It's Constituent Work Week!
February 22, 2017 4:56 PM Subscribe

Resistance Recess has info on townhall meetings across the country. A few notable ones that have already happened:

Iowa: The crowd at Joni Ernst's town hall was not pleased when she abruptly left
Utah: Rep. Jason Chaffetz: People at my town hall 'intended to bully and intimidate' me
Kentucky: Hero lady rips Mitch McConnell a new one over Obamacare repeal
Iowa: Sen. Chuck Grassley, once a tea party target, faces off with the #Resistance
Florida: Ross, Webster face hostile Central Florida crowds at town halls
Tennessee: Rep. Marsha Blackburn Besieged By Boos At Tennessee Town Hall

And then there are the cowardly congresspeople:
Liberals plan 'empty chair' town hall for Rubio
Is Jeff Flake avoiding town hall meetings?
Few in Minnesota's congressional delegation hold in-person town halls [Erik Paulson, Jason Lewis]

Other news this week:

Trump's first month, in numbers: Golf: 25 hours. Tweeting: 13 hours. Intelligence briefings: 6 hours
Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Is Likely to Bring a Flood of Lawsuits
Trump administration poised to change transgender student bathroom guidelines
Bomb threats all over the country on President's Day, and today, one at The Anti-Defamation League. Trump has finally made a statement condemning anti-Semitism. The Anne Frank Center was not impressed.

posted by triggerfinger (2547 comments total) 118 users marked this as a favorite

7 year old Toby at the Tom Cotton Town Hall reminded his senator that Donald Trump shouldn't get rid of PBS kids for a wall that makes people hate Mexicans.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:58 PM on February 22, 2017 [146 favorites]

The Republican Party's guiding principle has always been unconscionable cowardice.
posted by wabbittwax at 5:02 PM on February 22, 2017 [43 favorites]

The Republican Party's guiding principle has always been unconscionable cowardice.

This is unfair, neglecting its equally dedicated commitments to greed, dishonesty, ratfucking and hate.
posted by howfar at 5:06 PM on February 22, 2017 [53 favorites]

A tweet from Jackie Evancho, who sang at the inauguration: ". @realDonaldTrump u gave me the honor 2 sing at your inauguration. Pls give me & my sis the honor 2 meet with u 2 talk #transgender rghts ❤"

I hate to say "I told you so," but everyone did, in fact, tell her so.
posted by zachlipton at 5:07 PM on February 22, 2017 [137 favorites]

Two from The Atlantic:

‘Our Readiness for a Terrorist Attack Is Dangerously Low’
“I’ve never seen anything quite like” Trump’s approach to national security, says a former counterterrorism adviser to three presidents.

and

Taiwan and the Trumpian Uncertainty Principle
The high price of a phone call
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:07 PM on February 22, 2017 [8 favorites]

From the first link: "Shivers went down the spines of many Republican communications directors on the Hill this week when a few dozen protesters confronted Sen. Steve Daines of Montana at the airport."

Thats my guy!

He hosted a tele-town-hall a few days afterwards. Announced about half an hour before it started. Only on Twitter. Most folks didn't get through, they were either disconnected, had absurd hold times, or only reached a prerecorded message.

He answered very few questions, and there is no video, recording, transcript, etc, available to the public yet, so there's no way to hear what went on unless you were listening in real time.

Here is a pretty detailed piece on how much it sucked.
posted by Grandysaur at 5:08 PM on February 22, 2017 [8 favorites]

Rep Tom Emmer's (MN - Michele Bachmann's former district) town hall just started. Live link here.
posted by triggerfinger at 5:09 PM on February 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

My rep is a coward.
posted by Chrysostom at 5:09 PM on February 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

There's something percolating in my brain about culture and legislators' interpretation of the appropriate way to interact with legislators. It hasn't firmly coalesced, but I'm finding these responses to town halls really help to pin it down.
posted by corb at 5:18 PM on February 22, 2017 [22 favorites]

Joe in Australia, that first link (‘Our Readiness for a Terrorist Attack Is Dangerously Low’) is so infuriating because if there is going to be a terrorist attack, Trump is going to get to play hero like Dubya did even though his administration will be to blame. If we don't remember the lessons learned post 9/11 about how we're not any safer giving a shitty president broad powers, I will surrender to my growing mistrust of the American people forever and ever.

I started typing out a whole rant about that, but I just can't right now, I've reached the point where I need to take a break from the news and analysis for a couple days and recharge.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 5:19 PM on February 22, 2017 [28 favorites]

Our Republican senator, Cory Gardner (who accused us of being paid protestors), is pretty much the boy in the plastic bubble right now. I've been calling and even talked to a staffer last week asking about town halls and they supposedly put me on some list, but now he's posting these little surprise popup visits he's having in safe, controlled corporate environments. Here he is apparently fielding tough questions from...his interns?

If you're too scared to actually meet your constituents or show your face out in public, maybe take a moment to consider why that is.
posted by ernielundquist at 5:21 PM on February 22, 2017 [79 favorites]

>(‘Our Readiness for a Terrorist Attack Is Dangerously Low’) is so infuriating because if there is going to be a terrorist attack, Trump is going to get to play hero

One suspects this is precisely why our readiness is so low.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 5:21 PM on February 22, 2017 [46 favorites]

One suspects this is precisely why our readiness is so low.

9/11 was an inside ignoring of a job
posted by murphy slaw at 5:23 PM on February 22, 2017 [25 favorites]

Add the despicable Peter King to the Spineless Republicans List. My mom, who's 76 and has never been politically active beyond voting, expressed interest in attending a town hall. To make it as easy as possible for her from 3,000 miles away, I went online to try to get details for Rep. King. Nada. No town hall. Nothing. COWARD.
posted by Lyme Drop at 5:24 PM on February 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

Statement by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) on the Trump administration's rescinding the Obama guidance on transgender students. Rep. Ros-Lehtinen's son is a transgender man.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:25 PM on February 22, 2017 [18 favorites]

‘Our Readiness for a Terrorist Attack Is Dangerously Low’
“I’ve never seen anything quite like” Trump’s approach to national security, says a former counterterrorism adviser to three presidents.

It's already established that the current administration is happy to make up attacks that haven't happened, paint refugees as threats, and in general gin up as much fear as possible about terrorism and foreigners.

There's no downside for people like Bannon, Miller, and Trump in letting a terror attack actually happen. It'd be their own personal key to increased authoritarian powers. What little spine and principle is left in the withered soul of the Republican party (well, beyond their utter devotion to the worship of Mammon) would crumble entirely.

Blood on their watch is almost a given.
posted by wildblueyonder at 5:25 PM on February 22, 2017 [39 favorites]

tbf king couldn't find a truck to haul his jowls around on such short notice
posted by murphy slaw at 5:25 PM on February 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

this is fun, because i just came back from a town hall meeting where they literally couldn't let me in because there were too many people according to the fire code. my rep is the worst of the worst (bob goodlatte) and of course didn't show up. as far as i know, they had a cardboard cutout of the man behind the podium while a crowd harangued him.

i went around the overflow with a clipboard, taking signatures for the attorney general. we had quite a few local news crews there, and i hope the fellow that's running for delegate from the 12th got interviewed. (his name is Bryan Keele, and he is genuinely Good People.) i met a bunch of folks who had come in from all over virginia's 6th district, and a few from outside of it. i feel pretty good about this kind of momentum. overflowing crowds on a wednesday when it was raining? if we can keep this up i feel very good indeed about the governor race in virginia.

(also the number of people that i recognized, or that recognized me was-- something else. "weren't you on staff for hillary?" "for a given value of 'staff.' i wasn't getting paid, but yes. i was full-time." "thank you for what you're doing." i'm always taken a bit aback by that, but it's a good feeling nevertheless. i always feel like i'm crashing these kinds of parties.)
posted by dogheart at 5:28 PM on February 22, 2017 [97 favorites]

Here is the scene from Mars Attacks in which the Martian Ambassador addresses Congress. I find it soothing.
posted by Cookiebastard at 5:28 PM on February 22, 2017 [49 favorites]

Check out Mitch McConnell's disgustingly smug face as he's being reminded that his evil agenda is hurting/killing innocent families. Make no mistake, these people are sociopaths.
posted by Beholder at 5:28 PM on February 22, 2017 [40 favorites]

Statement by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) on the Trump administrations rescinding the Obama guidance on transgender students. Rep. Ros-Lehtinen's son is a transgender man.

Always on the right side when and only when it affects them personally.
posted by waitingtoderail at 5:28 PM on February 22, 2017 [110 favorites]

Oh also I will bet money they aren't canceling their Republican club events.
posted by corb at 5:29 PM on February 22, 2017 [12 favorites]

What many people don't get:

The Republican Party isn't attempting to destroy all opposition (the Democrats, press, universities, etc) so the GOP can laser-focus on the needs of Republican voters.

The Republican Party is attempting to destroy those things so they don't have to listen to *anyone.*

Conservatives are just as in danger as anyone if the GOP manages to get a choke-hold on our government. It's only those actually doing the choking who will win. And it's extremely likely that you're one of them, no matter how much of a rust belt rural family values iron-worker "real American" you may or may not be.
posted by chasing at 5:31 PM on February 22, 2017 [44 favorites]

dogheart my rep is the worst of the worst (bob goodlatte) and of course didn't show up. as far as i know, they had a cardboard cutout of the man behind the podium while a crowd harangued him.

Chris Hayes had footage of your townhall and, yes, Goodlatte was represented by a cardbaord cutout. Difference between a Republican member of congress and a cardboard cutout of a Republican member of congress: The cutout will at least standup to Trump.
posted by nathan_teske at 5:32 PM on February 22, 2017 [108 favorites]

Just for posterity I guess here's my local paper's coverage of our town hall, which is only one of THREE in this district organized by our Indivisible group.
posted by threeturtles at 5:39 PM on February 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

Download the app that turns an event into a BEEvent!
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:42 PM on February 22, 2017 [9 favorites]

Add the despicable Peter King to the Spineless Republicans List

Pete King is a hateful, racist shitbag who knows that 65% of his constituents are also hateful, racist shitbags who will vote for him as long as he continues to hurl invective at Muslims, no matter what else he does.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:43 PM on February 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

Here's a video of 7-year-old Toby asking Sen. Cotton why Trump wants to defund PBS kids to build a wall.
posted by zachlipton at 5:44 PM on February 22, 2017 [40 favorites]

Download the app that turns an event into a BEEvent!

I've just spent an embarrassing number of seconds reading through the copy for that and then excitedly trying to figure out where the download button was
posted by tivalasvegas at 5:45 PM on February 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

‘Our Readiness for a Terrorist Attack Is Dangerously Low’

It's usually something you're willfully ignorant of which gets you, though. Richard Clarke's pre-9/11 warnings were heroic partly because the Bush administration was actively suppressing counter-terrorism efforts and inter-agency responses to terrorist intelligence. I shared Clarke's concern initially but I think even with idiots at the top, the existing counter-terrorism framework will lurch along fairly effectively. Of course, if anything does happen it's all on the Trump administration.
posted by Coventry at 5:45 PM on February 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

A Russian newspaper describes how Putin made Trump his puppet.
posted by Amity at 5:45 PM on February 22, 2017 [18 favorites]

There's a report here that the Kansas House just voted 85-40 in favor of expending Medicaid. In Kansas. Wow.
posted by zachlipton at 5:48 PM on February 22, 2017 [84 favorites]

There's no downside for people like Bannon, Miller, and Trump in letting a terror attack actually happen.

There's a downside they don't understand in the slightest. In 2001, the attacks were unprecedented. Most didn't knew what to do or how to react. Democrats looked to Bush for leadership just as much as Republicans. It helped that most Americans didn't realize, at the time, how much Bush's incompetence contributed to the situation. And then people watched the Bush Administration abuse this unity by pushing a nakedly partisan agenda which led to disastrous results.

The Republicans aren't going to get that a second time around. There's enough people who remembered what happened the first time. There's plenty of people who understand exactly how insanely incompetent the Trump Administration is. Trump's not going to get a free pass if something terrible happens. They're expecting a rerun of 2001 and I think they're going to be enormously surprised.

"fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." - as a not-so-great man once said.
posted by honestcoyote at 5:49 PM on February 22, 2017 [82 favorites]

I don't get it. Shouting down your elected representative instead of engaging her/him is pointless. No issues are explored; no dialogue takes place. What has happened to civility and respect?

It's nothing new..
posted by namret at 5:52 PM on February 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

There's a downside they don't understand in the slightest.

that it's their allies on the far right that are as likely to commit a terrorist act?
posted by pyramid termite at 5:53 PM on February 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

Man, Tom Emmer is just a master of avoiding the question. When asked about climate change, he suggested that it always turns into an argument "with 100 scientists on one side and 100 scientists on the other side" at which point he was drowned out by A CHORUS OF BOOS, despite his threats to end the town hall if people got "rowdy". Then he said "okay, 1000 scientists on one side and 1000 scientists on the other side" (lol!) More boos. Then he asked a lady who politely objected (but didn't raise her voice) "why are you so angry?" She objected again (using the same tone) and he said "well you don't have to get so angry." Then he shut the whole conversation down with an empty platitude, "I think we can all agree that we want to leave the planet a better place for our children. Next question."

Stay classy, Republicans.
posted by triggerfinger at 5:53 PM on February 22, 2017 [35 favorites]

Namret: please read triggerfinger's comment for an answer to your question.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:55 PM on February 22, 2017 [13 favorites]

In reply to a comment from the last thread:

Can we go back to that Susan Simpson Tweestorm for a minute?

It seems to me she's got evidence of perjury there. Photos of court records where Trump contradicts himself under oath about how will he knows Felix Sater. Either he's lying when he says he doesn't, or lying when he admits he does.

I ran over her tweet thread yesterday, and it looked like mostly findings that have already been pointed out in national media coverage in the past couple years:

Forbes, 10/2016
ABC News (video), 12/2015
Financial Times, 08/2016
Esquire, 05/2016
Mother Jones, 09/2016
WSJ, 09/2016
Politico 08/2016
Bill Moyers, 06/2016 - incl. the time a BBC interviewer pressed him on Sater, then Trump walked out mid-interview. In the 2013 deposition, Trump said he doesn’t even remember this interview.

And there’s more where those came from. I guess part of the lack of response was that until November, everyone expected him to lose. I also suspect there is more difficulty in taking legal action against Trump about lying under oath, since he lies SOOO much that it’s hard to pick apart the mess of lies, mis-statements, exaggerations, etc. especially when he uses vagaries like “I don’t remember” most of the time.
posted by p3t3 at 5:59 PM on February 22, 2017 [11 favorites]

Conservatives are just as in danger as anyone if the GOP manages to get a choke-hold on our government. It's only those actually doing the choking who will win. And it's extremely likely that you're one of them, no matter how much of a rust belt rural family values iron-worker "real American" you may or may not be.

Yep. It's so hard to get through to R-voters that we don't (just) oppose Trump because he's bad news for us. We oppose Trump because he's bad news for everybody.
posted by Rykey at 5:59 PM on February 22, 2017 [22 favorites]

Our Republican senator, Cory Gardner (who accused us of being paid protestors), is pretty much the boy in the plastic bubble right now. I've been calling and even talked to a staffer last week asking about town halls and they supposedly put me on some list, but now he's posting these little surprise popup visits he's having in safe, controlled corporate environments.

Senator Gardner is a fucking embarrassment. If you listen closely on a quiet night, you can hear the sound of Colorado turning into a C of Blue, and shit like this is why.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 6:02 PM on February 22, 2017 [12 favorites]

We should encourage Trump to play as much golf as possible.
posted by humanfont at 6:03 PM on February 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

> I don't get it. Shouting down your elected representative instead of engaging her/him is pointless. No issues are explored; no dialogue takes place. What has happened to civility and respect?

Nothing good has come from the wretched election of 2016, but if there were anything good about it, it's that even middle of the road liberals are beginning to acknowledge that politics is about struggle, organization, and the effective application of force to achieve aims. The "politics is about determining proper behavior through disinterested debate" frame that used to come up so often is just propaganda meant to keep us disorganized and weak.

The point, as such, is to make the representative scared; scared of bad press, scared of the angry mob organizing to remove them from office, scared of having their names and reputations dragged through the mud, and scared of the sheer size and vehemence of the crowd gathered to confront them. This is what democracy looks like.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 6:04 PM on February 22, 2017 [217 favorites]

There's a downside they don't understand in the slightest. In 2001, the attacks were unprecedented.

I agree with everything you said. My fear is something unprecedented WILL happen, like the destruction of an entire city. I can only hope the understanding of the incompetence or complicity will hold up in the face of another unprecedented event.
posted by milarepa at 6:05 PM on February 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

Exactly how civil is one supposed to be at somebody who wants to take away your health insurance? Because I've frankly seen a lot of people in that exact situation asking questions that are a heck of a lot more calm and collected than I could possibly be.
posted by zachlipton at 6:06 PM on February 22, 2017 [97 favorites]

I've been considering turning this question into an ask metafilter thing:

what are some effective ways to start getting out the vote and drumming up interest in this November's state and municipal elections?

I'm in Pennsylvania, and I'm working with a student political organization that's just getting off the ground in the election's aftermath. A few weeks ago I attended one of its organizational meetings and spoke to them about some potential plans for about 5 minutes. The only thing I mentioned that elicited an audible murmur from the audience was when I rattled through the list of all our state and local positions that will be voted on this November, including about half of the local school board. (That item in particular got a little gasp from the crowd.)

My point being, there appears to be some serious interest (finally!) in off-year elections in my corner of the country. That is VERY encouraging, but it will be meaningless if it fizzles out. Here's what I want to know: how can I work to sustain that interest, drum up more support, and push more people to the polls this November?
posted by Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam at 6:07 PM on February 22, 2017 [19 favorites]

Nothing good has come from the wretched election of 2016, but if there were anything good about it, it's that even middle of the road liberals are beginning to acknowledge that politics is about struggle [...]

One thing that I hope we will better appreciate, and remember, is that we're all in this together. The same people who are antisemites are racist, the people who are racist are misogynist, and the people who are misogynist want to take away your healthcare and your mother's pension. The fact that the Trump administration is evil on so many levels may be what brings people together in sympathy.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:10 PM on February 22, 2017 [20 favorites]

I am stealing this from a friend's Facebook page, which is public. You can find a lot of ways to resist:

Guy next to me in the locker room, to his friend: I think my AirBNB person might be a Caitlin Jenner.
Me to the guy on the other side of me: I think the guy next to me might be a transphobic garbage person who needs to be reported to management.
And then I did because FUCK THAT GUY
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:11 PM on February 22, 2017 [132 favorites]

There's a report here that the Kansas House just voted 85-40 in favor of expending Medicaid. In Kansas. Wow.

Mmm, smell that Brownback Backlash. Kansas caught this show in previews before the GOP went national with it, and elected more Dems than usual and lot of moderate Republicans in response and it's one of the things giving me hope right now.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:11 PM on February 22, 2017 [62 favorites]

The Kansas legislature just passed a bunch of tax increases too (including newly-elected Republicans!). Brownback said he plans to veto it but still, it's a good sign (not sure if they have the votes for an override).
posted by melissasaurus at 6:14 PM on February 22, 2017 [8 favorites]

I want to know how anyone can excuse an elected rep who does not want to meet with the public. Of course, I suppose they think that only the people who are in the reps party have any right to representation...
posted by maxwelton at 6:16 PM on February 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

Their real constituents are corporations.

And donors. But it's an extension of what I said in the last thread: if your constituency is 700,000 people, then it might as well be nobody. You can do standard constituent service like flag and tour requests, or immigration and benefit inquiries, but ad hoc political engagement -- the town hall meeting stuff -- is mostly symbolic on both sides. In regular hours, if you want to get past the first tier of staffers, you'll typically need to be part of an interest group, whether it's something formal like the Townsville Realtors Association or a more loose collective like "Somewhere City Cancer Survivors", because somebody serving a two-year term has about 700,000 waking minutes for 700,000 constituents, and a good chunk of those minutes will be spent fundraising.

That doesn't mean the symbolism doesn't matter, because obviously it mattered in 2009-10, as so many Dems ran away from anything approximating a coherent message. But to think these events are meant for nuanced discussion as opposed to "what the fuck have you done for us lately?" misses the point.
posted by holgate at 6:16 PM on February 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

Regarding rowdy town halls, Josh Marshall of TPM reminds us that while everyone is comparing what's happening now to 2009 Tea Partiers, we should remember that the 2009 Tea Partiers were drawing their inspiration from 2005 when Democrats would show up at town halls to harangue politicians about George W. Bush's plan to privatize Social Security. Which, in some ways, is exactly what's happening now except with Obamacare.
posted by mhum at 6:18 PM on February 22, 2017 [38 favorites]

I know some people here were skeptical of the Kansas voter revolt, but it really did happen. And it's already putting the Governor on some uncomfortable ground. The legislature also passed a bill to overturn much of the Brownback tax cuts. Governor vetoed it. The house overturned the veto. The senate almost did but failed by one vote. I'm thinking it will pass eventually this session once the outcry from voters over further education cuts, and the $1 Billion budget deficit, hits the holdout senators.
posted by honestcoyote at 6:18 PM on February 22, 2017 [20 favorites]

Well this is depressing: Poll: Americans overwhelmingly oppose sanctuary cities
posted by triggerfinger at 6:22 PM on February 22, 2017

I suspect Americans overwhelmingly don't understand what a sanctuary city is.
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:26 PM on February 22, 2017 [127 favorites]

what are these republican congressmen doing to stop democrats from ruining America? I guess we'll have to elect a different set of republicans in 2018 since these guys won't do the job. If only there was an alternative...
posted by any major dude at 6:27 PM on February 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

One thing that I hope we will better appreciate, and remember, is that we're all in this together. The same people who are antisemites are racist, the people who are racist are misogynist, and the people who are misogynist want to take away your healthcare and your mother's pension. The fact that the Trump administration is evil on so many levels may be what brings people together in sympathy

In the last thread, we had MeFites dismissing Brianna Wu's run for Congress with some of the most obviously misogynist reasoning and language I've seen on this site in a while. Not all misogynists, at least, are Trumpists.

I agree we're stronger together. But that supposes we support each other rather than tear each other down. That's not just going to magically happen because we all hate the evil bastards in power. It's going to take work.

I know I sure as hell don't have the energy to fight misogyny on the right and the left while we're trying to stop a slow motion move to white supremacy. It's just too exhausting. It's the main reason I haven't gotten involved with general leftist groups, and have stuck to women's stuff--I just do not have the goddamn spoons.
posted by schadenfrau at 6:29 PM on February 22, 2017 [89 favorites]

I suspect Americans overwhelmingly don't understand what a sanctuary city is.

I agree, and it's an extension of how Americans overwhelmingly don't understand how their country's immigration system works.

Equally depressing is that Mark Penn has a job.
posted by holgate at 6:30 PM on February 22, 2017 [7 favorites]

Chaffetz reportedly suspects that the tweet, which was posted in December the day after President Obama designated the more than 1.35-million-acre Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah, may reveal that the park officials had advanced notice.

posted by Rust Moranis at 11:49 AM on February 22 [59 favorites +] [!]

I know it was aeons ago in thread time but I just had to come here to register a WTF on this. Does Chaffetz think National Park unit designations are a secret? The president just throws a dart? NPS does their due diligence before recommending new NPS units. Chaffetz would be screaming if they hadn't. Of course other NPS units knew this was a possibility, even if they didn't know ahead of time that it was for sure happening or the timing.
posted by Preserver at 6:33 PM on February 22, 2017 [14 favorites]

Always on the right side when and only when it affects them personally.

Isn't that pretty much their core philosophy?
posted by theodolite at 6:34 PM on February 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

Many of us, myself included, are socialized to be more outraged at breaches of etiquette than breaches of justice. Etiquette is largely about maintaining an unjust social order, where it's worse for you to tell your racist relatives to shut the fuck up at Thanksgiving than it is for them to spew their nonsense where your little cousins can hear.

These craven vicious assholes are trying to eradicate people's civil rights. They are trying to make the US a white supremacist paradise. They are trying to take away people's healthcare and Social Security and leave them to die in the dirt or be crushed by debt. These bastards and their Bastard-in-Chief on this very day just told millions of American children that they don't deserve basic human respect or dignity and went out of their way to loudly roll back a small, hopeful gesture of decency. And then the President's ragey little rat terrier sashays onstage and tells me my anger about all that and more isn't real? FUCK. POLITENESS.
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:40 PM on February 22, 2017 [197 favorites]

I think constituents can be polite to one another, so that if Asshole Congressperson is answering questions, that everyone gets to hear the lies/answers.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:42 PM on February 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

My representative is so desperate to avoid me and my friends that he's on a junket to India during Constituent Work Week.
posted by Etrigan at 6:43 PM on February 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

but her emauls
posted by um at 6:46 PM on February 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

I think constituents can be polite to one another, so that if Asshole Congressperson is answering questions, that everyone gets to hear the lies/answers.

Good point. The main issue with the Cotton townhall, which was the least orderly one, seemed to be that it was humongous, so there was more random noise and momentum in that direction, and it took notably longer than at smaller ones for people to settle down and listen after a big cheer/boo -- like turning an aircraft carrier. At the smaller meetings, those waves of noise subsided a bit more quickly and the overall mood was easier to manage.
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:49 PM on February 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

look i'm not saying i plan to hold an intense grudge until i can exact electoral revenge but i AM knitting some names into a pussy hat RN #defargewasright
posted by prefpara at 6:50 PM on February 22, 2017 [32 favorites]

But I think too that pent-up outrage is a pretty predictable response to an administration that has just spent the last 32 consecutive days doing a non-stop series of jaw-droppingly outrageous things.
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:53 PM on February 22, 2017 [17 favorites]

Last Tuesday, ElderMonster and I joined 60 fellow citizens to ask Rob Portman for a Town Hall meeting.

His staff skedaddled and he refuses to meet with us.
posted by MissySedai at 7:02 PM on February 22, 2017 [14 favorites]

Sanctuary cities need to win a messaging game. If you have to stop and If about why something is good, some proportion of people will just never take that next step. And we have to convince those people too.

This doesn't mean swaying the nutsos who think cities is are lawless murder carnivals, but more at getting through to the lightly informed folks in a creative and punchy way. (and that's where I get stuck... ideas?)
posted by Wulfhere at 7:02 PM on February 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

The Washington Post has a nice menu of videos of politicians being yelled at. Not all are recent and no idea how quickly it will be updated, though.
posted by dilettante at 7:02 PM on February 22, 2017

Constituent with husband with multiple pre-existing conditions to Tom Cotton: "Well, what kind of insurance do you have?"

Steve Womack (R-AR): "You guys just want to investigate everybody."
Townhall attendee: "You guys wasted a lot of money on Benghazi, waste a little on Trump!" (This tweeter, Brad Jaffy, seems to have links to a lot of these.)

Obamacare beneficiary confronts Chuck Grassley.
posted by dhens at 7:03 PM on February 22, 2017 [33 favorites]

Muslims raise over $91,000 for vandalized Jewish cemetery in Missouri
posted by futz at 7:05 PM on February 22, 2017 [66 favorites]

getting through to the lightly informed folks in a creative and punchy way.

Ooh! Uh . . what is "punching Nazis"?
posted by petebest at 7:07 PM on February 22, 2017 [10 favorites]

corb: There's something percolating in my brain about culture and legislators' interpretation of the appropriate way to interact with legislators. It hasn't firmly coalesced, but I'm finding these responses to town halls really help to pin it down.

I'm eagerly awaiting your follow up on this comment because there is so much to unpack from many different political angles.

I have noticed several things in the way many of these legislators are acting in relation to constituents that ties in with the relationship between elected officials and constituents and the issue of emotional labor.

A) They seem to have forgotten that they are not our rulers but are, in fact, our employees who represent all the people in a district. Even in the reddest of red districts, 20-25% of the population usually votes Democratic. They convey the message that they only feel beholden to people who agree with them nearly all the time.

B) I see a whole bunch of mostly older white men who present as heterosexual and cisgender. I also see a bunch of very angry constituents who feel ignored. These men are, for the one of the few times in their lives, are having to do some uncomfortable emotional labor for women, people of color, progressives, and others they seem to hold in contempt.

I think they resent the shit out of it, so you get people like David "Women Up in my Grill" Brat and poor "bullied" (L.O.L.) Jason Chaffetz doing everything they can to dismiss the concerns and frustrations that people are bringing to their town halls.

C) When these (mostly) older white guys are forced to do this sort of emotional labor, they have a hard time taking it seriously and doing a good job of it because their emotional labor muscles are fairly underdeveloped. I'm actually a little embarrassed on their behalf at how badly they seem to handle this.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 7:09 PM on February 22, 2017 [98 favorites]

In NJ, constituents of Rep. Lance Leonard brought Llamas to the town hall. I don't exactly know why (Lance Leonard has two l's, so does llama?) but they are adorable and made the news.
posted by cushie at 7:10 PM on February 22, 2017 [9 favorites]

Steve Womack (R-AR): "You guys just want to investigate everybody."

Just the obviously fraudulent criminal puppets of Putin, sir.
posted by petebest at 7:10 PM on February 22, 2017 [8 favorites]

It's Leonard Lance in New Jersey, which, i'mma definitely use that name for a superhero or supervillain someday, but anyway. That protest actually took place at my brother's college and cancelled class.
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 7:13 PM on February 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

It's full on "show us your papers" territory now. America finally elected its id. I wish James Baldwin was still alive. Not for his sake, but mine. It's going to be a hot summer and I'm rambling from rage.
posted by milarepa at 7:20 PM on February 22, 2017 [12 favorites]

and in the competion for Most Contemptable Senator, A New Challenger Approaches:

When liberals are angry, I'm satisfied. It means we are heading in the RIGHT direction.
-- Sen Chris McDaniel
posted by murphy slaw at 7:26 PM on February 22, 2017 [19 favorites]

3,000 Scientists Have Asked for Help Running for Office to Oppose Trump ~ A nonprofit organization dedicated to getting more scientists elected has been overwhelmed by the response from the scientific community.

-- At the time, 314 Action was hoping to hold a one-hour webinar to talk the potential candidates through the basics of forming a campaign organization, raising money, and communicating their platform.

-- Because of the overwhelming interest, the organization will now be holding an all-day seminar on March 14 in Washington DC featuring training sessions with experienced politicians and organizers. The group expects between 100 and 200 potential candidates to travel to DC for the event, which will be live streamed to those who can't make it.

-- "It's 3,000 scientists and STEM professionals—engineers, mathematicians, academics," 314 Action spokesperson Ted Bordelon told me. "It's a combination."

This makes me SO happy.
posted by futz at 7:27 PM on February 22, 2017 [86 favorites]

I'm in Eric Paulsen's district so I called his office. An aide actually picked up, took my last name and ZIP. I asked when he was having his town hall because I couldn't find the info on his website. I know damn well he isn't having one but it was the easiest way I could think of to politely tell him he should.

TFA says he's had two, I'll try and go if he has another. I'm currently trying to convince myself to apply for an appointment but I'm not sure I can screw up the courage for that.
posted by VTX at 7:28 PM on February 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

Well I mean all the scientists and teachers are going to be out of work, they might as well use their free time to run for office.
posted by emjaybee at 7:30 PM on February 22, 2017 [16 favorites]

The Pruitt Emails: E.P.A. Chief Was Arm in Arm With Industry

Email Dump Reveals EPA Chief Pruitt's Cozy Ties With Fossil Fuels Industry

These Documents Are Damning, and the Senate Knows It. You thought Scott Pruitt was bad for the EPA before?
posted by homunculus at 7:31 PM on February 22, 2017 [46 favorites]

'They’re trying to turn Elizabeth into a boogeyman': Republicans are already trying to make Elizabeth Warren the face of the Democratic Party — and the 2018 midterms.

About These Democrats Throwing Elizabeth Warren Under the Bus: It won't work.
posted by homunculus at 7:33 PM on February 22, 2017 [20 favorites]

Adding to the list, Representative John Katko (R) of NYs 24th refusal to meet with constituents is getting a lot of press in local news and on TV. Indivisible and CNY Solidarity groups keeping up the pressure. He says he won't let "a small group of people dictate how I run my business."
You work for US, sir!
posted by SyraCarol at 7:35 PM on February 22, 2017 [13 favorites]

in NYC, they are setting up an ICE checkpoint right now on the 6 line at 149th and 3rd

I was explaining to my mother today at lunch that we're now in the "show us your papers" era and that she should get a passport card and carry it with her at all times. She came to New York as a child war refugee in 1946 after spending the war in Cuba without enough to eat. I told her that it was just a matter of months before they started checkpoints in NYC, because they have to punish the sanctuary cities.

She replied that she couldn't believe that was possible or legal and told me how she used to explain to her family in Europe that the US was a great country because the Constitution forbids the police from stopping you and asking for your papers.

I'm sick at heart that it took less than 12 hours for Trump to validate my fears.
posted by fuzz at 7:36 PM on February 22, 2017 [112 favorites]

At the time, 314 Action was hoping to hold a one-hour webinar to talk the potential candidates through the basics of forming a campaign organization, raising money, and communicating their platform.

Gee, if only there were another party, like republicans, but say, different - that had millions of dollars and lots of political experience - that could use those resources to help more STEM people to run for office. A democratic party perhaps, dedicated to the finest principles of democracy - some party that people who believe in the American democratic experiment could contribute their time and money to.

I wonder, if such a democratic party existed, what we might call it. Oh, well. In the meantime, I'll donate my time and effort to these more grassroots efforts. Perhaps a Democratic party of Democrats for Democracy might blossom.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 7:37 PM on February 22, 2017 [13 favorites]

What am I missing Pogo Fuzzybutt? They are going to run as Democrats.

In January, 314 Action (named after the first three digits of the number pi) announced that it would be training scientists to run for office as Democrats at all levels of politics in hopes that these new politicians could bring a fact-based approach to crises such as climate change.

Speakers at the seminar will include Joe Trippi, who helped run Howard Dean's presidential campaign and has worked for California Gov. Jerry Brown. Other speakers include is Melissa Varga, who has previously trained new political candidates for the New Organizing Institute, a now-defunct think tank that promoted first-time progressive candidates and Andrew Zwicker, a physicist who became a New Jersey state lawmaker.
posted by futz at 7:45 PM on February 22, 2017 [9 favorites]

I think of it this way: whatever you think about the history of the Democratic party, we're going to war, and they have the tanks. You can split off and fight GMOs or Zoning regulations or Term Limits later. Right now, if you want to get through this, get in the tank!
posted by Kitty Stardust at 7:48 PM on February 22, 2017 [11 favorites]

in NYC, they are setting up an ICE checkpoint right now on the 6 line at 149th and 3rd

Lots of unsubstantiated reports; there are tweets going back to early this morning, but zero reporting that I can find outside of Twitter. Brian Lehrer had a segment yesterday about this… lots of FUD, lots of "collateral" as part of targeted raids, but, as far as I can tell, still -zero- raid raids, or checkpoints, etc.

I think that it's important to find a source/proof/picture before passing on that kind of info. Especially because it could be true, but doesn't yet appear to be.
posted by mhz at 7:49 PM on February 22, 2017 [13 favorites]

A new thread already? I thought the last thread was so slow!

Poor tehund
posted by Yowser at 7:49 PM on February 22, 2017 [12 favorites]

My very own DEC profiled here.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 7:50 PM on February 22, 2017

(I took a two-day break from MeFi politics threads and turned to my pile of books to be read. The one on top was "The Handmaid's Take" and I got a third of the way through it in two nights before I came back here.

I mean, it's nearly the same story, so I may as well be reading it with their real names. *sigh*)
posted by wenestvedt at 7:51 PM on February 22, 2017 [11 favorites]

I think that the 2 groups will get together. I also think that it is great that they are getting organized on their own I say let the best candidate win and the Dems frown on a newcomer butting in line. Not everything needs to be sanctioned by the Party. I like it so far and it is so early that we can't know what will happen.
posted by futz at 7:53 PM on February 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

Nothing good has come from the wretched election of 2016, but if there were anything good about it, it's that even middle of the road liberals are beginning to acknowledge that politics is about struggle, organization, and the effective application of force to achieve aims.

Politics is a tribal game of king of the hill played on a mountain of skulls from participants and innocents alike. Winner gets to wear the boot for a while!
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 7:54 PM on February 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

The Handmaid's Take

This is like if a character from the Handmaid's Tale had Twitter
posted by dis_integration at 7:54 PM on February 22, 2017 [51 favorites]

The thing about the Susan Simpson tweetstorm (and I don't see this getting enough emphasis) is that it suggests that the dossier CONTEXT, not just the events, can be corroborated by publically available information. Pointing out who Source E seems to be doesn't give a huge amount of insight, but it really lends credibility to the report.

And this was done by an (amazingly detail-oriented) lawyer during her off-hours.

We KNOW the NYTimes had the dossier long before the election. They could easily have done this work. And they could easily have made a calculated decision to release at least some of the information based on the details Simpson has pointed to. But they didn't.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 7:55 PM on February 22, 2017 [26 favorites]

This is like if a character from the Handmaid's Tale had Twitter

I really think we should come together and work with Gilead on the stuff we agree about. This is a time for unity!
posted by tobascodagama at 7:57 PM on February 22, 2017 [9 favorites]

she used to explain to her family in Europe that the US was a great country because the Constitution forbids the police from stopping you and asking for your papers

Yeah, when I was a kid the way you playacted a Nazi was to bark "Papers, please!". It was taken for granted that that sort of demand was a sign of fascism. Whether the ICE in NY story is true or false, the fact is that it might be true, that there's a legal basis for doing that in most populated parts of the USA. In fact, if the Trump administration has its way, it's going to become commonplace.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:00 PM on February 22, 2017 [50 favorites]

Politics is a tribal game of king of the hill played on a mountain of skulls from participants and innocents alike. Winner gets to wear the boot for a while!

you can always refuse to play and provide the neck, forever
posted by murphy slaw at 8:05 PM on February 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

I don't get it. Shouting down your elected representative instead of engaging her/him is pointless. No issues are explored; no dialogue takes place. What has happened to civility and respect?

'Civility and respect' in the face of literal evil is what got us here in the first place.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:06 PM on February 22, 2017 [92 favorites]

TFA says he's had two, I'll try and go if he has another

Don't believe his lies. Unless he's talking about the ones he had like 7 years ago. From everything I've seen, all he's done are those bullshit telephone townhalls, where HE decides who to call. Our man Erik hasn't had a real townhall since 2010 or 2011.
posted by triggerfinger at 8:09 PM on February 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

McMaster May Reorganize Trump’s Foreign Policy Team Once Again: WASHINGTON — Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, President Trump’s new national security adviser, is considering a reorganization of the White House foreign policy team that would give him control of Homeland Security and guarantee full access to the military and intelligence agencies.

I keep having these internal micro-negotiations... This level of control is a bad thing, but if McMaster is less terrible than everyone else then maybe it's not so bad, but then no one really should have that much power, well if not McMaster someone else would, etc etc.
posted by mochapickle at 8:09 PM on February 22, 2017 [10 favorites]

I'm eagerly awaiting your follow up on this comment because there is so much to unpack from many different political angles. I have noticed several things in the way many of these legislators are acting in relation to constituents that ties in with the relationship between elected officials and constituents and the issue of emotional labor.

So I've been mulling over this, in particular with how, over the last year, I've actually seen systems of power and influence work in the Republican Party. And the thing that I keep coming back to is that in order to make those systems work, you need to be presenting as completely typical for your gender roles within a stratified society.

So when I did most of my influencing work leading up to the convention itself, I was operating in a sphere that I hadn't spent a lot of time in and was not, really, native to. I watched everyone else there and presented as they did. I hid my tattoo. I wore conservative clothing. I did not wear a single pair of flats that entire year. I pretty much stopped wearing pants. I wore dresses, conservatively cut or cut in that fashionable-1960s style. I wore jewelry every time I went out to an event. Despite the fact that, as a former sergeant in the Army, I can bark with the best of them and cut a hole in a crowd with my voice, I spoke in soft tones. I used the lessons of power I learned from the traditional women in my family. I did emotional labor, as you note, with each and every person I talked to.

When I criticized legislators - and I did, as did other Republican women - I and they spoke to the largely male legislators, and I think this is key, as a traditional upbringing had taught me I was supposed to speak to my husband. It's not that they didn't get criticized or called out - they did - but they were criticized in the same way women who aren't allowed to directly argue with their husband argue with their husbands. "I know that you meant well, but..." "I was so disappointed in you.." "I've been praying for you to open your heart"

These opportunities for influence happened all the time. We saw the Republican legislators at every county meeting, at many fundraising dinners, at Republican Women's Club luncheons and District Club auctions. We saw them everywhere in social settings where it would have been considered extremely impolite to raise your voice.

And in many ways, I think they - not became used to it, exactly, but have always been used to it. That's how they receive critique at home. That's how they receive critique out in the world. There are never, for them, any real rough edges. Sure, maybe they duke it out with another man in the primary, but that's understood to be confrontational. They get to relax in their paternalistic role. They act like a traditionalist husband to the people who elected them - 'thank you for choosing me and making me the happiest of men, but now dear, you know I know what's best'.

And I think this is evidenced in how they're responding to these town halls, the 'women all up in my grill'. It's not about women, the gender. It's about women not performing femininity - who are loud, who yell, who challenge, who don't soften the blow and bat their eyes and coo 'aren't you a big strong legislator'. And I mean - it's not like the women who do that stuff aren't seething just as much - but they don't have to be exposed to it. And now they are, and they are behaving about like the Pleasantville husband asking where his dinner is.
posted by corb at 8:10 PM on February 22, 2017 [267 favorites]

the Constitution forbids the police from stopping you and asking for your papers

It doesn't really, though, does it? Aliens in the US are required to carry identification and can be jailed for not having it. In practice this means citizens will sometimes also be asked for ID, and unable to provide it.

Now, it is true that the law does not (currently) require citizens to carry identification. Thats not quite the same as saying the police are forbidden from asking for it.
posted by thefoxgod at 8:13 PM on February 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

Now, more than ever, I assume the police will do whatever the fuck they like.
posted by Artw at 8:15 PM on February 22, 2017 [36 favorites]

Arizona Senate votes to seize assets of those who plan, participate in protests that turn violent

Claiming people are being paid to riot, Republican state senators voted Wednesday to give police new power to arrest anyone who is involved in a peaceful demonstration that may turn bad — even before anything actually happened.

SB1142 expands the state’s racketeering laws, now aimed at organized crime, to also include rioting. And it redefines what constitutes rioting to include actions that result in damage to the property of others.

But the real heart of the legislation is what Democrats say is the guilt by association — and giving the government the right to criminally prosecute and seize the assets of everyone who planned a protest and everyone who participated. And what’s worse, said Sen. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, is that the person who may have broken a window, triggering the claim there was a riot, might actually not be a member of the group but someone from the other side.

-- He said the purpose of this bill appears to be designed to chill the First Amendment rights of people to decide to demonstrate in the first place for fear something could wrong.

-- There’s something else: By including rioting in racketeering laws, it actually permits police to arrest those who are planning events. And Kavanagh, a former police officer, said if there are organized groups, “I should certainly hope that our law enforcement people have some undercover people there.’’

PURE FUCKING EVIL.
posted by futz at 8:19 PM on February 22, 2017 [171 favorites]

I keep having these internal micro-negotiations... This level of control is a bad thing, but if McMaster is less terrible than everyone else then maybe it's not so bad, but then no one really should have that much power, well if not McMaster someone else would, etc etc.

Yeah. I think we have to be aware that trying to draw these distinctions is getting increasingly to be an expenditure of emotional energy that's better used on just a default heuristic of resistance.

Rather than trying to parse the words or history or actions or whatever of a particular Trump appointee (or Republican legislator): just assume that resistance and opposition is the best strategy unless there's some definite, clear evidence to the contrary.

tl;dr bees
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:20 PM on February 22, 2017 [11 favorites]

Arizona Senate votes to seize assets of those who plan, participate in protests that turn violent

Freedom of Assembly, motherfuckers. You don't even need to read that far because it's right up front.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:22 PM on February 22, 2017 [95 favorites]

PURE FUCKING EVIL.

fortunately also unconstitutional on its face and likely to trigger a lawsuit that is making the entire ACLU legal team drool as i write this?
posted by murphy slaw at 8:23 PM on February 22, 2017 [57 favorites]

Re: ICE on the NY subway -- I don't see any actual photos of this checkpoint, except for one picture that has a uniformed NYPD officer but no ICE agents that I can see. It's all just retweets and links to Facebook shares of the same message.

Caution, not panic. Be vigilant, but also verify.

People were freaking out about what they thought was an ICE checkpoint on the L in Chicago recently, but it turned out to be one of those stupid VIPR pseudo-TSA bag check teams. (Which I don't think I've run into since moving to Chicago, and I only ran into a few times previously in Boston, in the half-decade post-9/11.) That isn't to say that it's not a cause for concern, of course, or that it might not be perilous for undocumented people to get stopped by a different sorta-paramilitary government agency. It's still important to verify these sorts of things, though, so that we can respond to them appropriately.
posted by ubersturm at 8:24 PM on February 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

Oh for real murphy slaw but JFC do these people spend every waking moment trying to out-evil each other? No need to answer.
posted by futz at 8:27 PM on February 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

What am I missing Pogo Fuzzybutt? They are going to run as Democrats.

That back in 2010, when the R's were beta testing this gish gallop of bullshit in WI and KS, we had 100,000 people in the streets in 10 degree weather, and the dems did all the could to disown the whole affair. When the WI 14 denied quorum, when we occupied the capitol and when we arranged a recall, the dems worked overtime to be as embarrassed and unsupportive as possible with no spine at all.

Here we are, as the R's have perfected and weaponized the technique and the Dems have had HALF A FUCKING DECADE OR MORE of warning about how this would play out, and still, the 50 state strategy was collect money in 50 states, run 17 candidates nationwide.

The people at the top of the Dem Party hierarchy get paid whether or not their candidates win. They get paid whether or not my faggot son can get fired for his gayness, whether my MIL can get her heart medicine, whether my Colombian college classmate gets deported. DWS and all of them get paid no matter what the fuck happens my friends and my family.

So, this 314thing? It exists because the Dems aren't doing it. The dems don't care, or they'd be doing it already. They don't have to care, and probably never will care, because Robby "Shitbrain" Mook, and the people who hired him, and the people who advised him managed to do what nobody else in the history of the world has done - Lose a political campaign to walking cerebral trauma Donald J. Trump. And all of them will retire as millionaires.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 8:29 PM on February 22, 2017 [82 favorites]

Freedom of Assembly, motherfuckers. You don't even need to read that far because it's right up front.

The constitution says peaceful assembly. This bill explicitly goes after protests that turn violent. These people aren't stupid. It's the legislative equivalent of concern trolling.
posted by Talez at 8:29 PM on February 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

Now, it is true that the law does not (currently) require citizens to carry identification. Thats not quite the same as saying the police are forbidden from asking for it.

This is a really important point, because the USA has increasingly relied on convention to shield some people - the right people - from the consequences of very bad laws. So you had people imprisoned without trial, but that was outside the USA 's borders so it was OK. And you had people being arbitrarily arrested, but they weren't citizens so it was OK. And these distinctions have become finer and finer and I think most people are just now realising that everyone can potentially be treated like an illegal immigrant, that everyone can potentially be treated like a terrorist, and that rights which can only be vindicated in court aren't much protection at all. At least, I hope they're starting to realise that; we'll see.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:30 PM on February 22, 2017 [28 favorites]

And in many ways, I think they - not became used to it, exactly, but have always been used to it. That's how they receive critique at home. That's how they receive critique out in the world. There are never, for them, any real rough edges.

Being able to pick your own constituency helps a lot, I imagine: American politics leaps from smallish, relatively homogenous state legislative districts (where there's limited interaction with voters who aren't funding your campaign) to large federal districts where most of the time you can avoid your opponent or your opponent's supporters. I've been watching from afar the UK by-election campaigns (where constituencies cover a population of 60,000ish) and it reminds me how British electoral politics is much more of a toe-to-toe contest.

do these people spend every waking moment trying to out-evil each other?

I think a lot of them are just pretty fucking stupid. Arizona's been state-leg crackpotsville for a while -- Ken Silverstein described it as "dimwits, racists, and cranks" in 2010. Trouble is, the virus has spread.
posted by holgate at 8:32 PM on February 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

Thanks to everyone for the dose of realism on the ICE checkpoints. That kind of devotion to figuring out what's really happening is why I keep torturing myself by following these threads.
posted by fuzz at 8:32 PM on February 22, 2017 [7 favorites]

Thank you for the reply Pogo_Fuzzybutt. I totally misread your comment. Whoosh! We are on the same page now and I completely agree.
posted by futz at 8:39 PM on February 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

holy shit folks, the Trump white house (is now claiming?) that they fucked up the composition of the national security council on accident

While the decision to give Mr. Bannon a seat was a conscious one, Mr. Trump’s team did not intend to reduce the role of the intelligence director or Joint Chiefs chairman, officials said. In crafting their organization order, the officials said, Mr. Trump’s aides essentially cut and pasted language from Mr. Bush’s organization chart, substituting the national intelligence director for the C.I.A. director, who back then was the head of the nation’s spy agencies.

What Mr. Trump’s team did not realize, officials said, was that Mr. Obama’s organization chart made those two positions full members of the committee.

As a practical matter, Mr. Trump’s aides may not have intended a substantive change, but the political symbolism of elevating Mr. Bannon while seemingly demoting military and intelligence leaders was an immediate distraction.

posted by murphy slaw at 8:44 PM on February 22, 2017 [57 favorites]

Arizona's been state-leg crackpotsville for a while

26 years since its release, AZ has made this song relevant again.
posted by honestcoyote at 8:45 PM on February 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

Link murphy slaw?
posted by futz at 8:48 PM on February 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

This level of control is a bad thing, but if McMaster is less terrible than everyone else then maybe it's not so bad, but then no one really should have that much power, well if not McMaster someone else would, etc etc.

The really scary thing is, the Trump administration appears to be learning to compromise and govern effectively.
posted by Coventry at 8:49 PM on February 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

Where is that quote from, murphy slaw? Because that was my Gasp O' the Day, and just when I thought nothing was going to surprise me.
posted by thebrokedown at 8:49 PM on February 22, 2017

sorry, it's from that Times article on McMaster rearranging the national security apparatus
posted by murphy slaw at 8:50 PM on February 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

They're expecting a rerun of 2001 and I think they're going to be enormously surprised.

Unlike 2001, when there was bipartisan accord on how the United States of America would wreak her vengeance, right-wing extremists are now in full control of the government, have done much to neuter the judicial branch and free press, and will be able to do as they please domestically in the name of restoring public safety, answering to no one for the excesses and abuses to come.

Even better for them would be to look the other way for an attack on a large, left-leaning city. An attack on San Francisco or Seattle, say, would deal in one swoop with a large chunk of weakly-organized opposition.

Those who think that the aftermath of a second 2001-scale attack will involve anything but the systematic enforcement of dismantling what remain of everyone's civil rights — Muslim and transgender, included — may be enormously and unpleasantly surprised.

It may look like amateur hour from the outside, but these people have a plan. Get ready for more cruelty from the party of Lincoln.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 8:52 PM on February 22, 2017 [8 favorites]

It sounds like they were so desperate to overturn something with Obama's name on it that they failed to actually look at what they were doing.
posted by zachlipton at 8:55 PM on February 22, 2017 [17 favorites]

Those who think that the aftermath of a second 2001-scale attack will involve anything but the systematic enforcement of dismantling what remain of everyone's civil rights

The Reichstag fire works even if a nutjob lights it, not insiders (which may be what actually happened, but it seems unclear still).
posted by thelonius at 8:57 PM on February 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

the Constitution forbids the police from stopping you and asking for your papers

ACLU: Many people think that border-related policies impact only people living in border towns like El Paso or San Diego. The reality is that Border Patrol's interior enforcement operations encroach deep into and across the United States, affecting the majority of Americans.

posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:00 PM on February 22, 2017 [22 favorites]

everything is for the stupidest in this stupidest of all possible worlds
posted by murphy slaw at 9:00 PM on February 22, 2017 [18 favorites]

zachlipton: an evergreen statement to be sure -- you could put that into any one of these discussions about the Trump regime at any point in time and you'd have a good chance of being on-topic.
posted by flatluigi at 9:00 PM on February 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

They are so bad and in oncompetent at everything they do that I hope it would not work. On the other hand: Americans worried about "emails".
posted by Artw at 9:01 PM on February 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

The Reichstag fire works even if a nutjob lights it, not insiders (which may be what actually happened, but it seems unclear still).

Doesn't even have to be a human act. Can you imagine the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina under this administration? Hard to imagine less than triple digits killed in the name of "law and order."
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:01 PM on February 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

omnincompetent
posted by localhuman at 9:03 PM on February 22, 2017 [7 favorites]

From the Department of Who the Fuck Knows but Yes Please:

Professor who correctly predicted every US presidential election since 1984 is certain Donald Trump will be impeached ~ Academic says disciplinary action against US President is a matter of when rather than if

Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University, uses a system of measures he calls “keys” to predict political outcomes and is now so convinced Mr Trump will face impeachment that he is writing a book on it.

The text, titled “The Case for Impeachment”, will be published in April by HarperCollins. It will include Professor Lichtman’s assessment of how Mr Trump could be impeached, based on analysis showing how his actions make him “uniquely vulnerable” to disciplinary proceedings.

...“They don't want Trump as president, because they can't control him. He's unpredictable. They'd love to have Pence — an absolutely down-the-line, conservative, controllable Republican.

posted by futz at 9:04 PM on February 22, 2017 [13 favorites]

Can I just say that reading all this town hall drama is cheering me up immensely?

Plus the llamas.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:10 PM on February 22, 2017 [10 favorites]

It's Constituent Work Week, a time when, traditionally, members of Congress return to their districts and hold in-person townhall meetings. This year, however, more than 200 Republicans are skipping townhalls, despite calls from their constituents to hold them.

So, town halls aren't as big a part of political culture in Canada as in the USA. The closest I can think of that we have come to this sort of nonsense is during the local debates during the last couple of federal elections, Conservatives were often no-shows in what were considered safe Tory seats. (When asked, they often framed it as "being out working for Canadians rather than engaging in partisan squabbling" or the like.)

I used to figure that to the be the nadir of cowardice and entitlement. To skip a debate where you are the only one on stage is even deeper into the political sub-basement than the Tories like to go.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:15 PM on February 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

Hey! Great news that will (not) end well!

N.H. residents no longer need a license to carry concealed loaded guns
posted by futz at 9:19 PM on February 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

It sounds like they were so desperate to overturn something with Obama's name on it that they failed to actually look at what they were doing.

Yep, they rolled back to the 2001 org chart and forgot that stuff happened after that that led to the ODNI being created. Both evil and fuckwits.
posted by holgate at 9:21 PM on February 22, 2017 [10 favorites]

the Trump white house (is now claiming?) that they fucked up the composition of the national security council on accident

This does not jibe with the report that Trump was upset that Bannon had been put on without his say so.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 9:28 PM on February 22, 2017 [7 favorites]

[Allan Lichtman] says disciplinary action against US President is a matter of when rather than if ... “They don't want Trump as president, because they can't control him. He's unpredictable. They'd love to have Pence — an absolutely down-the-line, conservative, controllable Republican.

Which leads to the natural question of why they haven't already, since they'd still have the Presidency and none of Trump's liabilities.

Seems to be simple:

“They’ll play along for a while,” the unidentified friend said. “They’ll get as much as they want – tax cuts galore, deregulation, military buildup, slash all those poverty programs, and then get to work on Social Security and Medicare – and blame him. And he’s such a fool he’ll want to take credit for everything.”

And then they'll cry "throw the bums out". They'll present themselves as the familiar, normal, trustworthy Republican party, not the crazy Trumpers who took away your health insurance and devastated Social Security (and by the way, don't you want someone fiscally responsible to rebuild it?).
posted by wildblueyonder at 9:29 PM on February 22, 2017 [13 favorites]

I am not sure Trump himself is cooperating with this plan.
posted by Artw at 9:31 PM on February 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

I can deal with stupid. I can work with stupid. I can deal with mean--hell, I kinda LIKE mean; then I can be mean myself. But I cannot deal with stupid AND mean.
posted by thebrokedown at 9:32 PM on February 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

Maxine Waters Is Back and She's Not Here to Play

Is that the face of someone who came to play? No, ma'am, it is not. Rep. Waters wants you to know that she is sick of all these Russian shenanigans and she doesn't care who knows it. She showed up like real life Olivia Pope. Chris Hayes asked her for an interview and she was like "How about I give you a five minute Shonda Rhimes monologue and then pull out a list of people who are trash to me? That sound good to you?"

...This woman is Woodward and Bernstein all by her damn self. Get you a woman who can do both.

Watching her lay the place out, even I started to feel guilty. I was like "Did I collude with Russia? There's a lot of names on this list and she seems very angry. I mean, I bought gas once. Better turn myself in and beg her for mercy, just to be safe."
posted by triggerfinger at 9:32 PM on February 22, 2017 [111 favorites]

I'm waiting to see how this toxic swamp of paranoia and incompetence deals with an actual health crisis like SARS -- selling Trump brand miracle cures, claiming it's a UN plot, or telling you the vaccines cause autism?
posted by benzenedream at 9:40 PM on February 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

Just blame it on Obama and let people die, most likely.
posted by notyou at 9:43 PM on February 22, 2017 [12 favorites]

Maxine can be extremely intimidating. It's really her thing.
posted by Sophie1 at 9:45 PM on February 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

It's her superpower. I bow down to Maxine.
posted by triggerfinger at 9:52 PM on February 22, 2017 [8 favorites]

Those who think that the aftermath of a second 2001-scale attack will involve anything but the systematic enforcement of dismantling what remain of everyone's civil rights — Muslim and transgender, included — may be enormously and unpleasantly surprised.

The key difference from 2001 is the support of the government by the people. And that was the point I was trying to make above. In 2001 & 2002, Bush had incredibly high ratings. He had a blank check with few yelling at him to stop.

I'm thinking the next time will be different. Sure, Trump and the GOP Congress might try for a replay of 2001: let's all hold hands, sing the national anthem, and then we'll strip away your rights. But a substantial part of the population will not play along. The administration might get their repressive state in the end anyways, but it's going to be much more difficult than they realize.

In 2001, it came as a surprise. Both the attack, and how the administration exploited it. In 2017 and onwards, the attack might be surprising but a lot of people will be anticipating the exploitation. People now know how these things play out. Sometimes, that can make all the difference.
posted by honestcoyote at 9:58 PM on February 22, 2017 [19 favorites]

"Well this is depressing: Poll: Americans overwhelmingly oppose sanctuary cities"

I think people mostly don't know what that means, and mostly don't understand how they work. In Illinois, even our jackass GOP governor is against Trump's immigration order and all the police leaders who have spoken on the record have also spoken against it -- it makes cities more dangerous (by making it hard/scary for immigrants to come forward as crime witnesses); it diverts resources from actual dangerous crime; and it opens local police forces and municipalities to massive liability from civil rights lawsuits, which the feds will definitely not shoulder.

The articles also talk about loss of tourism dollars to Chicago; loss of doctors to rural hospitals in downstate Illinois (which, as a downstater, PREACH); public schools who may end up with stranded citizen students with deported non-citizen parents; legal trade and immigration between Illinois and Mexico and the costs of losing that; and effects on other employers of a tight labor market.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:00 PM on February 22, 2017 [28 favorites]

ICE detainee with brain tumor removed from hospital
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:14 PM on February 22, 2017 [12 favorites]

Frustration fills town hall as Sen. Ron Johnson doesn't show up

MADISON (WKOW) -- Hundreds of Madisonians packed into the First Congregational Church downtown, holding a town hall to voice their concerns to Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI). But, he never showed up and neither did a representative from his office.

The gathering was put on by Invisible Madison after organizers say Johnson failed to set up a town hall during his February recess from Washington, D.C.

...

as a helpful reminder, "The term invertebrates is not always precise among non-biologists since it does not accurately describe a taxon in the same way that Arthropoda, Vertebrata or Manidae do."
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:18 PM on February 22, 2017 [9 favorites]

> In crafting their organization order, the officials said, Mr. Trump’s aides essentially cut and pasted language from Mr. Bush’s organization chart

I'm sure many of us here have had our share of boneheaded copy-pasta errors, but I think it's pretty safe to say none of our errors have accidentally put a Nazi in a position of influence over the machinery of war. But I suppose when the guy at the top of the org chart has failed upward his whole life, it only makes sense that everyone else involved can't put in more effort than the average 4chan comment.
posted by tonycpsu at 10:26 PM on February 22, 2017 [59 favorites]

my rep is the worst of the worst (bob goodlatte) and of course didn't show up.

Hire Bob Sarlatte to show up and take his place.
posted by rhizome at 10:29 PM on February 22, 2017

Mr Bush's org chart had Turd Blossom on the NSC?
posted by notyou at 10:35 PM on February 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

I know I sure as hell don't have the energy to fight misogyny on the right and the left while we're trying to stop a slow motion move to white supremacy. It's just too exhausting. It's the main reason I haven't gotten involved with general leftist groups, and have stuck to women's stuff--I just do not have the goddamn spoons.

Cosigned. If you want to know why women respond with enthusiasm when there are Pantsuit activist groups and meetups but they're not attending their local socialist association, I would guess it's mostly because they don't want to put up with condescending misogynists in their off hours the same as they do at their jobs. If you have an explicitly woman-organized group a LOT of women are going to be way more likely to actually turn up.

I'll admit I'm slightly concerned about this with my local groups given that Indivisible has become a thing and the local groups are being run by men and I might be getting a VIBE off one of them, but I appear to be on a committee now, so I guess we'll see.
posted by threeturtles at 10:36 PM on February 22, 2017 [67 favorites]

Jacobin: The Great God Trump And The White Working class

What follows is skeptical interrogation of this narrative using county-level vote data to compare the 2016 presidential campaign with the 2012 campaign in older industrial regions of the Midwest and Appalachia. A number of distinct voting patterns emerge, only one of which actually conforms to the stereotype of the “Trump Democrats.” The phenomenon is real but largely limited to a score or so of troubled Rust Belt counties from Iowa to New York where a new wave of plant closure or relocation has coincided with growing immigrant and refugee populations. Election punditry has consistently conflated blue-collar votes long captured by Republican presidential candidates with the more modest and localized defection of working-class Democrats to Trump. Several hundred thousand white, blue-collar Obama voters, at most, voted for Trump’s vision of fair trade and reindustrialization, not the millions usually invoked. I’m not implying that these substantial beachheads cannot be expanded in the future by continued appeals to white identity and economic nationalism but merely that have been over-interpreted as the key to Trump’s victory.

The “miracle” of the mogul’s campaign, apart from his cunning success in manipulating negative media coverage to his advantage, was capturing the entirety of the Romney vote, without any of the major defections (college-educated Republican women, conservative Latinos, Catholics) that the polls had predicted and Clinton had counted upon.

posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:37 PM on February 22, 2017 [24 favorites]

Professor who correctly predicted every US presidential election since 1984

This guy. He predicted Gore would win in 2000. He claims he was correct because Gore won the popular vote even though he lost the election. He predicted Trump in 2016. He claims he was correct because Trump won the election even though he lost the popular vote.
posted by dirigibleman at 10:37 PM on February 22, 2017 [68 favorites]

Trump repeatedly blamed George W. Bush for the 9/11 attacks during the campaign.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:43 PM on February 22, 2017

Way back in one of the pre-election threads, someone posted this Rachel Maddow segment digging into John Tanton, creepy eugenics dude who helped found FAIR and the Center for Immigration Studies (the CIS was quoted in an anti-immigration Trump campaign TV ad).

Anyways, the CIS popped on my radar again when their director was pissing me off to no end in today's NPR On Point show about immigration reform (I sent the show a long email about normalizing extremism after), and I happened to look up John Tanton again and he's a bit more complex than Maddow let on. For example he founded local chapters of Planned Parenthood and the Sierra Club (wiki), and even more interestingly, this 2011 NYT story on Tanton shows that he was specifically targeting political centrists and progressives to support anti-immigration movements. I guess it sort of worked in the climate of the 80s - 90s by appealing to the labor unions and the "OMG they're are stealing ur jobs!!!" angle. But I recommend the entire NYT story, as it's also a good refresher on how we arrived at "Build the wall," and how FAIR activists were bombarding congress in 2007 when Bush proposed a path to citizenship option:

FAIR rallied talk show hosts. The Center for Immigration Studies churned out studies of the bill’s perceived flaws. Numbers USA jammed the Capitol’s phones.

Their success became the stuff of lore. They “lit up the switchboard for weeks,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, explaining his decision to oppose the bill. “And to every one of them, I say today: ‘Your voice was heard.’ ”

posted by p3t3 at 10:49 PM on February 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'm no good terrible at politicking. How would we go about framing these "teletown halls" as the fake town halls they are?
posted by Yowser at 11:14 PM on February 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Staged phone interviews" seems like a more accurate description than "telephone town halls," for one thing.
posted by contraption at 11:51 PM on February 22, 2017 [8 favorites]

So this is way late, but I've been racking my brain trying to think of what Trump's "when I talked about the thing in Sweden I meant the thing I saw on Fox last night" tweet reminded me of. About 20 minutes ago i finally figured it out: it was Scott Adams' "I am Scott Adams" comment right here on Metafilter. It has that same sense of "i am being forced to tell the truth and I hope to get it over with as quickly as possible."
posted by KathrynT at 11:52 PM on February 22, 2017 [7 favorites]

From TD Strange's link:
"Sara told Zuniga she was given a CD with her medical records at the hospital, and instructed by doctors not to turn them over to ICE. The CD was taken from Sara upon her return to the detention center, Zuniga said."

Jesus.
posted by Yowser at 11:52 PM on February 22, 2017 [10 favorites]

> "Staged phone interviews" seems like a more accurate description than "telephone town halls," for one thing.
posted by contraption at 11:51 PM on February 22 [+] [!]

I still like the idea of figuring out where the representative running the fake telephone town hall is going to be calling from and then protesting that location in person.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 12:05 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Seems legit: 'Demonic activity was palpable' at Trump rally, says Florida pastor
posted by Joe in Australia at 12:15 AM on February 23, 2017 [32 favorites]

Heh. I'm glad someone finally said it!

They say in Africa the devil walks from village to village, in Sweden he drives a Volvo. Apparently in the USA he carries a Trump sign.
posted by tel3path at 12:51 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

'Demonic activity was palpable' at Trump rally, says Florida pastor

I'm very glad the pastor posted his story. Not that I would agree with him regarding the hellish source of the crowd's frenzy, but he sounds like what a Christian pastor should be. If he's telling the truth, I admire him for protecting the protesters from the mob.

I hope his account gets forwarded to all the fundamentalist grandmas out there because he is speaking in their language: the same style found in a Baptist sermon or a testimony about answered prayer. That language might get some religious Trump voters to re-think their choices. Or at least realize Trump isn't Christian in the slightest.
posted by honestcoyote at 1:18 AM on February 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

If you think of Christianity as an exclusive club of special people who are better than everyone else and not as a religion that promotes peace and caring for others, then Trump's a perfect Christian.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:42 AM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

On his FB page, Pastor Joel Tooley (of Joe in Australia's link, above) briefly commented on the reactions he's gotten to that post, and then shared a World Relief video, "Is Justice Worth It?" Here's part of the video voiceover: "A lot of people see justice as the most futile thing you can do with your life. . . . 'Is it even worth it?' . . . rarely comes from those who are actually tired from pursuing justice, and not just tired of the idea. It rarely comes from people who have labored for years, and have good reason to ask it, and you know why they never ask? Those type of people becomes friends with those who suffer. Family, even. Because it's one thing to wonder if someone else's freedom is worth fighting for. But when you begin to identify with that someone else, commune with them, that's when the question is no longer worth asking. That's when it becomes offensive, even. What do you mean, is it worth my time? That doesn't even deserve an answer."
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 2:02 AM on February 23, 2017 [60 favorites]

If you want any more evidence Wikileaks might have gone to trash, here they are endorsing James O'Keefe.
posted by PenDevil at 2:15 AM on February 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

Here's Slate offering a few minutes from the latest Alien movie with a plate of envy for the astronauts who will unfortunately all die horribly but at least they'll be away from Trump
posted by angrycat at 2:23 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Trump may have a major creditor he has not publicly revealed, says Mother Jones: Donald Trump's Mystery $50 Million (or More) Loan.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:48 AM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

House republicans are trying to bury the resolution on Trump's conflicts by sending it to the House Judiciary Committee for a panel vote on the same day Trump is addressing Congress.
posted by amarynth at 4:49 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

evidence Wikileaks might have gone to trash

They've pretty much always been trash? That was abundantly evident when they decided to independently publish their cache of diplomatic cables unredacted (out of pique at the legitimate journalists they were working for going slow and making sure to redact sensitive information). When someone confronted Assange about it in an interview, saying (paraphrased) "this is going to get people killed; you're revealing the names of Iraqis and Afghans who've been working with the US/UK, of dissidents and informants" his response was "well, they're collaborators, they're informants, they deserve to die".
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 5:00 AM on February 23, 2017 [41 favorites]

Trump's open door Oval Office: Along with Manigault, White House officials say, the list of aides with walk-in privileges includes chief strategist Steve Bannon, senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, chief of staff Reince Priebus, son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, and counselor Kellyanne Conway.

White House Counsel Don McGahn has walk-in rights, as does senior communications aide Hope Hicks, and Keith Schiller, Trump’s longtime private security aide who followed him to the White House. Trump’s new national security adviser, Gen. H.R. McMaster, is also expected to be added to the informal list, according to a White House official. Press secretary Sean Spicer, often accompanied by Priebus, is another regular visitor to the Oval Office, as is chief economic adviser Gary Cohn and deputy chief of staff for operations Joe Hagin, according to a White House aide.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:02 AM on February 23, 2017

I can't stop thinking about this lady, who was at the Cotton Town Hall last night, who has a husband at home with Alzheimer's and dementia and congestive heart failure, and dared Cotton to get them a better plan than paying $29 a month for his expenses. I feel almost stupid walking through the streets of Manhattan at a protest saying, "This is what democracy looks like." Because this lady is actually what democracy looks like.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:10 AM on February 23, 2017 [102 favorites]

If your federal representatives are scarce, you may want to look into whether your state house representatives hold townhalls.

My republican state senator holds monthly bi-partisan meetings with other senators and representatives. Last month, she dismissed people's concerns about CO possibly repealing its state health exchange as "knee jerk," and a another Republican senator dismissed people's concerns over fracking as our being too ignorant to understand how the extraction technology works.

The crowd was not pleased, and I'm looking forward to next month's meeting.
posted by audi alteram partem at 5:34 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

Wikileaks vowed to doxx anyone with a verified account on Twitter for no reason other to harass them, and their first attempt targeted the wrong person. They've released personal information and private conversations from people who work for political organizations that had nothing to do with the actions of their bosses. They've targeted personal e-mails of journalists and other people who they disagree with. They've made alliances with anti-Semites, white supremacists, rapists, and violent hate groups. Greenwald is getting tired of their shit. Snowden is getting tired of their shit. When she gets out of prison and is brought up to speed, Manning will probably say she's getting tired of their shit. It's time for them to be torn down and someone else with actual morals and ethics to take their place.
posted by zombieflanders at 5:35 AM on February 23, 2017 [44 favorites]

"Constituent Work Week" means that Constituents do all the work.

That is what happened in my district, the Ohio 15th (it's super gerrymandered to pieces - check it out!). We held a town hall for our representative Steve Stivers last night. We started advertising about a week ago 400 people showed up, and we were able to get four awesome speakers. There were two TV crews and journalists. Last Friday we were literally gathered around a kitchen table wondering if we'd get even 50 people to show. It was great.

It was great because our wonderful representative likened us to an angry mob, and a bunch of unthinking partisans, and paid shills. The people were angry, rightly so. We expressed our anger, but we remained thoughtful and calm. I'm not sure how to express it, but it really fit with what our district is about. I don't think people here are opposed to a rowdy town hall, like Chaffetz got (and deserved!) in Utah. But that's not our style. So it's especially galling that our so-called Representative would call us those things when it just isn't who we are.

Because he doesn't know us. Because he only knows the people who voted for him. Because he only listens to the voices he wants to hear.

And that's fine, if he wants to roll that way. We're working and organizing every day to organize grassroots support against him for the next election. We may not win in '18 but we're sure as hell going to make him wish he'd showed up much sooner.

Also, if there any MeFites in the Ohio 15th please PM me and let me know! I would love to connect with you!
posted by Tevin at 5:47 AM on February 23, 2017 [40 favorites]

Manafort faced blackmail attempt, hacks suggest: The undated communications, which are allegedly from the iPhone of Manafort’s daughter, include a text that appears to come from a Ukrainian parliamentarian named Serhiy Leshchenko, seeking to reach her father, in which he claims to have politically damaging information about both Manafort and Trump.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:55 AM on February 23, 2017 [19 favorites]

At this Grassley Town Hall, there was an account of a retired high school art teacher Susie Petra lambasting Grassley for supporting DeVos for Sec of Ed. Susie was my art teacher in the 1980s*! Give 'em hell Susie!

* she also gave me the lone F of my entire academic career, in a class I was taking pass/fail just to get out of study hall. We had...disagreements. Now that she's on record standing up against this shit, ALL IS FORGIVEN SUSIE. WE'RE COOL.
posted by mcstayinskool at 5:55 AM on February 23, 2017 [68 favorites]

Pat Tiberi (OH-12) refused to hold a town hall so residents scheduled one themselves and invited him. He didn't show up, but they had a cardboard cutout in his place. The town hall was very well attended and basically turned into a mini rally. I think a lot of voters were turned into activists last night. On twitter they were using #TiberiTownHall
posted by noneuclidean at 6:02 AM on February 23, 2017 [17 favorites]

Just a quick reminder that the public comment period for the proposed rule on Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Market Stabilization is open until March 7.

"This rule proposes changes that would help stabilize the individual and small group markets. This proposed rule would amend standards relating to special enrollment periods, guaranteed availability, and the timing of the annual open enrollment period in the individual market for the 2018 plan year; standards related to network adequacy and essential community providers for qualified health plans; and the rules around actuarial value requirements."
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:03 AM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

So, Pat Toomey has been going around having private meetings with the various state Tuesdays With Toomey organizers (of which I am not one, I just help them with their digital organizing). Today it's Pittsburgh's turn. They wanted to take a "have a real Town Hall plz" petition with them, so last night I set up an online petition and sent an email to our mailing list telling people they had about 12 hours to sign because we're going in hot. The organizers said "I hope we get at least 250 signatures!" (We typically get 150-200 for our weekly petitions.)

Friends, this petition currently stands at 1169 signatories. (I had to change that number twice while composing this message because signatures are coming in at like 5 a minute still.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:03 AM on February 23, 2017 [73 favorites]

>Pat Tiberi (OH-12) refused to hold a town hall so residents scheduled one themselves and invited him. He didn't show up, but they had a cardboard cutout in his place.

Ohio 12th District have been doing some amazing work. I've spoken to several people who have met personally with Tiberi and he sounds like a genuinely unpleasant and vile person.

I hope I have time in '18 to phone bank and canvass against him in addition to all the other campaigns I'm going to volunteer for. It would be a pleasure to have a small part in his ousting.
posted by Tevin at 6:06 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

When someone confronted Assange about it in an interview, saying (paraphrased) "this is going to get people killed; you're revealing the names of Iraqis and Afghans who've been working with the US/UK, of dissidents and informants" his response was "well, they're collaborators, they're informants, they deserve to die".

Not to relitigate Assange: This really brought home to me how society needs to change to handle the internet in some way. Someone who is not even remotely, fractionally accountable in any way to any public has the power of life and death, and although this is the far end of the continuum of internet power, it's not totally different in kind from the power to harass someone you've never met, or to try to get someone fired over something that has nothing to do with their job. One of the reasons everything has gone skew-wiff this election is because people who are totally unaccountable in every way have great, great reach and no check on their power. I'm not sure what a good way out of this situation is, although I suspect that it's more like stronger protections for people - work protections, privacy protections, etc - rather than censorship. But it's worrying - a lie goes halfway around the world, etc.
posted by Frowner at 6:07 AM on February 23, 2017 [33 favorites]

At first the removal of gatekeepers was like Wheeee now you can be from a marginalized background and still be heard and not have to kowtow to gatekeepers! But now it's like fuck where are all these assholes coming from?!
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:12 AM on February 23, 2017 [20 favorites]

This is chilling:
Islamophobia grows louder in North Carolina: 'Can we not kill them all?'
posted by adamvasco at 6:15 AM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

I don't get it. Shouting down your elected representative instead of engaging her/him is pointless. No issues are explored; no dialogue takes place. What has happened to civility and respect?

Are you trolling? Rethuglicans need to be met by consistently loud, angry crowds. Because sooner or later, in the furthest corners of their glacial hearts they will begin to confront the only thing they really fear - they will have to deal with the horrifying potential of becoming unemployed in 2018 and 2020, and have to get real jobs. Like peasants.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 6:17 AM on February 23, 2017 [64 favorites]

and they'll splinter and begin to throw trump under the nearest bus.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 6:17 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

"paid shills" –king george iii, probably
posted by entropicamericana at 6:30 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

(from way up thread...)

Hey! Great news that will (not) end well!

N.H. residents no longer need a license to carry concealed loaded guns

Having been a NH resident (and CCW permit holder), I'd like to suggest to you that it's probably nothing as bad as what you're imagining.

First, neighboring VT has had permit-free CCW for ages. There has not been a problem.

Second, in NH prior to this, the permitting authority for a CCW is your town sheriff. Which, i suppose in the more populated areas near Boston might actually do some kind of background check.... maybe.... but for the rest of the state, it's basically hand over your $10 and wait a couple of days while they sign the thing... presumably if they think you're white enough. There's almost nothing stopping anyone from getting a CCW in NH as it is. (also, NH CCW permits are a joke. the official thing is a flimsy piece of paper; and there's barely any penalty for not carrying it; at worst, you'll have to go to court and show that you have the thing.)

For all practical purposes, this changes very little. In fact, it makes it somewhat harder for NH residents to carry in other states, as non-resident reciprocity generally requires a permit.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 6:31 AM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Because this lady is actually what democracy looks like.

All these town halls remind me of Norman Rockwell's Freedom of Speech painting.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:31 AM on February 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

Newsweek: Exclusive: Listen to Controversial White House Terrorism Adviser Sebastian Gorka’s Angry Call to a Critic

The alpha males are back... turns out they're thin skinned whiners.
posted by PenDevil at 6:32 AM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

EXCLUSIVE: LISTEN TO CONTROVERSIAL WHITE HOUSE TERRORISM ADVISER SEBASTIAN GORKA’S ANGRY CALL TO A CRITIC

Gorka apparently used his personal cell phone, with a northern Virgina area code, rather than making the call from his White House office or government-issued cell phone, where it would be officially logged, Smith says. The terrorism expert says he suspected Gorka “was trying to conceal the call.”

posted by Talez at 6:32 AM on February 23, 2017 [40 favorites]

Jinx, buy me a Coke Zero, Pen Devil.

What's a Coke Zero?
posted by Talez at 6:33 AM on February 23, 2017

It's time for them (Wikileaks) to be torn down and someone else with actual morals and ethics to take their place.

Let's not replace them and say we did.

The voyoristic glee of reading fights between people I despise is entertaining, but there's no way to reconcile that with the (alleged) desire in the tech world for internet privacy.

Say what you will about the government, most people have far more secrets they keep from other people than they do secrets they want to keep from the authorities. And releasing emails or other documents gives everyone access to all of that.

You can claim that you're doing it for a just cause, but causes can easily be invented -- see Gamergate's alleged desire for "ethics in game journalism."

There are things I wish someone had leaked (the dossier, say, would have exploded), but all of those things could easily have been released by a mainstream media outlet. An information dump a la Wikileaks is just unethical.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 6:34 AM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

My stance on Wikileaks is: this is a solved problem and it's called investigative journalism. We don't need Wikileaks, we need to backup a dump truck full of money outside of Pro Publica and similar organizations. Journalism has a code of ethics and accepted methods to at least attempt to mitigate the fall-out for innocent bystanders, and verify the information they receive.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:39 AM on February 23, 2017 [84 favorites]

If Gorka is an "alpha male" based on a couple of months in the TA then I'm a member of the SAS based on having been in Army Cadets.
posted by Artw at 6:41 AM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

So Alan Colmes is dead and the first thing that comes to mind is "dammit death you took the wrong one".
posted by Talez at 6:52 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

NYTimes advertisement campaign, will launch during the Oscars broadcast.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:53 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Kellyanne Conway on @womensmarch: “It turns out that a lot of women just have a problem with women in power” (video) Calling yourself a feminist is "anti-male" and pro-abortion."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:57 AM on February 23, 2017

It turns out that a lot of women just have a problem with women in power

And that's why they voted for Trump.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:02 AM on February 23, 2017 [18 favorites]

Oh, fuck off Kellyanne.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:04 AM on February 23, 2017 [64 favorites]

Going back to the "papers please", this reporter from VICE was not allowed to disembark her plane at JFK yesterday without presenting her "documents."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:06 AM on February 23, 2017 [18 favorites]

Soren - I totally signed that!
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 7:07 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Kellyanne Conway really fucking reminds me of Tilda Swinton's character in Snowpiercer, desperately trying to keep the undesirable down in the back of the train in order to prop up her own precarious position serving exploitative white men.
posted by joyceanmachine at 7:09 AM on February 23, 2017 [29 favorites]

Kellyanne Conway on @womensmarch: “It turns out that a lot of women just have a problem with women in power”

Yeah, that's part of why Hillary lost. What's your point?
posted by dinty_moore at 7:12 AM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

At least Conway is being blatant about it, as opposed to Ivanka's "see, my childcare plan aimed almost entirely at people rich enough to afford full-time domestic help means I 'm totally a feminist!" bullshit.
posted by zombieflanders at 7:17 AM on February 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

Speaking of Ivanka, I'd like to revisit the incident from a couple months back in which Ivanka and Jared were politely confronted by one of the passengers they were inexplicably seated next to on a commercial airliner. To all the folks who were saying how inappropriate and unseemly the passenger acted: do you still feel that way after a month of the Trump Era?
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:21 AM on February 23, 2017 [25 favorites]

EXCLUSIVE: LISTEN TO CONTROVERSIAL WHITE HOUSE TERRORISM ADVISER SEBASTIAN GORKA’S ANGRY CALL TO A CRITIC

This is the most awesome thing I have heard in a while. Smith is a total dick (questioning his mental stability, calling Gorka a charlatan). And it's awesome.
posted by My Dad at 7:40 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

So Alan Colmes is dead

How could they tell?
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:47 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

So Alan Colmes is dead and the first thing that comes to mind is "dammit death you took the wrong one".

if the symbolism gets any more heavy-handed this year, bald eagles will start landing on national monuments en masse and dying simultaneously
posted by murphy slaw at 7:51 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

In the last thread, we had MeFites dismissing Brianna Wu's run for Congress with some of the most obviously misogynist reasoning and language I've seen on this site in a while.

Not arguing against this comment specifically because I've been having more and more trouble following these threads, and not arguing against the point generally because it's pretty obvious that there is a lot of bigotry on the left/center, but just adding a quick reminder that Wu is a libertarian-Democrat who views education as a public investment that needs to have a good ROI to be worthwhile. Her intentions are, I think, good, but that isn't a view of society I share. I would like to see more women, trans people, people of color and any other underrepresented groups running for office, but that doesn't automatically translate into politics I support.

Sorry for the derail, I'll shut up. Just wanted to elaborate since I was part of the jokey sub-convo last thread, and probably nobody brought up any context to that.
posted by byanyothername at 7:53 AM on February 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

if the symbolism gets any more heavy-handed this year, bald eagles will start landing on national monuments en masse and dying simultaneously

The symbolism started immediately: Bald eagle that fell in storm drain dies, caretakers say
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:55 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

wow eagles are going to save everyone again the writers just admitted they're making up as they go along
posted by Tevin at 7:58 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

okay how about the constitution bursting into flames inside its anoxic encasement at the national archives while a troop of schoolchildren watch
posted by murphy slaw at 7:59 AM on February 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

Does the ICE spot check of the childrens papers happen before or after?
posted by Artw at 8:02 AM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

okay how about the constitution bursting into flames inside its anoxic encasement at the national archives while a troop of schoolchildren watch

Not obvious enough. I think we need for Toby Keith to be the teacher and shed a single tear.
posted by Etrigan at 8:03 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

w/r/t eagles I'll just leave this here.

the articles about this frame it in terms of small terrorist drones, but it's pretty easy to imagine this as applicable to Predators as well
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 8:06 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

and really I can't picture a better end to the US military drone program than "all drones destroyed by French attack eagles."
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 8:08 AM on February 23, 2017 [18 favorites]

oh so they could have called in the eagles anytime
posted by Dr Dracator at 8:12 AM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

>>So Alan Colmes is dead
>How could they tell?

he stopped rolling over and showing his neck
posted by entropicamericana at 8:12 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Louie Gohmert's in the news again: GOP rep invokes Giffords shooting as reason not to hold town hall
posted by mllm at 8:15 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

Not arguing against this comment specifically because I've been having more and more trouble following these threads, and not arguing against the point generally because it's pretty obvious that there is a lot of bigotry on the left/center, but just adding a quick reminder that Wu is a libertarian-Democrat who views education as a public investment that needs to have a good ROI to be worthwhile. Her intentions are, I think, good, but that isn't a view of society I share. I would like to see more women, trans people, people of color and any other underrepresented groups running for office, but that doesn't automatically translate into politics I support.

Honestly, I think the best thing that would come out of Wu running for congress is convincing other women that they can, in fact, run for congress and primary old white dudes in order to get their voices heard. We'd be at a net neutral in congress if she lost the primary and Lynch remains, but if she convinces someone else in another district that they can run and they win, it's still a gain.

I have seen a lot more diversity in people planning to run since the election - there are two trans women running for city council in Minneapolis, and both of them are friends of friends. And yeah, there are going to be women I don't agree with running. But at least there will be a choice, and I can choose not to vote for them.
posted by dinty_moore at 8:16 AM on February 23, 2017 [26 favorites]

Trump on Rex Tillerson being in Mexico: "We're getting really bad dudes out of this country." (video)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:18 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

My Congressperson is Lamar Smith. I suspect he won't hold townhall meetings because he probably thinks electricity doesn't exist or that people may ask him hard questions about science.
posted by the matching mole at 8:18 AM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

So Alan Colmes is dead and the first thing that comes to mind is "dammit death you took the wrong one".

if the symbolism gets any more heavy-handed this year, bald eagles will start landing on national monuments en masse and dying simultaneously

If the death of an avatar of milquetoast, ineffectual liberal opposition means that a more forceful, convincing leftism can rise in its place like Gandalf the White, I'll play along with the mythopoeic narrative.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:18 AM on February 23, 2017 [16 favorites]

The Republican Party isn't attempting to destroy all opposition (the Democrats, press, universities, etc) so the GOP can laser-focus on the needs of Republican voters.

The Republican Party is attempting to destroy those things so they don't have to listen to *anyone.*

Excepting, of course, the corporation and wealthy individuals whose bidding they do. It's fascinating how blatantly Republicans' actions reinforce the (wholly correct) perception that their agenda is not popular.
posted by Gelatin at 8:19 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Louie Gohmert's in the news again: GOP rep invokes Giffords shooting as reason not to hold town hall

So he'd be glad to support some reasonable gun control measures, then?
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:20 AM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

Louie Gohmert's in the news again: GOP rep invokes Giffords shooting as reason not to hold town hall

Gohmert's right in the sweet spot of the venn diagram of "stupidest congressmen" and "most evil congressmen."
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:21 AM on February 23, 2017 [33 favorites]

Dueling op-eds in the NY Times.

Trump Voters Are Not the Enemy

The third reason is tactical: It’s hard to win over voters whom you’re insulting.

Many liberals argue that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and that the focus should be on rallying the base and fighting voter suppression efforts. Yes, but Democrats flopped in Congress, governor races and state legislatures. Republicans now control 68 percent of partisan legislative chambers in the U.S.

And from the "Like Hell They Aren't" Department

The Death of Compassion

Trump is a cancer on this country and resistance is the remedy. The Trump phenomenon is devoid of compassion, and we must be closed to compromise.

No one need try to convince me otherwise. The effort is futile; my conviction is absolute. This is a culture war in which truth is the weapon, righteousness the flag and passion the fuel.

Fight, fight, fight. And when you are finished, fight some more. Victory is the only acceptable outcome when freedom, equality and inclusion are at stake.

The only problem I have with the second article is that Fight, fight, fight. And when you are finished, fight some more. isn't really a tactic. I have no idea what he means by that. You can't really get their votes in a wrestling match. And this is usually the point where a lot of people on the left start showing a real distaste in democracy and I start seeing myself out.
posted by zabuni at 8:21 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

todo fax pictures of chickens to Louie Gohmert
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 8:22 AM on February 23, 2017 [14 favorites]

Gohmert's right in the sweet spot of the venn diagram of "stupidest congressmen" and "most evil congressmen."

And "most aptly named congressmen".
posted by Etrigan at 8:22 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Sebastian Gorka isn't right in the head.
posted by diogenes at 8:24 AM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

the tactic is not to get their votes. the tactic is to bury their votes beneath an avalanche of our votes so thoroughly that you can't even see the very top of their votes.
posted by murphy slaw at 8:24 AM on February 23, 2017 [61 favorites]

todo fax pictures of chickens to Louie Gohmert

Only if you're trying to turn him on.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:24 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

> The third reason is tactical: It’s hard to win over voters whom you’re insulting

Action should not be taken to win over Trump voters. Action should be taken to improve the morale of Trump opponents and to humiliate the Trump base, making Trumpism politically and socially radioactive, thus repulsing less hardened Trump supporters.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 8:25 AM on February 23, 2017 [83 favorites]

okay how much to you think we would have to pay Mark McKinney to put on the old costume and vamp in front of Gohmert's office
posted by murphy slaw at 8:26 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

Trump Voters Are Not the Enemy

Jamelle Bouie's take on Twitter:

What angers me about arguments like this is they work hard to present Trump as an aberration from American politics. Kristof wants to say that there is Trump, then there are his voters, and that there's no particular relationship between the two. As such, Trump doesn't reflect anything in particular about his supporters. But this is nonsense. There is a reason that right-populist movements in the United States are inevitably racist and xenophobic. There is a reason that they all center on the same basic defense of race hierarchy and white hegemony. There is a reason that the maintenance of white hegemony is an enduring feature of all kinds of popular movements among white Americans. And it is because white hegemony is a long-standing, lower-case d democratic aspiration in the United States. Trump reflects that aspiration, which is to say he represents the stated and expressed interests of millions of his supporters. It has been fascinating, although not unexpected, to watch mainstream thinkers deny this, even as it stares them straight in the face. I keep referring to "white innocence" and that is what this is: The belief that white Americans bear no responsibility for actions that enforce race hierarchy. "Donald Trump wants to deport millions but it's important to understand that his voters are DECENT & GOOD." It is okay if your aim is to win back voters, but then just say that and spare me the special pleading and ahistorical analysis.

posted by zombieflanders at 8:27 AM on February 23, 2017 [145 favorites]

The third reason is tactical: It’s hard to win over voters whom you’re insulting

I coulda sworn that the voters who handed control of the White House and Congress to one party and aided and abetted the thievery of the Supreme Court by that party have been pretty insult-happy over the last counts on fingers let's say forty years just to be safe.
posted by Etrigan at 8:29 AM on February 23, 2017 [31 favorites]

I Was a Muslim in Trump's White House. "When President Obama left, I stayed on at the National Security Council in order to serve my country. I lasted eight days."
posted by adamg at 8:30 AM on February 23, 2017 [60 favorites]

Are eagles strong enough to carry beehives.
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:30 AM on February 23, 2017 [27 favorites]

> The third reason is tactical: It’s hard to win over voters whom you’re insulting

If someone votes for/supports a racist fascist just because a liberal supposedly hurt their fee fees, then they're exactly as terrible a person as thought. And maybe the snowflake should check into safe spaces.
posted by chris24 at 8:31 AM on February 23, 2017 [32 favorites]

Gorka is a straight up comic book villain. If he weren't flesh and blood I'd think the transcripts of some of his comments had been lifted directly from Archer.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:32 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Are eagles strong enough to carry beehives.

African or European?

Just kidding, the correct answer is a California Condor.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:33 AM on February 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

Republicans are sure Trump wasn't serious about protecting Social Security
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:34 AM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

Gorka is a straight up comic book villain. If he weren't flesh and blood I'd think the transcripts of some of his comments had been lifted directly from Archer.

no, it's worse than that, he's cosplaying as a comic book villian
posted by murphy slaw at 8:35 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

i mean you put sebastian gorka in a room with general zod and i don't think there is any question who is doing the kneeling if you get my drift
posted by murphy slaw at 8:36 AM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

I think maybe there's the potential to do to the word "snowflake" what the fascists did to the phrase "fake news." It's eminently hijackable as a concept — this because the fascists have so many fee fees that get hurt so easily — and it provides us with a way to get under their skin about it that's more effective than just saying "coward" and that, unlike most of the phrases that really bother them, doesn't deploy misogynist language.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 8:37 AM on February 23, 2017 [37 favorites]

no, it's worse than that, he's cosplaying as a comic book villian

I am being perfectly serious here: You take that the fuck back. Every cosplayer I've ever met is worth a hundred of this guy.
posted by Etrigan at 8:37 AM on February 23, 2017 [18 favorites]

I think maybe there's the potential to do to the word "snowflake" what the fascists did to the phrase "fake news."

why isn't #fauxnews a thing?
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:37 AM on February 23, 2017

why isn't #fauxnews a thing?

because as big and obvious and dumb as it is, it's still too sophisticated to reach anyone fooled by "fake news"
posted by murphy slaw at 8:40 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

With regard to reaching Trump voters ...

A couple days ago I was driving to an organizing meeting for a group who wants our next congressional race to be competitive. The last two elections the state party has pulled out, and our current rep won by 100K+ votes and some 30 points. Its been a massacre.

This is important because it has had an effect across the entire district. Without a large race to anchor to, the county parties have stopped running candidates. I don't have the exact figures but something 90% of the local races in my district with 12 counties had unopposed races.

So what has happened is that people in those areas just vote republican because they just vote republican because their neighbors vote republican and there are no choices but, most importantly, there are no democrats out there just talking to their neighbors.

The number one most common thing I hear when I talk to people (which I have crowed about in these threads going back to July) is "Wow I didn't know there were other Democrats!" Folks, there are people in my district who have never met a single democrat in person. EVER. They get all their news from Fox, if they listen to the news, and they vote how their more-informed friends vote because it feels safe.

President Trump is the #1 threat to the US right now, no doubt. But I am not going to give up on people who voted for him. A lot of the people who did vote for Trump did so because they are also racist, awful shitlords. Yes. But, here's something I keep coming back around to: I used to be awful. I used to be afraid of gay people. I used to think Muslims were all trying to kill me. I used to be Trump's prime target voter but I'm not anymore.

Because people took the time to talk to me. Because people in my life took the time to correct me and give me space to grow into a more caring and compassionate person.

And because the people who voted for Trump are, like me, humans capable of change I'm not going to give up on them. I'm going to talk to them. I'm going to listen to them. When they spew racist, sexist, phobic garbage I will not equivocate and play along but I'm not going to pretend like they don't exist. They exist, and they're not going anywhere. And they may never agree with me on tax policy, but maybe I can get them to believe that Steve Bannon is a Nazi and maybe we should elect leaders who don't want to be advised by Nazis. That's doable for a lot of my neighbors, I think.

So. Yeah. Compassion, empathy, have it or not. Whatever. You can try to bury them, but they're not just going to leave. They're not going to stop voting. Don't equivocate for the hate, but don't pretend like they don't exist.
posted by Tevin at 8:41 AM on February 23, 2017 [66 favorites]

So Alan Colmes is dead

Someone needs to tell that to whoever runs his Twitter account.
posted by dirigibleman at 8:43 AM on February 23, 2017

New Poll Shows Less Than 1/3 Of Pa. Voters Happy With President Trump So Far

A new Franklin and Marshall College poll shows less than one-third of all Pennsylvania voters approve of the job President Donald Trump is doing. The Franklin and Marshall College poll shows only 32 percent of those surveyed think Trump is doing a “good” or “excellent” job.

Even if you don't believe the polls any more, that looks pretty dismal.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:44 AM on February 23, 2017 [21 favorites]

Metafilter: From a pure eagle-efficiency standpoint, if you're looking to weaponize bees, you'd be honestly better off with wasps.
posted by lazaruslong at 8:46 AM on February 23, 2017 [45 favorites]

Thanks Rust Moranis, I just Slacked that to the organizers going to meet with Pat Toomey today!
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:48 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

I used to be Trump's prime target voter but I'm not anymore.

Because people took the time to talk to me. Because people in my life took the time to correct me and give me space to grow into a more caring and compassionate person.

How nice of them, and how great for you! I'm all for kind, patient people who want to spend time with bigots and give them "space to grow" but right now we are in an existential struggle and as a GOTV strategy "convert the avowed bigots" looks a lot less effective than "get the apathetic off their asses."

You can try to bury them, but they're not just going to leave.

I don't expect them to leave, I expect them to die (in the gradual, demographic-attrition sense of course.)
posted by contraption at 8:49 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

A new thread already? I thought the last thread was so slow!

Poor tehund

Note: Tehhund died on the way back to his home planet
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:49 AM on February 23, 2017 [25 favorites]

Is there a kick ass PA activist slack? If so, holla at me plz?
posted by lazaruslong at 8:49 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Jamelle Bouie's take

Worth noting that he has been kicking ass on Trump since last year.
posted by spitbull at 8:53 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Republicans now planning to put off Trumps infrastructure plan for the midterms
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:53 AM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

Just the Tuesdays With Toomey Pittsburgh Slack, I'm afraid. (I mean, there may actually be one, but if there is, I am not in the know.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:54 AM on February 23, 2017

I mean, the Civil War wasn't really ever finished, was it? Reconstruction was a fucking joke. The original sins of this country were always just swept under the rug.

I can't shake the feeling that we're going to have to fight those same demons again. They hate anyone who isn't white, they hate women, they hate LGBTQ people, they hate the disabled. You can't persuade hate at scale. You have to fucking bury it.

Like the hellmouth has opened. I don't see how we close it again without going to war.
posted by schadenfrau at 8:56 AM on February 23, 2017 [41 favorites]

Republicans are sure Trump wasn't serious about protecting Social Security

“My fear is that we are going to see the biggest cuts that any president has ever proposed in programs for low- and modest-income families,” said Bob Greenstein, the center’s president. “It could be the biggest Robin Hood in reverse a president has ever offered.”

Republicans now planning to put off Trumps infrastructure plan for the midterms

And then in 2018 they won't actually implement any of it.
posted by Talez at 8:57 AM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

>How nice of them, and how great for you! I'm all for kind, patient people who want to spend time with bigots and give them "space to grow" but right now we are in an existential struggle and as a GOTV strategy "convert the avowed bigots" looks a lot less effective than "get the apathetic off their asses."

I don't want to derail so we can PM if you want to continue this buuuuut ...

I should distinguish that "talking to people" is not a GOTV or "winning an election" strategy, but very much a civic and societal imperative. Bigots and the like are not going to die out. We can't rely on that happening, they will pass their bigotry to their children.

And also, to state it explicitly, I don't expect everyone to want to do this, either. If you are LGBTQ, POC, Muslim, etc I would never in a million years suggest that you have to engage with Trump voters on that level.
posted by Tevin at 8:57 AM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

you'd be honestly better off with wasps

They'll just ravage the shrimp platters and harass the staff.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:58 AM on February 23, 2017 [34 favorites]

Yeah, but if you're dropping them onto people from eagle cruising altitude they'll still make quite an impact.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:58 AM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

Republicans now planning to put off Trumps infrastructure plan for the midterms

Is this actually clever? Because to me it reads like "burn all your political capital fucking up Obamacare, let your "right to work and deunionization for all" agenda blossom and then make a big, crony-ridden infrastructure ask on the theory that this will get the unions (who you've been attacking all along) on your side.

I mean, Trump's infrastructure deal, if it even happens, is obviously going to be garbage. I am not entirely sorry to have time for everyone to realize how garbage it will be. And I'm not sorry for everyone to have time to realize how much shittier the entire economy is going to be when we get rid of immigrants.
posted by Frowner at 8:59 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

How nice of them, and how great for you! I'm all for kind, patient people who want to spend time with bigots and give them "space to grow" but right now we are in an existential struggle and as a GOTV strategy "convert the avowed bigots" looks a lot less effective than "get the apathetic off their asses."

