemy? The media?
posted by J.K. Seazer at 5:54 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Which enemy? The media?
posted by J.K. Seazer at 5:54 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Meanwhile, Senator Ben Sasse (R, KS) is basically saying the exact same thing on MSNBC. He said that Gorsuch told him that an attack on one member of the judiciary is an attack on all judges.
So he inadvertently leaked the master plan?
posted by srboisvert at 5:55 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
So he inadvertently leaked the master plan?
posted by srboisvert at 5:55 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
These are the House Administration Committee Members:
Gregg Harper (R-MS-03)
Chairman
Rodney Davis (R-IL-13)
Member
Barbara Comstock (R-VA-10)
Member
Mark Walker (R-NC-06)
Member
Adrian Smith (R-NE-03)
Member
Barry Loudermilk (R-GA-11)
Member
Democrats
Robert Brady (D-PA-01)
Ranking Member
Zoe Lofgren (D-CA-19)
Member
Jamie Raskin (D-MD-08)
Member
If any of these people belong to you, you know what to do.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:57 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
Gregg Harper (R-MS-03)
Chairman
Rodney Davis (R-IL-13)
Member
Barbara Comstock (R-VA-10)
Member
Mark Walker (R-NC-06)
Member
Adrian Smith (R-NE-03)
Member
Barry Loudermilk (R-GA-11)
Member
Democrats
Robert Brady (D-PA-01)
Ranking Member
Zoe Lofgren (D-CA-19)
Member
Jamie Raskin (D-MD-08)
Member
If any of these people belong to you, you know what to do.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:57 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments
A little after midnight on November 28, 2014, hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters filled the streets of downtown Chicago[...]
A week later, audio of a police radio dispatch from the protest was released online. In the recording, an officer alerts a department intelligence analyst about of one of the protest organizers. âOne of the girls here⊠she's been on her phone a lot,â the officer says. âYou guys picking up any information? Where they're going, possibly?"
The analyst responds, âYeah, weâre keeping an eye on it. Weâll let you know if we hear anything.â
[...]
And yet despite this unprecedented level of invasive surveillance Chicago's clearance rate for it's growing murder problem is abysmally low. It's as if spying on anti police violence protesters is prioritized over catching the murderers of POC.
posted by srboisvert at 6:03 AM on February 9, 2017 [28 favorites]
A little after midnight on November 28, 2014, hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters filled the streets of downtown Chicago[...]
A week later, audio of a police radio dispatch from the protest was released online. In the recording, an officer alerts a department intelligence analyst about of one of the protest organizers. âOne of the girls here⊠she's been on her phone a lot,â the officer says. âYou guys picking up any information? Where they're going, possibly?"
The analyst responds, âYeah, weâre keeping an eye on it. Weâll let you know if we hear anything.â
[...]
And yet despite this unprecedented level of invasive surveillance Chicago's clearance rate for it's growing murder problem is abysmally low. It's as if spying on anti police violence protesters is prioritized over catching the murderers of POC.
posted by srboisvert at 6:03 AM on February 9, 2017 [28 favorites]
Neil Gorsuch's people (which is apparently Kelly Ayotte?) has released a statement about his remarks to senators: Judge Gorsuch has made it very clear in all of his discussions with senators, including Senator Blumenthal, that he could not comment on any specific cases and that judicial ethics prevent him from commenting on political matters. He has also emphasized the importance of an independent judiciary, and while he made clear that he was not referring to any specific case, he said that he finds any criticism of a judgeâs integrity and independence disheartening and demoralizing.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:06 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:06 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
@realDonaldTrump: Sen.Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie),now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?
Oh FFS, Gorsuch's own head of communications confirmed it yesterday.
"Ron Bonjean, who is leading communications for Gorsuch during the confirmation process, confirmed Gorsuch called Trump's tweet about the "so-called judge" "disheartening" and "demoralizing" in his conversation with Blumenthal."
At least we know that Gorsuch's comments have got under his skin. Another 'I'm such a strong and amazing man, here look at my weaknesses' tweet.
posted by Jalliah at 6:07 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Oh FFS, Gorsuch's own head of communications confirmed it yesterday.
"Ron Bonjean, who is leading communications for Gorsuch during the confirmation process, confirmed Gorsuch called Trump's tweet about the "so-called judge" "disheartening" and "demoralizing" in his conversation with Blumenthal."
At least we know that Gorsuch's comments have got under his skin. Another 'I'm such a strong and amazing man, here look at my weaknesses' tweet.
posted by Jalliah at 6:07 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
The wonderfully talented Pete Souza is trolling the toddler on Instagram.
posted by Dashy at 6:10 AM on February 9, 2017 [29 favorites]
posted by Dashy at 6:10 AM on February 9, 2017 [29 favorites]
That tweet is also another reason why they can't get a communications director. Or at least someone who has been paying attention.
Any communications director (controller) with half a brain would say, "Hey Mr. Pres. Your past history and comments about Vietnam aren't something we want to press/world to focus on, so best not bring up Vietnam this way cause it gives them the reminder and incentive to go there and then we have to play defense again. Let's try another message that gets your point across but doesn't have this trigger in it.'
Trump: No you are wrong. I am smarter then you and know exactly what I'm doing. It's fine.
*tweet*
Trump: Great they're talking about Blumenthal and vietnam. I got him! WINNING.... hey wait stop...why are people now talking about bone spurs and STDS! Not fair. Not fair. Spicer FIX THIS NOW.
posted by Jalliah at 6:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [14 favorites]
Judge Gorsuch has made it very clear in all of his discussions with senators, including Senator Blumenthal, that he could not comment on any specific cases and that judicial ethics prevent him from commenting on political matters. He has also emphasized the importance of an independent judiciary, and while he made clear that he was not referring to any specific case, he said that he finds any criticism of a judgeâs integrity and independence disheartening and demoralizing.So weaselly. I guess we know he really is a lawyer. Also since when did judicial ethics mean you couldn't talk politics? You're politics and everything you do from now till you die/retire is political, ya dingus.
posted by dis_integration at 6:21 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
I know he's an acquired taste, even when he's on your side, but Keith Olbermann's new anti-Trump web show, The Resistance, is averaging 3.6 million viewers an episode, more than Fox News' primetime average and 17% more than CNN and MSNBC's combined.
And coincidentally, I just photographed him Tuesday for this feature on his new show and life in the Trump era. :) (pic pic.)
WaPo: Have liberals found their combative new leader in ⊠Keith Olbermann?
(The print story will be on the front page of the WaPo style section tomorrow and if anyone in DC area could get me a copy of it, could you please memail me? And if this is too self-linky, please delete mods.)
posted by chris24 at 6:22 AM on February 9, 2017 [43 favorites]
And coincidentally, I just photographed him Tuesday for this feature on his new show and life in the Trump era. :) (pic pic.)
WaPo: Have liberals found their combative new leader in ⊠Keith Olbermann?
(The print story will be on the front page of the WaPo style section tomorrow and if anyone in DC area could get me a copy of it, could you please memail me? And if this is too self-linky, please delete mods.)
posted by chris24 at 6:22 AM on February 9, 2017 [43 favorites]
Jake Tapper reminds us that "POTUS once joked about dodging STDs as "scary...my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave solider." (Buzzfeed: Trump Isnât Into Anal, Melania Never Poops, And Other Things He Told Howard Stern)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:27 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:27 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
threeturtles: the web has given me so many friends and opportunities and broadened my sense of the world immeasurably. I run the utilitarian calculus on a regular basis to remind myself that people who were once isolated and ostracised have visibility and support that were unthinkable 20 years ago. I resisted the pessimism of people like Nicholas Carr for a long time. And yet, and yet: the Hanks of this world, with too much time on their hands and too many things to click-click-click, have elected one of their own and now we have bad things. And when they look around them at real people, it's with an augmented-reality view shaped by their social media immersion.
So when nat says "we as a society can choose to reshape it to encourage positive use", the question becomes "why hasn't that happened?" The goobergobs won, at least in the short term. The Daily Mail comments section won. The Taboola and Outbrain ad blocks won. Peter fucking Thiel and the advertising sharks at Google and Facebook won. Maybe the people who chose doxxing and SWATting and all of that shit in 2014 had more power than those who opposed them, and maybe the shape of the online world gave them that advantage in ways that society can't easily choose to reshape? Whether or not that's true, it can't go on like this.
posted by holgate at 6:28 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
So when nat says "we as a society can choose to reshape it to encourage positive use", the question becomes "why hasn't that happened?" The goobergobs won, at least in the short term. The Daily Mail comments section won. The Taboola and Outbrain ad blocks won. Peter fucking Thiel and the advertising sharks at Google and Facebook won. Maybe the people who chose doxxing and SWATting and all of that shit in 2014 had more power than those who opposed them, and maybe the shape of the online world gave them that advantage in ways that society can't easily choose to reshape? Whether or not that's true, it can't go on like this.
posted by holgate at 6:28 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
Some great news out of New Mexico: In first post-Trump elections, progressives sweep school elections helped by record voter turnout
posted by jason_steakums at 6:30 AM on February 9, 2017 [76 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 6:30 AM on February 9, 2017 [76 favorites]
Fox News on Steve Bannon: He's better than Baghdadi
I mean, yeah, they're not wrong. But I think if you have to prove that Steve Bannon is better than Baghdadi and it's not entirely self-evident you may have slightly missed the point.
posted by Talez at 6:39 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
I mean, yeah, they're not wrong. But I think if you have to prove that Steve Bannon is better than Baghdadi and it's not entirely self-evident you may have slightly missed the point.
posted by Talez at 6:39 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
(I do the same on FB. It's my way of saying "I fucking hate social media but if this is where we're going to be doing all our political organizing, I'm going to do it on my terms and fuck up your algorithms as much as possible.")
THIS. So much this. But there are ways to make this experience more bearable, and I want to share the one I rely on most just on the off chance that folks aren't aware of it.
I bailed out on Twitter a little over two years ago now, at the point when its manifest ugliness could no longer be excused away as an unintentional artifact (see "POSIWID" above). But I'm still on Facebook, and I am aided immeasurably in this by a wonderful, wonderful tool called FB Purity. I strongly recommend it to everyone.
Between FB Purity and a few custom AdBlock scripts, I no longer see ads of any sort, invitations to games, the Trending News ticker, and a whole bunch of other stuff that had made my experience there unpleasant. Facebook for me is now a spare, minimal environment where I get to see what my friends have to share, without contending with any cruft, noise or invidious revenue-driving bullshit.
I know full well that this is an arms race, and that Facebook no doubt has a cadre of developers working fulltime to tie off and cauterize the loopholes that allow a tool like FB Purity to do what it does, but I literally could not stand to be on Facebook without it. Give it a try. It's the best.
posted by adamgreenfield at 6:39 AM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
THIS. So much this. But there are ways to make this experience more bearable, and I want to share the one I rely on most just on the off chance that folks aren't aware of it.
I bailed out on Twitter a little over two years ago now, at the point when its manifest ugliness could no longer be excused away as an unintentional artifact (see "POSIWID" above). But I'm still on Facebook, and I am aided immeasurably in this by a wonderful, wonderful tool called FB Purity. I strongly recommend it to everyone.
Between FB Purity and a few custom AdBlock scripts, I no longer see ads of any sort, invitations to games, the Trending News ticker, and a whole bunch of other stuff that had made my experience there unpleasant. Facebook for me is now a spare, minimal environment where I get to see what my friends have to share, without contending with any cruft, noise or invidious revenue-driving bullshit.
I know full well that this is an arms race, and that Facebook no doubt has a cadre of developers working fulltime to tie off and cauterize the loopholes that allow a tool like FB Purity to do what it does, but I literally could not stand to be on Facebook without it. Give it a try. It's the best.
posted by adamgreenfield at 6:39 AM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
WaPo: Have liberals found their combative new leader in ⊠Keith Olbermann?
Betteridged to hell and back. Fuck *that* sky-high.
posted by adamgreenfield at 6:41 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Betteridged to hell and back. Fuck *that* sky-high.
posted by adamgreenfield at 6:41 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Fox News on Steve Bannon: He's better than Baghdadi
Oh, they've always done this, don't you remember when Fox compared Karl Rove to Bin Laden back in 2001? [fake]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:44 AM on February 9, 2017
Oh, they've always done this, don't you remember when Fox compared Karl Rove to Bin Laden back in 2001? [fake]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:44 AM on February 9, 2017
But Olbermann was so great in Sports Night! (We're still doing the fake/real thing right?)
posted by Yowser at 6:47 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
Oh, they've always done this, don't you remember when Fox compared Karl Rove to Bin Laden back in 2001? [fake]
At least Bush had the sense to say "Karl, this too evil" once in a while.
posted by Talez at 6:49 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
At least Bush had the sense to say "Karl, this too evil" once in a while.
posted by Talez at 6:49 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
WaPo: Have liberals found their combative new leader in ⊠Keith Olbermann?
You know, it's possible I spoke too soon. Maybe liberals have found a leader; not being a liberal myself, I wouldn't know.
posted by adamgreenfield at 6:49 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
You know, it's possible I spoke too soon. Maybe liberals have found a leader; not being a liberal myself, I wouldn't know.
posted by adamgreenfield at 6:49 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
You know, it's possible I spoke too soon. Maybe liberals have found a leader; not being a liberal myself, I wouldn't know.
Nope, Olbermann is only slightly less cringy than Maddow.
posted by Talez at 6:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Nope, Olbermann is only slightly less cringy than Maddow.
posted by Talez at 6:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Cutting up a store's credit card has to be near the top of weak-sauce protests.
posted by drezdn at 6:56 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by drezdn at 6:56 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Senator Chris Murphy has run out of fucks.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:57 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:57 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
I've been enjoying Olbermann's videos and commentary, but I wouldn't call him a "leader" as I have yet to see him actually lead anything.
ps great photos chris24!
posted by melissasaurus at 6:57 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
ps great photos chris24!
posted by melissasaurus at 6:57 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
if the way we do the internet reliably seems to produce epistemic fragmentation, the erosion of a belief in any shared empirical reality, and directed swarms of sociopathy aimed at the vulnerable, then boy howdy do we need to accept that that is its purpose, and redesign the fucker until it no longer functions in that way.
Note that this closely resembles China's stated motivation for internet censorship in 2010:
posted by dmh at 6:58 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
Note that this closely resembles China's stated motivation for internet censorship in 2010:
China's State Council Information Office said the nation "bans using the Internet to subvert state power and wreck national unity, to incite ethnic hatred and division, to promote cults and to distribute content that is pornographic, salacious, violent or terrorist."Please - I mean - I don't - I have no idea what this means. I don't mean to posit cynical equivalencies or to express a value judgment. I just think there is an evident resemblance between the two statements and that this is a striking demonstration of how far we've come in the past years. I think that is important to recognize.
posted by dmh at 6:58 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
I can say from first hand experience that a lot of Canadians are having the discussion on whether they should risk crossing the border for any reason (including shopping)
Just now catching up on a fast-moving thread! But yes, aside from ourselves, we have a lot of friends, acquaintances, strangers who hear us talk about US politics, simply stating that they no longer feel comfortable traveling to the US.
Kingston gets inundated with American tourists every summer--Wolfe Island is between the upstate NY border--so this year, it should be interesting to see if we will get more than usual.
posted by Kitteh at 6:58 AM on February 9, 2017
Just now catching up on a fast-moving thread! But yes, aside from ourselves, we have a lot of friends, acquaintances, strangers who hear us talk about US politics, simply stating that they no longer feel comfortable traveling to the US.
Kingston gets inundated with American tourists every summer--Wolfe Island is between the upstate NY border--so this year, it should be interesting to see if we will get more than usual.
posted by Kitteh at 6:58 AM on February 9, 2017
GQ put together a great compilation of "Sean Spicer's Alternative ABCs." [Twitter video]
Olbermann is only slightly less cringy than Maddow.
Hey now. At least Rachel Maddow didn't spend years sitting around with Michael Musto talking shit about women. Olbermann may have good politics but he's gross.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:07 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Olbermann is only slightly less cringy than Maddow.
Hey now. At least Rachel Maddow didn't spend years sitting around with Michael Musto talking shit about women. Olbermann may have good politics but he's gross.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:07 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
tobascodagama: Considering that Trump already filed his papers for 2020
A quick comment on this: he only did so because he had to because he the $5,000 threshold that requires filing an official statement of candidacy for the next election. The president emphasized that the paperwork âdoes not constitute a formal announcement of my candidacy for the 2020 election.â (WaPo, January 31, 2017)
"Wait," you say, "didn't he tell the very same Washington Post that he had his new slogan, in an interview posted on January 18, 2017?" To that, I answer "why yes, you're quite right" -- âAre you ready?â he said. â âKeep America Great,â exclamation point.â
It's another classic rump-a-dump inconsistency - take their money, share your new hashtag, but say "oh no, I'm not officially announcing my next run yet."
And I'd like to note that by promising to "keep" America great, he's pivoted from "everything is shit without me, I'm here to fix things" to "let's keep what we have as it is." Why not go with a superlative "Make America Greater!"? Seriously, and some people treat this dick like he's a business genius.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:07 AM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]
A quick comment on this: he only did so because he had to because he the $5,000 threshold that requires filing an official statement of candidacy for the next election. The president emphasized that the paperwork âdoes not constitute a formal announcement of my candidacy for the 2020 election.â (WaPo, January 31, 2017)
"Wait," you say, "didn't he tell the very same Washington Post that he had his new slogan, in an interview posted on January 18, 2017?" To that, I answer "why yes, you're quite right" -- âAre you ready?â he said. â âKeep America Great,â exclamation point.â
It's another classic rump-a-dump inconsistency - take their money, share your new hashtag, but say "oh no, I'm not officially announcing my next run yet."
And I'd like to note that by promising to "keep" America great, he's pivoted from "everything is shit without me, I'm here to fix things" to "let's keep what we have as it is." Why not go with a superlative "Make America Greater!"? Seriously, and some people treat this dick like he's a business genius.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:07 AM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]
Hey, let's go all out in pushing kleptocracy.
Kellyanne Conway Says to âGo Buy Ivankaâs Stuffâ
Kellyanne Conway Says to âGo Buy Ivankaâs Stuffâ
During a Thursday morning Fox & Friends interview, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway told viewers to buy products from Ivanka Trumpâs clothing line.posted by chris24 at 7:10 AM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
This comes the day after Donald Trump tweeted angrily at Nordstrom for dropping his daughterâs line, writing that she had been âtreated so unfairly.â Conway referred to Ivanka as a âchampion for women empowerment, women in the workplace,â before adding, âGo buy Ivankaâs stuff, is what I would tell you. I hate shopping, and Iâm gonna go get some on myself today.â
He inherited a trust fund, but not enough noticeable behaviors that lead to respect and being liked.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:11 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:11 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
I just think there is an evident resemblance between the two statements and that this is a striking demonstration of how far we've come in the past years.
