Building a Cabinet
January 23, 2017 4:20 PM Subscribe

If President Trump’s Cabinet nominees are confirmed, women and nonwhites will hold five of 22 cabinet or cabinet-level positions, a smaller percentage than the first cabinets of Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George Bush. Politico sat down with Press Secretary Sean Spicer after his second press briefing today; the newly announced Skype seats in the press room seem to have been suggested... last week, by NBC's Chuck Todd. Former CIA director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said today that President Trump somehow "forgot that he was president of the United States" when he gave a speech at the CIA on Saturday. The former Executive Director of Anti-Immigrant Hate Group FAIR joined the Trump Administration today as chief of staff at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In Germany, Angela Merkel advisors say Germany has 'given up' on Donald Trump acting like a President. Today is the fourth day of the Trump Administration.
posted by roomthreeseventeen (3032 comments total) 100 users marked this as a favorite

There are 27 year old dictators who rose by coup d'etat who show more competence.
Pompeo was just confirmed.c:(
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 4:25 PM on January 23, 2017 [21 favorites]

WaPo Spicer earns Four Pinocchios for false claims on inauguration crowd size

“This was the first time in our nation’s history that floor coverings have been used to protect the grass on the Mall. That had the effect of highlighting any areas where people were not standing, while in years past the grass eliminated this visual.”

False. Floor coverings were first used in 2013. It’s actually astonishing a White House press secretary would get such a basic fact wrong in a prepared statement from the podium. A simple Google search would have helped.

It goes downhill from there. They give Spicer a drubbing and end with

This is an appalling performance by the new press secretary. He managed to make a series of false and misleading claims in service of a relatively minor issue. Presumably he was ordered to do this by Trump, who conjured up fantastic numbers in his own mind, but part of a flack’s job is to tell the boss when lies are necessary — and when they are not.

Spicer earns Four Pinocchios, but seriously, we wish we could give five.

posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:29 PM on January 23, 2017 [68 favorites]

Given their hateful agenda, I think incompetence may be the best we can hope for.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:29 PM on January 23, 2017 [158 favorites]

So when the cabinet is complete, what percent of the global population will they have more money than? I'm betting 70%. Oligarchs gonna garch.
posted by jetsetsc at 4:30 PM on January 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

Don't you mean the first real day with the first real press conference¹?

_____
1. Not counting the practice one on Sunday.
posted by autopilot at 4:31 PM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

So when the cabinet is complete, what percent of the global population will they have more money than?
Well, Trumpy brings down the average somewhat.
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:33 PM on January 23, 2017 [36 favorites]

I was really down on the realization that no matter how hard we worked against him, at the very least Trump's portrait would always be in the history books between President Obama and President Monáe.

Then I remembered not necessarily. We did completely erase the actual 24th president from the historical record (and cover it up with some BS about counting Grover Cleveland twice), after all. We can do it again.
posted by ckape at 4:34 PM on January 23, 2017 [25 favorites]

autopilot: "Don't you mean the first real day with the first real press conference¹?

_____
1. Not counting the practice one on Sunday."

I get we're trying to be jovial, but that motherfucker was behind the podium with the seal on it both days. They all count. Every one.
posted by boo_radley at 4:35 PM on January 23, 2017 [33 favorites]

Given their hateful agenda, I think incompetence may be the best we can hope for.

It was about Bush, but...

I think he combines incompetence and malice into a new construct that I like to call malcompetence.
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:56 PM on March 15, 2006

posted by Pope Guilty at 4:36 PM on January 23, 2017 [86 favorites]

HuffPo Of Course The CIA Gave Trump Standing Ovations. He Never Let Them Sit.

While President Donald Trump brags about how hundreds of CIA employees gave him standing ovations during his Saturday visit, it should not have come as a surprise.

He never told them to sit.

The 400 agency staffers were standing when Trump entered the room, were still standing when he came to the lectern, and then remained standing through his 15 minutes of remarks.

“You know that the CIA will not sit down until the president tells them to,” said Yael Eisenstat, who spent more than half of her 13-year career in counterterrorism and intelligence work at the agency.

Experience. What's that worth? He probably thought they were standing because they were in awe.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:36 PM on January 23, 2017 [159 favorites]

*etches a fourth vertical tick mark on the wall using the sharpened end of a toothbrush handle, sighs*
posted by mudpuppie at 4:38 PM on January 23, 2017 [133 favorites]

Dianne Feinstien voted to confirm Pompeo. California deserves better.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:38 PM on January 23, 2017 [93 favorites]

President Obama and President Monáe

No Lisa Simpson is next.

(I'd be happy with President Monáe, I'm just still shocked that thisthrowaway joke came true)
posted by zutalors! at 4:39 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Spicer's performance on Saturday reinforces what we already knew about Dear Leader. When someone claims he did a bad job, he blames someone else. When someone makes him looks small, he claims reality is invalid.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:39 PM on January 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

They're all going to be confirmed. Every last one of them. I think pushing to block DeVos and Sessions might get some traction, but even then probably not. Not saying stop calling your senators about them, absolutely do that. Better to go down swinging. But the current radical right-wing in charge have been showing us for the last 8 years that they absolutely will not bend even a little or concede anything and so I think we can expect more of the same.

They don't care whether they represent their constituents.
They don't care if they do things that are illegal.
They don't care if they are antidemocratic.
They don't care if they have to blatantly lie.
They don't care if they do things that are unpopular.
They. don't. care.

All they care about is winning, and they will do whatever it takes. Literally our only recourse is to drive them out of positions of power. There is no compromise to be had with these people anywhere on anything, and we can make all the noise we want and they will ignore us. I don't want to be discouraging or fatalistic. I'm neither. I just think that the only possible thing to do with the current crop is strip them of power. They are political lunatics and reasoning with them while they try to punch us is just going to get us knocked out.

We need to field candidates for every possible elected position anywhere, and then we need to dedicate ourselves to overwhelming the opposition at the ballot-box to counteract the voter suppression and gerrymandering bullshit. That is all that will save us.
posted by supercrayon at 4:40 PM on January 23, 2017 [246 favorites]

Dianne Feinstien voted to confirm Pompeo

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
posted by entropicamericana at 4:40 PM on January 23, 2017 [33 favorites]

All they care about is winning, and they will do whatever it takes. Literally our only recourse is to drive them out of positions of power. There is no compromise to be had with these people anywhere on anything, and we can make all the noise we want and they will ignore us.

Exactly. There's no avenue for reason or compromise or opposition within this Republican party. Anything that's not working to defeat Republican candidates, is helping them stay in power. There's no such thing as a moderate or reasonable Republican, they. do. not. care.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:43 PM on January 23, 2017 [17 favorites]

Feinstein? OFFS.
posted by suelac at 4:45 PM on January 23, 2017

Fucking Dianne Feinstein. She never misses a chance to be disappointing.
posted by contraption at 4:47 PM on January 23, 2017 [41 favorites]

Dianne Feinstien voted to confirm Pompeo

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Good thing I'm going to her office tomorrow. Said it in the last thread, but if you are from California and would like me to hand deliver a letter to Senator Feinstein, memail me.

Also just saw this - the roll call vote on Gillibrand's amendment to protect the ACA's provisions for women's health care. It went down 49-49...with Feinstein not voting. (It appears she didn't vote on any of the amendments that day, so maybe she was still out after getting her pacemaker? But holy geez.)
posted by sunset in snow country at 4:48 PM on January 23, 2017 [31 favorites]

And since Angela Merkel is the leader of the free world now, we should listen.
posted by Bee'sWing at 4:48 PM on January 23, 2017 [74 favorites]

President Trump somehow "forgot that he was president of the United States"

For the first time, I envy Donald Trump.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 4:49 PM on January 23, 2017 [85 favorites]

Just got the "our offices are closed or are experiencing a high volume of calls" message when trying to call Feinstein's SF office before 5 to express my displeasure at her vote.
posted by zachlipton at 4:52 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

chief of staff at U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Kinda surprised it wasn't USCIS or ICE. Although I'm sure USCIS will end up being run by a similarly anti-immigrant person.

(USCBP doesn't actually have much to do with immigration compared to USCIS or ICE)
posted by thefoxgod at 4:52 PM on January 23, 2017

He never told them to sit.

Next he'll pull the bit where Homer got the stone cutters to bow over and over by running in and out of the room.
posted by Space Coyote at 4:52 PM on January 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

Trump seems to be stuck in campaign mode. When will it finally hit that he won, or will he go on defending himself for the entire term? What happens when there's a crisis?
posted by Kevin Street at 4:55 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

WaPo Spicer earns Four Pinocchios for false claims on inauguration crowd size

Goddamnit cut the cutesy shit and just write Spicer LIED. My former employer created Politifact so they could dance around writing that a politician or pundit was lying and everyone in journalism thought it was just fantastic and look where we are now.

Just fucking write Spicer LIED and tried to redirect the question and obfuscate the truth. In short SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER YOU ASSHOLES.
posted by photoslob at 4:55 PM on January 23, 2017 [151 favorites]

Just called Feinstein's LA office. Same "high volume of calls" message. God damn it, I am fucking pissed.
posted by otenba at 4:55 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Just to inject a moment of levity, Michael Ian Black created a White House Go. Petition: To explain to the American people why President Donald J. Trump is such a needy little bitch.

It only needs another 99,999 signatures.

Also, while we are being goofy, here is a copy of Spicer's tweet to Target "Just realized the two gallons of milk you sold me expire tomorrow." Target customer service told him to return the milk with his receipt. I have literally never contacted my grocery store to complain about expiration dates.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:57 PM on January 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

When will it finally hit that he won

Trump repeats debunked voter fraud claim at meeting with Hill leaders
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:57 PM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

Does someone have a list of the Pompeo "no" votes?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:58 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Spicer hates Dippin Dots ice cream too.
posted by Kevin Street at 4:58 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Alternative facts, law and order, deportation force... shit is going to get worse before we make it better.
posted by vrakatar at 4:58 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

She's 83 and just had a pacemaker put in, those seem like great reasons for her to step down.
posted by contraption at 4:58 PM on January 23, 2017 [14 favorites]

Dianne Feinstien voted to confirm Pompeo. California deserves better.

She needs to be primaried at the very least. Every democratic politician that sides with Trump needs to go.
posted by photoslob at 4:59 PM on January 23, 2017 [90 favorites]

Fucking Dianne Feinstein. She never misses a chance to be disappointing.

You guys need to primary her. Please. We need True Blue Democrats with spines, not "moderates."
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:59 PM on January 23, 2017 [59 favorites]

Looks like the Pompeo vote was on whether to proceed, not whether to confirm. [LINK]

Confirmations on the 20th were James Mattis for S of Defense [LINK] and John F. Kelly to be S of Homeland [LINK].
posted by Deoridhe at 5:01 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

What happens when there's a crisis?

"This crisis is directly tied to Secretary Clinton's disastrous reign as Secretary of State. I've directed Attorney General Sessions to launch a comprehensive investigation immediately. Now pray with me as I read from Two Corinations."
posted by Candleman at 5:01 PM on January 23, 2017 [18 favorites]

To be clear, Feinstein was a Yea on both confirmations so far - still a disappointment - but not a disappointment on Pompeo YET.
posted by Deoridhe at 5:01 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

I can't watch right now, but Joy-Ann Reid is currently moderating the Democracy in Color DNC chair candidates forum, if you're interested.
posted by zachlipton at 5:01 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

An interesting thread about the board/meme culture behind the alt-right: I spent most of 2016 monitoring various /pol/ and /k/ boards on a daily basis. What Spencer says in public is just the tip of the iceberg.

Chilling to think that tomorrow's mass executions of liberals may be soundtracked with vaporwave MP3s from blogs.
posted by acb at 5:02 PM on January 23, 2017 [29 favorites]

Trump seems to be stuck in campaign mode. When will it finally hit that he won, or will he go on defending himself for the entire term? What happens when there's a crisis?

The campaign Trump is Trump. That's all there is.
posted by thelonius at 5:02 PM on January 23, 2017 [42 favorites]

Oregon congressman calls Donald Trump 'Liar in Chief' on Twitter

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) is known more for his bow tie than for a fiery Twitter presence. But on Monday, the Portland representative took to Twitter to share his thoughts about President Donald Trump's first few days in office.

"In first 24 hrs @POTUS makes clear ego, not #facts or #honesty, will be guiding principle for him & his administration," wrote Blumenauer, using the hashtag "LiarInChief."
posted by futz at 5:02 PM on January 23, 2017 [44 favorites]

By the way, the White House petition site is somehow still up and running (if you thought the petitions were pointless in the previous administration, well...)
posted by dilaudid at 5:05 PM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

The vote was for consideration. The next step would be cloture. Nominees cannot be filibustered. Pompeo was just confirmed 89-9.

The Democrats are not exercising their right to deny unanimous consent, like they should be.

Total abdication.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:06 PM on January 23, 2017 [39 favorites]

Just got the "our offices are closed or are experiencing a high volume of calls" message when trying to call Feinstein's SF office before 5 to express my displeasure at her vote.

Same here. Dropped her an email ("Do better, Senator. Millions of Californians are counting on you.") and will follow up with a call manana. Grr.
posted by notyou at 5:08 PM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Two people familiar with the meeting said Trump spent about 10 minutes at the top of the gathering with Republican and Democratic lawmakers rehashing the campaign. Trump also told them that between 3 million and 5 million illegal votes caused him to lose the popular vote.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:08 PM on January 23, 2017 [26 favorites]

What was Harris' vote? Did she go along with Feinstein?
posted by suelac at 5:08 PM on January 23, 2017

The Democrats are not exercising their right to deny unanimous consent, like they should be.

I fail to see what difference it makes. Trump and the GOP don't care how many votes they get as long as they confirm people, which they can do with 0 Dem votes.

I'll save my outrage for things that actually have an impact on something.
posted by thefoxgod at 5:09 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Chant and or motto: 100 days, 10,000 lies.
posted by AlexiaSky at 5:09 PM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm so confused. Reuters is still reporting the vote was to confirm him.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:10 PM on January 23, 2017

I haven't been more terrified of a cabinet since Dr. Caligari.
posted by sexyrobot at 5:10 PM on January 23, 2017 [49 favorites]

I fail to see what difference it makes

More time spent with nominees pending on the Senate floor means less time that Republicans can destroy America. The Senate works VERY slowly without consent, Democrats could make each of these nominations take almost 3 full days, each. They're not.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:11 PM on January 23, 2017 [62 favorites]

thefoxgod: "I fail to see what difference it makes. Trump and the GOP don't care how many votes they get as long as they confirm people, which they can do with 0 Dem votes."

Even if doesn't make a difference in the outcome, it's extremely disheartening to see so little resistance in the people we elected to fucking resist.
posted by erratic meatsack at 5:12 PM on January 23, 2017 [80 favorites]

Trump pulls U.S. out of Pacific trade deal, loosening Asia ties

U.S. President Donald Trump formally withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal on Monday, distancing America from its Asian allies, as China's influence in the region rises.

Fulfilling a campaign pledge to end American involvement in the 2015 pact, Trump signed an executive order in the Oval Office pulling the United States out of the 12-nation TPP.

Trump, who wants to boost U.S. manufacturing, said he would seek one-on-one trade deals with countries that would allow the United States to quickly terminate them in 30 days "if somebody misbehaves."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArrrggggggg
posted by futz at 5:13 PM on January 23, 2017 [16 favorites]

This got buried under Sean Spicer drama, but it's kind of a big deal. U.S. judge finds that Aetna misled the public about its reasons for quitting Obamacare

Aetna claimed it was losing money and so it had to pull out of the exchanges, but in reality, they were making good on a threat to try to bully the government into approving their massive merger with Humana.
posted by zachlipton at 5:13 PM on January 23, 2017 [149 favorites]

Thank you guys for confirming that the vote was for consideration. I was ready with my pitchfork, but I will chill a little (though I would still have appreciated a No vote, and I'm still not opposed to primarying her). Looks like Harris also voted yes.

Gathering info and making a plan tonight for my office visit. My wish is that every person in California who has said "What's the point of calling my elected officials if I live in a deep blue state and they all agree with me?" focuses their attention on Dianne Feinstein. There is always something you can do.
posted by sunset in snow country at 5:14 PM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

I fail to see what difference it makes.

It's yet another indicator that Senate Dems are treating the administration as essentially legitimate
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 5:15 PM on January 23, 2017 [58 favorites]

one-on-one trade deals with countries that would allow the United States to quickly terminate them in 30 days

I hear that our stock markets and financial system *love* that kind of dynamic uncertainty. Just the kind of thing Republicans have been going on about for the last 30 years.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:15 PM on January 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

Good thing I'm going to her office tomorrow. Said it in the last thread, but if you are from California and would like me to hand deliver a letter to Senator Feinstein, memail me.

would you be willing to hand deliver a flaming sack of dog poo instead? it says far more about how i feel about her voting record than mere words can express
posted by entropicamericana at 5:17 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

I hear that they like to be called "misbehaving" like children.
posted by futz at 5:17 PM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

No, no, get yer pitchfork back out and start sharpening its tines. The NYT confirms Pompeo confirmation.
posted by notyou at 5:17 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Just the kind of thing Republicans have been going on about for the last 30 years.
Evidently I truly is OKIYAR.
posted by adamgreenfield at 5:18 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Trump’s latest hire alarms allies of Ryan — and bolsters Bannon, on Julia Hahn:

“She’ll be Bannon’s Bannon and make Bannon look moderate,” said William Kristol, the editor at large of the Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine. “Her tendency is to fight and fight, often to the extreme.”

Costa reported that this was getting a lot of attention on the Hill, given Hahn's past attacks on Ryan in Breitbart (stay for Jake Tapper getting into a fight on Twitter over whether he's too old for memes, just cuz).
posted by zachlipton at 5:18 PM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

NYPost: Senate confirms Mike Pompeo as CIA director
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:18 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Living in New York will, for the first time in a while, give me a voice in politics. I'm planning on calling Shumer weekly. For those who do visit congressional offices, how long does it take/whats the procedure? I'm crap at mailing stuff, but I do like the idea of showing up with a letter.
posted by Hactar at 5:19 PM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

It's yet another indicator that Senate Dems are treating the administration as essentially legitimate

Sure, although like you said "another indicator" --- this was already obvious. The Democratic Party is not challenging the fundamental legitimacy of Trump, and clearly never will.

I guess if anyone actually thought they would, this is hopefully evidence they won't. I never believed for a second that they would.
posted by thefoxgod at 5:19 PM on January 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

U.S. President Donald Trump formally withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal on Monday, distancing America from its Asian allies, as China's influence in the region rises.

Holy shit, he's actually starting a trade war. It's economic suicide.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 5:19 PM on January 23, 2017 [48 favorites]

(er, "hopefully evidence they won't" doesnt mean I don't want them to, I just mean that people should stop hoping they will, since that's not going to happen)
posted by thefoxgod at 5:20 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

I literally put Schumer (and Gillibrand) on my speed dial. I call Schumer pretty close to daily. It's my therapy. No idea if it is effective, but I share my thoughts and feelings pretty openly. Kind of want the staffers to start recognizing my voice.
posted by prefpara at 5:21 PM on January 23, 2017 [34 favorites]

.
posted by flatluigi at 5:21 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

WaPo Spicer earns Four Pinocchios for false claims on inauguration crowd size

Goddamnit cut the cutesy shit and just write Spicer LIED.

If it makes you feel any better, I somehow read this as "Four Pinochets" until your comment.
posted by bibliowench at 5:21 PM on January 23, 2017 [49 favorites]

Dept of Defense on twitter [real]

Social media postings sometimes provide an important window into a person’s #mentalhealth.

Heh
posted by Tarumba at 5:22 PM on January 23, 2017 [23 favorites]

TPP was dead already.
posted by Bee'sWing at 5:22 PM on January 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

You'll be glad to know that "alternative facts" has already made it to Marv Albert on today's Pacers broadcast. Did not expect that.
posted by selfnoise at 5:23 PM on January 23, 2017

Apologies if this was posted already (I don't remember seeing it and it didn't turn up in search), but it looks like the clip of the Donald apparently saying something awful to Melania at the inauguration was real.
posted by Mchelly at 5:25 PM on January 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

(I don't mean to usurp the mods, but please use the search box before posting links to avoid cluttering the shiny new thread with twitter snark that's already been snarked extensively in the last one)
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:26 PM on January 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

sunset in snow country: Said it in the last thread, but if you are from California and would like me to hand deliver a letter to Senator Feinstein, memail me.

Check your memail, I sent a note for Feinstein. Thanks for doing this!
posted by Room 641-A at 5:26 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Chilling to think that tomorrow's mass executions of liberals may be soundtracked with vaporwave MP3s from blogs.

And I thought shit like /baphomet/ was bad enough (warning: link is full of terrible things). It's as if a rat-king of disgusting teenage boy subconsciousness somehow uploaded itself onto the internet and become sentient.
posted by otenba at 5:27 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

An interesting thread about the board/meme culture behind the alt-right: I spent most of 2016 monitoring various /pol/ and /k/ boards on a daily basis. What Spencer says in public is just the tip of the iceberg.

Chilling to think that tomorrow's mass executions of liberals may be soundtracked with vaporwave MP3s from blogs.

Damn it, now these fuckers are ruining Mac Tonite?
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 5:27 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Sorry if I missed this, but is this video real?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:34 PM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

Damn it, now these fuckers are ruining Mac Tonite?

Mac Tonite has inspired "ironic racist" memes since the mid-2000s on YTMND.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 5:36 PM on January 23, 2017

There was a bunch of bullshit in the TPP. I'm not sorry to see it go, though I don't harbor any illusions that Trump is torpedoing it out of any motivations I'd recognize as particularly sane or healthy.
posted by brennen at 5:38 PM on January 23, 2017 [16 favorites]

Could the links maybe come with some description? I can't get videos to play of either Trumps supposed icy treatment of Melania or the video roomthreeseventeen posted of what appears to be trump about to shake hands with an orthodox priest (also, that one appears to have been tweeted by a right wing nut job). What do they show?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:42 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Mac Tonight was a mascot singing a tune about a serial killer, designed to sell baby boomers on late-night fast-food runs. They pulled the ads after being sued by Bobby Darin's estate. It was always pretty ugly.
posted by box at 5:43 PM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

Here are the 15 Senate Democrats voted for Rep Mike Pompeo R-KS as CIA Director: Donnelly, Feinstein, Hassan, Heitkamp, Kane, King, Kloubuchar, Manchin, McCaskill, Reed, Schatz, Schumer, Shaheen, Warner, Whitehouse

Rand Paul R-KY was the only GOP "No" vote
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:44 PM on January 23, 2017 [34 favorites]

From rainydayfund's link: Raymond from West Virginia shrugged his shoulders and said, “I thought it would be like one of his rallies. Instead, it’s this.” (Raymond then asked if I was Jewish. I said yes and he said “Just checking.” I said, “C’mon Raymond! Even your anti-Semitism sounds demoralized.” He looked down, sadly.)

I have to laugh because that is exactly the attitude I saw from those fucklords in DC this past weekend. Exactly. They were so wilted and upset.

Last night, just seeing a black lady perched in the front seat of an airport shuttle bus caused one dude to try to hide his MAGA hat in his goddamn lap. After a ten-minute ride to his car, while five women (three in pussy hats) cheerily chatted about their experiences and their plans for the future and their love for each other, he got up and--I can't describe it any better than he scuttled off the bus as fast as his legs could carry him without actually running. He was hunched in shame.

The driver--also a black lady--heard from the one lady up front that he had a hat when she laughed about it after he'd fled, and snapped that if she'd seen him she wouldn't have let him on his damn bus. And then we laughed a moment about his shame and fear, and shifted right back to planning our resistance and sharing our love for each other.
posted by sciatrix at 5:44 PM on January 23, 2017 [169 favorites]

Sorry if I missed this, but is this video real?

Yeah I posted that this afternoon at the end of the last FPP* and made the mistake of calling the guy who threw shade a Bishop. I was told he is a verger.

*With a bad link. Sorry guise!

That Trump/Melania exchange is something. She looks genuinely hurt. I know we are not supposed to feel sorry for her but Damn, that's her husband. Moral: Do Not Marry For Money.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:44 PM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

In the video showing the Trumps on the dais at the Inauguration, she's standing slightly behind and to the left of him. He turns and says something (can't see his lips) to her before turning back dismissively. Her face just crumples into a rictus of pain before she pulls it together.
posted by carmicha at 5:46 PM on January 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

What the fuck is wrong with Dems? What do they get out of this shit?
posted by Artw at 5:48 PM on January 23, 2017 [20 favorites]

1458 days until Jan 20, 2021, or as the song goes.

1458 days of Trump and his wall.
1458 days of Trump and his wall.
Take one down, pass it around...
1457 days of....

Remember the more you drink the less of the Trump Presidency you'll remember .
posted by humanfont at 5:49 PM on January 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

That Trump/Melania exchange is something. She looks genuinely hurt. I know we are not supposed to feel sorry for her but Damn, that's her husband. Moral: Do Not Marry For Money.

There was a sign in the Seattle march that read "Free Melania," that got a surprising amount of surprised laughter. Like - not hostility, even. More like, "Wow - right?!"
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:50 PM on January 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

I can't get videos to play of either Trumps supposed icy treatment of Melania

He is standing directly in front of her but turns his head to talk to her. She has a big smile while he is talking but then he turns back away from her with a sour look on his face. The minute he isn't looking at her, she drops the smile and looks hurt- like a kid who has been reprimanded. He has definitely said something nasty to her, you can see it in his expression.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:50 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

What the fuck is wrong with Dems? What do they get out of this shit?

Schatz is from our bluest of blue states. He gains nothing by voting for any Republican thing ever. He's in no danger out here. Generously, I'd imagine this has something to do with "oh we don't want to appear to be opposing everything" bullshit so they can save up for the DeVos and Sessions fights, but I think its more business as fucking usual. Schatz can expect the riot act from a lot of us.
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:50 PM on January 23, 2017 [14 favorites]

Schatz is from our bluest of blue states. He gains nothing by voting for any Republican thing ever. He's in no danger out here. Generously, I'd imagine this has something to do with "oh we don't want to appear to be opposing everything" bullshit so they can save up for the DeVos and Sessions fights, but I think its more business as fucking usual. Schatz can expect the riot act from a lot of us.

Primary the fucker from the left.
posted by Talez at 5:52 PM on January 23, 2017 [39 favorites]

Holy shit, he's actually starting a trade war. It's economic suicide.

Worse than that, the TPP would have put the US at an advantage in the Asian economic sphere and he threw it away for this idiot trade war play that makes everyone a loser.

There was a bunch of bullshit in the TPP. I'm not sorry to see it go, though I don't harbor any illusions that Trump is torpedoing it out of any motivations I'd recognize as particularly sane or healthy.

There was some bullshit, but it wasn't exceptional for its bullshit as trade deals go. I'm not saying I agreed with it, but it's definitely a more nuanced issue than the opposition to it has made it out to be. For instance, the ISDS provisions that would "allow companies to sue governments for lost profits" was a big issue people had with it, but the reality of the ISDS is that it's not a new thing with the TPP and is part of other treaties, the tobacco companies were the ones abusing it, and TPP explicitly cut them out of doing it. I still have a lot of problems with the ISDS system but none of them were started with the TPP.

Interestingly, it's really noticeable how Reddit was consistently and loudly anti-TPP for the past year and now all of a sudden on Reddit you see a lot of well-reasoned upvoted comments saying things like "The TPP wasn't that bad, idk why people bought into this idea of it, it wasn't perfect but a lot of the stuff people were freaking out about was already in place with a ton of different trade agreements, its negotiation wasn't some shady smoke-filled-room deal but comparable to any trade deal where parties work behind closed doors before going public with their demands" etc - gee, almost like there can be real conversations debating these things in good faith when someone turns off the money spigot for the astroturf accounts that are poisoning discourse. There's a lot of growing recognition of the enormity of the coordinated social media propaganda problem, it's like night and day when they aren't around, and their presence can fuck up an entire platform for months and months and really effectively spread a lot of misinformation and kill reasoned discourse.
posted by jason_steakums at 5:52 PM on January 23, 2017 [72 favorites]

I tried to call and yell at Schumer, and got punted after 20 minutes on hold. Tried to call to thank Gillibrand, and all of their voicemail boxes are full.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:53 PM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

I have been having conflicted feelings about all the Free Melania business because I do not hold with apportioning sympathy for vocal Trump supporters in accordance with how pretty they are, and in Melania's case, when it's not a joke it seems like half because she's a woman and therefore too dumb to be responsible and half because she's a foreigner with an accent in her non-native language and therefore too dumb to be responsible. it's like the treatment of Ivanka but a bit worse.

and I figured that since all her husband could do to her if she left him is enforce whatever horrible prenup he made her sign, I had no particular sympathy, any more than I do for Eric and whatshisface and whatshisface. god forbid any of them should ever get a job. you don't betray a country and support a monster just because he gives you money.

but I feel like I have to temper my judgment now because it's not just that one clip, it's all the ones that have been shared around from the inauguration, where he just fuckin ditches her in the car and turns his back on her and walks away leaving her standing again and again, the littlest humiliations, all designed to make her look foolish. he actually is an abusive husband and he actually would do his best to destroy her life if he felt like it. I don't like to assume adult women are victims unless they say so or unless I see it with my own eyes but I guess i just did.
posted by queenofbithynia at 5:55 PM on January 23, 2017 [122 favorites]

I feel for Melania as the mother of a small child who cannot have any comprehension of what's going on right now.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:57 PM on January 23, 2017 [20 favorites]

I'll save my outrage for things that actually have an impact on something.

Good advice. Too bad it will be ignored.

The biggest thing Trump has done so far is bail on TPP, which his supporters wanted, and a good chunk of Democrats also wanted. Nothing yet has gotten him into hot water with his base. That's going to change quickly if his goons go after net neutrality, which I just heard is in the works. I doubt Trump wants that, since White working class voters (his core support) can't afford to see their phone bills drastically go up, but it's a given that Trump has no choice but to play along and appease the GOP establishment and their corporate overlords.

The truth is that the left doesn't need to do a damn thing to ensure Trump is gone in four years. Republicans are going to do their work for them by forcing all sorts of anti working class legislation through the WH, and each appeasement to wall street will further diminish his popularity.

The only thing Trump can do to help his base that won't be blocked by the establishment is renegotiating trade deals, but that will only carry him so far. Everything else is going to weaken his support, and the weaker his support the more Republicans will demand, which will hurt him even further. It's a vicious downward cycle that he's going to find impossible to break out of.
posted by Beholder at 5:57 PM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

The first step in beating Trump: stop giving any money to the Democratic Party

It's like a 1000 Jill Steins all cried out at once
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:57 PM on January 23, 2017 [57 favorites]

everything will work out fine as long as we refuse to fund the only political party that isn't aligned with our insane fascist dictator
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:00 PM on January 23, 2017 [105 favorites]

Full video of Obama's first visit to CIA after election to give speech, April '09. Enters room to extended applause and cheering.

ganked from reddit.
posted by futz at 6:00 PM on January 23, 2017 [33 favorites]

Melania can be a shitty person and still be an abused person. The abuse doesn't excuse the shittiness and the shittiness doesn't justify the abuse. So I think its ok to simultaneously say "wow, she's said some really shitty things" and still think "wow, I hope she's not being abused because it sure looks like she's being abused."

I am not in favor of shitty people (or any people) being abused. I hope she can get out of that abusive relationship safely, but (barring some extraordinary revelation) I'm probably not going to be holding her up as an example of a noble person anytime soon.
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:00 PM on January 23, 2017 [94 favorites]

Instead of withdrawing from the Democratic party, join your local party. They desperately need want you, there's tons to do locally and in your state, that's where the back bench starts and that's how you influence the people in the party who seem to have the ears of the nationally elected Democrats. They need your money and your time and that's in fact how a lot of those Democrats you don't like got elected in the first place -- because they made friends and allies with lots of folks in the party already. So to change who and what gets support you have to be the ones the future candidates to be allied with.
posted by R343L at 6:01 PM on January 23, 2017 [125 favorites]

Well said, queenofbithynia. We actually found ourselves very surprised by our own response to the sign.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:02 PM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Could the links maybe come with some description? I can't get videos to play of either Trumps supposed icy treatment of Melania or the video roomthreeseventeen posted of what appears to be trump about to shake hands with an orthodox priest

As for the second video, at the end of the interfaith service in the National Cathedral all of the presiding bigwigs from different religions pass by DJT standing in his pew. They each stop to shake his hand except one guy-- a Black Verger-- who shifts his staff from his left hand to his right so he doesn't have to shake DJT's hand. He doesn't make eye contact, just completely ignores the President.

As far as Melania, it seems to confirm what many of us were thinking, DJT is an asshole and serial cheater who disrespects women therefore he must be a terrible husband. I can only imagine that Melania is his (mental) punching bag, that it makes him feel big to belittle her.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:03 PM on January 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

(Full disclosure: I say this as I'm about to go off to my first executive board meeting of my state legislative democrats group to which I got elected to one position because no one else was nominated. I feel like I barely did more than show up, have enthusiasm and meet the folks who have been in the local party forever.)
posted by R343L at 6:03 PM on January 23, 2017 [43 favorites]

Feinstein has indicated that she wants to seek another term. She's 83. California has a lot of high-ranking, high-grade Dems, because it's California, but only two senators, because the Senate is a stupid thing. One of those Dems has to be willing to say "thanks for your service, Dianne, but it's time for someone new", even if it's only as a stalking horse. Her hawkishness and her deference to the snoopers and keepers of secrets is going to be a liability in the years to come, and it's going to put her in direct conflict with those parts of the tech sector that are prepared to face off the administration on things like encryption backdoors.

What the fuck is wrong with Dems? What do they get out of this shit?

Perhaps the political calculation is that the CIA and the IC in general is a domain where they need to remain inside the tent pissing out, and Pompeo is the best they're going to get. Warner's the vice-chair of the Intel Committee, Whitehouse is ranking member of the Judiciary subcommittee on terrorism, etc. One wants to hope that people trusted with secrets will make judgements based on that knowledge, even while knowing that "being trusted with secrets" has its own distorting effect.
posted by holgate at 6:04 PM on January 23, 2017 [33 favorites]

The first step in beating Trump: stop giving any money to the Democratic Party until it gets dismantled to the joists, stops triangulating on votes for these racist, power hungry lunatics, and actually campaigns like it believes in something. They are not going to be leading any resistance in their current state.

I don't agree with cutting them off entirely BUT the DCCC itself is a good target for this because you can still donate to specific candidates directly instead of going through the organization. I set up a recurring donation to the DCCC after the election and between this and all of their tactless hyperbolic (yes, hyperbolic even in this horrendous climate) fundraising emails, I'm really thinking I need to put my DCCC donation on pause until they get their coordinated response shit straightened out and email them to tell them so. In the meantime that money can go directly to those Dem candidates who do live up to Democratic ideals. Win-win.

And if you don't already donate to the DCCC, maybe it's worth contacting them and telling them that you are pledging an $X recurring monthly donation IF AND ONLY IF they get their house in order. And then send them an update when that money instead goes to sitting members who are already doing a good job.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:04 PM on January 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

as for me, i'm starting to feel like the democrat/republican thing is something like a good cop/bad cop routine

the dems won't fight and i'm getting suspicious as to why
posted by pyramid termite at 6:04 PM on January 23, 2017 [37 favorites]

I think Melania is probably a shitty person and not the world's foremost deep thinker and I also think she's in an abusive relationship that she can't get out of because you know any attempt on her part to leave him (rather than him ditching her) would be met with retribution in the form of demanding full custody of Barron. And you know that prenup is rock solid. If she left she'd have nothing, not even her kid. Shitty person or not, that's not right.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:05 PM on January 23, 2017 [39 favorites]

US health officials cancel climate conference; don’t say why

...But a co-sponsor said he was told by the CDC that it was worried how the conference would be viewed by the Trump administration.

...“They had no idea or not whether the new administration would be supportive,” said Benjamin. His group was a co-sponsor of the CDC event and has its own climate-themed conference planned for November.

Rather, the decision was “a strategic retreat,” intended to head off a possible last minute cancellation or other repercussions from Trump officials who may prove hostile to spending money on climate change science, Benjamin said Monday.

“They decided the better part of valor was to stop and regroup” until it could be discussed with Trump’s new health leadership, Benjamin said. A new CDC director has not been named.
posted by futz at 6:06 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

pyramid termite: your first mistake is thinking of a political party as if everyone in it is the same or has the same motivations. While I'm sure some Democrats are just interested in maintaining their positions, don't mind making nice with the Republicans, not all do and even the excessively compromising ones can be convinced otherwise if Democrats in their district make noise.
posted by R343L at 6:07 PM on January 23, 2017 [16 favorites]

And you know that prenup is rock solid. If she left she'd have nothing, not even her kid. Shitty person or not, that's not right.

That prenup just became eminently negotiable. It's just that the one thing she can't do is leave while he's in office.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:07 PM on January 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

That's going to change quickly if his goons go after net neutrality, which I just heard is in the works.

The Ars Technica boards, which at least used to have a strong gamer-tech-bro contingent, have soured on Trump, and they are particularly pissed about the possibility of net neutrality going away.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 6:09 PM on January 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

Do you know it just occurred to me that Donald could have threatened her with deportation if she tried to leave him. However, now that he is POTUS while it might seem as though he has more power, she will have more protection. All it takes to start the ball rolling is for her to go to a journalist and tell her story. If she paints him as a monster-- imagine the publicity.

Ugh, sorry MetaFilter, this is becoming very gossipy.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:10 PM on January 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Mac Tonite has inspired "ironic racist" memes since the mid-2000s on YTMND.

It's so hard to keep track of all this internet shit

Mac Tonight was a mascot singing a tune about a serial killer, designed to sell baby boomers on late-night fast-food runs. They pulled the ads after being sued by Bobby Darin's estate. It was always pretty ugly.

Yeah, well I liked him. I mean, I was five, but
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:10 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Dude, what Dems do you have? Mine are fighting tooth and nail, but they're in the House and the State Lege. It's your Senators, blue-state folks, who seem to be rolling over most aggressively to me.

I say this as someone who loves my rep, but I'm harrying him to do more too while I'm at it. We're asking him to make more noise about rural communities in Texas. We're asking him to do more and do more, even when he's tired, even when he has very little support, and it makes me feel bad because he is so clearly trying but we need him so much right now. We need him to help make a base here in Texas and to help breathe enthusiasm to support him here, too. And we need him to keep standing tall.

So we're calling him, too. My spouse asked him today to take a stance on water rights, even if he can't do anything about it. I'm going to ask him to make a stand on Flint. We're asking him to push harder, go harder, even if it's not "politically feasible." I don't think there's any such thing any more, and in any case.... well. We don't have any choice. We have to try.
posted by sciatrix at 6:10 PM on January 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

Well if this book is actually as bonkers prescient as the description says (and I really hope we hear from Mefites reading it soon!) Melania is about to be the agent of his downfall in the final act.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:10 PM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

everything will work out fine as long as we refuse to fund the only political party that isn't aligned with our insane fascist dictator

What I mean is this incarnation of the Dems. The establishment Democrats like Feinstein, Schumer and DWS (who was on the podium at the March) take wayyyy too much for granted and are institutionally protected from accountability in too many ways.

The only way to really stop Trump is to flip the House and Senate in 2018 and start impeachment proceedings. Hands up everyone who has faith in the current leadership of the DNC and DCCC to win that battle?

Obviously there's value in fundraising for genuine progressives who want to run as Democrats. I'm merely suggesting starving this batch of oxygen until the leadership is handed over to people who aren't afraid to stand up for something.
posted by dry white toast at 6:10 PM on January 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

And in case you haven't noticed, it's not enough to be merely "not aligned" with Trump anymore.
posted by dry white toast at 6:13 PM on January 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

Laurie Penny: The Triumph of the Won’t

If you’re about to toss off some leftier-than-thou whingebaggery about how this day of marches won’t really achieve anything in the long run, how it’s all a bit bourgeois, a bit knit-your-own-hummus, how nothing but total and immediate proletariat revolution will ever be pure enough to get you out of your pontification chair and into the street, let me get in there ahead of you: No, this is not a perfect protest. If such a thing is possible, this march isn’t it. There are a fair number of white women thanking the police for their service. There are no attempts to burn the actual White House to the ground and replace it with a statue of Angela Davis made from the fossilized tears of fascists. Angela Davis is there, though.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:14 PM on January 23, 2017 [55 favorites]

The ONLY Senate Democrat to vote no on Kelly, Mattis & Pompeo was Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. So, we have that going for us in New York, while having to figure out what the hell Schumer is doing.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:14 PM on January 23, 2017 [56 favorites]

Perhaps the political calculation is that the CIA and the IC in general is a domain where they need to remain inside the tent pissing out, and Pompeo is the best they're going to get.

This is probably the real reason, Pompeo is on the extreme end of "normal" Republican nominees, but he has sat on the Intelligence Committee, and does at least know what the CIA does, without having shown specific intent to destroy it from the inside (whether he's open to return to the Bush era black sites and torture shit though...). If his nomination goes down the next might be Guiliani. But there's no reason for only 9 dissenting votes. He was going to get confirmed anyway, some symbolic resistance would've been nice, particularly from Dem Leadership. Feinstien herself has been a lost cause for decades now, she's never seen a totalitarian surveillance measure she didn't love, and is a complete dinosaur relevant to the state California has become. It's been long overdue to primary her from the left.

But in general, the Democrats have shown zero proclivity towards actual resistance. They're not taking advantage of procedures that Republicans would without question. The age of friendly "senate comity" needs to be over. Republicans killed it along with Merrick Garland's nomination. There should never be unanimous consent again, all legislation should be filibustered until Republicans kill it, and all of these nominations should be 58-42 or some such, allowing for some small number of 2018 vulerables to cross over on hopeless ones, but not 89-9. And the worst ones like Tillerson, Sessions, Devos, and Carson, no Democratic defections are acceptable.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:16 PM on January 23, 2017 [46 favorites]

The only way to really stop Trump is to flip the House and Senate in 2018 and start impeachment proceedings. Hands up everyone who has faith in the current leadership of the DNC and DCCC to win that battle?

Well my Rep, Nancy Pelosi, was standing there laughing and joking with Trump shortly after he took the oath of office, so no, not really. I fully get that she needed to be there and participate in the process as a Congressional leader, and that's something she ought to do with dignity and class, but the image is burned into my brain of her smiling and joking at the start of a process that could lead to many of her constituents being deported, losing their health care, etc..., and it's not a pretty one.

I will acknowledge that she did then fly out here to participate in the women's march in the rain.
posted by zachlipton at 6:17 PM on January 23, 2017 [19 favorites]

One outcome of the Trump Administration will be a constitutional amendment requiring the office of president to be filled only by an AI being run on a quantum computer with a 666 yodabyte or above capacity.
posted by y2karl at 6:20 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Back to that claim he made at his meeting with the House and Senate Leaders, that he would have won the popular vote if it wasn't for those 3 to 5 million illegal ballots cast. Nancy Pelosi was at that meeting. I wonder how she reacted. What about Paul Ryan? Are any of them trying to disbuse him of that notion? And why did his estimate of illegal votes cast suddenly rise from 3 million to 5? Something on Infowars?

I fully expect him to start saying things like there would have been more people at his inauguration but "they got kidnapped by illegal gangs" and the Woman's March looks like it had a lot of people "but the crowds were photoshopped in and it was really only 2 Muslims and a Dreamer."[Fake]

Kellyann and Ivanka must be doing some incredible emotional labor right now, listening to him rant, trying to soothe his ruffled feathers, telling him he is the greatest President who ever lived.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:21 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Schumer is worthless and I'm afraid I may have voted for him.
posted by valkane at 6:23 PM on January 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

Trump Administration Imposes Freeze On EPA Grants and Contracts

The Trump administration has imposed a freeze on grants and contracts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a move that could affect a significant part of the agency’s budget allocations and even threaten to disrupt core operations ranging from toxic cleanups to water quality testing, according to records and interviews. ... One EPA employee aware of the freeze said he had never seen anything like it in nearly a decade with the agency. Hiring freezes happened, he said, but freezes on grants and contracts seemed extraordinary. The employee said the freeze appeared to be nationwide, and as of Monday night it was not clear for how long it would be in place. ...

Monday night, Myron Ebell, who ran the EPA transition for the incoming administration, confirmed the basics of the freeze, but said the actions were not unprecedented. “They’re trying to freeze things to make sure nothing happens they don’t want to have happen, so any regulations going forward, contracts, grants, hires, they want to make sure to look at them first,” said Ebell, who returned over the weekend to his position directing energy and global warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market, industry-aligned group that has long fought the EPA’s growth and influence.

posted by maudlin at 6:23 PM on January 23, 2017 [19 favorites]

The entire world is doing some emotional labor right now.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:23 PM on January 23, 2017 [34 favorites]

JFC. Here's CNN’s lead Trumpkin, Jeffrey Lord, using immigrant women’s menstruation to rail against global trade and migration. (video inside)

Yeah, it makes zero sense.
posted by zachlipton at 6:27 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

He really isn't going to get over losing the popular vote is he?

He's going to be on his deathbed and still going on about 'I won. I really won! 15 million illegal votes!!!' I
posted by Jalliah at 6:27 PM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

Democratic establishment and Republican establishment aren't going to rock the boat. Don't expect 70 and 80 year old lifetime politicians to spend the last years of their well fed life breaking a sweat. Trump was (gasp) right when he said in his speech that we suffer, but the political class always takes care of themselves.

Painful, but true. Ride out his first (and only term) and make damn sure that a firebrand progressive, someone young, combative, and uncompromising wins the nomination. The primary season is only 36 months away, but actually begins much sooner, and I can think of no better use of energy and time than to make damn sure the next Democratic primary offers a robust number of legitimate choices instead of one outsider, one establishment candidate, and someone who had no reason to be on that stage other than to attack the outsider. That scenario must not be allowed to repeat itself.
posted by Beholder at 6:27 PM on January 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

I will acknowledge that she did then fly out here to participate in the women's march in the rain.

That's one for Pelosi in the plus column, distinguishing her from the likes of Keith Ellison and Thomas Perez, who joined other Dem big wigs at a Miami luxury resort for David Brock's donor retreat.

Top Democrats Missed Women’s Marches to Attend Luxury Donor Retreat Thrown by Clinton Henchman
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:29 PM on January 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

The problem with Dianne Feinstein is she has so much institutional support you'd have to be crazy to run against her, as demonstrated by the last time anyone ran against Dianne Feinstein.
posted by ckape at 6:30 PM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

More on the EPA freeze: EPA staff has been instructed to freeze all its grants ― an extensive program that includes funding for research, redevelopment of former industrial sites, air quality monitoring and education, among other things ― and told not to discuss this order with anyone outside the agency, according to a Hill source with knowledge of the situation.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:30 PM on January 23, 2017 [35 favorites]

The problem with Dianne Feinstein is she has so much institutional support you'd have to be crazy to run against her, as demonstrated by the last time anyone ran against Dianne Feinstein.

Don't give up before you start. California is becoming more liberal with each passing year and under Trump's rule I can only see them becoming more radical. Harness the outrage!
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:33 PM on January 23, 2017 [20 favorites]

Dina Leygerman: You Are Not Equal. I’m Sorry.

A post is making rounds on social media, in response to the Women’s March on Saturday, January 21, 2017. It starts with “I am not a “disgrace to women” because I don’t support the women’s march. I do not feel I am a “second class citizen” because I am a woman….”

This is my response to that post.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:34 PM on January 23, 2017 [57 favorites]

I hope he is never happy, ever again, about anything, because of losing the popular vote.

It won't help anything else or make him any less awful, but I want him robbed of all enjoyment out of spite.
posted by Artw at 6:34 PM on January 23, 2017 [29 favorites]

The primary season is only 36 months away, but actually begins much sooner, and I can think of no better use of energy and time

I fucking well can. The next Congressional election is in two years, not three, not four, and speaking for myself I am much more interested in flipping the fucking House and Senate as hard as I can than playing Presidential primary contests so that we can wage Bernie Vs Hillary Round Eleventy Bajillion three goddamn fucking years before it can do any goddamn good!
posted by sciatrix at 6:34 PM on January 23, 2017 [139 favorites]

MIDTERMS, MOTHERFUCKERS.

And don't vote anything other than Dem for any dumb reason.
posted by Artw at 6:35 PM on January 23, 2017 [75 favorites]

How directly is the EPA continuing to work with Flint, Mi?
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:36 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

(No, not to "teach them a lesson". Primaries are for that.)
posted by Artw at 6:36 PM on January 23, 2017 [22 favorites]

Just to inject a moment of levity, Michael Ian Black created a White House Go. Petition: To explain to the American people why President Donald J. Trump is such a needy little bitch.

Why am I only the 2nd person to sign this?
posted by natteringnabob at 6:37 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Seriously I swear that one of these days some idiot is going to start pontificating about a Presidential race before we've even had our damn midterms and I am finally going to lose my temper and haul off and smack them one good instead of bestowing upon them my charming good mood
posted by sciatrix at 6:38 PM on January 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

I'm merely suggesting starving this batch of oxygen until the leadership is handed over to people who aren't afraid to stand up for something.

That is a terrible plan that has not even a one in a million chance of working and would help Trump and Republicans immensely.

Did the person you heard this plan from have a Russian accent?
posted by bongo_x at 6:38 PM on January 23, 2017 [28 favorites]

Honestly, it's hard enough living in Florida as a liberal but then friggin Bell Nelson is being praised as the last line of defense. This guy never responds to emails aside from the instant auto response. His voice mail at all offices is full and I've never once been able to leave him a message. He updates FB and Twitter about once a month. So what does our defender Nelson have to lose?

"But looking too much like an obstructionist on other key issues could pose a risk for Nelson, one of 10 Democrats running for election in a state Trump won in November.

Nelson, who has is seeking a fourth term in the Senate, is a generally popular figure in the state with a strong foundation of support in the Republican-leaning Panhandle, said Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida."

I will be at his local office in person tomorrow and I am going to work SO HARD to primary this guy. So. Hard.
posted by hollygoheavy at 6:38 PM on January 23, 2017 [25 favorites]

I think Melania is an asshole AND I think it's plain as day that she's in an abusive marriage. His public (public, my god! Imagine what goes on in fucking private) treatment of her is honestly triggering. I had a narcissistic father and it's echoes of my mother all the way down. It's also why I suspect that Ivanka is the favorite until she disappoints him and then there is hell to pay.

None of this excuses their behavior, nor does it look to do so, it just highlights how fucked up HE is and how his tactics in politics are those of a fucking abuser.
posted by lydhre at 6:39 PM on January 23, 2017 [54 favorites]

via West Wing Reports

President's Tuesday:
9:00-meets w/auto industry leaders;
10:00-Chief of Staff;
11:00-signs Executive Order;
1:00-call w/Indian PM Modi;
1:30-CIA Dir. Pompeo;
3:00-Senate Leadership;
3:45-Senate Maj. Ldr. McConnell.
Briefing 1:30
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:42 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

For further reading the proposed FY 2017 EPA budget in brief (PDF) posted prior to inauguration .
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:42 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

No press releases will be going out to external audiences.

No social media will be going out. A Digital Strategist will be coming on board to oversee social media.
Existing, individually controlled, social media accounts may become more centrally controlled.

No blog messages.

The Beach Team will review the list of upcoming webinars and decide which ones will go forward.

Please send me a list of any external speaking engagements that are currently scheduled among any of your staff from today through February.

Incoming media requests will be carefully screened.

No new content can be placed on any website. Only do clean up where essential.

List servers will be reviewed. Only send out critical messages, as messages can be shared broadly and end up in the press.

I don't believe for a second that it's just the EPA getting orders like these. God, Trump "Digital Strategists" pushing propaganda out directly from the agencies and trading on their decades of credibility.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:42 PM on January 23, 2017 [108 favorites]

Why am I only the 2nd person to sign this?

I was also the 2nd person to sign. Seems suspicious.
posted by bongo_x at 6:43 PM on January 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

I hope he is never happy, ever again, about anything, because of losing the popular vote.

Unfortunately, I very much doubt he now experiences, or ever has, any emotion that you or I would know as "happiness". I'm only judging on what he appears to be in public, and it looks like there's a version of something he thinks means happiness, but it bears no resemblance to the kind of joy or contentment others do. He feels domination and success, and made an emotional taxonomic mistake somewhere.
posted by mrgoat at 6:46 PM on January 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

Seriously I swear that one of these days some idiot is going to start pontificating about a Presidential race before we've even had our damn midterms and I am finally going to lose my temper and haul off and smack them one good instead of bestowing upon them my charming good mood

You better avoid anything that mentions Zuckerburg then. I am/will be right along side you to do some walloping.
posted by futz at 6:47 PM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

And why did his estimate of illegal votes cast suddenly rise from 3 million to 5? Something on Infowars?

I think that's the number the RNC calculates they need to suppress the vote by, in order to ensure they win the next election. Mark my words, the polls will be purged by at least five million "illegal voters" by 2018.
posted by happyroach at 6:50 PM on January 23, 2017 [25 favorites]

That whole thing... it was the most baffling lie, because it's so easily debunked. There were thousands of cameras there. Is he obsessed with size? First the things with the hands, which wouldn't have been anything at all until he made it into something by petulantly replying to it in exactly the way you bloody well don't.