The place I eventually arrived at on the whole "Trump voter outreach" thing is that I think it's a good idea worth pursuing, and that it should be pursued by people who are willing and able to do it, but that I would never tell people that it's the only strategy we should pursue or that any specific individual or group should change their strategy to target potential Trump voter converts. Let that work be done by people in a position to do it, and let those who don't want to or can't bring themselves to do that work instead direct their energies to approaches they believe in.
posted by chrominance at 8:59 AM on February 23, 2017 [16 favorites]

"This is the longest we've been since George Washington without approving a Cabinet," Ted Cruz says at CPAC.

Janet Reno waited until March 11th.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:59 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

@ddale8: Ted Cruz: "I think we'll have another Supreme Court vacancy this summer." Tittering as people try to figure out who he is going to kill

Not sure if this is Cruz playing off the Zodiac Killer meme or if he's actually got plans to assassinate someone.
posted by zombieflanders at 9:00 AM on February 23, 2017 [26 favorites]

...as a helpful reminder, "The term invertebrates is not always precise among non-biologists since it does not accurately describe a taxon in the same way that Arthropoda, Vertebrata or Manidae do."

I'm fine with using Arthropoda.
posted by MtDewd at 9:01 AM on February 23, 2017

Trump Is An Aberration That Does Not Reflect The GOP

This is one of those memes that has the potential to be a self fulfilling prophesy. That's the value it has. Maybe it's not true right now, but if we keep saying it, and Trump crashes and burns, then it offers a face-saving way for the GOP to back away from Trumpism. If he crashes hard enough they will run fast in the opposite direction and say they never supported his ideas anyway. "Build a wall" and "Deport them all" and "Bomb the shit out of them" and "Torture works" and "Take the oil" will become politically toxic ideas for a generation on BOTH sides of the aisle.

"That was never what the Republican party stood for" Republicans will say, amplifying in retrospect whatever niggling doubts they may be feeling right now. They'll quote John McCain and George W Bush in their more statesmanlike moments and say that was the REAL Republican party all along. Anyone who runs as a Trumpist will get shot down hard and early.

That's IF he crashes and burns, and IF we haven't backed them into a rhetorical corner where they can't possibly distance themselves from him.

Maybe that's not the best case scenario. Maybe the best case is we don't let them rhetorically distance themselves, and the whole party crashes and burns with him. But that's rather less likely. "Republican" is a bigger part of people's identities than "Trump voter" and they're a lot more likely to abandon the latter than the former. And if we don't let Republicans distance themselves they will be forced to prop him up to save themselves.

I'm worried that Bannon's "We are at war with radical Islam" will become a self fulfilling prophesy. I am hopeful that "Trump Is An Aberration That Does Not Reflect The GOP" will become one instead.
posted by OnceUponATime at 9:01 AM on February 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

Kennedy and Thomas have both been rumored to want to retire.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:02 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Is this actually clever?

At the risk of being painfully obtuse, it depends on your honest internal appraisal of how well/poorly it's likely to work out, i.e. how embarrassingly corrupt and inept. If I were part of the GOP Congressional cadre actually negotiating behind the scenes with the Trumpsters I might well want to put off that Jacksonian carnival until after midterms.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:02 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm just sayin', if he shaves his head and gets a barcode tattoo, be very worried.
posted by zombieflanders at 9:03 AM on February 23, 2017

Well, CPAC is trying to make out a Neo-Nazi does not represent it's views right now, which is a bit of a change from a week ago when they had one as keynote speaker. Said Neo-Nazi was pretty emphatic that they represent his views though.
posted by Artw at 9:04 AM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

Thomas have both been rumored to want to retire.

thomas has wanted to retire since hearing his first case
posted by murphy slaw at 9:04 AM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

(I think mainly they didn't want Richard Spenser getting punched, then everyone thinking about it a bit, then a mass outbreak of self punching breaking out)
posted by Artw at 9:05 AM on February 23, 2017

Is that a Reboot reference or am I missing some context?
posted by Slackermagee at 9:05 AM on February 23, 2017

thomas has wanted to retire since hearing his first case

and has largely done so.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:05 AM on February 23, 2017 [33 favorites]

These threads are moving way too fast! So much interesting information and news.

Something I've considered: in this liberal if not socialist country, women are very well represented at the national and regional levels. But locally, there are almost no women. And while we don't have gerrymandering, it does mean that at the experiental level of politics, it is still old, white, and sometimes corrupt men. For many immigrants, this is the only level they are allowed to vote, and they decline from voting. Also, what happens on the local level has an effect on national voting. When a regional division of a moderately conservative party became corrupt, all their voters turned to the radical right, not only in local and regional elections, but also nationally and for the EU and it had a huge effect.

I don't know how one could engage more women to engage in local politics - including school boards and community organizations - because it would mean much more than most people think
posted by mumimor at 9:05 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Republicans now planning to put off Trumps infrastructure plan for the midterms

And then in 2018 they won't actually implement any of it.

You misunderstood. They meant midterms 2026, President Ivanka Trump
posted by Glibpaxman at 9:05 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Slackermagee: "Is that a Reboot reference or am I missing some context?"

Shaved head and barcode tattoo probably describes the titular protagonist of the Hitman video game (and movie starring Billy Zane).
posted by mhum at 9:08 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Something I've considered: in this liberal if not socialist country, women are very well represented at the national and regional levels.

Wait, what? Only 25% of state legislators and 20% in the US Congress are women.
posted by zombieflanders at 9:08 AM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

Reconstruction was a fucking joke.

Reconstruction wasn't a joke, it heralded the birth of fusion politics and a lot of black people in major political positions getting support from poor whites, and if the Reconstruction efforts continued we'd probably be in a better world today, but it was aborted to give us fucking Rutherford B. Hayes at the expense of giving horrible racists free reign of southern governments. Republicans courting southern racists fuck it up for everyone, the story we keep reliving.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:09 AM on February 23, 2017 [54 favorites]

I don't know how one could engage more women to engage in local politics - including school boards and community organizations - because it would mean much more than most people think

Make it safe so that any woman who steps up isn't going to have her life ruined by harassment?
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:11 AM on February 23, 2017 [42 favorites]

Wait, what? Only 25% of state legislators and 20% in the US Congress are women.

Mumimor lives somewhere else with better representation. They are not from the US, unless I am totally confused.
posted by Frowner at 9:11 AM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Holy crap, Gorka is off his rocker.
posted by Lyme Drop at 9:12 AM on February 23, 2017

Reconstruction was great, but unfortunately the United States lost the guerilla phase of the Civil War and so it could never be completed.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 9:12 AM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

OnceUponATime, your comment puts me in mind of the Sun Tzu maxim, "always leave your enemies an avenue of escape." Hemming in the Republicans with Trump will just lead to more doubling-down and vicious backlash, since they will be out of options.

Instead, we should be painting the repugnant Republican ideas as Trump ideas, so that when they inevitably need to run as far from him as they can, they will also have to leave those policies behind to wipe the stink of him off of them.
posted by Freon at 9:12 AM on February 23, 2017 [26 favorites]

Trump calls deportation push a 'military operation'
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:13 AM on February 23, 2017 [21 favorites]

They hate anyone who isn't white, they hate women, they hate LGBTQ people, they hate the disabled.

They hate anyone different from them in any way.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:13 AM on February 23, 2017

My fear is something unprecedented WILL happen, like the destruction of an entire city.

We already saw that, actually, with Hurricane Katrina. And it was about then that most people (except, of course, the crazy 27% base that later rebranded itself as the "tea party) woke up to the obvious fact of George W. Bush's incompetence.
posted by Gelatin at 9:14 AM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

Instead, we should be painting the repugnant Republican ideas as Trump ideas,

Trump isn't up for re-election in 621 days. A lot of Republicans are.
posted by Etrigan at 9:15 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

NRA to organise it's members into fascist paramilitary squads.

I guess it's time for the 2nd amendment's defence of tyranny to shine.
posted by Artw at 9:15 AM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

russian consul andrey malanin found dead in athens. if i'm reading this right, next piece to drop is diyevkin.
posted by xcasex at 9:16 AM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

russian consul anrey malanin found dead in athens. if i'm reading this right, next piece to drop is diyevkin.

They sure run a tight ship. Wonder if they'll drop anyone actually in the WH?
posted by Artw at 9:17 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

russian consul andrey malanin found dead in athens.

This is dated January 9.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:17 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

> your comment puts me in mind of the Sun Tzu maxim, "always leave your enemies an avenue of escape."

An avenue of escape is too much. An avenue of surrender is fine, though.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 9:18 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Are they covering up the Russia side links to the Trump campaign?
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:18 AM on February 23, 2017

but it was aborted to give us fucking Rutherford B. Hayes at the expense of giving horrible racists free reign of southern governments. Republicans courting southern racists fuck it up for everyone, the story we keep reliving

Yeah, that was the part I was referring to as a joke. Sorry to be unclear. Also it wasn't so much a joke as a cowardly betrayal, but yeah, the point remains: we didn't finish the job.

And someone up above pointed out that the way to get women in politics is to make it safe for women to be in politics. I wish I could favorite that a million goddamn times. If we took terrorism against women seriously (and that's what we should ducking call it), you'd see a lot more women in the public sphere.

Oh man I'm getting angry again.
posted by schadenfrau at 9:20 AM on February 23, 2017 [24 favorites]

New Poll Shows Less Than 1/3 Of Pa. Voters Happy With President Trump So Far

Then maybe you shouldn't have voted for him last November you frick'n jagoffs.
posted by octothorpe at 9:20 AM on February 23, 2017 [40 favorites]

russian consul andrey malanin found dead in athens. if i'm reading this right, next piece to drop is diyevkin.

Deadliest job in the world: Russian diplomat.
posted by Talez at 9:21 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Then maybe you shouldn't have voted for him last November you frick'n jagoffs.

Yins, please. You have to speak their language.
posted by zombieflanders at 9:23 AM on February 23, 2017 [23 favorites]

Sent a crate of liberal tears mugs and some empathy.
posted by Artw at 9:23 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

russian consul andrey malanin found dead in athens. if i'm reading this right, next piece to drop is diyevkin.

I mean, it's weird that all these Russian diplomats have died recently, but also, not everything is a plot from a Le Carre novel. Sometimes people just die. Who knows? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

I'm curious though what your "read" on it is? Why would these diplomats be assassinated? If Russia is killing them, why not just recall them to Moscow and keep them quiet. If someone else is killing them, why?
posted by dis_integration at 9:24 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

NRA to organise it's members into fascist paramilitary squads.

no sweat we'll disarm them with a pithy tweet, bon mots are how we won the american revolution and beat the nazis after all
posted by entropicamericana at 9:24 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Excuse you, it's yinz. With a z. This is important.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:25 AM on February 23, 2017 [21 favorites]

I mean, it's weird that all these Russian diplomats have died recently, but also, not everything is a plot from a Le Carre novel. Sometimes people just die. Who knows? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

I don't think it beyond Putin And The Gang to be behind something like this but we're talking about hundreds or thousands of Russian dudes in late middle age. For health/lifestyle reasons Russian men in late middle age tend die a lot just 'cuz, so I'm inclined to need more evidence.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:27 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'd thread the needle by saying that Republicans are abandoning all traditional conservative/Republican values and positions to embrace Trumpism because they want power more than they want to continue their commitment to their values and policy goals. They own Trump, but they can retreat to their previous status quo.
posted by prefpara at 9:30 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

So a (straight white male) friend on Facebook who studies poli sci shared that Kristof piece this morning with a "Yes. This." comment.

I responded with, "Straight white man feels overwhelmingly white group should not be held accountable for their actions. I could swear I've seen this sort of thing before. Almost like there are terms for it or something."

Naturally, I am showing I have confirmation bias and my views are stunning.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:30 AM on February 23, 2017 [42 favorites]

A new Quinnipiac poll suggests that Trump's policies are seriously unpopular with American voters:

62 - 31 percent against reducing taxes across the board, even if it increases the deficit;
51 - 38 percent against restarting the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines;
60 - 37 percent against building the wall on the Mexican border, with 65 - 33 percent against the wall if the U.S. must pay for it;
76 - 18 percent against lowering taxes on the wealthy;
50 - 43 percent against lowering taxes on businesses and corporations;
54 - 34 percent against removing regulations on businesses and corporations;
63 - 27 percent against removing specific regulations intended to combat climate change;
54 - 43 percent against repealing the Affordable Care Act.

posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:30 AM on February 23, 2017 [56 favorites]

favorite part of the gorka phone call:

Smith: put yourself in my shoes --
Gorka: no no PUT YOURSELF IN MY SHOES

sometimes I'm surprised that the world hasn't already been incinerated
posted by Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam at 9:30 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

A Florida pastor who took his 11-year-old daughter to a campaign-style rally for President Trump said he hoped the event would serve as a civics lesson — but that it turned instead into a spectacle where “demonic activity was palpable.”

Well there's a research failure right there.
posted by Artw at 9:32 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

NRA to organise it's members into fascist paramilitary squads.

I guess it's time for the 2nd amendment's defence of tyranny to shine.

In my view, it's becoming more and more important to deny these assholes their presumed monopoly on violence by ending their de facto monopoly on gun ownership. There's a reason they think they can get away with all of their intimidation and spite.

I'm tired of not scaring these people. I'm tired of them underestimating the seriousness of "never again" because I don't go to McDonalds with a pistol on my hip and a POW/MIA flag on my shitty coal-rolling dickstain-mobile.

They are getting ready to put people on trains to the ~~east~~ south, they are militarizing groups like the NRA that already have an unseemly relationship with the hard-right, the GOP and the government itself (as an adjunct to the ATF).

It's time to stop letting them feel so bold. Now. Not later. If they want to make this all about who has the guns, I'm ready to go there.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:33 AM on February 23, 2017 [27 favorites]

CPAC Person 1: "Who's that?"
Person 2: "Richard Spencer."
Person 3: "The neo-Nazi!"
Person 1: "Haaa he got punched in the face."

--@ddale8

You know, I think it's working!
posted by zachlipton at 9:35 AM on February 23, 2017 [42 favorites]

You buried the lede on those Daniel Dale tweets.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:38 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Republicans now planning to put off Trumps infrastructure plan for the midterms

So now the trains won't even run on time.
posted by rocket at 9:38 AM on February 23, 2017 [25 favorites]

favorite part of the gorka phone call:

Everything about it was my favourite part of the call. I've had to deal with assholes like Gorka during my time in government, and typically as a staffer I had few ways to fight back. It's always awesome when an asshole and an idiot gets called an asshole and an idiot to his face.
posted by My Dad at 9:39 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

It's time to stop letting them feel so bold. Now. Not later. If they want to make this all about who has the guns, I'm ready to go there.

They want to make this not just about about who has the guns, but who has guns and is ready to do violence with them. Whether or not things will truly come to it, that's the game they are talking about playing. If you decide to get guns to match their guns, you need to be prepared to kill them with those guns. Those are the stakes. To approach the decision to arm yourself otherwise in this context is irresponsible.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:39 AM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

Notably missing: any sort of self-reflection on why Richard Spencer is there in the first place or what he might be planning to do.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 9:41 AM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

Has anyone asked Gorka his opinion on Zerging as tactic in the fight against terrorism?
posted by Artw at 9:43 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

They want to make this not just about about who has the guns, but who has guns and is ready to do violence with them. Whether or not things will truly come to it, that's the game they are talking about playing. If you decide to get guns to match their guns, you need to be prepared to kill them with those guns. Those are the stakes.

I agree with that, in the extreme. I'm not sure it's entirely true, though, in the context of moving the needle in politics, and from that the culture of intimidation around right-wing politics.

The NRA is unopposed because there's not enough liberal gun-owners to make an opposing organization anything to care about, and the shooting world is so dependent upon services provided by the NRA to comply with those few safety regulations we have, that are ultimately coming from the NRA's bought-and-paid-for politicians, etc.

Lets say just 20% of the Democratic voters went out and bought a gun tomorrow in response to this kind of open intimidation. The right would shit itself. The conversation around gun control would suddenly change. Kind of like how what gun control CA has came from when the Black Panthers were the ones doing open carry. This isn't an entirely new idea.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:44 AM on February 23, 2017 [25 favorites]

Notably missing: any sort of self-reflection on why Richard Spencer is there in the first place or what he might be planning to do.

Per Spencer he considered it a safe space where he could spend some time not getting punched. Presumably nowhere else qualifies as that for him anymore.
posted by Artw at 9:44 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

So that O’Keefe "CNN Leaks" thing was even more of an overhyped piece of garbage than feared (and we don't even know what's been deceptively edited yet). The tapes he's got come from 2009, making them basically history: many people on the recordings don't even work there anymore. The most awful things right-wing news has apparently dug up is that an editor said climate change was not debatable, another didn't like their competitor, Fox News, and people made out the deacdes-old "aiding the afflicted and afflicting the comforted" quote to be some big conspiracy.

And for all that, Hannity, the sucker, had O'Keefe on his radio show to hype up how much he had.
posted by zachlipton at 9:44 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's the old "There are leaks! Something must be up!" play. To certain people the actual content of leaks is irrelevant.
posted by Artw at 9:48 AM on February 23, 2017

WaPo: If abortion rights fall, LGBT rights are next: Perhaps the president simply does not understand the foundations of these constitutional law decisions. Whatever the reason for the president’s view of what is and is not settled Supreme Court precedent, the fact of the matter is that the court cannot reverse the cases guaranteeing access to safe and legal abortion and leave recognition of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights unharmed.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:55 AM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

russian consul andrey malanin found dead in athens. if i'm reading this right, next piece to drop is diyevkin.

For those keeping score, there have been five reported deaths among senior Russian diplomats since Trump was elected:

• Andrei Karlov, Russian Ambassador to Turkey (December, gunshot, assasination)
• Petr Polshikov, senior Russian foreign ministry official for Latin America (December, gunshot, apparent suicide)
• Alexander Kadakin, Russian Ambassador to India (January, heart failure)
• Andrei Malanin, Russian Consul in Greece (January, natural causes/unconfirmed)
• Vitaly Churkin, Russian Ambassador to UN (February, heart failure)

Throw in Oleg Erovinkin, former KGB and FSB general (December, cause of death unconfirmed), to say nothing of that random NY Russian consulate worker in November, and at the very least, John Le Carre has a lot material for his next spy thriller.
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:56 AM on February 23, 2017 [77 favorites]

Per Spencer he considered it a safe space where he could spend some time not getting punched.

I really hope somebody proves him wrong.
posted by contraption at 9:57 AM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

Well, getting kicked out is a metaphorical punch, anyway.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:59 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

I know there aren't any rules governing the doings of SCOTUS spouses, but Ginni Thomas at CPAC today urging people to follow David Clarke on Twitter and denouncing the media as fake just makes me super angry.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:04 AM on February 23, 2017 [16 favorites]

So yesterday Iowa Congressman David Young announced a last-minute "pop-up town hall" for this morning. The idea was apparently to announce it too late for the opposition to organize to get there. From this picture (single link twitter), it doesn't look like it worked.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 10:04 AM on February 23, 2017 [54 favorites]

when do we begin the burning of the effigies
posted by poffin boffin at 10:09 AM on February 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

W/r/t the whole "antifascists with guns" thing, it's... interesting... how shooting ranges tend to be positively slathered in hard-right & Islamophobic bumper stickers and posters.

The NRA basically GamerGated liberals and leftists away from the spaces where people learn to shoot. And they did it decades ago.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 10:10 AM on February 23, 2017 [38 favorites]

Hold on now, shouldn't we want to engage the effigies in substantive debate?
posted by contraption at 10:10 AM on February 23, 2017 [17 favorites]

Apologies if this has been discussed already... But are the odds websites showing odds of impeachment yet?
posted by ian1977 at 10:10 AM on February 23, 2017

it doesn't look like it worked.

Those payed liberal activists from out of state are fast!
posted by diogenes at 10:11 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

I am watching CPAC and throwing things. But yeah, I could burn some effigies. That sounds good.
posted by mochapickle at 10:12 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

The trains did, in fact, not always run on time.

I read that a lot of this train business was about attacking the civil service, who, I guess, were to the left of Mussolini. So Blackshirt gangs were targeting train drivers etc. for beatings & castor oil as part of that.
posted by thelonius at 10:12 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

when do we begin the burning of the effigies

420 smoke trees
light 'em off those effigies
erryday
posted by murphy slaw at 10:12 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

Apologies if this has been discussed already... But are the odds websites showing odds of impeachment yet?

PredictIt has "impeached by end of 2017" at 17% and "still president by end of 2018" at 67%.
posted by theodolite at 10:13 AM on February 23, 2017

So a (straight white male) friend on Facebook who studies poli sci shared that Kristof piece this morning with a "Yes. This." comment

Ooooh lemme guess political philosophy?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:15 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's frightening that the major topics of discussion in this thread are 1) how do we appeal to the segments of the far-right that we can appeal to? and 2) literal paramilitary death squads. It's time to leave the Rs behind. They are not evil only insofar as they are craven. Not worth saving or bringing along into the new order. Defeat them with votes or fists or whatever, but they have to lose very badly.
posted by TypographicalError at 10:19 AM on February 23, 2017 [18 favorites]

Truthfully I would 100% go to a lefty-aligned gun range to learn to shoot. Are there any? Are they like franchises? How does that work?
posted by schadenfrau at 10:20 AM on February 23, 2017 [14 favorites]

They want to make this not just about about who has the guns, but who has guns and is ready to do violence with them. Whether or not things will truly come to it, that's the game they are talking about playing.

They aren't ever gonna rise up. First, have you seen most of those militia types ? They not only peaked in high school, it was also the last time they could climb a set of stairs in one go. Secondly, Obama was a UN backed Kenyan Muslim Dictator who sold the Constitution to Century 21 and used Rex84 chemtrails to Jade Helm America. Or whatever - they're always a little fuzzy on actual details.

And besides, have you seen the infighting and petty theft in most patriot groups? It's not hard to find, because they suck at opsec and their FB stuff is public. They have trouble organizing a bake sale - force projection is so far outside of their organizational capability as to not exist.

The NRA basically GamerGated liberals and leftists away from the spaces where people learn to shoot. And they did it decades ago.

There was a shooting range I used to really enjoy that was close to home. Soon after Obama was elected, the guy who ran it sold it and retired, and the new guy required everyone to sign a loyalty oath to the Constitution in addition to the usual waivers. So, I stopped going there. But yeah, they just raised the level of obnoxiousness to where I'd rather just stay home than shoot skeet.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 10:22 AM on February 23, 2017 [31 favorites]

So what we're all saying is that non-right-wing shooting range is a business opportunity for anyone in a blue area, right? Or even a purple one? You'd basically just need to be neutrally welcoming to all clients rather than hostile to anyone to the left of Fred Phelps.
posted by Frowner at 10:24 AM on February 23, 2017 [34 favorites]

PredictIt has "impeached by end of 2017" at 17% and "still president by end of 2018" at 67%.

Hey his impeachment chances are better than his chances of being president were a year ago so I'll take it!
posted by ian1977 at 10:24 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Obama was a UN backed Kenyan Muslim Dictator who sold the Constitution to Century 21

So that's where he got that tan jacket!
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:26 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

> Truthfully I would 100% go to a lefty-aligned gun range to learn to shoot. Are there any? Are they like franchises? How does that work?

There exists a loosely organized network called the "liberal gun club," but what I've heard is that trainers associated with them request that their clients keep quiet about the organization while at shooting ranges. Apparently the hard right types get about as violent about the idea of non-fascists learning to shoot as gamergaters get about women gaming.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 10:28 AM on February 23, 2017 [30 favorites]

I've said it before - the best way to get new and effective gun controls is for liberals to start tooling up with some determination.

We'd have to get permission from the Secret Obama Shadow Administration and the funding from Soros, of course.

Contact your usual SOSA channels.

(on edit - could someone build a proper SOSA website from the WH site template? Pretty please?)
posted by Devonian at 10:29 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

the best way to get new and effective gun controls is for ~~liberals~~ black and brown people to start tooling up with some determination.

Fixed.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:31 AM on February 23, 2017 [27 favorites]

If anyone knows how to contact this liberal gun club organization, please feel free to MeMail me.

Actually please just MeMail me. I have a lot of anger and frustration that I'd rather spend on some bullets or whatever.
posted by schadenfrau at 10:32 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Jaime Harrison dropped out of the DNC chair race and endorsed Perez
posted by zachlipton at 10:32 AM on February 23, 2017

re: the Gorka conversation

Does anybody think that Gorka's tone changed dramatically once the other dude said that he was recording the phone call?

Also: cocaine?
posted by angrycat at 10:33 AM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

This is amazing: Trump Clarifies To CEOs: He Is The Best Rich Golfer, Not The Richest Golfer:

“I actually said I was the best golfer of all the rich people, to be exact, and then I got a hole in one,” Trump said.
...
But the fun didn’t stop there. Trump was in the zone, surrounded by fellow businessmen, and he exchanged good natured small talk with several of them. “Good soup,” he said to Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison. When the CEO of construction equipment maker Caterpillar introduced themself, Trump said he had been driving Caterpillar vehicles “for a long time.”

posted by zachlipton at 10:34 AM on February 23, 2017 [17 favorites]

the best way to get new and effective gun controls is for liberals black and brown people to start tooling up with some determination.

Arm The Homeless
posted by murphy slaw at 10:35 AM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Gorka is really angry that the terrorists might be spawn camping, also that the shotty has been nerfed.
posted by Artw at 10:35 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

I googled the phrase "liberal gun club" so if I disappear you know why.
posted by contraption at 10:35 AM on February 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

The best example of a "liberal gun club" is the Pink Pistols

Find, or start, a local chapter.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 10:38 AM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

“Good soup,” he said to Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison.

Hot take (full of creamy goodness) from Ashley Feinberg over at Jezebel: Trump Takes the Only Thing Ted Cruz Has Left: His Precious Soup
posted by zachlipton at 10:40 AM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

I have a lot of anger and frustration that I'd rather spend on some bullets or whatever.

Might I suggest Krav Maga. It's a great self-defense discipline that is probably the quickest to get some useful skills, is a good workout, and does wonders for burning anger and frustration.
posted by chris24 at 10:40 AM on February 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

I'm curious though what your "read" on it is? Why would these diplomats be assassinated? If Russia is killing them, why not just recall them to Moscow and keep them quiet. If someone else is killing them, why?

Erovinkin, Krivov, Karlov, Melanin, Chandelon, Polshikov, Churkin. they're all tied to the steele dossier.
some of these happened on foreign soil, which is for lack of a better word, "scary".

and i'm running the info but to me it all seems connected to the rosneft/transneft/gaspromneft dealio, and on preview
posted by xcasex at 10:42 AM on February 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

Additionally, Krav Maga is Hebrew for "punch MAGA"
posted by theodolite at 10:42 AM on February 23, 2017 [85 favorites]

Instead, we should be painting the repugnant Republican ideas as Trump ideas, so that when they inevitably need to run as far from him as they can, they will also have to leave those policies behind to wipe the stink of him off of them.

No no no no no.

Trump's ideas are the culmination of the last forty years of the Republican agenda. Nail it to their flag and burn their ship to the bilges.
posted by winna at 10:43 AM on February 23, 2017 [14 favorites]

Truthfully I would 100% go to a lefty-aligned gun range to learn to shoot. Are there any? Are they like franchises? How does that work?

So what we're all saying is that non-right-wing shooting range is a business opportunity for anyone in a blue area, right? Or even a purple one? You'd basically just need to be neutrally welcoming to all clients rather than hostile to anyone to the left of Fred Phelps.

This is something I've been kicking around in my head, but I'd need to refresh my very rusty knowledge and safety training myself, and read up on all sorts of pertinent regulation.

The obstacle, as mentioned, is that the NRA has set itself up as the only convenient option for a lot of compliance and safety stuff and I wouldn't be surprised to encounter a lot of constant ratfuckery pushing back on that. Although that probably make it more worth doing than less.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:43 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Jaime Harrison dropped out of the DNC chair race and endorsed Perez

Well shit, if this tally was accurate and those Harrison voters all follow the endorsement it means Perez wins (he had 205 and Harrison had 27, giving him an 8 vote margin over the needed 224.) I don't hate Perez but he's definitely my least favorite of the contenders.
posted by contraption at 10:46 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Contact your usual SOSA channels.

(on edit - could someone build a proper SOSA website from the WH site template? Pretty please?)

Never have I more wanted a .ZOG tld.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:46 AM on February 23, 2017

Good Lord the older thread and the newer thread
posted by angrycat at 10:46 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

The tweets on that Obama tan suit article are hilarious.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:48 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's too bad that we can't mass-join the NRA and all show up at the annual meeting without providing lobbying funds for some truly terrible shit.
posted by murphy slaw at 10:48 AM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

This is the longest we've been since George Washington without approving a Cabinet

Of 549 key positions requiring Senate confirmation…

Awaiting nomination: 515
Awaiting confirmation: 20
Confirmed: 14
posted by kirkaracha at 10:50 AM on February 23, 2017 [26 favorites]

Additionally, Krav Maga is Hebrew for "punch MAGA"

And appropriately for our current times, Imre Lichtenfeld started developing the techniques in the 1930s to defend Jews from anti-Semitic attacks by Nazis in Europe.
posted by chris24 at 10:51 AM on February 23, 2017 [31 favorites]

that's some real meme magic right there
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:52 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

It's too bad that we can't mass-join the NRA and all show up at the annual meeting without providing lobbying funds for some truly terrible shit.

One of the suggested anti-Puppy measures for Hugo balloting was "You have to be a member for X years before you can nominate or vote", and it was shot down largely because it wasn't inclusive. The NRA would have no qualms whatsoever about inclusivity.
posted by Etrigan at 10:52 AM on February 23, 2017

While I was interviewing Richard Spencer, security came to escort him off the property

Security tells me CPAC says Richard Spencer doesn't represent their views and so he can't be here even though he bought a ticket

Spencer is now being interviewed by MSNBC outside of CPAC

Do we have any bees left for MSNBC? Jesus Christ, how have they not figured this shit out yet?
posted by J.K. Seazer at 10:53 AM on February 23, 2017 [23 favorites]

MSNBC needs more than one B in it
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:57 AM on February 23, 2017 [16 favorites]

Might I suggest Krav Maga. It's a great self-defense discipline that is probably the quickest to get some useful skills, is a good workout, and does wonders for burning anger and frustration.

Krav Maga, like MMA, is one of those hobbies populated by literally the scariest kind of toxic masculinity. Like I've already looked into this in NYC, and at the time, the Krav Maga places accessible to me each had online reviews talking about sexism and gendered harassment.

If you know of a place that isn't a toxic masculinity shit show in NYC, definitely MeMail me.
posted by schadenfrau at 10:58 AM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

More papers, please (same flight as mentioned above): These are customs agents forcibly checking the ID of every passenger deplaning from Delta flight 1583 tonight at JFK. A domestic flight.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:58 AM on February 23, 2017 [29 favorites]

Pretty much the last thing you want, when trying to learn ways to be safer, is to have to do it in a place where you feel unsafe. It's bullshit all the way down.
posted by schadenfrau at 11:00 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

JFK recently had a security screw-up, and I wonder if there's some security over-correction going on here, but I don't have facts to make that connection.
posted by Sweetdefenestration at 11:02 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

More papers, please (same flight as mentioned above): These are customs agents forcibly checking the ID of every passenger deplaning from Delta flight 1583 tonight at JFK. A domestic flight.

Currently being discussed on the immigration thread.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:03 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

If you know of a place that isn't a toxic masculinity shit show in NYC, definitely MeMail me.

I haven't experienced that where I go here in NYC. Memail coming.
posted by chris24 at 11:03 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Bannon pulled out the Hamilton. Well that was fun while it lasted.
posted by zachlipton at 11:16 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Just watched a clip of Bannon and Priebus on stage together at CPAC. For the most part it was them saying a whole lotta nothing and groveling in sycophantic praise of Trump, but there was a brief droll moment when the host asked them to each say what they like about the other.

Priebus eyes Bannon for a second and says, "I like how many collars he wears!" to chuckles from the audience.

Then it almost immediately went back to not funny at all as Bannon reciprocated by saying that Priebus has one of the hardest jobs he's ever seen and labors every day "to make it work, to make the trains..." and trailed off to re-start with different phrasing.
posted by XMLicious at 11:26 AM on February 23, 2017 [39 favorites]

CPAC organizer denounces ‘alt-right’ as ‘left-wing fascist group’

“They hate the Constitution. They hate free markets. They hate pluralism,” Schneider said. “Fascists tend to want big government control.”

lol.
posted by futz at 11:28 AM on February 23, 2017 [36 favorites]

Priebus eyes Bannon for a second and says, "I like how many collars he wears!" to chuckles from the audience.

I said it about their bedtime ASMR thing and now I will say it now about the collar-wearing:

what the fuck
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:29 AM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

They absolutely do the half veiled Nazi shit deliberately. They think it's cute.
posted by Artw at 11:30 AM on February 23, 2017 [39 favorites]

The obstacle, as mentioned, is that the NRA has set itself up as the only convenient option for a lot of compliance and safety stuff and I wouldn't be surprised to encounter a lot of constant ratfuckery pushing back on that. Although that probably make it more worth doing than less.

Unfortunately, most of the shooting ranges my husband or I have been involved with require an NRA membership to participate. It greatly reduces their insurance and has the side effect of keeping the liberals out. On an entertaining note, I got to hear my husband dog cuss a member of the NRA who called after the election to celebrate Trump's win. So that was satisfying. Still looking for a new shooting range, though.
posted by teleri025 at 11:32 AM on February 23, 2017

Another tidbit from the article in my last comment.

As the throng of reporters moved, Spencer was stopped by JP Sheehan, a CPAC attendee wearing a black-and-gold Make America Great Again baseball cap.

“Praise kek!” said Sheehan, posing for a selfie with Spencer and repeating a meme that had been adopted by the alt-right. “He’s the coolest guy.”

so very pathetic and gross.
posted by futz at 11:32 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

That NRA ad was one of the craziest things I've ever seen. I respect people's right to hunt, sport shoot and defend their homes, but at this point joining the NRA because you like guns is like joining the Klan because you like clean sheets.
posted by freecellwizard at 11:33 AM on February 23, 2017 [70 favorites]

Sweetdefenestration: "JFK recently had a security screw-up, and I wonder if there's some security over-correction going on here, but I don't have facts to make that connection."

Yeah, but if JFK accidentally let people through their security without screening, why would they be introducing a check of passengers coming off a plane arriving in JFK from SFO? Also, according to those tweets, these were CBP agents not TSA, so who knows? Of course, nothing this government does has to make sense anymore so whatevs, I guess.
posted by mhum at 11:35 AM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

SNL March: Only two shows, hosted by Octavia Spencer and Charlotte Johansson
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:38 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

I have a lot of anger and frustration that I'd rather spend on some bullets or whatever.
...
Krav Maga, like MMA, is one of those hobbies populated by literally the scariest kind of toxic masculinity.

If the goal is emotional regulation, Tai Chi with the right teacher can be effective. I studied with a student of Yang Yang, who is based in NYC, and it was helpful.
posted by Coventry at 11:41 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

This whole Trump thing has caused me to have very complicated feelings. On one hand, I don't think it's particularly productive to begin negotiations with the opposition by accusing them of being stupid, racist, classist, phobic, etc. It makes people very defensive. On the other hand, I am reminded of how the old Jewish cashier with a faded number tattooed on her arm once told me that her neighbors were utterly silent as her family was being led away to a ghetto. If there's a middle ground, I don't know what it is.
posted by xyzzy at 11:42 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

Only two shows? *whines*
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:42 AM on February 23, 2017

We are a few minutes away from Sean Spicer.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:43 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Speaking of negotiating with the opposition, from Vox, "Conservative activists refuse to believe Trump is spending more on travel than Obama":

Still, Herstein said he doesn’t believe it’s the case that Trump is on pace to spend more on vacation and travel. He waved away a Washington Post story held up on a reporter’s phone.

“I believe that the story exists,” Herstein said. “But the facts in it can’t possibly be right. That absolutely can’t be right. How did Trump spend $10 million in one month and Obama spent $11 million in a year? It defies logic.”

Yeah. So, good luck everyone. We're all gonna need it.
posted by mhum at 11:45 AM on February 23, 2017 [77 favorites]

How did Trump spend $10 million in one month and Obama spent $11 million in a year? It defies logic.

YES THAT WOULD BE THE PROBLEM SIR.
posted by Etrigan at 11:47 AM on February 23, 2017 [95 favorites]

Logic is sooooo 2017
posted by ian1977 at 11:48 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

I checked, and the nearest gun range to me is owned and operated by the state government. Is that an option? I assume that you don't have to be an NRA member to shoot at the public gun range.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:49 AM on February 23, 2017

We are a few minutes away from Sean Spicer

Thanks I did need an excuse to get away from my computer.
posted by Namlit at 11:50 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

(Since we've got a sidebar about self-defence, I'll plug aikido. The whole point of it is to manipulate your opponent's momentum, so that in theory the techniques work equally well regardless of the physical strength of the defender. Plus, you learn techniques to minimise damage to yourself, which are useful not only in a self-defence context but also when you're, just for example, riding your bike and you get hit by an opening door and take a tumble over your handlebars.)
posted by tobascodagama at 11:52 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

An example of a local government on the US-Mexico border standing up against the wall -- City of Las Cruces just said NO to Trump’s wall (Progress Now NM, Feb. 22, 2017)

In a 6-1 vote yesterday, the City of Las Cruces sent a resounding message to President Trump: No border wall in our backyard.

Las Cruces is the county seat of Doña Ana County which shares 62 miles of its southern border with Mexico. The treaty which ended hostilities between the two countries in 1848 was signed in Mesilla, the village just west of Las Cruces and at the time, still a part of Mexico.

The resolution, introduced by Mayor pro-tem Greg Smith, states among other points, “Whereas, the economic, historic, and cultural connections between our part of the United States and just across the border in Mexico is underscored by the families whose members have been connected across this region for hundreds of years before there was a border between the modern countries of the United States and Mexico.” (PDF copy of the resolution)

The dissenting vote was cast, unsurprisingly, by perennial conservative Ceil Levatino. Levatino didn’t hold back her contempt for those speaking against the wall by making a condescending joke about such a wall “becoming a tourist destination” and by glibly referencing the Bracero program, which drew harsh murmurs from the audience and a slew of angry Twitter comments.

That comment link is a single tweet, which reads:

#LasCruces City councilor Ceil Levatino calls historically unjust, abusive, racist, bracero program “highly succesful” #nojoke #nmpol

The resolution concluded by a few "THAT" statements, including ""we stand in opposition to the construction of the proposed wall on our region's border with Mexico, specifically in Dona Ana County."
posted by filthy light thief at 11:53 AM on February 23, 2017 [29 favorites]

Is that Gorka standing up against the wall in the Spicey feed?
I'm growingly obsessed with that madman.
posted by angrycat at 11:54 AM on February 23, 2017

I checked, and the nearest gun range to me is owned and operated by the state government. Is that an option? I assume that you don't have to be an NRA member to shoot at the public gun range.

Correct. The states and the feds operate gun ranges that run the gamut from gravel pit to shelters and ranged berms. They are open to the public, though they may have operating hours or times. If you have a clay launcher and a willing volunteer, you can use practice clays at them.

There are private indoor ranges, as well as skeet/trap and sporting clay ranges. Some (most I guess) are NRA affiliated, but some exist that are not. Culture varies so it pays to visit a few and get a feel.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 11:56 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

On one hand, I don't think it's particularly productive to begin negotiations with the opposition by accusing them of being stupid, racist, classist, phobic, etc. It makes people very defensive. On the other hand, I am reminded of how the old Jewish cashier with a faded number tattooed on her arm once told me that her neighbors were utterly silent as her family was being led away to a ghetto. If there's a middle ground, I don't know what it is.

Others here disagree, but I really think the middle ground is "Trump Is An Aberration That Does Not Reflect The GOP."

It's like... "Well obviously YOU are not racist, but there are racists taking over your party, are you going to let them do that?"

I think a lot of white conservatives now are Schroedinger's Racists, actually. They don't exactly know how they feel about other races. A little nervous, a little uncertain. If their social environment becomes openly racist, so will they. If racism is a taboo in their social environment, they will be at pains to prove themselves as non-racist. Praise them for their lack of racism and you'll encourage them to identify that way, and do things re-inforce that identity.

From that WaPo article on Spencer getting kicked out of CPAC:

One of the first speeches at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference challenged the media to stop referring to the alt-right, a small, far-right movement that seeks a whites-only state and that strongly backed Donald Trump for president, as conservative — and not long after, a leader of the movement was kicked out of the venue.

“There is a sinister organization that is trying to warp its way into our ranks,” said Dan Schneider, the executive director of the American Conservative Union, which runs CPAC. “We must not be deceived by [a] hateful, left-wing [sic!] fascist group.”

This is what we want. Make them run away from Richard Spencer! Make them decry him as not a True Conservative!

“’Donald Trump isn’t a conservative’ — that’s what they were saying a year ago,” said Spencer.

Yes! Yes! You tell 'em, Spencer. Remind them he was never one of them...

When White House strategist Steve Bannon took the stage, he joked that Breitbart News, where he had been CEO, used to hold forums with controversial speakers, under the title “The Uninvited.”

“Everybody’s a part of our conservative family,” said Schlapp.

No! Boo! Kick these guys out of the family!
posted by OnceUponATime at 12:01 PM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

I'd been planning to do it for a while, but I just signed up for a Women's Shooting Fundamentals class in March.

I've been to this range once before (my one and only time holding a gun) and thought I might die of testosterone poisoning, so this seems a more pleasant option.
posted by Superplin at 12:02 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Trump's theme for the speech next week will be "the renewal of the American spirit" [real]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:04 PM on February 23, 2017

When Trump said that the deportations were a "military operation", he meant they were being done with precision, not that they were a military operation.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:05 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Spicer says that when Trump described immigration operations as a "military operation," he was using it as an "adjective. It's happening with precision."
posted by zachlipton at 12:06 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

alternative adjectives
posted by Namlit at 12:06 PM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

"By 'concentration camp,' the President only meant that he was thinking really hard about it."
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:08 PM on February 23, 2017 [100 favorites]

When Trump said that the deportations were a "military operation", he meant they were being done with precision

Something something Yemen
posted by J.K. Seazer at 12:10 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Trump's theme for the speech next week will be "the renewal of the American spirit"

I think that's probably some sort of mistranslation. The theme for Trump's next speech is actually the triumph of the American will.
posted by Justinian at 12:10 PM on February 23, 2017 [16 favorites]

Trump still believes that Caitlyn Jenner can use the women's bathroom in Trump Tower, because "state's rights."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:11 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Lol the gun range closest to me has regular Utah Permit classes offered by a guy who's website has a giant picture of 45 with the caption "Why? Because fuck you, that's why."

There aren't many gun range choices in NYC, as it turns out.
posted by schadenfrau at 12:11 PM on February 23, 2017

I checked, and the nearest gun range to me is owned and operated by the state government. Is that an option? I assume that you don't have to be an NRA member to shoot at the public gun range.

Yes. You may need a permit - out here you have to have the state 'wilderness pass', essentially, which is authorizing you to access to state lands. It's usually around 40$ and lasts a year, and the benefits you get are well worth it, especially on shooting ranges where people have to actually clean up after you.

I want to strongly emphasize these are not good places for new shooters, however, as there are generally no safety observers there, and everyone's safety relies on the understanding of a lot of gun rules new shooters may not be aware of.

However, there are also a lot of private gun ranges that I honestly and truly think are better to learn on, that don't have gross stuff all over. They are often 'X County Rifleman's Or Sporting Association' clubs, they have membership fees but nothing too expensive, and they are where the 'old fogies' go to shoot and have gone to shoot for a hundred years, so they don't have anything to prove. I find them vastly, vastly preferable.

Because this is getting sooooort of deraily - if anyone wants to learn to shoot but doesn't want to deal with gross misogyny at gun ranges or whatever, please feel free to memail me and I will try to help! (Also Pink Pistols is pretty great too.)
posted by corb at 12:12 PM on February 23, 2017 [18 favorites]

Richard Spencer today said "Depeche Mode is the official band of the Alt-Right." Depeche Mode responds, lol no, maybe listen to the lyrics.
posted by rewil at 12:12 PM on February 23, 2017 [24 favorites]

When Trump said that the deportations were a "military operation", he meant they were being done with precision

Gods, he's such a poser Internet tough-guy that he thinks "military" means "good".
posted by Etrigan at 12:12 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

There aren't many gun range choices in NYC, as it turns out

Everything is legal in New Jersey.

I'm so sorry, I could not resist.
posted by corb at 12:13 PM on February 23, 2017 [37 favorites]

The Trump brand GTD planner (with handsome leatherette cover and 'gold' leaf pages) will be entitled Triumph of the Willpower.
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:13 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

tough-guy that he thinks "military" means "good".
He also, again, "has a big heart." And a knee-jerk-defensive Spicey in his pocket.
posted by Namlit at 12:15 PM on February 23, 2017

Always liked Las Cruces, gonna make sure I get back there to spend some money soon. Been through the La Migra checkpoints (easy for me to say) around there quite a few times, always smelled like fascism when you got close.

The border will not be fucking tamed by that damn pendejo. Not in four years, anyway. Been resisting for 300+.
posted by spitbull at 12:15 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

Richard Spencer today said "Depeche Mode is the official band of the Alt-Right." Depeche Mode responds, lol no, maybe listen to the lyrics.

HOW VERY DARE RICHARD SPENCER. As if I don't have enough reasons to fucking hate that Nazi. Bless Dave Gahan for shutting that shit down.
posted by yasaman at 12:15 PM on February 23, 2017 [40 favorites]

it's funny because "military precision" verges on an oxymoron. That's why the military uses language like "surgical strikes."
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:16 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

This story is incredibly weird (and it's got hacked text messages in it, so we're back to that): Manafort faced blackmail attempt, hacks suggest:

A purported cyberhack of the daughter of political consultant Paul Manafort suggests that he was the victim of a blackmail attempt while he was serving as Donald Trump’s presidential campaign chairman last summer.

The undated communications, which are allegedly from the iPhone of Manafort’s daughter, include a text that appears to come from a Ukrainian parliamentarian named Serhiy Leshchenko, seeking to reach her father, in which he claims to have politically damaging information about both Manafort and Trump.

Attached to the text is a note to Paul Manafort referring to “bulletproof” evidence related to Manafort’s financial arrangement with Ukraine’s former president, the pro-Russian strongman Viktor Yanukovych, as well as an alleged 2012 meeting between Trump and a close Yanukovych associate named Serhiy Tulub.

Leshchenko denies sending the messages, and Manafort denies the 2012 meeting, but crazily, Manafort acknowledges the texts are real and says he received similar ones himself. I honestly don't know that there's anything here at all, but things are getting pretty darn weird.
posted by zachlipton at 12:17 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

Welcome to the America Black People Have Always Lived In
posted by ActingTheGoat at 12:17 PM on February 23, 2017 [52 favorites]

Spicer seems to believe that Title IX doesn't cover transgender children because nobody could have foreseen that there were transgender people in 1972.

I don't believe that's how it works.

Also, if you are above the 5th grade reading level, and don't understand that the travel ban is legal, you are wrong.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:18 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Spencer sees an aesthetic similarity between the group and the Alt-Right.

"There's always been a certain nostalgic synth wave vibe to the Alt-Right in terms of aesthetics," he says.

Motion to rename this motherfucker Vaporwave Horst Wessel
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:19 PM on February 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

have always lived in

You ought to hear Native Americans on this point too. Oh there's a lying racist thug as president? You don't say.
posted by spitbull at 12:20 PM on February 23, 2017 [54 favorites]

Oompahwave.
posted by spitbull at 12:21 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Spicer clearly advocating mass deportation of all undocumented persons, not just criminals.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:22 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

ＥＵＧＥＮＩＣ
posted by theodolite at 12:23 PM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

Spicer's getting pushed a little by the pool on recreational marijuana states, pretty clearly saying they're going to crack down on them.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:25 PM on February 23, 2017

Why doesn't Spicey explode in a giant ball of hypocrisy when he went on and on about state's rights when it came to LGBT rights but says that state legalization of recreational marijuana is in conflict with federal law. I guess things are only a state's rights issue when it's a way to screw minorities, visible or otherwise.
posted by Justinian at 12:26 PM on February 23, 2017 [60 favorites]

but cracking down on marijuana is a way to screw minorities. it's totally coherent.
posted by murphy slaw at 12:27 PM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

He also came this close to telling Glenn Thrush he's not on SNL ("this isn't a TV program") and actually did say "we’re going to raise our hands like big boys and girls" when Thrush shouted a follow-up asking about what the policy would be on state-legal recreational marijuana.
posted by zachlipton at 12:28 PM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Spicer says that Ivanka Trump is taking meetings because she has a "lot of expertise" in the area of "helping women."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:28 PM on February 23, 2017

she has a "lot of expertise" in the area of "helping women."

…named ivanka trump
posted by murphy slaw at 12:29 PM on February 23, 2017 [44 favorites]

yeah the white folks will get their cards and smoke
PoC will have more limited access, buy their weed off the street, and get busted

and linking opioid use to marijuana use is just so stupid and wrong.
posted by angrycat at 12:29 PM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

Interesting how Spicer was so big on states' rights when it comes to bathrooms, but not when it comes to marijuana laws.

Trump is also doing a Reuters interview right now. He wants to expand the nuclear arsenal and says he supports a border tax. More to come.
posted by zachlipton at 12:32 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

god, i hope he gets his fucking tariff and chokes on it.
posted by murphy slaw at 12:34 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Skype lady in Montana is asking why we aren't building a wall with Canada.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:35 PM on February 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

States' Rights is a dogwhistle for:

* Legalized discrimination, particularly in the post-bellum, pre-Civil Rights Era south.
* Legalized enslavement of Black people, in the slave-owning, seditionist rebel Confederacy.

The particularly vocal States' Rights crowd move the goalposts as to what rights States actually have, so long as it results in fucking over marginalized communities that they don't like. I have no reason to expect them to apply this doctrine logically or consistently, except to punch down on those they don't think deserve equal rights.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 12:35 PM on February 23, 2017 [52 favorites]

[real] question: There are a lot of potholes on the roads. Has the President done anything to fix them yet?

Skype question from Montana about the Canadian border ends by asking if Trump will build a wall there too, to laughter.
posted by zachlipton at 12:35 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Yeah, the pothole question was real. And the guy who asked it looked like a guy playing a reporter in a high school play. Who was that?
posted by Justinian at 12:36 PM on February 23, 2017

Thanks for embarrassing all us montanans, NBC Montana. Christ. I've never heard the many right wing crazies I know ever suggest a Canadian border wall.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:37 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

I think Spicey almost made a ~~racist comment~~ faux pax about the Canadian Wall when he said that they were obviously more concerned about the southern border because of the different types of p.... activities they see on that border.
posted by Justinian at 12:38 PM on February 23, 2017 [19 favorites]

I curse Sean Spicer to be afflicted with tongue canker sores until the end of his days
posted by theodolite at 12:42 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Again, they let the Nazi shit slip to be cute.
posted by Artw at 12:42 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

re: trans people (yes I know this is all I talk about, end transphobia and i'll post more cat pics)

the rescinding of the directive to schools is going to lead directly to more violence just as the travel bans have led to anti-Muslim violence. It's the normalization of bigotry (not that it was fine before).

I can't say it was related, but this week, a friend of a friend was ejected from the men's room in Chicago's Union Station by (Amtrak?) security and forced to use the women's room. He has legal ID with a male name and male gender marker. Chicago has public accommodations protections based on gender identity, but in the moment, whadyagonnado?

Note: he's reluctant to report/pursue action for Reasons. Just like sexual assault victims, we need to respect this.
posted by AFABulous at 12:42 PM on February 23, 2017 [36 favorites]

Spicer says ask the state department about Syria, but the State Department isn't holding pressers
posted by angrycat at 12:43 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is about as clear a summary of what Bannon is doing as I've seen: "If you look at these Cabinet nominees, they were selected for a reason--and that is deconstruction"

"Deconstruction" of every agency is his goal. It's that simple.
posted by zachlipton at 12:45 PM on February 23, 2017 [29 favorites]

A Kansas man is accused of shooting and killing an Indian-American engineer he thought was Middle Eastern and wounding two others after shouting "get out of my country" and opening fire.

I think Trump can legitimately be called the Anwar al-Awlaki of white nationalist terrorism.
posted by Artw at 12:46 PM on February 23, 2017 [61 favorites]

Is there anyone even at the State Department?
posted by Artw at 12:47 PM on February 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

I think the State Department is especially out of evens.
posted by Mchelly at 12:50 PM on February 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

Spicer says the president would be happy to meet with Jackie Evancho (and presumably Juliet Evancho as well).
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:50 PM on February 23, 2017

A tweet from Jackie Evancho, who sang at the inauguration: ". @realDonaldTrump u gave me the honor 2 sing at your inauguration. Pls give me & my sis the honor 2 meet with u 2 talk #transgender rghts ❤"

Reporter from Fox 5 asks about this tweet. Spicer says Trump would meet with her.
posted by zachlipton at 12:50 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

This is about as clear a summary of what Bannon is doing as I've seen: "If you look at these Cabinet nominees, they were selected for a reason--and that is deconstruction"

So I guess they say it out loud now? One one hand, that's a good thing. I don't think they win an open debate on the subject. On the other hand, it's a bad thing that they aren't planning to need to win any more debates.
posted by diogenes at 12:52 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

In honor of Richard Spencer saying Depeche Mode is "the official band of the alt-right," here he is getting punched to Just Can’t Get Enough -- @goldengateblond
posted by murphy slaw at 12:52 PM on February 23, 2017 [58 favorites]

And that concludes today's Spicey Time.
posted by zachlipton at 12:53 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

I just watched the relevant question and Spicey's response, and...

Oh jesus fuck they are going to shut down all the recreational states.
posted by Gaz Errant at 12:53 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Oh jesus fuck they are going to shut down all the recreational states.

lol. as if they haven't already given California enough reasons to full on revolt. sure, add one more on to the pile. okay.
posted by yasaman at 12:55 PM on February 23, 2017 [25 favorites]

I think the State Department is especially out of evens.

I emailed my friend in the foreign service, who says no one really knows what to do at this point.
posted by mochapickle at 12:56 PM on February 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

I've got to say, it's pretty rich for Priebus, the guy who suggested Trump drop out of the race after the Access Hollywood tape and was planning what he'd do after Trump lost, to be complaining that the media didn't predict a Trump win.

Anyway, here's Gabby Giffords responding to Gohmert, who invoked her shooting as a reason not to hold town halls: "Have some courage. Face your constituents. Hold town halls."
posted by zachlipton at 12:56 PM on February 23, 2017 [97 favorites]

lol. as if they haven't already given California enough reasons to full on revolt. sure, add one more on to the pile. okay.

we're gonna take our money and start our own united states with ~~blackjack! and hookers!~~ legal weed! and good ethnic food!
posted by entropicamericana at 12:57 PM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

as if they haven't already given California enough reasons to full on revolt.

Up here in the PNW as well. And from the way he phrased his response... I feel like they're going to start raids or some other action quite soon.
posted by Gaz Errant at 12:58 PM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

lol. as if they haven't already given California enough reasons to full on revolt. sure, add one more on to the pile. okay.

dude, i haven't smoked pot on the regular for over ten years and i am ready to roll some fat blunts and camp out in front of the local immigration office until a federal official walks within pissing range
posted by murphy slaw at 12:59 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

It's amazing to me that the federal government (even led by this administration) doesn't see the writing on the wall and want to get ahead of states on legalization. There are billions and billions of dollars in tax revenue to be made here, and the federal government should want a piece of that action. But no, they are going to resist legalization at the federal level until the field is occupied by the states, and when it finally falls they are going to have an untenable battle to fight with state taxation authorities. It's just fundamentally dumb.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 12:59 PM on February 23, 2017 [24 favorites]

I don't see what they hope to gain by shutting down rec pot. Is this one of those red-meat issues for evangelicals? More and more it seems like punitive measures against states that voted against him.
posted by H. Roark at 12:59 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

It's just fundamentally dumb.

i think you have discovered the skeleton key to republican policymaking
posted by murphy slaw at 1:00 PM on February 23, 2017 [46 favorites]

"Have some courage. Face your constituents. Hold town halls."

Jesus Christ. Now I'm stress-eating garlic hummus and crying.
posted by xyzzy at 1:00 PM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

I don't see what they hope to gain by shutting down rec pot. Is this one of those red-meat issues for evangelicals? More and more it seems like punitive measures against states that voted against him.

Sessions was having trouble getting off and needed a boost to get him over the line.
posted by Talez at 1:01 PM on February 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

If they start shutting down legal recreational weed, presumably the states in question are going to expect the feds to supply millions of dollars in additional funding to make up the tax shortfalls.
posted by zachlipton at 1:02 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't see what they hope to gain by shutting down rec pot.

It's another dogwhistle. Expect enforcement to very, very heavily target African Americans especially and minorities in general. White people will mostly get to keep smoking, I expect.
posted by IAmUnaware at 1:02 PM on February 23, 2017 [45 favorites]

The president has a cocaine and cocaine only policy.
posted by Artw at 1:03 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

Now I'm imagining a fight to the death between tobacco company lobbyists and pharma (opioid) lobbyists, and that's cheering me up some.
posted by schadenfrau at 1:03 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Please tell me somebody else saw Priebus' reaction to Bannon trying to touch him
posted by zachlipton at 1:03 PM on February 23, 2017 [88 favorites]

Haven't watched this yet, but it looks interesting: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger: International Law and the Future of Online PsyOps

This talk examines this question in the context of state and non-state actor use of online psyops to undermine other states. It examines the current state of development of these techniques, and projects future capabilities based on recent advances in artificial intelligence and quantitative social science. It then examines a set of applicable international legal frameworks, arguing that the existing body of laws and norms fail to adequately constrain the use of these techniques. Finally, it provides a set of potential interventions for exploration, considering both technical and legal approaches.

ETA: This is a discussion of a paper of the same name.
posted by Coventry at 1:03 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

IAMUnaware has it. It helps maintain a "criminal" underclass that can be abused at will.
posted by prefpara at 1:04 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

It's another dogwhistle. Expect enforcement to very, very heavily target African Americans especially and minorities in general. White people will mostly get to keep smoking, I expect.

So . . . like enforcement in non-recreational states now?
posted by dinty_moore at 1:04 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

I don't see what they hope to gain by shutting down rec pot.

The Thirteenth Amendment doesn't apply to prisoners, and the prison population has been going down lately.
posted by Etrigan at 1:05 PM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

Jeff Sessions is still salty about those disgusting Cheechin' Chong boys
posted by theodolite at 1:06 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

I don't see what they hope to gain by shutting down rec pot.

Jeff Sessions thinks that good people don't smoke marijuana.
posted by Gaz Errant at 1:06 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Politico: How Trump’s campaign staffers tried to keep him off Twitter

The trick? Making sure his media diet included a healthy dose of praise.

Highlighted by WaPo's Daily 202 column :

MANAGING UP: Six former Trump campaign staffers said that, in an effort to keep the president's Twitter habits under control, they made sure he was showered with praise and saw positive coverage about himself. Politico’s Tara Palmeri reports: “The key (according to the six campaign alums) is to ensure that his personal media consumption includes a steady stream of praise. And when no such praise was to be found, staff would turn to friendly outlets to drum some up — and make sure it made its way to Trump’s desk. 'If candidate Trump was upset about unfair coverage, it was productive to show him that he was getting fair coverage from outlets that were persuadable,' said former communications director Sam Nunberg. 'The same media that our base digests and prefers is going to be the base for his support. I would assume the president would like to see positive and preferential treatment from those outlets and that would help the operation overall.' Staff members had one advantage as they aimed to manage candidate Trump’s media diet: He rarely reads anything online, instead preferring print newspapers … and reading material his staff brought to his desk.”

It's a small miracle he ever got interested in Twitter in the first place.
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:07 PM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

smoking pot is not volkish, yo
posted by murphy slaw at 1:08 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Love the tariff questions, and the steadfast refusal to comment on components/sub-components being shipped across borders. For the sake of argument, assume it passes and is handled with the competence that was showing with the first travel EO. On complex assemblies with parts made in different locations, you can see components that cross borders more than once. So how's the price on 2018 model cars looking, even if they're 'Made in the USA' ?
posted by Enturbulated at 1:13 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

These are details to be handles by all the people they've not appointed.
posted by Artw at 1:17 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Six former Trump campaign staffers said that, in an effort to keep the president's Twitter habits under control, they made sure he was showered with praise

It's good you did that, Mister Trump! It's very, very good! Don't wish us into the cornfield!
posted by Justinian at 1:19 PM on February 23, 2017 [47 favorites]

JMM really nails why this feels like a flashback for so many people. He is the Abuser-In-Chief, and half the country is either abusing along with him or enabling it. No wonder it's hard to do anything other than scream.
posted by schadenfrau at 1:19 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

Thinking about intersectionality and the comments above about African Americans and Native Americans saying "welcome to the America we know" - I didn't see it noted that law enforcement already does demand papers - it is called "carding" and Trump promised to make it nationwide. I suppose white folks won't get stopped all that often though...
posted by obliquity of the ecliptic at 1:20 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

In honor of Richard Spencer saying Depeche Mode is "the official band of the alt-right," here he is getting punched to Just Can’t Get Enough -- @goldengateblond

REACH OUT AND PUNCH FACE
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:21 PM on February 23, 2017 [147 favorites]

your own
personal
priebus
posted by murphy slaw at 1:23 PM on February 23, 2017 [111 favorites]

Someone to hear you Hail
posted by Dr Dracator at 1:24 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

I'd make a joke about Trump and I Feel You but I think that would be in poor taste.
posted by Justinian at 1:25 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Mirriam-Webster trolling Kellyanne
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:26 PM on February 23, 2017 [26 favorites]

Stop helping them ruin good music
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 1:26 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Between rec pot and the border tax, he's going to lose that 7% that's kept him from only being the guru of the crazification factor crowd, and if he loses the grin-and-bear-it Rs, not enough warm bodies will make it to the poles in 2018 to keep the house. If Rs lose the house, it's going to be two straight years of investigations.
posted by eclectist at 1:27 PM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Between rec pot and the border tax, he's going to lose that 7% that's kept him from only being the guru of the crazification factor crowd, and if he loses the grin-and-bear-it Rs, not enough warm bodies will make it to the poles in 2018 to keep the house. If Rs lose the house, it's going to be two straight years of investigations.

Am hoping you make it across the line before the declaration of martial law. We may all live.
posted by Artw at 1:30 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Bomb threat forces evacuation of New Orleans Jewish Community Center
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:32 PM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

the pot thing probably lost him half of the /pol/ crowd but unfortunately they don't remember to register to vote so it doesn't matter
posted by murphy slaw at 1:33 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Attorney General Sessions has rescinded Obama DOJ memo on phasing out use of private prisons.

Apparently, state's rights? I dunno.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:35 PM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

Willie Nelson, now is your time to shine
posted by angrycat at 1:36 PM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

Whenever there's this I don't get why they are still so opposed to legal pot stuff comes up I feel like there's a lot of commenters who don't get just how much of a puritan streak there continues to be in this country. There's a not insignificant bunch of teetotallers who would be delighted to support a return to prohibition. They don't rise to the level of the crazification factor, but there's enough of them that they make for useful idiots when it comes to existing operations pushing their protectionism.

One of the ways they've helped the established booze manufacturers is by consistently turning out against any efforts to loosen restrictions. They want to stop any drinking they can. The big manufacturers want to keep restrictions that they have already set up shop within. Within Florida, when I was a resident there, there was a decades long struggle to remove restrictions that limited beer sales to certain sizes, all imperial measurements. So if you were a manufacturer who bottled 0.5L you were shit out of luck. Never mind that the size was actually smaller than a 20oz, much less a perfectly legal 40oz. The letter of the law said those were the sizes and Anheuser-Busch and their lobbying dollars preferred not to have the microbrew competition.

Those same puritanical dickheads will happily turn out against weed and help the pharma and alcohol lobbies protect their fiefdoms. And organizations will happily adopt their language to enlist them, no matter how inane it is. Case in point, again Florida (because I was googling to find the info on the fight in the previous decade and came up with this) - there's a move to open up alcohol sales to groceries and big boxes, a la California. Here's a piece from the editorial supporting it, with the organization name redacted.

The bill's opponents, including [redacted], argue that allowing liquor sales in stores like Wal-Mart will lead to an increase in crime and underage drinking.

"If you have spirits readily available inside a Target or a Wal-Mart, it invites underage kids," executive director Rory Eggers told us. "Not to mention the employees who work in those chains — they can hire anyone 16 and up." Article here

Who said that? Alcoholics Anonymous? The American Liver Preservation society?

Nope. The Florida Independent Spirits Association, the state trade organization for independent alcohol retailers. They didn't even exist before this measure started being discussed in 2013 and they say so right up front on their website.

But they're happy to work the what about the children angle and you can be sure that they'll pull the same thing out when it comes to legal weed which might take away from their business.

Also, look at the map of how many dry or partially dry counties there are. Those laws don't hang around because there's nobody supporting them. The wiki article also points out that there's a lot of evidence that seems to indicate they're more harm than good and that they're missing out on tax revenue. Yet they persist.

And I might point out, look at where they are. A lot of overlap with the folks who support this administration.

The buckle-hats may be long gone but a lot of puritanism remains, including with regard to recreational substances. They'll fight every expansion tooth and nail and the people of power - who can always get their stuff and afford their lawyers - will throw them a bone if it keeps the votes coming.
posted by phearlez at 1:37 PM on February 23, 2017 [45 favorites]

The whole pot thing came up over at the_donald during the transition, when Sessions's appointment was announced. That was the first time (and only time IIRC), their shell cracked. The white boys were in a panic about it until the mods shut it down and forced their focus back to worshiping dear leader.

If Trump actually does anything to crack down, he's going to lose a substantial portion of the pepe vote. They don't care about the racism, the incompetence, or the proto-fascist behavior. But God forbid someone try to take away their bong.
posted by honestcoyote at 1:37 PM on February 23, 2017 [14 favorites]

State's rights are another one of those things Republicans pretend to give a shit about but don't actually give a shit about, like budgets and personal responsibility.
posted by Artw at 1:37 PM on February 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

woody harrelson taking a giant dump on the white house lawn, you know he's just crazy enough to do it
posted by murphy slaw at 1:37 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

The marijuana/opioid misdirect is another alternative fact, according to this tweet.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 1:37 PM on February 23, 2017

Dorm posters featuring fractals and dope leaves to be made illegal.
posted by Artw at 1:38 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

The irony being that one of the things we could do to curb illegal immigration and crime would be to legalize marijuana and cut off the profit of the cartels, thereby reducing crime in Mexico and the US and making it less likely people would sneak over the border. We don't care about actually doing something that'd matter though, let's just build a wall.
posted by mikesch at 1:38 PM on February 23, 2017 [20 favorites]

Effectiveness has never been a concern for Republicans in the slightest. Give them a choice where they can hurt people and a choice that achieves one of their alleged goals and they'd pick the former every time.

(It's part of why they hate any kind of measurement of success. That and their general war on objective reality as a whole.)
posted by Artw at 1:40 PM on February 23, 2017 [20 favorites]

one of the things we could do to curb illegal immigration and crime would be to legalize marijuana and cut off the profit of the cartels

Don't ever forget how much money and employment there is in enforcement. A lot of the forces supporting continuing prohibition don't want there to be a reduction.
posted by phearlez at 1:42 PM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

smoking pot is not volkish, yo

Meth, on the other hand, is an incredibly Nazi drug.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:44 PM on February 23, 2017 [25 favorites]

The buckle-hats may be long gone but a lot of puritanism remains, including with regard to recreational substances.

If you watch the clip of Sessions I linked above, it's quite clear that he is FURIOUS at the very thought of a US Attorney not being 100% opposed to legalization. He is a true believer, and he knows that God is on his side, and that we are the wicked and the heathens who will be cast down when the Lord returneth, likely within 4 years.
posted by Gaz Errant at 1:44 PM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

I feel like there's a lot of commenters who don't get just how much of a puritan streak there continues to be in this country.

While I agree there is a latent puritanical streak, I feel that most of this stance against marijuana can be easily understood by just hating minorities and "hippies" (liberals, natch.)
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 1:44 PM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

Lots of bavarian marching powder at the top, plus a big trough of gin for Bannon to plunge his face into.
posted by Artw at 1:45 PM on February 23, 2017

States' Rights: important when controlling where children and teens can use the bathroom, unimportant when controlling substances less harmful than tobacco
posted by flatluigi at 1:46 PM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

is this confirmation bias, or is this administration doing more work to overturn the efforts of the immediately previous administration than any other in history?

i swear that there have been more announcements of rollbacks of obama-era laws than there have been concrete policy proposals.
posted by murphy slaw at 1:49 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

While I agree there is a latent puritanical streak, I feel that most of this stance against marijuana can be easily understood by just hating minorities and "hippies" (liberals, natch.)

Most of them are old enough to be ex hippies now. Most of them are.
posted by Artw at 1:49 PM on February 23, 2017

Dorm posters featuring fractals and dope leaves to be made illegal.

goddammit I'm trying to BUILD A BRAND over here
posted by cortex at 1:49 PM on February 23, 2017 [36 favorites]

nobody hates hippies more than ex-hippies.
posted by murphy slaw at 1:50 PM on February 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

Also, look at the map of how many dry or partially dry counties there are. Those laws don't hang around because there's nobody supporting them.

Absolutely. But the people who want booze will go to the nearest county to buy booze. Or if they're smart, the next county over, because there's less chance of meeting someone you know at the liquor store. Anyway, overlay that map with opioid counties.

If you think of pot in terms of 2016 being The Last Boomer Fight -- especially with Jefferson Beauregard as a noxious combination of Boomer and dixieflag -- then the reefer madness stuff falls into ugly context. It's equal parts "fuck you, hippies" and racist. Though it won't affect the white frat boys of Tuscaloosa, because it never has.
posted by holgate at 1:50 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

I think Trump will be surprised how much support the pot thing will cost them. It's not going to be a huge number, but it'll be a bleed on his numbers on the scale of a couple of percent, which could flip a lot of purple countries.

I'm not thinking of the Pepe crowd here, actually, although of course they're the part of the Trump coalition that's gonna be the most vocally pissed about it. But there are definitely folks in rural areas who were hoping that weed growing could provide a source of income or have benefitted from weed use for chronic pain.

Not saying "surely, this", but I do think that it combines with a number of other unpopular moves his administration is making to create some problems for GOP turnout in the midterms.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:51 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

murphy slaw - well, you see, they're not really capable of much of anything because they are all massively incompetent and nobody competent wants to work with them. So they are reduced to this shit.
posted by Artw at 1:51 PM on February 23, 2017

Does anyone know why #feedthekids is trending against DeVos? Did she say something about hot lunches?
posted by prefpara at 1:51 PM on February 23, 2017

Meet the dapper young nazis banning your pot.
posted by Artw at 1:52 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Does anyone know why #feedthekids is trending against DeVos? Did she say something about hot lunches?

She said some stupid ass garbage about being the first to tell Bernie Sanders there was no such thing as a free lunch.
posted by Artw at 1:53 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

I figured it out, it seems to be because she introduced herself at CPAC as "perhaps the first person to tell Bernie Sanders to his face that there is no such thing as a free lunch." Now people are tweeting at her about how important free lunches actually are.
posted by prefpara at 1:53 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's okay, because those are school lunches and she's going to be getting rid of schools.
posted by Artw at 1:54 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

The best way to get new and effective gun controls is for... black and brown people to start tooling up with some determination.
It worked to get Reagan on the gun-control bandwagon.
posted by MtDewd at 1:54 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

you're right betsy, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

that's why we're going to hold you by your ankles and shake you until enough change falls out to feed the poorest kids in the country for a year.
posted by murphy slaw at 1:55 PM on February 23, 2017 [28 favorites]

Scoured /r/the_donald for posts re: recreational weed states. They're downvoting/removing all of them pretty quickly. The posts I found (all under "new") were 2 confused and vaguely concerned people wanting some real information that isn't from the lamestream media, plus one other post, verbatim:

Let me unpack what Spicer said about enforcing Marijuana laws for the pacific northwest Antifa Commies and the 9th Circuit.

Keep fucking with Trump's immigration EOs and he's going to enforce laws against your legal recreational use you fucking anarchist trouble-makers.

I think this shitheel has got it right: pure revenge and spite is the motivation here.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:57 PM on February 23, 2017 [17 favorites]

I think almost standing up for trans rights then not was supposed to make her look like less of a contemptible jackass and really it's had the opposite effect. Fuck this spineless waste of space.
posted by Artw at 1:57 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

What the heck are all these US pot haters gonna do when Canada legalizes it, likely this year or next year? Go bonkers I guess?
posted by Jalliah at 1:58 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

What the heck are all these US pot haters gonna do when Canada legalizes it, likely this year or next year? Go bonkers I guess?

Build a wall on the northern border to stop all the pot smuggling from Canada, I suppose.
posted by suelac at 1:59 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

You know.. there's a lot of open land in western Canada. If they just grew huge fields of pot, and then, when the wind was right; just lit it all on fire, maybe the United States could just mellow the fuck out for a little while.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 2:00 PM on February 23, 2017 [78 favorites]

I bet Trudeau backtracks on that, too; you think he won't be under U.S. pressure to reverse course on that?
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:00 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

there are definitely folks in rural areas who were hoping that weed growing could provide a source of income or have benefitted from weed use for chronic pain.

I wonder what Jefferson Beauregard plans on doing to police national parks and forests for pot growers? SE Kentucky was notorious for grow-ops in the underbrush during the 00s.
posted by holgate at 2:00 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

what do you mean by "go" bonkers
posted by murphy slaw at 2:00 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

But there are definitely folks in rural areas who were hoping that weed growing could provide a source of income or have benefitted from weed use for chronic pain.

There are some small towns around here (Colorado) that might have one stop sign and one gas station and 3 dispensaries. They've been making bank, and Trump yanking that rug out is likely go over as well as putting a fracking pad next to the high school.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 2:05 PM on February 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

> You know.. there's a lot of open land in western Canada. If they just grew huge fields of pot, and then, when the wind was right; just lit it all on fire, maybe the United States could just mellow the fuck out for a little while.

The west coast is already hella mellow, though. You've got to waft it all the way over to the midwest and south somehow.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 2:07 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Rubio skedaddles from demonstrator over skipping town halls

ha ha. He lied about being in Europe and thought nobody would notice.
posted by Artw at 2:08 PM on February 23, 2017 [29 favorites]

I bet Trudeau backtracks on that, too; you think he won't be under U.S. pressure to reverse course on that?

Oh probably. I'm expecting it to at least be put on hold (officially or unofficially) until NAFTA is sorted and am reluctantly okay with that because I know that us legalizing it could and would likely be used as a leverage. Keeping my figures cross that it won't be dropped altogether considering that the will is there right now and a lot of work has already been done on figuring out how to do it.

Be super pissed if it is dropped because of Trump and this admin of stupid evil. It's just so stupid not to legalized it. Everywhere I've been in Canada people just treat it like they due alcohol. It's everywhere already, might as well just legal it and be done.
posted by Jalliah at 2:09 PM on February 23, 2017

Re: dry counties. So when we moved out to this rural county it was "damp" meaning beer and wine were fine but not hard liquor. You could buy it in a store, just not serve it in public. But very few people who lived here knew that, because mostly people go to the larger towns in other counties to 'go out'. Then a Mexican restaurant opened that served margaritas made with real Tequila. And they had to explain to everyone ordering one that in order to be served they had to sign a paper officially joining their private club. And explained that none of the other margaritas in town actually contained Tequila but were wine or malt liquor based. And once everyone realized what the law was, and that it was pointless, it was changed within a couple years.
posted by threeturtles at 2:10 PM on February 23, 2017 [32 favorites]

And explained that none of the other margaritas in town actually contained Tequila but were wine or malt liquor based.

Now I understand why these people hate Mexico so much.
posted by theodolite at 2:11 PM on February 23, 2017 [49 favorites]

There are some small towns around here (Colorado) that might have one stop sign and one gas station and 3 dispensaries.

Colorado made $1B in marijuana sales last year. The taxes have made an incredible difference in these communities.

Funny how everything is all about states' rights until it's counter to the GOP.
posted by mochapickle at 2:12 PM on February 23, 2017 [32 favorites]

Plus my little town is set to be pot factory world, already one medical factory being set up and several more in the process. It's connected with the nuclear industry here. Big nuclear plant, excess heat, heats pot greenhouses. I find this quite hilarious because it's not two industries that you'd think would work together. Cracks me up.
posted by Jalliah at 2:13 PM on February 23, 2017 [16 favorites]

CA, OR, WA, CO, NV, AK, ME, and MA would make a pretty kickass breakaway republic.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:14 PM on February 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

I'm expecting mostly selective enforcement used against 'troublemakers,' for all of the economic reasons mentioned. Legal pot is one of the obvious sources of untapped revenue and economic activity, and one of the few things it's safe to be in favor of taxing on the right.

(Plus, that's how Sessions-style good-old-boy enforcement works anyway.)
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:15 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

CA, OR, WA, CO, NV, AK and MA would make a pretty kickass breakaway republic.

As long as nothing happens to their precarious water-management systems.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 2:16 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

As long as nothing happens to their precarious water-management systems.

If you snag a little bit of ID and MT then you control the Columbia watershed. Not that I've thought about this or anything.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:18 PM on February 23, 2017 [31 favorites]

This is about as clear a summary of what Bannon is doing as I've seen: "If you look at these Cabinet nominees, they were selected for a reason--and that is deconstruction"

Just so it's clear, that quote is from Bannon himself (at CPAC today). His goal, again in his own words, is the "deconstruction of the administrative state".
posted by Doktor Zed at 2:18 PM on February 23, 2017 [17 favorites]

He's monologuing. Will be wearing a cape next.
posted by Artw at 2:22 PM on February 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

Do Republicans ever think "hang on, there are bits of the federal government that do things we need and are there for a purpose" or is that utterly beyond them now?
posted by Artw at 2:23 PM on February 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

As long as nothing happens to their precarious water-management systems.

MA is self-sufficient in water. Most of the Boston area gets its water from the Quabbin Reservoir, the largest drinking-water-only reservoir in the country, and it's officially the best tasting tap water there is. The rest of the state largely depends on the fact that we have decent aquifers (glaciers for the win!) and decent rain/snowfall. Well, usually.
posted by adamg at 2:23 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Do Republicans ever think "hang on, there are bits of the federal government that do things we need and are there for a purpose" or is that utterly beyond them now?

Pretty much just for the military.
posted by drezdn at 2:24 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Secession is not now, nor was it ever, a viable answer to the country's ills.

Can we at least just keep all our money?
posted by Artw at 2:25 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Weed arrests will boost the prison industry nicely and also make sure that undocumented people get a criminal record so they can be deported more quickly.
posted by gladly at 2:26 PM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

Bannon looks like the living dead. His eyes are glassed over and his pallor is that of rotting flesh. Easily one of the most unhealthy people I've ever seen. Why this person is guiding this country when he cannot maintain his own health astounds me.
posted by kuatto at 2:26 PM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

Secession is not now, nor was it ever, a viable answer to the country's ills.

When one of two conjoined twins dies, the correct course of action is to separate them.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:26 PM on February 23, 2017 [17 favorites]

When one of two conjoined twins dies, the correct course of action is to separate them.

This metaphor only works if we imagine portions of each conjoined twin are dead and portions of each are alive and when we separate them all of one will die and all of the other will come back to life. And we like the living parts in both so we're separating them knowing we're letting parts we like die.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:30 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

I've been wondering for a while, do people overstate the extent of private prisons in the criminal justice system? A cursory search finds this from the ACLU:

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, for-profit companies were responsible for approximately 7 percent of state prisoners and 18 percent of federal prisoners in 2015 (the most recent numbers currently available). U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that in 2016, private prisons held nearly three-quarters of federal immigration detainees.

The last part is kind of sickening. Someone is indeed going to get rich off the recently announced clampdown.
posted by thelonius at 2:30 PM on February 23, 2017 [20 favorites]

I mean if you are all for helping undocumented immigrants have a better life, I don't get the fantasies about abandoning all of us in the non progressive states.
posted by Tarumba at 2:30 PM on February 23, 2017 [14 favorites]

What're you going to do with states that have partial legality (medical, decriminalization, etc)? That gets you to c. 60% of the US by population. (And now includes MT, ND, AR)
posted by nat at 2:31 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

15 Metal Albums Whose Titles Are Less Dark Than the Washington Post’s New Motto
posted by rewil at 2:31 PM on February 23, 2017 [19 favorites]

Abusive assholes, no matter how unhealthy, never die as fast as everyone wants them to. Still I have hopes, Bannon looks pretty bad.
posted by emjaybee at 2:32 PM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

No fair talking about changing borders on Terminalia. Concedo nulli.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 2:32 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Do Republicans ever think "hang on, there are bits of the federal government that do things we need and are there for a purpose" or is that utterly beyond them now?

Nah, it's just a death-cult now
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:33 PM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Why this person is guiding this country when he cannot maintain his own health astounds me.

Well, if he dies, he dies.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:34 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Weed arrests will boost the prison industry nicely

DingDingDing! Just like the only hardon that was ever there for weed was really just masking racism, keeping weed illegal actually fills multiple roles in these peoples' dystopic view of the future.

Someone is indeed going to get rich off the recently announced clampdown.

See previous. I know that the GOP used to be about a whole miasma of shitty ideals, but now it's really just 'How can we set up the shortest-lived kleptocracy and get as rich as we're going to get before it all comes crashing down, one way or another?' Which probably really burns up folks like McCain and Graham, but, y'know, it's not like those guys don't have agency over their own actions...
posted by eclectist at 2:35 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Tarumba: I mean if you are all for helping undocumented immigrants have a better life, I don't get the fantasies about abandoning all of us in the non progressive states.

I'm not calling for it now but I think that in the very long run it's something that might have to be considered if things get bad enough. I'm also in a nonprogressive state, by the way, don't intend to abandon anybody, and plan to stay and fight the tide. But if the worst starts to happen, I would prefer that there be somewhere safer to flee to for anybody threatened by the regime. If the options end up being 1) having a country that's unsafe everywhere and 2) two countries, one of which is safe and one unsafe, I will choose the latter.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:35 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

When one of two conjoined twins dies, the correct course of action is to separate them.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:26 PM on February 23 [3 favorites +] [!]

Secession only works if you think the West Coast can win the subsequent civil war. and if we do win, the United States stays together — though perhaps with the capital moved to Sacramento.

I don't think we could win the subsequent civil war.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 2:35 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Rush the Rockies.
posted by vbfg at 2:40 PM on February 23, 2017

I've been wondering for a while, do people overstate the extent of private prisons in the criminal justice system?

In some other thread I said we wouldn't be getting something so obvious as a 'concentration camp' because we don't need to - we already put about 1% of our population in camps and we've been doing it for decades, they're called prisons. We are so astonishingly far and away the country with the biggest prison population in the world that it's absolutely astounding, and we use those prisoners for slave labor, and pretty much everybody thinks of this as totally ok.

Per Wikipedia: While the United States represents about 4.4 percent of the world's population, it houses around 22 percent of the world's prisoners.

The government isn't going to put people in cattle cars, they are going to put them in prison buses and many if not most Americans won't bat an eye because that's just how we do things here.
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:41 PM on February 23, 2017 [35 favorites]

The Washington Post: Altars of Madness works really well
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:41 PM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Does anyone really think that President Bannon wouldn't nuke San Francisco given half a chance?
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 2:42 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

My working theory on Bannon is that he cannot die and that is why he hates us all. He's basically just one big immortal tumor in the shape of a man at this point.
posted by Artw at 2:42 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

Speaking of marijuana, I actually learned quite a few things from this Adam Ruins Everything video. The John Ehrlichman quote was particularly chilling.

tl;dw = We've known marijuana isn't dangerous for nearly 80 years, but it is criminalized because people in power hated Mexicans, blacks, and people who were against Vietnam.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 2:42 PM on February 23, 2017 [40 favorites]

Take a minute to enjoy this clip of the Sports Highlight of the Day: A BLM leader doing a flying leap to take out a Confederate flag during protests against Bree Newsome at the College of Charleston. As per usual, Republicans are all, "we won, get over it!" until it comes to the Confederate flag...
posted by TwoStride at 2:45 PM on February 23, 2017 [67 favorites]

Priebus has a point about Bannon, his weird bush ranger outfit does have about six collars on it.
posted by Artw at 2:47 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Some interesting stuff here, though I'll warn you it gets into some fairly technical details of Congressional procedure: The Republican Congress Is Courting a Major Crisis (and an even more arcane technical discussion about a 10 year sunset on Twitter, if the Byrd Rule is the kind of thing that interests you).

In short, Republicans had a little plan going that tied together the Obamacare repeal and tax cuts so they could produce a (on paper) revenue neutral plan they could force through with 50 votes under reconciliation, but if they don't outright repeal Obamacare in the next couple of months, that all falls apart. If they hold off repealing the ACA in favor of a temporary (10 year) tax cut through reconciliation, they're risking an even bigger mess if they can't also get the debt limit raised this summer.
posted by zachlipton at 2:49 PM on February 23, 2017 [16 favorites]

Wall Street has been anticipating the prison thing since the election. GEO and CWX have about doubled since November.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 2:50 PM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

I know it's a bit off topic but the ACLU just won an immediate stop to solitary confinement of children in our county jail! So much hard work and organizing and protests went into this, so if you feel discouraged remember that things can change.
posted by SyraCarol at 2:50 PM on February 23, 2017 [74 favorites]

In short, Republicans had a little plan going that tied together the Obamacare repeal and tax cuts so they could produce a (on paper) revenue neutral plan they could force through with 50 votes under reconciliation, but if they don't outright repeal Obamacare in the next couple of months, that all falls apart. If they hold off repealing the ACA in favor of a temporary (10 year) tax cut through reconciliation, they're risking an even bigger mess if they can't also get the debt limit raised this summer.

Hmm.

Wonder if this could be their excuse to punt on it?
posted by Artw at 2:51 PM on February 23, 2017

If they do, and they would be smart to so who knows if they will, thank everybody who turned up at a town hall for putting the fear of god into them.
posted by Artw at 2:53 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Climate scientists face harassment, threats and fears of 'McCarthyist attacks': Researchers will have to deal with attacks from a range of powerful foes in the coming years – and for many, it has already started
posted by homunculus at 3:01 PM on February 23, 2017 [29 favorites]

Zachlipton, this bit of your link is sheer fantasy:In the political climate Democrats currently inhabit—in a climate of outrage over Trump’s racism, corruption, and viciousness—it’s very hard to imagine them saying “let bygones be bygones” and bailing out the GOP with an unreciprocated debt limit increase.

posted by Joe in Australia at 3:01 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Indeed, its not hard to imagine the Democrats doing anything spineless. If a spine is not involved, a portion of the Democrats will be all in.
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:03 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

True. The most likely scenario is that Democrats agree to a debt limit increase in exchange for allowing Elizabeth Warren to give a strongly worded, but not too strongly worded, speech to an empty chamber.
posted by zachlipton at 3:07 PM on February 23, 2017 [18 favorites]

> Attorney General Sessions has rescinded Obama DOJ memo on phasing out use of private prisons.

Pay Attention to This Particular Part of Jeff Sessions' Private Prison Memo. The future sounds bleak.
posted by homunculus at 3:09 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Any reason to just increase the debt limit is a good reason.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 3:10 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Priebus has a point about Bannon, his weird bush ranger outfit does have about six collars on it.

I had to go back and look and it is SO WEIRD. It's like the normal amount of buttons and collars couldn't fully contain him. Six collars is the new fringed flag.
posted by mochapickle at 3:12 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

This dapper nazi wears all the clothes he owns simultaneously.
posted by Artw at 3:14 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Oh hey. It's been like a week since we've had a leak in the ongoing "make Ivanka and Jared less hated in Manhattan" campaign, which makes up in volume what it lacks in subtlety. Today it's the WSJ with Kushner, Ivanka Trump Pushed to Remove Words Critical of Climate Deal From Executive Order

It's still going to be two executive orders rolling back Obama's climate initiatives, and Trump has still picked Pruitt to lead the EPA, and Trump still called climate change a Chinese hoax, and Jared and Ivanka still support every bit of his administration to the extent that one of them continues to serve in it and the other one just keeps showing up in meetings randomly, but don't worry, liberal friends of Ivanka and Jared: they're totally on your side here. The totally-not-self-serving leak said so.
posted by zachlipton at 3:16 PM on February 23, 2017 [38 favorites]

If you push to do something, and you don't do something, then it's like you never did something and in fact accepted doing the opposite, so fuck those losers. Dumbass pointless hangers on to the nazi regime.
posted by Artw at 3:17 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

FBI refused White House request to knock down recent Trump-Russia stories

White House officials had sought the help of the bureau and other agencies investigating the Russia matter to say that the reports were wrong and that there had been no contacts, the officials said.

The reports of the contacts were first published by The New York Times and CNN on February 14.
The direct communications between the White House and the FBI were unusual because of decade-old restrictions on such contacts. Such a request from the White House is a violation of procedures that limit communications with the FBI on pending investigations.
posted by futz at 3:19 PM on February 23, 2017 [55 favorites]

Pay Attention to This Particular Part of Jeff Sessions' Private Prison Memo. The future sounds bleak.

Well, the neo-Confederates and ancaps (but I repeat myself) will be happy that their boy with the name full of traitors is Making Slavery Great Again.
posted by zombieflanders at 3:21 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Religious leaders providing ‘underground railroad’ for undocumented immigrants
posted by prefpara at 3:24 PM on February 23, 2017 [28 favorites]

Priebus has a point about Bannon, his weird bush ranger outfit does have about six collars on it.

It's his life support system for functional alcoholism on the go. Each coat has a flask in the pocket, so as the day progresses and the booze warms him from the inside he can successively remove layers and access the next flask, keeping him comfortable and staving off the DT's.
posted by contraption at 3:25 PM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

If you deport all of the immigrants, the lettuce has to get picked by someone. What gives me chills is the thought of private prisons selling the labor of their inmates. As we all know, USAG Sessions has always approved of chain gangs so this is all lining up nicely for them. Selective arrests of POC for pot use (undoubtedly bumped up to charges of dealing) sent to private prison and thus we will have slavery in America whether we like it or not.

In short, Republicans had a little plan going that tied together the Obamacare repeal and tax cuts so they could produce a (on paper) revenue neutral plan they could force through with 50 votes under reconciliation, but if they don't outright repeal Obamacare in the next couple of months, that all falls apart.

The Byrd Rule means that in order to make the tax cuts permanent they have to make them revenue neutral (or pass them with a filibuster-proof majority.) There were actually three parts to making the tax cuts revenue neutral:

1. Fancy bookwork to magically make the taxes neutral
2. Repeal ACA
3. Establish border tariffs.

They can still pull off the voodoo magic with the bookkeeping-- that's just fudging the figures-- but the other two are dead in the water. They won't repeal the ACA in time and the border tariffs seem very unlikely at this point because WalMart and other major importers are crying foul. So they can still pass massive tax cuts but they will expire in 10 years just like the Bush tax cuts did under Obama and those massive tax cuts are going to mean that the deficit is going to grow not shrink as the Freedom Caucus has been demanding.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:26 PM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

FBI refused White House request to knock down recent Trump-Russia stories

As Chris Hayes just noted: "This is a Big Big Big FD"

The FBI is not the White House's PR machine and doesn't exist to get them out of jams. That they would request such a thing in the middle of an active investigation is horrifying. And apparently, if you do try to use the FBI as your PR machine, they're going to leak it right back at you.
posted by zachlipton at 3:28 PM on February 23, 2017 [69 favorites]

This would never happen in Putin's Russia!
posted by Artw at 3:29 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

After Comey, it kind of surprises me that the FBI is not just saying "Hey guys, sure thing!"
posted by emjaybee at 3:30 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

My mental image of Comey is something like a spycraft Mr. Magoo
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:32 PM on February 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

I like how Rolling Stone describes Spencer as:

white nationalist and unofficial Alt-Right leader whose previous connection to music was getting punched in the head repeatedly to different songs

It's really time for a whole lot of brand new Spencer-gets-punched-to-Depeche-Mode-songs videos, methinks, because lord knows ♫ I just can't get enough ♫ Nazi punching!
posted by FelliniBlank at 3:32 PM on February 23, 2017 [19 favorites]

This is a fun detail:

he White House official said that Priebus later reached out again to McCabe and to FBI Director James Comey asking for the FBI to at least talk to reporters on background to dispute the stories. A law enforcement official says McCabe didn't discuss aspects of the case but wouldn't say exactly what McCabe told Priebus.

That was the same Priebus who recently objected to anonymous sources.
posted by zachlipton at 3:32 PM on February 23, 2017 [21 favorites]

Harvard scientist worries we’re ‘reverting to a pre-Enlightenment form of thinking’
posted by futz at 3:34 PM on February 23, 2017 [19 favorites]

/r/the_donald is picking up more on the legal weed crackdown story and some posts are actually sticking around long enough for commenting. Maybe 25% of the discussion is "LOL lib tears" and "well, congress must first decide to reschedule, it's the law" and "good, degeneracy must be stifled." 75% of the overall tone, however, is "NOOOO! How do we tell Sessions and the God-Emperor that this is a huge mistake?!"

I really do think that he's at risk of losing many to most of his younger supporters if this goes forward.
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:34 PM on February 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

Harvard scientist worries we’re ‘reverting to a pre-Enlightenment form of thinking’

Republicans have been there for a good 20 years.
posted by Artw at 3:35 PM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

I'm in favor of banning weed specifically for anybody who has ever posted a Pepe meme.
posted by Artw at 3:36 PM on February 23, 2017 [21 favorites]

The Byrd Rule means that in order to make the tax cuts permanent they have to make them revenue neutral (or pass them with a filibuster-proof majority.) There were actually three parts to making the tax cuts revenue neutral:

It looks to me, though (after ~~extensive research into parliamentary procedure~~ a quick perusal of "Byrd Rule") that invoking the Rule sends the portion of legislation in question to... the Presiding Officer -- a.k.a. Mike Pence or the President pro tem, who makes a ruling on whether it qualifies to be passed under reconciliation.

This decision can then be overturned only on a 60-person vote.

So, assuming there are No More Norms, what's to stop Pence from ruling however the hell he wants? Will any American who's already not anti-Trump GAF that the Byrd Rule was blatantly misused in a harrowing parliamentary caper?

I'm open to the charge that I'm being overly cynical, but...
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:38 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

also, I'd like propose a 'Bird Rule'. As you have probably imagined, it involves congresscritters, birds and bees
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:40 PM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Why did Spicer answer the weed question anyway? He could have easily just said: "we'll continue to enforce the law, and any specific questions about how that is done should be directed to the Department of Justice." He went out of his way to draw the distinction between medical and recreational and to link it to opioid abuse. It's weird that he chose to make a point out of it.
posted by zachlipton at 3:41 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

i'm getting kind of bored of the richard spencer getting punched videos i think someone needs to punch him on camera again to keep the meme fresh
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 3:42 PM on February 23, 2017 [46 favorites]

Trump still believes that Caitlyn Jenner can use the women's bathroom in Trump Tower, because "state's rights."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:11 PM on February 23

My immediate thought when I read this was that Trump has no imagination and no empathy. Sure she can use the woman's bathroom in NY but what happens if she travels to a state that doesn't allow transgendered people to use the bathroom of their choice? Caitlyn Jenner will be forced to use the men's bathroom-- no doubt to jeers and dirty looks and angry invective. I really think DJT lacks the imagination to put himself into her shoes.

Also "States Rights" are only going to go so far. When the GOP is able to overturn Roe vs. Wade and access to abortion is decided by each state, how long until the Far Right Christians are crying about the murder of sweet, sweet babies in California?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:43 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

A woman who went to the Tom Emmer townhall (that I touched on upthread) just made a great post about attending townhalls in a secret facebook group I belong to. She said it's okay to copy and share:

WHAT I LEARNED AT EMMER'S TOWNHALL:

1. Call/Email your Representatives Chief of Staff to get future townhalls scheduled (they are the gatekeepers. they set the meeting schedule with special interest groups as well as townhalls with their constituency). Be a respectful pain in their toosh and get them to set a townhall for EVERY District Work Week for EVERY Rep for this session. (see attached calendar for dates. the next one is 4/10-4/21). Remind them that your Congressional Rep represents YOU not companies, organizations, and special interests and that you are watching.

2. Know the capacity of the venue chosen for townhalls. Be sure those that get in at the front of the line are prepared to speak, prepared to listen, prepared to follow up with questions when they dodge.

3. I'm not outright claiming they planted question-ers, but they called on known people whom the congressman had previously spoken with at other events over the years to ask questions (some of which were friendly). Emmers comments suggested he had previously spoken with 4 or 5 on another occassion, which was frustrating for THIS first time townhaller.

4. Use Agree/Disagree signs vs yelling. Dont give them an excuse to close it down and run away

5. If you ask a question and they dont give a straight answer, ask it again. dont ask and then sit down or give back/walk away from a microphone. Tell them they are not answering the question to your satisfaction and ask again. and again

6. Remind them they work for US, the voting public. Companies and special interest groups are NOT the voting public

7. Arrive very early if you want to get in. Be willing to give up your spot in line if someone needs to have a their story told/question asked and you feel WE are better served allowing their voice heard over you own. Check your ego as we work towards common goals. We sang patriotic songs, we held signs, we waved flags, we were interviewed by reporters, we passed out Agree/Disagree signs, we wore name tags with our zipcodes, we had masking tape saying "censored by Tom" ready to put on our mouths if he cancelled or ended early. Visuals matter.

8. There were Trumpers (who arrived late, drunk, were annoying) and they tried to budge in front of those who had been there for 3hrs+ in line. One even hit someone I knew during the meeting! Don't engage with them. do NOT escalate. do NOT let the 'news' be that it was chaotic and violent. Support the police to keep the peace. We had 'marshals' (volunteers) wearing green vests present that formed a human line near the entrance in front of the late-comers and just stood their so the police could allow those who had been waiting in. The police were really really great in Sartell.

9.Take Action MN offered a training in St. Cloud prior to this townhall and was present helping organize the crowd. I would HIGHLY recommend every district schedule a few trainings with them for your area. Great training on how to ask questions effectively, crowd control etc. Team leads do this now.

10. Remember they work for you. you are the boss. I personally walked up to Emmer right after the meeting and gave him my hand to shake. He would've shook it and went on to the next but I didn't let go of his hand. I complimented him on hosting the event and just launched right into what I would've asked. He let me talk to him for 3-4 minutes even though there were people waiting. They are loathe to look dismissive of their constituents in front of the media. Take advantage. be respectful.

11. PLEASE show up at EVERY event your rep has scheduled during their District Work Weeks (April 10-21, May 8-12, May 30-June 2, July 3-7, the ENTIRE month of August, Sept 18-22, Oct 16-20, Nov 20-24 (plus the preceding and following weekends of these dates) SHOW UP with signs, chants, questions, be present. Talk to the aides, to the chief of staff, to the media.