They may seem superficially similar, but (to me, anyhoo) there is a massive difference between attempting to force morality via censorship, and redesigning systems to fix the anti-patterns that have malignant individualism as an emergent property.
posted by Buntix at 7:12 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
They may seem superficially similar, but (to me, anyhoo) there is a massive difference between attempting to force morality via censorship, and redesigning systems to fix the anti-patterns that have malignant individualism as an emergent property.
posted by Buntix at 7:12 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
You know, it's possible I spoke too soon. Maybe liberals have found a leader; not being a liberal myself, I wouldn't know.
Nope, Olbermann is only slightly less cringy than Maddow.
The problem with this 'have they found a leader' type narrative is this idea that progressive or liberals want or need to find a single all encompassing leader that they all fall in line with. Liberals have never had and likely never will have some sort of single leader. The closest they've come to this in recent memory is Obama but even with him there was never a sort of across the board following him in lock-step. Liberals and progressives have always been more about coalitions and more spread out/flat and cooperative hierarchies. This is both a strength and a weakness.
The Right in general is more about authoritarian type hierarchies which is one of the reasons they try and end up failing at pinpointing 'who is in charge' on the Left. It's one of the reasons that the whole Soros meme is so easily spread. There HAS to be someone big and important in charge and directing everything.
If Olbermann is appealing to a large group, wonderful. I find him annoying myself but in general he's not wrong in what he talks about. If he's providing motivation to resist Trump that people are connecting with, awesome. He can be a leader, one of many that will emerge out of this quagmire.
posted by Jalliah at 7:13 AM on February 9, 2017 [32 favorites]
Nope, Olbermann is only slightly less cringy than Maddow.
The problem with this 'have they found a leader' type narrative is this idea that progressive or liberals want or need to find a single all encompassing leader that they all fall in line with. Liberals have never had and likely never will have some sort of single leader. The closest they've come to this in recent memory is Obama but even with him there was never a sort of across the board following him in lock-step. Liberals and progressives have always been more about coalitions and more spread out/flat and cooperative hierarchies. This is both a strength and a weakness.
The Right in general is more about authoritarian type hierarchies which is one of the reasons they try and end up failing at pinpointing 'who is in charge' on the Left. It's one of the reasons that the whole Soros meme is so easily spread. There HAS to be someone big and important in charge and directing everything.
If Olbermann is appealing to a large group, wonderful. I find him annoying myself but in general he's not wrong in what he talks about. If he's providing motivation to resist Trump that people are connecting with, awesome. He can be a leader, one of many that will emerge out of this quagmire.
posted by Jalliah at 7:13 AM on February 9, 2017 [32 favorites]
anti-patterns that have malignant individualism as an emergent property.
How are "anti-patterns" and "emergent" defined in this context?
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:15 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
How are "anti-patterns" and "emergent" defined in this context?
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:15 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Trump 2020: Now It's Really I Alone Who Can Fix It, Because I'm the Only One Who Knows All of the Things I've Fucked Up
posted by XMLicious at 7:15 AM on February 9, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by XMLicious at 7:15 AM on February 9, 2017 [16 favorites]
Keith Olbermann records unhinged rants about "Russian scum" in a basement and that's supposed to be the vanguard of the resistance? Come on, now. I might as well scream "Have you no decency at long last, sir?" at my bedroom wall as watch that junk.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 7:18 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 7:18 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
"Wait," you say, "didn't he tell the very same Washington Post that he had his new slogan, in an interview posted on January 18, 2017?" To that, I answer "why yes, you're quite right" -- âAre you ready?â he said. â âKeep America Great,â exclamation point.â
"Keep America Great" will be a really interesting campaign slogan for an election season after the economy collapses, ten thousand troops die in Iran, US cities burn and flood, and the blood of de-facto civil/race wars that runs down the gutters and sinks into the desert sands goes from a trickle to a torrent.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:19 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
"Keep America Great" will be a really interesting campaign slogan for an election season after the economy collapses, ten thousand troops die in Iran, US cities burn and flood, and the blood of de-facto civil/race wars that runs down the gutters and sinks into the desert sands goes from a trickle to a torrent.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:19 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
Hairy Lobster: Again, I'm not at all comparing my particular plight with that of others that are more seriously affected. Just trying to illustrate the absurdity of it all.
Are you sure it was because of what you did that you got flagged? I ask because my wife suddenly was put in a similar, though less severe, sort of list before we were married. Every single time we took a flight, gate agents checked her ID, then scurried off to make a hushed phone call. Luckily, it only took a few minutes instead of hours to sort out, because they'd always come back and say "sorry for the wait, have a good day" or something like that.
And then when we got married and she changed her last name to mine, no more hushed phone calls. (She might have even gotten by when I listed her name as her preferred shortened form of her name, but I'm not 100% certain on that.)
The system is shit. It was before, it's worse now, but it's not starting from a place of strength or reliability. If changing your last name is all it takes to get off of a list, it's not a reliable system.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Are you sure it was because of what you did that you got flagged? I ask because my wife suddenly was put in a similar, though less severe, sort of list before we were married. Every single time we took a flight, gate agents checked her ID, then scurried off to make a hushed phone call. Luckily, it only took a few minutes instead of hours to sort out, because they'd always come back and say "sorry for the wait, have a good day" or something like that.
And then when we got married and she changed her last name to mine, no more hushed phone calls. (She might have even gotten by when I listed her name as her preferred shortened form of her name, but I'm not 100% certain on that.)
The system is shit. It was before, it's worse now, but it's not starting from a place of strength or reliability. If changing your last name is all it takes to get off of a list, it's not a reliable system.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Kellyanne Conway Says to âGo Buy Ivankaâs Stuffâ
No grifter, no grifter. You're the grifter!
posted by kirkaracha at 7:27 AM on February 9, 2017 [25 favorites]
The_Auditor: "As found somewhere in another thread, here's whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday, a log of the previous days nightmare."
Missed this comment before and just found this site elsewhere and added it to my rss feed. It's so hard to keep up with all the crazy shit that happens every day.
posted by octothorpe at 7:27 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
Missed this comment before and just found this site elsewhere and added it to my rss feed. It's so hard to keep up with all the crazy shit that happens every day.
posted by octothorpe at 7:27 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
I might as well scream "Have you no decency at long last, sir?" at my bedroom wall
Wait, you're not doing that? I thought we all agreed we were gonna do that each morning upon arising.
posted by tivalasvegas at 7:31 AM on February 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
Wait, you're not doing that? I thought we all agreed we were gonna do that each morning upon arising.
posted by tivalasvegas at 7:31 AM on February 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
I'm overloading both terms, but kinda more-or-less something a bit like...
anti-pattern: a solution or approach that has more bad consequences than good. I guess in social media terms an obvious example would be the ability to reply as a guest, without any registration and with completely consequence free anonymity.
Emergent as in
posted by Buntix at 7:31 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
anti-pattern: a solution or approach that has more bad consequences than good. I guess in social media terms an obvious example would be the ability to reply as a guest, without any registration and with completely consequence free anonymity.
Emergent as in
Isn't it that emergent behaviour, well, emerges, form the interactions between the members of an ensemble, rather than from the behaviours of the members of the ensemble taken in isolation. The behaviour need not necessarily be a surprise to the designer, but it is very, very difficult to predict a priori what behaviour will emerge from a set of interactions.Although also the behaviour the system prompts, e.g. with a fast moving stream of info like twitter: compulsive phone checking and responding...
posted by Buntix at 7:31 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
They may seem superficially similar, but (to me, anyhoo) there is a massive difference between attempting to force morality via censorship, and redesigning systems to fix the anti-patterns that have malignant individualism as an emergent property.
It reads to me like you just replaced "force morality via censorship" with a bunch of technobabble.
posted by indubitable at 7:32 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
It reads to me like you just replaced "force morality via censorship" with a bunch of technobabble.
posted by indubitable at 7:32 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
An anti-pattern is basically a broken or otherwise bad inversion/subversion/skin-worn-as-a-suit twist on the concept of a design pattern, where a design pattern is a conceptual framework for creating a thing in a useful or robust way based on a well-studied history of creating things of that type in useful or robust ways.
So an anti-pattern is basically a cursed blueprint. Whether because the person designing that blueprint fucked up very badly, or because the person designing that blueprint intended to design something broken from the start.
Emergent properties are those things that result from a design or a system despite not being explicitly stated as a goal or property of the design. They're things that emerge from the system as it operates, side effects or syntheses of the actual moving parts. They more complex the system, the more use it gets, the more ways in which its moving parts collide with each other, the more likely that emergent properties will come to the fore.
Or, y'know, what Buntix said.
posted by cortex at 7:34 AM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
So an anti-pattern is basically a cursed blueprint. Whether because the person designing that blueprint fucked up very badly, or because the person designing that blueprint intended to design something broken from the start.
Emergent properties are those things that result from a design or a system despite not being explicitly stated as a goal or property of the design. They're things that emerge from the system as it operates, side effects or syntheses of the actual moving parts. They more complex the system, the more use it gets, the more ways in which its moving parts collide with each other, the more likely that emergent properties will come to the fore.
Or, y'know, what Buntix said.
posted by cortex at 7:34 AM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
It reads to me like you just replaced "force morality via censorship" with a bunch of technobabble.
Yeah, probably best to ignore it, I'm still a wee bit too sober to start making sense.
posted by Buntix at 7:35 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yeah, probably best to ignore it, I'm still a wee bit too sober to start making sense.
posted by Buntix at 7:35 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Keith Olbermann records unhinged rants about "Russian scum" in a basement and that's supposed to be the vanguard of the resistance? Come on, now. I might as well scream "Have you no decency at long last, sir?" at my bedroom wall as watch that junk.
Yeah. There are lots of people out there right now actually resisting in meaningful ways. We don't need a has-been blowhard to lead us.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:35 AM on February 9, 2017 [13 favorites]
Yeah. There are lots of people out there right now actually resisting in meaningful ways. We don't need a has-been blowhard to lead us.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:35 AM on February 9, 2017 [13 favorites]
I keep saying: the only way this is gonna work is if each and every one of us realizes that we are the leaders that we seek.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:37 AM on February 9, 2017 [46 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:37 AM on February 9, 2017 [46 favorites]
Yeah. There are lots of people out there right now actually resisting in meaningful ways. We don't need a has-been blowhard to lead us.
Or anyone, really. I really profoundly dislike vanguardism. We are the change we've been waiting for, and we always have been.
posted by adamgreenfield at 7:37 AM on February 9, 2017 [14 favorites]
Or anyone, really. I really profoundly dislike vanguardism. We are the change we've been waiting for, and we always have been.
posted by adamgreenfield at 7:37 AM on February 9, 2017 [14 favorites]
keith olbermann has only ever been able to preach to the choir at Our Lady of Perpetually Listening to Keith Olbermann.
posted by murphy slaw at 7:39 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 7:39 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
LOL jinx.
posted by adamgreenfield at 7:39 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by adamgreenfield at 7:39 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
So an anti-pattern is basically a cursed blueprint. Whether because the person designing that blueprint fucked up very badly, or because the person designing that blueprint intended to design something broken from the start.
This might be my own idiosyncratic interpretation, but I always thought it was like this:
Anti-pattern: a superficially attractive design pattern that turns out to have unanticipated negative consequences (for example, lots of smart programmers thought service locators were the bees knees until they realized implicit dependencies are not good)
Dark pattern: intentionally-bad design pattern
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:41 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
This might be my own idiosyncratic interpretation, but I always thought it was like this:
Anti-pattern: a superficially attractive design pattern that turns out to have unanticipated negative consequences (for example, lots of smart programmers thought service locators were the bees knees until they realized implicit dependencies are not good)
Dark pattern: intentionally-bad design pattern
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:41 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
I actually think that the Left's fatal flaw is its bone deep need to have a leader. We don't need a leader: we need a movement. And then we need to go fucking vote for the candidates that emerge from that movement.
"They fall in line, we need to fall in love". Well, fuck that. Vote for what's BETTER, love has nothing to do with it.
posted by lydhre at 7:41 AM on February 9, 2017 [21 favorites]
"They fall in line, we need to fall in love". Well, fuck that. Vote for what's BETTER, love has nothing to do with it.
posted by lydhre at 7:41 AM on February 9, 2017 [21 favorites]
Someone gave me a copy of Resist! Comic newspaper which was distributed free at the woman's march. They are planning a second issue this summer. Link to images.
RESIST! is both a website and a print publication of political comics and graphics where our slogan, WOMEN'S VOICES WILL BE HEARD! can come true. It is edited by Françoise Mouly, art editor of The New Yorker, and writer Nadja Spiegelman.
posted by shothotbot at 7:44 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
RESIST! is both a website and a print publication of political comics and graphics where our slogan, WOMEN'S VOICES WILL BE HEARD! can come true. It is edited by Françoise Mouly, art editor of The New Yorker, and writer Nadja Spiegelman.
posted by shothotbot at 7:44 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
>They may seem superficially similar, but (to me, anyhoo) there is a massive difference between attempting to force morality via censorship, and redesigning systems to fix the anti-patterns that have malignant individualism as an emergent property.
It reads to me like you just replaced "force morality via censorship" with a bunch of technobabble.
Here's my interpretation of what was said (in what I hope is non-technical language):
It's becoming really obvious that the way we communicate is broken, and specifically the systems we use to communicate using Internet technology seem to be set up in a way that leads to bad things happening. People don't have a clear sense of what can and cannot be trusted online; the rules-of-thumb that might work well in an offline setting don't seem to help a lot of people make good judgements about whether things are reliable or not online. With the systems of communication we have right now, it also seems to be a lot easier for a few people who have specific political or social goals (and few qualms about how they achieve them) to trick, bully, manipulate and slander without getting caught or stopped.
It doesn't matter very much what the people who put these systems together originally intended (and anyway, there wasn't ever one unified vision to begin with): at this point, we have to look pragmatically at what the system actually does, regardless of what we consider its original purpose(s) to have been.
We have to figure out how to fix these problems before they lead to societal collapse. Addressing this crisis is not the same as censorship.
posted by tivalasvegas at 7:44 AM on February 9, 2017 [15 favorites]
It reads to me like you just replaced "force morality via censorship" with a bunch of technobabble.
Here's my interpretation of what was said (in what I hope is non-technical language):
It's becoming really obvious that the way we communicate is broken, and specifically the systems we use to communicate using Internet technology seem to be set up in a way that leads to bad things happening. People don't have a clear sense of what can and cannot be trusted online; the rules-of-thumb that might work well in an offline setting don't seem to help a lot of people make good judgements about whether things are reliable or not online. With the systems of communication we have right now, it also seems to be a lot easier for a few people who have specific political or social goals (and few qualms about how they achieve them) to trick, bully, manipulate and slander without getting caught or stopped.
It doesn't matter very much what the people who put these systems together originally intended (and anyway, there wasn't ever one unified vision to begin with): at this point, we have to look pragmatically at what the system actually does, regardless of what we consider its original purpose(s) to have been.
We have to figure out how to fix these problems before they lead to societal collapse. Addressing this crisis is not the same as censorship.
posted by tivalasvegas at 7:44 AM on February 9, 2017 [15 favorites]
I think that's a good and important distinction, Jpfed; I was collapsing the two without thinking about it. Whether a dark pattern is a distinct category from anti-patterns or just the malicious subset is a taxonomical job for someone deeper in the weeds than me but there's definitely an echo of incompetence vs. malice in the distinction there.
posted by cortex at 7:44 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by cortex at 7:44 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
We don't need a leader: we need a movement.
That's why the leaderless movement Occupy Wall Street was so successful at achieving its goals!
posted by Roommate at 7:46 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
That's why the leaderless movement Occupy Wall Street was so successful at achieving its goals!
posted by Roommate at 7:46 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
HuffPo: Congressman To File Bill Requiring A Psychiatrist At The White House
Donald Trumpâs âincredibly disturbingâ behavior warrants a mental health exam, says Rep. Ted Lieu.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:47 AM on February 9, 2017 [26 favorites]
Donald Trumpâs âincredibly disturbingâ behavior warrants a mental health exam, says Rep. Ted Lieu.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:47 AM on February 9, 2017 [26 favorites]
> Keith Olbermann's new anti-Trump web show, The Resistance
Robert Reich is doing a similar thing with his Resistance Report. It has far fewer views on Youtube, is not backed by a large media conglomerate, is nowhere near as flashy, but I feel Robert Reich might have some working familiarity with the upper levels of government.
posted by fragmede at 7:47 AM on February 9, 2017 [32 favorites]
Robert Reich is doing a similar thing with his Resistance Report. It has far fewer views on Youtube, is not backed by a large media conglomerate, is nowhere near as flashy, but I feel Robert Reich might have some working familiarity with the upper levels of government.
posted by fragmede at 7:47 AM on February 9, 2017 [32 favorites]
A good deep dive on Trump's record unpopularity compared to historical precedence. With an interesting point on what it might mean at midterms.
In addition, were Trumpâs ratings to remain in their current territory for the next 20-odd months, history suggests his party would be headed for a solid rebuke at the Midterm elections. Every president with an approval rating under 55% has lost House seats in the midterms, and losses for presidents under 50% range from 11 seats (1978) to 63 (2010). Notably, Democrats need to gain only 24 seats to retake control of the House of Representatives, and the only circumstance where a president lost fewer than that with comparable ratings was 2014, when an already diminished Democratic Party lost 13 seats six years into Obamaâs presidency. The average seat loss for a president in the 39% to 46% approval range is 39. Trump is at 43%.posted by chris24 at 7:49 AM on February 9, 2017 [15 favorites]
We don't need a leader: we need a movement.
That's why the leaderless movement Occupy Wall Street was so successful at achieving its goals!
We need both leaders and movements. The civil rights era had mass leaderless mobilizations and it had MLK, and needed both. No single solution or strategy is going to do the trick.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:50 AM on February 9, 2017 [26 favorites]
That's why the leaderless movement Occupy Wall Street was so successful at achieving its goals!
We need both leaders and movements. The civil rights era had mass leaderless mobilizations and it had MLK, and needed both. No single solution or strategy is going to do the trick.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:50 AM on February 9, 2017 [26 favorites]
"They fall in line, we need to fall in love". Well, fuck that. Vote for what's BETTER, love has nothing to do with it.
It's just a second-hand emotion anyway.
posted by delfin at 7:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [23 favorites]
It's just a second-hand emotion anyway.
posted by delfin at 7:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [23 favorites]
Because of several comments here, when I got little response for a suggestion that someone get together a local group to write postcards next month, I said, well, ok, I'LL do it. So I've reserved a room at the local public library (a cornerstone of democracy), and I will invite people to the event, and if no one shows, I'LL be there writing postcards all by myself to send through the USPS (a cornerstone of democracy). But I bet people show. It may be futile, but it will be fun. Pokepokepokepoke the so-called POTUS.