He's a like bratty teenager : Everybody came to my party it was the most bigly party ever! You're lying liars! It's was bigly!

And that was his first contact with the press as POTUS. An obvious lie. Who was that meant for? The true believers? And that was something truly inconsequential. What about when it's really fucking serious? WE CAN'T TRUST THE WHITE HOUSE.
posted by adept256 at 6:50 PM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

That is a terrible plan that has not even a one in a million chance of working and would help Trump and Republicans immensely.

As opposed to all the problems the Dems are causing them now?
posted by dry white toast at 6:50 PM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

That whole thing... it was the most baffling lie, because it's so easily debunked.

They're not lying because they think people will believe them. They're lying because they need to justify what they're going to do to their enemies.
posted by Etrigan at 6:53 PM on January 23, 2017 [33 favorites]

From 538: How Unconscious Sexism Could Help Explain Trump’s Win

Not much in there we haven't discussed about a million times on here already, but I thought this part was especially interesting (emphasis mine):

“I don’t think you can understand [Clinton’s] candidacy without understanding gender bias is baked into it,” Caroline Heldman, a political scientist at Occidental College who has written about internalized sexism, said in a telephone interview. “We don’t like women to be ambitious. It rubs men and women the wrong way.”

Measuring implicit bias is tricky — because the bias is unconscious, you can’t just ask people how they feel about women in a professional context, or about sexist attitudes. So researchers instead run online experiments that test how quickly subjects associate typically male or female words such as “boy” and “lady” with “career” or “family.” (You can take a version of the test at the website of Project Implicit, a nonprofit research organization.)

Project Implicit ran this experiment with more than 700,000 online test takers from 2006 to 2015. The results show that conservative women had higher implicit gender bias than women with other political ideologies and than men of any political ideology, according to data provided by Colin T. Smith, the project’s director of education, at my request. At every level of self-reported political ideology, women had a higher level of implicit gender bias than men.

posted by triggerfinger at 6:54 PM on January 23, 2017 [24 favorites]

Museums Across the World Are Collecting Women’s March Signs
posted by futz at 6:56 PM on January 23, 2017 [21 favorites]

Many critics thought Spicer went too far and compromised his integrity. But in Trump’s mind, Spicer’s attack on the news media was not forceful enough.

It's going to get so, so much worse.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:57 PM on January 23, 2017 [32 favorites]

Oh, the lies have a variety of purposes. They're what he needs to be true to justify what he plans to do next. He's remarkably delusional, and literally cannot psychologically handle not being #1 at all times, in everything, forever. It's a message to the press that reporting these lies as truth is to be their new reality, on pain of whatever punishment the White House can dish out. A warning shot that they fully intend to wage a war on facts.

Take your pick. They're all true.
posted by mrgoat at 6:58 PM on January 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

Not just EPA: "Effective now, USDA-ARS scientists can't release any public-facing docs,incl photos, fact sheets, social media #ThanksTrump #muzzling"
posted by unknowncommand at 7:01 PM on January 23, 2017 [65 favorites]

Is he obsessed with size?

Yes. And making things gold.

He's not even a child, he's a child's idea of a child.
posted by Artw at 7:03 PM on January 23, 2017 [23 favorites]

This is what it looks like when you run a government like a business.
posted by valkane at 7:04 PM on January 23, 2017 [17 favorites]

Canada's been through this sort of shit before, but this is looking even worse. I'm so sorry, and so angry.
posted by maudlin at 7:04 PM on January 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

YES, TRUMP FUCKING WITH THE FOOD SUPPLY WILL WIN YOU GODAMN MILLIONS OF VOTES.

sorry, not sorry
posted by AlexiaSky at 7:05 PM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

How about donating lots of money to the Republicans as a way to show Democrats how dissatisfied we are. That will show them, then they will have no choice but to embrace The Truth.
posted by bongo_x at 7:06 PM on January 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

Wow that Independent article on Merkel et al.'s reactions to Trump. Our most important European ally, the largest economy in the richest economic union besides us, and they can't even establish basic lines of communication. WE ARE SO FUCKED.
posted by dis_integration at 7:06 PM on January 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

The USDA? Seriously?

As for dems who aren't resisting, yes, primary them. Especially in blue states and districts. It worked for the tea party, it can work for us.
posted by nat at 7:08 PM on January 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

Bear in mind that Trump's economic shenanigans will either be stopped or they'll split the party, because his nonsense is going to start hurting the wealthy and they're going to complain.
posted by Frowner at 7:10 PM on January 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

My theory is Melania is actually Trump's Russian handler.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 7:10 PM on January 23, 2017 [70 favorites]

Foreign leaders have to know that this madness will not last forever. I wonder if they're speaking quietly to the grownups in the room, or the closest facsimile.
posted by Countess Elena at 7:12 PM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

As opposed to all the problems the Dems are causing them now?

Even a waffling establishment Dem is causing them a big problem by not being a Republican, and the Republicans are working to change that. It's a choice between someone who we can negotiate with 75% of the time, who will magically get on board 100% of the time the moment they feel they have the political capital to do it, and someone who will never, ever negotiate with us. We need to approach this tactically, and I can't express that strongly enough. That means building a bench, primarying where it won't seal the deal for a Republican, and using activist pressure, targeted donations and all the carrots and sticks we can lay hands on to create an atmosphere in the Democratic party where the establishment Dems see which way the wind is blowing and get their shit together. This can all be done without major infighting, the thing about establishment Dems is that they're always biding their time and hedging their bets until the way forward is clear, and we can make it clear. Support the fighters in the party and reward them and the followers (who are somehow also the leaders in this weird ass party) will want in on that action, especially if their base is pushing them with positive and negative reinforcement. It's something Obama told us again and again and again and again and the overall Democratic base just didn't listen, the bulk of us got complacent thinking we were on cruise control to a bright future and we didn't push our reps and senators to do better. If we pushed like this back in '09 we would have a drastically different party right now, even with a lot of the same names involved, because they will go where we lead them.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:12 PM on January 23, 2017 [60 favorites]

Bear in mind that Trump's economic shenanigans will either be stopped or they'll split the party, because his nonsense is going to start hurting the wealthy and they're going to complain.

Yeah this USDA thing in particular... there's rumblings of a farm crisis a-brewin' already, and climate change will only continue to have effects on crops, perfect time to gut USDA research! It's not like research based agricultural extension pilot programs fucking built our modern agriculture industry* or anything.

*start with the paragraph "At the start of the twentieth century, another indispensable but unmanageably costly sector was strangling the country: agriculture."
posted by jason_steakums at 7:20 PM on January 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

I'm in the USDA and..... I guess I can't say anything.
posted by acrasis at 7:22 PM on January 23, 2017 [45 favorites]

Trump didn't go after China on Day One

He promised to label China a currency manipulator on day one. He has not done so.

And I mean, most of his day one plans were extremely awful, so I'm glad he hasn't followed through, but the number of promises he's dropped on the floor already is pathetic.
posted by zachlipton at 7:22 PM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

The USDA? Seriously?

Someone's gotta pay for the failure of Trump steaks, I guess.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:23 PM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

Trying to 'cut the head off the snake' is not going to get long term change. And, if you have vopral axe of +5 snake slaying, what makes you think you'll be let near the snake? The Courts won't let you as they are the legal way to slay the snake.

Why not start small - read the state laws. And once you find out how you can be guilty of a crime for not reporting a crime (does not apply in some States) or how in Texas or California a Grand Jury can examine into any crime that comes to the attention of the Grand Jury start filing criminal complaints about the people who provide cover and food to the snake? If filing your own criminal complaint is too scary, why not start being a Court Watcher and then file bar grievances or judicial conduct complaints when you see something that shows the rule of law is bunk.

Go read 42 U.S. Code § 1983 and ask yourself if this new snake, by malice or incompetence, is violating your right(s).
posted by rough ashlar at 7:24 PM on January 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Yeah, but were trump steaks even meat? I was under the impression that if anyone would pay for that failure, it would be the sawdust and plastics industries.
posted by mrgoat at 7:25 PM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

So with the latest round of backstabbing anonymous quotes in the press, which is becoming a daily routine now, I've got to ask why the story hasn't shifted to the fact that this is not normal. This administration has people tearing into each other every single day, using the same media they supposedly hate. Why is the story not, "senior administration officials keep calling reporters to attack each other on the daily?"

I know, I know, because of access and because reporters can't burn their sources, but at some point, and I think we're well past it, the ridiculousness of the infighting and the very fact of the leaking has to be a bigger story than the tidbits of information being leaked.
posted by zachlipton at 7:32 PM on January 23, 2017 [18 favorites]

It's economic suicide.

America was gonna go bankrupt one day - why not have someone at the head who knows a thing or 2 about 'em?
posted by rough ashlar at 7:32 PM on January 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Trump should NOT have watched Suicide Squad before picking his cabinet.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:34 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

The great American delusion is about "winning the lottery". It's ironically appropriate that this economic model should be destroyed by someone who couldn't keep a casino in business...

or as I wanted to put on caps: "MAKE AMERICA LIKE ATLANTIC CITY"
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:36 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

America was gonna go bankrupt one day - why not have someone at the head who knows a thing or 2 about 'em?

Just wait till the tax cuts, increased defense spending, and resulting budget shortfalls overheat and tank the economy.
posted by vrakatar at 7:38 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Foreign leaders have to know that this madness will not last forever. I wonder if they're speaking quietly to the grownups in the room, or the closest facsimile.

well see there's your problem
posted by um at 7:38 PM on January 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

The article about FAIR (linked in the FPP) cites a NYT story from 2011. I found this bit interesting and it made me a tiny bit hopeful that phone calls do make a difference:

...One group that Dr. Tanton nurtured, Numbers USA, doomed President George W. Bush’s legalization plan four years ago by overwhelming Congress with protest calls. Another, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, helped draft the Arizona law last year to give the police new power to identify and detain illegal immigrants.

...Numbers USA showed its force in 2002 when Republican leaders of the House backed a bill that would have allowed some illegal immigrants to remain in the United States while seeking legal status. Numbers USA set the phones on fire, and a majority of Republicans opposed it.

...The big war broke out in 2007, after Mr. Bush proposed a systemic overhaul including a path to citizenship for most illegal immigrants. Supporters said it would free millions of people from fear and exploitation; opponents argued that it would reward lawbreakers and encourage more illegal immigration.

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 futz at 7:38 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

1458 days until Jan 20, 2021, or as the song goes.

THAT'S SO MANY DAYS.
posted by dis_integration at 7:39 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

I can't draw a straight line between donating $100 or even $1,000 to Democrats and better outcomes for America, but I can say that imploring others to withhold money from them as a strategy to bring about change is one of the most ridiculous things I've seen in the last week outside of the administration's own actions.

If you really think the Democrats are worthless and irredeemable, why not check in on those third parties? Remember them? The ones that more than 7 million Americans showed up to the polls for, despite the fact that they almost certainly knew the vote would not affect the outcome? Why not go find out if they're still around? If you're outraged at the Democrats, maybe dozens or hundreds of other people in your arae are, and then you can pool your outrage to make some Democrats fear for their goddamned lives in their next election.

Hell, I think third parties as presently constituted in the US are a perverse fucking joke, but that strategy seems orders of magnitude more likely to do something to stop our descent into fascism than telling people not to support the one political entity that is in a position to meaningfully inconvenience the Trump/Ryan/McConnell agenda.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:40 PM on January 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

Why is Feinstein being singled out for the hate-on when people like Klobuchar voted the same way?
posted by Justinian at 7:43 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

um: sadly, you're right. If life were a novelist, there would be some steely kingmaker or Gentlemen of Last Resort that other governments would know to speak to about what was really likely to happen, and who could honestly be dealt with. But sadly, life is not good enough for truly comforting conspiracies. It's just one load of human beings after another.
posted by Countess Elena at 7:43 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

1458 days until Jan 20, 2021, or as the song goes.

Can you imagine what kind of a state they'll leave the offices in? They'll upper-decker the toilets and piss in the coffeemakers. Still, I'd just be happy if they left voluntarily. Sometimes I wonder if they ever mean to.
posted by Countess Elena at 7:46 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Klobuchar represents what's now a vulnerable purple if not leans red seat. Feinstein is open in 2018, and represents the most unapologetically liberal state in America, and is in Dem Leadership. We shouldn't have to beg her to cast minimally liberal votes.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:48 PM on January 23, 2017 [57 favorites]

Why is Feinstein being singled out for the hate-on

A past leadership position. That and her husband.
posted by rough ashlar at 7:49 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Still, I'd just be happy if they left voluntarily. Sometimes I wonder if they ever mean to.

I know it's been tossed out there for every administration for a while, but no, I don't think they plan on ever leaving. Because they live in a complete fantasy land.
posted by bongo_x at 7:50 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

They'll upper-decker the toilets and piss in the coffeemakers.

And that's just the first week.
posted by mrgoat at 7:51 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

I keep seeing articles that stress how apolitical the CIA is. If true, I wonder it that is about to change. I wonder if they are more pro-american and will work behind the scenes to 'save us' instead of blindly following Dear Leader's orders. Sounds nutters I know but we live in unpresidented times ;)
posted by futz at 7:52 PM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Gotcha. I'm happy to vote for Feinstein's opponent in primary I just don't think she's hugely problematic when compared to someone like Manchin.
posted by Justinian at 7:52 PM on January 23, 2017

There was this link in the last thread, where Robert Reich was relaying a conversation he had with a former Republican member of Congress and they said they think the plan is to pass all the unpopular red meat Republican shit with Trump as a figurehead and then chuck him out and blame him for it all - which is a stupid plan, if it's the plan, but if that is the idea it's going to backfire hilariously when Trump's 100% committed to his agenda of trade war and tanking himself in the polls with tantrums and they have to pull the ripcord early before they even get to pass all their shit under his name. If that is their idiot plan, I can't wait for the image of an exposed Paul Ryan having to waffle on passing his own bill proposals.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:53 PM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Oh hey, Josh Marshall is reading my mind: No White House Leaks Like This ... Until Now
posted by zachlipton at 7:54 PM on January 23, 2017 [30 favorites]

They're planning on leaving... when they shut it all down. (And take all the office supplies home.)
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:54 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

As opposed to all the problems the Dems are causing them now?

dry white toast; I want to be clear I'm really not attacking you personally.
posted by bongo_x at 7:54 PM on January 23, 2017

Trump seems to be stuck in campaign mode. When will it finally hit that he won, or will he go on defending himself for the entire term?

I get this gut feeling that Trump expected the entire nation to pivot into adulation and/or at least complicit respect the moment he took office.

Since that hasn't materialized, it's going to be a huge psychological block for him until it happens. Thus the crap about crowd numbers over the weekend, then the grumpy post about "where were the marchers during the election?", and when that didn't pan out now it's back to the alleged 3-4 million stolen votes.

TLDR: Daddy didn't love me.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:55 PM on January 23, 2017 [25 favorites]

America was gonna go bankrupt one day

I'm thinking, what, this Thursday? Friday at the outside.
posted by emjaybee at 7:58 PM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Trump will start jealously fixating on North Korea before long. He won't be able to stand how the entire NK society is set up to require everyone to adore the leader while he has to suffer the indignity of losing the popular vote. He'll nuke them first.
posted by gatorae at 7:59 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'm surprised the North Koreans havent started trolling Trump on twitter yet.
posted by Justinian at 8:00 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

they think the plan is to pass all the unpopular red meat Republican shit with Trump as a figurehead and then chuck him out and blame him for it all - which is a stupid plan,

I completely believe that is the plan, and it is a stupid plan because just as no one is loyal to Trump, Trump is loyal to no one. He's not a Republican. If he starts fighting with them he will start working against them out of spite. That's why they've kissed his ass so far, and why they will dump him as soon as he becomes a problem.

I also think Republicans expected him to be slightly more popular at first though, because, you know, that's what winning the election should imply.
posted by bongo_x at 8:01 PM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

In looking up Feinstein's track record to point out that while she is not a full-on card-carrying Lizard Person she's been two-steps-forward-one-and-a-half-steps-back for much of her career, I stumbled upon the fact that 154,781 Californians voted for Orly Taitz in a primary for the United States Senate.

Even in a country where Trump ended up as President, that's terrifying on a very primal level.
posted by delfin at 8:01 PM on January 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

I feel very superstitious about saying "Trump will do Horrible Thing I Just Now Thought Of and here's how!" Like we should not float that shit into the ether where someone might hear it and go "Huh, good idea!"

I know: superstition. I find myself more superstitious in general these days. I comfort myself by throwing spilled salt over my shoulder and hanging a mirror to reflect bad luck out of my front door. It's like I have to do something so what the hell.
posted by emjaybee at 8:02 PM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

I'm surprised the North Koreans havent started trolling Trump on twitter yet.

Well, the DPRK parody account has been.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:02 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

He won't be able to stand how the entire NK society is set up to require everyone to adore the leader while he has to suffer the indignity of losing the popular vote

Isn't that why he set up the "National Day of Patriotic Devotion" for 1/20, his inaguration day? Not 9/11. Not Veterans' Day. Not Memorial Day. Not July fourth.

Oh, and let's not forget he tried to book a parade of tanks and missles for last friday. I can't wait to see what kind of of shindig he's dreaming up for 1/20/18.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:04 PM on January 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

I am really trying to keep the political noise down on my social media so that people will listen to more of what I say, but National Day of Patriotic Devotion, I mean Christ, it's too late at night to yell as hard as I want to. What kind of juche shit is that. Not just Inauguration Days to come but his specifically. Our grandkids, if they make it, are going to laugh.
posted by Countess Elena at 8:10 PM on January 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

they think the plan is to pass all the unpopular red meat Republican shit with Trump as a figurehead and then chuck him out and blame him for it all - which is a stupid plan

This is probably a brilliant plan. Trump voters are too stupid to recognize it's the Republicans who will be taking away their healthcare and Social Security when that's the only thing Republicans campaigned on, there's no reason to expect them to attribute blame to Paul Ryan when it happens. Really, as long as 'the illegals' and 'those people' don't get anything for free either, White Rust Belt voters don't even care about their own prosperity or that of their grandchildern.

Betting on white resentment and vindictiveness hasn't failed them yet, all they have to do is run the same play again.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:10 PM on January 23, 2017 [14 favorites]

let's not forget he tried to book a parade of tanks and missles for last friday.

The parade of missies was on Saturday instead, and I hear it was very successful.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:10 PM on January 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

January 20th 2018? Oh, you mean Down with Tyrants Day? I suggest we celebrate by reading some Thomas Paine, some Orwell, some Sojourner Truth, some Frederick Douglass. Sing the full version of This Land is My Land. I'm sure we can think up a few more things incorporating resistance to tyranny.
posted by emjaybee at 8:11 PM on January 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

re: "National Day of Patriotic Devotion" apparently it's not unusual for a new president to give their inauguration day a title. Obama's was "National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation" and Bush 43's was "National Day of Prayer and Remembrance".

But still.. National Day of Patriotic Devotion is very Kim Il-Sung.
posted by birdheist at 8:12 PM on January 23, 2017 [18 favorites]

I completely believe that is the plan, and it is a stupid plan because just as no one is loyal to Trump, Trump is loyal to no one. He's not a Republican. If he starts fighting with them he will start working against them out of spite. That's why they've kissed his ass so far, and why they will dump him as soon as he becomes a problem.

Maybe the USDA is just not allowed to share the news of all these new, high security corn fields being developed. You know, the kind that are good for wishing people into.
posted by maudlin at 8:12 PM on January 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

Feinstein is open in 2018, and represents the most unapologetically liberal state in America

She's Hawaii's Senator now?
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:19 PM on January 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

The Republicans cant actually push through most of their agenda, can they? Cuts to entitlements or massive tax cuts would have to pass a filibuster and cant be done with reconciliation?
posted by Justinian at 8:21 PM on January 23, 2017

This is total New York Daily News gossipmill stuff, but it's based on an account by a named source, Fox Business correspondent Charlie Gasparino, and I posted a story here earlier today about Sean Spicer's gum habit, so it's not like my editorial standards can be that high, right? So here it is: Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway allegedly punched a man in the face at inaugural ball

"Inside the ball we see a fight between two guys in tuxes and then suddenly out of nowhere came Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway who began throwing some mean punches at one of the guys," Gasparino wrote. "Whole thing lasted a few mins no one was hurt except maybe the dude she smacked."

posted by zachlipton at 8:21 PM on January 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

Trump also reiterated the unsubstantiated claim that 3-5 million illegal votes cost him the popular vote, according to two sources familiar with the meeting

So, to be clear, Trump believes literally millions of votes were illegally cast, but is apparently satisfied with the current number of people being prosecuted for voter fraud, which I believe is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10. Not ten thousand, just... ten.

What about all the downballot races that were compromised by these millions of illegal votes? He's just fine with less than 0.01% of people committing voter fraud being caught for it?
posted by 0xFCAF at 8:23 PM on January 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

I'm very angry and disappointed with both my Senators (Warner and Kaine(!!!)) right now. I'll be calling their offices tomorrow to relay this to the poor intern who answers the phone (don't worry, I won't yell) and to remind them that they're in the opposition party now and that their ONE job for the next four years is to oppose everything, anything, and anyone this administration proposes. If either of them think they won't be primaried from the left if they keep this up, they are sorely, sorely mistaken.
posted by longdaysjourney at 8:24 PM on January 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway allegedly punched a man in the face at inaugural ball

Was it Richard Spencer or another Nazi? Because that would be awesome.
posted by ryoshu at 8:25 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

I assume Conway is eaten up with a simmering stew of repressed rage and self-hatred at all times, so add some alcohol and sure, punching might happen. She is the handmaiden of an evil idiot king. Who knows what that could do to a person.
posted by emjaybee at 8:25 PM on January 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

On the topic of Kellyanne:

"Because of what the press is doing now to me, I have Secret Service protection”

Gotta get used to this most victimized and defenseless poor lil' fascist regime
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:26 PM on January 23, 2017 [19 favorites]

shit, I was just about to say what if Kellyanne Conway punched a Nazi in the face?[1] would I have to rethink any of my positions or just none of them?

[1] I mean it was a random man at the Trump inaugural ball so she probably already has
posted by queenofbithynia at 8:27 PM on January 23, 2017 [17 favorites]

Sorry to spam but don't want y'all going out into the world with bad info on my account.

George W proclaimed his inauguration the National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving, not National Day of Prayer and Remembrance.
posted by birdheist at 8:28 PM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

I assume Conway is eaten up with a simmering stew of repressed rage and self-hatred at all times, so add some alcohol and sure, punching might happen. She is the handmaiden of an evil idiot king. Who knows what that could do to a person.

And, I mean, a Ted Cruz PAC before that. I can't even imagine the level of self-hatred.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 8:28 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Conway has much more power to do evil than any single Nazi, so... I guess you just place your bets and root for career-ending injuries.
posted by tonycpsu at 8:29 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

The Republicans cant actually push through most of their agenda, can they? Cuts to entitlements or massive tax cuts would have to pass a filibuster and cant be done with reconciliation?

I thought it was the opposite; money bills can be passed through reconciliation, while policy changes are potentially subject to the filibuster.

Regardless, Republicans can simply add all the poison pills they like to a must-pass bill like the defense or Ag budget, and force the Dems to cave or see the government shut down.

Would Democrats hold strong in that scenario? I suppose it depends on how much backbone we put into them now.
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:29 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

The Republicans cant actually push through most of their agenda, can they?

I still don't think the filibuster is worth the flaming embers of Riddick's Senate Procedure it's clinging to life on. The first time Republicans want something and it's blocked by Democrats, the filibuster is dead.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:30 PM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

New article about Conway: You Would Do The Same Thing If An Old Witch Had Your Father’s Soul Trapped In A Lantern (Onion)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:31 PM on January 23, 2017 [25 favorites]

Betting on white resentment and vindictiveness hasn't failed them yet, all they have to do is run the same play again.

Yeah I don't really believe it because I won't trust that it's not just wishful thinking until I see it happen, but the thing that makes me wonder is that despite the common wisdom saying that they'd be turning their base against themselves, they don't tend to lose when they bet on their base turning out for them no matter what shit they pull. And, every day it starts to look more and more like this mythical hardcore Trumpist base is actually pretty small and buffered by a lot of people pulling the lever while holding their nose, and the buyer's remorse started setting in real quick with a lot of people. He certainly excited a lot of people, but I'm finding it harder to believe every day he instilled a lot of loyalty. On top of that, you don't get reelected over and over while congressional approval on the whole is in the toilet without starting to think you're untouchable, and tbh they've got a good case to make for it. I think the Ryans and McConnells of the world do think of themselves as being untouchable in the same way Trump does, which is why Ryan stupidly keeps going after programs like Social Security oblivious to the fact that the same dumb move turned the base against the much more popular Bush.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:32 PM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm sure the number of people who illegally voted is swamped out by the people illegally prevented from voting.
posted by ckape at 8:32 PM on January 23, 2017 [34 favorites]

I still don't think the filibuster is worth the flaming embers of Riddick's Senate Procedure it's clinging to life on. The first time Republicans want something and it's blocked by Democrats, the filibuster is dead.

They'd have had to remove it already, the Senate rules all went through...

I guess they could do it next year?
posted by Justinian at 8:33 PM on January 23, 2017

The Democrats triggered the nuclear option in November 2013.

Republicans would be doing exactly the same procedure, no?
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:41 PM on January 23, 2017

They'd have had to remove it already, the Senate rules all went through...

They can do it at any time. Harry Reid's invoking of the nuclear option in 2013 was in November, in the middle of the 113th Congress.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:41 PM on January 23, 2017

A step forward for the NY Times as they replace "falsehood" with the correct term in a home page headline: Trump Repeats Lie About Popular Vote in Meeting With Lawmakers (Body text stills says "falsely claimed" and "untrue", but hey, it's a start.)
posted by maudlin at 8:42 PM on January 23, 2017 [50 favorites]

I did not know that, TD Strange!

Republicans would be doing exactly the same procedure, no?

There's a difference between removing the filibuster for some appointments and removing it for legislation. The latter would make the former look like a big nothing. It would be a firestorm.
posted by Justinian at 8:47 PM on January 23, 2017

Gotta get used to this most victimized and defenseless poor lil' fascist regime

This is what fascism does. This is how it works.
posted by theodolite at 8:48 PM on January 23, 2017 [18 favorites]

Like the firestorm over stealing a Supreme Court seat?
posted by zachlipton at 8:49 PM on January 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

I am really trying to keep the political noise down on my social media so that people will listen to more of what I say, but National Day of Patriotic Devotion, I mean Christ, it's too late at night to yell as hard as I want to.

I have no problems with him doing this. It's the least harmful thing he could possibly do.

I feel very superstitious about saying "Trump will do Horrible Thing I Just Now Thought Of and here's how!" Like we should not float that shit into the ether where someone might hear it and go "Huh, good idea!"

See, I believe in the Power of Opposite Thinking. Because it seems like whatever I genuinely believe is gonna happen (say, Hillary winning), the opposite happens. So if I think shit like, (redacted so it won't get deleted), it won't happen!
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:49 PM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

After they marched, 500 women learned how to run – for office
posted by triggerfinger at 8:49 PM on January 23, 2017 [32 favorites]

Like the firestorm over stealing a Supreme Court seat?

Right, that was the thing for me. Good governance is dead. Obstruction is rewarded, not punished. There's no norms left, only power. Republicans have the power to pass whatever they want, and the filibuster is a piddling norm that won't stop them when nothing else has, it will be gone too as soon as they need it to be.

We need to a) stop relying on norms to save us. They're dead. and b) play the same game. Only power matters. We need to claw it back, and we need to primary the Democrats that won't. That's how they won total control, it works. Every time we go high, they win more.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:54 PM on January 23, 2017 [46 favorites]

A step forward for the NY Times as they replace "falsehood" with the correct term in a home page headline:
I hope that headline stands. Too often they change it.
posted by futz at 9:08 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't care who they are or what they've done.

there is no "we" if we don't have values.
posted by zutalors! at 9:17 PM on January 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

I managed to block out reality from November through now. I stopped listening to NPR in my car, I logged out of Facebook and Twitter, and I got immersed in a couple of really good sci-fi series. I've been really having a hard time over the past couple of days when the news has reached an unavoidable crescendo.

Obviously I'm going to support the opposition in any way I can, but I'm no use to anyone if I'm stressed out and can't sleep. It's going to be really hard to figure out how to survive 4 years of this.

Right now my goal is just to switch to non-panicky news sources. The Economist is great because it's both totally factual and also very dry and unemotional. I'm looking for others though.
posted by miyabo at 9:18 PM on January 23, 2017 [14 favorites]

Women's March Organizer Linda Sarsour Is Under Attack on Social Media

One of the organizers of the Women's March is under attack this morning, following reports from conservative news sites like The Daily Caller that accused her of having ties to terrorists. Linda Sarsour, a Muslim-American woman, has been an activist for decades and is widely respected for her dedication to progressive causes.

I certainly don't agree with Sarsour when it comes to everything in the Middle East, but the Islamophobic attacks on her over the past few days are horrific and transcend political disagreement into some pretty deep personal attacks.
posted by zachlipton at 9:23 PM on January 23, 2017 [29 favorites]

Via Twitter, someone who doesn't need to pay for an applause section:

John Lewis just walked through Terminal 2 at DCA followed by what can only be called a rolling tidal wave of standing ovations.

Video here.

More video.

I am verklempt.
posted by longdaysjourney at 9:30 PM on January 23, 2017 [112 favorites]

> Yes, why don't we check in on those third parties? The one that earned the most votes had a vice presidential candidate who all but endorsed Hillary Clinton (kudos to him), while the other one featured a Russian-aligned and Russian-funded anti-vaxxer purist who didn't.

I think the rest of my comment makes it clear that I agree with you on the merits of third parties as presently constituted. My only point was that someone who feels that attacking Democrats is the way to stop Trump should at least consider trying to make them something other than a punch line. I dispute their premise that both parties are equally hopeless and destructive, but to someone who believes that, I say go support a third party instead of trying to tear down the one that's in a position to prevent people from being harmed right now.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:37 PM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Now showing:

Lego President Batshitinsaneman
posted by y2karl at 9:42 PM on January 23, 2017

Couple comments deleted; if there's some greater interest in repeating jerky tweets, that needs to be clearer, otherwise let's just skip the "hey look this random person said a jerk thing"
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:46 PM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

sorry. if it makes a difference I regretted it immediately.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:48 PM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

President Trump on Monday reignited the war over abortion by signing an executive order blocking foreign aid or federal funding for international nongovernmental organizations that provide or "promote" abortions.

Yeah this is really happening :(

Follow along with Track Trump a site dedicated to tracking all the shit that goes down for the first 100 days.
posted by fragmede at 9:54 PM on January 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

The worst part is Trump doesn't give one wet shit about abortion one way or another -- he's probably just doing it as part of a "deal" where he gives the fundiecrats something they want in exchange for something else they want.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:56 PM on January 23, 2017 [35 favorites]

> I'm surprised the North Koreans havent started trolling Trump on twitter yet.

Yeah, their leader's not stupid and crazy enough to get trolled on Twitt... wait now I'm really sad.
posted by fragmede at 9:59 PM on January 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

he's probably just doing it as part of a "deal" where he gives the fundiecrats something they want in exchange for something else they want.

Or because women marched against him and he knows it will infuriate them.
posted by Candleman at 10:31 PM on January 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

We're all familiar with Hanlon's razor but with Trump it may, indeed, be reversed.
posted by Candleman at 10:33 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Just to inject a moment of levity, Michael Ian Black created a White House Go. Petition: To explain to the American people why President Donald J. Trump is such a needy little bitch.

Why am I only the 2nd person to sign this?

Maybe because the day before yesterday about 500,000 people, mostly women, marched in Washington D.C. and it looks like more than 3 million turned out worldwide to support women and women's rights and out of all the things you can say about Trump maybe calling him a bitch isn't reading the mood accurately?

Also, the link still says that just one person has signed the petition but who cares?
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:50 PM on January 23, 2017 [52 favorites]

I dispute their premise that both parties are equally hopeless and destructive

Right - the Republicans are destructive whereas the Democrats are hopeless!
posted by atoxyl at 10:54 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

(Actually I am on team "push the Democrats to stand strong, or else replace them with better Democrats" more or less, but I don't know how anyone left of center can have lived through the last couple months and not think there is something wrong with this party as it stands.)
posted by atoxyl at 10:57 PM on January 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

Do not do a Labour Party you fucks.
posted by Artw at 10:59 PM on January 23, 2017 [24 favorites]

Was it Richard Spencer or another Nazi? Because that would be awesome.

Oh, it probably wasn't even a man. She probably just saw her reflection and freaked out that the lady in the glass wouldn't back down.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:59 PM on January 23, 2017 [14 favorites]

So as long as we're talking about replacing people who are cooperating with the Trump regime, are there any plans to primary Bernie Sanders? After all, he did vote in favor of two Trump nominees. Which is pretty damn infuriating after his talk of revolution.
posted by happyroach at 11:00 PM on January 23, 2017 [51 favorites]

I've been a bit- well, not okay since November. Though I've lurked in these threads (I love everyone in this bar, thank you so much MeFi) I really haven't had a voice since the election.
I couldn't attend a march this weekend, but seeing the pictures and hearing the stories gave me the first bit of hope since the election.

So today, I spent my lunch break calling my senators. Ted Cruz's staffers were all on other calls, and his voice mail was full. I tried his other offices and then tried again at 2, 3, 4 and 5- no dice. Really, really frustrated- but at least John Cornyn's voice mail wasn't full, yet.

So then I called my Congressman, and spoke to a lovely intern. I'm going to make an appointment with his local office to discuss his stupid tax plan, too. And another appointment with Cruz's staff and Cornyn's too- they're over an hour away, but I'll make it work.

Fuck it, you assholes want to ignore us? I'm done making it easy for you. I'm a queer immigrant jew who lives in your district. Let's chat- I think I'm done being silent.
posted by Torosaurus at 11:04 PM on January 23, 2017 [103 favorites]

If the current state of administrative dysfunction means muzzling all the little people while leaking like the post-iceberg Titanic at the top, I hope someone with a halfway respectable publishing operation sets up a decent how-to-cum-publishing mechanism to encourage safe leaking from within federal agencies. I can think of a couple of ways someone like the Times or WaPo or - who would you trust of the online-only news sites? - someone else creating a pathway to send docs or messages that doesn't leave a browser history trail or show up on ISP/organisational network monitoring as anything suspicious. You'd have to deal with what you get responsibly for the usual reasons (which is why an ab-initio domestic Wikileaksalike probably wouldn't work) but it could be done.
posted by Devonian at 11:10 PM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Someone fixed the new Whitehouse.gov site.

The WHITE HOUSE President Fuckface Von Clownstick

I am enjoying the hell out of this.
posted by futz at 11:19 PM on January 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

pretty obvious, but nice to see it laid out...
A Tale of Two Moralities, Part One: Regional Inequality and Moral Polarization (via)

Republican-leaning counties account for a dwindling share of the national product. According to Muro and Lui, in the 2000 election, which also featured a split in the popular and electoral votes, Bush won 2397 counties, accounting for 46% of GDP, while Gore won 659 counties accounting for 54% of GDP. In the 2016 election, the general pattern repeats: the Republican candidate wins many many more counties responsible for a smaller share of American economic output, but the asymmetry has become even crazier. Clinton took just 472 counties, which account for 64% of GDP, while Trump took 2584, which account for just 36% of GDP. That’s amazing.

[caveats]

A shrinking number of counties is accounting for a rising proportion of America’s wealth... Given the specific counter-majoritarian mechanisms in the U.S. constitution, this is a recipe for political dominance of the less economically productive conservative white minority, who control most of the country’s territory, over the liberal multicultural majority who live in increasingly concentrated urban centers of wealth. To the extent that increasing economic security is liberalizing and stagnation and decline tend toward an illiberal, zero-sum survival mindset, this amounts to a recipe for the political imposition of relatively illiberal policy on an increasingly liberal and increasingly economically powerful cities. This is not a stable situation, and bodes ill for the future of American freedom.

also btw...
-The Long March Ahead For Democrats [1,2,3]
-On the tactical uses of (obvious) lying
-Trump Sold America a Miracle Cure[*]
posted by kliuless at 11:26 PM on January 23, 2017 [55 favorites]

More comedy classics from deep in Sean Spicer's twitter.

Paid communicator gets who/whom wrong, doesn't understand how Twitter works, gets nation's top political communication job.

Spoiler: it was Dippin Dots that unfollowed him. /fake
posted by tonycpsu at 12:01 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

why not start being a Court Watcher and then file bar grievances or judicial conduct complaints when you see something that shows the rule of law is bunk.

Just a note that filing lots of bar grievances against jurists or prosecutors in cases you're a stranger to will generally just get you added to the state bar's man-yells-at-cloud crackpot file. Similarly trying to influence grand jury proceedings.

What you CAN do, if you have the time, is try to get ON a grand jury. Look into how your jurisdiction does it.
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:10 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

So as long as we're talking about replacing people who are cooperating with the Trump regime, are there any plans to primary Bernie Sanders? After all, he did vote in favor of two Trump nominees. Which is pretty damn infuriating after his talk of revolution.

Well Al Giordano wanted to - not sure that's working out all that well for him...
posted by atoxyl at 12:36 AM on January 24, 2017

I was going to note that Kirsten Gillibrand deserves credit as the only person to vote against Mattis and thus also the only person to vote against all the nominees thus far but I see she's already been commended for that.
posted by atoxyl at 12:37 AM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

One deleted. Please don't directly quote an article or a person and change their actual words. Don't change it to "Drumpf" when they've said "Trump." If you are using a replacement script that automatically changes your view, you need to revert to the correct text before posting. Thanks.
posted by taz (staff) at 12:52 AM on January 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

Futz, that Fuckface Von Clownstick link launched a vibrating pop-up that tried to get me to install malware. Pity, it sounded delightful.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 12:54 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

I see here and elsewhere that people are having a very hard time calling their representatives and getting through-I've had the same problem myself lately. I asked my new Congresswoman to do something about it at her open house last tuesday. Specifically, I asked her to work to ensure that people can always leave a voicemail, no matter the call volume. Being able to contact your representatives is a basic tenet of representative government and updating technology in Congress to reflect these times of increased activism is something that bipartisan congresspeople of integrity should endorse.

I am also now an appointed PCO in my legislative district for the democratic party. The party is now reorganizing in your area for the new congressional term and it is a good time to get involved. If you don't like the Dems, I'm sure that third parties are organizing now as well. Local politics makes a huge difference and the Republicans are running everything now because they've been kicking our asses at it for 30 years.

I know that there are lots of activists on Metafilter and I am proud to still be part of such a vibrant community. I'm strapping in and I wanted to let you know, I like it when people talk about what they are doing here.
posted by Kwine at 1:06 AM on January 24, 2017 [31 favorites]

Original SPLC story: White Nationalists To Gather This March for VDARE’s First National Conference

& now -- White supremacist gathering to be held outside of Yosemite loses its booking [FB]:

Tenaya Lodge today became aware of the nature of VDare Foundation, an organization that several weeks ago booked meeting space and rooms from March 31 to April 2.

Unfortunately, at the time of booking we did not realize this group has values that are in conflict with our embracement of diversity among our employees and guests, including people of different cultures, lifestyles, creeds, nationalities, races and ages. We are also concerned that providing meeting space and rooms to this group could be disruptive to our other guests’ enjoyment of Tenaya Lodge and the services we provide to those guests.

In response, we’ve taken steps to immediately cancel this booking. We regret the mistake and want to assure you that in no way does Tenaya Lodge endorse this group.
posted by snuffleupagus at 1:12 AM on January 24, 2017 [44 favorites]

It's a great time to be an investigative/political journalist.

This first step could be showing concrete solidarity. The next time Donald Trump tries to single out a reporter, or doesn’t answer a question, the next reporter who’s allowed to speak should repeat the question of the journalist Trump has snubbed.

And if Trump stops this reporter, too, then the next one should repeat the original question, and so on. This would be a new, unusual approach. But if the media doesn’t want to see more press conferences like the disastrous one we saw recently, they will need to be bold.

The next level of solidarity and cooperation is even more challenging. Let us assume a source approaches a reporter of the Washington Post with important information which is hard for them to corroborate. Why not reach out to a colleague who already did work on this topic, even if at a rival publication – the New York Times, CNN, ProPublica, Fox News or where ever – for help? They might have the missing piece of the puzzle, they might have the vital second source and they might have what it takes to publish the story. So why not collaborate?

The highest level of collaboration – which is what these times require – would be special joint projects. A possible first project could be to look into his international business ties, and those of his billionaire cabinet, to find all of their conflicts of interest.

Donald Trump alone has his hands in hundreds of companies, so it is impossible for one news outlet alone to investigate this properly. But it is not impossible if there’s a collaborative investigation.

posted by Thella at 1:17 AM on January 24, 2017 [45 favorites]

This first step could be showing concrete solidarity. The next time Donald Trump tries to single out a reporter, or doesn’t answer a question, the next reporter who’s allowed to speak should repeat the question of the journalist Trump has snubbed.

That seems like a really great tactic if the goal of the press corps is to only ask one question and not get an answer. What could that possibly achieve?

How about this: Ask a different question -- a real question about a real thing that really matters, not just whatever inanity he's beefing on Twitter about today. If he doesn't answer that either, or answers in the form of a lie, then Hey! you've got something else to write about. If he gets asked a bunch of different questions and dodges or bullshits all of them, that's a heck of a lot more valuable than just driving all the cars into the same brick wall.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:43 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Those of y'all with Democratic MOCs, please DO read them the riot act. Cause those of us with Republicans are basically trying to get them to stop calling us fat sluts.

Sorry, feeling kinda discouraged. Calling Republican fuckwads is getting old, even when I let myself call after hours and REALLY lay into them.
posted by threeturtles at 2:20 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

The worst part about rebuilding is that we not only have to wrest the levers of power from every republican in the gerrymandered states, but we have to kick out half the complicit democrats too.
posted by benzenedream at 2:30 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

The troll army is on the move...

Inside The Private Chat Rooms Trump Supporters Are Using To Manipulate French Voters
posted by Buntix at 3:21 AM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

HELP
posted by chillmost at 3:23 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

HELP
posted by PenDevil at 3:29 AM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

One from earlier deleted. Please, if you absolutely must continue to endlessly fight each other about the dems, at least don't ramp up with ragebait stuff about voting for Hitler, spitting on people, and telling them to move to another country. If your point is valid, you can make it without spoiling for a flamewar and misdirecting the discussion to arguing about if it's okay to vote for Hitler if he caucuses with your party. Just make an effort, please, if you'd like to keep this place somewhere to have these discussions.
posted by taz (staff) at 3:31 AM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

telling them to move to another country
In the Netherlands election season has been underway for a while but has really started this week, when our Prime Minister said in an interview that if people don't like it here, they should leave. "You don't have to be here. If you don't like how we treat each other in this country, you have a choice, go away!" he said. And then, of course, he went on to describe all the things he did not like about how we treat each other in this country.

I wish politicians had Metafilter mods who told them to quit the ragebait stuff and make an effort.
posted by blub at 3:52 AM on January 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

Just a note that filing lots of bar grievances against jurists or prosecutors in cases you're a stranger to will generally just get you added to the state bar's man-yells-at-cloud crackpot file.

Your point? The bar grievance process is just for show to the public. Like so many of the the 'rules of law' in a society under the 'rule of law' there is one set of rules for the 'leadership' and another for the proles.

You know you are in the "crackpot" file if your turn around time is in a week. When your responses take months (while others you know have the week turn around time) you are on-target. (BTW if being in "The Crackpot File" is such a concern, why hasn't that been brought up with being Anti-Trump when calling a Republican Rep? Do Congress-kritters not keep such 'files'?)

Go read the model ABA rules. Then go to your State rules. Read the annotated State rules. Note how in the annotated rules some rules have cases and others do not. Note how for things like trust fund misuse and having sex with a clients girlfriend while selling the clients drugs are listed. Other things like simple "Candor to the Court" which should prevent a lawyer from talking about bankrupting the business in emails with the client while submitting to the Court the client doesn't know who the owners are AND that the client is not the owner will just not be found in violation of the "Candor to the Court" rule.

Given the size of recording devices and the ubiquity of the surveillance state one of the only places you can't record a public official doing their job is a Courtroom. Now the claim is electronic recording is not needed because of Court Reporters. But if you can't have an electronic record that is independent, how do you verify the Court Reporter is accurately reporting?

If the Court system isn't honest - how in the hell do you expect a rule-breaking Trump and the people/businesses tied to or benefiting from Trump to be held accountable?

Want to get 'em worried? After you read the rules for the State Bar figure out what records they ARE to keep and open record request 'em. You get VERY nice letters from the chief judge. Every two weeks. And later - thick envelopes with the records. (Don't have time to go visit/call Congresspeople? Work with Muckrock and others on FOIA requests.)

And folks, take heart. Tricky Dick Nixon brought us FOIA and other laws. LET TRUMP BE AS TRUMPY as he can. Use the laws you now have like FOIA and think of the NEW laws which will spring as a backlash to this generation's Harding.
posted by rough ashlar at 4:20 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

You realise that Trump being as Trumpy as he can will hurt people, and hurt people in some groups disproportionally more... yeah?
posted by Too-Ticky at 4:23 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Nah man accelerationism is totally a cool plan.

I guess a progressive future for white America is totes worth a the shit PoC and LGBT and religious minorities are going to endure over the next 4 years.

Primary from the left if you must but keep in mind that a Republican Senator is a guaranteed vote to dismantle civil rights, social security and medicare.
posted by vuron at 4:30 AM on January 24, 2017 [41 favorites]

What you CAN do, if you have the time, is try to get ON a grand jury. Look into how your jurisdiction does it.

Keep in mind some States are just not empaneling Grand Juries anymore. Because the best way to [prevent a run away Grand Jury is to not HAVE a Grand Jury. Want to know if you are in such a State? Open record request the Clerk of the Courts for the payments made to the Court Reporter (or stenographer) for the Grand Jury.
posted by rough ashlar at 4:37 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Inside The Private Chat Rooms Trump Supporters Are Using To Manipulate French Voters

This is fine. Everything is fine.
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:38 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

@MerriamWebster: If you're part of a group that's paid to applaud, you're a 'claqueur'.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:40 AM on January 24, 2017 [47 favorites]

CIA Starts Recruiting Its Newest Asset: Donald Trump: Langley is ready to woo the new president like a foreign leader. The key? Flattering his ego. ‘He is extremely insecure like an adolescent boy,’ one analyst told The Daily Beast.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:44 AM on January 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

So far the EPA and the ARS at the USDA are known to have been Steven Harpered.

Any other agencies yet?
posted by ocschwar at 4:46 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

CIA Starts Recruiting Its Newest Asset: Donald Trump

Won't that make him a double agent?
posted by ocschwar at 4:46 AM on January 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

CIA Starts Recruiting Its Newest Asset

Christ, they're a bunch of jokers. I wonder if it's in their manual: "Step one in manipulating a target: get a journalist to report your intention in a national platform."
posted by Coventry at 4:50 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

...and in today's Trump lookalike news,

* A wheelie bin
* A frogfish

“We’ve named the fish Donald and transferred it into a bigger tank, so that more people can see it. “Strangely, the other fish tend to keep it at a distance.” He added: “We even staged our own underwater inauguration ceremony, complete with a miniature stars and stripes flag. “We invited everyone who was at SEA LIFE to watch, but the crowd turn-out wasn’t as big as expected!”

posted by Buntix at 4:51 AM on January 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

You guys, I had this dream that President Obama had died in office and that's how we got Trump. I literally actually woke up crying, which has never happened to me before even with dreams where I'm crying in the dream. Unfortunately, although reminding myself that Obama is not actually dead helped a tiny bit, it didn't do that much.

This is not the kind of dream I usually have.
posted by Frowner at 4:51 AM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

In other news...

The gag rule also prevents health workers in foreign countries from advocating for abortion rights, which includes testifying about the impacts of illegal abortion.

Global gag rule' reinstated by Trump, curbing NGO abortion services abroad (Grauniad)
posted by Mister Bijou at 4:53 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

WaPo: Sean Spicer’s Stalinist apparition: Trump is a human dust devil, spinning off analogies and references. He is Orwellian, Kafkaesque and always chillingly demagogic. He vilifies the press as Hitler and others once vilified Jews — mysterious, powerful, deceitful, unpatriotic. He looks to his schoolboy past for an American future — a tall country in a world otherwise flattened by World War II — and he blames the relative decline not on automation or the inevitable rise of China, but on the indifference and selfishness of the establishment. Like a sleepy child in a creaking house, he imagines boogeymen everywhere.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:00 AM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Funny it's called a gag rule, because it does make me physically gag.

Just so I'm getting this right, if a charity that receives US aid money were to even talk about abortion, their funding would be cut?
posted by derbs at 5:04 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

You realise that Trump being as Trumpy as he can will hurt people, and hurt people in some groups disproportionally more... yeah?

And that ship sailed a long time ago. The shipping done then has been covered so there is no need to point out who was begging for Trump to be the Republican pick.

Figure out where the next fight WILL be and start prepping for that fight. Instead of claiming there is 11'th dimensional chess and open government is around the corner, use the actions of Trump to GET open government in the future.
posted by rough ashlar at 5:09 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Can anyone provide documentation of the USDA thing? The tweet linked earlier in this thread has been deleted. I know a lot of people in food science and I want to pass this along. (Seriously, though, it's weird to have moved to an agricultural area 10 years ago and now I "know a lot of people in food science.")
posted by threeturtles at 5:17 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Buzzfeed USDA Scientists Have Been Put On Lockdown Under Trump: According to an email sent Monday morning and obtained by BuzzFeed News, the department told staff — including some 2,000 scientists — at the agency’s main in-house research arm, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), to stop communicating with the public about taxpayer-funded work.

“Starting immediately and until further notice, ARS will not release any public-facing documents,” Sharon Drumm, chief of staff for ARS, wrote in a department-wide email shared with BuzzFeed News.

“This includes, but is not limited to, news releases, photos, fact sheets, news feeds, and social media content,” she added.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:19 AM on January 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

Okay, on this "public-facing documents" thing...
Why can't we set up, for instance, a dedicated liaison who asks for a personal response on a variety of subjects our USDA and other locked-down entities are working on, who then upon getting that personal, individualized, non-public response, shares it with social media followers?
posted by scrowdid at 5:31 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), to stop communicating with the public about taxpayer-funded work.

Even FOIA requests?

In a past Trump thread someone mentioned out of work/under employed lawyers. If the "no communication" rule is to be internally enforced that sure sounds like a conflict can exist with FOIA law.

And seeking information about, say, using electricity to encourage plant growth sounds like the kind of FOIA work that could use some pro-bono help. (1940's work on Avacodo trees - it seems that yes, sending a current in a plant helps 'em grow)
posted by rough ashlar at 5:34 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Christ, they're a bunch of jokers. I wonder if it's in their manual: "Step one in manipulating a target: get a journalist to report your intention in a national platform."

Yes. It's part of the manipulation.
posted by Jalliah at 5:38 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Kwine: "Specifically, I asked her to work to ensure that people can always leave a voicemail, no matter the call volume."

I asked about this on the Twitterz, because now I'm curious. A friend responded:

Send them an email when that happens. Tell them their VM box is full. Also, call between 10 and 4-- give their staff time to clear out the overnight VM in the morning and time in the afternoon when they are dealing with last minute things before going home. They know they're full.

So, that, for what it's worth.
posted by XtinaS at 5:51 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

In RE: the EPA freezing grants.

Many (almost all) state environmental programs are run at least in part on EPA grants. Many (almost all) state programs are part of the EPA's "authorized state" program, that link is just for RCRA which is the only program I am familiar with, but I can only assume the same grants exist for things like Drinking Water and Air Quality (with some searching, they do). This freeze is going to affect A LOT of people's livelihoods and lives.

I wondered why there was a slightly panicked meeting in my office yesterday. My office uses our EPA grants to pay staff to do things like inspect facilities to make sure they are disposing of waste properly (instead of for example dumping it in an arroyo) and paying staff to regulate environmental cleanups around the state. My state also just voted to cut the state environment department's budget again (everything got cut though, my state is poor and in a lot of debt). And the state environment program has been hamstrung already by our governor and her lackeys over the last 6+ years. I'm sure other state programs have felt the same pressures.

This is bad.

Also, apparently under other administrations the EPA website used to be really helpful and fell into purposeful disrepair under other administrations and was only just recovering enough to be helpful again. Goodbye helpful EPA website!
posted by BooneTheCowboyToy at 6:01 AM on January 24, 2017 [40 favorites]

I'm surprised my rep doesn't have a full VM box - I always get an answer in DC and the local office I call always just goes to VM, but never full.... My rep is Greg Walden, OR Dist. 2, and he chairs the House Energy & Commerce committee, which according to this article, is "the panel where federal health care legislation originates". The House E&C committee site has a new health care portal - they say it is " a one stop shop for all things related to health care reform." So far all I've seen on it is anti-ACA propaganda. Here is the announcement. And here is their "portal".