12. Write letters to the editor

13. Tweet @ your rep during the events and share/tag the media

14. live stream interactions

15. Take initiative. Do what you can and don't necessarily wait for someone else to organize. This is grassroots. We will get better at the organizing and better networked but for now do what you can. We all have our own way, talents, interests, comfort zones. Be it calling, emailing, showing up with a sign, making postcards, etc. Get involved how you authentically feel comfortable. And then challenge yourself to do a tiny bit more. Pretty soon you'll be feeling more empowered and this will not all seem so foreign for us 'nice' Minnesotans (I personally printed off some of those AGREE/DISAGREE signs, cost very little, but they got used. No one told me to. I just heard the suggestion somewhere in the past weeks and did it). Take initiative.
posted by triggerfinger at 3:45 PM on February 23, 2017 [101 favorites]

Please take two minutes and watch this silent (and very, very disciplined) protest yesterday in Bangor, Maine pushing Senator Collins to hold a public town hall. (Here's a slightly different view posted on Facebook.)

if any of you are able to get this further distribution in the world, Indivisible Bangor would appreciate it.
posted by anastasiav at 3:45 PM on February 23, 2017 [53 favorites]

So, assuming there are No More Norms, what's to stop Pence from ruling however the hell he wants? Will any American who's already not anti-Trump GAF that the Byrd Rule was blatantly misused in a harrowing parliamentary caper?
I don't know, tivalasvegas. I had the same thought. Perhaps it is enshrined enough that they would risk losing the tax cuts the minute the Democrats retake the House or the Presidency?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:46 PM on February 23, 2017

Assuming continuance of democracy
posted by Artw at 3:48 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

I've never seen anyone with less ability to fake his way through his job than Spicer. He is always sweaty, flailing and desperate.
posted by emjaybee at 3:50 PM on February 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

Harvard scientist worries we’re ‘reverting to a pre-Enlightenment form of thinking’

My dad (for those playing the home game, he's an academic as well, in a relevant field, but he's also an Objectivist, so) said this right after the election, but heavily implied it's the Left's fault. He seems to have completely missed the evolution of both political poles over the past decade, and I'm not sure how to even begin trying to explain it to him. Or if I should bother.
posted by soren_lorensen at 3:51 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

i'm getting kind of bored of the richard spencer getting punched videos i think someone needs to punch him on camera again to keep the meme fresh

That's just mean, advocating violence against this guy. There are lots of other Nazis.
posted by bongo_x at 3:52 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

As much as CPAC is about the Trumpists having taken over the party, some things are sacred: CPAC has an anti-border adjustment tax snapchat filter. Paid for by the group "Americans for Affordable Products" (various retailers including Wal-Mart and Target and import-related trade organizations).
posted by zachlipton at 3:54 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Follow up on the woman in Fort Worth (well in the Alvarado detention center) who has a brain tumor.

Her attorney is still fighting and Amnesty International has gotten involved. There is quite a lot of media attention on this, let's keep it up.
posted by emjaybee at 3:55 PM on February 23, 2017 [17 favorites]

Have they established what kind of dangerous criminal or drug lord she is yet?
posted by Artw at 3:56 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yeah I'm going to continue to assume that we will still have a functional Democracy after Trump. I know some here doubt this but I do think there are not enough of them to pull off a coup. Americans still, by and large, view this country as a strong Democratic Nation with a historically revered Constitution. Even if they gerrymander and do their best to keep POC from voting, we will still have elections.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:57 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

1. Fancy bookwork to magically make the taxes neutral

They're already all over this one: Mnuchin signaled that administration will count tax-cut as "revenue neutral" by using higher economic growth estimates than others accept. Just declare that tax cuts cause 25% annual economic growth and you can pay for anything with tax cuts! Who cares that it's never once worked, ever?
posted by zachlipton at 3:57 PM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

Update on that story about immigration agents checking IDs from passengers getting off a domestic flight: n
Federal agents ask domestic flight passengers to show IDs in search for undocumented immigrant. CBP was looking for a specific person with a deportation order at the request of ICE, but that person was not on the flight.

This could raise some significant questions about whether passenger manifests for domestic flights will be used for immigration enforcement, as domestic air travel is currently possible, though always risky, for undocumented people. Cutting them off from domestic air travel through increased enforcement operations would be a huge problem for a lot of people.
posted by zachlipton at 4:02 PM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

Checking in from the rally at Stonewall to support transgender kids. Very loud, lively crowd, including many of our local and Congressional leadership. Several moms of trans kids spoke, as well as many trans WoC.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:02 PM on February 23, 2017 [33 favorites]

Every time a reporter says, "Trump said" you can see Sean Spicer brace himself.
posted by ruetheday at 4:02 PM on February 23, 2017 [14 favorites]

Spicer: Trump Supports States’ Right to Discriminate Against Trans Kids but Not to Legalize Pot
posted by homunculus at 4:04 PM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

I know some here doubt this but I do think there are not enough of them to pull off a coup.

Nor do they seem to particularly competent or organized enough to achieve their agenda.. The only reason these ICE raids and CBP horrors are happening is because ICE and CBP were itching for an excuse to get started terrorizing PoC. Everything else they've tried has been an abject failure.
posted by Existential Dread at 4:05 PM on February 23, 2017 [16 favorites]

CNN Melania and Ivanka's plastic feminism cover up Trump's misogyny

Melania and Ivanka provide good cover for Trump's misogyny because they're palatable, conventionally feminine women: They're docile and poised, they don't make demands of men, and they are above all conventionally beautiful -- white and thin.
Now, Trump is using his wife and daughter's status as American women to feign concern for women while he actively makes life worse for women around the world. And Melania and Ivanka sit passively by.

We know that Melania has always used her position for personal gain, the Trump name to sell her face creams and baubles.[...]
If Melania really wanted to be an unconventional first lady, and Ivanka a first daughter using her role for good, they could do what Trump already claims and dedicate their time to advocating for women's rights. They could talk publicly about reproductive rights and the right to live free of sexual violence.

posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:14 PM on February 23, 2017 [19 favorites]

He's at it again....

@realDonaldTrump Seven people shot and killed yesterday in Chicago. What is going on there - totally out of control. Chicago needs help!

Is there a large immigrant population in Chicago he has a particular hate-on for, or is this just black people?
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 4:15 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

There are lots and lots of immigrants in Chicago, but mostly it's black people. Also, Obama is from Chicago. Hating Chicago is a Thing in right-wing extremist circles.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:18 PM on February 23, 2017 [46 favorites]

Marsha Blackburn was on Anderson Cooper's show and claimed that less than a third of the people at her town hall were her constituents. One of those constituents replied on twitter: Everyone I spoke to in this town hall identified themselves as TN-7 voter. Town restricted RSVP's to locals and checked ID's.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:19 PM on February 23, 2017 [50 favorites]

NBC Trump Always Calls Out Chicago, but City Closest to Mar-a-Lago Had Comparable Crime Rate in 2015

The city of West Palm Beach, which sits just across the Intracoastal Waterway from Trump's palatial Mar-a-Lago Resort — aka the Winter White House — on exclusive Palm Beach, had a violent crime rate in 2015 that was equal to that of the Windy City, according to federal crime records.

There were 23 homicides in a city of just 104,919 residents. And the rate of violent crime, which also includes rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults, was 9 for every 1,000 residents — the same as the far bigger Chicago, records show.

posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:32 PM on February 23, 2017 [51 favorites]

Is there a large immigrant population in Chicago he has a particular hate-on for, or is this just black people?

Chicago showed him the door.
posted by Buntix at 4:33 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

As possibly should be expected by now ICE flat out lied in their account if the courtyard case.
posted by Artw at 4:38 PM on February 23, 2017 [14 favorites]

His Chicago concern trolling is 100% about pissing where Obama slept.
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:38 PM on February 23, 2017 [64 favorites]

CNN One Republican congressman's plan to deal with town hall disrupters

Rep. Matt Gaetz has a plan.
The Florida Republican, like other lawmakers around the country, is holding events in his district Thursday and is worried about protesters.
The thought has crossed Gaetz's mind that protests could completely disrupt him from being able to speak at all at his town hall. So he's created what his staffers call the "non-verbal town hall," reminiscent of a scene from the movie "Love Actually."

Gaetz has printed out part of a speech that gets some of his message across onto giant boards that he will hold up if he is unable to get a word in.

His entire speech is printed out on posters. He plans to have a lottery draw for asking questions but he does plan a no protest sign policy because he is afraid it will block the audience's view. He will be holding 9 events.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:44 PM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

NRA to organise it's members into fascist paramilitary squads.
I guess it's time for the 2nd amendment's defence of tyranny to shine.
In my view, it's becoming more and more important to deny these assholes their presumed monopoly.....I'm tired of not scaring these people.

Might I suggest Jews for the Presentation of Firearms? I believe the video they have will be of interest.
posted by rough ashlar at 4:46 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Bannon pulled out the Hamilton. Well that was fun while it lasted.

Update: some genius set the Confederate flag snatching to Hamilton, and it's glorious. The fun is back on.
posted by zachlipton at 4:47 PM on February 23, 2017 [24 favorites]

Secession only works if you think the West Coast can win the subsequent civil war.

Depends on who the military bases jump for. But more likely they would just let them go.
posted by corb at 4:50 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Bannon pulled out the Hamilton. Well that was fun while it lasted.

Update: some genius set the Confederate flag snatching to Hamilton, and it's glorious. The fun is back on.

I think the ultimate soundtrack here would be Kendrick Lamar's "King Kunta" but I'm way too lazy to make it real.
posted by dis_integration at 4:52 PM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

Shit, no, California contributes way too much to the federal budget for the parasite states to allow their victim and favorite punching bag to leave.
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:52 PM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

California is going to drag the rest of y'all into the 20th century (and then hopefully the 21st) whether you like it or not. It's just taking longer than we hoped.
posted by Justinian at 4:54 PM on February 23, 2017 [41 favorites]

My new favorite nickname for the Trumpists and Pencists is y'all qaeda.
posted by Justinian at 4:55 PM on February 23, 2017 [40 favorites]

CNN One Republican congressman's plan to deal with town hall disrupters

Recall that is the same Matt Gaetz who's a freshman representative from the most Republican district in Florida and the son of a prominent Florida politician who was arrested for a DUI in 2008 and proposed the bill to abolish the EPA. A real profile in courage, this guy.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 4:56 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Who needs a State Department when you have Twitter.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 4:58 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

californian in red county reporting people are universally PISSED about the MJ thing, if newspaper comments are any measure
posted by entropicamericana at 5:00 PM on February 23, 2017

When Calexit came up before, I linked to a Google Books archive of an article in a 2003 issue of Popular Science that set up a scenario for California Secession (in 2043) in which the US Military presence in the state would suppress the movement and end that Civil War in less than 72 hours. Sorry.
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:02 PM on February 23, 2017

the problem with the popular science scenario is it is assuming cold fusion and flying cars will be in play by 2020
posted by entropicamericana at 5:04 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Depends on who the military bases jump for.

Are there kill switches in major US military weapons?
posted by Coventry at 5:05 PM on February 23, 2017

Revisiting today's NBC Montana question to Spicer about building a wall on the Canadian border. I have a local Montanan acquaintance-nemesis who is as vile a hardcore MAGA-er as you can imagine. I watched her get radicalized over the last few years, going from a John-Birch-libertarian organizer of the original Tea Party wave to dropping N-bombs and posting links from the Daily Stormer. She's a great weathervane for the current madness. Here's what she had to say on FB after the press briefing:

KECI question 36:04 from "Lauren" Staples asked if Trump plans to "build a wall" on the Canadian border? is laughable! I wonder who handed her that question Laurel Staples KECI NBC Montana does NOT reflect the opinions and attitudes of 'Main Street' Montanans - what a joke - millions of border crossings from Canada to US at official border crossings, and BACK again, do not equate to the Southern Border illegal crossings that Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California contend with. A stupid question

So yeah, not a common sentiment among local redcaps. Apparently the anchor asking the question is the most insane right-winger in the state of Montana.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:06 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

californian in red county reporting people are universally PISSED about the MJ thing, if newspaper comments are any measure

Yeah this is a *huge* own goal. Why stir up tons of backlash you could avoid just by literally doing nothing? You spiteful monsters.
posted by dis_integration at 5:07 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Hooray for #AltRightAn80sSong. I think my fave so far is "It's Raining Bitter White Men" or "She Blinded Me Without Science."
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:07 PM on February 23, 2017 [18 favorites]

anastasiav: Please take two minutes and watch this silent (and very, very disciplined) protest yesterday yt in Bangor, Maine pushing Senator Collins to hold a public town hall. (Here's a slightly different view posted on Facebook.)

Holy hell, this protest was an act of beauty! The signs were wonderful!. The utter awkward of the silence should be replicated all over the country.

Susan Collins, truly the ultimate Vichy Republican, is a seriously contemptible person. I saw her shaking her head towards the end of that video, and it fills me with rage that a supposed "moderate" would treat her constituents in such a manner. The part where she's apparently trying to suppress phone calls to her office should sicken everyone who gives a fuck about our democratic institution.

...Okay, I'm too hungry for this thread--don't be like me: Do self-care stuff.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 5:12 PM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

As bad as Trump is, I'm almost more worried about Pence as president. I'm watching his CPAC speech right now and he has that aw shucks, folksy thing that people eat right up. Donald Trump is brash enough that he's turning off people who might otherwise jump on board with his toxic shit if he had the sense to dress it up and sugarcoat it. Mike Pence has no such problem. He'll grin and blush and aw shucks his way through signing horrific and cruel things that will have immense and tragic implications for millions of innocent people. And people will eat it right up and support him all the way through. Trump is stupid and incompetent enough to not even be able to give the flimsiest cover of plausible deniability to his appalling bigotry, Mike Pence isn't much smarter but at least he knows how to play the game enough where I could easily see him getting re-elected in a way that I don't see with Trump (should he even make it through his first four years).
posted by triggerfinger at 5:14 PM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

So yeah, not a common sentiment among local redcaps. Apparently the anchor asking the question is the most insane right-winger in the state of Montana.

I didn't interpret the question as serious suggestion from an insane right-winger, but rather as more of an attempt to contrast the measures being taken on the southern border with concerns that legal border crossings on the northern border could be impacted. Bringing up the wall ended up largely turning the question into a joke, which is a shame, because I think the actual point of it was more like "so will things be changing for our border up here?"
posted by zachlipton at 5:15 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

Secession only works if you think the West Coast can win the subsequent civil war. and if we do win, the United States stays together — though perhaps with the capital moved to Sacramento.

Not secession. Dissolution. Divorce. Maybe even Collapse.

To avert the bloodshed that would eventually be necessary for Blue/Red to subjugate Red/Blue.

Give up the increasingly untenable dream of ruling one empire from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Rio Grande to the 49th parallel ... not fucking worth it.

And I think Blue would win. Eventually. How many war crimes are you willing to commit to see that through?
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 5:20 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Maybe they could build the wall around all the Tunp states. That way we get to keep immigrants and an economy and civilization and they get to keep whatever they have, and they'll be safe from immigrants because nobody will ever want to go there.

I'd say "they pay for it", but of course they don't have any money so we'll still be stuck with the bill.
posted by Artw at 5:27 PM on February 23, 2017

‏@Caitlyn_Jenner Well @realDonaldTrump, from one Republican to another, this is a disaster. You made a promise to protect the LGBTQ community. Call me.

There is also a video attached.
posted by anastasiav at 5:28 PM on February 23, 2017 [23 favorites]

Across Virginia, progressive activists have been frustrated by the refusal of some Republican members of Congress to hold town halls. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Perriello is offering to give them an audience instead
posted by futz at 5:30 PM on February 23, 2017 [14 favorites]

Hooray for #AltRightAn80sSong. I think my fave so far is "It's Raining Bitter White Men" or "She Blinded Me Without Science."

Bannon Lugosi's Undead.

umm, wait a min..

New Model Army don't even need edits

Christian Militia

There's a witch hunt coming, screaming out on it's rebirth
There's a crusade coming, Hellfires back here on earth
See the light in their eyes shine, listen to their words like swords
The Christian militia is marching now
There's a witch hunt coming, born out of all the American fears
There's a new purge coming, an inquisition for all of us here
Hold onto your sanity as best you can
While some Hitler claims to speak for the Son of Man
The Christian militia is marching now
Hatred makes the adrenaline flow
Stir up the fire watch it grow
Everybody loves a righteous cause
Old lives forgotten in holy wars
Everything forgotten in holy wars

(and if you enjoy their musical stylings, might I also suggest the Sleaford Mods.
posted by Buntix at 5:31 PM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

Anyone who actually believed Trump would protect LGBT rights is an idiot. Full stop.
posted by Justinian at 5:32 PM on February 23, 2017 [66 favorites]

Fucking hell, Jenner actually emerged from her bubble of privledge? Does this mean she's not going to be propping up the orange shit stain and giving Repubs the illusion of diversity anymore?
posted by Artw at 5:33 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Interesting. Jenner's people were saying there would be no comment about the executive order not long ago, and people were pissed about the silence.
posted by zachlipton at 5:33 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's probably bullshit and she'll be back on Team Nazi in no time.
posted by Artw at 5:37 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

The stonewall rally has now moved to and taken over the first floor cosmetics area of Macy's. [tweet w pic]
posted by melissasaurus at 5:41 PM on February 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

If we could build a wall around Donald Trump there'd be no problem funding that
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 5:43 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Tell him his phone is in the wine cellar.
posted by Artw at 5:46 PM on February 23, 2017 [20 favorites]

CNN: White House effort to justify travel ban causes growing concern for some intelligence officials

The White House expectation of what the report will show has some intelligence officials within the administration taking issue with this intelligence review, sources told CNN.
First, some intelligence officials disagree with the conclusion that immigration from these countries should be temporarily banned in the name of making the US safer. CNN has learned that the Department of Homeland Security's in-house intelligence agency, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis -- called I&A within the department -- offered a report that is at odds with the Trump administration's view that blocking immigration from these seven countries strategically makes sense.
...
A second issue for many in the intelligence community is the notion of the Trump White House seeking an intelligence report to fit the policy instead of the other way around, sources tell CNN.

posted by zachlipton at 5:50 PM on February 23, 2017 [32 favorites]

Bustle: If You Marched In The Women's March, You Need To Show Up For Trans Rights: You need to do the work for and with your transgender family because they have shown up for you.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:00 PM on February 23, 2017 [62 favorites]

Mike Pence isn't much smarter but at least he knows how to play the game enough where I could easily see him getting re-elected in a way that I don't see with Trump

If he knew how to play the game well he wouldn't have had underwater approval ratings in Indiana.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:01 PM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

He's as compromised on Russia as Trump is now, and Trump isn't going to go without burning down the house.
posted by Artw at 6:03 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

MUST WATCH: Constituents Corner Cory Gardner - Coloradopols.com

Wild video now circulating on social media of a confrontation this morning between Sen. Cory Gardner and several constituents in a Broomfield office building–in which Gardner tries mightily to escape with a proffered business card and promises of a future “tele-town hall,” and fails miserably as his persistent constituents tail him onto an elevator.

He claimed he's had several "public" meetings, such as one yesterday that had a $200 admission.
posted by audi alteram partem at 6:03 PM on February 23, 2017 [17 favorites]

Some of you may enjoy this Fox News poll which offers the opportunity to rate the President's first month in office. For some reason it doesn't go any lower than 'poor', but I decided not to quibble.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 6:04 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

Yahoo News Trumpism versus conservatism at CPAC

Hilarious over-the-top tongue-bathing by Trump sycophants starts off with Kellyanne proclaiming that CPAC will come to be known as TPAC.

Trump’s top adviser, Steve Bannon, appeared with White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, and the two spent their time on stage alternating between hyperbolic praise for Trump and complaining of how unfair press coverage has been.

Priebus said Trump will be “one of the greatest presidents that ever served this country” and that he has already “put in the best Cabinet in the history of Cabinets.”

Bannon, the former Breitbart News editor in chief who was considered so unpalatable to conservatives that he was not welcome at CPAC in previous years, said Trump is “probably the greatest public speaker in those large arenas since William Jennings Bryan” and that “one of the most pivotal moments in modern American history was [Trump’s] immediate withdrawal from [the Trans-Pacific Partnership].”

Are they that deluded? Do they really believe this cabinet is the best cabinet in history? Or are they high on power and drugs? Just....insane.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:04 PM on February 23, 2017 [23 favorites]

Are they that deluded? Do they really believe this cabinet is the best cabinet in history? Or are they high on power and drugs? Just....insane.

I think they really, honestly think that if they keep telling everyone how great everything is, it'll be believed. It worked well enough to get them all into the White House, so why not -- I think that's the logic being applied here.

Or it's hella cocaine.

Or both! Cocaine and delusions of grandeur do go hand in hand...
posted by palomar at 6:08 PM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

For the love of country, artw!
posted by entropicamericana at 6:08 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

I think 'actually having people in the Cabinet' is a pretty low bar for quality considerations, but that's just me
posted by flatluigi at 6:08 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'm reading on CNN that the administration tried to get the FBI to tell the media that the russian connection story was less than important, like, a week and a half ago. Comey picked the wrong decade to quit drinking. Link!

That was around the time Comey briefed the senate intel com. And shady as hell.
posted by vrakatar at 6:09 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Santa Cruz leaders slam feds over immigration detentions during gang operation

Santa Cruz law enforcement leaders took the unusual step of castigating federal Department of Homeland Security officials Thursday over a joint gang bust that the city participated in, only to later learn that federal agents detained individuals based solely on their immigration status.

“This has violated the trust of our community, and we cannot tell you how disappointed we are by the betrayal of the Department of Homeland Security,” said Santa Cruz Police Chief Kevin Vogel, who was joined by the city’s mayor and his deputy chief at a news conference.

The police officials revealed in specific detail how the recent operation was conducted, and just how much local police knew, as they accused federal officials of misleading them on the full scope of the raid and said they had contacted members of Congress to investigate the matter.

posted by zachlipton at 6:15 PM on February 23, 2017 [36 favorites]

Is this the Trump administration's first "I'm not here to make friends", DeVos defiant at CPAC: ‘My job isn’t to win a popularity contest’?
posted by peeedro at 6:16 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

“one of the most pivotal moments in modern American history was [Trump’s] immediate withdrawal from [the Trans-Pacific Partnership].”

History books will more likely record the pivotal moment being when Russia installed a chaotic, divisive, clueless narcissist into the Oval Office, hastening the demise of the USA and the concurrent resurgence of Russia alongside China as the dominant global powers.

Historians will argue whether Trump was the highest placed Russian asset in history, or just the highest placed American liability.
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:17 PM on February 23, 2017 [16 favorites]

Are they that deluded? Do they really believe this cabinet is the best cabinet in history? Or are they high on power and drugs?

I think we can make a reasonable guess from this:
Bannon, the former Breitbart News editor in chief who was considered so unpalatable to conservatives that he was not welcome at CPAC in previous years, said Trump is “probably the greatest public speaker in those large arenas since William Jennings Bryan”

Nobody is this stupid. Not even the most facts-aren't-real Republican could believe this. It is possibly the least true thing Steve Bannon has ever said, which makes it one of the least true things ever uttered by a human. Steve Bannon does not believe this.

So I'm thinking they must just be telling the lies they think will be beneficial for them. Bannon knows Trump is going to know what he said, so he's buttering the big idiot up (see that story from earlier about WH staffers having to manipulate Trump's mood to get him to behave like an adult). The odds that Trump knows who William Jennings Bryan is are basically zero, but he'll be able to put together from context what Bannon was pretending to mean, and then Bannon will get his pat on the head (which, I'm sure, includes a signature on whatever deeply evil EO he writes next without Trump even reading it).
posted by IAmUnaware at 6:18 PM on February 23, 2017 [34 favorites]

There is a certain level of schadenfreude involved watching all these people get angry that they may lose their gay rights and weed. Like, WTF did y'all think Republican even MEANT.

In other news, both my laptop and my car are dead and I actually came to read this thread to get my mind off my problems.
posted by threeturtles at 6:19 PM on February 23, 2017 [23 favorites]

Is this the Trump administration's first "I'm not here to make friends", DeVos defiant at CPAC: ‘My job isn’t to win a popularity contest’?

They finally did it: we're all in a reality TV show now. I didn't expect it'd be DeVos to pull the trigger though.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:20 PM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

>DeVos defiant at CPAC: ‘My job isn’t to win a popularity contest’?

No, popularity contests are democratic. Your job is to buy your job. Disgusting...
posted by Sing Or Swim at 6:22 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Her job is to make sure my kids and every other kid of their generations and the generations after no longer have access to a proper education. Damn right she isn't popular.
posted by Artw at 6:29 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Has the DOJ statement about private prisons been linked? Here it is! It also sucks.
posted by vrakatar at 6:32 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

The Travel Press is Reporting the 'Trump Slump,' a Devastating Drop in Tourism to the United States

It’s known as the “Trump Slump.” And I know of no reputable travel publication to deny it.

Thus, the prestigious Travel Weekly magazine (as close to an “official” travel publication as they come) has set the decline in foreign tourism at 6.8%. And the fall-off is not limited to Muslim travelers, but also extends to all incoming foreign tourists. Apparently, an attack on one group of tourists is regarded as an assault on all.

posted by zachlipton at 6:34 PM on February 23, 2017 [77 favorites]

Maddow just reported that McMaster told the staff at an "all hands on deck" meeting today that he does not think anyone should use the term "radical Islamic terrorism." Baby steps out of the hellhole.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:34 PM on February 23, 2017 [49 favorites]

You'd have to be insane to travel to the US versus any other country where you actually want you right now. A random chance of being detained or sent home is not a holiday draw.
posted by Artw at 6:35 PM on February 23, 2017 [26 favorites]

Maddow just reported that McMaster told the staff at an "all hands on deck" meeting today that he does not think anyone should use the term "radical Islamic terrorism." Baby steps out of the hellhole.

Plz save us mister mcmaster
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:37 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

you'd have to be insane to travel to the US versus any other country where you actually want you right now. A random chance of being detained or sent home is not a holiday draw.

i blame the bowling green massacre
posted by entropicamericana at 6:38 PM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Some of you may enjoy this Fox News poll

It's an online poll and thus meaningless, but still enjoyed it. Especially when the "good" rating received 26% of the vote. Only 1% away from the crazification number.
posted by honestcoyote at 6:40 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

They finally did it: we're all in a reality TV show now. I didn't expect it'd be DeVos to pull the trigger though.

Do you think she's here for the right reasons?
posted by Huffy Puffy at 6:41 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

I posted this in the "this is coffee" but it probably belongs here:

On the same channel is this-

It wasn't a roadmap, guys, fuck.
posted by Gyre,Gimble,Wabe, Esq. at 6:45 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

I don't understand what the problem is: 70%+ of Turdp's staff are en fuego alcoholics - a strategically deployed wired sex bomb with a bottle could win a Pulitzer and Save the World.
posted by petebest at 6:49 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Historians will argue whether Trump was the highest placed Russian asset in history, or just the highest placed American liability.

Future historians, especially the ones not yet born or who are children now, will be full of laughter about this particular period of history. The US elected someone who was completely bound to a significantly lesser power. A lesser power whose "resurgence" was more like a dead cat bounce than an empire rising from the ashes.

But the laughter and discussion will be limited to the footnotes, or opening paragraphs meant to be quickly passed over, and the meat of the work will concentrate on why the US would elect someone actively harmful to combating climate change, despite all the warning signs. This will be the grand failure of the United States in the 21st century and what the future historians, now living in domes with the rest of a diminished humanity, will spend a lot of ink analyzing and wondering how the fuck we, who once had the privilege of walking in the open air, screwed up so badly.
posted by honestcoyote at 6:50 PM on February 23, 2017 [42 favorites]

I just googled McMaster and "radical islamic terrorism" and came across a site I'm sure is tracked by the SPLC, something called "JihadWatch", where they are lamenting McMaster's appointment as being a victory for the swamp. It made me happy to see the other side pissed about a Trump administration appointment for a change.

I enjoyed some schadenfreude while reading the comments on the article I linked above, for example: This confirms my belief that TRUMPs organization has been infiltrated with people who intend to destroy him from within.

One can only hope! I also hope there's some ridiculous acronym out there that would explain why the poster of that comment wrote "TRUMPs" in all caps. "True Republican Under Massive Protest"? "Terrorists Really Upset Me, Pa"?
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 6:51 PM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

Are there kill switches in major US military weapons?

Uh, no. Should there be? As an infosec guy I see problems with the concept.
posted by scalefree at 6:53 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

If you think children in the future will learn what a disaster and failure Trump was, you're forgetting that Texas conservatives line edit all the textbooks.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:54 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

If you think children in the future will learn what a disaster and failure Trump was, you're forgetting that Texas conservatives line edit all the textbooks.

Texas will have difficulty editing textbooks when it's 130º in the shade on the regular.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:55 PM on February 23, 2017 [24 favorites]

You'd have to be insane to travel to the US versus any other country where you actually want you right now.

Yeah, for people who have jobs / family / etc here obviously there's still a need to try the travel roulette. But for just tourism/vacation? Go to your #2 choice now and hope things are better in a few years.

Similarly, unless France goes all-in on Le Pen, LA has no shot at the 2024 Olympics. Even if they do Paris will probably get it, as EU/Schengen obligations presumably will limit the speed which France could go Full Trump.
posted by thefoxgod at 6:55 PM on February 23, 2017

Priebus said Trump will be “one of the greatest presidents that ever served this country” and that he has already “put in the best Cabinet in the history of Cabinets.”

Bannon, the former Breitbart News editor in chief who was considered so unpalatable to conservatives that he was not welcome at CPAC in previous years, said Trump is “probably the greatest public speaker in those large arenas since William Jennings Bryan” and that “one of the most pivotal moments in modern American history was [Trump’s] immediate withdrawal from [the Trans-Pacific Partnership].”

Priebus even led the audience in chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump.”

But the Obama cult of personality, amirite guys?
posted by J.K. Seazer at 7:00 PM on February 23, 2017 [16 favorites]

Soundtrack: The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra feat Lemmy Kilmister, "Eve Of Destruction"
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:04 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Even without the travel ban, the entire place feels indescribably tainted. Sorry.

Oh yeah, of course. The ban is more symbolic of that than anything (most people will still be able to get in).
posted by thefoxgod at 7:07 PM on February 23, 2017

Are they that deluded? Do they really believe this cabinet is the best cabinet in history? Or are they high on power and drugs? Just....insane.

You're not picturing this from their perspective. Bannon gave the game away today, their entire goal is to "dismantle the administrative state". That's why they wanted power, and why most of their base voted for them. To destroy the federal government entirely from the inside. To directly undermine the ability of the federal government to solve any problem, to help any single citizen in any aspect of life.

The Republican goal is not for any part of the government to be able to fulfill its mission. From that perspective, yes, this is the best cabinet ever nominated. Every last secretary is fully committed to destroying the mission of the agency they now lead. Preferably to abolishing the very existence of that agency. Best cabinet ever.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:07 PM on February 23, 2017 [40 favorites]

The City of Los Angeles asks ICE to stop calling themselves "police" in their city, because even the LAPD has a better reputation than ICE.
posted by zachlipton at 7:07 PM on February 23, 2017 [71 favorites]

Please take two minutes and watch this silent (and very, very disciplined) protest yesterday yt in Bangor, Maine pushing Senator Collins to hold a public town hall. (Here's a slightly different view posted on Facebook.)

if any of you are able to get this further distribution in the world, Indivisible Bangor would appreciate it.

I just saw it on the Indivisible Guide's twitter feed.

When @SenatorCollins wouldn't meet with her constituents, they silently protested. cc:@IndivisibleTeam
posted by miguelcervantes at 7:07 PM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Let's Compare and Contrast 2009 and 2017.
Republicans are given a pass for their ultra-conservative views, which might be a little crazy, but are still presumed to be deeply rooted and genuine. Democrats, conversely, are generally thought craven if they "give in" to their base.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:15 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

John Stewart, Alec Baldwin, Colbert, that new guy, they are really good, but none of them have the disrupted soul it takes to take on the evil plans of these governing American oligarchs. I need Hunter S. Thompson to rise...

"What we are looking at on all our TV sets is a man who finally, after 24 years of frenzied effort, became the President of the United States with a personal salary of $200,000 a year and an unlimited expense account including a fleet of private helicopters, jetliners, armored cars, personal mansions and estates on both coasts and control over a budget beyond the wildest dream of King Midas … and all the dumb bastard can show us, after five years of total freedom to do anything he wants with all this power, is a shattered national economy, disastrous defeat in a war we could have ended four years ago on far better terms than he finally came around to, and a hand-picked personal staff put together through five years of screening, whose collective criminal record will blow the minds of high-school American History students for the next 100 years."

posted by Oyéah at 7:18 PM on February 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

from the "are you fucking kidding me" dept., sherriff david clarke (yes, that one) visited moscow in december 2015
posted by murphy slaw at 7:20 PM on February 23, 2017 [30 favorites]

If anyone's looking for some outrage-at-injustice music for the evening, I recommend Christy Moore's angry Irish cover of The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:28 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Digby (Salon): Trump’s strategic vision of chaos: Inventing a nonexistent crisis so he can “solve” it

Reminds me of a 4 year old, 'fixing' something so that they can get attention.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:29 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Story has been updated. 8:21 PM 2/23/17 FBI refused White House request to knock down recent Trump-Russia stories [Updated article. Original article linked below.]

The White House initially disputed that account, saying that McCabe [FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe] called Priebus early that morning and said The New York Times story vastly overstates what the FBI knows about the contacts.

But a White House official later corrected their version of events to confirm what the law enforcement official described.

The same White House official said that Priebus later reached out again to McCabe and to FBI Director James Comey asking for the FBI to at least talk to reporters on background to dispute the stories. A law enforcement official says McCabe didn't discuss aspects of the case but wouldn't say exactly what McCabe told Priebus.

Man, these are sketchy motherfuckers. Hoping that this becomes a bigger story. At the very least Priebus is on record as a confirmed liar. Drip drip drip.

6:02 PM EST CNN capture before update
posted by futz at 7:29 PM on February 23, 2017 [31 favorites]

Moscow invites only the world's best experts in killing your prisoners.
posted by zachlipton at 7:30 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

My favorite bit of that CNN story on Preibus and the FBI:

Sen. Angus King of Maine also declined to reveal what was discussed during the Comey briefing. In response to a question on Priebus' strong denial of the claims, King said he was "surprised" that Priebus would be "that categorical."

🎵 King knows something you don't know 🎵
posted by jason_steakums at 7:37 PM on February 23, 2017 [33 favorites]

THAT Sheriff David Clarke.
Sheriff Clarke: Trump Could Be the 'Winston Churchill of the 21st Century'

*my sides*
posted by futz at 7:40 PM on February 23, 2017

I am not caught up on this thread yet but I just got back from my Democratic congressman's town hall and I have to say that it was very frustrating and depressing. On the plus side, the place was packed, it was civil, and there were many good questions. But the answers were just so...so...hopeless--along the lines of "yes it would be great if we could fix things, but Democrats have no power, all we can do is try to work with the Republicans and blah, blah, blah." It was disheartening. I came away with the totally opposite feeling from the hope, empowerment, and camaraderie I felt after the Women's March. Ironically, seeing videos of what's been happening at Republican town halls has been much more encouraging.
posted by a fish out of water at 7:46 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

(according to Sarah Kendzior, that photo of Clarke was taken the same day as the RT dinner that Flynn and Jill Stein attended with Putin)
posted by murphy slaw at 7:51 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Is this the Trump administration's first 'I'm not here to make friends', DeVos defiant at CPAC: ‘My job isn’t to win a popularity contest’?

Well, Trump lost the popularity contest by 3 millions votes so...
posted by kirkaracha at 7:51 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Also, I don't think the travel slump is just about the muslim ban. I'm sure the muslim ban intensified the effect, but nobody anywhere in the world thought the United States because a more attractive place to travel when Trump was elected. Even without the travel ban, the entire place feels indescribably tainted. Sorry.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:57 AM on February 24 [1 favorite +] [!]

Just came in to say it goes both ways. Another Travel Ban: IRS Moves To Revoke Passports For Unpaid Taxes...I don't want to derail into tax rebellion territory (you can't have a government without them), watch this law, because it might become a lever of political harassment. The threshold is $50,000 in back taxes. Get right with the IRS and know the policies and procedures, y'all, or you might not even be able to leave.
posted by saysthis at 7:53 PM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

Sure would be a shame if that applied to anyone on Air Force One...
posted by Mchelly at 7:55 PM on February 23, 2017 [39 favorites]

the best Cabinet in the history of Cabinets

Icantevenwtfreallybbq
posted by dis_integration at 7:56 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

I am not caught up on this thread yet but I just got back from my Democratic congressman's town hall and I have to say that it was very frustrating and depressing.

It's going to be a long, long fight, with lots of losses. And the answers won't come from these elected Democrats. All the energy is coming from outside the party, while the party insiders are struggling to channel it. They don't have any better messaging or any better strategy against Trump than during the campaign. At least not yet. We're largely on our own, but alone together. Getting involved and showing up is the first step. Next comes electing more, preferably much better, Democrats to win back control. If your rep is already decent, help register voters in the nearest contested or even Republican district. But stay involved, bring people with you, inform braindead non-political people about the policies and why the Republicans are ruining everything. Educate, organize, register. For two whole years. Ready, break.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:56 PM on February 23, 2017 [19 favorites]

Sheriff Clarke: Trump Could Be the 'Winston Churchill of the 21st Century'

I very much agree with this. He could remove the racist leader of a great power without any of the war bits that Churchill had to go through. Just resign!
posted by jaduncan at 7:57 PM on February 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Let's Compare and Contrast 2009 and 2017.

2017: "Weakened Democrats Bow to Voters, Opting for Total War on Trump"

"I don't have any beef with this. The Democratic base is demanding total war on Trump, and Democratic politicians have mostly gotten on board. What I do wonder, though, is whether the Times ever used language like this during the first couple of months of the Obama administration?"

2009: "Obama Woos GOPs With Attention, and Cookies"

Also, the fucking Republicans blocked Obama after he gave them cookies? They truly are history's greatest monsters.

Unless he gave them oatmeal and raisin cookies and they thought they were chocolate chip. There's no greater disappointment.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:57 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

Maybe they mean the unpopular, declining, somewhat senile, refusing to resign part of Churchill's career?
posted by Artw at 7:59 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Ivanka Trump Proposes $500 Billion Child Care Plan that Only Benefits the Rich

Economist Alan Cole describes the proposal as "generous and broad," noting that "almost everyone with young children will get some benefit from it." However, he cautions, "the largest benefits will go to relatively affluent dual-income families using paid child care." In other words, the people spending most on child care, who need the least help affording it, will be the ones to benefit most.

In accordance with all her father's stances, this plan would benefit the rich and do virtually nothing for working class parents, who suffer the most under America's current child-care crisis.

...But none of this really matters, apparently. Unsurprisingly, the House GOP leaders did not mention child care in their tax-reform blueprint from June 2016, and therefore, this proposal is not a priority:

-- Ivanka Trump’s involvement in tax negotiations between the White House and congressional Republicans is a signal of her influence with her father despite having no formal role in his administration.

-- Republican aides on the tax-writing House Ways & Means Committee have discussed a child care tax deduction with the Trump administration. The proposal is not a priority for House GOP leaders,

-- Trump’s opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, decried the child care deduction as a boon to wealthier households with nannies and insufficient to help working families. Marcelo echoed that concern, saying the plan in its current form doesn’t help families whose incomes are too low to pay taxes and thus don’t benefit from deductions.
posted by futz at 7:59 PM on February 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

CNN: Underground network readies homes to hide undocumented immigrants

The religious leaders have a name for their network: the Rapid Response Team. The idea is not necessarily a new one, according to Reverend Zach Hoover, executive director of the interfaith community organization LA Voice.

Hoover, 37, wasn't an active member during the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s when US congregations across faiths resisted federal law and provided shelter for Central Americans fleeing violence in their home countries. Many congregations offered direct sanctuary, housing the undocumented immigrants, while others offered food and legal assistance.

The Rapid Response Team mirrors that structure, but goes one step further by also incorporating private homes, which offer a higher level of constitutional protection than houses of worship and an ability to make it harder for federal agents to find undocumented immigrants.
posted by triggerfinger at 8:00 PM on February 23, 2017 [22 favorites]

Sheriff Clarke: Trump Could Be the 'Winston Churchill of the 21st Century'

snatch that weave off his head and he's more than halfway there
posted by murphy slaw at 8:00 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Maybe they mean the unpopular, declining, somewhat senile, refusing to resign part of Churchill's career?

Or maybe the white-supremacist silver-spoon colonial fuckhead early part of his career.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:02 PM on February 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

Maybe they mean the unpopular, declining, somewhat senile, refusing to resign part of Churchill's career?

Or the early, bungling Gallipoli part?
An Eastern Mediterranean military assault based on faulty intelligence? That'll be the day.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:02 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Maybe he'll just get into a fight on a beach.
posted by Artw at 8:03 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

re: Fake News

I haven't seen a lot of the use of the term "disinformation."

Only two news-ey hits google hits for me for the term are in the lower part of the first page. One from Oct 06 2016 [politico] and Dec 26, 2016 [ZeroHedge].

The Republicans have been waging lite disinformation since the 70's and really ramped it up in the 90's.

Fake News is the result of a disinformation campaign that breaks unexpectedly in an unexpected way. I don't think that the originators of systematically dumbing down the electorate expected what we have here, and that it can be so ~~easily~~ trivially hijacked by tapping into racism/misogyny.
posted by porpoise at 8:16 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

He'd bald, rotund, and prone to repeating words for emphasis, I guess.
posted by contraption at 8:17 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

MUST WATCH: Constituents Corner Cory Gardner - Coloradopols.com

I don't have very much information about this but I will say that a) I got a private message last night inviting me to be with the group in this elevator and could not go due to other commitments and b) Colorado is extremely motivated to politely and legally track this man down and publicly remind him that he works for us, as many times as it takes to get him to either remember that he works for us or get him voted out of office. The details on how we found out about this meeting were very closely guarded by our group, so closely that that's literally all I know. I was actually surprised to see that this contact resulted in a real live Cory encounter and wasn't just rumor mill.

One of the local Indivisible groups raised $18,000 on GoFundMe in the past... I think it was 10 days?... to put a full page ad in the Denver Post calling the man out for not holding town halls over recess. Based on my Facebook page, he has made some nice, privileged, polite older women very, very mad in a way they've never felt before politically, especially after repeating the paid protester line on local news repeatedly.

My (unpaid, volunteer) job is to give them all the technology to self-organize more effectively, and then sit back and make some popcorn. The show's just starting.
posted by deludingmyself at 8:21 PM on February 23, 2017 [42 favorites]

Doesn't really share Churchill's concerns Re:Stalinism/willingness to go toe to toe with it.

Quite the opposite in fact.
posted by Artw at 8:22 PM on February 23, 2017

My like-Churchill money is on the secret amphetamine addiction.
posted by jaduncan at 8:22 PM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

Presiding over a declining post-imperial power could be it.
posted by Artw at 8:23 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Having a successor who unwisely invades Egypt?
posted by jaduncan at 8:25 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

maybe like churchill, he'll put winston churchill's skeleton inside himself
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:26 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

California is going to drag the rest of y'all into the 20th century (and then hopefully the 21st) whether you like it or not.

I think California has the same problem my home state of NY has--deep blue, populous cities that sneer at the reds living in the countryside. I mean, California tried to ban gay marriage and literally just had a referendum on killing people faster by denying them due process.
posted by xyzzy at 8:27 PM on February 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

deep blue, populous cities that sneer at the reds living in the countryside.

The sneering is warranted.
posted by bongo_x at 8:31 PM on February 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

I will take the Churchill who led the Conservatives to a massive defeat in the 1945 election.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:33 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

How could Richard Spencer listen to any Depeche Mode and peg them as being on his team? He's deluded!

And speaking of which:

Or both! Cocaine and delusions of grandeur do go hand in hand...

This reminded me that the band at the Republican National Convention played Station To Station. At the time, I wondered if this was a coded way to let the people watching at home who get that song know about the people who are now current members of this ridiculous administration. I'll bet ol' G.E. Smith and co. saw a lot backstage! Or maybe they were just being facetious...?

A wee bit of BG: The character Bowie sings this song as, "The Thin White Duke", is a fascist who consumes large amounts of cocaine, sings of a mythic past where he soared above mountains, has no heart or empathy to speak of, and is completely deluded regarding his own nature. The whole song is this character living a lie for 10 minutes. As long-time and older Bowie fans recall, he let the character (supplemented by almost inhuman amounts of cocaine) take him over for about a year or so, and yikes!
posted by droplet at 8:33 PM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

wildblueyonder: "There's no downside for people like Bannon, Miller, and Trump in letting a terror attack actually happen. It'd be their own personal key to increased authoritarian powers."

I really wonder how on the ball the SS is regarding snipers; especially in a place as dense as NYC. There must be thousands of windows looking over the Trump Tower there; a risk that diverse is hard to manage. A replay of the east coast sniper terror attacks directed at politicians and there staff would provide plenty of down side.

mllm: "Louie Gohmert's in the news again: GOP rep invokes Giffords shooting as reason not to hold town hall"

Even if this is a legitimate concern (don't they apply at least the level of screening that the NFL does?) teleconferancing is a thing that makes you immune to gun shots at this sort of event.

cjelli: "Although, having grown up around bees, they're generally pretty friendly and chill; from a pure eagle-efficiency standpoint, if you're looking to weaponize bees, you'd be honestly better off with wasps."

And their nests are both lighter and more aerodynamic than bee hives.

suelac: "Build a wall on the northern border to stop all the pot smuggling from Canada, I suppose."

This presents unique challenges compared to the US/Mexico border. First off the border is vastly larger. Second many rivers cross the US/Canada border. Lots of opportunity to just float contra band across the border. With promised legal weed in Canada and illegal status in the states you could probably afford to loose 90% of your floatments and still make money.
posted by Mitheral at 8:36 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

>deep blue, populous cities that sneer at the reds living in the countryside.

>The sneering is warranted.

I live in the countryside a Red State. You are welcome to sneer in my general direction but please don't lump people together like this. We are surrounded by trumpists but there are a lot of us who aren't and we are fighting.
posted by futz at 8:40 PM on February 23, 2017 [50 favorites]

Pogo_Fuzzybutt: " First, have you seen most of those militia types ? They not only peaked in high school, it was also the last time they could climb a set of stairs in one go. "

Can we please dispense with the fat/unhealthy shaming?
posted by Mitheral at 8:41 PM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

Can we please dispense with the fat/unhealthy shaming?

Yeah, I've got to say, I'm a fairly heavy lady and I'm still pretty sure I can shoot the pants off some Nazis if it came down to it.
posted by corb at 8:45 PM on February 23, 2017 [39 favorites]

California is going to drag the rest of y'all into the 20th century (and then hopefully the 21st) whether you like it or not. It's just taking longer than we hoped.

Baltimoron/Marylander here. By all means, please do.

(Granted, we pretty much vote the same as you — in fact, Baltimore City's politics make California overall look like Oklahoma — but hey, I assume you'll take the support wherever you can get it.)
posted by CommonSense at 8:55 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

If the IRS revokes passports for unpaid taxes, does that mean Trump can't get back in, once he leaves the country?
posted by Oyéah at 8:56 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Remember what Nixon (spit) said (spit) "when the president does it, that means it is not illegal".
posted by Death and Gravity at 9:02 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

“probably the greatest public speaker in those large arenas since William Jennings Bryan”

Nobody is this stupid. Not even the most facts-aren't-real Republican could believe this. It is possibly the least true thing Steve Bannon has ever said, which makes it one of the least true things ever uttered by a human. Steve Bannon does not believe this.

It depends on what you're measuring... He might not be the most eloquent, but he just won an election nobody thought he had a chance at, based in large part on his performance in those arenas.
posted by Coventry at 9:05 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oyéah: "If the IRS revokes passports for unpaid taxes, does that mean Trump can't get back in, once he leaves the country?"

Does air force one even go through customs when returning from overseas?
posted by Mitheral at 9:07 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Uh, no. Should there be [killswitches in major US weapons]? As an infosec guy I see problems with the concept.

Sure, but from a Federal perspective I also see problems with the concept of the Pacific seaboard commandeering military bases to defend a secession. And such switches would probably be less of a security risk than the nuclear launch codes.
posted by Coventry at 9:15 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Deleted a couple of comments. Please try not to be shitty about things unrelated to what you're actually talking about, thanks.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 9:24 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

With a nod to our mods and their thankless job: fascism is tied to a self-aggrandising superficial mystique of superiority, a cosplay backed up by the ability of the state to enforce taking it seriously. We have to be careful about our focus, but Dick Spencer does not get to be "dapper", and self-described "patriot militia freedom warriors" do not get to appropriate any of those words.
posted by holgate at 9:36 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

I live in the countryside a Red State. You are welcome to sneer in my general direction but please don't lump people together like this. We are surrounded by trumpists but there are a lot of us who aren't and we are fighting.

The sneering is at Nazis. If you're not a Nazi you weren't included in that statement no matter where you live. I'm not lumping anyone.
posted by bongo_x at 9:43 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Sheriff Clarke: Trump Could Be the 'Winston Churchill of the 21st Century'

Haha, does anyone really think he'd turn down the title Duke of London? Such a stupid comparison on so many levels.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 10:07 PM on February 23, 2017

The sneering is at Nazis. If you're not a Nazi you weren't included in that statement no matter where you live. I'm not lumping anyone.
posted by bongo_x

Hey, I am sorry if I misunderstood you but I have followed the thread backwards and all it's tangents and there was no mention of Nazi's associated with it. Sorry that I took offense but perhaps be more clear next time?
posted by futz at 10:07 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Bannon looks like the living dead. His eyes are glassed over and his pallor is that of rotting flesh. Easily one of the most unhealthy people I've ever seen. Why this person is guiding this country when he cannot maintain his own health astounds me.

Bannon==Wormtongue.

Unferth if you prefer that.
posted by jaduncan at 10:11 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Have to share. From a friend's FB post. If you saw Rachel Maddow's show recently, you might be aware that we have a Republican Senator who is ducking town hall meetings. Here's her quote for the rest of the story:

"The Desk Sargent at the Butte Silver Bow Sheriff's Office refused to allow me to file a Missing Persons Report for Senator Steve Daines. I was at first perplexed and then a little angry. However, when he reported to me that as a legal matter it was impossible at this time on the grounds that only his balls were missing and not the entire Senator I simply tipped my hat and exited the building. Wise old dogs are these Desk Sargents from Butte."

posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 10:15 PM on February 23, 2017 [124 favorites]

I will take the Churchill who led the Conservatives to a massive defeat in the 1945 election.

Followed by the implementation of the welfare state and the National Health Service!
posted by Pink Frost at 10:20 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

And to reiterate: American independence was economically calamitous for the former colonies, and it took a brutal, bloody colonisation of a large, fertile continent to sort that part out, more or less. And yet it happened. The bonds broke. There was no inevitability about it. There were British politicians advocating a new accommodation, and a large chunk of the population of British America open to that state of affairs who didn't want war and ended up having to go into exile because they got war.

The point of reference here perhaps isn't California: it's Texas. It's a big, populous, sprawly, diverse conservative state with liberal-ish cities that is a net contributor to other states and also has Hispanic Republicans who aren't of Cuban descent. When W Bush was around, you could throw around various Texan clichés, but there was a kind of integration there of conservatism with big wide country. With east-coast fascist President Bannon in charge over his NYC-native puppet, talking about an American identity mostly defined by white people who got off a transatlantic boat, you're going to get some magahat Texans who are all for the cause, but you are also going to get brown Republicans stopped in the street and told to go back to Mexico when they can trace their ancestry back to when Tejas was Mexico.

"New Guards for their future security."
posted by holgate at 10:28 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

So I went to this town hall and it was completely fucking unhinged.

I've lived in this area all my life and I've never seen anything like this. There was so much diversity and so much unity, the likes of which I could never even dream of in this deeply red district. College kids and veterans and women and POC and nurses and firemen and republicans were yelling and booing while cheering on each critical question. Our lovely Mr. Gaetz has made abolishing the EPA his conservative cause celebre which is a huge miscalculation for an area of the country that was recently devastated by Deepwater Horizen while the EPA was there to bolster local businesses, repair our beaches for tourist season, and just fucking lift our community up on its broad, bloated big-government shoulders.

However, this district did elect Gaetz with 68 percent of the vote, and he was openly hostile throughout much of the session. He pretty much shouted "make america great again" to a seething, hostile crowd, dropped the mic, and ducked out amid unrepeatable insults.

Still, it was pretty fucking awesome. I never thought in a million years that I would see progressive activism on this level in this district.

Seriously, just watch this video! This was in the deep south!

Guys, if I didn't know better, I'd say something is happening.
posted by R.F.Simpson at 10:28 PM on February 23, 2017 [100 favorites]

Avoiding questions about Trump’s mental health is a betrayal of public trust

Trump's mental health: 'The elephant in the room'. As psychologists and psychiatrists continue to warn about President Trump's mental health, the Columbia Journalism Review called Trump's mental health 'the elephant in the room.' Lee Siegel, who wrote the CJR column, and Dr. Lance Dodes join Lawrence O'Donnell.
posted by homunculus at 10:34 PM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

You know how the ACA became Obamacare? I'd really like to rebrand the shit sandwich the GOP comes up with to replace the ACA as well. And soon. Like, well before they actually introduce anything.
So I've started calling it this:
The Care Less Plan
"With the Care Less plan, you'll get less care from people who couldn't care less."
I think the hashtag #DontBeCareLess has a nice ring to it as well.
posted by rouftop at 10:40 PM on February 23, 2017 [23 favorites]

Border-Adjustment Tax Divides Energy Sector

The API and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers have both concluded in internal reports that a border adjustment would raise gasoline prices by 20 cents a gallon or more in the short term, according to people familiar with the matter. Supporters of the border adjustment have said it would have corresponding currency impacts that would ultimately leave fuel prices relatively unchanged.

This will go over poorly.
posted by zachlipton at 10:40 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

you are also going to get brown Republicans stopped in the street and told to go back to Mexico when they can trace their ancestry back to when Tejas was Mexico

“We Didn’t Cross the Border, the Border Crossed Us”

Of course, most of these conversations also ignore the fact that Mexican (im)migration to the United States is not a new phenomenon but is a result of the end of the U.S. War on Mexico in 1848 and with the signing of both the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Protocol of Queretaro affirmed citizenship protections for Mexicans.

As such, Mexican (im)migration has continued unabated for 165 years. Thus, the old adage: “We Didn’t Cross the Border, the Border Crossed Us” perfectly describes the Mexican experience.

"I do not think there ever was a more wicked war than that waged by the United States in Mexico. I thought so at the time, when I was a youngster, only I had not moral courage enough to resign." -- Ulysses S. Grant
posted by kirkaracha at 10:45 PM on February 23, 2017 [29 favorites]

The odds that Trump knows who William Jennings Bryan is are basically zero

Pretty sure William Jennings Bryan never spoke in a basketball arena. But I'm no historian.

I have the biggest cross of gold ever! It's beautiful we've we've got a gorgeous cross you're gonna love it don't worry about the size of my cross I guarantee there's no problem. Loser WJB had cross ratings that were an absolute DISASTER. Sad!
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:46 PM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

Let's Look at the Truly Terrifying Presidential Order of Succession
posted by kirkaracha at 10:46 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

The Kansas shooting story is making the rounds in India, apparently, and it's certainly going to color how they see our country now. Trump talked up his support with Indian-Americans during the campaign, but I suspect he'll just be silent about this.

It is, of course, unclear why a guy with brown skin shouting in Arabic while shooting white people is called an act of terrorism and grounds for banning entire nationalities from the country, while a guy with white skin shouting "get out of my country" while shooting people with brown skin is unworthy of the same title, but here we are.
posted by zachlipton at 10:56 PM on February 23, 2017 [57 favorites]

The order of succession is truly terrifying but I stand firm in my conviction that getting Bannon and Trump out of the West Wing is more important than waiting for a less scary Republican option than the people on that list. I mean, Bannon has stated on multiple occasions that his goal is the destruction of the state. As horrible as Pence would be for women, minorities, and poor people, it is highly doubtful that Bannon would still have a desk in the West Wing in the event of Trump's ouster.
posted by xyzzy at 10:58 PM on February 23, 2017 [24 favorites]

Actually, if secretaries must be confirmed to succeed, then a truly dedicated individual could just keep taking them out until we got a good pick. I had thought they'd be able to replace themselves from their departments. That's actually much more hopeful!*

*For some values of hope.
posted by corb at 11:02 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

The Kansas shooting story is making the rounds in India, apparently, and it's certainly going to color how they see our country now.

You could be the most pro-Modi pro-Hindutva Indian-American living in the burbs and see that and realise that a random magahat loser might murder you for being as "Middle East" a person as he ever encounters in his daily life.

It's not enough to get Bannon out of the White House. Even if booted outside, his puppet will take his calls.
posted by holgate at 11:06 PM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

For another value of hope, here's A Spell to Bind Donald Trump
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 11:17 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Personally, I'm excited the GOP is changing its traditional position on bimetallism. Free silver at 16:1!
posted by Chrysostom at 11:51 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

If you go by Wikipedia's list, acting secretaries count and #8 is still an Obama appointee.

Although I question if this means that if something were to happen to a secretary does the next person in line automatically become acting secretary, forcing you to cycle through all the senate-confirmed personnel in State before you move on to Treasury.
posted by ckape at 12:14 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I wonder if Trump is secretly a little spooked by all those pagans casting spells on him. Like, I wonder if he goes on lockdown that day and just plays it safe hiding out and eating taco bowls and watching apprentice reruns
posted by ian1977 at 12:30 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I wonder if Trump is secretly a little spooked by all those pagans casting spells on him.

Dude is not anywhere close to a practising Christian despite what the GOP base deludes themselves into thinking so I don't think he gives a crap.
posted by PenDevil at 12:31 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Doesn't mean he doesn't believe in magic.
posted by ian1977 at 12:43 AM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

I think there's a reason Pence has been increasingly distanced from the Trumpists and it's not purely political optics. If the Russia ties are fully exposed you could see any or all of them frogmarched out of office.

Even if we weren't in Hollywood scriptwriter reality then losing multiple members of the line of succession isn't wildly out of bounds.

Except for Ryan, Russians love their grannies.
posted by fullerine at 1:07 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Re:magic
A good part of the power of 'magic' is in the suggestion. There was a motorcycle racer (V.Rossi) who used to regularly hex his opponents - that is, he would make a joke in some presser about hiring a witch to make sure his opponent never crossed the finish line ahead of him ever again. And it worked.
(The fact that Rossi is/was the greatest helped, but still)
So the power of the hex is going to rely on how perceptive the witches are. What is Trump's big fear? That no one will like him? So if they hex him that he will only continue to sink in popularity, I think they have a chance.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:50 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Sheriff Clarke: Trump Could Be the 'Winston Churchill of the 21st Century'

A drunkard?
posted by rough ashlar at 2:31 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Secret Life of Gravy: If you deport all of the immigrants, the lettuce has to get picked by someone. What gives me chills is the thought of private prisons selling the labor of their inmates. As we all know, USAG Sessions has always approved of chain gangs so this is all lining up nicely for them. Selective arrests of POC for pot use (undoubtedly bumped up to charges of dealing) sent to private prison and thus we will have slavery in America whether we like it or not.

Apropos: From Our Prison to Your Dinner Table (2015)

The Cañon City prison complex has numerous industries on its sprawling grounds, which are so large that from most vantage points you can’t see the prison fences. It has the country’s largest water-buffalo dairy. If you have eaten buffalo mozzarella in this country, there is a very good chance you have eaten the product of inmate labor. Supermarket chains sell tilapia raised in enormous vats on the prison’s grounds. Inmates stitch sweatbands, craft zebra-wood fishing rods, and collect honey for sale. Because the prison wants to keep its industries small and its captive labor market unnoticed — especially by private competitors and by the consumers who buy, eat, wear, or cuddle their products — their goods aren’t marked as the product of indentured labor. If you have profited from the work of a person in chains, you almost certainly don’t know about it. And by keeping the products unlabeled and unnoticed, prison labor systems all over the country have skirted uproar over whether prison labor is fair and just.

posted by syzygy at 2:58 AM on February 24, 2017 [52 favorites]

blah blah destroy FedGov

If FedGov goes away tomorrow the "uncountable" number of federal laws will still be on the books. ("Ignorance of the law is no excuse" indeed)

The only check on power will be the courts - the ONLY check on power is still not being observed and reported on.

The Libertarians can't be bothered to set such up for when they have a limited FedGov. Black Lives Matter - a group that often complains about a lack of justice can't seem to be bothered.
posted by rough ashlar at 3:00 AM on February 24, 2017

Sheriff Clarke probably meant that Trump is going to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 3:13 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I wonder if Trump is secretly a little spooked by all those pagans casting spells on him

I wonder (given his penchant for typos and anagrams) if he checks his bath for these or maybe his bed for these?
posted by Myeral at 3:58 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Um, holy shit, today the president is tweeting about the FBI.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:54 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump
The FBI is totally unable to stop the national security "leakers" that have permeated our government for a long time. They can't even......

@realDonaldTrump
find the leakers within the FBI itself. Classified information is being given to media that could have a devastating effect on U.S. FIND NOW

Well, between Spicer saying they didn't ask the FBI to knock the story down, just to tell the truth and now this, I think we can be assured it's true that the White House tried to interfere with a federal investigation into Trump's Russia connections.
posted by chris24 at 4:57 AM on February 24, 2017 [72 favorites]

He's absolutely right about devastating effects; these leaks could get his ass kicked out of the white house.
posted by valkane at 5:03 AM on February 24, 2017 [29 favorites]

So basically, it's Spicer: Just tell the truth. Trump: Stop telling the truth.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 5:10 AM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Well, now I'm fascinated to see what he'll say at CPAC this morning. I hope he just lets loose with the insane.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:12 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

nota bene: thanks chris24 for quoting the Trump twitter - makes everything easier by factors of many
posted by From Bklyn at 5:26 AM on February 24, 2017 [23 favorites]

My (unpaid, volunteer) job is to give them all the technology to self-organize more effectively

Deets plz? On the tech part that is.
posted by petebest at 5:41 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

My unbelievably unqualified armchair diagnosising has determined that Turdrump may not have dementia as such - the next stage we would see would include an inability to find words, and I don't think anyone expects that to happen.

He is pretty batshit though - so I'm now thinking drugs. Some exciting combination of methamphetamine, xanax, coke, claritin, lipitor, diet coke, alleve, and whatever the predominant element in McDonald's food is.
posted by petebest at 5:51 AM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

So, having made an enemy of the entire US intelligence service, Trump is now working on pissing off federal law enforcement. Smart plan.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:52 AM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Well isn't this interesting.

@RogerJStoneJr
A crackdown on legal marijuana in the states will cost thousands of jobs & bankrupt local govt- huge mistake #StatesRights @realDonaldTrump
posted by chris24 at 5:56 AM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

roger stone becomes a way more understandable phenomenon if you assume that he is totally baked at all times
posted by murphy slaw at 6:01 AM on February 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

Trump taking aim at "FBI leaks" is fucking hilarious since we know that the most significant "FBI leaker" is Jim Comey (and his little pal Chaffetz), and they let out stuff that helped Trump win. And now Trump's turning on him and giving him shit about it!

Comey has probably had just about enough of The Donald now anyhow, though. I mean, the FBI briefed Obama and Trump about the Flynn problem. Any non-idiot would have immediately found some way to deal with it to limit damage, but Trump just sits there and does nothing until it's a huge press circus. Jesus, the FBI is investigating and has ample evidence, there are already lots of press leaks, someone has the captured phone calls, and you somehow think this is going away and you won't get publicly caught? That's probably the point where Comey said, "Fuck you, you're too reckless and stupid to live; I'm just going to do my actual job now so I don't end up in a federal prison cell adjacent to Stephen Miller."
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:04 AM on February 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

john boehner is the happiest republican in america because this shit is not his problem anymore

Earlier in the panel discussion, Boehner said he “started laughing” when Republicans started talking about moving lightning fast on repeal and then coming up with an alternative.

"In the 25 years that I served in the United States Congress, Republicans never, ever, one time agreed on what a health care proposal should look like. Not once,” Boehner said. “And all this happy talk that went on in November and December and January about repeal, repeal, repeal—yeah, we'll do replace, replace—I started laughing, because if you pass repeal without replace, first, anything that happens is your fault. You broke it.”

posted by murphy slaw at 6:05 AM on February 24, 2017 [108 favorites]

roger stone becomes a way more understandable phenomenon if you assume that he is totally baked at all times

don't blame the weed, man
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:07 AM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

From the VP of the National Association of Manufacturers.

@LDempseyNAM
Looked at 2016 #trade data this am. U.S. has a surplus in #manufactured goods trade with 152 countries, including 18 of 20 FTA partners.
posted by chris24 at 6:07 AM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

> roger stone becomes a way more understandable phenomenon if you assume that he is totally baked at all times

Stoned, even.

(On a slightly more substantive note, yes, that Kansas shooting story has been sent around on multiple Indian community lists. It's not a good look.)
posted by RedOrGreen at 6:09 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

John Boehner really is approaching RINO status, he all but openly hates the modern form of the party.
posted by jaduncan at 6:28 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Apparently my only choices are personality disorders.

I'm wondering what the decline is called - he can't finish a sentence these days. Usually he doesn't even try.
posted by petebest at 6:31 AM on February 24, 2017

John Boehner really is approaching ~~RINO~~ death status. Wants forgiveness for his many many sins.
posted by petebest at 6:34 AM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

From the Finely-Tuned, Well-Oiled Machine:

State Department writes anti-leak memo, which promptly leaks
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:37 AM on February 24, 2017 [40 favorites]

It's certainly blindingly obvious to anyone not an active republican that it's a bad idea - both for people in general but also for republicans long term. Who knows hie much of that gets through.
posted by Artw at 6:38 AM on February 24, 2017

I sometimes wonder if he's going to end up with a Lee Atwater style tell-all conversion. But it's not the ethics that is the tell for RINO, it's the contempt for the populist right, Ryan and Trump. The barely concealed schadenfreude at various Republican self-inflicted difficulties is, IMO, extremely telling.
posted by jaduncan at 6:39 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Exclusive: Senior Trump Aide Forged Key Ties To Anti-Semitic Groups In Hungary: Gorka’s involvement with the far right includes co-founding a political party with former prominent members of Jobbik, a political party with a well-known history of anti-Semitism; repeatedly publishing articles in a newspaper known for its anti-Semitic and racist content; and attending events with some of Hungary’s most notorious extreme-right figures.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:42 AM on February 24, 2017 [29 favorites]

What a total gorka.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:45 AM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

I'm still hoping that at some point Trump gets up in front of the national media and says "What the hell is wrong with you? Look at the campaign. Look at this presidency. How on earth could you, the media, the craven Republican assholes, the cheering crowd of sycophants, ever think this was ok? The fact that I got to this point means our political system is fundamentally broken. Fuck you all."
posted by Talez at 6:46 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Look, Donald Trump is the least antisemitic guy with ties to antisemitic groups in Hungary that you'll ever meet. He's said this.
posted by Artw at 6:46 AM on February 24, 2017 [21 favorites]

Gorka sounds like a real piece of work. But I guess we really can't expect him to be fired or asked to resign until he inadvertently briefs the VP with incomplete information.
posted by zakur at 6:47 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Look, Donald Trump is the least antisemitic guy...

Clearly.

@realDonaldTrump
I promise you that I'm much smarter than Jonathan Leibowitz - I mean Jon Stewart @TheDailyShow. Who, by the way, is totally overrated.
posted by chris24 at 6:48 AM on February 24, 2017 [27 favorites]

What not-antisemite has ever not done that? Now, on to more pertinent things, like putting all the immigrants in camps...
posted by Artw at 6:50 AM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Why did that tweet make me angrier at him personally than I've been in months? Maybe the low but witting level of antisemitism. Less of a demented xenophobia stew like we mostly get now.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:51 AM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

why did that tweet make me angrier at him than I've been in months?

Usually his tweets are unhinged or stupid. That one is plain evil.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:52 AM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Jon Stewart's bit about that tweet is hilarious.

"So I start to think to myself, Oh, I think this guy is trying to let people know I’m a Jew. And I think to myself, doesn’t my face do that? Honestly, like, where have you seen this face other than a poster for Yentl? In what world are people like, Stewart, that’s a Scottish name, but there’s something about that fella that looks a little schmeary. It would be funny if it wasn’t so toxically fucking crude and horrible, but. So I decide to tweet back at him, “Many people don’t know this, but Donald Trump’s real name is Fuckface Von Clownstick. I wish you would embrace the Von Clownstick heritage.”

You remember, by the way, Lincoln used to get into this shit all the time. I swear to god this is true, the man that will more than likely, given the FBI’s preference, be our next president, then tweeted, “Amazing how the haters and losers keep tweeting the name Fuckface Von Clownstick like they are so original and like no one else is doing it.” What happened is, as it turned out, a lot of people on Twitter picked up on the name Fuckface von Clownstick and started tweeting at it. Then he tweets, “What’s funny about the name Fuckface von Clownstick? It was not coined by Jon Lebowitz, he stole it from a moron on Twitter.” So I tweet back, “We seem to have hit a Fuckface Von Nervestick.” Silence. Radio silence. Four days later, I shit you not, perhaps the next president of the greatest country in the world, at 1:30 in the morning, tweeted, “Little Jon Stewart is a pussy, and would be hopeless in a debate with me.” Vote wisely this November. "

posted by xyzzy at 6:59 AM on February 24, 2017 [82 favorites]

Predict Price for 'will trump be president at end up 2017?' is now at $0.21 for no. 19 hours ago it was at $0.17.
posted by ian1977 at 7:02 AM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Vote wisely this November

(we did not)
posted by Artw at 7:04 AM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Well, most of us did
posted by ian1977 at 7:05 AM on February 24, 2017 [41 favorites]

Good catch.
posted by Artw at 7:06 AM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

NBC: Former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear will deliver Democratic response to President Trump's address to Congress on Tuesday.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:09 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Oh god, is Trump going to tell Congress about his electoral college win and what a great job he's doing but the media needs to let him loose on the bad hombres? You hear one stream of bullshit from that man you've heard them all.
posted by Artw at 7:11 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

NBC: Former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear will deliver Democratic response to President Trump's address to Congress on Tuesday.

"And now, with the Democratic response, Governor Beshear."
"..."
"Governor?"
"Are you fucking kidding me with this sh--"
[TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES SLIDE]
posted by Etrigan at 7:11 AM on February 24, 2017 [38 favorites]

Michigan GOP's tax cut fiasco may be a preview of what's coming to congress.
posted by murphy slaw at 7:12 AM on February 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

They really should have picked Maxine Waters, though.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:13 AM on February 24, 2017 [22 favorites]

Maxine Waters for house minority leader, Maxine Waters for DNC Chair, Maxine Waters for God Empress
posted by murphy slaw at 7:14 AM on February 24, 2017 [38 favorites]

Rust Moranis: State Department writes anti-leak memo, which promptly leaks

“When such information is leaked … It chills the willingness of senior government officials to seek robust and candid advice, which ultimately is to the detriment of informed policymaking and the reputation of the institution from which the leak emanated,” the memo states.

Oh, don't worry. Senior government officials get their information from other sources already.

“The Department has also benefitted [sic] from the existence of the Dissent Channel, which is itself a confidential deliberative channel that seeks to facilitate open, creative, and uncensored dialogue on substantive foreign policy issues,” the memo says.

Even before Tillerson was in place, more than 900 State Department employees used the Dissent Channel to object to President Trump’s executive order banning immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries. The Dissent Channel cable was leaked to the media even before it was filed.

Yeah, somehow I don't think a bunch of government employee signatures is going to shift the mind of Pres Bannon and his sidekick Trump. And let's say it didn't leak, would anyone outside of the State Department know of this level of disagreement with the President's decision? Doubtful.

It makes sense that Tillerson would want to show a White House very paranoid about leaks that he runs a tight ship. But many State Department bureaucrats don’t feel that they are able to affect policy through the normal channels due to what they see as lack of communication coming from Trump’s and Tillerson’s people.

My point exactly.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:15 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Yup. Pretty sure the ONLY time they would hear robust and candid advice is if it leaked, or maybe as part of someone's "fuck you" as they head out the door.
posted by Artw at 7:18 AM on February 24, 2017

It seems like the Dissent Channel is pretty much the polite equivalent of this sort of cheeky complaint form.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:19 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

john boehner is the happiest republican in america because this shit is not his problem anymore

Although he's still an asshole for not actually saying this (Republicans will never figure out how to actually repeal and replace) while he was in fucking office.
posted by soundguy99 at 7:19 AM on February 24, 2017 [23 favorites]

The Dissent Channel. That should be the new progressive news conglomerate.
posted by ian1977 at 7:20 AM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

oh, please have no illusions that i think that the new RV-drivin' give-no-fucks Boehner is a good person.

It's just that all throughout his term as speaker he had this sort of resigned, constipated look on his face and it's pretty funny to watch the shit fly everywhere now that he doesn't have any skin in the game.
posted by murphy slaw at 7:22 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

why did that tweet make me angrier at him than I've been in months?

Usually his tweets are unhinged or stupid. That one is plain evil.

Yeah, evidence yet again that he's such a manifestly horrific person/politician that anyone who supports him is obviously a blathering idiot, willful ignorant or evil ideologue and not worth the effort to try to convince. Those with doubts or hesitancy who might possibly turn on him will come on their own. Any effort by Dems to expedite will just harden their commitment.
posted by chris24 at 7:22 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Those are actual Trump tweets in xyzzy's comment above? That back and forth about a mean nickname with Jon Stewart?

Jiminy Christmas.
posted by notyou at 7:26 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Trump just began speaking at CPAC.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:26 AM on February 24, 2017

Yes, notyou. The tweets are real and not yet deleted. To wit:

Donald J. Trump‏ @realDonaldTrump

Amazing how the haters & losers keep tweeting the name “F**kface Von Clownstick” like they are so original & like no one else is doing it...

12:35 PM · May 3, 2013

posted by xyzzy at 7:30 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Trump just began speaking at CPAC.

"Good work, all the Nazis, keep it up!"
posted by Artw at 7:30 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Trump just began speaking at CPAC.

And I just began drinking at my desk.
posted by mikelieman at 7:30 AM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Trump saying he's not against the media, but that media makes up sources. (That is, sources used without being named). "Let them say it to my face," says Trump. "You sould see stories drying up like you've never seen before." Now, he's onto dissing polls.
posted by Sweetdefenestration at 7:30 AM on February 24, 2017

Straight out of the gate, shitting on Reuters.
posted by Talez at 7:31 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

It's amazing that someone wouldn't have maybe gone thru and tidied up his Twitter account like 2 years ago.
posted by ian1977 at 7:32 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Wow. CPAC is going nuts over that red meat you'd think they're obligate carnivores.
posted by Talez at 7:32 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

2017, folks. The president of the united states is addressing one of the largest gatherings of conservative "thinkers" and he can't think of anything to say besides "the media are mean to me". No vision, no direction for the party, just fucking whinging.
posted by murphy slaw at 7:33 AM on February 24, 2017 [54 favorites]

"Let them say it to my face," says Trump. "You sould see stories drying up like you've never seen before."

IIRC one of the women he said he was lying about him being a sick, degenerate pervert is saying it to his face in Federal Court. Kudos to Summer Zervos. She ain't going anywhere.
posted by mikelieman at 7:33 AM on February 24, 2017 [22 favorites]

No vision, no direction for the party, just fucking whinging.

When the entire cognitive framing of the Republi/Con party is, "We are the victims!", there's not a lot of inspiration to go with other than, "and I'll show them!"
posted by mikelieman at 7:35 AM on February 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

The president of the united states is addressing one of the largest gatherings of conservative "thinkers" and he can't think of anything to say besides "the media are mean to me". No vision, no direction for the party, just fucking whinging.

Sadly, he didn't need a vision or a direction. "The media are mean to me" was enough to get him to the Oval Office.
posted by Etrigan at 7:35 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

When the entire cognitive framing of the Republi/Con party is, "We are the victims!", there's not a lot of inspiration to go with other than, "and I'll show them!"

Sounds like those snowflakes need a safe space. /s
posted by Talez at 7:35 AM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Is this the longest victory lap in the history of a Presidency?

We get it Donald. You won.
posted by dis_integration at 7:35 AM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

if you aren't following alexandra petri on twitter, you are missing out

trump speech formula:
60% media criticism
38% reminiscing about win
2% attempts to address whatever event he is attending

posted by murphy slaw at 7:36 AM on February 24, 2017 [44 favorites]

Let them say it to my face

This is the same thing Gorka said in the recorded call from yesterday. I think they recently decided that it's a very alpha male thing to say.
posted by diogenes at 7:36 AM on February 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

Welcome to the theocracy.
Why the Christian Right Is Rejoicing Under Trump's Presidency.
Get rid of Trump, get rid of Bannon, but you still have to deal with the crazy dominionist agenda.
posted by adamvasco at 7:36 AM on February 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

Sounds like those snowflakes need a safe space. /s

It's always Trump's Mirror. Always.
posted by mikelieman at 7:37 AM on February 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

At least he didn't bother to hire a speechwriter.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:37 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

> Is this the longest victory lap in the history of a Presidency?

How do you expect the next 47 months to go?
posted by zrail at 7:37 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

47 months? Nooooo! I have $100 on less than 10 months.
posted by ian1977 at 7:38 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

"If our presidents would have gone to the beach for fifteen years, we would be in much better shape than we are now."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:40 AM on February 24, 2017

Fuck I can't watch this speech anymore. It's just the incoherent ramblings of someone who is out of their depth.
posted by Talez at 7:40 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Let them say it to my face," says Trump. "You sould see stories drying up like you've never seen before."

He's right. Challenged - in his face - by NBC's Peter Alexander about his bullshit Electoral College victory claims in that last unhinged presser of his, Trump dried up real quick.
posted by zakur at 7:40 AM on February 24, 2017 [27 favorites]

he's just riffing at CPAC, isn't he.
whine
whine
lie
lie
self-aggrandization x 10
lie
whine
lie
chest thumping
posted by angrycat at 7:40 AM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Fuck I can't watch this speech anymore. It's just the incoherent ramblings of someone who is out of their ~~depth~~ mind.

posted by murphy slaw at 7:41 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

What the fuck is going to happen when something happens that actuall requires a president?

Oh right, he'll declare martial law. And fuck it up somehow.
posted by Artw at 7:41 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

vrakatar: Has the DOJ statement about private prisons been linked? Here it is! It also sucks.

The Department of Justice has rescinded guidance from August that discouraged the use of private prisons.

"This will restore (the Bureau of Prison's) flexibility to manage the federal prison inmate population based on capacity needs," the Justice Department said in a statement.

In August, then-deputy Attorney General Sally Yates directed the Bureau of Prisons to reduce its use of private prison contracts. In the August memo, she said private prisons had been used to house a prison population that had grown 800% between 1980 and 2013.

But, she said, the population is now on the decline, from 220,000 in 2013 to 195,000 in 2016.

Emphasis mine - when the president see minorities and dissenters as criminals, of course you want more places to house prisoners. Also, if they walk back on the legalization of marijuana, expect another boom in arrests, if states don't push back.

On this general topic, New Mexico is another state with budget issues, and my state re, a Republican, has a survey online, asking for input on a variety of problems, including "biggest problems," which are as Republican as you might expect (1. Crime, 2. Government regulations, 3. Lack of skilled workforce, 4. Taxes, and 5. Other), and a section on the death penalty. I'm going to reply to that "other" option by asking him to pursue saving the state millions by "re-focusing police and judicial system efforts away from non-violent drug use and immigration cases."
posted by filthy light thief at 7:41 AM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

It's amazing that someone wouldn't have maybe gone thru and tidied up his Twitter account like 2 years ago.

These are people who cannot hire a marginally competent press secretary. Or find light switches. Or even stop their guy from Tweeting from an insecure phone.

I mean, competence is just not their thing, you know?
posted by emjaybee at 7:42 AM on February 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

protesters or uh, over-enthusiastic supporters?:

A section of people in the back of #CPAC2017 waving Russian flags -- a staffer just came and demanded they all be handed over.
posted by murphy slaw at 7:42 AM on February 24, 2017 [44 favorites]

What the fuck is going to happen when something happens that actuall requires a president?

You mean like approving a special ops raid based on shaky intel?
posted by Etrigan at 7:43 AM on February 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

It's just another Trump rally in a less downmarket venue with a somewhat better-dressed audience of knuckle-draggers.
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:44 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

i wonder: if you woke up trump in the middle of the night and put a podium in front of him, would he reflexively start making one of these speeches?
posted by murphy slaw at 7:46 AM on February 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

roomthreeseventeen: At least he didn't bother to hire a speechwriter.

He's saving the American People even more money! What a guy.

(Really, how could we even tell he hired a speechwriter? Only if he stuck to what showed up on a teleprompter, and even then he's likely to ad-lib so much you would have trouble following along if you got the script in advance.)

(Which makes me really sad to realize Trump's speeches will be added to the impressive collection of the American Presidency Project - will future generations worry that they've hit a corrupted part of the website when they read Trump's words?)
posted by filthy light thief at 7:48 AM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Oh right, he'll declare martial law. And fuck it up somehow.

"Marshall law."

Possibly "Martial Plan." Marital? Martian!
posted by notyou at 7:49 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Penny Marshall Law
posted by ian1977 at 7:50 AM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

""The media are mean to me" was enough to get him to the Oval Office."

And it only works as long as your followers identify with you. The crumbling edges of support aren't reacting to his policy, but towards his constant fucking whining. The "victimized" voted for a winner. He doesn't sound like a winner and their champion when he's whining.
posted by klarck at 7:50 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

protesters or uh, over-enthusiastic supporters?:

A section of people in the back of #CPAC2017 waving Russian flags -- a staffer just came and demanded they all be handed over.

Ah, i was wondering what the air-right trolls were going to do next. Since CPAC had made it clear that Nazi imagery is verboten, I was wondering what kind of "jokes" they were going to be trolling with next.

My question now is what happens if the GOP establishment starts looking like it has a stick up is butt with regards to its image? Will there trolls turn on the establishment, or just roll over and behave in exchange for a doggy treat now and then?
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:50 AM on February 24, 2017

I'm not actually convinced he ever stops giving this speech. It's just a continuous feed he taps into.
posted by Artw at 7:51 AM on February 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

TRUMP: This fake news article is the last straw! MARTIAL LAW!
AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: why are you calling me at 3am
posted by murphy slaw at 7:51 AM on February 24, 2017 [25 favorites]

A section of people in the back of #CPAC2017 waving Russian flags -- a staffer just came and demanded they all be handed over.

corb, did you do this?
posted by tobascodagama at 7:51 AM on February 24, 2017 [17 favorites]

it gets even better, the little russian flags say TRUMP on them

literally cannot tell epic stupidity from epic troll anymore
posted by murphy slaw at 7:52 AM on February 24, 2017 [80 favorites]

He doesn't sound like a winner and their champion when he's whining.

I wouldn't be so sure. To another aggrieved person, another person whining about the same thing they want to whine about doesn't sound like whining, it sounds like commiserating at least and since it's coming from the (supposedly) most powerful man on the planet it probably sounds a whole lot like, "He gets me! This incredibly powerful man really gets me!"
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:53 AM on February 24, 2017 [17 favorites]

Penny Marshall Law

"I've got the best schlmeil, schlemazel, I've cut a great deal with Hassenpfeffer Incorporated that will bring hundreds of jobs!"
posted by emjaybee at 7:53 AM on February 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

So not only was trump absent from the situation room during the botched Yemen raid, he was actually busy tweeting. FML.
posted by localhuman at 7:55 AM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Starring Steve Bannon and Reince Pribus as Lenny and Squiggy.
posted by ian1977 at 7:55 AM on February 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

yeah the whining to me is as appealing as a dog's breakfast, but it's nothing new for him. some people must love the whining. it's the airing of seemingly stifled grievances
posted by angrycat at 7:56 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

literally cannot tell epic stupidity from epic troll anymore

Why are we assuming this is a troll? We should take them at absolute face value.

Republicans are now the party of anti-democracy and authoritarian dictatorship allied with Putin to overthrow the US government from within, actively engaged in and covering up their involvement with Russian intelligence operations against the US. It's not a troll, and if it started out that way, the practical effects are now no different than true belief.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:57 AM on February 24, 2017 [31 favorites]

President Festivus
posted by ian1977 at 7:57 AM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Daniel Dale with the ice-cold shade:

Mike Pence likened Trump to Reagan last night. This is Reagan's first speech to CPAC at president. http://reagan2020.us/speeches/remarks_at_cpac_dinner.asp

posted by murphy slaw at 7:57 AM on February 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

So not only was trump absent from the situation room during the botched Yemen raid, he was actually busy tweeting. FML.

Blood on his hands.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:57 AM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

New PPP poll: Trump Badly Losing His Fights With Media

62% of voters nationally think Trump should keep his cable watching to less than an hour a day, and 82% think he needs to keep it under 2 hours a day. Just 6% of voters in the country think it's a good idea for Trump to spend more than 2 hours a day watching cable news.

Last week Trump declared that the news media was the 'enemy of the American people' but we find that only 35% of voters believe that, to 53% who say that isn't the case. By a 48/44 spread they say it is actually Trump who is the greater threat to the American people than the media. We asked voters who they thought had more credibility between Trump and each of the outlets he singled out for attack last week, and Trump loses out to every one of them by double digits:

Also:
-Infowars has higher credibility than Breitbart
-majority supports ACA for first time
-"We find this week that support for impeaching Trump is at 41%, with 46% of voters opposed to impeachment. 70% of voters think it should be legal to protest Trump, to 21% who think protesting Trump should be illegal. Among Trump's voters it's closer with 51% thinking protesting the President should be legal to 38% who say they think it should be illegal."

Full results PDF.
posted by melissasaurus at 7:58 AM on February 24, 2017 [25 favorites]

The most popular article on Red State the other day was about how conservatives are "behaving like liberals" in the wake of the election. In this context, acting like a liberal means judging people's moral character on the basis of their political beliefs. The thesis was that the rift between pro- and anti-Trump conservatives was causing conservatives to treat each other with the disdain that liberals treat conservatives with. "In the last few months I’ve simply come to the sad realization that the conservative movement was never a righteous movement. It was just a political one. We may have the best ideas on American exceptionalism, the economy and freedom, and we may have correctly predicted the backlash that would one day hit liberal America, but the one thing we didn’t count on while fighting this war was our own human nature," the author concludes. Even internal disagreements are perceived as victimizing. For anyone to disapprove of you or say you're gravely wrong makes you a victim. The goalposts have been moved so far that if anyone substantively disagrees with you, you're a martyr.

Trump's obsession with his own victimhood plays to crowds like CPAC because the modern conservative movement is centered on victimhood. I think Trump will maintain his popularity even as he breaks or is unable to carry out nearly every one of his campaign promises because he embraces the victim narrative more fully than any other right winger in public life. The fact that he's a magnet for criticism will continue to validate him in the eyes of the perpetually aggrieved. What seems like absurd whining to us taps into the driving emotional force of his base.
posted by vathek at 8:01 AM on February 24, 2017 [45 favorites]

I'm glad that he's losing the fight with the media in the polls, but the number of people who think it should be illegal to protest Trump makes me think well it was a good run America.
posted by angrycat at 8:03 AM on February 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

The fact that he's a magnet for criticism will continue to validate him in the eyes of the perpetually aggrieved.

"If they hate you, you're doing something right" is going to be carved on the entrance of his tomb.
posted by Etrigan at 8:04 AM on February 24, 2017

CPAC chanting "lock her up." Cool
posted by theodolite at 8:04 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

you see these are the finest minds in the intellectually rigorous conservative movement, gathered together to exchange ideas
posted by murphy slaw at 8:06 AM on February 24, 2017 [63 favorites]

Trump: "We are all equal in the eyes of almighty God... except deplorables." [fake, but basically true]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:08 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Trump's obsession with his own victimhood plays to crowds like CPAC because the modern conservative movement is centered on victimhood. I think Trump will maintain his popularity even as he breaks or is unable to carry out nearly every one of his campaign promises because he embraces the victim narrative more fully than any other right winger in public life. The fact that he's a magnet for criticism will continue to validate him in the eyes of the perpetually aggrieved. What seems like absurd whining to us taps into the driving emotional force of his base.

That seems to align with other articles advocating the importance of attacking the authoritarian's policies, rather than the authoritarian himself. It's not going to stop him from trying to equate attacks on his policies with attacks on him personally, but his working class voters are less likely to stick with him if they understand how his decisions personally affect their lives. I think this is why the outrage over the ACA is gaining so much more traction: Everyone needs healthcare.
posted by Dr. Zira at 8:08 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Lana Del Ray wants you to join her coven in hexxing Donald Trump tonight at the stroke of midnight
posted by The Whelk at 8:09 AM on February 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

Personality cults are impervious to facts, and that's what they've become now.

Ironically, this happened because they first decided "fuck facts, facts make us feel bad and question our actions, we are going to ignore them or bury them." I mean, after that, a fact-impervious bully is more likely to end up in charge.
posted by emjaybee at 8:10 AM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Lana Del Ray wants you to join her coven in hexxing Donald Trump tonight at the stroke of midnight

The only reason I'm not doing this is that it requires possessing an image of that asshole. Even if it gets destroyed during the ritual, I just can't stomach having that kind of vileness in my house.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:12 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

you can just peel a yam
posted by murphy slaw at 8:13 AM on February 24, 2017 [52 favorites]

Can anyone explain that gibberish about 9 sources near the start?
posted by halifix at 8:13 AM on February 24, 2017

OK - it's not so much a hex as a binding spell. Just to be clear.
posted by Sophie1 at 8:16 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

WaPo Executive Editor Marty Baron releases statement standing by nine-source story
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:18 AM on February 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

>> State Department writes anti-leak memo, which promptly leaks
> “When such information is leaked … It chills the willingness of senior government officials to seek robust and candid advice, which ultimately is to the detriment of informed policymaking and the reputation of the institution from which the leak emanated,” the memo states.

Uhm, good? Let 'em keep screwing up the background on anything they're trying to get done. If it makes 'em work harder and take longer to get an EO or bill drafted, leaves more opportunities for challenges, makes 'em look even less competent than they do now ... then yay.

> Lana Del Ray / Hex / Binding spell

Hrm, would it be considered better for participants to do their rituals at local midnight or simultaneously?
posted by Enturbulated at 8:23 AM on February 24, 2017

The BBC breaking-news hex of today is more like "let's just quote him. It leaks--straight out of his mouth...

Addressing the Conservative Political Action Congress, he vowed to always put American citizens first and build a "great, great border wall".
He also promised to focus on "getting bad people out of this country".
Mr Trump was greeted by chants of "USA, USA, USA!" as he addressed the annual forum in Maryland.
"We're building the wall," Mr Trump said in his keynote address on Friday.
"In fact it's going to start very soon. Way ahead of schedule. It's way, way, way ahead of schedule."

I like his method of compensating for a total lack of synonyms by repetition. Apparently the crowd picked up on the technique in their "chants".
posted by Namlit at 8:24 AM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Let them say it to my face

He does super awesome when people call him out to his face *cough*Khan family*cough*

The only people who confront him that he can best are craven Republican politicians that have a whole political machine acting to make them fall in line.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:24 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Enturbulated - I'll do mine at eastern time midnight if that makes it stronger. I may go out and do it next to my beehive, just in case they overhear something they might take action on.
posted by Sophie1 at 8:27 AM on February 24, 2017 [29 favorites]

Listening to Sarah Kendzior on internet radio (The Rick Smith Show (via Twitter, hadn't heard of it before)) and it made me think of her Canadian Exceptionalism article in the Globe and Mail. She spoke at McGill University.

Never, as an American, had I been greeted abroad with such instinctive pity, as if I’d just returned from a funeral – for democracy, perhaps, or for national dignity ... “How do we not end up like you?” the audience politely inquired.

posted by kingless at 8:30 AM on February 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

Starring Steve Bannon and Reince Pribus as Lenny and Squiggy.

NaziNutz: These CBP officers aren't doing enough to whiten up the place!
Dumnads: Yeah but they've got to at least pretend to follow the law. What else can they do?

[Door flies open, Priebus and Bannon enter]

Priebus: Hellooooo!
posted by petebest at 8:34 AM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

France: "Well if you're finished with him..."

oui, on puet
posted by Buntix at 8:35 AM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Sophie - just general curiosity on this end rather than current planning. Granted, the day is young-ish.
posted by Enturbulated at 8:36 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

the number of people who think it should be illegal to protest Trump makes me think well it was a good run America.

was it really, though?
posted by entropicamericana at 8:39 AM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

62% of voters nationally think Trump should keep his cable watching to less than an hour a day, and 82% think he needs to keep it under 2 hours a day. Just 6% of voters in the country think it's a good idea for Trump to spend more than 2 hours a day watching cable news.

How about no cable news at all and read a goddamn report for a change.
posted by vverse23 at 8:41 AM on February 24, 2017 [29 favorites]

Trump’s Health-Care Nightmare Is Only Just Beginning
Republicans may not have even realized until recently how deeply their ability to make political hay on Obamacare depended on not having power. They could posture against every inconvenient aspect of an industry nobody has ever liked, and promise all things to all people, with no responsibility to fulfill their grandiose promises. Now the dynamic has reversed. Loss aversion has inspired massive, energetic protests to speak up for a law Democrats could hardly be roused to defend before, while the energy has drained away from the opposition.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:41 AM on February 24, 2017 [38 favorites]

I'm seriously squicked out by the whole recasting Laverne and Shirley with actors from the Trump Administration. Don't stop on my account, but really, I'm pretty sure all the principals would stand in opposition to the Trump Nazis.
posted by mikelieman at 8:41 AM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

When does Flynn speak?
posted by Artw at 8:43 AM on February 24, 2017

Never, as an American, had I been greeted abroad with such instinctive pity, as if I’d just returned from a funeral – for democracy, perhaps, or for national dignity ... “How do we not end up like you?” the audience politely inquired.

yes, I've had several Canadian friends ask me this same question

my responses were along the lines of, "unite the left, solidarity now, don't think 'it can't happen here.'"

It will depend on what happens in the Conservative leadership race and if a fascist/sympathizer manages to win.

Their danger is that the left is already split among Liberal, NDP and Bloc; if Trudeau's popularity wanes, as it looks like it may be starting to do (I know we all love him down here, but the honeymoon is looking to be ending as far as I can tell)...
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:44 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

When does Flynn speak?

When Alex Jones moves the hand up his ass.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:44 AM on February 24, 2017 [21 favorites]

corb, did you do this?

Sadly, no. But God bless the McMullin mafia, who I'm sure are involved.
posted by corb at 8:46 AM on February 24, 2017 [34 favorites]

'No anonymous sources,' Trump scolds _ after WH uses them: Donald Trump used his first presidential appearance before the nation's largest gathering of conservative activists on Friday to sharply escalate his criticism of the news media and take direct aim at the use of anonymous sources. Reporters "shouldn't be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody's name," he declared, just hours after members of his own staff held a press briefing and refused to allow their names to be used.

"A source says that Donald Trump is a horrible, horrible human being, let them say it to my face," Trump told the Conservative Political Action Committee. "Let there be no more sources."

Members of Trump's White House team regularly demand anonymity when talking to reporters.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:47 AM on February 24, 2017 [50 favorites]

If Michael McKean and David Lander wanted to do SNL as Bannon and Priebus, I would wholeheartedly support them.
posted by mubba at 8:48 AM on February 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

It's amazing that someone wouldn't have maybe gone thru and tidied up his Twitter account like 2 years ago.

Gotta save them for the presidential library. Without tweets and his ghostwritten books it's gonna be pretty empty.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:51 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

@HeerJeet
"The GOP, from now on, will be ALSO, the party of the American worker."
Okay, a nationalist workers party. Can we get an acronym for that?
posted by chris24 at 8:52 AM on February 24, 2017 [43 favorites]

The most popular article on Red State the other day was about how conservatives are "behaving like liberals" in the wake of the election. In this context, acting like a liberal means judging people's moral character on the basis of their political beliefs.

I have a really hard time wrapping my head around this idea that one oughtn't evaluate someone's moral character based on their political beliefs and actions. Even if you love your children and immediate family, go to church, and are reasonably polite to strangers, at the end of the day, if you engage in political activity in order to create or reinforce oppressive power structures aimed at women, people of color, queer people, trans people, religious minorities or whomever you got a hateon for, I will to judge you negatively.

When a person's politics are a bright neon sign that screams, 'I don't even consider you fully human', why shouldn't that person be judged negatively? Why are people shocked that many other people find it objectively awful to even consider debating the humanity of entire groups? Political belief and action don't exist in a vacuum.

...And they call us 'snowflakes'.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 8:53 AM on February 24, 2017 [73 favorites]

MetaFilter: just the incoherent ramblings of someone who is out of their depth.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:55 AM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Sadly, no. But God bless the McMullin mafia, who I'm sure are involved.

I was thinking John Schindler (@20committee) and pals might be involved, he was speaking there and he's one of the loudest voices saying Trump's in bed with Russia (he's the one who tweeted about a "senior IC friend" of his saying re: Trump "he will die in jail"). I'm kind of interested to hear his talk, it was called Russia: Friend or Foe and I wonder if he toned it down for the Trumpists or not.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:58 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

@JohnWDean: I have expertise on this matter. Push back on an FBI investigation of the White House is better known as a COVER UP
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:03 AM on February 24, 2017 [123 favorites]

Oh snap, John Dean.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:05 AM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

it must be so fucking surreal to be john dean these days
posted by murphy slaw at 9:12 AM on February 24, 2017 [34 favorites]

I apologize for inadvertently slandering the cast of Laverne & Shirley just so I could make a joke about Hassenpfeffer Incorporated.

Though now I am forever going to see Bannon and Priebus as Lenny and Squiggy.

At any rate, I'm sure Trump wouldn't approve of two unmarried working-class chicks believing they are "makin' our dreams come true."
posted by emjaybee at 9:12 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Namlit: "We're building the wall," Mr Trump said in his keynote address on Friday. "In fact it's going to start very soon. Way ahead of schedule. It's way, way, way ahead of schedule."

A funny thing about schedules - if you don't have one, how can you be ahead of it?
posted by filthy light thief at 9:15 AM on February 24, 2017 [27 favorites]

We're gonna do it!
Give us any chance, we'll take it.
Give us any rule, we'll break it.

LOCK THEM UP! LOCK THEM UP!
posted by prize bull octorok at 9:15 AM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Namlit: "We're building the wall," Mr Trump said in his keynote address on Friday. "In fact it's going to start very soon. Way ahead of schedule. It's way, way, way ahead of schedule."

A funny thing about schedules - if you don't have one, how can you be ahead of it?

The 30-day plan to defeat ISIS is currently four days over.
posted by Etrigan at 9:18 AM on February 24, 2017 [51 favorites]

AP FACT CHECK: Trump considers 20 million people 'very few'

TRUMP: "Obamacare covers very few people."

THE FACTS: More than 20 million people are covered by the two major components of former President Barack Obama's health care law: expanded Medicaid and subsidized private health insurance.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:19 AM on February 24, 2017 [25 favorites]

AP FACT CHECK: Trump considers 20 million people 'very few'

TRUMP: "Obamacare covers very few people."

Trump considers very few of those 20 million to be "people".
posted by Etrigan at 9:22 AM on February 24, 2017 [78 favorites]

AP FACT CHECK: Trump considers 20 million people 'very few'

And it was designed to cover a shitload more people before the Republicans and their Supreme Court stripped out the medicaid expansion.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:22 AM on February 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

21% who think protesting Trump should be illegal

Hello, crazification factor. Haven't seen you this explicit in a while
posted by Chrysostom at 9:22 AM on February 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

I'm not actually convinced he ever stops giving this speech. It's just a continuous feed he taps into.

He just shuffles and deals.
posted by cortex at 9:24 AM on February 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

Etrigan: The 30-day plan to defeat ISIS is currently four days over.

Well, weekends and golf days don't count, smartie. Even God took some time off!
posted by filthy light thief at 9:26 AM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

murphy slaw: Daniel Dale with the ice-cold shade:
Mike Pence likened Trump to Reagan last night. This is Reagan's first speech to CPAC at president. http://reagan2020.us/speeches/remarks_at_cpac_dinner.asp
Here's an alternate source (UCSB's American Presidency Project), if you're not keen on giving clicks to the deluded folks at Patriot Post who think Saint Ronnie represents the words of the Founding Fathers, "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."

I wasn't initially able to follow that Reagan 2020 link (which makes me think someone's trying to literally revive the corpse of Reagan to run for president in 2020), so I went looking for an early 1980s speech from Reagan there, and found his speech from 1982, where he rails against leaks and media fads:

But Washington's fascination with passing trends and one-day headlines can sometimes cause serious problems over in the West Wing of the White House—they cause them. There's the problem of leaks. Before we even announced the giveaway of surplus cheese, the warehouse mice had hired a lobbyist. [Laughter]

And then a few weeks ago, those stories broke about the Kennedy tapes. And that caused something of a stir. Al Haig came in to brief me on his trip to Europe. I uncapped my pen, and he stopped talking. [Laughter] Up on the Hill, I understand they were saying, "You need eloquence in the State Dining Room, wit in the East Room, and sign language in the Oval Office." [Laughter] It got so bad that I found myself telling every visitor there were absolutely no tape recordings being made. And if they wanted a transcript of that remark, just mention it to the potted plant on their way out. [Laughter]

And now I think you could replace Trump with Robo-Reagan and while the message may be quite similar, at least he'd sound like a president, and not a spoiled bully who has always relied on his piles of money to get his way, not his way with words.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:32 AM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Here's a Picture of the Crowd Lined Up Outside CPAC to See Donald Trump Speak

A few minutes into his CPAC speech Friday, esteemed and honest president Donald J. Trump said people were so excited to hear him speak that, “There are lines that go back six blocks. I tell you that because you won’t read about it.”