(I have a whole rant about the importance of the USPS, and I see that "changes" to it are already being discussed. Read: privatization, which will AS ALWAYS impact those among us who are least able to carry the burden: the poor, the old, the rural. I expect the postcard campaign will put a more immediate bullseye on the post office because this man is so tiny and petty, but we are at the Any Means Necessary point.)
posted by thebrokedown at 7:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
(I have a whole rant about the importance of the USPS, and I see that "changes" to it are already being discussed. Read: privatization, which will AS ALWAYS impact those among us who are least able to carry the burden: the poor, the old, the rural. I expect the postcard campaign will put a more immediate bullseye on the post office because this man is so tiny and petty, but we are at the Any Means Necessary point.)
posted by thebrokedown at 7:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
That's why the leaderless movement Occupy Wall Street was so successful at achieving its goals!
Not sure if serious? The Occupy movement (which I too was skeptical of, I will confess, mainly because I personally cannot stand the type of personalities that tend to percolate to the top of radical and leftist movements) very successfully put the concept of income inequality front and center into mainstream national discourse. It was not there prior to that moment.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:55 AM on February 9, 2017 [39 favorites]
That's why the leaderless movement Occupy Wall Street was so successful at achieving its goals!
You know, you laugh, but a whole lot of the activist infrastructure we've been relying on lately came out of Occupy. The whole reason that Occupy Sandy was able to stand up so quickly and be so very effective was because of the networks forged the previous year. This is a long struggle, and for all its flaws, Occupy's positive effects are still being felt.
posted by adamgreenfield at 7:58 AM on February 9, 2017 [42 favorites]
You know, you laugh, but a whole lot of the activist infrastructure we've been relying on lately came out of Occupy. The whole reason that Occupy Sandy was able to stand up so quickly and be so very effective was because of the networks forged the previous year. This is a long struggle, and for all its flaws, Occupy's positive effects are still being felt.
posted by adamgreenfield at 7:58 AM on February 9, 2017 [42 favorites]
It's just a second-hand emotion anyway.
Also, we don't need another hero.
posted by murphy slaw at 7:58 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
Also, we don't need another hero.
posted by murphy slaw at 7:58 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
Christ, it's just all jinx all the time today, isn't it?
posted by adamgreenfield at 7:58 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by adamgreenfield at 7:58 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
via The Intercept: What Slobodan Milosevic Taught Me About Donald Trump
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:59 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:59 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
I get why people, and many people here don't like Olbermann and don't by the WaPo 'leader narrative'. The leader narrative is bunk as in my previous comment. The general dismissal of what he apparently doing right now is disheartening. It's missing the bigger picture and the bigger questions. If the numbers of his current viewers are correct that whatever he is doing is appealing and connecting with millions of people and these millions of people are likely on the side of NOT TRUMP. His popularity is going up. Why? What is he doing? What is he providing people? Whatever it is that he is doing is having an effect.
I've seen the same thing happen around Micheal Moore. Micheal Moore sucks because of A, B and C. And yet he's out there, gaining a shitload of eyeballs and support around NOT TRUMP.
This does not in anyway mean that these folks are the ones to follow if they're not your personal cup of tea. Someone on our side is following though. They're for better or worse are part of the larger resistance of NOT TRUMP. Outright dismissal 'they suck' without any conversation about why whatever they're doing is compelling to others is one of things that makes coalition and cooperative based politics weaker.
posted by Jalliah at 8:00 AM on February 9, 2017 [36 favorites]
It reads to me like you just replaced "force morality via censorship" with a bunch of technobabble.
Also we had this argument already. Like 500 years ago, about the printing press spreading degeneracy and Fake Theology.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 8:00 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Also we had this argument already. Like 500 years ago, about the printing press spreading degeneracy and Fake Theology.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 8:00 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
That's why the leaderless movement Occupy Wall Street was so successful at achieving its goals!
There's no such thing as a completely leaderless movement (and that includes Occupy Wall Street), but I challenge people to name the leader of, say, the airport protests that sprung up across the country. Or the people organizing call-in, fax and letter-writing campaigns. Or the masses of people hounding their elected representatives at town halls and at their offices. Or hell, who are the leaders of the New Mexico group that organized the successful GOTV campaign to take back school boards? I wager that most people don't know their names. And I think that's by design (though that shouldn't take away from their amazing work). There are leaders, they do exist, but they're not the focal point of the movement and arguably aren't supposed to be.
posted by chrominance at 8:02 AM on February 9, 2017 [18 favorites]
There's no such thing as a completely leaderless movement (and that includes Occupy Wall Street), but I challenge people to name the leader of, say, the airport protests that sprung up across the country. Or the people organizing call-in, fax and letter-writing campaigns. Or the masses of people hounding their elected representatives at town halls and at their offices. Or hell, who are the leaders of the New Mexico group that organized the successful GOTV campaign to take back school boards? I wager that most people don't know their names. And I think that's by design (though that shouldn't take away from their amazing work). There are leaders, they do exist, but they're not the focal point of the movement and arguably aren't supposed to be.
posted by chrominance at 8:02 AM on February 9, 2017 [18 favorites]
So successful leadership doesn't always equal a cult of personality.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:04 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:04 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Moore and Olbermann are both mediocre white men with no interesting ideas who mainly reached prominence because they were publicly anti-Bush in a moment when not many people in the media were publicly anti-Bush. Which takes courage, and I don't want to denigrate that courage.
But they're still mediocre white men, and it's not like we have a dearth of people willing to speak out against Trump in the current moment.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:04 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
But they're still mediocre white men, and it's not like we have a dearth of people willing to speak out against Trump in the current moment.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:04 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
The thing about Michael Moore and Keith Olbermann is that I'm not convinced that any of the eyeballs that they're reaching are people who were not predisposed to listen to Michael Moore and Keith Olbermann.
They both have a habit of arguing as if their premise is already granted and Moore at least is box office poison for the kinds of moderate/undecided people we need to reach to grow a coalition.
posted by murphy slaw at 8:04 AM on February 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
They both have a habit of arguing as if their premise is already granted and Moore at least is box office poison for the kinds of moderate/undecided people we need to reach to grow a coalition.
posted by murphy slaw at 8:04 AM on February 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
(Also, I laugh at the idea that Occupy was unsuccessful. Because, what, it didn't spontaneously annihilate the whole banking infrastructure of the modern world? Give me a fucking break, Bernie would still be a nobody Senator for a tiny state if there hadn't been an Occupy to generate the narratives that his primary campaign tapped into.)
posted by tobascodagama at 8:07 AM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by tobascodagama at 8:07 AM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
Interview with Adam Curtis about his movie Hypernormalization. Actual interview starts at 7m30s.
I think there's a lot to his theory about how we got here.
posted by Coventry at 8:11 AM on February 9, 2017 [18 favorites]
I think there's a lot to his theory about how we got here.
posted by Coventry at 8:11 AM on February 9, 2017 [18 favorites]
Diversity of tactics is what I'm interested in - if some folks do better thinking "I am being led by...", that's fine. And frankly, as a white person I'm pretty used to being in movements where we say "white people should take leadership from POC", and while that's not the same as We Have A Leader, it's also not the same as "we are all leaders". Some groups do best with a leader, some issues are best met by taking leadership from a particular person or social formation. We are not "all leaders" at Standing Rock, for instance.
Diversity of tactics raises the question of where we draw the line, and that's a lot trickier. What about Michael Moore? I'm not super into him! Do I say, therefore, that I am categorically uninterested in working with MM-related groups or on MM-related projects? If I decide that I'm willing to compromise in re Michael Moore, what about someone who I broadly agree with but who blames, say, feminists for our current situation? (Like a lot of male-dominated marxist groups?) If I'm willing to work with those people tactically, how do I handle that? What about someone who I agree with politically but who is kind of interpersonally gross without being actively, say, a sexual harasser?
How do I work with people who do not share my exact mix of beliefs and practices without feeling like I'm selling out my friends and specific concerns? Very few people are really good on trans issues, for instance. Where do I draw the line on that? Do I agree that pussyhats are biologically essentialist? If I do, do I avoid people who wear them and events where they will be worn?*
If I disagree with someone on one thing, how do I disagree with them in a way that does not shatter our ability to work together while still being true to what I believe?
What is so core for me that I won't organize with people who don't get it? What is important to me but can be bracketed in the short term?
Those are all really hard questions, and I think they get elided in bad ways when we argue about whether it's okay to have leaders.
*I tend to think that they're an imperfect symbol with a lot of traction, and I'd rather read them as "these hats symbolize how the feminine is despised and exploited and how female and femme people and their allies fight back" rather than "these hats are about how women as defined by a retrograde view of genitals are exploited".
posted by Frowner at 8:12 AM on February 9, 2017 [31 favorites]
Diversity of tactics raises the question of where we draw the line, and that's a lot trickier. What about Michael Moore? I'm not super into him! Do I say, therefore, that I am categorically uninterested in working with MM-related groups or on MM-related projects? If I decide that I'm willing to compromise in re Michael Moore, what about someone who I broadly agree with but who blames, say, feminists for our current situation? (Like a lot of male-dominated marxist groups?) If I'm willing to work with those people tactically, how do I handle that? What about someone who I agree with politically but who is kind of interpersonally gross without being actively, say, a sexual harasser?
How do I work with people who do not share my exact mix of beliefs and practices without feeling like I'm selling out my friends and specific concerns? Very few people are really good on trans issues, for instance. Where do I draw the line on that? Do I agree that pussyhats are biologically essentialist? If I do, do I avoid people who wear them and events where they will be worn?*
If I disagree with someone on one thing, how do I disagree with them in a way that does not shatter our ability to work together while still being true to what I believe?
What is so core for me that I won't organize with people who don't get it? What is important to me but can be bracketed in the short term?
Those are all really hard questions, and I think they get elided in bad ways when we argue about whether it's okay to have leaders.
*I tend to think that they're an imperfect symbol with a lot of traction, and I'd rather read them as "these hats symbolize how the feminine is despised and exploited and how female and femme people and their allies fight back" rather than "these hats are about how women as defined by a retrograde view of genitals are exploited".
posted by Frowner at 8:12 AM on February 9, 2017 [31 favorites]
the kinds of moderate/undecided people we need to reach to grow a coalition.
I don't think the people we need to reach are the "moderate/undecided" people (do they even exist anymore???). We have a larger coalition already, we just have to use and activate it consistently and over a period of years. The Joe Manchins and David Frums of the world are not the path to success here. We need to give the young millennials who are ideologically already on our side, and who are on the streets, something meaningful to vote for -- politicians who will actually stand up for their rights rather than just pay lip service and then go on to vote for the status quo. The Tea Party didn't win power by moderating. We won't either.
posted by melissasaurus at 8:12 AM on February 9, 2017 [20 favorites]
I don't think the people we need to reach are the "moderate/undecided" people (do they even exist anymore???). We have a larger coalition already, we just have to use and activate it consistently and over a period of years. The Joe Manchins and David Frums of the world are not the path to success here. We need to give the young millennials who are ideologically already on our side, and who are on the streets, something meaningful to vote for -- politicians who will actually stand up for their rights rather than just pay lip service and then go on to vote for the status quo. The Tea Party didn't win power by moderating. We won't either.
posted by melissasaurus at 8:12 AM on February 9, 2017 [20 favorites]
Also, the whole point of a coalition is that it's a coalition - a united front. We need to have some broad unifying principles to have a coalition and determining those is difficult, but we don't need to march in lock-step.
posted by Frowner at 8:15 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 8:15 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
Moore and Olbermann are both mediocre white men with no interesting ideas who mainly reached prominence because they were publicly anti-Bush in a moment when not many people in the media were publicly anti-Bush. Which takes courage, and I don't want to denigrate that courage.
But they're still mediocre white men, and it's not like we have a dearth of people willing to speak out against Trump in the current moment.
So what? They can speak to whoever they appeal to and all the other people can speak out and appeal to whoever they appeal to.
A movement takes all kinds and if it's going to work and be strong it needs all kinds as well as the acceptance that some of the kinds may suck from a personal point of view.
posted by Jalliah at 8:15 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
But they're still mediocre white men, and it's not like we have a dearth of people willing to speak out against Trump in the current moment.
So what? They can speak to whoever they appeal to and all the other people can speak out and appeal to whoever they appeal to.
A movement takes all kinds and if it's going to work and be strong it needs all kinds as well as the acceptance that some of the kinds may suck from a personal point of view.
posted by Jalliah at 8:15 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
I got pretty tired of Olbermann's Edward R Murrow cosplay schtick sometime around 2006.
posted by EarBucket at 8:15 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by EarBucket at 8:15 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
It's just a second-hand emotion anyway.
For much longer than I care to admit I thought the lyric was "just a second handy motion".
posted by Servo5678 at 8:15 AM on February 9, 2017 [17 favorites]
For much longer than I care to admit I thought the lyric was "just a second handy motion".
posted by Servo5678 at 8:15 AM on February 9, 2017 [17 favorites]
Okay, I was a little snarky about OWS, I apologize. It certainly got people talking.
But I agree with Rust Moranis, and Jalliah. All that energy and conversation needs to be focused, and leaders (if not "A Leader") are needed to steer that conversation and keep people energized, and hopefully, some of them get voted into office and actually Lead. Scoffing at anyone who's voice starts to rise above the din, or stating flat out "we don't need leaders", does not help further any cause.
posted by Roommate at 8:16 AM on February 9, 2017
But I agree with Rust Moranis, and Jalliah. All that energy and conversation needs to be focused, and leaders (if not "A Leader") are needed to steer that conversation and keep people energized, and hopefully, some of them get voted into office and actually Lead. Scoffing at anyone who's voice starts to rise above the din, or stating flat out "we don't need leaders", does not help further any cause.
posted by Roommate at 8:16 AM on February 9, 2017
We have to figure out how to fix these problems before they lead to societal collapse. Addressing this crisis is not the same as censorship.
If the purpose of a system is what it does, then this seems like a distinction without difference. Or at least I find it difficult to imagine how to address the issues you mentioned without (implicitly or explicitly) asserting the authority to control and monitor the flow of information at a societal level. Let's not mince words.
posted by dmh at 8:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
If the purpose of a system is what it does, then this seems like a distinction without difference. Or at least I find it difficult to imagine how to address the issues you mentioned without (implicitly or explicitly) asserting the authority to control and monitor the flow of information at a societal level. Let's not mince words.
posted by dmh at 8:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
It's A Small World. Episode 94: Donald Trump, the Dirty Digger (Rupert Murdoch), Ivanka...
posted by Mister Bijou at 8:23 AM on February 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
Mr Trump and Mr Murdoch are in regular contact while Mr Murdoch, who has been running Fox News Channel since Roger Ailes was pushed out last summer, has positioned the network squarely behind the new president. When Megyn Kelly, a star Fox News presenter, left the network for NBC last month, Mr Murdoch personally selected her replacement, the Trump-supporting presenter Tucker Carlson.Rupert Murdoch secretly sat in on interview with Donald Trump (Financial Times)
Mr Carlsonâs appointment means that the three key prime hours on Fox News are hosted by pro-Trump commentators.
[...]
The FT revealed this week that the presidentâs eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, was until recently a trustee of Grace and Chloe, Mr Murdochâs two young daughters by his ex-wife Wendi Deng.
Ms Trump represented the girlsâ interests in 21st Century Fox and News Corp, the two companies that are controlled by the Murdoch family.
posted by Mister Bijou at 8:23 AM on February 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
For much longer than I care to admit I thought the lyric was "just a second handy motion".
Mine was "second-handed notion".
posted by cortex at 8:27 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
Mine was "second-handed notion".
posted by cortex at 8:27 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
President Trump on Thursday doubled down on his comments the U.S. should have taken oil from the Middle East during its wars there.
âWeâve spent $6 trillion ⊠in the Middle East,â Trump said during a meeting with airline executives at the White House. âWeâve got nothing. Weâve got nothing. We never even kept a small, even a tiny oil well. Not one little oil well. I said, âKeep the oil.ââ
I wonder how those airline executives felt in that moment about their complicity in the declaration of a bloodthirsty resource extraction empire? Ah, who am I kidding, they were probably thinking about lunch and about this weekend's hunt of the Most Dangerous Game.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:28 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
âWeâve spent $6 trillion ⊠in the Middle East,â Trump said during a meeting with airline executives at the White House. âWeâve got nothing. Weâve got nothing. We never even kept a small, even a tiny oil well. Not one little oil well. I said, âKeep the oil.ââ
I wonder how those airline executives felt in that moment about their complicity in the declaration of a bloodthirsty resource extraction empire? Ah, who am I kidding, they were probably thinking about lunch and about this weekend's hunt of the Most Dangerous Game.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:28 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
CNBC tweet: JUST IN: Trump signs 3 exec. orders that he says targets gang members, drug dealers, drug cartels & crimes against law enforcement officers (no further info on the orders right now)
posted by melissasaurus at 8:29 AM on February 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by melissasaurus at 8:29 AM on February 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
"All that energy and conversation needs to be focused, and leaders (if not "A Leader") are needed to steer that conversation and keep people energized,..."
I remember a lot of big-picture discussion last spring/summer about an overdue, major, 50-year-cycle, party realignment. I don't think it's sufficiently clear what the new axis of polarization will be - or what we can do to nudge it in a favorable direction. I'm guessing there'll be strange, new bedfellows all around, so I say, leave things messy and diffuse until we get a better view of emerging intersections.
posted by klarck at 8:30 AM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]
I remember a lot of big-picture discussion last spring/summer about an overdue, major, 50-year-cycle, party realignment. I don't think it's sufficiently clear what the new axis of polarization will be - or what we can do to nudge it in a favorable direction. I'm guessing there'll be strange, new bedfellows all around, so I say, leave things messy and diffuse until we get a better view of emerging intersections.
posted by klarck at 8:30 AM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]
Frowner: What is so core for me that I won't organize with people who don't get it? What is important to me but can be bracketed in the short term?
These questions have been on my mind too. I don't pretend to have easy answers, but something about Teen Vogue's description of Jeff Sessions as "intersectional in his opposition to equality" really resonated this week. It refined into focus that the type of terrible we're up against right now is not people who are terrible on one or two axes. Those are still here and causing real harm, but my gut feel is that we focus on them at the peril of ignoring the larger evil, when America's in the triage ward.
It's not a comfortable position to be in.
posted by deludingmyself at 8:40 AM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
These questions have been on my mind too. I don't pretend to have easy answers, but something about Teen Vogue's description of Jeff Sessions as "intersectional in his opposition to equality" really resonated this week. It refined into focus that the type of terrible we're up against right now is not people who are terrible on one or two axes. Those are still here and causing real harm, but my gut feel is that we focus on them at the peril of ignoring the larger evil, when America's in the triage ward.