So - I think if you have a rep on the list here, the health subcommittee of House E&C, you should call them. I think if you happen to have Greg Walden as a rep, you may not realize the power he currently has - his mailboxes should be full, in my opinion.

I call him every day during the week - I keep asking what his stance is on the defunding of Planned Parenthood & cannot get an answer. But he is going to be central to the ACA "reform" and since we all know Speaker Paul Ryan doesn't allow phone calls any longer - his VM is apparently always full, I've seen people encouraging sending postcards instead - I think Walden would be a good next choice.

The DC office never asks for location / zip / anything like that.
posted by hilaryjade at 6:03 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

I am expecting the sort of hushed, scared lab meetings led by my boss that we got during sequestration. I am grimly considering the real possibility that I may not be able to complete my PhD before funding runs out, too. I've been supported on TA for nigh on five years now, and two years ago my university's college of natural sciences decided to balance the budget by trying to get us all out in five years and applying financial incentives to make it happen - - and explicitly throwing us out after seven. My pay starts getting cut this fall.

In my department, most of us only get paid by TAing every single semester. There isn't the grant money to do otherwise. And so the average time to graduate in my department is 6.5 years.

It's a grim time.
posted by sciatrix at 6:08 AM on January 24, 2017 [35 favorites]

CIA Starts Recruiting Its Newest Asset: Donald Trump
Christ, they're a bunch of jokers. I wonder if it's in their manual: "Step one in manipulating a target: get a journalist to report your intention in a national platform."

Oh, their PR people are not completely inept. From upthread:

> I keep seeing articles that stress how apolitical the CIA is. If true, I wonder it that is about to change. I wonder if they are more pro-american and will work behind the scenes to 'save us' instead of blindly following Dear Leader's orders.

Looks to me like someone's been busy.
posted by indubitable at 6:09 AM on January 24, 2017

Even FOIA requests?

I can't seem to find the source of the question, but relatedly, someone noticed that one of Trump's tweets was deleted on day one, and how/if the Federal Records Act applies to his tweets.
posted by Room 641-A at 6:16 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Forget Trump. Nothing will fill the void within him. And quite honestly, his void isn't our problem anyway. I have no sympathy or patience for people who cannot face their own demons and do their own personal work. They drag everyone around them through their shitpool. It's HIS responsibility to fix himself. Starting with figuring out WTF is wrong with him. And all of us know it will never, ever happen. Let him twist in the wind.

See all those white guys standing behind him & hurriedly shoving papers in front of him to sign? THAT's who we should focus on at the federal level. Along with everyone at the state levels.
posted by yoga at 6:25 AM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

> You realise that Trump being as Trumpy as he can will hurt people, and hurt people in some groups disproportionally more... yeah?

And that ship sailed a long time ago. The shipping done then has been covered so there is no need to point out who was begging for Trump to be the Republican pick.

Right. I haven't. I was just pointing out that it seems pretty dickish to tell folks to 'take heart' and let Trump fuck them over because it'll result in some great new laws in the end.
posted by Too-Ticky at 6:26 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

There is no perfect potential candidate. And frankly, the Pompeo confirmation is very low on my list of concerns today.

This is what normalization looks like.
posted by indubitable at 6:28 AM on January 24, 2017 [29 favorites]

Important Announcement:
January 23, 2017: Water and Climate Information System data were interrupted at 2:00 pm PDT on January 22, 2017. We are currently working to resolve the problem.

Not sure what to make of this. I've been digging around different government sites looking for changes. No real goal just trying to get a sense of how things are unfolding behind the scenes.

The thing is this seems like an automated system that collects data to produce longer term weather predictions (3 months) and really tracks rain and snowfall, soil humidity, drought, flooding, forest fires and that type of stuff.

It doesn't seem like it would be an equipment failure because the data comes from many different sources. It seems like the data was simply restricted for some reason.
posted by phoque at 6:28 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

And frankly, the Pompeo confirmation is very low on my list of concerns today.

You can do more than one thing at once. It is perfectly okay to mention to your senator that they screwed up the Pompeo vote while yelling at them about something else.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:31 AM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Just a note that filing lots of bar grievances against jurists or prosecutors in cases you're a stranger to will generally just get you added to the state bar's man-yells-at-cloud crackpot file.

Your point? The bar grievance process is just for show to the public. Like so many of the the 'rules of law' in a society under the 'rule of law' there is one set of rules for the 'leadership' and another for the proles.

Then why are you telling people to spend their time doing this, if that's what you think?

The bar grievance process is in fact not 'just a show' for the public, but it IS primarily intended for use by clients. It is sometimes proper for third parties to get involved in other instances of ethical breach, as whistleblowers or witnesses but not often. Is is definitely not for attacking public figures who happen to hold a bar card, or pursuit of other political agendas, even if the state bar rules contain expansive language about conduct reflecting negatively on the profession. 'Moral turpitude' doesn't mean 'I think this person is trash.'

The 'rule of law' doesn't imply that any judge who disagrees with you or rules differently than you'd like should be attacked as a corrupt servant of the right; it implies rather the opposite if you really want to insist on it.

Bar grievances are not a means to change the law, or the profession.

You know you are in the "crackpot" file if your turn around time is in a week.

In which state? Source? This is in fact wrong. At least in CA.

Go read the model ABA rules. Then go to your State rules. Read the annotated State rules.

The model rules are not the rules anywhere. Annotations are not the law, they're research help.

Note how in the annotated rules some rules have cases and others do not.

Annotated statutes are not the complete case-law.

Note how for things like trust fund misuse and having sex with a clients girlfriend while selling the clients drugs are listed. Other things like simple "Candor to the Court" which should prevent a lawyer from talking about bankrupting the business in emails with the client while submitting to the Court the client doesn't know who the owners are AND that the client is not the owner will just not be found in violation of the "Candor to the Court" rule.

Now you're back to your usual polemics against the system and the profession, period. And you're doing the usual sov-cit-ish thing where you take "Fancy Language" out of context and try to do way too much with it.

Given the size of recording devices and the ubiquity of the surveillance state one of the only places you can't record a public official doing their job is a Courtroom. Now the claim is electronic recording is not needed because of Court Reporters. But if you can't have an electronic record that is independent, how do you verify the Court Reporter is accurately reporting?

You tell em! Make sure you're in a courtroom with some fringe on the flag. Shit, they're only suing your alter-ego anway, so fuck em!

If the Court system isn't honest - how in the hell do you expect a rule-breaking Trump and the people/businesses tied to or benefiting from Trump to be held accountable?

By politics. Have the courts worked against Trump so far? A President isn't removed by the courts, anyway, even if successfully sued in office. The Congress has to do that.

I agree that FOIA requests are going to be important vs. Trump, but it sounds like you're accustomed to using them to harass lawyers and judges. I'm not surprised. I know from previous encouters with you on MeFi that you have a negative view of the legal system and.....creative ideas about how to respond. Unfortunately, they are misled (don't really care) and offered in a way that is likely to mislead others here (really do care).
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:31 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Looks to me like someone's been busy.

PR on how the CIA is a-political is partly in response to the CIA presser on Saturday but I do think they're using the opening that Donald gave to get the messaging out.

All the agents that are talking to the press are 'former' agents. What's a current agent going to do when they need some sort of info or PR or whatever put out there, get the 'former' ones to do it. This is a normal thing. Doesn't mean that all former agents aren't talking on their own individual accord only that it's not a certainty. And if a bunch of former agents are saying the same thing it gets even more suspect.

Even so, what all of those former agents have said is not something that's hard to figure out without having to be CIA or intelligence. We've commented on the very same stuff even here on Metafilter about Donald's insecurities making him an easy target, not just for his own intelligence but for everyone else. And Spicer did an awesome job yesterday officially informing the entire godamn world of the US President's weaknesses. It was quite astounding from that perspective. It must have made National Security people who know what they're doing cringe and bash their heads on their desks.

As for why the CIA might want to have the manipulation thing out in the public, think good cop, bad cop, think about the psychology of paranoia and how you can go about gaining the trust of someone who is paranoid by being the figure that protects the paranoid from whomever or whatever is making the person paranoid.

It's pretty basic psy-ops stuff.
posted by Jalliah at 6:33 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Unless you're driving a magical DeLorean, that won't do much.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:40 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

For fuck's sake.
posted by Happy Dave at 6:41 AM on January 24, 2017

BREAKING: President Trump to advance the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines with executive orders today, senior official tells

I'm not sure what to do about this. Get in the car and go sit in front of the White House?

Trying to think of something to say that is not horrible, but I can't.

The liklihood of people dying while standing up to this guy has just shot up to close to a sure thing because I don't see Donald as the type to holding back on using brute force.
posted by Jalliah at 6:42 AM on January 24, 2017 [21 favorites]

I'm not sure what to do about this.

"Trump promised to put America first and now he's going to give a foreign oil producer special access to our markets to undercut hard-working American roughnecks?!"
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:43 AM on January 24, 2017 [40 favorites]

GQ: Here’s an Idea: Stop Putting Kellyanne Conway on TV

KAFKA: So it's not the lying? It's the inconsistencies?
ROSEN: No, it's not just lying or spin or somebody who is skilled in the political arts of putting the best case on things or not answering a question, which is a pretty basic method of doing politics. It's that when you are done listening to Kellyanne Conway, you probably understand less. That's a problem.

posted by Room 641-A at 6:44 AM on January 24, 2017 [39 favorites]

"Trump promised to put America first and now he's going to give a foreign oil producer special access to our markets to undercut hard-working American roughnecks?!"

He also has an investment in the company that is doing it.

edited: Or possibly does. It hasn't been proven 100% Just checked the latest.
posted by Jalliah at 6:44 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

GQ: Here’s an Idea: Stop Putting Kellyanne Conway on TV

No, put her on TV every damn day and call her a liar.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:46 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

From a purely tactical and strategic perspective confirming Pompeo is probably the right political move. Yes Pompeo is a partisan hack but everyone that Trump is going to nominate is a partisan hack.

Unlike Republicans who have voters that are perfectly okay with shutting down the government the Democrats have to pick and choose their fights. If they block every nominee they erode their position when they try to block others.

Price already looks sketchy as a nominee due to insider trading allegations and he's way the fuck out in right politically plus a lot of voters are anxious about most likely losing their insurance so that's a core focal point for the Democrats.

I think DeVos is most likely the other one that Democrats will focus on because of substantial ethical concerns, a complete inability to actually do the job and her extreme partisanship.

Beyond that I think the Democratic leadership is looking for particular fights. Defending ACA, opposing block grants for Medicaid, etc are the ones that Republicans know are guaranteed losers as issues and ones that they will likely back down on once it becomes obvious how opposed voters are to their action and the fact that no Democrat is going to give them bipartisan cover.

Honestly though this is why elections matter and all the bullshit coming from the far left that Clinton was just as bad as Trump was such utter hogwash. Nobody can honestly come in and say that Clinton's cabinet would've been anywhere near as bad as Trump. Perhaps not as progressive as we would like but infinitely better.

This is also why I get really really leery of the circular firing squad that seems to be forming because internal divisions on the left are the absolute last thing we need to see right now.
posted by vuron at 6:47 AM on January 24, 2017 [30 favorites]

FBI clears Flynn
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:47 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Wasn't it Grover Norquist who said he didn't give a damn about what Romney believed, just as long as he'd sign whatever a Republican congress would send to him? Looks like they've got their autopen in place.
posted by hangashore at 6:47 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Why can't we set up, for instance, a dedicated liaison who asks for a personal response on a variety of subjects our USDA and other locked-down entities are working on, who then upon getting that personal, individualized, non-public response, shares it with social media followers?

This appears to be a reprise of the Steven Harper era.
Here's how to respond to it:

The federal government's scientists will continue to be allowed to submit papers to refereed journals. What they will not be allowed is to brief journalists who will put their work into laymen's terms. That includes journalists working for Scientific American and the like.

So what we need is volunteers outside the government, in every field, to monitor pertinent journals, and speak with journalists to keep the knowledge pipeline running. The whole point of refereed journals is so that anyone in a field can take a paper, not just his or her own, grok it, and work with it.

It also means that government scientists who want their paper presented to laymen have plausible deniability if they meet "along" with a volunteer.
posted by ocschwar at 6:48 AM on January 24, 2017 [23 favorites]

FBI credibility is going to take some time to restore.
posted by birdheist at 6:49 AM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

Financial disclosure forms released earlier this year show that Trump has a stake in Energy Transfer Partners, the Texas-based firm behind the pipeline, and Phillips 66, which will hold a share of the project once completed.

Trump’s investment in Energy Transfer Partners dropped from between $500,000 and $1m in 2015 to between $1,500 and $50,000 this year. His stake in Phillips 66, however, rose from between $50,000 and $100,000 last year to between $250,000 and $500,000 this year, according to the forms.

The financial relationship has run both ways. Kelcy Warren, chief executive of Energy Transfer Partners, gave $103,000 to elect Trump and handed over a further $66,800 to the Republican National Committee after the property developer secured the GOP’s presidential nomination. (Guardian link)
posted by phoque at 6:50 AM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

I wish we had timelines to compare the investigation into Clinton versus the investigation into Flynn.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:51 AM on January 24, 2017 [22 favorites]

What's the etiquette for linking to MeFi comments in one's social media feed? Because I would like to link to supercrayon everywhere I possibly can with a capital THIS.
posted by whuppy at 6:52 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

The problem with Dianne Feinstein is she has so much institutional support you'd have to be crazy to run against her, as demonstrated by the last time anyone ran against Dianne Feinstein.

Crazy? All the intervening 40 years have proven is how right Jello Biafra was about her.

I have been having conflicted feelings about all the Free Melania business because I do not hold with apportioning sympathy for vocal Trump supporters

Melania Trump Supported Her Husband's Racist Birtherism Claims on TV [Teen Vogue]

The only question is to how to exert enough pressure on her that she publicly cracks and becomes another liability to his administration.
posted by ryanshepard at 6:55 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

FBI clears Flynn

There's no way to know right now what is on the up and up, if it's coming from and anonymous officials inside the FBI or any other IC.

This may be true, it could also be something else.
posted by Jalliah at 6:55 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Expecting Democratic US Senators to be dead-ender Trump opponents gets the job of a US Senator very wrong. No Senator can (or should) be a full-time opponent of the White House. The rules and traditions of the Senate empower Senators to have a significant, ongoing role in government, particularly with respect to their home state, regardless of whether they are in the majority and regardless of the party of the President. They critically influence judicial and other local appointments, government spending in their state, legislation and regulation affecting companies with significant operations or assets in their state, etc. When Senators are -- as the Democrats are for the next four years* -- both in the minority of the Senate and there's an opposite-party President, their exercise of their ongoing governance role requires cooperation and even some amity with the White House and the majority. For all of Mitch McConnell and the other Republican Senators' bluster when they were in the Senate minority from 2008 to 2014, when you look at what they actually DID, it was a very large amount of cooperation, voting for Obama's nominees, etc.
posted by MattD at 7:01 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

You know what just occurred to me? When people got shot at the Black Lives Matter protest here, the cops didn't help. Those people got no first aid from cops and had to be driven to the ER by other protesters. The Seattle police apparently helped rum-soaked space hobo's cousin and made sure he got medical care (which, thank god).

But I keep thinking that we have to remember that depending on who gets hurt, the cops might just leave a protester to bleed out and die - if that protester is Black or another POC.
posted by Frowner at 7:06 AM on January 24, 2017 [44 favorites]

I guess a progressive future for white America is totes worth a the shit PoC and LGBT and religious minorities are going to endure over the next 4 years.

Lotta people about to find out that white skin doesn't protect you from having no healthcare or clean water to drink.
posted by emjaybee at 7:08 AM on January 24, 2017 [40 favorites]

In other news...

The statement said 100 of the homes would be built in Beit El, a settlement that according to Israeli media has received funding from the family of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Announcement of construction in occupied territory is second since Donald Trump became US president (Grauniad)
posted by Mister Bijou at 7:09 AM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

we need to dedicate ourselves to overwhelming the opposition at the ballot-box to counteract the voter suppression and gerrymandering bullshit

They're going to control the 2020 Census. I'm assuming no useful information of any kind to fight gerrymandering will be gathered.
posted by waitingtoderail at 7:09 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Also the guy who got shot was an IWW - no surprise there, since I've never known an I-dub who wasn't brave and militant, even when I have not always agreed with their approach. (I have a lot of differences with the local branch here.)
posted by Frowner at 7:09 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

if you're still holding out hope for help from the media or Democratic establishment now might be a good time to readjust your expectations
posted by entropicamericana at 7:12 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

FBI clears Flynn

That headline is a little misleading. One anonymous source said that there wasn't anything wrong with the phone calls on one day in December.
posted by diogenes at 7:12 AM on January 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

"Because of what the press is doing now to me, I have Secret Service protection”

Jesus. Y'know, I expected fascism. I was more or less braced for the next four years of shittery, even if I was going to have to acquire post-apocalyptic-sized stockpiles of antidepressants and alcohol to cope.

What I wasn't prepared for was how petulantly, spinelessly whiny they're being about it. If you're going to try to turn the US into a strongarm banana-republic dictatorship, then for Christ's sake at least have the fortitude not to sound like a kindergartener whining about how mean the other kids are being. Fuck.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 7:13 AM on January 24, 2017 [77 favorites]

GQ: Here’s an Idea: Stop Putting Kellyanne Conway on TV

No, put her on TV every damn day and call her a liar.

Pig, mud, wrestling, etc.
posted by Etrigan at 7:13 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Goddamnit cut the cutesy shit and just write Spicer LIED

There are news agencies using the word “lie” in their headlines. Here is one from the NYT this morning, “Trump Repeats an Election Lie to Top Lawmakers”

Search Google News for “trump lie,” and you’ll see plenty.

Does it matter to the people who voted for Trump? Nope. Not from what I see on my social media feeds (I’m not unfollowing anyone. I believe in knowing thine enemy).
---

As for reports of the first briefing, I think what they mean is the first “Daily Briefing” as opposed to his first briefing, which was a “Special Briefing.” Splitting hairs, maybe, but there is enough to be upset about without resorting to hyperbole over mundane things.

[ducks]
---

“Don’t let him take the credit for the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s demise; it was already dead… TPP already lay without a pulse on the floor of Congress.” [The Guardian]

---

It's just one load of human beings after another.

I wonder if they are more pro-american and will work behind the scenes to 'save us' instead of blindly following … orders

There are heroes, both in uniform and out of uniform who do heroic deeds all the time that you will probably never hear about. They absolutely do go against orders if those orders are illegal or unethical. I think cynicism can be healthy, but so is hope. They are out there. I know some of them personally. Can they save us all? Maybe. Frankly, if they do, you’ll never know they did, because that’s how it is.
posted by slipthought at 7:14 AM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

Guys guys guys. Guys. Hey. Guys, look, I get it's all pretty grim and stuff, kind of like a tsunami of shit is swamping our democracy but like hey, look at the upside! Actually if one of you could point out the upside, maybe even just a hint as to where the upside might be, I'd consider it a personal favor... cause wow is this turning out to be a morning for the ages...
posted by From Bklyn at 7:15 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

A handy one-pager: Who's Who In The Trump Administration (NPR, not really a chart, last updated on Jan. 20, 2017) -- it includes tags to state whether or not the Senate must confirm a person for the position. At the top: Stephen Bannon, and his bio is kind of brutal:

Bannon is a 62-year-old former executive chairman of Breitbart, the right-wing news website. Bannon has bragged that the site is the "platform for the alt-right," a movement associated with white nationalism, racism and misogyny. He served as Trump's campaign "CEO" for the final months of the campaign and is credited with getting Trump to attack Hillary Clinton with false conspiracy theories about her health and bringing forward women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct. Bannon had a stint in the U.S. Navy, worked at Goldman Sachs in the 1980s, became a Hollywood investor who made a fortune off Seinfeld reruns, and ran the secretive experimental community Biosphere 2 outside Tucson, Ariz. Bannon faced a domestic abuse charge in 1996 and financial difficulty through the 1990s with multiple federal and state tax liens against him at the time.

There are some soft phrases (Breitbart and alt.right "associated with white nationalism, racism and misogyny" vs "built on" those deplorable -isms), but doesn't do him any favors, like state why the fuck he should be the _rump campaign "CEO" and current Chief Strategist And Senior Counselor.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:17 AM on January 24, 2017 [19 favorites]

The only question is to how to exert enough pressure on her that she publicly cracks and becomes another liability to his administration.

yeah, I always hated the gentle tone people take towards her because it's so reminiscent of everyone being nice to poor gentle sweet Laura Bush who just wanted to be a nice librarian and a nice lady. although at least Melania never killed anybody personally that I know about.

but even though I thought it was despicable and sexist to treat L. Bush that way because a Bush supporter is a Bush supporter, no special rules for wives, wife isn't a job or a species, even so, I never thought there was a good chance GWB smacked her around in the evenings if she didn't smile big enough on television. so yeah I agree with you, and I don't think the public or the media will be responsible if we trick her into saying something unflattering about him and he locks her up in a broom closet with the MLK bust and sends her kid to boarding school for twenty years, I don't think we should be paralyzed by fear of his monstrosity since that is what he likes. I will just feel bad about it is all.
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:19 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Global gag rule' reinstated by Trump, curbing NGO abortion services abroad (Grauniad)

Shitty as this is, and it is indeed shitty, it's what any Republican president would do the second they stepped into office, so I can't blame Trump more for this one than I did the Bushes or Reagan.
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:20 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Search Google News for “trump lie,” and you’ll see plenty.

Does it matter to the people who voted for Trump? Nope. Not from what I see on my social media feeds (I’m not unfollowing anyone. I believe in knowing thine enemy).

If it's going to change anything with these folks it won't happen overnight. It's hasn't had time to become a narrative. Narratives are what ultimately have the most affect on what people think as well as they can get picked up indirectly from other sources then just directly reading or looking at media.
Case study: Hillary Clinton.
posted by Jalliah at 7:21 AM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

I will just feel bad about it is all.

The left needs to get over its sympathy for monsters. One of the stumbling blocks we face is a "rational", Enlightenment-rooted belief in progress and the fundamental decency of humanity, when pretty much all of recorded history is a bloody spitting match between the haves and have-nots, with progress for the latter always coming only at knife point. It's time to resharpen our knives.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:24 AM on January 24, 2017 [28 favorites]

Narratives are what ultimately have the most affect on what people think as well as they can get picked up indirectly from other sources then just directly reading or looking at media. Case study: Hillary Clinton.

Counterpoint: people may instead cling to their confirmation bias, looking further for sources that back up their views of the world, despite mountains of information and a broad variety of voices damning their chosen views as unreal, illegal, or immoral.
Case study: Donald Trump - how many "surely this" moments did we have leading up to the election?

Unless the Republican party fully splits over his actions and directions, he's still Their Guy, the change-bringer, #MAGA and all that shit. He'll claim past victories (low unemployment, tanking TPP) as his own, and side-step around every failure and lie as "media distortion."

Question: has he bundled all media together as against him, or is he still trying to label "liberal media" vs "conservative media"?
posted by filthy light thief at 7:27 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I think his supporters have to first get over their excitement of both getting rid of the black guy and keeping the woman out of the white house before they can even begin to see how they are getting hornswaggled. It will take most of them quite a while I think.
posted by ian1977 at 7:27 AM on January 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

Julian Assange says Barack Obama pardoned Chelsea Manning 'to make life hard' for him

I think these months might feature the most sore-winnerdom and whining-atop-pile-of-enemies'-carcasses of any period in human history.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:27 AM on January 24, 2017 [75 favorites]

I think "Fuck Julian Assange" has become my personal refrain over the past year.
posted by lydhre at 7:29 AM on January 24, 2017 [27 favorites]

I had to mix it up with some of the people in my local Dem party on FB today because they were applauding a rumor that Wikileaks is going to release Dump's tax returns. I told them I'd expect them from Russia Today sooner, but all they wanted to hear is that Assange is True Hero and the real enemies are the DNC for blocking Bernie.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 7:32 AM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Question: has he bundled all media together as against him, or is he still trying to label "liberal media" vs "conservative media"?

His followers know what it means. There's "the media" and then there's "the truth".
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:33 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

when pretty much all of recorded history is a bloody spitting match between the haves and have-nots,

no but a world where all the unearned and undeserved money and privilege you can have doesn't protect you from being ordered around by some awful old man every day and grotesquely abused by him when he's unhappy isn't a world where you can ever fully ascend to the haves. Say nobody should be able to: OK. but there is a sentiment in some quarters that I would characterize as: so what if privileged women are still kicked dogs in comparison to privileged men, they're above me and that's all that matters.

this has fuck all to do with her racism or Trump support, it doesn't get put in some cosmic balance to weigh against it or anything like that. Being bullied by DT doesn't have any bearing on that and shouldn't make anyone judge her less for it. I am just not happy to have special ways for the haves to be put in their place that only work on women. call it selfishness if that makes it more acceptable than sympathy. I want Melania to be working for minimum wage along with the rest of her family and step-family; I just want her to do it without getting humiliated by her husband when she goes home every night.

This is a class issue too.
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:36 AM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

A glimmer of hope for the day: Lawsuit Claims Foreign Payments To Trump's Businesses Violate Constitution (NPR Morning Edition, Jan. 24, 2017 - transcript not up yet).

Two former White House ethics lawyers — Richard Painter and Norm Eisen — are part of a legal team filing suit against President Trump — alleging violation of the Constitution's Emoluments Clause.

They want _rump to face Congress and publicly disclose all his business interests, because anywhere that foreign gifts and payments are possible mean a possible venue for bribery from foreign interests (and we have enough home-grown bribery, thankyouverymuch). The best part: it all goes back to the Founding Fathers, who wanted to prevent "corrupt practices of the Old World." The GOP loves them some Founding Fathers and Original Intent, right? So they're bound to jump on this, and finally we'll see inside _rump's finances to see how he's tied to Russian and other interests. Or they could just close their eyes and grant a blanket pardon on all of _rump's foreign investments (how is that in the #MAGA spirit again? Right, it's not, why do I keep hoping _rump and his supporters will be logical?)

For a sobering counterpoint: Why The Constitutional Lawsuit Against Trump Is Likely To Fail (Forbes, Jan. 22, 2017).
posted by filthy light thief at 7:37 AM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

I think these months might feature the most sore-winnerdom and whining-atop-pile-of-enemies'-carcasses of any period in human history.

Obama spent his entire term in office waging a war against whistleblowers, and destroyed the lives and careers of brave and honorable people. He prosecuted more whistleblowers than ALL PREVIOUS PRESIDENTS COMBINED.

And this while looking the other way on powerful cynics like David Petraeus and Leon Panetta, who leaked classified information to get into someone's pants or to assist in the creation of Hollywood propaganda lionizing their agency.

TLDR - Obama was an enemy of transparency and abetted official criminality, and one pardon doesn't get him off that hook.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:38 AM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

Question: has he bundled all media together as against him, or is he still trying to label "liberal media" vs "conservative media"?

His followers know what it means. There's "the media" and then there's "the truth".

And he knows that they're invested enough in him that anyone who comes after him, even to the point of saying, "Hmm, we're not 100 percent certain that Nancy Pelosi does eat babies...", will automatically be re-assigned by his followers.
posted by Etrigan at 7:39 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Counterpoint: people may instead cling to their confirmation bias, looking further for sources that back up their views of the world, despite mountains of information and a broad variety of voices damning their chosen views as unreal, illegal, or immoral.
Case study: Donald Trump - how many "surely this" moments did we have leading up to the election?

Unless the Republican party fully splits over his actions and directions, he's still Their Guy, the change-bringer, #MAGA and all that shit. He'll claim past victories (low unemployment, tanking TPP) as his own, and side-step around every failure and lie as "media distortion."

Question: has he bundled all media together as against him, or is he still trying to label "liberal media" vs "conservative media"?

Exactly. This is why my main point, "It won't happen overnight' was qualified with an 'If it's going to change anything..'

His core supporters are locked in. At this time they are doubling down and supporting Dear Leader no matter what he does. They think that Spicer did an awesome job and stuck it to everyone bigly. They were watching from a different reality. There are people who aren't so locked in, just like on the left there were locked in Hillary supporters and various levels of support fanning out from that. The farther out from locked the more narratives can affect what people think.
posted by Jalliah at 7:40 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Pig, mud, wrestling, etc.

What if you enjoy it? Asking for a friend.
posted by Coventry at 7:43 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

poor gentle sweet Laura Bush who just wanted to be a nice librarian and a nice lady. although at least Melania never killed anybody personally that I know about.

That's not cool. Laura Bush (née Welch) was 17, and there is no evidence that the car accident that killed her close friend was anything other than an accident.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:43 AM on January 24, 2017 [37 favorites]

I fear there will be no point at which Dump's followers turn away. He is just a symbol, but a useful one, and we have seen the Right be oh-so-willing to excuse the worst behaviors while pronouncing themselves the true moral arbiters of America. The man is just a vehicle for the policies of corruption and resentment. How fast did these Republicans whip out the most regressive, punitive legislation on things like abortion, birth control, protester's rights, environmental exploitation? It's not even a week yet and they're handing power over to the billionaires as fast as they can. If this was such a populist movement, why aren't his supporters noticing? I'd say they just don't care. They'll find ways to excuse it. Every one of his failures to them will be waved away, while people who voted for him die without health care, jobless, uneducated and locked in a stranglehold of propaganda about how great everything is.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 7:50 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Julian Assange says Barack Obama pardoned Chelsea Manning 'to make life hard' for him

Julian “Christ” Assange

As in “Christ, what an...”
posted by acb at 7:51 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Lots of chatter that Trump's ban on Muslim immigration is coming today. (Former Deputy Chief of Staff, Senator Harry Reid)

What a fucking day.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:54 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I've been stuck on this "core Trump supporters" thing for a while now myself, thinking that his core supporters are the big obstacle, that they're the ones who will put the political pressure on Republicans to prevent anything from happening... but I've been slowly realizing that I've never seen the true size of his core bloc quantified and I may be believing in what he wants me to believe, unconsciously accepting his projection of false strength. Paid audience members, staffers and others dragged into the CIA meeting to cheerlead, obvious astroturf social media presence... he always lies about his popularity. We can't cede that rhetorically. If the narrative is that his base is unassailable it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy as lukewarm Trump supporters buy into it and feel like they'll be singled out by showing doubt in him, but if the narrative is that it's a small and weak core surrounded by a bunch of people who are already getting buyer's remorse, which personally I'd bet on being closer to the truth, that helps make others feel safe stepping away from the angry Trumpist mob.

The flip side of Republicans never admitting they were wrong is that they can always say "I didn't vote for Trump for this, he failed me." and shift the blame to him. And we have been seeing that exact line of thought happening among some Trump voters, we just need to fan it into a flame.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:55 AM on January 24, 2017 [22 favorites]

Price already looks sketchy as a nominee due to insider trading allegations

Also this...

Price has long been a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a fringe medical group that is deeply opposed to any government role in regulating doctors.

AAPS got its start in the 1940s, with the help of members of the John Birch Society, the extreme right-wing group known for peddling outlandish conspiracy theories. It has fought the government over health care ever since. Its statement of principles declares it "evil" and "immoral" for doctors to participate in Medicaid and Medicare.

AAPS has been a vocal player in the anti-vaccine movement. Its medical journal has attacked immigrants as the source of disease outbreaks, including leprosy, and suggested that HIV doesn't cause AIDS but that abortion causes breast cancer. The scientific consensus rejects all of these claims. AAPS was the primary source of rumors during the presidential campaign that Hillary Clinton was suffering from a major illness. It has opposed electronic medical records, calling them a form of "data control" like that used by the Stasi, the former East German secret police. Researchers estimate that medical errors kill more than 250,000 Americans a year, making them the third leading cause of death, but AAPS dismisses such reports as a bogus pretext for more government regulation of health care.

more (so much more) at the link.
posted by Buntix at 7:56 AM on January 24, 2017 [25 favorites]

Lots of chatter that Trump's ban on Muslim immigration is coming today. (Former Deputy Chief of Staff, Senator Harry Reid)

What a fucking day.

Wonder if Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are going to keep yucking it up with the Trumpistas in photo ops

probably
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 7:57 AM on January 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

"But... but... he hasn't done anything yet! Why not first give him a chance?"
[Fake, but not by much]
posted by RedOrGreen at 8:05 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Breitbart national security editor and Fox News contributor Sebastian Gorka is expected to join President Donald Trump's White House, a source familiar with the matter told Business Insider.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:08 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

What if you enjoy it? Asking for a friend.

Contact info is my profile.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:11 AM on January 24, 2017

First question concerning AIDS to HHS nominee Price from Sen. Bob Menendez: "Does HIV cause AIDS?" (So that's where we're at.)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:11 AM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

I'm really enjoying President Bannon's new administration.
posted by Jalliah at 8:12 AM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

Alt-everything.
posted by Artw at 8:13 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Is Our Democrats Learning?

No. Not at all.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:13 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Relevant today and everyday: The Handmaid's Tale is a Handbook for Surviving Oppressive Systems

I have long thought that if it were required reading in schools we might have fewer privileged women dismissing the threat of a dramatic slide backwards for women's rights. It is presented as a primary source in a future classroom for a fucking reason.
posted by lydhre at 8:14 AM on January 24, 2017 [21 favorites]

I'm really enjoying President Bannon's new administration.

Sometimes I like to play a game in my head where I choose which person in the world I most want to receive their comeuppance. It's really hard right now, but Bannon is always in the running.
posted by diogenes at 8:16 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

First question concerning AIDS to HHS nominee Price from Sen. Bob Menendez: "Does HIV cause AIDS?" (So that's where we're at.)

I like the strategy of asking them basic questions. Like when the reporter asked Spicer to name the current unemployment rate. It's fun watching them twist as they try to remember whether they are supposed to be using alternative facts on every single subject. I imagine that once you abandon reality, it's really hard to keep your answers straight.
posted by diogenes at 8:24 AM on January 24, 2017 [54 favorites]

Julian “Christ” Assange

As in “Christ, what an...”

I wonder if Julian could be thusly Santorumed. As in, this coinage:

'Christ, what an Assange.'
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:27 AM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Proposed CIA Chief Seems Happy To Spy On Americans, Even If Using Info Hacked By Russians

Raising a Pompeo hearing comment that if a foreign partner gave the CIA information on US persons “independently,” “it may be appropriate of CIA to collect [that] information in bulk,” Wyden raised Trump’s encouragement of Russian hacking and asked what circumstances would make foreign collection so improper that CIA should not receive such information. Pompeo responded, “information obtained through such egregious conduct may be appropriate for the CIA to use or disseminate.”

Wyden then listed out a bunch of conditions, such as information coming from an adversary, to disrupt US democracy, information implicating First Amendment protected political activity, or information affecting thousands or millions of Americans. “The listed conditions could all be relevant,” Pompeo responded, remaining non-committal.

posted by Coventry at 8:29 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Assange to be head of new Department of Doxxing.
posted by Artw at 8:31 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Meanwhile, in Canada....
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:31 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Why Trump’s Inauguration is Not the Beginning of an Era — but the End
posted by No Robots at 8:31 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Meanwhile, in Canada....

Oh thank goodness. Not that I don't have some issues with what's in CETA. In this new world, with our trading relationship with the US up in the air and more then likely to get fucked up we need as much as we can get from other countries.
Not that CETA isn't just drop in the bucket compared to the amount of trade with the US, at least it's something.
posted by Jalliah at 8:34 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Interesting (to me) more in its wonkiness than for scoring points, NYT has a feature on how crowds at the Capitol have been counted over time.

Alt-everything.

CTRL-ALT-DELETE! CTRL-ALT-DELETE!
posted by Room 641-A at 8:35 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

"Third parties aren't viable" and "Republicans are worse" are both absolutely terrible, defeatist reasons to vote Democrat. They aren't wrong, but they do nothing but antagonize the people Democrats have abandoned and take for granted because...a third party vote is wasted and Republicans increasingly explicitly want to just kill us.

Democrats do need to learn how to engage people outside their bubbles and how to resist the transparent bigotry and foolishness of Republicans, or they are done. I wouldn't exactly cry for the death of the party, except in practice it means it'll just be the bad cops, all the time. But I resent voting for people who won't fight for me, who express open contempt for me, simply to stave off literal fascists.
posted by byanyothername at 8:36 AM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

2020 prediction: Kirsten Gillibrand is going to be the best Republican president of the modern era.
posted by Talez at 8:37 AM on January 24, 2017

Why Trump’s Inauguration is Not the Beginning of an Era — but the End
Posted by a "Founder & CEO of Reinvent, a media company; Tech & Future Trends Speaker; Author 2 Books." In English, that means "no thanks."
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:38 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

I think the Santorum coinage worked because it was a word for something that had no single word to describe it before (and it didn't hurt that the definition played perfectly to Rick Santorum's apparent obsession with the physical details of gay anal sex.) I don't understand what an "Assange" is in your formulation, snuffleupagus; does it just mean "asshole" or are you going for further shades of meaning?
posted by contraption at 8:38 AM on January 24, 2017

CTRL-ALT-DELETE! CTRL-ALT-DELETE!

I was thinking the same thing. Not a bad name for a movement to destroy the alt right and alternative facts, and to reboot democracy through abolition of the electoral college.
posted by contraption at 8:40 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Assange is like espionage but with your ass.
posted by ian1977 at 8:43 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Assange is like espionage but with your ass.
Whatever it is, it's nonconsensual.
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:44 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

We'd have to get Bill Gates to sign off, I guess.
posted by contraption at 8:44 AM on January 24, 2017

But I resent voting for people who won't fight for me, who express open contempt for me, simply to stave off literal fascists.

There's a lot to be said for simply not living under fascism, normal government isn't the worst thing in the world. But maybe we need a 100year Reich for people to realize the value in simply "not living under Nazis", I guess we're going to find out.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:46 AM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

The time when you sit a ponder how one would do espionage with one's ass.
posted by Jalliah at 8:46 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

BREAKING: Trump says he'll announce pick to fill Supreme Court vacancy next week. -- @AP

JFC I haven't even finished my damn coffee this morning.
posted by otenba at 8:47 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

The time when you sit a ponder how one would do espionage with one's ass.

There once was a man named "Bob Goatse"...
posted by pxe2000 at 8:50 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

BREAKING: Trump says he'll announce pick to fill Supreme Court vacancy next week. -- @AP

At least this isn't unexpected. Just a crap-fest.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:50 AM on January 24, 2017

The time when you sit a ponder how one would do espionage with one's ass.

Well, it's a start.
posted by Etrigan at 8:51 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Jim Acosta on Twitter: "POTUS while signing exec actions on Keystone and Dakota access: 'We will build our own pipes, like we used to in the old days.'"
posted by slipthought at 8:51 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Jim Acosta on Twitter: "POTUS while signing exec actions on Keystone and Dakota access: 'We will build our own pipes, like we used to in the old days.'"

This is like Bender with his theme park of blackjack and hookers, isn't it?
posted by Servo5678 at 8:53 AM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

Trump says he'll announce pick to fill Supreme Court vacancy next week.

Maybe he'll surprise us and it will just be a conventionally terrible choice instead of a jaw-dropping, mind-boggling bad pick.
posted by diogenes at 8:54 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

We will build our own pipes, like we used to in the old days.

And we'll make them with Rearden Steel dammit!
posted by diogenes at 8:56 AM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Jared Kushner does have a J.D.
posted by cmfletcher at 8:57 AM on January 24, 2017

I'm still hoping for Judge Judy.
posted by Mchelly at 8:58 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Re. Bender/Trump similarities, this is the sort of thing that comes to mind for me.

Also, the way the society in "Godfellas" ends.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:59 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

2020 prediction: Kirsten Gillibrand is going to be the best Republican president of the modern era.

Obama was, I'm sorry to say. It's all downhill from here.
posted by gerryblog at 9:00 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Does he know the oil in Keystone XL doesn't come from the US either?
posted by zachlipton at 9:01 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Jared Kushner does have a J.D.

Hey, the constitution doesn't specify any requirements for Justices, does it? Please welcome Justice Joe Arpaio, the hangingest Supreme Court Justice ever.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:01 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Anyone else feel like they are a 'conservative' now?

I want to conserve (in no particular order and not limited to):

* Women's suffrage
* Freedom of Speech and the Press
* Marriage Equality
* The scraps of protection for transgender people
* Laws prohibiting child labor
* Air quality regulations
* Food safety regulations
* Water quality safety regulations
* Women's reproductive choice
* Diplomatic relationships with long standing allies
* An apolitical bureaucracy
* The Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts
* The Johnson Amendment
* The ACA
* Secular public schooling
* Government study of climate change
* The Endangered Species Act

And the list goes on and on. What do you want to conserve?
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 9:02 AM on January 24, 2017 [96 favorites]

Asspionage
posted by kirkaracha at 9:02 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

It's more like Westworld, and we are the robots.
posted by AlexiaSky at 9:03 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

What do you want to conserve?

FEDERAL LANDS & NATIONAL PARKS
posted by everybody had matching towels at 9:03 AM on January 24, 2017 [48 favorites]

Hey, the constitution doesn't specify any requirements for Justices, does it? Please welcome Justice Joe Arpaio, the hangingest Supreme Court Justice ever.

don't worry i'm sure dianne feinstein would refuse to confirm that---- *coughing fit*
posted by entropicamericana at 9:03 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

How long is this pace going to keep up? What are they going to do six months from now, or a year from now, if they're crossing so much off their to-do list already?

Don't think that they've even really started in on their to-do list yet. The country will be unrecognizable before they get halfway through.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:05 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

So then: why is Trump doing all of this so fast?

Strike now while the iron is hot?
posted by Mister Bijou at 9:05 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

At least, executive orders are not a plan. These orders have to employ people... But three is a hiring freeze at the federal level to actually implement these things.
posted by AlexiaSky at 9:06 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Don't think that they've even really started in on their to-do list yet.

Nope. This is still housekeeping. Congress hasn't really even passed any legislation yet, and that's the core of their real platform. Wait till the 2017 budget process in March. We're going to learn what the US looks like with 50% less domestic spending.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:08 AM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

We're far beyond asking whether this is normal, but I don't recall Obama doing this same kind of "ruling" at a breakneck pace, right off the bat. He didn't, right? So then: why is Trump doing all of this so fast? Why isn't he doing like, one or two medium-sized things a day and then playing golf or whateverthefuck?

Trump likes to go big.

Likely a gish gallup type strategy. So, much so fast it's overwhelming and people can't respond or are split in what to respond too. One the other hand doing this much so fast and especially with a half assed admin in place makes it harder for them to follow through on their end. Harder to implement and hard to keep track and respond to the backlash. Looks like they're going to be blundering around and just throwing shit all over the place.
posted by Jalliah at 9:08 AM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Someone just mentioned this on twitter. @POTUS Twitter profile now says 45th @POTUS @realDonaldTrump. Working on behalf of the American people to make our country great again. Tweets by @DanScavino. Tweets by #POTUS signed -DJT.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:09 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

The problem with Dianne Feinstein is she has so much institutional support you'd have to be crazy to run against her, as demonstrated by the last time anyone ran against Dianne Feinstein.

You start now, by saying that California has only two senators and both of them need to represent the state as it is right now. You keep saying it. You don't need to raise funds or court donors. You just need to a) have already earned political capital in the state; b) be willing to use it. What's the worst that can happen? You don't become a US senator? Well, lots of high-ranking California politicians haven't had that chance.

(If you're a senior politician in, say, Montana, then you have a more obvious trail to the top of the political hill.)
posted by holgate at 9:09 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Maybe he'll surprise us and it will just be a conventionally terrible choice instead of a jaw-dropping, mind-boggling bad pick.

It'll be Roy Moore.
posted by dirigibleman at 9:10 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

This is just the stuff that's public, everyone. Who the fuck knows what's actually happening in background/behind closed doors/on the red phones.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 9:10 AM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

The date on Donald Trump's inauguration picture is wrong.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:10 AM on January 24, 2017 [34 favorites]

Re: the hiring freeze.

Why don't they hit him, and hit him hard, with "why do you want to deny good jobs to good people? I thought you wanted more jobs for good American citizens" Force him on the defensive, at least.
posted by lydhre at 9:10 AM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

So then: why is Trump doing all of this so fast?

I was wondering the same thing.

The last shred of optimism I have left says Tinkles and company are aware they can/will get dumped before his first term is over, and are actively trying to fuck up as much shit as possible.

But alas, I'm probably kidding myself. These shitlords haven't even started yet.
posted by otenba at 9:11 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Feinstein's support comes from people like me who have voted for her their entire adult lives.

That's over if she keeps this shit up. Maybe SF won't abandon her, but LA will.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:11 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Also, most of the real work will get done this year. Before Summer. Or by holiday season at the latest. The First 100 days is a thing for a reason, because historically that's when most administrations have had the good will and political capital to pass their agendas. After that things generally bog down, then work trails off for a year or so during midterm season, with another burst after that before it's reelection time. They're going to hit hard and fast, because they know they need to, and they know they have to hit hard while Democrats are demoralized and disorganized (ha, actually that's always).
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:11 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Sean Spicer said the United States would prevent China from taking over territory in international waters in the South China Sea.

That was easily the most disturbing thing in that briefing.

Anyone else feel like they are a 'conservative' now?

Since the Summer of 2003, approximately. That's when I realized Republican politics is actually radical, not conservative at all.
posted by Coventry at 9:12 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Lots of chatter that Trump's ban on Muslim immigration is coming today. (Former Deputy Chief of Staff, Senator Harry Reid)

Is there ANYTHING activists can do to stop this? As far as I can tell, the last few times we've banned certain groups from immigrating to the US it's been the lead up to a global scale war. Also it's fascism. We need to stop this. But I don't think we can. Marching won't stop this. I am so scared and sick right now. (But thank you, thank you for drawing this to MeFi's attention.)
posted by capricorn at 9:12 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Sherrod Brown asks Tom Price about Trump's claim he has his own ACA plan coming. Price: "It's true that he said that." Room laughs.

--@BenjySarlin

See, it's hilarious because the President claims he has a healthcare plan but nobody in the government, including the guy the President chose to be in charge of healthcare, thinks it even exists.
posted by zachlipton at 9:14 AM on January 24, 2017 [60 favorites]

The bar grievance process is in fact not 'just a show' for the public,

If you do not have a complaint that is in a class which has pages of annotations, you will most likely be told there is nothing wrong.

If you are a Judge and you file a complaint VS an attorney, now THAT is treated differently than a complaint by the public.

I can understand why attorneys don't want honest courtrooms - it allows them to pick the pockets of clients. But without honest courts - what is the plan to deal with the actions of the quislings of Trump? Hope for change?
posted by rough ashlar at 9:15 AM on January 24, 2017

See, it's hilarious because the President claims he has a healthcare plan but nobody in the government, including the guy the President chose to be in charge of healthcare, thinks it even exists.

Their plan is to intentionally limit healthcare access to the global elite, and they all know it. Every one of them.
posted by capricorn at 9:17 AM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

There's nothing anyone can do to stop the simple issuance of executive orders. They put a thing in front of Trump and he signs it.

It's like people are getting introductory lessons in how the basics of the US Government work. The time to prevent these things was before Trump was elected. Now we need to focus on how to respond to them, or, at best, discourage their actual implementation by making plain the huge political and social costs anyone who goes along to get along will have to pay.

Problem is, it's not yet clear they will have to. Not in the short term. Our most senior politicians are even now, largely spineless.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:17 AM on January 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

Observation: Trump is Voldemort.

I was in a large meeting today and everyone in the room palpably bristled when a speaker said the phrase "president Trump." The speaker read the room and quickly switched to just saying "the president" for the remainder of the meeting.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 9:17 AM on January 24, 2017 [21 favorites]

Does he know the oil in Keystone XL doesn't come from the US either?

The concept of the nation state is entirely obsolete for these people, beyond its use as a tool to angry up the marks. Keep your eye on the ball.

Observation: Trump is Voldemort.

God, I'm sick of this twee bullshit. He's a real-life tyrant and we better start acting like it.
posted by ryanshepard at 9:17 AM on January 24, 2017 [44 favorites]

I can understand why attorneys don't want honest courtrooms - it allows them to pick the pockets of clients.

Christ, what an Assange.

But without honest courts - what is the plan to deal with the actions of the quislings of Trump? Hope for change?

Nice Palin invocation.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:18 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Feinstein's support comes from people like me who have voted for her their entire adult lives.

it's either her or the token republican chucklehead that is offered up as a blood sacrifice. if a liberal democrat primaries her, they've got my vote.

Since the Summer of 2003, approximately. That's when I realized Republican politics is actually radical, not conservative at all.

the word you're looking for is "reactionary"
posted by entropicamericana at 9:19 AM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

historically that's when most administrations have had the good will and political capital to pass their agendas.

Remember that the teahadists showed up to 2009 summer recess town hall meetings in cosplay, camo, and with semi-automatic rifles, and that momentum carried through to 2010. Most GOP congresscritters are shameless because they're in gerrymandered districts, but they need to feel intimidated by opposition starting right now.
posted by holgate at 9:19 AM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

Trump Promise Tracker (Washington Post)
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:20 AM on January 24, 2017

I don't recall Obama doing this same kind of "ruling" at a breakneck pace,

There are a series of executive orders that seem to be signed by every new president. What is the difference between the past signings and this round? (27 of 'em or so if I remember....the web page I had bookmarked on tracking that is no longer around)

And didn't Trump say something about how he wasn't going to use executive orders at one point early on?
posted by rough ashlar at 9:20 AM on January 24, 2017

What is the difference between the past signings and this round?

I feel pretty confident that the last few presidents have actually read the ones they signed.
posted by Etrigan at 9:22 AM on January 24, 2017 [22 favorites]

So then: why is Trump doing all of this so fast?

I was wondering the same thing.

They worship at the altar of the OODA loop.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:22 AM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

Observation: Trump is Voldemort.

I'm reading the Harry Potter series to my boys right now. We just finished Goblet of Fire. During the chapter in which Voldemort returns I starting sprinkling some Trumpisms into the ends of his monologues. It's scary how well they fit.
posted by nubs at 9:23 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Now that Pompeo has been confirmed, there will be a special election in a few months to fill his seat. KS-4 is not close to swinging left (heavily Trump country), but if local folks (particularly local Bernie folks) organized heavily in the next month, they could close the gap a little. Here's a local article on the process and some of the candidates.

I'm not pinning my hopes on this, but if the R/D gap narrowed, it could be a good indicator for the broader GOP and the media that things are swinging away from Trump. Conversely, the results could show his support remaining steady in the "heartland."
posted by melissasaurus at 9:25 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

the web page I had bookmarked on tracking that is no longer around

It may be in the Internet Archive unless they used the x-norobots header?
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 9:27 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Obama spent his entire term in office waging a war against whistleblowers, and destroyed the lives and careers of brave and honorable people. He prosecuted more whistleblowers than ALL PREVIOUS PRESIDENTS COMBINED.

And a bunch of people who showed up to complain about Bush's use of power didn't bother when similar abuse happened under Obama will now complain about Trump's version of the abuse of power. And at the point where Trump is no longer the power abuser, they will go away again.

Rather than build something to 'take down Trump' - why not build something that goes after the abuse of power?

And spend some time looking in the mirror and ask "Would I be this outraged if it wasn't Trump and was instead (whomever you would have rather had in power)"
posted by rough ashlar at 9:29 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Shocker. Americans are surprisingly supportive of government regulations Trump wants to dismantle. People like regulations after all, especially environmental regulations.
posted by zachlipton at 9:31 AM on January 24, 2017 [40 favorites]

Video: The Netherlands welcomes Trump in his own words
posted by Jalliah at 9:33 AM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Once again we get some interesting dispatches from the alternate universe where Democrats never complained about Obama's deportations, drones, spying, whistleblower treatment, press availability, etc., etc., etc.. How's the stock market doing on Earth2?
posted by 0xFCAF at 9:35 AM on January 24, 2017 [26 favorites]

Observation: Trump is Voldemort.

I've seen these Republicans for Voldemort stickers around since the second Bush Administration. People have seen the logical conclusion of their extremism for years.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 9:37 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm watching the second Price hearing. A female senator I am struggling to find the name of is killing it and has been added to my short list of people who know how to ask a question. She just asked Price three times, "do you support turning Medicare into block grants" (slight paraphrase) and he refused to answer - very stark.
posted by prefpara at 9:38 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

They worship at the altar of the OODA loop.

Maybe that plus Trump's instincts as a showman and a salesman. He was able to bamboozle the media during the primary and election by playing the "coming soon" game. There's two comments in the last two hours of this thread, supreme court justice and muslim ban, both coming soon. When he wants to change what CNN is saying about him, he'll promise something big coming soon. And they eat it up because speculation and anticipation is so much easier than reporting.
posted by peeedro at 9:39 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Linda McMahon just introduced her son-in-law, professional wrestler HHH, at her confirmation hearing.