In a sense, he’s right. You won’t read about it, because they don’t exist.

There are at least three entrances to the Gaylord Hotel and Convention Center, where the annual CPAC conference is held; a quick visual check revealed no lines or crowds waiting outside.
...
For what it’s worth, National Harbor isn’t six blocks wide or long.

posted by kirkaracha at 9:35 AM on February 24, 2017 [52 favorites]

Well the draft of not-Obamacare so far is (sort of) taxing Cadillac plans and underfunded high-risk pools.

To quote the immortal Jar Jar Binks, “Yousa thinking yousa people ganna die?”
posted by Talez at 9:37 AM on February 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

To quote the immortal Jar Jar Binks,

This is who we are now. Thanks Trump.
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:40 AM on February 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

Death pools. For all the pre-existing conditions to go die in.
posted by Artw at 9:41 AM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Parenting Your Toddler President

Trying to govern can be extremely frustrating for toddler presidents. On the one hand, they are desperate to be independent and accepted as big kids but at the same time, most toddler presidents are easily frustrated when things don’t turn out to be fully within their control. Toddler presidents want to be respected as fully grown-up persons but generally tend to have trouble dealing with limits and setbacks. This can lead to tantrums and misbehavior. If nuclear codes are involved, it may also lead to fiery apocalyptic end times.

posted by kirkaracha at 9:42 AM on February 24, 2017 [25 favorites]

Also, instead of a tax/penalty for people who don't have insurance, they penalize people who get insurance after going uninsured for a while so the natural effect will be that people who have to choose between health insurance and groceries will drop their insurance and then can never afford to pick it up again.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:43 AM on February 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

And now I think you could replace Trump with Robo-Reagan and while the message may be quite similar, at least he'd sound like a president, and not a spoiled bully who has always relied on his piles of money to get his way, not his way with words.

reagan was no thinker, but he could stick to a goddamn speech
posted by murphy slaw at 9:46 AM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Well, the poor aren't really human, so its okay if they don't get healthcare.
posted by Artw at 9:46 AM on February 24, 2017

However the draft replacement plan is, IMO, unlikely to go anywhere - there's both Republican and Democratic opposition, taxing people's employer supplied healthcare is going to be deeply unpopular with the very people who tend to vote and the CBO has indicated that it would, like, halve subsidies for insurance.

Now, the Republicans might put this thing through if they could just wish and make it so, but they'll have to vote on it and be accountable to constituents. I still think repealing and replacing is going to be a pretty tough row to hoe unless Trump et al are planning to go full fascist and rule by the gun. (Fascists have someone else hoe their rows, you see. )
posted by Frowner at 9:47 AM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Full transcript: President Trump’s CPAC speech (Vox)

He says "Believe me" five times; "fake news" seven times; "by the way" nine times; "take a look" twelve times; "very" 22 times.

On the military:

We're also putting in a massive budget request for our beloved military. And we will be substantially upgrading all of our military, all of our military, offensive, defensive, everything. Bigger and better and stronger than ever before, and hopefully we'll never have to use it, but nobody's going to mess with us, folks. Nobody. It will be one of the greatest military buildups in American history. No one will dare question, as they have been, because we're very depleted, very, very depleted sequester. Nobody will question our military might again.

On the wall:

Oh, we're going to build a wall, don't worry about it. We're building the wall. We're building the wall. In fact, it's going to start soon. Way ahead of schedule. Way ahead of schedule. Way, way, way ahead of schedule.

On the getting the "bad ones" out:

And remember, we are getting the bad ones out. These are bad dudes. We're getting the bad ones out. Okay? We're getting the bad — if you watch these people, it’s like oh, gee, that's so sad. We were getting bad people out of this country. People who shouldn't be, whether it's drugs or murder. We're getting bad ones out. They're the ones that go first. I said it from day one.

On drugs:

We'll stop it, we'll stop the drugs from pouring into our nation and poisoning our youth. Pouring in. Pouring in. We get the drugs, they get the money. We get the problems. They get the cash. No good. No good. Going to stop.

On the Keystone pipeline (and some sad executive, I think):

But can you imagine — I told this story the other day. Can you imagine the gentleman, never met him, don't even know the name of his country — I sort of know it, but I want to get it exactly correct.

Big, big company. They spend hundreds of millions on the pipeline. They got their approvals, everything in the case of Dakota, then all of a sudden they couldn't connect it because they had people protesting that never showed up before. Before with the Keystone — so they spend hundreds of millions of dollars with bloodsucker consultants, sucking the blood out of the company: Don't worry, I used them all my life, okay? Don't worry, I'm going to get it approved, I'm connected, I'm a lobbyist, don't worry.

Bottom line, Obama didn't sign it. Could be 42,000 jobs, somewhere around there. Didn't sign it. But can you imagine? He gave up. A year ago, it was dead. Now he's doing nothing, calling his wife, hello, darling, I'm a little bored, you know that pipeline project, that has killed us, that has killed our company. Knock, knock. Mr. So and so. The Keystone pipeline, sir, out of nowhere has just been approved. Can you imagine the expression? You know the sad part?

The same bloodsucking consultants that hit him for all the money and failed, they're now going to go back to him and say didn't we do a great job? We want more money. That's the way the system works — a little bit off — but that's the way the system works.
posted by zakur at 9:48 AM on February 24, 2017 [22 favorites]

A one-two punch of bad math and bad science from Team Trump, via Wired:
1. The Math Behind Trump’s Deportation Plan Makes No Sense

“If one starts with a pool of potential criminals that is identified for targeting, and then adds to this pool the set of undocumented immigrants who, on the whole, certainly have a lower crime rate, then the overall crime rate of the combined pool is smaller than the original one,” says Mark Glickman, Harvard University statistician.
...
“All of these executive orders and everything we’ve seen coming down the pike all rest on the assumption, an erroneous assumption, that immigration and crime go hand in hand,” says Charis Kubrin, a UC Irvine criminologist. “The literature shows nothing to prove that.”

Kubrin and her colleague Graham Ousey of the College of William and Mary recently analyzed more than 50 studies related to immigration and crime published between 1994 and 2014. Their findings, which will be published in the The Annual Review of Criminology, show no correlation between immigration to an area and increases in crime. Where there was any relationship at all, Kubrin says, it was a negative one— in other words, more immigration corresponded to less crime.

2. Potential Trump Science Adviser Says Climate Change Is Great

Broadly, [William Happer, a physicist from Princeton] isn’t a climate denialist per se, rather he’s a climate change enthusiast, firmly believing that further elevated CO₂ levels would be beneficial for humanity. He also professes to care deeply about the scientific method. So, in this spirit, I’ll challenge these assumptions with a mind open to his viewpoint.
...
Happer’s potential appointment is in some ways more worrying than the administration’s hires to date, such as the appointee for EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, who simply denies scientific consensus on climate, making his position easy to dismiss in rational debate. Happer’s background in science and his selective consideration of the data give his opinions a veneer of respectability. If he is going to champion the principles of the scientific method and rational discourse, he must be able to defend his positions in the light of the overwhelming evidence for the significant risks associated with anthropogenic climate change. And that’s a fight he can’t win.

Examples of cherry-picked to straight-up false claims from Happer are lengthier, so you'll have to go to the article to get those, sorry.

And a chaser of Big Business give-aways, also based on illogical WTF-ery: Republicans Are Trying to Let Internet Providers Sell Your Data

The current FCC rules ban internet service providers and wireless carriers from selling many types of customer data—including web browsing history, location, and health information—unless you explicitly opt in. The rules do allow providers to sell certain types of less sensitive data, such as what type of data plan subscribers have, on an opt-out basis. But these gatekeepers to the internet have long envied internet giants like Google and Facebook. These massively wealthy companies couldn’t exist without internet infrastructure to deliver their services. But they face fewer restrictions on data collection.

Now Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona plans to introduce a resolution to overturn the FCC rules, enabling internet providers and wireless companies to sell your data unless you explicitly opt out. “The FCC’s midnight regulation does nothing to protect consumer privacy,” Senator Flake said in a statement to WIRED. “It is unnecessary, confusing and adds yet another innovation-stifling regulation to the internet.”

How does preventing internet service providers from selling users' browsing and location data stifle innovation again? Oh, they don't make as much money, which I guess could be used to fund some sort of innovations in providing high-speed, reliable internet access. Oh wait, Even though the Internet was invented in the United States, Americans pay the most in the world for broadband access. And it’s not exactly blazing fast. (PBS, April 26, 2015)
posted by filthy light thief at 9:48 AM on February 24, 2017 [34 favorites]

We'll stop it, we'll stop the drugs from pouring into our nation and poisoning our youth. Pouring in. Pouring in. We get the drugs, they get the money. We get the problems. They get the cash. No good. No good. Going to stop.

is it just me or does it sound like he's pissed mostly because he's not getting a piece of that action
posted by murphy slaw at 9:50 AM on February 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

roomthreeseventeen: AP FACT CHECK: Trump considers 20 million people 'very few'

Alternate title: "Trump, Conservatives apply relative scaling to large numbers, based on their desired message"

Trump isn't alone in changing regard for numbers. Fox News was unimpressed by job growth rates under Obama, but when those numbers are similar but Trump is now president, they're positive of the results ... of the prior administration.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:52 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

"Broadly, [William Happer, a physicist from Princeton] isn’t a climate denialist per se, rather he’s a climate change enthusiast, firmly believing that further elevated CO2 levels would be beneficial for humanity."

Huh, I just realized nothing scares me anymore.
posted by Tarumba at 9:52 AM on February 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

"Broadly, [William Happer, a physicist from Princeton] isn’t a climate denialist per se, rather he’s a climate change enthusiast, firmly believing that further elevated CO2 levels would be beneficial for humanity."

In our post factual reality, the Venusian infiltrators no longer feel the need to conceal their terraforming efforts.
posted by Slackermagee at 9:58 AM on February 24, 2017 [51 favorites]

Responding to something from WAAAAAY upthread:

I'm in Pennsylvania, and I'm working with a student political organization that's just getting off the ground in the election's aftermath. A few weeks ago I attended one of its organizational meetings and spoke to them about some potential plans for about 5 minutes. [edit by EmpressCallipygos]
My point being, there appears to be some serious interest (finally!) in off-year elections in my corner of the country. That is VERY encouraging, but it will be meaningless if it fizzles out. Here's what I want to know: how can I work to sustain that interest, drum up more support, and push more people to the polls this November?

I'd suspect that a good place to start is to meet with them again, more than once and for more than just five minutes. Or, be a mentor that they can check in with for advice/ideas over email.

It sounds like this is a group that has the raw desire but not the organizing skill, and they may just need guidance and training wheels to get the structure set up. They need a Yoda, basically.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:01 AM on February 24, 2017

> We'll stop it, we'll stop the drugs from pouring into our nation and poisoning our youth. Pouring in. Pouring in. We get the drugs, they get the money. We get the problems. They get the cash. No good. No good. Going to stop.

This sounds like one of the sheriff's inner monologues in No Country For Old Men (the book), if it had been written by an eight year-old.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:01 AM on February 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

A few years ago there was a show depicting a dystopia with strong reproductive control where everyone ran around wearing masks to stave off suffocation death due to climate change. Unfortunately the show was really about disnosaurs and time travel, but I wanted to see more of that world. Now I fear that I will personally experience it.
posted by xyzzy at 10:03 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

"Broadly, [William Happer, a physicist from Princeton] isn’t a climate denialist per se, rather he’s a climate change enthusiast, firmly believing that further elevated CO2 levels would be beneficial for humanity."

When you look at it like that Russia is of course the biggest beneficiary, poised to claim the Arctic as they are, which I'm sure is a big old coincidence.

Oh and it's effectively genocide for anyone further south, which Russia may not give a shit about but people have weird expectations about that kind of thing when it comes to Americans.
posted by Artw at 10:07 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

This sounds like one of the sheriff's inner monologues in No Country For Old Men (the book), if it had been written by an eight year-old.

"it was like we was both back in older times and I was on horseback goin’ through the mountains of a night. Goin’ through this pass in the mountains. It was cold and there was snow on the ground and he rode past me and kept on goin’. Never said nothin’ goin’ by – just rode on past. Not good. Bad! And he had his blanket wrapped around him and his head down. When he rode past, I seen he was carryin’ fire in a horn the way people used to do in the good old days when guys like that, they'd have to be carried out on a stretcher, just knock the hell out of 'em folks, and I-I could see the horn from the light inside of it – about the color of the moon. CNN is fake news. And in the dream I knew that he was goin’ on ahead and he was a bad hombre, fixin’ to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold and American Carnage. And I knew that whenever I got there, he’d be there. George Soros. Should have known he was a snake before I let him in. And then I woke up. No stamina. Sad!"
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:08 AM on February 24, 2017 [27 favorites]

Trump: We were getting bad people out of this country. People who shouldn't be, whether it's drugs or murder. We're getting bad ones out. They're the ones that go first. I said it from day one.

Ah, bit of a tongue-slip there eh Mr. President?

If the "bad ones" are first, who goes... second?
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:11 AM on February 24, 2017 [70 favorites]

lot to mention ICE haven't exactly been going along with this targeting of "bad ones", presumably because they know they'll be getting everyone in time.
posted by Artw at 10:14 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

I don't want to be a in a country with these horrible, horrible people.
posted by schadenfrau at 10:16 AM on February 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

A one-two punch of bad math and bad science from Team Trump, via Wired:

One thing I'd love to see come out of this shitshow is to have the courts analyze more seriously the "legitimate" part of the "legitimate government interest" (or "compelling" or whatever the standard requires for the particular issue). We saw this issue with the Whole Women's Health and other TRAP law decisions -- the 5th circuit was like "well, they said their motive is to protect women's health and we have to take them at their word" but the 7th circuit and SCOTUS were like "this actually worsens women's healthcare when we look at things like facts and science and ask actual doctors." There was pushback from the 9th circuit in the Muslim ban case as well - the gov't can't just say that this is necessary for national security, they have to prove it with real facts not alternative facts. I feel like if the courts show less deference to the government's stated motives and require them to show actual evidence it will help move media (and eventually society) toward that standard as well.
posted by melissasaurus at 10:17 AM on February 24, 2017 [27 favorites]

...the gov't can't just say that this is necessary for national security, they have to prove it with real facts not alternative facts.

But he's the ~~Decider~~ boss!
posted by wenestvedt at 10:19 AM on February 24, 2017

>If the "bad ones" are first, who goes... second?

Anyone he can reach with those tiny, grasping, mendacious hands of course.
posted by Catblack at 10:23 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh, this is a fun game.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow it's slow, you know? Everyday, believe me. Each and every. Right to the end. But look back and what do you see? Fools, Fools. Not good. I'm just saying. A Mess is what I inherited. A MESS. Let me tell you. I don't have to tell you because people are saying. Actually I heard it from someone. All the way. Someday there won't be any more days -- the nuclear, we're strong on that, but that's another thing we have to be the very very strongest at. We'll snuff it. Maybe soon, who knows?

Someone do Trump doing Tom Joad, please.
posted by notyou at 10:24 AM on February 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

Now he can be simulated do we have to listen to him anymore? Maybe the press could cover something more interesting/useful.
posted by Artw at 10:26 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

The 30-day plan to defeat ISIS is currently four days over.

Only because those pansy Joint Chiefs wouldn't let him nuke the Middle East into a contiguous field of glass.
posted by Coventry at 10:30 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

notyou: Someone do Trump doing Tom Joad, please.

Dude, no one wants that last image of Rose of ~~Sharon~~ Bannon nursing somebody stuck in their head.
posted by wenestvedt at 10:32 AM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

It sounds like ~~KKK~~ NRA leader Wayne LaPierre's speech at CPAC is also unhinged -
tweets from Daniel Dale:

-The NRA's Wayne LaPierre is accusing liberal protesters of being paid and violent. "Have we ever seen such anger in this country?"
-"You'd think for $1,500 a week, they'd at least know what they're protesting."
-This is most incite-y speech I've heard at any conservative event. LaPierre says they're facing people willing to use violence against them.
-"They're angry, they're militant, and they're willing to engage in criminal violence to get what they want."
-Oh my god. The NRA's LaPierre: What happens when terrorists tag along with an airport protest "and gas the place like they did in Tokyo?"
-LaPierre, adopting a campus-left-ish definition of violence, says judicial activism is liberal "violence against the Constitution."
posted by melissasaurus at 10:33 AM on February 24, 2017 [32 favorites]

Glenn Thrush at the NYTimes: Spicer requiring sign up for an 'expanded pool gaggle' -- w/ right to exclude reporters, after berating smaller pool this morning.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:33 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

The NRA's Wayne LaPierre is accusing liberal protesters of being paid and violent.

The irony of Wayne LaPierre accusing someone else of being paid and violent is so powerful, it might break Trump's Mirror.
posted by gladly at 10:36 AM on February 24, 2017 [34 favorites]

$1500/week? When can I start?
posted by nathan_teske at 10:36 AM on February 24, 2017 [66 favorites]

-LaPierre, adopting a campus-left-ish definition of violence, says judicial activism is liberal "violence against the Constitution."

Oof, this is the scariest quote of the bunch.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:36 AM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

We'll stop it, we'll stop the drugs from pouring into our nation
is it just me or does it sound like he's pissed mostly because he's not getting a piece of that action

No wonder Trump doesn't like IC or the CIA.
posted by rough ashlar at 10:36 AM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

It sounds like ~~KKK~~ NRA leader Wayne LaPierre's speech at CPAC is also unhinged

It's perfectly hinged when you think of the NRA and LaPierre as paid advertisers for the gun manufacturers: "Shit's getting real! We used to tell you to buy more guns because Obama wanted to take them away, but now we want you to buy more guns because you need them to fight the angry violent liberals!"
posted by Etrigan at 10:37 AM on February 24, 2017 [27 favorites]

ha ha remember when satire was possible, that was great

So #CPAC has a guy standing in front of the all-gender bathroom sign forbidding people from taking a photo of it. This is peak insanity.

posted by murphy slaw at 10:38 AM on February 24, 2017 [55 favorites]

Potential Trump Science Adviser Says Climate Change Is Great

I'm enjoying the phony Winter here in Boston, but dreading the Summer.
posted by Coventry at 10:38 AM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's perfectly hinged when you think of the NRA and LaPierre as paid advertisers for the gun manufacturers

Of course, this is not at all incompatible with being a violent right-wing hate group. Which they are.
posted by zombieflanders at 10:43 AM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Let me get this straight - the GOP is sure that this uptick in active protests is because people are paid to protest*, but they're really and truly paying someone to stand in front of a bathroom sign? This is the weirdest instance of Trump's Mirror.

* $1,500 a week sounded nice, but then I realized that's $37.50 an hour, or $78,000 per year. Yes, please tell me where I can be paid like that to defend science, democracy, and reason in the face of GOP idiots.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:44 AM on February 24, 2017 [58 favorites]

Eastern KY police department emblazons cars with skull logo from Punisher, "Blue Lives Matter" because why the fuck not, everything is terrible now.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:44 AM on February 24, 2017 [27 favorites]

It's perfectly hinged when you think of the NRA and LaPierre as paid advertisers for the gun manufacturers

Of course, this is not at all incompatible with being a violent right-wing hate group. Which they are.

I would argue that it sheds even worse light on LaPierre et al -- they may well not be Klansmen in their hearts, but they've clearly taken on the hood because there's more money in it.
posted by Etrigan at 10:45 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Eastern KY police department emblazons cars with skull logo from Punisher, "Blue Lives Matter" because why the fuck not, everything is terrible now.

"Just cause it has ‘Blue Lives Matter’ on the hood, all lives matter. That decal represents that we will take any means necessary to keep our community safe."

Erm, doesn't that decal mean that you won't take any means necessary, if those means put your lives at risk?
posted by Etrigan at 10:47 AM on February 24, 2017 [25 favorites]

I would argue that it sheds even worse light on LaPierre et al -- they may well not be Klansmen in their hearts, but they've clearly taken on the hood because there's more money in it.

They also may well actually be klansmen in their hearts, but it doesn't matter. If we've learned no other lesson over the past couple years, it should be what Kurt said: be careful who you pretend to be, 'cause that's who you are.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:47 AM on February 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

(Reminder: Someone or some group that were Pro-DeVos were paying people one to two dollars to indicate their support for her nomination - so $1,500 a week is seriously a sweet deal, or really poor understanding of the supply side of this particular market)
posted by filthy light thief at 10:48 AM on February 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

The 7th circuit heard oral arguments on Wisconsin's voter suppression laws today. You can't necessarily determine the outcome from the judges' questions, but apparently the court was "very skeptical" of the lower court ruling striking down the voter suppression laws; Easterbrook "said the plaintiffs were contending Dems can expand voting rules to help them but Rs can’t tighten them. 'That can’t be right.'" [link to tweet]

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Related essay from Rick Hasen (Race or Party, Party as Race, or Party All the Time: Three Uneasy Approaches to Conjoined Polarization in Redistricting and Voting Cases) explaining this issue here.
posted by melissasaurus at 10:48 AM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Breitbart, OANN, Washington Times are all in White House briefing. CNN and NY Times (and LA Times) not allowed in today. (cite, picture)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:51 AM on February 24, 2017 [28 favorites]

good news everybody!

Breitbart, OANN, Washington Times are all in White House briefing. CNN and NY Times (and LA Times) not allowed in.

posted by murphy slaw at 10:51 AM on February 24, 2017 [30 favorites]

Eastern KY police department emblazons cars with skull logo from Punisher, "Blue Lives Matter" because why the fuck not, everything is terrible now.

I have a lot of friends who are public defenders and non-profit lawyers in Kentucky. This is very much in character.
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:51 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Erm, doesn't that decal mean that you won't take any means necessary, if those means put your lives at risk?

"The racial makeup of the city was 98.16% White, 1.12% African American, 0.20% Native American, 0.05% from other races, and 0.46% from two or more races." Because of course it is.
posted by holgate at 10:57 AM on February 24, 2017

We get NRA literature at our place for reasons I'm bitter about and won't go into, but the latest HUGE mailer was, as per the outside of the envelope, full of letters to send to my Senators and Representatives about "the lies that are being told about us." (Bitterly, she writes) it was a huge I guess well-designed mailer, with forms that were targeted to my specific senator and rep.

It's like, you won you bitch-ass whiny sheepfuckers. Why the fuck are you crying about lies?

The fact that I can try as hard as I can to sympathize with the NRA mindset and can't even though my SO is a (reluctant) member of the NRA for reasons and is a gun owner. It's a troubling thing.

This disconnect with reality is difficult, because I just want to find a representative of this demographic and scream into his or her face that he or she is a gap-toothed yokel who shouldn't be allowed to breed. And even people who aren't angry can't adequately convey what is real because of various breeds of bullshit and the way our society is now.

So in a way I feel like why not fucking insult them, because at least I'll hurt their feelings, as opposed to a patient lecture that would achieve nothing. And that's where I'm like it's bad to hurt people but I'm starting to otherize people to the point where I'm scaring myself and terrified of what's going to happen with all this shit.
posted by angrycat at 10:58 AM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

I am on the email list from my Congressman, Earl Blumenauer, and this was just sent out regarding the leaked plan to replace the ACA.
posted by nanook at 11:00 AM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

At some point, the police are going to stop even pretending to care what the courts say. The fascist pieces of shit need to be disarmed and disbanded, immediately, if not sooner. Freedom cannot exist in America while we have these unaccountable brownshirts running around.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:02 AM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

AP and Time were apparently invited in, but are boycotting.
posted by zachlipton at 11:02 AM on February 24, 2017 [74 favorites]

So, they've taken physical steps against the press that isn't in bed with their administration.

Got here in less than 60 days, jesus.
posted by Slackermagee at 11:04 AM on February 24, 2017 [30 favorites]

this definitely makes the administration look strong and brave and not at all like a bunch of paranoid revenge-obsessed crybabies
posted by murphy slaw at 11:04 AM on February 24, 2017 [43 favorites]

Can we cancel the dinner yet
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:04 AM on February 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

on the other hand it's not as if refusing to listen to sean spicer does any harm whatsoever to the press's ability to report on what the administration is doing
posted by murphy slaw at 11:06 AM on February 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

AP and Time were apparently invited in, but are boycotting.

Good on them. Very good on them.

Shame on anyone who did not.
posted by Artw at 11:06 AM on February 24, 2017 [30 favorites]

Buzzfeed News and Politico were also not allowed in.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:06 AM on February 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

This is a picture of the crowd at Chuck Grassley's town hall earlier this week. Here's a picture from Joni Ernst's townhall, of a woman who is identified as Cleone Hermsen of Carroll, IA. The people in those pictures look like your grandma, if your grandma happens to be a white lady from Iowa.

Scrolling through the Indivisible Twitter feed today, I was struck by how many women are represented in the photos of the town hall events. Women holding signs. Women asking the questions. Women meeting with their rep. Women standing on the stage, even when their rep didn't appear. I suppose I shouldn't be - women are half the population and have a long history of leading activism in this country - but it really struck me that this is truly a movement organized and let by women. And largely by women who probably vote, but otherwise might not be politically active. I hope we can sustain this, because if so it is a sea change in the way politics are conducted in this country. Before the election we toyed around with the imagery of HRC as a modern day suffragette. Now, I think we have realized that we are all the suffragettes.
posted by anastasiav at 11:06 AM on February 24, 2017 [80 favorites]

For context on that Eastern KY police thing, the Punisher is a Marvel character who murders criminals with impunity. That's his whole thing.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:06 AM on February 24, 2017 [26 favorites]

Aren't we getting all our actual news from leaks now anyway?
posted by emjaybee at 11:06 AM on February 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

I don't think we knew this before: The owners of Breitbart are Solov, Andrew Breitbart's widow, and the Mercer family, with Susie Breitbart holding the largest percentage stake.

Larry Solov is trying to get press credentials for the Senate Press Gallery for Breitbart. The Senate Gallery has a certain reputation for exclusion.
posted by zachlipton at 11:07 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

The tweets referring to the press locked out of the gaggle as "crybabies" getting a time-out for being fake news make me incredibly angry.
posted by xyzzy at 11:08 AM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

zachlipton: AP and Time were apparently invited in, but are boycotting.

Hah!

I laugh, because what does this "access" to Spicey provide? A venue for more lies and cotton candy spinning? I understand that on the surface this is a frightening turn of events, if this administration was even remotely competent and were doing it for any reason beyond not liking all these "tough questions." Information continues to leak, the news organizations continue to see increased subscriptions, so they're not getting shuttered, they're getting shut out ... of content-empty pressers.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:08 AM on February 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

Sarah Kliff is one of the best policy writers out there, and she brings us The leaked Republican plan to replace Obamacare, explained, for a little light reading.
posted by zachlipton at 11:08 AM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Anyone going in to that event is collaborator plain and simple.
posted by Artw at 11:08 AM on February 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

For context on that Eastern KY police thing, the Punisher is a Marvel character who murders criminals with impunity. That's his whole thing.

And he frequently gets into pitched battles with the NYPD to escape arrest because, y'know, murderer. Which makes this horrifying and ironic!
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:09 AM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

And what's the chance that by shutting out news organizations, they're actually encouraging insiders to share information through other venues (aka leaking)?

Behold, the Presidency of Unintended Consequences.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:09 AM on February 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

very astute of them to realize that nothing dispels the perception that you have something to hide better than refusing to talk to the press
posted by murphy slaw at 11:12 AM on February 24, 2017 [37 favorites]

Note that the initial version of the schedule put out last night described today's briefing as a gaggle "on camera" in the briefing room. That was revised today to one with an "expanded pool" that would be "off camera."
posted by zachlipton at 11:14 AM on February 24, 2017

Putting the Punisher symbol on a police car is only the tiniest bit more subtle than putting a noose on it.
posted by tocts at 11:15 AM on February 24, 2017 [38 favorites]

This feels like a real-deal thing, doesn't it?
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:16 AM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

More context from Kentucky: Kentucky House OKs "Blue Lives Matter" hate-crime bill

Kentucky was the last of the old-line, Old Southern Democratic states left standing, and the Democrats got utterly decimated there in 2016. The Democratic House had for years been the only thing stopping Kentucky from joining in on all the right wing, hate radio, ALEC/Koch backed bills of the week passing in every other red state. Now that they're in power, the Bevin-led teabaggers are catching up by passing all of the most hateful bills of the past decade all at once. Trap laws, Blue-lives matter, bathroom bills, right to work, it's all passing in Kentucky all at once. They're working on Kansas-style tax "reform" now too, long been the Kentucky GOP's white whale.

Kentucky went from being the one bright spot left in the South, to a Republican controlled hellscape, in about 18 months.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:16 AM on February 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

At what point do you as, presumably, a patriotic Secret Service officer, stop and ask, "Hans, are we the baddies?"
posted by tobascodagama at 11:16 AM on February 24, 2017 [39 favorites]

I wanted to ask how, exactly, do they think barring members of the press would go over with the general public - but I imagine they're expecting and will probably get cheers.
posted by flatluigi at 11:18 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I think those giys all got sidelined in favor of Blackwater babykiller goons.
posted by Artw at 11:18 AM on February 24, 2017

i'm sure it's going to play amazingly well with their base, but their base is a minority and must be shrinking as the fair-weather fans fall away?

at this rate he's going to have 100% support of 27% of the population and nothing else soon
posted by murphy slaw at 11:20 AM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Kentucky went from being the one bright spot left in the South, to a Republican controlled hellscape, in about 18 months.

The next time somebody tells you that the parties are the same and that the Dems need to lose to be taught a lesson, print out a large picture of Kentucky, make a Milwall brick from it, and choke them with it.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:20 AM on February 24, 2017 [23 favorites]

Is anyone else getting the feeling that, for whatever reason, the GOP and this administration don't care about the next election?
posted by Slackermagee at 11:21 AM on February 24, 2017 [40 favorites]

Ugh my congressman is finally having a townhall, but of course it's in the super red end of our long district, not the blue end where I live. I'd have to drive an hour each way to be there. The crowd appears about 50/50 on the stream.
posted by gatorae at 11:21 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

At what point do you as, presumably, a patriotic Secret Service officer, stop and ask, "Hans, are we the baddies?"

"It's these constant attempts on his life by time travellers!! I mean, you kind of have to wonder!!"
posted by Etrigan at 11:22 AM on February 24, 2017 [28 favorites]

Fox News guy: Some at CNN & NYT stood w/FOX News when the Obama admin attacked us & tried 2 exclude us-a WH gaggle should be open to all credentialed orgs
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:23 AM on February 24, 2017 [22 favorites]

I mean, it's not inherently as big a deal as it seems, until it's made to be one. The White House has long held gaggles with a smaller group of reporters. I suspect we'll be hearing some version of that line a lot, along with something about how Obama didn't like Fox News. The bits that are novel here is that this was supposed to be an open on-camera event that was shifted to a limited off-camera one at the last minute, and the selection of the organizations invited to participate, which don't normally include OANN.

It also shifts the narrative away from the improper communications with the FBI and puts the focus on "media complains about access," which is never a good look, or a productive one, even when those complaints are legitimate and important.
posted by zachlipton at 11:23 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

at this rate he's going to have 100% support of 27% of the population and nothing else soon

At this rate he's going to win reelection with "100 percent" of the "vote". Because that's where this is heading.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:23 AM on February 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

I feel like the Punisher would also not approve of police killing innocent POC and would in fact think the police are the ones that need to be punished in this situation.
posted by skycrashesdown at 11:23 AM on February 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

Fox News presumably isn't locked out but I think this might be so obscene that even they will make objections. And then what, will they be ejected too? Jeepers!

edit: looks like they might already have started objecting. Cheese and crackers!
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:23 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

A pastor gives Some Unsolicited Advice for Republican Congress Reps Facing Hostile Crowds: "I am a pastor and I have run into hostile angry people. In many ways, my position is similar to yours in that those of us that represent the church take the hostility that people have for the whole church, especially when the church as hurt them. "
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 11:23 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Here's some backstory on the "Russian Trump Flags" prank.
posted by murphy slaw at 11:25 AM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Important data for the bees tactic: Bees are trainable.
posted by Coventry at 11:26 AM on February 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

> Eastern KY police department emblazons cars with skull logo from Punisher

On top of being evil and terrifying and all that, that logo looks like a rejected proposal for a '90s-era professional roller hockey league jersey.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:26 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

I have an interview sitting around in my to-read pile that I don't want to endorse via link because I haven't actually read it yet. But the title is a pullquote: “We have at most a year to defend American democracy, perhaps less“.

It's hard to argue with the premise. Focus on the midterm elections if you like, but I'm not entirely convinced we'll have any.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:27 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Fox News guy: Some at CNN & NYT stood w/FOX News when the Obama admin attacked us & tried 2 exclude us-a WH gaggle should be open to all credentialed orgs

So, never read the comments, etc., but how the fuck do you deal with people who genuinely believe that CNN, NYT, WaPo are making up news?

I mean, other than bees.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:28 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

I'm cautiously optimistic about the midterms, but that's the last opportunity for democracy, yes.
posted by Artw at 11:29 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I suppose I shouldn't be - women are half the population and have a long history of leading activism in this country - but it really struck me that this is truly a movement organized and let by women.

Women, as most of us here know, have a long history of doing all sorts of unpaid work--moms who show up to the PTA meetings, women who do unpaid labor to make sure that churches run smoothly, childbirth, childcare, unrecognized and unpaid emotional labor, and the list goes on and on.

While volunteering 30-40 hours a week during the campaign, the majority of volunteers in all aspects of the campaign in our district were women. Women made most of the phone calls, knocked most of the doors, brought most of the food, entered most of the data, and did most of the public interaction with supporters. It was such a beautiful experience to fight fascism with so many amazing women. Strange how men hold most of the elected positions in the country, while women do so much support work.

I'm not surprised that women are taking the lead because this whole stupid situation is a gianormous slap in the face to all women. It's ground into us from childhood that we're supposed to do a bunch of stuff for the benefit of men, without compensation. Now, as we have so many times in the past, we're using our lifetimes of experience doing that sort of unpaid work for our own protection and benefit.

We're not going to be forced back into the kitchen without a massive fuckin' fight. I think it must be women/woman-presenting-people--particularly those at the intersections of varied oppressive systems--leading this movement.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 11:29 AM on February 24, 2017 [74 favorites]

This feels like a real-deal thing, doesn't it?

Oh, is your Proportionometer still working? Can I borrow it?
posted by tivalasvegas at 11:30 AM on February 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

I have a really hard time wrapping my head around this idea that one oughtn't evaluate someone's moral character based on their political beliefs and actions. Even if you love your children and immediate family, go to church, and are reasonably polite to strangers, at the end of the day, if you engage in political activity in order to create or reinforce oppressive power structures aimed at women, people of color, queer people, trans people, religious minorities or whomever you got a hateon for, I will to judge you negatively.

When a person's politics are a bright neon sign that screams, 'I don't even consider you fully human', why shouldn't that person be judged negatively? Why are people shocked that many other people find it objectively awful to even consider debating the humanity of entire groups? Political belief and action don't exist in a vacuum.

...And they call us 'snowflakes'.

When someone's politics represents an existential threat, you fight that threat. I 100% agree with this. The thing I've been trying to work out over the past few days, though, is what constitutes an existential threat and to whom?

The reason is because I fear we've gotten to the point now where trust has eroded so much between groups of different political stripes that EVERYTHING now seems to be an existential threat, which means that every difference of opinion is a full-throated attack on someone else's identity and must be responded to in kind. That's a road that inevitably leads us to war and death.

Don't get me wrong, though. I think if you go far enough, lots of things become existential threats to someone. I may not be directly affected by regressive tax policy that hits the working class hardest, but people at those lowest rungs could die or lose their homes. Signalling that "respect for law enforcement" is more important than limiting the use of police force is unlikely to hurt me so much as it is the black men and women who are already shot in the streets of America.

Is it just that in the past, it was easier for some of us to swaddle ourselves in privilege and assume that so many policy debates were more theoretical than real? Has it actually never been this way, that every debate has always taken place with knives out? Is this increase in polarization and the concept of total war when it comes to political ideology inevitable? I don't know anymore. I am a poor student of history so maybe much of this is obvious to others, but it's beginning to unmoor me.
posted by chrominance at 11:30 AM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

I just want to explain the Punisher to those Kentucky policemen, because they clearly don't really understand the character.
posted by dinty_moore at 11:31 AM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Someone do Trump doing Tom Joad, please.

I’ll be everywhere. Wherever you can look – wherever there’s a fight, so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there keepin' them from eatin. Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there helping that cop. I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad. I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry and they know supper’s ready for a rich guy but not for them, and when the people are eatin’ the stuff they raise and livin’ in the houses they build – I’ll be there to take all of that, too. MAGA.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:31 AM on February 24, 2017 [19 favorites]

> I think they're going to have a hard time convincing people that these are vicious militants just itching to use criminal violence.

These people can be convinced of anything they are predisposed to want to believe.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:32 AM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Is anyone else getting the feeling that, for whatever reason, the GOP and this administration don't care about the next election?

Historically, autocrats don't like to give up power, except to their children. This is why I believe if attempts to impeach or vote him out fail before 2020, Ivanka will be running in 2024.
posted by bluecore at 11:32 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Police chief Cameron Logan told io9 that they’ve since removed the car decals after receiving several phone calls admonishing the logo, as well as the inclusion of a Blue Lives Matter slogan on government property. He said he regrets using the image, calling it an oversight, and said in the future he’d do “a little more research” on the history behind some of Blue Lives Matter’s more popular icons.
posted by Etrigan at 11:33 AM on February 24, 2017 [26 favorites]

Comms. Director Raj Shah apparently says the reporters who were blocked out of the presser are lying?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:34 AM on February 24, 2017

Breitbart, OANN, Washington Times are all in White House briefing.

I can't be the only one who reads that outlet's name as ONAN can I?
posted by phearlez at 11:34 AM on February 24, 2017 [23 favorites]

President Trump Just Boasted About Winning Polls at CPAC. He Lost 6 Times
posted by futz at 11:35 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Next time maybe they'll go with Judge Dredd. That guy is a cop, right?
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:35 AM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

T.D. Strange: Now that they're in power, the Bevin-led teabaggers are catching up by passing all of the most hateful bills of the past decade all at once. Trap laws, Blue-lives matter, bathroom bills, right to work, it's all passing in Kentucky all at once.

This could have happened at the National level, except Trump is so in love with himself and so unaware of how you do the job of the President, and he has no one around him who knows either, that his real show of power has been Executive Orders. Instead of planning on what to do once in power starting on November 10, he was busy preening on TV and congratulating himself. I'll credit that the polls threw everyone for a curve, but for contrast, I'll cite the Wired article on Happer: "Back when Barack Obama was elected in 2008, science adviser John Holdren was nominated a month before inauguration." (Emphasis mine)

Instead, we had months of playing "what if" and trying to get hints from anyone. Really, that's still the way information is getting out - guesses, leaks, and then sudden announcements that can even surprise the Departments that should have crafted the language (or at least been consulted) in the first place.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:36 AM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

It may well be that Bannon, etc, are not expecting to face any more elections - they may be imagining their own little faked-up or incited "terrorist" attack followed by martial law, or some kind of nation-wide gerrymandering process that will mean that literally no one can vote except their base. But these people are not genius tacticians, they are not ex-soldiers, they are not lawyers, they have never been in a war and they are not operating in a country with a relatively recent, shaky democratic tradition. This is not Germany in 1933. This isn't even the US in 1963.

"We just won't be having any elections because there was a terrorist attack" isn't going to fly. You can't walk back martial law if things go to shit or the army won't obey you, and once you go full fascist, you're opening yourself up to coups from within the right. These people don't command enough loyalty to go full fascist.

Bannon has ideas, yeah, but they're stupid ideas. He's a guy who reads pop poli sci books and thinks he's deep. If this were Germany in 1933, as he no doubt fantasizes at night, he might be able to parlay his deeply stupid ideas into a military takeover - but even there, I don't think he has the physical stamina or courage. The vast majority of fascist leaders have a military background; monstrous as they are, they're not soft schmoes like Trump and Bannon.

We need to work toward 2018 and 2020 on the assumption that those elections will happen. The stronger our "you will need to fight an election on your actions" narrative is, the harder it will be for Bannon et al to declare martial law and stop elections.

Even Putin comes up for election. And the thing to remember about Putin is that - for god knows what reason - he's actually popular.
posted by Frowner at 11:37 AM on February 24, 2017 [75 favorites]

When someone's politics represents an existential threat, you fight that threat. I 100% agree with this. The thing I've been trying to work out over the past few days, though, is what constitutes an existential threat and to whom?

on the right, you have white men who view loss of supremacy as an existential threat

on the left, you have ethnic, sexual and religious minorities and women viewing loss of self-determination, representation, and life as an existential threat

one of these things is not like the others.
posted by murphy slaw at 11:38 AM on February 24, 2017 [26 favorites]

Etrigan: Police chief Cameron Logan told io9 that they’ve since removed the car decals after receiving several phone calls admonishing the logo, as well as the inclusion of a Blue Lives Matter slogan on government property.

Wow - a responsive official who isn't defensive of the stupid thing that he or his staff did? Let's put him on a coin or something, so we can throw those coins at Representatives.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:38 AM on February 24, 2017 [33 favorites]

Comms. Director Raj Shah apparently says the reporters who were blocked out of the presser are lying?

I mean, I don't think Shah is technically wrong. The members of today's pool were invited, along with a bunch of right-wing outlets. That doesn't mean CNN, Politico, NYT, etc... are lying about being blocked out.
posted by zachlipton at 11:38 AM on February 24, 2017

I don't know why Trump is wasting his time with these lies about winning polls and scoring holes-in-one, etc. Why not go all out and say he was Time's Man Of The Year 20 years in a row, won the Masters ~~four~~ twelve times, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, Literature and Chemistry, and was given an AVN Lifetime Achievement Award?
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:40 AM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

@GlennThrush: ".@PressSec told hand-picked reporters in closed briefing that Trump White House 'is more accessible than probably any prior administration'"
posted by zachlipton at 11:41 AM on February 24, 2017 [41 favorites]

Wow - a responsive official who isn't defensive of the stupid thing that he or his staff did? Let's put him on a coin or something, so we can throw those coins at Representatives.

I don't think I'd give him that much credit. Even if he somehow didn't know the combination of "Blue Lives Matter" and the Punisher logo effectively said, "Fuck you, we're cops and we'll kill who we want" he could have at least have had the common sense to think that "threatening skull logo" does not represent "keeper of the peace."

He knew. They all knew. They were just testing the limits in Trump's America and went too far.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:42 AM on February 24, 2017 [37 favorites]

Eastern KY police department emblazons cars with skull logo from Punisher, "Blue Lives Matter" because why the fuck not, everything is terrible now.

Have you noticed that our caps have actually got little pictures of a skull on them? ... Hans, are we the baddies?
posted by Talez at 11:42 AM on February 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

This could have happened at the National level, except Trump is so in love with himself and so unaware of how you do the job of the President, and he has no one around him who knows either, that his real show of power has been Executive Orders.

True, his incompetence has so far saved us from a lot worse legislation. But, there's a different dynamic nationally too. This was not a good win for them, barely winning on a technicality, with tiny majorities in Congress. They're much more aware of national losses from blowback and overreach than parochial Kentucky that's been slipping slowly towards a permanent red state for years.

Is anyone else getting the feeling that, for whatever reason, the GOP and this administration don't care about the next election?

They are, and there's two theories. Either they're planning on going full fascist, no more elections ever; or they know this is their last best opportunity to destroy the Great Society and New Deal that they're ever going to get, and they have to do it now damn the long term consequences. They know they'll probably be able to stop Democrats from ever undoing the damage, if they can destroy everything first. Both bad, the first much more likely to lead to actual civil war and breakup of the US. I guess we're going to find out which one is closer to the truth over the next 2 years.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:42 AM on February 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

I don't think I'd give him that much credit.

I'll take simple incompetence from officials over malice or incompetence plus malice.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:42 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Is it just that in the past, it was easier for some of us to swaddle ourselves in privilege and assume that so many policy debates were more theoretical than real?

Yes.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:44 AM on February 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

Even Putin comes up for election. And the thing to remember about Putin is that - for god knows what reason - he's actually popular.

While Putin may actually be popular, Russia has documented cases of voter fraud. "The result was so predictable that most Russians did not bother to visit their polling station: turnout dropped to a record low of 47.8%. One reason for such apathy is the widely held belief that participating in Russian elections will not change the status quo because they are fraudulent."
posted by filthy light thief at 11:44 AM on February 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

was given an AVN Lifetime Achievement Award

"Hi, BrainBleach? Yeah, it's Etrigan. Yeah, another bottle. Yeah, MetaFilter."
posted by Etrigan at 11:44 AM on February 24, 2017 [19 favorites]

Even Putin comes up for election

Putin just had his main opposition disqualified.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:45 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

A lot of my twitter feed is press and political twitter so even unheard of things get a lot of discussion so seeing Felicia Day say this was unexpectedly chilling

When people threw around "fascism" during the election I didn't fully comprehend what that meant. Now I understand.

posted by Brainy at 11:46 AM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

zachlipton: @GlennThrush: ".@PressSec told hand-picked reporters in closed briefing that Trump White House 'is more accessible than probably any prior administration'"

Well, when was the last time a US President tweeted his every mean thought or angry rant to the world at large? And you can tweet back at him! Totally accessible!
posted by filthy light thief at 11:46 AM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

And remember, we are getting the bad ones out. These are bad dudes. We're getting the bad ones out. Okay? We're getting the bad —

SHUT YOUR MOUTH!

I'm just talking about the bad motherfuckers.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:48 AM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Eastern KY police department emblazons cars with skull logo from Punisher

Followed by the customary statement from the police chief: "I’m not racist or anything like that." (real)
posted by JackFlash at 11:49 AM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Followed by the customary statement from the police chief: "I’m not racist or anything like that."

"The Punisher skull is actually a Buddhist symbol for good luck." [fake]
posted by uncleozzy at 11:51 AM on February 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

I was hoping that Marvel would get a chance to sue for infringement.
posted by xyzzy at 11:53 AM on February 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

DirtyOldTown: They were just testing the limits in Trump's America and went too far.

Clearly they are not working closely enough with Trump, or they'd know at that point you double down. Winners don't quit, and if you're in power, you're the winner by default.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:55 AM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I was hoping that Marvel would get a chance to sue for infringement.

I don't think they've ever said anything on this since it started with Chris Kyle and spread through the American Sniper movie etc...
posted by Artw at 11:59 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

xyzzy: I was hoping that Marvel would get a chance to sue for infringement.

At least they could pull a Depeche Mode and issue a blanket statement, saying something like "The Punisher is a fictional character who fights fictional super-villains, and is not supported by taxes to serve and protect, as are the good officers across the country. While we understand the desire to be seen as a bold man of action like The Punisher, we feel that our men and women in blue display more reserve and caution in their complex situations when ensuring the safety of the public."
posted by filthy light thief at 12:00 PM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Oh yeah, I forgot that Punisher symbology had already been appropriated.
posted by xyzzy at 12:00 PM on February 24, 2017

NYT weighs in on the closed briefing in their usual, comically understated way.
posted by murphy slaw at 12:05 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

These rules force Internet providers to protect the data they have on you. Now the FCC wants to put those on hold.

Federal regulators on Monday will move to stop certain privacy regulations from going into effect that were designed to safeguard consumers' personal information from hackers and criminals, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

The stay by the Federal Communications Commission will release broadband companies such as Verizon, Comcast and AT&T from previously approved rules requiring them to adopt "reasonable" security measures protecting Social Security numbers, Web browsing history and other information belonging to their customers. Without that portion of the rules, Internet providers will not need to implement consumer protections that prevent the unauthorized release of Americans' personal data

They are just fucking us every way that they can.
posted by futz at 12:05 PM on February 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

Fat chance, when their chief executive is friends with Trump.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:05 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

He knew. They all knew. They were just testing the limits in Trump's America and went too far.

I think it's a mixture of ignorance and incompetence. This is one dumb problem with having 18,000 separate police departments in the US, all of which get design sign-off on their logos, and mostly go for a kind of 80s "Terminator / Robocop retrofuture slant-caps with drop shadow" look they got off the internet that's very slightly different from the design of all the other city and county forces in the region. There's nobody in the room to say no.
posted by holgate at 12:07 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

i love the first amendment so much and that's why i have to kill it.
posted by localhuman at 12:07 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

They are just fucking us every way that they can.

Ajit Pai is principled in the sense that he will side with telcos over consumers every chance he gets.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 12:11 PM on February 24, 2017

"'A source says that Donald Trump is a horrible, horrible human being', let them say it to my face,"

I would love to see someone buy some ad time, preferably on Fox News in the morning, and just make an ad that is person after person saying this into the camera. Maybe a choir singing it. Celebrities. Random people. His wives. Tiffany. Whoever; I don't care who.*

*well, obviously white US citizens who never plant to leave the country and try to get back in, but other than that, whoever.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:11 PM on February 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

I just saw a state government plated Dodge Ram pickup in Santa Fe, NM with a large decal across the tailgate reading "a society which chooses to wage war against its police shall be forced to make peace with its criminals". The truck had no other identifying marks (almost all state vehicles are covered with decals for which agency they are with), but I can only assume law enforcement of some sort. The attitude is all over the country.
posted by BooneTheCowboyToy at 12:14 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I would love to see someone buy some ad time, preferably on Fox News in the morning, and just make an ad that is person after person saying this into the camera

CG Putin, run it at 3am.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:15 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Is anyone else getting the feeling that, for whatever reason, the GOP and this administration don't care about the next election?

I'm not so sure. After reading David Frum's Atlantic article yesterday ("How to Build an Autocracy"), I've started to lose all hope that we have any power at all. Yes, there have been amazing town hall participation, but the House is gerrymandered as fuck, and I don't see these congresspeople as being worried about losing their seats so much as being uncomfortable in a room full of people calling them on their bullshit.

All Trump and his people have to do to get an idea across to their followers is say it. It doesn't matter whether the press repeatedly and definitively exposes their lies. Once an idea is articulated, it goes into public discussion and becomes a valid perspective to those who either are having their existing beliefs catered to or who want to "hear both sides."

The only people who can impeach Trump won't do so because they are getting everything they want. And the people who are supposedly on our side just seem ineffectual at best, complacent at worst.

There is no fucking accountability, just like there never has been in any in anything Trump has ever done in his miserable, coddled life. Everything I thought I knew about checks and balances turned out to be a lie. We're being held hostage by red-state racist fuckwits, and it appears that there's not a damn thing the press can do about it, and not a damn thing Congress is willing to do about it.

I know it's important not to give up. I know that the Republicans are counting on us getting overwhelmed and disheartened and just going away. I am so thankful for those of you who are fighting so hard for the rest of us. But as someone with pretty debilitating depression, I just feel like each day is one more series of events that drives home how powerless anyone with any integrity has become.
posted by bibliowench at 12:16 PM on February 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

" make peace with its criminals"

Would that really be so bad?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:17 PM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

The NYT statement shouldn't have been highminded remarks from Baquet about freedom and the national interest. It should have been closer to "Sean Spicer has spread falsehoods from the briefing room since the very first time he took the podium. If Spicer has concerns with our coverage, he should consider responding to our requests for comment. The Times will continue to get the real story every day by talking instead to the people who matter."
posted by zachlipton at 12:17 PM on February 24, 2017 [19 favorites]

I mean, I know shit is just going to get crazier, but I'm still stunned every day by what Asshat and his admin are doing.

Right now I'm hoping that my family can stay sane and healthy for four years.
posted by Kitteh at 12:18 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

" make peace with its criminals"

Would that really be so bad?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:17 PM on February 24 [+] [!]

Would be nice if it were meant that way
posted by BooneTheCowboyToy at 12:19 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Sean Spicer has spread falsehoods from the briefing room since the very first time he took the podium. If Spicer has concerns with our coverage, he should consider responding to our requests for comment."

pretty sure this will be in tomorrow's editorial.
posted by murphy slaw at 12:19 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

BooneTheCowboyToy: I just saw a state government plated Dodge Ram pickup in Santa Fe, NM with a large decal across the tailgate reading "a society which chooses to wage war against its police shall be forced to make peace with its criminals".

Also in Santa Fe, I walk by a truck every day that has a bumper sticker that says "Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not." At least it doesn't have Government plates.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:19 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Trump voters are probably Marvel's core demographic at this point, isn't the vacuous consumption of the 24th rebooted sequel to a played out franchise the epitome of 'white America culture' Trump appeals to and Bannon idealizes? I bet Marvel loves the appropriation of their IP by the authoritarian state.

Marvel's current state of affairs is doing absolutely horrible things to their flagship properties, but actually having interesting and critically acclaimed stories with more minor characters (Black Panther, Vision, Kate Bishop Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, the America series that's supposed to be coming out next Wednesday), Squirrel Girl)

It's been a couple years since I've really looked at the numbers for sales - not to mention comic sales figures have always seemed dodgy - but I don't think it's fair to say that they're mostly targeting the Trumpist audience. Their current selection could be better, but it's still hardly New 52 era DC.
posted by dinty_moore at 12:20 PM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

" make peace with its criminals"

Would that really be so bad?

It really says something that "peace" is clearly seen as a bad outcome in and of itself, doesn't it.
posted by Etrigan at 12:20 PM on February 24, 2017 [17 favorites]

Trump specifically mentioned the NRA in his CPAC speech, and patted himself on the back for it because it wasn't in his prepared remarks*:

We will cut wasteful spending. We will promote our values. We will rebuild our inner cities. We will bring back our jobs and our dreams. So true. So true. And, by the way, we will protect our Second Amendment.

You know, Wayne and Chris are here from the NRA, and they didn't have that on the list. It's lucky I thought about it. But we will indeed. And they're great people. And, by the way, they love our country. They love our country. The NRA has been a great supporter. They love our country.

*At least, that's what I think "they didn't have that on the list" means.
posted by zakur at 12:24 PM on February 24, 2017

Eastern KY police department emblazons cars with skull logo from Punisher, "Blue Lives Matter"....

I forget who the comedian was who said this, but it went something like this:

"That 'blue lives matter' thing is bullshit, becuase it's not a blue life. It's a blue suit. Cops don't come out of the womb in uniform, it's a choice they make. Black skin is something you're born with, a blue suit is something you choose. If they don't like it they can find another job."

I'm aware that "if they don't like [insert job here] they can find another job" is a frequent canard, but it was interesting seeing it turned in this direction.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:25 PM on February 24, 2017 [30 favorites]

Eastern KY police department emblazons cars with skull logo from Punisher, "Blue Lives Matter"....

I forget who the comedian was who said this, but it went something like this:

Dave Chappelle's SNL monologue:

And I guess it’s kind of catchy because everyone else is biting it. Even the police is biting it: Blue lives matter. What, was you born a police? That is not a blue life. That’s a blue suit. If you don’t like it, take that blue suit off, find a new job, ’cause I’m going to tell you right now, if I could quit being black today, I’d be out of the game.

posted by Etrigan at 12:27 PM on February 24, 2017 [83 favorites]

Trump voters are probably Marvel's core demographic at this point, isn't the vacuous consumption of the 24th rebooted sequel to a played out franchise the epitome of 'white America culture' Trump appeals to and Bannon idealizes? I bet Marvel loves the appropriation of their IP by the authoritarian state.

I'm not going to stand in your way if you're up for a round of the ol' superhero movies are vacuous garbage argument, but I will offer this interview with Mark White, Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the CUNY, breaking down how Captain America: Civil War is a fairly well-formed exploration of utilitarianism vs. deontology, government surveillance vs. oversight, and the dangers of unchecked power. It will probably only make sense to you if you've bothered to see the films you're criticizing though, and I'm going to take a wild stab and guess that you have not.

(That's all I'm putting in though, as we were pretty close to derail before I opened my mouth about this.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:28 PM on February 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

In case you needed it, April Ryan responded to Ari Fleischer's comment to "calm down."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:29 PM on February 24, 2017 [19 favorites]

ha ha ha sob sob here's the New Yorker's image riffing on the movie Independence Day
posted by angrycat at 12:32 PM on February 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

you know it is 100% not the job of black congresswomen and reporters to tell vacuous administration apologists to step the fuck back, but i appreciate it
posted by murphy slaw at 12:33 PM on February 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

Waters/Ryan 2020
posted by Sophie1 at 12:37 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

on the right, you have white men who view loss of supremacy as an existential threat

on the left, you have ethnic, sexual and religious minorities and women viewing loss of self-determination, representation, and life as an existential threat

one of these things is not like the others.

Oh, yeah, I'm not saying those things aren't true. I didn't mean to give the impression that I was equating the two at all.

What I was trying to get at was simply this: I feel like it used to be that there were things reasonable people could disagree on without having to then turn the conflict into all-out war. A random example might be corporate tax policy. I feel like that used to be something that people would advocate for, but it wasn't an existential crisis the way, say, gender or race or orientation discrimination is.

But now it feels like everything requires a nuclear response. Forget for the moment about the existence of Republicans and how wrong they are when it comes to abortion, LGBT rights, policing, etc., etc., etc. Even inside what you might consider the Democrat support base, there's a war between people who think the system we had before Trump was fundamentally not bad, and people who think the system we had before was fundamentally unjust and needed to be smashed. I see that war played out in my Twitter feed every day.

I don't even really know who I think is right in those discussions, only that each side seems prepared to deny the legitimacy of the other in order to get their way. Clinton supporters are little better than Trump and actively support a rotten system designed to oppress and destroy, or socialists are out of touch and will send more people into the arms of Trump.

I'm not saying "lets have more decorum" as if that solves anything about the current situation. What I'm trying to get at is that we have ALREADY driven ourselves down this road of increasing polarization (even if we think Republicans did most of that, we all played a part), and I think it might be too late to pull back from the brink. And what that means is that a lot of people are going to die. That's the end result of all this rhetoric, right? If they hate us and we hate them, and there's roughly as many of them as there are of us, how do we not end up killing each other?
posted by chrominance at 12:39 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

xyzzy: Oh yeah, I forgot that Punisher symbology had already been appropriated.

I was going through old comics a few weeks ago, and all the Punisher issues -- regular series, short-run, old ones, even the special fold-out promo poster -- went in the trash pile because of who uses that symbol now. (Plus, also, I grew up a little since 1986.)
posted by wenestvedt at 12:39 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Funny, I looked at those images of the "Blue Lives Matter" police cars with their hideous and violent skulls, and my first thought was heck, they still look more friendly than the police cars in my quiet suburban town, which are all brand new SUVs that are 90% black with a pro-forma white-and-blue door. It actually took an entire year of living here to notice this, that our police cars -- which our son waves so adoringly to -- basically have adopted the look of Darth Vader. I can still, just barely, remember the days when I used to wonder how someone (police, SWAT, special forces, etc) could dress so ridiculously evil and not realize what they are. Those days are long gone...
posted by chortly at 12:41 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

President Trump Just Boasted About Winning Polls at CPAC. He Lost 6 Times

Christ, what an asshole.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 12:42 PM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

But now it feels like everything requires a nuclear response.

Because it used to be that ethnic, sexual and religious minorities and women having equal self-determination and representation was not even on the table. When the starting point for political discussions is a tacit "We all agree that those people don't deserve equal rights, now let's talk about... [marginal tax rates/trade policy/whatever]" then politics can be impersonal. Because the issue of personhood isn't addressed, it's already decided on. Once you bring granting or removing civil rights into your discussion of politics, damn skippy is there going to be some fireworks.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:46 PM on February 24, 2017 [49 favorites]

the police cars in my quiet suburban town, which are all brand new SUVs that are 90% black with a pro-forma white-and-blue door.

Man, mine don't even have the white-and-blue door, and 80 percent of the time I see one is in the speed trap at the elementary school down the block.
posted by Etrigan at 12:46 PM on February 24, 2017

Obama's back from vacation and in NYC! [tweet w/ video of crowds cheering him on 5th Ave.]
posted by melissasaurus at 12:46 PM on February 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

Even Putin comes up for election. And the thing to remember about Putin is that - for god knows what reason - he's actually popular.

More than a quarter of Russians are afraid to respond honestly to polls about the nation according to a new study by the Levada Center. Speaking of surveys in general, 49 percent of respondents expressed the view that the Russians are reluctant to respond to sociological surveys. More than half of respondents said they believe Russians fear the consequences of answering sociological surveys honestly.

Levada is considered the only major independent pollster in Russia. Last year it demonstrated a drop in support of the ruling United Russia party. Later that year Russian officials declared it a "foreign agent", a designation that hurts its credibility (all but calling it a spy) and ability to function.
posted by Kabanos at 12:46 PM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Let me see if I've got this right:

The White House has successfully changed the subject from the FBI interference and Russia to who got to waste a chunk of their live listening to Sean Spicer mispronounce words and tell them what they should be writing about. And now their base is all riled up because the "enemies of the American people" got slapped around and now they're whining about it (p.s. someone should flat out ask Spicer if he considers them to be an enemy of the people).

Because don't get me wrong, what Spicer did is a big deal and unacceptable, but it seems like he's winning this round, and it was entirely predictable.

And now, this: "Pres Trump asked Pres Kuczynski why he's getting an award from @Princeton? "For being an alumnus that did OK, I guess," said Peru's leader."
posted by zachlipton at 12:47 PM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

@Hadas_Gold

WSJ says they would not have participated in gaggle had they known of the blocking of others and said they won't in future
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:48 PM on February 24, 2017 [32 favorites]

And now their base is all riled up because

Don't attribute that to any clever maneuvers by the administration. Their base has committed to Trumpism, and the Russia stuff wasn't anywhere near changing that.
posted by Etrigan at 12:50 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

@HeerJeet
6. Trump is telling the press: "Keep digging into Russian stuff, give up access journalism & do more investigation." Stupid.
posted by kingless at 12:50 PM on February 24, 2017 [31 favorites]

Gorka. Gorka. That's pretty much the sound a cat makes just before it horks up a big hairball.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 12:57 PM on February 24, 2017 [25 favorites]

not gonna lie, every time Gorka's name shows up in the press i see this
posted by murphy slaw at 12:59 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Dems invite immigrants to Trump's first address to Congress: Lawmakers typically get one guest ticket apiece for presidential addresses, as they will for Tuesday's prime-time speech, and the invites often go to family, friends or someone from back home. To send a message to Trump, Democrats have invited the Iraqi-American doctor who discovered elevated levels of lead in the blood of many children living in Flint, Michigan; a Pakistani-born doctor who delivers critical care to patients in Rhode Island and an American-born daughter of Palestinian refugees who aids people like her family in their quest to come to the United States.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:03 PM on February 24, 2017 [40 favorites]

how much do you want to bet that trump warms up the room for his congressional address by berating congress about how low their approval ratings are
posted by murphy slaw at 1:04 PM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

MTV News: ‘THE STAKES’: MAXINE WATERS ON GOING VIRAL IN HER 13TH TERM. I'll pull this quote because it's fun, but there's a bunch of good stuff in here, including an important part on "when are we just going to be able to be mad in public, as black folks?":

I’m excited about the fact that somehow they’ve connected with me, and they’re following me, and they’re tweeting, and retweeting. And they are calling me “Auntie Maxine.” They’re calling me “Queen of Shade,” now, and I’m saying to my grandchildren, “What’s shade?”

posted by zachlipton at 1:09 PM on February 24, 2017 [70 favorites]

I feel like the Punisher would also not approve of police killing innocent POC and would in fact think the police are the ones that need to be punished in this situation.

Yeah, Punisher has pretty strong feels about both dirty cops and shooters who take out innocents in the crossfire. I'm not sure he'd be holding the Blue Lives Matter sign.
posted by corb at 1:11 PM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Just read the Whitehouse is blocking news media. What is the impact of this? Is there any precedent for this? Is this any kind of bellwether? If Republicans don't stand up to this now, is it a sign that we are truly spiraling into a totalitarian state?

That's what makes a democracy a democracy instead of a dictatorship.

Link goes to a video of just post election Sean Spicer talking to Politico.
posted by zabuni at 1:14 PM on February 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

I mean, I know shit is just going to get crazier, but I'm still stunned every day by what Asshat and his admin are doing.

They're breaking norms left and right, but by and large they've been extraordinarily ineffective at everything policy-related they've tried. They have a 31 yo jackass with no legal training attempting to set strategy for the AG's office. They have a cirrhotic fighting with a spineless party hack for the ear of a slightly demented 70 yo Fox News viewer. Gerrymandering is set to be addressed at the Supreme Court level.

Don't get discouraged. We're gonna keep working and fighting, and we're in the majority.
posted by Existential Dread at 1:20 PM on February 24, 2017 [54 favorites]

The Russian flags were handed out by two progressive activists from Americans Take Action, who bought CPAC tickets and brought close to 1,000 flags to hand out:

"I think it says a lot about Donald Trump's base and their education level," he said. "I don't want to insult anyone, but I think you should know what the Russian flag is. They are one of the world's major powers, and it's a pretty easily recognized flag."

posted by zachlipton at 1:22 PM on February 24, 2017 [84 favorites]

how much do you want to bet that trump warms up the room for his congressional address by berating congress about how low their approval ratings are

What are the odds that's the whole address? Nonzero, right?
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:25 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

The Russian flags were handed out by two progressive activists from Americans Take Action, who bought CPAC tickets and brought close to 1,000 flags to hand out:

Goddamnit, people, "pranks" don't help.
posted by jferg at 1:26 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

To be fair a single red, white, and blue bar as a flag is used by many nations that also are not the US.
posted by Slackermagee at 1:26 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Goddamnit, people, "pranks" don't help.

au contraire, they help my mood enormously
posted by murphy slaw at 1:29 PM on February 24, 2017 [93 favorites]

Conning people into waving Trump Russia flags is outstanding.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:31 PM on February 24, 2017 [113 favorites]

The slate political podcast made the point this week that the really wrong thing with the administration's immigration position (and I guess maybe marijuana position also smacks of this) is you create this tremendous uncertainty. People will not know what they can and can't do. Hence (and here I'm extrapolating) you have a weird instance of the flights where the passengers were asked about their documents. Assuming for the sake of argument that it was CBP and not TSA and it was WH-initiated, all you have to do is fuck with a flight or two. People are not going to know. But if it's just a flight or two, are we going to have massive protests? Maybe not. But immigrants will be scared. And that feels very deliberate.

I realize that one way I'm responding emotionally to this is the bullying quality of it. The main goal is to make your opponents uncomfortable. Here opponents being anybody who's not in lockstep with the Trump WH
posted by angrycat at 1:31 PM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

And they keep Russia on the table. By any means . . .
posted by stonepharisee at 1:31 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Goddamnit, people, "pranks" don't help.

Sure it will! As long as Trump supporters who are watching are paying attention to small details, fluent enough in flags to know the Russian flag on sight, can appreciate irony, and are willing to reconsider their positions as well as maybe...

Ah... I see.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:32 PM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Chicago PD hits back at Trump: We asked WH for help and never heard back

"We've made requests to the White House and the Justice Department for them to support our work — from increasing federal gun prosecution to more FBI, [Drug Enforcement Agency] and [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] agents to more funding for mentoring, job training and more. We are still waiting for the administration's response to our request."
posted by futz at 1:35 PM on February 24, 2017 [34 favorites]

The only thing that is going to result from making a Trump supporter feel stupid (or feel like progressives -think- they are stupid) is that they are going to become more entrenched in their alternative-facts based reality.

Is it at all possible that being caught being so stupid will make them question where they get their information from and lead them down a path of actual critical thinking? or nah?
posted by Sophie1 at 1:36 PM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

The only thing that is going to result from making a Trump supporter feel stupid (or feel like progressives -think- they are stupid) is that they are going to become more entrenched in their alternative-facts based reality.

Yeah, but at this point Trump supporters are either evil or so stupid they can't identify evil when it's wearing a bright red "I'M WITH SATAN" shirt and either way we've got better things to do than try to politely convince them to stop supporting evil.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:38 PM on February 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

This overview of Dick Tuck's long campaign against Richard Nixon seems appropriate after the Russian-flag incident.
posted by adamg at 1:39 PM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Is it at all possible that being caught being so stupid will make them question where they get their information from and lead them down a path of actual critical thinking? or nah?

I don't believe so. I believe that for so many of them, they are purely pro-Trump out of a feeling of oppression/not being listened to, and this kind of prank is not going to help that sentiment. I'm not sure if this blog post has been shared in one of these threads, but it's worth a read: Sam Altman: What I Heard From Trump Supporters
posted by jferg at 1:40 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

i don't think CPAC is fertile territory to find changeable minds. it is, however, redolent with the sweet scent of the imminently trollable
posted by murphy slaw at 1:40 PM on February 24, 2017 [23 favorites]

You're suggesting that we should all be more loving and sympathetic to Trump supporters like that's a brand new idea? That's all the mainstream media has been doing since Nov 9. As we have all been saying since Nov. 9, many of us grew up among people who are Trump supporters, have friends and family members who are Trump supporters, and are generally familiar with how Trump supporters think. I promise that the 89,0000th round of "be more loving and sympathetic to Trump supporters" is not going to change my mind any more than giving the CPAC assholes Russion flags is going to change their minds.
posted by hydropsyche at 1:45 PM on February 24, 2017 [26 favorites]

Goddamnit, people, "pranks" don't help.

I disagree.

The only thing that is going to result from making a Trump supporter feel stupid (or feel like progressives -think- they are stupid) is that they are going to become more entrenched in their alternative-facts based reality.

Don't care in the slightest what these people think. They're adults. I'm tired of being told we need to be gentle with the toddlers because they might throw a fit.
posted by bongo_x at 1:46 PM on February 24, 2017 [50 favorites]

No one should care about changing CPAC attendees minds. The goal is to make them social pariahs, like Richard Spencer has been made a social pariah.

Which is to say, the minds that need to be changed are the minds of the people around CPAC attendees. When someone says that they're a CPAC attendee, the people around them should be inspired to take one step back, look away, change the subject, and then immediately begin making plans to never interact with the CPAC attendee ever again, something like how people who aren't Klansmen react when they find out that they're talking to a Klansman.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 1:47 PM on February 24, 2017 [30 favorites]

Salt of the Earth Midwestern Trump voters who voted Trump as the lesser of two evils but are just worried about their jobs don't attend CPAC. Wealthy crazed ideologues attend CPAC. Troll at will.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:48 PM on February 24, 2017 [56 favorites]

I was intrigued by Wayne Lapierre's insistence that protesters were being paid $1500 a week so I googled "Craigslist ad $1500 protesters." There are 14 pages of entries-- all Right Wing news outlets and blogs-- all of them showing "Exhibit A" which is supposedly an ad that ran in LA, Chicago, and NY. Sometimes the claim is that the ads were run in Boston, Philadelphia, and Denver. The ads are financed by George Soros (DUH!) or Planned Parenthood or Moving ON or by left over campaign money from Clinton. The news stories about the ads started Nov. 11, 1916 although there were earlier stories about paid protesters who were being paid $15.00 an hour.

Snopes isn't very helpful, calling it "unproven" For one thing they don't seem to have the ad that all of the Right Wing news outlets are talking about which starts out Stop Trump.

I've tried to find a non-Right Wing news outlet that has looked into the claim but I'm not finding anything except one dude on Reddit who claims he clicked on the link to the ad and there was no page found. I'm starting to suspect that it was one guy who mocked up a Craigslist ad and then spread the story. All of the ads I've seen as evidence have the same ID number at the bottom that ends 802.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 1:49 PM on February 24, 2017 [22 favorites]

Fox News guy: Some at CNN & NYT stood w/FOX News when the Obama admin attacked us & tried 2 exclude us-a WH gaggle should be open to all credentialed orgs

This is not a thing that actually happened. Here's Talking Points Memo's take on it.
posted by scalefree at 1:51 PM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

I feel like the Punisher would also not approve of police killing innocent POC and would in fact think the police are the ones that need to be punished in this situation.

and yet, having never read the comics or watched the abysmal movie they made, all i know about the punisher is that every person i know who displays an interest in that character is reliably far right wing and authoritarian.
posted by Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam at 1:52 PM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

AP: Homeland Security intelligence report disputes threat posed by citizens of 7 nations in Trump travel ban.

Here's the intelligence report.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:53 PM on February 24, 2017 [33 favorites]

I also strongly suspect that none of those people freaking out about that ad (if it's even legit) have encountered the many maaaaaany ads and posters that paper college campuses in the springtime. You know, the ones for various PIRGs that say "DEFEND THE ENVIRONMENT*! SUMMER EMPLOYMENT! $15/HOUR! NO FUNDRAISING!" They're freaking everywhere. It's just summer call center and public interest canvassing gigs. They do exist. No one is paying those kids to protest, they're paying them to slog around the suburbs sweating like pigs leaving lit on doors.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:54 PM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

People who think you can get a 1500/wk legit gig on Craigslist don't hang out on Craigslist much.
posted by emjaybee at 1:54 PM on February 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

That looks like the intelligence report CNN reported on yesterday. The leaks are coming fast and in all directions.
posted by zachlipton at 1:55 PM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Goddamnit, people, "pranks" don't help.
posted by jferg at 14:26

They're good pranks, jforg.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 1:57 PM on February 24, 2017 [80 favorites]

Secret Life of Gravy: I've tried to find a non-Right Wing news outlet that has looked into the claim but I'm not finding anything except one dude on Reddit who claims he clicked on the link to the ad and there was no page found. I'm starting to suspect that it was one guy who mocked up a Craigslist ad and then spread the story. All of the ads I've seen as evidence have the same ID number at the bottom that ends 802.

Huh, fake news you say? Like a city in Michigan was the first to implement Sharia law kind of fake? Yeah, I'm not surprised this is now spreading as fact, when in fact it was some internet ass-jacket who made up something for those sweet, sweet hits.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:58 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

To me, the important part of the intelligence report isn't the conclusion. It's that the Trump folks essentially asked DHS for evidence that would back up the travel ban (requesting intelligence to satisfy pre-determined policy outcomes; sound familiar?) , and the DHS intelligence folks said "eh, here's a thing that says the opposite." And then they leaked it.
posted by zachlipton at 1:58 PM on February 24, 2017 [43 favorites]

The news stories about the ads started Nov. 11, 1916

I knew Putin was playing a long game, but I'm impressed.
posted by bongo_x at 1:59 PM on February 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

Hey, did everybody get their super-cool 2017 Democratic National Committee opinion survey in the mail today?! It has fun questions like: "Of the following 12 fucking outrageously horrific things about the upcoming Trump Presidency, which 4 concern you the most?"

"Other than just giving the hell up and sitting in a corner crying with a big-ass bottle of tequila for the next decade, which 3 of the priorities listed below do you think the DNC should focus on going forward?"
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:28 PM on January 18

Wow, just got another copy of the same (or possibly somewhat revised) festive DNC survey today. Which I think is a smart move because I filled my first one out pre-inauguration, and I suspect I'm not the only person whose answers have significantly shifted after the first month of the Reign of Awful. Also, I bet a lot of people just went "Oh fuck politics" and tossed their surveys on Jan 18 but think very differently now and are studiously filling it out and sending it in after decorating the envelope with colorful iterations of "Fight fight fight unto the last breath!" etc.
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:01 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

No, not saying "just be nice" because I know, just like you do, that that's not productive. What I am saying is that trolling a bunch of CPAC attendees in a very public way is likely going to backfire into causing the people who aren't necessarily at CPAC but might be paying attention to it to have the anti-progressive viewpoint reaffirmed and cause them to become more entrenched in their pro-Trump mindset. Maybe I just think that trolling, while it can be funny, is generally bad regardless of who is doing it.
posted by jferg at 2:02 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Tom: I been thinking about us, too, about our people living like pigs and good rich land laying fallow. Or maybe one guy with a million acres and a hundred thousand farmers starving. And I been wondering if all our folks got together and yelled…

Ma: Oh, Tommy, they’d drag you out and cut you down just like they done to Casey.

Tom: They’d drag me anyways. Sooner or later they’d get me for one thing if not for another. Until then…

God, I can't imagine dialogue like that appearing in any major studio film these days, even though it's every bit as relevant and resonant now as it was in 1939.
posted by Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam at 2:04 PM on February 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

post-enlightenment thought? yep.

a kentucky police department co-opted 'by any means necessary' from malcolm x and the nation of islam. are they radical islamist terrorists?

the absurdity...it burns...
posted by j_curiouser at 2:07 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Democratic National Committee

The DNC mailers and emails I get are just so grotesquely pathetic I just delete them out of hand. No more surveys, no more garbage petitions, no more DNC bullshit. I'll work with my reps and support Keith Ellison for chair, but dammit I don't want any more useless freakouts.
posted by Existential Dread at 2:08 PM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

The other thing about Tom Joad: Tom is a felon. Could you have that in a movie today? I bet not. Could you have a movie where a sympathetic union organizer gets murdered? Or where his brother avenges his death and still remains the hero? Nuh-uh.

Although - and here's a prediction for you - I bet there's an uptick in interest in Grapes of Wrath and at least one graphic novel or indie adaptation in the next few years. It cries out to be adapted - a guy gets out of jail, can't get work, his family tries to start over somewhere else, can't get any medical care. It would touch on race and prisons and forced migration and all kinds of stuff.
posted by Frowner at 2:11 PM on February 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

Anything I didn't request from a political group/politician that arrives goes in the trash. We have an election coming up in LA in a couple weeks and my mailbox has been getting roughly 10 mailers a day. Who in the world thinks this stuff works? Honestly, if you're dumb enough to be influenced by a political mailer, you probably shouldn't be making these decisions in the first place.
posted by downtohisturtles at 2:14 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

> it must be so fucking surreal to be john dean these days

Dean was on Democracy Now today: As Calls Grow to Impeach Trump, Former Nixon Counsel John Dean Sees "Echoes of Watergate"

John Dean: The Difference Between Trump & Nixon is Trump Says Publicly What Nixon Said on Wiretap
posted by homunculus at 2:14 PM on February 24, 2017 [32 favorites]

NPR's All Things Considered interviewed Michael Smith about the Sebastian Gorka legal threat call, but "alpha male" Gorka did not respond to requests for comment from NPR.
posted by XMLicious at 2:20 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Man, Solidarity is going to be a hard row to hoe so long as the least difficulty leads to bourgeois Calexit bullshit
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:21 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I throw all political stuff in the trash except surveys because surveys are fun (like crossword puzzles or What Type of Dog Are You? quizzes) and actually help me think about my priorities and reasons for them.
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:22 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Man, if weak-ass NPR, who will roll over at the drop of a hat, frightens you then you must be some kind of super-alpha alpha male.
posted by Artw at 2:24 PM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

When someone's politics represents an existential threat, you fight that threat. I 100% agree with this. The thing I've been trying to work out over the past few days, though, is what constitutes an existential threat and to whom?

The reason is because I fear we've gotten to the point now where trust has eroded so much between groups of different political stripes that EVERYTHING now seems to be an existential threat, which means that every difference of opinion is a full-throated attack on someone else's identity and must be responded to in kind. That's a road that inevitably leads us to war and death.

Climate change is potentially the greatest existential threat the human supporting ecosystem has ever faced. What's happening now with Syria is a point of extrapolation for what could happen with all of the world's population currently living between the tropics (ignoring all the other possible upsets a higher energy climate system may bring to every point on the planet). Lots of war, lots of migration, lots of starvation, lots of desperation, lots more dead families washing up on beaches, lots more stories for us to question, lots more for us to quantify and qualify in terms of the imaginary historical absolutes that make it OK for us to be us. Not good. Bad. It's gonna be bad, dudes. And soon.
posted by Buntix at 2:24 PM on February 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

So as Trump has taken over the title of the GOP's most outrageous public figure, all the smaller fish who used to play in that pond in their bids for relevancy are desperately trying to up their game, and it's increasingly ridiculous:

Samson slew Philistines with the jawbone of an ass; CNN now known as "Samson Channel"--reports news with jawbone of an ass. #fakenews BAM!

--@GovMikeHuckabee

It can't be done, Mike. The only way to out-crazy Trump is to go full Alex Jones, and your face just isn't capable of getting that red in anger.

(Yes, I just played into his hand by reposting this. It's Friday; I don't care.)
posted by zachlipton at 2:24 PM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Samson slew Philistines with the jawbone of an ass; CNN now known as "Samson Channel"--reports news with jawbone of an ass. #fakenews BAM!

What a tryhard
posted by Existential Dread at 2:28 PM on February 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

Really? "BAM!"?
posted by flatluigi at 2:28 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

book publisher Melville House has some pointed questions for sean spicer
posted by murphy slaw at 2:28 PM on February 24, 2017 [25 favorites]

Charles Pierce: Reince Priebus Needs to Leave Trump's White House. Today. He made the FBI mess even messier, and he can't clean it up.

First of all, Priebus has to go. Today. Even if there's nothing illegal in what happened—and even, as seems completely implausible, the request was made out of simple anger at inaccurate reporting instead of abject terror that accurate reporting was getting too close to where the borscht got made last year—Priebus is revealed as a guy who should not be allowed to spread butter with anything sharper than his thumb, let alone run the staff of any White House, including Camp Runamuck. This is, or ought to be, a career-ender.

Second, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III shouldn't be allowed within an area code of any investigation of the contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. (I suspect there might be several of these.) He's hopelessly compromised.

Third, come on, man. You don't go this far out on a limb because you're pissed about fake stories. Not even this White House is that stupid. You take this kind of long chance because you believe that there's something out there that's worse than being found to be using the FBI to ratfck the New York Times.

posted by homunculus at 2:28 PM on February 24, 2017 [65 favorites]

I'm going to start ending all my MeFi comments with "BAM!" now. I think it adds a certain flair. BAM!
posted by zachlipton at 2:29 PM on February 24, 2017 [26 favorites]

Who in the world thinks this stuff works?

They probably work decently well, especially for municipal and state legislature races which don't get much coverage. I throw my mailers away too, but usually read them first. In my red state, it's a good way to get a quick idea of what the local politicians (or the Koch-funded SuperPACs who send out tons of 4 color glossy cards) think will appeal to low-information voters. One conservative group's mailer told me which state supreme court justices to vote out in the recall election, and I kept that one in my wallet so I'd remember who to vote for retention.
posted by honestcoyote at 2:30 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Reince Priebus Needs to Leave Trump's White House. Today. He made the FBI mess even messier, and he can't clean it up.

This is precisely what Steve Bannon wants. I am not comfortable being on his team.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:31 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

> Anything I didn't request from a political group/politician that arrives goes in the trash. We have an election coming up in LA in a couple weeks and my mailbox has been getting roughly 10 mailers a day. Who in the world thinks this stuff works? Honestly, if you're dumb enough to be influenced by a political mailer, you probably shouldn't be making these decisions in the first place.

HEY. No. Don't. That is a totally self-destructive line of reasoning. We are busy people in a busy world, unless we're rich we have to work way too much, and because we have to work so much we have very little time for political engagement. People with little time for political engagement need to at least vote, though, and they need to vote for the leftmost viable candidate in every election. I want everyone who can be swayed from a mailer voting for the leftmost viable candidate, and I want every mailer that can sway anyone toward the leftmost viable candidate sent out.

There is no space for elitism in politics.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 2:32 PM on February 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

Mike Schur (Parks & Rec, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) is professionally offended:

You should print this out and hang it on your computer with a note that says:
"REMEMBER: You are enormously unfunny! No jokes."

It's honestly like a cautionary tale of what happens when a person with no sense of humor tries to make a joke. #badjokes BAM!
posted by rewil at 2:32 PM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

The best part is that neither Trump nor Huckabee is smart enough to realize that Huckabee just called Trump a Philistine.

I am not smart enough to understand anything about that tweet. I didn't even realize it was supposed to be a joke. It seems like it's in code and I don't have the key.
posted by bongo_x at 2:37 PM on February 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

Worth noting about the gaggle: I wondered why the Washington Post wasn't barred, too, given the damage they've done, but WaPo's story on this says they didn't have anyone there today to begin with.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 2:39 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I think you need to have been homeschooled to get it.
posted by Artw at 2:40 PM on February 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

ha ha, our political opponents are just like the biblical hero favored by god and given strength to destroy his enemies, said the evangelical right-winger, apparently without irony
posted by prize bull octorok at 2:40 PM on February 24, 2017 [47 favorites]

It's apparently a subcurrent in the more evangelical parts of fever swamps that Trump is just a clever means by the big G to get Pence installed, next stop Gilead, so maybe that's what it's meant to refer to.
posted by Drastic at 2:43 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Mike Schur (Parks & Rec, Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

And more recently The Good Place, which you should definitely check out if the news/this thread is making you crazy
posted by theodolite at 2:43 PM on February 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

Although - and here's a prediction for you - I bet there's an uptick in interest in Grapes of Wrath and at least one graphic novel or indie adaptation in the next few years. It cries out to be adapted - a guy gets out of jail, can't get work, his family tries to start over somewhere else, can't get any medical care. It would touch on race and prisons and forced migration and all kinds of stuff.

In Dubious Battle, an earlier Steinbeck novel, had a film adaptation come out just last year. Here's the trailer.
posted by joedan at 2:44 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

We'll stop it, we'll stop the drugs from pouring into our nation and poisoning our youth. Pouring in. Pouring in. We get the drugs, they get the money. We get the problems. They get the cash. No good. No good. Going to stop.

Trump sounds like a broken machine gun set on repeat, but what's mysterious--almost spine-chillingly bizarre--about his speaking style is that, if you burrow far enough into history, it's plain that, in his youth, he not only spoke in complete sentences--he was also quite articulate, self-assured, poised, somewhat self-effacing, and highly fluent and organized in speech. Check out this interview at age thirty-three, from NBC.

Now compare this with today's horrendous CPAC presentation. It's almost impossible to regard this as the same human being. An independent observer from another era in history would conclude that the older Trump had acquired a brain tumor or speech impediment. Most orators polish their speaking styles into their older years, but it's as if Trump is living in reverse.

Is it shtick? Dementia? The accumulation of bad habits? Or simply laziness built up through the years, during which his wealth and family name made up for personal deficiencies?
posted by Gordion Knott at 2:44 PM on February 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

I'm going to start ending all my MeFi comments with "BAM!" now. I think it adds a certain flair. BAM!

Very popular as well at the Sunnyvale Trailer Park.
posted by juiceCake at 2:47 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Melville House, a book publisher, is 1. all out 2. of fucks 3. to give.
posted by prefpara at 2:48 PM on February 24, 2017 [48 favorites]

Someone do Trump doing Tom Joad, please.

No, but to help feed the rage, here's Bruce and Tom doing The Ghost of Tom Joad that'll angry up the blood.
posted by mikelieman at 2:48 PM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Is it shtick? Dementia? The accumulation of bad habits? Or simply laziness built up through the years, during which his wealth and family name made up for personal deficiencies?

I don't know what the cause of his weird (non-)delivery is, but the more I learn about his most rabid supporters, the more I'm convinced it's the most effective way to reach them. Simple words. Simple, very simple, so simple. Words. Repeated. Repeated, folks, believe me. So repeated. Simple words repeated, and way, way, way easier to digest than bigger words. So much easier.
posted by Rykey at 2:50 PM on February 24, 2017 [57 favorites]

It's obviously not a certainty, but I will say I know people who work professionally in the area who think it is likely that 45 has frontal lobe dementia.
posted by Chrysostom at 2:53 PM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Re: mailers. I find them useful for local races because sometimes local electoral ballots don't include party affiliation. And the mailers don't either, but let me discern the political orientation by what they advertise. Especially since they always include a picture of the candidate and the majority of people who bother to run Democrat around here are Black. So I make a note of their names for election day.
posted by threeturtles at 2:54 PM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

“We’re getting so many calls, and they’re saying that the Punisher logo [means] we’re out to kill people, and that’s not the meaning behind that,” Logan told io9. “That didn’t cross my mind.”

What the fucking shit else was it supposed to mean, then? Can't you at least make the effort of coming up with a convincing lie?
posted by Tarumba at 2:54 PM on February 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

the more I'm convinced it's the most effective way to reach them. Simple words. Simple, very simple, so simple. Words. Repeated. Repeated, folks, believe me. So repeated. Simple words repeated, and way, way, way easier to digest than bigger words. So much easier.

Come to think of it, I just finished reading Nurtureshock and this is pretty much what it recommends for talking to babies so they start to learn what words mean. Say the same thing in varied but simple ways. And most importantly, make sure that what you're saying is what baby is already thinking, or they won't understand (i.e. if baby is looking at a spoon, say "That's a spoon." "See the spoon?" "Take the spoon." rather than talking about something else).

Anyway, once his followers have learned to process language, I'm sure he'll move on to reasoning skills.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 2:55 PM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

roomthreeseventeen: AP: Homeland Security intelligence report disputes threat posed by citizens of 7 nations in Trump travel ban.

zachlipton: That looks like the intelligence report CNN reported on yesterday. The leaks are coming fast and in all directions.

filthy light thief: ... many State Department bureaucrats don’t feel that they are able to affect policy through the normal channels due to what they see as lack of communication coming from Trump’s and Tillerson’s people.

I think this is true for many government agencies now. Here's how I imagine the process going:

1. Trump or Bannon want some new EO, based on their understanding of something, which is flawed, but ask staff to look into it
2. Staff look into it, develop a report, and pass it up the chain
3. It doesn't say what Bannon/ Trump want to see, they disregard it, act as they wanted to
4. Huge backlash from all sides
5. Staff get pissed off that their work was disregarded, leak the report, everyone learns that Trump and co are full of shit

But can leaked info be used in court? I'm guessing not, but I would love to be wrong.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:57 PM on February 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

Speaking of the dementia theory: I had lunch with a friend whose mother was the live in caregiver for many years to her grandmother. (the grandmother died last fall). She has been mentioning Trump's very recognizable behaviours, including two I hadn't seen mentioned before. One is sundowning - as in when Trump hung up suddenly on the Australian Prime Minister.

The second surprising symptom - fear of stairs. Turns out depth perception deteriorates. In my friend's case, they had to put tape around the bottom of the stairs so the grandmother wouldn't go up and get stuck.

To check her theory, my friend watched a Tim Russert interview of Trump from the 90s, and then immediately watched a recent speech of Trump's. She says that in the past you could at least diagram his sentences, whereas now he seems to have trouble even finding the words.

Anyway, more validation for people who have been noticing this.
posted by obliquity of the ecliptic at 2:58 PM on February 24, 2017 [26 favorites]

“We’re getting so many calls, and they’re saying that the Punisher logo [means] we’re out to kill people, and that’s not the meaning behind that,” Logan told io9. “That didn’t cross my mind.”

Hey, at least he acknowledged that there could be a harmful alternate meaning that he hadn't considered, and that the harm of that meaning justifies getting rid of it. That's a much better reaction than most people make when you call them out on their Confederate flags...
posted by J.K. Seazer at 2:59 PM on February 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

Speaking of the dementia theory

Both my parents died of dementia in the last few years. It presents in a variety of ways, but I will say that 45's speech patterns and fixation on perceived slights reminds me a great deal of my mother in the last several years of her life. She probably had NPD, and was really invested in placing blame on everyone around her rather than herself for everything she was unhappy with. She was also really really good at denial. Nobody better.
posted by suelac at 3:01 PM on February 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

From much earlier in the thread:

> They aren't ever gonna rise up. First, have you seen most of those militia types ? They not only peaked in high school, it was also the last time they could climb a set of stairs in one go. Secondly, Obama was a UN backed Kenyan Muslim Dictator who sold the Constitution to Century 21 and used Rex84 chemtrails to Jade Helm America. Or whatever - they're always a little fuzzy on actual details.

And besides, have you seen the infighting and petty theft in most patriot groups? It's not hard to find, because they suck at opsec and their FB stuff is public. They have trouble organizing a bake sale - force projection is so far outside of their organizational capability as to not exist.

They sound just fine for death squads. Death squads do not need combat effectiveness and typically massacre the defenseless: women, children, the old and infirm — the ugly scutwork of ethnic cleansing. You see this pattern repeated in Central America, Cambodia during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, ISIS, innumerable bush wars in sub-Saharan Africa, etc. All you really need is people who aren't very bright and are willing to kill without remorse. These border militias have the former in spades, and the latter, well, I guess we'll see how much they really hate non-whites.
posted by indubitable at 3:06 PM on February 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

Life comes at you fast.

@kenvogel
FLASHBACK: @seanspicer in Dec. says Trump WH won't ban specific media outlets. "That's what makes a democracy a democracy vs a dictatorship" [video]
posted by chris24 at 3:06 PM on February 24, 2017 [27 favorites]

"That's a much better reaction than most people make when you call them out on their Confederate flags..."

My thoughts were he was either testing his boundaries, or locally influential people complained.

2017 Tarumba doesn't buy into the just world fallacy anymore.
posted by Tarumba at 3:07 PM on February 24, 2017

@seanspicer in Dec. says Trump WH won't ban specific media outlets. "That's what makes a democracy a democracy vs a dictatorship"

To be fair, he's just saying you can't ban specific media outlets and stay a democracy. At the time he was presuming that he'd be working under a democracy but hey, things change.
posted by contraption at 3:13 PM on February 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

LA Times "We Will Not Shut Up" T-Shirt
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:16 PM on February 24, 2017 [19 favorites]

21% who think protesting Trump should be illegal
Hello, crazification factor. Haven't seen you this explicit in a while
Yes, how did this even become a controversy? Who are these people?

"They" are the same people* who felt Nixon should not be impeached while he was resigning. There are a %age of people who will approve** of something in politics no matter what.

Fine.

Ya might need that not 21% slice someday. Callin' them names isn't gonna win them over and the heat of your rhetorical barbs may deform the !21% snowflakes so they won't be part of your future avalanche.

* same-ish. %15-18% were pro Nixon at the end. And a few Trumpers were not alive for Nixon.
** just like there is a %age of people who think She-who-will-not-be-relitagated is wonderful and if you don't agree you are some kind of failure as a human.
posted by rough ashlar at 3:22 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

The bit that really hit home for me was Trump's Sweden mix-up, because it's exactly the sort of thing my grandfather with dementia did. He'd hear something on cable news, pick up on some details of it but misunderstand or not remember the context, and ended up talking about vaguely plausible yet non-existent news stories. Except this is the President of the United States and not a guy in a nursing home. It's frightening.
posted by zachlipton at 3:24 PM on February 24, 2017 [37 favorites]

LA Times "We Will Not Shut Up" T-Shirt

Interesting. ProPublica did this with a "We're Not Shutting Up" shirt earlier this year.
posted by zachlipton at 3:26 PM on February 24, 2017

John Whitman, Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia: "Good job @seanspicer. Why would we let media who hate us have access to @POTUS? Time to take a stand."

The Republican party is the party of totalitarianism and anti-democracy. That's utterly undeniable. They're all in on complete authoritarianism at all levels.
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:27 PM on February 24, 2017 [49 favorites]

Fox's Shepard Smith: CNN is not 'fake news'

"For the record, 'fake news' refers to stories that are created, often by entities pretending to be news organizations, solely to draw clicks and views and are based on nothing of substance," Smith said during his program.

"In short, fake news is made up nonsense delivered for financial gain. CNN’s reporting was not fake news. Its journalists followed the same standards to which other news organizations, including Fox News, adhere," he added.

Fox's Bret Baier rips White House after outlets barred from briefing
posted by futz at 3:30 PM on February 24, 2017 [58 favorites]

Madasani Jaganmohan Reddy, father of Alok Madasani, the Indian shooting victim who survived in Kansas, to the Hindustan Times:

“The situation seems to be pretty bad after Trump took over as the U.S. president,” Madasani Jaganmohan Reddy told the Hindustan Times in India. “I appeal to all the parents in India not to send their children to the U.S. in the present circumstances.”

And of course, more silence from the White House.
posted by zachlipton at 3:30 PM on February 24, 2017 [63 favorites]

We may want to take a moment to consider the implications of weaponizing the bees.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 3:31 PM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

And the thing to remember about Putin is that - for god knows what reason - he's actually popular.

Because nationalism, nationalistic pride and being part of a 'group of winners' matter.

If being part of a group was not important there would not be political parties.

Like it or not, after the CCCP fell the nation was beset with problems. Including vulture capitalists who worked to loot what they could. Putin stopped the looting by outside vulture capitalists.
posted by rough ashlar at 3:31 PM on February 24, 2017

@zachlipton, I had the same thought/reaction when I heard him mis-hear Jake Turx's anti-Semitism question, and then double-down on his error by plunging full steam into being outraged, and then channeling his outrage back into an attack on his detractors. I mean...all of that -- ALL OF THAT -- took place in his own head, from what would have been a softball question if he had just heard it correctly. FML...
posted by mosk at 3:32 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Can someone please explain - why wasn't today's briefing on C-SPAN? Was C-SPAN excluded along with the others?
posted by kitcat at 3:33 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

If only I had a penguin...: "Anyway, once his followers have learned to process language, I'm sure he'll move on to reasoning skills."

...and we’d finally have confirmation of the adage that “those who can’t, teach.”
posted by Riki tiki at 3:33 PM on February 24, 2017

Putin stopped the looting by outside vulture capitalists.

By replacing them with... inside vulture capitalists.

Not seeing your point?
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:34 PM on February 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

I'm surprised nobody's brought up Being There

Being There is one of the most touching films I've ever seen. While the parallels are obvious, it took a genius to act like a moron, and we have a moron. Period.

Oh, it's time for my medicinal whisky again.
posted by mikelieman at 3:38 PM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Can someone please explain - why wasn't today's briefing on C-SPAN? Was C-SPAN excluded along with the others?

What happened today was a press gaggle, not a briefing. It was originally supposed to be an on-camera event in the press briefing room, which would have been open to all the normally credentialed press, but they put out a new schedule changing it to a gaggle with just the pool plus a couple of handpicked right-wing outlets. Briefings are televised. Press gaggles are on the record, but not videotaped. There are audio recordings available now from reporters who were in the room.
posted by zachlipton at 3:39 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

...wait, is gaggle the official term?
posted by skycrashesdown at 3:42 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I think the official term is now "tumorous clot of sycophants and collaborators," or T'COSAC for short.
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:48 PM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

This fucking whitehouse is going to break every single goddamn thing.
posted by srboisvert at 3:49 PM on February 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

Really? "BAM!"?

Let's Trump this news up a notch
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:49 PM on February 24, 2017 [28 favorites]

Give it a blast from the old spice weasel.
posted by Artw at 3:50 PM on February 24, 2017 [30 favorites]

We may want to take a moment to consider the implications of weaponizing the bees.

apiarchy is preferable to the current situation
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:51 PM on February 24, 2017 [38 favorites]

And the thing to remember about Putin is that - for god knows what reason - he's actually popular.

Is he though?

How do we know if Putin is popular?
posted by srboisvert at 3:51 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Well, anyone who says otherwise is dead.
posted by Artw at 3:52 PM on February 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

I am saddened to report that Mikki the Mime's extraordinary handwritten motion to intervene (by and through her agent JoJo) in the Washington travel ban case has been denied,with a further instruction to the court clerk not to file more documents from "Ms. Mime" on the docket. An excerpt of the motion:

Because Mikki the mime doesn't speak verbally or communicate in writing, there is a good chance that if she did visit one of these countries, maybe to attend a child's birthday party perhaps, she would not be allowed to reenter the United States and the future of birthday parties in the Untied States would be sadder.

Mikki the Mime wants nothing more than to make people smile (see: Westword Magazine Article). With baloons, and magic, and a top hat. Now she fears that doing so outside hte Untied States–in one of the 7 bad countries, or anywhere since her country of origin is the earth–will land her in an imaginary box she can't escape from. It's hard enough to escape from simple ones.

There is also a suggestion that clowns should be denied entry from the country, followed by a smiley face and a "just kidding." It concludes with a passionate plea I can support wholeheartedly that nobody should be denied their basic rights, which includes the "right to smile, or the right to make a balloon hat and wear it or to wear a turban" regardless of color, where you were born, or "if you're a clown or a mime."

This motion is frankly the best news I've read in quite a while.
posted by zachlipton at 3:53 PM on February 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

A few years ago, I got a Postcrossing card from Russia. The postcard was a photo of Putin. The entire message was about how much the sender looooooved Putin and wanted to marry a man just like him. It was so bizarre I tossed the card. Some of these people are definitely for real.
posted by mochapickle at 3:55 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

"This fucking whitehouse is going to break every single goddamn thing."