It's not a comfortable position to be in.
posted by deludingmyself at 8:40 AM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
Nevertheless, she purrsisted. [Teeturtle shirt]
posted by numaner at 8:42 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by numaner at 8:42 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
(So uncomfortable that I am actually arguing with myself after posting that. We are capable of thinking about more than one thing, and we should live our values and spend time on things like making the Women's March more intersectional, etc. I believe all of that is worth the effort. I just don't think there's much to be gained in excluding people from the resistance because they suck in an area. I wouldn't prioritize them for leadership positions, though.)
posted by deludingmyself at 8:44 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by deludingmyself at 8:44 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
@coreybbennett: I see @Nordstrom and Congress have swapped roles: one checks the executive branch, the other is bought by rich people.
posted by argonauta at 8:45 AM on February 9, 2017 [91 favorites]
posted by argonauta at 8:45 AM on February 9, 2017 [91 favorites]
at this rate i fully expect the presidential EO explicitly targeting dissenters to be issued within two weeks.
posted by entropicamericana at 8:46 AM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by entropicamericana at 8:46 AM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
CNBC tweet: JUST IN: Trump signs 3 exec. orders that he says targets gang members, drug dealers, drug cartels & crimes against law enforcement officers (no further info on the orders right now)
Things that are already illegal, so this must be what - Double Secret Probation?
posted by dnash at 8:47 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
Things that are already illegal, so this must be what - Double Secret Probation?
posted by dnash at 8:47 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
#BlueLivesMatterMORE
posted by mikelieman at 8:49 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by mikelieman at 8:49 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Extreme Prosecution.
posted by valkane at 8:50 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by valkane at 8:50 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
It's probably safe to assume that these EOs criminalize actions of PoC that is not 100% submission to police authority at any time.
posted by zombieflanders at 8:50 AM on February 9, 2017 [26 favorites]
posted by zombieflanders at 8:50 AM on February 9, 2017 [26 favorites]
We are capable of thinking about more than one thing, and we should live our values and spend time on things like making the Women's March more intersectional, etc. I believe all of that is worth the effort. I just don't think there's much to be gained in excluding people from the resistance because they suck in an area. I wouldn't prioritize them for leadership positions, though.
The beauty of a multi-front battle, however, is that if someone sucks in one area, there is probably another area they are good at where there's also need for help.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
The beauty of a multi-front battle, however, is that if someone sucks in one area, there is probably another area they are good at where there's also need for help.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Trump just can't get enough of those sweet, sweet Executive Orders.
"Bring me three more, Stinkin' Steve!"
posted by notyou at 8:56 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
"Bring me three more, Stinkin' Steve!"
posted by notyou at 8:56 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Apparently, PM Trudeau will visit the White House on Monday. I would like to apologize in advance for whatever crap Trump is going to say to him.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:57 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:57 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
Apparently, PM Trudeau will visit the White House on Monday. I would like to apologize in advance for whatever crap Trump is going to say to him.
Meanwhile I'm worried that Trudeau will simply concede everything to Trump, because lately he's been throwing away goodwill like he was bailing water out of a sinking rowboat and this would fit the pattern.
posted by chrominance at 9:00 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Meanwhile I'm worried that Trudeau will simply concede everything to Trump, because lately he's been throwing away goodwill like he was bailing water out of a sinking rowboat and this would fit the pattern.
posted by chrominance at 9:00 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
@DrDavidDuke
Mr. Trumpâs appointment of Bannon, Flynn and Sessions are the first steps in the project of taking America back.
@ChrisEvans Retweeted David Duke
If David Duke....DAVID!...DUKE!... thinks you're right, then you are unequivocally wrong. The confirmation of @jeffsessions is beyond words.
---
Captain America still fighting Nazis.
posted by chris24 at 9:00 AM on February 9, 2017 [73 favorites]
Mr. Trumpâs appointment of Bannon, Flynn and Sessions are the first steps in the project of taking America back.
@ChrisEvans Retweeted David Duke
If David Duke....DAVID!...DUKE!... thinks you're right, then you are unequivocally wrong. The confirmation of @jeffsessions is beyond words.
---
Captain America still fighting Nazis.
posted by chris24 at 9:00 AM on February 9, 2017 [73 favorites]
Or at least I find it difficult to imagine how to address the issues you mentioned without (implicitly or explicitly) asserting the authority to control and monitor the flow of information at a societal level. Let's not mince words.
All design is about controlling the flow of matter, energy, information or some combination thereof, yes. So â not mincing words â the design of an informational system is necessarily about controlling the flow of information. I think that's just a pragmatic description of what's happening.
But it's a very long step from that recognition to the assertion that a designer needs to monitor content at a granular level in order to realize that control. (In fact, such an arrangement would most likely strike me as a clumsy or an inelegant design.)
I certainly don't pretend to have any of the answers, let alone all of them. I am saying that a system like Twitter, for example, which is designed in such a way as to permit the parties behind unaccountable, effectively anonymous egg accounts to respond directly to anyone who wishes to comment in public, is corrosive to the kind of discourse I believe in. I would have designed that system differently â or, if I hadn't thought to do so from the outset, which is always possible, I would have redesigned it the moment it was made clear to me that my design choices were affording harassment and bullying on a fairly massive scale. I don't believe that to be "censorship" in any meaningful sense, and I suspect most people with a post-adolescent understanding of the term would arrive at the same understanding. Probably my misplaced optimism again, that.
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:01 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
All design is about controlling the flow of matter, energy, information or some combination thereof, yes. So â not mincing words â the design of an informational system is necessarily about controlling the flow of information. I think that's just a pragmatic description of what's happening.
But it's a very long step from that recognition to the assertion that a designer needs to monitor content at a granular level in order to realize that control. (In fact, such an arrangement would most likely strike me as a clumsy or an inelegant design.)
I certainly don't pretend to have any of the answers, let alone all of them. I am saying that a system like Twitter, for example, which is designed in such a way as to permit the parties behind unaccountable, effectively anonymous egg accounts to respond directly to anyone who wishes to comment in public, is corrosive to the kind of discourse I believe in. I would have designed that system differently â or, if I hadn't thought to do so from the outset, which is always possible, I would have redesigned it the moment it was made clear to me that my design choices were affording harassment and bullying on a fairly massive scale. I don't believe that to be "censorship" in any meaningful sense, and I suspect most people with a post-adolescent understanding of the term would arrive at the same understanding. Probably my misplaced optimism again, that.
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:01 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
Apparently, PM Trudeau will visit the White House on Monday. I would like to apologize in advance for whatever crap Trump is going to say to him.
Oh yay, Justin is going to get to experience the consequences of the SNL on Saturday. Trump's SNL moods seem to last for a couple of days though this time may be particularly bad.
posted by Jalliah at 9:03 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
Oh yay, Justin is going to get to experience the consequences of the SNL on Saturday. Trump's SNL moods seem to last for a couple of days though this time may be particularly bad.
posted by Jalliah at 9:03 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
My paranoid style is trembling that he's directing the DEA/DOJ to enforce federal marijuana laws in recreational states. He just yesterday promised a "brutal" drug war.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:05 AM on February 9, 2017 [28 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:05 AM on February 9, 2017 [28 favorites]
Apparently, PM Trudeau will visit the White House on Monday. I would like to apologize in advance for whatever crap Trump is going to say to him.How about we encourage Trudeau to tell Trump that while his goons are on Canadian soil and operating in Canadian airports, they all operate by Canadian rules of decency and non-discrimination.
posted by bl1nk at 9:05 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
My paranoid style is trembling that he's directing the DEA/DOJ to enforce federal marijuana laws in recreational states. He just yesterday promised a "brutal" drug war.
I don't see that as paranoid. It's low-hanging fruit, if you want to swing the drug warrior dick around.
posted by thelonius at 9:07 AM on February 9, 2017 [14 favorites]
I don't see that as paranoid. It's low-hanging fruit, if you want to swing the drug warrior dick around.
posted by thelonius at 9:07 AM on February 9, 2017 [14 favorites]
My paranoid style is trembling that he's directing the DEA/DOJ to enforce federal marijuana laws in recreational states. He just yesterday promised a "brutal" drug war.
He's working super hard at aligning as many forces against himself as possible, ain't he? Like that guy in the mosh pit that decides to start punching everyone until the whole crowd shoves that motherfucker right out the door.
posted by Existential Dread at 9:10 AM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]
He's working super hard at aligning as many forces against himself as possible, ain't he? Like that guy in the mosh pit that decides to start punching everyone until the whole crowd shoves that motherfucker right out the door.
posted by Existential Dread at 9:10 AM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]
My paranoid style is trembling that he's directing the DEA/DOJ to enforce federal marijuana laws in recreational states. He just yesterday promised a "brutal" drug war.
Yeah, that's not paranoid at all. Dialing up the drug war is a major policy plank for Sessions, and Trump has praised Duterte's mass murder of drug users.
posted by jedicus at 9:12 AM on February 9, 2017 [22 favorites]
Yeah, that's not paranoid at all. Dialing up the drug war is a major policy plank for Sessions, and Trump has praised Duterte's mass murder of drug users.
posted by jedicus at 9:12 AM on February 9, 2017 [22 favorites]
T.D. Strange Sounds like a good bet. The "State's Rights" Republicans have been slavering to enforce federal drug laws in states that have legalized marijuana since it first started happening.
I expect we'll see a number of arrests for marijuana growers and retailers coming soon, and that's going to be a fight I'm torn on. Because, I believe strongly in the supremacy of the Federal government, I believe that for the most part it is a force for good that has helped end institutionalized, legally mandated, racism through the South. But I'm also glad to see cracks appearing in the War on Drugsâą and the proliferation of states legalizing marijuana seems like an unalloyed good. So... yeah.
I'd really not like to get a "State's rights" affirming SCOTUS ruling even though I strongly favor legal marijuana, because I live in Texas and I know that such a ruling will instantly be applied to all manner of evil the state wishes to impose that is currently blocked by Federal law.
If Trump really is set to start massive enforcement of Federal anti-marijuana laws it's going to get ugly fast and none of the outcomes seem good.
posted by sotonohito at 9:12 AM on February 9, 2017 [15 favorites]
I expect we'll see a number of arrests for marijuana growers and retailers coming soon, and that's going to be a fight I'm torn on. Because, I believe strongly in the supremacy of the Federal government, I believe that for the most part it is a force for good that has helped end institutionalized, legally mandated, racism through the South. But I'm also glad to see cracks appearing in the War on Drugsâą and the proliferation of states legalizing marijuana seems like an unalloyed good. So... yeah.
I'd really not like to get a "State's rights" affirming SCOTUS ruling even though I strongly favor legal marijuana, because I live in Texas and I know that such a ruling will instantly be applied to all manner of evil the state wishes to impose that is currently blocked by Federal law.
If Trump really is set to start massive enforcement of Federal anti-marijuana laws it's going to get ugly fast and none of the outcomes seem good.
posted by sotonohito at 9:12 AM on February 9, 2017 [15 favorites]
NYT: California Farmers Backed Trump, but Now Fear Losing Field Workers
posted by notyou at 9:13 AM on February 9, 2017 [43 favorites]
MERCED, Calif. â Jeff Marchini and others in the Central Valley here bet their farms on the election of Donald J. Trump. His message of reducing regulations and taxes appealed to this Republican stronghold, one of Mr. Trumpâs strongest bases of support in the state.Good job, farmers!
As for his promises about cracking down on illegal immigrants, many assumed Mr. Trumpâs pledges were mostly just talk. But two weeks into his administration, Mr. Trump has signed executive orders that have upended the countryâs immigration laws. Now farmers here are deeply alarmed about what the new policies could mean for their workers, most of whom are unauthorized, and the businesses that depend on them.
posted by notyou at 9:13 AM on February 9, 2017 [43 favorites]
Good job, farmers
To be fair, their votes for Trump had no effect, but their votes for their Republican congressmen definitely didn't help.
posted by suelac at 9:15 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
To be fair, their votes for Trump had no effect, but their votes for their Republican congressmen definitely didn't help.
posted by suelac at 9:15 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
"They knew it was a snake when they picked it up" really is becoming the watchword for 2017, isn't it?
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:16 AM on February 9, 2017 [35 favorites]
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:16 AM on February 9, 2017 [35 favorites]
I don't think the people we need to reach are the "moderate/undecided" people (do they even exist anymore???). We have a larger coalition already, we just have to use and activate it consistently and over a period of years.
I agree with this. There are almost 100 million registered Democrats but only 65 million showed up to vote for Clinton. Those 35 million stay-at-home Democratic voters are a much richer fishing ground than trying to persuade "moderate Republicans" to cross over and vote Democratic.
Hillary was right. Most of the Republicans are deplorable and more importantly irredeemable. It's a waste of time and effort to try to persuade someone who has consistently voted Republican for 10 or 20 years to ever change their minds. Few people change their political leanings in mid-life.
Democrats don't need them. They need to persuade the 35 million registered Democrats who didn't vote to show up. There's another 35 million or so who have never registered to vote, many are young people, who you have a better chance of reaching than life-long Republicans or "moderate" unicorns.
Forget Republicans. Let them stew in their own sewage.
posted by JackFlash at 9:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [54 favorites]
I agree with this. There are almost 100 million registered Democrats but only 65 million showed up to vote for Clinton. Those 35 million stay-at-home Democratic voters are a much richer fishing ground than trying to persuade "moderate Republicans" to cross over and vote Democratic.
Hillary was right. Most of the Republicans are deplorable and more importantly irredeemable. It's a waste of time and effort to try to persuade someone who has consistently voted Republican for 10 or 20 years to ever change their minds. Few people change their political leanings in mid-life.
Democrats don't need them. They need to persuade the 35 million registered Democrats who didn't vote to show up. There's another 35 million or so who have never registered to vote, many are young people, who you have a better chance of reaching than life-long Republicans or "moderate" unicorns.
Forget Republicans. Let them stew in their own sewage.
posted by JackFlash at 9:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [54 favorites]
many assumed Mr. Trumpâs pledges were mostly just talk.
Believe the autocrat. He means what he says.
posted by chris24 at 9:21 AM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
Believe the autocrat. He means what he says.
posted by chris24 at 9:21 AM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
But we all suffer when there's a cholera outbreak.
True, but it's not easy to make that case to the people whose political identity has become so deeply bound to the Sewage Baths Are Good Party.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:22 AM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]
True, but it's not easy to make that case to the people whose political identity has become so deeply bound to the Sewage Baths Are Good Party.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:22 AM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]
If the EOs do in fact include authorizing of federal enforcement in legal marijuana states, that'll be the last nail in the coffin for the idea that Bannon isn't wittingly trying to start a for-real civil war.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:23 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:23 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
Hillary was right. Most of the Republicans are deplorable and more importantly irredeemable.
Isn't this the opposite of the point of the "deplorables" speech? I thought she intended to separate the deplorables, Trump's base, from the moderate Republicans Chuck Schumer expected to pick up by putting Michael Bloomberg onstage at the DNC and so on.
Isn't this the opposite of the point of the "deplorables" speech? I thought she intended to separate the deplorables, Trump's base, from the moderate Republicans Chuck Schumer expected to pick up by putting Michael Bloomberg onstage at the DNC and so on.
"But the other basket -- and I know this because I see friends from all over America here -- I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas -- as well as, you know, New York and California -- but that other basket of people are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they're just desperate for change. It doesn't really even matter where it comes from. They don't buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won't wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they're in a dead-end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well."posted by Rustic Etruscan at 9:24 AM on February 9, 2017 [17 favorites]
Tucker Max has a change of heart. talks about milo and media strategy of deplorables and of how we should stop playing right into it.
posted by xcasex at 9:26 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by xcasex at 9:26 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Spicer is on at 1;30 today. Maybe he will have some details since they take so long to release the text.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:26 AM on February 9, 2017
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:26 AM on February 9, 2017
Would you like a story about Trump telling Putin that Russia got too good a deal on the most recent nuclear treaty? Sure you would. The part where he apparently doesn't know what the treaty actually does is particularly....classic.
So do you think Putin wants a return to a nuclear arms race? Or is this all Trump?
posted by Frowner at 9:26 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
So do you think Putin wants a return to a nuclear arms race? Or is this all Trump?
posted by Frowner at 9:26 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Coretta Scott King's letter about Sessions was important. And it should have been read during the confirmation hearing. And silencing Warren was wrong. I understand the symbolic import of everything that happened (and was not allowed to happen) in that situation. But symbolism was all that was available to our side there, one way or the other.
It's not like the GOP senators were one well-written letter away from changing their minds. Or like they hadn't heard it before and just failed to give a fuck. Or that if Warren had read it and it aired, waves of Republican voters would have risen up in outrage because they just won't tolerate racism and would have implored their senators not to approve him.
I don't know. I feel like I'm reaching some next wave cynicism these days. I just have zero faith in the GOP or its supporters. We have to stop assuming we've hit rock bottom and accept that this is a bottomless pit. I'm not trying to say a single unkind word about anyone still braving fighting the good fight. And I'm sure not saying the war is lost. But the current battles are all looking pretty damned one-sided.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:27 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
It's not like the GOP senators were one well-written letter away from changing their minds. Or like they hadn't heard it before and just failed to give a fuck. Or that if Warren had read it and it aired, waves of Republican voters would have risen up in outrage because they just won't tolerate racism and would have implored their senators not to approve him.
I don't know. I feel like I'm reaching some next wave cynicism these days. I just have zero faith in the GOP or its supporters. We have to stop assuming we've hit rock bottom and accept that this is a bottomless pit. I'm not trying to say a single unkind word about anyone still braving fighting the good fight. And I'm sure not saying the war is lost. But the current battles are all looking pretty damned one-sided.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:27 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
Tucker Max has a change of heart.
That's one of Tucker's buddies, and we're discussing it over here.
posted by Etrigan at 9:29 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
That's one of Tucker's buddies, and we're discussing it over here.
posted by Etrigan at 9:29 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
notyou: As for his promises about cracking down on illegal immigrants, many assumed Mr. Trumpâs pledges were mostly just talk.
In the lead-up to the election, some noted that _rump supporters listened to the sentiment of the Angry Orange and ignored the literal words, while his opponents took him literally. Look where we are now.
Oh, and the Washington Post touched on this ... back in August 2015: Alabama tried a Donald Trump-style immigration law. It failed in a big way.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:31 AM on February 9, 2017 [17 favorites]
In the lead-up to the election, some noted that _rump supporters listened to the sentiment of the Angry Orange and ignored the literal words, while his opponents took him literally. Look where we are now.
Oh, and the Washington Post touched on this ... back in August 2015: Alabama tried a Donald Trump-style immigration law. It failed in a big way.
Alabama, which hosted the largest rally of Trumpâs presidential campaign Friday night, had been a test kitchen for Trump-style crackdowns on undocumented workers â and it had not gone well.* In a bit of neck-snapping WTF-happened-between-then-and-now whiplash, that article was titled Donald Trump: Mean-Spirited GOP Wonât Win Elections, and was published on Monday, 26 Nov 2012.