#TrumpsAmerica
posted by uncleozzy at 9:41 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Trump turns noncommittal on Jerusalem embassy move
Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and other Arab allies have warned the White House of severe repercussions should it proceed with the move.
a) Very relieved that Trump may possibly be listening to anyone at all thoughtful, even if I think they're wrong;
b) Further relieved that Trump and I may no longer agree on anything whatsoever;
c) To ZOA, nelson_muntz_ha_ha.gif
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:42 AM on January 24, 2017

The block grant questioner was Sen. Claire McCaskill
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:42 AM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-California) and Senator Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) introduced legislation today to prohibit the President from launching a nuclear first strike without a declaration of war by Congress.

In case you want to call your representatives, it's called "Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017."
posted by bluecore at 9:49 AM on January 24, 2017 [130 favorites]

Very relieved that Trump may possibly be listening to anyone at all thoughtful, even if I think they're wrong

Your position that there's nothing wrong with the USA moving its embassy to Jerusalem is what's wrong here. (No other country maintains an embassy there; see here.)
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 9:50 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

I think I like this Ted Lieu.
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:51 AM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

(Not that any such law would stop the birds flying by so much as a second should Donald will't.)
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:52 AM on January 24, 2017

> Very relieved that Trump may possibly be listening to anyone at all thoughtful

Ha ha ha, good one.

> There's nothing anyone can do to stop the simple issuance of executive orders. They put a thing in front of Trump and he signs it.

See, this is going to be a fake presidency, image over substance all the time. The entire premise of the Trump presidency is trolling liberals "for the lulz". Here's the Washington Post, for example:

BREAKING NEWS: Trump signs executive orders seeking to revive controversial oil pipelines

Scratch the surface:

It remained unclear how Trump’s orders would restart the Dakota Access and Keystone XL projects or expedite environmental reviews. Many of those reviews are statutory, and the legislation that created them cannot be swept aside by an executive order. The White House did not immediately release texts of the orders.

These are the showy flourishes for his adoring base, just like the nonsense executive order that seeks to relieve the administrative burden of the ACA. Not that these won't do damage anyway - they will! That executive order might yet push the ACA exchanges into an uncertainty-driven death spiral.

But the real fuckery is coming from Congress. Watch those guys, and what they slide over Donnie's desk to sign. Those will have prettier names and a lot more bite.
posted by RedOrGreen at 9:59 AM on January 24, 2017 [36 favorites]

GIZMODO --Trump's Attorney General Pick Wants to Give Cops Encryption Backdoors
The Electronic Frontier Foundation dug up Session’s written answers to questions sent by Senator Patrick Leahy. The responses are nauseating (emphasis ours):
Question: Do you agree with NSA Director Rogers, Secretary of Defense Carter, and other national security experts that strong encryption helps protect this country from cyberattack and is beneficial to the American people’s’ digital security?

Response: Encryption serves many valuable and important purposes. It is also critical, however, that national security and criminal investigators be able to overcome encryption, under lawful authority, when necessary to the furtherance of national-security and criminal investigations.

posted by snuffleupagus at 10:00 AM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

> It is also critical, however, that national security and criminal investigators be able to overcome encryption, under lawful authority, when necessary

I can't take it. I can't keep slamming my head into my desk over and over again.

It's math, guys. Either no one can break in, or every bad actor can. There's no magic, it's math. Good luck shopping at Amazon after putting back doors into every encryption scheme.
posted by RedOrGreen at 10:02 AM on January 24, 2017 [45 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump

Signing orders to move forward with the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines in the Oval Office.

Look at the accompanying photograph and remember those faces and names when people start dying because of this.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:03 AM on January 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

We need to start calling this for what it is: a (so-far successful) attempt at "shock and awe."
posted by adamgreenfield at 10:03 AM on January 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

Un-pickable locks serve many valuable and important purposes. It is also critical, however, that national security and criminal investigators be able to pick those locks, under lawful authority, when necessary to the furtherance of national-security and criminal investigations.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 10:04 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

(Not that any such law would stop the birds flying by so much as a second should Donald will't.)

For some reason a news helicopter got video of a missile-like thing leaving the water and there was reporting about 5 nukes leaving on an airplane back in the Bush the Lesser days that were never seemingly explained to the public. (or at least explained that I remember seeing. How DID the camera just happen to be rolling in that location in that direction over the ocean.....I guess the wonders will never stop eh?)

The best hope for birds getting their wings clipped would be people who took an oath who somehow manage to screw up their job just a little bit so things don't quite work. Screwing up your job just a little bit can be as simple as putting the wrong name on a warrant going to Hong Kong in case one wants a non-nuke example.

What's the plan on letting the monkey-wrenchers know that it's OK and they'll be supported beyond the support of their own conscience?
posted by rough ashlar at 10:09 AM on January 24, 2017

It is also critical, however, that national security and criminal investigators be able to overcome encryption, under lawful authority, when necessary to the furtherance

I can haz MeFi thread for thecrypting?
posted by petebest at 10:18 AM on January 24, 2017

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-California) and Senator Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) introduced legislation today to prohibit the President from launching a nuclear first strike without a declaration of war by Congress.

I'm not sure how SCOTUS is going to enforce that since they'll all be vaporized. I think the better solution would be to install a sane Commander in Chief.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:18 AM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

"Trump is clearly into big military displays. The military marching down Pennsylvania Avenue. The military flying over New York City and Washington D.C. during parades. Here’s someone who really understands how great leaders think. (We can also recommend excellent tailors to make him his own exquisite military uniforms.) Thanks to the new president, we can now use the term 'American regime'; your country has fully earned the honor."
posted by Kitty Stardust at 10:21 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

RobotVoodooPower, right, that was my first thought, but presumably this gives the actual button-pushers legal authority to not push the button.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 10:21 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Press Briefing with Press Secretary Sean Spicer
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:22 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

There's a quote from Doctor Who that seems relevant. To paraphrase: "Don't you think he looks tired?". I suppose it would be bad form to apply it to other members of his administration indiscriminately.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:23 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Firstly, as a liberal trans woman living in Oklahoma, I wonder if they realize what it feels like when you’re told by your own ideology, "You’re on your own, at least until we can trickle down equality to you." What it reminds me of, is when the Human Rights Campaign was pushing for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act last decade and decided to drop transgender people from the legislation because they deemed it just too hard to pass. They told trans folks, "Don’t worry, we’ll come back for you someday when this is easier."

If you ever wondered why transgender people dislike the HRC so much, that’s your reason. We were told we just weren’t worth the fight and to simply wait for equal protections to trickle down to us. Now it feels like when the left says these things to not only transgender people, but all of the LGBT+ spectrum, plus reproductive rights advocates, people of color, the poor, and any other number of marginalized groups who live in red states, it sounds like they’re perfectly content to abandon us to our fate while they make their own states and areas more progressive. That’s not progressive; it’s regressive, defeatist, and quite frankly lazy.

Wish I could quote the whole thing, really. It has been so dispiriting for me to hear the kind of stuff the article is written in response to amplified after the election. The major takeaway on my social media currently seems to be that the article is asking leftists to compromise and listen to bigots, and it's just kind of soul crushing. It's patently obvious to me that the point here is that not all poor people, not all people in the South, not all people in red states are Trump-supporting bigots and that "progressive" areas have just as many problems with systemic bigotry whether anyone wants to acknowledge it or not. Pretending otherwise papers over deeper issues, and implicit support for policies that hurt poor white people in the sticks explicitly hurts people of color, LGBT people and women as an obvious consequence.

If I have any hope right now, it's that some people are realizing this and that offers those of us who have been told for years to "just move" some opportunities to actually do so and be heard. Alas, I have no hope that my region will get better within my lifetime. The best I can do is flee. It's too late for a lot of these regions.
posted by byanyothername at 10:24 AM on January 24, 2017 [54 favorites]

@mcgregor_ewan
Was going on Good Morning Britain, didn't realise @piersmorgan was host. Won't go on with him after his comments about #WomensMarch
posted by chris24 at 10:25 AM on January 24, 2017 [66 favorites]

Piers Morgan said in response that Ewan was "Just an actor" so his opinion isn't ~~valid~~ a big deal.
posted by INFJ at 10:27 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Good on him.

Piers had a meltdown about entertainers not having political opinions after that, which is odd, Piers being an entertainer with a lot of them.
posted by Artw at 10:27 AM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Primary Concerns Episode 41: Will Donald Trump Kill Us All? with nuclear arms control expert Michael Krepon
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:29 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Piers being an entertainer

Assumes facts not in evidence.
posted by melissasaurus at 10:29 AM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

And that is why Ewan McGregor is the best. Just that. THE BEST.

call me, ewan...
posted by cooker girl at 10:30 AM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

roomthreeseventeen: Press Briefing with Press Secretary Sean Spicer

On time as usual

[sarcasm filter]
posted by slipthought at 10:30 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

C-SPAN link to the White House briefing. The briefing hasn't started but the stream is live, unlike the official feed.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 10:31 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

It is also critical, however, that national security and criminal investigators be able to overcome encryption, under lawful authority, when necessary to the furtherance
I can haz MeFi thread for thecrypting?

If you want reasonably private digital conversations, use WhatsApp. If you want to be a little more cutting edge and you and your contacts are willing to put up with a more difficult user experience, use Signal. All of this emits metadata, none of it is anonymous, if you want that you'll need to start doing serious research for your exact needs rather than relying on glib lists of software tools.
posted by indubitable at 10:32 AM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Cspan link live now for briefing
posted by slipthought at 10:32 AM on January 24, 2017

> @mcgregor_ewan Was going on Good Morning Britain, didn't realise @piersmorgan was host. Won't go on with him after his comments about #WomensMarch

Ewan McGregor is a white guy who waves his dick around in the right way: in lots of movies. I will never not commend his full frontal tendencies. Thank you for your service.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:34 AM on January 24, 2017 [22 favorites]

Is CSPAN viewership up? Or am I the only one streaming their videos on my lunch breaks (besides y'all)?
posted by prefpara at 10:34 AM on January 24, 2017

@realDonaldTrump

Signing orders to move forward with the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines in the Oval Office.

So the pipelines are going to be built in the Oval Office now? /pedant
posted by zakur at 10:36 AM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

CSPAN's stream is the way to go if you don't want to become a propaganda viewership tool for the regime and if you want the chance to hear someone whistling "springtime for hitler"
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:37 AM on January 24, 2017 [21 favorites]

rather than relying on glib lists of software tools

Especially given how easy it is to engineer exploitable vulnerabilities when doing manual memory allocation and pointer arithm—oh wait I thought you said glibc
posted by cortex at 10:39 AM on January 24, 2017 [21 favorites]

I can haz MeFi thread for thecrypting?

If anyone interested is in Boston this Thursday evening, I'll be teaching a class on the basics of securing your devices and communications. Bring your laptops and phones.
posted by Coventry at 10:41 AM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

And off we go with the presser.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:43 AM on January 24, 2017

Was that Kellyanne Conway sitting to the right of the stage?
posted by Coventry at 10:43 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

coventry, yes.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:44 AM on January 24, 2017

Ewan McGregor is a white guy who waves his dick around in the right way

Obi-Wang.
posted by Artw at 10:45 AM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

Here's the part of the presser where Spicer takes up as much time as humanly possible by reading off lists of names.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:45 AM on January 24, 2017

Wait. The energy revolution is gas and oil? Sigh.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 10:47 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Joint Session of Congress - 2/28.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:50 AM on January 24, 2017

First question goes to Lifezette.
posted by melissasaurus at 10:51 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

We are so fucked, part X of a series of X. They have a serious hate on for any kind of reality.

Didn't Canada do the scientist gag thing at some point? How did that work out?
posted by Artw at 10:52 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Q2 is about the EPA gag. "I don't know that story." Great start, Spicy.
posted by prefpara at 10:52 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

The Mealy-Mouth Of Sauron
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:53 AM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

Spicer says they are "looking into" the communications ban from USDA/EPA, because the news was "just breaking" now.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:53 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Q2 is about the EPA gag. "I don't know that story." Great start, Spicy.

"That doesn't look like anything to me."
posted by Artw at 10:53 AM on January 24, 2017 [41 favorites]

Reposting from the deleted post by StrawberryPie:

Reports are coming in that the White House has issued orders banning employees at multiple agencies, including the EPA, USDA, and Health and Human Services (at least) from external communications with the press, public, and (in DHHS's case) even Congress.

I'm not a regular visitor to ProPublica, but they currently have a very appropriate banner link: How To Leak To ProPublica
posted by filthy light thief at 10:54 AM on January 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

Kellyanne is going to attend the March for Life on Friday.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:54 AM on January 24, 2017

Spicer says they are "looking into" the communications ban from USDA/EPA, because the news was "just breaking" now.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!
posted by INFJ at 10:55 AM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

Spincer says Trump maintains his belief about illegal voters because of evidence presented to him.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:55 AM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

Spicer doubling down on millions of illegal votes based on "studies" and "evidence".

Follow-up: What evidence?

Spicer: He has studies and information

OK that settles it
posted by 0xFCAF at 10:56 AM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

Kellyanne is going to attend the March for Live on Friday.

Which will, of course, be open to all living people who want to participate and speak, because that's what they were complaining about yesterday.
posted by Etrigan at 10:56 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Holy shit, when asked if Trump believes 'millions of illegal votes' were cast, he affirmed it due to 'studies and facts that he'd been presented with'.
posted by DynamiteToast at 10:56 AM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Spicer cites some nonspecific "studies and information" backing up Trump's belief in widespread voter fraud, and repeats "studies and information" when the reporter asks for specifics. Practically jumps to the next question.
posted by Leslie Knope at 10:57 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Sean "Sacrificial Lamb" Spicer bleating furiously as the knife of public scrutiny comes bearing down on his throat.
posted by Tevin at 10:57 AM on January 24, 2017 [19 favorites]

Spicer says there's a Pew 2008 study that claims 14% of people who vote aren't citizens.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:58 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Spincer says Trump maintains his belief about illegal voters because of evidence presented to him.

"Spincer" may be a typo but it's real close to an appropriate nickname
posted by jason_steakums at 10:58 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Call on Goyal! Save yourself!
posted by slipthought at 10:59 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Kellyanne is going to attend the March for Life on Friday.

Of course she is and she's hoping beyond hope that someone, anyone!, will give her the slightest of hard times about it so she can turn this into a Cause For The Real Oppressed Majority; The Pro-Lifers And Virtuous Women Showing Patriotic Devotion.

Fuck you, Kellyanne!
posted by lydhre at 10:59 AM on January 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

that would be "alternative information", surely.
posted by piyushnz at 10:59 AM on January 24, 2017

Guardian: Sales of George Orwell's 1984 surge after Kellyanne Conway's 'alternative facts'

Comments made by Donald Trump’s adviser have been compared to the classic dystopian novel, pushing it to become the sixth best-selling book on Amazon

posted by ZeusHumms at 11:00 AM on January 24, 2017 [34 favorites]

Millions of fraudulent votes, but NBD, it's okay, we won, so next question. [fakeish]
posted by klarck at 11:00 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

@ananavarro
Trump says 3-5 MM illegals cost him the popular vote. DOJ works for him. Why doesn't he order investigation? Oh, I know. B/c It. Is. A. Lie.
posted by chris24 at 11:00 AM on January 24, 2017 [42 favorites]

Julian Assange says Barack Obama pardoned Chelsea Manning 'to make life hard' for him

img src="grumpycatgood.gif"
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:01 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Press going after Spicer HARD on the illegal voters.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:01 AM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

More on that bogus Pew claim.

The likely percent of non-citizen voters in recent US elections is 0.
posted by mochapickle at 11:02 AM on January 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

Why not investigate [the millions of illegal voters]?

uh, maybe we will. ... Right now the president's focus is on putting Americans to work.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 11:02 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Spicer complains that Senate Democrats are "holding up" the Cabinet nominations, and so they can't do things like start banning Muslims.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:03 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Mara Liason: If 3-5M people voted illegally, this is the biggest electoral scandal in American history, why aren't you investigating it?
Spicer: We might; the President has a long-standing belief in this but is focusing on making jobs.

He just only has so much energy to do stuff, guys. Low-energy. Sad.
posted by 0xFCAF at 11:03 AM on January 24, 2017 [78 favorites]

Why not investigate [the millions of illegal voters]?

uh, maybe we will. ... Right now the president's focus is on putting Americans to work.

Why are you ignoring the large number of out-of-work hard-boiled gumshoes, Mr. President? We could clear this thing up in a week! Two, if there's sultry dames involved!
posted by Etrigan at 11:04 AM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

This seems appropriate right now: Anonymous Pro-Trump “Fact Checking” Website Is Actually Run By An American In Russia
posted by StrawberryPie at 11:04 AM on January 24, 2017 [22 favorites]

Oh god this Christian News reporter asking about Trump and "Israel leaders"
posted by OverlappingElvis at 11:04 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Journalist asks if DJT will support a "mainstream candidate" for SCOTUS and Spicer actually laughs.
posted by mochapickle at 11:05 AM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

So if you want the tiniest beacon of hope, I'm getting a lot of 'it feels like 09 again' chatter in the activist circles, lots of people who never protested or joined up are pitching in, and the DSA continues to grow at a rapid rate.

Heartening to know that people do realize the shit has extremely hit the fucking fan and are acting accordingly.
posted by The Whelk at 11:05 AM on January 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

The White House did not immediately release texts of the orders.

Secret Executive Orders! Oh, boy!

In related news, I think I've decided to just become a functioning alcoholic.
posted by corb at 11:06 AM on January 24, 2017 [40 favorites]

Looking for anything on Fox News about the gag orders, I found nothing, but I did find an opinion piece (only labeled as such in the URL - WTF) in response to my earlier posted link about the Lawsuit Claims Foreign Payments To Trump's Businesses Violate Constitution (NPR Morning Edition, Jan. 24, 2017 - transcript still not up yet)

Gregg Jarrett: The first (and frivolous) lawsuit against President Trump If you’re in the mood for a good chuckle, try reading the first lawsuit filed against the new president since he was sworn in.

Predictably, the plaintiffs are a clique of law professors serving as “arm candy” for a liberal group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (an oxymoron, to be sure). Their pleadings read like a dime novel. Or a comic book.

On the first page, we are warned of a “secret” and “grave threat”. The next sentence escalates it to a “creeping, insidious threat”. Get it? There’s a threat out there. Stephen King may write a book.

But if you can wade through the melodramatic style and tortured syntax, you’ll find the legal arguments oozing with the conceit of pseudo-intellectuals. In other words, they make little sense.

The plaintiffs claim President Donald Trump began violating the “emoluments clause” of the U.S. Constitution the moment he took office because the businesses that bear his name are surely receiving some money from foreign governments, even though he has relinquished management control and elected to donate foreign profits at Trump-owned hotels to the U.S. Treasury. Forget that the revenue derives directly from his businesses, not his high office.

The lawsuit is pure legal folly because the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that these kinds of circumstances do not violate the Constitutional emoluments prohibition. The plaintiffs, for all their academic prowess, manage to define emoluments incorrectly.

What The Hell Is An “Emolument”?

And that is precisely the question: what constitutes an “emolument”? Never heard of it?

Et cetera, etc., etc. "Hoity-toity fake smarties use big words you don't use and claim some nonsense ... except he then spells out what the issue is:

The Framers were concerned that U.S. officials might be seduced by greed to use their office for personal profit, conferring benefits to foreign governments in a quid pro quo scheme for money. So they crafted the “emoluments clause” to prevent other countries from essentially bribing American officials, including the president. But our Founders did not define what is or is not an emolument.

Except you don't need to have it spelled out with _rump's issues - he has his name over properties in other countries, and is continuing to expand his business empire overseas, which makes all that a liability. Oh, but he goes on.

Only when a president uses his office to confer a benefit in exchange for foreign money is he in violation of the Constitution. President Trump has done no such thing. The plaintiffs accuse him of no such conduct.

WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HE OWNS AND WHERE, AND WHO HAS PAID HIM. NO IDEA. The best we have is what, tax returns from 1995? Oh, but our President would always be honest and open if we needed to know, right.

Ffffuuuuu.... no more delving into Fox News during my lunch break, or before work. Or after, really.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:07 AM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

I wonder if the press could get Kellyanne Conway to drop quotes from other books to boost sales.
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:07 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

"[Jeff Sessions]' record on civil rights is exemplary."

2. serving as a warning
posted by uncleozzy at 11:07 AM on January 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

OK, it was more of a scoff/chortle re: SCOTUS.

SCOFF/CHORTLE 2020
posted by mochapickle at 11:07 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

The other day, Trump sat down with Martin Luther King, Jr. [real, he said this]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:08 AM on January 24, 2017 [27 favorites]

at least he's not running a private email server amirite
posted by entropicamericana at 11:08 AM on January 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

Spicer: "Just the other day he sat down with Martin Luther King, Jr."

Trump governing by seance, apparently.
posted by 0xFCAF at 11:08 AM on January 24, 2017 [21 favorites]

Did he just say DJT sat down with MLK, Jr yesterday?
posted by slipthought at 11:08 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

guys the dakota access pipeline will fix the inner cities [real]
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:09 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Spicer keeps saying we're on Day 2. This is an alternative fact because we're on day 5. Five long days.
posted by Brainy at 11:10 AM on January 24, 2017 [22 favorites]

Spicer: We might; the President has a long-standing belief in this but is focusing on making jobs.

Was this followed up with 'if he is focused on creating jobs, why is there a hiring freeze?'
posted by dinty_moore at 11:10 AM on January 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

Did he just say DJT sat down with MLK, Jr yesterday?

Yeah. Clearly he meant MLK the 3rd. But the gaffe was shocking.
posted by dis_integration at 11:10 AM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

But the gaffe was shocking.

Also the complete non-acknowledgement of corrections from the pool.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:11 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

adamgreenfield: We need to start calling this for what it is: a (so-far successful) attempt at "shock and awe."

Related, from Faux News -- Sean Hannity: Trump mounts shock and awe campaign on DC (Opinion)
posted by filthy light thief at 11:11 AM on January 24, 2017

In the last thread there was a question about if people could or would show up at senator's offices on Tuesdays at noon. I just got back from Senator Toomey's Philadelphia office where there were at least 300 people protesting the nomination of Betsy DeVos. This was the Tuesdays with Toomey group. We've been there every Tuesday for the past two months and this week was by far the largest number of people. The press was there (including the local TV channels). A city councilwoman spoke. People driving by were honking and yelling in support.

So, yes. People do show up.
posted by mcduff at 11:12 AM on January 24, 2017 [57 favorites]

Spicer keeps saying we're on Day 2. This is an alternative fact because we're on day 5. Five long days.

Isn't that because _rump took a vacation this past weekend? And that first day was really a half-day, so let's round down. Ta-da! Two days!
posted by filthy light thief at 11:13 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

They're going for "shock and awe" but for me it's just "renewing my previously-thought-to-be-depleted reservoir of fucks."
posted by Tevin at 11:13 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Who's the reporter with the Russian accent?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:15 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

"What does that mean for democracy?"

"It means that I've answered your question."

"Have you?"
posted by uncleozzy at 11:16 AM on January 24, 2017 [35 favorites]

I'm sure this has been asked and answered in every political thread, but after having a hard time googling the info, I'll ask here again- where can I find out how my representative and senator have voted on everything that they vote on, as they do so? I'd like to be able to articulate what I agree or disagree with on the phone a little bit better than "No! No Trump! Bad!"
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 11:16 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Wait.

Trump has said he is going to deport 3 million criminal immigrants.

He's now saying there are 3 million fraudulent immigrant voters.

Is that going to be the mechanism by which he tries to enact the mass deportations?
posted by Tevin at 11:16 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Spicer asked if HE believes there was voter fraud. Dismisses the question as irrelevant and quickly moves on.
posted by mochapickle at 11:17 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

On allegations of voter fraud: "what does that mean for our democracy?"

Spicer: "I've answered your question."

edit: Uncleozzy done it better
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:17 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Balltopedia is a pretty exhaustive record of your congresspersons' votes.
posted by Tevin at 11:17 AM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

also regarding the alleged illegal voters - "Did he really win?" Answer: Yes, because electoral college
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 11:18 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

BuddhaInABucket: I'm sure this has been asked and answered in every political thread, but after having a hard time googling the info, I'll ask here again- where can I find out how my representative and senator have voted on everything that they vote on, as they do so? I'd like to be able to articulate what I agree or disagree with on the phone a little bit better than "No! No Trump! Bad!"

https://www.govtrack.us
posted by slipthought at 11:19 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Just now, Molly McKew tweeted something that hits home: "Capturing a nation happens a lot faster than you will ever think possible."
posted by StrawberryPie at 11:19 AM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

It's like the word "shitweasel" was specifically invented for Spicer.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:23 AM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

"By law, he can't have conflicts."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:23 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Asked about potential business conflicts with the pipeline:

"By law, he can't have conflicts."
posted by mochapickle at 11:24 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

The cognitive dissonance of "3-5 million people voted illegally" and "We're very comfortable with our win" is mind-blowing. Less than 10% of those illegal votes could have turned the Electoral College - by his own premises his win is illegitimate.
posted by 0xFCAF at 11:25 AM on January 24, 2017 [48 favorites]

Anything's possible! Nothing means anything! I am the walrus!

Next question.
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:25 AM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

He doesn't have conflicts because he can't have conflicts. Nope. No sir-y bob. No conflicts here. Illegal! Can't do it. By law.

next question?
posted by INFJ at 11:25 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yesterday the press was praising Spicer for lying with a little more professional tone than he did Saturday, they must be really impressed with how far he's come on "Day 2".
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:26 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Please, people. Tell me there is something that can be done to stop this administration.
posted by StrawberryPie at 11:27 AM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

LOL at the question of if Trump is going to re-fill Guantanamo with bad dudes.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:27 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

For folks who were wondering about the "show up at a Senator's office in the middle of the day on a weekday" strategy, just heard there were 125-150 people at Pittsburgh Tuesdays With Toomey today. That's up from 40 last week.
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:27 AM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

Spicer is easily rattled. Shame no one in the room is exploiting that yet.
posted by klarck at 11:27 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

by his own premises his win is illegitimate

He's only capable of one premise at a time. Considering two of them simultaneously is beyond him.
posted by diogenes at 11:27 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

This is going poorly, bye.
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:28 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

What's the over/under on Spicer making it February?
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:28 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Unless @PressSec provides actual "sources & evidence" that 3 million people voted illegally, you should assume he's talking about InfoWars.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:28 AM on January 24, 2017 [36 favorites]

0XfCAF, they were all in California. Some people say.
posted by waitingtoderail at 11:29 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Spicer is easily rattled. Shame no one in the room is exploiting that yet.

It'll take a few weeks of this to get him to snap. It is only his ~~fourth~~ second day.
posted by cmfletcher at 11:30 AM on January 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

Unless @PressSec provides actual "sources & evidence" that 3 million people voted illegally, you should assume he's talking ~~about InfoWars.~~ out of his ass.

FTFY.
posted by INFJ at 11:31 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

My local Congressperson's office didn't appreciate when I asked them what day of the Trump admin we are on. But the intern said day 4. They punted me to the Dept. of Elections for clarification on how many non-citizens voted.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:31 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

He's setting up for mass deportation to protect the purity of the nation.

I'm terrified.
posted by AlexiaSky at 11:31 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I think our Democratic Representatives, in a show of cooperation and good faith, should initiate a bipartisan investigation into this massive voter fraud that is so troubling to Trump.
posted by klarck at 11:31 AM on January 24, 2017 [52 favorites]

For folks who were wondering about the "show up at a Senator's office in the middle of the day on a weekday" strategy, just heard there were 125-150 people at Pittsburgh Tuesdays With Toomey today.

Over 100 in my local Rep (Dave Trott, R-White Detroit Suburbs)'s office today.
posted by Etrigan at 11:31 AM on January 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

"What's the over/under on Spicer making it February?"

Kellyanne will be up on that podium before Valentine's Day.
posted by Tevin at 11:31 AM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

That prenup just became eminently negotiable. It's just that the one thing she can't do is leave while he's in office.

Who among Trump's supporters would change their minds about him if she left him? The evangelicals already supported him despite his being a serial adulterer and sexual offender.
posted by Gelatin at 11:31 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

John Judis: If Trump guts Obamacare, History may Repeat itself -- the Australian Lesson

Charles Pierce: Republicans Offer an Early Glimpse of Our Post-Obamacare World: You're gonna be so free, you're gonna get sick of it.
posted by homunculus at 11:32 AM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

The next spokesman will be within a month and it will be Stephen Miller. I would bet money on it.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:33 AM on January 24, 2017

Oh it's a Steve - OBVIOUSLY he will be next.
posted by Tevin at 11:34 AM on January 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

> Signing orders to move forward with the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines in the Oval Office.

How Trump's White House Is Driving a Wedge in the Pipeline Debate: They're pitting labor against environmentalists.
posted by homunculus at 11:35 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Please, people. Tell me there is something that can be done to stop this administration

Not to be all 'direct mass action' but direct mass action
posted by The Whelk at 11:37 AM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

CNN getting better.

CNN Breaking News Alert: President Trump believes millions of votes for president were cast illegally, press secretary says without providing evidence for the debunked claim.
posted by chris24 at 11:39 AM on January 24, 2017 [48 favorites]

Environmental protection is labor. It can be hard work sometimes with plenty of blue collar jobs.
posted by AlexiaSky at 11:40 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

CNN getting better

Not nearly enough to atone. It never will be.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:41 AM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Huge red headlines on CNN: Trump believes millions voted illegally, won't provide any proof
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:42 AM on January 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

All that we've seen since Trump won the Republican primary seals the deal for me: I am now 100% convinced that there's other intelligent life in the universe, but we can't see them because our species has been placed in an opaque quarantine zone lest we infect other races of beings with our madness.

Other species used to check up on us every few years to see if we were ready to be released, but they saw that we kept rewarding the most sociopathic, amoral, and aggressive humans with power, prestige, and treasure, so they've locked the door and left for good.
posted by lord_wolf at 11:42 AM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

Not only did 3 to 5 million illegal aliens vote, every one of them voting for Hillary Clinton: not one was caught! They got away with it. The most brilliant crime in history.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:43 AM on January 24, 2017 [66 favorites]

And they all voted in states that were already bright blue. Sad.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:45 AM on January 24, 2017 [44 favorites]

BuddhaInABucket: I'm sure this has been asked and answered in every political thread, but after having a hard time googling the info, I'll ask here again- where can I find out how my representative and senator have voted on everything that they vote on, as they do so? I'd like to be able to articulate what I agree or disagree with on the phone a little bit better than "No! No Trump! Bad!"

If you would like to get alerts on your phone about votes cast and/or in progress, two apps I use are Countable and VoteSpotter.
posted by Superplin at 11:46 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Not only did 3 to 5 million illegal aliens vote, every one of them voting for Hillary Clinton: not one was caught!

That's how sneaky she is, like how she murders dozens of people and replaces some of them with replicants.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:48 AM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Environmental protection is labor. It can be hard work sometimes with plenty of blue collar jobs.

Moving to a non carbon infrastructure will employ many millions of people at all levels of skill and ability as well as all the other benefits from a cleaner, greener country. It should be the number one project of a new administration
posted by The Whelk at 11:49 AM on January 24, 2017 [22 favorites]

Of all of her terrible campaign tactics, surely the worst was Hilary allocating her millions of fraudulent votes to California and New York, instead of Michigan, Florida, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:49 AM on January 24, 2017 [79 favorites]

CNN getting better

Not nearly enough to atone. It never will be.

Yeah, but it's like when a shittily done search and rescue mission turns into a recovery mission. At least they're trying to reclaim the body. At least they're trying to fix it going forward, now that the actual real-life consequences are actually happening in real life. Doesn't atone, but if it helps, I'll take it.
posted by mudpuppie at 11:50 AM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Xom is highly amused!
posted by theodolite at 11:51 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Donald Trump's stock in Dakota Access oil pipeline raises concerns
posted by cooker girl at 11:51 AM on January 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

@AriMelber Spicer caught between defending POTUS's lie - 3m people "voted illegally" - & defending why Trump admin not investigating those 3m "crimes."

@brianstelter This is an impossible position.

@Lawrence .@brianstelter @AriMelber Only for people who are afraid to quit.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:52 AM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

This is Trump's mental disorder driving the nation. The people that are surrounding him and supporting this are allowing this to happen. This isn't some evil masterminded strategy from Trump. The only strategy may be from the people beside him that are willing to use his disordered motivations for their own ends.

He cannot let it go and is full in narcissistic injury mode right now. Friday did not turn out the way he wanted, the adoring millions did not show up to his party and adore like they should have. The next day millions of WOMEN showed up and the largest protest in US history occurred against him.
This is a narcissists nightmare not some distraction strategy coming from his brain. And now he is doing anything he can to 'prove' to the world that he is as popular as he thinks he should be and using the power of the President to do so.

Utterly and completely pathetic.
posted by Jalliah at 11:52 AM on January 24, 2017 [69 favorites]

Dutch news: minister Ploumen (foreign trade and development cooperation) wants to establish an international fund that undoes the effects of Trump's executive order about abortion and other reproductive health care in developing countries (link in Dutch). According to the article she is talking with a broad coalition of countries, organizations and companies and has already received "signals" of support.
posted by blub at 11:57 AM on January 24, 2017 [101 favorites]

CNN getting better.

CNN Breaking News Alert: President Trump believes millions of votes for president were cast illegally, press secretary says without providing evidence for the debunked claim.

Welp, that's one more respect-kernel for ya there, bringing the total up to... hmm, carry the eight...

Three. *polite clap*
posted by tivalasvegas at 11:57 AM on January 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

The evangelicals already supported him despite his being a serial adulterer and sexual offender.

Neighborhood evangelical here: That's key to understand. Most (and I'm frustrated that I can't say all) people have no grand impressions about the moral stature of the president. The big discussion, both before the election and in response to the women's marches, has been abortion. "Everyone is terrible, but at least one won't kill babies"

This, of course, presents an interesting situation where the Republican party isn't about morals or traditional family values, but is instead simply pro-life. Evan McMullin was a bit of a response to that, but further exploits and/or head-desking are left as an exercise to the reader. I personally took this as a ticket out of traditional conservative politics, because if they don't have morals, what's the draw? "Everyone is terrible, but at least...." works both ways.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 11:58 AM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

"... minister Ploumen (foreign trade and development cooperation) wants to establish an international fund that undoes the effects of Trump's executive order" – that is so freaking awesome. I hope it happens.
posted by StrawberryPie at 12:01 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Unless @PressSec provides actual "sources & evidence" that 3 million people voted illegally, you should assume he's talking about InfoWars.

And Alex says that he always has facts/truth to back up his claims.

So lets see the facts of Mr. Jones to back up the 3 mil claim. And the machine elves. Lets see the machine elf facts too!
posted by rough ashlar at 12:02 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

This is a narcissists nightmare not some distraction strategy coming from his brain.

Dare I say that from a certain angle I actually feel sorry for him? NO I AM NOT DISPUTING THAT HE DESERVES IT.

From a certain angle I feel sorry for anyone whose worst nightmare is coming true. No matter how much they deserve it.

Of course, millions if not billions of people around the world either have or are about to experience their worst nightmares coming true at his tiny hands, so, I've already spent more than a picosecond on him and I should move on from that.
posted by tel3path at 12:02 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

"Everyone is terrible, but at least only one won't kill babies"

Except the new gag rule far exceeds the old one, and will result in lots of people dying because their public health funds are cut off.

Rather than applying the Global Gag Rule exclusively to US assistance for family planning in the developing world, which amounts to about $575 million per year, the Trump memo applies it to “global health assistance furnished by all department or agencies.” In other words, NGOs that distribute bed nets for malaria, provide childhood vaccines, support early childhood nutrition and brain development, run HIV programs, fight ebola or Zika, and much more, must now certify their compliance with the Global Gag Rule or risk losing US funds. According to analysis from PAI, a global health NGO, this impacts over $9 billion of US funds, or about 15 times more than the previous iteration of the Global Gag Rule which only impacted reproductive health assistance.

Yeah, so that's a thing. LOTS more people are going to die, including babies.
posted by suelac at 12:02 PM on January 24, 2017 [63 favorites]

from a certain angle I actually feel sorry for him – he does not deserve sympathy. Not by a long shot. Not by any shot.
posted by StrawberryPie at 12:04 PM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

They are weirdly blind to all other forms of baby death.
posted by Artw at 12:04 PM on January 24, 2017 [77 favorites]

I just don't get it about abortion.

Choice is Choice.

I mean, we do honor religious preferences in hospital settings like no blood transfusions for Jahovah's Witnesses. It's okay to hate people based on their choice and you can go about your life judging however you want. But give people options and choice.

No one is going around and advocating we stop all blood transfusions ever.
posted by AlexiaSky at 12:04 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

The only thing to get about abortion is that it's never about babies, it's about keeping women in their place.
posted by erratic meatsack at 12:05 PM on January 24, 2017 [118 favorites]

Because a blood transfusion ISN'T A BAAAAYYYYYYBBBBEEEEEEE.

Plus it's not about abortion, it's never been about abortion, it's about slut-shaming and controlling women's bodies.
posted by cooker girl at 12:05 PM on January 24, 2017 [33 favorites]

They are weirdly blind to all other forms of baby death. – and adult death too.
posted by StrawberryPie at 12:06 PM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

And, in fact, abortion rates go up under the gag rule, because other forms of contraception are taken away:
Earlier research also suggests abortion rates will rise. A 20-country study by the Stanford University School of Medicine, published by the WHO in 2011, found that abortion rates actually went up 40% the last time the gag rule was in place, under President George W. Bush. In countries most heavily affected by the policy, contraceptive use dropped, and a woman’s odds of having an unsafe abortion were more than two times higher after the policy went into effect.

Link.
posted by suelac at 12:06 PM on January 24, 2017 [38 favorites]

it's about slut-shaming and controlling women's bodies.

That, really, is the absolute truth at the heart of it.
posted by Artw at 12:07 PM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

They are weirdly blind to all other forms of baby death.

Because God decided that baby should die. socioeconomic status of the baby's parents are irrelevant. When God decides it, it's ok.
posted by INFJ at 12:07 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

This just in: NIH has also received a similar gag order. (C.f. this post from upstream.)
posted by StrawberryPie at 12:10 PM on January 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

When God decides it, it's ok.

And their God apparently wasn't responsible for the development of obstetrics or the invention of the curette or mifepristone or or or.

It's like these people have never heard the "I sent you a rowboat" parable.
posted by melissasaurus at 12:11 PM on January 24, 2017 [17 favorites]

Tennesee managed to convict a woman for trying to cause a miscarriage with a coat hanger.

Welcome to TOG's America.
posted by Talez at 12:11 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Today, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher than at any time in the last 650,000 years. #climate

--@BadlandsNPS

One brave NPS employee!
posted by zachlipton at 12:12 PM on January 24, 2017 [69 favorites]

I have relatives that justify it by saying that by simply allowing others to do have abortions they are committing sin by standing by and not trying to stop it. They are also free-market health care, pro-death penalty and never met a war they didn't like.
posted by cmfletcher at 12:12 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Plus it's not about abortion, it's never been about abortion, it's about slut-shaming and controlling women's bodies.

If you want a glimpse into this mindset, read this article by Matt Walsh about the women's march.

Please do not read if you are holding a sharp object, and there are people nearby you do not like.
posted by slipthought at 12:12 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

it's about slut-shaming and controlling women's bodies.

That, really, is the absolute truth at the heart of it.

It's about taking the emotions that underline these actions and using them to rally, energize, and engage their base. Everything that they do leads to this. That's why transgender rights in schools became a hot button issue. It's very easy to mischaracterize and get people fired up over them, on all sides.
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:14 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

The problem with Dianne Feinstein is she has so much institutional support you'd have to be crazy to run against her, as demonstrated by the last time anyone ran against Dianne Feinstein.

Isn't this what a lot of establishment Republicans thought before the Tea Party made a career out of primarying anyone who wasn't a hard-right true believer? Why can't we do the same? We don't have to win every single one to be a credible threat and to make Democratic lawmakers a little more scared of pissing off their base. And we have a couple of years in Feinstein's case.
posted by en forme de poire at 12:14 PM on January 24, 2017 [22 favorites]

(I also suspect the base is particularly angry right now in a way that it wasn't the last time Feinstein ran.)
posted by en forme de poire at 12:16 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

I understand and respect the concept that some or all abortion is 'murder'. There's a line to be drawn somewhere between

(this is not human life) | (this is human life)

and if one genuinely believes that, say, a third-trimester, viable fetus should not be aborted except if the mother's life or health is at stake -- I think that is a reasonable position, one which many people in both parties take. In fact, I think that is basically Hillary Clinton's position....

But what gives the lie to supposedly single-issue pro-life Republican voters is:

--One can be pro-life and also be a Democrat. One can even be a Democratic elected official and be pro-life (cf. Harry Reid)

and

--for at least the last 20 years, the abortion rate has gone down faster under Democratic administrations than Republican ones.

"I'm a single-issue pro-life voter" is a bullshit red herring. It is the moral cover for a seething mass of resentment and hatred and racism and misogyny and xenophobia and whatever else is lurking in the id of these people.
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:16 PM on January 24, 2017 [32 favorites]

and if one genuinely believes that, say, a third-trimester, viable fetus should not be aborted except if the mother's life or health is at stake -- I think that is a reasonable position,

Viable third trimester fetuses are not aborted, ever.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:17 PM on January 24, 2017 [74 favorites]

Anyone who's "pro-life" should be fighting hard against the defunding and shackling of the EPA and elimination of environmental regulations, considering the impact pollution has on infant mortality. I wonder how many times that's going to be brought up at the March for Life?
posted by skymt at 12:17 PM on January 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

"I'm a single-issue pro-life voter" is a bullshit red herring. It is the moral cover for a seething mass of resentment and hatred and racism and misogyny and xenophobia and whatever else is lurking in the id of these people.

Ah, but you forget that outcomes are meaningless compared to What's Truly In Your Heart™.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 12:18 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Progressives launch Justice Democrats from the Washington Post.

Cenk Uygur, founder of the Young Turks video network that has become virally popular among progressive voters, is launching a project called Justice Democrats to defeat members of the Democratic Party who have cast votes seen as unacceptable.
posted by Waiting for Pierce Inverarity at 12:18 PM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

Seems like as good a time as any to break out that old chestnut about voter fraud, commenter CrunchyFrog on Lawyers, Guns & Money on GOP accusations of voter fraud:

Regarding the black voter busing scheme. Let’s think about this logically (not possible for the GOP, I know, but bear with me). If I were running such a scheme what would I have to do to make an effective dent in the results? As a starting point, a lot of Colorado wingnuts think that Obama won there in 2012 by cheating. He won by 138k votes, so let’s use 140k votes as a starting point. So let’s say I have a bus full of black voters – say 66 people (common capacity limit on school buses). So if every bus is filled to near capacity that’s about 2200 bus-visits to the polling stations. How many polling stations can a given bus hit in a day? Well, your typical precinct has 2-3 people checking voters in and each one processes about 2 per minute, so that’s over 30 minutes just to check in (of course there will be other voters, too), plus time to drive between precincts. Seriously, if you are counting on more than 10 precincts per bus per day you’re going to be disappointed. So that’s 220 buses chartered for the day, and a total of about 14k fraudulent voters.

Holy freaking crap. The logistical problems of arranging that many fraudulent voters, ALL of whom are risking felony sentences and NONE of whom have ever talked about it to anyone. Now plan to arrange for 140k fake registrations using the matching photos for each person and arrange it so that the manager of each bus makes sure that every voter gets the exact fake ID for each precinct. And NO MISTAKES – remember no one has ever been caught doing this because Democrats, who are inept in government, are utter geniuses when it comes to vote fraud. So that means there NEVER can be a situation where a fake voter encounters a registrar who says “Hey, I live on that street, I’ve never seen you” or similar.

By the way, the absolutely easiest logistical part of this scheme is arranging for photo ID. Assuming you have that many people willing to commit felonies for whatever you are paying them and have arranged everything else in detail, getting fake photo IDs for them is simple and routine. So photo ID laws do absolutely jack shit to stop massive vote fraud – but of course that wasn’t their real intention, was it?

posted by Mayor West at 12:20 PM on January 24, 2017 [34 favorites]

As much as people like to brand her as Republican-lite, Sen. Gillibrand is the only Dem to vote against all of Trump's nominees thus far.
posted by melissasaurus at 12:23 PM on January 24, 2017 [46 favorites]

CNN Mattis goes where Trump won't: US-NATO bond 'unshakeable'

Newly confirmed Defense Secretary James Mattis sent a strong signal of support to NATO on Monday, reaching out to three critical alliance partners and saying the US had an "'unshakeable commitment to NATO."

Mattis -- whose embrace of NATO differs from comments made by President Donald Trump -- made his first official calls to Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg and to his counterparts from two key NATO allies, UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon and Canadian Minister of Defense Harjit Sajjan.
According to the Pentagon's official readout, Mattis in his conversation with Fallon "emphasized the United States' unshakeable commitment to NATO."
White House press secretary Sean Spicer was asked about Mattis' comments at the press briefing Tuesday.
"The President is very clear that as it's structured now, in terms of the output of NATO, he doesn't feel as though it's doing what its mission was set up to do or that it's being particularly effective," Spicer said.
posted by Jalliah at 12:32 PM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

Trump assembles a shadow Cabinet
posted by StrawberryPie at 12:33 PM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

They are weirdly blind to all other forms of baby death.

Babies that are still in the womb. As soon as they emerge they have sinned and are eligible for immediate death.

Cenk Uygur, founder of the Young Turks video network that has become virally popular among progressive voters, is launching a project called Justice Democrats to defeat members of the Democratic Party who have cast votes seen as unacceptable.

Primaries might be the only places we progressives win victories for the next few years so might as well do that while we can. We can celebrate progressive primary victories and then wail as the Republicans trounce us again and again. At least we'll be able to keep ourselves warm at night with the thoughts of those primary victories though.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:33 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Not that centrists have a better chance of winning mind you.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:34 PM on January 24, 2017

Sen. Gillibrand is the only Dem to vote against all of Trump's nominees

Which, I know I should just go ahead and turn off my shock collar before I go into uncontrollable seizures and all, but this really is quite shocking.

I can't believe that of all the fairly liberal Senators in deeply blue states, just one of them was like,

"Hmm, probably it would be good for the country and potentially also my political brand for me to oppose every one of these incompetent, corrupt, extremist fucks that Trump is putting up to head crucial public services.

"Maybe I should go ahead and vote 'No' across the board, knowing that my vote will be irrelevant today but that it will enable me to hold my head up in public ten years from now, if we are not all obliterated by a nuclear catastrophe, or killed in a civil war.

But no.
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:34 PM on January 24, 2017 [44 favorites]

I understand and respect the concept that some or all abortion is 'murder'.

There is a difference between killing and murder. A pretty big one. Without regard to when in gestation a human life is in being.
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:34 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Gillibrand isn't even that liberal. When she was representing upstate, she was fairly NRA-friendly.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:35 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Trump assembles a shadow Cabinet

Bannon and Kushner are the real cabinet, and the gag orders show they're planning to run the entire country out of Bannon's office. The actual appointees are patronage and window dressing, the real decisions are all coming from behind the alt-right curtain.
posted by T.D. Strange at 12:35 PM on January 24, 2017 [30 favorites]

Trump to hang photo of inauguration crowd in front of White House reporters

A panoramic photo of Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd will hang in the West Wing, the president announced Tuesday afternoon on Twitter, where reporters skeptical of his “unbelievable, perhaps record-setting turnout” will see it every day.

...The photo, posted to Twitter by Trump, incorrectly lists the date of his inauguration as Jan. 21, 2017, instead of Jan. 20. The Women’s March on Washington, believed to have drawn a significantly larger crowd than Trump’s inauguration, was held on Jan. 21.

Petty petty insecure little man.
posted by futz at 12:36 PM on January 24, 2017 [47 favorites]

The Dem infrastructure bill is probably an attempt to do at least one of the following:

1. If Congress says "no" but Trump wants it, it drives a wedge between Trump and Congressional GOP
2. if Trump says "no", demonstrate that Trump's talk about infrastructure was not serious.
3. if both Congress and Trump say "yes", maybe actually build some stuff

It is possible that they are not fighting appointments too hard because allowing the appointments gives them the appearance of being willing to work with Trump, which is a prereq for any of the goals listed above.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 12:36 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

There is a difference between killing and murder. A pretty big one. Without regard to when in gestation a human life is in being.

I am not arguing a pro-life position, just FYI. I am merely pointing out my frustration that even an immanent critique of the pro-life movement demonstrates that people who are single-issue pro-life voters can (probably, should) support Democratic Party policies, and that they're being blockheaded fuckwit hypocrites if they continue to insist that they can't.
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:38 PM on January 24, 2017

Meanwhile, in California, Brown throws down the motherfucking gauntlet, DC asswipes.
posted by yoga at 12:38 PM on January 24, 2017 [44 favorites]

It is possible that they are not fighting appointments too hard because allowing the appointments gives them the appearance of being willing to work with Trump, which is a prereq for any of the goals listed above.

The minute McCain and Rubio caved on Tillerson every democratic party vote was irrelevant. I'm not happy on the YEAs but I understand why you'd have to punt on this one.
posted by cmfletcher at 12:41 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:43 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

i, for one, welcome our suede/denim overlords
posted by entropicamericana at 12:43 PM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

One deleted. Probably we should either not link at all, or at least label, Breitbart links.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 12:44 PM on January 24, 2017 [23 favorites]

> @AriMelber Spicer caught between defending POTUS's lie - 3m people "voted illegally" - & defending why Trump admin not investigating those 3m "crimes."

@brianstelter This is an impossible position.

@Lawrence .@brianstelter @AriMelber Only for people who are afraid to quit.

Some Things Used to Be Bigger Than Keeping Your Job. Now we'll see if Sean Spicer keeps his.
posted by homunculus at 12:44 PM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

We don't have to win every single one to be a credible threat and to make Democratic lawmakers a little more scared of pissing off their base.

As Jerry Brown made clear, California's politicians are going to stake out positions that require some degree of courage, and the backing of those representing the state in Congress. Kamala Harris seems up for that challenge. Somebody needs to ask Dianne Feinstein if she is.
posted by holgate at 12:47 PM on January 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

Well look. Civil war starts today. That didn't take long.

Ryan: ‘No evidence’ of mass voter fraud as Trump claimed

House Speaker Paul Ryan reiterated Tuesday that he’s seen “no evidence” of rampant voter fraud during the 2016 election.

The Wisconsin Republican’s remarks came one day after President Donald Trump told Ryan and other congressional leaders during a private White House meeting that he lost the popular vote only because 3 million to 5 million “illegals” voted.

“I’ve seen no evidence to that effect. I’ve made that very, very clear,” Ryan told reporters at the Capitol, reiterating his position on Trump’s claim of mass voter fraud.
posted by Jalliah at 12:50 PM on January 24, 2017 [52 favorites]

Can we please, please reclaim "pro-life"? Because if you're overturning the ACA and defunding Planned Parenthood, women are going to die of totally preventable cases of cervical cancer. They are going to kill. women. The people who want to defund Planned Parenthood are not pro-life. The real pro-life people are the ones fighting to ensure access to life-saving preventative services.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:51 PM on January 24, 2017 [79 favorites]

Pro-Tip: Gillibrand will be the nominee in 2020.

She's basically Clinton without 30+ years of Republican mudslinging. Being center-left on a variety of issues certainly won't hurt her.
posted by vuron at 12:53 PM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Primaries might be the only places we progressives win victories for the next few years

Why?
posted by Coventry at 12:55 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Trump assembles a shadow Cabinet

I knew them as the kids in short pants.

I've said this privately to my friends inside the fence now, but it bears repeating here, publicly: this is about survival, and taking the small wins. And most importantly, remembering who you are, because there will be an afterwards too.
posted by bonehead at 12:56 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

The minute McCain and Rubio caved on Tillerson every democratic party vote was irrelevant.

Apparently Greenpeace found Rubio's spine and spent most of yesterday trying to give it back to him.
posted by bonehead at 1:02 PM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

My boss gave me permission to leave early today to attend a "Stop Trump's Swamp Cabinet" rally at my representative's office. I've got a 16x20" blank sign to write on. Any suggestions for Mimi Walters, (R-CA) of the 45th district?
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 1:03 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Gillibrand is a perfect example of why the fight to get better Dems isn't just primary threats but working to change hearts and minds in towns and cities in their districts. We don't just have a candidate problem, we have a constituency problem, because we ceded the local and state level fights to the Republicans in too many places and haven't nurtured a Dem narrative there, which is how you get DINOs. From her Wikipedia page:

A member of the Democratic Party's relatively conservative Blue Dog faction while in the House, Gillibrand has been seen as a progressive since her appointment to the Senate. In both cases, her views were significantly defined by the respective constituency she served at the time[1]—a conservative congressional district versus the generally liberal state of New York. For example, while quiet on the U.S. military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy when she was in the House, during her first 18 months in the Senate, Gillibrand was an important part of the successful campaign to repeal it.[2]

Disappointing politicians come around when they feel the heat from below, and while the threat of primarying is a legit tool to use where it's not likely to set us back further, there are a LOT of other tools in the box. I understand the drive behind things like Justice Democrats but getting tunnel vision for primary fights is reckless and gets you a hollow moral victory at the expense of an electoral victory. The effort needs even more focus on changing the local atmosphere which will change the representative's votes and not require a nasty primary, more than primarying this is what the Tea Party did that worked. Primarying is the stick but we've got to plant some carrots too.
posted by jason_steakums at 1:04 PM on January 24, 2017 [25 favorites]

That seems really specific both in scope and for the target (NIH vs HHS).