I know, one of the things that really pain me is that standards are now lowered for the rest of my natural life, probably. Like the next election it will be again accusations and leaks and it's like our sense of what is acceptable is forever gone.

I feel like we are all collectively being abused and neglected and it will take time and tears until we can trust our political class again.
posted by Tarumba at 3:58 PM on February 24, 2017 [29 favorites]

One is sundowning - as in when Trump hung up suddenly on the Australian Prime Minister.

Sundowning + Shabbat = oh shit.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:00 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I realize that the discussion of Trump's mental health is bordering on a de-rail, but I'd like to take this opportunity to remind people that his behaviors are also highly consistent with the long-term abuse of stimulants. The "sundowning" people refer to might simply reflect the fact that whatever he doses with is wearing off, and he stops taking uppers in the evening to allow himself sleep.

http://www.adbusters.org/news/is-donald-trump-high-on-amphetamines/

For me, the best evidence of this lies within the paradigm of "Trump's Mirror," and how he accused Hillary of using "performance-enhancing stimulants" during the debates.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/15/donald-trump-drug-testing-new-hampshire-rally

Well, that plus the evidence suggesting he was probably taking amphetamine-like diet pills in the 90's.

http://thepoliticus.com/content/1992-article-reveals-trump-probably-addicted-amphetamines
posted by prosopagnosia at 4:05 PM on February 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

Samson slew Philistines with the jawbone of an ass; CNN now known as "Samson Channel"--reports news with jawbone of an ass. #fakenews BAM!
--@GovMikeHuckabee

I am not smart enough to understand anything about that tweet. I didn't even realize it was supposed to be a joke. It seems like it's in code and I don't have the key.
posted by bongo_x at 5:37 PM on February 24

To understand the tweet you have to realize a.) Huckabee is a Far Right Evangelical Christian and b.) He is a humorless asshole who thinks his own stupid quips are hilarious.

So he takes a Biblical story about Samson-- who among other things used the jawbone of an ass to slay his enemies-- and Huckabee in attempting to make a hilarious joke about CNN being asses who jaw too much or something makes the leap: ass + "jawing" (idle talk) = weapon used by Samson....shortcut...CNN equals Samson. Which makes no sense from his point of view because Samson is really a Biblical Hero and I don't believe Huckabee means for CNN News to be perceived as heroic.

Truly the man isn't nearly as bright or as clever as he thinks he is.

I'm surprised nobody's brought up Being There

It has crossed my mind several times in that Trump's simple-minded pronouncements are sometimes taken as deep or masterful. I would never compare the execrable DJT with Chauncey Gardiner, however, as the latter is a sweet man who would never hurt a soul.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:05 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

and yet, having never read the comics or watched the abysmal movie they made, all i know about the punisher is that every person i know who displays an interest in that character is reliably far right wing and authoritarian.

Hi, I'm a lifelong Punisher fan and I'm pretty seriously lefty.

The Punisher, like a lot of comic book characters, is far more complex and nuanced than most people would give credit for. Sadly, "Blue Lives Matter" fits in pretty well with skipping over complexity and nuance.

This happens with a lot of comics stuff. Captain America isn't about blind patriotism. The original GI Joe comics are subversive as fuck if you actually pay attention. And the Punisher is intensely self-aware of how fucked up his actions are, which is often a topic explored at length in the comics. But a lot of people just see the simple strokes of "Haha shoot the baddies" and leave it at that. And yes, sadly, more than a few actual comics writers have portrayed it that way, too. It's a danger of having a character in an ongoing property where the writers change over time.

When doing interviews about the part of the Punisher in the Netflix Daredevil series, Jon Bernthal talked about how he'd learned the character meant a lot to military and police types. That doesn't surprise me, because the character is macho and all that, but he's also very much about pent-up frustration and rage. Conversely, I could provide buckets of stories about the Punisher going after crooked cops and soldiers. He's about a careful, thought-out application of violence, not blind stereotyping. Again, there's nuance.

I dunno. I love Frank, I thought the way he was portrayed in the Netflix series was probably the best version of him ever...and I'm reluctant to get a Punisher skull cell phone case 'cause I don't want anyone mistaking me for one of these assholes.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 4:06 PM on February 24, 2017 [23 favorites]

Ultimately, the danger of writing anything with any nuance is that some people just won't get it.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 4:13 PM on February 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

Meanwhile, in Baton Rouge with The Zuck...
posted by Artw at 4:14 PM on February 24, 2017

BuzzFeed AP Sues LifeZette, Claiming Nearly $50,000 In Unpaid Fees And Penalties

LifeZette entered into a year-long licensing agreement to use AP content in July 2015, agreeing to pay $4,200 per month. The AP says it suspended LifeZette’s account in February 2016 due to nonpayment.

LifeZette did submit a check for $42,611, according to the lawsuit, but it was returned due to insufficient funds.[...]

Ingraham, a conservative radio talk show host who supported Trump during the campaign and since, was reported to be a contender for the press secretary job in the new administration, a position that ultimately went to Sean Spicer. LifeZette, however, was one of the first news outlets that Spicer called on at his press briefings after Trump took office.

posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:15 PM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Never trust a Nazi.
posted by Artw at 4:17 PM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

More Republicans Lawmakers Have Been Arrested For Bathroom Misconduct Than Trans People

But stats show that no trans person has ever been arrested for sexual misconduct in a public bathroom in the U.S. Certain Republican lawmakers, however, cannot say the same.
...
It’s also worthy of noting that, according to Media Matters, there have been no reported cases of men ‘pretending’ to be trans in order to get into women’s bathrooms. “It’s a lie that is unsupported by even a shred of evidence and contradicted by years of experience in states that already have non-discrimination laws on the books.”

posted by kirkaracha at 4:17 PM on February 24, 2017 [75 favorites]

I read the Sam Altman piece linked above and came across this quote from a Trump voter:

“I am socially very liberal. I am fiscally very conservative. I don't feel I have a party--never have. I grew up in a more socially conservative time and picked the "lesser of two evils" during elections. Now, the more socially liberal side supports bigger governments, more aid and support and that money has to come from somewhere. I see what's deducted from my check each week. I'm OK with never being rich but I'd like more security and that doesn't come from more government spending.”

How do you even begin a conversation with this person? What plan that any Republican has ever proposed to make the US "safer" hasn't come with an enormous price tag: the military, 15,000 ICE agents, the wall, etc.

It boggles.
posted by OHenryPacey at 4:17 PM on February 24, 2017 [17 favorites]

after the whole jade helm conspiracy...i see projection. the secret white dream is that a jade helm would happen for real - just to brown people. hence the cbp/ice evil. also, am i mistaken that there is no border to patrol between sf and ny? over at lgm, its asserted that cbp/ice is going to be the gestapo analog. i can see that. horrifying.
posted by j_curiouser at 4:18 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

"safer". ffs, pick some metrics, do a 30 day sample rate, graph it....oh, wait. they want to 'feel safer' not 'be safer'...i dunno...emdr? they'll need health insurance for that.
posted by j_curiouser at 4:25 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm surprised nobody's brought up Being There

It was announced with a FanFare.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 4:27 PM on February 24, 2017

Today in extraordinarily satisfying news: turns out it was a sixteen-year-old Canadian girl who dug up (and sent to Reagan Battalion) the video that took down Milo Yiannopoulos.
posted by karayel at 4:27 PM on February 24, 2017 [87 favorites]

okay, so one thing i'm not 100% clear on with the priebus/FBI interaction:

the leaks say that priebus went to the FBI and asked them to say that the trump/russia connection was a big nothing. the fbi says "it is a big nothing, but we can't say so"

the part where the FBI says it's a big nothing, that's just coming from … priebus leaking to the press? like, we don't have a corroborating account from inside the FBI that says it's a big nothing, right?

or am i more confused than i think i am?
posted by murphy slaw at 4:31 PM on February 24, 2017

WaPo: Trump administration sought to enlist intelligence officials, key lawmakers to counter Russia stories

After the FBI refused to play this game, they found other people to do it:

The White House insisted the officials speak on the condition of anonymity — a practice President Trump has condemned.

The officials broadly dismissed Trump associates’ contacts with Russia as infrequent and inconsequential. But the officials would not answer substantive questions about the issue, and their comments were not published by The Post and do not appear to have been reported elsewhere.

The story goes on to name Sens. Burr and Nunes, along with unnamed intelligence officials.

While the Post is careful not to directly break the anonymity of its own sources (though, you know, when you describe a "senior intelligence official" and then write entire paragraphs about Pompeo and the CIA, you've gone behind dropping hints), this is about as close to burning their sources as you can get.
posted by zachlipton at 4:32 PM on February 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

I dunno. I love Frank, I thought the way he was portrayed in the Netflix series was probably the best version of him ever...and I'm reluctant to get a Punisher skull cell phone case 'cause I don't want anyone mistaking me for one of these assholes.

Quoted for the motherfucking truth.
posted by mikelieman at 4:34 PM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

They've started the design bidding process for the Mexico wall.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:35 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Ikea already submitted their design proposal.
posted by peeedro at 4:37 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

BUT HER EMAILS!

AG's office confirms Pruitt used private email for state business. He testified to the Senate, both in writing and orally, that he only uses his official email for state business.
posted by zachlipton at 4:37 PM on February 24, 2017 [32 favorites]

They've started the design bidding process for the Mexico wall.

That is remarkably sketch. Also quick turnaround: 10 days for a concept for what would be a multi-billion dollar project? I am skeptical...
posted by suelac at 4:38 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Relevant to mentions of comics stuff, WaPo had this great piece last week: My grandfather helped create Captain America for times like these.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 4:41 PM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Where is the funding for this wall design process coming from? Congress hasn't appropriated anything yet.
posted by notyou at 4:42 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

It also doesn't matter whether or not they get a viable bid for the wall, because there are land ownership/eminent domain/tribal sovereignty issues that will take years to resolve before they can pour the first drop of concrete.
posted by murphy slaw at 4:43 PM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

the wall thing seems to just be for a prototype. wonder if the specs include a big ribbon.
posted by prefpara at 4:45 PM on February 24, 2017

10 days for a concept for what would be a multi-billion dollar project? I am skeptical...

Skimming the webpage, it appears it's for a PROTOTYPE. Not even the whole wall. sad.
posted by mikelieman at 4:45 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yeah, not a lot of time.

*opens SketchUp*
posted by notyou at 4:48 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Skimming the webpage, it appears it's for a PROTOTYPE. Not even the whole wall. sad.

What is this, a wall for ANTS?!
posted by J.K. Seazer at 4:49 PM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Occupy Democrats Militarized Police Just Evicted The Sioux Tribe From Standing Rock At Gunpoint

Pictures and video at the link.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:49 PM on February 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

Cost?

This wall will pay for itself many, many, many times over. And it's just astonishing to me that the media is so interested in how much it costs to secure our border and has no interest in the cost of refusing to secure our border.
posted by zakur at 4:50 PM on February 24, 2017

A prototype you say? Like a little model wall? Maybe they could just borrow the one Steve King has in his office.

What is this? A wall for Ants?

BAM!
posted by zachlipton at 4:50 PM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Update: there is weird Mikki the Mime drama involving the motion being filed from the county jail and claims the thing wasn't not have been written by who it claims to be from. This is why we can't have nice things and/or why I shouldn't derive my sole source of hope in this world from the last paragraph of a denied handwritten motion purportedly by a mime with a tenuous at best connection to reality.

Clicking around a bit brings up a "manager" that does indeed appear to be somewhat disconnected from reality, complete with a combination of criminal records, restraining orders, encyclopedia dramatica pages, and an apparent obsession with the mime, who is an actual person. Her most recent Twitter update is about getting him arrested, so seems you ended up in the crazy creepy corners of the Internet.
posted by effbot at 4:50 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I just watched ten minutes of an msnbc about and starring George Will. He was talking a bit about the budget ramifications of donnie's program, such as it is, and I wargamed two outcomes.

Budget goes to congress, gets rejected (politely by repubs), donnie goes apeshit, threatens congresspeople on twitter, impeachment.

Budget goes to congress, gets approved with repubs buying into donnie's "jobs program", jobs program turns out to be militarized federal police knocking on doors and asking "do you have a job?", respond NO and you are off to build the wall. Great way to dissapear people too! They go to work on the wall and have a heart attack. Or a fall.

Okay I'll shut up about my nightmares. Anyone got any budget scuttlebutt? When does it go to congress anyway?
posted by vrakatar at 4:51 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Time.com: The FBI Talked to the White House About Its Russia Probe. That Was Probably Against the Rules

FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe may have violated multiple existing Justice Department rules controlling contacts between the bureau and White House officials when they spoke earlier this month with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus about their ongoing investigation into Russia’s influence operation against the 2016 U.S. presidential election, according to several former senior Justice Department officials [from both parties, who declined to go on the record].

Those limits aren't the only rules Comey and McCabe may have violated. There are also longstanding written controls, based on authority given to the Attorney General under an executive order issued by Ronald Reagan in 1981 and on several statutes, that require the Attorney General’s approval for most contacts between the FBI and the White House regarding foreign intelligence matters that involve domestic political activities.

Oops.
posted by ZeusHumms at 4:54 PM on February 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

cue Mike Huckabee to tweet some lameass joke about how great the wall will be using a Jericho metaphor
posted by prize bull octorok at 4:54 PM on February 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

Drexel dean to seek disbarment of Kellyanne Conway in N.J.

A Drexel University law school dean has joined with 14 law professors from around the country seeking sanctions by the D.C. Bar against South Jersey native Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to President Donald Trump.

Conway should be sanctioned for violating government ethics rules and “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation,” according to the letter, which was signed by Susan L. Brooks, a Drexel professor of law and an associate dean.

“We do not file this complaint lightly ... she is currently acting in a way that brings shame upon the legal profession.”
A similar ethics complaint will seek disbarment of Conway in New Jersey, added Brooks, who said she was speaking as an individual, not as a representative of Drexel.
posted by futz at 4:57 PM on February 24, 2017 [37 favorites]

Trump gave me a drawing that said 18 inches. Now, whether or not he knows the difference between feet and inches is not my problem. I do what I'm told.
...
I think that the problem may have been that there was a wall on the border that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf. Alright? That tends to understate the hugeness of the object.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:59 PM on February 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

Why do I get the feeling this all started because the Pink Floyd The Wall movie was on late on the wrong channel one night?

-Bad schools
-Walls
-Problems with women
-Fascism

Keep an eye on his eyebrows, the warrant canary of the soul.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:00 PM on February 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

The only thing that is going to result from making a Trump supporter feel stupid (or feel like progressives -think- they are stupid) is that they are going to become more entrenched in their alternative-facts based reality.

Don't care in the slightest what these people think. They're adults. I'm tired of being told we need to be gentle with the toddlers because they might throw a fit.
posted by bongo_x

Don't need to be gentle. Just be smart.
posted by ZeusHumms at 5:04 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Anyone got any budget scuttlebutt? When does it go to congress anyway?

The current CR goes through April. There'll probably be another one after that if the current functioning of congress is any indication. There's no word whatsoever about negotiations or preliminary numbers.

Republicans will probably try to cram everything they ever wanted into one omnibus budget that must pass or shutdown. Think domestic spending cut in half across the board. What early leaks have come out have zeroed out things liberals like, like PBS and the legal Services Corp. Maybe even tied to the debt ceiling depending on how long they take past April.

In short, they'll try to cram their entire agenda into the budget, and something has to break, most likely the functioning of the government.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:04 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Fake Sweden expert on Fox News – has criminal convictions in US, no connection to Swedish security

Nils Bildt, who spoke on Fox News about crime in Sweden, is convicted of a violent offence himself, according to documents from Arlington General District Court in Virginia. Bildt was arrested on the 19th of June, 2014, for assaulting a law enforcement person and for obstruction of justice, after threatening an official. He was sentenced to one year in prison on the 10th of November the same year. He was also convicted of public inebriation at the same time. Nils Bildt, in an e-mail to DN, says he is ”unaware of the allegations” and therefore cannot comment.

Nils Bildt sent a short e-mail to DN late earlier on Friday, explaining why he was given the title of ”Swedish defense and national security advisor”: ”I appeared on Bill O'Reillys's show on Fox News. The title was chosen by Fox News's editor – I had no personal control over what title they chose. I am an independent analyst based in the USA”, he wrote.
posted by futz at 5:06 PM on February 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

How do you even begin a conversation with this person? What plan that any Republican has ever proposed to make the US "safer" hasn't come with an enormous price tag: the military, 15,000 ICE agents, the wall, etc.

It boggles.
posted by OHenryPacey at 7:17 PM on February 24

Today in his CPAC address DJT talked about building up the military because it is so diminished. We have the biggest military on the world but he wants more planes, ships, missiles, troops, etc. No money for PBS or NEA. No money for lawyers for the poor. No money for more food inspectors. Plenty of money for bombs.

If I was talking to that person I would point out what a bargain they are getting. A stable, first world country with one of the lowest tax rates around. He is getting all sorts of goodies that he doesn't think about on a day to day basis like food and drug inspectors, coast guard, FBI, and air traffic controllers. The court system, border control, the CIA, the National Park system. Things that make life here in America easier and safer.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:07 PM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

at this rate, the trump family's travel and security expenses will exceed PBS's entire budget by the end of 2017. but it has to go, because the only metric for policy now is liberal tears.
posted by murphy slaw at 5:09 PM on February 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

Muhammad Ali's Son Illegally Detained at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Attorney Says

Ali Jr., age 44, had no criminal record and carries a United States passport, Mancini says. He recently moved to Deerfield Beach to live with his mother. Last year, Ali Jr. received a large share of his father's multimillion-dollar fortune.

[His lawyer] says immigration officers asked Ali Jr. for his full name, date of birth, and religion. They held him for 30 minutes, then separated him from his mother, and took him to a small room. An officer returned a half-hour later and again asked him his religion, Mancini says. He was held for about an hour more before being released.

posted by J.K. Seazer at 5:11 PM on February 24, 2017 [56 favorites]

Well that's going to go down well.
posted by Artw at 5:13 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

It's going to go down like it usually does: with barely any news coverage and maybe an attempt at retroactively spinning them as Not A Good Person
posted by flatluigi at 5:18 PM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

what is this, a wall for... oh, y'all have covered that already. cool cool cool.
posted by palomar at 5:18 PM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

To understand the tweet you have to realize a...

I appreciate the effort, but I think we're going to need a giant chalk board.
posted by bongo_x at 5:22 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Is saw today that the wall is already ahead of schedule. Trump don't eff around.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 5:24 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Delighted ReaganBattalion was able to use the "Julia" information to take down Yiannopoulos. McMullin Conservatives for the win! I hope he had to pay back his book advance.
posted by corb at 5:26 PM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

It sure is! My SketchUp is really coming along.
posted by notyou at 5:28 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

No money for PBS or NEA. No money for lawyers for the poor. No money for more food inspectors. Plenty of money for bombs.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower (full text)
posted by kirkaracha at 5:28 PM on February 24, 2017 [110 favorites]

Trump don't eff around.

all evidence suggests that trump does little besides eff around.

bannon, on the other hand seems to deliver unimplementable policy at record speed.
posted by murphy slaw at 5:31 PM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Keep an eye on his eyebrows, the warrant canary of the soul.

I thought jessamyn was the warrant canary of the soul?
posted by tivalasvegas at 5:32 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

For more rage feeding, I submit this excellent fan made video of RATM's Ghost of Tom Joad cover, featuring footage from Network, Baraka, Dawn of the Dead and more.
posted by mannequito at 5:32 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Thank you for that quote. Not much room to live when you are stuck between a cross of iron and a cross of gold (pun / reference intended) these days.
posted by RolandOfEld at 5:33 PM on February 24, 2017

if jessamyn ever shaves her eyebrows, LOOK OUT
posted by murphy slaw at 5:33 PM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

I appreciate the effort, but I think we're going to need a giant chalk board.

Maybe a flannelgraph.
posted by skymt at 5:36 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I saw today that the wall is already ahead of schedule. Trump don't eff around.

"Way ahead of schedule. It's way, way, way ahead of schedule."
posted by zakur at 5:38 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm going to start ending all my MeFi comments with "BAM!" now. I think it adds a certain flair. BAM!

I've been mentally punctuating 85% of my sentences with BLAM!

It brings a tiny bit of joy to my angry, blackened heart.
posted by mudpuppie at 5:39 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

The Dept. of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intends on issuing a solicitation in electronic format on or about March 6, 2017 for the design and build of several prototype wall structures in the vicinity of the United States border with Mexico. The procurement will be conducted in two phases, the first requiring vendors to submit a concept paper of their prototype(s) by March 10, 2017,

My design does not bother with rebar and cement. My patented system which I call Patriot Freedom Blocks^TM is made from shredded visa papers and liberal tears.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:41 PM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Maybe a flannelgraph.

We're going to need puppets.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:42 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm trying to remember why I even know what a flannelgraph is.
posted by vrakatar at 5:44 PM on February 24, 2017

You know, I feel like submitting concept papers for prototype wall designs to CBP would be an excellent venue for performance art, as performed by people who never plan to re-enter the United States or encounter federal law enforcement ever.
posted by zachlipton at 5:45 PM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

I can't be the only one around here who thinks "chickaplao!" after making a really good point.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 5:49 PM on February 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

I'm trying to remember why I even know what a flannelgraph is.

Either Sunday school or kindergarten.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:50 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Location of most of 55 immigrants in ICE raid unclear

-- The search warrants stemmed from a year-long investigation, Byrd said. He referred all questions regarding the nature of the warrants to the Department of Justice.

-- The Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment.

-- When reporters attempted to speak with employees at the LaSalle Detention Facility as well as the Pine Prairie Correctional Center, another ICE detention center in Louisiana, they were referred to The GEO Group

-- The GEO Group, a for-profit prison operator, runs both Louisiana facilities. It also previously ran private prisons in Mississippi that faced federal scrutiny about conditions and staffing

-- In an emailed response, The GEO Group referred all questions to ICE. It did not respond to questions regarding the number of detainees in both facilities.

-- ICE has an online detainee locator on its website; however, the names of those detained in the raids has not been made public

See a pattern?
posted by futz at 5:52 PM on February 24, 2017 [29 favorites]

I'm trying to remember why I even know what a flannelgraph is.

Either Sunday school or kindergarten.

I think it showed up in Peanuts as well.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 5:52 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Location of most of 55 immigrants in ICE raid unclear

I was hoping we'd make it 5 weeks before they started disappearing people.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:56 PM on February 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

I call this the Wall-E. Made from ground up disco balls and ecstasy tablets.

This is the WallDough. Made with pulped copies of Where's Waldo and Play-do.

This is the Wall-Lah!. It is magic and therefore invisible.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:56 PM on February 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

zakur: "Cost?

This wall will pay for itself many, many, many times over. And it's just astonishing to me that the media is so interested in how much it costs to secure our border and has no interest in the cost of refusing to secure our border."

Like the way that the Iraq war was going to pay for itself?
posted by octothorpe at 5:58 PM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Manchin invites primary challenge from Sanders supporters in call

But as the town hall conversation got chippy — and activists on the call brought up points of disagreement with the senator — Manchin exclaimed, “What you ought to do is vote me out. Vote me out! I’m not changing. Find somebody else who can beat me and vote me out."

“Is that an invitation or a threat? I don’t understand,” responded one of the activists.
...
“I stand with West Virginians who voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary, in all 55 counties where he won," the voter said.

“Bernie Sanders is not even a Democrat,” said Manchin

You know what, fuck it. He's literally asking for it now. Strip this fuck of his chair and force him out of the party. He's toast in 2018 and if he somehow hangs on, he's just going to switch when it's convenient for him anyway. Burn him down.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:58 PM on February 24, 2017 [35 favorites]

bees for the chin of man
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:00 PM on February 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

"Litton's 18-year-old client, whom he would not name, has previously come in contact with Homeland Security. The teen was apprehended coming into the United States from Guatemala when he was 17. He was then placed in a refugee resettlement camp. He will turn 19 on Saturday."

This kid is part of the central American minors program. He has legal status. Where the fuck is he?

Where are all the other poor people? This is such a nightmare.
posted by Tarumba at 6:01 PM on February 24, 2017 [17 favorites]

The Hill New York Times launches major ad campaign: 'The Truth'

The New York Times will run its first-ever advertising during the Academy Awards this Sunday with a spot that appears to target the Trump administration titled "The Truth."

The ad lists conflicting statements that all start with three words, "The truth is."

posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:03 PM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Like the way that the Iraq war was going to pay for itself?

"The old expression, 'to the victor belong the spoils,' you remember. I always used to say, keep the tamales. I wasn't a fan of Mexico. I didn't want to go into Mexico. But I will tell you, when we were in, we got out wrong. And I always said, in addition to that, keep the tamales. Now, I said it for economic reasons. But if you think about it, if we kept the tamales you probably wouldn't have the rapists and cartels because that’s where they made their money in the first place. So we should have kept the tamales. But okay. Maybe you'll have another chance. But the fact is, should have kept the tamales."
posted by peeedro at 6:06 PM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

My grandfather helped create Captain America for times like these.

Of all the things currently happening at Marvel's publishing division (big crossover events, movie tie-ins, de-emphasizing supers licensed to Fox for movies, hiring writers and artists from webcomics, boom in female/minority/both heroes), the most interesting/cringeworthy right now is the storyline in which the Original Captain America, who had lost his super-soldier abilities and rapidly aged to what a WWII veteran would be today (90s), was restored by a weird time traveler but with an altered backstory that made him a sleeper agent for the fascist supervillain group Hydra (so he still punched Hitler but was winking at Red Skull). So Captain America is now really a bad guy, whose badguy scheme is the next Big Crossover Event "Secret Empire" and it involves welcoming Aliens (of the not-of-this-planet variety) to invade Earth. Mmmmmkay... I hope I got that right; following these comic book arcs is hard when you WANT to read them (but then, most of that small group I WANT to read is being written by those webcomic people I told you about).

So if you're waiting for Captain America to save us, DON'T. Deadpool is more likely. Or a teamup of Spider-Man and Squirrel Girl (if they can get over their conflict about her rewriting the lyrics to his theme song). I'm just trying to figure out if the name of the invading aliens "Chitauri" is supposed to suggest one-or-more specific ethnic groups.
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:08 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

The New York Times will run its first-ever advertising during the Academy Awards this Sunday with a spot that appears to target the Trump administration titled "The Truth."

nnnngh. i understand the impulse to do this, but by directly responding to the administration in this way, they're validating the accusation that they're partisan.

i would much rather they keep the pressure on by refuting false statements clearly in their reporting than this approach.
posted by murphy slaw at 6:10 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

See a pattern?

If there's not already a distributed effort to get habeas petitions filed for every one of those people, there needs to be one, fast. Make the fuckers work.
posted by holgate at 6:11 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

> Militarized Police Just Evicted The Sioux Tribe From Standing Rock At Gunpoint

‘Absolutely False’: No Contact From Trump Administration, Archambault Says. Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II blasts Sean Spicer’s assertion about working with tribe on DAPL

Water Is Life: The Story of Standing Rock Won’t Go Away. The Dakota Access pipeline is set and oil will flow. But this is not the only fight about water, and Standing Rock is only one chapter somewhere in the middle of a long story.
posted by homunculus at 6:20 PM on February 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

Democratic congressman Jim Himes: GOP would be impeaching Clinton if she behaved like Trump
posted by homunculus at 6:34 PM on February 24, 2017 [26 favorites]

“On the Dakota Access Pipeline, a few weeks ago President Trump said he would try to negotiate a solution between the Standing Rock Sioux and Energy Transfer Partners,” a reporter asked. “Why hasn’t the President intervened and tried to initiate those negotiations yet?”

“Our team has been in contact with all the parties involved,” replied Spicer. “They have been working and communicating back and forth. So if we have an update on that—but there has been work at the staff level between the parties.”

This is patently untrue, said Archambault.

"All the parties involved". Spicer's being very obvious here - the administration doesn't consider the Sioux to be "involved". The only parties involved are the Army Corps of Engineers, and Energy Transfer Partners, a company that Trump personally holds stock in (held? Who knows! Let's see the tax returns and find out.), and which donated $100,000 to his campaign.
posted by mrgoat at 6:36 PM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

What really gets my goat about this situation is that Trump and his crew are nothing but very low level school-yard bullies. They're not jocks, they're not smart in any kind of way. They're not "popular" or "beautiful people". They are just jerk-off, bullying scumbags. They have NOTHING to offer.

I had to face a lot of people like this when I was a kid and spent most of my early years as a punching bag...until I couldn't take it anymore and against all of my upbringing, intelligence and instinct started fighting and beating the living fuck out of those people. I had to tone THAT down almost immediately because I became a fucking bully myself.

The point is that physical altercation isn't the answer here. BUT we have to figure out a way to disempower, belittle and crush these sick bastards.

That bit posted earlier about tweets from a publisher crushing Spicer is a great fucking start.

These fuckers need to be humiliated just like I did to those assholes when I was a kid.
posted by snsranch at 6:38 PM on February 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

T.D. Strange: "He's toast in 2018"

Yet Manchin has demonstrated significant crossover appeal — he won by 24 points in 2012 even as Barack Obama was losing statewide by 27 points — and Gov. Jim Justice’s (D) seven-point open-seat gubernatorial victory last year even as Trump was carrying the state by an astounding 42 points shows that Mountain State voters are still willing to split their tickets in some instances.

posted by Chrysostom at 6:38 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

But the fact is, should have kept the tamales.

Leave the wall, take the tamales?
posted by mochapickle at 6:41 PM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Yet Manchin has demonstrated significant crossover appeal — he won by 24 points in 2012 even as Barack Obama was losing statewide by 27 points

I welcome the voters of West Virginia sending him back to the Senate. If we only accept liberal Senators from blue states we're handing the Republicans a filibuster proof supermajority in perpetuity. That's simple math.
posted by Justinian at 6:44 PM on February 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

The Rude Pundit: How Much of a Sociopath Is Donald Trump? (An Ongoing Investigation)

Yesterday, Donald Trump, the president of the United States (no, really) and a swollen cantaloupe on top of an ill-tailored suit, met with representatives of several organizations who deal with the issue of human trafficking here and abroad. The meeting, we're told, was convened at the behest of Ivanka Trump. It might be something she actually gives a shit about or it might have just been a chance to make her monster of a father seem like something approximating a human.

...

But Trump's brief remarks at the event are fascinating because, as most of his speeches and remarks do, they offer another glimpse into the depth of delusion and sociopathic behavior that make up Trump's personality. In other words, goddamn, what a fucking crazy-ass idiot...

posted by homunculus at 6:46 PM on February 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

snsranch: "These fuckers need to be humiliated just like I did to those assholes when I was a kid."

During that whole "is it okay to punch a Nazi" discussion, I daydreamed about a scenario that I imagined would truly end Richard Spencer's public life: straight-up middle school bullying. Like, after punching him in the face, you pull him up in a wedgie, preferably atomic. Then, grab him in a side headlock and give him a wet willy. Then, while he's still in a headlock, walk him around in a public area like a crowded street or college quad or something, offering strangers a chance to noogie a Nazi.
posted by mhum at 6:49 PM on February 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

mhum: fuck yea!
posted by snsranch at 6:54 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

...a spot that appears to target the Trump administration titled "The Truth."
...they're validating the accusation that they're partisan.

Or just backing up the Stephen Colbert quote that "reality has a well-known liberal bias." Because something can be a joke AND a truth. That's why Al Franken (author of "The Truth (with Jokes)")bombed as a radio talk host but got elected Senator. With the current celebrity-driven society in America, I've been thinking Colbert could be the perfect candidate to face Trump if he (and the republic) survives to the next election. (Sorry Al, but Stephen is 13 years younger, and besides, Al's 1999 'humorous' novel "Why Not Me?: The Inside Story of the Making and Unmaking of the Franken Presidency" turned out to be a too-accurate predictor - or a guidebook for the Trump campaign and administration.) But since going after Trump has made his late-night TV show a growing success, that's going to be pretty hard to give up to start a campaign (as opposed to Trump, whose show's audience was disappearing when he quit).

As for the New York Times, Trump is just most upset that it's not the enabler for him it was for literally decades, including part of the 2016 campaign. If the NYT had published everything they actually knew about him over the years, he would be out of business and in a federal prison today.
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:55 PM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

I welcome the voters of West Virginia sending him back to the Senate. If we only accept liberal Senators from blue states we're handing the Republicans a filibuster proof supermajority in perpetuity. That's simple math.

As much as he pisses me off, if I could have a Manchin instead of a Grassley, Ernst or King I'd take it in a heartbeat.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:57 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

@kenvogel
FLASHBACK: @seanspicer in Dec. says Trump WH won't ban specific media outlets. "That's what makes a democracy a democracy vs a dictatorship" [video]

Spicer should have taken the advice to write down the things he believed at the start of the Trump era. He's not too far away from having to defend house-to-house ICE raids and the new Berlin Wall.
posted by jaduncan at 6:58 PM on February 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump

FAKE NEWS media knowingly doesn't tell the truth. A great danger to our country. The failing @nytimes has become a joke. Likewise @CNN. Sad!

sent by the president of the united states at 10:12 pm.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:11 PM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

FAKE NEWS media knowingly doesn't tell the truth. A great danger to our country.
That's why he hired the guy who ran the FAKEST news media as his top advisor...
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:15 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Australian childrens’ book author Mem Fox has suggested she might never to return to the US after she was detained and insulted by border control agents at Los Angeles airport.

Fox, who is famous worldwide for her best-selling books including Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes and Possum Magic, was en route to a conference in Milwaukee earlier this month when she was stopped.

She told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation she was questioned by border agents for two hours in front of a room full of people – an experience that left her feeling like she had been physically assaulted.

“I have never in my life been spoken to with such insolence, treated with such disdain, with so many insults and with so much gratuitous impoliteness,” Fox said.

“I felt like I had been physically assaulted which is why, when I got to my hotel room, I completely collapsed and sobbed like a baby, and I’m 70 years old.”

The author attributed the aggressive questioning to border police who had been “turbocharged” by Donald Trump’s proposed travel ban.

Fox said she was questioned over her visa, despite having travelled to America 116 times before without incident. She was eventually granted access to the country.
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:17 PM on February 24, 2017 [59 favorites]

Sundown + shabbos = dull, lonely old man repeating himself without knowing he's repeating himself.

Meanwhile, from the 'I never thought leopards would eat MY face' files...
posted by holgate at 7:20 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I know that the original version of Godwin's Law was a statement of probability that in any usenet discussion the probability of a comparison to Adolph Hitler approaches 1, but really, why the hell am I in the universe where the White House is using it as their playbook?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lying_press
posted by mikelieman at 7:20 PM on February 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

My aunt and cousin from Germany were planning to come visit this summer, and I just want to tell them not to come. I miss them, I love when they visit, but I feel sick with dread imagining how they might be treated by CBP. They can't pass as white, their names are obviously Middle Eastern...I can't see that things will have gotten better by summer.
posted by yasaman at 7:25 PM on February 24, 2017 [28 favorites]

Well, now it's become the Lügenpresident.
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:25 PM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

"Godwin's Law" presupposed that nobody in the discussion and nobody that was the actual subject of the discussion were actual Nazis, which unfortunately has proven to be a false premise in recent months.
posted by flatluigi at 7:25 PM on February 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

Technically Godwin's Law doesn't and has never made a claim about the legitimacy of a comparison to Hitler or Nazis, it only states that the longer an online discussion continues the closer to 1.000 the probability of such a comparison becomes.
posted by Justinian at 7:30 PM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Syrian who worked on nominated film can't attend Oscars "Khateeb was scheduled to arrive Saturday in Los Angeles on a Turkish Airlines flight departing from Istanbul. But his plans have been upended after U.S. officials reported finding 'derogatory information' against Khateeb."

This isn't the worst story, certainly, but it's just so mean.
posted by gladly at 7:32 PM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

The spokesbot response re the CBP checks at JFK:

To assist ICE, CBP requested consensual assistance from passengers aboard the flight... In the course of seeking this assistance, CBP did not compel any of these domestic passengers to show identification.

Left unanswered: what happens if someone does not consent to assist such non-compulsory ID checks on domestic flights.
posted by holgate at 7:34 PM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

I welcome the voters of West Virginia sending him back to the Senate. If we only accept liberal Senators from blue states we're handing the Republicans a filibuster proof supermajority in perpetuity. That's simple math.

You hear some people say that progressives should take a lesson from the Tea Party. The Tea Party would go into a solid red safe district and primary the Republican. So progressives say Democrats should do the same -- go into a solid red district and primary the Democrat.

Doh!
posted by JackFlash at 7:35 PM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Left unanswered: what happens if someone does not consent to assist such non-compulsory ID checks on domestic flights.

I'd find out... but I'd hand my phone and carryon to a travelling companion first.

Of course it's relatively safe for me to find out as a white guy. I wouldn't necessarily recommend someone less pale than I go first.
posted by Justinian at 7:36 PM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Also, I want to drop this anecdote here, because CBP have I guess always been assholes and it's Trump who's emboldened them to be even more assholish:

A few years ago, 2007 or 2008 maybe, my uncle was flying into LAX to visit us for the first time. He was flying on an Afghan passport, since his asylum/refugee status in Belgium hadn't been finalized yet. His flight got in okay, but it was taking a lot time for him to come out to meet us outside security, and we were getting worried. He's an older man, and his English is okay, but not great. When we approached a TSA guy (a kindly older Indian gentleman) to ask how/if we could get an update on someone in customs, he took one look at us and gave us a nice salaam alaykum and asked a couple quick questions about where he was flying from, etc. He said if we were going to go ask CBP for an update, I should go, because "she looks *vague gesture and apologetic smile* you know." The "you know" pretty clearly meant, "the most white" and "the most harmless." My brother's a lot more brown than I am, and my dad looks kind of ethnic.

I wonder how that conversation would go now. I imagine it would be worse. I don't particularly want to find out when my cousin gets detained for mouthing off to CBP because oh my god she would.
posted by yasaman at 7:45 PM on February 24, 2017 [19 favorites]

Dem senator goes on tweet storm over leaked ObamaCare repeal plan

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) blasted the leaked Republican plans for repealing and replacing ObamaCare in a Friday night tweet storm.

A draft House Republican ObamaCare bill was leaked on Friday and includes plans to dismantle the core aspects of the healthcare law and replace them with a system centered on a new tax credit.

The measure is dated Feb. 10, so it is not the most recent version of Republicans’ plan. It is unclear how much has changed since then.

Murphy starts his "rant" with a tweet saying, "Let me count thy ways that the leaked GOP ACA repeal plan will totally, completely, monumentally screw you."
He followed it with a series of tweets highlighting six parts of the draft ObamaCare repeal bill
posted by futz at 7:48 PM on February 24, 2017 [17 favorites]

I'm going to start ending all my MeFi comments with "BAM!" now. I think it adds a certain flair. BAM!

Alexis Mateo is that you???
posted by en forme de poire at 7:48 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

prize bull octorok: apiarchy is preferable to the current situation

This reminds me of one of my favorites from archy and mehitabel:

the bees got their
governmental system settled
millions of years ago
but the human race is still
groping

It seems pretty appropriate here.

Maybe we can try mailing the administration royal jelly.
posted by ragtag at 7:54 PM on February 24, 2017 [19 favorites]

As much as he pisses me off, if I could have a Manchin instead of a Grassley, Ernst or King I'd take it in a heartbeat.

I hate to break it to you guys, but Manchin will turn coats and become Grassley as soon as he feels the wind shifts. He already threatened to do it back when it looked like Dems were winning. If burning him in effigy is a lesson for the Mcaskills and Hietkamps out there, then give him what he wants before he stabs us in the back again anyway.

JOMANINOF.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:01 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Kind of a big deal: Darrell Issa goes on Bill Maher (I know, I know) and calls for Sessions to recuse himself and appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Trump/Russia.
posted by zachlipton at 8:07 PM on February 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

I hate to break it to you guys, but Manchin will turn coats and become Grassley as soon as he feels the wind shifts. He already threatened to do it back when it looked like Dems were winning.

Are you confusing Manchin with Jim Webb?
posted by Justinian at 8:10 PM on February 24, 2017

Sorry, Jim "I KILLED A MAN RAAAARAAAAWR" Webb.
posted by Justinian at 8:11 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Kind of a big deal: Darrell Issa goes on Bill Maher (I know, I know) and calls for Sessions to recuse himself and appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Trump/Russia.

Hahaha, Issa got burned when Chaffetz took his place and now a little chicken's coming home to roost.

Come on Amash, you know you've been burning to take Ryan down a peg for leaving Huelskamp out in the cold, get the Freedom Caucus knives out.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:17 PM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Issa barely won his last race and knows he's well to the right of his district. Whether he's sincere or not, he knows he has to say something.
posted by zachlipton at 8:19 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Whoever Pence has doing his @VP twitter doesn't know the difference between the flag of Nicaragua and Israel.
posted by zachlipton at 8:21 PM on February 24, 2017 [17 favorites]

Sorry, Jim "I KILLED A MAN RAAAARAAAAWR" Webb.

I would 10,000 times rather have a President who killed a man in Vietnam than a president who is likely to kill a lot of us now.
posted by corb at 8:22 PM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Yeah, Issa knows a credible, moderately-funded challenger will mean he has to return to more reputable work. Fuck him.
posted by holgate at 8:22 PM on February 24, 2017

Adding "Save us, Darrell Issa!" to the list.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:23 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

So would I, corb. So would I.
posted by Justinian at 8:23 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'd never considered it before but Jim Webb debating Trump would've been a thing of beauty.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:26 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'd choose anyone that's actually gotten their hands dirty over these silver spoon conmen and their nazi propoganda media glad-handers.
posted by valkane at 8:30 PM on February 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Too few flushes get legislative candidate thrown off ballot

pOOPS:

HARRISBURG, PA. — A Democratic candidate's run for the Pennsylvania Legislature is down the drain — partly because he used too little water at the house he claimed as his residence.

A state judge on Thursday threw Frederick Ramirez off the ballot in the race for an open House seat in Philadelphia.

The judge found that low water and electric use at the house Ramirez claimed as his residence showed he really didn't live in the district.

Aaand unfortunately...

The judge's ruling leaves just one candidate on the ballot for the March 21 special election, Republican Lucinda Little, in what is an overwhelmingly Democratic district.
posted by futz at 8:36 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

#fakenews BAM!
--@GovMikeHuckabee

Has Huck's twitter been taken over by Emiril Laghastly? No, wait, then it would be "#fakefood BAM!"
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:39 PM on February 24, 2017

I'd never considered it before but Jim Webb debating Trump would've been a thing of beauty.

So was Clinton, but so what? Credibility as the representative of a Democratic coalition was the fatal issue, and Webb was just as compromised as Clinton in that regard.
posted by Coventry at 8:39 PM on February 24, 2017

Montana Senate passes bill to allow mail-in ballot

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The Republican-led Montana Senate passed a bill Friday to allow counties to conduct this year’s expected election for U.S. House by mail, despite objections by the state GOP chairman that it would give the Democratic candidate the advantage.
[...]
Earlier this week, state Rep. Jeff Essmann, who is the Montana state Republican Chairman, sent out an “emergency report” detailing his opposition. “All mail ballots give the Democrats an inherent advantage in close elections due to their ability to organize large numbers of unpaid college students and members of public employee unions to gather ballots by going door to door,” Essmann wrote.

Good news for the odds of turning MT's house seat blue in the upcoming house election to replace Zinke, and a good sign that MT's GOP might still have enough decency not to try and suppress the vote against Tester in 2018. Some of our elected republicans have shown glimmers of sanity and bipartisanship lately (particularly regarding wanting to keep the ACA and in opposing Chaffetz's attempt to sell off public lands). Something to keep an eye on, particularly the State House vote. The fact that assholes like Essman and his national-style GOP ideology don't control the State Senate is heartening, at least.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:44 PM on February 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

Why didn't the Senate investigation into Watergate have the power to subpoena Nixon? Is that a separation of powers thing?
posted by Coventry at 8:44 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

So was Clinton, but so what? Credibility as the representative of a Democratic coalition was the fatal issue, and Webb was just as compromised as Clinton in that regard.

I think Donnie might have literally actually pissed himself on stage if he made Jim Webb mad and the thought makes me smile, that's all.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:45 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Credibility as the representative of a Democratic coalition was the fatal issue

And here I thought the fatal issue was racism and misogyny.
posted by Justinian at 8:46 PM on February 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

I'm not sure, the assumption there is that Trump underperformed a standard Republican nominee. I think it's quite possible he overperformed a standard Republican nominee among exactly that voter demographic which carried MI, WI, PA.

But we'll never know.
posted by Justinian at 8:57 PM on February 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

I'm so angry about what happened in Kansas. I have family in Texas and California and New York and I worry. Legitimately worried about them going out in public, to eat a restaurant, to sit at a bar with friends, to just be VISIBLE.

I've been on the receiving end of all kinds of bigotry and racism. I've shared some of my stories here in the past. And while they sit with me and obviously upset me, I've always shrugged them off. I was born in India, raised in Texas, and now have Canadian citizenship. I know that Canada has its own problems and that we have monsters too.

But I'm worried. This new culture of fear and distrust. I'm so angry and scared that I think about the fact that I might just make a decision to not ever travel within the United States again. Despite having family that I love and want to see. I'll let them come to me. I'm just fucking done with this kind of shit. Being hated just because we are somehow perceived as being different or other or less.

Sorry, I just needed to share these feelings. I'm shaking with rage right now. I pray for your country and for my friends and family and loved ones. I hope that there is more love than there is hate. I do take some solace in the fact that Ian Grillot stepped up and tried to do the right thing. A hero. He's healing in a hospital after being shot in the hand and the chest. And I want to be believe in his optimistic statement, “We are all humans.”

Not all of us. There are monsters.
posted by Fizz at 8:58 PM on February 24, 2017 [82 favorites]

Well, I never expected Darrell "Arson" Issa to take the front lines on this. After years following his disgraceful career, the 3rd/4th saddest thing for me on Election Day was Issa's narrow victory, but seeing his Republican majority in his district shrink so much in '16 gives me high hopes for sending him back to his car alarm company in '18. After MiloY last week, Issa seemed a massively boring but reliably right-wing guest for Maher this week. This may have actually raised my respect for Darrell from 0 to 1%, but let's see what happens when he gets back in D.C. and the Fascists get a chance to get him in a room with a waterboard. It goes without saying that my respect for Bill "Remote Control Terrorist" Maher is still at zero; he probably got this 'get' just because every other TV show went "Darrell Issa? Why bother?"

And I'll bet you thought "Darrell Issa" was a line uttered by Jar Jar in Episode 3...
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:00 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Republican lawmakers introduce bills to curb protesting in at least 18 states

I don't think Democrats would have ever attempted this fuckery. What psychological malfunction allows Repubs to not only entertain this kind of idea but act on it? It is just astounding. Not one of them stands up and says that this is an insane idea? The mind-meld is complete. Not one independent thinker in the bunch. Mavericks my ass.
posted by futz at 9:00 PM on February 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

And here I thought the fatal issue was racism and misogyny.

That would imply that it's counter-productive for women and POC generally to run for critical positions, which I don't accept as plausible.
posted by Coventry at 9:02 PM on February 24, 2017

Hey, I'm still two threads behind, but I wanted to say that the witching hour has begun on the east coast, and is spreading westward. Good luck out there, we're all counting on you.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 9:06 PM on February 24, 2017 [17 favorites]

Or 30 years of Republican ratfucking the Clintons. Really it was everything, she lost to the worst possible Republican nominee. She would've lost to any of them. She would've lost to a rotten pumpkin with a -R next to it, no matter how much she outperformed the pumpkin in the debates.

Sad thing is I don't think any of the Dems who ran would have gone the distance, the Republicans didn't have to tap into their oppo on Sanders though by all accounts they had a lot that they would throw out (I have no idea how duelling Russian allegations would have played, the "dirt" on Sanders there wasn't really dirt and especially not in comparison to Trump but the IOKIYAR factor would have played into it) and nobody else was compelling. O'Malley was telegenic but that's about it. Just a weak slate for this election, and I say that not to say that Clinton or Sanders were weak as people or politicians but that this was not the time for anybody who ran. Maybe Biden could've pulled it off but idk. Weirdly I think Obama would've crushed it when a spiritual continuation of Obama wouldn't.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:08 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

omg the last paragraph of that obamacare replacement article

In contrast to ObamaCare, the credits are not based on income, which Democrats argue means not enough help is given to low-income people to be able to afford coverage. Republicans say income-based credits discourage work.

(emphasis mine)

YES, PEOPLE WHO DON'T MAKE ENOUGH MONEY TO BUY INSURANCE WITHOUT GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE DEFINITELY NEED EXTRA INCENTIVE TO PREVENT THEM FROM LOAFING

christ, we must make the word Republican the foulest imaginable epithet and bury their policy whitepapers beneath a million tons of granite with the rest of the radioactive waste
posted by murphy slaw at 9:09 PM on February 24, 2017 [41 favorites]

>Democratic congressman Jim Himes: GOP would be impeaching Clinton if she behaved like Trump

Why this watery bullshit? They'd be impeaching her NO MATTER WHAT SHE DID. They'd be impeaching her for using the wrong fork at a formal dinner. If she behaved like Trump they'd be right to impeach her. If you're gonna call out bullshit, do it properly.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 9:11 PM on February 24, 2017 [22 favorites]

In contrast to ObamaCare, the credits are not based on income, which Democrats argue means not enough help is given to low-income people to be able to afford coverage. Republicans say income-based credits discourage work.

The central tenet of Republican philosophy is the deserving and undeserving poor, with the unfortunate addendum that if you are poor you must be undeserving because you didn't try hard enough to get rich.

In this case, if you deserved to get help, you'd be paying taxes to get the credit against.
posted by jaduncan at 9:24 PM on February 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

The fact that assholes like Essman and his national-style GOP ideology don't control the State Senate is heartening, at least.

The good-government stuff that's long been part of the big wide northern west ran into the buffers a little with the shitty, shifty override of the ethics and campaign finance proposition in SD, and the terrible stuff around NODAPL, but that's a region where I'd expect to see some pushback. (In part it's because the typical GOP "voter fraud" narrative works less well in a state that's so white, even if historically it's been used towards Native Americans.)
posted by holgate at 9:25 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

SCOTUS Reprimands Anti-LGBTQ Groups for Misgendering Trans Student Gavin Grimm

On Thursday, I asked the Supreme Court’s press office whether the clerk of the court considered the altered pronoun in the briefs’ captions to be “appropriate.” And on Friday, a spokeswoman for the court informed me that the clerk, Scott S. Harris, had sent out letters reprimanding the groups that misgendered Grimm and demanding that they comply with the rules moving forward. You can read the letters here and here.
posted by futz at 9:30 PM on February 24, 2017 [58 favorites]

From way back in the thread"

we wouldn't be getting something so obvious as a 'concentration camp' because we don't need to - we already put about 1% of our population in camps and we've been doing it for decades, they're called prisons. We are so astonishingly far and away the country with the biggest prison population in the world that it's absolutely astounding, and we use those prisoners for slave labor, and pretty much everybody thinks of this as totally ok.

Per Wikipedia: While the United States represents about 4.4 percent of the world's population, it houses around 22 percent of the world's prisoners.

The government isn't going to put people in cattle cars, they are going to put them in prison buses and many if not most Americans won't bat an eye because that's just how we do things here.

This feels so prescient. This is the scariest thing I've thought about this week.
posted by saul wright at 9:37 PM on February 24, 2017 [30 favorites]

The fact that assholes like Essman and his national-style GOP ideology don't control the State Senate is heartening, at least.

It's not clear what would be happening if money weren't a factor. For unrelated reasons, the last election went a million over budget, and this will be an election that wasn't budgeted for at all, and will likely cost another million if not done by mail. The GOP is trying to maintain their image as "fiscally responsible," and they know their take a huge hit trying to justify the costs of a full election.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 9:39 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Republicans say income-based credits discourage work.

"...Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir."
"Are there no prisons?"
"Plenty of prisons..."
"And the Union workhouses." demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?"
"Both very busy, sir..."
"Those who are badly off must go there."
"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."
"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."

posted by Justinian at 9:43 PM on February 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

"And here I thought the fatal issue was racism and misogyny."

That would imply that it's counter-productive for women and POC generally to run for critical positions, which I don't accept as plausible.

ahahhahaha nope sorry nope no. That is a beautifully done gotcha, is what I think you call that, but sorry nope it does not imply that one tiny bit. No, the logical conclusion of noticing racism and misogyny is not their targets deciding to quietly move out of public life. No, that does not follow.

Women and people of color running for critical positions continuously and without hesitation is one of a couple of things that serve to fight racism and misogyny. The word for people who only enter fixed fights they know they will win is coward, and women and people of color in this country are many things but not cowards. We keep doing it relentlessly until it is sufficiently normalized that there are women and people of color on both sides of every ballot and voters are unable to evade decisions by opting for the white guy because the white guy is no longer disproportionately represented in every election and sometimes not even there on the ballot at all.

You also fight racism and misogyny on every other front, in your spare time. is what you do, when "the fatal issue [is] racism and misogyny." The one thing you do not ever do is shuffle your women et cetera to the back of the line where they can't be seen and hated.
posted by queenofbithynia at 9:44 PM on February 24, 2017 [37 favorites]

Josh Marshall did a bit more digging on a single sentence in the NYT Sater/Cohen/Artemenko story, in reference to Cohen's wife being Ukrainian and his having used family connections to set up an ethanol business there. I'm still going with "pretty fucking thick", but that doesn't preclude pre-existing relationships with Ukrainian politicians.
posted by holgate at 9:54 PM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Josh Marshall has a new post up: There's More to the Michael Cohen Story

In short, Cohen tried to play his meeting with Artemenko and Sater as a brief courtesy because he knew Sater and nothing more. But there's an interview in the Ukranian press where Artemenko says he's known Cohen going back years to when Cohen was setting up his ethanol business in Ukraine. And that Artemenko said he had been talking to Cohen and Sater about this alleged "peace plan" (the "give up Crimea" plan) way back since the primaries; it wasn't just a one-off thing at the hotel meeting.

The problem, of course, is that neither Artemenko nor Cohen have any credibility whatsoever, but there's a pretty clear discrepancy here that points to contacts with a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician during the campaign, and if my time playing the Phoenix Wright games have taught me anything (and it has not), it's that it's always important to press people on these kinds of contradictions (and to always show your attorney's badge to everyone you meet).
posted by zachlipton at 9:55 PM on February 24, 2017 [19 favorites]

And, well, frankly, it's Josh Marshall, who has good sources, or at least a good read on the usual ones, and also unfortunately, the good sense to wring those sources dry as he generates nine stories from one. Better to wait on a Josh Marshall story than to jump on one, is what I'm saying.
posted by notyou at 10:00 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

We must click on every pixel of this and leave no branch of dialogue unfollowed.
posted by Artw at 10:01 PM on February 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

I'm just waiting for the moment when Pursuit ~ Cornered finally starts playing.

Unrelated, but this was an interesting article:
AP: US factory CEOs to Trump: Jobs exist; skills don't

Some choice quotes:

"All the CEOs are very encouraged by the pro-business policies of President Trump," Andrew Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical, said afterward outside the White House. "Some of us have said this is probably the most pro-business administration since the Founding Fathers."

We'll see how you feel about that statement in a year or so. I wonder if you have any friends in the travel industry? They might be able to give you an idea of what's in store for you.

One executive said in discussions with White House officials that his company has 50 participants in a factory apprenticeship program, but could take 500 if enough were qualified. But he said that in his experience, most students coming out of high school lack the math and English skills to absorb technical manuals.

At this point, I think y'all can make the rejoinder for me.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 10:03 PM on February 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

the Republicans didn't have to tap into their oppo on Sanders though by all accounts they had a lot that they would throw out

Trump's closing ad against Hillary Clinton was blatantly anti-Semitic. I'm pretty sure he and his merry band of neo-Nazis would've been at least as bad against an actual Jewish opponent.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:06 PM on February 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

Are we really having the "Did Clinton ever have a chance?" discussion again?

She was up against all the normal opponents and systemic sexism and a ridiculously slanted media and unprecedented Russian meddling and the FBI, yet she still won the popular vote by 3 million and lost by a relatively narrow margin of swing states. Did she make mistakes? Sure, who didn't?

This election was fucked in a lot of ways, but it wasn't fucked because of who the Democrats ran.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 10:07 PM on February 24, 2017 [82 favorites]

We were fucked from day 1, unless you posit a universe where Republicans including the FBI director act in good faith. And in that same universe unicorns shit ice cream.

If anything this has forever turned me against term limits, and maybe even the regular election cycle. Why again should we throw the entire country into upheaval every 4 years for an executive election even if the current government is broadly popular, competent and effective? Instead of when a parliamentary government falls and is replaced for actual political reasons?
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:17 PM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

his company has 50 participants in a factory apprenticeship program, but could take 500 if enough were qualified.

Well, maybe you need a fucking apprenticeship for your apprenticeship? But that would involve paying people to get them up to speed, instead of expecting them to build a little factory in their garage and get a community college certificate in advanced widgeting.

It's the perpetual wail of the 21st-century American CEO: we can't fill the positions, and no fucking way are we paying to train people up from where they are, so what can we do? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by holgate at 10:19 PM on February 24, 2017 [41 favorites]

One executive said in discussions with White House officials that his company has 50 participants in a factory apprenticeship program, but could take 500 if enough were qualified. But he said that in his experience, most students coming out of high school lack the math and English skills to absorb technical manuals.

I feel like the Trump solution to this would be to ban technical manuals.
posted by jason_steakums at 10:23 PM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

If we're playing fantasy election system should I'm going to put in getting rid of first-past-the-post as my preference. Oh, and deferring rid of all the gerrymandering.
posted by Artw at 10:27 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Exactly. Maybe the CEO doesn't think it's their job to train people on more basic skills, but if you're honestly saying that you need to fill 450 positions, stop complaining about it and start doing the training to fill the jobs. If that means you've got to teach some math and English, then so be it. Why insult the local high schools for allegedly failing to do what your company can't figure out how to do either?
posted by zachlipton at 10:28 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Why indeed.

They were expecting a lot more voter involvement, which we're getting now. Lots of it. Too much according to some. The Parliamentary versus Presidential model? I'm not seeing the difference Brexit versus Trump. The basic Democratic rules are here and there. Make noise, apply pressure, and win. We're just learning that on our side of the aisle. We should be encouraged after the past nine weeks.
posted by notyou at 10:28 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

It seems Fox News has gotten jealous of all the attention Team Trump have been getting for the last month. So they decided to do something about it.
posted by scalefree at 10:29 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

We built term limits in for a reason.

We didn't though. It was an unspoken norm started by Washington, not codified until after FDR's death (after 3.25 extremely successful and effective terms) proposed by the Republican controlled Congress. We've only had presidential term limits for 70 years, 12 presidents, only 3 of whom, Reagan, Clinton, and Obama, plausibly could've run for a third, and really, maybe just Obama. Reagan was nearly incapacitated. Clinton was popular but mired in scandal still. LBJ was the only other candidate, and definitely wasn't popular enough to have entertained another run.

Obama is our first term limited popular President, ever in our history. And look what hard term limits got us.
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:33 PM on February 24, 2017 [36 favorites]

Why again should we throw the entire country into upheaval every 4 years for an executive election even if the current government is broadly popular, competent and effective?

I'm sure you saw my quote from James Bryce a few threads back: he saw that happening over 100 years ago, back when the presidency was weaker and the foreign affairs of the US more constrained, and thought it was stupid and disruptive (and during that period, it got a couple of presidents shot): "if issues do not exist, they have to be created." Still, Bryce admitted that the presidential cycle was a "solemn periodical appeal to the nation to review its condition" and reaffirm the office.

To a European observer, weary of the slavish obsequiousness and lip-deep adulation with which the members of reigning families are treated on the eastern side of the Atlantic, fawned on in public and carped at in private, the social relations of an American president to his people are eminently refreshing. There is a great respect for the office, and a corresponding respect for the man as the holder of the office, if he has done nothing to degrade it. There is no servility, no fictitious self-abasement on the part of the citizens, but a simple and hearty deference to one who represents the majesty of the nation, the sort of respect which the proudest Roman paid to the consulship, even if the particular consul was, like Cicero, a “new man.”

Those were the days, my friend.

The problem isn't so much fixed election cycles as the lack of any constitutional mechanism to make a change of course (with completely new personnel) between them.
posted by holgate at 10:38 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

No, the logical conclusion of noticing racism and misogyny is not their targets deciding to quietly move out of public life. No, that does not follow.

There's a difference between noticing racism and misogyny, and positing it as the fatal issue, as Justinian's narrative does.
posted by Coventry at 10:45 PM on February 24, 2017

Liberal Redneck: Trump and Trans

'States' rights.' They don't care about states' rights when a state wants to let in Muslim refugees or let poor people get high, or any other number of shit that they don't like. It ain't about states' rights, it's about their need to hate somebody enough to distract them from how much they hate themselves. That's how they work, that's how they've always worked.

posted by kirkaracha at 11:09 PM on February 24, 2017 [41 favorites]

Issa: Trump-Russia probe requires a special prosecutor. There'll be a catch, there has to be.
posted by scalefree at 11:11 PM on February 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

At this point, I think y'all can make the rejoinder for me.

ummm....the unrestrained market should drive every price. except, uh, wages. [every fucking ceo]
posted by j_curiouser at 11:12 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Actually I was thinking more along the lines of "Sure would be nice if we had a Secretary of Education who was qualified and committed to improving public schools, wouldn't it," but I do like this response as well.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 11:49 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Right. We are in Bracket Time. We mostly Agree Inside, meanwhile, outside the bracket we DO NOT. So liberating. We are the most free to jump in. Let's all gang up and we don't care about anything else. This is the best time and we will all miss it later. Run forward!
posted by notyou at 12:02 AM on February 25, 2017

Gah. Can't express that. We've been bumped out of the regular time, and here we are with an opportunity to jump it ahead. And we're doing it!
posted by notyou at 12:04 AM on February 25, 2017

AG's office confirms Pruitt used private email for state business. He testified to the Senate, both in writing and orally, that he only uses his official email for state business.

Was his testimony under oath, making that perjury? Congress could theoretically hold him in contempt of Congress, I'm sure, if it wasn't controlled by Republicans.
posted by msalt at 12:08 AM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

The following is starting to gain attention from the media and politicians.

25th Amendment, Section 4:

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

Seems like a possible out, provided there are enough participants willing to participate.
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:10 AM on February 25, 2017

from arch-conservative think-tank CATO, POLICY ANALYSIS NO. 798, Terrorism and Immigration: A Risk Analysis, By Alex Nowrasteh, September 13, 2016

"...the chance of an American being murdered in a terrorist attack caused by a refugee is 1 in 3.64 billion per year..."

(i just read through the intro, no opinion on: the remaining content, the methodology, conclusions, recommendations)
posted by j_curiouser at 12:23 AM on February 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

But can leaked info be used in court? I'm guessing not, but I would love to be wrong.

Perhaps. Self admissions in discovery are the best and you could use the reports as the answer to a Judge claiming you are going on a fishing expedition.

Once in the paper/on the web it is considered "public knowledge" and "published" depending on what slice of a decision you want to try and take. And it's best if the other side doesn't move to fight its admission.
posted by rough ashlar at 1:01 AM on February 25, 2017

Was his testimony under oath, making that perjury?

Doesn't even need to be. 18 USC 1001 makes it a crime to fib to the feds about anything 'material'.

It's how Martha Stewart got sent up.
posted by mikelieman at 4:42 AM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

The central tenet of Republican philosophy is the deserving and undeserving poor, with the unfortunate addendum that if you are poor you must be undeserving because you didn't try hard enough to get rich.

In this case, if you deserved to get help, you'd be paying taxes to get the credit against.

It's pretty in-your-face, isn't it? It's unsubtle because they don't have to be. Democrats have a much more clever philosophy that it is a travesty if even one middle class or wealthy person benefits from a government program, so everything must be means-tested. So of course you, poor person, are entitled to these great benefits! I just need you to fill out these reams of paperwork proving your income and you will be liable for paying back any of the balance if that rises in the future. Gosh, look at all the people not using our program, guess we can book that as budget savings!

They did this with the ACA (hey look, tax credits again!), Hillary borrowed Bernie's free college proposal and changed it to exclude a trivial number of high income families, they would means test our Social Security if they thought we'd let them get away with it.
posted by indubitable at 5:13 AM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

CATO is libertarian, so already predisposed to be in favor of more open borders.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:31 AM on February 25, 2017

If anything this has forever turned me against term limits, and maybe even the regular election cycle. Why again should we throw the entire country into upheaval every 4 years for an executive election even if the current government is broadly popular, competent and effective? Instead of when a parliamentary government falls and is replaced for actual political reasons?

As a Canadian I can tell you why term limits are important because we don't have them. Imagine if either party had unlimited time to consolidate its power. Typically Canadian federal governments fall due to self-inflicted over-reach scandals. Think Illinois/Chicago politics levels of dysfunction but on a national level.

American federal governance can be frustrating due to the checks and balances that are designed to make things slow and cumbersome but as we see these days that is sometimes a great feature that prevents disaster. If you had a parliamentary system like Canada's you could be looking at 12-15 years of Trump with unchecked authority as long as he maintained his party's loyalty (and so far the Republicans do seem absurdly loyal).
posted by srboisvert at 5:54 AM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Rep Bob Goodlatte can't make it to a constituent-organized town hall, so they have a cardboard cutout stand in for him.

Rep Barbara Comstock skips her citizen's town hall: "That woman would show up to an opening of an envelope so that fact that she would not show up tonight is incredibly insulting to me and to all of us."
posted by peeedro at 5:58 AM on February 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

Trump’s taunts are stirring a level of nationalism Mexico hasn’t seen in years (Washington Post)

For Mexicans, the problem is not merely the wall. They know their country is poorer, more violent and less law-abiding than the United States. If Trump had announced plans for tougher border security, many Mexicans would have understood, even as they criticized him.

But when they hear Trump boasting he will make Mexico pay for the wall, and the wild cheering in response, they recognize an unmistakable attempt to humiliate them. It is American nationalism at Mexico’s expense, and it stings in a deep, atavistic way, like a childhood bully coming back to beat you up again.

posted by kingless at 5:59 AM on February 25, 2017 [49 favorites]

She was up against all the normal opponents and systemic sexism and a ridiculously slanted media and unprecedented Russian meddling and the FBI, yet she still won the popular vote by 3 million and lost by a relatively narrow margin of swing states. Did she make mistakes? Sure, who didn't?

This election was fucked in a lot of ways, but it wasn't fucked because of who the Democrats ran.

I 75% agree with you except Hillary lost almost exactly the same way to Obama. I think Hillary is at fault for being consistently poor at the technical side of electoral strategy. Either she or whomever advises her is consistently bad at this. She is like an NFL owner who hires a coach who almost wins games but blows them via poor clock management. She needs to find a Bill Belichick but instead hires a Marv Levy.
posted by srboisvert at 6:03 AM on February 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

The DNC meeting/voting starts in about 30 mins; here's a link to the livestream. The blog DemRulz (Frank Leone, rules committee member) has a bunch of details on all of the positions and candidates as well as the agendas and committee meeting schedules.
posted by melissasaurus at 6:05 AM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump: The media has not reported that the National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion vs a $200 billion increase in Obama first mo.

The media hasn't reported it because Congress is in charge of the federal budget, and you haven't so much as written one, let alone gotten one passed and signed it. We're not even at a Schoolhouse Rock-level of understanding here.
posted by zachlipton at 6:08 AM on February 25, 2017 [85 favorites]

She is like an NFL owner who hires a coach who almost wins games but blows them via poor clock management.

It was already bad enough being a Democrat and an Eagles fan without combining the two.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 6:08 AM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Can we not with why Hillary lost again?
posted by fluttering hellfire at 6:12 AM on February 25, 2017 [40 favorites]

NYT: Hate Crime Is Feared as 2 Indian Engineers Are Shot in Kansas. Before the shooting, according to one of the victims, the gunman asked what visa they were on and whether they were in the country illegally.

WaPo: ‘Everyone’s nervous’: Some students in India rethink U.S. study plans after Kansas shooting. The world is watching.
posted by zachlipton at 6:16 AM on February 25, 2017 [20 favorites]

I wonder if Trump could explain the difference between the debt and the deficit in one tweet
posted by thelonius at 6:21 AM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

The DAPL link upthread is a wee bit on the nose.

I don't think I've seen this level of police militarization. The odd tank, all-black riot gear, yeah. Fleets of desert-sand colored humvee tanks (turrets, anyway), snipers, desert-camo gear with "sherriff" stitched on, helicopters (not pictured, assumed black), and - presumably - hellfire-missile-armed drones (not pictured, not mentioned, not possible, nothing to see here).

It would seem the Upedness just got Fucked a notch. Or two. Tin soldiers and ICE is comin'
posted by petebest at 6:37 AM on February 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

For Mexicans, the problem is not merely the wall.

Are we going to build 900 miles of wall down the middle of a sandy bottomed river or fence Americans away from the Rio Grande by putting the wall on our side of the river? There's a lot to worry about when your neighbor has the political equivalent of a psychotic break.
posted by ridgerunner at 6:39 AM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

There's a lot to worry about when your neighbor has the political equivalent of a psychotic break.

No worries, Ambassador Conan is smoothing things over.
posted by peeedro at 6:44 AM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Are we going to build 900 miles of wall

I'm think nothing more than failed prototypes ( at incredible expense ) are going to come from this.

5 or 10 mile stretches.

If I'm wrong, hey, I have a background in Construction and IT, so DJT, WHERE IS MY FUCKING JOB?
posted by mikelieman at 6:47 AM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't think I've seen this level of police militarization.

Its just a reminder that Sand Creek was local forces, no Army needed.
posted by ridgerunner at 7:01 AM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm think nothing more than failed prototypes ( at incredible expense ) are going to come from this.

And Trump and the GOP will trot out endless photo-ops of these tiny sections, cheer about fulfilled campaign promises, and their base will believe that the tiny little section of prototype wall extends fully from Gulf to Pacific.

I hope they don't get that far.
posted by tybstar at 7:14 AM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Headed in a bit to a town hall that we are having for Steven Palazzo, US House of Representatives. He is considered conservative by MISSISSIPPI standards (and he's a Steve), so you know he's a nasty piece of work. I don't know what his stand-in will be. I'm hoping for a ficus.
posted by thebrokedown at 7:30 AM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

GOP grapples with how to handle town halls:

“There are, in my opinion, a significant number of congressmen who are being impacted by these kinds of protests and their spine is a little bit weak," conservative Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) told a local radio station, according to CNN.

“And I don't know if we're going to be able to repeal Obamacare now because these folks who support Obamacare are very active,” he continued, “they're putting pressure on congressman and there's not a counter-effort to steel the spine of some of these congressmen in tossup districts around the country.”

It's making a difference, and people need to keep showing up.

It's clear to me, as the article suggests, that that the right way for GOP politicians to handle town halls is to show up, answer questions, and remain calm, but a lot of them seem constitutionally incapable of doing that.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:35 AM on February 25, 2017 [64 favorites]

Trump's Potential Science Adviser Will Happer: Carbon Dioxide Demonized Just Like "Poor Jews Under Hitler"

Kinda sums up the socio-political moment, doesn't it? Also we're all gonna die.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:39 AM on February 25, 2017 [40 favorites]

Trump's Potential Science Adviser Will Happer: Carbon Dioxide Demonized Just Like "Poor Jews Under Hitler"

(we're all gonna die)

Just when I think I can stop drinking bourbon...
posted by mikelieman at 7:40 AM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Trump's Potential Science Adviser Will Happer: Carbon Dioxide Demonized Just Like "Poor Jews Under Hitler"

Welp, you expected a Trump Science adviser to be dumb and offensive, but wow. And encompassing Trumps antisemitic concerns with that crack is really a net trick, great way to put a nazi cherry on top.
posted by Artw at 7:44 AM on February 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

First they came for the carbon dioxide, and I said nothing, for I was a human being. Then we didn't all die.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:47 AM on February 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

On exhibit in the halls of CPAC: The Forgotten Man, an allegorical painting depicting a leather-jacket-and-mom-jeans clad white male in despair on a bench, with Obama trampling the Constitution nearby.

An article in the Guardian reports that Sean Hannity bought the painting for later presentation to Trump as an addition to the White House.

“He’s the one that has been left out .. our fellow citizens forgotten, like that guy on the bench. That’s what this is about.” (Hannity).
posted by Gordion Knott at 7:47 AM on February 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

"Look! This privileged white male has got everything but he still feels like a fucking loser! Just like you Donny!"
posted by Artw at 7:50 AM on February 25, 2017 [37 favorites]

In our post factual reality, the Venusian infiltrators no longer feel the need to conceal their terraforming efforts.

[stannis] Veneraforming. [/stannis]
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:51 AM on February 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

an allegorical painting depicting a leather-jacket-and-mom-jeans clad white male in despair on a bench, with Obama trampling the Constitution nearby.

That's just asking for a Keanu is Sad photoshop job.
posted by peeedro at 7:52 AM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Pretty high chance it's photoshopped from something in the first place, this being repubs.
posted by Artw at 7:55 AM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

"How do we know if Putin is popular?"

"Well, anyone who says otherwise is dead."

Well, then let's borrow the ouija board from the constitutional originalists and ask them!
posted by C'est la D.C. at 7:56 AM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

CSPAN livestream of DNC meeting
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 7:56 AM on February 25, 2017

And of course, the president's latest whine is based on Herman Cain (repeating something he saw on the Internet) on Fox and Friends.

man fuck this timeline
posted by murphy slaw at 7:57 AM on February 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

> Obama is our first term limited popular President, ever in our history.
> man fuck this timeline
You should come over to the timeline where term limits never made it past a gentlemen's agreement that was considered outmoded when Obama ran for a 3rd time. It's great here. I just load up on absinthe, squinch my eyes closed real tight & and poof.
posted by ASCII Costanza head at 8:05 AM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

please, tell me tales of the legendary obama-trump debates
posted by murphy slaw at 8:07 AM on February 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

The Times editorial staff responds to the administration locking them out of the briefing yesterday.

Rather than lashing out, they take the opportunity to tease the administration about what a clown shoes move it was.
posted by murphy slaw at 8:12 AM on February 25, 2017 [37 favorites]

The construction of border barriers increased in the early 2000s; half of all the border barriers built since World War II ended in 1945 were built after 2000.[3]

posted by ASCII Costanza head at 8:14 AM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Just like Jews under Hitler

Now that is the mother of all Godwins.
posted by spitbull at 8:14 AM on February 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

it occurs to me that this may be the stupidest possible administration, because if they were any stupider, they wouldn't be able to fill out the forms to participate in the election.
posted by murphy slaw at 8:16 AM on February 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

You know, I take that back, I think Bill Clinton could've won a third term against W too. He left office with 65% approval.

So. Yea. I'll withhold judgment on regular elections, but fuck term limits. They've twice forced us into essentially pointless elections between two unpopular options while a popular and effective President was prevented from running, resulting in by far the two worst Presidents in US history and a minimum of 12 years of national disaster, unprovoked wars, and quite likely the end of the union.

All because Republicans didn't like losing to FDR. And didn't like FDR actually helping the poor.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:17 AM on February 25, 2017 [23 favorites]

On exhibit in the halls of CPAC: The Forgotten Man, an allegorical painting depicting a leather-jacket-and-mom-jeans clad white male in despair on a bench, with Obama trampling the Constitution nearby.

I see the artist is confused as to whether Whigs and Democratic-Republicans belong on the 'evil' side of the painting.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:19 AM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Here is a link to the website for John McNaughton the artist of the painting. He does patriotic paintings and religious paintings. I'm pretty sure his "One Nation Under God" painting came up for discussion before on the blue.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 8:20 AM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

it occurs to me that this may be the stupidest possible administration, because if they were any stupider, they wouldn't be able to fill out the forms to participate in the election.

Yeah, about that...
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 8:21 AM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

we must get someone in the press pool to ask trump how much a dozen eggs costs
posted by murphy slaw at 8:23 AM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

MCCAIN THE ELDER AT POMPEII

The men, women, and children of Pompeii can rest assured that I have voiced my firm objection to the thousand-foot-high dark gray column of pulverized stone that just exploded into the sky. As always, I’m not afraid to call it like I see it. Thousand-foot-high columns of stone are how city-erasing tragedies get started. You’d have to be pretty foolish to look at that thing and act like nothing’s wrong. What? No, I am not calling for evacuation. See, I’m working some behind-the-scenes angles to deal with the giant doom spire. Wish me luck!
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:30 AM on February 25, 2017 [29 favorites]

Brietbart CEO reveals that Trump donors are part owners

Breitbart News CEO Larry Solov confirmed Friday that the Mercer family – GOP mega-donors and key backers of President Trump's campaign – are part owners of the right-wing news site, according to multiple reports.
[...]
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the Mercers bought a 50 percent stake in Breitbart in 2011.

Robert Mercer is a hedge fund manager who has donated millions to conservative campaigns and causes. He, along with his daughter Rebekah Mercer, were strong supporters of Trump's 2016 campaign.

The father-daughter pair were influential in Trump’s staffing choices and other decisions during his presidential bid, and Rebekah Mercer worked on the real estate mogul’s presidential transition team.

posted by flatluigi at 8:30 AM on February 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

we must get someone in the press pool to ~~ask trump how much~~ throw a dozen eggs ~~costs~~

I'm happy NYT got shut out. Okay, not happy as such, but they did as much to get us here as anyone and this lukewarm OMG-ing needs to get serious and fast. I doubt it will, because - well, we're here, aren't we NYT? Great work you done on the horserace there. It was a real goddamned nailbiter.

Getting Trumpshamed by The Spiceytime Follies is nothing.
posted by petebest at 8:34 AM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

As a (naïve) teenager when the Berlin wall fell, I never got why people tried to get to the West there when the GDR/DDR border was so much larger. Turns out it was heavily patrolled.
The construction of border barriers increased in the early 2000s; half of all the border barriers built since World War II ended in 1945 were built after 2000

Yes, one of the reasons that border fences are more popular now is that defence budgets are lower. The fear of infiltration used to drive expenditure and patrols designed to catch even military border crossers so immigrants got caught up in an already paid for security zone. Now you'd have to pay, so cheap fencing it is.
posted by jaduncan at 8:34 AM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Salon Alt-right is a left-wing plot, say some conservatives — but they can’t run from it forever

This is an interesting read because the conservative Right has not yet figured out how to handle the alt-Right. For example there is the denial that it even exists:

During the just-concluded presidential campaign, popular talk radio host Sean Hannity claimed to have never heard of the alt-right. He implied that the whole thing was just a strategy cooked up by strategists for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton:

What is this alt-right thing that they’ve come up with? A new name to describe anybody that’s a conservative who actually believes we ought to have borders?

Then there are those who blame the media for covering the alt-Right and in doing so elevating it

“You know what else isn’t going to work?” Reaboi wrote by email. “The moron reporters who cover and amplify every fart of [the alt-right]. These BuzzFeed, Tablet and Daily Beast twits may as well be on the AltRight payroll. . . . This amplification has got to stop; it undermines any effort to combat them.”

That is ignoring the fact that Bannon is installed the WH and Breitbart is front row of the WH press briefings.

The scary thing is that the alt-Right, and specifically Milo, has a very attractive message to young white Christian males

That’s why all the good little Christians at my high school are falling in behind him — not because they actually give a crap about conservatism but because he’s giving angry, aimless young men whose church hasn’t given them anything solid to fall back on an alternate source of values that happens to be steeped in fascist and white supremacist ideals. It’s just as absorbed in identity politics as any social-justice movement on the left is, except focused on white men and not LGBT people.

This is their struggle not ours, we can only watch and wait to see if the GOP repudiates White Nationalism or if the alt-Right takes over the party.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 8:36 AM on February 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

The media hasn't reported it because Congress is in charge of the federal budget, and you haven't so much as written one, let alone gotten one passed and signed it. We're not even at a Schoolhouse Rock-level of understanding here.

"...but if Trump tweets that stat this morning, you know where he got it."
posted by effbot at 8:40 AM on February 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

"wait to see" what? Alt-Reich ate the party whole last summer. You can still see some of the outline of John McCain in there.
posted by petebest at 8:40 AM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

This is their struggle not ours, we can only watch and wait to see if the GOP repudiates White Nationalism or if the alt-Right takes over the party.

Too late for that, they've already chosen. Republicans are the party of Trump. The party of white nationalism. The party of Milo. Trump's takeover of conservatism is complete.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:40 AM on February 25, 2017 [18 favorites]

at the end of the Nixon administration, were there months and months of people asking themselves "HOW is he still president?"
posted by murphy slaw at 8:41 AM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump -- Maybe the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN should have their own rally. It would be the biggest of them all!

‏@SenSanders (Bernie Sanders) -- .@realDonaldTrump They did. It wasn't.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:48 AM on February 25, 2017 [78 favorites]

Bern!
posted by petebest at 8:49 AM on February 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

Whenever someone posts a picture of tattooed numbered wrists with "never again" I just think "well yeah, they're going to use rfid chips this time"
posted by OverlappingElvis at 8:49 AM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

No, I disagree. I think the conservative party has held their noses and grudgingly supported Trump and his alt-Right baggage but I have yet to hear Ryan or McConnell espousing any White Nationalist ideas. They are still trying not to get themselves too dirty as they ride on the back of this shitty pig but I get the feeling that they will quickly wash themselves off and pretend it never happened once Trump is out.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 8:50 AM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

It seems like they want to make the alt-right Richard Spencer and exhale him in particular, keeping Milo, Bannon and the rest. Spencer is presumably singled out for the crime of making them look weak by getting punched so much, since it's not like there's much distance in terms of rhetoric or policy.
posted by Artw at 8:52 AM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Liberal activism has roused a sleeping giant: well-to-do middle-aged women.

A Trump voter’s message to retailers: ‘Keep your mouths shut about our president’ (WaPo)

“If the company feels like they can hurt the daughter of a president by doing something like this, that’s mean,” said Carson, who voted for Trump. “I feel very strongly about that.”

A week earlier, Carson had driven to the nearby Nordstrom and returned her store credit card. She’d had that card since 1988, she told the manager, and had used it to buy at least one St. John suit a year — price tag, roughly $1,400 — for decades.

“I said to her, ‘You all really are the best store in the area,’ ” recalled Carson, who lives in Vienna, Va. “ ‘It’s a shame you couldn’t keep your mouths shut about our president.’ ”
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:58 AM on February 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

U.S. agency seeks ideas for Trump's proposed border wall (Reuters, Feb 24, 2017)

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said on Friday it will accept proposals next month for the design of a wall to be built near the U.S.-Mexican frontier, a first step in picking vendors for President Donald Trump's proposed border wall.

In a document on the federal government's website for business opportunities, the CPB said it would release a request on or about March 6 asking companies for prototype ideas for a wall to be built near the U.S.-Mexican border.

After reviewing the ideas submitted by vendors, the agency will evaluate and select the best designs by March 20, then issue a request for proposals by March 24 in which vendors would be asked to price out the cost of building the proposed wall.

The document says multiple awards for the barrier are expected by mid-April as part of the process, an aggressive schedule for a government construction project.

Two articles on the hurdles this process will face, from NPR on Feb. 23, 2017:
* Border Wall Would Cut Across Land Sacred To Native Tribe (south of Tuscon, AZ)
* Landowners Likely To Bring More Lawsuits As Trump Moves On Border Wall (focus on Texas)
posted by filthy light thief at 9:00 AM on February 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

I've found just the place for Trump's megaMAGA rally...
posted by Devonian at 9:03 AM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

filthy light thief: @realDonaldTrump -- Maybe the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN should have their own rally. It would be the biggest of them all!

... and this was posted FIVE HOURS AGO. A month into his presidency, and he's still obsessing about his (low) popularity. Get back to work, dude.

And stop watching Fox for your facts.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:07 AM on February 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Trump's Potential Science Adviser Will Happer

Why do all these people look like fucking Skeletor?
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 9:10 AM on February 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

If a Menger sponge wall had zero volume but nonzero surface area, does that mean the materials would be free?
posted by Huffy Puffy at 9:16 AM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

As part of my self-care during these turbulent times, I bought several years worth of old National Geographic-- one year per decade. It's been fun and easy reading and the advertisements are fascinating. The main article in the October 1939 issue ("Book your round-the-world cruise for 1940 today!") is "Down the Rio Grande." It follows the course of the Rio Grande for 48 pages with 28 photographs and 6 maps. There is only one picture of a fence. The photograph is a ratty old chain link gate titled "It's my job to lock up the United States every night and hang on to the key!" In the picture is a fat old guard putting a padlock on the gate that covers the International Railway Bridge at Laredo, Texas. In the copy underneath it says, "Promptly at midnight, an American customs guard locks it, and no trains may pass till next morning."

Much more of the article is devoted to the people and places on both sides of the river and something of the history. For example another photograph, "Ranchers, traders, bandits and smugglers freely ford the stream in the thinly peopled Big Bend country of Texas"

For hundreds of miles here no large settlements exist. Customs and immigration patrols are few and far between. Food is scarce in this empty wilderness; so by tacit consent, scattered local residents come and go across the border, with little official interference.

One problem with using a river as your boundary is that rivers change course.

But this reckless river river often shifted its channel; people settled near it found themselves first living in Mexico, then in the United States, and vice versa.
To keep the peace in disputed areas, and rectify the border, an International Boundary Commission was set up 1889. Another treaty in 1933, provided for taking kinks out of the river, and for new levees.

Finally I want to quote from one last photograph

In Zapata County, scene of this cow ranch marriage, Mexicans control elections. Texas has some 687,000 residents of Mexican origin, says the 1930 census. All Rio Grande towns, from Taos and Santa Fe down to El Paso, Laredo, etc., are bilingual and Mexican in character.

posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 9:24 AM on February 25, 2017 [24 favorites]

Liberal activism has roused a sleeping giant: well-to-do middle-aged women.
A Trump voter’s message to retailers: ‘Keep your mouths shut about our president’ (WaPo)

Fuck these privileged white women and their fucking $1400/ monthly Nieman Marcus purchases and their fucking non-contributing lives. Just fuck them.

(Sorry, have nothing more cogent or less emotional to say.)
posted by NorthernLite at 9:27 AM on February 25, 2017 [26 favorites]

Why are they surprised that people have different opinions than them? Why are they hurt by it?

Decades of right-wing propaganda declaring that the only "real Americans" are the ones who agree with them, anyone who disagrees is illegitimate, probably lying, definitely not American, and very few in number.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:28 AM on February 25, 2017 [23 favorites]

Don't be surprised that people who are wired toward rigid authoritarianism (in their religion, their politics, their personal lives) can't stomach that everyone else doesn't march in lockstep with them.
posted by NorthernLite at 9:31 AM on February 25, 2017 [31 favorites]

Fuck these privileged white women and their fucking $1400/ monthly Nieman Marcus purchases and their fucking non-contributing lives. Just fuck them.

It wasn't a month. It was a year. $1400 a year at a clothing store? Let me show you to our "I don't give a fuck" aisle.
posted by Talez at 9:32 AM on February 25, 2017 [30 favorites]

If I was the store manager or whoever handled her complaint..I would have said "Oh I am so sorry you feel that way. I'll tell you what I'll do, I'll make a donation to ACLU in your name! God bless! PS thanks for buying our overpriced suits for so long. Buh bye now! There's the door!"
posted by ian1977 at 9:36 AM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Counterpoint re: sleeping giant of well-to-do middle aged women. I know a number of Nordstrom shoppers in the DC area who were in the letter-writing campaign to get them to drop her, and pointedly went and spent a bunch of money at Nordstrom specifically as "thanks for dropping Ivanka" gesture. They're also the ones leading a lot of resistance organizing in their local districts. I'm not saying shopping is the best form of political speech, but don't get into the trap of thinking "all Nordstrom shoppers/upperclass white women are Trumpists" -- especially in the DC area, where overwhelmingly those people are highly educated, affiliated with government in some way, invested in the integrity of institutions, and know exactly how corrupt/unconstitutional his garbage is. (I'm not doubting the veracity of this story but offering perspective beyond "fuck them all".)
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:37 AM on February 25, 2017 [66 favorites]

Liberal activism has roused a sleeping giant: well-to-do middle-aged women.

The woman who is profiled is 77, so she's not really middle-aged. And that article doesn't have a lot of hard numbers, but my guess is that upscale retailers in the D.C. suburbs are a lot more worried about pissing off liberal shoppers than conservative ones.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:38 AM on February 25, 2017 [30 favorites]

It's clear to me, as the article suggests, that that the right way for GOP politicians to handle town halls is to show up, answer questions, and remain calm, but a lot of them seem constitutionally incapable of doing that.

My own Trumpist representative followed the tack of "let's all be civil here" and "both sides do it" rhetoric, remained unrattled and still got a lot of hearty boos from a standing-room-only crowd at more than one of his town hall meetings. Putting a smile on their face while telling people to eat a shit sandwich isn't going to work for the Republicans, either. Not even in "safe" precincts like York County.
posted by indubitable at 9:43 AM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Man, when I spend a hundred dollars on a blazer so my students don't mistake me for a hobo, I feel like Thurston Howell. If I had a 1400 dollar article of clothing it'd have to have like spinning rims and a spoiler.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 9:44 AM on February 25, 2017 [64 favorites]

Fuck these privileged white women and their fucking $1400/ monthly Nieman Marcus purchases and their fucking non-contributing lives. Just fuck them.

I found it very interesting that the writer included a ~~woman~~ hoarder who tried to boycott TJ Maxx but could not give up her addiction to shopping. She spends $1000/month on junk from TJ Maxx. I can't even imagine what the interior of her home must look like. Her closets! That this person was one of only four people profiled makes me think this so-called movement is not very substantial. Note, too, that 2 of the women are registered Democrats who voted for Trump including 77 year old Mary Carson, the $1400/yr Neiman Marcus shopper.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 9:45 AM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I'd say that well over 50% of the newly-activated activists that I encounter are middle aged (or recently retired) middle class white women. It's not always awesome because intersectionality and this brand of white woman not exactly having a great history of being champions for racial and economic justice, but on the other hand, you can't learn how to do better if you don't show up in the first place and they are definitely showing up.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:46 AM on February 25, 2017 [31 favorites]

I went from ten years as a struggling substitute teacher to successful indie writer. My income went from barely $32k in a good year to reliably crossing six digits. When some friends had a wedding coming up, I decided I should finally get myself a decent suit or two after having only one for like ten years. The final price tag for that shopping spree was like $600 and I felt like I was being extravagant.

I'm privileged enough to be making a good living now and I still can't understand the idea of a $1400 suit, let alone a new one every year. Who does that?
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:52 AM on February 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

That Nordstrom piece is the WaPo's equivalent of a NYT Life & Style section, and it's important to read it in that context: it's fluffy local news about the local gentry in the company town of politics, and in this case, it's more "Real Housewives of DC" (e.g. Edwina Rogers wrapping presents in uncut sheets of dollar bills) than representative of... anything.
posted by holgate at 9:53 AM on February 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

It's important to have a nice $1400 suit to wear for when you go $1400 suit shopping.
posted by ian1977 at 9:56 AM on February 25, 2017 [21 favorites]

Regarding the baffling authoritarianism of the 77-year old clothes shopper: when she was 7 years old, Truman was president. That era's level of kneejerk patriotism and respect for the office of the presidency just after WW2 (T had a 90-something% approval early on) was formative for her. Not to give her the benefit of the doubt at all because of this; I'm aware that many 77 year olds aren't authoritarians and it's not an excuse to be a shithead. But generational/cultural stuff does play into baseline levels of authoritarianism and it's worth keeping in mind.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:03 AM on February 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

All that respect for the dignity of the office sure seems to vary depending on the office-holder's skin color.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:08 AM on February 25, 2017 [55 favorites]

but if you're honestly saying that you need to fill 450 positions, stop complaining about it and start doing the training to fill the jobs.

They're not going to do that. Training is expensive and nobody wants to train anyone any more for anything. Why can't everyone come just perfect and already cooked with a master's degree and willing to work for 8$/hour?
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:08 AM on February 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

Note, too, that 2 of the women are registered Democrats who voted for Trump including 77 year old Mary Carson, the $1400/yr Neiman Marcus shopper.

I don't think she's a registered Democrat, for what it's worth. She said that she used to be a Democrat. She's a wealthy 77-year-old Virginian: of course she used to be a Democrat. Everyone like her used to be a Democrat. She's been voting Republican since at least Reagan, and probably before.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 10:11 AM on February 25, 2017 [23 favorites]

I don't understand it. Why are they surprised that people have different opinions than them? Why are they hurt by it?

Because they are fundamentally cowards.

These are fearful people. Not all fearful people become monsters, but the ones who hook up with sadistic bullies do. And we've got a lot of them.
posted by schadenfrau at 10:11 AM on February 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

I'd say that well over 50% of the newly-activated activists that I encounter are middle aged (or recently retired) middle class white women. It's not always awesome because intersectionality and this brand of white woman not exactly having a great history of being champions for racial and economic justice, but on the other hand, you can't learn how to do better if you don't show up in the first place and they are definitely showing up.

I do wonder how much of that's because they've been a sleeping dragon, and how much of that is because the way some of the political activity started up (mostly splintering from the secret PSN group) was composed of white women. I suspect many of the middle class white women who are getting involved actually do have some experience with political activism -- I know my mother was involved (sporadically) in protests against the Vietnam War.

That said, I've attended two meetings at my local Women's Political Caucus so far, and both have had the following exchange (paraphrased):

"I'm concerned about diversity. Almost everyone here is white! Why don't you have outreach? Why don't you have (fill in the blank)? Why are we meeting in (privileged part of town) rather than in a racially mixed neighborhood?"

"Six months ago, we had WAY fewer members. Our members were also a lot more diverse.(*) We don't have a large outreach program because we're still reeling from the increase in membership and because we didn't have the resources in the past. We're meeting in the (privileged part of town) because this is where we can find space for a 100+ member meeting on short notice. Would you like to help with this?"

I do worry that people are going to try to schism again. I've seen this in multiple contexts, but secular institutions have a tendency to be reinvented every few decades rather than be sustained, and I think it's easier to start with an imperfect group which has some idea of what we ought to be doing rather than trying to start from the ground up just to remain entirely on the side of the angels. (The state chapter of the League of Women Voters is apparently planning to be *heavily* involved in forthcoming challenges to voter ID laws. The average age of the organizers also seems to be around 70+. Our women's political caucus was apparently where Claire McCaskel - who may not be perfect but is a Democrat in Missouri - got started.)

(*) More diverse racially. I get the impression they were also older. I don't think they've lost anyone since then, just gained a TON more people.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 10:11 AM on February 25, 2017 [18 favorites]

Immigration Agents Discover New Freedom to Deport Under Trump: Gone are the Obama-era rules that required them to focus only on serious criminals. In Southern California, in one of the first major roundups during the Trump administration, officers detained 161 people with a wide range of felony and misdemeanor convictions, and 10 who had no criminal history at all.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:12 AM on February 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

She's a wealthy 77-year-old Virginian: of course she used to be a Democrat. Everyone like her used to be a Democrat.

I imagine she changed parties sometime around 1965 or so.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 10:15 AM on February 25, 2017 [24 favorites]

The 77 year old is a narrow-minded old lady who doesn't even like the President and refuses to discuss his policies but does think he should have his mouth washed out with soap. She also writes off the entire Woman's March because they are "pro-abortion." Plus she demanded an offensive T-shirt be removed from a store window at the mall and when the manager said "No" she asked the mall manager to force the issue. She isn't anybody leading movement, she is just a busy body with nothing better to do.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 10:16 AM on February 25, 2017 [32 favorites]

I still can't understand the idea of a $1400 suit

I can, though it tells its own story.

My dad, who grew up in a working-poor British household, was able to get a nice out-on-the-town suit as a teenager c. 1960 by paying a little bit out of his weekly wage to the tailor's shop for a year. I don't know if it would have cost the equivalent of $1400 in today's money, but it wouldn't have been that far off. A decent business suit in the US in 1960 cost about a week's average wage (for a man in a male-dominated workforce). It would have been made as daily office armour, not for fashion, to be sent to the tailor for alterations and repairs. And weekly payments would have been available.

There are more things to buy these days, but had wages not stagnated for the bulk of working people over past decades, while the rich get ever richer on unearned wealth, the same equation would probably apply.
posted by holgate at 10:27 AM on February 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

The thing about term limits is that they both get rid of good people and bad people. We need to have a way to be able to get rid of bad people, and that's more of a priority than making sure we keep good people. For example: unless/until Trump overturns the Constitution to declare himself god-emperor for life, the only hope we have for sure that he'll be out of office in 8 years is term limits. Of course, that's assuming he'd respect the law HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:28 AM on February 25, 2017

The old lady is just suffering from economic anxiety, we should have empathy for her.
posted by Artw at 10:30 AM on February 25, 2017 [20 favorites]

“I could not believe the reasons they were doing this,” she said. “It was like, you know, pro-abortion — and I’m sorry, I’m Catholic, I’m a little religious and old-fashioned.”

I mean, this is just ignorant. Try a little harder, lady.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:34 AM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I don't understand it. Why are they surprised that people have different opinions than them? Why are they hurt by it?

I am sure there many different factors at play but for a lot of people, the existence of people with opposite opinions means you might be wrong about something. If you feel strongly about that something and/or consider it a core part of your being than you might get angry to put the other person down rather than examine the underlying issue. To pick a trivial example, people get into pissing matches over the supremacy of Ford and Chevy trucks.
posted by mmascolino at 10:36 AM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Report from the Palazzo town hall in Hattiesburg MS: No Palazzo, natch, but there were about fifty of us, all ages, black folks and white folks. One yahoo in a pick-up truck who screamed out his window that if we wanted to talk to Palazzo, "just call and make an appointment to see him! He'll talk to y'all!" Which, while untrue, is at least not the worst thing a yahoo could have screamed.
posted by thebrokedown at 10:44 AM on February 25, 2017 [25 favorites]

@ebruenig
broke: getting agitated while watching the oscars

woke: coming absolutely unglued watching DNC chair election on CSPAN
posted by Coventry at 11:03 AM on February 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

We packed the room for a legislative town hall for state representatives (and one state senator who did not show and never does, guess his party!) and I was so happy with how it turned out. Props to Rep. Carlin, he has one hell of an ability to piss off the room (from that opening remark about everyone taking their meds, to leaving without taking the materials a crying woman gave him, leading to her chasing after him to give it to him again, not a graceful man) and he knows we're in disagreement with most things but he still shows up to do his job. Still a ton of snow piled up from the blizzard the past two days and people turned out, great to be a part of it. Protip for live streaming these things: bring a tripod, my arms are going to fall off.
posted by jason_steakums at 11:04 AM on February 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

Another 100 companies pull advertising from Breitbart
posted by futz at 11:06 AM on February 25, 2017 [36 favorites]

Anybody think Perez isn't going to be the next DNC chair? I don't see how anyone else puts together a needed coalition of votes.
posted by Justinian at 11:07 AM on February 25, 2017

It's interesting how so many Trump supporters can't find ways to defend their guy. "Respect the office" or "why do we have to be so political?" or "you're just being so unfair to him" is what I'm hearing far more than specific policy defenses. And much of this whining is accompanied by the lie of "I didn't even vote for him but..."
posted by honestcoyote at 11:10 AM on February 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

I still can't understand the idea of a $1400 suit

St. John is an upscale brand that caters mainly to the older, wealthier demographic. It's off the rack rather than designer-- for which you would expect to pay $10,000. and up. The fabric and cut will be very good and as such would last you 10 or 20 years. Seams will be impeccably finished and it will be fully lined with buttons sewn securely on. I could not afford a new suit, but I can appreciate the idea of buying fewer, better made clothing items. If I wanted to convey the image of a solid, well-to-do (but not obscenely rich) matron, say for a book-signing or candidate's wife photo-op, I would look at St. John.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 11:11 AM on February 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

No biggie, but probably DNC chair race play-by-play should go over in the future of the Democratic party thread.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:11 AM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

I am sure there many different factors at play but for a lot of people, the existence of people with opposite opinions means you might be wrong about something. If you feel strongly about that something and/or consider it a core part of your being than you might get angry to put the other person down rather than examine the underlying issue.