In 2011, a new Republican legislature and governor enacted HB 56, the Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act. Chief sponsor Micky Hammon warned the undocumented population that he would âmake it difficult for them to live here, so they will deport themselves.â Renting a house or giving a job to an âillegalâ became a crime. Police were empowered to demand proof of citizenship from anyone who looked as if he or she might lack it. School administrators were instructed to do the same to children.
The backlash was massive â a legal assault that chipped away at the law, and a political campaign that made Republicans own its consequences. Business groups blamed the tough measures for scaring away capital and for an exodus of workers that hurt the stateâs agriculture industry. After Mitt Romney lost the 2012 presidential election, strategists in his own party blamed his support for the Alabama attrition policy. Those critics included Donald Trump.
âHe had a crazy policy of self-deportation, which was maniacal,â Trump told reporter Ronald Kessler after the election-*. âIt sounded as bad as it was.â
Asked about the law, Alabama voters rarely say that it worked. Large farms spent millions training new workers. The Byrds conceded that the agriculture sector suffered after some immigrants fled the state. âMost of them left and didnât come back,â said Terry Darring-Rogers, who works at a Mobile law firm specializing in immigration.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:31 AM on February 9, 2017 [17 favorites]
> Would you like a story about Trump telling Putin that Russia got too good a deal on the most recent nuclear treaty? Sure you would.
No, I really really wouldn't. Could you please stop? This handbasket is getting uncomfortably warm and I'd really like to hop out...
... too late. Clicked the link, and OMG:
The phone call with Putin has added to concerns that Trump is not adequately prepared for discussions with foreign leaders.
We're all going to die.
posted by RedOrGreen at 9:33 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
No, I really really wouldn't. Could you please stop? This handbasket is getting uncomfortably warm and I'd really like to hop out...
... too late. Clicked the link, and OMG:
The phone call with Putin has added to concerns that Trump is not adequately prepared for discussions with foreign leaders.
We're all going to die.
posted by RedOrGreen at 9:33 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Apparently, PM Trudeau will visit the White House on Monday.
Are we sure they'll let him into the States, or out afterward?
posted by juiceCake at 9:34 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
Are we sure they'll let him into the States, or out afterward?
posted by juiceCake at 9:34 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
I certainly don't pretend to have any of the answers, let alone all of them. I am saying that a system like Twitter, for example, which is designed in such a way as to permit the parties behind unaccountable, effectively anonymous egg accounts to respond directly to anyone who wishes to comment in public, is corrosive to the kind of discourse I believe in.
I was thinking a little about USPS and how it serves a democratising (and nation-building) function, but also allowed wingnut mailing list operations to send bulk bullshit more cheaply than a birthday card. (And to set up a situation where bulk bullshit subsidises birthday cards.)
But a better analogy perhaps might be to the epidemiological character of information in relation to vaccination and vaccination rates. Remember how there were fears that polio eradication in Pakistan and Afghanistan would be set back because the intel op against Bin Laden used vaccination as its cover? The information about the benefits, and belief of that information, has to outpace the spread of disease. A huge majority can believe that measles epidemics are a bad thing, but it only takes a small minority to fuck over herd immunity. I think we're at that point both literally and metaphorically.
posted by holgate at 9:35 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
I was thinking a little about USPS and how it serves a democratising (and nation-building) function, but also allowed wingnut mailing list operations to send bulk bullshit more cheaply than a birthday card. (And to set up a situation where bulk bullshit subsidises birthday cards.)
But a better analogy perhaps might be to the epidemiological character of information in relation to vaccination and vaccination rates. Remember how there were fears that polio eradication in Pakistan and Afghanistan would be set back because the intel op against Bin Laden used vaccination as its cover? The information about the benefits, and belief of that information, has to outpace the spread of disease. A huge majority can believe that measles epidemics are a bad thing, but it only takes a small minority to fuck over herd immunity. I think we're at that point both literally and metaphorically.
posted by holgate at 9:35 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
I'd really not like to get a "State's rights" affirming SCOTUS ruling even though I strongly favor legal marijuana, because I live in Texas and I know that such a ruling will instantly be applied to all manner of evil the state wishes to impose that is currently blocked by Federal law.
The WA lawsuit against the immigration ban is based on a "State's rights" argument, though.
The WA lawsuit against the immigration ban is based on a "State's rights" argument, though.
XIV. TENTH CAUSE OF ACTIONposted by Coventry at 9:37 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
(Tenth Amendment)
106. The States reallege and incorporate by reference the allegations set forth in each of the preceding paragraphs of this First Amended Complaint.
107. The Tenth Amendment reserves all powers not enumerated in the Constitution to the states and prohibits the federal government from commandeering state legislative processes.
108. The Tenth Amendment prohibits the federal government from directly compelling states to enact and enforce federal law.
109. Sections 3 and 5 of the Executive Order, together with statements made by Defendants concerning their intent and application, target individuals for discriminatory treatment based on their country of origin and/or religion, without lawful justification.
110. The States and their employers, housing providers, and businesses have long been prohibited by their Statesâ laws from discriminating against people based on national origin and religion in employment, housing, and in places of public accommodation.
And it wasn't just Alabama - The Law Of Unintended Consequences: Georgia's Immigration Law Backfires (Forbes, May 17, 2012)
posted by filthy light thief at 9:38 AM on February 9, 2017 [25 favorites]
To forgo a repeat of last year, when labor shortages triggered an estimated $140 million in agricultural losses, as crops rotted in the fields, officials in Georgia are now dispatching prisoners to the stateâs farms to help harvest fruit and vegetables.It really should have been titled "The Dangers Of Short-Sighted Racism," or "Georgia acted on xenophobic racism, and were then able to reinstate slavery," but that's too bold for Forbes in 2012. Now anything's possible in 2017.
The labor shortages, which also have affected the hotel and restaurant industries, are a consequence of Georgiaâs immigration enforcement law, HB 87, which was passed last year. As State Rep. Matt Ramsey, one of the billâs authors, said at the time, âOur goal is ⊠to eliminate incentives for illegal aliens to cross into our state.â
Now he and others are learning: Be careful what you wish for, because you may get more than you bargained for.
Georgiaâs law, similar to those in Alabama, Arizona and a few other states, gives police the authority to demand immigration documentation from suspects when they detain them for other possible violations. The law also makes it more difficult for businesses to hire workers and creates harsher punishments for those who employ or harbor illegal immigrants.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:38 AM on February 9, 2017 [25 favorites]
Someecards has a great roundup of tweets in response to the Kellyanne's Nordstrom-flavored ethics violation. (I will admit I chuckled at it being called 'The War of Nordstrom Aggression').
posted by TwoStride at 9:39 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by TwoStride at 9:39 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Reuters: In call with Putin, Trump denounced Obama-era nuclear arms treaty - sources
posted by zachlipton at 9:41 AM on February 9, 2017 [67 favorites]
In his first call as president with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump denounced a treaty that caps U.S. and Russian deployment of nuclear warheads as a bad deal for the United States, according to two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official with knowledge of the call.This is both an astonishing story and an astonishing leak.
When Putin raised the possibility of extending the 2010 treaty, known as New START, Trump paused to ask his aides in an aside what the treaty was, these sources said.
Trump then told Putin the treaty was one of several bad deals negotiated by the Obama administration, saying that New START favored Russia. Trump also talked about his own popularity, the sources said.
posted by zachlipton at 9:41 AM on February 9, 2017 [67 favorites]
Regarding states' rights: The choice right now is between 1) becoming super into it and 2) deciding that it's better for the entire country to fall under the Code Of Trumppurabi rather than only much of it.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:41 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:41 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
It really should have been titled "The Dangers Of Short-Sighted Racism," or "Georgia acted on xenophobic racism, and were then able to reinstate slavery," but that's too bold for Forbes in 2012. Now anything's possible in 2017
I feel like I should take those two articles you posted and make right wing conspiracy look charts with pictures and paint shop red lines to illustrate how consequences work.
posted by Jalliah at 9:44 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
I feel like I should take those two articles you posted and make right wing conspiracy look charts with pictures and paint shop red lines to illustrate how consequences work.
posted by Jalliah at 9:44 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
It's low-hanging fruit, if you want to swing the drug warrior dick around.
Are Mr Opioid Crisis and Jefferson Beauregard going to raid nice Mr Robinson, the old family pharmacist in small-town West Virginia who somehow manages to dispense half a million pills a year? Hmm.
posted by holgate at 9:45 AM on February 9, 2017 [17 favorites]
Are Mr Opioid Crisis and Jefferson Beauregard going to raid nice Mr Robinson, the old family pharmacist in small-town West Virginia who somehow manages to dispense half a million pills a year? Hmm.
posted by holgate at 9:45 AM on February 9, 2017 [17 favorites]
Prett clear now that "bad deal" in Trump-speak only means one that he didn't negotiate. Because he's never once given concrete evidence of improvements he would've hammered out instead, on anything.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:45 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:45 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
This is both an astonishing story and an astonishing leak.
ALL out of astonishment, here: it was depleted quickly after my evens gave out
posted by thelonius at 9:46 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
ALL out of astonishment, here: it was depleted quickly after my evens gave out
posted by thelonius at 9:46 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
This is both an astonishing story and an astonishing leak.
And thank you to all the people who are leaking right now, regardless of individual motivations.
posted by Jalliah at 9:46 AM on February 9, 2017 [17 favorites]
And thank you to all the people who are leaking right now, regardless of individual motivations.
posted by Jalliah at 9:46 AM on February 9, 2017 [17 favorites]
RedOrGreen: The phone call with Putin has added to concerns that Trump is not adequately prepared for discussions with foreign leaders.
We're all going to die.
Being unprepared doesn't get you into wars, it gets you downgraded to Failed Democracy and Second-Tier Nation, where we lose power and standing in international negotiations.
I feel that the quick dip and readjustment of Nordstrom stocks could be paralleled on the international political level, where _rump says or does something dumb, people freak out a bit, then adjust course to avoid working in and with the US.
Worst case, we're in debt to Russia, and our economy is in the tank. Oh, and just like Russia, people are dying because protections and security systems we took for granted (or didn't understand and didn't like) are removed, or they're killed and no one cares
posted by filthy light thief at 9:48 AM on February 9, 2017 [24 favorites]
We're all going to die.
Being unprepared doesn't get you into wars, it gets you downgraded to Failed Democracy and Second-Tier Nation, where we lose power and standing in international negotiations.
I feel that the quick dip and readjustment of Nordstrom stocks could be paralleled on the international political level, where _rump says or does something dumb, people freak out a bit, then adjust course to avoid working in and with the US.
Worst case, we're in debt to Russia, and our economy is in the tank. Oh, and just like Russia, people are dying because protections and security systems we took for granted (or didn't understand and didn't like) are removed, or they're killed and no one cares
Sometime in 1993, after several trips to Russia, I noticed something bizarre and disturbing: people kept dying. I was used to losing friends to AIDS in the United States, but this was different. People in Russia were dying suddenly and violently, and their own friends and colleagues did not find these deaths shocking. Upon arriving in Moscow I called a friend with whom I had become close over the course of a year. âVadim is no more,â said his father, who picked up the phone. âHe drowned.â I showed up for a meeting with a newspaper reporter to have the receptionist say, âBut he is dead, donât you know?â I didnât. Iâd seen the man a week earlier; he was thirty and apparently healthy. The receptionist seemed to think I was being dense. âA helicopter accident,â she finally said, in a tone that seemed to indicate I had no business being surprised.Why launch an attack on the US when we might just kill ourselves?
posted by filthy light thief at 9:48 AM on February 9, 2017 [24 favorites]
Has nobody spotted this amongst his latest wheezes? Guess what he thinks is being overspent on this time?
Air traffic controlling.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLING.
posted by tel3path at 9:49 AM on February 9, 2017 [28 favorites]
Air traffic controlling.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLING.
posted by tel3path at 9:49 AM on February 9, 2017 [28 favorites]
The "State's Rights" basis does make it easy to argue about the immigration ban with conservatives, though.
posted by Coventry at 9:49 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Coventry at 9:49 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Fuck it. I'm stayin home on Feb 17. I don't care how small this ends up being ..whatever.
(& maybe it'll be massive..)
General Strike
posted by The_Auditor at 9:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
(& maybe it'll be massive..)
General Strike
posted by The_Auditor at 9:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Has nobody spotted this amongst his latest wheezes? Guess what he thinks is being overspent on this time?
Air traffic controlling.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLING.
Hey, Dad, I can't see real good.. ..is that
posted by Existential Dread at 9:53 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
"I hear we're spending billions and billions of dollars, it's a system that's totally out of whack," Trump told a meeting of airline and U.S. airport executives, referring to the air traffic control system.This seems to apply to everything. I wonder what the profit opportunity is here, and who would stand to benefit.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:56 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
I'd really not like to get a "State's rights" affirming SCOTUS ruling even though I strongly favor legal marijuana
Don't worry, the anti-Commerce clause/State's rights types are totally willing to be hypocrites when it comes to MMJ. See e.g. Gonzalez v Raich and its treatment of Wickard v. Filburn (as well as United States v. Lopez, and United States v. Morrison.)
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:56 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Don't worry, the anti-Commerce clause/State's rights types are totally willing to be hypocrites when it comes to MMJ. See e.g. Gonzalez v Raich and its treatment of Wickard v. Filburn (as well as United States v. Lopez, and United States v. Morrison.)
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:56 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Great, now he's going to get an airport renamed for him in ten years.
posted by biogeo at 9:56 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 9:56 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Jalliah: thank you to all the people who are leaking right now, regardless of individual motivations.
Leaks can be good, but they can also be tools. Jonah Goldberg, senior editor at the National Review, talked on NPR about four kinds of leaks that could be happening now (February 3, 2017, audio + transcript)
After this interview, I'm skeptical of the leaks, I wonder what story the leaker wanted to tell, and why.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:57 AM on February 9, 2017 [26 favorites]
Leaks can be good, but they can also be tools. Jonah Goldberg, senior editor at the National Review, talked on NPR about four kinds of leaks that could be happening now (February 3, 2017, audio + transcript)
- a lot of vengeful leaking against pro-administration rivals as people vie for _rump's ear
- "permanent-government, high-level, public-servant bureaucrats and that kind of stuff - policymakers" are acting against the Napoleon-like invasion of _rump's forces
- one of the ways that Trump's team gets information or arguments into the president's head is by going through the media, because that matters more to him than his staff (!!)
- some of these things are done intentionally because they want a certain storyline to get out (!!!)
After this interview, I'm skeptical of the leaks, I wonder what story the leaker wanted to tell, and why.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:57 AM on February 9, 2017 [26 favorites]
Great, now he's going to get an airport renamed for him in ten years.
Not necessarily. Where's the Nixon Airport?
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:59 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
Not necessarily. Where's the Nixon Airport?
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:59 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
I agree, filthy. This leak seems to support the "not a puppet" narrative too neatly.
posted by Coventry at 10:00 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Coventry at 10:00 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
PEEPS:
I just got through to Sen. Schumer's DC office (202-242-6542) because they seem to have gotten a system up to place callers on hold until a staffer can speak to you. If you have the time for that, it might be a good time to call him about issues. Not sure how much it matters, but I personally think the Minority Leader should be wanting to hear from supporters all over the country.
If you want to thank him for the votes on DeVos and Sessions, here are some talking points:
* Great job getting the whole caucus in line on DeVos and nearly the whole caucus in line on Sessions.
* Disgusted by Manchin collaboration.
* Citizen resisters of the PVL's agenda are encouraged to keep up the calls when we see strong shows of unity against cabinet nominations and legislation.
* Thank the staffer personally--they all sound exhausted lately.
Thank you to each of you who has been calling, emailing, faxing, marching, and generally resisting. As a trans woman, I feel privileged to have y'all standing with me.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 10:01 AM on February 9, 2017 [29 favorites]
I just got through to Sen. Schumer's DC office (202-242-6542) because they seem to have gotten a system up to place callers on hold until a staffer can speak to you. If you have the time for that, it might be a good time to call him about issues. Not sure how much it matters, but I personally think the Minority Leader should be wanting to hear from supporters all over the country.
If you want to thank him for the votes on DeVos and Sessions, here are some talking points:
* Great job getting the whole caucus in line on DeVos and nearly the whole caucus in line on Sessions.
* Disgusted by Manchin collaboration.
* Citizen resisters of the PVL's agenda are encouraged to keep up the calls when we see strong shows of unity against cabinet nominations and legislation.
* Thank the staffer personally--they all sound exhausted lately.
Thank you to each of you who has been calling, emailing, faxing, marching, and generally resisting. As a trans woman, I feel privileged to have y'all standing with me.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 10:01 AM on February 9, 2017 [29 favorites]
I think there's so many leaks going on right now, that the motivations for any of them are filed under "who the hell knows, assume any and/or all of those reasons."
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:02 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:02 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
I don't know. I feel like I'm reaching some next wave cynicism these days. I just have zero faith in the GOP or its supporters. We have to stop assuming we've hit rock bottom and accept that this is a bottomless pit. I'm not trying to say a single unkind word about anyone still braving fighting the good fight. And I'm sure not saying the war is lost. But the current battles are all looking pretty damned one-sided.
These aren't the battles we're going to win. Protesting and making things hard serves other purposes:
1. Making the Republicans own their lies and racism.
2. Making it clear that these are lying and racist actions.
3. Pushing the Democrats to unite against Trumpism or face the electoral consequences
4. Rallying non-Republicans by showing visible resistance
5. Articulating an anti-Trump worldview - Democrats may be a bit crap in general, but it's absolutely vital that wherever possible non-Republicans clearly state that "get all the money, smash the vulnerable and rule as an autocrat over the ruins" is not the purpose of human existence.
6. Slow things down - the harder it is for Trump and the Republicans to get anything done, the less they can fuck us over, and the more time we're creating for their own idiocy to bring them down, and for other forces (even if we don't really like those other forces) to trip them up. Let China, Germany, Nordstrom, whoever have time to make trouble for Trump.
Fighting this stuff is absolutely worth it even if it doesn't literally prevent Sessions. The other choice is to say "let them do everything they want at speed as if they're right instead of monstrous".
Oft evil will shall evil mar, as the fellow said.
posted by Frowner at 10:02 AM on February 9, 2017 [56 favorites]
These aren't the battles we're going to win. Protesting and making things hard serves other purposes:
1. Making the Republicans own their lies and racism.
2. Making it clear that these are lying and racist actions.
3. Pushing the Democrats to unite against Trumpism or face the electoral consequences
4. Rallying non-Republicans by showing visible resistance
5. Articulating an anti-Trump worldview - Democrats may be a bit crap in general, but it's absolutely vital that wherever possible non-Republicans clearly state that "get all the money, smash the vulnerable and rule as an autocrat over the ruins" is not the purpose of human existence.