It's also entirely possible that they actually don't know which agency is responsible for implementing the ACA
posted by tivalasvegas at 1:04 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

This is an important detail. Trump has been signing executive orders, but then the White House has refused to release their content until some time later. This puts all the initial press converage on the White House's terms, because all reporters know is what they're told until they can actually read the thing for themselves ("why not wait to report it until they get a copy?" one might ask).

As far as why this matters, look at the global gag rule. It was initially reported that it was a reinstatement of the Bush-era rule. In reality, it goes much farther. The rule used to apply only to NGOs that received US family planning funds. Now it applies to NGOs that receive any kind of health-related funding from any US agency, meaning that it could impact a much larger pool of organizations: an organization that takes US funds for Malaria prevention would be subject to the rule now too.

But this wasn't reported, because reporters didn't actually have a copy of the order to read until after they put the story out.
posted by zachlipton at 1:04 PM on January 24, 2017 [62 favorites]

Can we please, please reclaim "pro-life"?

There's a longer conversation here (which I'm happy to have over MeFi Mail with anyone who's interested, instead of potentially derailing whatever election threads are about now), but that's not at all a bad approach to take with churches.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 1:08 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

INFJ: Piers Morgan said in response that Ewan was "Just an actor" so his opinion isn't ~~valid~~ a big deal.

Oh shit, Piers Morgan is a terrible person (more on the exchange from The Daily Beast). I mean, I had an inkling before, but I'm pretty solid boycotting this ass-hat.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:08 PM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

I didn't like him before, but my only exposure to him was on America's Got Talent. I figured he was trying to invoke Simon Cowell (of American Idol) and considered it might be an act.

I even gave him a small "surely this is a joke" inclination over the tweet about the March.. but then I read more into it and decided I was right all along and he's just an ugly soul.
posted by INFJ at 1:15 PM on January 24, 2017

Woof. Pat Toomey's tone-deaf Facebook posting (yay sportsball let's talk about sportsballs instead of literally anything else!) is not getting him fans. People letting him absolutely have it in the comments (not like they will ever be read). Many references to his office phones being turned off, his voicemail being full and never emptied and people getting locked out when they show up in person to deliver letters. This is some Tea Party Tactics realness that is happening. Stay the course.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:15 PM on January 24, 2017 [34 favorites]

Primaries might be the only places we progressives win victories for the next few years

Why?

jason_steakums succintly touches on one major reason.

Other reasons include gerrymandering, voter suppression, well funded disinformation campaigns, flight of the left from red states and Democratic in-fighting. This is why I don't think centrist democrats can really win either. It seems like we're moving into a cycle where the center and the left are both going to refuse to work together thus ceding the victories to the Trumps and LaPages of the world.

Honestly, I'd love to have a ton of true blue lefties in office, but I'll vote for whomever I think will support more good things than bad things. I'll vote for Gillibrand over Trump. I'll vote for Schumer over Trump. I'll even vote for Gabbard over Trump and she's a bit of a chaotic neutral shapeshifter.

As always, I'd love to be proven wrong, but I don't think progressives will be seeing many election victories because I don't think any Democrats will be seeing many election victories. Not until things get plague level bad and even then I think a revolution to install an even truer conservative is more likely.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:18 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Elixabeth Warren just backed Carson for HUD and I feel like I'm living in bizarro world
posted by windbox at 1:18 PM on January 24, 2017 [17 favorites]

With the freezes they are putting in place, it seems like the departments are being held hostage until they get the confirmations.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:21 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Elixabeth Warren just backed Carson for HUD and I feel like I'm living in bizarro world

It is, of course, entirely possible that the 4chanski army has kompromat (or other leverage) on a lot more people than just (allegedly) Trump.

And I wish that sounded as paranoid as it should back in the old reality-making-sense days.
posted by Buntix at 1:24 PM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

Now I understand why Trump is so afraid of illegal aliens: they have the power to turn invisible.

This is the only explanation for how they sneaked into those voting booths or how they managed to celebrate 9/11 on New Jersey rooftops without anyone other than those possessing Trump-vision from seeing them.

And then they tried to make amends by appearing at his inauguration but no one else had the special glasses to see.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 1:24 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

HHS covers every public health department in the United States.
For example an outbreak of measles could literally be suppressed from the news.
posted by AlexiaSky at 1:24 PM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

soren_lorensen: With the freezes they are putting in place, it seems like the departments are being held hostage until they get the confirmations.

Why resume after confirmations? It sounds like another ploy to "make government small enough you can drown it in the bathtub."
posted by filthy light thief at 1:24 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

CORRECTION: In a statement issued earlier, we claimed the President had a meeting with Martin Luther King Jr. We meant "Martin Luther. The White House press office regrets the error and any insult to the author of the 95 Theses, which President Trump consider an inspiration." [real tweet, fake statement]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:26 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Let's be clear, when there aren't GOP "no" votes to block a nominee, the Democratic votes are purely symbolic. After eight years of Republicans voting against literally anything Obama was for, Democrats are going to need to be very careful to not have that turned around against them, even though it's unfair.

Remember that even symbolic votes can be used against you. When Obama was having his debt ceiling fight with Congress, Senator Obama's symbolic vote against the debt ceiling raise during the GWB administration was the front and center evidence of him being a hypocrite, even though that was unfair.

Democrats are going to need to approach the 2018 elections with "We tried to work together with Republicans and they still wouldn't adopt our cool ideas". Does it matter either way which way Warren votes on Carson? No. Would a symbolic "no" vote help accomplish anything concrete, even though it could harm her or other Democrats down the line? No, even though that's unfair.
posted by 0xFCAF at 1:28 PM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

Democrats are going to need to be very careful to not have that turned around against them, even though it's unfair.

This is normalizing.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:29 PM on January 24, 2017 [23 favorites]

Welp, that's one more respect-kernel for ya there, bringing the total up to... hmm, carry the eight...

Three. *polite clap*

Oh come on now you're just handing them out
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 1:30 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

You call it normalizing, I call it giving a fuck about winning some elections instead of continuing the purity purge.
posted by 0xFCAF at 1:31 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Trump reportedly wants to fire Sean Spicer because he doesn’t like the way he dresses

Boy does this have a ring of truth to it
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:32 PM on January 24, 2017 [23 favorites]

A guy who scotch tapes his improperly tied ties should not be critiquing how anyone else dresses.
posted by zachlipton at 1:34 PM on January 24, 2017 [29 favorites]

Democrats are going to need to be very careful to not have that turned around against them, even though it's unfair.

Which is why the Republicans faced great opposition in light of their obstructionism over the last eight years, seriously crippling them.

Oh. Wait.
posted by dinty_moore at 1:35 PM on January 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

You call it normalizing, I call it giving a fuck about winning some elections

There's no evidence that playing nice will do that, and all the evidence in the world that it won't.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:35 PM on January 24, 2017 [26 favorites]

Democrats are going to need to approach the 2018 elections with "We tried to work together with Republicans and they still wouldn't adopt our cool ideas".

Given recent history, that seems like an optimistic take on the likely tenor of the 2018 elections.
posted by diogenes at 1:36 PM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

Elizabeth Warren just backed Carson for HUD and I feel like I'm living in bizarro world

Things are crummy enough right now that I'm continually hoping for incompetence instead of malice. The fact that Rick Perry said he regretted calling for the elimination of the Energy Department was enough for me to cling to a scrap of hope that he wouldn't be the absolute worst possible person for the position, unlike some other nominees I can think of. Carson, for me, falls in the same boat. And I hate it.
posted by redsparkler at 1:36 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

guys im sure if we just work with the nazis they will be reasonable
posted by entropicamericana at 1:36 PM on January 24, 2017 [33 favorites]

Democrats are going to need to approach the 2018 elections with "We tried to work together with Republicans and they still wouldn't adopt our cool ideas".

Really? Past precedent suggests that "block everything, own nothing, and run on 'kick the bums out'" gets results. You fight elections with the electorate you have, not the one you wish was there.
posted by holgate at 1:37 PM on January 24, 2017 [39 favorites]

History suggests appeasement isn't a great election strategy. Ask the Lib-dems in the UK, Labour in Scotland, and there was that Tory way back in WWII.

They may think they are playing n-dimensional chess, but the increasingly angry populace is going to look at those votes and see 'collaborator' not cunning.
posted by Buntix at 1:37 PM on January 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

NOW ON C-SPAN 1
U.S. House Votes on Abortion Funding Ban

The House is voting on H.R. 7, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act, which would prohibit federal funding of abortions and ban abortion coverage from subsidized federal health care plans. [REAL]
posted by argonauta at 1:38 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Trump reportedly wants to fire Sean Spicer because he doesn’t like the way he dresses

Boy does this have a ring of truth to it

Well hey if he keeps going through press secretaries in 4 days that's over 270 new American jobs over 4 years.
posted by jason_steakums at 1:38 PM on January 24, 2017 [21 favorites]

Trump is pretty much guaranteed to be a 1 term President.

He's already facing ridiculous levels on unpopularity and at the grassroots people are fired up and engaged to a crazy level.

He's made promises to Rust Belt voters that he simply cannot keep. The 40 dollar an hour blue collar manufacturing jobs won't come back regardless of how much he sabre rattles on trade protectionism.

ACA repeal and trying to block grant Medicaid is already facing massive levels of backlash and that's before all the down stream effects start rolling in.

30 Million people losing insurance
Individual Insurance Marketplace becoming nonviable
Rural hospitals facing a sea of red ink as previously insured patients go without
Silly levels of job losses in the medical industry

Yes the electoral college functions as a form of gerrymander on the election of the President but even then it can't undo massive levels of unpopularity. Keep in mind that Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania all were turned red by the slightest margins.

Factor in the inevitable demographic changes where old white people are dying off at a much higher that replacement rate and an increasing number of young tolerant PoC are coming into voting age and are extremely engaged.

I think that's why the Republicans are just going over the top with the stupid unpopular shit. They figured that the shock and demoralization of November 8th would last longer and they could push through their agenda in the first 100 days and then try to weather the storm. But Trump's amazing level of narcissism and the rapid recovery of people in the grassroots left are forcing them to step up their timeline. They have a ACA repeal strategy but nothing resembling a ACA replacement strategy and taking away people's stuff is a guaranteed election loser.
posted by vuron at 1:38 PM on January 24, 2017 [36 favorites]

AlexiaSky: For example an outbreak of measles could literally be suppressed from the news.

I think the things that could be more reasonably blocked are useful research. News of major illnesses will come from many fronts, because lots of people will be sick. Instead, I think this will prevent any research that could hinder businesses from being published and strongly support the right's anti-science agenda and "alternative facts." Science and reality is inconvenient to the right, because fear and hatred don't come from an understanding of facts and figures.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:39 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I do kind of feel like when Trump nominates an oblivious doof instead of a shrieking avatar of pure malice a vote in favor of confirmation is excusable
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:39 PM on January 24, 2017 [19 favorites]

I'm actually down with pragmatism that's actually pragmatic. Dems seem to be enamored with some kind of pretend pragmatism that is something else though.
posted by Artw at 1:39 PM on January 24, 2017 [23 favorites]

guys im sure if we just work with the nazis they will be reasonable

History suggests appeasement isn't a great election strategy.

I hate mayonnaise Nazis.
posted by snuffleupagus at 1:40 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Democrats are going to need to approach the 2018 elections with "We tried to work together with Republicans and they still wouldn't adopt our cool ideas".

Really? Past precedent suggests that "block everything, own nothing, and run on 'kick the bums out'" gets results. You fight elections with the electorate you have, not the one you wish was there.

Compare: 8 years of Obama olive branches vs. results of 8 years of Republican obstruction.

Obstruction wins. Norms don't matter. Stand for something, and don't compromise it. 4 more years of white papers isn't going to win any more than Hilary's mountain of policy documents no one read or covered did.
posted by T.D. Strange at 1:40 PM on January 24, 2017 [25 favorites]

It's that peevish/fussy streak. The stupid end of the tie won't obey His Silent Will.
posted by snuffleupagus at 1:41 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Trump is pretty much guaranteed to be a 1 term President.

People said the same thing about Bush. And it looked like it might be the case, too--until 9/11 happened.
posted by joedan at 1:41 PM on January 24, 2017 [21 favorites]

Metafilter: shrieking avatar of pure malice
posted by Tevin at 1:42 PM on January 24, 2017

guys, why the fuck does he scotch tape his ties, anyway

Because he sucks and is ridiculous.
posted by danielleh at 1:44 PM on January 24, 2017 [35 favorites]

Scotch tape!

He tapes the back of the tie to the front because he is a UNIFYING president.
posted by mochapickle at 1:45 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

guys, why the fuck does he scotch tape his ties, anyway

he's a secret dilbert
posted by robocop is bleeding at 1:46 PM on January 24, 2017

Trump is pretty much guaranteed to be a 1 term President.

My money is on him being a 6 to 8 month president. At that point the title will be questionable as U.S. America won't still be extant by any current definition. He may well still be in charge. [fake, hopefullyfake,yejeffsletitbefake]
posted by Buntix at 1:46 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

NIH Bear has something to say.
posted by pxe2000 at 1:47 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

I'm a pretty staunch defender of pragmatism and opposed to purity trolling, but I see no value in any Democrat voting to confirm any Trump nominee. Putting your personal stamp of approval on these jamokes isn't worth the infinitesimal chance that GOP voters reward you for your comity and good faith, norms that were eviscerated before the 115th Congress started and don't seem like they're coming back. Let the administration own the administration's failures.
posted by tonycpsu at 1:48 PM on January 24, 2017 [42 favorites]

Spicer should upgrade to a gold lame suit. Dear Leader LIKES gold, right? What could be classier?
posted by rough ashlar at 1:48 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

guys, why the fuck does he scotch tape his ties, anyway

So when you tie a tie, there's normally a little loop (the "keeper loop") on the back of the big end that holds the small end in place. Trump ties his ties so long that the small end is too high to actually fit into the loop. See this picture. So it would flap around unless he holds the two ends together somehow. He's chosen to use scotch tape for the job.

None of this would be necessary if he didn't tie his ties so ridiculously long.
posted by zachlipton at 1:48 PM on January 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

There's a horrifying science fiction story to be had in the Sean Spicer debacle: the aliens have taken over Trump's brain, controlling him through applications of his mind-altering orange tanner. Now his press secretary has been similarly controlled, forced to don the tanner and Trump businesswear. Next the party apparatchiks will be ordered into the tanning booth. Soon it will become a sign of allegiance to Dear Leader. Only the pasty-faced nerds, traveling under cover of darkness, remain free!
posted by Soliloquy at 1:48 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Trump is pretty much guaranteed to

~~drop out of the race in a week.~~

~~lose all the primaries.~~

~~lose the race for delegates.~~

~~lose the nomination thanks to #NeverTrump.~~

~~moderate his positions as he pivots to the general election.~~

~~lose the election in a landslide because of his unacceptable views.~~

~~lose the election because of his unacceptable views.~~

~~moderate his positions as he pivots to the transition.~~

~~moderate his positions as he becomes changed by the presidency.~~

be a 1 term President.

Is this where we are now? Isn't it time to stop bargaining and fight for every inch?

posted by stopgap at 1:48 PM on January 24, 2017 [110 favorites]

A guy who scotch tapes his improperly tied ties should not be critiquing how anyone else dresses.

Or who can't even tie his cheap-ass ties the right length or button his suit when he's standing.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:48 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Really? Past precedent suggests that "block everything, own nothing, and run on 'kick the bums out'" gets results.

What results? No appointments will be blocked no matter how Dems vote. The GOP had enough legislators that their obstruction actually worked. If you want anything approaching "results" from the Dems, they need to find a way to do something other than cast futile votes in opposition to the majority. And that comes from exploiting cracks in the GOP coalition... like their infrastructure bill does.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 1:48 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

So if Spicer goes, does Conway take his place? IIRC she's who he wanted anyways. Either that or Donnie says fuck it, I want to yell at the press myself so I'll do it.
posted by jason_steakums at 1:49 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm banking on "uses a terrorist attack to suspend the Constitution via executive order and declare martial law", myself
posted by Automocar at 1:50 PM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

I mean, who would stop him, Congressional Republicans
posted by Automocar at 1:50 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

238-183:House passes ban on taxpayer funding of abortion & abortion coverage from subsidized Obamacare plans on near partyline vote, 3Ds Yes.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:52 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

I mean, who would stop him, Congressional Republicans

dianne feinstein [hollow laughter]
posted by entropicamericana at 1:52 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

redsparkler: Things are crummy enough right now that I'm continually hoping for incompetence instead of malice. The fact that Rick Perry said he regretted calling for the elimination of the Energy Department was enough for me to cling to a scrap of hope that he wouldn't be the absolute worst possible person for the position, unlike some other nominees I can think of.

I have some terrible news for you, then. It appears that Rick Perry is unlikely to be confirmed for DoE . Along with Ryan Zinke for DoI. See, Zinke has gone against the party line of ending everything related to climate change, so he's no longer suitable for the position. Likewise--reading between the lines--Rick Perry's sudden reluctance to gut the DoE suggests that, well, he's just not destructive and insane enough.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 1:57 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Is this where we are now? Isn't it time to stop bargaining and fight for every inch?

It's possibly time to recognise that when black swans appear they immediately start fucking like rabbits.

Giant fucking evil fucking swan-rabbits: who, in a population explosion quickly run out of their own to fuck in some sort of runaway mathematical mind-fuck and break the fifth wall and start fucking all of us. Repeatedly and unto fucking eternity.

Also time for an international not-an-actual-fucking-fascist solidarity movement.
posted by Buntix at 1:59 PM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

What results?

Democrats had 60 seats in 2009. Republicans broke democracy to oppose everything they and Obama wanted to do. They won back the House in 2010 off that obstruction, and the Senate in 2014. They got results not by playing nice with Democrats and offering reasoned policy improvement and alternatives, but opposing everything to the point of complete ridiculousness, and were rewarded every, single, time, despite every sane political observer droning on over how much it would hurt them in the electorate. It didn't. Obstruction wins. Compromise loses. Sound policy loses if that's what you're running on.
posted by T.D. Strange at 1:59 PM on January 24, 2017 [43 favorites]

Progressives/Democrats run on getting things done. This is a central thesis of the left that government can make people's lives better.

In contrast Conservatives/Republicans run on the premise that government is fundamentally corrupt (with some possible exceptions like Defense and Law Enforcement) and that the private sector can always do a better job.

It's a lot easier to defend the status quo with obstructionism. Which is why the legislative filibuster is such an important tool for both parties. Could the Democrats just try to block vote against every nominee? Possibly but it weakens their position for future fights.

Fighting the overreach of the executive branch is primarily going to happen in the courts. Trump will pass a variety of executive orders and judges will block some and others will stick around until the next Democratic President and then be replaced. That and basically every career bureaucrat in most departments will go into obstructionism mode and all the incompetent figureheads at the Secretary level will get virtually nothing done.

Shit sucks but it's how the game is played. The real wild card is Trump who is very unpredictable and is acting atypical for a Republican administration (with the exception of Nixon under the precepts of the unitary executive). Currently it seems like he's more concerned with picking public fights with his critics and less concerned with governance.
posted by vuron at 2:00 PM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Thread on possible/likely Muslim Ban E.O. to come:: weds fun? presently being vetted at DHS: the EOs ending Syrian refugee program and a suspension of Muslim majority country visas

2. DHS was also asked to determine whether ending entire refugee program doable and favoring religious minorities in revamp.

3. Nothing definite but consistent with platform. Cruel and ineffective. That's the Trump doctrine. Terror level also just went up I suspect

4. These were all in the range of proposals but far enough along for me to know about.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:02 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

> Could the Democrats just try to block vote against every nominee? Possibly but it weakens their position for future fights.

When did GOP obstructionism now prevent them from obstructing later? When did voters tire of GOP obstructionism and throw them out? I used to think the exact same way you do, but I was wrong then, and you are wrong now. New shit has come to light, man. McConnell-ism works, and as much as I want my team to be the ones who do things the right way, I'm tired of having our assess kicked time and time again, with the horrifying results that we now see every day in the gory details of these threads.
posted by tonycpsu at 2:03 PM on January 24, 2017 [21 favorites]

Does Donnie not know double-sided tape exists?
posted by INFJ at 2:03 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Double-sided tape is more expensive than whatever tape he has in his knick-knack drawer.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:08 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

The twitter account for Badlands National Park has gone rogue in defiance of the Trump gag orders

Unfortunately, some social media manager is about to lose their job, but what a blaze of glory.
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:10 PM on January 24, 2017 [72 favorites]

FWIW, the Badlands people are still tweeting in defiance of Trump's order.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:11 PM on January 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

So if Spicer goes, does Conway take his place? IIRC she's who he wanted anyways. Either that or Donnie says fuck it, I want to yell at the press myself so I'll do it.

Conway might be given the go ahead but if it's looks and production values he's after I'm not sure she'll last long. I don't give a shit what she looks like but from his type of perspective she's been looking more harried and tired as time goes on. I don't think Donald likes older looking women all that much.

He's probably going to try to find someone 'youthful and his type of acceptable manly or youthful woman and his type blond'. (Ivanka type)

I also don't think that his complaints about Spicer are only based on his looks. Donald likes to be in control and in the spotlight. It wouldn't surprise me at all that he'll tell everyone to screw off and that he's the only one who can do it right.
posted by Jalliah at 2:13 PM on January 24, 2017

Does it matter either way which way Warren votes on Carson?

Yes?
posted by zutalors! at 2:14 PM on January 24, 2017 [22 favorites]

@mcgregor_ewan Was going on Good Morning Britain, didn't realise @piersmorgan was host. Won't go on with him after his comments about #WomensMarch

FYI: Piers Morgan has posted at least 72 tweets about Ewan McGregor refusing to go on TV. He followed it up with boasting about how many followers he has. Of course, given how few re-tweets and favorites Piers has on any of his messages, I'm going to guess that most of his 5.4 million followers are fake.

What a sad sack of shit.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 2:14 PM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

WATCH: The only thing you need to watch about POTUS' voter fraud claims is this intro by @jaketapper -- please share far and wide.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:15 PM on January 24, 2017 [30 favorites]

Progressives/Democrats run on getting things done. This is a central thesis of the left that government can make people's lives better.

Most Americans since the days of Reagan have adopted the doublethink that "less government is better" but that being personally affected by less government is terrible. "Heckuva job, Brownie" is what set the stage for the 2006 midterms. Think about how "passed without a single Republican vote" was waved around for the ACA, even though the bill was watered down to appease people like Olympia Snowe who voted against it anyway.

"We think you'll do a shit job" and "see, we told you so" are potent political weapons in any democracy.
posted by holgate at 2:15 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

FWIW, the Badlands people are still tweeting in defiance of Trump's order.

As someone who grew up in South Dakota, damn proud of you @BadlandsNPS!
posted by chris24 at 2:16 PM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

On SCOTUS, Sen McConnell hopes "our Democratic friends treat Trump's nominees same way we treated Clinton and Obama."

Sounds perfect. Filibuster for 4 years.
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:16 PM on January 24, 2017 [73 favorites]

@BadlandsNPS: 'I'm your huckleberry'

[fake but fuck yeah]
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:17 PM on January 24, 2017

FWIW, the Badlands people are still tweeting in defiance of Trump's order.

That's great, but the National Park Service is not part of EPA. There was a temporary lock-down on NPS accounts over the weekend because one of them re-tweeted embarrassing photos of two separate inaugurations, but the lock-down was released on Monday I think.

That said, BadlandsNPS is likely to lose their twitter privileges pretty soon. The last thing the Voldemort administration wants is anyone within the government acknowledging the reality of global climate change.
posted by suelac at 2:21 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

In case anyone is interested in replicating the Tuesdays with Toomey model of protesting outside of your senator's office, they've just put out a guide.
posted by mcduff at 2:22 PM on January 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

Minor point, but regarding neckties and scotch tape: A millionaire like Trump can afford a tailor to move the freaking flap that holds in place the skinny hidden part of the tie. Just move it up a few inches. I'm 6'5" and that's what I do.
posted by Lyme Drop at 2:24 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

It's a lot easier to defend the status quo with obstructionism. Which is why the legislative filibuster is such an important tool for both parties. Could the Democrats just try to block vote against every nominee? Possibly but it weakens their position for future fights.

I really do appreciate your take on this and in a normal political situation I'd agree, but this isn't a normal situation and any gains they might get from playing that game are going to be set back by demoralizing and disillusioning progressives at a time when the biggest weapon the Democrats have is a massive groundswell of engaged activists ready to get to work. If the Democrats had this loud and angry base of support for the last 8 years and nurtured it we wouldn't be in this mess, they can't fuck this up.

Honestly as much as I don't want to give Bernie Bros the satisfaction the best move for establishment Dems is to line up behind the progressive wing. Quash that primary talk right now by saying that they hear and they understand and they're here to help, and back it up with action. They lose nothing and they gain a unified voice.
posted by jason_steakums at 2:25 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Badlands tweets are disappeared already.
posted by slipthought at 2:27 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Can we please, please reclaim "pro-life"?

I agree, but now we'd be pushing against about 4 decades of precedent. Even back then I wondered why the "pro-choice" groups allowed the opposition to call themselves that in the first place.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:27 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

"Trump is pretty much guaranteed to"
-be a two term president, because black swans of evil are winning on every point lately.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:28 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

This Tweet is no longer available
posted by Artw at 2:29 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I got a screenshot of all of them.
posted by Jalliah at 2:30 PM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

/wonders how long the internet will last.
posted by Artw at 2:31 PM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

Utterly Insane how a government twitter acount tweeting facts about climate change is considered a rouge act of defiance against the new white house
posted by windbox at 2:32 PM on January 24, 2017 [60 favorites]

As someone who grew up in South Dakota, damn proud of you @BadlandsNPS!

Ditto! Gonna have to hit up the Badlands on my next trip home to Rapid, and find a donation box to throw some money into with those tweets printed out and attached. Of course apparently now I need to track down a screenshot of them...

In case anyone is interested in replicating the Tuesdays with Toomey model of protesting outside of your senator's office, they've just put out a guide.

This is great! Tuesdays with Toomey and Moral Mondays are absolutely the model for where to go next and I hope they start getting more national attention soon. If anyone here has any contacts with shows like the Daily Show, Full Frontal, Last Week Tonight and Colbert, PLEASE float a suggestion about getting Rev. Barber on for an interview, movements like this need more publicity.
posted by jason_steakums at 2:33 PM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

With all the problems in the White House they have time to crack down on a twitter account.

I guess I should be glad they have absolutely no grasp of prioritization.
posted by winna at 2:34 PM on January 24, 2017 [17 favorites]

/wonders how long the internet will last.

China tightens Great Firewall by declaring unauthorised VPN services illegal: Move means all cable and VPN services need prior government approval and comes as Beijing steps up censorship before power-reshuffle party congress
posted by Coventry at 2:35 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

I got a screenshot of all of them.

Plz to open "@BadlandsNPS2" for the repostage.

Thx!
posted by petebest at 2:35 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Looks like Time, Esquire, CBS and a few other news agencies picked up on it before the purge.
posted by cmfletcher at 2:36 PM on January 24, 2017

Trump's scotch taped tie just screams "I thought of a 'nifty' way to fix this problem I have all by myself because I'm so smart and I've very proud of it" and no one around him has the guts to tell him its tacky and awful, not that he'd believe them if they did.
posted by DynamiteToast at 2:36 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

We don't know that the WH cracked down -- it's at least equally as likely that the tweeter just got cold feet because they were afraid of reprisals, or that a supervisor looking to protect themselves and/or their employees decided it was a bad idea to be subtweeting and undermining the head of state from within the state. That's the worst part about Trump's early posture -- the threats don't even have to be explicit to bully people into compliance.
posted by tonycpsu at 2:36 PM on January 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

You know you haven't gotten shit done at work when you hit your favorite limit at 5:30pm on a Tuesday.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 2:37 PM on January 24, 2017 [21 favorites]

And it needs to be repeated: American voters may have their high school civics understanding of separation of powers and checks-and-balances, but they mostly approach elections as if they're living in a parliamentary system. If shit's fucked up, they blame the people in charge, and don't punish obstruction from the party out of control. This was the case in 1994 (where Bob Dole led a campaign of fucking shit up and got rewarded for it) and was the case in 2010.

If you believe that shit decisions will have shit outcomes, you have to be willing to go on the record. I accept that appointments offer more limited opportunities than legislation and policy, but that doesn't stop you from saying "I have no confidence in your qualifications or ability to lead the department, so prove us wrong."
posted by holgate at 2:38 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

I got a screenshot of all of them.

Plz to open "@BadlandsNPS2" for the repostage.

Thx!

Will do. Have to do it later, gotta run to class.
posted by Jalliah at 2:38 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

We don't know that the WH cracked down -- it's at least equally as likely that the tweeter just got cold feet because they were afraid of reprisals, or that a supervisor looking to protect themselves and/or their employees decided it was a bad idea to be subtweeting and undermining the head of state from within the state. That's the worst part about Trump's early posture -- the threats don't even have to be explicit to bully people into compliance.

That's a good point. I just assumed because of the sad tweet from the top-level account after they retweeted inauguration photos that the crackdown was coming straight from the top.
posted by winna at 2:39 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Just got back from Senator Feinstein's office - well, the outside of her office, because we were not let in! Seven of my coworkers and I walked down and arrived at about 1:15. We had 21 letters and postcards to drop off, including 3 letters from MeFites. There was a separate rally that ended at 1 (which it appears some MeFites were at) - I talked to some stragglers and apparently they had 200 people and a bunch of speakers. I told the security guard we weren't with the rally, but he said the building was on lockdown and wouldn't let us drop off letters. So I am going to put them all in an envelope and mail them.

A coworker who couldn't make it linked me to these tweets saying not to "swarm your congressional office...stage sit-ins, show up, refuse to leave, be demanding," but that if you "show up and drop something off you're A-OK." I fear we got caught up in the office's reaction to the rally, but between this and the Pompeo vote I'm still pissed. Thankfully my coworker got some great photos of me talking to the security guard and then calling in and of all of us holding the letters and looking mad. So those are going up on social media.
posted by sunset in snow country at 2:41 PM on January 24, 2017 [36 favorites]

I bet the staffer at Badlands NPS probably had no idea those tweets were going to go viral, and between that and the likely crackdown from up the chain, they either voluntarily deleted, or were told to do so.

Nobody in a vulnerable agency like the Park Service really wants the attention of the White House right now...
posted by suelac at 2:42 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

With the freezes they are putting in place, it seems like the departments are being held hostage until they get the confirmations.

The Trump/Republican budget plan calls for $10 trillion in cuts over 10 years.

The freeze is probably better than the budget will be!
posted by srboisvert at 2:47 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

So those are going up on social media.

Make sure you tag your local TV stations and newspapers, and any local left leaning political action blogs if you have those. Amplify the message.
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:50 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

I have an idea, maybe a project: what about paper dolls of people, and on the back impacts our potential impacts of these law to place at buildings or to mail off?

Does that sounds like something people would do?
I think it is something I'm going to do.
posted by AlexiaSky at 2:52 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

he probably thinks the long tie makes him look slimmer, not stupider.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 2:55 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

On the @BadlandsNPS tweets: I just retweeted one of those about 90 minutes ago. As far as I'm aware, normally when you retweet something and a user deletes the tweet, the retweet still shows up but the retweeted item shows up as "this tweet is no longer available." Right now, my retweet is gone as though I'd never said it. I'm not a power Twitter user. Can someone confirm that this is abnormal Twitter functionality?
posted by deludingmyself at 2:57 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Update: I don't think I quoted the tweet, it's possible that's normal behavior for a retweet where you don't add your own commentary.
posted by deludingmyself at 2:59 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I think the retweets of now deleted tweets disappear from your feed if all you did was retweet (as there would be nothing left to show). If you retweeted and wrote some message of your own in the RT box, then it would show your message with the "this tweet is no longer available" box underneath.
posted by zachlipton at 3:00 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Cartoon by Barry Deutsch: Our Choices
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:01 PM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

The Scientologists Voted For Trump
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:03 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Just got back from Senator Feinstein's office

Thank you so much for your work, sunset in snow country! I will be sure to call her offices, as well.
posted by Room 641-A at 3:03 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Just got back from Senator Feinstein's office - well, the outside of her office, because we were not let in!

representative democracy at work, folks

cynicism aside, appreciate the effort sunset in snow country. now let's primary the hell out of her.
posted by entropicamericana at 3:08 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

God the fuck dammit, I am out of favorites and also after four hours solid of organizing to try to improve the image of the Democratic Party out in rural and small-town Texas I am out of fucks, and then I saw byanyothername's excellent comment and I tried to come up with some more and ran out. Flagged as fantastic.

Anyway, well, the March showed us we have supporters out in all those rural spots you wouldn't expect, so fuck it all, I'm going to go out there and wear a progressive shirt and do something useful, and see if I can't make some inroads to at least buoy up enthusiasm and visible support for my rural Texan liberal friends. Especially the ones running for office.

_{ohgod I am going to fall over and pass out but I wiiiiin organizing today}
posted by sciatrix at 3:09 PM on January 24, 2017 [35 favorites]

I'm not giving any Dem Senators credit for nth-dimensional chess or comity when it comes to confirming the truly appalling nominees, and I think they should be aware of a subtle message they send to some of us when they confirm the appointees who performed horribly in their hearings.

Women and people of color have to watch DeVos, Carson, Perry and several of the others who were awful with regard to their answers and demeanor and know that if we performed similarly in a job interview we would have no chance of getting the job we were interviewing for. None.

I'm reminded of Dick Cheney's performance in a VP debate back in 2000, and how he sat with his arms folded across his chest, looking downward and speaking downward rather than looking the moderator or his opponent when responding to a question; after the debate a (conservative) news personality said that Cheney had projected gravitas. And I thought to myself, "What bullshit. Let me do that in an interview as an external hire or when I'm trying for a promotion at my current company, and I'd hear that I didn't project the confidence or openness necessary for the job."

Same thing here with these confirming votes from the Democratic senators. I would have to live in a world full of goddamn alternative facts to flub questions about my prospective job and my prospective company's role in the world the way some of Trump's nominees have and still walk away fully expecting that I'll land the job.

To me, the message Warren and Schumer and others are sending with their votes to confirm is "Mediocre white men, women who donate a lot of money, and unflappably loyal PoC can expect to fall upward. Good luck to the rest of y'all."
posted by lord_wolf at 3:15 PM on January 24, 2017 [41 favorites]

Hahahahah, I'd send that "Our Choices" cartoon to my mother except I don't think she'd get it at all.
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:15 PM on January 24, 2017

Oh, and also, apparently we got 122 folks down to the Capitol today to go and yell at Ted Cruz. They couldn't get in to see him either, but he did send a staffer out to listen. They're doing it again.

One of these weeks I hope I'll be able to go join them. (Today, not so much. But I signal boosted.)
posted by sciatrix at 3:19 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

(Started typing this comment 3 hours ago, got depressed by a comment refresh, walked away and forgot about it. But here it is in the comment window, so...)

I like Matt Levine's Money Stuff columns for Bloomberg. He's talking about pointless financial engineering that involves shuffling large amounts of money around, but his wry humor wins me over.

Today's column has a rather insightful section about "Regulations", which I'm summarizing as:
There are two kinds of regulations: custom regulations and bulk regulations.
A custom regulation is designed to accomplish a particular goal. (e.g., Trump's border tariffs.)
Bulk regulations ... don't have a purpose, really; they are just generic "red tape."
All regulations are custom regulations.
All discussion of "regulation" is about bulk regulations, which do not exist.

So Trump is going to cut "bulk" regulations by a lot - 75%! - but without specifics. But he is going to impose a lot of new regulations - border taxes, export restrictions - what about those?

"Those are of course important and burdensome new regulations, but they are custom regulations, and so they are not covered by Trump's promise to cut bulk regulations by 75%. It all makes perfect sense, but you have to have a theory.

In perhaps related news, Trump announced a hiring freeze for federal workers while he is in the middle of hiring thousands of people to staff his administration. That sounds weird, until you realize that Trump is freezing bulk hiring while continuing custom hiring.
posted by RedOrGreen at 3:20 PM on January 24, 2017 [23 favorites]

I bet the staffer at Badlands NPS probably had no idea those tweets were going to go viral

I'd bet that they did. Those tweets were a deliberate act of defiance.

(This Twitter thread provides some more context on one of the non-climate-changey tweets.)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 3:21 PM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Fuckin Ted Cruz sent a staffer out to listen and Feinstein couldn't be bothered.
posted by sunset in snow country at 3:21 PM on January 24, 2017 [30 favorites]

the best move for establishment Dems is to line up behind the progressive wing.

So... follow the leads of Sanders and Warren and vote to confirm?
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:24 PM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Holy shit the NIH employee gag order. I just put my experiments on hold for the day and walked to the offices of every senior scientist I know personally, plus the associate dean of the graduate school, to share this news and implore them to pay attention and advocate if they're able. The combined effects of these policies (gag order on NIH employees speaking to public officials + expected funding cuts + a war on facts) are absolutely fucking chilling for trainees who plan on a future in U.S. science. NIH employees and NIH-funded scientists (along with NSF; I await the leak of their likely gag order as well) are America's research and development service corps. This. Is not. Okay.

*singing the song of the cynical scientist* We are so fuuuuuuuuuucked, so fuuuuuuucked. Like, it's at the point where last week I was talking to fucking journalists and historians about how we were scared about our careers and jobs and I'd mention I was a scientist and they would seriously fucking wince and go "so it's gonna be real scary for you then."

Motherfucker I am so angry and betrayed and I cannot even, with my science, my beloved career, my love of truth and figuring out experiments, because no one is fucking willing to pay me to do the job I have been encouraged to pursue since childhood because "we need more girls in STEM," and no one is willing to pay for truth about nature. So I'll laugh like a jackal, I guess, and do my best anyway, and burn my flame until they physically throw me out the door onto the uncertain welcome of the floor of industry because my whole generation is going to be thrown into the threshing machine and there's nothing I can do about it.

Fuck. Fuck. if the NSF doesn't have one I'll eat my own right eyeball. That's how certain I am now. Fuck.
posted by sciatrix at 3:28 PM on January 24, 2017 [60 favorites]

Does anybody know if there are any Tuesdays with Toomey type events in Harrisburg, PA?
posted by ThreeCatsBob at 3:31 PM on January 24, 2017

Why are the FBI and CIA taking so long on Russia. Please? Any time now.
posted by Brainy at 3:34 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Trump’s lie about illegal votes will have dangerous consequences: Sixteen states are already working on legislation to suppress voters this year.
posted by homunculus at 3:36 PM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

Golden Gate Park is standing up now:

2016 was the hottest year on record for the 3rd year in a row. Check out this @NASA & @NOAA report: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-noaa-data-show-2016-warmest-year-on-record-globally
posted by bluecore at 3:39 PM on January 24, 2017 [39 favorites]

Alexandra Petri, WaPo: The true, correct story of what happened at Donald Trump’s inauguration

I apologize to Donald Trump. As Sean Spicer so wisely said at his first news conference on Monday (It was the first. The one that happened on Saturday did not happen at all, and I recognize that!), it is unfair to be so mean and negative all the time.

Here is the fair and unbiased story about the inauguration written in compliance with the Trump style guidelines that we should have been obeying all along.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:39 PM on January 24, 2017 [17 favorites]

This is a really sensible common-sense guide for senior federal employees.

Sigh.
posted by suelac at 3:40 PM on January 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

I'm honestly concerned about how much he's pushing on people. I know it's supposed to be shock and awe, but is awe really the emotion he's inspiring?
posted by Brainy at 3:40 PM on January 24, 2017

This Is Our Most Dangerously Retrograde Government in 150 Years

It's been fun to point and laugh at the new administration. It's been fun to mock Sean Spicer's obvious discomfort at the podium, and to sit in awe at the obvious infighting within the White House this early in the game. But, while we're doing that, slowly and steadily, an actual government has been forming, and it is the most dangerously retrograde government that our system has produced in at least the past 150 years. It is secretive and it is resistant to any empirical information that it does not want to hear. It is grotesquely anti-science. It seeks to roll back progressive achievements dating back to Teddy Roosevelt and it has the power to do so, even if it is in its own bungling way. And it really hasn't gotten rolling yet.

posted by homunculus at 3:42 PM on January 24, 2017 [35 favorites]

Johnny Wallflower the style guidelines made me laugh out loud.
posted by INFJ at 3:45 PM on January 24, 2017

Exclusive: Trump expected to sign executive orders on immigration

President Donald Trump was expected to sign several executive orders restricting immigration on Thursday, at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to several congressional aides and immigration experts briefed on the matter.

Trump's orders were expected to involve restricting access to the United States for refugees and some visa holders from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, said the aides and experts, who asked not to be identified.

So that will be some fresh new horror to look forward to.
posted by zachlipton at 3:45 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Yes! I and at least three other MeFites were at the rally in front of Feinstein's office in SF earlier today. There were easily 200 people, and we chanted and sang and collected our own letters for the senator.

An aide came down to speak to the crowd and just talked about how many e-mails he had gotten in the last 24 hours. So many e-mails! I can't use my Blackberry, ha ha! Gosh, please send more e-mails, the senator would love to go on the floor of the senate and talk about how she has received millions of supportive e-mails!

He then refused to answer any questions and walked off to a deafening chant of What about Pompeo?

Being directed to go home and write useless letters that would only be noticed for their bulk was discouraging and insulting. We showed up! Your office had better learn how to handle crowds, because we're going to keep showing up Senator Feinstein!
posted by books for weapons at 3:45 PM on January 24, 2017 [43 favorites]

The @NASAClimate account is joining the revolt.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:46 PM on January 24, 2017 [45 favorites]

Utterly Insane how a government twitter acount tweeting facts about climate change is considered a rouge act of defiance against the new white house

Rouge act of defiance
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:53 PM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

"Four more journalists get felony charges after covering inauguration unrest;
A documentary producer, a photojournalist, a live-streamer and a freelance reporter facing up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine if convicted." [The Guardian]

"'These charges are clearly inappropriate, and we are concerned that they could send a chilling message to journalists covering future protests,' said Carlos Lauría, the CPJ’s senior Americas program coordinator."
posted by slipthought at 3:54 PM on January 24, 2017 [48 favorites]

Hoping that's just normal police demonstration fuckery and not a thing. It could become the model for a thing though.
posted by Artw at 3:58 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

So I'll laugh like a jackal, I guess, and do my best anyway, and burn my flame until they physically throw me out the door onto the uncertain welcome of the floor of industry because my whole generation is going to be thrown into the threshing machine and there's nothing I can do about it.

I nearly punched through the keyboard with the force of my favorite. I am a low-level ARS employee and the writing is on the goddamn wall. We are fucked.
posted by Ornate Rocksnail at 3:59 PM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

Four more journalists get felony charges after covering inauguration unrest;

And who's gonna court watch these charges?
posted by rough ashlar at 3:59 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Hoping that's just normal police demonstration fuckery and not a thing. It could become the model for a thing though.

Speaking of which, there's a bill being introduced in Minnesota that would allow state agencies to sue peaceful protesters for police overtime costs. The Minneapolis NAACP encourages you to call your state reps if you live in the state or attend tonight's hearing if you can.
posted by zachlipton at 4:04 PM on January 24, 2017 [27 favorites]

Czech TV station: FBI agents are headed to Prague to talk to the Russian hacker Nikulina

Americans will not Nikulina interrogate ourselves. Questions puts him through the Czech police. They are interested in his possible accomplices and contacts and also about who phoned from the Czech Republic.

Complicated by both the US and Russia having submitted extradition requests back in October. Speculative if this person is related to DNC hacking activity (LinkedIn, Dropbox and Formspring, are mentioned)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:04 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

When bills are passed with bipartisan support, when nominees are approved with bipartisan support, the electorate assumes the party in charge is doing something right if they got some of the other party to go along with it. When nothing gets done, they assume the party in charge is ineffective. Cooperating only hurts you electorally.

Unless they come out with single payer, we should resist everything.

Dear AskMe,

My partner and I can't seem to get anything done together. They're kind of running the business we have together at the moment, but we have some very different ideas about how things should be done. Honestly, when I was in charge of some major projects, they undercut me at every moment. Pretty much everything we were able to produce was either a suboptimally put-together product that didn't work as well as it could have, or just never got finished at all.

Now they're in charge of some projects that I have major concerns about. It's not just that I think they're bad ideas -- I'm actually fairly certain that they will be actively harmful to people around us. I'm talking physical danger to the people who live and work near us, and Partner doesn't seem to GAF. In fact, I'm starting to suspect that might be their whole intent.

For reasons, I have to handle this myself. Should I cooperate with them and do whatever they want? Surely if the neighbors see me working on these projects, if things go horribly wrong (as I am virtually certain they will), the neighbors will assume I was just trying to mitigate problems, right?

posted by asu eht fo starcomed on January 24
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:05 PM on January 24, 2017 [22 favorites]

The NIH, EPA, and USDA gag orders are fucking terrifying. Mostly I'm only seeing news about them, but I figure here is a place to ask a really important question: What can we do to fight back?
posted by WidgetAlley at 4:06 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

WaPo:

...There is no evidence that there was fraud at any significant scale at all.

Saying this, that there’s no evidence, is a hedge. We say it just in case somehow there emerges evidence that, indeed, hundreds of people registered to vote illegally and went to cast ballots. If we say it didn’t happen and then some evidence emerges, we are stuck. So we say “there’s no evidence” instead of “it didn’t happen.”

That’s on the scale of hundreds of votes. On the scale of millions of alleged fraudulent votes, though? It didn’t happen....
posted by mudpuppie at 4:08 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Protest Works - The Trump administration’s meltdown proves it.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:08 PM on January 24, 2017 [19 favorites]

Why are the FBI and CIA taking so long on Russia. Please? Any time now.

WaPo: FBI Director James Comey to stay on in Trump administration

🤔
posted by Room 641-A at 4:12 PM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

Meanwhile, Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Office of Budget and Management, signaled that he will not fall in line with Trump's views on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

It was all a scam, they're coming for Social Security too.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:12 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Reuters now has changed their story to say the immigration orders are coming tomorrow, not Thursday.
posted by zachlipton at 4:14 PM on January 24, 2017

I would say that I don't know why the attacks on scientists and the NIH's gag order broke me today and not all the other horrifying things that have happened to me and mine this past three months, but I think I have an idea.

Science is something they used to pretend they thought was valuable, and I thought maybe that might help keep me safe. It's not like I didn't know the price I paid for being openly queer; I thought being a scientist was something that made me a net positive, not a liability. No one ever told me we needed more queers or more women in America but they sure told me we needed more people in STEM and even in biology. And I thought... I was so hoping that this election year would make me feel like an administration or the American public would give a shit about my calling.

It hurts to realize you've been sold a pack of lies. It hurts to that you've traded five years of potential stability for ashes. It hurts to have your own fucking family tell you that the trade you made, five years to seven years of tight budgets and hard work for the promise of a good job in science somewhere, always came with no promises and so if you are angry that five years in the deal is suddenly off, it's your own damn fault.

I'm just. It hurts and I'm heartbroken, and inside me a small child wants to know why they lied.
posted by sciatrix at 4:15 PM on January 24, 2017 [82 favorites]

they'll lie about anything if it makes them even one single cent
posted by poffin boffin at 4:17 PM on January 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

BadHombreLands NPS link isn't working for me, roomthreeseventeen.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:18 PM on January 24, 2017

like honestly are we one year away from bill nye drinking hemlock on CSPAN while muttering eppur si muove

yeah that's right i just conflated galileo and socrates, fight me
posted by poffin boffin at 4:19 PM on January 24, 2017 [48 favorites]

They lie because they are liars, just as the point of having power is to use it. I'm sorry, FWIW.
posted by adamgreenfield at 4:19 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I feel like I would have made that point more clearly, but they make a strong martini at the Seven Stars.
posted by adamgreenfield at 4:20 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Regarding the Gag orders. It is horrible. I know. Canada has been through this. Yes this admin is worse and thing Harper didn't do but we did survive these gag orders. Scientists, crafty people that they are, did find ways around it and information still found it's way to the airwaves.

Guess I just wanted to say, it's bad but all is not lost.
posted by Jalliah at 4:22 PM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

WaPo: FBI Director James Comey to stay on in Trump administration

As far as '30 pieces of silver' style bribes go, just keeping your job is pretty weak sauce.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 4:23 PM on January 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

There's apparently a second @BadIandsNPS account tweeting much less subtle things, claiming to be "schmofficial".
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:24 PM on January 24, 2017 [28 favorites]

Especially when Clinton in all likelihood would've kept him on anyway, if for nothing else than to avoid a confirmation battle.

Comey didn't sell out for money or promises, he's a true believer that Trump is the Way the Truth and the Light. He got his man.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:25 PM on January 24, 2017

Chris Mathews has such an infrastructure boner guys

Trump's got him all excited about laying some American pipe
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:26 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

There's a theory posited by Louise Mensch that Comey is a good guy. It's got a bit too many "what-if"s for me to fully comprehend though.
posted by Brainy at 4:28 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Looks like KellyAyn (alternative spelling) did punch someone.

According to senior Fox Business corespondent Charlie Gasparino, two men attending the exclusive Liberty Ball Friday night were fighting, when out of nowhere Conway stepped in and “began throwing some mean punches at one of the guys.”

Gasparino, who wrote about the scuffle on Facebook, said the incident lasted just a few minutes, and none of the participants were hurt, “except maybe the dude she smacked.”
posted by futz at 4:29 PM on January 24, 2017

How to Culture Jam a Populist in Four Easy Steps
posted by adamvasco at 4:32 PM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

Protest Works

If there's the faintest of silver linings to a White House occupation that rose on spectacle and simulacrum, it's that it's more vulnerable to spectacle as a tool of opposition. Guy Debord may come in useful here.

The GOPers in Congress mostly won't give a shit, unless it occurs outside their offices or on their doorsteps. But they're not as inclined to gaze at CNN when they get bored.
posted by holgate at 4:33 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

WaPo: Meetings of activists planning to disrupt inauguration were infiltrated by conservative group

James Fucking O'Keefe is crowing about how he deserves respect now.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:33 PM on January 24, 2017

The EPA funding freeze and media gag order is exactly the kind of catastrophy us scientists feared. Their work matters, their jobs and families matter... Obviously THOSE jobs are not the ones he cares about. I work for another federal agency that Trump has promised to defund and I am applying to 2 industry grants because I am terrified that if I lose funding my family will be in deep trouble.

I don't even know what else to say. It's fucking devastating. I spent 4 years in college and then 6 years getting a Ph.D. and apparently now half of Americans, and what seems like the entire Trump administration, consider my research to be nothing more than my personal opinion, with no value of any kind. It's personally insulting, it makes me fear for the whole world, and it's just such a fucking blow to what I've spent my entire adult life dedicated to.
posted by Cygnet at 4:33 PM on January 24, 2017 [84 favorites]

Holy shit, Badlands has gone all in:

https://twitter.com/BadIandsNPS/status/824053128576323584
posted by bluecore at 4:39 PM on January 24, 2017 [19 favorites]

If you're in U.S. science, MeMail me if you want to start a Slack together to discuss further.
posted by deludingmyself at 4:39 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Holy shit, Badlands has gone all in:

That's the parody account.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:40 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

@AltNatParkSer: Hello, we are the Alternative National Park Service Twitter Account activated in time of war and censorship to ensure fact-based education.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:41 PM on January 24, 2017 [44 favorites]

Does anybody know if there are any Tuesdays with Toomey type events in Harrisburg, PA?

Yep. I believe they are coordinating with Indivisible Berks.
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:41 PM on January 24, 2017

bluecore: that's BadIandsNPS, which is using one of the typical typography tricks of fake Twitter accounts. (It may not last long, because the original is a verified account, and impersonators of verified accounts that don't make it very clear they're parodies tend to get deleted.)
posted by holgate at 4:42 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

@AdamWeinstein I didn't go to Iraq for this horseshit
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:44 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

On the other hand, @GoldenGateNPS, verified account, really has gone all in:

“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” -Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

posted by zachlipton at 4:44 PM on January 24, 2017 [65 favorites]

I am someone who cries. Now it takes some doing insofar as it requires a REALLY sad story (movie or book) or someone being cruel to me or someone else in my presence, but I cry. Not ashamed at all. That said, if I cry it follows a serious situation and I typically do so privately.

Since Trump won I haven't cried and given the ensuing clusterfuck this has surprised me. When I read that Elisabeth Warren supported Ben Carson's nomination for HUD, I cried openly on public transportation.
posted by pipoquinha at 4:45 PM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

roomthreeseventeen: That's the parody account.