Exactly what I've been screaming myself hoarse about for the last ten years or so about how the psychology of identity plays into politics now and how terrible the Dems and a lot of the left are at being sensitive to those dynamics. It doesn't matter if it's the right thing to do to stand on some idea or rhetorical framing, or even if it's justice. Humans are animals, too. We're not always in perfect control of our emotional responses and reactions, and psychologically sophisticated political actors like Putin know how to push our buttons very precisely to elicit specific reactions. The Bannon crowd are button pushers, too, but they aren't as skilled. They're not trained in psiops, they're just standard issue, blindly button pushing sociopaths who get a kick out of humiliating other people.
posted by saulgoodman at 11:12 AM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

No term limits in the UK, but there are mechanisms (somewhat weakened of late) to call an early general election, and PMs can resign and be replaced without one anyway - although then the appointment is by the ruling party.

I think in a well-functioning democracy, there should be few limits on who the people can choose, so term limits seem unduly restrictive. As part of a misfiring democracy, they're a useful brake - and a good sign that things are going really wrong is when a sitting leader manages to get term limits either rescinded or bypassed. If I were designing a democracy, I'd try to engineer it so that term limits weren't necessary, because other more robust brakes on abuse or incompetence were in place.

And who knows, Trump may yet spark a new American revolution where people will get to engineer that better democracy. If you're going to have to fight, fight for something big.
posted by Devonian at 11:17 AM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

SCOTUS Reprimands Anti-LGBTQ Groups for Misgendering Trans Student Gavin Grimm

Is this a sign they're likely to rule for Grimm, thus nullifying the EO?
posted by corb at 11:17 AM on February 25, 2017

Wait. You have to pay $1400 to get a suit with buttons sewn on securely?
posted by JackFlash at 11:19 AM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Re: candidates' wives and expensive clothing, one of my sisters works for a famous couture house and is occasionally tasked with dressing some of them. In 2012 it was Ann Romney. Sis's main job seemed to be to replace the Extra Large tags in Mrs. Romney's blouses them with Medium tags [true]. The need to believe in fake news runs deep with these folks.
posted by Lyme Drop at 11:22 AM on February 25, 2017 [35 favorites]

Wait. You have to pay $1400 to get a suit with buttons sewn on securely?

I mean, we are talking about women's clothing here. It all costs twice as much as men's clothing and is made half as well.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:27 AM on February 25, 2017 [33 favorites]

On exhibit in the halls of CPAC: The Forgotten Man, an allegorical painting depicting a leather-jacket-and-mom-jeans clad white male in despair on a bench, with Obama trampling the Constitution nearby.

Alternative caption: "That scene in Hamilton where the Founding Fathers roasted a guy for not having a good butt like Obama"
posted by zachlipton at 11:28 AM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

as his own public-relations man under the fake names John Miller and John Barron."

He is reminiscent of one notorious baron to be fair.
posted by Buntix at 11:37 AM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh, look! Another private email server.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 11:40 AM on February 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

Private email servers are like lying to congress, perfectly normal now.
posted by Artw at 11:46 AM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

NSA General McMaster doesn't have walk-in privileges to the Oval office. No idea whether that's typical.

Mr. Bannon and Stephen Miller, another senior adviser with anti-Islamic views, have close ties to Mr. Trump and walk-in privileges in the Oval Office. General McMaster, 54, has neither.

posted by Coventry at 11:46 AM on February 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

Remember when middle aged white women were supposed to be secretly against Trump and hiding it from their husbands?

Somehow I doubt they've now hiding anti-Trump activism either.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:47 AM on February 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

Hey look, it's an anonymous White House source defending the administration to Fox News. I thought Trump and Priebus didn't like anonymous sources?
posted by zachlipton at 12:07 PM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Why [are] some conservatives are so personally upset by protests and other opposition (or in this case, perceived opposition) to Trump

The line I keep hearing is "We suffered through eight years of Obama, now it's your turn." Dissecting the problematic world view underlying that statement is left as an excercise for the reader.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:08 PM on February 25, 2017 [28 favorites]

The line I keep hearing is "We suffered through eight years of Obama, now it's your turn." Dissecting the problematic world view underlying that statement is left as an excercise for the reader.

I think their definition of 'suffered' qualifies as an alt-fact.
posted by OHenryPacey at 12:20 PM on February 25, 2017 [18 favorites]

Announcement here, discussion over in the DNC thread: Perez wins DNC chair (235-200)
posted by zachlipton at 12:23 PM on February 25, 2017

Yeah, I just don't have any spare fucks for DNC leadership. They all are mostly fine with their own individual problematic bits. Exactly none of them are here to ride in on a white horse and save us. We all have work to do. Let's just get on with it.

(Team Mayor Pete tho)
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:29 PM on February 25, 2017 [21 favorites]

Interesting.

Wilbur Ross Comes to D.C. With an Unexamined History of Russian Connections - Trump’s Choice for Commerce Secretary Holds a Top Post With a Mysterious, Russian-Controlled Cyprus Bank

Central to this inquiry is the question of Ross’s role as Vice Chair and a leading investor in the Bank of Cyprus, the largest bank in Cyprus, one of the key offshore havens for illicit Russian finance. Ross has been Vice Chairman of this bank and a major investor in it since 2014. His fellow bank co-chair evidently was appointed by none other than Vladimir Putin.

This article seems well sourced but it really goes down the rabbit hole with a particular Russian plane (connected the the Cyprus bank) flying in from Moscow to be on the same tarmac as Donnie's plane in US cities along the campaign trail. I haven't read the whole thing yet and I am skeptical but I thought I would post it. Any mefites familiar with dcreport.org?
posted by futz at 12:38 PM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

I know a number of Nordstrom shoppers in the DC area who were in the letter-writing campaign to get them to drop her, and pointedly went and spent a bunch of money at Nordstrom specifically as "thanks for dropping Ivanka" gesture.

it was the proudest end-of-season on-sale store-brand cashmere sweater I ever bought, too! not that I am a "Nordstrom shopper" in the identity category kind of way. and also it wasn't really a thank you or I wouldn't have taken the sweater home with me. still though.

the misrepresentation of St. John here is killing me dead. that shit is garbage, not just ugly! If I had serious money for serious clothes I would buy any number of expensive designer garments but St. John is selling purely price-tag prestige and not a thing more. and even that only appeals to a certain non-fashion-y but also non-quality-aware rich buyer. it is for people who would find it vulgar to wear a quilted blazer with shredded hundred dollar bills for batting, but can think of no other objection besides vulgarity to such a thing. I went to a Neiman Marcus as a kind of field trip one time, just to fondle their wares, and in terms of boring elegant apparel there was a Max Mara coat or two I would happily have stolen off a rich woman's back but if I had a St. John suit I would burn it. or ok, give it to a thrift store, but I would feel bad about it.

back on topic though, I am young enough to be DT's daughter or at any rate the mother of his girlfriend, and I thought I despised him as much as one human could, but imagine being seven years older than he is and seeing him do what he's doing! perhaps the dizzying perspective of it all has driven that awful woman into a state of some kind.
posted by queenofbithynia at 12:46 PM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Just returned from another town hall, this one in KCMO on the ACA. We had representatives from the mayor's office, our representative, and McCaskill. Roy Blunt was a no-show, as expected.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 1:14 PM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

NSA General McMaster doesn't have walk-in privileges to the Oval office. No idea whether that's typical.

Absolutely not normal. McMaster would appear to be the token moderate.

I guess he forgot to specify this in his list of must-haves because, duh, National Security Adviser. Oops.
posted by snuffleupagus at 1:14 PM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Nordstrom Says Trump Tweet Had ‘Negligible’ Impact On Sales
posted by spitbull at 1:20 PM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Frankly, if I'm a White House staffer, I appreciate not having the privilege of walking in on whatever Trump might be up to in his bathrobe.
posted by spitbull at 1:22 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that particular round goes to the legions of 30s and 40s professional women - who regularly purchase a significant portion of their business wardrobe at Nordstroms- that called and wrote letters clearly stating they would never spend one more red cent there if Nordstrom didn't drop the creeper-in-chiefs daughters line. I'm pretty sure it wasn't even a contest, and this poor little blue haired busy body has no idea.
posted by susiswimmer at 1:23 PM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Metafilter: this poor little blue haired busy body has no idea
posted by zakur at 1:29 PM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

NYT: These Are Children, Not Bad Hombres
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:30 PM on February 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Thousands of furious Trump fans can’t stop visiting a website that pretends Clinton won

If her bulging inbox of violent and misogynistic hate mail is any indication, the bait appears to be working with some unsettling results. Since Hillarybeattrump.org was picked up on the conservative-media radar, the site’s creator says it’s been getting about 200,000 visitors per day — enough to keep her busy deleting angry emails for a solid hour each night.
posted by futz at 1:30 PM on February 25, 2017 [25 favorites]

(re: blue haired - I don't mean to belabor the point, but there are a ton of 60- and 70-something upper/middle class women in the DC area who are hypercompetent career civil servants, high level professionals etc, who came up in the "9 to 5" era, with varying degrees of feminism, but who have waded through rivers of shit from jackasses like Trump, and are fighting this stuff with every tool they've got. I don't think the "it's because she's old" thing is a great direction to go with this. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is old; it happens to the best of us.)
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:35 PM on February 25, 2017 [73 favorites]

Thousands of furious Trump fans can’t stop visiting a website that pretends Clinton won

Seems like even disgusting vitriol can on occasion produce something worth copy-pasting: “YES Liberalism IS A METAL DISORDER and YOU ARE POOF!”
posted by Hairy Lobster at 1:37 PM on February 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

I haven't read the whole thing yet and I am skeptical but I thought I would post it. Any mefites familiar with dcreport.org?

The author (James S. Henry) seems to know his onions:

http://globaljustice.macmillan.yale.edu/people/james-s-henry-0

and also writes for The Nation.

Could be he's seeing more than is there because that's his job, but even some of (documented by FT and the like) circumstantial stuff is more than enough for concern.
posted by Buntix at 1:40 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

US border agents ask Muhammad Ali's son: 'Are you a Muslim?'

Boxing legend’s 44-year-old son detained and questioned about religion after flying back to US from Jamaica, lawyer says.

I really wish it went down more like "I'm the son of Muhammad fucking Ali, bitches. Who the hell are you?"
posted by UbuRoivas at 1:40 PM on February 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

Glenn Thrush showing his work on attempts to reach him for comment after Spicer criticizes a story for identifying his place of birth wrong (though that would mean Wikipedia is wrong too).
posted by zachlipton at 1:51 PM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

A spiffing blog entry about protest from Boff Whalley (and a reminder that it works):

ACTIVISM (I DON'T LIKE THAT WORD)

Some political organisations are like religions, believing they have a monopoly on ideological purity. They won’t work with other organisations whose version of dialectical materialism doesn’t measure up to their own. In turn, some individuals style themselves as islands of righteousness, scholars in Whataboutery (the modern art of criticising someone by asking why they didn’t also do x, y and z). It’s all silly, divisive and unproductive. Activism can be effective by the very looseness of its scope and breadth.

Opposition to the Poll Tax, introduced in Britain in 1989, serves as an example of how protest can work; it was organised across a whole range of ideas including national and regional non-compliance including refusal to pay, the setting up of thousands of neighbourhood organisations and countless local demonstrations, disrupted court hearings and tales of tax collectors being attacked. On top of this, a national march in London turned into a fully-fledged riot. Four hundred people were arrested. For government ministers this was all too much, and even the Tory Daily Telegraph declared that “images of violent discord on the capital’s streets were politically harmful.” Not long afterwards, Margaret Thatcher was ousted from office and her successor John Major immediately repealed the tax. It wasn’t just a riot that forced change; it was an array of varied, disruptive and continued protests across the country.

posted by Buntix at 1:53 PM on February 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

Yeaaaah, Mary Carson doesn't appear to be a poor little blue-haired anything. She in fact appears to have had a fairly high-powered career in gas industry trade associations and still to work as a consultant. For what it's worth.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 1:53 PM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

but there are a ton of 60- and 70-something upper/middle class women in the DC area who are ... fighting this stuff with every tool they've got

Oh absolutely! A very good point, and I apologize for leaning towards snark more than I should have. There are a ton of amazing women just like that that are rolling up their sleeves and showing us how it's done here in California too.

To my knowledge though, there weren't many that were writing letters etc about Nordstrom pulling that particular brand. I think the younger generation may have taken it a bit more personally because we are of an age with that particular spawn, and are particularly put off by what she represents. And therefore were more engaged.
posted by susiswimmer at 1:54 PM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

LOL. OK. I guess the party's on then.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:55 PM on February 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump: "I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!"

Well that's that.
posted by zachlipton at 1:55 PM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

This was his chance to gloat over how he had decided to run for prez after Obama roasted him at the very same event! This was his great moment of revenge! What a fucking coward. He's shitty even at his villainy.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:57 PM on February 25, 2017 [53 favorites]

Trump going full Constanza with the preemptive breakup.
posted by chris24 at 1:57 PM on February 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump: "I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!"

Buk-buk-buk-buk-bukaaak!
posted by kirkaracha at 1:58 PM on February 25, 2017 [19 favorites]

I'm sure he's hoping they will look like bullies if they mock him in his absence, but the WHCA is smart enough to turn this into a rally for the first amendment instead.
posted by Freon at 2:00 PM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Paging Mr. Baldwin.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:01 PM on February 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

Glenn Thrush showing his work on attempts to reach him for comment after Spicer criticizes a story for identifying his place of birth wrong (though that would mean Wikipedia is wrong too).

Update: Jake Tapper wins this one: "I imagine it must be really annoying when someone puts out false info about where you were born. Must really bother you!! cc @BarackObama"
posted by zachlipton at 2:03 PM on February 25, 2017 [51 favorites]

“I said to her, ‘You all really are the best store in the area,’ ” recalled Carson, who lives in Vienna, Va. “ ‘It’s a shame you couldn’t keep your mouths shut about our president.’ ”

Just in case you missed this detail: Nordstrom said nothing at all about the president.
posted by srboisvert at 2:03 PM on February 25, 2017 [38 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump

Congratulations to Thomas Perez, who has just been named Chairman of the DNC. I could not be happier for him, or for the Republican Party!

Barf. Fuuuuuck youuuuu.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:05 PM on February 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

Well, that's a relief, because this man is extremely unfunny, and never more unfunny than when he's trying to be funny. I'm still recovering from the incredibly uncomfortable Al Smith Dinner.
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:06 PM on February 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

I suspect that's a fill-in-the-blank Tweet. He'd have sent a similar one no matter who won.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:07 PM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Baldwin would be good for the Correspondents' Dinner, but in my imagination, Obama's going to step up to the podium and say, "I heard y'all needed a president."
posted by thebrokedown at 2:07 PM on February 25, 2017 [49 favorites]

Not showing up to work* appears to be the go-to move lately for republicans. Let's all not show up for work. More time for organizing and protesting, cool!

*debatable if WHCD counts as work
posted by erisfree at 2:07 PM on February 25, 2017

realDonaldTrump: "I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!

Another former president of Mexico steps into the breach.

@FelipeCalderon: It'll be a great evening indeed!
posted by chris24 at 2:09 PM on February 25, 2017 [48 favorites]

I really wish it went down more like "I'm the son of Muhammad fucking Ali, bitches. Who the hell are you?"

Muhammad , conscientious objector who was stripped of his boxing titles and convicted of draft evasion and lost 4 years of his peak fighting years before successfully appealing to the supreme court, Ali.

Probably one of the most public state sanctioned persecutions of an American Muslim before 9/11.

Still roping dopes from the beyond
posted by srboisvert at 2:10 PM on February 25, 2017 [51 favorites]

The truly epic troll would be for Hillary Clinton to take his place. And not to mock him or joke about him in any way, just pretend he doesn't exist.
posted by zachlipton at 2:11 PM on February 25, 2017 [61 favorites]

Fucking Trump. What a putz.
posted by wallabear at 2:13 PM on February 25, 2017

Well, they had a chance to end the odious dinner and take a stand against Republican fascism, but instead let the Shitgibbon do it and get in another shot at the free press.

The result is still good. The dinner needs to die. The press is not and should not be friends with power. It's the exact opposite of the appropriate role. Let's hope the WHCA walks away and doesn't try to salvage this with a substitute.
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:14 PM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Btw, speaking of uncomfortable events, is it too early for me to start drinking in preparation for the impending Tuesday Shitshow in Congress? Some newsheads were banging on earlier about "President Trump will probably focus on X policy" or "his speech will likely lay out his agenda for Y," and I was like ARE YOU ON CRACK? The man has only ever given two speeches: 1) the Welcome to the Darkest Timeline inaugural address and 2) the braggy self-aggrandizing hostile meandering collection of riffs from literally every other public speaking engagement/rally.

Do these people seriously think he's going to go into a room with a captive audience of 240 elected Democrats televised to the entire nation and not act much, much worse than he did during his Insult and Verbally Abuse the Press conference?
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:14 PM on February 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

Let's hope the WHCA walks away and doesn't try to salvage this with a substitute.

On the contrary. The WHCA needs a night to get hammered and enjoy their nerd prom. They should 100% just get someone else.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:16 PM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Mark McKinney should do a Chicken Lady sendup at the Correspondent's Dinner.

*POOF*
posted by wallabear at 2:16 PM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Btw, speaking of uncomfortable events, is it too early for me to start drinking in preparation for the impending Tuesday Shitshow in Congress?

I think it's plausible that he'll give any brave D house member that causes a disturbance the Early Campaign Rally Protester Treatment: "get him....get him out. get him outta here. take his coat. bye bye."

That'll be when it all sinks in for me, probably.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:18 PM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Laverne Cox can be Pence if Pence doesn't go.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:20 PM on February 25, 2017

Maybe Trump legit has important work to do that night.

Ha ha hah ha hah ha ha haaaaaargh...
posted by Artw at 2:23 PM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Baldwin. Definitely Baldwin.
posted by MattWPBS at 2:30 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

The truly epic troll would be for Hillary Clinton to take his place. And not to mock him or joke about him in any way, just pretend he doesn't exist.

This is what I would like too. We could have an alt-reality correspondence dinner in which Hillary is roasted for the things she would have been doing had she become president.
posted by Blue Genie at 2:33 PM on February 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

They could mock her for not having presented any legislation, nor meeting any of her campaign promises....
posted by OHenryPacey at 2:35 PM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

"President" Clinton: I don't think it's unfair to say that this Congress has obstructed my nominees more than any other president in history.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:39 PM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

No matter how hard he tries to make it known he will be available that night, I still don't think Sam Bee is going to invite him to her Not the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
posted by ckape at 2:43 PM on February 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

I know the suit thing is kinda a derail, but I'll say my mom had a couple St. John suits and they were her absolute favorite pieces of clothing. She wore them for 15-20 years and even when she retired and had no reason to need suits anymore she kept those for a long time. If I had known they were That expensive, I might have understood better, but they do seem to be very comfortable and high quality.
posted by threeturtles at 2:54 PM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

EPA-destructobot Scott Pruitt lied under oath about using a private email server (link upthread) and refused to declare its contents as required by law.

Although it is illegal under federal law to use private email accounts for official government business, under Oklahoma law, using private email to conduct state business is not illegal as long as those records are included in searches for public documents. However, during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, Pruitt testified that he didn’t use private email for state business

Jason Chaffetz, you piece of shit! Do your damn job!

g-ddamn sonuvabitch fucking hypocritical fuck
posted by petebest at 2:58 PM on February 25, 2017 [60 favorites]

Careful petebest, you'll choke.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:02 PM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

@TomPerez: Tom Perez Retweeted Donald J. Trump
Call me Tom. And don't get too happy. @keithellison and I, and Democrats united across the country, will be your worst nightmare.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:03 PM on February 25, 2017 [82 favorites]

Meanwhile over at CPAC: Happening now on the main stage: If Heaven has a Gate, a Wall, and Extreme Vetting, Why can't America?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:05 PM on February 25, 2017

Meanwhile over at CPAC: Happening now on the main stage: If Heaven has a Gate, a Wall, and Extreme Vetting, Why can't America?

The "extreme vetting" being born again I guess. Which means any immigrant should be able to enter the US by just earnestly and honestly wanting to be an American just before they cross the border right?
posted by PenDevil at 3:13 PM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

These days I'm thinking a lot about the failure of the press, not just during this election and during the Obama presidency, but for decades. And while they seem to be stepping up now, I don't think they have learnt anything at all.
It's not an American thing — as proved by the whole Brexit process — it's a global collapse of journalism. And what I'm thinking is that while obviously the internet plays a part in this, it is as much a failure to deal with politics where one or more sides are openly lying and disregarding the populace and don't care much if they are called out on it.
There has been stinky tabloid and lying media forever, that's not new, and there have been totalitarian regimes with complementary media. What I feel is different is that the so-called serious media, who attempt to uphold journalistic standards are failing, and they are not only failing to convey the facts of any given story, they are also failing to find the balance between sound criticism of any power and false equivalences. And they are failing to distance themselves from power.
To be honest, I don't think many journalists understand the concept of critique — most confuse it with negativity. But while a critical examination of a source might lead to the journalist having a more negative view of that source, it should just as well be able to lead her to a more positive approach. A true critical comparison and analysis of the words and actions of Trump and Clinton should have a very clear outcome, and that analysis should have informed every single bit of reporting, interview and commentary across the US and the world. That would not have made the press biased, it would have made it sane, fair and balanced as we can see now; and a saner approach to journalism would have forced the Republican party to get their act together not just now, but before Reagan. The press have not being informing the public objectively, they have been contorting themselves to create a fake horserace, and thus aiding the R-side of politics in disinformation and fraud for most of my adult life.
posted by mumimor at 3:16 PM on February 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Goddamit. Tom Perez? The DNC didn't learn jack shit.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 3:17 PM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Holy shit. I believe I read every single comment in every single election thread straight up until Valentine's Day, when I picked up my new puppy and virtually all news and MF consumption ground to a halt. Mostly I get time to read the headlines or half-listen to TV news. Now I see how little information the average person must get and it is sobering.
posted by HotToddy at 3:20 PM on February 25, 2017 [42 favorites]

The "extreme vetting" being born again I guess. Which means any immigrant should be able to enter the US by just earnestly and honestly wanting to be an American just before they cross the border right?

Don't forget being white - like Jesus.

That guy must have stood out in the middle east like crazy. Explains a lot. /s
posted by mrgoat at 3:21 PM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Meanwhile over at CPAC: Happening now on the main stage: If Heaven has a Gate, a Wall, and Extreme Vetting, Why can't America?

Yesterday there was a reception with Dog the Bounty Hunter and an 18 inch Sheriff Clark bobblehead. These really are today's conservative thought leaders.
posted by peeedro at 3:24 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Richard Spencer / Donald Trump Inauguration Commemorative Pin
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:27 PM on February 25, 2017 [24 favorites]

> Thousands of furious Trump fans can’t stop visiting a website that pretends Clinton won

That hillarybeattrump.org website deserves its own post, imo.
posted by homunculus at 3:32 PM on February 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

Goddamit. Tom Perez? The DNC didn't learn jack shit.

Right? A former civil-rights attorney who fought for labor rights and voting rights and was blocked from being Attorney General for being too far left. What a disaster!
posted by asteria at 3:33 PM on February 25, 2017 [58 favorites]

Breitbart reporter to interview President Trump in Oval Office

Breitbart's Washington editor Matthew Boyle is scheduled to interview President Trump on Monday afternoon in the Oval Office, according to sources familiar with the arrangements.

Why this matters: It's the latest sign of Breitbart's clout and comes amid access concerns by reporters at outlets like the New York Times and CNN, which were shut out of a gaggle with Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Friday.

That is the whole article so far btw.
posted by futz at 3:35 PM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

DNC thread.
posted by futz at 3:39 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

@TomPerez: Tom Perez Retweeted Donald J. Trump
Call me Tom. And don't get too happy. @keithellison and I, and Democrats united across the country, will be your worst nightmare.

This opening salvo? Delicious.
posted by Sophie1 at 3:40 PM on February 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

whoa, this is genuinely surprising

@realDonaldTrump

I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!

The questions are: who wrote it? And how long before whatever they've used to sedate the deranged pumpkin in chief wears off?
posted by Buntix at 3:42 PM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Kuwait could pay up to $60,000 for party at Trump Hotel in Washington

-- The Kuwaiti government could pay up to $60,000 to President Donald Trump's hotel in Washington for a party on Saturday that will be an early test of Trump's promise to turn over profits from such events to the U.S. Treasury.

-- The White House and Alan Garten, the general counsel for the Trump Organization, did not return calls for comment on whether any profits from foreign government payments to the hotel have been donated. Dillon's firm declined to comment.
posted by futz at 3:57 PM on February 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!

He doesn't have to - they already let him in the gates with his savage band. F* em.

In state news, nothing means mauling pristine countryside in house-priced vehicles like Ford trucks. Ford - you're a big man, a real big man. Drive like an idiot animal. Ford. *

* Chevy, Subaru, whatever - they're always splashing through a picturesque stream, toxifying waterways and crushing biological life. To appeal to buyers. In the ads. WTF OmniCorp?
posted by petebest at 3:58 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I guess the question is if that Oval Office interview can match the level of competence set by Breitbart in their Sean Spicer interview.
posted by ckape at 4:01 PM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

@realDonaldTrump
I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!

The questions are: who wrote it? And how long before whatever they've used to sedate the deranged pumpkin in chief wears off?

I agree it doesn't read like him, but it was sent from Android.
posted by chris24 at 4:06 PM on February 25, 2017

Dang is that Jake Tapper burn of Spicer a thing of beauty. I wonder how it feels to know so many people think -- no, know -- that you're a total clown. I hope it hurts.
posted by Lyme Drop at 4:08 PM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

I agree it doesn't read like him, but it was sent from Android.

I'm kinda wondering whether it may be worth a punt putting a bet on him being out of office due to medical reasons within the next month or so.

Possibly the Bernie Sanders tweet (and ensuing publicity) caused a gasket to blow.
posted by Buntix at 4:12 PM on February 25, 2017

I agree it doesn't read like him, but it was sent from Android.

And reading that, it *just now* occurred to me that after months of stories about how you can tell the real Trump tweets because they're from an Android phone...his staff didn't just get some Android phones for tweeting? Is the budget that tight?
posted by uosuaq at 4:13 PM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

That otherwise neutral Fortune piece includes this outrageous line: Nordstrom has been under pressure from the #GrabYourWallet campaign to drop Ivanka Trump merchandise over her father's policies, lest it face a boycott.

I can't call it an outright lie without checking to see if there is an official statement from that group that actually does say that. liberals do say dumb things sometimes when their blood is up.

but as one of many, many people who would have jumped on a boycott if there'd had to be one: we were going to boycott because of HER SUPPORT OF her father's policies. Same way we deleted the Uber app, not because of Trump's policies, but because of Travis's public and belatedly half-retracted support of him. That is an enormous and highly relevant distinction and it is some bullshit to characterize anti-Ivanka organizing as some kind of blood-based blame, still less as a way to punish him through her. She has positions; she campaigned for him; she has a public role supporting him that, unlike Melania's, was not forced upon her. She is a target because she is a Trump supporter, not because she is a Trump daughter.
posted by queenofbithynia at 4:21 PM on February 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

The guy who sues Web sites that deny his claim that he invented e-mail as a 14-year-old says he's running next year against Elizabeth Warren. He made his announcement at a party outside CPAC organized by Gamergater Mike Cernovich's Maga3x, which also ran the DeploraBall last month.

Three other people are also thinking about running as a Republican for the seat, including failed game maker Curt Schilling.
posted by adamg at 4:22 PM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!

THE HEX WAS A SUCCESS

witches, take a bow
posted by queenofbithynia at 4:24 PM on February 25, 2017 [41 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump

I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!

The cynic in me thinks we'll see an unfortunate "gas explosion" at the event this year (or the first domestic drone strike). The optimist in me hopes they have an empty chair or cardboard cutout and mock it mercilessly. I'd also be down with any of the replacements being floated (Hillary / Bill Clinton / Alec Baldwin / a twitter connected pumpkin, etc.).
posted by inflatablekiwi at 4:29 PM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Guys, I haven't cried much since Nov. 9, but Facebook just belched this up from a month ago, and I hadn't seen it before and I'm only not bawling because my kid is still awake and I don't want to alarm him.

(In other red diaper baby news, husband was playing Woodie Guthrie tonight and then we had to define both "fascist" and "solidarity" for our kid. God help the first person who tries to talk to this child about Donald Trump because they're going to get an earful of leftist vocabulary.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:31 PM on February 25, 2017 [18 favorites]

If Rosie O'Donnell is only going to get one chance to publicly irritate Trump this year, let it be the WHCD.
posted by Fiberoptic Zebroid and The Hypnagogic Jerks at 4:35 PM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Holy shit. I believe I read every single comment in every single election thread straight up until Valentine's Day, when I picked up my new puppy and virtually all news and MF consumption ground to a halt. Mostly I get time to read the headlines or half-listen to TV news. Now I see how little information the average person must get and it is sobering.

whaaaaaat

new puppy ≫ any metafilter election thread
posted by indubitable at 4:40 PM on February 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

Revealed: how US billionaire helped to back Brexit - Robert Mercer, who bankrolled Donald Trump, played key role with ‘sinister’ advice on using Facebook data

It has emerged that Robert Mercer, a hedge-fund billionaire, who helped to finance the Trump campaign and who was revealed this weekend as one of the owners of the rightwing Breitbart News Network, is a long-time friend of Nigel Farage. He directed his data analytics firm to provide expert advice to the Leave campaign on how to target swing voters via Facebook – a donation of services that was not declared to the electoral commission.

Cambridge Analytica, an offshoot of a British company, SCL Group, which has 25 years’ experience in military disinformation campaigns and “election management”, claims to use cutting-edge technology to build intimate psychometric profiles of voters to find and target their emotional triggers. Trump’s team paid the firm more than $6m (£4.8m) to target swing voters, and it has now emerged that Mercer also introduced the firm – in which he has a major stake – to Farage.

or to put it another way:

Fingers: Blah, blah, blah, stolen plans, blah, blah, blah, missing scientist, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah, atom bomb, blah, blah, blah, Third World War, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah, Kneecap Hill, blah, blah, blah, top secret, blah, blah, blah, kidnapped boy, blah, blah, blah, everything ties up, blah, blah, blah.

For realsies.
posted by Buntix at 4:44 PM on February 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

This is very late, but regarding the earlier discussion about Trump's youngest son Barron, I have long assumed that Donald's favorite Baron was Munchausen. But he may not be literate enough, so more likely one of the cartoon villains like Dread Baron from Laff-A-Lympics or Tom Slick's Baron Otto Matic (whose name is one of Ward/Scott's greatest multi-level puns)
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:50 PM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

More on Mercer from flatlugi above: Brietbart CEO reveals that Trump donors are part owners

Breitbart News CEO Larry Solov confirmed Friday that the Mercer family – GOP mega-donors and key backers of President Trump's campaign – are part owners of the right-wing news site, according to multiple reports.
[...]
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the Mercers bought a 50 percent stake in Breitbart in 2011.

Robert Mercer is a hedge fund manager who has donated millions to conservative campaigns and causes. He, along with his daughter Rebekah Mercer, were strong supporters of Trump's 2016 campaign.

The father-daughter pair were influential in Trump’s staffing choices and other decisions during his presidential bid, and Rebekah Mercer worked on the real estate mogul’s presidential transition team.

So yep, Disinformation Central
posted by futz at 4:51 PM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Oops. Sorry Buntix, I just saw that you mentioned the breitbart connection.
posted by futz at 4:53 PM on February 25, 2017

“Donald Trump’s tremendous Sermon on the Mount” Garrison Keillor, The Denver Post, 21 February 2017

The Lord is my shepherd. OK? Totally. Big league. He is a tremendous shepherd. The best. No comparison. I know more than most people about herding sheep. And that’s why I won the election in a landslide and it’s why my company is doing very very well. Because He said, “I’m with you, Donald. You will never want.”

posted by ob1quixote at 4:55 PM on February 25, 2017 [23 favorites]

The Mercer legacy is secure. (Sure!)
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:13 PM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

My response to If Heaven has a Gate, a Wall, and Extreme Vetting, Why can't America? Is "Wasn't Heaven's Gate one of the biggest box office failures of all time?"
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:23 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

(In other red diaper baby news, husband was playing Woodie Guthrie tonight and then we had to define both "fascist" and "solidarity" for our kid. God help the first person who tries to talk to this child about Donald Trump because they're going to get an earful of leftist vocabulary.

my first grader came home from school a couple of weeks ago and announced "I hate Donald Trump". my wife and i have not been talking about politics much in her presence lately to avoid swearing in front of her. i asked her why she hated donald trump. she said "donald trump is mean. he makes my friends scared" and i realized that nothing more needed to be said about him.

why resist? because donald trump is mean, and he makes my friends scared.
posted by murphy slaw at 5:24 PM on February 25, 2017 [98 favorites]

I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!

Sounds like a personal message that accidentally became a tweet. Maybe he said it to a staffer, who mistakenly tweeted it? Or another staffer said it to another staffer to relay apols to an organiser or something? It is wildly out of character for Trump himself, though. So legible! So cromulent!
posted by glitter at 5:25 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

If Heaven has a Gate, a Wall, and Extreme Vetting

must admit, making it easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the united states has a certain appeal
posted by murphy slaw at 5:26 PM on February 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

This seems like a pretty solid idea:

If Dems are smart, should move state elections to pres years when control state government. In some states, they can use ballot initiatives.

posted by Chrysostom at 5:28 PM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

"Wasn't Heaven's Gate one of the biggest box office failures of all time?"

Also notably a millenarian death cult....

And one of the best tracks on Toni Childs' House of Hope album (which wasn't lacking in great tracks).
posted by Buntix at 5:38 PM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Listen: the world is a really dark place, and I think we all would like to see pictures of that puppy
posted by meese at 5:42 PM on February 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

Meese, here's the best puppy i can give you on short notice. https://twitter.com/darth/status/835571393794191361
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 5:45 PM on February 25, 2017 [19 favorites]

I see your puppy and raise you baby chickens.

I just realized tonight, is this this first weekend he hasn't gone to Mar-a-Lago in like a month? Husband pointed out that really, we'd all rather him just spend all his time golfing. Please go to Mar-a-Lago, Donald. I hear the weather is great.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:57 PM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

No Mar-a-Lago, but he went to his own DC hotel for dinner tonight.
posted by zachlipton at 6:00 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

we were going to boycott because of HER SUPPORT OF her father's policies.

Is this true, though? Which policies of his do we actually know she supports?
posted by corb at 6:03 PM on February 25, 2017

Linking to the tweet rather than the article because the article has autoplay video, but I have to give some grudging respect to Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) for doing a four-hour town hall.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:04 PM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Yep.. a huge coincidence, that.

https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/835664800663408641

1. A big COINCIDENCE at the Trump Hotel in DC tonight
2. In Dec, I reported Kuwait - under political pressure - moved their annual party from 4 Seasons to the Trump Hotel
3. That event is TONIGHT. Kuwait is paying Trump 60K+
4. And tonight, by TOTAL COINCIDENCE, Trump is dropping by the Trump Hotel. He's there right now
5. The message is clear to foreign governments. Hold your lavish events at my hotel and I might stop by
6. I'm not sure yet if Trump dropped by the actual Kuwait event or not, but it hardly matters
7. When I was reporting this story a top aide for the Kuwaiti ambassador said he'd invite me to tonight's event but he never did :(
8. From the White House press pool: "The pool is holding in vans and not being allowed inside the [Trump] hotel."
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 6:05 PM on February 25, 2017 [60 favorites]

No Mar-a-Lago, but he went to his own DC hotel for dinner tonight.

Oh really?

The Kuwaiti government could pay up to $60,000 to President Donald Trump's hotel in Washington for a party on Saturday that will be an early test of Trump's promise to turn over profits from such events to the U.S. Treasury.

Kuwaiti Embassy is latest to book Trump D.C. hotel, but ambassador says he felt ‘no pressure’
posted by futz at 6:09 PM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Special election news: At stake today in Delaware was unified control of the state government:

Democrats will lose control of the State Senate if they lose one more seat to Republicans, making the 10th district crucial. The district is very close, won by an incumbent Democrat in 2014 by only 267 votes.

And...Democrat Stephanie Hansen has won, 58 - 41. Serious swing to Dems (51 - 49 in '14).

Now, on to GA-6!
posted by Chrysostom at 6:11 PM on February 25, 2017 [62 favorites]

Is this true, though? Which policies of his do we actually know she supports?

By being right there in the room she lends her support to all of them.
posted by Artw at 6:11 PM on February 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

Could the WHCD tweet been an attempt to distract the media from the current pay-to-play taking place in Trump's DC hotel?
posted by erisfree at 6:11 PM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

we were going to boycott because of HER SUPPORT OF her father's policies.

Is this true, though? Which policies of his do we actually know she supports?

If she doesn't speak out against him or distance herself from the Administration, I'm gonna go with all of them.

If even Melania can manage to spend most of her time in New York, Ivanka is perfectly capable of not seeming complicit in everything, and right now, she ain't.
posted by Mchelly at 6:12 PM on February 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

4. And tonight, by TOTAL COINCIDENCE, Trump is dropping by the Trump Hotel. He's there right now

There better be a look-see into this. I hope that it is stupid shit like this that takes him down. Man, I am pissed off right now.
posted by futz at 6:15 PM on February 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

Thanks Chrysostom for the best news of the night/day/week/month. A VERY off-cycle election and the Democrat over-performs by 7%. That's a very good sign.

Now, on to GA-6, indeed!
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:15 PM on February 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

I just realized tonight, is this this first weekend he hasn't gone to Mar-a-Lago in like a month?

The official reason given was that he was going to be working on his Congress speech. The above Kuwait things suggests another motive (although guessing it's more than just $60K involved, presumably he doesn't even shed the dressing gown for less than 100).

You'll be glad to hear that flight plans have been booked for next weekend's AF1 trip to Mar-a-Lago. Meaning that his personal vacation expenses for this month won't be far off the $10 million from last.

He may even be the first president to actually just bankrupt the country via personal expenditure* (as is common among utterly inept business people on a smaller scale).

* Including vanity projects such as passive-aggressive walls to piss off the neighbours.
posted by Buntix at 6:19 PM on February 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

There must be a synopsis somewhere of the trump klan's business dealings with Kuwait. I recall seeing something but cannot find it atm.
posted by futz at 6:21 PM on February 25, 2017

Actually, there are two CT Senate elections on Tuesday. If Dems win both (that would be a hold and a pickup), that would give them unified control again. Will keep you posted.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:21 PM on February 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

Like hell is he working on any speech, it will be the same drivel as normal.
posted by Artw at 6:25 PM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Like hell is he working on any speech, it will be the same drivel as normal.

I report. You deride. We got this! :D
posted by Buntix at 6:29 PM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

> No Mar-a-Lago, but he went to his own DC hotel for dinner tonight.

Offtopic, but has there ever been a president who was known for enjoying the preparation of food? I could see Bill Clinton knowing his way around a grill/barbeque (much less so Shrub). Could see Obama enjoying putting together a meal with his family. Both Bushes and Reagan... not so much.

Like, if a president wanted to, would the WH staff let them make use of the WH kitchens? Provide sous chefs? The WH chef giving pointers/lessons?

BTW, in movies and stuff the rich and connected ~~can~~ are portrayed as being able to get reservations the-day-of at tony NYC restaurants that mere mortals may need to wait weeks/months for; has Donnie ever had that kind of pull? (If the answer is what I suspect, does he have enough negative pull that he still can't pull this off despite being nominally POTUS?)

Not that I'd expect Donnie to have the palate to enjoy/appreciate what's on offer.
posted by porpoise at 6:35 PM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Oh, one more thing about Delaware special: looks like the Dem turnout was 1000 higher than the 2014 REGULAR.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:39 PM on February 25, 2017 [29 favorites]

If even Melania can manage to spend most of her time in New York, Ivanka is perfectly capable of not seeming complicit in everything, and right now, she ain't.

I get that. But it seems in a lot of ways like she's mitigating the worst of his policies, so it's hard for me to say she really supports him. I try to think of what I'd be doing if my dad and his terrible ideas got elected to something, and I'd probably be right there, being like "Daaaaaad, you can't do that, I'll be SO SAD." It's been shown she's probably one of the only people Trump cares about, so I can't really hate her too much if that's what she's doing.
posted by corb at 6:43 PM on February 25, 2017

There better be a look-see into this. I hope that it is stupid shit like this that takes him down. Man, I am pissed off right now.

Why am I getting the feeling that nothing is going to take him down? And it's like.. he knows it. It's like he's taunting us with shit like this because everyone in an actual position of power is just looking the other way.
posted by wondermouse at 6:43 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

3. That event is TONIGHT. Kuwait is paying Trump 60K+
4. And tonight, by TOTAL COINCIDENCE, Trump is dropping by the Trump Hotel. He's there right now

ABG: Always Be Grifting
posted by nubs at 6:44 PM on February 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

But it seems in a lot of ways like she's mitigating the worst of his policies

Citation needed
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:46 PM on February 25, 2017 [30 favorites]

Trump and Melania are hosting the governors' ball tomorrow, but it seems that the Kuwait event is the reason he didn't travel today.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:48 PM on February 25, 2017

But it seems in a lot of ways like she's mitigating the worst of his policies

See, that's the rub. Her function, both in the campaign and now, has been to *seem* like she's mitigating the worst of his policies. She reassures people that as crass and unhinged as he may seem, there's someone talking sense to him behind the scenes. And because she plays that role publicly, she enables him. Even if she does mitigate his worst excesses, and I'm not convinced that she does, she's part of the apparatus that allows him to have power.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:48 PM on February 25, 2017 [49 favorites]

Offtopic, but has there ever been a president who was known for enjoying the preparation of food?

If you mean actually cooking, Jefferson was a bit of the homesteader type, enjoyed cooking and making his own wine (in-between slavery apologism and the worse).

Obama had his honey ale.

It's hard to find info on whether either of the Bush's could cook, as most 'can bush cook' results are about the best way to do a 'roo.

And as someone who has cooked and eaten said animal (it was in the expired/reduced section!). The real question is not how, but why.... It's no Ostrich.
posted by Buntix at 6:50 PM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Also, most of her clothes are ugly.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:50 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Why am I getting the feeling that nothing is going to take him down? And it's like.. he knows it.

Because the only legal route to taking him down goes through the GOP House.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:50 PM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Experts on authoritarianism say Trump’s presidency ‘has gotten scarier’: A month of executive experience has not moderated the president’s anti-democratic tendencies.
posted by homunculus at 6:50 PM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

(I mean most of the Ivanka-brand clothes that I'm supposed to buy at Nordstrom. I don't give a flying fuck about the clothes she personally wears.)
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:51 PM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

I think it's clear that Ivanka and Jared are running a ridiculously transparent PR campaign in which they or their people leak stories on a regular basis that amount to "this awful thing is 0.0001% less awful thanks to Ivanka and Jared." I don't think they get any credit for that, not when they're orchestrating that campaign in the press so their more liberal Manhattan friends don't hate them or something.

There are some reasonably clear ways in which family members are either "fair game" for public scrutiny as members of the administration or not. Barron and Tiffany, for example, are not. Ivanka, who keeps turning up at meetings with senior officials and foreign leaders, is, and she's in fact done more to publicly support her father's policies than Melania has.
posted by zachlipton at 6:52 PM on February 25, 2017 [37 favorites]

Eeek, the reporter just deleted that entire Twitter thread. The Kuwait event was on Wednesday.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:53 PM on February 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

Part of the quote got cut off:"US factory CEOs to Trump: Jobs exist; skills don't" at the salaries we are willing to pay.

Live by the invisible hand, die by the invisible hand. You have exactly the quantity and quality of workers as your price dictates.
posted by lowtide at 6:54 PM on February 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

Even Reuters said it was Saturday. Huh.
posted by futz at 6:55 PM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Here is the puppy.
posted by HotToddy at 6:56 PM on February 25, 2017 [40 favorites]

Obama had his honey ale.

How did I not know about this?

I swear, every time I think that Obama couldn't get cooler, he manages to look even better. (Did you know he read _The Three Body Problem_?)
posted by steady-state strawberry at 7:01 PM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

LGM has a brain breaking read through of Sebastian Gorka's "dissertation". Click through for the graphics.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:02 PM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

I have things to do Tuesday night and I'm glad. Don't wanna suffer through that speech.
posted by azpenguin at 7:03 PM on February 25, 2017

So the Kuwait thing seems to have been a Reuters mistake, but guess who is at dinner: Nigel Farage.
posted by zachlipton at 7:05 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I also do not know what to make of these two rather weird statements, but will present them without comment because they are both fascinating and insane:

Two things:
1. Farage was not invited to this dinner. Squeezed in at last second
2. Sec. State Tillerson is dining w/wife alone across room

--@bennyjohnson
posted by zachlipton at 7:06 PM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Mem Fox was detained by US border control.

Mem fucking Fox. IS NOTHING SACRED?

Just shit all over an Australian icon. Yeah. That's a way to win friends.
posted by Talez at 7:06 PM on February 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

An Anti-Black Slur on an Interracial Couple’s Garage Stirs Tension in Connecticut "When Lexene Charles got into his car here on the Saturday before Martin Luther King’s Birthday, he was stunned by what he saw outside his home. He called for his longtime partner, Heather Lindsay, to come outside.

Someone had spray-painted an anti-black slur across it, Mr. Charles, who is black, said. But instead of scrubbing it off, he and Ms. Lindsay, who is white, decided to leave it up to make a very public point about intolerance."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:09 PM on February 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

Mem Fox was detained by US border control.

Also, this French historian who, in a sad stroke of too-on-the-nose-ness, is an eminent scholar of Vichy France.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:11 PM on February 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

Both NPR and Reuters are still reporting that the event is tonight and always held on Feb 25th. Odd.

Wait, on preview it IS tonight as Reuters reported. Either my reading comprehension sucks or...
posted by futz at 7:13 PM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

The border patrol seems to be getting pretty indiscriminate with the people they are detaining. What could have been the purpose of harassing someone like Mem Fox?
posted by maggiemaggie at 7:15 PM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

I swear, every time I think that Obama couldn't get cooler, he manages to look even better. (Did you know he read _The Three Body Problem_?)

He was also kinda good on the whole recognising the nation of Hawai'i thing. Which stands in stark contrast to Trump who doesn't seem to actually believe native americans actually exist (or, if they do, that they should).
posted by Buntix at 7:16 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Offtopic, but has there ever been a president who was known for enjoying the preparation of food?

President Bartlett has been known to make chili. He has also tried turkey but not as successfully.
posted by scalefree at 7:24 PM on February 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

Feinstein answers questions; still gets hard time from protesters

Sounds like the groundwork for a primary. California deserves better.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:27 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Speaking of the border patrol, Trump Administration Seeks to Loosen Hiring Requirements to Beef Up Border Patrol: "According to an internal memo, laxer standards are needed to expand the number of Border Patrol agents, but that could come at a cost in security."

The leaked memo (yay!) estimates that hiring the thousands of officers Trump has requested will take five years and cost about $2.2 billion.
posted by zachlipton at 7:28 PM on February 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

I honestly can't think of any good reason not to primary Feinstein. What's the downside?
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:29 PM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

I try to think of what I'd be doing if my dad and his terrible ideas got elected to something

My strongest judgments of her actually came way back at the election stage when she endorsed him on camera at the RNC and failed to campaign hard, or at all, for Clinton and against him. there's no excuse for that, from anybody. probably there's somebody somewhere, maybe in the swamps of Florida, deep in a percocet haze with no internet access who honest to god didn't know what they were doing when they voted, for whom I can feel some compassion or understanding. but she is not that person. she was conscious all the way. she knows him.

and while I could see excusing Barron and even maybe Tiffany for not disowning their dad in desperate, loud, public, continuous broadcasts, the oldest three have no excuse. she's christing 35 years old, I don't give a goddamn if she loves her daddy or not. she shouldn't, but it's none of my business, she can love him if she wants. but she can't vote for him and help him and hang around him smiling and not be condemned for it, just like every other bannon and priebus and other monster who's doing the same. She has less real power then they do, and no real position, but realistically they are all of them at the mercy of his affections whims and fits and mood swings and attention span, not just her. so I think of her as not quite as bad as the straight up nazis, but only just barely.

my own dad gave money to Ronald Reagan and although I am told he was smart in other ways, no way in hell would I vote for him or allow anyone to believe I had.

speaking of Reagan, I was not much past the toddler stage in the Reagan years so I don't know if Ron Reagan and Patti Davis said much until their dad was out of office. but even if they kept their mouths shut out of love or fear, they atoned for it later fantastically. no way does Ivanka understand there is anything to atone for. she's no Ron Reagan jr. is what I'm saying.
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:33 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Foreign Policy: The Shallow State

Forget the conspiracy theories. Something much more dangerous is seeking to gut our government and change the character of our society.

posted by Joe in Australia at 7:36 PM on February 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

I honestly can't think of any good reason not to primary Feinstein. What's the downside?

No reason not to, of course, but the biggest downside I see is the struggle to find enough donors to make it possible. It will be the most annoying and pervasive campaign the world has ever seen, and may itself turn potential supporters off.
posted by rhizome at 7:37 PM on February 25, 2017

Feinstein needs to just announce she's not running again, so the party can start working out who's going to run (California has a jungle primary, so a likely situation will be two Democrats facing off in the general, like we had for this past Senate race) and staking out positions early. She's had a long career of public service, and it shouldn't end with what will be a painful and ugly fight.

I know several people who went to that Feinstein event and others who protested outside (I sadly couldn't make it). It was a tiny event, not a true town hall, and there's an empty chair town hall being held without her in Oakland tomorrow. One correspondent said that she did pretty well, but that she was clearly rattled if not a bit scared by the extent of the opposition and protest to her.

The example that stands out most to me is a certain woman who showed up to protest outside. She's a grandmother and literally a synagogue Mahjong lady in San Francisco. We're pretty much talking about Feinstein's natural constituency right there. If Feinstein has lost her, and lost her to the extent that she's not just annoyed, but actually took time out of her day to hold a sign in protest outside the building where she was speaking, who does Feinstein have?
posted by zachlipton at 7:40 PM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Feinstein is 84 years old. I can't imagine she wants to run for another 6 year term.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:41 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

May be over-extrapolating, but the latest ep of Ransom seems like it may be throwing some shade with references to Acquired Situational Narcissism.

Expect there's going to be a lot more direct and indirect mockery and criticism in the entertainment media.
posted by Buntix at 7:43 PM on February 25, 2017

French historian (but born in Egypt) and author of “The Vichy Syndrome” detained 10 hours for no reason by customs.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:43 PM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Offtopic, but has there ever been a president who was known for enjoying the preparation of food?

I believe the answer to this is President Eisenhower. He was very well known for his grilling (see also
Eisenhower steak), but his archives also hold recipes for things like vegetable soup and eggnog. He compiled a cookbook of clippings and various recipes. There is an out of print book called Ike the Cook, you can find some excerpts on the web. Apparently he started his military career as a mess seargant, and Mamie never enjoyed cooking, so he ended up as the family cook.
posted by anastasiav at 7:44 PM on February 25, 2017 [28 favorites]

She keeps hinting about running again and certainly isn't ruling it out. And she's fundraising.
posted by zachlipton at 7:45 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

She has less real power then they do, and no real position, but realistically they are all of them at the mercy of his affections whims and fits and mood swings and attention span, not just her. so I think of her as not quite as bad as the straight up nazis, but only just barely.

She's exactly as bad as the worst one. She's using him to pitch her products to foreign leaders and gain access she could've never had otherwise. She's 100% complicit in the TrumpOrg corruption of the presidency. Melania, Ivanka and Jared are bad people, exactly like Bannon and Sessions and Paul Ryan are bad people. I don't understand why people keep finding it necessary to excuse them like they have no agency.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:50 PM on February 25, 2017 [33 favorites]

Ivanka is worse than the Nazis because she knows better and does nothing. She's one of the very few people who could've single-handedly stopped this whole thing and didn't. She's worth $150m and is married to someone worth $200m who is also the heir to a two billion dollar fortune. She doesn't need daddy's money. Fuck her.
posted by chris24 at 7:55 PM on February 25, 2017 [33 favorites]

I don't understand why people keep finding it necessary to excuse them like they have no agency.

Everybody wants to find the good Lannister, but there ain't no Tyrion and young Tommen is locked away deep in the Tower.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:57 PM on February 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

All any of them ever had to do was write a tell-all book about their assuredly fucked up childhoods and they'd be set for a good long time. None of them need his money. They're all complicit except Barron.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:59 PM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

She's one of the very few people who could've single-handedly stopped this whole thing and didn't.

is that right. do you think she's been running him this whole time as her spokesmonster handpuppet while rationing his daily cocaine to keep him tractable and obedient, or...??

I just wrote a multiparagraph screed about how she's as bad as a Nazi so I am 100 percent ok with hating her for her many crimes against humanity but this is a little bit bonkers. she has no power over him he doesn't give her and can't take away. the whole reason she's scum is she won't risk losing it, because power is all to her. but if she stood up to him, she's the one who would be cast out, not him. what in the world would reverse that?
posted by queenofbithynia at 8:01 PM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

is that right. do you think she's been running him this whole time as her spokesmonster handpuppet while rationing his daily cocaine to keep him tractable and obedient, or...??
...
she has no power over him he doesn't give her and can't take away.

She doesn't need to have control over him to have stopped this. She just needs her own agency. She merely had to say publicly she didn't think he should run for or be president. As the sole respected Trump and closest to him, there's no way her unendorsement wouldn't have hurt him enough to lose the election imo.
posted by chris24 at 8:07 PM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

I guess I think, firstly, that I think like the rest of us, I don't think she thought he would win, so it was safe for her to make endorsements.

Secondly, I'm really uncomfortable with how it seems like people routinely single out the women in Trump's life for scorn rather than the men. I don't think it's intentional, but it doesn't feel great.
posted by corb at 8:12 PM on February 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

there's no way her unendorsement wouldn't have hurt him enough to lose the election imo

Because as we've seen, if there's one thing Trump voters respect, it's the opinion of a woman.

I agree she's just straight-up collaborator trash, but I couldn't let that one hang out there over the plate.
posted by Freon at 8:13 PM on February 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

The democrats need to draft a bill RIGHT NOW, and be ready to file it as soon as it's likely to pass, that

1. temporarily exempts Customs and Border Protection officers from civil service protections.
2. orders an investigation to identify all staffers at that agency that took part in the mistreatment of travelers this past month.
3. And fires every fucking one of those scumbags.
posted by ocschwar at 8:13 PM on February 25, 2017 [29 favorites]

Or leak his taxes. Or just drop a hint to the NYT where the Russia money is hidden. Or less overt even. A couple interviews confirming the sexual assault stories. She could've brought him down at any time and chose not to. She's fully invested in and attached to his corruption. Doesn't really matter why, she's culpable.

Secondly, I'm really uncomfortable with how it seems like people routinely single out the women in Trump's life for scorn rather than the men. I don't think it's intentional, but it doesn't feel great.

He famously has no friends. His male sycophants are routinely blasted here, as are his sons Uday and Qusay. This is unfounded.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:15 PM on February 25, 2017 [20 favorites]

Secondly, I'm really uncomfortable with how it seems like people routinely single out the women in Trump's life for scorn rather than the men. I don't think it's intentional, but it doesn't feel great.

Not trying to be confrontational, but I think it's more weird that people routinely try to exempt or excuse Ivanka and Melania while dumping on the rest of the klan. I see way more of that I think than the reverse.
posted by chris24 at 8:16 PM on February 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

Eric and Don, Jr. seem like garbage people, too. I think most people call that out here. I think most everyone sympathizes with Barron.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:18 PM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

there's no way her unendorsement wouldn't have hurt him enough to lose the election imo

Because as we've seen, if there's one thing Trump voters respect, it's the opinion of a woman

Fair enough. But in an election this close, where so many people were looking for a way to pretend Trump wasn't really as bad as they knew in their hearts, I think his daughter saying "oh hell no" about him would've made enough of a difference. Or as T.D. said, she could've secretly done any one of a laundry list of things to bring him down.
posted by chris24 at 8:19 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm really uncomfortable with how it seems like people routinely single out the women in Trump's life for scorn rather than the men.

CTRL+F 'eric' : 1 result (ignoring Paulsen)
CTRL+F 'ivanka' : 36 results
CTRL+F 'jared' : 9 results

Not to excuse anyone involved with Trump, but this is an ugly path.
posted by Buntix at 8:30 PM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

French historian (but born in Egypt) and author of “The Vichy Syndrome” detained 10 hours for no reason by customs.
More details: French scholar set to speak at HIAS detained by customs officials at Houston airport

I think his treatment (and the treatment of Mem Fox, and presumably many other people whose cases haven't hit the news) reflects a general emboldening of customs and immigration forces in the USA. There were reports of students from Muslim countries having their visas revoked before Trump's original Executive Order. They knew it was coming and looked forward to it. If the USA is going to have new secret police, it's going to be these guys: they have much more discretion than regular law enforcement; and the people they detain have fewer rights and less opportunity to exercise them.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:32 PM on February 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

Ivanka seems to work in the administration. The other children do not.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:33 PM on February 25, 2017 [27 favorites]

Frustrated at some of the negativity coming from opponents of President Donald Trump, rancher Doug Koehn hopped on his plow and carved the word “TRUMP” in big block letters into his field.

“The letters are 800 feet wide and approximately 800 feet long,” Koehn said. “A mile-long Trump.”

[...] There’s also a bit of big dreaming at play here as well. Koehn lit up at the idea that Air Force One might someday buzz the sign he cut into his land.

“They can even land if they’re in Marine One,” Koehn said. “I’ll buy [President Trump] a beer. I’d love to shake his hand.”

The video's a fine specimen of local news: they christen the station's first drone. Watch it or don't; nothing matters any more. We're all Dougs plowing our Trumps now.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:46 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Secondly, I'm really uncomfortable with how it seems like people routinely single out the women in Trump's life for scorn rather than the men. I don't think it's intentional, but it doesn't feel great.

it's funny because I thought 'almost as bad as Steve Bannon' was like next thing to calling her Hitler, but apparently even that still places me at the mild end of the loathing spectrum. so even though I hate her way more than you do and forgive her nothing, I still somewhat agree with you. and I think people use Melania's absolute moral vacancy as an excuse for gratuitous misogyny, which is no defense of her but is always treated as one, just because. her defenders and fans also use her existence as an excuse for gratuitous misogyny, so at least it's symmetrical.

I hate Neil Gorsuch and Jason Chaffetz way more than any of Trump's relations, just for the record.

the reprehensibility scale goes Donald --> Bannon -> Priebus --> Kushner --> Ivanka --> and then a whole bunch of people elided for space reasons, then Mitch McConnell, then the ghost of Richard Nixon, then the ghost of Ronald Reagan, then Melania. this is only important when deciding how to draw the circles of hell correctly but I care about that kind of thing.
posted by queenofbithynia at 8:48 PM on February 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

Like, if a president wanted to, would the WH staff let them make use of the WH kitchens? Provide sous chefs? The WH chef giving pointers/lessons?

Short answer, yes.

Long answer, I know a guy who was part of the residential staff from Carter to GWB, this is what I know from talking to him... the White House residential staff is made up of hundreds of people extremely devoted to their work, serving the First Family and the White House itself.

This friend didn't have regular personal interactions with the First Families, but when they did happen they were very important times for him. He has photos of himself at work with presidents and first ladies, candid-type photos taken by the White House photographers. These pictures are his most precious possessions if that gives you an idea of the level of devotion the job engenders. Even his husband swears he has never said one bad word about his job or complained or gossiped about anything ever.

The staff does whatever makes the president and family happy as effortlessly and friction-free as possible. If the First Family likes to makes their own late night ham sandwiches, there will always be ham sandwich fixins on hand (there's a family kitchen and dining room on the second floor of the residence that the president and family have full-time access to). If the president wants something special or personal attention from staff (to learn how to cook or brew beer or arrange flowers or whatever) the staff makes that a priority and probably be excited for the opportunity to do it.

I don't think anyone would stop the president if he wanted to use the main kitchen on the ground floor, but it'd probably make the staff unhappy like they we're doing their job right if the president was wandering into an industrial kitchen looking for some lettuce. There's also a carpentry and a flower shop in the White House but the president doesn't usually stop in if he needs to borrow a screwdriver or wants a new fern. That's somebody's job, word gets passed to a butler or the usher and the staff takes care of it. For example:

One night when Chelsea Clinton was sick, Hillary Clinton went into the eat-in kitchen that she had created on the second floor and set about making her daughter scrambled eggs. A butler looked on warily as the First Lady searched for a frying pan. "Oh, we'll bring an omelet from downstairs," the butler said. "No," she told him. "I just want to make some scrambled eggs and applesauce and feed her what I would feed her if we were living anywhere else in America."

posted by peeedro at 8:53 PM on February 25, 2017 [73 favorites]

Ivanka seems to work in the administration. The other children do not.

They all do, because there are no lines between "the administration" and TrumpOrg. But Uday and Qusay have behind the scenes roles as moneymen managing properties and identifying how to best direct the US treasury into TrumpOrg coffers.

Ivanka's role is public facing. She's the ambassador to liberal America. She's there to give false hope that everything is OK, he's not really going to do ____, because Ivanka says he won't. And yet, he's done a whole lot of ____ already.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:56 PM on February 25, 2017 [19 favorites]

must admit, making it easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the united states has a certain appeal

Unfortunately, that is the one part of the Bible that is not literal
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:59 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

There's no separation between the Trump family, the Trump business and the Trump administration. No reason to pretend there is.
posted by Artw at 9:02 PM on February 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

'The letters are 800 feet wide and approximately 800 feet long,' Koehn said. 'A mile-long Trump.'

If you like to go Bump! Bump!
Just jump on the hump of the Wump of Gump
And have it dump in the Trump of chump
posted by kirkaracha at 9:03 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." It says Congress, but can the President sign an order banning Muslims or even asking about any religious preference?
posted by Oyéah at 9:04 PM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

> 1. temporarily exempts Customs and Border Protection officers from civil service protections.
2. orders an investigation to identify all staffers at that agency that took part in the mistreatment of travelers this past month.
3. And fires every fucking one of those scumbags.

Okay tell me I'm paranoid but I'm thinking "bunch of newly unemployed men trained with guns and predisposed to violent xenophobia" is how you get paramilitary gangs.

I think we have to keep paying the fuckers.

Even after the Republican Party is deposed, we'll be dealing with nazis for decades. Thanks, Trump.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 9:06 PM on February 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

I worry, that since Trump is not employing Erik Prince's sister, and conversing with the world's premier mercenary; that he will employ mercenaries, even foreign ones to enforce his airport blockade, highway blockades, and what ever other mischief he chooses to engage in. I worry they will block the interstate, and confiscate vehicles, since Trump has already backed off on protections for property owners, who get arrested, even if they are innocent. I think Trump will pardon the Bundys, and will do everything Bannon can think of to irritate the left, and deconstruct any semblance of harmony in this country. There are huge private armies of security contractors, of all kinds, he might deputize and foment civil conflict.
posted by Oyéah at 9:12 PM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Okay, so I have an on-topic post: our Congressman is trying to raise money off of liberal heckling. Check out the whining in this email from Tom Reed, after people from Ithaca apparently got up in his grill in the town halls that he was holding in the furthest corners of our district.

"... Liberal extremists tried to stop us from having an honest conversation about the issues facing our country and district. According to the Buffalo News, activists with ties to Washington organized and trained protestors who took over our meetings with demands including single payer healthcare, citizenship for illegal immigrants and an immediate stop to fossil fuel production."

[The observant reader will note that one of these things is not like the others, but whatever.]

"I know that these extreme liberals do not represent our values and that is why we need your help. ... As we work to unite this district there are liberal groups attempting to drive us apart and bully us into supporting their extreme agenda. A contribution of $10, $20, $50, $100 or more will help us fight back and show the Ithaca and the Washington Democrats that their destructive tactics aren't going to work here in the Southern Tier, Finger Lakes and Western New York."

Oh those terrible Ithaca liberals, demanding details about Tom's healthcare and tax plans - they really seem to have hurt his tender fee-fees. Sad!
posted by RedOrGreen at 9:23 PM on February 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

I'm just waiting for Svante Myrick to run for Congress eventually.
posted by zachlipton at 9:30 PM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Also while I know that reality TV ≠ reality, I watched enough of the Apprentice to know Ivanka is the only one of his older kids with a brain in her head. She got the level of respect she has because demonstrated she's not Don Jr. I think that earns her a bit more scorn when she gives the impression she knows exactly what's going on for the whole ride, where Don Jr. and Eric just look like they're happy they get to honk the big horn with their heads out the window. That plus being Jewish and not only ignoring but using her prominence to give a pass to Team Trump's xenophobia and anti-semitism is something that has earned her - and Jared - more (deserved) vilification than the boys.

But yeah, the tone used with her and all the other women associated with the Administration (except for possibly Elaine Chao) is getting some of my side-eye lately.
posted by Mchelly at 9:48 PM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

They are garbage same as the rest of the administration, they should be treated as garbage.
posted by Artw at 9:55 PM on February 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Don Jr. is the younger son, right?
posted by rhizome at 10:34 PM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

No, you're thinking of Misc. Don, Jr is the firstborn.
posted by Justinian at 10:36 PM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Trump Children, according to Donald: Don Jr, IVANKA, Misc 1, Misc 2, and wait theres another girl?
posted by Justinian at 10:38 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I think Tiffany has basically exited the family and good for her if so. All the other adults are fully culpable.
posted by Artw at 10:40 PM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

That's is an Andy Bernard joke I'm going to repeat until it hits. Fair warning.
posted by rhizome at 10:46 PM on February 25, 2017

I always suspected Marla Maples raised her right by keeping her as far away from her father as she legally could. Go Tiffany (I say this for now....).
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:47 PM on February 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

a) Rothkopf presents a cogent pov in the 'Shallow State' Foreign Policy column. Recommended.

b) re: nazis-post-trump, i advise this EO - "CPB and ICE are immediately dissolved. State National Guard can keep an eye on things, just until the trials are over."
posted by j_curiouser at 11:19 PM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Approved Daughter came in as part of the family dictatorship to run the grift from the inside out. Uday and Qusay are running the grift from the outside-in.

Whoever gets the ineviable job of providing comedy to the WHCD needs to talk about Bannon being the after photo on a "don't get hooked on booze" video and the before photo on an embalming training film. And then talk about all the other fuckers in the WH and Cabinet. And ignore the sad orange.
posted by holgate at 11:27 PM on February 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

And one thing about Approved Daughter being a specific target of scorn is that she posed at the Oval Office desk with Justin Trudeau as if she'd earned the fucking right to sit there. It might have been charming if she'd been 13, but she's 35.
posted by holgate at 11:38 PM on February 25, 2017 [37 favorites]

Yeah, but that's the only way we're ever going to see a woman behind the White House desk, so...there's that!
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:48 PM on February 25, 2017

NYTimes: Immigration Agents Discover New Freedom to Deport Under Trump

But for those with ICE badges, perhaps the biggest change was the erasing of the Obama administration’s hierarchy of priorities, which forced agents to concentrate on deporting gang members and other violent and serious criminals, and mostly leave everyone else alone.

A whirlwind of activity has overtaken ICE headquarters in Washington in recent weeks, with employees attending back-to-back meetings about how to quickly carry out President Trump’s plans. “Some people are like: ‘This is great. Let’s give them all the tools they need,’” said a senior staff member at headquarters, who joined the department under the administration of George W. Bush.

But, the official added, “other people are a little bit more hesitant and fearful about how quickly things are moving.”

Two officials in Washington said that the shift — and the new enthusiasm that has come with it — seems to have encouraged pro-Trump political comments and banter that struck the officials as brazen or gung-ho, like remarks about their jobs becoming “fun.” Those who take less of a hard line on unauthorized immigrants feel silenced, the officials said.

posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:56 PM on February 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

Yup. If you're the kind of person that thinks hurting people is fun, Immigration might be the job for you.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:27 AM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Hey now, somebody has to protect the country from 4 year old boys and elderly cancer patients.
posted by ian1977 at 1:50 AM on February 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

Because if there's one truism in the world, it's that losing presidential candidates get to make all the decisions afterwards.

@realDonaldTrump
The race for DNC Chairman was, of course, totally "rigged." Bernie's guy, like Bernie himself, never had a chance. Clinton demanded Perez!
posted by chris24 at 4:50 AM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

why was it "rigged" and not just rigged? What sort of rigging requires "air quotes"?
posted by ian1977 at 5:10 AM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

why was it "rigged" and not just rigged? What sort of rigging requires "air quotes"?

I think he's using quotation marks for emphasis.
posted by Talez at 5:16 AM on February 26, 2017

Why Immigrant Students Are Changing Their Minds About Janet Napolitano (The Atlantic)

Napolitano has emerged as one of the leading defenders of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which at least for now President Trump appears to have spared, despite vowing during the presidential campaign to rescind it. The program has provided temporary relief from deportation to three-quarters of 1 million undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, including many attending the University of California.

posted by kingless at 5:20 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I think he's using quotation marks for emphasis.

Just when I think I can't hate him more.
posted by ian1977 at 5:24 AM on February 26, 2017 [32 favorites]

Yo Democrats, when the fascist president is telling you to be upset that your leadership votes were rigged (or "rigged"), maybe don't take that bait? Something tells me he does not have the best interests of the party at heart :thinky-face-emoji:
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:46 AM on February 26, 2017 [26 favorites]

DNC should just tweet back 'totes rigged. You got us Donnie.'
posted by ian1977 at 5:47 AM on February 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Jake Tapper says that the White House declined their offer to have a staff member on their Sunday show today.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:57 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

So called "air quotes" are proper MLA style used to denote the non "fakeness" of the news being shared. I can't believe you liberals care about that after the tragedy of a white Kansan being gunned down by two Indian American Muslims last week.
posted by possibly sean spicer at 5:58 AM on February 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

So I head over to the "Bash Trump SafeSpace" (America, circa early-2017), and I says my bit about I don't get it.

I don't get it, I says. His Approved Daughter, his advizer son-in-lawr, his unapproved daughter, ex-wife, many friends and Approved Other Presidents like Bibi are all Jewish. What I don't get, I says, is what's with the Nazis? Why surround the place and cede most of the infrastructure of the administration to Nazis if you like or love any Jewish people? ("Are a functioning human" would also qualify but it's Trump ok)

So then Charlie, he goes, he says, "Here's the thing about Trump." He says, "He doesn't understand religion. Or politics. He's not a religious or political person. He's got a massive narcissistic disorder that means he only seeks praise. That's it."

So I thinks about Trump's trip to the black church in Detroit where they give him a tallit, and his pouty-serious-look-face and what he must be thinking, and then I think how he would have run the exact same campaign as a Demicrat, if they'da let him, except the President was a Demicrat and was mean at him.

Charlie, I says, you might have somethin' there.
posted by petebest at 6:02 AM on February 26, 2017 [16 favorites]

god yeah i swear last week i went over quotations: do not use quotations around slang or to emphasize words.

i should give my students extra credit for creating twitter accounts just to tweet grammar and style rules at POTUS.

Of course, that's a terrible idea, as most of my students are immigrants from West African countries.
posted by angrycat at 6:20 AM on February 26, 2017

do not use quotations around "slang" or to "emphasize" words.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:43 AM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Slain SEAL’s dad wants answers: ‘Don’t hide behind my son’s death’: “Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn’t even barely a week into his administration? Why? For two years prior, there were no boots on the ground in Yemen — everything was missiles and drones — because there was not a target worth one American life. Now, all of a sudden we had to make this grand display?’’

In a statement from the White House Saturday, spokesman Michael C. Short called Ryan Owens “an American hero who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of his country.”
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:44 AM on February 26, 2017 [50 favorites]

Jake Tapper says that the White House declined their offer to have a staff member on their Sunday show today.

Between this, banning the press from the briefing last week, and Trump's withdrawal from the Whitehouse Correspondents Dinner, it looks like they have made a strategic plan to block all media except the alt-right.

Honestly, I don't see how this ends well for them, especially if it means the media gives more attention to people speaking for the other side. Trump got where he is because of his ubiquity on cable news. I don't know that Fox, Breitbart and Alex Jones are going to make up for that.
posted by maggiemaggie at 6:52 AM on February 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

If there's any reason not to buy into the anger about Perez vs Ellison (especially since the former immediately nominated the latter to help), it's that Donald Trump's trying to make the anger about it flare up even more.

If Trump's tweet makes an Ellison supporter angrier about "the Clintons rigging the election for Perez" then they can go ahead and just put on the fucking red hat already.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:53 AM on February 26, 2017 [23 favorites]

Maybe there is something bigger in store for Ellison anyway. 2020? 2028?
posted by ian1977 at 6:55 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I mean, Biden, Valerie Jarrett and Obama aide David Simas all made calls to undecided members in an effort for Perez. Ellison basically had the DNC chair thing wrapped up before these folks stepped in. I can understand why the Bernie/not really core Dem field is upset about it.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:57 AM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Carole Cadwalladr, Guardian: Robert Mercer: the big data billionaire waging war on mainstream media

“The danger of not having regulation around the sort of data you can get from Facebook and elsewhere is clear. With this, a computer can actually do psychology, it can predict and potentially control human behaviour. It’s what the scientologists try to do but much more powerful. It’s how you brainwash someone. It’s incredibly dangerous.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that minds can be changed. Behaviour can be predicted and controlled. I find it incredibly scary. I really do. Because nobody has really followed through on the possible consequences of all this. People don’t know it’s happening to them. Their attitudes are being changed behind their backs.”
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:01 AM on February 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

On the other hand there is a pretty boring reason for picking Perez over Ellison that no one Monday morning quarterbacking about this seems to consider important: Keith Ellison already has a job. We have just come off a pretty lackluster DNC leadership where the chair already had a job. I mean, aggrieved people gonna be aggrieved but that seems like a pretty compelling reason for people who know way more about the day to day of doing this job to step in and propose an alternative.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:02 AM on February 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

I can understand why the Bernie/not really core Dem field is upset about it.

Of course, but that's not the same as buying into the regime's blatant and hamfisted attempt at splitting the opposition. If the administration wants Ellison supporters angry, Bernie/Ellison people had best think about whether it's because Trump really cares about strong left-wing economic policy or whether he wants the boot to stomp their face, forever.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:04 AM on February 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

Rust Moranis, part of the reason that I think a new Indivisible party would be better than staying with hardcore a Democrat party for many people is because there are people on the conservative aisle who are anti-Trump, but surely aren't going to get on board with the Tom Perez's of the world. I usually do vote Democrat, but a lot of my friends don't.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:06 AM on February 26, 2017

I can understand why the Bernie/not really core Dem field is upset about it.

The question is, though, why they're still upset after Perez immediately nominated Ellison to deputy chair and is extremely forthcoming with his praise for and intent to work with Ellison. Perez isn't even centrist, he's solidly to the left.

It's as if the idea of Ellison winning matters more than the reality of his beliefs still being effective in the DNC, and it honestly smells a lot like the sort of infighting that led some Bernie supporters to bizarrely vote for Trump to 'prove a point' -- and it's definitely not the time or the place to get into that infighting.
posted by flatluigi at 7:08 AM on February 26, 2017 [63 favorites]

It's as if the idea of Ellison winning matters more than the reality of his beliefs still being effective in the DNC, and it honestly smells a lot like the sort of infighting that led some Bernie supporters to bizarrely vote for Trump to 'prove a point' -- and it's definitely not the time or the place to get into that infighting.

I don't disagree with you, but a lot of people are less reasonable than this. And again, I think Ellison represents resistance, where Perez doesn't. I hope he changes people's perceptions.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:10 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I know it's Trump's derail, not ours, but DNC election discussion is supposed to go in the DNC thread.
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:12 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Neil Howe, WaPo: Where did Steve Bannon get his worldview? From my book.

America entered a new Fourth Turning in 2008. It is likely to last until around 2030. Our paradigm suggests that current trends will deepen as we move toward the halfway point.

Further adverse events, possibly another financial crisis or a major armed conflict, will galvanize public opinion and mobilize leaders to take more decisive action. Rising regionalism and nationalism around the world could lead to the fragmentation of major political entities (perhaps the European Union) and the outbreak of hostilities (perhaps in the South China Sea, the Korean Peninsula, the Baltic states or the Persian Gulf).

Despite a new tilt toward isolationism, the United States could find itself at war. I certainly do not hope for war. I simply make a sobering observation: Every total war in U.S. history has occurred during a Fourth Turning, and no Fourth Turning has yet unfolded without one. America’s objectives in such a war are likely to be defined very broadly.

At the end of the 2020s, the Fourth Turning crisis era will climax and draw to a close. Settlements will be negotiated, treaties will be signed, new borders will be drawn, and perhaps (as in the late 1940s) a new durable world order will be created. Perhaps as well, by the early 2030s, we will enter a new First Turning: Young families will rejoice, fertility will rebound, economic equality will rise, a new middle class will emerge, public investment will grow into a new 21st-century infrastructure, and ordered prosperity will recommence.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:16 AM on February 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

WH spokesperson declines to guarantee people won't lose insurance under ACA replacement (video)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:18 AM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Neil Howe, WaPo: Where did Steve Bannon get his worldview? From my book.

I will RTFA later but wow that sounds like so much horseshit.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:25 AM on February 26, 2017 [17 favorites]

Neil Howe, WaPo: Where did Steve Bannon get his worldview? From my book.

(also from Hitler and probably his abusive dad)

At the end of the 2020s, the Fourth Turning crisis era will climax and draw to a close. Settlements will be negotiated, treaties will be signed, new borders will be drawn, and perhaps (as in the late 1940s) a new durable world order will be created. Perhaps as well, by the early 2030s, we will enter a new First Turning: Young families will rejoice, fertility will rebound, economic equality will rise, a new middle class will emerge, public investment will grow into a new 21st-century infrastructure, and ordered prosperity will recommence.

The certainty and optimism here really is infuriating. The validity of Generational Theory is highly controversial already, but Neil Howe doesn't account for nuclear war, climate change, unprecedented humanitarian crises etc., presuming there'll be a world for a world order to be rebuilt in. It reads like something written by an old white dude who will either be dead anyway or rich enough that he'll just be able to watch the Turning unfold without himself and his family suffering and dying.

Anyway, if this is what Bannon thinks, he'll be trying to fuck up/destroy the country/world, thinking that he's actually acting in sync and accordance with the current Turning. Come to think of it, the end result would be indistinguishable from what we're seeing from Bannon right now. Thanks, Neil! Go fuck yourself!
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:31 AM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Saeed Jones (‏@theferocity) on Twitter:

Trump WH on trans kids and restrooms: STATES RIGHTS.

Trump WH on states legalizing marijuana: WE’RE COMING FOR YOU, SINNERS.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:32 AM on February 26, 2017 [30 favorites]

that sounds like so much horseshit.

FWIW, Bannon references The Fourth Turning over and over again in Generation Zero.
posted by Coventry at 7:34 AM on February 26, 2017

Oh I don't mean the idea that Bannon is influenced by the book, I mean the theory itself.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:36 AM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

The last president to skip out on the WHCD was... Nixon.
posted by flatluigi at 7:37 AM on February 26, 2017 [16 favorites]

"I just saw Steve Bannon's look described as "the coroner of Margaritaville" and fuckin holy shit I can't handle the truth"
posted by porn in the woods at 7:39 AM on February 26, 2017 [35 favorites]

Yeah the theory is magical thinking.
posted by Coventry at 7:40 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

FWIW, Bannon references The Fourth Turning over and over again in Generation Zero.

We're all going to die because of fucking Timecube.
posted by Artw at 7:41 AM on February 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

Awwww that feels unfair to parrot heads. How about the coroner of last-dregs-of-Curaçao-rubbing alcohol-and-vanilla-extract-town?
posted by ian1977 at 7:42 AM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

I will RTFA later but wow that sounds like so much horseshit.

We need a Betteridge's Law exception/corollary stating something like, "Any headline that asks a question about the source of X can always be answered by naming a product, item, or explanation that will financially or otherwise benefit the person who's the author or subject of the article."
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:42 AM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Awwww that feels unfair to parrot heads.

I don't have the data to back this up from Buffett Analytics, but I'm going to wager at least 75% of the Parrothead demographic voted Trump.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:44 AM on February 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Almost certainly true. Buffett himself made a big show of publicly endorsing Trump.

I’m a baby boomer, born a year after the end of the second World War. Harry Truman was president and It’s A Wonderful Life had just been released in theaters. The future was bright, even for this son of a son of a sailor from Pascagoula, Mississippi. But as I sit here in my boat anchored off the coast of St. Barth, I reflect back on my 69 trips around the sun and how our country has lost much of its magic. It’s time for a new direction. A turn of the rudder to alter course towards fairer winds and calmer waters.

“And there’s that one particular harbour
Sheltered from the wind
Where the children play on the shore each day
And all are safe within”

I want to go to that One Particular Harbour, in a boat captained by The Great Negotiator, Donald Trump. Join me parrotheads.

posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:49 AM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

This isn't Paradise, and it's not a cheeseburger, but we still have to eat it.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:51 AM on February 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

Eewwwwwww. Sigh. I always liked cheeseburger in paradise. Goddammit.
posted by ian1977 at 7:52 AM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

The last president to skip out on the WHCD was... Nixon.

Uh, doesn't the link say it was Carter in 1980?
posted by Dr Dracator at 7:55 AM on February 26, 2017

One of the biggest parrot-heads I know is a Trump supporter so somehow Buffet's endorsement doesn't really surprise me.
posted by octothorpe at 7:56 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

>Trump Administration Seeks to Loosen Hiring Requirements to Beef Up Border Patrol

This is just cracking me up. I know, it's not funny, the whole thing is one tragedy after another and I'm just punchdrunk at this point. But I think he's really got a point here: why have hiring requirements for the Border Patrol, if you don't have any for the Presidency? Doesn't make sense.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 7:56 AM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Trump Administration Seeks to Loosen Hiring Requirements to Beef Up Border Patrol

They should just hire immigrants.
posted by srboisvert at 7:58 AM on February 26, 2017 [24 favorites]

Almost certainly true. Buffett himself made a big show of publicly endorsing Trump.

Um, this link appears to be to an April Fools joke.
posted by obliviax at 8:04 AM on February 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

Ah, so it is. Sorry about falling for that.

It sure passed the sniff test, given how many terrible people I know who hit both circles in the Trump/Parrothead Venn diagram.

But yeah, it looks to be fake.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:09 AM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

A shame. Wasted away again in Metafilterville.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:12 AM on February 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

A video has surfaced that protesters say show Congressman Neal Dunn, R-Panama City, ran a red light Thursday to avoid talking to them about health care.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:20 AM on February 26, 2017 [31 favorites]

Neil Howe doesn't account for nuclear war, climate change, unprecedented humanitarian crises etc.,

Yes that kind of simplistic analysis seems so reductive I can't imagine anyone taking it seriously. Airplanes, computers, and robots radically change the world we operate in, to deny those externalities for some generational circle of life is crazy.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 8:37 AM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Perhaps as well, by the early 2030s, we will enter a new First Turning: Young families will rejoice, fertility will rebound, economic equality will rise, a new middle class will emerge, public investment will grow into a new 21st-century infrastructure, and ordered prosperity will recommence.

"We just have to get rid of the, uh, minorities first."
posted by hangashore at 8:53 AM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Meet the Press: "There's a pattern to Trump's attacks on the media. They repeatedly happen directly after reporting on Russia. Watch."

When even Chuck Todd sees the pattern...
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:58 AM on February 26, 2017 [40 favorites]

Rick Santorum Claims 'Millions Of Americans' With Pre-existing Conditions Are Stealing Health Care

Another proud hire for CNN.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:06 AM on February 26, 2017 [17 favorites]

Adding "Save us, Chuck Todd!" to the list, right after "Save us, Darrell Issa!"
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:07 AM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

How about the coroner of last-dregs-of-Curaçao-rubbing alcohol-and-vanilla-extract-town?

The corner of Scope Mouthwash Classic
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 9:08 AM on February 26, 2017

Story about the WH and in this specific article, Spicer, trying to stop leaks. It's not the first time that warnings about leaks have promptly leaked.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 9:09 AM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

A shame. Wasted away again in Metafilterville.

Potus45: Some people claim that there's a woman to blame, but I know it's my own damn fault.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:10 AM on February 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

at least 75% of the Parrothead demographic voted Trump.

Many years ago, there was a car I'd see near my office all the time with a vanity plate something like APRTHD, and whenever I'd see it, I'd just fume.

Then one day, I was out to lunch with a coworker, and we were right behind it. I said, "What is with that guy? What kind of an asshole gets a vanity plate that says Apartheid?"

He said, "I think that's supposed to mean 'A Parrothead,' you know, like a Jimmy Buffet fan."

That was the first time I'd heard of any such thing, but effortlessly restoring my credibility, I pointed out that it was probably almost the same thing. And I stand by that hot take.
posted by ernielundquist at 9:21 AM on February 26, 2017 [17 favorites]

Meet the Press: "There's a pattern to Trump's attacks on the media. They repeatedly happen directly after reporting on Russia. Watch."

That combines well with this analysis from the WashPo calling the fake news defense a cop-out. Because they can't refute the details of the news, they resort to name-calling instead:

Few political terms have been weaponized as quickly and effectively as "fake news." It's now a mainstay of the Trump White House's rhetoric and a pithy talking point for conservatives. In just eight letters, it says pretty much everything they believe about the mainstream media.

It's also a cop-out.

The biggest problem with "fake news" is that it's a blanket dismissal that requires no elaboration or proof. And almost without fail, this White House doesn't provide any.

posted by peeedro at 9:22 AM on February 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

Story about the WH and in this specific article, Spicer, trying to stop leaks. It's not the first time that warnings about leaks have promptly leaked.

Random searches of staffer's phones must have a great effect on morale. No wonder they're using encrypted apps. Does having Signal installed trigger Spicer?
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:22 AM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Ivanka is not only completely complicit as a fig leaf for the anti-semitism, she is complicit as a fig leaf for the misogyny too.

Her whole shtick is essentially : look, if you're nice and polite and pretty, the powerful men will give you a seat at the table!!! And calling it feminism. That actively does a disservice to the many many woman that don't fit in the tidy little box of "acceptable" the patriarchy wants us in. And for actively reinforcing that when she is supposedly smart enough to know better, she (IMO) has earned all the scorn directed at her.
posted by susiswimmer

I love this comment but will go even further: she is more than just a fig leaf for anti-Semitism. There is an ugly history of Jews selling out fellow Jews and she is literally giving aid and comfort to people who tried to kill my parents because they were Jews and now want to kill me. Hope that extra piece of bread tastes good, Ivanka. #shanda
posted by Room 641-A at 9:22 AM on February 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

Hey man, chill out. Jimmy's OK. Buffett Performs at Rally Attended by Joe Biden
posted November 7th, 2016 at 8:38 pm

Jimmy Buffett flew his Pilatus airplane into Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg, Florida on Monday to perform at a Get Out The Vote Rally for Hillary Clinton and Democratic candidates in Florida. Vice President Biden and his wife Jill were also in attendance.

y'know what, I'll take it. Pick it, Coral Reefers!

Edit:“Yes, it’s been quite a summer,” Buffett sang on Come Monday, a song whose lyrics he tweaked for the occasion: “There’s a Dumpster that waits for that Trumpster with hate / and I’m all glad we’re on the right side.”
posted by petebest at 9:29 AM on February 26, 2017 [24 favorites]

Another 100 companies pull advertising from Breitbart
posted by adamvasco at 9:38 AM on February 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

>Rick Santorum Claims 'Millions Of Americans' With Pre-existing Conditions Are Stealing Health Care

Millions of predatory sick people are using a loophole in the law to compel these cruelly victimized insurance companies to PAY CLAIMS. It's clearly a perversion of the intent of the legislation, which was never meant to provide insured people with, of all things, treatment.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 9:40 AM on February 26, 2017 [32 favorites]

Sean Spicer targets own staff in leak crackdown

Spicer also warned the group of more problems if news of the phone checks and the meeting about leaks was leaked to the media. It's not the first time that warnings about leaks have promptly leaked. The State Department's legal office issued a four-page memo warning of the dangers of leaks -- that memo was immediately posted by the Washington Post.

But with mounting tension inside the West Wing over stories portraying an administration lurching between crises and simmering in dysfunction, aides are increasingly frustrated by the pressure-cooker environment and worried about their futures there.

Spicer declined to comment.

posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 9:42 AM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

aides are increasingly frustrated by the pressure-cooker environment and worried about their futures there.

Imagine.
posted by petebest at 9:43 AM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Odds seem high that Spicer himself is the leak.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 9:45 AM on February 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Turns out, we need all those immigrants, and their kids, if we want our economy to keep up.

Trump's Hard Line on Immigration Collides with U.S. Demographics
posted by emjaybee at 9:48 AM on February 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

aides are increasingly frustrated by the pressure-cooker environment and worried about their futures there.

On the one hand it's must be tough weighing the odds of being hung from a lamppost, on the other hand they're collaborators with a fascist regime so fuck them.
posted by Artw at 9:48 AM on February 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

Sean Spicer targets own staff in leak crackdown

So what we have here is an immediately leaked story about a meeting to check for leaks based on leaked stories of leak-hunting after several leaks.

There really is no way to express how hard I'm LOLing right now.
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:50 AM on February 26, 2017 [41 favorites]

how hard you're Leaking On Leaks?
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:51 AM on February 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

I mean, I have to wonder if someone has some encrypted self-contained Pocket Telegraph device and was leaking the info DURING the meeting.
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:52 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is the guy who kept tweeting his password though, so maybe he's just not checking who's in his staff email list?
posted by emjaybee at 9:55 AM on February 26, 2017 [23 favorites]

Spicer declined to comment.

If it's not Spicey, imagine the look on his face when he got that Politico call. I bet it was like 20 minutes after the meeting too.
posted by FelliniBlank at 10:07 AM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Turns out, we need all those immigrants, and their kids, if we want our economy to keep up.

Wait until we find out how many dollars the rest of the world needs if Trump manages to swing the balance of payments positive. We might have the first case of hyper-appreciation in history.
posted by Talez at 10:16 AM on February 26, 2017

So what we have here is an immediately leaked story about a meeting to check for leaks based on leaked stories of leak-hunting after several leaks.

Leakception
posted by bibliowench at 10:19 AM on February 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

Ooh, lots of meat in this one for those inclined to speculate on motivation.

@realDonaldTrump

Russia talk is FAKE NEWS put out by the Dems, and played up by the media, in order to mask the big election defeat and the illegal leaks!
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:20 AM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

He is mentally ill. I'm sorry.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:22 AM on February 26, 2017 [34 favorites]

Democrats are trying to cover up the results of the election!!! What. The. Ever loving. Fuck.
posted by ian1977 at 10:23 AM on February 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

Yo Dawg, I heard you like leaks in your leaks
posted by riverlife at 10:24 AM on February 26, 2017 [18 favorites]

So is there a new Russia story on the way they've been asked to comment on right now? I hope so.
posted by Artw at 10:28 AM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Rick Santorum Claims 'Millions Of Americans' With Pre-existing Conditions Are Stealing Health Care

Oh go to hell, you disgusting human secretion. When you get there, tell them that the guy who has lived with a serious chronic illness for the past twenty years since childhood who has nearly died five times because of it says hello.
posted by Servo5678 at 10:28 AM on February 26, 2017 [31 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump

Russia talk is FAKE NEWS put out by the Dems, and played up by the media, in order to mask the big election defeat and the illegal leaks!

Oh man, he's already gearing up for Tuesday night. It's gonna be bad.
posted by FelliniBlank at 10:29 AM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Trump's mirror is the most accurate political theory going today.
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:33 AM on February 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

Countries can trundle along, just about, on a continuous watch for "did Dear Leader get cranky at something on the TV, or is there a story about to break?" I'm not sure the US is one of them, unless it ends up a very different country.
posted by holgate at 10:36 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Desecration of another Jewish cemetery, this time in Philadelphia.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:37 AM on February 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

Artw: So is there a new Russia story on the way they've been asked to comment on right now? I hope so.

From a bit upthread:

T.D. Strange: Meet the Press: "There's a pattern to Trump's attacks on the media. They repeatedly happen directly after reporting on Russia. Watch."

Looks like a Special Someone watched Meet the Press this morning. This is what it's come to - it's not even a Russia story, it's the reporting about FvC's responses to reporting on Russia stories that provoked the beast this time.
posted by hangashore at 10:38 AM on February 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

Russia talk is FAKE NEWS put out by the Dems, and played up by the media, in order to mask the big election defeat

Is it too much to ask for his crazy lies to at least have internal coherence?
posted by diogenes at 10:43 AM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Russia talk is FAKE NEWS put out by the Dems, and played up by the media, in order to mask the big election defeat and the illegal leaks!

The trump doctrine: when you're in a hole, keep digging, but yell about how your opponent's shovels suck.
posted by murphy slaw at 10:44 AM on February 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

>> So what we have here is an immediately leaked story about a meeting to check for leaks based on leaked stories of leak-hunting after several leaks.
> Leakception

Spicey: "AHHHHH!"
posted by Fiberoptic Zebroid and The Hypnagogic Jerks at 10:45 AM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

"Dig UP, stupid!"
posted by Chrysostom at 10:53 AM on February 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

As someone who lives in the perpetual margaritaville of FL's west coast I fucking hate Jimmy Buffet. Like I've left restaurants because they only play Buffet's bullshit white-male fantasy crap music levels of hate. The fact that he endorsed Trump just weaponized my hate. Parrot-heads go fuck yourself.
posted by photoslob at 10:57 AM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

the mind boggles. why would you ever gather your staff together and tell them that you're cracking down on leaks?

"Listen guys, if we find out that any of you are leaking to the press, you're fired!"

uh, i think they already knew that?
posted by murphy slaw at 10:58 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Keep reading, photoslob. You still don't have to like the music tho.
posted by petebest at 10:58 AM on February 26, 2017 [16 favorites]

The fact that he endorsed Trump just weaponized my hate.

there are an infinite number of reasons to hate jimmy buffet, but he didn't endorse trump. the linked article was an april fool's joke.
posted by murphy slaw at 10:59 AM on February 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

Now somebody has to leak a story about how Spicer is furious that somebody leaked the story about the meeting to check for leaks held because of all the previous leaks. If we go a couple more rounds deeper, I'm pretty confident his head will explode.
posted by zachlipton at 11:00 AM on February 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

there are an infinite number of reasons to hate jimmy buffet, but he didn't endorse trump. the linked article was an april fool's joke.

Dang, maybe I can use this parrot effigy as a pinata?
posted by diogenes at 11:01 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I didn't know Pocket Telegraphs were a thing. Neat! TOMIL . .

The Union spy would infiltrate into Confederate territory and find a place where the Confederate Army’s uninsulated telegraph wires were suspended from poles. He would throw a bare wire up over the uninsulated telegraph wires, stick a bayonet into the ground to complete the electrical circuit and then listen in to Confederate messages. He could also use the tiny telegraph key in the set to transmit false or misleading information to the enemy. Very few of these sets survive.

posted by petebest at 11:03 AM on February 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

You guys need to find your lost shaker of salt.
posted by ian1977 at 11:03 AM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

there are an infinite number of reasons to hate jimmy buffet, but he didn't endorse trump. the linked article was an april fool's joke.

Aw damnit. Talk about reading something and just seeing what you want to see. Crap, well, I still hate his music. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by photoslob at 11:03 AM on February 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Dang, maybe I can use this parrot effigy as a pinata?

If you have another one, you can capitalize on the patriotic trend of owning statues of two parrots fucking. (TW: Trump, Ivanka)
posted by petebest at 11:07 AM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

FTA roomthreeseventeen linked: Slain SEAL’s dad wants answers: ‘Don’t hide behind my son’s death’

“I’m sorry, I don’t want to see him,’’ Owens recalled telling the chaplain who informed him that Trump was on his way from Washington. “I told them I don’t want to meet the President.”

Now, Owens cringed at the thought of having to shake the hand of the president who approved the raid in Yemen that claimed his son’s life — an operation that he and others are now calling into question.

“I told them I didn’t want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn’t let me talk to him,” Owens said Friday, speaking out for the first time in an interview with the Miami Herald.

I am glad that he refused. Fuck yeah.
posted by futz at 11:18 AM on February 26, 2017 [83 favorites]

i can't imagine being the parent of a dead soldier and having donald trump try(?) to console you.

i would need him to grow another face for there to be enough to punch.
posted by murphy slaw at 11:20 AM on February 26, 2017 [26 favorites]

This is from a thousand years (i.e. 36 hours) ago during the discussion of third terms, but:

LBJ was the only other candidate, and definitely wasn't popular enough to have entertained another run.

In 1968, Johnson declined to run for a second term. Per the 22nd Amendment, as he had served as president for less than two years – about 400 days, in fact – of Kennedy's term, his own ineligibility for a third term would have kept him from running again in 1972.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:34 AM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

er, a question: if Trump keeps saying the leaks are fake news and reporters make up their anonymous sources, why is Spicer holding anti-leak meetings and searching staffers' phones? Surely you'd only do that if the leaks were real?

The funniest part of the Politico story is really "according to multiple sources in the room." The guy holds an anti-leaking meeting, and not just one, but multiple people who were actually in the room leak it, firsthand.
posted by zachlipton at 11:36 AM on February 26, 2017 [56 favorites]

Is this a sign they're likely to rule for Grimm, thus nullifying the EO?

No. It's just the clerk making sure that the rules are followed. The same letter would have been sent if they had spelled a name incorrectly.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 11:38 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

How long before the WH installs surreptitious tracking apps on staffers' phones?
posted by Coventry at 11:40 AM on February 26, 2017

Metafilter: It's Trump's Derail, Not Ours.
posted by corb at 11:41 AM on February 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Coventry: "How long before the WH installs surreptitious tracking apps on staffers' phones?"

If they did, I'm sure that they'd fuck it up and make the tracking data globally accessible or accidentally tweet the admin password for the system.
posted by octothorpe at 11:49 AM on February 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

Sources: U.S. considers quitting U.N. Human Rights Council

-- A former State Department official briefed on the discussions said while the council's targeting of Israel is likely part of the debate, there also are questions about its roster of members and doubts about its usefulness overall.

-- In a recent meeting with mid-level State Department officials, Tillerson expressed skepticism about the council, which has a number of powers, including the ability to establish panels that probe alleged human rights abuses.
posted by futz at 11:51 AM on February 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

Jimmy Buffet is Yuppie party music for actual original Yuppies who want mix it up with "The Big Chill" soundtrack. You think they only ruin the world at their job?
posted by rhizome at 11:57 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

So, because I hate myself, I've gotten into the habit of examining the FB pages of commenters on news posts that come in all OBUMMER KILLARY MAGA FAKE NEWS LIBTURDS!!! It's been far from an exhaustive study but I'm developing a profile.

We know that they're majority dudes, no surprises there. They're late middle aged dudes and their profiles make doubleplus sure to have lots of pictures of them with their wives/girlfriends. Said wives/girlfriends are often significantly younger than themselves and often Filipina. They seem to have a fair amount of money, nice houses, boats, usually in the Midwest. Their feeds are 50% anti-liberal memes and 50% "I love my babysweetyhoney" picture posts of them with their wives/girlfriends (or just their wives/gfs by themselves because a lot of these relationships seem long-distance). And none of them know how to make their damn profiles private.

The big question: fake profiles made by Russian troll farms, or actualfax dudes who all kind of have the same life story?
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:11 PM on February 26, 2017 [45 favorites]

It's troll farms all the way down.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:21 PM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

My **very liberal** coworker has a TATTOO of a parrot because he is such a devoted parrothead, I get being tired of Buffet's schtick, but ya'll don't assume his fans = assholes.
posted by emjaybee at 12:24 PM on February 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

No, not all fans, since generalizations always break down upon examination, but consider the source. Yuppies were the techbros of their day.
posted by rhizome at 12:28 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I had Jimmy Buffet confused with Warren Buffet and was all I thought the dude was in finance? And he was all tax me more? And parrots, what?
posted by angrycat at 12:28 PM on February 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

Wasted away again in MAGAritaville.
posted by rhizome at 12:29 PM on February 26, 2017 [21 favorites]

Jimmy Buffet is Yuppie party music for actual original Yuppies who want mix it up with "The Big Chill" soundtrack.

Jimmy Buffett seems to me pretty distinct from The Big Chill soundtrack, which was like Marvin Gaye, CCR (whom I despise, btw) and The Stones - "You Can't Always Get What You Want", even, hmmm. Buffet seems more like soundtrack for middle-aged alcoholics pining for the Daytona Beach spring breaks of the 60's.
posted by thelonius at 12:29 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

One more quick defense of Jimmy Buffett. He's campaigned for Democrats for many years in FL and elsewhere. It would be interesting to see him run for office, looks like the Florida Keys is represented by a Republican.
posted by kms at 12:29 PM on February 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Yuppies? I thought jimmy buffet fans were all like captain Ron ?
posted by ian1977 at 12:30 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

I thought jimmy buffet fans were all like captain Ron ?