6. Slow things down - the harder it is for Trump and the Republicans to get anything done, the less they can fuck us over, and the more time we're creating for their own idiocy to bring them down, and for other forces (even if we don't really like those other forces) to trip them up. Let China, Germany, Nordstrom, whoever have time to make trouble for Trump.
Fighting this stuff is absolutely worth it even if it doesn't literally prevent Sessions. The other choice is to say "let them do everything they want at speed as if they're right instead of monstrous".
Oft evil will shall evil mar, as the fellow said.
posted by Frowner at 10:02 AM on February 9, 2017 [56 favorites]
This leak seems to support the "not a puppet" narrative too neatly.
I'm not saying Trump wouldn't be dumb enough to say "Leak a story that makes me look like an idiot, because that's better than being a puppet," but it seems unlikely. Anything that hurts him at this point is good.
posted by Etrigan at 10:04 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
I'm not saying Trump wouldn't be dumb enough to say "Leak a story that makes me look like an idiot, because that's better than being a puppet," but it seems unlikely. Anything that hurts him at this point is good.
posted by Etrigan at 10:04 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
I'm not trying to say a single unkind word about anyone still braving fighting the good fight. And I'm sure not saying the war is lost. But the current battles are all looking pretty damned one-sided.
Look beyond government itself. The way to re-assert control in a one sided battle is to open up new fronts.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:05 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Look beyond government itself. The way to re-assert control in a one sided battle is to open up new fronts.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:05 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Articulating an anti-Trump worldview - Democrats may be a bit crap in general, but it's absolutely vital that wherever possible non-Republicans clearly state that "get all the money, smash the vulnerable and rule as an autocrat over the ruins" is not the purpose of human existence.
I'm worried that the Dems won't learn from their 2016 experience, and will attempt to run on "look how awful Trump/McConnell/Chaffetz is!" rather than articulating policy positions to help the working class/middle class/POC/LGBTQ/ constituencies. As Bernie demonstrated, progressive policies are popular, and the Dems need to articulate an alternative vision.
posted by Existential Dread at 10:07 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
I'm worried that the Dems won't learn from their 2016 experience, and will attempt to run on "look how awful Trump/McConnell/Chaffetz is!" rather than articulating policy positions to help the working class/middle class/POC/LGBTQ/ constituencies. As Bernie demonstrated, progressive policies are popular, and the Dems need to articulate an alternative vision.
posted by Existential Dread at 10:07 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
Where's the Nixon Airport?
Also, no US Navy vessels are named after Nixon, the only president excluded from Roosevelt to GHW Bush. Depending on how badly Trump pisses the bed, we may one day have a supercarrier USS Donald J. Trump.
posted by peeedro at 10:11 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Also, no US Navy vessels are named after Nixon, the only president excluded from Roosevelt to GHW Bush. Depending on how badly Trump pisses the bed, we may one day have a supercarrier USS Donald J. Trump.
posted by peeedro at 10:11 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Here's an update from the Department of Small Victories:
There's a hospital cafeteria in the complex at the University of Pennsylvania where I work and I eat lunch there a few times a week. They have 4 televisions in the seating area. Lately, they have been blaring Fox News which was surprising and anger inducing. So I started calling the management office and complaining. I couched it both in terms of my personal preferences, but also tied it to the President of the University of Pennsylvania Amy Gutman's statements calling the attacks by Trump on immigrants to be unacceptable and antithetical to Penn's values and yet a "news" channel supporting the ban is being played for staff / patients / families in the cafeteria!
The person handling my complaints has been patient and empathetic, which is great. And yet, Fox kept being on the TVs - apparently it is possible for people to change the channels in a way that management doesn't have direct oversight on. One time last week I was in and there was no Fox, then halfway through lunch, blammo. So I've kept calling.
I just got back from lunch - no Fox, and new labels added to the TVs that say "Please speak to a manager before changing the channel."
Counting this in the W column, but will be calling any time I see that crap.
posted by lazaruslong at 10:13 AM on February 9, 2017 [68 favorites]
There's a hospital cafeteria in the complex at the University of Pennsylvania where I work and I eat lunch there a few times a week. They have 4 televisions in the seating area. Lately, they have been blaring Fox News which was surprising and anger inducing. So I started calling the management office and complaining. I couched it both in terms of my personal preferences, but also tied it to the President of the University of Pennsylvania Amy Gutman's statements calling the attacks by Trump on immigrants to be unacceptable and antithetical to Penn's values and yet a "news" channel supporting the ban is being played for staff / patients / families in the cafeteria!
The person handling my complaints has been patient and empathetic, which is great. And yet, Fox kept being on the TVs - apparently it is possible for people to change the channels in a way that management doesn't have direct oversight on. One time last week I was in and there was no Fox, then halfway through lunch, blammo. So I've kept calling.
I just got back from lunch - no Fox, and new labels added to the TVs that say "Please speak to a manager before changing the channel."
Counting this in the W column, but will be calling any time I see that crap.
posted by lazaruslong at 10:13 AM on February 9, 2017 [68 favorites]
Honestly if this doesn't finally get Democrats as a party to wise up and actually push for change I have no fucking clue what will.
I just wish it could end up with results instead of DeVos and Sessions being confirmed despite it all. It feels like the definition of 'too little too late.'
posted by flatluigi at 10:13 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
I just wish it could end up with results instead of DeVos and Sessions being confirmed despite it all. It feels like the definition of 'too little too late.'
posted by flatluigi at 10:13 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Existential Dread, I just called and it says it's a non-working number at GWU.
posted by unknowncommand at 10:16 AM on February 9, 2017
posted by unknowncommand at 10:16 AM on February 9, 2017
biogeo: Great, now he's going to get an airport renamed for him in ten years.
snuffleupagus: Not necessarily. Where's the Nixon Airport?
Airports named after U.S. Presidents:
posted by filthy light thief at 10:16 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
snuffleupagus: Not necessarily. Where's the Nixon Airport?
Airports named after U.S. Presidents:
- John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) - New York, New York
- George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) - Houston, Texas
- Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) - Washington, DC
- Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR) - Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport (SPI) - Springfield, Illinois
- Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport (LIT) - Little Rock, Arkansas
- Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT) - Wichita, Kansas
- Dickinson Theodore Roosevelt Regional Airport (DIK) - Dickinson, North Dakota
- (GA) John F. Kennedy Memorial Airport (ASX) in Ashland, Wisconsin
- (GA)Jimmy Carter Regional Airport (ACJ) in Americus, Georgia
- (GA) Roosevelt Memorial Airport near Warm Springs, Georgia.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:16 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Look beyond government itself. The way to re-assert control in a one sided battle is to open up new fronts.
This exactly. The political fights in the House and the Senate, any resistance to the Poorly-Assembled Cabinet, opposing the partisan theft of a SCOTUS seat: these are all rear-guard actions. That doesn't mean they're not important; to the contrary, it's critical to fight as hard as possible on this front. But the Republican looters have both numerical and tactical superiority in this arena.
But the wave of rapidly-mobilized grassroots protests, the gradual awakening of the newsmedia to the idea that they must call lies what they are, the political mobilization of previously apolitical citizens, these are fronts where we're advancing, and the oligarchs and kakistocrats will not win here. This is a long struggle for regaining our country, and while the battles we are losing may be most visible right now, the reality is we have not yet begun to fight.
posted by biogeo at 10:16 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
This exactly. The political fights in the House and the Senate, any resistance to the Poorly-Assembled Cabinet, opposing the partisan theft of a SCOTUS seat: these are all rear-guard actions. That doesn't mean they're not important; to the contrary, it's critical to fight as hard as possible on this front. But the Republican looters have both numerical and tactical superiority in this arena.
But the wave of rapidly-mobilized grassroots protests, the gradual awakening of the newsmedia to the idea that they must call lies what they are, the political mobilization of previously apolitical citizens, these are fronts where we're advancing, and the oligarchs and kakistocrats will not win here. This is a long struggle for regaining our country, and while the battles we are losing may be most visible right now, the reality is we have not yet begun to fight.
posted by biogeo at 10:16 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
I'm worried that the Dems won't learn from their 2016 experience, and will attempt to run on "look how awful Trump/McConnell/Chaffetz is!" rather than articulating policy positions
Where is the thoughtful Dem plan on opiate overdose problem for example. Seems like an easy one.
posted by shothotbot at 10:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Where is the thoughtful Dem plan on opiate overdose problem for example. Seems like an easy one.
posted by shothotbot at 10:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
I want to popularize the idea that Trump is assembling the Oligarch Cabinet.
posted by shothotbot at 10:19 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by shothotbot at 10:19 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
I just got through to Sen. Schumer's DC office (202-242-6542)
Called and faxed him today to thank him for voting against Sessions and to encourage the party to have some kind of consequence for Manchin's yes vote (e.g., removal from leadership and committee positions).
posted by melissasaurus at 10:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
Called and faxed him today to thank him for voting against Sessions and to encourage the party to have some kind of consequence for Manchin's yes vote (e.g., removal from leadership and committee positions).
posted by melissasaurus at 10:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
AVClub: Barack Obamaâs gnarly vacation continues as he becomes a video game character
Am predicting that Trump will find out about this, and somehow be seething and jealous.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
Am predicting that Trump will find out about this, and somehow be seething and jealous.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
ĂLIGĂ
RK, by IKEA
posted by biogeo at 10:21 AM on February 9, 2017 [19 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 10:21 AM on February 9, 2017 [19 favorites]
Existential Dread, I just called and it says it's a non-working number at GWU.
Which? I don't think I posted a number in this thread...
posted by Existential Dread at 10:23 AM on February 9, 2017
Which? I don't think I posted a number in this thread...
posted by Existential Dread at 10:23 AM on February 9, 2017
AVClub: Barack Obamaâs gnarly vacation continues as he becomes a video game character
Am predicting that Trump will find out about this, and somehow be seething and jealous.
Ok, I have to confess I have not been happy with the pictures of beaming Obama on vacation (no matter how much he deserves it) while the country slowly burns, but the idea that it might make Trump jealous just cheered me up a little.
posted by maggiemaggie at 10:26 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
Am predicting that Trump will find out about this, and somehow be seething and jealous.
Ok, I have to confess I have not been happy with the pictures of beaming Obama on vacation (no matter how much he deserves it) while the country slowly burns, but the idea that it might make Trump jealous just cheered me up a little.
posted by maggiemaggie at 10:26 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
Where is the thoughtful Dem plan on opiate overdose problem for example. Seems like an easy one.
One could probably do worse than Hillary Clintonâs Initiative to Combat Americaâs Deadly Epidemic of Drug and Alcohol Addiction
News coverage at the time: "On opioid epidemic, Clinton offers more specifics than Trump"
The Clinton campaign was almost absurdly well-prepared in terms of plans and policies.
posted by jedicus at 10:27 AM on February 9, 2017 [59 favorites]
One could probably do worse than Hillary Clintonâs Initiative to Combat Americaâs Deadly Epidemic of Drug and Alcohol Addiction
News coverage at the time: "On opioid epidemic, Clinton offers more specifics than Trump"
The Clinton campaign was almost absurdly well-prepared in terms of plans and policies.
posted by jedicus at 10:27 AM on February 9, 2017 [59 favorites]
Where is the thoughtful Dem plan on opiate overdose problem for example.
The HRC plan is pretty thorough.
There are plans being implemented on a local level through partnerships with government, police/sheriff depts, big health providers and addiction services. For instance, DAs offering bail with rehab and the possibility of having charges dismissed. Hard to fit into a tweet, though. And hugely reliant upon local buy-in: if one elected office sees more value in "tough on crime" than "treat it as a public health crisis" then it's hard to sustain.
posted by holgate at 10:29 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
The HRC plan is pretty thorough.
There are plans being implemented on a local level through partnerships with government, police/sheriff depts, big health providers and addiction services. For instance, DAs offering bail with rehab and the possibility of having charges dismissed. Hard to fit into a tweet, though. And hugely reliant upon local buy-in: if one elected office sees more value in "tough on crime" than "treat it as a public health crisis" then it's hard to sustain.
posted by holgate at 10:29 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
This thread is close to maxing out the Metafilter server again. Anyone going to start a new one?
posted by Coventry at 10:30 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Coventry at 10:30 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
It's Spicey time. Want to bet he won't have a good explanation for why the President is calling Gorsuch's spokesman a liar?
posted by zachlipton at 10:32 AM on February 9, 2017
posted by zachlipton at 10:32 AM on February 9, 2017
I can make a new thread for after the presser.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:33 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:33 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
I have not been happy with the pictures of beaming Obama on vacation (no matter how much he deserves it) while the country slowly burns
Although, as I'm sure many have pointed out, there is literally nothing he can practically do at the moment other than make things worse (can you imagine what would happen if he "interfered"?), so he might as well have fun for a bit. He's probably very tired.
posted by Grangousier at 10:34 AM on February 9, 2017 [19 favorites]
Although, as I'm sure many have pointed out, there is literally nothing he can practically do at the moment other than make things worse (can you imagine what would happen if he "interfered"?), so he might as well have fun for a bit. He's probably very tired.
posted by Grangousier at 10:34 AM on February 9, 2017 [19 favorites]
> The person handling my complaints has been patient and empathetic, which is great. And yet, Fox kept being on the TVs
Perfect opportunity to make use of a TV-B-Gone.
posted by christopherious at 10:35 AM on February 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
Perfect opportunity to make use of a TV-B-Gone.
posted by christopherious at 10:35 AM on February 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
And Goldberg wrapped up with a really good observation: "there is a problem ... half lies are more persuasive than whole lies, that a partial truth can really mislead people."
After this interview, I'm skeptical of the leaks, I wonder what story the leaker wanted to tell, and why.
Hence my qualified thank you comment ... regardless of motivation. People should be skeptical of leaks, that's just a given. Pros and cons. I would argue that in this current state, the pros for the public side outweighs the cons. It's up to us to speculate on what could be what but even if it is as Goldberg suggests the WH staff trying to speak to Trump, or certain storylines(this is a tactic that ALL admins use so nothing unusual here) a significant amount is happening out in public. This admin is unusual in the sheer amount of leaks and that in itself is significant and telling a story.
posted by Jalliah at 10:35 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
After this interview, I'm skeptical of the leaks, I wonder what story the leaker wanted to tell, and why.
Hence my qualified thank you comment ... regardless of motivation. People should be skeptical of leaks, that's just a given. Pros and cons. I would argue that in this current state, the pros for the public side outweighs the cons. It's up to us to speculate on what could be what but even if it is as Goldberg suggests the WH staff trying to speak to Trump, or certain storylines(this is a tactic that ALL admins use so nothing unusual here) a significant amount is happening out in public. This admin is unusual in the sheer amount of leaks and that in itself is significant and telling a story.
posted by Jalliah at 10:35 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Thanks, roomthreeseventeen.
posted by Coventry at 10:35 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Coventry at 10:35 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Things that are already illegal, so this must be what - Double Secret Probation
I feel like you guys just aren't thinking evil enough. Off the top of my head, Bannon could well direct that felony crimes which are often pled down shall not have pleas offered if associated with X gang members, or has a gang associate. You know, the ones that affect voting.
posted by corb at 10:38 AM on February 9, 2017 [13 favorites]
I feel like you guys just aren't thinking evil enough. Off the top of my head, Bannon could well direct that felony crimes which are often pled down shall not have pleas offered if associated with X gang members, or has a gang associate. You know, the ones that affect voting.
posted by corb at 10:38 AM on February 9, 2017 [13 favorites]
Just to clarify, my snark about airports above wasn't just that presidents get things named after them. It's that Reagan famously busted the air traffic controllers from being able to organize for better wages and working conditions. Renaming DCA for him was one of the pet diversions of Republicans in the Gingrich congress, and for a lot of people it felt like spitting in the eye of air traffic controllers and other working people.
They also forced WMATA to redivert some significant amount of money to reprinting every map of the Metro system so that Saint Reagan's name would be on it, even though WMATA had just finished updating their system maps at significant expense. (And of course as we know, the DC Metro is in constant need of repairs and upgrades, and badly needed the money for that purpose.) When train operators kept announcing the station as "National Airport" (initially mostly out of habit, I suspect), Republican congress members complained until WMATA formally required them to use the new name. Even then, I remember one or two operators who for a long time made a big point of announcing "The next stop is National Airport. National Airport. Doors opening left side." A small, but much appreciated, act of defiance, which made my commute just a little brighter.
For DC area natives, DCA is and will forever be "National Airport."
posted by biogeo at 10:40 AM on February 9, 2017 [26 favorites]
They also forced WMATA to redivert some significant amount of money to reprinting every map of the Metro system so that Saint Reagan's name would be on it, even though WMATA had just finished updating their system maps at significant expense. (And of course as we know, the DC Metro is in constant need of repairs and upgrades, and badly needed the money for that purpose.) When train operators kept announcing the station as "National Airport" (initially mostly out of habit, I suspect), Republican congress members complained until WMATA formally required them to use the new name. Even then, I remember one or two operators who for a long time made a big point of announcing "The next stop is National Airport. National Airport. Doors opening left side." A small, but much appreciated, act of defiance, which made my commute just a little brighter.
For DC area natives, DCA is and will forever be "National Airport."
posted by biogeo at 10:40 AM on February 9, 2017 [26 favorites]
Do we have to go through the "HRC didn't have a progressive platform" thing again? Because if we do I'm gonna need to go find some tables to flip.
posted by lydhre at 10:45 AM on February 9, 2017 [24 favorites]
posted by lydhre at 10:45 AM on February 9, 2017 [24 favorites]
For DC area natives, DCA is and will forever be "National Airport."
A friend "checked in" on Facebook when he arrived at DCA. His location tag said "Ruth Bader Ginsburg Teleportation Station.".
posted by Surely This at 10:48 AM on February 9, 2017 [44 favorites]
A friend "checked in" on Facebook when he arrived at DCA. His location tag said "Ruth Bader Ginsburg Teleportation Station.".
posted by Surely This at 10:48 AM on February 9, 2017 [44 favorites]
Interview with Adam Curtis about his movie Hypernormalization. Actual interview starts at 7m30s.
Soundcloud commenters have usefully provided a transcript (see MCBagong et.al.) of Curtis' sobering answer to the last question:
QUESTION: How would we know if we were beginning to imagine a different world? Even within this hyper-real one?
ADAM CURTIS: You ask what real change might look like, and I think thatâs a really interesting question for liberals and radicals, because there is a hunger for change, out there - millions of people who feel sort of insecure, uncertain about the future who DO want something to change. I think that change only comes though a big imaginative idea. A sort of picture of another kind of future which gives people - which connects with that fearfulness in the back of peopleâs minds. And offers them a release from it. That's the key thing. But I think the question for liberals and radicals is - they are always suspicious of big ideas. That's what lurks underneath the liberal mindset. And the reason is - and they are quite right in a way - is look what happened last time when millions of people got swept up in a big idea! Look up the last hundred years - what happened in Russia, and then in Germany.