Ah crap. I didn't look closely at the name. I think some intern had said, "Fuck it!"
posted by bluecore at 4:46 PM on January 24, 2017

really has gone all in // Last Monday, for MLK Day.
posted by holgate at 4:46 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Deadspin: Send us proof of Ted Cruz playing basketball.

Ted Cruz: what do I win?
posted by guiseroom at 4:47 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Where's Ivanka's moderating influence been while her father's administration has been gagging scientists and scrubbing every mention of the words "climate change" from the entirety of the federal government?

We need to start seeing Ivanka as the Disinformation Ambassador to Liberal America, because that's the role she's played. Let's stop with the whole, 'She's there against her will' thing.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:49 PM on January 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

Ted Cruz: what do I win?

He broke the 4th wall
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:51 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Deadspin: Send us proof of Ted Cruz playing basketball.

Ted Cruz: what do I win?

OK, Ted Cruz actually made me guffaw like a real human person would just there. Still hate the guy, but that was pretty funny.
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:51 PM on January 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

How to Culture Jam a Populist in Four Easy Steps

I hate that piece. I hate it because it's so bad about conflating potential allies and unwinnable enemies. I hate it because it leaves no room for diversity of tactics. I hate it because it doesn't allow for calling these beliefs out as bigotry in mixed groups (no, MeFi doesn't count) as a tactic for delegitimizing populism.

Mostly, though, I hate it because I just took a big personal risk reaching out and hoping to trade on twenty years of being a favorite grandchild to help keep myself and my partner safe enough to ask and I got abandoned on an unfamiliar street corner for my trouble, so I. I'm skeptical about humanization as a tactic all on its own right now. Even as I literally organize to get folks out on the ground helping rural counties with their municipal problems, I'm careful to modify my expectations.

Besides, we have strength in numbers. If we use it to normalize resistance, before the erosion and rot of a fascist regime of lies can set in and pick our allies off, we might be able to shame these toads right into the ground.
posted by sciatrix at 4:53 PM on January 24, 2017 [37 favorites]

really has gone all in // Last Monday, for MLK Day.

er, oops. Not quite as courageous.
posted by zachlipton at 4:53 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm just a jagoff ageing punker from the 80s. I'm not a tactician, I don't really know shit about deeper level politics. BUT I read between the lines the very first time I heard the phrase, "trickle down economics" after Reagan was elected. I KNEW there was a fucking coming and here we are.

If you can, subvert every-fucking-thing you can. Make flyers against the regime. Hold meetings. Make plans. Start clubs/groups. Invite me.

I've bullshitted about becoming politically active for decades...it wasn't until 9/11 and Bush Jr's very stupid/foolish/inadequate reaction/response that I really felt a fire under my ass. By then though, I was raising two toddlers and just didn't have it in me. The kids were my mission.

But now? I will be visiting my local party office. Not just to volunteer, but to discuss radical action.

All of us have to use every means available to us to put the word out that what is happening is UN-AMERICAN, wrong and uncivilized.

We have to inundate the entire country with home spun propaganda. Messages. Youtube, flyers, soap-box talks on street corners.

Yea, I'm a little fired up and I haven't even started drinking yet...give me an hour or so.

(The marches were awesome BTW, and I'm very thankful and proud of all of you participating in any way you can!)

(Also, I nominate CORTEX to be the guy to come up with the secret hand-shake and password.)
posted by snsranch at 4:53 PM on January 24, 2017 [34 favorites]

(FYI - that is Duke player Grayson Allen in that picture Cruz shared. There has been a joke all year about how he looks like Cruz.)
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:53 PM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

I just laughed with Ted Cruz. This is the darkest timeline.
posted by cmfletcher at 4:54 PM on January 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

Deadspin's response to Ted Cruz: "@tedcruz Go eat shit."
posted by zachlipton at 4:55 PM on January 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

Ted Cruz: what do I win?

@Deadspin
@tedcruz Go eat shit.
posted by chris24 at 4:56 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Oh, Deadspin. You ruined it.
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:57 PM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

Ted Cruz: How about rats? I can eat any number of rats! [fake]
posted by contraption at 4:58 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I, er, can't believe I'm saying this, but I feel like Ted Cruz might have won that one.
posted by zachlipton at 4:58 PM on January 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

Ted Cruz: what do I win?

He broke the 4th wall

Surely you mean he oozed through his 4th outter membrane?
posted by Hairy Lobster at 4:59 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

I hate that piece. I hate it because it's so bad about conflating potential allies and unwinnable enemies. I hate it because it leaves no room for diversity of tactics. I hate it because it doesn't allow for calling these beliefs out as bigotry in mixed groups (no, MeFi doesn't count) as a tactic for delegitimizing populism.

I hate it because in Venezuela, Chavez voters were the majority (by a wide margin!), so of course the strategy has to be based on accommodating Chavez voters.

Not so here, where Trump voters are the minority. It's always good to be empathetic and to try to find shared values and to resist othering etc, but I don't think it's enough as a winning political strategy.
posted by notyou at 5:00 PM on January 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

Sort of, zachlipton, but only sort of. Grayson Allen has a number of disciplinary challenges when he's on the court. Somewhat like Ted Cruz does when he's awake. One could argue that, from Cruz's vantage point, Allen has much to learn from the master.
posted by Silverstone at 5:04 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

i have been saving the second half of the final season of parks and rec for an emergency. i broke the proverbial glass tonight.

it helps
posted by entropicamericana at 5:05 PM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

Is there some ASCII character trickery going on with the official and "schmofficial" Badlands NPS Twitter accounts? The URLs look to be the same for both.
posted by emelenjr at 5:06 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Okay, so participating in the march on Saturday gave me the first real hope I've felt in months. But in the days since then, that hope has rapidly dissipated as I've watched the truly appalling things that Trump has been doing, from the abortion gag order to the Dakota Access Pipeline to the election fraud claims etc - it's been a dark couple of days for me.

BUT, today there was this bit of good news from Minnesota:

@ASlavitt This week, the Minnesota House passed a bill to allow health care to be "a la carte." As a sign of ACA replace, see what it looked like... [IMAGE]

@ASlavitt What happens when ppl find out that an amendment would allow these services excluded?

The phones lit up & it got pulled an hour ago.

@ASlavitt Lessons:
-know what "patient choice" means
-take away ACA benefits at your peril
-beware of hidden deals/amendments
-pick up the phone

@ASlavitt Great leadership from @LaurieHalverson, @MelisaFranzen & @reploeffler for safeguarding basic health care coverage.

Keep calling your reps, people (both local and national).

(also, hope will be the death of me)
posted by triggerfinger at 5:07 PM on January 24, 2017 [32 favorites]

I don't know if it was in a Metafilter thread or one of the endless thinkpieces I read after the election, but in those first few days, someone said to write down what you believe in, because it was about to be tested. The advice has served me well these past few months as I checked myself against the anti-diversity thinkpieces and the have-empathy-for-the-racists thinkpieces and the conservative Facebook comments I started to dip my toe into and other miscellaneous things that suddenly flooded into my filter bubble. But right now I feel like I'm really, really experiencing the moment that advice was given in anticipation of. Realizing that my Democratic senator was kind of a disappointment was a bit of a rude awakening but not really a surprise. But Elizabeth Warren supporting Ben Carson for HUD. I feel like I'm swimming, like everything is upside down.
posted by sunset in snow country at 5:07 PM on January 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

Our President is such a delicate little snowflake.
posted by guiseroom at 5:09 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Ted responded with an Anchorman gif. Who are we? What are we? What is happening?!
posted by Crystalinne at 5:12 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Ted's hired a web-savvy social media intern.
posted by suelac at 5:14 PM on January 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

Ted Cruz's social media person gave me a funny and this day just got weird.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:14 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

@claudiakoerner (buzzfeed):

The National Park Service tells me those @BadlandsNPS tweets were from a former employee and the account was “compromised."

Includes a graphic with the following text:

"Several tweets posted on the Badlands National Park's Twitter account today were posted by a former employee who was not currently authorized to use the park's account. The park was not told to remove the tweets but chose to do so when they realized that their account had been compromised."
- National Park Service official
posted by erratic meatsack at 5:14 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

posted by a former employee who was not currently authorized to use the park's account

Cool story, dude. But I doubt it.
posted by suelac at 5:16 PM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

It's a hall of mirrors, all the way down.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:16 PM on January 24, 2017

It's a weird bad feeling to not implicitly trust something signed "- National Park Service official"
posted by theodolite at 5:17 PM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

It was 3 or 5 million former employees.
posted by valkane at 5:18 PM on January 24, 2017 [25 favorites]

they're all fascists amirite?
posted by localhuman at 5:19 PM on January 24, 2017

Is there some ASCII character trickery going on with the official and "schmofficial" Badlands NPS Twitter accounts?

I had to paste it before I saw it, but the lowercase "l" became an uppercase "I".
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:19 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Two @BadlandsNPS accounts show up in the search results when typing "Badlands" into the search field. Account names are different, but the Twitter handles are the same.
posted by emelenjr at 5:21 PM on January 24, 2017

US sent $221 million to Palestinians in Obama's last hours

Officials say the Obama administration in its waning hours defied Republican opposition and quietly released $221 million to the Palestinian Authority that GOP members of Congress had been blocking.

A State Department official and several congressional aides said the outgoing administration formally notified Congress it would spend the money Friday morning. The official said former Secretary of State John Kerry had informed some lawmakers of the move shortly before he left the State Department for the last time Thursday. The aides said written notification dated Jan. 20 was sent to Congress just hours before Donald Trump took the oath of office.
posted by futz at 5:21 PM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

^ RVP is right. It's Badlands not BadIands.
posted by guiseroom at 5:21 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I remember when the Beatles broke up, and sobbing, because it just shouldn't happen.

Then I remember watching Richard Nixon resigning as President of the United States, and that was a huge deal. Then Ford took over, and he was good, then Carter, he was good, then a huge freakout when Reagan took over.

Reagan did a lot of bad things. Some of which was telling people that single women were bad and glomming onto welfare. He also did a lot of bad things before he got to be President, which is not usually spoke about.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 5:23 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

WaPo: Liberals press Democrats to thwart Trump nominations, but to little effect
posted by zachlipton at 5:28 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I laughed, but Ted Cruz didn't tweet that personally. His 4chan alt-right intern with an oil tycoon for a dad did. Deadspin gave the right response. Fuck Ted Cruz.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:30 PM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

I just got back from another rally outside the Oakland offices of Congresswoman Lee. It wasn't as organized as the rally in San Francisco outside of Senator Feinstein's office (I stuck around to talk to the organizers of the SF event, they were all veterans of social movements going back 40 years, this event was set up by a local teacher after the Sunday MoveOn call in a fit of passion) and we didn't really have anything specific to ask for or demonstrate against (Barbara Lee is pretty damn popular). We still got unequivocally shut out of the office, and very openly and heavily armed police stood watch the entire time we were assembled. A few staff members from the Congresswoman's office spoke in front of the group, they appreciated our turning out in support of the Congresswoman but didn't have much to say.

The group was about 75 strong, and we were all agitating for things to do. Nobody really knew how to use the energy, but everyone wanted to know how else they could get involved. People swapped details of a ton of other local meetups and groups that pretty much all started up within the last couple weeks. We've got the interest and the passion and only need a direction in which to point it!
posted by books for weapons at 5:33 PM on January 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

I laughed, but Ted Cruz didn't tweet that personally

Oh for sure. Ted spends all his spare time hibernating in his alien space cocoon lest his human flesh bag become too dried out to appear "human".
posted by Crystalinne at 5:33 PM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

Okay guys, it looks like Don Benton, the guy who screamed in my face and illegally voted from the convention floor, has been named to help with the transition team EPA turnover. Who in the media might want video of him illegally voting, or will they just not care like everything?
posted by corb at 5:35 PM on January 24, 2017 [77 favorites]

Corb, I'd try sending it to every possible outlet to see where it sticks at this point.
posted by erratic meatsack at 5:37 PM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

Honestly no one's going to give a shit about the primary tactics at this point. You're wasting your time. Try Maddow.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:37 PM on January 24, 2017

Corb, I want to take you out to dinner at a great steakhouse. You've been so active, so full of info, so groovy. CORB/ANYONE 2024!
posted by vrakatar at 5:39 PM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

I've heard the WaPo will take info here
posted by cmfletcher at 5:42 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

About 7PM Tuesday night (possibly somewhat earlier) the Office of the Press Secretary posted this press release "For Immediate Release", but possibly a bit too immediate: President Trump Takes Action to Expedite Priority Enery and Infrastructure Projects

No, really. It's like that right now, about 1.5 hours later. Enery? Enery? Nuts, Ready to Eat?
posted by Evilspork at 5:43 PM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

After some initial denials, Ashley Feinberg is now admitting she got owned by Ted Cruz.
posted by zachlipton at 5:43 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Leak that sonofabitch. Try WaPo first, I would guess, and keep trying until you exhaust your ideas and who will care. Try a local paper, too.
posted by sciatrix at 5:43 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

There's a theory posited by Louise Mensch that Comey is a good guy. It's got a bit too many "what-if"s for me to fully comprehend though.

I still can't allow myself to hang my hopes on this stuff... but this is worth reading if you haven't. What-ifs and speculation, yes, and I'm taking it with a huge grain of salt, but it makes a lot of things click into place and makes me question a few things I haven't before.
posted by jason_steakums at 5:45 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Pro Publica!
posted by triggerfinger at 5:46 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

WaPo Fact Checker: Trump’s unsupported claim he has ‘received awards on the environment’

“I’m a very big person when it comes to the environment. I have received awards on the environment.”
— President Trump, remarks during a meeting with business leaders, Jan. 23

Are there any facts to support this claim to environmental fame?

-- The short answer is: No. Media outlets and environmental groups have tried to find evidence of this claim since 2011 but have come up short.

-- In fact, environmentalists have criticized many of Trump’s projects.

-- During the 2008 hearing, Trump said he didn’t read his environmental consultants’ advice because he didn’t need to. From the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the hearing:

“I would consider myself an environmentalist in the true sense of the word,” Mr. Trump said, a comment that drew so much laughter from the public gallery that the inquiry chairman had to call for order.

-- In 2010, environmentalists criticized Trump for chopping down more than 400 trees along the Potomac River during a renovation of his golf course in Loudoun County, Va.

The lies are endless. Endless. He lies about absolutely everything. He's a legend in his own mind.
posted by futz at 5:46 PM on January 24, 2017 [28 favorites]

CORB/QUIDNUNC KID 2017 SPECIAL ELECTION!
posted by dis_integration at 5:46 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Corb, I want to take you out to dinner at a great steakhouse. You've been so active, so full of info, so groovy. CORB/ANYONE 2024!

Corb/McMuffin, of course!
posted by jason_steakums at 5:47 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

I just keep thinking I can't have more rage and then somehow I can. I'll try and see if anyone cares but I guess it's also par for the course that Trump rewards his monsters.
posted by corb at 5:55 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Corb, the UK Guardian might be another option: https://www.theguardian.com/help/2016/sep/19/how-to-contact-the-guardian-securely
posted by runincircles at 5:56 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Jerry Brown today: "California is not turning back. Not now, not ever."

The smallish, quiet town I live in, this weekend: "The burglary and attempted arson at a Quiznos restaurant in [town] over the weekend is being investigated by police as a hate crime."

The liberal college town where I work, part 1: "Davis police received a report Sunday of swastikas being etched in the bathroom of a North Davis park."

The liberal college town where I work, part 2: "The Davis Police Department is investigating a vandalism incident, regarded as a hate crime, that occurred at the Davis Islamic Center early Sunday morning. Six windowpanes were smashed and strips of uncooked bacon were placed on an exterior door handle just after 3:45 a.m., Davis police said."

That's just one weekend in two small, predominately progressive towns in northern California. Scaling it up makes me weepy and nauseous.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:03 PM on January 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

How To Leak to ProPublica: We are a team of investigative journalists devoted to exposing abuse of power. If you’ve got evidence showing powerful people doing the wrong thing, here’s how to let us know while protecting your identity.
posted by argonauta at 6:05 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

And, like, when the best case scenario possible is that all three crimes were committed by the same bigot, I mean....
posted by mudpuppie at 6:05 PM on January 24, 2017

Gillibrand isn't even that liberal. When she was representing upstate, she was fairly NRA-friendly.

She's been better on guns than Bernie Sanders for the last six years, and has an F from the NRA to his D-. She even has a good story to explain it. In the last campaign, nobody cared much about how his gun (or drone) opinions affected his progressive cred, and I know because I did my best to make them care. It was just understood that when you represent Vermont, you say what you have to say and nobody expects you to stand up too hard for principles that won't get you re-elected.

If liberals like her, they will say she is, in fact, that liberal. Her record is quite good. dare I hope the same standards will apply to her when she runs? No. no, I do not dare.
posted by queenofbithynia at 6:05 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'm sure the ACLU would love to handle negotiations on any leaked material in exchange for legal advice and protection.
posted by Evilspork at 6:07 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

I doubt you will read a more damming indictment of Trump's visit to the CIA than this from Robin Wright in The New Yorker, . Trump’s Vainglorious Affront To The C.I.A..
posted by vac2003 at 6:09 PM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

Fucking Twitter.

Can someone link the supposed LouiseMensch article directly?! I CAN READ. Wtf is this it . . . No that's apparently her weltanschauung . . Unrelated thread . . Kind of related but not an article . . No . . No . AW C'MON! What is it just splattered across many threads? I'm assuming "Michael Cohen on a Russian plane, it would appear, around Christmas" has something to do with it?

I don't mind working, but this a fucked-up way to communicate. Jeebus.

And if anyone can be arsed, is there some other link to John Lewis getting cheered at the airport? Twitter Video Doesn't Work.

also, WhatsApp? Mmmmmmmmmmnnnno? Cause Facepals? Yeah I read these whole threads. For some reason.
posted by petebest at 6:12 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

I'm sure the ACLU would love to handle...

Don't just favorite, DONATE
posted by cmfletcher at 6:14 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

petebest, I got you on the Louise Mensch article: https://patribotics.wordpress.com/2017/01/17/dear-mr-putin-lets-play-chess-louise-mensch-trump-russia/
posted by jason_steakums at 6:19 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump

Congratulations to @FoxNews for being number one in inauguration ratings. They were many times higher than FAKE NEWS @CNN - public is smart!

Does anybody know what he might have seen on CNN a couple minutes ago?
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:19 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

NY Mag does a quick, damning round-up of how DJT's aides are all leaking embarrassing stories about how he can't handle embarrassment.
posted by TwoStride at 6:21 PM on January 24, 2017 [25 favorites]

Now we're going to get all the hot takes on "now that it's the President of the United States attacking CNN, it's different" from people who expected him to pivot. The central thesis of his campaign was "you knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in." He said it over and over again. Why would anybody think someone who made "people don't change who they are" the centerpiece of his campaign would possibly change who he is?
posted by zachlipton at 6:23 PM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

The "à la carte" health plan thing infuriates me because I know how it's the kind of thing that dumbfuck state legislators will adore and makes for a plausible political sale: "hurr durr I'm a young dude why does my plan cover maternity coverage?" or "I'm not crazy, why should I pay for something that covers mental health treatment?" Explaining the advantages of large risk pools and the consequences of adverse selection is hard.
posted by holgate at 6:25 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

I was literally just thinking yesterday of compiling this exact kind of thing so I'm very glad to see that someone has already done it:

Great Moments In Roomfuls Of Men Legislating Women’s Bodies (with photos!)
posted by triggerfinger at 6:25 PM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

public is smart!

Guys I think Trump is a Pakled
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:27 PM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

A Ferengi, surely.
posted by EarBucket at 6:30 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm sure the ACLU would love to handle...

Don't just favorite, DONATE

As of Nov 9th 2016 they get $10/ month from me for the foreseeable future. I donate more when I can. We need to put our money where our mouth is. Venting on social media doesn't do jack shit.
posted by photoslob at 6:31 PM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

I've been calling Elizabeth Warren to thank her for standing up to the President every day. I'm heartbroken that I have to call tomorrow and yell at her about confirming Carson. (Has Nikki Haley been confirmed? I may have to complain about that, too.)
posted by pxe2000 at 6:32 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

oh good he's tweeting threats again

@realDonaldTrump: If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!
posted by theodolite at 6:32 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

where the fuck are his handlers
posted by erratic meatsack at 6:33 PM on January 24, 2017 [21 favorites]

i have been saving the second half of the final season of parks and rec for an emergency. i broke the proverbial glass tonight. it helps

...aaaand i just got to the one with michelle obama's cameo

now i'm depressed again
posted by entropicamericana at 6:34 PM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

Gee that tweet just really confirms where the front lines are going to be.
posted by lineofsight at 6:34 PM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

That tweet gave me The Fear for the first time in days
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:34 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump

Big day planned on national security for tomorrow! Amoung many other things, we will build the wall.

Amoung
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:35 PM on January 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

So the first thing Google finds is this article published today: CHICAGO MURDERS IN JANUARY 2017 ON PACE WITH SAME PERIOD IN 2016
posted by zachlipton at 6:35 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I fell asleep for about an hour earlier this evening and had a weird dream. Something like the Da Vinci code. In it was revealed:
Assange (Republican) = Assange (R) = Ass anger.
Assange (Russian) = Assange (Red) = Ass angered.
Assange (Libertarian) = Assange (L) = Ass angel.

(Yes, I do have dreams like this.)
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:35 PM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

So which cablenews channel was talking about Chicago?
posted by holgate at 6:36 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

The entire wall? In one day? That *would* be a big day!
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:37 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Just wanted to report back from a "Stop Trump's Swamp" protest that I attended today in CA-45, home of Republican Mimi Walters. I only even heard about the protest right here, on the green actually, thanks to rainbowbrite. My boss (enthusiastically) gave me permission to leave work early, my coworker made a great sign out of supplies we had on site, and off I went.

CA-45 is considered a 'safe red' seat, so it was pretty cool to see 75-100 people standing out front of the office building where Rep. Walters has her office. There were a handful of people who were sort-of-in-charge, but generally the crowd was self-managing. The building staff was trying to prevent us from getting in to see Mimi in groups of more than 5 at a time. At first we went along with it, but after it that first group was still in her office after ten minutes, we demanded to send up another group, of which I was part.

Her office was *more* than spacious enough to accomodate every single one of us. After the group spent some time speaking to the office director, specifically about the ACA, some of the veteran-protestor types began demanding to speak to her personally, that for years they've never seen her in person, because she won't hold town halls or announce her events. When the director refused to give any information about when our representative would be in the district, I suggested that the group would sit in until he got that information. I also went back downstairs, told the building security that all of us would be going upstairs, and directed the crowd to the elevators. Now it's a party!

50-60 of us were now standing in the office reception area and conference room. The director is visibly freaked out, the two younger staffers (young republicans straight out of central casting) ignoring us and texting. He repeatedly states that he has no idea when Ms. Walters will be available, that if we make a formal request maybe she'll get back to us, etc. "Make a formal request" was met with an unplanned, simultaneous "THIS IS THE FORMAL REQUEST" from the crowd. I make a call to the local paper, the OC Register.

The editor seemed very interested, spoke to me for about fifteen minutes about what was going on, why we were there, what we were trying to accomplish, who I was, etc. I also handed off my phone to the woman who organized the event on MoveOn, and she spoke with the paper for at least as long as I did. Meanwhile, the director and staffers are hiding in a back office frantically making phone calls. Are they actually going to follow through on our demands? No! Now the police are in the office.

Are things about to turn ugly? No, thankfully. The Irvine PD is mostly amused, informs the staffers that we're not violating any laws and are allowed to be there, but also asks the crowd to please disperse because the office is closing. I shook the director's hand, told him that I appreciated his time, that I appreciated he's a real person in addition to a political opponent, and that I'd see him real soon.

I took a few pictures, but I don't want to share people's faces without permission. I'm really, really excited because these 100 people showed up on the spot, mere hours after the event was even posted. They spent the next hour outside the office chatting, exchanging information, planning. Next week they'll be bringing friends. OC has a movement under way.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 6:38 PM on January 24, 2017 [155 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump: If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!

I believe I've seen that movie. I think it starred Bruce Willis. "The Siege" or something?
posted by Hairy Lobster at 6:39 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I have to imagine that it must suck being a Chicago resident, to have to deal with the fact that basically every time your city is brought up in the national discourse it's as the least subtle possible LOL BLACKS R THUGS WHO CAN'T GOVERN dogwhistle.

You have my sympathies.
posted by tocts at 6:39 PM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

You are awesome, BuddhaInABucket.
posted by zachlipton at 6:41 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Someone made him fix the "among".
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:41 PM on January 24, 2017

It's perhaps not a coincidence that Rahm Emanuel attacked Trump yesterday
posted by zachlipton at 6:41 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I hope de Blasio attacks Trump again soon. Maybe he can send "the feds" onto Fifth Avenue.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:43 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

So, is nobody else really creeped out that the un-subtle cretins don't want NIH officials corresponding with public officials? That seems really specific both in scope and for the target (NIH vs HHS).

My lab is super creeped out! Terrified, even. But after seeing the EPA and USDA gag orders earlier, and the grant freeze in the case of the former, we've all been expecting similar news from the NSF, NIH, DOE, etc. We're just worried the news won't stop at gag orders. The NIH grants seem a little less likely to be frozen, but some of the others, well...

The combined effects of these policies (gag order on NIH employees speaking to public officials + expected funding cuts + a war on facts) are absolutely fucking chilling for trainees who plan on a future in U.S. science.

Yeah, as I've said in previous threads, I'm looking for postdocs right now with an eye towards trying to remain in academic science, and man, I'm rethinking my list to favor non-American postdocs more and more. Under normal circumstances, I really wouldn't - switching countries is super stressful, there are entirely new lab/academic cultures to acclimate to and new grant systems to learn, it can be hard to get a long-term job as a foreigner, there's strong American representation in the subfield I'd like to make my career in (and in which I already have a bit of a reputation) - but I'm finding it increasingly hard to imagine that we'll be in a situation in 3-4 years where it'll be sane to be going out on the American academic job market. Science is too far from a well-paid and stable career as it is, and I'm not the only person considering trying to head abroad to be able to continue working in basic science. International scientists aren't going to want to come to a xenophobic country with volatile funding, either. The chilling effects these sorts of moves will have on science are super clear, and could easily result in some pretty major damage to both American science, and more broadly to America's preeminence in science.
posted by ubersturm at 6:44 PM on January 24, 2017 [28 favorites]

I doubt you will read a more damming indictment of Trump's visit to the CIA than this from Robin Wright in The New Yorker

Yes! It is a great read & it brings up something that I was going to post about after a little more investigation. I keep seeing the media report that Trump said "Trust me, I'm like a smart person." at the CIA when in fact I thought he said "smart persona" which is much odder but infinitely more honest (or freudian). Assuming that he knows what persona means. The New Yorker also quotes him as saying persona.

In fact, every time I say I had an uncle who was a great professor at M.I.T. for thirty-five years, who did a fantastic job in so many different ways, academically—was an academic genius—and then they say, Is Donald Trump an intellectual? Trust me, I’m like a smart persona.”

Now if he didn't actually say persona, I have wasted a lot of energy...
posted by futz at 6:44 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

I'm pretty sure that the Weiner's Circle alone could fend off Trump's troops.
posted by delfin at 6:45 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

@realDonaldTrump: If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!

a) WTF.

b) I'm close to people who are working with the Sinai Urban Health Institute on the Gun Violence Research Collaborative. So if Trump really wants to stop the "carnage" I sure hope he directs federal funds towards that initiative.
posted by dis_integration at 6:47 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Soundtrack for these tough times
posted by porn in the woods at 6:50 PM on January 24, 2017

Thanks BuddhaInABucket! I'm in the same district and wanted to go today, but was not able to make it. Where should I go to stay informed and join in next time?
posted by Arbac at 6:50 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

What if this Half Onion In A Bag gained more followers than DJT?

@HalfOnionInABag:

Bet that would drive him crazy.

posted by snuffleupagus at 6:51 PM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

I have to imagine that it must suck being a Chicago resident, to have to deal with the fact that basically every time your city is brought up in the national discourse it's as the least subtle possible LOL BLACKS R THUGS WHO CAN'T GOVERN dogwhistle.

It really, really does. And it does nothing to help with evidence-based strategies to deal with the problems that Chicago actually has (vs. all the apocalyptic "carnage" rhetoric.)
posted by ubersturm at 6:53 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Arbac and anyone else who needs info about our local protest, send me memail and I will get back to you when i get home.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 6:53 PM on January 24, 2017

So which cablenews channel was talking about Chicago?

Apparently O'Reilly mentioned it an hour ago.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:53 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Here's the graphic.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:55 PM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

Now if he didn't actually say persona, I have wasted a lot of energy...

Judge for yourself :-) YouTube link
posted by vac2003 at 7:03 PM on January 24, 2017

Holy crap. What is this day five now and he's threatening to send the troops to an american city?
posted by octothorpe at 7:04 PM on January 24, 2017 [17 favorites]

So ironically it's Trump who will declare martial law and send the feds in to take citizens' guns? What a world.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:04 PM on January 24, 2017 [47 favorites]

He really is all of the spoilt little shits from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory rolled up into one old man.
posted by holgate at 7:05 PM on January 24, 2017 [43 favorites]

Trump is coming for your guns. Congratulations.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:06 PM on January 24, 2017 [42 favorites]

So ironically it's Trump who will declare martial law and send the feds in to take citizens' guns? What a world.

Just the citizens he doesn't like the look of. As Twitter just reminded me: Donald Trump’s Crime Policies Might Hit Minorities Harder, Experts Say (article from September)
posted by zachlipton at 7:07 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

The President of the United States literally just threatened to turn the 3rd largest city in the nation into a police state.

Read that as many times as you have to until it sets in.
posted by porn in the woods at 7:11 PM on January 24, 2017 [73 favorites]

Hugs to all the scientists in the room, and everyone else.
posted by Artw at 7:13 PM on January 24, 2017 [21 favorites]

The Whitehouse is a sieve.

Report: Trump Complains Negative Press Means He Can't 'Enjoy' White House

President Donald Trump thinks that unfavorable media coverage of his first weekend in office has not allowed him to "enjoy" the White House, according to a Tuesday report by the Associated Press.

Trump believed that the media would cover him more favorably after he was inaugurated, according to an Associated Press report citing two anonymous sources close to the President, but instead believes it has worsened.

The President said that the negative press has not allowed him to "enjoy" the White House on his first weekend in office, according to an anonymous source who spoke with him also cited in the report.
posted by Jalliah at 7:13 PM on January 24, 2017 [25 favorites]

There's no question that this is politically motivated, and I wonder what the police unions might think of it, though they might play along if they think such a stunt improves their position (and Chicago's union endorsed Trump, too)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:13 PM on January 24, 2017

Daily Beast: President Trump is expected to sign a number of executive orders on Wednesday which would restrict immigration from Syria and six other Middle Eastern or African countries, according to a number of people briefed on the matter in a Reuters report.

Another one of the orders will reportedly block visas from being issued to Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Trump's purported restrictions may also include a temporary ban on admitting refugees from countries until the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security can increase the intensity of vetting.

Additionally, The New York Times reported on Tuesday night that it is Trump's intention to sign an executive order on Wednesday which would direct federal funds to be shifted towards building a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:15 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

(and I doubt the plan is "martial law" but something that allows him to declare victory and embarrass the mayor)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:15 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

And not that Mefites need this reminder, but it's a good one for people who think we are overreacting: martial law based on yearly murder rate has never, ever, happened before.
posted by corb at 7:15 PM on January 24, 2017 [39 favorites]

It's morbid and grim but: we should probably start familiarizing ourselves with the likelihood that very soon there will be a terrible incident of mass US civilian bloodshed at the hands of the regime. It's just as likely to be due to incompetence as malice, but he is setting himself up for direct confrontations on several fronts and his blundering authoritarianism will inevitably lead to disaster somewhere.

That'll be the time for mass action and mobilization as never seen in the modern era, I reckon.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:19 PM on January 24, 2017 [34 favorites]

More leakage.

The first days inside Trump’s White House: Fury, tumult and a reboot

A look into the hours before Spicer was sent out for his first press briefing. Plus power struggles galore.
posted by futz at 7:20 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Another one of the orders will reportedly block visas from being issued to Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Good thing we've never had any terrorists from Saudi Arabia or they'd be on there too
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:20 PM on January 24, 2017 [46 favorites]

Thank you for the link to the Louise Mensch post as mentioned above, jason_steakums.

It's quite the read. For those with time and interest, check it out. The TL;DR version is inevitably a disservice, but here it is:

Snowden, recruited by Russia, steals NSA warez and "tricks" like using "stolen credentials" and spirited them away to Russia, with some going to China somehow. This is the weakest part of the story for me, probably because she calls him an "IT idiot" who basically ran a smash-and-grab for Moscow.

Then Russia turns some agents in NYPD and NY FBI. They launder billions through Trump, all common knowledge. Trump runs for POTUS, Manafort shows up with a cash-bulging suitcase, and the Russian hacking sideshow Alfa Bank (memba them? "Oh we were spamming one IP in Russia! Silly us!" Never sat right for me) coordinates the Weiner laptop leaks. By triggering emails to appear on it; to from/to Huma to/from Hilz, via malware. They got Weiner's pw from his sexting. K.

Now they throw in the NY FBI they've got by playing them against Comey knowing he'll either have to announce it and - what happened would happen - or have it leak and ??? Comey's the good guy of the story, btw, the author grew up idolizing Schwarzenneger and Maggie Thatcher, so, YMMV.

Comey's been running down the story since summer and has most of the pieces but needs a smoking gun to start a raid of Trump's Traitors. These are the FISA warrants, which he doesn't get. Until he bags the hacker who infected Wiener's computer and then FISA lets him tap Trump's phone. Now it's all nice-and-legal-like. Evidence piles up, and yes Michael "says who" Cohen was in Prague, taking private Russian jets that don't get tracked (FBI moles, rite?)

It's pretty well put together with the plausible sidestory that Rude Guiliani backed out of the SoS nom because the net is coming down (he's Trumps link to kompromatted NY FBI). Oh yes and there is a pee tape, Virginia.
posted by petebest at 7:20 PM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible 'carnage' going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!

No way the "States' rights!" Republicans will allow that!
posted by kirkaracha at 7:21 PM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

This is all without whatever the first inevitable crisis that isn't self created happens.
posted by Artw at 7:22 PM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/24/president-trump-takes-action-expedite-priority-enery-and-infrastructure

i'm enery the eighth i am, enery the eighth i am i am
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 7:23 PM on January 24, 2017 [17 favorites]

President Trump Takes Action to Expedite Priority Enery and Infrastructure Projects

"President Trump directed the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with all relevant executive departments and agencies, to develop a plan..."

Yeah, we don't actually have a Secretary of Commerce right now.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:25 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

(Has Nikki Haley been confirmed? I may have to complain about that, too.)

Haley was confirmed 96-4.
Warren was not one of the 4 Dems voting against.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:26 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Trump's purported restrictions may also include a temporary ban on admitting refugees from countries until the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security can increase the intensity of vetting.

So they will announce a review to determine which refugees are potentially threatening; and this review will never be completed because everybody in the entire universe is a potential threat but they don't want to come out and say "no more refugees ever".

Incidentally, tourists to the USA from Australia are required to fill out a six-page form that includes questions about previous names, parents' names, parents' citizenship (I think), any other citizenships as well as where and how acquired, addresses in Australia and the USA, and a bunch of other stuff like social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) The form says that it's estimated to take 23 minutes to complete, and there's a charge of $14 as I recall. Oh, and when you enter they take your fingerprints - both hands - and photos, maybe some retinal thing too.

This is for what is allegedly visa free entry from one of the USA's allies. Australians entering on business and other visas need to visit a US embassy or consulate with multiple levels of security and be prepared for a two-hour wait in a room without chairs. I can't imagine what impositions are put on people coming from, say, Indonesia. The USA is becoming an island fortress, bit by bit, and I really don't think you're any safer.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:27 PM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

‏@gabrielsherman: Trump's public endorsement of Fox News over cable news rivals is something I've never seen before. He's acknowledging Fox is now state TV.
posted by argonauta at 7:28 PM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

Another one of the orders will reportedly block visas from being issued to Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Hey Iraq. Sorry we invaded your country for like a decade and fucked up a lot of stuff. So now if we can make absolutely sure none of y'all get anywhere near us, even though it was next to impossible to get a visa from Iraq before, that would be great. Good luck with all that.
posted by zachlipton at 7:29 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

@mightybattlecat
The year is 2017. America is a tire fire. The resistance is led by Teen Vogue, Badlands National Park, and the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
posted by chris24 at 7:29 PM on January 24, 2017 [149 favorites]

Trump's public endorsement of Fox News over cable news rivals is something I've never seen before. He's acknowledging Fox is now state TV.

FOX has been state TV before during the entire Bush administration. That part was predictable.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:31 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

We need the Feds to free Chicago from the carnage inflicted by rogue private email servers.
posted by delfin at 7:32 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Honestly I thought they'd wait til the next terrorism incident before the refugee halt. Now what frightening shit are they going to do in response to it?
posted by Artw at 7:33 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Trump is an idiot who has absolutely no clue as to what a President can and can't do and apparently he's surrounded by sycophants who are too scared to inform him. The base that apparently thinks Chicago is a third world slum might like his tough talk but it's all complete nonsense.

He's apparently just going to sit around watching Fox News and tweeting and outsource his Presidency other than signing whatever stupid shit his aides think up.

Based upon how increasingly erratic his tweets have become I'm fairly convinced that he's likely to be replaced based upon medical reasons because we've gone beyond the power of positive thinking bullshit he's used to all the way to Nixonian level paranoia which is no doubt stoked by some of his aides. He's never been the most rational adult but the rate of decline over the last year seems indicative of failing faculties.
posted by vuron at 7:33 PM on January 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

This afternoon on my sanity walk up in the hills with my dog, I thought back to the conventions and how Trump's was so slapdash toss it together at the last minute and Hillary's was like the honor roll spent the last six months on it, and so on to where we are and Trump is still just barely competent, anyone can see that, and it hit me. (Thanks dog running off for a sec.) It's like those late night product pitches or those really long snail mail get rich quick real estate come-ons, or the websites that work the same. So much scrolling. The shoddiness and scamminess is meant to drive off anybody who would waste the call center's time. He definitely knows his audience.

Both of them.
posted by notyou at 7:35 PM on January 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

FOX has been state TV before during the entire Bush administration. That part was predictable

Like so many of these things, they're not supposed to just openly do it.
posted by Artw at 7:35 PM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Any bets on who might do it?

@MarkHarrisNYC
One day an interviewer will look Trump in the eye, on camera, and say, "You're lying." That person will be an American hero.
posted by chris24 at 7:38 PM on January 24, 2017 [39 favorites]

Also we already have FBI and ATF in Chicago, tracking down guns imported mostly from Pence's state.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:38 PM on January 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

I have a question: what's the timeline for when we'll start to get a sense of who is planning to run in the midterm elections? Like, when we talk about primarying candidates from the left, or running opposition candidates even in districts where people usually run unopposed, when will that start to happen?
posted by pretentious illiterate at 7:39 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

CHITOWN HEAT RESIST.
posted by vrakatar at 7:40 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

What's the likelihood of Trump's entire "cabinet", such as it is at this point, and/or staff being replaced if he's removed from office in some way, say if he were impeached, or removed via Article 25? Is there any precedent for the wholesale removal of appointees, or would Pence just assume the Presidency and be free to keep or dismiss people as he pleases?
posted by mollweide at 7:40 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Hey Iraq. Sorry we invaded your country for like a decade and fucked up a lot of stuff. So now if we can make absolutely sure none of y'all get anywhere near us, even though it was next to impossible to get a visa from Iraq before, that would be great. Good luck with all that.

I caught the last but of Maddow when I got home. She said tomorrow they're going to have some report about how his get the oil talk has already caused problems for the troops that are still there. I have heard that his oil talk spread like wildfire through Iraq and have read few responses from Iraq's (not good) but had forgotten about the troops that are still there and how this sort of talk would put them in more danger.

He has no clue.
posted by Jalliah at 7:41 PM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

The Chicago tweet is just Trump turning the page; now we won't talk about voter fraud or alt facts. He just piles this shit up and eveybody dances along.
posted by valkane at 7:41 PM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

Like, when we talk about primarying candidates from the left, or running opposition candidates even in districts where people usually run unopposed, when will that start to happen?

Publicly? This time next year. Check your state's primary calendars, they're usually April-ish, and candidates will start announcing 2-4 months out depending on how well funded they are. Unofficially? It's happening now. Fundraising and jockeying for position started as soon as the election was over. If you're thinking about running, or know someone who might, now is the time to start running in the shadow primary.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:43 PM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

Based upon how increasingly erratic his tweets have become I'm fairly convinced that he's likely to be replaced based upon medical reasons

Hey now, this guy said that Trump would be "the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

Sure, he may be wrong but the same doctor later said, "If something happens to him, then it happens to him," Bornstein told STAT News. "It's like all the rest of us, no? That's why we have a vice president and a speaker of the House and a whole line of people. They can just keep dying."

This guy is a Very Famous Doctor, it's all cool bro.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 7:46 PM on January 24, 2017 [12 favorites]

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the climate change page from its website, two agency employees told Reuters, the latest move by the newly minted leadership to erase ex-President Barack Obama's climate change initiatives.

The employees were notified by EPA officials on Tuesday that the administration had instructed EPA's communications team to remove the website's climate change page, which contains links to scientific global warming research, as well as detailed data on emissions. The page could go down as early as Wednesday, the sources said.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:46 PM on January 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

Erg, how do you archive a website from afar. Asking for a friend.
posted by notyou at 7:49 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

The Chicago tweet is just Trump turning the page; now we won't talk about voter fraud or alt facts. He just piles this shit up and eveybody dances along.

No it's not. He's a reactionary. This is how his brain works. We have confirmation and are getting more day after to day that he reacts to what he sees or hears. It looks like distraction because it happens so often. He has no control and just blurgs because something pisses him off and his aides can't control him.
posted by Jalliah at 7:50 PM on January 24, 2017 [30 favorites]

Any bets on who might do it?

@MarkHarrisNYC
One day an interviewer will look Trump in the eye, on camera, and say, "You're lying." That person will be an American hero.

a hundred quatloos on Katy Tur
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 7:50 PM on January 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

Cali is an open primary, Gotanda, as noted above. It'll be a runoff between DiFi and whomever other D. That's when the call for help should go out.
posted by notyou at 7:51 PM on January 24, 2017

Erg, how do you archive a website from afar. Asking for a friend.

https://www.httrack.com/
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:51 PM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

I finally have a use for the old laptop! (Install debian, then httrack, then buy some storage somewhere.)
posted by notyou at 7:55 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Who is ordering the science crackdown? And why? It doesn't feel like a DJT thing, and Pruitt isn't in charge yet.
posted by theodolite at 7:57 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's quite the read. For those with time and interest, check it out. The TL;DR version is inevitably a disservice, but here it is:

Heh, your TL;DR was pretty much my initial reaction. The whole thing screams at me to discount it at first, but apparently this author did in fact get the scoop on the FISA warrant before anyone else, so that gets me taking a bit more of a look at the other stuff, and then for everything that seems iffy, there's something that catches my eye - yeah, the description of the alleged Snowden plot seems weak, but not implausible - "stolen credentials" isn't exactly a groundbreaking technique (woah woah if you steal a password you can access an account?) but it's not like that's all he ran off with and Russia wouldn't be interested in all of it. That FSB/Quito/Assange thing needs looking into because if so, wow. The hacker from Prague stuff seems like a mix of plausible things and weird leaps of logic - why send a code to put emails on the computer when you could just get one of the alleged moles in the FBI to do it in person? But the guy from Prague does make sense as the hacker that got the whole Weiner leak going (I'm sorry, I can't resist). And the timeline of events around Comey's weird as shit behavior does actually make some kind of sense in the context of closed/ongoing investigations. And there really has been a lot of shady Russian intelligence/mob/oligarch (really all the same with as much as the lines blur) activity in New York with plenty of documented bad actors in Trump's orbit. Idk, could all be bullshit, and I'm seriously making the effort to view it as likely bullshit first, but things keep nagging at me.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:57 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

What's the likelihood of Trump's entire "cabinet", such as it is at this point, and/or staff being replaced if he's removed from office in some way

I actually doubt it would change much. All of the Heritage Foundation picks would stay. I'm guessing it's more Pence's cabinet than Trump's anyway.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:59 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

No it's not. He's a reactionary. This is how his brain works. We have confirmation and are getting more day after to day that he reacts to what he sees or hears. It looks like distraction because it happens so often. He has no control and just blurgs because something pisses him off and his aides can't control him.

Yeah I definitely agree on this, with one addition: he's not a distraction but he's surrounded by people who are experts at capitalizing on his inadvertent distractions. I'd imagine there's a lot of "hey boss, did you see this shit CNN's saying?" going around.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:59 PM on January 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

Just posted all over Reddit about the EPA site to ask people who can to archive it. Also tweeted to the a couple of places.
posted by Jalliah at 8:00 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Okay, Janet Napolitano, 59, should run for Feinstein's seat in 2018 and President in 2020. (She has been battling cancer but I think successfully). She is a two term governor of Arizona, Secretary of Homeland Security, along with a few other credits to her name.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 8:00 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Who is ordering the science crackdown?

Really? The standard Republican line has become, "climate change isn't real". Period. Trump called it a plot by the Chinese. It's a core plank of the Republican platform.

Next to tax cuts and abortion restrictions, it's the next biggest thing every Republican agrees on.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:01 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Cali is an open primary, Gotanda, as noted above. It'll be a runoff between DiFi and whomever other D. That's when the call for help should go out.

Thats by no means guaranteed. If Feinstein runs again and no significantly funded D alternative runs, its quite plausible that the remaining D vote would be split enough to let an R candidate come in second (especially if they coalesce around a single plausible R). Of course, Feinstein would easily defeat the Republican in the fall, but there's no guarantee it would be D v D. It happened in 2016 partially because there was no incumbent D and partially because the R vote was split as well.

If people really want an alternative Democrat candidate, there needs to be a specific individual promoted heavily so that the vote only splits between Feinstein and that candidate. Feinstein will get a significant number of votes, so you have to siphon off enough D votes and hope the Republicans split their vote as well.
posted by thefoxgod at 8:01 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Re EPA website: He's ordering the removal of public data sets.
posted by AlexiaSky at 8:01 PM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

If you want to push the Democrats to pursue a more obstructionist/progressive position then look at districts where the Democrats are safe in regards to the general election but that enough money could make a difference for a primary. Don't target blue dogs unless they are in safe districts that should be represented by someone more liberal (there aren't a ton of these anymore).

Look around at the best and brightest on the JV team especially younger PoC and women. Representation matters and sometimes it's enough to fire up support among underrepresented groups.

Realize that Senate races in most blue states are incredibly expensive affairs and incumbents have massive financial advantages. Sometimes just the threat of credible primary challenger is enough to force some politicians to take a more dynamic role.

Start registering voters now while Trump is making everyone angry, get lawsuits started challengin voter ID laws. Challenge fake news on social media. Start collecting anecdotes about how policy X is absolutely critical, etc and work to create counter narratives.

Look for cracks in the Republican caucus, typically this is going to be over discretionary spending because a lot of Republicans are dependent on various government funds to support their district.
posted by vuron at 8:01 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

I'm guessing it's more Pence's cabinet than Trump's anyway.

idk? i don't feel like pence would have chosen such obviously unqualified cretins when there are literally hundreds of qualified republican utterly soulless venal shitlicking politicians available.
posted by poffin boffin at 8:02 PM on January 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

Re EPA website: He's ordering the removal of public data sets.

Man, data.gov is toast.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:02 PM on January 24, 2017

Yeah I definitely agree on this, with one addition: he's not a distraction but he's surrounded by people who are experts at capitalizing on his inadvertent distractions. I'd imagine there's a lot of "hey boss, did you see this shit CNN's saying?" going around.

Yep agree on this. I just think we need to leave behind the idea that any distraction strategy is coming from him.
posted by Jalliah at 8:02 PM on January 24, 2017

Justinian: "There is no strategy there."

I'm pretty sure Daniel Dale -- the Toronto Star reporter who previously covered Rob Ford and is now covering Trump -- tweeted something basically to that effect based on his experience with the Rob Ford administration. Every time it seems like they're doing something tricky to achieve some kind strategic advantage, it turns out... nope, it's just unhinged bozos doing unhinged bozo stuff. That's basically how I feel about the Twitter stuff. Just random nonsense. The cabinet picks on the other hand... Sessions? Pruitt? De Vos? Too much deliberate malevolence to be by chance (especially Sessions). I see the grim hand of Bannon (maybe also Ailes?) at work here.
posted by mhum at 8:04 PM on January 24, 2017 [19 favorites]

Rep. Gosar (R-AZ) introduces bill to block HUD from building, maintaining, providing geospatial info on racial disparities in housing access

Worst case scenarios are all now the betting favorite. They're going to contaminate every aspect of objective government data.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:04 PM on January 24, 2017 [37 favorites]

Another way to plug in: Head to the Scientists' March on Washington site. They've got a flood of newcomers and they are asking for help.
posted by perspicio at 8:04 PM on January 24, 2017 [35 favorites]

The 2020 Census is also going to be Trumpian. It determines redistricting.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:05 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Re EPA website: He's ordering the removal of public data sets.

Unfortunately, climate isn't like IRS audits: weather keeps happening even if you destroy the documentation.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:05 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

idk? i don't feel like pence would have chosen such obviously unqualified cretins when there are literally hundreds of qualified republican utterly soulless venal shitlicking politicians available.

Yeah. Pence would realize that, with Pence in office, the role of obviously unqualified cretin has already been filled.
posted by Justinian at 8:05 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

They're in the very very early stages of organizing, but the Scientists' March on Washington is being proposed and looking for volunteers.
posted by zachlipton at 8:05 PM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

Alfa Bank (memba them? "Oh we were spamming one IP in Russia! Silly us!" Never sat right for me)

My gut sense on that was that the published story had too many holes -- the IPs were an email blast firm, doing email blasts, I wish it were otherwise -- but it was published because the Alfa Bank connection had clearly been circulated elsewhere in the Steele dossier, and there wasn't enough in the journalistic sphere of knowledge to pin down a connection, so Slate went with the crumbs they had.
posted by holgate at 8:08 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

They're in the very very early stages of organizing, but the Scientists' March on Washington is being proposed and looking for volunteers.

What do we want?
– Rigorously-tested theories!
When do we want them?
– After peer review!
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:08 PM on January 24, 2017 [19 favorites]

I've wondered what the lefty version of InfoWars would look like and I guess it's the Louise Mensch article that's being thrown around
posted by reluctant early bird at 8:13 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

The Netherlands 'counters' Trump with international abortion fund

The Dutch Government is planning to launch an international fund to finance access to birth control and abortion in developing countries, in order to fill the gap left after the Trump administration announced it would no longer fund any overseas aid organisations which discussed abortion.

“Banning abortions does not result in fewer abortions,” Dutch Trade and Development Minister Lilianne Ploumen said in a statement.

“It leads to more irresponsible practices in back rooms and more maternal deaths.”

The World Health Organisation estimates that 22 million women experience unsafe abortions every year, the vast majority of whom are in developing countries.

A 2008 report from the organisation estimated that nearly 50,000 women die from complications in such procedures annually.

Minister Ploumen said that the Trump administration's decision risked undermining recent advances in women's health.

"We must not let this happen," she said.
posted by Jalliah at 8:13 PM on January 24, 2017 [49 favorites]

If the marching scientists need hats, we knitters are on it
posted by antinomia at 8:13 PM on January 24, 2017 [47 favorites]

Silver with 60s style atoms?
posted by Artw at 8:14 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I did see a group of scientists marching in lab coats at the women's march in SF last weekend. Everyone looks better and more authoritative in a lab coat, not just people actually working in labs. It works for doctors, pharmacists, school uniforms in certain countries, and also evil mad scientists. So I'm officially in favor of any protest that involves lots of lab coats.
posted by zachlipton at 8:15 PM on January 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

Keep in mind that the 2020 census takes a significant amount of time to process. Yeah there are some aspects of data gathering that could be used to undercount various populations but it would be impossible to somehow get every census taker to be involved in a grand conspiracy to generate false census data.

Reapportionment will be the first phase and it's quite likely that a macro-level we'll see increased migration towards the Desert Southwest and parts of the Atlantic Coast and South. Many of these areas are becoming increasingly Democratic leaning.

After reapportionment you have redistricting which is where Republican State Legislators do all their damage. The redistricting fight is won and lost in the state legislatures, governor's mansions and courts. If possible push your state to adopt non-partisan redistricting legislation now.
posted by vuron at 8:16 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Please peace band all shrink rays and gamma beam projectors.
posted by Artw at 8:17 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

My gut sense on that was that the published story had too many holes -- the IPs were an email blast firm, doing email blasts, I wish it were otherwise -- but it was published because the Alfa Bank connection had clearly been circulated elsewhere in the Steele dossier, and there wasn't enough in the journalistic sphere of knowledge to pin down a connection, so Slate went with the crumbs they had.