Um no
posted by rhizome at 12:31 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I had Jimmy Buffet confused with Warren Buffet and was all I thought the dude was in finance?

to clarify, in this reality (where Trump won the Presidency), Jimmy and Warren Buffet are the same guy, Warren "Jimmy" Buffet, who retired from making a killing in the stock market and released a series of caribbean-tinged country-pop records despite never having left Omaha
posted by murphy slaw at 12:33 PM on February 26, 2017 [20 favorites]

Wait, what the fuck is wrong with the Big Chill soundtrack?
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 12:33 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Man, this is the first time I've felt bad about wishing the bees on somebody. Now I want to take them all off him until he's Jimmy Uffett.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:35 PM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Wait, what the fuck is wrong with the Big Chill soundtrack?

the music is fine, it's just become shorthand for Stuff White People Like
posted by murphy slaw at 12:35 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

It is/was so popular and overplayed that it became a punchline. I literally never have to hear any of those songs again for the rest of my life (flash forward to my deathbed and my requesting "Tell Him" in a stupor).
posted by rhizome at 12:36 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

the music is fine, it's just become shorthand for Stuff White People Like

Next you'll be telling us my China Beach: Music and Memories CD is a White People™ thing.
posted by Talez at 12:36 PM on February 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Of all the many derails we've shared together in these threads, an extended one on Jimmy Buffett (and others named Buffett) that started with something he never actually said or did is one of the rather more unexpected ones.
posted by zachlipton at 12:38 PM on February 26, 2017 [39 favorites]

Merely knowing of the existence of "China Beach" is a white people thing.
posted by rhizome at 12:39 PM on February 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

You guys need some changes in (L)attitudes.
posted by ian1977 at 12:42 PM on February 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Merely knowing of the existence of "China Beach" is a white people thing.

But it was on ABC.
posted by Talez at 12:45 PM on February 26, 2017

in this political climate i'd rather just get drunk and screw
posted by murphy slaw at 12:45 PM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

My 7-year-old daughter Henry is transgender. She’d change Trump’s mind.

Last year, in neighboring South Dakota, Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R) had a bill on his desk that would have banned students from using the bathroom that’s right for them. Many people spoke out, and at one point, Daugaard admitted that he had never met a transgender person. The local transgender community invited him to meet with them. He did. A few days later, he vetoed the bill.

It’s almost impossible to deny a person’s humanity after you’ve shared a cup of coffee with them. Most people in our lives, people all across the political spectrum, had never met a trans person before they met Henry. But after they spend a little time with her, learn a little more about her, not a single one would insist she use the boys’ bathroom.

(linking to the tweet for the adorable picture of Henry, which isn't in the full article.)
posted by triggerfinger at 12:45 PM on February 26, 2017 [19 favorites]

Of all the many derails we've shared together in these threads, an extended one on Jimmy Buffett (and others named Buffett) that started with something he never actually said or did is one of the rather more unexpected ones.

Yeah, but the Hollandaise Sauce thing was so much more satisfying.
posted by mikelieman at 12:49 PM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Re: the Kuwait use of the Trump hotel. Norm Eisen is one of the lawyers working on the emoluments case and is regularly posting updates on it. The latest:

@NormEisen
For the many folks who have been asking about when Trump's reply is due in our emoluments case, it's April 21. Stay tuned!

Also:
@NormEisen
Everything in r emolmts complaint is worsening: Russia infl, China trademark scandal, big foreign$ at hotels, see http://s3.amazonaws.com/storage.citizensforethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/23222937/Complaint-17-458.pdf … https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/835665791261491200 …

Link to complaint filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. Donald J. Trump
posted by triggerfinger at 12:53 PM on February 26, 2017 [30 favorites]

I decided I'm going to become a jimmy buffet truther. But I'm not sure what they should mean yet.
posted by ian1977 at 12:53 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

I own a CD of the "Crossing Jordan" soundtrack but it has Richard Thompson doing "Season Of The Witch" so anyone who wants to mock that CD can kiss my ass
posted by thelonius at 12:53 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

She’d change Trump’s mind.

Why do we keep thinking this?
posted by OverlappingElvis at 12:53 PM on February 26, 2017 [16 favorites]

wow Huckabee tweeted a comparison of the Oscars to a colonoscopy because there are celebrities with opinions.

I feel that colonoscopy analogies should be employed on a very limited basis and in extreme situations.
posted by angrycat at 12:54 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

She’d change Trump’s mind.

Why do we keep thinking this?

Because the idea of a true sociopathic madman having the power to destroy humanity at his pleasure is simply too enormous and terrible for most healthy people to comprehend.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:56 PM on February 26, 2017 [18 favorites]

I decided I'm going to become a jimmy buffet truther. But I'm not sure what they should mean yet.

The salt shaker was in his hand the whole time.
posted by rhizome at 12:56 PM on February 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

The Woman to Blame was an inside job.
posted by biogeo at 12:57 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Or he is the grandson of Popeye. Son of a son of a sailor.
posted by ian1977 at 12:57 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I decided I'm going to become a jimmy buffet truther. But I'm not sure what they should mean yet.

wake up sheeple, he may be a son of a son of a sailor, but he's not a son of a son of a son of a son of a son of a son of a sailor
posted by murphy slaw at 12:58 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

30 Rock Season 7 Episode 4 (Catching Crabs in Paradise) was really prescient.
posted by melissasaurus at 1:00 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Just to clarify for anyone still a bit unsure about Jimmy Buffett's allegiances:

WaPo (31 August 2016): Buffett, Bon Jovi and McCartney join Clinton for star-studded fundraiser
Enduring pop star Jimmy Buffett welcomed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to his home in the Hamptons on Tuesday night for a star-studded fundraiser that included music by Buffett, Paul McCartney and Jon Bon Jovi.
posted by hangashore at 1:00 PM on February 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Either Huckabee doesn't know where the Oscars are held or he doesn't know where a colonoscopy is conducted, but either way his knowledge of geography and anatomy is severely deficient.
posted by zachlipton at 1:01 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

hi it's 2017 and mike huckabee has decided that he's working blue
posted by murphy slaw at 1:03 PM on February 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Hucka*bee* I mean, come on.
posted by riverlife at 1:03 PM on February 26, 2017 [16 favorites]

Rubio says town halls designed for people to 'heckle and scream'

"They are instructed to boo no matter what answer I give. They are instructed to interrupt me if I go too long and start chanting things. Then, at the end, they are also told not to give up their microphone when they ask questions. It’s all in writing in this indivisible document," he said, referencing the online group Indivisible that labels itself as a "practical guide for resisting the Trump agenda."
posted by futz at 1:05 PM on February 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

Chuck a bee at huckabee
posted by ian1977 at 1:05 PM on February 26, 2017 [18 favorites]

Re: the Kuwait use of the Trump hotel. Norm Eisen is one of the lawyers working on the emoluments case and is regularly posting updates on it.

On a related note, Senate Democrats have sent Sec. Tillerson a letter asking questions about China's award of a trademark to Trump just after he reversed himself on the One China™ policy, something Trump has pursued for more than a decade and has written past US Ambassadors in an effort to secure assistance.
posted by zachlipton at 1:06 PM on February 26, 2017 [17 favorites]

Fuckabees.
posted by hangashore at 1:06 PM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

""Let's dispel once and for all with this fiction that the resistance doesn't know what they're doing. They know exactly what they're doing." fake
posted by ian1977 at 1:09 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Models wear Women's March knitted pink hats during Milan Fashion Week show
posted by futz at 1:09 PM on February 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

They are instructed

Can we just start calling people who say shit like this "paranoid" and "delusional"?
posted by mikelieman at 1:11 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Being a nerd, I like to read court paperwork. Going over the CREW suit I see:

ZEPHYR TEACHOUT

And... More Power To You!
posted by mikelieman at 1:13 PM on February 26, 2017

It’s almost impossible to deny a person’s humanity after you’ve shared a cup of coffee with them.
I can think of many exceptions, some I've met, either as bosses or in my life of the periphery of Hollywood, and certainly most of the people in the White House today (and likely a couple in the last Administration). Besides, I hate coffee, so I'd have a cup of tea... or hot cocoa, just because I'm young at heart.

And if the Oscars is still being held at the Dolby Theater, then I can understand the error; it is close to the anus of Downtown Hollywood (where Jimmy Kimmel tapes his show).

It’s all in writing in this indivisible document," he said, ...holding up nothing in his hand. He mispronounced invisible.
Can we just start calling people who say shit like this "paranoid" and "delusional"?
Or just utter failures at mobilizing their own "followers"? (Or just having stopped paying them?)
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:15 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

It’s all in writing in this indivisible document

you'd think that a sitting US senator would be smart enough not to make false claims about a document that is the first result of a google search for "indivisible document"
posted by murphy slaw at 1:15 PM on February 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Models wear Women's March knitted pink hats during Milan Fashion Week show

There was one model without the hat! Wonder what thats about.
posted by Justinian at 1:17 PM on February 26, 2017

Fuckabees.

I was gonna go with _I ♣ Huckabees_.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:17 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Especially one who interfaces with Google directly through his satellite uplink.
posted by ian1977 at 1:18 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is what The Indivisible Guide actually says:

Be polite but persistent, and demand real answers. MoCs are very good at deflecting or dodging questions they don’t want to answer. If the MoC dodges, ask a follow-up question. If they aren’t giving you real answers, then call them out for it. Other group members around the room should amplify by either booing the MoC or applauding you.

Don’t give up the mic until you’re satisfied with the answer. If you’ve asked a hostile question, a staffer will often try to limit your ability to follow up by taking the microphone back immediately after you finish speaking. They can’t do that if you keep a firm hold on the mic. No staffer in their right mind wants to look like they’re physically intimidating a constituent, so they will back off. If they object, then say politely but loudly: “I’m not finished. The MoC is dodging my question. Why are you trying to stop me from following up?”

I definitely remember the Tea Party coming armed to town halls in 2009, which is something The Indivisible Guide does not recommend.
posted by maggiemaggie at 1:19 PM on February 26, 2017 [44 favorites]

"How long before the WH installs surreptitious tracking apps on staffers' phones?"

They could just park a stinger right next to the white house and do a Man In The Middle intercept of all the mobile connections. In fact if they really felt the leaks were a national security issue and worth of pursuit/punishment this is what they would do. That they did a stupid phone check is more performative than anything. They are just trying to scare their own staff. Also they might not want to track ALL the white house local phone calls.

Or they're stupid. Which I suppose is more likely. Weighted coin flip I guess?
posted by srboisvert at 1:19 PM on February 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

Question for law nerds: When senators send people lists of questions, as in zachlipton's link above, is there a legal obligation for the person to respond, or is it more of a PR move on the part of the senators?
posted by Dr. Send at 1:21 PM on February 26, 2017

Thinking past Buffett himself, "south of the border as white middle-American chillax zone" is an interesting cultural thing, e.g. Crash My Playa, which takes the All Tomorrow's Parties "bands at slightly damp holiday camp" concept and sticks a bunch of country artists and fans in a Mexican beach resort. Economic [white] nationalism in full flow sits somewhat uneasily with cheap resort holidays and cruises, especially the latter, which rely upon an immigrant workforce.
posted by holgate at 1:25 PM on February 26, 2017

They could just park a stinger right next to the white house and do a Man In The Middle intercept of all the mobile connections.

Maybe someone explained how it would look if they openly treated their own staff as enemies. Also, the members of the junta are probably leaking against each other all the time anyway.
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:26 PM on February 26, 2017

“I told them I didn’t want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn’t let me talk to him,” Owens said Friday, speaking out for the first time in an interview with the Miami Herald.

Semper Abomidatio
posted by srboisvert at 1:27 PM on February 26, 2017

"It turns out the staff are leaking to Russia a lot, using a Samsung S3!"
posted by Artw at 1:30 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

In which Josh Marshall uncovers the fact that Michael Cohen, as a 40-year old attorney who started out doing personal injury work, owned I think it got up to eleven units in Trump buildings, prior to his getting involved with Trump's inner circle. He also owned property all over Manhattan.

Marshall theorizes that Cohen got his money from an ethanol business in Ukraine (his wife is from there; his in-laws live in Trump housing).
posted by angrycat at 1:31 PM on February 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

I'm never going to catch up with this thread, so dropping in some links about the Town Halls in rural, red NY-23 with Tom Reed (R) (mentioned by RedOrGreen upthread):
Raucus Crowds Overwhelm Reed Town Hall Meetings
Same topic/day/newspaper, different take: headline has since been changed from “Protesters crash 4 of Reed’s town halls.”

NY-23 includes the majority of the Appalachian-designated section of New York's Southern Tier. The four towns Reed held his town halls in range in population from around 600 to 3,300.
posted by obloquy at 1:33 PM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

The big question: fake profiles made by Russian troll farms, or actualfax dudes who all kind of have the same life story?

Well, I know some of them (though not American), and they are so real.
posted by mumimor at 1:34 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm still so confused about Huckabee's tweet. Is he implying that the Oscars take place up his own ass or that they're being held in an endoscopy center this year? Either way, I have several more follow-ups.
posted by zachlipton at 1:38 PM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm still so confused about Huckabee's tweet. Is he implying that the Oscars take place up his own ass or that they're being held in an endoscopy center this year? Either way, I have several more follow-ups.

I can only assume he had his head so far up his own ass he had a TV installed there to watch the Oscars.
posted by Talez at 1:40 PM on February 26, 2017 [29 favorites]

Depends whether it's a letter or a subpoena. In this case, it's just a request.

Also individual Senators (or groups thereof) do not have Congressional subpoena power, which is controlled by the actual committees, and thus subject to Republicans. Democrats in congress cannot just subpoena the Trump administration alone, so their requests have no legal enforcement backing them.

Unless they retake the House in 2018. Then there will be legally enforceable subpoenas flying all over.
posted by T.D. Strange at 1:41 PM on February 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

I like how they're afraid to call them pussy hats and came up with "protest hats."

IT'S PUSSY. PUSSY HAT. SAAAAAAY IT.
posted by emjaybee at 1:43 PM on February 26, 2017 [18 favorites]

Gretchen Carlson in talks to join MSNBC, sources say

If true WTF MSNBC.
posted by futz at 1:44 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Unless they retake the House in 2018. Then there will be legally enforceable subpoenas flying all over.

Fingers fucking crossed.
posted by Artw at 1:44 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Also individual Senators (or groups thereof) do not have Congressional subpoena power, which is controlled by the actual committees,

Quite right -- the legislative implications of the GOP controlling both houses of Congress are well understood, but the Dems being cut off from investigatory powers while being subject to them is a pretty big deal too.
posted by snuffleupagus at 1:45 PM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

If true WTF MSNBC.

Completely in character with their ongoing and well promoted rebranding. Hayes, Maddow and Lawrence are numbered.
posted by T.D. Strange at 1:49 PM on February 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Dang, if they shitcan Lawrence, I'll have only Joy and Ari left to hang with.
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:03 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

And Katy Tur's OK.
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:04 PM on February 26, 2017

Fun Instagram account: PresidentTrumpyCat.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 2:04 PM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Maddow is friends with Greta, and seems to be part of the reason for the move. And Maddow is getting ratings she hasn't gotten in years. I think the liberals on MSNBC are fine.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:11 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter: I'm never going to catch up with this thread
posted by petebest at 2:14 PM on February 26, 2017 [23 favorites]

I appreciate that people in the USA have their own pressing issues with the Trump administration, but I think it's worth reading Henry Rousso's own account of his treatment by border officials:
Les États-Unis sont-ils encore les États-Unis?
[Google translated version: Is the United States still the United States?]

Besides the people who now can't enter the USA; besides the people who can, but refuse as a point of principle; there will be huge numbers who change their plans to visit because US immigration is scary and arbitrary. From my family's experience, I can tell you that over the past ten or fifteen years it's become a lot worse even for white-presenting visitors from a English-speaking Western country. The USA is turning itself into a fortress, and you're all locked inside.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:18 PM on February 26, 2017 [30 favorites]

Saddest clown Chris Christie is helpfully pouring oil on troubled fires:
Chris Christie Says White House Contact With FBI Was Result Of 'Learning Curve'

He said that members of Trump's administration will "develop experiences over time."

"I can guarantee this, I don't think the chief of staff will ever have that kind of conversation with the FBI, with FBI personnel, again," he said.

"Remember, these are all people who have never been in government before," Christie said. "And so they're going to need to learn these things."

posted by Joe in Australia at 2:21 PM on February 26, 2017 [21 favorites]

Unless they retake the House in 2018. Then there will be legally enforceable subpoenas flying all over.

The 2018 Senate election takes place on November 6, 2018. There are 34 seats up in 2018, of which 25 are held by Democrats. That party will need to gain 3 seats to take control.

Because hope springs efuckingternal™.
posted by petebest at 2:22 PM on February 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

Benny Johnson of the IJR got a tip that Trump would be eating at Trump Tower, so he made a reservation and got a table nearby. In which we learn:

The whole place went pretty nuts for him. No wonder he wants to do this and be in a place where he's not hated.
The man had a well-done steak with ketchup
He thought SNL last night wasn't a re-run and somehow is being filmed at 8:45pm
Trump slipped a $100 bill to a busboy
Nigel Farage was hanging around the bar and seemingly got himself invited to dinner
posted by zachlipton at 2:24 PM on February 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

It’s all in writing in this indivisible document

Hey by any chance is that thing 26 pages? This may be more coordinated than it appears if so.
posted by corb at 2:27 PM on February 26, 2017

The man had a well-done steak with ketchup
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:28 PM on February 26, 2017 [42 favorites]

Well-done?!?
posted by bq at 2:29 PM on February 26, 2017

Nigel Farage is the vilest and lowliest type of 17th century courtier. Even worse, he's educated enough to know that's what he is.

edit: looking over his wiki, he's not educated enough to know that's what he is.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:29 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

[Trump] had a well-done steak with ketchup

Someone said this before, but for all his supposed wealth, Trump lives a poor man's idea of a rich man's lifestyle. He doesn't engage in support for literature and the arts, or philanthropy, or even socialising. He can't even appreciate good food! Maybe he's oblivious to how horrible his life really is, or maybe that's why he's horrible to so many people.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:32 PM on February 26, 2017 [34 favorites]

Peut-être est-ce mon lieu de naissance, l'Egypte (Maybe it's my birthplace, Egypt)

Ding ding ding ding ding. We have a winner, folks.

Because, you know, it's totally normal feeling that I have to keep my passport at the ready. I think I'll be driving straight to Canada once shit starts going down.
posted by Talez at 2:35 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Trump may not drink, but I bet the head chef at his steakhouse sure as heck does after his boss made him serve him such a culinary atrocity.
posted by zachlipton at 2:36 PM on February 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

Man, it seems like a lot of assholes eat at that restaurant. I mean aside from Trump and his ilk. And I am hoping that Tiffany sighting was a false one. Run, Tiffany!
posted by angrycat at 2:36 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm going to just drop this link here, just for no particular reason: Ordering Your Steak Well-Done Can Impact Your Brain Health
posted by zachlipton at 2:41 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

well-done steak with ketchup

The fuck is wrong with him? Eating is one of the most basic things a human does, along with things such as breathing and sleeping. And here is demonstrable evidence that Donald Trump hates food. We knew he doesn't like to sleep (to be fair, this could be a side effect of an addiction to uppers), what's next? Do we find out that he wants a side of chlorine gas to breathe while he eats his well done steak with ketchup?
posted by mrgoat at 2:43 PM on February 26, 2017 [23 favorites]

He is truly history's worst monster.
posted by Justinian at 2:48 PM on February 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

(He's a germophobe, right? Might explain the well-done thing, if not the *shudder* ketchup.)
posted by tobascodagama at 2:48 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Imagine the poor classically-trained head chef who knows that this steak is for the God-Emperor and he has to fuck it up into just the right state of inedibility for him to then pour ketchup on, or he'll get fired like that one chef over the parmesan bowls.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:48 PM on February 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

Of the R Senate seats up for re-election, which are most likely to be flipped? I know there's some talk about Nevada--any others? What can those of us in safe blue states do to help our friends in red and purple states?

The only other one that's even close is Arizona. Donate money, make calls, and we're going to need to toss Baker on his ass if Healey runs. I guess the problem with being in New England is that there's really nothing you can do in federal politics. MA's delegation is completely blue, NH's delegation is completely blue, ME-2 is probably lost for a generation and Collin's seat doesn't expire until 2020.

Also, keeping Schilling out of the Senate is probably a good use of your time but I doubt Warren will have reelection trouble.
posted by Talez at 2:50 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Also, keeping Schilling out of the Senate is probably a good use of your time but I doubt Warren will have reelection trouble.

The buzz I've been hearing is that polling suggests that she might.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 2:50 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

6:45 PM: Our bacon tower appetizer arrives. Highly recommended.

So how much do you pay at Trump Tower for four fucking strips of what look like standard supermarket bacon hanging from clothespins?
posted by octothorpe at 2:51 PM on February 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

Remember the "Martini"? Never forget.
posted by Justinian at 2:53 PM on February 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

BLT Prime is a legitimately good steakhouse. I assume they have real martinis.

from their menu:
Grilled Double Cut Smoked Bacon
Parsley / Garlic / Sherry
15.00
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:57 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure Trump is the reason Bourdieu distinguished between cultural and economic capital.
posted by Dr. Send at 3:08 PM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Fucker enjoys nothing in his miserable little life except causing others discomfort and petty revenge.
posted by Artw at 3:12 PM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

If you are watching the Oscars tonight, the blue ribbons that everyone is wearing were provided by the ACLU.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:14 PM on February 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

polling suggests that she might.

The polling is probably more along the lines of "Warren vs. Generic WEEI Masshole" right now, and will change when a particular WEEI Masshole becomes her opponent.
posted by holgate at 3:15 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

This? This gives me hope: Barbara Bush -- the daughter, not the mother -- is the keynote speaker of an upcoming Planned Parenthood fundraiser in Ft. Worth next week.

That on its own is exciting enough. But it's more fun to throw in the reminder that the president of Planned Parenthood is Cecile Richards, Ann Richards' daughter. Which means that the mother of the president of Planned Parenthood once said about the future President of the US, and the father of its scheduled keynote speaker, "Poor George. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth."

I mean, so there is such thing as political healing, or political not-taking-things-personally-and-to-a-nuclear-degree. And that makes me feel better than I did before I knew about the keynote.
posted by mudpuppie at 3:17 PM on February 26, 2017 [43 favorites]

Unless they retake the House in 2018. Then there will be legally enforceable subpoenas flying all over.

The 2018 Senate election takes place on November 6, 2018. There are 34 seats up in 2018, of which 25 are held by Democrats. That party will need to gain 3 seats to take control.

The Republicans have a 20-some seat lead in the House of Representatives, and I saw reports that Hillary won in almost that many districts. So it may be easier to flip the House than the Senate. But if Trump alienates or scares shitless enough people and none of the Republican Senators stand up to him, anything's possible. Remember, this is a man who couldn't turn a profit owning Casinos.

Fucker enjoys nothing in his miserable little life except causing others discomfort and petty revenge.
That's all he has any skill for. Which, sadly, is considered a virtue to a significant part of the White American Population.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:17 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Please no Mel Gibson victories tonight. Now is not the time for his antisemitic ass to be "redeemed".
posted by Artw at 3:17 PM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

While we are distracted with fake Sweden attacks, white supremacists in Germany attack migrants.

Nearly 10 attacks were made on migrants in Germany every day in 2016, the interior ministry says.
A total of 560 people were injured in the violence, including 43 children.
posted by futz at 3:28 PM on February 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

Another one down: Nominee for Navy Secretary to withdraw

And some more scorn for Spicer:

Last week White House press secretary Sean Spicer denied a report that Bilden could be withdrawing. “Just spoke with him and he is 100% commited (sic) to being the next SECNAV pending Senate confirm,” Spicer tweeted.

posted by zachlipton at 3:31 PM on February 26, 2017 [16 favorites]

Donald Trump reviews the Oscar nominees (satire)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:32 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Another one down: Nominee for Navy Secretary to withdraw

now it's a race: can the trump administration nominate and confirm cabinet members faster than they withdraw or resign
posted by murphy slaw at 3:38 PM on February 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

The man had a well-done steak with ketchup

I have been saying that Trump is Bensington Butters and now I have irrefutable proof that Trump is fucking Bensington Butters.
posted by supercrayon at 3:41 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

The man had a well-done steak with ketchup

Oh, for fuck's sake.
posted by dirigibleman at 3:45 PM on February 26, 2017

He also eats his pizza with a fork.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 3:46 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

donald trump is "you spent all that money, and for this?" in human form
posted by murphy slaw at 3:46 PM on February 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

His voters all eat well done steak too.
posted by Artw at 3:53 PM on February 26, 2017

Dem lawmaker: Navy SEAL might be alive if Trump spent less time attacking media

"Note to @realDonaldTrump: Perhaps if you focused less on @nytimes and more on intelligence reports, SEAL Owens wouldn't be dead right now," Lieu tweeted Sunday afternoon.

"I & others requested answers about #Yemen raid & death of SEAL Owens. @POTUS is stonewalling. What did Trump know?" Lieu continued in another tweet.
posted by futz at 3:54 PM on February 26, 2017 [48 favorites]

The New Yorker has a longform article, and I mean long––over 13,000 words––on Russian hacking, the last cold war, the one we're in now, and related themes: Trump, Putin, and the New Cold War

It probably deserves an FPP of its own, but in the meantime, I recommend taking the time to read it. The article puts the hacking into a decades-long context, which is helpful in taking a step back and understanding what's going on here and why.
posted by zachlipton at 3:58 PM on February 26, 2017 [31 favorites]

i would be pretty stoked if the No Fucks Mode that some democratic lawmakers are adopting could last until the next election season, but history suggests i should temper my expectations
posted by murphy slaw at 3:59 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

He can't even appreciate good food!

He seems to have the palate of a typical child, which fits the theory that he suffered from some sort of arrested development around the time his father rejected him and sent him away to boarding school.
posted by Room 641-A at 4:00 PM on February 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Owens basically sacrificed to Trumps ego, in an ill thought out and vain attempt to top Obama, and Trump didn't even stick around to see how it turned out.
posted by Artw at 4:00 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

It’s all in writing in this indivisible document," he said, referencing the online group Indivisible that labels itself as a "practical guide for resisting the Trump agenda."

I honestly had to read that three times before I could see that first adjective as anything other than "invisible."
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:03 PM on February 26, 2017

It’s all in writing in this indivisible document," he said, referencing the online group Indivisible that labels itself as a "practical guide for resisting the Trump agenda."

Trump's Mirror on the wall, who's the specialest snowflake of them all?

You are, Marco. You are.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:07 PM on February 26, 2017

Of the R Senate seats up for re-election, which are most likely to be flipped?

Per 270-to-win.com, R Senate tossups in November 2018 include:

None.

D Senate tossups (3): IN, MO, ND

"Lean" R Senate for November 2018 include:

AZ, NV

So.
posted by petebest at 4:07 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Another five minutes, another leak: President Trump’s budget outline calls for a surge in military spending and sharp cuts to nondefense agencies, including the E.P.A, no cuts to Social Security and Medicare for now.
posted by zachlipton at 4:08 PM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

no cuts to Social Security and Medicare for now.

There's a huge difference between cuts to the trust funds or benefit formulas, and cuts to the operating budgets of SSA, HHS and CMS that make those programs work effectively and are already operating on understaffed, shoestring budgets. Trump could leave benefits untouched and still decimate services.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:16 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

We can complain about the steak all we want, but really it's the only Trump-related thing that's ever been well done.
posted by uosuaq at 4:18 PM on February 26, 2017 [57 favorites]

Per 270-to-win.com, R Senate tossups in November 2018 include:
None.

All the R Senate races in 2018 are:

Utah
Nebraska
Texas
Tennessee
Alabama
Mississippi
Wyoming

Anything can happen but I'm not optimistic.

2020, on the other hand, looks like the opposite of 2018, with 22R and 11D. If Trump is popular with Republicans and wins the nomination but toxic with the rest of the country and gives Democrats a wave victory things could get crazy. Most of the R seats are in red states, but there are 12 Republican Senators on their first term from this group. So it wouldn't be too hard to replace them.
posted by Glibpaxman at 4:22 PM on February 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

All this talk of leaks and bugs had me looking for an updated status on the WH garden. Not top priority right now, I know. If it's still there, the garden contains an active beehive...
posted by erisfree at 4:25 PM on February 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

Not to say Trump couldn't have had heavy machinery in there on inauguration day but isn't still at the tail end of winter in DC?
posted by Mitheral at 4:41 PM on February 26, 2017

Another Trump troll data point: posts full of superdelux religious memes with hilarious punctuation, aaand photos full of lad mag pinups with gross but entirely predictable comments. These people need to work out their self loathing in a way that does not involve the rest of us.

The leaking going on in meetings about leaking is quality, though. I think it's Priebus. Do we have an office pool around here somewhere?
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:51 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Another one down: Nominee for Navy Secretary to withdraw

We don't really believe that he withdrew because of financial entanglements do we?

-- President Donald Trump’s nominee for Navy secretary, investor Philip Bilden, has withdrawn from consideration...

-- "Mr. Philip Bilden has informed me that he has come to the difficult decision to withdraw from consideration to be secretary of the Navy," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in a statement. "This was a personal decision driven by privacy concerns and significant challenges he faced in separating himself from his business interests."

-- Bilden's withdrawal leaves Mattis with just Air Force Secretary nominee Heather Wilson, a former New Mexico Republican congresswoman, in line for a top political post.

Heather Wilson is a nasty piece of work so I can only assume that she will be confirmed.
posted by futz at 4:53 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

The leaking going on in meetings about leaking is quality, though. I think it's Priebus. Do we have an office pool around here somewhere?

i sort of suspect that the leaks are from basically everyone in the administration besides trump himself and bannon and maybe miller?

so many people in a position where they don't want the train to stop but they don't want it to go completely off the rails either…
posted by murphy slaw at 4:56 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

According to this Time article, erisfree, Melania Trump's spokesperson has said she will be keeping Michelle Obama's vegetable garden. No mention was made of bees, I'm afraid. As a statement, where Ms. Trump does not live there, this may be dependably true over time or not, but it's the latest published statement.
posted by Silverstone at 4:56 PM on February 26, 2017

Ok this is a even lower low in White House-press relations. Maggie Haberman of the Times summarized it as: "White House used death of Navy SEAL to explain a press aide crying, then plants story accusing reporter of laughter."

You see, Politico added a bit to their story about Spicer's leaked anti-leak meeting about Spicer causing a "more junior spokesperson" to cry at a staff meeting, sourced to "two people familiar with the incident.". Spicer denied that on the record, saying the only time said staffer recalls "almost getting emotional" was over the death of a Navy SEAL.

Then, "one informed official" leaks to the Washington Examiner to bash the reporter for allegedly laughing about Spicer's answer, claiming that the reporter was laughing at the death of said SEAL.

I still can't even.
posted by zachlipton at 5:03 PM on February 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

As a statement . . . this may be dependably true over time or not, but it's the latest published statement.

Aye, there's the rub.
posted by petebest at 5:05 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

A divided White House still offers little guidance on replacing Obamacare:

A meeting Friday afternoon between President Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, his former rival in the GOP primaries, had no set agenda. But Kasich came armed with one anyway: his hope to blunt drastic changes to the nation’s health-care system envisioned by some conservatives in Washington.

Over the next 45 minutes, according to Kasich and others briefed on the session, the governor made his pitch while the president eagerly called in several top aides and then got Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price on the phone. At one point, senior adviser Jared Kushner reminded his father-in-law that House Republicans are sketching out a different approach to providing access to coverage. “Well, I like this better,” Trump replied, according to a Kasich adviser.

How's your Better Way going, Paul Ryan?
posted by zachlipton at 5:07 PM on February 26, 2017 [23 favorites]

BLT Prime is a legitimately good steakhouse. I assume they have real martinis.

Had dinner with friends a couple years ago at the one in Vegas, at Ballys. One of the best meals of my life. Don't remember if anyone had a martini but drinks were all top notch.
posted by scalefree at 5:08 PM on February 26, 2017

Maybe the only way you can choke down his cheap-ass steaks is to cook the shit out of them.
Probably literally.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:10 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

“Well, I like this better,” Trump replied, according to a Kasich adviser.

thank you john kasich for using trump's notoriously short attention span to a good end for once?
posted by murphy slaw at 5:16 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

so whitehouse.gov has a hilariously unscientific push poll up prior to the joint congressional address…
posted by murphy slaw at 5:23 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

From the Politico "leaks" story:

First off, that picture of Spicey - the eyes, man. Jeebus Spicey, take an ambien before the 4th G&T man.

During meetings, the press secretary has repeatedly berated his aides, launching expletive-filled tirades in which he’s accused them of disclosing sensitive information to reporters and saying that they’ve disappointed him.

(emphasis added) In my experience, this sort of thing always ends very well. I think we can reliably call The Mysterious Case of OMGWutLOL White House Leaks over, and soon.
posted by petebest at 5:29 PM on February 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Lawmaker: 'I got confirmation' my Russia-Ukraine plan was delivered to White House, despite what Trump lawyer says

Strana.ua, a Ukrainian news site, recently reported that Artemenko told them in an interview that he began discussing his peace plan with Cohen and Sater last year, “at the time of the primaries, when no one believed that Trump would even be nominated.”

Artemenko confirmed to Business Insider that Strana had interviewed him, but denied telling them that he had met with Cohen in 2016. Cohen also denied ever meeting with Artemenko before this year. Sater did not respond to requests for comment.

Hopefully time will tell us wtf actually happened.
posted by futz at 5:32 PM on February 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

so whitehouse.gov has a hilariously unscientific push poll up prior to the joint congressional address…

Why do the checkboxes look like radio buttons? Why can't I deselect one if I click on it by mistake? How come the form gets pushed under the footer if I leave out required fields so I can't submit the form?

Also, most of the accomplishments are not accomplishments because they haven't been, well, accomplished.

And they left off Bicker With the Media, Whine About Trump's Popularity, and Lie About the Election Results and Crowd Sizes off the important issues to focus on.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:45 PM on February 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Don't think of it as a hilariously unscientific push poll. Think of it as a comment box where you can tell them they're all Russian operatives and criminal fascists.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 5:47 PM on February 26, 2017 [20 favorites]

polling suggests that she might.

There was an article about that back in January. Has there been one since "Nevertheless, she persisted?" I think she's going to be fine, because she's going to be making hay off Republican misbehavior for the next 18 months.
posted by Coventry at 6:01 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

The Republican Senate debates in MA for 2018 should be amazing: Curt Schilling, the guy who says he invented e-mail (and who called MA "the epi-center of Fake News, Fake History & Fake Science!"), a guy who describes himself as "an angry, conservative black man with a chip on his shoulder" and a guy who became rich selling after-market car parts online.
posted by adamg at 6:05 PM on February 26, 2017

I was almost going to do that poll but it's just a mailing list padder, as usual. Don't these people already have the deets on every single Trump fan already? Do they think they missed some with their previous dozen amateurish push polls?
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:08 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

> "Note to @realDonaldTrump: Perhaps if you focused less on @nytimes and more on intelligence reports, SEAL Owens wouldn't be dead right now," Lieu tweeted Sunday afternoon.

"I & others requested answers about #Yemen raid & death of SEAL Owens. @POTUS is stonewalling. What did Trump know?" Lieu continued in another tweet.

God I hope Lieu runs for Feinstein's seat in 2018.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 6:19 PM on February 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

"Donald Trump" (potus45@whitehouse.gov) sent a message to the VP saying he was in over his head and begging Pence to remove him from office. Then he said he wouldn't make trouble because he just wants to to go Mar-a-Lago and get peed on by Russian hookers.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:20 PM on February 26, 2017

I keep hearing rumors that one of these days, Texas will turn purple. Is it a given that Ted Cruz will win in 2018? Everyone in the government seems to hate him.
posted by triggerfinger at 6:22 PM on February 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

He's top of the list of Republicans that need to be primaried from the Left. Come on, there's got to be at least one RINO in Texas people have heard of...
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:24 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

yeah if I'm theorycrafting an electoral-political upheaval big enough to shift any of those seats, I'm thinking the least implausible pickup is Texas to the Democrats or Utah to McMullin.

I cannot imagine any plausible scenario that results in three of those seats changing hands, though.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 6:27 PM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

George W. Bush? :)
posted by tivalasvegas at 6:27 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

These Iowans voted for Trump. Many of them are already disappointed.
posted by futz at 6:35 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Getting any seats in the Senate would help, but I still think its unlikely. Just look how much difficulty they are having passing legislation with only 52 Republicans. Imagine if they needed to drag Pence in for every vote of significance. Do you really think they could keep all the Republican Senators together while the Trump Titanic sinks?

Winning the House is much more likely though. And for me the best part will be running investigations. I feel like the Republicans are going to stop most of the shitty legislation themselves by being incompetent. But no one is going to investigate Trump unless the Democrats take the House in 2018. And if he leaves office in 2020 I'd bet a shiny new dime that Democrats and Republicans just decide to forget the whole thing ever happened.
posted by Glibpaxman at 6:37 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

The leaking going on in meetings about leaking is quality, though. I think it's Priebus. Do we have an office pool around here somewhere?

in a surprise twist, it's actually Spicer, but wearing groucho glasses to hide his identity
posted by indubitable at 6:38 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

These Iowans voted for Trump. Many of them are already disappointed.

These ~~Iowans~~ idiots voted for Trump. Many of them are already disappointed.

Jesus Christ I'm really fucking tired of articles about numbskulls who were too fucking stupid to put any thought into their vote and are bitching about it now.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:41 PM on February 26, 2017 [43 favorites]

in a surprise twist, it's actually Spicer, but wearing groucho glasses to hide his identity

That makes too much sense. It's unpossible.
posted by petebest at 6:42 PM on February 26, 2017

These Iowans voted for Trump. Many of them are already disappointed.

I love that the member of the "white working class" whom that article focuses on earned $110,000 last year.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:42 PM on February 26, 2017 [63 favorites]

considering the shit job they did making the form, i assume they're equally bad at sanitizing email lists and the thought of them sending thousands of emails to lol@butts.com gives me a tiny, grim smile

I signed up as GW Bush (president@shadowwhitehouse.gov), which will no doubt throw them into a panic that they're losing traditional Republicans.
posted by Pink Frost at 6:48 PM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

I keep hearing rumors that one of these days, Texas will turn purple.

Depends on if Latinx voters in Texas ever decide to start showing up at the polls.
posted by Justinian at 6:49 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Jesus Christ I'm really fucking tired of articles about numbskulls who were too fucking stupid to put any thought into their vote and are bitching about it now.

Ditto but it might just mean that they are reachable to Dems. Maybe. And no, I am not suggesting that anyone has to make the effort. I'm not. I don't have the energy.
posted by futz at 6:50 PM on February 26, 2017

Depends on if Latinx voters in Texas ever decide to start showing up at the polls.
It means the Texas GOP's Job One is scaring them away from the polls.
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:54 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

I did make an effort, fuck load of good it did anyone. But I really believe some of those people are reachable. The conservative Christian with the Muslim husband who didn't vote and is now making plans for what her family will do if they have to flee the country? She is reachable. Her family members, who like her didn't vote, are reachable. The yoga ladies in Steve King's district are definitely reachable, and the younger ones are probably in Indivisible and going to town halls. It's really easy to get despondent, but there is some stuff to build on here if we can keep up the momentum.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:56 PM on February 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

I really believe some of those people are reachable.

I really believe that the ones that are reachable will come along of their own accord without much energy being expended on courting them.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 6:57 PM on February 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Re the senate:

Anything can happen but I'm not optimistic.

Getting any seats in the Senate would help, but I still think its unlikely.

By my rough math, since 1950, the previous Senate margin shifts (which is 2x the number of seats gained) for Democrats in midterm elections with the president of the opposite party were: 3, 28, -6, 10, -1, 16, 2; and the past gains for Republicans with a president of the opposite party were: 11, -6, 8, 6, 18, 0, 12, 18. The median of all of these is 8, the median for Dems is 2.5, and 3/4 of all these are greater than 0. For the eight midterm elections with a president with under 55% approval, the margin shifts for the opposing party were 11, 10, 6, -1, 18, 11, 12, 18 -- i.e., only one loss, and a median shift of 11.

So historically speaking, it's quite reasonable to expect solid gains for Dems even in the Senate with a tough class. Polling at this stage (and indeed even shortly before the election) often fails to capture these waves, since they depend on correlated shifts in national opinion that often seems to develop late in the midterm season. I wouldn't necessarily bet on big wins for the Senate, but I'd say the optimistic historical record should at least counterbalance the pessimistic punditry and far too early polling.
posted by chortly at 6:58 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

It looks like Jason Chaffetz has a serious challenger in Utah. The chances of Dems winning any election in Utah are zero, and I, for one, would be so thrilled to see that guy get thrown out of his seat that I don't even really care who does it. Hard to believe I could ever dislike anyone as much as Mitch McConnell, but here we are.
posted by triggerfinger at 7:03 PM on February 26, 2017 [20 favorites]

"The truck driver, who lives in the next town and didn’t want to give his name, said he mowed 'Trump' into his yard last summer."

If you build it, they will come to think you're an asshole.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:05 PM on February 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

God I hope Lieu runs for Feinstein's seat in 2018.

I hope I'm not the only one of his constituents calling him to pledge their vote if he does.

He's not just a tough talker, either. He's got an impressive resume: BS in Computer Science, Georgetown Law review, USAF Colonel, JAG. Plus, he's in his 40s.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:12 PM on February 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

> The New Yorker has a longform article, and I mean long––over 13,000 words––on Russian hacking, the last cold war, the one we're in now, and related themes: Trump, Putin, and the New Cold WarIt probably deserves an FPP of its own

Yeah, I think it does deserve its own FPP.
posted by homunculus at 7:12 PM on February 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

I'm expecting Trump to play the same role in 2018 as Nixon played in 1972, and if that happens it'll be a romping, runaway win for Democrats in the House and Senate.
posted by Coventry at 7:12 PM on February 26, 2017

I love that the member of the "white working class" whom that article focuses on earned $110,000 last year.

Yes, most of them just sound full of economic anxiety, don't they? Like the guy who makes a good deal more than me with the house that costs a third of what mine did.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:15 PM on February 26, 2017 [29 favorites]

Yes, most of them just sound full of economic anxiety, don't they? Like the guy who makes a good deal more than me with the house that costs a third of what mine did.

I'm trying to think of what housing situation I could purchase with six months' worth of my wages in Chicago.

a burial plot I guess
posted by tivalasvegas at 7:20 PM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

So historically speaking, it's quite reasonable to expect solid gains for Dems even in the Senate with a tough class.

Historically speaking you are right. I just think that extreme partisanship, which is a very new phenomenon, will mean that red states stay red and blue states blue. Texas, because of Latinx voters and Ted Cruz being a dingleberry, and perhaps Utah if McMullin runs are the two R states that might do something weird in 2018. There is also the problem of states like West Virginia. Manchin is probably toast. Even if Trump's national poll numbers are 30% his popularity in West Virginia will defy gravity. And there are several other Democrats in similar situations. Put it all together and I think it would be a victory to come out of 2018 with 48 seats in the Senate. Anything more would be amazing. We should fight for all of them, but try be realistic about how long this fight will take.
posted by Glibpaxman at 7:40 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Countdown to Trump getting in a war with a fallen hero's father starts now.

Fallen SEAL's dad slams Trump

Bill Owens, the father of the Navy SEAL killed in a late-January raid in Yemen, leveled biting criticism at the White House and called for an investigation into his son's death in a news story published Sunday.

Owens told The Miami Herald that as his son William "Ryan" Owens' body made it to Dover Air Force Base outside Washington, he was told President Donald Trump was coming to meet him and his wife to pay his respects.

But Owens told the chaplain he didn't want to see the commander-in-chief. "I told them I didn't want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn't let me talk to him," Owens told the newspaper.

Owens, himself a veteran, raised a number of questions about the raid itself. "Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn't even barely a week into his administration," the paper quoted him as asking.

posted by chris24 at 7:42 PM on February 26, 2017 [27 favorites]

We've been discussing it here since this morning and not a peep yet.
posted by futz at 7:53 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

I mean, would he dare attack another Gold Star family? Who the fuck knows but it must have really bothered and shocked him that he was refused by Ryan Owen's father. I can't imagine that it fit tRumps inner screenplay of being the President who receives the grieving father. Gross.
posted by futz at 7:58 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Ryan Owens is a Peorian.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:59 PM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Jesus Christ I'm really fucking tired of articles about numbskulls who were too fucking stupid to put any thought into their vote and are bitching about it now.

Ditto but it might just mean that they are reachable to Dems. Maybe. And no, I am not suggesting that anyone has to make the effort. I'm not. I don't have the energy.
posted by futz at 10:50 AM on February 27 [+] [!]

I see the argument repeated so often that I feel like saying what I say in real life. We need both viewpoints represented in these comments at full blare right now. The fact that lots of us are saying "no sympathy" and lots more are saying "c'mon, engage them even though it's hard" on our side is an important thing for Trump-voting "centrists" to see. It helps them understand that really, honestly, we're sick of this stuff too. Would you rather vote for the side that says, "KILLARY EMAILS REFUGEES MAR-A-LAGO ABUSE PAIN" or the side that goes "Look, we'd honestly rather not be preaching at you, but the elephant people are seriously scary and in power, and they mean it about the abuse and pain. We just want to give you healthcare, and you're driving us nuts, see?"
posted by saysthis at 8:03 PM on February 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

I mean, would he dare attack another Gold Star family?

I don't know if he will, but would he?

Yes. He sure would.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:03 PM on February 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

I can't imagine that it fit tRumps inner screenplay of being the President who receives the grieving father.

I'm sure he's just fine to skip anything that would have him showing emotions.
posted by rhizome at 8:05 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

We've been discussing it here since this morning and not a peep yet.

I know, but it's now a CNN Breaking News push alert to every phone with the CNN app and on the network he "never" watches.
posted by chris24 at 8:05 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Put it all together and I think it would be a victory to come out of 2018 with 48 seats in the Senate. Anything more would be amazing. We should fight for all of them, but try be realistic about how long this fight will take.

Well, given that the fight is never-ending, I imagine I'm fairly realistic about that part. As for the other stuff, I respect thinking case-by-case, but such things do have a somewhat poor record in predicting aggregate outcomes, especially far in advance of an election, whereas using recent history does fairly well in predicting future elections. Historical patterns predicted the big gains for Democrats in 2006 and Republicans in 2010 and 2014, as well as the Obama victories in 2008 and 2012 and the Trump win in 2016, while the pundits have often been even more mistaken than random darts. So while I grant that there is a huge uncertainty band in this, I don't think it's unrealistic to discount the "this time it's different" reasons a bit (since they are always true) and go with history. But who knows! It's a bit early to start taking bets. What I've argued here before, though, is that it's worth at least thinking about how to diversify our strategies to include those suited to a "ride the wave" election, as well as the (currently) more expected "hold the line" election. (For instance, it matters for deciding how daring to be in running a Dean-style 50-state strategy for 2018, but that's probably a better topic for the DNC thread.)
posted by chortly at 8:07 PM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

(i hate to say this but the Owen's family appears to be white so they might be off limits)
posted by futz at 8:08 PM on February 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

I mean, would he dare attack another Gold Star family?

Not a question of if but when. Sounds like a perfect distraction from the next Russia related piece of news.
posted by localhuman at 8:13 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

is this the origin of the "Leopards Eating Faces Party"? if not, do you know where it originated? because i heart that imagery.
posted by j_curiouser at 8:29 PM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm just picturing Reince Priebus going around the White House "accidentally" spilling drinks on every cable box, computer and smartphone in sight to keep Donnie from seeing reports on Owens. Sorry, so clumsy! I'm just all thumbs today!
posted by jason_steakums at 8:33 PM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

He ordered a covert op resulting in American deaths over dinner without reading the intel solely because Obama wouldn't green light it. Why the fuck do with think he would care about attacking the man's family now

I did say who the fuck knows. Donnie the Simpleton may very well attack the family. If he does I think that there will be hell to pay. I can't possibly cover every possible potential reaction from the insane man that occupies the Oval Office. It's anything goes at anytime. The hyped dreaded 3am phone call is now a predicably psychotic tweet. So, once again, who the fuck knows.
posted by futz at 9:13 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

The chances of Dems winning any election in Utah are zero, and I, for one, would be so thrilled to see that guy get thrown out of his seat that I don't even really care who does it. Hard to believe I could ever dislike anyone as much as Mitch McConnell, but here we are.

Not a Dem, but shouldn't McMullin be running for this? This would be his first step if he seriously wants to be president, wouldn't it?
posted by anastasiav at 9:36 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

This would be his chance to graduate from being a McCain, yes.
posted by Artw at 9:42 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Not sure how to pull the URL for this out of my Twitter app:

@cyberomin
I was just asked to balance a Binary Search Tree by JFK's airport immigration. Welcome to America
posted by Coventry at 10:09 PM on February 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

The CPAC replacement speaker for Milo Yiannopoulos was a notorious Japanese cult-member
posted by Joe in Australia at 10:09 PM on February 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Donnie the Simpleton may very well attack the family. If he does I think that there will be hell to pay.

I don't know. I thought the same thing when he made those remarks about McCain during the campaign and then Clinton's campaign made that ad out of them, but it really does seem like people on the right just don't care what he says.

I saw a number of people on Twitter gleefully shouting during that crazy press conference about how THIS is why they voted for him, and at the time he was spouting actual unintelligible gibberish. Just complete word salad. It's possible that when he talks (and tweets) the right just hears the adult-on-Peanuts noises and they fill in whatever they would like him to be saying themselves, which might explain how nothing he says can get these people to turn on him.

My prediction: He will go after the dead SEAL's father. One or two Republicans will say something public but non-committal about it ("our veterans and their families should be respected" with no specific mention of Trump's behavior, for example). A portion of his base (including Breitbart) will vociferously attack the father as a librul traitor. There won't be any backlash. I'd put 50/50 on Trump confusedly referring to the father as "fake news".
posted by IAmUnaware at 10:14 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

I was just asked to balance a Binary Search Tree by JFK's airport immigration. Welcome to America

Part of me is impressed that CPB would even be able to evaluate if that had been done.
posted by jaduncan at 10:16 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Not a Dem, but shouldn't McMullin be running for this? This would be his first step if he seriously wants to be president, wouldn't it?

I think he just mostly wants to save the Republican Party and the country.
posted by corb at 10:19 PM on February 26, 2017

If the CBP is hiring frustrated CS grads to verify immigrants claiming to be software developers, that sounds like a huge waste of resources, even in terms of Republican values.
posted by Coventry at 10:19 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

I wonder if they have a questions and answers book and an eye for demeanor. It is however always possible that the agent concerned has worked out how to have their homework done.
posted by jaduncan at 10:22 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Does he live in Chaffetz' district?

You only have to live in the state, not the district. Though you may be correct that he's gunning for Senate.
posted by Justinian at 10:22 PM on February 26, 2017

Link to CBP interrogation claim.
posted by Coventry at 10:23 PM on February 26, 2017

The CPAC replacement speaker for Milo Yiannopoulos was a notorious Japanese cult-member

holy moly. boingboing hasn't been on my radar for almost a decade. they still exist. huh.
posted by futz at 10:24 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I saw a number of people on Twitter gleefully shouting during that crazy press conference about how THIS is why they voted for him, and at the time he was spouting actual unintelligible gibberish. Just complete word salad. It's possible that when he talks (and tweets) the right just hears the adult-on-Peanuts noises and they fill in whatever they would like him to be saying themselves, which might explain how nothing he says can get these people to turn on him.

Yep. Tune out the words and watch the mood music. It's reliably antagonistic and alpha male for an audience that conflate those things. He's so alpha male he won't let mere facts, no matter if they are from MSM cucks or not, sway him. He'd also like to reiterate that the questioner is a bad man who shouldn't be allowed to ask questions, because this was a bad question. Then he, the person who has thus not really had his masculinity challenged, can move on to battering the next one.

You'd need to squint your intellect into borderline idiocy, but if you aren't evaluating the truth of each statement as opposed to who hasn't given in first, I can kind of see what the appeal might be.
posted by jaduncan at 10:24 PM on February 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

It's also why Trump *always* deflects blame. It's always essential that his fact provider or Meredith did it, because he can't bring himself to have the weakness of admitting personal failure.
posted by jaduncan at 10:25 PM on February 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

No words at the moment. Lots of feelings.

Hundreds of headstones damaged at Philadelphia Jewish cemetery

Reporter Bob Brooks spoke with a local rabbi, who came out with a group of people of all faiths to look over the damage and restore the headstones.

"This is people from Quaker, Muslim, Jewish communities. Some Rabbis, my colleagues, we just heard about this thanks to your reporting, and came out here out of the desire to be in solidarity to show that we're not interested in any narrative about victimization and as heartbreaking as this is, we are strong together.

"I just met two congregants of mine who were here, one whom has relatives. His way of responding was to go row by row and count, and he's counted over 500 tombstones," the rabbi said.
posted by futz at 10:40 PM on February 26, 2017 [34 favorites]

If the CBP is hiring frustrated CS grads to verify immigrants claiming to be software developers, that sounds like a huge waste of resources, even in terms of Republican values.

Funniest thing is, aside from classes in the 80's all shit like 'balancing binary search trees' isn't anything I've ever had to think about, and certainly couldn't do without looking it up.

Some guy who makes the database engine worries about those things -- I guess. I just do an insert.
posted by mikelieman at 10:45 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

During meetings, the press secretary has repeatedly berated his aides, launching expletive-filled tirades

Was he in his Egg Roll rabbit suit at the time? I just get the feeling he's wearing that in the office now.
posted by holgate at 10:46 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

So they're gonna install whiteboards at border stations now?
posted by rhizome at 10:47 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

In fact, Trump debates make me think about the Thick People Jam sketch.
posted by jaduncan at 11:13 PM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Muslims and Jews protest hate together in Brooklyn
posted by zachlipton at 11:18 PM on February 26, 2017 [17 favorites]

@cyberomin
I was just asked to balance a Binary Search Tree by JFK's airport immigration. Welcome to America

This isn't totally new. When i visited the USA in 2006 and put "linguist" on the form, immigration dude said "Go on then. Speak a language."

Still insane though.
posted by lollusc at 11:39 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Fucking hell. They've managed to build bullshit irrelevant algorithm questions into the border process. It's like my worst nightmare.
posted by Artw at 11:46 PM on February 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

Best response to the Binary Search Tree incident:

@danathan: "They can say this is a technical interview; we all know the only thing they're looking for is culture fit.
posted by zachlipton at 11:55 PM on February 26, 2017 [69 favorites]

Link to CBP interrogation claim.

*clicks link*

"Sorry, you're not authorized to view these Tweets."

Huh?
posted by Hairy Lobster at 11:57 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I was just asked to balance a Binary Search Tree by JFK's airport immigration. Welcome to America
For people who are not computer scientists: the problem with this is not just "some border patrol officer asked a question to verify if I'm really a developer" (though that alone is awful enough). Questions like this are not trivial. These are things that people learn in school, but don't necessarily know how to do after a long flight and with no preparation. And developers who don't have a CS degree will probably not even know what the question means. That does not mean that they're not really developers.
posted by blub at 12:02 AM on February 27, 2017 [24 favorites]

I'm not sure any grassroots activism or political opposition is capable of dealing with the infosystem architectural coordination evident in the Mercer Phenomenon that is #fakenews

Incredibly worrying weaponization of data.
posted by Wilder at 12:17 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

technical interview

an ominous phrase for readers of Infinite Jest
posted by thelonius at 12:23 AM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Questions like this are not trivial. These are things that people learn in school, but don't necessarily know how to do after a long flight and with no preparation.

Also they must be staffing airports with CS PhDs if they have somebody who can accurately evaluate all possible answers on the spot at three in the morning.
posted by Dr Dracator at 12:54 AM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

For people who are not computer scientists: the problem with this is not just "some border patrol officer asked a question to verify if I'm really a developer" (though that alone is awful enough). Questions like this are not trivial. These are things that people learn in school, but don't necessarily know how to do after a long flight and with no preparation. And developers who don't have a CS degree will probably not even know what the question means. That does not mean that they're not really developers.

Yes, sorry, I should have been more explicit. My comparison to my experience in 2006 was meant to make that sort of point. Assuming that someone who works in linguistic research should be able to 'speak a language' (whatever the hell they meant by that, given that we were speaking one already) is about as ignorant of my field as assuming that all developers can answer theoretical computer science questions. I don't know what would have happened if I had been one of my many colleagues who work on e.g. the grammar of English, or natural language processing or whatever, and couldn't just say a couple of sentences in some other language to satisfy the immigration person.

Of course, my experience then was still a million times better than this, because I got the sense back then that my immigration control officer was just having a bad day and being grumpy for the hell of it, whereas what's happening now is systematic and has a ton of other horrible political context. Also I bet the whole "prove you are a developer" thing is mostly happening to people they are profiling for other reasons (non-white, muslim-sounding names, etc).
posted by lollusc at 1:07 AM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Lollusc, these questions are just an inch away from the sort of open-ended tests (e.g., "dictation tests") that were absolutely used as an arbitrary exclusionary technique during the days of the White Australia policy, and similiarly during Apartheid and pre-Civil Rights USA.
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:26 AM on February 27, 2017 [26 favorites]

I've been asked (at SFO) about Intel's current CPU strategy by immigration, when I was coming in on a journo visa to cover the Intel Dev Forum, and (coming into LHR with a bagful of radio bits) about transmitter design. It happens, I guess, when the official happens to have some knowledge about something obvious about your entry.

Lots of terrible things to gnaw on, I don't think this is one.
posted by Devonian at 1:30 AM on February 27, 2017

It happens, I guess, when the official happens to have some knowledge about something obvious about your entry.

Lots of terrible things to gnaw on, I don't think this is one.

I've had something similar happen to me leaving Australia as a permanent resident for the Netherlands on a Dutch passport and the official asking me a question in halting Dutch (idk, maybe he had a Dutch parent), something about how rusty mine was. But that is not what is happening in the US right now. As lollusc pointed out, it's systemic and Trump.
posted by moody cow at 1:47 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm sure he's just fine to skip anything that would have him showing emotions.

Anger is an emotion. I don't understand how macho man-babies like Trump get a pass on that one. It's not that they don't show emotions... they're not Vulcans. It's that the only emotion they are able to show is anger. But their angry tantrums can get much more out of control than any woman's weepy sobs, and everyone still gives them a pass, as if anger weren't just as irrational and a lot more dangerous.
posted by OnceUponATime at 2:19 AM on February 27, 2017 [52 favorites]

It looks like Jason Chaffetz has a serious challenger in Utah.

Kidd is getting support from DC residents, who are pissed at Chaffetz.
posted by amarynth at 3:51 AM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Oh hell yeah, I'll get behind DC residents with their efforts.
posted by triggerfinger at 3:56 AM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

entry quiz: have US citizens take the citizenship test. nelson laugh. or maybe require all elected officials to state the bill of rights.
posted by j_curiouser at 4:47 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Axios: Spicer arranged CIA, GOP intelligence push-back : White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer personally picked up the phone and connected outside officials with reporters to try to discredit a New York Times article about Trump campaign aides' contact with Russia, then remained on the line for the brief conversations, Axios has learned. Ten key points:
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:57 AM on February 27, 2017 [27 favorites]

The binary search tree question and the other stories mentioned here and elsewhere are really interesting to me. Presumably this is all part of Trump's "extreme vetting" strategy? What's astounding to me is a sense that the government has "caught up with us". By which I mean that historically, many parts of "internet culture" have defined themselves in contrast to the mainstream: there's this sense of the internet and its operators as shadowy, subversive, arcane (see: all hacker stock photography). But now... I mean, you stand in line waiting to cross the border, with your hoody all the way up, listening to some obscure EBM/IDM indie band, pondering RNG sequence number spoofing detection, feeling like a planet unto yourselves, and then when your number comes up and before they even ask you what you do, the immigration official starts grilling you on the differences between RFC 1948 and 6528 and, while perhaps his understanding is not quite as sophisticated as yours, it does feel like you're no longer as safe and secluded as you thought, because your world and person have been invaded.
posted by dmh at 5:16 AM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Hundreds of headstones damaged at Philadelphia Jewish cemetery

I have grandparents and great-grandparents buried at a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, although I don't know which one. I'm hoping it's not this one, and the thought that it is is chilling me even though I didn't really like these relatives all that much (nor they me). I can't imagine how terrible this must be for people who know their loved ones (who loved them) are buried there. It seems like each day we hear about deplorable people who find more ways to be even more horrible to those they don't even know just for spite and tribal team spirit. It's a drain on the soul.
posted by Servo5678 at 5:41 AM on February 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

It looks like Jason Chaffetz has a serious challenger in Utah. The chances of Dems winning any election in Utah are zero, and I, for one, would be so thrilled to see that guy get thrown out of his seat that I don't even really care who does it. Hard to believe I could ever dislike anyone as much as Mitch McConnell, but here we are.

Seriously. Where can I sign up to volunteer for the campaign?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:44 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Muslims and Jews protest hate together in Brooklyn

I saw looked at the preview image, and my brain came back with "awesome B-boy circle." I think I'm cracking up, because every single one of those guys looks ready to bust a move.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:56 AM on February 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

Hundreds of headstones damaged at Philadelphia Jewish cemetery

These desecrations are being organized somewhere. Somewhere we are not going to investigate under this shitstained administration's publicly announced priorities.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:04 AM on February 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

Presumably this is all part of Trump's "extreme vetting" strategy?

CBP didn't magically become dicks on January 20th. Aside from incremental changes in straight up banning a bunch of majority Muslim countries with zero notice, a fair few people posting comments here over the years have shared their unpleasant experiences with entering the US that pretty much line up with this, from the GWB years and straight through the Obama administration. I have to imagine it looks pretty rich from the outside that US liberals are finally waking up to what an offensive process it is only when that guy they really don't like has taken power.
posted by indubitable at 6:09 AM on February 27, 2017 [32 favorites]

snuffleupagus: every single one of those guys looks ready to bust a move.

Their unity makes me happy, but it being such a men-only affair makes me sad. If men of different beliefs are going to come together as one, that is great, but can't women be included too?
posted by Too-Ticky at 6:11 AM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

George W. Bush: Media essential to democracy

Former President George W. Bush on Monday said the media is an essential component to democracy, arguing it is necessary to hold the government accountable. “I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy…Power can be very addictive,” he told NBC’s “Today” show.
[...] Bush during his Monday appearance advocated for an independent press. “We need an independent media to hold people like me to account,” he said.

Please save us, George W. Bush.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:16 AM on February 27, 2017 [38 favorites]

can't women be included too?

That would be nice, wouldn't it? Men are still generally the public facing representatives of hasidic and orthodox Jewish communities. I'm not sure about Muslim communities, but it would seem to be the same cultural public/private divide. I've never been comfortable in even conservative synagogues with separate seating for men and women, but on the other hand it can be dicey to tell more orthodox people how they should live.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:19 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Former President George W. Bush on Monday said the media is an essential component to democracy, arguing it is necessary to hold the government accountable.

BushCo sallying forth. Indeed save us from your base, Dubzie.
posted by petebest at 6:20 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Presumably this is all part of Trump's "extreme vetting" strategy?

...

These desecrations are being organized somewhere.

This AskMe from yesterday reminded me of the concept of Working Toward the Führer and taught me my new German phrase of the week: 'vorauseilender Gehorsam' (anticipatory obedience).

Playing on the concept of stochiastic terrorism, we might also call the reincarnation of this concept in a neo-fascist era something like stochiastic bureaucratic (racial) profiling?
posted by tivalasvegas at 6:20 AM on February 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

I think that's an effect you can expect, but in this case it's not anticipatory. Sessions et al will explicitly direct attention and resources elsewhere. Instead of, for instance, mounting a MITM-attack on Stormfront.org users and subpoenaing Gab direct message traffic.

That sort of attention will be reserved for BLM and the resistance to the arrival of Gilead.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:24 AM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

He’s a Local Pillar in a Trump Town. Now He Could Be Deported.

Leopards, faces.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:25 AM on February 27, 2017 [33 favorites]

Bush during his Monday appearance advocated for an independent press. “We need an independent media to hold people like me to account,” he said.

...said the president whose administration absolutely pioneered the art of planting friendlies in the WH press corps by literally hiring a male prostitute for that function in 2003.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:30 AM on February 27, 2017 [15 favorites]

Politico:

Trump's Alpha Male Foreign Policy: I spoke with three of the Alpha Ladies of national security, and they are not impressed.

It turns out that macho dick-swinging in the absence of coherent positions isn't the best foreign policy.
posted by murphy slaw at 6:32 AM on February 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

...said the president whose administration absolutely pioneered the art of planting friendlies in the WH press corps by literally hiring a male prostitute for that function in 2003.

Not to mention "free speech zones" at events.
posted by murphy slaw at 6:33 AM on February 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

Family Research Council: The Anti-LGBT Executive Order Is Definitely Coming And We Wrote It Ourselves
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:35 AM on February 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

If we're going to start listing the transgressions of the GW Bush administration wer're gonna need a bigger thread.
posted by Room 641-A at 6:36 AM on February 27, 2017 [17 favorites]

The New Yorker: "What Calling Congress Actually Achieves."

Due to an unusually high call volume, what? At present, an enormous number of people are calling their political representatives, not always to obvious effect. So what difference does it really make in the minds of lawmakers—and, more to the point, on the floors of the House and the Senate—when large numbers of everyday people start contacting Congress?...According to a 2015 C.M.F. survey of almost two hundred senior congressional staffers, when it comes to influencing a lawmaker’s opinion, personalized e-mails, personalized letters, and editorials in local newspapers all beat out the telephone....Other messages that staffers tend to disregard include tweets and Facebook posts (less out of dismissiveness than because of the difficulty of determining if they come from constituents), online petitions (because they require so little effort that they aren’t seen as meaningful), comments submitted through apps like Countable, and mass e-mails that originate from the Web sites of advocacy groups.

posted by MonkeyToes at 6:37 AM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

The New Yorker: "What Calling Congress Actually Achieves."

Man, I'm really getting sick of these "No, do this other thing" articles.
posted by Etrigan at 6:42 AM on February 27, 2017 [25 favorites]

I would think that, at the present moment, the massive call volume is itself a message.
posted by murphy slaw at 6:43 AM on February 27, 2017 [40 favorites]

He’s a Local Pillar in a Trump Town. Now He Could Be Deported.

Leopards, faces.

Yeah, and don't count on the town to get woke, either. "'he’s just one of us,' said Debra Johnson, a resident. She said she saw a distinction between 'people who come over and use the system and people who actually come and help.'"
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:45 AM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

VA Sec Shulkin proposes eliminating 40-mile, 30-day rule for non-VA care: His plan would include removing the rule that allows veterans to go outside the VA for health care if they had to wait more than 30 days for an appointment or live more than 40 miles driving distance from a VA facility. Some veterans and lawmakers have criticized the 40-mile, 30-day rule for limiting veterans’ health care choices, and Shulkin called the program “extremely complex and bureaucratic.”
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:48 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Mr. Grigsby said he still would vote for Mr. Trump. One never agrees with everything a politician does, “but maybe this should all be more on a per-case basis,” he said. “It’s hard to be black and white on this because there may be people like Carlos.”

aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgh.
posted by petebest at 6:49 AM on February 27, 2017 [20 favorites]

Local Leopard Eating People's Faces Party Supporters Clarify: We are not opposed to leopards eating people's faces in principle, but we understood that they would ignore the faces of our friends who have been sprayed with leopard attractant.
posted by murphy slaw at 6:49 AM on February 27, 2017 [23 favorites]

Calling my representatives takes like 3 minutes, maybe up to 15 if I can't get through right away. The amount that it accomplishes needs to be weighed against how much effort it takes. Writing a heartfelt letter and mailing it is not only way slower to arrive (so, not useful for urgent matters), it also takes a lot more time and effort to complete. Writing a local paper editorial and getting it published takes time, effort, skill, and connections, as well as a willingness to be the public face of a position in a political climate where one party is basically staffed by gamergate.

Why are we chastising constituents for not communicating in the representative's preferred way instead of chastising the representative for not communicating in their constituents' preferred ways. They work for us! We get to decide how they have to interact with us. Or, maybe I should just reply to my boss' meeting request with a condescending "What Having a Conference Call Really Accomplishes" article.
posted by melissasaurus at 6:50 AM on February 27, 2017 [24 favorites]

Last verse same as the first: "Oh, I wasn't aware that civil rights are either for everyone or no one. I thought they could just be removed for those people, and kept for everyone else."
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:51 AM on February 27, 2017 [42 favorites]

Metafilter: wer're gonna need a bigger thread.
posted by notyou at 6:52 AM on February 27, 2017 [17 favorites]

According to a 2015 C.M.F. survey of almost two hundred senior congressional staffers, when it comes to influencing a lawmaker’s opinion, personalized e-mails, personalized letters, and editorials in local newspapers all beat out the telephone..

Yes, because we can all get editorials in the local newspaper.

It feels like a lot of this is designed to raise the requirements for civic engagement so they don't have to hear people anymore.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:53 AM on February 27, 2017 [23 favorites]

The New Yorker: "What Calling Congress Actually Achieves."

Where do colorful custom-printed postcards fall in this hierarchy? Asking for a friend.

(I do usually scrawl a personal message on the back. I've got one right here regarding a state "local control is good when it accomplishes things Republicans like, but you liberal cities are getting uppity with your local laws so we need to pass laws to make sure you don't give workers too many rights" bill.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:54 AM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

He’s a Local Pillar in a Trump Town. Now He Could Be Deported.

@timothypmurphy: If only literally everybody had warned them.
posted by zombieflanders at 6:57 AM on February 27, 2017 [17 favorites]

Apparently a White House press conference call locked some reporters out just now, citing "max capacity."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:01 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

State GOP Chair Opposes Bill To Make It Easier To Vote, Claiming It Will Hurt Republicans

They don't even try to hide it anymore.
posted by zombieflanders at 7:02 AM on February 27, 2017 [27 favorites]

GOP’s New Plan to Repeal Obamacare: Dare Fellow Republicans to Block Effort
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:03 AM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

holgate: It's the perpetual wail of the 21st-century American CEO: we can't fill the positions, and no fucking way are we paying to train people up from where they are, so what can we do?

The answer used to be "hire foreign nationals," but "the most pro-business president since the Founding Fathers" put an end to that.

So, we're looking at China being the leader of the (pseudo) free world, wouldn't it be funny if Chinese companies also overtook US-based firms because they could hire the best and brightest from around the world?
posted by filthy light thief at 7:11 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

GOP’s New Plan to Repeal Obamacare: Dare Fellow Republicans to Block Effort

Please could this be the fracture point of House Republicans. The hard right selling out the rest of their party and bringing this fucking stupidity to a head would be awesome.
posted by Talez at 7:16 AM on February 27, 2017 [14 favorites]

ArbitraryAndCapricious: And I don't know if we're going to be able to repeal Obamacare now because these folks who support Obamacare are very active

THIS is huge - would the GOP really back off on a top Trump priority because they get heat from their constituents? Awesome!

Talez: Please could this be the fracture point of House Republicans. The hard right selling out the rest of their party and bringing this fucking stupidity to a head would be awesome.

I don't think it'll fracture the party, but in a summary of the paywalled WSJ article, it sounds like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are banking on this passing, as they can lose two senators and 22 House members and it'll still pass.

Because if it doesn't, Paul Ryan can't cut taxes for the rich, whose taxes help pay for ACA benefits. If ACA isn't scaled way back, then the GOP needs to find a different way to raise $1.2 trillion over the next decade.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:26 AM on February 27, 2017 [12 favorites]

LOL / that's so cute / they're copying opposition tactics / but their numbers are so tiny / and their positions so bland

They even stole the date - I've heard March 15th quotes for the Ides of Trump protesting postcard push various places on the internet.
posted by dinty_moore at 7:36 AM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

One thing that article doesn't address is the financial impact of going without insurance. Possibly ACA is not saving lives net, but it is preventing medically-related bankruptcies.
posted by murphy slaw at 7:38 AM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

State GOP Chair Opposes Bill To Make It Easier To Vote, Claiming It Will Hurt Republicans

They don't even try to hide it anymore.

FYI, the mail-in ballot passed anyway. Here's hoping he was right and we elect a Democrat.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:40 AM on February 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

This National Review article makes the argument that ACA is not a net benefit in terms of lives saved. I'm too ignorant to evaluate the claims it makes. Can anyone point me in the direction of helpful perspective?

If you click through to some of the studies, you can see that they're quite different than the article makes them out to be.

The Oregon study (NR quote "In a randomized trial in Oregon that gave some individuals Medicaid while leaving others uninsured, recipients gained no statistically significant improvement in physical health after two years."):

We found no significant effect of Medicaid coverage on the prevalence or diagnosis of hypertension or high cholesterol levels or on the use of medication for these conditions. Medicaid coverage significantly increased the probability of a diagnosis of diabetes and the use of diabetes medication, but we observed no significant effect on average glycated hemoglobin levels or on the percentage of participants with levels of 6.5% or higher. Medicaid coverage decreased the probability of a positive screening for depression (−9.15 percentage points; 95% confidence interval, −16.70 to −1.60; P=0.02), increased the use of many preventive services, and nearly eliminated catastrophic out-of-pocket medical expenditures.

The Harvard Study (NR quote "In the New England Journal of Medicine, a team at Harvard University compared three states that expanded Medicaid in the 2000s with others that made no change; only one of the three achieved a statistically significant reduction in mortality."):

Medicaid expansions were associated with a significant reduction in adjusted all-cause mortality (by 19.6 deaths per 100,000 adults, for a relative reduction of 6.1%; P=0.001). Mortality reductions were greatest among older adults, nonwhites, and residents of poorer counties. Expansions increased Medicaid coverage (by 2.2 percentage points, for a relative increase of 24.7%; P=0.01), decreased rates of uninsurance (by 3.2 percentage points, for a relative reduction of 14.7%; P 0.001), decreased rates of delayed care because of costs (by 2.9 percentage points, for a relative reduction of 21.3%; P=0.002), and increased rates of self-reported health status of “excellent” or “very good” (by 2.2 percentage points, for a relative increase of 3.4%; P=0.04).

posted by melissasaurus at 7:42 AM on February 27, 2017 [27 favorites]

@glennthrush: Trump now talking about the "missing tiles" on Midtown Tunnel and Lincoln Tunnel -- and wondering how many people are hurt by them falling.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:42 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Yes, we predicted a coming crisis — but it’s not as apocalyptic as the headlines make it out to be."

Well, not yet.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:43 AM on February 27, 2017

futz: "I & others requested answers about #Yemen raid & death of SEAL Owens. @POTUS is stonewalling. What did Trump know?" Lieu continued in another tweet.

2014-16: GOP burns $7 million and 2 years on Benghazi report to tar and feather Hillary; 2017: Dems send tweets to POTUS

sigh.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:44 AM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Tom Toles, Washington Post: rough draft, Oscars-related joke
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:45 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

nearly eliminated catastrophic out-of-pocket medical expenditures.

oh hai, lede. why u buried?
posted by murphy slaw at 7:46 AM on February 27, 2017 [40 favorites]

2014-16: GOP burns $7 million and 2 years on Benghazi report to tar and feather Hillary; 2017: Dems send tweets to POTUS

Apples to tennis balls. Dems don't control the House.
posted by prefpara at 7:46 AM on February 27, 2017 [15 favorites]

Because if it doesn't, Paul Ryan can't cut taxes for the rich, whose taxes help pay for ACA benefits. If ACA isn't scaled way back, then the GOP needs to find a different way to raise $1.2 trillion over the next decade.

The traditional way for the Republicans to deal with their tax cuts blowing a giant hole in the budget is to not care.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:50 AM on February 27, 2017 [37 favorites]

but cutting taxes on the 1% will get more cash into the economy, therefore increasing total tax receipts!

because they never hoard cash in tax shelters and each dollar they retain from taxation is inevitably spent on goods and services.

oh wait.
posted by murphy slaw at 7:52 AM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

FYI, the mail-in ballot passed anyway. Here's hoping he was right and we elect a Democrat.

Here's hoping he never gets to forget that he's an anti-democratic (small d) scumbag.
posted by jaduncan at 7:53 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

More "ICE is crap". "According to ICE detainment logs obtained by The Verge through a Freedom of Information Act request, more than two dozen detainees were put in solitary confinement for hunger striking — some simply for declaring they would refuse to eat, even if they hadn’t yet skipped a meal. The logs also show that CoreCivic may have attempted to gather information on hunger strike organizers through cultivating detainee informants, who were later locked in solitary confinement themselves for protection."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:57 AM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

"According to ICE detainment logs obtained by The Verge through a Freedom of Information Act request, more than two dozen detainees were put in solitary confinement for hunger striking — some simply for declaring they would refuse to eat, even if they hadn’t yet skipped a meal. The logs also show that CoreCivic may have attempted to gather information on hunger strike organizers through cultivating detainee informants, who were later locked in solitary confinement themselves for protection."

"Those who praise the leopard will be eaten last." [not actually in article]
posted by jaduncan at 8:00 AM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

Desecration of another Jewish cemetery, this time in Philadelphia.

Things are bad when people in one's Facebook feed have to make clear that it isn't the earlier Jewish cemetery desecration, it's a new one.

Happily, once again area Muslims seem to be stepping up in support. It sure seems the threat of Trump is uniting people, and I hope it forges bonds that are hard to break, because, hey presto, majority.
posted by Gelatin at 8:02 AM on February 27, 2017 [21 favorites]

Again this morning, Jewish daycares around the country are being threatened with bombs. again.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:03 AM on February 27, 2017 [12 favorites]

The traditional way for the Republicans to deal with their tax cuts blowing a giant hole in the budget is to not care.

No, the time honored method is to cut taxes, then use the resulting deficit to demand Democrats balance the budget solely though domestic spending cuts the next time they are in power (admittedly this time that may be never).

Republicans don't and have never cared about the budget deficit or national debt except as a cynical rhetorical device to block Democratic legislative priorities. Republican policies, to the extent that such things even exist outside of starting wars, never have to be paid for, while they'll cry crocodile tears about "pay fors" and "spending offsets elsewhere" every time a Democrat wants to expand school lunch or children's healthcare.

If you press them hard, they also have magic asterisks to fall back on, tax cuts magically pay for themselves you see, because somethingsomethingLafferAynRandLOOKOVERTHEREABLACKGUYBOUGHTASTEAKWITHYOURMONEY!
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:09 AM on February 27, 2017 [15 favorites]

somethingsomethingLafferAynRandLOOKOVERTHEREABLACKGUYBOUGHTASTEAKWITHYOURMONEY

and it's not even well-done!
posted by murphy slaw at 8:11 AM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

State of the Union 2017: Burnt to a cinder, slathered in ketchup.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:16 AM on February 27, 2017 [19 favorites]

Trump to propose 10 percent spike in defense spending, massive cuts to other agencies

Butter bad, guns good.
posted by murphy slaw at 8:17 AM on February 27, 2017 [14 favorites]

there needs to be a new legislation rule: tax cuts can only be applied for income brackets that have a median marginal propensity to spend > some high number. tax cuts can't sit in offshore banks and piles of cash. smart people, thoughts?
posted by j_curiouser at 8:20 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

like, at least when reagan did it, we were trying to bankrupt the USSR? we now appear to be starting an arms race with ourselves so that trump, gorka, and bannon don't feel like cucks.
posted by murphy slaw at 8:20 AM on February 27, 2017 [34 favorites]

It's like if the giant floating Zardoz head was orange and instead of booming out "The Gun is good, the Penis is evil" it's shouting "the Gun is good, the Penis is there is no problem in that department, believe me."
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:21 AM on February 27, 2017 [30 favorites]

Hi, I'm an Indian-American who works in the tech industry and travels internationally, so the "balance a binary search tree" incident and the shooting of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, Alok Madasani, and Ian Grillot have shaken me pretty hard.

I've had two really wowzers air travel experiences in my life, both in the last 15 years:

1) more than ten years ago, flying from NYC to the West Coast on a one-way ticket I'd bought just a few hours prior (to get to my dying mother-in-law's side) -- hand luggage opened and searched, and got a patdown in addition to the metal detector, if I recall correctly. OK, yeah, behaviorally I get why that raises flags.

2) El Al, from NYC to Israel and back. As far as I could tell, I was a brown person travelling alone with "too little luggage" and that raised flags. Hours of questioning, devices taken away and returned such that I could tell they'd at least turned them on and tried to access them, etc. Some of the questions included "What do you do for a job? Do you go to an office? Could you talk me through what you do each day? Did you have to do any special training for that job? Why have you had so many jobs in the past two years? You say you did some consulting for GNOME; can you open your laptop and show me some work you did for them?" So this included me explaining what open source is so I could explain what an open source community manager does.

Now I am pretty used to explaining my job and my niche of the industry. Earlier this month I literally testified in front of New York state legislators about open source and software transparency, auditability, efficiency, etc. And I'm finishing up writing an explanation of my small business to enter into a local competition to try to win a grant so I can hire an apprentice. I am good at public speaking and I am good at explaining -- to an audience who wants to understand. That last bit. What if.
posted by brainwane at 8:21 AM on February 27, 2017 [51 favorites]

Raw Story: White House planted fake story to smear Politico reporter who wrote about leaks

The White House apparently attempted to smear a critical reporter by planting a story about him laughing at the mention of a Navy SEAL’s death....

posted by snuffleupagus at 8:23 AM on February 27, 2017 [31 favorites]

The White House apparently attempted to smear a critical reporter by planting a story about him laughing at the mention of a Navy SEAL’s death...

If true, what the everloving fuck.
posted by jaduncan at 8:24 AM on February 27, 2017 [11 favorites]

It's like if the giant floating Zardoz head was orange and instead of booming out "The Gun is good, the Penis is evil" it's shouting "the Gun is good, the Penis is there is no problem in that department, believe me."

We just need the 'shop from the earlier threads re-done with Gorka's head instead of Giuliani's.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:25 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's like if the giant floating Zardoz head was orange and instead of booming out "The Gun is good, the Penis is evil" it's shouting "the Gun is good, the Penis is there is no problem in that department, believe me."

The head has two huge hands for some reason
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:25 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Again this morning, Jewish daycares around the country are being threatened with bombs. again.

Right now the unconfirmed list includes JCCs in Davie, FL, Asheville NC, Indianapolis, Birmingham AL, Tarrytown, NY, and Ann Arbor, MI. It also includes the upper school building of the Charles E. Smith school in Rockville, MD (one of the schools Jared and Ivanka considered for their kids)
posted by Mchelly at 8:26 AM on February 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

The White House apparently attempted to smear a critical reporter by planting a story about him laughing at the mention of a Navy SEAL’s death...

If true, what the everloving fuck.

And even if the story was true, it seems like more Trumpian projection to claim that the reporter was laughing at the SEAL's death, and not the administration's frankly hamfisted use of that death as PR cover for their incompetent bungling of the military op. If that doesn't call for open and contemptuous laughter, nothing does.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:33 AM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

@BraddJaffy “I haven’t called Russia in ten years,” Trump said moments ago, pool reports
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 8:37 AM on February 27, 2017 [12 favorites]

like, at least when reagan did it, we were trying to bankrupt the USSR? we now appear to be starting an arms race with ourselves so that trump, gorka, and bannon don't feel like cucks.

Perhaps Putin, by first maneuvering Trump into the presidency, and subsequently tweaking his insecurities about dominance through clever media manipulation, is attempting to exhaust and bankrupt us?
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:42 AM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

A leaked draft of a bill shows Congress is getting ready to defund the women’s health clinics and abortion provider. BuzzFeed News sat down with the organization’s president, who says, “no one really knows what will make a difference anymore.”
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:43 AM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Neil Howe, Washington Post: Where did Steve Bannon get his worldview? From my book.

Said book(s) including “Generations,” “The Fourth Turning” and “Millennials Rising", all related to generational theory. Much of the opinion column explains the work that Howe did with William Strauss on this theory.
"Yes, we predicted a coming crisis — but it’s not as apocalyptic as the headlines make it out to be."
Well, not yet.

Yeah Bannon and his ilk turning the shaky Strauss-Howe generational theory (that reeks of playing fast and loose with facts to fit a predetermined narrative) into some kind of doomsday prophecy narrative that paints themselves as the heroes makes a lot of sense.

Problem is even if Strauss and Howe were absolutely right, it's more likely that Trumpism is the existential crisis this generation faces, not the solution.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:46 AM on February 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

El Al, from NYC to Israel and back. As far as I could tell, I was a brown person travelling alone with "too little luggage" and that raised flags.

Brainwane - El Al is notorious. When I lived in Israel and was flying back to the states in the late 80's, a white male colleague of mine had long hair, wore a kippah and had an earring. That was weird enough for them. Thankfully, it was before laptops and cell phones, but they searched through every inch of his luggage, made him explain everything in his suitcase and kept him for hours. Not that it doesn't suck, just that it's pretty standard operating procedure for El Al.
posted by Sophie1 at 8:47 AM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

"I haven’t called Russia in ten years,” Trump said moments ago, pool reports

email? Skype? texts? FTP?

Or does he know someone called "Russia" and he lost her number?
posted by nubs at 8:49 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

putin calls him
posted by entropicamericana at 8:52 AM on February 27, 2017 [22 favorites]

Yeah Bannon and his ilk turning the shaky Strauss-Howe generational theory (that reeks of playing fast and loose with facts to fit a predetermined narrative) into some kind of doomsday prophecy narrative that paints themselves as the heroes makes a lot of sense.

Just sounds like Millenialsim for people who think they're too smart to take the Bible literally.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:53 AM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

@ssharwood I was just asked to balance a Binary Search Tree by JFK's airport immigration. Welcome to America

> Part of me is impressed that CPB would even be able to evaluate if that had been done.

@ssharwood sad thing is, if I didn't give the Wikipedia definition for these questions, it was considered a wrong answer.

So no CS degrees at CBP, just someone who picked a few from this list, maybe cross-referenced with an open online course's curriculum?
posted by ASCII Costanza head at 8:53 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

"I haven’t called Russia in ten years,” Trump said moments ago

Stupidly definitive for something that is almost certainly untrue. The kids have gone on business trips there; did he really never call them during those?
posted by jaduncan at 8:54 AM on February 27, 2017 [11 favorites]

No phone calls! No phone calls! You made the phone calls!
posted by Too-Ticky at 8:55 AM on February 27, 2017 [20 favorites]

And he didn't need to communicate with anyone in Russia to host a Miss Universe pageant in Moscow?
posted by diogenes at 8:56 AM on February 27, 2017 [12 favorites]

Stupidly definitive for something that is almost certainly untrue.

Turn that into Latin, and I'm pretty sure it's already on the Trump family crest.
posted by Etrigan at 8:56 AM on February 27, 2017 [35 favorites]

The Burr/Nunes thing is resurfacing. @AdamBlickstein:

This is a huge development if true. And Nunes knew this when he was recruited to decry the Russia investigation as a nothingburger...
@JasonLeopold:I believe Nunes just said the wiretaps of calls between Flynn, et all, and Russians were via FISA warrants.

Background & updates (Maddow blog, this morning:)
White House makes matters worse by trying to suppress Russia scandal

Of particular interest, the White House’s public-relations campaign included Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), both of whom confirmed that they spoke to journalists about the Russia scandal at the White House’s request.

And that’s extraordinary. While Burr and Nunes were supposed to be overseeing investigations into the Russia scandal, they were also cooperating with the White House, telling reporters not to take the Russia scandal seriously.

In other words, the investigators were undermining their own investigation – at the behest of those being investigated.

posted by snuffleupagus at 8:58 AM on February 27, 2017 [65 favorites]

2014-16: GOP burns $7 million and 2 years on Benghazi report to tar and feather Hillary; 2017: Dems send tweets to POTUS

The Democrats hold neither the House or the Senate. How exactly are they supposed to burn money on an investigation in a chamber that they don't control?
posted by Talez at 9:01 AM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Stupidly definitive for something that is almost certainly untrue.

Like "Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated"?
posted by peeedro at 9:03 AM on February 27, 2017 [20 favorites]

The Democrats hold neither the House or the Senate. How exactly are they supposed to burn money on an investigation in a chamber that they don't control?

Whilst that is a difficult problem. I think the frustration arises from the fact the answer they came up with was fucking twitter
posted by fullerine at 9:04 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh man, I didn't realize that Nunes and Burr chaired the intelligence committees. That's fucked up.
posted by diogenes at 9:07 AM on February 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

I think the frustration arises from the fact the answer they came up with was fucking twitter

Fucking Twitter served one side pretty well in the most recent major election.
posted by Etrigan at 9:08 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

"I haven’t called Russia in ten years,” Trump said moments ago

Stupidly definitive for something that is almost certainly untrue. The kids have gone on business trips there; did he really never call them during those?

He called Putin at the end of January.
posted by dirigibleman at 9:08 AM on February 27, 2017 [42 favorites]

Been alerted by my local Dem party that Republicans intend to flood local ISD meeting about sanctuary school policies. We did have other plans that night but time to go make some noise instead. I did have to do some research on what "sanctuary schools" mean when applied to public schools; basically, not allowing ICE on campus unless they have a warrant, not giving them access to student records w/out a court order or guardian's consent. Our governor, of course, thinks this is some sort of terrorist idea so here we are.

When you look up "Texas sanctuary schools" you get a lot of Breitbart links, so that explains a lot.
posted by emjaybee at 9:08 AM on February 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

Haven't we known for a while that Flynn was the subject of a FISA warrant?
posted by diogenes at 9:11 AM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

"I haven’t called Russia in ten years,” Trump said moments ago

Context from the pool report:

As pool was being led out of listening session with HC executives at approximately 1113 am, he was asked if there should be a special prosecutor on Russia.

He did not respond to the question immediately, but as pool was mostly out, he mouthed the word No to those at the table.

And with most of the pool out of the room, he said:

I havent called Russia in 10 years.

Spicey time scheduled for 1:30 Eastern.
posted by zachlipton at 9:14 AM on February 27, 2017 [14 favorites]

Like "Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated"?
posted by peeedro at 9:03 AM on February 27 [3 favorites −] Favorite added! [!]

This would hilarious if it wasn't so terrible
posted by mumimor at 9:15 AM on February 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

Whilst that is a difficult problem. I think the frustration arises from the fact the answer they came up with was fucking twitter

As opposed to?

Hint: I could chew bubblegum and it would be just as effective in this situation as any other answer to this question.
posted by Talez at 9:18 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated"

"You know, the truth of the matter is, is that—health care is very complicated." -President Barack Obama, 2/25/10
posted by zombieflanders at 9:18 AM on February 27, 2017 [33 favorites]

Perhaps Putin, by first maneuvering Trump into the presidency, and subsequently tweaking his insecurities about dominance through clever media manipulation, is attempting to exhaust and bankrupt us?

Окупаемость это сука.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:23 AM on February 27, 2017

White House gives Infowars exclusive look at SoTU speech

Infowars.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:24 AM on February 27, 2017 [47 favorites]

prefpara: Apples to tennis balls. Dems don't control the House.

I realize this, but it's sad that all "our folks" can do is tweet and ask about it, while if this happened under a Dem in the White House, we'd get Benghazigate Round 2, except with some actual justification for the time and money.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:24 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

He called Putin at the end of January.

Yeah, but that was in the Soviet Union.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:25 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

I think we're into triple digits with thuings that would cause an utter meltdown if a Dem did it. You'd need a full scale break from reality not to notice it. Which, funnily enough...
posted by Artw at 9:27 AM on February 27, 2017 [24 favorites]

White House gives Infowars exclusive look at SoTU speech

...says Infowars
posted by theodolite at 9:29 AM on February 27, 2017 [15 favorites]

I realize this, but it's sad that all "our folks" can do is tweet and ask about it, while if this happened under a Dem in the White House, we'd get Benghazigate Round 2, except with some actual justification for the time and money.

Did you miss every Dem leader speaking out about the need for an investigation every time they're in front of a camera? They don't have subpoena power. They don't have a national propaganda cable "news" network like FOX. They don't have a national network of local hate radio propaganda stations to reinforce the message at a local level.

Really, tell us what other steps they're not taking.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:29 AM on February 27, 2017 [12 favorites]

@KFILE dug up the letter Sean Spicer wrote to his college paper after they misprinted his name as "Sean Sphincter." He appears to still be precisely the same person he was as a college student in 1993.
posted by zachlipton at 9:30 AM on February 27, 2017 [12 favorites]

T.D. Strange: White House gives Infowars exclusive look at SoTU speech

Infowars.

Donny: "Is this speech inflamatory and unhinged enough?"
Alex: "You didn't call anything a False Flag operation, toss some of that in there"

[fake, in part because I can't mimic Trump's basic, repetitive speech patterns well enough]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:30 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

"You didn't call anything a False Flag operation, toss some of that in there"

$20 says that if he refers to the Olathe KS shooting at all, it'll be to call it a false flag.
posted by Existential Dread at 9:35 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

THIS WAS A WEST WING EPISODE
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:36 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

@BraddJaffy “I haven’t called Russia in ten years,” Trump said moments ago, pool reports

So, can we save reporters from having to fact check every damned thing from Trump's mouth and hook Watson up to output transcripts with annotations, possibly Genius.com style? Maybe just harvest all of Trump's prior speeches, tweets and written material, to make the system more efficient?
posted by filthy light thief at 9:37 AM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

It's going to be the exact same nonsense as usual with a few extra nuggets of insanity like that, yes. My bet is on the bulk of it being whining about his election win and the media.
posted by Artw at 9:37 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

And that’s extraordinary. While Burr and Nunes were supposed to be overseeing investigations into the Russia scandal, they were also cooperating with the White House, telling reporters not to take the Russia scandal seriously.

In other words, the investigators were undermining their own investigation – at the behest of those being investigated.

this is crazy-go-nuts. what can we do to get an independent investigation going besides calling our (democratic :( ) congresspeople?
posted by murphy slaw at 9:38 AM on February 27, 2017 [14 favorites]

Random thought on the "missing" representatives who don't show up for their own town hall meetings: perhaps concerned locals could start putting out fliers and maybe even put up billboards to help their search for their missing reps? "Last seen: somewhere in Washington D.C. - may be lost on way back home"
posted by filthy light thief at 9:39 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

DJT: Alex, why won't Putin be my friend?

AJ: Donald, you don't want to be his friend. I have it on good authority he's the reincarnation of Vlad the Impaler.

DJT: Sounds good.

AJ: I posted all about this but they shut down my blog for hate speech.

DJT: Sad!
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 9:40 AM on February 27, 2017

Random thought on the "missing" representatives who don't show up for their own town hall meetings: perhaps concerned locals could start putting out fliers and maybe even put up billboards to help their search for their missing reps? "Last seen: somewhere in Washington D.C. - may be lost on way back home"

Oh it's been happening. Someone even stickered the milk cartons.
posted by zachlipton at 9:46 AM on February 27, 2017 [11 favorites]

Random thought on the "missing" representatives who don't show up for their own town hall meetings: perhaps concerned locals could start putting out fliers and maybe even put up billboards to help their search for their missing reps? "Last seen: somewhere in Washington D.C. - may be lost on way back home"

This is already a thing! Lamar Smith poster. Paul Cook milk cartons. Bill Posey posters. You, too, can troll your representatives if they're avoiding their constituents!
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:47 AM on February 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

Erick Erickson also got the SOTU bullet points. So.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:47 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Someone even stickered the milk cartons.

The milk carton stunt made my little shriveled activist heart grow three sizes.
posted by Sophie1 at 9:50 AM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Time for another SPECIAL ELECTION UPDATE.

Tomorrow (Tuesday, February 28) will feature three special elections for the Connecticut legislature. These are likely to of less impact than the big Delaware state senate win, but we can cross our fingers.

===

STATE HOUSE - Currently D controlled, 79-72

* State House District 115 (West Haven) - This is currently a D held seat. This seat went D by 37 points in 2016, and the D was unopposed in 2014. A D loss is very unlikely, but would not impact House control in any case.

===

STATE SENATE - Currently deadlocked, 18-18. Ds & Rs are evenly represented on committees and share chair duties (you might remember when the US Senate had this going on for a while in 2001). Lt. Gov (D) breaks ties.

* State Senate District 2 (Hartford suburbs) - This is currently a D held seat. This seat went D by 67 points in 2016, and by 64 points in 2014. A D loss is very unlikely.

* State Senate District 32 (west of Waterbury) - This is currently an R held seat. This seat went R by 35 points in 2016, and by 35 points in 2014. An R loss is unlikely.

===

So, the upshot in CT is - three Dem wins would be helpful, but not a world shaker, and looks unlikely, given the history of Sen-32. You never know, though - if you live there, get out and vote!
posted by Chrysostom at 9:51 AM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Joe in Australia: ""I can guarantee this, I don't think the chief of staff will ever have that kind of conversation with the FBI, with FBI personnel, again," he said.

"Remember, these are all people who have never been in government before," Christie said. "And so they're going to need to learn these things.""

OMG. This is literally (literally!) a Dave Chappelle bit: "Sorry officer, I didn't know I couldn't do that."
posted by mhum at 9:56 AM on February 27, 2017 [15 favorites]

This Cook guy is the Rep for Arrowhead, Big Bear and Mammoth, it would seem. I wonder what his typical vote margin is and how many SoCal residents might be able to switch their registration to vacation homes. The entire district had 234K households as of the last census.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:00 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'd pay good money to hear someone in the WH press pool call Sean "Mr. Sphincter." It's really the absolute perfect name for the guy. Kudos to his college newspaper.
posted by Lyme Drop at 10:05 AM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

"Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated"

Even better, after that: I would have liked to have passed the tax cuts before fixing health care. [real]
posted by Rykey at 10:06 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm in CT and we need this win. Our Indivisible group has been humping this hard.
posted by archimago at 10:07 AM on February 27, 2017 [12 favorites]

AP: Trump administration says it will drop federal government's opposition to strict Texas voter ID law.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:09 AM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Interesting.

U.S. House, California District 8 General Election, 2014
Candidate      Vote %        Votes
Paul Cook,R, 	67.6%        77,480
Bob Conaway,D   32.4%        37,056

Total population over 18 years of age is around 500K. Lots of unregistered potential voters or registered nonvoters. This district is totally winnable.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:11 AM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

I'd pay good money to hear someone in the WH press pool call Sean "Mr. Sphincter." It's really the absolute perfect name for the guy. Kudos to his college newspaper.

Except the whole administration seems to be basing their policy entirely on personal slights from years ago: Spicer was mocked in a forgotten student newspaper article and years later closes off professional correspondents covering the world's biggest ongoing story. DJT was mocked at a White House dinner and subsequently bulldozes the entire government.

It's like someone getting cut off in traffic one day and deciding the most logical response is to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge.
posted by mochapickle at 10:12 AM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Even better, after that: I would have liked to have passed the tax cuts before fixing health care. [real]

Yeah, Matt Yglesias points out that he's either convinced or trying to convince others (who can tell?) that Paul Ryan's legislative strategy is somehow "statutorily" necessary:

Referring to his own enthusiasm for tax reform, Trump explained, “I can’t do it until we do health care, because we have to know what the health care is going to cost and — statutorily — that’s the way it is. So for those people who say, ‘oh, gee, I wish we could do the tax first,’ it just doesn’t work that way. I would like to do the tax first.”

Trump is wrong about this. There is no statutory requirement for him to do health care before he works on tax reform. What’s at issue is simply Paul Ryan’s legislative strategy. Ryan wants to pass a tax reform plan with a party-line vote, which means he needs to use the budget reconciliation process to avoid a Senate filibuster.

posted by peeedro at 10:15 AM on February 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

CA District 8 turnout, general elections:

2010: 209,696
2012: 179,644
2014: 114,536

Some of this probably has to do with the economic downturn in and around San Bernardino, but that's still remarkable and I hope someone in the SoCal Democratic party hierarchy with more of a clue than I have has noticed this.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:19 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

The math isn't adding up on Trump's budget proposal so far. He wants to boost military spending by cuts to EPA and State, but there's not enough money there for the $54 billion he wants even if you completely eliminated both agencies.
posted by zachlipton at 10:20 AM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Except the whole administration seems to be basing their policy entirely on personal slights from years ago: Spicer was mocked in a forgotten student newspaper article and years later closes off professional correspondents covering the world's biggest ongoing story. DJT was mocked at a White House dinner and subsequently bulldozes the entire government.