The point is that political change is frightening. It's scary â it's thrilling because it is dynamic and is doing something to change the world but it is scary because it can change things in ways where nothing to secure. Its like being in an earthquake. Even the solid ground beneath you begins to move. And things dissolve that you think are solid and real. And I think the question liberals are left have to face at the moment is a really sort of difficult question which is: Do you really want change? Do you really want it? Because if you do, many of them might find themselves in a very uncertain world where they might lose all sorts of things.
What we were talking about, in many cases, is people who are at the center of society at the moment, they are not out in the margins. They would have a lot to lose from real political change because it really would change things in the structure of power. Or - and this is the brutal question: Do you just want things to change a little bit? Do you just want the banks to be a little bit nicer, or for people to be a little more respectful of each other's identities - All of which is good - but basically you carry on living in a nice world where you tinker with it. Thatâs the key question. But you can't just sit there forever worrying about big ideas because there are millions of people out there who do you want change. And the key thing is: they feel theyâve got nothing to lose. You might have lots to lose, but they feel theyâve got absolute nothing to lose. But at the moment they're being led by the Right. So things won't remain the same. But society may go off in ways you really donât want.
So in answer to your question, what you need is a powerful vision of the future. With all its dangers. But it is also quite thrilling. It will be an escape from the staticness of the world we have today. And to do that, youâve got to engage with the giant forces of power that now run the world, at the moment. And the key thing is that in confronting those powers, and trying to transform the world you might lose a lot. This is a sort of forgotten idea. Its that actually you surrender yourself up to a big idea and in the the process you might lose something, but youâd actually gain in a bigger sense, because you change the world for the better. I know it sounds soppy, but this is the forgotten thing about politics. Its that you give up some of your individualism to something bigger than yourself. You surrender yourself - and itâs a lost idea.
And I think really in answer to your question: You can spot real change happening when you see people from the liberal middle classes, beginning to give themselves up to something. Surrender themselves for something bigger. And at the moment, there is nothing like that in the liberal imagination.
posted by progosk at 10:49 AM on February 9, 2017 [28 favorites]
Soundcloud commenters have usefully provided a transcript (see MCBagong et.al.) of Curtis' sobering answer to the last question:
QUESTION: How would we know if we were beginning to imagine a different world? Even within this hyper-real one?
ADAM CURTIS: You ask what real change might look like, and I think thatâs a really interesting question for liberals and radicals, because there is a hunger for change, out there - millions of people who feel sort of insecure, uncertain about the future who DO want something to change. I think that change only comes though a big imaginative idea. A sort of picture of another kind of future which gives people - which connects with that fearfulness in the back of peopleâs minds. And offers them a release from it. That's the key thing. But I think the question for liberals and radicals is - they are always suspicious of big ideas. That's what lurks underneath the liberal mindset. And the reason is - and they are quite right in a way - is look what happened last time when millions of people got swept up in a big idea! Look up the last hundred years - what happened in Russia, and then in Germany.
The point is that political change is frightening. It's scary â it's thrilling because it is dynamic and is doing something to change the world but it is scary because it can change things in ways where nothing to secure. Its like being in an earthquake. Even the solid ground beneath you begins to move. And things dissolve that you think are solid and real. And I think the question liberals are left have to face at the moment is a really sort of difficult question which is: Do you really want change? Do you really want it? Because if you do, many of them might find themselves in a very uncertain world where they might lose all sorts of things.
What we were talking about, in many cases, is people who are at the center of society at the moment, they are not out in the margins. They would have a lot to lose from real political change because it really would change things in the structure of power. Or - and this is the brutal question: Do you just want things to change a little bit? Do you just want the banks to be a little bit nicer, or for people to be a little more respectful of each other's identities - All of which is good - but basically you carry on living in a nice world where you tinker with it. Thatâs the key question. But you can't just sit there forever worrying about big ideas because there are millions of people out there who do you want change. And the key thing is: they feel theyâve got nothing to lose. You might have lots to lose, but they feel theyâve got absolute nothing to lose. But at the moment they're being led by the Right. So things won't remain the same. But society may go off in ways you really donât want.
So in answer to your question, what you need is a powerful vision of the future. With all its dangers. But it is also quite thrilling. It will be an escape from the staticness of the world we have today. And to do that, youâve got to engage with the giant forces of power that now run the world, at the moment. And the key thing is that in confronting those powers, and trying to transform the world you might lose a lot. This is a sort of forgotten idea. Its that actually you surrender yourself up to a big idea and in the the process you might lose something, but youâd actually gain in a bigger sense, because you change the world for the better. I know it sounds soppy, but this is the forgotten thing about politics. Its that you give up some of your individualism to something bigger than yourself. You surrender yourself - and itâs a lost idea.
And I think really in answer to your question: You can spot real change happening when you see people from the liberal middle classes, beginning to give themselves up to something. Surrender themselves for something bigger. And at the moment, there is nothing like that in the liberal imagination.
posted by progosk at 10:49 AM on February 9, 2017 [28 favorites]
A friend "checked in" on Facebook when he arrived at DCA. His location tag said "Ruth Bader Ginsburg Teleportation Station.".
This is also acceptable.
posted by biogeo at 10:51 AM on February 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
This is also acceptable.
posted by biogeo at 10:51 AM on February 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
corb: I feel like you guys just aren't thinking evil enough.This went right over my head... could you explain in more detail?
posted by ragtag at 10:52 AM on February 9, 2017
Spicey is quite late, but we're in the 1 minute warning phase. Video stream.
posted by zachlipton at 10:53 AM on February 9, 2017
posted by zachlipton at 10:53 AM on February 9, 2017
While waiting for the Scary Spicer show, I called Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson's office to urge him to vote against approving Trump's nominee for Labor Secretary, CKE Restaurants CEO Andy Puzder. This one was fun because it's so easy to present objections using GOP talking points, e.g., how appointing someone who's flouted the labor laws and employed an undocumented housekeeper is a slap in the face to everyone associated with law-abiding companies, especially Wisconsin's small business owners like me who work hard to ensure that they comply with federal regulations whether we agree with them or not (all true). How are hardworking people like me who are trying to create jobs expected to square Sen. Johnson's purported support for us and frequent expressions of belief in the rule of law with this outrage? etc. etc. I mustered high dudgeon: very satisfying.
In general, it's fun to frame the votes I want using GOP talking points.
posted by carmicha at 10:56 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
In general, it's fun to frame the votes I want using GOP talking points.
posted by carmicha at 10:56 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
Is that 1 minute before they announce the 10 minute delay?
posted by TwoWordReview at 10:56 AM on February 9, 2017
posted by TwoWordReview at 10:56 AM on February 9, 2017
No, it started a bit ago.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:57 AM on February 9, 2017
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:57 AM on February 9, 2017
he's on, giving rough description of new law and order EOs. Baffling stuff, since all of the things mentioned were already crimes.
posted by dis_integration at 10:57 AM on February 9, 2017
posted by dis_integration at 10:57 AM on February 9, 2017
He's saying bad policework happens because of law enforcement being so demoralized by the Obama administration's lack of support. It's the Obama's administration's fault we hit you, baby.
posted by rewil at 10:59 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by rewil at 10:59 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
Roughly typed notes from Spicy's comments on Executive orders:
1) Directs newly installed AG to develop a strategy to better protect those in law enforcement â law enforcement officials have been vocal about the lack of support under the previous administration â imperative that agencies better share information â order will start important holistic work to promote sharing of information.
2) Task force led by new AG to reduce crime and restore public safety â specific recommendations â how to change existing law to improve public safety â develop better strategies with state and local law enforcement
3) Re-focuses energy and resources to dismantle trans-national groups such as cartels. Through this order the president instructs the AG to form a comprehensive and decisive approach towards disbanding of drug cartels. Order pulls together resources and experience of specific agencies (upgrade information gathering â without accurate information about threats, we wonât be able to tackle this problem) â prior to this administration, if you called DoJ for these stats, they never kept them.
posted by meowf at 10:59 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
1) Directs newly installed AG to develop a strategy to better protect those in law enforcement â law enforcement officials have been vocal about the lack of support under the previous administration â imperative that agencies better share information â order will start important holistic work to promote sharing of information.
2) Task force led by new AG to reduce crime and restore public safety â specific recommendations â how to change existing law to improve public safety â develop better strategies with state and local law enforcement
3) Re-focuses energy and resources to dismantle trans-national groups such as cartels. Through this order the president instructs the AG to form a comprehensive and decisive approach towards disbanding of drug cartels. Order pulls together resources and experience of specific agencies (upgrade information gathering â without accurate information about threats, we wonât be able to tackle this problem) â prior to this administration, if you called DoJ for these stats, they never kept them.
posted by meowf at 10:59 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
This went right over my head... could you explain in more detail?
Not to speak for corb, but there are some who would like to promote the idea that #BLM is - to put it mildly - a gang.
posted by klarck at 11:00 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Not to speak for corb, but there are some who would like to promote the idea that #BLM is - to put it mildly - a gang.
posted by klarck at 11:00 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
"Depending on how badly Trump pisses the bed, we may one day have a supercarrier USS Donald J. Trump."
You think that's bad? There could be a Donald J Trump Presidential Library one day. My brain started having malfunctions while typing this...
posted by Hairy Lobster at 11:00 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
You think that's bad? There could be a Donald J Trump Presidential Library one day. My brain started having malfunctions while typing this...
posted by Hairy Lobster at 11:00 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Not to speak for corb, but there are some who would like to promote the idea the #BLM is - to put it mildly - a gang.
ohhhhhh...
Fucks sake.
posted by Artw at 11:01 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
ohhhhhh...
Fucks sake.
posted by Artw at 11:01 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
Spicer's EO bullets also included this: "...removing aliens, cartel members and people who helped cartels" (paraphrase, don't have a transcript yet).
posted by christopherious at 11:01 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by christopherious at 11:01 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Great, now he's going to get an airport renamed for him in ten years.
I'm surprised he hasn't issued an EO to add his majestic likeness to Mt. Rushmore yet. Whole lot of new prisoners coming up very soon to work the fields and work the infrastructure.
posted by juiceCake at 11:02 AM on February 9, 2017
I'm surprised he hasn't issued an EO to add his majestic likeness to Mt. Rushmore yet. Whole lot of new prisoners coming up very soon to work the fields and work the infrastructure.
posted by juiceCake at 11:02 AM on February 9, 2017
First question is about how "bureaucrats" at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau make too much money and whether Trump will slap them down. This is off to a great start.
posted by zachlipton at 11:03 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by zachlipton at 11:03 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Can I just say how depressing it is to get to the end of this thread, only to be presented with a "Newer" link that says "oh no"
posted by Westringia F. at 11:04 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by Westringia F. at 11:04 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
Thanks christopherious, I didn't catch everything Spicy said but tried to get 'les grandes lignes' for those who could not watch.
And OOPS: Reporter question: "Questions raised after KellyAnn where she appeared to promote Ivankaâs products. Do you believe that she crossed an ethical line?" âKellyann has been counselled and thatâs all weâre going to sayâ Uh ohhh..
posted by meowf at 11:05 AM on February 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
And OOPS: Reporter question: "Questions raised after KellyAnn where she appeared to promote Ivankaâs products. Do you believe that she crossed an ethical line?" âKellyann has been counselled and thatâs all weâre going to sayâ Uh ohhh..
posted by meowf at 11:05 AM on February 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
Re Conway hawking Ivanka's products: "Kellyanne has been counseled and that's all we're going to go with. She's been counseled on that subject and that's it."
Re Putin and New START, Spicer says it was a private call and he has nothing further to say beyond the readout.
posted by zachlipton at 11:05 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Re Putin and New START, Spicer says it was a private call and he has nothing further to say beyond the readout.
posted by zachlipton at 11:05 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Spicey seems to be trying a new "no comment" strategy for tough-ish questions. He has little to say and little to add and would like to move on now, please.
posted by prefpara at 11:06 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by prefpara at 11:06 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Oh shit. Kellyanne has been counseled and that's all we're gonna say, re "buy Ivanka's shit." Man they know how to throw a loyal flack under the bus.
posted by dis_integration at 11:06 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by dis_integration at 11:06 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
"The Democratic Party is being pushed really hard by the most extreme voices in their community, and they just don't know how to handle it," [Senator Graham] added. "If they empower her, then I think the Democratic Party is gonna lose way with the vast majority of the American people."
That would be the vast majority that voted for Clinton.
posted by Gelatin at 11:09 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
That would be the vast majority that voted for Clinton.
posted by Gelatin at 11:09 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
Maybe shes just been "counseled" on how to sell more effectively. She could have gotten tips on specific products to highlight, key brand phrases and slogans, retailers to suggest, products for her to wear herself on TV, etc... If she's going to be pitching the boss's daughter's stuff, she should be the best at it.
posted by zachlipton at 11:09 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 11:09 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
Sarah Kendzior in The Baffler: It's Already Happened Here
Starts with something Lincoln wrote in 1855:
Starts with something Lincoln wrote in 1855:
âOur progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid,â he wrote to his friend Joshua Speed, describing the rise of the bigoted, anti-immigrant Know-Nothing party. âAs a nation, we begin by declaring that âall men are created equal.â We now practically read it âall men are created equal, except negroes.â When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read âall men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.â When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving libertyâto Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.âposted by kingless at 11:10 AM on February 9, 2017 [52 favorites]
Trump has "no regrets" about his comments about federal judges.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:12 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:12 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
no ragrets
posted by Fleebnork at 11:16 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Fleebnork at 11:16 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
Spicer: Trump's criticism of judges are a tradition dating back to Thomas Jefferson
posted by theodolite at 11:16 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by theodolite at 11:16 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Not necessarily. Where's the Nixon Airport?
I was thinking, I don't think Nixon will ever get an airport named after him (who's building airports, anymore?) but maybe some kind of freeway? But it would have to be the most evil freeway ever. Like, it would have to be approved with no notice in the dead of night and evict a ton of people from their land or something.
And then it hit me: DAPL. We could rename it the Dick Nixon Memorial Pipeline.
posted by indubitable at 11:16 AM on February 9, 2017 [14 favorites]
I was thinking, I don't think Nixon will ever get an airport named after him (who's building airports, anymore?) but maybe some kind of freeway? But it would have to be the most evil freeway ever. Like, it would have to be approved with no notice in the dead of night and evict a ton of people from their land or something.
And then it hit me: DAPL. We could rename it the Dick Nixon Memorial Pipeline.
posted by indubitable at 11:16 AM on February 9, 2017 [14 favorites]
A friend "checked in" on Facebook when he arrived at DCA. His location tag said "Ruth Bader Ginsburg Teleportation Station.".
Please, please, can we make this A Thing.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 11:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
Please, please, can we make this A Thing.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 11:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
After a relatively calm wednesday briefing, Spicy is muy picante today.
posted by dis_integration at 11:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by dis_integration at 11:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
And if the way we do the internet reliably seems to produce epistemic fragmentation, the erosion of a belief in any shared empirical reality, and directed swarms of sociopathy aimed at the vulnerable, then boy howdy do we need to accept that that is its purpose, and redesign the fucker until it no longer functions in that way.
To go back to the rural access to the internet, first of all understand that it's still a pretty limited access. Definitely not all of my neighbors have internet. Many of them are still on dial-up, because the only alternative is satellite, and that's expensive, as demonstrated. And even then, I'd say that most of them only really got onto the internet in the last few years, maybe ten years.
Only in very recent years would they have internet access via their phones also. So you have people who have probably be primarily getting their news from radio and Fox News. In homogeneous communities where people are too polite to talk politics. And then suddenly they have the internet. And there are all these people who disagree with them. And facts that don't conform to what they have heard from Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. So what do they do? A lot of them dig in and argue on facebook with their younger relatives. Some go looking for "their people" and "the truth" and end up at Breitbart.
I think you have to deal with the fact that for a lot of people in rural areas, it might as well be the 90s in terms of learning how to navigate and process the internet. I'm 37 and I've been online since I was 12. It has certainly shaped me. But for poor people in rural areas, they really are only now getting comfortable with being online at all. Probably most of them use the internet in very specific and limited ways. It's still not a reliable way to find local information for me. When I moved out here, nothing local had webpages. I had to remember how to use the phone book. Still if I need a repairman, I go to the yellow pages, and not the internet. Or better yet ask someone.
So I don't know. I think we do need to be educating people that the internet is not always reliable, that there are people out there looking to take advantage of you, that you have to always evaluate your source. We forget how long it probably took for all of us to learn those lessons back in the days of email forwards and early chat rooms.
posted by threeturtles at 11:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
To go back to the rural access to the internet, first of all understand that it's still a pretty limited access. Definitely not all of my neighbors have internet. Many of them are still on dial-up, because the only alternative is satellite, and that's expensive, as demonstrated. And even then, I'd say that most of them only really got onto the internet in the last few years, maybe ten years.
Only in very recent years would they have internet access via their phones also. So you have people who have probably be primarily getting their news from radio and Fox News. In homogeneous communities where people are too polite to talk politics. And then suddenly they have the internet. And there are all these people who disagree with them. And facts that don't conform to what they have heard from Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. So what do they do? A lot of them dig in and argue on facebook with their younger relatives. Some go looking for "their people" and "the truth" and end up at Breitbart.
I think you have to deal with the fact that for a lot of people in rural areas, it might as well be the 90s in terms of learning how to navigate and process the internet. I'm 37 and I've been online since I was 12. It has certainly shaped me. But for poor people in rural areas, they really are only now getting comfortable with being online at all. Probably most of them use the internet in very specific and limited ways. It's still not a reliable way to find local information for me. When I moved out here, nothing local had webpages. I had to remember how to use the phone book. Still if I need a repairman, I go to the yellow pages, and not the internet. Or better yet ask someone.
So I don't know. I think we do need to be educating people that the internet is not always reliable, that there are people out there looking to take advantage of you, that you have to always evaluate your source. We forget how long it probably took for all of us to learn those lessons back in the days of email forwards and early chat rooms.
posted by threeturtles at 11:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
Someone just handed Spicer a note. LOL
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Spicer just said from podium that he expects the WH will release a tax plan in the next few weeks. I checked w Rs, who know nothing of this.