It's the part where the server was taken down, set up with a new host, and Alfa connected to it tout suite that feels really off to me. I haven't seen any explanation that convinces me that's not hinky. Plus the NYT public editor strongly hinted recently that there was a story there that they only backtracked on due to pressure.

Also if I ran some ridiculous plot like this that needed backdoor communication and had this huge commercial enterprise with attendant marketing infrastructure that Trump has? An email marketing server would look like such a good cover.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:17 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

So I'm officially in favor of any protest that involves lots of lab coats.

I would do this if I weren't concerned about being mistaken for a brown Doogie Howser.

and the whole not-actually-a-scientist-thing
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:17 PM on January 24, 2017

It's morbid and grim but: we should probably start familiarizing ourselves with the likelihood that very soon there will be a terrible incident of mass US civilian bloodshed at the hands of the regime.

This gets back to the late 60s and early 70s -- which were politically formative for the reactionary boomers who are having their last hoorah right now -- but since I didn't live through it, I've had to read up on Kent State and the general sense of the wheels coming off during the Nixon years. Except that the trajectory now -- with cops who act like they're occupying forces, and have all the military surplus hardware from a decade of foreign conflict -- is essentially a declaration of war on black urban America.

If that happens, DC itself -- the city that people live in, not the sub-city of federal government -- is going to fucking ignite, and all bets are off.
posted by holgate at 8:19 PM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

LOL - from the WaPo article on Trump's Saturday meltdown (italics mine):

One suggested that Conway’s office on the second floor of the West Wing, as opposed to one closer to the Oval Office, was a sign of her diminished standing. Though Conway took over the workspace previously occupied by Valerie Jarrett, who had been Obama’s closest adviser, the confidant dismissively predicted that Trump would rarely climb a flight of stairs.
posted by Mchelly at 8:20 PM on January 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

I really liked this: Be like Daphnis [via]
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:22 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm pretty sure Daniel Dale -- the Toronto Star reporter who previously covered Rob Ford and is now covering Trump -- tweeted something basically to that effect based on his experience with the Rob Ford administration. Every time it seems like they're doing something tricky to achieve some kind strategic advantage, it turns out... nope, it's just unhinged bozos doing unhinged bozo stuff. That's basically how I feel about the Twitter stuff. Just random nonsense. The cabinet picks on the other hand... Sessions? Pruitt? De Vos? Too much deliberate malevolence to be by chance (especially Sessions). I see the grim hand of Bannon (maybe also Ailes?) at work here.

Speaking of Daniel Dale. He just tweeted about the Chicago tweet and suggested it's related to Rahm calling him out today.

tweet Genuinely looking forward to Spicer's attempts to explain this tomorrow.

Abc story linked in the tweet. Trump Threatens to 'Send in the Feds' Because of Chicago 'Carnage'

It was not immediately clear what prompted Trump's Tuesday night tweet, but Emanuel criticized the president and his continued focus on the size of his inaugural crowd.

"This is unsolicited advice: You didn't get elected to debate the crowd size at your inaugural," Emanuel said, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said in a statement Tuesday night: "As the Mayor said just a few hours ago, the Chicago Police Department is more than willing to work with the federal government to build on our partnerships with DOJ, FBI, DEA and ATF and boost federal prosecution rates for gun crimes in Chicago."

On Tuesday, Emanuel told WTTW that "there’s a lot that federal government can do" and "I’ve been very specific about this."
posted by Jalliah at 8:23 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

So I'm officially in favor of any protest that involves lots of lab coats.

I dunno, you probably don't want me wearing my preferred lab coat to protest. It's covered with my name in the blurry, angry sharpie that comes from metaphorically pissing all over the only damn lab coat that fit my hips so the undergrads don't steal it, plus unidentifiable stains all over the cuffs from only being washed every six to eight weeks.

....possibly other scientists keep cleaner lab coats?
posted by sciatrix at 8:26 PM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

tivalasvegas they say you don't have to be a scientist to march, just someone who respects the scientific method. And I love the lab coat idea.
posted by antinomia at 8:27 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Plus the NYT public editor strongly hinted recently that there was a story there that they only backtracked on due to pressure.

I hadn't seen that, and it's the first thing Liz Spayd has written that doesn't make me pine for Margaret Sullivan. I still think the server stuff was a wild goose chase, or at best a low-level lead in the investigation that had leaked from sigint people, but nobody could pin it down. Lichtblau and Myers are top-tier natsec reporters who certainly knew what Steele had reported back then, and had access to other mutterings, but if there was, for instance, a laundering operation through the Russian expat pension payments system, with Alfa as a facilitator, it wouldn't have gone through that route. It would have been through standard bundled bank-to-bank transfers on secure channels between bank servers.
posted by holgate at 8:28 PM on January 24, 2017

still the doogie howser issue tho
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:29 PM on January 24, 2017

@smotus
What’s the maximal level of violent crime a city can have before being occupied by the US military? Asking for a democracy.
posted by chris24 at 8:32 PM on January 24, 2017 [46 favorites]

Realistically, though, I could probably buy myself a new lab coat for marching purposes. I am a scientist. And they only cost like $20-30 even if you, like me, require fitted coats in order to avoid the dreaded sausage phenomenon.

Hm.

I'm not traveling again any time soon, though. Too damn fucking tired.
posted by sciatrix at 8:32 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

If possible push your state to adopt non-partisan redistricting legislation now.

Not going to happen with the current crowd. Find people to run for state legislative districts. You can do it on the (relative) cheap. The DNC chair election is going to count on this, but don't wait. If you have Bubba Bubbason III (R) as your six-term state legislator, he's on watch as of right now.
posted by holgate at 8:33 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

VoteVets is not happy about the federal hiring freeze. Veterans make up 31% of the federal workforce, and because of hiring preferences, a federal hiring freeze screws over vets who are leaving the service and looking for civilian work. And nobody has said that the VA is exempt from the freeze, which would mean they can't hire more staff to provide medical care, despite all those promises about fixing the VA.
posted by zachlipton at 8:35 PM on January 24, 2017 [75 favorites]

I can't interpret the Trump administration's actions in the last few days as anything but total disdain for the citizens they are supposed to be serving.
posted by piyushnz at 8:36 PM on January 24, 2017 [34 favorites]

I've wondered what the lefty version of InfoWars would look like and I guess it's the Louise Mensch article that's being thrown around

She's a conservative and she actually worked for a Murdoch publication while doing some of this work. Breitbart went after her like crazy when she started digging on this though. I feel really weird because I don't want to seem like I'm defending this article as fact or something to hang hopes on, and I'd like to be clear that I'm not - it raises a lot of alarm bells for me and I'm being very actively mindful of my biases here. But I do think it's... idk, not worth believing, but worth reading? Either she had a source on the FISA warrant before anyone, or (imo more likely) others had that source and decided against publishing it but she's got no filter, both of which make for interesting reading when things are leaking all over the place and reality is turning out to be unbelievably fucked up.

Lichtblau and Myers are top-tier natsec reporters who certainly knew what Steele had reported back then, and had access to other mutterings, but if there was, for instance, a laundering operation through the Russian expat pension payments system, with Alfa as a facilitator, it wouldn't have gone through that route. It would have been through standard bundled bank-to-bank transfers on secure channels between bank servers.

Idk, I'm leaning towards, if there was communication on that server it's more likely related to the Wikileaks and Anthony Weiner stuff - the other weird thing about the Alfa story is that Spectrum Health was the other party flagged in the communications, which is owned by the DeVos family, and then you see things like that link in Mensch's story's mention of DeVos' brother Eric Prince where he's on Breitbart hyping up the Comey Letter stuff to this ridiculous level just days before the election about impending arrests and the content of the emails based on "insider knowledge of the investigation".
posted by jason_steakums at 8:39 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

@smotus
What’s the maximal level of violent crime a city can have before being occupied by the US military? Asking for a democracy.

1.5 Chicago's + 1 alternative fact.
posted by AlexiaSky at 8:40 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

This is me, upon reading the news for the next 2-8 years
posted by lalochezia at 8:41 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

What’s the maximal level of violent crime a city can have before being occupied by the US military?

Someday, I think a "fun" project would be identifying fringe ideas in right wing publications which ended up becoming reality. I remember reading the National Review sometime in 1986 or 87 where someone proposed Reagan send in the army and occupy cities during the crime wave. Even as a teenager who hadn't figured out his politics yet, I knew that was some incredibly scary bullshit.
posted by honestcoyote at 8:42 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's morbid and grim but: we should probably start familiarizing ourselves with the likelihood that very soon there will be a terrible incident of mass US civilian bloodshed at the hands of the regime.

This was my thought as soon as he ordered the DAP and Keystone pipelines to be built. Do you think Donald is going to let a bunch of Native Americans defy him?

It's a bit strange to be glad to see a few more people edging their way toward becoming appropriately scared shitless. Perhaps if more of us get to the point of taking this growing horror as seriously as it has been since November fucking 8th, there may be enough organization and preparedness to mitigate/ameriorate/stave off some of the worst effects of the cascade of catastrophes an obviously sociopathic cadre is very busily cooking up.

I'm really glad for all the political organizing and action. I'm politically active myself. But y'all better also spare a little thought for how you will continue that noble work if you find yourself without vital goods and services. If that's still too far-fetched to worry about, well, by all means please keep up the good work you are already doing, but I look forward to the day when you show up wearing your brown pants.
posted by perspicio at 8:43 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

A very small part of me wants to be fair and say "well maybe this is how Republicans felt at the start of Obama's term." But let's look at Obama's early executive orders. He instituted new ethics rules (something Trump also promised to do on day 1 but didn't), helped ensure Presidential records would be preserved, ordered people to stop torturing, and set in motion a process toward closing Guantanamo (and look how well that turned out).

In contrast, Trump has, just to name a few examples, (and in addition to the quite bad but vaguely within the realm of stuff a President I strongly disagree with might do like the global gag rule and even perhaps the Obamacare order) sent his press secretary out to yell at the press because his crowds weren't large enough, used the CIA memorial wall for his own self-aggrandizement, and threatened to "send in the feds" to one of the largest cities in the country. He's about to ban citizens of several entire countries from visiting. And all the while, his entire staff has been leaking to the press constantly trying to backstab each other. This is not normal.
posted by zachlipton at 8:47 PM on January 24, 2017 [56 favorites]

Most of us here have been openly worrying about nuclear apocalypse for over a year, we can do without the prepper shaming, thanks.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:48 PM on January 24, 2017 [17 favorites]

Meanwhile, states ask for help after recent tornados.
posted by AlexiaSky at 8:51 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

@CNNPR is correcting the record on POTUS's estimate of Fox vs. FAKENEWSCNN viewership. (Yet another thing that's not normal.)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:54 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Re: Chicago. It's also a sanctuary city, putting it on tomorrow's agenda:

Trump to sign executive orders enabling construction of proposed border wall and targeting sanctuary cities [WaPo]

If you're curious what this might mean, here's an explainer: How sanctuary cities work and what might happen to them under Trump [WaPo]. The main sanction is anticipated to be federal justics grant cuts, but -- as the article points out -- that's unlikely to influence large jurisdicions. Instead,

Cutting funding isn’t the only way for the Trump administration to get places with sanctuary policies to help with deportation. Vaughan said another option is seeking an injunction in federal court to block specific policies, especially in jurisdictions that “will not cooperate in any way with ICE.” She said the worst offenders are Cook County, Ill., (home to Chicago), ...

So there's another excuse for federal meddling with Chicago. They could scratch their "ungovernable blacks" and "terrorist foreigners" itches in a single shot.
posted by Westringia F. at 9:04 PM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

just someone who respects the scientific method

Do they accept disciples of Feyerabend?
posted by Coventry at 9:04 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

What the hell. I barely ever watch cable so never see commercials. Parents are away so I'm staying in there half of the house and watching the tv.
Just saw a Dodge Durango ad.
"There's a place in America that you can can almost see Russia"
*cars zoom around through snows and trees*
" That means there is a place in Russia that they can hear America."

WTF?
posted by Jalliah at 9:06 PM on January 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

So I actually read the "Presidential Memo" (which IIRC is not the same as an executive order) on DAPL. And the language is... weird. The Army Corps of Engineers is ordered to:

review and approve in an expedited manner, to the extent permitted by law and as warranted, and with such conditions as are necessary or appropriate, requests for approvals to construct and operate the DAPL ...

Ordering someone to review and approve is kind of contradictory. If you've been ordered to approve something, there's no point in reviewing it.

It's also legally questionable. Federal agency decisions have to comply with a standard of being not arbitrary and capricious -- that's what the courts look at. And I'm pretty damned sure that a presidential order to approve is practically the definition of arbitrary and capricious.

What is POTUS but capricious? He is the very definition of capricious.

So when (not if) this gets litigated, the courts are going to look very closely at this, and are likely to kick it back. And then the GOP will get the Administrative Procedures Act repealed, and then we'll really be in the swamp.
posted by suelac at 9:08 PM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

If the marching scientists need hats, we knitters are on it.

My brightest hope right now is that in the next century there's an American history textbook that says something like:

The greatest threat to American democracy, and to the country's very survival, came in 2017 with the illegitimate election of "President" Donald J. Trump. Before the Trump administration could weather its first month, the American people were so incensed by its egregious violations of their constitutional and inalienable rights, and by the clownishly childish behavior of their "President," that American citizens and immigrants alike took to the streets in unprecedented numbers. Among the most active groups in the resistance were scientists whose decades of advancements, and future decades of potentially promising research, were threatened by the administration's across-the-board defunding of the sciences, implementation of Federal agency gag orders, and wholesale silencing of regulatory bodies. Those scientists' collective, vociferous protests were fundamental in ousting the Trump administration, and their efforts were aided to an incalculable extent by a coalition of dedicated knitters. Here are some examples of the protest hats they knitted."

posted by mudpuppie at 9:10 PM on January 24, 2017 [68 favorites]

Look around at the best and brightest on the JV team especially younger PoC and women. Representation matters and sometimes it's enough to fire up support among underrepresented groups.

Everybody hates Ted Cruz, what would it take to get a Castro brother elected to the Senate in Texas? Back when we still had optimism, before our souls were crushed (I'm talking to you, November 8th) people kept talking about how Texas demographics are changing.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 9:13 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

The primary sources for what Trump said he would do on Day One* are:

Donald J. Trump Delivers Groundbreaking Contract for the American Voter in Gettysburg, October 22, 2016
A Message from President-Elect Donald J. Trump, November 21, 2016

* You might think "Day One" is the day the president takes office, but apparently Donald Trump thinks presidents get weekends off and said Monday, January 23, would be his Day One. We'll call that Day One Observed. Spoiler: he didn't do most of the things he said he would do regardless of when you decide Day One is.

I made a (crappy, incomplete) website and Facebook page to see what he said he would do on Day One and whether or not he did them.
"'Don’t do what Donny Don’t does.' [sigh] They could make this clearer."

Of course, just because he didn't do something when he said he would doesn't mean he won't do it later.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:14 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Funny thing I just read. "I am not criticizing Trump it's just Alternative Praise"
posted by Jalliah at 9:14 PM on January 24, 2017 [43 favorites]

Meanwhile, states ask for help after recent tornados.

Like I suggested upthread, "heckuva job, Brownie" had an effect, even on people who might not have given much of a shit about the destruction of African-American life and property and the displacement of communities.

Right now, the governors are apologising for inaction, enabling the demented narcissist, and talking about "government red tape". But "acts of God" -- and south Georgia is a god-fearing place, I've spent time there -- are different from social or cultural stuff. When the wind blows your house down, you expect someone in charge to do something selfless to help, especially if you voted for someone you think of as a saviour who promised to look after you. And they'll remember it.
posted by holgate at 9:17 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Most of us here have been openly worrying about nuclear apocalypse for over a year, we can do without the prepper shaming, thanks.

Not sure about 'most' but hope you're right and in any event, point taken. I communicate poorly sometimes, especially under stress; I apologize.
posted by perspicio at 9:20 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

What the hell. I barely ever watch cable so never see commercials. Parents are away so I'm staying in there half of the house and watching the tv.
Just saw a Dodge Durango ad.
"There's a place in America that you can can almost see Russia"
*cars zoom around through snows and trees*
" That means there is a place in Russia that they can hear America."

"If you buy this SUV you'll be hated for blocks around."
posted by jaduncan at 9:20 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

A project for those of a grim mentality might be to see whether the more obviously erratic twitterations coincide with hours commonly associated with sundowning.
posted by holgate at 9:32 PM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

I doubt you will read a more damming indictment of Trump's visit to the CIA than this from Robin Wright in The New Yorker, . Trump’s Vainglorious Affront To The C.I.A..

Apparently as proof, the President noted that he had set an “all-time record” in Time magazine cover stories. “Like, if Tom Brady is on the cover, it’s one time, because he won the Super Bowl or something, right?” he told the intelligence officials. “I’ve been on it for fifteen times this year. I don’t think that’s a record that can ever be broken.” Time told Politico’s Playbook that it had published eleven Trump covers—and had done fifty-five cover stories about Richard Nixon.

And he's bragging about this year's Time Meltdown and Total Meltdown covers.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:33 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Standing Rock Sioux pledge to fight executive order: 'We can't back down now'

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe and its supporters are vowing to resist Donald Trump’s executive order to allow construction of the Dakota Access pipeline with legal action, civil disobedience and a return to the “water protector” encampments.

“President Trump is legally required to honor our treaty rights and provide a fair and reasonable pipeline process,” said Standing Rock Sioux tribal chairman Dave Archambault, who called Trump’s action “politically motivated”.

“Creating a second Flint does not make America great again,” he added.
posted by Jalliah at 9:34 PM on January 24, 2017 [48 favorites]

Whatever shit happens with "The Stupid Fucking Wall", it will also involve the Tohono O’odham in Arizona, whose treaty rights span the border. And CNN has also done some good new reporting on the ambivalence of those in Texas who actually live on the border. Turns out that the landscape was there before people drew lines on it.
posted by holgate at 10:01 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Here Is 11 Minutes of Real Stand-Up Comedy From Kellyanne Conway

Her material is not great—she makes fun of a Jewish-sounding name and gives a long lead-up to a joke about child abuse—but she does have one good bit, about “pundettes.” “Someone who goes on TV constantly,” she says, “and just says the same thing over and over and over and over again, but never wears the same thing twice.” Sounds awfully familiar.

posted by kirkaracha at 10:13 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

A Nationwide Ban On Abortions After A Month And A Half Was Introduced In Congress.

(╯°□°)╯ ︵ ┻━┻
posted by fragmede at 10:23 PM on January 24, 2017 [20 favorites]

Many references to his office phones being turned off, his voicemail being full and never emptied and people getting locked out when they show up in person to deliver letters. This is some Tea Party Tactics realness that is happening. Stay the course.

The group that went to Ted Cruz's office in Houston today had the doors locked against them and the cops were called to escort them from the building. Unfortunately it hasn't made the media, although people are writing letters to the paper.
posted by threeturtles at 10:24 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Here's a report, it's apparently blowing up on Twitter.
posted by threeturtles at 10:28 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Mefi's Adopted Own Evan McMullin has come out swinging with Stand Up Republic. (Warning: ad contains a lot of Reagan but watch it anyway because it's baller.)
posted by corb at 10:29 PM on January 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

Many news stories in the last month that scientists have been working furiously to download all the data that they can before it was scrubbed by the Anti-Intelligentsia. I am glad that they had the foresight to do so.

Guys, this is crazy that we are having discussions like this. I know that all of you know this too but it is still straight up fucking crazy. Feds might be ordered into Chicago? Gag orders on all of our sçientific communities, Spicer blatently lying to the world from the White House briefing room. The confirmation hearings and all the lying and obfuscation. Nothing new there until you find out that there might be a "shadow cabinet" that will be the "handler" of folks like Price, DeVos, Tillerson, Mnuchin.

What is true? We all know the casualness of trump's lies. There are so many lies that as a reporter you must get tired and bleary eyed from looking up in the trees as well as down on the ground for trip wires.

Trump assembles a shadow Cabinet (linked above). The Politico article suggests that it really doesn't matter who wins confirmation because they will have a handler/overseer.

-- The White House is deploying a network of advisers to the top of federal agencies as a direct line to stay on top of Cabinet officials.

-- The White House is installing senior aides atop major federal agencies to shadow the administration's Cabinet secretaries, creating a direct line with loyalists who can monitor and shape White House goals across the federal bureaucracy.

The aides chosen by the White House — given the title of senior adviser in each agency — have already been responsible for hiring at some departments and crafting the blueprint of Trump policy before the Cabinet members win Senate confirmation to take office. They have worked with congressional aides, lobbyists and others seeking influence in the new administration.

The arrangement, described by four people involved in the transition planning, appears designed to help the White House maintain control over its priorities despite pledging to give Cabinet secretaries unusual autonomy. Having senior advisers reporting to both the agency chiefs and the White House could spur early tensions and create conflicts with that pledge of autonomy.

-- “There will be tentacles from the White House to these agencies. … The effort is to demonstrate that all points lead back to certain people,” such as Donald Trump’s son-in-law, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, or chief of staff Reince Priebus.

Another person involved in the transition said Trump's team wanted a "real strong line at the agencies to have someone monitoring and directing what they're doing."

-- The jobs have rattled Obama administration political appointees, who have been surprised at young campaign hands having such authority at federal agencies. The advisers at each agency will not face Senate approval, like more than 1,200 other federal government positions, including deputy secretaries and administrators.

If true, this is micromanagement on steroids, stifling science in every aspect, muzzling progress and undermining the passion and devotion for curiosity and truth. Fuck them at every opportunity. Paint then as zealots fron the dark ages. Why are they scared of science we should ask. Afraid that the truth will hurt their bottom line? Their stock portfolios? If the answer is no, press them to explain why they are against it. Are they willing to risk their grandchildren's future. Press them. What else can it be other than personal gain? Kickbacks? Lobbyist cash. They are terrified of science. Despicable cowards.
posted by futz at 10:42 PM on January 24, 2017 [26 favorites]

Mefi's Adopted Own Evan McMullin has come out swinging with Stand Up Republic. (Warning: ad contains a lot of Reagan but watch it anyway because it's baller.)

I may disagree with McMullin and Finn on a lot of policy but I hope he succeeds in this. A big part of the struggle Democrats are facing right now is that we can't get the Republicans' house in order and pull the GOP back to sanity, that's on them. At the end of the day there are states and districts out of the Democrats' reach for now and if McMullin and Finn can replace the current batch with Republicans who will at least uphold civilization and argue in good faith I'm all for it, and after we chase out the fascists together we can fight each other tooth and nail on policy in reasoned debates and fair elections later. After we all share a celebratory drink together.
posted by jason_steakums at 10:52 PM on January 24, 2017 [42 favorites]

Reading up on various martial law issues in the wake of the Chicago tweet I came across a ~75-page military academic paper from 2008, "Insurrection Act Restored: States Likely to Maintain Authority Over National Guard in Domestic Emergencies", that thoroughly covers topics related to domestic deployment of federally-controlled military. (The title refers to the revocation of a temporary expansion of powers under Bush, which had been enacted due to part of the clusterfuck during Katrina described in the introduction here.)
posted by XMLicious at 11:13 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Seriously though it's his second fucking day and he's already threatening a major city with martial law for no reason. He's not recapitulating Hitler, he's following some evil dictator playbook he saw in a Marvel movie

He's trying to seem like he is doing something.

Fine.

This is a good time to bring up the down in the weeds technical capabilities of the surveillance state and ask "Is the plan to deploy (whatever) FedGov has used in private?" Then THANK him for bringing the facial recognition and profiling software from Afghanistan or stingray to the public viewing/public review.

Let the deep state people who want to keep stingray et al buried and parallel reconstruction enjoy a bit of sunlight.
posted by rough ashlar at 11:18 PM on January 24, 2017

The "shadow Cabinet" shit is malignant. Malignant like cancer. It is "running the government like the Family Business" shit. It will not hold, because there will not be enough political appointees in the respective departments, the egos of the Senate-appointed nominees will eventually kick in, and the career people will walk briskly to the exits.

That's not to say that it won't resolve in a situation where the government is run out of the Shite House with no congressional oversight, because the elected GOP is sufficiently craven. But we'll see it happening. Maybe it will be too late by then. Maybe it's already too late. But the facade will be gone.
posted by holgate at 11:24 PM on January 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

A Nationwide Ban On Abortions After A Month And A Half Was Introduced In Congress.

(╯°□°)╯ ︵ ┻━┻

Oh of fucking course that's Steve fucking King. I'm here in his district and I'm itching to get a chance to vote in someone else, but he won 61.2% to 38.6% last year and most of his elections hover around that split, we need all the help we can get. I think I'm going to reach out to the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa since they're the ones doing Moral Mondays work here, but they don't have a presence in this district. Tactically there needs to be an approach from the church angle and some progressive agitation among the blue collar and farming crowd to start making a real dent, angry Sioux City liberals like myself can only do so much. We need strong progressive figures with the credibility to speak to the churchgoing and rural working crowd and right now it honestly feels like we don't have anyone capable of standing up and making those inroads around here. Failing that maybe McMullin can at least send someone sane our way, King is saturated in Trumpstink and I fear that he's just the right kind of crazy that he'd give Trump ideas.

The one thing that gives me hope is his total incompetence summed up in this line from his Wikipedia page: "In August 2015, King was named the least effective member of Congress by InsideGov due to his persistent failures to get legislation out of committee."
posted by jason_steakums at 11:28 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Just a reminder: The EPA was created and WORKED to stop a constitutional amendment to protect the environment.

Ya all might wanna visit the old folks home, talk with the people who were at the forefront of making that an amendment back in the day and start such amendment machinery back up.

Hasn't been an amendment for decades. Perhaps Trump's purpose is to get some amendments through?
posted by rough ashlar at 11:30 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Steve 'Racist' King, inheritor of the Tom Tancredo Cup for Most Obviously Racist Member of Congress, can die in a fucking spontaneous racist combustion incident for all I'm concerned.

He's a fucking idiot and a fucking abject racist, and yes, it appears that his colleagues are somewhat embarrassed by that. But he feels empowered by bigotpresident. Get fucking situationist. Get people to wave big ol' dixieflags outside his office, since he has dixieflag on his desk. Get the people waving them to wear confederate uniforms. Do it on Memorial Day at the Civil War graveyards in Iowa that honour the Union dead. Basically spend the next year and a bit promoting him as the dixiest southern redneck in Iowa, y'all, and see whether his constituents really want to be seen as dixieflag rednecks. Leave no terrible southern white person stereotype unused. And if they do still vote for him, get the fuck out.
posted by holgate at 11:37 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

with cops who act like they're occupying forces

You all should track Sheriff Clarke VS the white 24 year old from the run-down Riverwest neighborhood in Milwaukee. These people want clicks and are the cast-offs of the old AV Club. And will notice people have noticed and will devote effort to covering the lawsuit.

Enjoy!
posted by rough ashlar at 11:40 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Really, make sure that his local visits have an honour guard that looks like Alabama lost-cause cosplay. Make him live his fucking dream until it becomes a nightmare.
posted by holgate at 11:40 PM on January 24, 2017

You all should track Sheriff Clarke

The man from fucking Wisconsin who wears a fucking cowboy hat. And a stupid fucking cowboy hat, at that. Show up to his shit in cowboy hats and chaps. Out-cosplay them. Reclaim the fucking spectacle.
posted by holgate at 11:43 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and nothing was true… The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.

Post–World War II research by Hannah Arendt on Nazi propaganda provides a good perspective on why Trump's constant lying is so dangerous to society and damaging to individuals.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 11:52 PM on January 24, 2017 [18 favorites]

holgate, as cathartic as that would be, I promise you it would cause people to double down on King here. The reason I feel like there's nobody here to promote a liberal alternative is because the few who do give it a shot do not get support from the party - here's a defeated Dem State Senator from North Dakota talking about the problems they're facing and while I'm definitely giving this guy a lot of side eye over some of his positions (I'm not easily trusting of any North Dakota politician's motives on oil in light of DAPL), the problem is real.

And as for "And if they do still vote for him, get the fuck out," I've actually been wanting to GTFO of here for quite some time while circumstances have kept me cooling my heels here, but jesus at this point I'm starting to think I need to balance my desire to leave with the need here for every last bit of support for progressive ideas.
posted by jason_steakums at 11:58 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Times of Israel:

US said to reassure Palestinians embassy move is off the table
Ramallah ‘relieved’ after Trump administration officials tell them there are no plans to fulfill campaign promise, pan-Arab daily reports

The embassy move is not on the agenda at the moment, an unnamed Palestinian source was quoted as saying Wednesday in the London-based Arabic-language daily Asharq Al-Awsat.

posted by XMLicious at 12:22 AM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

as cathartic as that would be, I promise you it would cause people to double down on King here.

I think, in politics, it is important for all sides to be clear what they're dealing with. If it means that the descendants of Union soldiers in northwestern Iowa now consider themselves dixieflaggers by proxy, then provide them the opportunity to go full fucking dixieflag and judge them accordingly.
posted by holgate at 12:36 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

US said to reassure Palestinians embassy move is off the table

So once again, they're just telling everyone what they think they want to hear at any given moment, with no regard for statements that are logically inconsistent with each other.
posted by zachlipton at 12:43 AM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

>And as for "And if they do still vote for him, get the fuck out," I've actually been wanting to GTFO of here for quite some time while circumstances have kept me cooling my heels here, but jesus at this point I'm starting to think I need to balance my desire to leave with the need here for every last bit of support for progressive ideas.

I GTFO at Shrub2.0. The invasion of Iraq, started over a blatant lie, was enough for me. I had even signed up for the army, but got out before basic training once that hit. There were other factors too, but the disillusionment of that, even at the cost of losing my college degree, was enough.

When you leave, what happens is that as you build a life somewhere else, people hear your accent, see your passport, and ask your story. And then, they look you square in the eye and say, "Why didn't you stay and fight, then?" On top of that, you know all that infuriating ignorance and stupidity in America? The same level of that exists in the rest of the world, often without the benefit of a free press. Everyone you meet, if they're not the type to stereotype based on nationality or passport (no, I'm not an English teacher!), will ask - WHAT IS WITH YOU PEOPLE????? Every. damn. day. for the rest of your life.

I still don't have an answer, but this is 2017, and I'm looking hard for how a politically active diaspora can be relevant. That's on top of the fear I feel for my industry, business, and life. I'm a translator in Beijing, in the cultural field. Guess who they'll draft for propaganda if there's a trade war, or God forbid hot war? Both the Chinese and American values of "they". If you decide to GTFO, be ready, because America follows you.
posted by saysthis at 12:53 AM on January 25, 2017 [41 favorites]

But there's been something this whole election has made clear to me - a good portion of the "other reasons" I GTFO were ennui and angst over small town America. The people who were making me miserable then were Trump voters, Republicans, and all their cognitive dissonance. I'm from the first case study in this article. I was also a new arrival, but from a liberal enclave, and I had the "right" skin color. New arrivals because Republican budget cuts put mom out of a job, and that hellhole was the only place we could find another. They demoralized me once. They stole my god damn childhood. It's been liberating for me to see the opposition harden into something tangible this time, to see the marches, to see the victories and states make stands against it.. I won't let them demoralize me again.

Whether or not you GTFO, I think the fight is the same, and I think opting out altogether is a very, very difficult option. It's also an option you have to live with.
posted by saysthis at 1:54 AM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

How anyone can look at Trump and how we've seen him behave and think his tweets are some sort of 14 dimensional chutes and ladders rather than the deranged tantrums of a narcissistic man-boy is beyond me. There is no strategy there.

I agree that Trump has no strategic skills - he is too stupid, too uninformed and most importantly, has an extremely poor impulse control - but there are people hell-bent on riding his wounded ego like a Dune sandworm. And they are going about it strategically.

I'd bet anything that right now, Bannon is carefully poking at the injury that losing the popular vote was. Trump's narcissistic personality disorder makes him extremely prone to scapegoating, paranoia and delusions of conspiracy, and Bannon, as a skilled sociopath, knows where he wants to steer those impulses. The lie about illegal voting is, as has been stated plenty of times in these threads, a necessary one to justify the measures the Trump regime is going to take.
posted by sively at 2:11 AM on January 25, 2017 [23 favorites]

That Louise Mensch blog post is hard to read, for several reasons. But I agree with those of you who say there is something about it that haunts.
It does make sense of a lot of strange stuff, even if you sort away some of the most hyperbolic claims.
For one, I think the NY Crime FBI had the mails all the time, and were just waiting to let go of them strategically (or maybe waiting for orders) - no need for malware there. That means there might something else interesting about that guy they arrested, though.
I've been thinking for the last couple of weeks that the Obama administration was scrambling to get something done before Friday, and it seems they didn't manage to. Like everyone else, I thought Comey was obstructing it, but what if he wasn't? It does make more sense that Comey is a patriot - even though he is a Republican and hates the Clintons, he just doesn't seem like a person who would actively support Trump like that. Intelligence people usually have quite strong feelings about types like Trump, who are all chummy with mobsters and leaders in hostile nations.
One silly, gossipy thing: to me, that in video of Trump air kissing and hugging Comey, Comey did not look comfortable, and Trump looked demonstrative in a way I couldn't put my finger on.
More importantly: the intelligence briefing drama fits with this narrative. I mean, obviously Dems are and should be angry with Comey for stealing the election, but they can be that in public, in broad daylight. There doesn't need to be a closed door drama. The Republicans are just waiting, and as Robert Reich wrote: getting as much of the evil stuff done now, so they can blame Trump for it. (They will want him out within this year, so it doesn't interfere with the midterms). That might also explain why the Democrats are so cavalier about the nominations. They know something far bigger is coming on, and they are trying to be strategic about that - whatever it may be.
Trump himself is a fool. But there are people in his background who are not. Remember that Forbes interview with Kushner? I still think the Russians got lucky, rather than that they planned the whole thing years ago, but I also more and more believe that they were deeper into the process than most people imagine.
I wonder if team Trump think they can get out of this somehow without blame, or they are just trying to reap as much as possible before they get on the plane and out. I'd be taking the threat to Chicago very seriously, if I were American. #1: it's the Obama's home town, and Trump has a personal grudge against Obama. #2: soon he will be needing a YUGE distraction.

(I was wondering about what on earth Trump thought he was doing at the CIA, and then someone posted the video of President Obama visiting the CIA - well, there you go: Trump wanted that applause to happen to him, it looks so nice and warm. Good thing his staff had thought about bringing claqueurs, or we might have gotten a full Prince John).
posted by mumimor at 2:27 AM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

I've wondered what the lefty version of InfoWars would look like and I guess it's the Louise Mensch article that's being thrown around

Louise Mensch is an ex-Tory member of parliament who has been using her Twitter account to systematically attack & shame anyone left of Margaret Thatcher. Once a novelist, I'd now call her a professional troll (with close ties to Murdoch). Beware.
posted by kariebookish at 2:56 AM on January 25, 2017 [33 favorites]

Yes, among the reasons it is hard to read the article is that she is clearly a right-wing troll, a bad writer, melodramatic and self-aggrandizing. Not nice, in other words.

But you know, stopped clocks and all..
posted by mumimor at 3:00 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Lowest point of my online life was when she liked one of my tweets (about Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson having a pleasant voice).

More seriously, after Mensch claimed that Jo Cox's murder was not politically charged but just a case of mental health care failure, I think it is fair to say she has an agenda.

/derail over
posted by kariebookish at 3:05 AM on January 25, 2017 [18 favorites]

but, seriously, stopped clocks and all. Despicable people are sometimes right.

The saddest thing about this whole story (and by that I mean the last eight months or so of American History) is that the 'good guys' do not seem to be winning.

Tell me Comey's a good guy and he's setting up a super-duper case against Trump? Tantalizing, but come on.
posted by From Bklyn at 3:09 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

This feels too cynical and I don't want to believe the world is this way, but I keep thinking that the Democrats have standards and so are susceptible to even the appearance of impropriety, while Republicans have none and are thus able to be as actually improper as they want without suffering any consequences, because all they care about is getting and keeping power. Republicans are using words like tools, and Democrats are using words like words.

But then I am reminded that if we had a true democracy, or even a fairer and freer election scheme, things would be different and we'd be drawing different conclusions. I keep telling myself not to overlearn the lessons of this election.

I am struggling. Yesterday felt like a firehose of bad news. I am overwhelmed. How can it be that Republicans are happy to accept that their leaders are literally silencing scientists? How can it be that nothing is beyond the pale? I felt this way after Sandy Hook, but that was one event, and this is on every front. Shutting down our refugee programs? Freezing science grants? Threatening to send fucking federal forces to fucking Chicago? I literally don't understand what the fuck Republican voters are fucking thinking.

I need to step away. Will I though.
posted by prefpara at 3:43 AM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

Did nobody think there would be a backlash after Saturday's marches?

This is no time to give in.
posted by tel3path at 3:52 AM on January 25, 2017 [34 favorites]

So once again, they're just telling everyone what they think they want to hear at any given moment, with no regard for statements that are logically inconsistent with each other.

Or they said it. Meant it. And someone with a brain ran in and managed to talk them down.
posted by Jalliah at 4:02 AM on January 25, 2017

Ikea has better cabinets ...
posted by oheso at 4:05 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

The House once again attempts to force an anti-abortion agenda on DC:

House Republicans pass bill that would block D.C. funding for abortion

House Republicans on Tuesday passed a bill, by a vote of 238 to 183, that would prevent the District from using local tax dollars to subsidize abortion services for low-income women.

Eleanor Holmes Norton is quick to point out that this bill gets introduced every year at this time yet has never once made it into law, and appears confident that this is just the latest iteration of the stunt.

Personally, I'm a bit less optimistic, given the Republican majority in the Senate, the loose-cannon Republican in the Oval, and the fact that while this was happening, House Dems looked the other way:

When the GOP announced the bill last week, Democrats vowed to fight it and decried federal interference with a local issue. But on the House floor, just three Democratic members of Congress [Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) and Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.)] — and the District’s non-voting delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton — stood up on behalf of the city.

posted by Westringia F. at 4:09 AM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Trump Tweets:

I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and....

even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 4:16 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

And Ikea's cabinets kill children only occasionally and by accident, not on a grand scale and as a matter of deliberate policy.

:(
posted by tel3path at 4:17 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Trump just tweeted that he'll be asking for a major investigation into voter fraud. Illegal voters and dead voters.

Anyone watching Morning Joe? We they just talking about the fraud thing?
posted by Jalliah at 4:17 AM on January 25, 2017

So...he's going to ask for an investigation and then he won't listen to the actual findings. Fucker.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 4:22 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

He's reacting to this: CNN’s Jake Tapper goes off on Trump over false voter fraud claim
posted by mumimor at 4:23 AM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

He's reacting to this: CNN’s Jake Tapper goes off on Trump over false voter fraud claim yt

Would Tapper thing be on in at this time of day though? Would Joe have covered Tapper? The leakers said he usually watches Morning Joe and Fox and Friends at this time of day.
posted by Jalliah at 4:26 AM on January 25, 2017

As always: what, specifically, is this going to be distracting from, today?
posted by progosk at 4:28 AM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

We can start deciding who we want to oppose people like Cruz and announce it loudly and often rather than wait for the party apparatus to decide for us.

All the talk I've heard has been around Julian and Joaquin Castro. Julian has said he's not running, Joaquin has not committed one way or another.
posted by threeturtles at 4:28 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

I doubt it was just Tapper. I heard lots of pundits saying the same sort of thing yesterday. That if such a fraud happened then why no investigation.

Regardless, looks like he is doubling down and is not going to let this go.
posted by Jalliah at 4:29 AM on January 25, 2017

So Trump uses his own lies about voter fraud as cover for "strengthening up" voting procedures, which is presumably an unsubtle code for expanded voter suppression and disenfranchisement. Because given the precarity of their win this time, the only way Republicans can remain in power is by hardening and entrenching the systematic mechanisms of oppression they've been working so hard to perfect. This administration is white fragility personified.
posted by informavore at 4:32 AM on January 25, 2017 [30 favorites]

I think someone showed him the Tapper clip. Now he is president, he can't do the rallies in the same way, and he can't be openly racist in the same way. So there needs to be something else.
posted by mumimor at 4:35 AM on January 25, 2017

o Trump uses his own lies about voter fraud as cover for "strengthening up" voting procedures, which is presumably an unsubtle code for expanded voter suppression and disenfranchisement. Because given the precarity of their win this time, the only way Republicans can remain in power is by hardening and entrenching the systematic mechanisms of oppression they've been working so hard to perfect. This administration is white fragility personified.

Of course those around him will try to use his obsession to their advantage. This is just a given.
posted by Jalliah at 4:36 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

The false claims about voter fraud really frighten me. And since a Trump administration peddles exclusively propaganda and BS, the threat of an investigation only scares me more. What kind of fake evidence will they cobble together, and how will they use it to justify enacting voting restrictions that entrench illiberal minority control of our supposed democracy?
posted by prefpara at 4:42 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Trump just tweeted that he'll be asking for a major investigation into voter fraud. Illegal voters and dead voters.

Have a great day Mr. Spicer.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:44 AM on January 25, 2017 [33 favorites]

So. Most nights I will put a movie on in the background while messing around the on interweb. Movies that I've seen a lot and am familiar with. Last night I put on V for Vendetta without thinking about how that might fuck with my brain right now...

Dominic: So do you know what's going to happen?

Finch: No. It was a feeling. But I can guess. With so much chaos, someone will do something stupid. And when they do, things will turn nasty. And then, Sutler will be forced do the only thing he knows how to do.
.....

We're on like day 6 and he's already talking about sending the feds to Chicago.

He's fucking unhinged. It's not the executive orders that are scaring me (they do scare me but they weren't unexpected) it's the the thing where all his moves are backed by disordered thinking that largely involves, "fuck it, build a wall, keep people out, kill kill kill."
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 4:47 AM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Affluent Trump backers speak out: 'I'm hoping for some amazing things'

Jo Jarvis explores: How to explain Donald Trump’s ascendancy? If you follow the standard election analysis, his victory was largely spurred by the financial pain and fears of poor and rural Americans. But if you look closer, Trump voters are more financially secure than a lot of us thought.

As a recent immigrant to the US, I’ve been fascinated by Trump’s incredible rise. But it’s the motivations of well-off Trump backers which fascinate me the most. I’d heard much about the working class or dwindling middle class credited with bringing the real estate mogul victory. But what about those who described themselves as affluent?

TLDR: It's the racism
posted by mumimor at 4:49 AM on January 25, 2017 [29 favorites]

First, we saw Trump keeping people on their toes by always giving them something outrageous to react to. You can't win the game when you're stuck playing the defence.

The Tapper clip is a nice proof that the other side can play that game, too. I hope we'll see more of this. Keep him riled up, keep him reacting and distracted.
posted by Too-Ticky at 4:53 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Does anyone have information/ideas/links on how concerned citizens can fight back against the gag order on the EPA and other government scientists?
posted by the turtle's teeth at 4:53 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Have a great day Mr. Spicer.

He has an easy out on the Chicago tweet. Will see if he manages to figure it out.

Easy out: The feds did not mean martial law, Donald just meant help from federal agency etc etc.

Buts that's supposing Donald will let him use that.
posted by Jalliah at 4:54 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

"The false claims about voter fraud really frighten me."

I'm not so sure it's not lose-lose for him. If significant fraud is "found", it de-legitimizes the process that got him elected - and his presidency. If none is found, he looks like a fool/liar/sore winner.
posted by klarck at 4:54 AM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Oh and the March is a great example of distraction, too.
posted by Too-Ticky at 4:54 AM on January 25, 2017

Voting "fraud" was obviously going to be their top priority. They're still at a demographic disadvange despite the racist electoral college "win", the only way they can keep power is by negating that disadvantage.

And they have no intention of ever giving up power to a Democrat again.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:56 AM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

First, we saw Trump keeping people on their toes by always giving them something outrageous to react to. You can't win the game when you're stuck playing the defence.

All evidence, when put together, does not lead to the conclusion that this is Trump doing this on purpose to keep people on their toes.
posted by Jalliah at 4:56 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

He always has an easy out since he's an unhinged liar-liar-pants-on-fire.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 4:57 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I hope the first question is why Trump is watching Fox News at 8pm, and why he doesn't have anything better to do with his life.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:57 AM on January 25, 2017 [26 favorites]

Sounds like there are still some adults around somewhere.

Agriculture Department Lifts Clampdown On Its Science Division

The US Department of Agriculture rescinded an order stopping scientists and other employees at its main research division from publishing documents meant to explain science to the public.
In an email sent to scientists on Tuesday evening and obtained by BuzzFeed News, Chavonda Jacobs-Young, administrator of the department’s science arm, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), told researchers that the original order should not have been issued and “is hereby rescinded.”
Earlier that day, the department fought off public backlash after ARS issued the notice to workers.
posted by Jalliah at 5:00 AM on January 25, 2017 [53 favorites]

Jalliah: All evidence, when put together, does not lead to the conclusion that this is Trump doing this on purpose to keep people on their toes.

Fair enough. But if that's the effect, the intention or lack thereof doesn't really matter much.
posted by Too-Ticky at 5:01 AM on January 25, 2017

Easy out: The feds did not mean martial law, Donald just meant help from federal agency etc etc.

'Feds' usually means the FBI in the TV cop talk DJT was imitating with his Sipowicz impression.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:03 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm not so sure it's not lose-lose for him. If significant fraud is "found", it de-legitimizes the process that got him elected - and his presidency. If none is found, he looks like a fool/liar/sore winner.

What prevents them from just saying "In key states where Hillary Clinton won, our investigation found massive rates of fraud. We will not be taking questions ok bye now."
posted by windbox at 5:03 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Also a good way to feed Comey a busy-making shit sandwich.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:04 AM on January 25, 2017

The voter fraud thing is bullshit. There are voter id laws in 30ish states. Five million dead people did not rock the vote.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 5:04 AM on January 25, 2017

What prevents them from just saying "In key states where Hillary Clinton won, our investigation found massive rates of fraud. We will not be taking questions ok bye now."

State governments.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:05 AM on January 25, 2017

PresidentialTrump (@MatureTrumpTwts) is an "alternative parody account of how a mature, more presidential Trump should tweet." It rewrites Trump's tweets as if he were a sane person. The original Trump tweet is always quoted so you can just follow the parody account in lieu of following the real Trump. You just know Trump obsesses over every follower he loses.
posted by guiseroom at 5:07 AM on January 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

What prevents them from just saying "In key states where Hillary Clinton won, our investigation found massive rates of fraud. We will not be taking questions ok bye now."

The GOP better hope there's no Republican House or Senate seats in those states or state and local races that Republicans won. It's not like people get a different ballot for prez vs. other races. Maybe there were 5 million fraudulent votes (there weren't). Maybe those fake voters voted for Trump and other Republicans. You can't tell who a particular voter voted for. 5 million fraudulent votes would call into question every 2016 race from president to dog catcher.
posted by melissasaurus at 5:09 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

'The investigation has concluded that there was no rampant voter fraud. Our democracy is strong! Voter ID laws working! We will continue to make it even stronger to ensure there never is voter fraud in 2020 and beyond! Keep America Great!' fake
posted by ian1977 at 5:09 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

"State governments."

Indeed. Republican-controlled state governments with Republican SOS's.
posted by klarck at 5:13 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Finding all that voter fraud in the states that Trump carried doesn't support the desired narrative (explaining away the popular vote margin).
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:16 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

President Trump will sign executive orders this afternoon related to immigration at the Department of Homeland Security
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:24 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Voter fraud in states Trump won is a plot by Hillary to discredit him! Lock her up! [fake]
posted by C'est la D.C. at 5:25 AM on January 25, 2017

Oh my God, the USDA. I need to know, is it the USDA choosing to fight or did outcry make the feds dial back the pressure?
posted by sciatrix at 5:28 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

I think everyone calling for an investigation into voter fraud is naive about what that would really look like, but I don't know what else to say. That's obviously the right response in a sane world but...
posted by prefpara at 5:31 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Yeah, I would expect the voter fraud investigation to deal in the realm of alternative facts, not fact facts. They'd make sure to find stuff, like people being registered in two places even if they only voted in one, and that would be justification for massive, targeted voter suppression.

I feel like a lot of people still can't quite see what we're dealing with here.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 5:38 AM on January 25, 2017 [35 favorites]

Somehow the whole voter-fraud red herring will be twisted in such a way as to promote a national set of standards for voter eligibility and access, which many Democrats and others have been calling for. Unfortunately, in the hands of this administration and congress, those national standards may end up looking a lot less like Oregon's or California's and a lot more like North Carolina's. (On preview, what ArbitraryAndCapricious just said.)
posted by hangashore at 5:40 AM on January 25, 2017

like people being registered in two places even if they only voted in one

IIRC, this includes Steve Bannon.

(I agree that the "investigation" is a bullshit smokescreen for the voter suppression they were going to push forward with anyway)
posted by melissasaurus at 5:41 AM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Oh my God, the USDA. I need to know, is it the USDA choosing to fight or did outcry make the feds dial back the pressure?

The article is interesting because it looks like it was sent by the chief of staff and the acting deputy director wasn't aware of it. So one scenario is that they made up a story that sounds good and in a sense are throwing the chief of staff under the bus.
My take is that because there is no actual boss at the USDA that some Trump minion showed up, told the chief of staff what was up and told her what to send. Then all hell broke lose when the higher officials found out what was happening and they spent yesterday telling the Trump admin to go to hell. The outcry helped out a lot because it backed them up.
posted by Jalliah at 5:42 AM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Imagine being such a narcissist that you'd question the legitimacy of an election you technically won just because you lost the popular vote to a woman.

Now imagine being a potato.
posted by guiseroom at 5:45 AM on January 25, 2017 [22 favorites]

This voter suppression stuff is exactly the kind of creeping fascism that the allegedly vast network of NeverTrumpers keep on telling us they'd denounce. Now is not the time to be having quiet organizing meetings or whatever it is they claim they're doing, now is the time for protest.

Or maybe they're cool with it? After all, a lot of them seemed pretty jazzed about Shelby v. Holder, and at best said nothing and worst parroted pro-suppression talking points over the last decade.
posted by zombieflanders at 5:45 AM on January 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

The article is interesting because it looks like it was sent by the chief of staff and the acting deputy director wasn't aware of it. So one scenario is that they made up a story that sounds good and in a sense are throwing the chief of staff under the bus.
My take is that because there is no actual boss at the USDA that some Trump minion showed up, told the chief of staff what was up and told her what to send. Then all hell broke lose when the higher officials found out what was happening and they spent yesterday telling the Trump admin to go to hell. The outcry helped out a lot because it backed them up.

I hope the interns at my senators and congressman enjoy the sputtering voicemails I left about the gag on government agencies being the theft of information we paid for with our tax dollars, then.
posted by winna at 5:46 AM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

The NYT is doing surprisingly well on some recent BS:

"Standing by his false allegations of extensive voter fraud, President Trump promises a “major investigation.”

"Mr. Trump doubled down Wednesday on his fraudulent assertion that millions of illegal immigrants gave Hillary Clinton her 2.8 million-ballot victory in the popular vote, . . ."
posted by stonepharisee at 5:50 AM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

My USDA scenario is of course entirely speculation based on the information in the article and experience in offices where some dude comes in, purposely goes around the chain of command and gets the person who has no choice to do something and then the other bosses find out and big office political chaos ensues.
posted by Jalliah at 5:53 AM on January 25, 2017

Under pressure from the White House, intelligence communities pulled together a dossier of evidence that Iraq had WMDs, enough to justify sending the U.S. to war. Don't think for one second that the FBI can't come up with enough voter oddities to "justify" further restricting voting rights and even a wave of deportations.
posted by sacre_bleu at 5:53 AM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

false allegations

fraudulent assertion

Still weasel-wording. No respect-kernel for you.
posted by tivalasvegas at 5:54 AM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

NPR did a whole segment this morning congratulating themselves for not using the word "lie" because the dictionary says "intent to deceive" and that is unknowable.
posted by theodolite at 5:58 AM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

I can almost guarantee that any investigation into voter fraud will have the involvement professional shitbag Hans von Spakovsky.
posted by PenDevil at 5:58 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Those aren't weasel words. Those words describe the exact scenario. What are you after, just using, 'lie', for everything?
posted by Jalliah at 5:58 AM on January 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

There is deliberate, systemic voting fraud going on in the United States, at every level, in every election! And I'm glad we have a government that's finally taking it seriously!

It's called "gerrymandering", Mr. Trump, and it's concentrating liberals into highly active districts where they all talk to each other about how much they disrespect you.

It's fraud, Mr. Trump, all these districts where there are no liberals, or that are so heavily conservative Republicans are guaranteed to win. Those districts need more liberals, Mr. Trump.

In fact, you know what would stick it to those liberals? Redraw those things so the numbers of liberals and conservatives are evenly matched in every district. And then, allow voting by mail, and a day off work so all your supporters, who love you so much, can all come out and show you their love.