It's like someone getting cut off in traffic one day and deciding the most logical response is to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge.

If we could only bottle the power unleashed by triggering Rich White Male Fragility, we'd never need another drop of oil or another solar panel.
posted by emjaybee at 10:21 AM on February 27, 2017 [28 favorites]

If we could only bottle the power unleashed by triggering Rich White Male Fragility, we'd never need another drop of oil or another solar panel.

craft this
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:23 AM on February 27, 2017

I'd pay good money to hear someone in the WH press pool call Sean "Mr. Sphincter."

I'd gladly match your pledge if they tried to do the Wayne's World bit:

Reporter: *mumbling* "Asphinctersayswhat?"

Spicer: "What?"

R: *mumbling louder* "Asphinctersayswhat?"

S: "What?!?"

R: "Exactly!"
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:23 AM on February 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

What the fuck is the military going to use all this extra money for anyhow? They already have money coming out of their earholes.
posted by Artw at 10:25 AM on February 27, 2017 [14 favorites]

Well, there are at least four more before you start having to do crazy shit like promote women.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:27 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

What the fuck is the military going to use all this extra money for anyhow? They already have money coming out of their earholes.

Plate everything in gold and slap the Trump logo on it!
posted by melissasaurus at 10:28 AM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

What the fuck is the military going to use all this extra money for anyhow? They already have money coming out of their earholes.

Hiring day-care workers, apparently.
posted by Etrigan at 10:28 AM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

What the fuck is the military going to use all this extra money for anyhow? They already have money coming out of their earholes.

It's to make our military strong again. We will be strong! And then we can search for things to make us go.
posted by Servo5678 at 10:28 AM on February 27, 2017 [23 favorites]

What the fuck is the military going to use all this extra money for anyhow? They already have money coming out of their earholes.

For the wars they're planning on starting, obvs.
posted by joedan at 10:29 AM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

What the fuck is the military going to use all this extra money for anyhow? They already have money coming out of their earholes.

i expect to see a round of articles about 400 dollar screwdrivers in oh, 12-18 months
posted by murphy slaw at 10:29 AM on February 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

Aren't they all in bed with defense contractors? This surprises people? He's been screaming law and order for a year. Can't have martial law without a strong military and a strong infrastructure to contain and then move large numbers of people.
posted by archimago at 10:29 AM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

omg, that's why trump talks that way. his base are pakleds
posted by murphy slaw at 10:30 AM on February 27, 2017 [16 favorites]

Just who are these 300 'scientists' telling Trump to burn the climate?
posted by Artw at 10:30 AM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

For the record, nobody handed Infowars anything special. They just reprinted an email that went out over the press list and acted like they got some big scoop.
posted by zachlipton at 10:31 AM on February 27, 2017 [12 favorites]

Alex Jones: I have it on very good authority from sources high in the administration that cling peaches in light syrup, 15 oz cans, are on sale at Safeway this week, three for a dollar. Also a new federal program to buy ugly houses is coming soon.
posted by murphy slaw at 10:33 AM on February 27, 2017 [13 favorites]

Waiting for Spicer link
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:40 AM on February 27, 2017

God, it really is true isn't it? Trump really, genuinely, thinks he's the only person in the universe.

When he says "nobody knew" or "nobody knows" he means that he didn't or doesn't know. Since Trump doesn't know, and since Trump is the only person in the universe, then therefore no one knew.
posted by sotonohito at 10:42 AM on February 27, 2017 [35 favorites]

Budget director: Every budget item is based on what was said in campaign speeches. "We are taking his words and turning them into policy."

Starting with dropping foreign aid, less than 1% of the budget.
posted by mochapickle at 10:49 AM on February 27, 2017

And that little sphincter that nobody loved grew up to be. . .
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:50 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

and there we go, not-exactly-an-evasion on question about funding the wall, then push to 2018!
posted by Enturbulated at 10:51 AM on February 27, 2017

The Spice is flowing. No mention that Trump only met with GOP governors (separately).
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:52 AM on February 27, 2017

Mulvaney pretty much outright just said they're throwing money at the military and he can't say where it's actually going because DOD has to look at it and decide. Now he's denying that's happening, but can't say what they money will be spent on.

What's that sound I hear in the distance? Could it be the sound of every defense contractor in the country having a synchronous orgasm? I think so.
posted by dis_integration at 10:52 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Spicer: Trump's policies will result in a "renewal of the American Spirit"
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:56 AM on February 27, 2017

What the fuck is the military going to use all this extra money for anyhow? They already have money coming out of their earholes.

how are navy captains supposed to make admiral without commanding a ship? that's why we need at least 1000 more ships.
posted by indubitable at 10:56 AM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Trump's policies will result in a "renewal of the American Spirit"

You mean revolution? I can get behind that.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:57 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Good news, the Trump administration has finally gotten on board with saying Antisemitism is bad.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:58 AM on February 27, 2017

"renewal of the American Spirit"

Yes, because when they shut down healthcare I will become less of a body, more of a spirit.
posted by mochapickle at 10:58 AM on February 27, 2017 [35 favorites]

It doesn't even make sense from a PR perspective. Surely it would be great for them if they could stand up there and say "we're going to add X thousand soldiers, Y fighter jets, Z bombs, etc..." and couple that with pictures of big war machinery. This is just "we've come up with a number and we'll throw it in the general direction of military stuff."

Now Spicer is reading an even longer statement claiming that the President condemns antisemitism, cemetery vandalism, bomb threats, etc... Yet he always seems to fail to do so when asked personally.
posted by zachlipton at 10:58 AM on February 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

And that little sphincter that nobody loved grew up to be. . .

A real pro... lapsed anus.
posted by Freon at 11:01 AM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Now Spicer is reading an even longer statement claiming that the President condemns antisemitism, cemetery vandalism, bomb threats, etc...

I wonder who managed to edit out the "yaddada yaddada..." before he headed to the podium.
posted by Etrigan at 11:01 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Any condemnation for white terrorists shooting innocent Indian-born engineers in Kansas?
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:01 AM on February 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

It's always been about the 600 ship Navy. Maybe we can finally build the Montana-class battleships we were so cruelly denied.

Or you know, 53mil is only like, what, half of an F-35?
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:01 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Any condemnation for white terrorists shooting innocent Indian-born engineers in Kansas?

He said the story was very disturbing.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:02 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

So no. No actual condemnation.
posted by zachlipton at 11:02 AM on February 27, 2017 [15 favorites]

Just kidding 53 billion with a B. So, like 8 F-35s and a littoral combat ship. Seems a fair trade for zeroing out the EPA.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:03 AM on February 27, 2017

this is amazing. trump doesn't realize that when you cynically pander to your ignorant base you don't actually have to implement all the stupid programs they support
posted by murphy slaw at 11:04 AM on February 27, 2017 [21 favorites]

a littoral combat ship.

Typo or prophetic statement about a failed ship platform that never sees blue water?
posted by Freon at 11:05 AM on February 27, 2017

a littoral combat ship.

Typo or prophetic statement about a failed ship platform that never sees blue water?

Literal littoral combat ship
posted by Etrigan at 11:06 AM on February 27, 2017 [15 favorites]

USS Freedom seems to have some kind of dazzle camo, so that's cool at least.
posted by Artw at 11:09 AM on February 27, 2017

A lot of labs, even ones researching subjects with no obvious military applications, get DOD funding. Maybe they'll accidentally pour a ton of money into science. Maybe I'll wake up from this endless nightmare.

There'll be a lot more labs applying for DOD funding when funding for the DOE, NSF, NIH, USDA, EPA, etc. gets slashed! Somehow I don't imagine it'll be a particularly good deal, all in all.
posted by ubersturm at 11:11 AM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

Republicans lining up to say that Trump's budget doesn't provide enough funding to the military. They want another $37 billion on top of Trump's increase.
posted by zachlipton at 11:11 AM on February 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

USS Freedom seems to have some kind of dazzle camo, so that's cool at least.

Actually it's a limited designer edition by Clyfford Still.
posted by theodolite at 11:13 AM on February 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

The pork barrel is alive and well. Re: zachlipton
posted by Silverstone at 11:15 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Remember the 2011 sequester was supposed to be a sword hanging over the Repbulicans because they wouldn't accept military cuts? They're getting all those cuts restored and then some, while the domestic budget will never recover and all domestic spending will be pretty much zeroed out after 4 years of Trump budgets.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:17 AM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Spicer has now conceded that the Yemen mission was not 100% successful.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:20 AM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Magistrate Judge James Donohue denied the request for an expedited hearing for DREAMer Daniel Ramirez Medina , meaning Ramirez will not have a chance to be released by the federal court until the next hearing, which is scheduled for March 8
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:22 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Spicer has now conceded that the Yemen mission was not 100% successful.

at this rate he should concede that 3 million undocumented immigrants didn't vote for clinton sometime after his boss is impeached
posted by murphy slaw at 11:23 AM on February 27, 2017 [12 favorites]

Great. We'll have the most impressively huge military in the known universe... protecting the small handful of moneyed fuckbags that can afford to stay alive in the godforsaken hellhole they plan to create from the shell of this once semi-okay nation.

On the plus side, I no longer have any real worries about my student loan debt... armageddon will ensure that I never have to pay it off. :/
posted by palomar at 11:23 AM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

I love how April Ryan keeps using Trump's "inner cities" racist stuff against him by asking what specifically he'll do for inner cities, how the budget will fund programs in inner cities, etc... She doesn't exactly get answers, but she keeps asking.
posted by zachlipton at 11:25 AM on February 27, 2017 [54 favorites]

@PressSec is confident that he'll get 60 Senate votes to lift statutory spending caps on defense while cutting domestic. I'll take that bet

Good point here, Dems will have the opportunity to block this, probably at the threat of a shutdown if they do. So. How much to they care about the domestic budget, and how much can they make the public see Republican overreach as the culprit rather than Democratic obstruction in the event of a shutdown?

It shouldn't be THAT hard to message "Republicans are cutting Sesame Street to waste money the military says it doesn't even need", but these are the same Democrats that thought they were brilliant in setting up the sequester to begin with, and lost to Trump. They've got about 2 months to get a real messaging strategy, because the budget fight in April is the first time shit is going to start getting real.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:31 AM on February 27, 2017 [17 favorites]

@PhilipRucker: "As I asked Spicer about how Trump would fund $1 trillion infrastructure plan, I got text from a GOP House leader who has the same question."
posted by zachlipton at 11:33 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

State GOP Chair Opposes Bill To Make It Easier To Vote, Claiming It Will Hurt Republicans

They don't even try to hide it anymore.

Admittedly, it might be a lot harder since Judge Richard Posner called their bluff.
posted by Gelatin at 11:35 AM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

Great. We'll have the most impressively huge military in the known universe... protecting the small handful of moneyed fuckbags that can afford to stay alive in the godforsaken hellhole they plan to create from the shell of this once semi-okay nation.

And if anything ever gets slightly uncomfortable for the fuckbags, they'll just flee to their mansions in New Zealand with the dual citizenship they purchased.
posted by bluecore at 11:37 AM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

Republicans are cutting Sesame Street

i hate to be that guy, but Sesame Street has already moved to HBO, with repeats going to PBS nine months later
posted by murphy slaw at 11:37 AM on February 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

You're in an open-plan office, walking along in the sand when all of a sudden you look down and see a binary search tree. It's crawling toward you. You reach down and add nodes to the tree in an unbalanced manner, Leon. The BST lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its unbalanced legs trying to return search results in O(log n) time. But it can't. Not without your help. But you're not helping. You're not balancing the binary search tree! Why is that, Leon?
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 11:38 AM on February 27, 2017 [41 favorites]

I wonder which military conflict they'll ramp up between now and April to produce demand for their budget.

Syria? Iran? Yemen, since they didn't get it right the first time?
posted by Dashy at 11:38 AM on February 27, 2017

good people! chief trump says that if we increase defense spending and keep building these laffer curves out of bamboo, the cargo will return!
posted by murphy slaw at 11:40 AM on February 27, 2017 [20 favorites]

i hate to be that guy, but Sesame Street has already moved to HBO, with repeats going to PBS nine months later

So who's the psychic on Sesame Street?
posted by flatluigi at 11:42 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Reporter: Is there an internal leaks inquiry happening right now?
Spicer: Not that I'm aware of. Next question!

It was previously leaked, by multiple anonymous sources, that Spicer was conducting an internal leak inquiry, so it will be interesting to see the leaks (or the absence of leaks) following up on this.

I figure he just gave up on it because it was difficult.
posted by Etrigan at 11:44 AM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

World-renowned espionage expert Anderson Cooper has been drafted by the White House to discover the identity of The Mole
posted by theodolite at 11:46 AM on February 27, 2017 [14 favorites]

I thought they already said they had a plan for boots on the ground in Syria, the results of the "plan to fight ISIS" that Trump brilliantly demanded Matthis provide? I'll see if I can find a link.

My question when I saw that, given the Trump/Putin connection and the Putin/Assad connection, was "which side will we be fighting on, though?"

ISIS had targeted both Assad's forces and rebel forces, as I understand it, so we can claim to be "fighting ISIS" either way...
posted by OnceUponATime at 11:55 AM on February 27, 2017

you guys, it's no mystery who the real leaker is. just ask yourself: if you were a historically incompetent administration beset by leaks, who would you appoint to investigate them? the leaker, of course. therefore Spicer is the leaker. QED.
posted by indubitable at 11:57 AM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

WTF is wrong with these journalists? Don't journalism schools teach how to phrase a question?

J school is mainly just extended rounds of Heads up, Seven Up these days
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 11:57 AM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

i hate to be that guy, but Sesame Street has already moved to HBO, with repeats going to PBS nine months later

As a parent of a 4 year old, I can tell you that the space for entertaining children while maintaining the parents' trust, has grown considerably thanks to Youtube and the like.

Sock-Eye Media's Mother Goose Club, for one example.

And the umpteen Indian software companies that like to show off their 3D rendering chops by making animated videos of children's songs, without trying to blaze any sort of trail from their headquarters to my wallet. Give a 3 year old access to a tablet with Youtube, and within a week he'll be singing dual English/Telliugu playground songs because of those companies.

Not that I want PBS to die out (Caillou does make a case for infanticide, however), but do consider whether that's really the hill where you want to spend your ammo.
posted by ocschwar at 11:59 AM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

As another parent of a 4 year old, him having access to Daniel Tiger and Peg + Cat is absolutely my hill to die on.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:01 PM on February 27, 2017 [15 favorites]

So who's the psychic on Sesame Street?

No psychic, but I think Count von Count is a mentat. His counting prowess is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of his analytical abilities.

"One! One drink of Sapho, to set my mind in motion! Ah ah ah ah."

His purple skin hides the usual lip stains.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:03 PM on February 27, 2017 [39 favorites]

Here's a link on the "boots in the ground in Syria" plan. From before the inauguration, I guess, and not officially The Plan.

"The options will be ready for President-elect Donald Trump to consider as soon as he takes office and would be presented by James Mattis as the new defense secretary..."
...
"Depending on progress in arming and training the full Syrian Democratic Forces -- a local fighting force -- in the coming months, the Pentagon could put several US brigade-sized combat teams on the ground, each team perhaps as many as 4,000 troops."

I guess that assumes we'd be fighting against Assad. So maybe it won't happen.

Just in case anyone wasn't sure, here's why Assad is the bad guy. And here's why Putin supports him.
posted by OnceUponATime at 12:04 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

So the question that hasn't been asked enough is why did the FBI, which is supposedly investigating Trump and his people, allegedly call up the White House to let them know that the New York Times story was allegedly BS? In what universe is that call an acceptable part of a federal investigation?

And on an unrelated note, somebody should really ask how that audit of Trump's tax return is coming along.
posted by zachlipton at 12:07 PM on February 27, 2017 [15 favorites]

MTA spokesperson says nobody has ever bee injured by a falling tile in the Queens Midtown tunnel.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:08 PM on February 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

MTA spokesperson says nobody has ever bee injured by a falling tile in the Queens Midtown tunnel.

I can think of some whom I might wish bee-injured.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:10 PM on February 27, 2017 [27 favorites]

On the PBS front, we're pretty happy they changed their "B" channel (Over The Air channel 5.2 in our area) to 24/7 kids programming. It's in Standard Definition, but kids don't notice.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:11 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Queens Midtown tunnel but every time a bee is injured by a falling tile the trains go 15% faster
posted by cortex at 12:12 PM on February 27, 2017 [43 favorites]

Bootable on the ground ground in Syria to support Assad and Putin would basically be sending American troops to commit genocide.
posted by Artw at 12:13 PM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

On the PBS front, we're pretty happy they changed their "B" channel (Over The Air channel 5.2 in our area) to 24/7 kids programming. It's in Standard Definition, but kids don't notice.

The PBS station here did that a few years back, on 27-3. I looooooove side channels.
posted by azpenguin at 12:14 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Cortex - get control of yourself, man!
posted by Sophie1 at 12:18 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Not only are the tiles not falling, they're being replaced, so no need for Trump to focus further Presidential attention on the most important issue facing our nation today, the Queens-Midtown tunnel tiles, because actual professionals are already doing their job and taking care of that.
posted by zachlipton at 12:19 PM on February 27, 2017 [14 favorites]

Wait, Trump has ever been in the subway? What kind of billionaire goes into the subway? Sad.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:22 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Republicans always want to take tax money from the general population and give it to rich people. That is what giant military spending is all about. An enormous chunk of that money goes to private defense contractors to buy the latest in military toys. Since Republicans are perceived to be "pro-military," this is a win/win for them. They get to transfer money to their rich, Republican-donating friends, and they get to win over some public opinion.

The Democrats need to seize on this. Democrats need to be in favor of funding that helps soldiers (health care, pay, benefits, etc.) and opposed to as much weaponry as possible. Easy slogan:

"More for the boys, less for the toys."
posted by flarbuse at 12:23 PM on February 27, 2017 [34 favorites]

Bootable on the ground ground in Syria to support Assad and Putin would basically be sending American troops to commit genocide.

Yeah, that would suck. Aligning with Salafist jihadis (i.e., the people making up the bulk of the "rebel forces") would also be sending American troops to commit genocide.
posted by indubitable at 12:25 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

"More for the boys, less for the toys."

1. Women account for 15% of active duty personnel
2. Male humans over the age of 18 are not boys
posted by melissasaurus at 12:29 PM on February 27, 2017 [16 favorites]

would also be sending American troops to commit genocide.

Or what Bannon would call "a good warm-up."
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:29 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

cjelli: What I'm hearing is that Trump will be claiming success in getting the tiles replaced ahead of schedule thanks to his decisive leadership (his lack of actual involvement nonwithstanding).

That's the best kind of leadership! Stand back and let the qualified professionals handle their business. Sure, it sucks when management gets all the accolades for lack of injuries due to well-secured tiles, but at the end of the day, it's the welfare of the general public that matters the most, right?
posted by filthy light thief at 12:31 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh man, just when the bee thing had finally died down! (Nobody make any Jimmy Buffett related typos please.)
posted by diogenes at 12:37 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

2. Male humans over the age of 18 are not boys

I mean, I get what you're saying, but have you ever met an infantry platoon?
posted by corb at 12:42 PM on February 27, 2017 [25 favorites]

Jimmy Beeffett
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:42 PM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

wasping away again in
posted by cortex at 12:44 PM on February 27, 2017 [29 favorites]

This may have actually raised my respect for Darrell from 0 to 1%

If anyone cares, Issa - who I agree is 99 kinds of awful - has also been a huge proponent and supporter of the open congressional data front. He regularly shows up for events and walks the walk. He's on the OpenGov board and opposed SOPA. The SOPA thing is all the more amazing given that he's a CA rep. So while I pretty regularly scrunch up my face and hiss under my breath when reading about some of the things he says and does, I think he deserves better than 1%. Or is, at least, not in the bottom 100 of House members.
posted by phearlez at 12:46 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Sure, it sucks when management gets all the accolades for lack of injuries due to well-secured tiles, but at the end of the day, it's the welfare of the general public that matters the most, right?

Could Trump be presented with an award for the important role his strong leadership and no-nonsense oversight played in resolving the Old Ceiling Tiles In The Queens-Midtown Tunnel situation with zero casualties and ahead of schedule? Maybe it could take up a whole evening; he could attend a dinner, ~~jerk~~ shake some hands, receive a big gold-plated ceiling tile after being lauded by a succession of speakers. He is so in love with praise that I bet this sort of thing could be taken to absolutely ridiculous extremes before he caught on that he was being ridiculed, and the people around him would probably be hesitant to speak up.
posted by contraption at 12:48 PM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

A pirate looks at 40 percent of U.S. bee colonies died in past year (2015)
posted by emelenjr at 12:48 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

....sending the entire DoD budget into mechanized war bees.
posted by mochapickle at 12:51 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

whistles past the graveyard
posted by Existential Dread at 12:52 PM on February 27, 2017

So Cohen was involved in taxi, real estate, and gambling businesses with various Ukrainian partners. That's not fishy at all.

(via TPM)
posted by diogenes at 1:12 PM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Oh, great. Trump is coming to town this week.
posted by indubitable at 1:15 PM on February 27, 2017

The NYT Upshot provides a helpful xkcd-style chart of 20 events in the Trump administration so far, ranked on Important--Not Important and Normal--Abnormal axes.

The only (Normal, Not Important) event on there is the firing of Acting AG Sally Yates, while Immigration raids are apparently (Normal, Important), so you know they are starting with rather skewed standards. But even so... most things come out on the Abnormal side.
posted by RedOrGreen at 1:19 PM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Firing the Acting AG for refusing to defend an order she believed to be illegal in the first couple weeks of the presidency isn't inherently wrong, but it's decidedly not normal. It's not like that kind of thing happens all the time.
posted by zachlipton at 1:26 PM on February 27, 2017 [14 favorites]

I haven't been able to comment in days because the thread is killing my phone, but it's worth noting that the New Yorker article linked earlier is actually a really great look at the unprecedented nature of the current attempts to reach Congress, and the ways they have already been effective. The pull quote posted here about phone calls not being the best way was really not representative of the stance of the article, which concludes that the key is to keep up the pressure over the long haul. In other words, I think you should really RTFA.

For political watchers, the most striking thing about this outpouring of political activism is its spontaneity. “If Planned Parenthood sends out an e-mail and asks all their donors to contact their Congress members—that’s honest, it’s real, it’s citizen action,” Fitch said. “But this thing was organic: people saw something in the news, it made them angry, and they called their member of Congress.” At this point, he paused and informed me that he was “not one for hyperbolic statements.” But what was happening was, he said, “amazing,” “unprecedented,” “a level of citizen engagement going on out there outside the Beltway that Congress has never experienced before.”

posted by threeturtles at 1:28 PM on February 27, 2017 [38 favorites]

Think it would be effective to issue a silver alert for Burr?
posted by yoga at 1:31 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

The NYT Upshot provides a helpful xkcd-style chart of 20 events in the Trump administration so far, ranked on Important--Not Important and Normal--Abnormal axes.

I'm sure our Aussie friends appreciate the NYT folks putting "Potentially Alienating Australia" right on the center, rather than in the Not Important quandrant. Although I might edit that to say "Potentially Alienating Australia due to Sundowning," and move that up to the Important category.
posted by Existential Dread at 1:36 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

“I think they were focused so hard on politics that they didn’t get the act together at the end,” President Trump said. “It was a little sad. It took away from the glamour of the Oscars. It didn’t feel like a very glamorous evening. I’ve been to the Oscars. There was something very special missing, and then to end that way was sad.”

More to come from Breitbart's interview, great.
posted by zachlipton at 1:43 PM on February 27, 2017 [15 favorites]

SpaceX has been approached to fly two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year in case we need to get really far away from Trump.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:44 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

> “I think they were focused so hard on politics that they didn’t get the act together at the end,” President Trump said.

Do your job, you fucking moron. Come up with your ACA plan instead of whinging about the Oscars. Sad!
posted by RedOrGreen at 1:46 PM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

SpaceX has been approached to fly two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year in case we need to get really far away from Trump.

If one of them is Thiel, let's crowdfund a one-way trip
posted by Existential Dread at 1:46 PM on February 27, 2017 [13 favorites]

In similar news:

Scientific American: [Former] Trump Adviser [Greg Autry] Urges NASA to Fly Crew on Crucial Test Flight

The space agency is considering adding astronauts to the first lunar voyage of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule.

posted by ZeusHumms at 1:48 PM on February 27, 2017

oh god are they trying to get some astronauts killed so we can declare war on space
posted by murphy slaw at 1:53 PM on February 27, 2017 [13 favorites]

I hope the press reminds Trump that the only thing wrong with the best picture announcement was that at first it went to the one who didn't get the most votes, but all was made right.
posted by OHenryPacey at 1:54 PM on February 27, 2017 [43 favorites]

TheAtlantic: How Does Donald Trump Think His War on the Press Will End? What's Donald Trump's End Game?

No one has ever accused Trump of being overly nuanced, but his vitriol for the media is brazen—even for him. This brazenness seems to be the point.

...

All of this is about making Trump appear strong and successful, no matter what. And that’s essential for a person who wants to stay in power.

...

It’s not such a stretch to see bluster against journalism as the ultimate Donald Trump performance—the product of a cultural convergence that includes pro-wrestling, reality television, conspiracy theories, and Trump’s singular talent for making up sophomoric catchphrase-insults. The temptation to see things this way is dangerous.

Because when you’re the president of the United States, you can’t pretend to tear down an institution without risking its actual destruction. And you can’t speak like an authoritarian and expect to avoid the suggestion that you are one.

posted by ZeusHumms at 1:55 PM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

oh god are they trying to get some astronauts killed so we can declare war on space

not all of space, just the vermicious knids
posted by tivalasvegas at 1:55 PM on February 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

A lot of labs, even ones researching subjects with no obvious military applications, get DOD funding. Maybe they'll accidentally pour a ton of money into science. Maybe I'll wake up from this endless nightmare

Could we get healthcare if we promised that all the equipment would be camo-painted and say PROPERTY OF U.S. MILITARY on it? If my doc wants to wear fatigues while he operates and call himself "Hawkeye", I don't care.

same for schools; just give all the teachers military rank, paint everything green, and pour the money in.
posted by emjaybee at 1:56 PM on February 27, 2017 [22 favorites]

WE DECLARE WAR ON DEATH
posted by biogeo at 1:57 PM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

not all of space, just the vermicious knids

gotta admit, i have thought long and hard about the President from Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator more than once this year
posted by murphy slaw at 1:57 PM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

What's Donald Trump's End Game?

This presupposes that he has the ability to actually conceive of a future. I don't think he does. He's pure id. Donald No Like, Donald Smash!
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:58 PM on February 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

um, the President has spoken to Breitbart and diagnosed what went wrong with the presentation of the Best Pictures award at the Oscars. He claims they were too busy talking about politics to get the award right [real]:

How long until his entourage includes a few minions with notepads taking notes on every comment and recommendation so that the responsible parties can be made aware of the proper way to MAGA? I think I know of some people who have experience in this domain.
posted by bonje at 2:04 PM on February 27, 2017

What if all the agencies slated for funding cutbacks were summarily made part of the DOD to ensure funding wasn't cut?
posted by ZeusHumms at 2:07 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

How The Media Are Using Encryption Tools To Collect Anonymous Tips (NPR, February 27, 2017)

The Washington Post, The New York Times and ProPublica have launched webpages outlining all the ways you can leak to them. ProPublica highlights three high-tech options on its page (in addition to the Postal Service): the encrypted messaging app Signal, an encrypted email program called PGP (or GPG) and an anonymous file sharing system for desktop computers called SecureDrop. The Washington Post goes even further, highlighting six digital options.

In addition to Signal, SecureDrop, PGP or GPG encryption, WaPo adds Peerio, WhatsApp, and Pidgin as 3 more ways to send encrypted, anonymous messages.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:09 PM on February 27, 2017 [15 favorites]

Signal requires acces to one's contacts list.

DELETED.
posted by petebest at 2:12 PM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

Media just evolved.
posted by stonepharisee at 2:14 PM on February 27, 2017

and a new addition to the unlikely heroes of the trump era, the House Freedom Caucus?

tea party republicans' notorious refusal to compromise may kill the proposed ACA replacement in its crib. now if they can just stay too disorganized to repeal…
posted by murphy slaw at 2:16 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Thousands of points of light after much darkness: After Kansas Shooting, More Than $1 Million Donated For Victims' Families (NPR, February 26, 2017) ... with a quick jab to the gut:

One of the survivors, Alok Madasani, told The New York Times that before the shooting, the man sitting near Madasani and his friend Srinivas Kuchibhotla began addressing them with pointed questions.

"He asked us what visa are we currently on and whether we are staying here illegally," Madasani told the paper on Friday. The Times notes Madasani and his friend were educated in the U.S. and working legally at Garmin, which has an office in town. "We didn't react. People do stupid things all the time. This guy took it to the next level."

The shooting that followed claimed Kuchibhotla's life and left Ian Grillot, who sought to stop it, hospitalized with gunshot wounds in his hand and chest. The FBI is now investigating whether the shooting should also be considered a hate crime.

Emphasis mine - how much investigation is necessary here? Really, is there doubt that he asked them if they were here illegally and then shouted "get out of my country"?

More positive news: In Response To Rising Biased Rhetoric, Muslims Run For Office (NPR, February 27, 2017)

"Muslims didn't ask to be dragged into the spotlight, but now that we're there and we need to push back," said Robert McCaw, director of government affairs at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). "Getting into elected offices is one of the best means."

McCaw pointed out that there are only two Muslims serving in Congress: Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who over the weekend was appointed deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, and André Carson of Indiana. Local races, including ones in New Jersey and Austin, have seen an increase in mostly Democratic Muslim candidates running for office. And Sayu Bhojwani, the executive director of the New American Leaders Project (NALP), which helps politically-involved immigrants run for office, said her organization has seen more South Asian, Arab-American and Muslim people emerge from their trainings and run for office.

"When your civil rights are under attack," McCaw said, "grab hold of the constitution and assert yourself."

Awesome.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:16 PM on February 27, 2017 [51 favorites]

What's Donald Trump's End Game?

To be the Putin of America? How is this not obvious? You don't run an authoritarian government for shits and giggles, he wants to be a dictator. He wants all critizicm made illegal. He wants to win reelection with 100% of the vote for the rest of his natural life and then for Ivanka to succeed him and rule over America as the eternal Trump dynasty. And Republicans want him to succeed so he'll give them their tax cuts and end all government spending and kick the poors and brown people forever and ever.

There's no 11th dimensional chess here, they're playing "smash all the things" because they want everything smashed and to rule the remains with an iron fist. Exactly like his soulmate, Putin.
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:20 PM on February 27, 2017 [25 favorites]

Could we get healthcare if we promised that all the equipment would be camo-painted and say PROPERTY OF U.S. MILITARY on it? If my doc wants to wear fatigues while he operates and call himself "Hawkeye", I don't care.

The Donald has already made it clear that he only likes the soldiers who are winners. There will be no need for medicine in an military of pure winners.
posted by srboisvert at 2:26 PM on February 27, 2017

same for schools; just give all the teachers military rank, paint everything green, and pour the money in.

wouldn't that be kinda fascist tho
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 2:31 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

One can't stand long on tiptoe,
nor can one straddle the say.

Showing off does not reveal enlightenment.
Boasting won't produce accomplishment.
Self-infatuation is no way to lead.

Aligning with the Tao,
gluttony and superfluous activity
are avoided.

Therefore: one who follows the way
cannot be deterred.
--Lao Tzu
posted by stonepharisee at 2:34 PM on February 27, 2017

wouldn't that be kinda fascist tho

Nah. Service Guarantees Citizenship. Would You Like To Know More?
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:34 PM on February 27, 2017 [28 favorites]

What's Donald Trump's End Game?

End Game requires logical, coherent thought. Donnie just wants people to clap for him. The rest of this sturm und drang are just so much strained peas and mashed sweet potatoes being thrown around.

"What's the Inanimate Carbon Rod's End Game?"

One month in and the mainstream media are just mad they can't be corporate stenographers anymore. Think harder, Homer.
posted by petebest at 2:36 PM on February 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

The Kansas shooter told the Applebee's bartender that he killed two Iranians, according to the 911 call, which in a non-gross world would certainly factor into an analysis of his hateful intent.
posted by zachlipton at 2:41 PM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Nah. Service Guarantees Citizenship. Would You Like To Know More?

Do they have co-ed naked showers?
posted by Talez at 2:44 PM on February 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

A lot of labs, even ones researching subjects with no obvious military applications, get DOD funding. Maybe they'll accidentally pour a ton of money into science. Maybe I'll wake up from this endless nightmare

This isn't impossible. When Harper came to power in Canada he wanted to cut funding to research that he didn't view as practical or economically important. He made the SSHRC (the people who fund social sciences and humanities research) create grants prioritizing research into business, management, the economy etc. Most of that money went to social scientists outside of business schools in academic departments doing academic research. Guess who can write grant proposals, it turns out?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 2:53 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

One month in and the mainstream media are just mad they can't be corporate stenographers anymore.

I understand people hate the media* here, sometimes almost as much as Trump does, but even granting that I am not sure how you come up with this conclusion. Do they look like they just want to cover photo ops and new products when you look at their reporting? You may not like the Washington Post and NY Times, but they, just like other journalists, are facing real danger now, and I'd really love it if we left the casual bashing to one side for a bit. Or at least provide examples to prove your point.

*Though apparently tacking 'mainstream' on it somehow makes a magical difference.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 2:53 PM on February 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

You all can go back to hating Darrell Issa again.

GOP Rep. Darrell Issa backtracks on call for Trump special prosecutor

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) backtracked his call for a special prosecutor to look into Russian involvement in the 2016 Presidential election. “I certainly could see where if there is an allegation of a crime at some point, the call for a special prosecutor makes sense,” Issa told CBS News in an interview on Monday but adding, “I think it’s very important to realize there’s been no allegation by any part of this administration or by anyone who’s been to the hearings about any crimes.”

He continued, “So one of the challenges we have is a special prosecutor exists when you have an individual under suspicion. Currently we don’t have that.”

spineless fucker.
posted by futz at 2:58 PM on February 27, 2017 [34 favorites]

Thanks Misses DeVos for My Real Good Education by Steven Markow (New Yorker Daily Shouts, February 26, 2017)

I am writing at you in the year of 2040. And I am writing to say thank you so much because without you I would not have learned so much. I am just a boy without a lot of money. My parents say I have a lot of money in the bank but every time I try to get in there I get stuck in the spinning door. One time I got so stuck that I got bored and smashed through all the shiny walls to get to the candy basket. Then I forgot what I was supposed to do so I went home without any money. But the candy was so good!

I am the smartest and oldest student in my school so next year I will go to Harvard right away. I will study rules and politics so some day I can make them good like you did. I would not have this amazing scenario of life without you so thank you again to you.
...
So I will just say one more time thank you again Misses DeVos. Some people used to say you are no good but take it from this Roads Scholar: you are very very nice. Best of all you really care about us kids. That is why I am making my twenty-third birthday party voucher-themed. You can only go to my party if your parents can afford to buy the invitation. I know you are busy but it would be really really cool to see you there. If not I understand a little.

Your friend,

Gronothan

P.S. We also had a whole class on how to pronounce your name right. I learned it fast! Sometimes my parents wake up screaming it. You are the best!

posted by filthy light thief at 3:04 PM on February 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

There's no 11th dimensional chess here, they're playing "smash all the things" because they want everything smashed and to rule the remains with an iron fist. Exactly like his soulmate, Putin.

Mongol General: ... Conan! What is best in life?

Conan: Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women.

Mongol General: That is good! That is good.

posted by mikelieman at 3:04 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Mark Warner, chair of the Republican Study Committee is coming out against the Obamacare "replacement" draft because it doesn't get rid of enough of Obamacare and can't be drowned in a teacup. Without RSC members, there's no way they're passing this thing.
posted by zachlipton at 3:05 PM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

Mark Warner, chair of the Republican Study Committee

Correction, that is Mark Walker. Mark Warner is a Democratic Senator from Virginia.
posted by biogeo at 3:13 PM on February 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

It's buried about 3/4ths of the way through this article on the proposed spending cuts, but apparently they're planning on getting rid of "diplomatic staff assigned to key regions and issues, including climate change, anti-Semitism and Muslim communities."
posted by zombieflanders at 3:16 PM on February 27, 2017 [25 favorites]

BTW Bloomberg, please use the fucking Oxford comma.
posted by zombieflanders at 3:18 PM on February 27, 2017 [26 favorites]

Federal Court Tells Pine-Richland High School to Let Transgender Students Use the Bathroom: Judge Mark R. Hornak wrote:

“The Plaintiffs appear to the Court to be young people seeking to do what young people try to do every day-go to school, obtain an education, and interact as equals with their peers. …[T] he Plaintiffs have shown a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that the District's enforcement of Resolution 2 as to their use of common school restrooms does not afford them equal protection of the law as guaranteed to them by the Fourteenth Amendment.”
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:23 PM on February 27, 2017 [31 favorites]

Could we get healthcare if we promised that all the equipment would be camo-painted and say PROPERTY OF U.S. MILITARY on it? If my doc wants to wear fatigues while he operates and call himself "Hawkeye", I don't care.

No lie, I have actually been operated on by a doctor wearing a camo-print x-ray shield. Seriously, imagine my face when I showed up for my procedure and he put that thing on. I'd lived out here in Red Territory for at least a decade by then, but I still had a surreal moment of "this is how you know you're not dealing with cityfolk."
posted by threeturtles at 3:28 PM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

What's Donald Trump's End Game?
Always assumed it was always #1 on Forbes' List of Richest People. Only recently he realized he could only achieve it by becoming President and tearing down most of America.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:32 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

I understand people hate the media* here, sometimes almost as much as Trump does, but even granting that I am not sure how you come up with this conclusion.

It's a criticism that seems somewhat fair with the cable news outlets, moreso than newspapers, which still do some solid investigative journalism.

I think there could be a stronger effort on our part to not collapse the media into a single entity. Clarity is a good thing, and I think we're all better served in the current moment by making an effort to be clear and specific when folks in the media are doing stuff we don't like.
posted by tobascodagama at 3:34 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Yemen SEAL Raid Has Yielded No Significant Intelligence: Officials

Although Pentagon officials have said the raid produced "actionable intelligence," senior officials who spoke to NBC News said they were unaware of any, even as the father of the dead SEAL questioned the premise of the raid in an interview with the Miami Herald published Sunday.

..."We gathered an unbelievable amount of intelligence that will prevent the potential deaths or attacks on American soil," White House spokesman Sean Spicer has said.

A Defense Department official also pushed back Monday afternoon, saying the raid has yielded "a significant amount" of intelligence.

But the only example the military has provided turned out to be an old bomb-making video that was of no current value.

WH lied again?
posted by futz at 3:36 PM on February 27, 2017 [24 favorites]

Scientific American: Why Is It Significant That the White House Tours Resume?
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:37 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

More from the NBC Yemen report.

On Monday, Spicer addressed the remarks of Bill Owens, whose son died.

"I can tell him that on behalf of the president, his son died a hero and the information that he was able to help obtain through that raid, as I said before, is going to save American lives," he said. "The mission was successful in helping prevent a future attack or attacks on this nation."

Multiple senior officials told NBC News they have not seen evidence to support that claim.

Spicer dun fucked up again.
posted by futz at 3:39 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

So remember that “Respect the [Confederate] Flag” bullshit that was going around back in mid 2015?

One couple have been given jail sentences for basically threatening to kill black people. Husband got 13-20, wife got 6-15.

At least some parts of this country still work.
posted by Talez at 3:40 PM on February 27, 2017 [22 favorites]

We gathered an unbelievable amount of intelligence

WH lied again?

He's not factually incorrect, I guess. At this point I consider anything that comes out of his mouth to be unbelievable.
posted by contraption at 3:45 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Thanks Misses DeVos for My Real Good Education

It's like Flowers for Algernon on a societal scale
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:48 PM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

The Atlantic: What Is a Populist? And is Donald Trump one?

A close look at what happened to the Trump campaign from the moment that Steve Bannon took over. For example:

In his presidential-announcement speech, Trump used versions of the word “I” 256 times. In his Inaugural address, he used those words three times.
Trump shifted from exclusively “selling himself” to presenting “himself as a vehicle of the people,” Mudde observed, and this allowed his supporters to feel part of something bigger than Trump. “You couldn’t be part of Trump, and that was what he sold before,” Mudde said. “That was where the genius came in. Before it was just one man standing against everyone. Now it was a movement that had him as its leader. That energized [people] much more.”

But the problem with Trump is that he isn't really popular enough

“The legitimacy of populists comes from mass opinion,” said Norris. Trump “doesn’t have legitimacy through the popular vote. He doesn’t have legitimacy through experience. He doesn’t have legitimacy through the [Republican] Party,” which institutionally has had a rocky relationship with Trump. “So he claims this mythical link to the people.”

I like that phrase "mythical link," it sums him up so well.

The article adds that he is not just a populist, he's also an authoritarian.

Authoritarians, meanwhile, think the primary role of the state is to enforce law and order, fear chaos more than anything else, and instinctively respond to problems by “cracking down” on the perceived source of the issue, Mudde said. Some authoritarians disdain democracy even if they maintain its trappings, but Trump doesn’t appear to be one of them, Mudde added. Trump “has never really attacked the democratic narrative that the majority of the people should elect their leaders,” he noted. The president seems to believe that “I have been elected by the majority of the people—which of course he wasn’t, but that’s his frame—and so now everyone else should just accept what I do because I have the mandate of the people.” He seeks to underscore his “democratic legitimacy” by publicizing “shows of support.”

posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:48 PM on February 27, 2017 [11 favorites]

Trump reportedly considering nixing anti-Semitism envoy as part of budget plan
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:49 PM on February 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

Here's a Twitter thread by Peter Daou on what Bannon said at CPAC & what it says about the objectives of the various players in the White House. Scary, scary stuff. They're all playing from a very different playbook than most people understand.
posted by scalefree at 3:51 PM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

"I am the least anti-semitic person you will ever, ever meet, except for when I can save a single penny that could otherwise be spent on death robots."
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:52 PM on February 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

Darrell Issa backtracking is ass iller rad.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 3:55 PM on February 27, 2017 [12 favorites]

Trump “has never really attacked the democratic narrative that the majority of the people should elect their leaders,” he noted. The president seems to believe that “I have been elected by the majority of the people—which of course he wasn’t, but that’s his frame—and so now everyone else should just accept what I do because I have the mandate of the people.” He seeks to underscore his “democratic legitimacy” by publicizing “shows of support.”

Dear Prof. Mudde,

I am sure your book Populism: A Very Short Introduction is excellent. However, you seem somewhat confused by President Trump's belief that he won a majority.

His fury at being accused of not having won a majority makes more sense, however, when you understand that the President does not consider black and brown humans to be real people.

I confess to some small surprise that a professor of political science at the University of Georgia should not consider such a hypothesis.
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:59 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

You know, one might start to think that concern about budgets and states rights are just cover for being assholes.
posted by ckape at 3:59 PM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Bannon is a grotesque piece of shit. He's also in a pretty tenuous position; as Trump goes, so does he. He's unelected, unskilled at governance (look at how many of his EOs and cabinet selections are essentially meaningless, or have been summarily struck down), and subject to the whim of a narcissist with likely dementia. If Pence does wind up taking over, I can see Bannon getting hoisted out the moon door immediately.
posted by Existential Dread at 4:04 PM on February 27, 2017 [11 favorites]

Correction, that is Mark Walker. Mark Warner is a Democratic Senator from Virginia.

Thank you. We regret the error.
posted by zachlipton at 4:05 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

If Trump goes none of these fuckers feet are going to touch the floor. But how does Trump go?
posted by Artw at 4:06 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

trump goes after the 2018 blue tsunami gives the dems investigative powers
posted by localhuman at 4:07 PM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

But how does Trump go?

Probably a long slow painful slog through the Russia allegations, with copious amounts of constituent pressure on House members in a position to investigate and impeach. The resistance from the House will be hard to overcome, of course, but Flynn was forced out based on the Russia issue. I'm not ruling out an Amendment 25, depending on how bad SOTU is.

trump goes after the 2018 blue tsunami gives the dems investigative powers

Or that.
posted by Existential Dread at 4:11 PM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

My vote is that Trump gets secured into the Executive Safety Pod right after he makes his last and most vengeful tweet, thereby becoming the last human being left alive on the planet. Sad!
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:12 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Nobody in that goddamn Executive branch can be bothered to spend any time reading.

From Paula Reid at CBS: AG Sessions says he hasn't read DOJ's report on Chicago PD. He read summaries and found them "anecdotal" & "not so scientifically based."

> I think there could be a stronger effort on our part to not collapse the media into a single entity.

Heh, DJT is one step ahead of you. He sat down with Breitbart for an interview and to assure them they were not part of the Fake media who are the enemy of the American people. In the interview-- published in 3 parts today--they talked about theNYTimes

If you read the New York Times, if you read the New York Times, it’s—the intent is so evil and so bad. The stories are wrong in many cases, but it’s the overall intent. Look at that paper over the last two years. In fact, they had to write a letter of essentially apology to their subscribers because they got the election so wrong. They did a front page article on women talking about me, and the women went absolutely wild because they said that was not what they said. It was a big front-page article, and the Times wouldn’t even apologize and yet they were wrong. You probably saw the women. They went on television shows and everything.”

They also talked about The Oscars

“I think they were focused so hard on politics that they didn’t get the act together at the end,” President Trump said. “It was a little sad. It took away from the glamour of the Oscars. It didn’t feel like a very glamorous evening. I’ve been to the Oscars. There was something very special missing, and then to end that way was sad.”

In part three they talked about tax cuts, ObamaCare and his address to Congress

We’re going to be talking about healthcare. We’re going to be talking about Obamacare, and what we’re going to do about the disaster known as Obamacare, because it’s a complete and total disaster. We’re going to be talking about taxes. We’re going to be talking about the economy generally. We’re going to be talking about the military and spending money on the military, and the border. And we’ll be talking about many different subjects—and as much in a up-tone is the fact that I inherited a mess. It’s a mess, whether it’s the Middle East or it’s Obamacare—where costs are out of control—or it’s so many other things. I mean, things are much different than people thought, and people get it. We’re going to fix it. The important part is we’re going to fix it.

“The Middle East is a mess,” Trump said. “North Korea is treading on very dangerous territory. North Korea is a mess. Our border is a total disaster. Our trade deals are beyond bad—beyond bad. The result looks like they were negotiated by children. We’ll fix them. And Obamacare is just in terrible shape, with increases that go as high as 116 percent.”

posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:13 PM on February 27, 2017

Sources: White House proposes to cut EPA budget by quarter
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:13 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Sources: White House proposes to cut EPA budget by quarter

That budget proposal would set EPA’s budget at $6.1 billion, down from its current level of $8.1 billion, according to two sources outside the agency. EPA’s budget hasn’t been that low since 1991, according to agency records. One of those sources also said that the White House has proposed reducing EPA’s 15,000-strong workforce to 12,000, a level not seen since the mid-1980s.

Welp, I know what I'm calling my reps and Senators about tomorrow.
posted by Existential Dread at 4:17 PM on February 27, 2017 [25 favorites]

But all of this is contingent on them passing a budget that at least 60 Senators agree to, right?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:19 PM on February 27, 2017

that at least 60 Senators agree to, right?

Or the GOP deciding to kill the filibuster.
posted by thefoxgod at 4:24 PM on February 27, 2017

But all of this is contingent on them passing a budget that at least 60 Senators agree to, right?

Or the GOP deciding to kill the filibuster.

Budget bills can't be filibustered.
posted by Talez at 4:28 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

I wonder what the chances are of ACA repeal squeaking through the House and Senate, only to be met with a barrage of full-spectrum, incandescent outrage that terrified the adulation-needy President into vetoing?

note: No, I'm not saying "Maybe Trump will save us". I'm just saying, the chances aren't zero and, oh, how I would laugh, and laugh, and laugh some more
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:33 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Budget bills can't be filibustered.

Well that makes it even easier then.
posted by thefoxgod at 4:33 PM on February 27, 2017

But keep in mind that if the joint conference report reconciling the House and Senate budget resolutions contains any new spending that spending must be appropriated and appropriation bills are subject to filibuster. The budget is complicated.
posted by Justinian at 4:37 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Sources: Trump signed off on checking White House staffers' phones
posted by futz at 4:38 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Lawyer: White House To No Longer Contest Texas’ Voter ID Law

The U.S. Justice Department said Monday it is abandoning its longstanding opposition to a key aspect of Texas’ toughest-in-the-nation voter ID law, costing voting rights groups their most important ally and possibly encouraging other conservative states to toughen their own election rules with President Donald Trump in charge.

In addition to this, I have seen in my various newsfeeds reports of FIVE different hate crimes today. That's not including the bomb threats at JCCs.

I am throwing this whole day in the trash. Please send some good news if you find it.
posted by triggerfinger at 4:40 PM on February 27, 2017 [26 favorites]

tivalasvegas: We haven't really seen how DJT will react to being thwarted by congress yet. He may just decide it is not important enough to fight them but I really think he intends to do everything he promised to his supporters which is to have a replacement for ObamaCare that is cheaper with better coverage that allows them to keep their insurance plan and their choice of doctor. So this will be an interesting test. He may veto anything that comes up short or he may hand-wave away the discrepancy by blaming it on Obama and the Democrats.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:41 PM on February 27, 2017

With State facing a 30% funding cut, 121 Generals urge Congress to Fully Fund Diplomacy and Foreign Aid
posted by photo guy at 4:41 PM on February 27, 2017 [25 favorites]

that terrified the adulation-needy President into vetoing?

I think his hatred of Obama and delight in wiping away his signature accomplishment would outweigh his love of adoration.
posted by Candleman at 4:43 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Gizmodo: Leaked Audio: Trump Cares About Food Safety But Only If the Food Is Foreign

President Donald Trump intends to intensify enforcement of food safety regulations as a cudgel in international trade negotiations, according to leaked recordings of a what appears to be a phone conversation between Trump and Wilbur Ross, his nominee for Commerce Secretary. [...]

The proposals came during an apparent phone conversation that was captured on video and provided to Gizmodo via SecureDrop, a portal permitting whistleblowers and sources to reach us while remaining anonymous.
TRUMP: Let me ask you, would you ever [inaudible] a 10 percent—here’s something I’ve always said: Ten percent tariff or tax to do business in the United States. For everybody. China. Everybody. Straight across the board, 10 percent. Now, it’s not enough for anybody to say, “Oh, I’m never gonna go there.” Okay? But—and it’s not enough to cause inflation or all the bullshit. You know what it does to the deficit? You go from losing money to breaking even in, in one year. Immediately. When you do it.

ROSS: Right.

TRUMP: And I don’t think anybody’s gonna stop trading because of that. What do you think of that?

posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:46 PM on February 27, 2017 [21 favorites]

But—and it’s not enough to cause inflation or all the bullshit. You know what it does to the deficit? You go from losing money to breaking even in, in one year. Immediately. When you do it.

Wow. That is so not how any of that stuff works. JFC.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 4:51 PM on February 27, 2017 [32 favorites]

The Senate just confirmed Wilbur Ross.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:51 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Trump there sounds like a strawman socialist freedom hater from an Ayn Rand novel, which is maybe the nicest thing I've ever said about him.
posted by theodolite at 4:57 PM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Oh great!

Another guy with major Russia connections!
posted by futz at 4:59 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Fucking Feinstein, at it again with the pointless Yeas.
posted by contraption at 5:04 PM on February 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

Typically a new president's first address to a joint session of Congress isn't an official State of the Union address (although it is an official address if the president says it is). No one's done that since Kennedy, and Eisenhower was the only other president to call it that.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:05 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

if he says "the state of the union is SAD!" he'll be righter than he knows
posted by murphy slaw at 5:12 PM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

Fucking Feinstein, at it again with the pointless Yeas.

What is her major malfunction!? Voting NO is the obvious thing to do. What does she have to gain from these Yes votes? To me it seems simple. She has nothing to gain and everything to lose, right??
posted by futz at 5:13 PM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

Possibly she believes it is the right thing to do. I don't agree, but it's the only reason I see for her voting that way.
posted by Justinian at 5:16 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

(I do wonder if Trump will be the first president since George H.W. Bush to say that the state of the union is anything other than "strong".)
posted by murphy slaw at 5:18 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

The gang at CREW who are working on the emoluments case have around 40 complaints and other filings against Trump so far. Here's a pretty interesting thing they've put together: 5 GRAPHICS TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND PRESIDENT TRUMP’S CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
posted by triggerfinger at 5:23 PM on February 27, 2017 [28 favorites]

from the "oh thank god dept.":

Arizona kills rioting bill that drew national criticism

"It's gotten a lot of attention, and frankly whether it's fair or unfair, whether its accurate or inaccurate, at this point doesn't matter," he told the AP. "That's certainly not what the Legislature wants to be about - I know that's not what the sponsor wanted in the first place. The best way to send a very clear signal that we're not doing it is to not move the bill."

posted by murphy slaw at 5:24 PM on February 27, 2017 [46 favorites]

Spicer dun fucked up again.

There are a lot worse things Spicer lies about than "Your boy died a hero."
posted by corb at 5:25 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

> What is her major malfunction!? Voting NO is the obvious thing to do. What does she have to gain from these Yes votes? To me it seems simple. She has nothing to gain and everything to lose, right??

Dianne Feinstein is voting her values.

her values are bad.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 5:28 PM on February 27, 2017 [17 favorites]

that terrified the adulation-needy President into vetoing?

I think his hatred of Obama and delight in wiping away his signature accomplishment would outweigh his love of adoration.

He needs to be adored only by as many of his idiotic basefolk as he can cram into a single rally site. The rest he can invent or disregard.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:30 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

murphy slaw: "Arizona kills rioting bill that drew national criticism"

I doubt it, but I wonder if anyone in the AZ legislature brought up the fact that MLK, Jr. himself would have been eligible for prosecution under this sort of law after the Memphis sanitation strike (and probably after others too, I only recall this one specifically).
posted by mhum at 5:36 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Some sort of police activity/bomb threat seems to be happening right now in San Francisco, on the street where the ADL has their offices.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:38 PM on February 27, 2017

From murphy_slaw's link:

"I did look at the bill, it's actually a bill of relatively few words, but they insert the word riot there sort-of in the racketeering. You put it right below terrorism and people think 'Oh my goodness, really, riot and terrorism is the same thing?' " Mesnard said. "Well, they're not the same thing. I don't think that's what the bill is trying to get at."

From the Phoenix New Times:

“I haven’t studied the issue or the bill itself, but the simple reality is that it created a lot of consternation about what the bill was trying to do,” Mesnard told New Times. “People believed it was going to infringe on really fundamental rights. The best way to deal with that was to put it to bed."

“I’m certain the sponsor wasn’t trying to infringe on anyone’s First Amendment rights,” he adds. “I want to stand up for him a little bit - he’s being criticized, and I don’t know if that’s entirely fair.” [cough cough bullshit - futz]

"Thanks to everyone who spoke out against this terrible proposal!" the ACLU of Arizona wrote on Twitter. "Continue fighting for our civil liberties!"

Added the Arizona Democratic Party: "One bit of rational news. Now we're back to fighting other bad bills."

The whole damn senate voted for the bill so kudos to him for knocking it down. AND protesting works!
posted by futz at 5:42 PM on February 27, 2017 [11 favorites]

Has anyone mentioned the shadow cabinet yet? They seem to have assembled a decent crew.

Today, a progressive "Shadow Cabinet" will start tweeting under @ShadowingTrump to rebut the president and his administration's statements, actions and tweets in real time.

The "cabinet" includes scholars, authors and former Democratic officials assembled by former New York City Public Advocate Mark Green in six weeks of frantic phoning, emailing and fundraising...

I don't know how much of a difference all these experts will do when no one listens to experts anymore if they're being told something they don't want to hear, but I do like seeing groups of smart, competent people organizing and banding together.
posted by triggerfinger at 5:46 PM on February 27, 2017 [18 favorites]

>I wonder if anyone in the AZ legislature brought up the fact that MLK, Jr. himself would have been eligible for prosecution under this sort of law

You say that as if it's a bad thing.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 5:47 PM on February 27, 2017

Some sort of police activity/bomb threat seems to be happening right now in San Francisco, on the street where the ADL has their offices.

It's being reported as a bomb threat.
posted by zachlipton at 5:49 PM on February 27, 2017

Today, a progressive "Shadow Cabinet" will start tweeting under @ShadowingTrump to rebut the president and his administration's statements, actions and tweets in real time.

Well, I like their pinned tweet anyway.
posted by tobascodagama at 5:49 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

(I do wonder if Trump will be the first president since George H.W. Bush to say that the state of the union is anything other than "strong".)

Would put money on "sad", then a rant about crooked Hillary, complaint about how media does not acknowledge his huge victory, a dig at the Oscars, description of hellish conditions on whatever country he is making things up about and then some stuff about how only he can fix all this.
posted by Artw at 5:51 PM on February 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

(I do wonder if Trump will be the first president since George H.W. Bush to say that the state of the union is anything other than "strong".)

my money's on continuing the theme from his inauguration speech. "the state of the union is a post-apocalyptic hellscape. sad losers cower over garbage fires, warming their hands in the shadows of burned-out factories" and so forth
posted by indubitable at 5:52 PM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

Just great.

Police Union Head: NYC Cops Want To Help Feds Round Up Undocumented Immigrants
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:58 PM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

21 Dems voted Yes on Wilbur Ross, but Manchin voted no.

Manchin voted yes on Sessions and Pruitt. But not Wilbur Ross.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:59 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Police Union Head: NYC Cops Want To Help Feds Round Up Undocumented Immigrants

Sociopaths gonna soc
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:01 PM on February 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

There are a lot worse things Spicer lies about than "Your boy died a hero."

That part probably isn't even untrue. He died as an apparently brave and effective soldier given an apparently unwise mission. It's not like the mission was generated by the detachment.

Spicer's actual argument is about the success of the mission, and by that measure he would apparently be lying. I'm just not going to judge the actions or bravery of a team member by staff officer level decisions.
posted by jaduncan at 6:04 PM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

I think it will be interesting to see when he switches from the apocalyptic hate-talk about the state of the nation, to calling it a golden land where he's been the most successful president ever. It has to happen at some point, because without that switch, he's either been a) an ineffective loser with bad ideas (if he stays in power and fails), or b) a weak loser who couldn't beat his opponents (if the Democrats gain in the midterms and manage to block his shit policy).

He's already got his re-election campaign slogan, "Keep America Great", so he's got to actually make America great, in his mind. Obviously, none of his policies will do that, so I'm morbidly interested to see what he thinks the tipping point is.
posted by mrgoat at 6:04 PM on February 27, 2017 [14 favorites]

Who voted yes on Wilbur Ross?
posted by pxe2000 at 6:08 PM on February 27, 2017

> Well, I like their pinned tweet anyway.

So I figure the purpose of that whole video is to get us thinking "100 nazi scalps" without them having to explicitly say "100 nazi scalps." And I like that. 100 nazi scalps + plausible deniability. best of both worlds.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 6:14 PM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

Yes - can anyone show me a link that shows the yeas and nays on the Ross vote? My Google seems broken tonight.
posted by hilaryjade at 6:15 PM on February 27, 2017

I think it will be interesting to see when he switches from the apocalyptic hate-talk about the state of the nation, to calling it a golden land where he's been the most successful president ever.

Pretty sure I've seen him do that two or three times between starting and finishing a sentence.
posted by dirge at 6:16 PM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

There are a lot worse things Spicer lies about than "Your boy died a hero."

Well, given the US soldiers killed a dozen kids -- including an 8 year old American girl -- let's make sure he didn't commit any of the atrocities before canonizing him.
posted by mikelieman at 6:19 PM on February 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

pxe2000: "Who voted yes on Wilbur Ross?"

Here's the link to the senate roll call. For your convenience, here's the list of Dems (plus Angus King of Maine) who voted Yea:

Bennet (D-CO)
Brown (D-OH)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Coons (D-DE)
Cortez Masto (D-NV)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Duckworth (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Hassan (D-NH)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Kaine (D-VA)
King (I-ME)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Nelson (D-FL)
Peters (D-MI)
Schatz (D-HI)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Tester (D-MT)
Warner (D-VA)

This specific vote probably doesn't really matter that much in and of itself. However, it's a sign that, even at this very late date and in these very dire circumstances, the Democrats refuse to accept/understand parliamentary discipline even though the Republicans have. Like, sure, it's a symbolic vote because the outcome was pre-determined by the numbers. But, the symbolism they've chosen is one where inter-party comity and compromise exists where none actually does. Why would you choose to live in such a fantasy world? We do not have the luxury of indulging in these fantasies.
posted by mhum at 6:20 PM on February 27, 2017 [31 favorites]

Spicer's actual argument is about the success of the mission, and by that measure he would apparently be lying.

I keep trying to respond to this, but Siegfried Sassoon keeps getting in the way.

'Jack fell as he'd have wished,' the mother said,
And folded up the letter that she'd read.
The Colonel writes so nicely.' Something broke
In the tired voice that quavered to a choke.
She half looked up. 'We mothers are so proud
Of our dead soldiers.' Then her face was bowed.

Quietly the Brother Officer went out.
He'd told the poor old dear some gallant lies
That she would nourish all her days, no doubt
For while he coughed and mumbled, her weak eyes
Had shone with gentle triumph, brimmed with joy,
Because he'd been so brave, her glorious boy.

He thought how 'Jack', cold-footed, useless swine,
Had panicked down the trench that night the mine
Went up at Wicked Corner; how he'd tried
To get sent home, and how, at last, he died,
Blown to small bits. And no one seemed to care
Except that lonely woman with white hair.

posted by corb at 6:20 PM on February 27, 2017 [20 favorites]

Any SEAL who dies in combat is a hero.

That doesn't make his death for any purpose.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:21 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Couple comments deleted. We're way not having a debate over the Navy Seal's personal character or whatever. Stop it.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 6:26 PM on February 27, 2017 [17 favorites]

President Donald Trump intends to intensify enforcement of food safety regulations as a cudgel in international trade negotiations

Oh wow, another tactic borrowed from his favorite daddy Putin.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 6:26 PM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

And the JCC on Mercer Island has been evacuated due to a bomb threat.
posted by monopas at 6:27 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

There are many captions I could apply to this Oval Office photo, but it's so weird I'll just stick with @BradJaffy's caption "There is a lot happening here" and allow you to discover its many wonders for yourself.

In other news, Sessions calls threats against Jewish institutions "unacceptable" and goes out on a real limb saying his department will "do what it can to assist in prosecuting anybody."

"Do what it can." Thanks for your support there.
posted by zachlipton at 6:38 PM on February 27, 2017 [22 favorites]

President Donald Trump intends to intensify enforcement of food safety regulations as a cudgel in international trade negotiations

That probably works both ways (a lot of things that are perfectly legal to use in food in the USA are banned elsewhere, like ractopamine, potassium bromate, brominated vegetable oil, not to mention use of hormones and antibiotics in meat animals). That's the primary reason for the barring of US exports to a lot of places. (It's also one of the reasons I was personally kind of wary of a lot of the proposed free-trade agreements, since some of them would've essentially meant "other countries should lower their standards to the USA's lowest common denominator").
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 6:39 PM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Signal requires acces to one's contacts list.

DELETED.

It's pretty risky to use your regular phone for sensitive communications anyway. Hardware is cheap. Get a dedicated phone.
posted by Coventry at 6:42 PM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

That Oval Office picture makes me mad. Kellyanne, you get your feet off the furniture! This is the White House!
posted by Biblio at 6:49 PM on February 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

There are many captions I could apply to this Oval Office photo, but it's so weird I'll just stick with @BradJaffy's caption "There is a lot happening here" and allow you to discover its many wonders for yourself.

I cannot stop staring at that photo. Lots of hot takes but I'll just say that she seems limber.

#totallyfuckedup
posted by futz at 6:49 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

his department will "do what it can to assist in prosecuting anybody."

If only he knew someone who ran an agency that's charged with investigating criminal conspiracies that cross state lines.
posted by Etrigan at 6:51 PM on February 27, 2017 [31 favorites]

The "foreign food regulations" probably also has the intent of providing LESS regulation of American agribusiness. I never did like those (recalled) Ready Pac Salad Bowls.
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:54 PM on February 27, 2017

I mean this is like only the 68th most screwed up thing about the photo, but why was Conway taking a picture with her cell phone in the Oval Office anyway? There were obviously actual professional photographers there, because one of them took the photo we're all staring at. What part of inviting a gazillion HBCU leaders to the White House possibly calls for an advisor most known for saying ridiculous things on television to snap a pic on her phone?
posted by zachlipton at 6:55 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

So I'm in SF for GDC, a block from the ADL offices on Market. So that's going on.

And now my son's preschool at the JCC in Mercer Island is evacuating because of a bomb threat.

Now i'm fucking mad. No useful additions, just fucking pissed off.
posted by Lord_Pall at 7:02 PM on February 27, 2017 [33 favorites]

Police Union Head: NYC Cops Want To Help Feds Round Up Undocumented Immigrants

The most disappointing thing DeBlasio has done is capitulate to the NYPD. Just utterly capitulated, from appointing a Giuliani police chief to reinstating Broken Windows. It's inexcusable.
posted by Mavri at 7:03 PM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Seriously, though, get your feet off the couch.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:09 PM on February 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

Just four days ago: NYPD commissioner to officers: Disregard Trump’s immigrant deportation order
posted by rhizome at 7:09 PM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

McCaskill (D-MO)

Dammit, Claire. Your seat is vulnerable in 2018.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 7:11 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Police unions always represent the utter worst of any force, and strongly defend any racist, corrupt or abusive attitudes within that force.
posted by Artw at 7:12 PM on February 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

but why was Conway taking a picture with her cell phone in the Oval Office anyway?

It doesn't look like she's taking a photo. The phone is pointing down as if she is texting. Like you said, it doesn't really matter but did I miss something?
posted by futz at 7:12 PM on February 27, 2017

Christ, what a day. I sat in stunned silence as clips from GWB's interview made made me recall his tenure with something like wistful longing for those halcyon days when I thought that the President was probably well-meaning but woefully inexperienced, poorly advised, and maybe a little slow on the uptake.

Then my mood quickly shifted to distressed horror when I learned that a family friend who has been a legal permanent resident of the US for four decades while he practiced neurology is suddenly at risk of deportation/non-admittance back to the US after a trip to the DR.

And then I hear from my brother that two of his German friends travelling to the US in order to participate in a musical performance were detained, harshly questioned, and ejected from the US. I don't even know wtf is going on anymore.
posted by xyzzy at 7:13 PM on February 27, 2017 [57 favorites]

Inslee now ‘more concerned’ after meeting with Trump on health care, immigration

-- In a teleconference with reporters afterward, Inslee said he heard nothing that gave him assurance Trump was making policy “in a thoughtful, nonchaotic, rational basis based on facts and evidence rather than just tweets.”

-- “I feel more concerned about that now than when I landed Thursday night,” he said.

-- Inslee pronounced himself shocked by Trump’s comment at the meeting that “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.”

-- “They try to paper that over to say we’ve got some, you know, Dr. Feelgood’s Magic Elixir that’s going to allow us spend billions of dollars less money and nobody gets hurt … it’s an hallucination.”

Thank you for telling it straight up Governor Inslee.
posted by futz at 7:19 PM on February 27, 2017 [56 favorites]

She was reportedly taking a photo, then looking at the photo (perhaps typing to share it online or forward it somewhere).
posted by zachlipton at 7:21 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

I hear from my brother that two of his German friends travelling to the US in order to participate in a musical performance were detained, harshly questioned, and ejected from the US. I don't even know wtf is going on anymore.

Immigration has been let off the leash; it's as simple as that.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:28 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Another instance of Trump going along with whatever the person in front of him suggests: he's interviewed for Fox and Friends and agrees with the reporter's suggestion that Obama is behind protests and leaks.

OMG. You can literally see the thought enter his mind (around the 19-20 second mark) - he looks up and to the corner of the room before assenting to it, and repeating it. And then the same thing happens when the reporter says "Bush didn't go after Clinton, Clinton didn't go after Bush."
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:34 PM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

Buzzfeed: Some Of Those Hyperpartisan Sites On The Right And Left Are Actually Owned By The Same People
BuzzFeed News traced a group of liberal and conservative websites back to the same company. “The product they’re pitching is outrage,” said one liberal writer.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:36 PM on February 27, 2017 [37 favorites]

Thank you for telling it straight up Governor Inslee.

I keep seeing him pop up, always coming out swinging at Trump with a very clear and well thought out statement - I really think he's considering running for president in 2020. So far he seems well suited for it.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:42 PM on February 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

The Brad Jaffy Oval Office tweet has been deleted. Was it the same picture as the one with Conway's feet on the couch?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:56 PM on February 27, 2017

Can anyone tell me why news outlets update a story and offer no indication as to why they did so or what detail/information was removed or corrected? Some offer a small "added a WH comment" even though the article is now 2 or 3 paragraphs longer and some offer no explanation at all like this: Yemen SEAL Raid Has Yielded No Significant Intelligence: Officials

It was published at approx 4:30pm EST. I found an update at 7:30ish and most recently at 9:03. If there were other updates I don't know and I have no idea what changes were made.

It appears to be SOP that the media is not obligated (wrong word?) to be transparent about the changing details of a story? It drives me f'ing crazy and I would love to know why this is the standard that is in place. Feel free to memail me if this is a derail.
posted by futz at 8:01 PM on February 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

Trump Will Have To Break The Law To Pass His Budget

So Republicans might just say fuck the sequester, because laws don't matter and 'Murica.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:13 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Republicans don't even know what the fuck a law even is these days, let alone Whybark they might consider trying to follow one from time to time.
posted by Artw at 8:16 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

That's kind of a nothing headline though. It's simply saying "Democrats won't go along with this." Like when Obama wanted to close Guantanamo but Congress wouldn't agree. The headline would be "Obama Will have to Break The Law to Close Guantanamo".

You could write that about any proposal that can't get through Congress.
posted by Justinian at 8:17 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

god, that quote from inslee. if we were still living on earth-prime a statement like that from a sitting governor would make be a grave sign of the impending collapse of the administration.

here in bizarro world though, we am hate bad president so much, we keep him for never and ever
posted by murphy slaw at 8:24 PM on February 27, 2017 [19 favorites]

Tester (D-MT)

Just as a side note, the dev team I'm on discovered recently that our system gets confused by constituents with the last name "Null" and legislators whose last name contains "Test". And yes, we could fix that but maybe you guys could just change your names already?
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 8:30 PM on February 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

a nice opinion piece on the hollowness of steve bannon's apocalyptic worldview at WaPo:

As the ideologist in Trump’s inner circle, Bannon is a practitioner of Newt Gingrich’s mystic arts. Take some partially valid insight at the crossroads of pop economics, pop history and pop psychology; declare it an inexorable world-historic force; and, by implication, take credit for being the only one who sees the inner workings of reality.

For Bannon, it has something to do with “the fourth turning,” or maybe the fifth progression, or the third cataclysm. At any rate, it apparently involves cycles of discontent and disruption. Lots of disruption. Across the West, as he sees it, the victims of globalization — the victims of immigration, free trade and internationalism in general — are rising against their cosmopolitan oppressors. Institutions will crash and rise in new forms. And this restless world spirit takes human form in . . . Nigel Farage and Donald Trump.

Like many philosophies that can be derived entirely from an airport bookstore, this one has an element of truth.…

posted by murphy slaw at 8:31 PM on February 27, 2017 [16 favorites]

From the DeVos Department of Grate Lerning In Association With Amway and ~~Blackwater~~Xe:

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have done this since their founding. They started from the fact that there were too many students in America who did not have equal access to education. They saw that the system wasn't working, that there was an absence of opportunity, so they took it upon themselves to provide the solution.

HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice. They are living proof that when more options are provided to students, they are afforded greater access and greater quality. Their success has shown that more options help students flourish.

In other news, Homer Plessy was a pioneer in transportation choice.
posted by holgate at 8:41 PM on February 27, 2017 [26 favorites]

7 more JCCs, ADL office evacuated in latest bomb scare
28 JCCs and Jewish schools cleared out on Monday, in fifth wave of bomb threats since January
According to the article, that's more than ninety bomb threats since the start of the year, which was less than sixty days ago. Seriously, this has become the new normal.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:54 PM on February 27, 2017 [21 favorites]

This is way back from Sunday, so like 2 years ago in Trump-news, but I'm still totally amazed at Bilden's withdrawal. There were rumours that he was dropping out last week, Spicer denied it categorically, made it all out to be fake news, and then nothing happened so I forgot. In fact, I didn't just forget, I even thought: maybe this leak is bullshit and Bildens nomination will go smoothly.

Then, in what, previously, would've been a normal news-cycle's amount of time, Bilden, in fact, quits.

Like, this is just so fucking astonishingly amazing. Spicer claimed back then that he “Just spoke with [Bilden] and he is 100% commited (sic) to being the next SECNAV pending Senate confirm,” and then he basically said the reports were all fake-news. Then the guy withdraws.

How can Spicer go out in public in front of reporters and just lie and lie and lie? What drugs does he take to overcome the anxiety it must induce. Or is he actually a zombie, or perhaps a lie-robot?

Why don't the reporters just laugh at him every time he makes some obviously false categorical denial?

Every day I feel like I've entered another alternate reality.

HOW IS THIS REAL LIFE.
posted by dis_integration at 8:55 PM on February 27, 2017 [18 favorites]

The Kansas City Star has an editorial: Trump’s silence on deadly Olathe shooting is disquieting:

At some point, embarrassingly late begins to verge on something more disquieting.

President Donald Trump has silently planted himself in that space.

Nearly a week has passed since two India-born engineers were singled out and shot at an Olathe bar, presumably because they were immigrants, darker in skin tone and possibly viewed by the shooter as unwanted foreigners.
People around the world were immediately and rightfully horrified.

But our president?

Mum. Not a word has been spoken, tweeted or prepped for Trump’s teleprompter.

posted by zachlipton at 8:59 PM on February 27, 2017 [66 favorites]

so now i guess "school choice" means "if you don't have any schools to choose from, you're free to start your own"

between this freedom and the freedom to not purchase healthcare i'm not sure how much more liberty i can take.
posted by murphy slaw at 9:00 PM on February 27, 2017 [41 favorites]

I mean they're absolutely fine with that choice for internet and now healthcare, why not education too
posted by flatluigi at 9:02 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

> between this freedom and the freedom to not purchase healthcare i'm not sure how much more liberty i can take.

Once they gut the EPA, you'll also be free not to drink polluted water or breathe polluted air if you don't want to. It'll be glorious.
posted by RedOrGreen at 9:05 PM on February 27, 2017 [14 favorites]

our aristocracy will have the freedom to have unsatisfactory servants thrown into the eel tanks
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:08 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't know when I last heard of a bomb threat here:
Police Evacuate Sydney Jewish Museum After Bomb Threat
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:11 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

i know it's early, but this is a strong contender for image of the year
posted by murphy slaw at 9:14 PM on February 27, 2017 [41 favorites]

Looking past the historical idiocy, it's a reminder that "school choice" means "segregation" to a large chunk of its supporters, and HBCUs occupy a useful space for white bullshitters. It may not be done under the auspices of Jim Crow, but the desired end product is schools where white parents see fewer non-white kids. The test scores can wait.
posted by holgate at 9:21 PM on February 27, 2017 [15 favorites]

The infuriating silence of Donald Trump over an Indian engineer’s murder in Kansas
posted by futz at 9:29 PM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

“The Sin of ‘Just Doing Our Job,’” Stephen Mattson, Sojourners, 27 February 2017
posted by ob1quixote at 9:32 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Maddow dove into Ross' relationship with trump and in doing so brought the Russian connection into much cleaner focus.

It is so fucked up that it deserves it's own fpp. I don't know why this guy got under my skin but he did and the Russia connections are deep. It is almost comical but alas, this is real life. I am kind of glad that he was confirmed b/c he is in the cross hairs now. Bring on the scrutiny!
posted by futz at 9:35 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Regarding Trump's comment about nobody knowing how hard health care policy is, I mention again, (until the mods issue me with a cease and desist order), just how much shade Pete Souza is throwing on Instagram. He is on fire!
posted by vac2003 at 9:35 PM on February 27, 2017 [30 favorites]

I finally got a chance to watch that GWB Today Show interview and while I am happy to hear him say what he said about a free press and freedom to worship (or not worship! not something I expected from him!) however a person chooses, wowwww does he dodge a lot. I don't know why I expected better from him but it's ridiculous to watch him avoid saying what he really feels. IMO it really did seem like he'd say a lot of things the GOP wouldn't want him to if he were to speak his mind, but now's the time to speak out and he gets no credit for trying to stay neutral. It's ridiculous to find myself wanting to give credit for a simple affirmation of the rights of the press and of freedom of (and from) religion, that's just bare minimum expectations, but that's where the bar is at for Republicans these days, so...
posted by jason_steakums at 9:37 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

clips from GWB's interview made made me recall his tenure with something like wistful longing for those halcyon days when I thought that the President was probably well-meaning but woefully inexperienced, poorly advised, and maybe a little slow on the uptake

Like Trump, Bush lost the popular vote but strutted around pretending he had a mandate. Bush blew off all of the warnings about al Qaeda from the outgoing Clinton administration, blew off multiple PDBs about al Qaeda, got a warning that said Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US--the latest in a long string of warnings--and told the advisor "OK, you covered your ass" and stayed on vacation*, got caught with his pants down on 9/11 and the anthrax attacks that no one but me remembers even though he called them "a second wave of terrorist attacks," lied us into invading Iraq on false pretenses, joked about not being able to find WMDs at the White House Correspondents' Dinner as people were dying looking for the weapons that weren't there, ignored warnings about levees and was having cake on the tarmac in Arizona as people were drowning in the streets of New Orleans.

So, maybe not quite as bad as Trump, but let's not get carried away.

* The only thing he would interrupt vacation for was rushing to Washington so the "states rights" Republicans could override Florida in the Terri Schiavo case. Because the adults were in charge and they knew what the priorities were.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:39 PM on February 27, 2017 [33 favorites]

Regarding Trump's comment about nobody knowing how hard health care policy is, I mention again, (until the mods issue me with a cease and desist order), just how much shade Pete Souza is throwing on Instagram. He is on fire!

*maniacal giggle* I signed up for Instagram solely to fave Souza's digs at Trump.
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:43 PM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Don't forget when W fired all of those US Attorneys.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:50 PM on February 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

When Trump evades his handlers, will they send out Gold Alerts?
posted by MrVisible at 9:51 PM on February 27, 2017

Bush lost the popular vote but strutted around pretending he had a mandate.

Don't forget the financial crisis and his ignorant, enabling policy flipflop of "Go on and self-regulate; the invisible hand of the market means you'll pay the consequences if you're wrong... Oh, wait, I guess now my experts are telling us we'll have to pay the consequences." (I wish I could find a clip of Jon Stewart ridiculing him: "Well, I wanted to believe in Jesus, but that didn't work, so... Hail Satan!")

Oh, and Enron, which he was up to his neck in.
posted by Coventry at 10:02 PM on February 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

Oh, and the whole torture thing, and Abu Ghraib.
posted by Coventry at 10:04 PM on February 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

BTW, it's probably time for someone to make a new thread.
posted by Coventry at 10:05 PM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

So, maybe not quite as bad as Trump, but let's not get carried away.

I was being hyperbolic. Bush's tenure made me feel like America was teetering on the edge of an apocalypse and the fact that he appeared to be a statesman-genius compared to Trump today sent me over the edge.
posted by xyzzy at 10:18 PM on February 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

Trump actually has some way to go before he'll top Bush for destructive greed, ignorance and violence, but he's well on his way.
posted by Coventry at 10:26 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Unwinding Trump Trade Sends Russian Stocks Sliding Most in World

February is shaping up to be the worst month for Russian stocks since March 2015 as the correction gets underway. Investors who poured $1 billion into the VanEck Vectors Russia ETF to capture Micex gains of 12.5 percent in the final two months of the year have already lost half that price advance.
posted by futz at 10:34 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Is our Democrats learning? Apparently, the answer is a resounding "no".
posted by tonycpsu at 10:36 PM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Hate in the Age of Trump: All across America, Klan and neo-Nazi groups are not only flourishing—they’re joining forces.
posted by homunculus at 10:39 PM on February 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

Probably makes sense to drop the new thread tomorrow afternoonish for the speech to Congress, if someone wants to call dibs.
posted by zachlipton at 10:48 PM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

It still blows my mind a little that when you combine Neil Howe and William Strauss you get Neil Strauss, of PUA infamy
posted by Apocryphon at 11:35 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

I thought that the Confederate flag had nothing to do with racism?

Georgia couple gets prison for racist threats at child's birthday party

Jose "Joe" Torres, was sentenced to 20 years, with 13 years in prison, after a jury convicted him on three counts of aggravated assault, one count of making terroristic threats and one count of violating of Georgia's Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act.

Kayla Norton was sentenced to 15 years, with six years in prison. She was convicted on one count of making terroristic threats and one count of violation of the Street Gang Act.
posted by futz at 11:48 PM on February 27, 2017 [12 favorites]

Screenshots of the anti-EPA regs to be signed today, sent to a reporter from Axios.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:04 AM on February 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

Just as a side note, the dev team I'm on discovered recently that our system gets confused by constituents with the last name "Null" and legislators whose last name contains "Test". And yes, we could fix that but maybe you guys could just change your names already?

obligatory XKCD
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:38 AM on February 28, 2017 [10 favorites]

Georgia couple gets prison for racist threats at child's birthday party

Keep crying, racists.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 3:44 AM on February 28, 2017 [9 favorites]

obligatory XKCD

I've never understood that strip. Does the parent think the school administrators wrote the data-entry front-end themselves? Or that the data entry clerk should know SQL? Is the presence of the bottle in the final frame implying the parent is a drunk asshole?
posted by um at 4:02 AM on February 28, 2017 [3 favorites]

Wait, my eyes are bad. It's not a bottle it's a cup of something hot.
posted by um at 4:05 AM on February 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

Does the parent think the school administrators wrote the data-entry front-end themselves? Or that the data entry clerk should know SQL?

School administrators may not be carpenters or electricians, but they're still the ones to blame if faulty wiring burns the school down (or at least someone up the administration chain should be). It's the 21st century, hiring some who is not an incompetent bozo to write your mission-critical system is not that hard.
posted by Dr Dracator at 4:22 AM on February 28, 2017

Maybe, but that's a different criticism to the one the parent seems to be levelling.
posted by um at 4:32 AM on February 28, 2017

For the last couple of hours I've been watching and reading long-form interviews and talks given by Obama in the last few months of his presidency.

Jesus Christ how did we get from Obama to Donald Trump?

Fuck everything.
posted by Dumsnill at 4:35 AM on February 28, 2017 [12 favorites]

Ugh: Cuomo tiptoes toward 2020 run
posted by octothorpe at 4:37 AM on February 28, 2017

Jesus Christ how did we get from Obama to Donald Trump?

Racism.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:41 AM on February 28, 2017 [38 favorites]

Racism.

Where do the African-Americans and Hispanics who voted for Trump fit in
posted by Mister Bijou at 4:49 AM on February 28, 2017

Sexism.
posted by murphy slaw at 4:52 AM on February 28, 2017 [36 favorites]

Where do the African-Americans and Hispanics who voted for Trump fit in

Misogyny.
posted by mikelieman at 4:53 AM on February 28, 2017 [28 favorites]

Bloomberg: Does Stephen Miller Speak for Trump? Or Vice Versa?: “I’m prepared to go on any show, anywhere, anytime, and repeat it, and say the president of the United States is correct. One. Hundred. Percent.”
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:06 AM on February 28, 2017 [3 favorites]

It's not one glib answer.

I agree, but Ï'm also sure racism and misogyny are pretty fucking major parts of what happened in this election,
posted by Dumsnill at 5:12 AM on February 28, 2017 [13 favorites]

And before we hit the women who voted for Trump question -- internalized misogyny.
posted by JustKeepSwimming at 5:15 AM on February 28, 2017 [7 favorites]

obligatory XKCD

I thought that one, like a lot of xkcds, was kind of exploiting the tension between "it's funny when someone pranks authority" and "little Bobby Tables's mother is kind of cool but also kind of an asshole" in order to highlight the issue of database inputs. I think a lot of xkcd characters are supposed to be read as kind of assholes, not as awesome-kewl-hackerz or whatever.

Everything else is terrible about the world, however.
posted by Frowner at 5:15 AM on February 28, 2017 [5 favorites]

And voter suppression, let's not forget. It was a perfect storm of bad intentions that pushed things just far enough to tip over to Trump's favor.
posted by From Bklyn at 5:16 AM on February 28, 2017 [12 favorites]

Horse race media, false equivalency, information literacy, guns and abortion, the letter R...
posted by box at 5:17 AM on February 28, 2017 [12 favorites]

Also racism is not about any one person's actions; it's a system of pervasive differential negative treatment. For example, the very fact that the vast majority of African Americans reliably vote Democratic is a major consequence and component of racism in the United States. Racism leads Republicans to hold harmful beliefs about African Americans, such that their party enacts policies that are harmful to African Americans (i.e. racist). Thus, most African Americans are essentially forced to support Democrats in order to oppose these policies, and thus are not only deprived of meaningful choices in American democracy compared to white people, but have less leverage within the party they support compared to white people, both of which are racist by definition. They also have to deal with white Democrats who are assured that they aren't racist, because their definition of "racism" is basically "being rude to people of different races". Meanwhile, those African Americans who are Republicans are often used by white Republicans as "proof" that they aren't racist and as examples of "the good ones", indignities that white people hardly ever suffer, while at the same time left with little influence within their party because of their small numbers.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 5:20 AM on February 28, 2017 [50 favorites]

I think racism and misogyny cover the vast majority of the complex things that happened in 2016.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:20 AM on February 28, 2017 [15 favorites]

futz, you're not alone in thinking that post-publication updates to news stories ought to be more publicly logged for transparency's sake. Scott Rosenberg has been writing about this for years. He also founded MediaBugs, a service for reporting specific, correctable errors and problems in media coverage, which is now a volunteer project; that last link includes some analysis about why the whole transparency-about-errors thing is an uphill battle vis-a-vis newsroom culture, which you might find useful in thinking about post-publication updates in general.
posted by brainwane at 5:31 AM on February 28, 2017 [3 favorites]

I think racism and misogyny cover the vast majority of the complex things that happened in 2016.

At the very least, they'd account for ~100k vote tally differences in three f'ing swing states.
posted by petebest at 5:31 AM on February 28, 2017 [5 favorites]

Beyond racism and misogyny, you can pretty much sum it up with idiot, ignorant, or ideologue.
posted by chris24 at 5:35 AM on February 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

I mean, exit polls suggest that about 8% of black voters voted for Trump. We're not talking about a lot of people. Higher numbers of Latinos (although still less than a third) voted for Trump, and I think the explanation for that is complex, and racism can be part of the mix. People of color can be racist, just as women can be misogynistic, etc.

Anyway, has anyone linked to the Department of Education's unfortunate press release describing HBCUs as "real pioneers of school choice"?
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 5:39 AM on February 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

Jesus Christ how did we get from Obama to Donald Trump?

Dignity, a scholarly background, and careful consideration of complex issues don't kill Muslims, braniac.

Or enough of them anyhow
posted by Rykey at 5:44 AM on February 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

Is someone working on a new thread? This one is going to kill metafilter after the Trump-talks-to-congress stuff goes down.
posted by INFJ at 5:46 AM on February 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

When I read about Jose Torres being convicted in the confederate flag waving, shotgun wielding threats to a children's birthday party incident I kept coming back to the guy's name. Jose Torres? I guess that's America for you.
posted by rdr at 5:54 AM on February 28, 2017 [4 favorites]

Gotta say, I hate Joe Scarborough as much as anybody, but I could listen to him and Mika beat up on Stephen "Tiny Dictator" Miller for hours.
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:05 AM on February 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

Here's the link to the senate roll call. For your convenience, here's the list of Dems (plus Angus King of Maine) who voted Yea:

Bennet (D-CO)
Brown (D-OH)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Coons (D-DE)
Cortez Masto (D-NV)
Donnelly (D-IN)

*grabs angry red postcard*
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:06 AM on February 28, 2017 [27 favorites]

That Forbes article about Miller linked by roomthreeseventeen is well worth reading. I thought I already had a handle on Miller, but this expanded on his relationship to Jeff Sessions and DJT. I found it particularly striking when he said that all "decent Americans " were against the reforms proposed by the gang of eight. Decent! As though it is indecent to think that people who live and work here have something to offer and should be allowed a modicum of respect.

For all of his railings against worker visas it makes me wonder if he has ever talked to his boss about the foreign workers he has brought over to work at his winery and Mar-A-Lago.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:14 AM on February 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

The leader of Israel's opposition @HerzogMK just called on Netanyahu to make a plan to take in US Jews due to anti-Semitism.

Probably in response to Bibi repeatedly gaslighting Jewish Americans by telling them their "concerns are misplaced" and that Trump's (as yet non-existent) actions are sufficient.
posted by zombieflanders at 6:22 AM on February 28, 2017 [11 favorites]

About the Bush/Trump comparison upthread: Bush was a really bad president, and there is no forgivness to be had for the damage he caused in the world and in the US. Contrariwise, thinking of his example of ignorance and sick ideology makes Trump even scarier.
Everything was wrong about the Bush election and administration, but in fairness, they did know what they were doing, they were ready to govern (in their own sick way) when they started, and they carried on with their mean business like a Republican administration was expected to. Until 9-11, the Bush presidency was relatively normal. With Trump, every morning I wake up to a new level of crazy. They don't seem to get government even at the most base level. And if something terrible happens, I worry that the illegal Iraq war will seem quaint in comparison. (Knocks on wood, crosses fingers, spits over shoulder etc.)
posted by mumimor at 6:22 AM on February 28, 2017 [18 favorites]

The leader of Israel's opposition @HerzogMK just called on Netanyahu to make a plan to take in US Jews due to anti-Semitism.

Israeli Law of Return FTW!
posted by mikelieman at 6:24 AM on February 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

GOP frontrunner in Louisiana House race caught posing in racist Tiger Woods blackface costume

In a statement on his Facebook page, Gatti confirmed the photo was real, though he did not issue a formal apology. He wrote, “15 years ago, my church held a fall festival, where all the volunteers were told to dress as a famous person. Tiger Woods was at the height of his popularity, as a world champion, and that was who I was dressed as.”

The post continued, “Shortly after this event, I was ordained into the church. As a medical professional, ordained minister and military officer, I live my life seeing only character and I stand by that.”

Gatti added, “I’m sad that my opponents have taken a good night at church and turned it into negative, political mud, but I’m confident the voters of Bossier will not fall for their desperate attacks.”

posted by zombieflanders at 6:25 AM on February 28, 2017 [11 favorites]

I live my life seeing only character and I stand by that.

Funny how he sees only character but chose the darkest color he could find to represent a guy who's less than half African.
posted by Etrigan at 6:28 AM on February 28, 2017 [29 favorites]

GOP frontrunner in Louisiana House race caught posing in racist Tiger Woods blackface costume

For whatever reason, I was withholding judgement until I saw the photo. Some form of hope? Maybe?

I no longer withhold said judgement.
posted by petebest at 6:40 AM on February 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

Is that going to hurt his chances?
posted by Artw at 6:42 AM on February 28, 2017 [9 favorites]

Tester (D-MT)

Just as a side note, the dev team I'm on discovered recently that our system gets confused by constituents with the last name "Null" and legislators whose last name contains "Test". And yes, we could fix that but maybe you guys could just change your names already?

If your system's typing is so unbelievably poor that it can't tell the difference between the string "Null" and an actual null then you do not have a problem with inputs that should be solved with a legal name change. You have a problem that should be solved with repeatedly wiping all your storage media, pulling the drives and shredding them, beating all your hardware with a sledge, covering it with napalm and then bulldozing it all into a put which you cover with salted earth.

For extra credit you can then use that location to execute any of your coders who made a check against names looking for "test" rather than setting up proper testing environments or at least using DEV/PROD system constants. Leave their bodies on pikes with signs that say LEARN IFDEF OR THIS CAN HAPPEN YOU YOU as warnings for those who come later.
posted by phearlez at 6:46 AM on February 28, 2017 [15 favorites]

President Drops Tables eventually fixes this in 2028.
posted by Artw at 6:47 AM on February 28, 2017 [13 favorites]

Tester (D-MT)

I bet the poor guy gets cleansed out of production databases all the time.
posted by Dr Dracator at 6:49 AM on February 28, 2017 [5 favorites]

(On the other hand, with a first name of Jon he should really start using Random as a middle name)
posted by Dr Dracator at 6:50 AM on February 28, 2017

I can go ahead and make a new thread if people want.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:05 AM on February 28, 2017 [9 favorites]

> Is that going to hurt his chances?

I bet his "Those liberal HATERZ had to go and ruin a fun church event, LIKE THEY DO AMIRITE?" statement actually helps his chances.
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:11 AM on February 28, 2017 [4 favorites]

Clean cup! Clean cup! Move down!
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 7:14 AM on February 28, 2017 [3 favorites]

So, does anyone know of a history podcast that covers Nazism and fascism and/or WWII from a political standpoint (I do not care about military tactics at all--I'm interested in the politics and ideology)? Without, like, being fascist itself? It's one of those things I'm kind of afraid to google.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:17 AM on February 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

soren_lorensen:

Stuff You Missed In History Class: WWII
posted by INFJ at 7:20 AM on February 28, 2017 [15 favorites]

So it's going to be the 'America is a dystopian hellhole thanks to brown people' speech.

@ddale8
White House announces six people sitting with the First Lady tomorrow night. Three are relatives of people killed by illegal immigrants.
posted by chris24 at 7:25 AM on February 28, 2017 [11 favorites]

It is not a podcast, but Libcom has a lot of what seem to me to be pretty reliable academic articles aggregated from various places about the Weimar republic and the rise of fascism. I am familiar with one of the academics whose work they link and he's, like, a real academic with proper credentials and everything.
posted by Frowner at 7:25 AM on February 28, 2017 [4 favorites]

Here is a new thread to play in.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:27 AM on February 28, 2017 [14 favorites]

For Bannon, it has something to do with “the fourth turning,” or maybe the fifth progression, or the third cataclysm.

Ass Ponys:
You're a fifth wheel, a fourth class
Third string second rate kind of guy
And sometimes you feel like
A pot lick limp dick butterfly
posted by notsnot at 7:27 AM on February 28, 2017 [4 favorites]

Jesus Christ how did we get from Obama to Donald Trump?

Fear, surprise, ruthless party discipline and an almost fanatical devotion to the dopes.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:40 AM on February 28, 2017 [21 favorites]

murphy slaw: so now i guess "school choice" means "if you don't have any schools to choose from, you're free to start your own"

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose ... (that song has been running through my head more often these days)
posted by filthy light thief at 7:41 AM on February 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

To understand the psychology of historical Nazis I thouroughly recommend the books of Gitta Sereny, who interviewed a bunch of them post war. There's an awful lot of self pity and lack of self awareness from them, and they remain horrible people even defanged.
posted by Artw at 7:44 AM on February 28, 2017 [4 favorites]

zombieflanders: Gatti added, “I’m sad that my opponents have taken a good night at church and turned it into negative, political mud, but I’m confident the voters of Bossier will not fall for their desperate attacks.”

Huh, funny how your "good night at church" looks like you're racist to other people. And how does being at church make it any better? In fact, I think this makes me all the more likely to randomly shout SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE! when any lawmaker mentions their church activities again.

I know it would be more divisive than positive, but I really want to push progressive lawmakers to pass a Don't Ask Don't Tell policy for them and their fellow legislators, but about religion. Or perhaps journalists could just agree to quietly omit any mention of church attendance from comments by lawmakers.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:45 AM on February 28, 2017 [8 favorites]

soren_lorensen does anyone know of a history podcast that covers Nazism and fascism and/or WWII from a political standpoint

Not a podcast, but Audible has an unabridged version of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (over 57 hours). The book is far from perfect (e.g., see its Wikipedia page's Criticism section) but it's still hard to beat for its narrative of the infighting in the regime and the resulting inefficiency. Stop as soon as Poland or keep going for the increased internal viciousness.
posted by kingless at 8:06 AM on February 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

I don't know what the scholarly opinion of it is (probably not kind) but I've had Nicholson Baker's Human Smoke on my shelf for a couple of years and I think I'm going to read it this week.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:18 AM on February 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

NEW THREAD NEW THREAD NEW THREAD courtesy of roomthreeseventeen.
posted by yoga at 8:19 AM on February 28, 2017 [3 favorites]

soren_lorensen does anyone know of a history podcast that covers Nazism and fascism and/or WWII from a political standpoint

Check out For the Record, a bi-weekly podcast produced and hosted by Dave Emory for WFMU and KFJC. Past shows also available on Spitfire.org. Dry, dense stuff but pretty comprehensive.
posted by christopherious at 8:46 AM on February 28, 2017 [3 favorites]

I just wanted to circle back to this comment.

"...It didn’t feel like a very glamorous evening. I’ve been to the Oscars. There was something very special missing, and then to end that way was sad.”

Because I watched a lot of Oscars over the years, and the more I think about it, the more I am pretty sure Trump has never been to the Oscars. Is anyone fact-checking this too?
posted by Mchelly at 9:37 AM on February 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

I was wondering. He was at the Oscars in 2011 at least. He even attended the Vanity Fair afterparty despite his long fued with Graydon Carter.
posted by zachlipton at 10:27 AM on February 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

He even attended the Vanity Fair afterparty ~~despite~~ because of his long fued with Graydon Carter.
posted by phearlez at 10:31 AM on February 28, 2017

House Democratic women announce they will wear white to Trump's speech to Congress.

I'm torn between hoping Trump doesn't notice and hoping he does notice and can't prevent himself from saying something so deeply inappropriate it peels away another few million supporters.
posted by FelliniBlank at 10:33 AM on February 28, 2017 [5 favorites]

He was at the Oscars in 2011 at least.

Oh look another thing we can be mad at James Franco for.
posted by Etrigan at 10:35 AM on February 28, 2017 [4 favorites]

The post continued, “Shortly after this event, I was ordained into the church. As a medical professional, ordained minister and military officer, I live my life seeing only character and I stand by that.”

If you only see character how did you know Tiger Woods was black? Also why did you think Tiger Woods was that black?
posted by srboisvert at 11:16 AM on February 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

So this happened yesterday in the Knesset. Totes normal.

@MairavZ
The leader of Israel's opposition @HerzogMK just called on Netanyahu to make a plan to take in US Jews due to anti-Semitism.

Strange since Israel has an open door immigration policy for all Jews. Maybe this is just about developing a plan?
posted by srboisvert at 11:21 AM on February 28, 2017 [3 favorites]

I think this is assuming that there might be an influx of American Jews into Israel, and maybe they should plan for that immigration.
posted by dinty_moore at 11:30 AM on February 28, 2017 [3 favorites]

Yeah, it's about the right of return vs. readiness for its sudden exercise in large numbers by Americans.

It's also probably a bit of grandstanding mostly meant for domestic Israeli consumption, a contrast to Bibi being willing to downplay what's happening the US to help Trump's optics. I don't think that kind of emigration is a very realistic scenario.
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:46 PM on February 28, 2017 [6 favorites]

New thread!
posted by flatluigi at 1:07 PM on February 28, 2017

> Muhammad Ali's Son Illegally Detained at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Attorney Says

Democracy Now: "Are You Muslim?": Muhammad Ali's Son & Former Wife on their Detention & Interrogation at FL Airport
posted by homunculus at 3:44 PM on February 28, 2017 [8 favorites]

I don't know what the scholarly opinion of it is (probably not kind) but I've had Nicholson Baker's Human Smoke on my shelf for a couple of years and I think I'm going to read it this week.

Not a scholarly opinion, but Human Smoke is great.
posted by Coventry at 12:43 PM on March 2, 2017

"Mixed critical reception" seems accurate.
posted by Chrysostom at 1:47 PM on March 2, 2017

« Older AT THE END OF EVERYTHING HOLD ONTO ANYTHING | In the greatest Hellmouth in the world Newer »

This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments

MetaFilter

It's Constituent Work Week!
February 22, 2017 4:56 PM Subscribe

Tags

Share

It's Constituent Work Week! February 22, 2017 4:56 PM Subscribe

Tags

Share

It's Constituent Work Week!
February 22, 2017 4:56 PM Subscribe