Spicer says that one branch commenting on another branch goes back to Jefferson, says there's a double standard over "so-called judge" because Obama commented on the judiciary too. He's splitting hairs to argue that Trump wasn't lying about Blumenthal. This is not a winning argument.
posted by zachlipton at 11:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
Spicer says that one branch commenting on another branch goes back to Jefferson, says there's a double standard over "so-called judge" because Obama commented on the judiciary too. He's splitting hairs to argue that Trump wasn't lying about Blumenthal. This is not a winning argument.
posted by zachlipton at 11:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
Oh Spicer's really getting the treatment over the judge comments.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:18 AM on February 9, 2017
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:18 AM on February 9, 2017
I just saw the "multiple slow blinks in disbelief" from one of the reporters to Spicy's flailings about Trump's criticisms of judges. It was kind of awesome.
posted by meowf at 11:18 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by meowf at 11:18 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
Re the tax plan: Yeah, that's not happening. All tax law industry publications/newsletters with sources on the hill say it's not happening because congress/WH can't agree on any of it.
Also: the press is doing great today
posted by melissasaurus at 11:19 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
Also: the press is doing great today
posted by melissasaurus at 11:19 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
On the things named after Nixon front, my elementary school was named after him.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 11:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by ArgentCorvid at 11:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
EXTRA SPICY SEAN
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 11:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 11:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
Congratulations to the WH press corps for getting Spicer to ask, "What are youâŠ." Holy shit.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:20 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
I think one of spicer's hemorrhoids might be about to explode
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:21 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:21 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Who is the bearded reporter griefing Spicy?
posted by futz at 11:21 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by futz at 11:21 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm getting stressed out here just watching this madness in the press room. Imagine 4 years of this (please save us from 4 years of this). Everyone in that room is ageing in dog years from the combative, abusive environment.
posted by dis_integration at 11:21 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by dis_integration at 11:21 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
Everyone in that room is ageing in dog years from the combative, abusive environment.
That or they'll emerge hardened warriors like the Fremen from Salusa Secundus
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:23 AM on February 9, 2017 [34 favorites]
That or they'll emerge hardened warriors like the Fremen from Salusa Secundus
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:23 AM on February 9, 2017 [34 favorites]
prolonged exposure to Spicer turns the eyes of the press corps a startling solid blue
posted by theodolite at 11:24 AM on February 9, 2017 [34 favorites]
posted by theodolite at 11:24 AM on February 9, 2017 [34 favorites]
The Spicer must flow.
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:26 AM on February 9, 2017 [22 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:26 AM on February 9, 2017 [22 favorites]
now I'm realizing that Trump will have to merge with sandtrout to truly become God Emperor
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:26 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:26 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
What's not going to go over well is that Spicer implied that his words at briefings are far more significant that what Trump does or doesn't tweet about. I don't think the President is going to appreciate that.
posted by zachlipton at 11:26 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 11:26 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Congratulations to the WH press corps for getting Spicer to ask, "What are youâŠ." Holy shit.
Sorry, I'm dense this morning, but can you explain? It sounds juicy but I don't get it.
posted by Room 641-A at 11:27 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Sorry, I'm dense this morning, but can you explain? It sounds juicy but I don't get it.
posted by Room 641-A at 11:27 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
guys please don't do this to my beloved Herbert, please, please, I beseech you
posted by cortex at 11:31 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by cortex at 11:31 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
The briefing ended with Spicer coming back out to explain that Prime Minister Abe would be Trump's guest at Mar-a-Lago (i.e. Trump is paying for it), while the rest of the Japanese delegation will stay elsewhere. I wonder if this poses any problems with Japanese political ethics laws.
posted by zachlipton at 11:33 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 11:33 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
The briefing ended with Spicer coming back out to explain that Prime Minister Abe would be Trump's guest at Mar-a-Lago (i.e. Trump is paying for it), while the rest of the Japanese delegation will stay elsewhere. I wonder if this poses any problems with Japanese political ethics laws.
Every diplomatic mission to the USA comes with a free Mar-A-Lago 1 year membership (a $200,000 value!).
Call now!
posted by dis_integration at 11:40 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
Every diplomatic mission to the USA comes with a free Mar-A-Lago 1 year membership (a $200,000 value!).
Call now!
posted by dis_integration at 11:40 AM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
I feel like you guys just aren't thinking evil enough. Off the top of my head, Bannon could well direct that felony crimes which are often pled down shall not have pleas offered if associated with X gang members, or has a gang associate. You know, the ones that affect voting.
Wow. So, in addition to doing even more unconscionable harm to communities of color, this would have a substantial chance of breaking criminal court systems all over the country: It would generate many, many more trials. I imagine that under this regime, prosecutors would more funding (though woo-hoo if it's another unfunded mandate), but I have to wonder if the actual court systems would, and I seriously doubt that the indigent defense system would, and certainly not at a commensurate level. The indigent defense system, by the way, is already cut to the bone nationwide.
And then, of course, we'd get more sentences of longer duration, which means worse prison conditions, fewer rehabilitative programs, more recidivism, and, of course, more private prisons, and more prisonlabor slavery.
Plus, choking up the criminal court system with chippy little cases meant primarily to disenfranchise POC would mean that the handling of all cases would grind to a crawl. So guess what would (continue to) happen to all those backed-up rape kits?
Of course, none of these outcomes are at all undesirable to The Toddler In Chief, or to his collaborators and hangers-on.
OMFG, FUCK THESE PEOPLE.
On the plus side, this may help get more of the Juggalos, who are already planning to march on Washington, out into the streets with the rest of us.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 11:48 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Wow. So, in addition to doing even more unconscionable harm to communities of color, this would have a substantial chance of breaking criminal court systems all over the country: It would generate many, many more trials. I imagine that under this regime, prosecutors would more funding (though woo-hoo if it's another unfunded mandate), but I have to wonder if the actual court systems would, and I seriously doubt that the indigent defense system would, and certainly not at a commensurate level. The indigent defense system, by the way, is already cut to the bone nationwide.
And then, of course, we'd get more sentences of longer duration, which means worse prison conditions, fewer rehabilitative programs, more recidivism, and, of course, more private prisons, and more prison
Plus, choking up the criminal court system with chippy little cases meant primarily to disenfranchise POC would mean that the handling of all cases would grind to a crawl. So guess what would (continue to) happen to all those backed-up rape kits?
Of course, none of these outcomes are at all undesirable to The Toddler In Chief, or to his collaborators and hangers-on.
OMFG, FUCK THESE PEOPLE.
On the plus side, this may help get more of the Juggalos, who are already planning to march on Washington, out into the streets with the rest of us.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 11:48 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
I just wish it could end up with results instead of DeVos and Sessions being confirmed despite it all. It feels like the definition of 'too little too late.'
We lost those votes and every other vote for the next two years on Election Day, 2016.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:55 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
We lost those votes and every other vote for the next two years on Election Day, 2016.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:55 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
I was thinking, I don't think Nixon will ever get an airport named after him (who's building airports, anymore?) but maybe some kind of freeway? But it would have to be the most evil freeway ever. Like, it would have to be approved with no notice in the dead of night and evict a ton of people from their land or something.
I hate to break it to you, but that's how infrastructure projects usually work. For example, Dulles International Airport was built on top of a mostly African American community called Willard whose land was condemned by the federal government without public hearing or oversight.
posted by peeedro at 11:58 AM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]
I hate to break it to you, but that's how infrastructure projects usually work. For example, Dulles International Airport was built on top of a mostly African American community called Willard whose land was condemned by the federal government without public hearing or oversight.
posted by peeedro at 11:58 AM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]
"The Democratic Party is being pushed really hard by the most extreme voices in their community, and they just don't know how to handle it," [Senator Graham] added. "If they empower her, then I think the Democratic Party is gonna lose way with the vast majority of the American people."
Notice that in 2017 he still can't conceive of a woman achieving power for herself and has to view it as her party empowering her.
posted by srboisvert at 12:00 PM on February 9, 2017 [18 favorites]
Notice that in 2017 he still can't conceive of a woman achieving power for herself and has to view it as her party empowering her.
posted by srboisvert at 12:00 PM on February 9, 2017 [18 favorites]
That's a good point - couldn't the government (NYC if not Federal) Eminent Domain the floors on Trump Tower we now need to dedicate to Trump's protection people? Why should we be footing that bill if we can just re-acquisition the space?
He's already well in default on having parts of TT open to the public, which was a prerequisite for his deal to build more floors in the first place.
posted by Mchelly at 12:02 PM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
He's already well in default on having parts of TT open to the public, which was a prerequisite for his deal to build more floors in the first place.
posted by Mchelly at 12:02 PM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
Cruz: Democrats are 'the party of the Ku Klux Klan' Ted Cruz on Wednesday called Democrats "the party of the Ku Klux Klan," slamming senators in the minority as "foaming at the mouth" for stalling confirmation of President Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees.
What is he trying to do? Split the republican base?
posted by srboisvert at 12:07 PM on February 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
I think we do need to be educating people that the internet is not always reliable, that there are people out there looking to take advantage of you, that you have to always evaluate your source.
Absolutely. More power to jessamyn and the librarians.
posted by holgate at 12:13 PM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Absolutely. More power to jessamyn and the librarians.
posted by holgate at 12:13 PM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Jessamyn and the Librarians.
posted by kingless at 12:17 PM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by kingless at 12:17 PM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]
Congratulations to the WH press corps for getting Spicer to ask, "What are youâŠ." Holy shit.
Sorry, I'm dense this morning, but can you explain? It sounds juicy but I don't get it.
He bit off a remark that could only be some kind of completely ad hominem insult:
"What are you, some kind of...."
"What are you, a........"
It's the English equivalent as getting as far as 'ĂȘtes une spes d'un ..' and then stopping.
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:27 PM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
Sorry, I'm dense this morning, but can you explain? It sounds juicy but I don't get it.
He bit off a remark that could only be some kind of completely ad hominem insult:
"What are you, some kind of...."
"What are you, a........"
It's the English equivalent as getting as far as 'ĂȘtes une spes d'un ..' and then stopping.
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:27 PM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
I think one of spicer's hemorrhoids might be about to explode
i hope it's the one that houses his brain
posted by poffin boffin at 12:30 PM on February 9, 2017 [23 favorites]
i hope it's the one that houses his brain
posted by poffin boffin at 12:30 PM on February 9, 2017 [23 favorites]
He bit off a remark that could only be some kind of completely ad hominem insult:
"What are you, some kind of...."
"What are you, a........"
I would bet my fucking house that it was a derogatory term for a gay person.
posted by Etrigan at 12:50 PM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
"What are you, some kind of...."
"What are you, a........"
I would bet my fucking house that it was a derogatory term for a gay person.
posted by Etrigan at 12:50 PM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
Rust, I've noticed similar things - the actual deplorables are fewer and farther between than I'd have thought.
That is because the election system due to the way it is run acts as a binary system. Choose one or the other.
The way out long term is to change that system.
posted by rough ashlar at 12:50 PM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
That is because the election system due to the way it is run acts as a binary system. Choose one or the other.
The way out long term is to change that system.
posted by rough ashlar at 12:50 PM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
Air traffic controlling.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLING.
Hey, Dad, I can't see real good.. ..is that Bill Shakespeare ol' zombie Reagan over there?
Nah, whole different kinda thing. Reagan's actions were 110% ideological; anti-union in general (the fucking shitbag SAG hypocrite) and anti-government worker union in particular.
Trump is just putting the signal out that he's open to shitcanning the entire new system and spinning up a different replacement. Hey there Orbital. Sounds like something you'd want? You, Northrop-Grumman? Maybe a good time to start looking into the unofficial channels for dropping some bucks in the Trump till if you want to get a bite at this apple.
posted by phearlez at 1:34 PM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLING.
Hey, Dad, I can't see real good.. ..is that Bill Shakespeare ol' zombie Reagan over there?
Nah, whole different kinda thing. Reagan's actions were 110% ideological; anti-union in general (the fucking shitbag SAG hypocrite) and anti-government worker union in particular.
Trump is just putting the signal out that he's open to shitcanning the entire new system and spinning up a different replacement. Hey there Orbital. Sounds like something you'd want? You, Northrop-Grumman? Maybe a good time to start looking into the unofficial channels for dropping some bucks in the Trump till if you want to get a bite at this apple.
posted by phearlez at 1:34 PM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
futz: Who is the bearded reporter griefing Spicy?
Jared Rizzi, SiriusXM
On Twitter @JaredRizzi
posted by slipthought at 1:57 PM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Jared Rizzi, SiriusXM
On Twitter @JaredRizzi
posted by slipthought at 1:57 PM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Reuters: In call with Putin, Trump denounced Obama-era nuclear arms treaty - sources
Damn, this is some next-level puppeteering by Putin. How deep does the rabbit hole go? Grab a flask of whiskey and join me at my 422-post twitter thread. See you on the other side, amigos.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 2:13 PM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Damn, this is some next-level puppeteering by Putin. How deep does the rabbit hole go? Grab a flask of whiskey and join me at my 422-post twitter thread. See you on the other side, amigos.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 2:13 PM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Also since when did judicial ethics mean you couldn't talk politics?
And some Judges are crooked. Is he gonna not want to hear about crooked Judges?
posted by rough ashlar at 3:33 PM on February 9, 2017
And some Judges are crooked. Is he gonna not want to hear about crooked Judges?
posted by rough ashlar at 3:33 PM on February 9, 2017
There could be a Donald J Trump Presidential Library one day.
Which will contain only:
1) a copy of the Playboy magazine he was on the cover of
2) a couple of random copies of the National Enquirer
3) a TV tuned to Fox News.
posted by soundguy99 at 4:54 PM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Which will contain only:
1) a copy of the Playboy magazine he was on the cover of
2) a couple of random copies of the National Enquirer
3) a TV tuned to Fox News.
posted by soundguy99 at 4:54 PM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
His Presidential Library will have all the books he had ghost written... for sale.
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:46 PM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:46 PM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library
posted by Rhaomi at 5:47 PM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Rhaomi at 5:47 PM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'd bet that he just slaps his name on a previous president's library and it looks as sad! as this.
posted by futz at 6:41 PM on February 9, 2017
posted by futz at 6:41 PM on February 9, 2017
A lot of the planning for the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library is already completed.
posted by ckape at 6:48 PM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by ckape at 6:48 PM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
you guys know that the presidential library is not for books that the president likes, it's for things like his memoes and correspondence and notes and diaries
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 7:09 PM on February 9, 2017
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 7:09 PM on February 9, 2017
RV, until now that has been the case :) Trump will probably have a Bookmobile curated with "his" books but all the wrong wrong wrong parts will be sharpied out. Plus, we are having fun. At least I think we are having fun?
posted by futz at 7:15 PM on February 9, 2017
posted by futz at 7:15 PM on February 9, 2017
Yes but they've been going out of their way to avoid leaving a paper trail so it'll have to be padded out with the is now illegal interactive exhibit.
posted by ckape at 7:15 PM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by ckape at 7:15 PM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Three legs to the stool: One is Trump and it's been sawn off. The next is Congress; it's in the process of being sawn off, but the sawyer may run out of time before reason regains. The third is the Judiciary; it's covered in sawdust and holding fast but for how long who knows.
I'm a tad LTTP, but in this case shouldn't Donald be the stool?
posted by Talez at 7:20 PM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
I'm a tad LTTP, but in this case shouldn't Donald be the stool?
posted by Talez at 7:20 PM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Please define stool before I respond. Are we talking furniture or intestinal products?
posted by futz at 7:24 PM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by futz at 7:24 PM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
National security adviser Flynn discussed sanctions with Russian ambassador, despite denials, officials say
posted by Talez at 7:26 PM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
All of those officials said ÂFlynnâs references to the election-related sanctions were explicit. Two of those officials went further, saying that Flynn urged Russia not to overreact to the penalties being imposed by President Barack Obama, making clear that the two sides would be in position to review the matter after Trump was sworn in as president.Uh-oh! Spaghetti-Os!
âKislyak was left with the impression that the sanctions would be revisited at a later time,â said a former official.
A third official put it more bluntly, saying that either Flynn had misled Pence or that Pence misspoke. A spokesman for Pence did not respond to a request for comment. The sanctions in question have so far remained in place.
posted by Talez at 7:26 PM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
I am so fucking sick of misspoke being used for ANYTHING, even actual misspeaking at this point. The correct word is almost always lie/lied. Nobody in this administration misspeaks. It's pants weasels tittering lies to the sock ferrets.
posted by futz at 7:49 PM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by futz at 7:49 PM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]
>Reuters: In call with Putin, Trump denounced Obama-era nuclear arms treaty - sources
Damn, this is some next-level puppeteering by Putin.
I don't think Putin actually wants to spend more of his country's money on nukes when it could be put to better use buying megayaughts and property in London.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:35 PM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
Damn, this is some next-level puppeteering by Putin.
I don't think Putin actually wants to spend more of his country's money on nukes when it could be put to better use buying megayaughts and property in London.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:35 PM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
when it could be put to better use buying megayaughts and property in London.
...and presidencies.
posted by Buntix at 4:25 AM on February 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
...and presidencies.
posted by Buntix at 4:25 AM on February 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
"you guys know that the presidential library is not for books that the president likes, it's for things like his memoes and correspondence and notes and diaries"
I read 'memoes' as 'memes' and thought, "Awesome, a library full of all of those gifs of him drawing cats and such!"
posted by iamkimiam at 5:21 AM on February 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
I read 'memoes' as 'memes' and thought, "Awesome, a library full of all of those gifs of him drawing cats and such!"
posted by iamkimiam at 5:21 AM on February 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
Reports of big ICE raids in Los Angeles, and from Facebook reports/rumors? Of similar in Atlanta and Savanah GA
(I'm on my phone and I'm not sure if the full thread is loading - 1.5 hours since last post? Unbelievable! So apologies if this is a dupe)
posted by pennypiper at 7:06 AM on February 10, 2017
(I'm on my phone and I'm not sure if the full thread is loading - 1.5 hours since last post? Unbelievable! So apologies if this is a dupe)
posted by pennypiper at 7:06 AM on February 10, 2017
My greatest fear is that even if he is impeached or otherwise removed, a war will be started by the GOP. Voters don't tend to changing presidents in wartime, so a war might grant the GOP a slight advantage in 2020.
Scary as shit - especially those of us who have boys who will be draft-able age at that time. America sends the boys to fight and die just to keep the Oompa-Loompa in office.
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 1:18 PM on February 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
Scary as shit - especially those of us who have boys who will be draft-able age at that time. America sends the boys to fight and die just to keep the Oompa-Loompa in office.
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 1:18 PM on February 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
The scarier part is that it's not just the people on "our" side that know that. Before this year, I wouldn't have been surprised if "making it easier to get re-elected" was part of the calculus in evaluating any potential conflict.
Now, I'm more worried about the extent this administration will go to start a war with the primary goal being re-election in 2020.
posted by VTX at 7:52 AM on February 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
Now, I'm more worried about the extent this administration will go to start a war with the primary goal being re-election in 2020.
posted by VTX at 7:52 AM on February 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
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This concludes this moment in "things I feel strange saying." Join us in about a minute or so as we feel deeply uncomfortable hearing the words "president trump."
posted by Ghidorah at 4:34 AM on February 5, 2017 [31 favorites]