Do it, Mr. Trump. Kill voting fraud once and for all. KILL IT, MR. TRUMP.
posted by saysthis at 6:02 AM on January 25, 2017 [30 favorites]

"False allegations" and "fraudulent assertion" lend Trump a more erudite and considered aura than he deserves. He doesn't falsely allege or fraudulently assert, he fucking lies and makes shit up.
posted by Etrigan at 6:03 AM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

Julian Assange
Hans von Spakovsky
Rex Tillerson

My head is going to explode from all of these unbelievable villain names from some pulp spy novel.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:06 AM on January 25, 2017 [31 favorites]

Just saw probably the best retort to those who say "where was the march for the suffering of women in Islamic countries."

"You mean the same women you want to ban from seeking asylum here? Your fake concern is as pathetic as you are."
posted by chris24 at 6:06 AM on January 25, 2017 [58 favorites]

"You mean the same women you want to ban from seeking asylum here? Your fake concern is as pathetic as you are."

Somebody add "advocates for bicycling safety" to the Resistance List next to "National Park Service social media people".
posted by Etrigan at 6:10 AM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

It's Robbie Burns day. His poem still has relevance perhaps more this year.

Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to Victorie!

Now's the day, and now's the hour;
See the front o' battle lour;
See approach proud Edward's power-
Chains and Slaverie!

Wha will be a traitor knave?
Wha can fill a coward's grave?
Wha sae base as be a Slave?
Let him turn and flee!

Wha, for Scotland's King and Law,
Freedom's sword will strongly draw,
Free-man stand, or Free-man fa',
Let him on wi' me!

By Oppression's woes and pains!
By your Sons in servile chains!
We will drain our dearest veins,
But they shall be free!

Lay the proud Usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow!-
Let us Do or Die!
posted by Jalliah at 6:11 AM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

So I'm awake and ready for what will go down in history books as a national day of shame; The wall and the immigration bans.
posted by Talez at 6:16 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Unfortunately, climate isn't like IRS audits: weather keeps happening even if you destroy the documentation.

The point isn't to stop it from happening. The point is to argue that nothing is changing.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 6:17 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

> like people being registered in two places even if they only voted in one

IIRC, this includes Steve Bannon.

Also Rachel Maddow cited the New York Post saying that K. T. McFarland, former Fox News contributor, now Deputy National Security Advisor, was registered to vote in two different places in New York and voted in both of them. (Presumably not in the same election or that would have been mentioned, but being registered in two places is a felony in NY.)
posted by XMLicious at 6:23 AM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Do we know yet if the CDC is also under a gag order?
posted by INFJ at 6:25 AM on January 25, 2017

@costareports: A Trump adviser tells me this AM that Pres. Trump has been talking privately about launching a voter fraud investigation for weeks

This sounds less like an intentional distraction and more like an unhealthy obsession.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:27 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

NPR did a whole segment this morning congratulating themselves for not using the word "lie" because the dictionary says "intent to deceive" and that is unknowable.

i want to believe this is [fake] but i know in my heart it is [real] because npr is FUCKING WORTHLESS
posted by entropicamericana at 6:27 AM on January 25, 2017 [26 favorites]

if someone could take it by the horns, the debate that is,

It is almost like the people who could do such are afraid they will be out-manuvered by Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, Sean Spicer and Kelly Conway.
posted by rough ashlar at 6:28 AM on January 25, 2017

I see we're still in bizarro world...

@BillKristol
Trump inaugural: "we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., & giving it back to you, the People."
Trump tonight: "send in the Feds."

And Jennifer Rubin's twitter is a steady stream of anti-Trump (and even Cruz) stuff in this vein...

‏@JRubinBlogger
Trumpa true reactionary — wants to return to a bygone era http://wpo.st/ry0U2 that era is as imaginary as illegals who voted for HRC
posted by chris24 at 6:31 AM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Maybe we can start making actions conditional to evidence.

Democrats should say that they will support a wall with Mexico and voter fraud crackdown once it has been proven that 3 to 5 million illegal aliens voted for Hillary. Anything else would be acting based on delusions.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:36 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Proven by whom, and to what standard? No.

Democrats should not offer to do stupid, racist, xenophobic and anti-democratic things even as a "gambit". That's just playing zero-dimensional chess.
posted by tivalasvegas at 6:38 AM on January 25, 2017 [42 favorites]

So I'm awake and ready for what will go down in history books as a national day of shame; The wall and the immigration bans.

I feel like there's some punchy rhetorical potential to this. As an actual thing.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:38 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

President Snowflake
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:39 AM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

Democrats should be shouting from the rooftops that the extent of voter fraud insinuated by Trump would render his election unlawful and that he calls for new elections.
posted by PenDevil at 6:39 AM on January 25, 2017 [57 favorites]

I've wondered what the lefty version of InfoWars would look like and I guess it's the Louise Mensch article that's being thrown around

It would only be the lefty version of InfoWars if we automatically assumed it was true and spent all day creating and distributing memes about it. Instead we're starting from a place of skepticism and doubt and working from there.
posted by diogenes at 6:41 AM on January 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

Five million dead people did not rock the vote.

Stronger brujería, coming right up.
posted by otenba at 6:42 AM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

I have felt, since the election, that Trump will be bad but there was a good chance he would be "bad" in the sense that he would be mostly focusing on taking as much as he could to line his pockets and just say "whatever" to all the most harmful things he's promised. That was my dim hope, but it got me through.

Since Friday, he's proved that he's only interesting in stoking his own ego and he will use the rights of Americans for his fuel.

All the worst-case scenarios for me are coming true: gag orders, outrageous propaganda, lies about voter fraud (that will be used to legitimize voter suppression), impending trade wars, and a congress that is all too willing to comply.

My more-realistic hope was that the DNC would stand up to President Trump. That they would tenaciously remind the American public of the dangers present and resist the President at every possible turn. But, and I shouldn't have been so naive, they have all but deserted us.

I know this all probably sounds dramatic. It feels surreal to write because I generally believe that DNC leaders have to do things that I don't like for the sake of continuing the fight at a later time. But they're not even putting up a fight. They're not even trying.

I'm going to keep organizing. I'm going to keep calling. I'm going to oppose the leadership in my district to the best of my ability. But I will do it in the name of Civil Rights for everyone. I'll do it in the name of MLKJR, I'll do it in the name of Margaret Sanger, and I'll do it in the name of Cesar Chavez. But, for now, I don't think I can do it in the name of the DNC.
posted by Tevin at 6:46 AM on January 25, 2017 [20 favorites]

@NPRinskeep
Wow. AP reports Trump's false claims as a sign of a mental "fixation;" aides strain to stop him watching so much TV.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/61415760238042f2ad7bc38acc2f468c/trumps-bridge-building-eclipsed-false-voter-fraud-claim
posted by chris24 at 6:46 AM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

NPR did a whole segment this morning congratulating themselves for not using the word "lie" because the dictionary says "intent to deceive" and that is unknowable.

i want to believe this is [fake] but i know in my heart it is [real] because npr is FUCKING WORTHLESS

[Real] NPR: NPR And The Word 'Liar': Intent Is Key Article and 5-minute audio segment.
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:49 AM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

I turned off NPR a year ago. I can't decide if they slowly got worse over time, or if events simply exposed how deep their desire for equivalency really runs.
posted by diogenes at 6:53 AM on January 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

sciatrix

Sent you a MeMail
posted by Ornate Rocksnail at 6:56 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

If scientists marching want knitted hats, may I suggest The Resist Hat. In a different color, maybe. I may have to make myself a cat ears hat with the resist on it. A friend made one in black that is very nice.
posted by threeturtles at 6:56 AM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

Donald Trump is already trying to muzzle leakers — but government employees have broad free speech rights

The first thing Lobel emphasized to me was that Trump cannot legally force federal employees to sign nondisclosure agreements. That said, the government does enjoy some rights to muzzle employees — but, she noted, strong legal limits exist on how much silence the executive branch can require. Government employees enjoy broader rights to speak out than Trump traditionally prefers when it comes to those who work with him.

“They’re civil servants and they’re bound by the rules of keeping confidential information and not exposing government secrets to the public, but that is all balanced by the right to speech,” Lobel explained.

Even though the Supreme Court found in 2006 that government employees can be barred from sharing work-related information with the general public, “all the justices agree there’s a violation of your First Amendment rights if it’s a matter of public concern and if you’re speaking externally” in public venues, Lobel noted.

Basically, the rule of thumb is this: A public employee is allowed to speak publicly or share information with the media, if that information is not considered a government secret or classified information.

There is a “legitimate interest of the public,” Lobel said, in knowing about “corruption or wrongdoing or impropriety” inside the government.

posted by chris24 at 6:57 AM on January 25, 2017 [25 favorites]

And Ikea's cabinets kill children only occasionally and by accident, not on a grand scale and as a matter of deliberate policy.

"Mom, can I have a cookie? Mom, can I have a cookie? Mom, can I have a cookie? Mom, can I have a cookie?"
posted by kirkaracha at 7:00 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

I turned off NPR a year ago. I can't decide if they slowly got worse over time, or if events simply exposed how deep their desire for equivalency really runs.

More the latter, I think. Their news operations are anchored in Washington D.C..
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:01 AM on January 25, 2017

@DavidWright_CNN
WH press sec. Sean Spicer analogized '"alternative facts" to getting "two different weather reports" -- on Hannity last night: [transcript]
posted by chris24 at 7:01 AM on January 25, 2017

I feel like sometimes people forget that Trump spent like 6 years screaming about Obama's fake birth certificate. In other words, he loves a good--and completely untrue--conspiracy theory and is perfectly willing to hang onto it for years. So, he's going to be screaming about fraudulent voters until he's finally chased out of office*. With him, it's not a deliberate misdirection. It's just, chillingly, the only thing he can hold in his tiny mind at the moment to rationalize why people don't actually love him. How the media chases it, well... I just read a good letter saying that the media should refuse to cover his tweets AT ALL; force him to have a press conference like a real fucking professional and stop catering to his narcissistic tantrums spit out at 3am.

*please please please let that be soon
posted by TwoStride at 7:04 AM on January 25, 2017 [23 favorites]

Donald Trump is already trying to muzzle leakers — but government employees have broad free speech rights

I wonder what would happen if all the people who Trump has nondisclosure agreements with came forward and started talking at once. Of course he'd sue. But imagine the optics of the president suing individual beauty pageant contestants and laborers. I imagine there are people willing to shoulder the legal fees for them.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 7:05 AM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

I doubt you will read a more damming indictment of Trump's visit to the CIA than this from Robin Wright in The New Yorker

Great article.

Here are a few words from the agents who were there: appalled, horrible, ugly, inappropriate, offensive, anguished.

"What self-centered, irrational decision process got him to this travesty?"

"I can’t imagine a worse Day One scenario."
posted by diogenes at 7:06 AM on January 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

WH press sec. Sean Spicer analogized '"alternative facts" to getting "two different weather reports"

But those are predictions, not facts! Nobody seriously disagrees about what weather actually occurred! Gah!
posted by jedicus at 7:10 AM on January 25, 2017 [30 favorites]

@ChristinaWilkie, Huffington Post via Twitter: "White House just put out positive news coverage of the president, starting w a tweet from @jonkarl. Don't recall ever seeing a WH do this."
posted by slipthought at 7:14 AM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

Trump is going after Chicago because he can't let go of Obama roasting him. So if he "makes" Obama's former haunt "pay" for it he thinks he'll be happy.

He's really not that hard to figure out.
posted by yoga at 7:17 AM on January 25, 2017 [28 favorites]

AP reports Trump's false claims as a sign of a mental "fixation;" aides strain to stop him watching so much TV.

Some Trump allies say Trump is justified in using his platform to defend his standing. They point to Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis' pre-inauguration statement that he did not see Trump as a legitimate president, as well as U.S. intelligence agencies' assessment that Russia meddled in the election in order to help Trump win.

John Lewis: Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, his opinion, man.
Reports of Russia meddling in the election: Russia meddled in the election.

After relishing in Friday's inaugural festivities, the new president grew increasingly upset the next day by what he felt was "biased" media coverage of women's marches across the globe protesting his election, according to a person familiar with his thinking. Trump was particularly enraged with CNN, which he thought was "gloating" by continually running photos of the women's march alongside the smaller crowds that attended his inauguration the day before, according to this person, one of several White House aides and associates who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

Friday's inauguration drew a big crowd to DC. Saturday's march drew a big crowd to DC. It's natural to compare the sizes of the crowds.

His inauguration is one of a recurring series, and it's natural to compare one inauguration of a new president with the last inauguration of a new president.

Saturday's march also had sister marches all over the world, on every continent. That's unusual and is naturally going to inspire more news coverage than an inauguration that's basically the same as the ones we have every four years.

He's just incapable of accepting coming in second in the popular vote and second in inauguration crowd size.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:18 AM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

Trump is holed up in the White House peeing into mason jars, obsessively watching TV news and responding to it in real time on Twitter.
posted by guiseroom at 7:18 AM on January 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

Global watchdog rules that the U.S. is not a full democracy anymore.
posted by scalefree at 7:20 AM on January 25, 2017 [45 favorites]

You know the voter fraud thing, if someone could take it by the horns, the debate that is, and like above, turn it into "Let's finally get rid of gerrymandering! Yeah! And we need a real, like maybe a law! To protect citizens' right to vote!" and twist him into confronting all the insane shit they've pulled to disenfranchise voters...
*sigh*
optimism. it's a hell of a drug. Every time I think I've escaped, it pulls me back in...
posted by From Bklyn at 10:22 PM on January 25 [4 favorites −] Favorite added! [!]

if someone could take it by the horns, the debate that is,

It is almost like the people who could do such are afraid they will be out-manuvered by Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, Sean Spicer and Kelly Conway.
posted by rough ashlar at 10:28 PM on January 25 [+] [!]

You mean the very people who are whispering lies into Trump's ear? There was a time when people loved Trump, remember? Remember back when Obama was President, and Trump had every Real American rallied behind him to challenge the Kenyan who wormed his way into the White House?

Why do they hate him now? Why doesn't America love him? He's so successful, so powerful, so tremendous, he has the best people...and yet, the media, and the people, and the world...why don't they love him?

Someone is hurting you, Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump, you let snakes into your den. You have to show them, Mr. Trump, you have to show the snakes, and you have to give the American people the chance to love you.

Do it, Mr. Trump. Let them love you. Fight voting fraud by leveling the playing field so they can prove how much they love you, and show these snakes who really runs things around here. Put your supporters in an electoral cage match against liberals, no holds barred, level starting points. You will win, and this time, no one will stop you, and America will bow before you.

Do it, Mr. Trump.
posted by saysthis at 7:21 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Republicans literally elected a crazy old man yelling at the TV.
posted by chris24 at 7:21 AM on January 25, 2017 [91 favorites]

But those are predictions, not facts!

If we're talking about predicting the weather, we're talking about modeling and probability, and we are necessarily not actually talking about 'facts' -- we're talking about confidence and chance.

Look at you eggheads with your fancy words!
posted by diogenes at 7:22 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Trump is going after Chicago because he can't let go of Obama roasting him.

And because the Mayor lit into him the day before.
posted by Etrigan at 7:22 AM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

I feel like if it were called the general vote or something rather than the popular vote he might not feel so injured by it.
posted by Waiting for Pierce Inverarity at 7:24 AM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

I would like to state the obvious: believing that there are 3-5 million illegal aliens who voted for your opponent is not just a delusion, it comes from a delusional mind. We need to tag Trump with the disease that he has. It is way beyond narcissism. He was narcissistic twenty years ago, but much more coherent.

So, how do we state that Trump is mentally ill without stigmatizing mental illness?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:24 AM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Focus on treating the mental illness.
posted by INFJ at 7:26 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

I feel like if it were called the general vote or something rather than the popular vote he might not feel so injured by it.

No, I'm perfectly fine with continuing to note that President Trump lost the popular vote. Felt the same way when Bush lost it also.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:26 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Sometimes you can watch two different stations and get two different weather reports. It doesn't mean the station was lying to you

We just had two different weather reports. One was right and one was wrong.

Mr. Trump said that though he had been “hit by a couple of drops” of rain as he began his address on Inauguration Day, the sky soon cleared. “And the truth is, it stopped immediately, and then became sunny,” he said. “And I walked off, and it poured after I left. It poured.”

The truth is that it began to rain lightly almost exactly as Mr. Trump began to speak and continued to do so throughout his remarks, which lasted about 18 minutes, and after he finished.

posted by kirkaracha at 7:27 AM on January 25, 2017 [31 favorites]

The USDA gag order has already been lifted
posted by Jalliah at 7:28 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

No, I'm perfectly fine with continuing to note that President Trump lost the popular vote. Felt the same way when Bush lost it also.

Sorry I wasn't more clear, I wasn't suggesting we try to manage his reaction, only trying to make a point (in a sea of evidence) of the lack of nuance in how his brain works.
posted by Waiting for Pierce Inverarity at 7:31 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's also natural for there to be a bigger crowd at the inauguration of the first black president in American history over old white guy Mark 45, especially if the black guy won the popular vote and the white guy lost the popular vote.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:32 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

believing that there are 3-5 million illegal aliens who voted for your opponent is not just a delusion, it comes from a delusional mind.

And it's equally scary that he can't appreciate how problematic (for him) this claim is. He really seems incapable of simultaneously holding a thought and considering it's implications. Or maybe he's just incapable of considering implications in general.
posted by diogenes at 7:32 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

And I walked off, and it poured after I left. It poured.”

That is some serious God-complex shit right there, yo.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:33 AM on January 25, 2017 [28 favorites]

Stating the obvious: Building Trump's wall: For Texans, it's complicated
Rather typically, two of the people criticizing the wall here are Trump supporters, one is even a Mexican American. So many people voted for him in spite of what he actually says.
posted by mumimor at 7:34 AM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Good morning, rogues.

@DeptofDefense

From refugee to #Marine. @USMC Cpl Ali J. Mohammed takes the fight to the doorstep of those who cast his family out.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:34 AM on January 25, 2017 [43 favorites]

Trump is going after Chicago because he can't let go of Obama roasting him.

And because the Mayor lit into him the day before.

And because we shut. Him. Down. When he tried to throw a rally here.
posted by Windigo at 7:41 AM on January 25, 2017 [22 favorites]

piyushnz: I can't interpret the Trump administration's actions in the last few days as anything but total disdain for the citizens they are supposed to be serving.

But isn't that the ultimate Republican Way? Need help? You have bootstraps, don't you? Then start pulling yourself up! Businesses first, people second, but only after businesses have gorged themselves. With GOP control of the white house and Congress, they're giddy with the potentials.

But _rump is a new kind of awful, given that he has no fucking clue about how anything actually works, and he is petty and vindictive at any perceived slight. So any constituents who might now offend The Angry Orange will feel his wrath.

(FYI: we still have bootstraps - they're shoe laces.)
posted by filthy light thief at 7:42 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

So, how do we state that Trump is mentally ill without stigmatizing mental illness?

Focus on treating the mental illness.

The first problem is, of course, to get Trump and his enablers to _acknowledge_ that there is an illness to be treated.

The next problem is to view the illness as disqualifying for the office of the Presidency, instead of being a QUALIFICATION in their eyes. In true Zaphod Beeblebrox style, I have witnessed two Presidents in my life where the executive was more of a distraction than a rational force, an entertainer drawing the attention of the crowd while the machine behind him did tons of dirty work. And both of those Presidents got reelected.

Trump is merely being much more indiscreet about why he's really there -- to slash any regulation, any protection, any legislation, any person and any organization that stands between multi-billionaires and unfettered profit.
posted by delfin at 7:48 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

That is some serious God-complex shit right there, yo.

I'm starting to think this is true in a literal way. He has moments when he thinks he's god.
posted by scalefree at 7:48 AM on January 25, 2017

He has moments when he thinks he's god.

And then he remembers that God has responsibilities, and he shudders and goes back to thinking he's even better.
posted by Etrigan at 7:51 AM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Donald Trump says millions voted illegally. That's dreadful. We must call for a new election. Oh man, I would love if Sean Spicer had to answer a question about new elections every day.
posted by TwoStride at 7:51 AM on January 25, 2017 [26 favorites]

NYT: Trump Poised to Lift Ban on C.I.A. ‘Black Site’ Prisons
posted by gatorae at 7:52 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

He has moments when he thinks he's god.

Well, yeah. He has a severe, untreated personality disorder.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:52 AM on January 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

White House draft order calls for review on use of CIA ‘black site’ prisons overseas

An executive order drafted by the Trump administration calls for a policy review that could authorize the CIA to reopen “black site” prisons overseas and potentially restart an interrogation program that was dismantled in 2009 after using methods widely condemned as torture.

A copy of the document obtained by The Washington Post would revoke former president Barack Obama’s decision to end the CIA program and reinstate a 2007 order issued by President George W. Bush that allowed a modified version of the “rendition and interrogation” operation to continue

evil doers.
posted by futz at 7:52 AM on January 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

Well I guess that's one way to get the intelligence community back on side?
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:53 AM on January 25, 2017

Why Trump's Staff is Lying by Tyler Cowen for Bloomberg

Very insightful.
posted by chavenet at 7:53 AM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Someone who makes his coin from "The Internet", likes Trump and now doesn't like this choice for the FCC The Intranet part makes sense might keep The Blue as not needing to be licensed.

A second attribute of Internet licensing is that it will likely provide exemptions for Intranet uses which are equivalent to short-range radio uses. Definition of an Intranet is that it is a “Browser based network for a specific audience, not open to the public.”

posted by rough ashlar at 7:54 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

A government that tortures is evil and those in power who promote torture deserve whatever comes to them.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:55 AM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

FYI: we still have bootstraps - they're shoe laces
Actually they're straps on boots.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:55 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

These Odd Couple reboots are getting out of hand:

Robby Mook And Corey Lewandowski Team Up For Paid Speeches

Unless there's a dunk tank, and the tank is full of piranhas or boiling oil, who would pay to watch these losers?
posted by tonycpsu at 7:56 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Let's hope Congress doesn't get any ideas from its sister assembly: Russia’s parliament voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to decriminalize domestic violence.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:58 AM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Good morning, rogues.

@DeptofDefense

From refugee to #Marine. @USMC Cpl Ali J. Mohammed takes the fight to the doorstep of those who cast his family out

So basically the military and the parks service are going to be where the resistance lives?
posted by corb at 7:59 AM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

Ranger up, indeed.
posted by Etrigan at 8:01 AM on January 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

Robby Mook And Corey Lewandowski Team Up For Paid Speeches

Fuck Robby Mook. He failed and now is normalizing fascism for a paycheck. Good to know his beliefs are as deep as his election analyses.
posted by chris24 at 8:01 AM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

chavenet: Why Trump's Staff is Lying by Tyler Cowen for Bloomberg

Very insightful.

Good points, but I think it's missing the over-arching reason: distract people from real issues. Yes, let's talk about the weather and crowd sizes for half an hour. Oh what, we're out of time to talk about your actual policies and executive orders that have not been made public? Sorry, we'll be back tomorrow. Don't forget the time we moved the MLK, Jr. bust!
posted by filthy light thief at 8:01 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Why Trump's Staff is Lying by Tyler Cowen for Bloomberg

but tyler we can't really know their intent— *throws npr mug against the wall*
posted by entropicamericana at 8:03 AM on January 25, 2017 [26 favorites]

Also, from Kendal Unruh (Republican, Free The Delegates)

I miss the good ole days, when we could blame any President for all our problems and complain all day about what he was doing, without the entire nation suffering payback.

posted by corb at 8:04 AM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

Well I guess that's one way to get the intelligence community back on side?

Literally nobody I know who is employed in that kind of area wants to turn back the clock to widespread torture. Most people in the agencies concerned didn't want to do it in the first place, and then a long period of blowback and very little actionable intelligence resulted. Even the most stupid of children don't like to put their hands in the fire that much, interrogators aren't actually torturers, and the US has got somewhat better at COIN. Good quality intelligence work is more sophisticated and subtle than mere sadism, because the brutalised inspire more resistance.

Does that mean it won't happen? No, but I'm quite sure it'll be for political leadership dick size fantasies if it does.
posted by jaduncan at 8:04 AM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

Trump Knows You Better Than You Know Yourself

Psychometrics , big data and the Trump and Brexit campaigns. I thought living in a cyberpunk future would be cool. Nope.....nope.
posted by zabuni at 8:05 AM on January 25, 2017 [18 favorites]

Good points, but I think it's missing the over-arching reason: distract people from real issues.

That's a very plausible explanation for their motivation. I just don't think it's true. I don't think there is any strategy of distraction at work here, just Trump's minions frantically trying to please their boss who happens to be a narcissist with no filter on his mouth. There's no strategy to what he says & they're just giving their best impression of the nobles at the naked emperor's court.
posted by scalefree at 8:10 AM on January 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

this choice for the FCC The Intranet part makes sense might keep The Blue as not needing to be licensed.

Can you expand on this? I didn't really follow.
posted by Coventry at 8:14 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

zabuni: Psychometrics , big data and the Trump and Brexit campaigns. I thought living in a cyberpunk future would be cool. Nope.....nope.

If anyone needs some practical hints, aimed at normal users, not techies: here's my blog Cybersecurity for the Trumped. Sorry for the repost.
posted by Too-Ticky at 8:15 AM on January 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

I am also on Team No Strategy. I think that there are people in Trump's inner circle who are using his very predictable reactions to events to encourage distraction, but that's not him. He's just pure id, lashing out immediately when he feels injury. The only people with any control over strategery are those who are strategically letting it happen. I think they will find, however, that eventually they too will lose control of him, and they will realize (too late) that any semblance of control they ever had over the situation was an illusion. I just hope this realization doesn't happen as the ICBMs are being fired.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:16 AM on January 25, 2017 [48 favorites]

Intentions aside, the effect is very real. A bill to ban abortion after a heartbeat can be heard (which is, on average, at 6 weeks. Six! This is before most women even know they're pregnant) has been introduced to a very very red Congress, but here we are, literally taking about the weather.
posted by fragmede at 8:17 AM on January 25, 2017 [44 favorites]

That's a very plausible explanation for their motivation. I just don't think it's true. I don't think there is any strategy of distraction at work here, just Trump's minions frantically trying to please their boss who happens to be a narcissist with no filter on his mouth. There's no strategy to what he says & they're just giving their best impression of the nobles at the naked emperor's court.

I think the strategy part kicks in when they try to figure out how they can spin it to their own ends. It's reactionary strategy. So his voter fraud obsession and demands for an investigation get spun into voter suppression, in this case something they're all over anyway.
posted by Jalliah at 8:19 AM on January 25, 2017

Can you expand on this? I didn't really follow.

It's a bunch of nonsense pontification from a Trumpist blogger about Net Neutrality under Pai by way of discussion of some obscure 2002 proposal. 'Urbansurvivalist' tortures an analogy to somebody's obsolete proposed rules for certain local wireless networks and/or licensure of internet traffic beyond the LAN or private WAN. It's not that clear.

And even so rough ashlar gets its meaning entirely backwards. MeFi is not an Intranet closed to the public. It's a publicly accessible website on the commercial internet.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:23 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

The only people with any control over strategery are those who are strategically letting it happen.

Right now that's the entire Republican Party. They all know he's got 10 pounds of crazy in a 5 pound bag & that's being generous to the bag. I've read tweet after tweet of quotes by anonymous congressmen admitting as much. But as long as they keep getting their long-awaited plunder they're willing to overlook whatever absurdities his narcissism drives him to perform. There will come a point where he does something really dangerous that blows up on him & then the knives will come out & President Pence will take his place. Until then though, they're too busy holding their pockets open to do much else.
posted by scalefree at 8:26 AM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

"I'm important" - A Bad Lip Reading of Trump's Inauguration Day
posted by valetta at 8:26 AM on January 25, 2017 [25 favorites]

If anyone else is a crossword fanatic, Ben Tausig, of the wonderful American Values Club (formerly the AV Club crosswords (which are, IMHO, outshining the NTYs puzzles lately) released a puzzle today called "Of the Free World." It has clues like "Org that received $15 million in donations in November 2016 (compared to $28,000 in November 2012)," "Channel recently derided as 'fake' (just before a Breitbart reporter was called on)," "Health statute based on a Heritage Foundation proposal," and "Putin's response to 'Is it OK if we fight Assad, continue sanctions against Russia, or remain in NATO?" (the last one is "NYET," btw). These are mixed in with mostly standard clues, so you're not being beaten over the head with a very big stick.

I know that doing a crossword puzzle is far from a political act, but damn did it feel good to do it.

You can download the puzzle for free, without a subscription, here.
and read Tausig's statement about the puzzle here.
posted by bibliowench at 8:27 AM on January 25, 2017 [19 favorites]

Thanks to Trump, Scientists Are Planning to Run For Office
And they’ve got help.

For American science, the next four years look to be challenging. The newly inaugurated President Trump, and many of his Cabinet picks, have repeatedly cast doubt upon the reality of human-made climate change, questioned the repeatedly proven safety of vaccines. Since the inauguration, the administration has already frozen grants and contracts by the Environmental Protection Agency and gagged researchers at the US Department of Agriculture. Many scientists are asking themselves: What can I do?

And the answer from a newly formed group called 314 Action is: Get elected.

The organization, named after the first three digits of pi, is a political action committee that was created to support scientists in running for office. It’s the science version of Emily’s List, which focuses on pro-choice female candidates, or VoteVets, which backs war veterans. “A lot of scientists traditionally feel that science is above politics but we’re seeing that politics is not above getting involved in science,” says founder Shaughnessy Naughton. “We’re losing, and the only way to stop that is to get more people with scientific backgrounds at the table.”

314 Action
posted by Jalliah at 8:27 AM on January 25, 2017 [68 favorites]

"The White House is installing senior aides atop major federal agencies to shadow the administration's Cabinet secretaries, creating a direct line with loyalists who can monitor and shape White House goals across the federal bureaucracy."
posted by bluecore at 8:29 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Political officers. Hm. I wonder who gave them that idea.
posted by Etrigan at 8:31 AM on January 25, 2017 [31 favorites]

It's a core plank of the Republican platform.

a whole lotta people would love to core some republican plank.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 8:32 AM on January 25, 2017

a whole lotta people would love to core some republican plank.

That's the weirdest sexual metaphor ever.
posted by diogenes at 8:34 AM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

"I'm important" - A Bad Lip Reading of Trump's Inauguration Day

Oh wow I needed that. That's a good lip reading. lol
posted by Jalliah at 8:35 AM on January 25, 2017

@danpfeiffer
Here's where we are: Trump is deeply disturbed, his aides enable him, and the US government now makes policy to alleviate his insecurities
posted by chris24 at 8:37 AM on January 25, 2017 [45 favorites]

i want to believe this is [fake] but i know in my heart it is [real] because npr is FUCKING WORTHLESS

I've been off NPR for months and made the mistake of turning it on while on my way to jury duty this morning. I heard the promo for the NYT vs NPR lying piece and immediately started yelling at my radio and turned it the fuck off. Useless assholes.
posted by photoslob at 8:38 AM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

So basically the military and the parks service are going to be where the resistance lives?

Don't forget Teen Vogue and Merriam-Webster dictionary!
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 8:39 AM on January 25, 2017 [45 favorites]

I think the strategy part kicks in when they try to figure out how they can spin it to their own ends. It's reactionary strategy. So his voter fraud obsession and demands for an investigation get spun into voter suppression, in this case something they're all over anyway.

Sure there's always opportunists waiting for their chance to forward some personal agenda. That's politics. That's where the real fighting is, in not letting some weird obsession of Trump's turn into a full blown erosion of democracy.
posted by scalefree at 8:41 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

@loudlysilent
2017 Rebel Alliance
Red Leader: Teen Vogue
Blue Leader: Merriam-Webster
Gold Leader: National Parks
posted by chris24 at 8:41 AM on January 25, 2017 [26 favorites]

I've been playing this game today:

Newly Pliant Reporting
No Particular Responsibilities
National Public Relations
No Pledge Reasons
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:43 AM on January 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

"I'm important" - A Bad Lip Reading of Trump's Inauguration Day

Oh wow I needed that. That's a good lip reading. lol

I agree. I think that's one of the best of the series, and good lord, could we all use a laugh.
posted by bibliowench at 8:44 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Here's where we are: Trump is deeply disturbed, his aides enable him, and the US government now makes policy to alleviate his insecurities

They're building a house of cards that's guaranteed to collapse in time. The two main questions are when will it collapse & what action will they take to depose him: impeachment, 25th Amendment or the other way.
posted by scalefree at 8:46 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

The two main questions are when will it collapse & what action will they take to depose him: impeachment, 25th Amendment or the other way.

Question 3: How many of us will he take down with him before he goes?
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:47 AM on January 25, 2017 [22 favorites]

Newly Pliant Reporting
No Particular Responsibilities
National Public Relations
No Pledge Reasons

I haven't listened in a while, but during the Bush II years, The SubGenius Hour of Slack ran jumbled, dada-esque re-edits of NPR broadcasts where the spoken word "NPR" was always shortened to just "PR", e.g. "This is PR News." or "You're listening to PR!" I might have to start up again, now that we have a new False Dobbs in the White House.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:51 AM on January 25, 2017 [20 favorites]

Eponypropriate.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:52 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Peter Thiel Gains New Zealand Citizenship as Tech Elites Prep for Doomsday

Rats are fleeing as the ship starts to sink.
posted by scalefree at 8:53 AM on January 25, 2017 [32 favorites]

Dems: Trump voter fraud 'fantasy' a distraction from Russian help

Now there's a pivot. Well done.
posted by scalefree at 8:55 AM on January 25, 2017 [39 favorites]

Trump's draft executive order to reopen CIA black sites gets the year of the 9/11 attacks incorrect.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:58 AM on January 25, 2017 [28 favorites]

So basically the military and the parks service are going to be where the resistance lives?

In my experience with those serving in both our parks and our military, many are very passionate, principled people, with a strong sense of service and duty. (Many are yahoos, but many of all people are yahoos.) So, yeah, I can't say I'm surprised that's where the resistance lives.
posted by LooseFilter at 9:01 AM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

Of course it happened on 9/11/2011. That's why it's Obama's fault! I bet Rudy drafted this.
posted by TwoStride at 9:01 AM on January 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

Greenpeace really killing it this week. A bunch of protesters from Greenpeace climbed a huge crane in Washington D.C. in protest of Donald Trump.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:02 AM on January 25, 2017 [29 favorites]

Fuck Peter Thiel. Wasn't he talking about running for governor of CA two seconds ago? Glad to know he's so invested in the state he wants to lead. Fucking rat bastard.
posted by sunset in snow country at 9:03 AM on January 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

From The Atlantic's Citylab: Donald Trump's Bulldozer Budget (Jan. 23, 2017) Trump staffers are reportedly building a budget proposal with major cuts to federal agencies and programs. These are the ones that could hit cities the hardest.
- A nice single-page article that lists possible cuts to a number of agencies and programs, but remember that nothing is certain until it's done.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:05 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Fuck Peter Thiel.

Gotta diversify. One foot in Sacramento, one foot in Christchurch.
posted by scalefree at 9:06 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

McCain warns Trump: 'We are not bringing back torture'

Oh, I get it now. NeverTrump's resistance is going to take on such a toothless form of denial that it will only serve as another source of alt-facts for the regime. Headline from 2 months from now: McCain warns Trump: 'we have not brought back torture.' 6 months from now: McCain warns Trump: 'you will not build yourself a giant mechanized exoskeleton'
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:06 AM on January 25, 2017 [52 favorites]

William Gibson @GreatDismal: "Surprise at the sheer velocity of the onset of fascism is the result of regarding it as a political rather than criminal entity: it's theft."
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:09 AM on January 25, 2017 [75 favorites]

In my experience with those serving in both our parks and our military, many are very passionate, principled people, with a strong sense of service and duty. (Many are yahoos, but many of all people are yahoos.) So, yeah, I can't say I'm surprised that's where the resistance lives.

Yes. The problem with asking a group of people who were promised that honour, valour, equality and democracy matter enough to die for to be fascists is that at least some of us came to internalise the previous rhetoric. People remember the Khans, and we know what sacrifice looks like. I don't like the man, but I'll even have some level of respect for McCain in this matter. It's not only a party thing, it's a question of who we are. We were brought up to fight for freedom; it's not like the people who believed in it are the ones who want to throw it away.

I'm not surprised that it matters to some people that the constitution is protected. The real one, not the one with gold fringes.
posted by jaduncan at 9:11 AM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

Agency Deletes Listing For Joint Paid Speeches By Robby Mook And Corey Lewandowski

“This was solely our team’s idea,” the firm says.

So, fuck Robby Mook, but not for this reason, at least.
posted by gatorae at 9:15 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Mr. Trump, who does not read books, is able to end his evenings with plenty of television

Want to get your message in front of the President? Tell your DC Cablevision sales reps that you want more 30 second ads on Fox News after 8:00pm.

The media-buy budgets on K street are about to triple.
posted by toxic at 9:17 AM on January 25, 2017 [29 favorites]

Urgent Call for Lawyers: The International Refugee Assistance Project is working with local resettlement agencies to identify airports where refugees are scheduled to land in the next several days. Should an executive order revoke their admissibility, CBP may attempt to place these refugees in detention or expedited removal. We are seeking attorneys, immediately, who can go to the airports at which refugees are scheduled to enter the United States to support arriving refugees in requesting parole and, if parole is denied, in credible fear interviews. [...]

The airports where we anticipate needing attorneys (so far) over the next two days are Newark, Washington-Dulles, JFK, LAX, O’Hare, and Miami.

posted by damayanti at 9:17 AM on January 25, 2017 [27 favorites]

In fact, I think that's one of the core things that induces my disgust. A large part of me can't help angrily that hundreds of thousands of people of people have died directly in defence of the office of the President and to maintain the promises Trump is pissing on. He's too dumb to know that he's even doing that, too. It's utterly tragic.
posted by jaduncan at 9:17 AM on January 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

San Diego Zoo Global‏ @sdzglobal
Climate change is responsible for the shifting landscape affecting the Arctic: [polarbear.gif]

Los Angeles Zoo‏ @LAZoo
Chimpanzees are just one #endangered species affected by climate change. [chimp.gif] #climate #climatechange
posted by Room 641-A at 9:22 AM on January 25, 2017 [45 favorites]

It's not fancy analysis. I don't even know why I'm saying it here. It's just that's the core of my contempt. He's directly disrepecting and ignoring the integrity and sacrifice of people worth a thousand of him, in ways big and small. He just stood up in front of a monument to the CIA's dead and talked about how great he is, before doing as much as possible to ban scary brown Islamic people from being treated on the basis of their character rather than their skin or religion. He's not even a week in.

It's not even funny. It's just heartbreaking, and we have to fight. If not now, when?
posted by jaduncan at 9:23 AM on January 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

The ~~eagles~~ zoos are coming!
posted by gatorae at 9:27 AM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

Want to get your message in front of the President? Tell your DC Cablevision sales reps that you want more 30 second ads on Fox News after 8:00pm.

The media-buy budgets on K street are about to triple.

Are there a lot of local spots available? Do they care who buys the spots or what they actually advertise?
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:28 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Now I'm wondering what the White House cable package is.
posted by Etrigan at 9:29 AM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

It's amazing to me the friends and family who point out that they voted for Trump as if that's supposed to change my mind. Yes, it changes my opinion. Of you. You failed the biggest and easiest moral, civic and intelligence test of our time. You've proven to be a shitty person, Christian and American, so no, I don't care what you think, other than being thankful I found out you weren't the person I thought you were. (Or for confirming you're the person I thought you were.)
posted by chris24 at 9:33 AM on January 25, 2017 [89 favorites]

Now the official Death Valley National Park twitter account is in on it, and they are NOT messing around.

'The thing the dystopian novels could never predict was the sudden rebellion of the national park social media managers'
posted by Windigo at 9:37 AM on January 25, 2017 [121 favorites]

Social media managers are mostly millennials. We know our dystopias.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 9:46 AM on January 25, 2017 [36 favorites]

Trump's wall: Mexican construction firms likely to be biggest winners

Building experts estimate barrier could cost $31bn, with most of 40,000-strong workforce from Mexican side of border

The biggest winners from the construction of Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful, powerful” wall along the US-Mexico border are likely to be Mexican cement companies and construction workers.

posted by Buntix at 9:48 AM on January 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

zabuni: Trump Knows You Better Than You Know Yourself

Psychometrics , big data and the Trump and Brexit campaigns. I thought living in a cyberpunk future would be cool. Nope.....nope.

If power were better balanced and utilized by all parties, this cyberpunk future would be different. Instead, there is an uneven push and pull in who knows and uses what. In this period, the fascist thugs are winning, but that's not to say we're set on a path to a dark post-apocalyptic future. We're veering that direction, yes, but unlike climate change, we're not past the brink yet.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:50 AM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

If the Times is going to do a puff piece on Trump in the White House, I'm at least glad they included this dig

I thought the whole piece was full of NYT-style shade. Several times they quote something stupid he says, then they translate into normal.

“They have a lot of board rooms,” he said of the White House, an apparent reference to the Cabinet Room and the Roosevelt Room.
...
the new president has marveled to aides about the splendor of the White House and the lengths he must walk to retrieve something from a far-flung room.

I think that story about them thinking he won't walk upstairs is true.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:50 AM on January 25, 2017 [31 favorites]

Ranger up, indeed.

I was going to go with "Rangers Lead The Way" myself.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:51 AM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Hey, good morning fellow bunker-mates. Just a note to say, please, everyone, remember your daily mantra:

This is not normal. We did not choose this. This is not normal. All of us are victims here. This is not normal.

I find it more important every day.

I don't know why, but I find such things easier to remember when retrofitted to a catchy tune. Looking at rewriting "Everything Is Awesome" to fit. Should the first line be "Everything is Awful" or "Everything's Abnormal"?
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:51 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Think I'll try quoting the following at the low-information, "Give him a chance" fencesitters in my circles. from Margaret Heffernan's book, Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril (2012):

“We tend to think: this is a small thing, it's not big enough to worry about it. But by the time it is big enough to worry about, it is too late. Mass violence evolves progressively, always with small steps like excluding people, creating offices that serve discrimination. When no one does anything about those changes that sends a sign, too – a sign that they can go farther. I'll give you an example: Goebbels . . . wrote in his diary, 'They would like to do what we are doing but they don't have the courage.' He took the message that if, at the first step, no one would stop him, then he could keep going.”
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 9:56 AM on January 25, 2017 [31 favorites]

Sidebar: WhitehouseMuseum.org - Family Elevator. Overview of over 130 years of having one in the White House.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:57 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

"About 7PM Tuesday night..."

So this thing has been a hilarious waiting game within my simpleminded circle of Facebook friends, but it's 18+ hours later and it's finally been fixed.
posted by Evilspork at 9:58 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

"The call was coming from inside the White House."
posted by guiseroom at 9:59 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Just hit up my Rep and Senators for the second day in a row by phone.

Today, I was complaining to the Senators about the Nikki Haley vote with the following talking points:

* She has no diplomatic experience.
* She will promote extreme radical right-wing policies across the world.
* Republicans in major leadership roles are Trumpists and we should grant them ZERO legitimacy.
* That it is extremely discouraging to see votes for the nominees but that votes against them are extremely encouraging.

I also urged my Rep and Senators to co-ponsor Rep. Lieu and Senator Markey's bill called the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017.

Now I'll also be writing to each of them about Healthcare--preserving Medicare/Medicaid/ACA/Women's Healthcare. There's basically unlimited things that we can call them about to support or oppose.

Let's light up those switch boards with calls about specific actions that our Congresspeeps can take--we are the majority. If 10 of us make 3 calls a day--that's 150 calls per business week. If 50 of us do, that's 750 calls.

Can we make a difference? Si se puede!
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 10:02 AM on January 25, 2017 [37 favorites]

The best part about Bannon being registered in Florida and New York is that he voted in New York, where Trump had no chance of winning. It didn't end up mattering, obviously, but wouldn't "like, a smart person" vote in Florida, a swing state?
posted by gatorae at 10:02 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's not fancy analysis. I don't even know why I'm saying it here. It's just that's the core of my contempt. He's directly disrepecting and ignoring the integrity and sacrifice of people worth a thousand of him, in ways big and small.

Saying it makes me feel like I'm doing Klingon cosplay, but one of the core things that's really depressed me about the recent turn of the GOP into crazyland is just how frankly dishonorable people like Trump or McConnell are. I mean, I get that people have different ideas about what good policy is and that some basically decent people have very wrong ideas about that. But these people go beyond just having bad ideas to being personally shameful in their conduct, and now they have the capacity to tar us all with their ignominy.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:03 AM on January 25, 2017 [22 favorites]

> The best part about Bannon being registered in Florida and New York is that he voted in New York, where Trump had no chance of winning. It didn't end up mattering, obviously, but wouldn't "like, a smart person" vote in Florida, a swing state?

Yeah but then he'd have to go to Florida...
posted by guiseroom at 10:03 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Lookin' good: Greenpeace activists hang giant 'Resist' banner over White House
posted by un petit cadeau at 10:04 AM on January 25, 2017 [36 favorites]

In Bali, Trump’s Planned Six-Star Hotel Risks Angering the Gods

The Trump Organization says the hotel and tower will offer views of the Indian Ocean and Tanah Lot temple and bring "a new level" of luxury to Bali. The project cements ties between Trump’s family and MNC Group founder Hary Tanoesoedibjo, who was on the guest list for Trump’s inauguration in Washington, DC. and has touted his friendship with Trump’s children. Tanoesoedibjo has his own political party in Indonesia.

Did he vote in both Florida and NY primaries?
posted by cmfletcher at 10:05 AM on January 25, 2017

Should the first line be "Everything is Awful" or "Everything's Abnormal"?

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL!!!! EVERYTHING'S NOT COOL WHEN YOU'RE PART OF THIS TEAM!
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:05 AM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

I am livestreaming Spicer again. I may need an intervention.
posted by prefpara at 10:06 AM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

So, funny story guys. I don't know if this means anything, but as of Jan 20, I'm apparently no longer a "Trusted Traveller" at the military base I visit literally almost every day. I don't want to be paranoid about this but I am totally being paranoid about this.
posted by corb at 10:06 AM on January 25, 2017 [95 favorites]

I don't understand ... I thought the Trump Org forswore foreign deals as part of Trump's pledge to avoid conflicts of interest (even though he insists doesn't have to). Is this an old deal that's just coming to fruition, and thereby grandfathered in?

I think that just possibly Trump and/or the people who work for him might be willing to straight-up fucking lie all the goddamn time.
posted by Etrigan at 10:06 AM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Thanks, Excommunicated Cardinal, for this encouragement. I was starting to feel fatigued with the phone calls, since calling my Rep is like shouting into a barrel. Off to hit the phones again. :)
posted by hilaryjade at 10:07 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

This may go nowhere but I like that they're doing this to keep up the fight:

Schakowsky, Whitehouse, Brown, Franken Introduce Public Option for Obamacare

Washington, D.C. – As congressional Republicans try to tear down the law that has extended health insurance coverage to over 20 million Americans, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Al Franken (D-MN) have introduced the Consumer Health Options and Insurance Competition Enhancement (CHOICE) Act, to add a publicly operated health insurance option to individual marketplaces. The measure is intended to guarantee American consumers access to an affordable, high quality plan in every health insurance market in the country.

posted by dnash at 10:08 AM on January 25, 2017 [64 favorites]

They are building more detention centers. Oh god.
posted by prefpara at 10:08 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Update on how the night went after the protest/sit-in I attended last night: my husband reports that I was muttering "your vote matters" in my sleep.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 10:08 AM on January 25, 2017 [35 favorites]

I thought the Trump Org forswore foreign deals

Don't believe anything they say, you'll be a lot less surprised when they lie.
posted by cell divide at 10:09 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Looking at rewriting "Everything Is Awesome" to fit. Should the first line be "Everything is Awful" or "Everything's Abnormal"?

Having seen the many pictures around the world from the Women's March on Saturday, there are still things that are not awful! But "Everything's Abnormal" works, I think — in a normal world there would be no need for such an event.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:09 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

I am livestreaming Spicer again. I may need an intervention.

I'm with you in Weirdland
where you must feel very strange
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:09 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

What I wonder is - where does Trump get the money for the wall? This is something that’s going to cost tens of billions of dollars, and he has to get that money somehow. This isn’t a few million you can shift around departments. Wouldn’t Congress have to appropriate this money? If that’s the case, voice mail boxes are going to be full all over the country.
posted by azpenguin at 10:10 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

They are reviving the "Secure Communities" program.

From that article:

Under the multi-million-dollar Secure Communities program, local authorities shared digital fingerprints from everyone booked into jail with federal authorities, who combed the prints for immigrants, those here legally and illegally, so they could be deported.

As more and more immigrants who had committed traffic or immigration violations were nabbed by local officials and turned over to immigration authorities, the program began to drive a wedge between immigrant communities and local law enforcement.

“Its very name has become a symbol of hostility toward the enforcement of our immigration laws,” acknowledged Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson in a memo detailing the administration's decision.

Immigrants and civil rights groups as well as some local police officials said Secure Communities made policing more difficult because immigrants fearful or resentful of the cooperation with federal immigration authorities would not come forward to report crimes or assist with information or witness accounts that might be helpful in investigations.

Johnson noted that governors, mayors and state and local law enforcement officers refused to cooperate with the program and that many federal courts rejected local law enforcement’s authority to detain immigrants under the program.

posted by prefpara at 10:11 AM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

From way upthread: I've been slowly realizing that I've never seen the true size of his core bloc quantified and I may be believing in what he wants me to believe, unconsciously accepting his projection of false strength. Paid audience members, staffers and others dragged into the CIA meeting to cheerlead, obvious astroturf social media presence... he always lies about his popularity. We can't cede that rhetorically.

Exactly. Just for starters, Trump lost the popular vote by almost three million, and it clearly galls him. People confident in their own popularity don't have to bring paid cheering sections along with them.

Republicans are in a double bind -- their actual policy positions are unpopular, and not only is their Presidential standard bearer perhaps even more so, by he also can't be trusted to stay on message. Sure, they're doing a Gish Gallop of horrible executive actions, but part of that tactic is surely to overwhelm the opposition with a sense of futility and hopelessness.

Don't fall for it. The marches this past weekend -- heck, the one in DC alone! -- were way bigger than Trump's inauguration, and all those people can influence members of Congress even more than the phony tea party movement did.
posted by Gelatin at 10:11 AM on January 25, 2017 [21 favorites]

corb: So, funny story guys. I don't know if this means anything, but as of Jan 20, I'm apparently no longer a "Trusted Traveller" at the military base I visit literally almost every day. I don't want to be paranoid about this but I am totally being paranoid about this.

That's fucked up and extremely worrisome. I hope this change is a clerical error. Be safe.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 10:14 AM on January 25, 2017 [30 favorites]

Spicer just said Trump is a "family man with a huge heart" and has compassion for Dreamers. So we're still dealing in #alternativefacts.
posted by prefpara at 10:16 AM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

I turned off NPR a year ago. I can't decide if they slowly got worse over time, or if events simply exposed how deep their desire for equivalency really runs.

I turned it off 11 years ago after they repeatedly refused to use the word "torture" when talking about it.

Then, for the ONE fucking press conference Dubz had (yeah yeah) they sent Juan fucking Williams whose devastating ONE question was "do you like cookies" or some shit. Juan "Left to go to Fox News" Williams. God fucking dammit you fucked up again NPR News.

And for firing Bob Edwards this court has no alternative but to remove your preset. Guards, tune it to 97.5 The Rocket and press-and-hold 3.
posted by petebest at 10:18 AM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Call your Senator.

@resnikoff
So here's the difference between how McConnell and Schumer appear to be approaching obstruction.

Schumer and other Dems seem to think party line votes against Trump are an expenditure of political capital. Obstruction costs something.

What McConnell understands is that party line votes are actually a source of energy, even when they *appear* to cost something.

During Obama years, uniform GOP obstruction, even when symbolic, built solidarity and caucus discipline.

These party line votes were not an expenditure of capital, they were a way of building momentum for when it actually counted.

P.S. It also worked for the GOP under way less favorable conditions. Obama was significantly more popular than Trump when they started this.
posted by chris24 at 10:18 AM on January 25, 2017 [68 favorites]

What I wonder is - where does Trump get the money for the wall? This is something that’s going to cost tens of billions of dollars, and he has to get that money somehow. This isn’t a few million you can shift around departments. Wouldn’t Congress have to appropriate this money? If that’s the case, voice mail boxes are going to be full all over the country.

Yeah, Spicer said at Monday's press conference--God was it really just a couple days ago?--that Trump is working with Congress on appropriating the funds.
posted by mama casserole at 10:18 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Spicer just said Trump is a "family man with a huge heart"

What, like, cardiomegaly?
posted by jason_steakums at 10:18 AM on January 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

Spicer is denying that any gag on speech by federal agency employees has come from the Whitehouse. My level of reassurance = his level of credibility.
posted by prefpara at 10:18 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Spicer just said Trump is a "family man with a huge heart"

My eyes rolled back so hard I cracked my skull.

And he says no mandates are coming from the White House re: federal agency social media. And then something about an agency inappropriately "marketing" the policies of Obama 1-2 years ago?
posted by mochapickle at 10:19 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Of course they do: Trump White House Senior Staff Have Private RNC Email Accounts
posted by guiseroom at 10:19 AM on January 25, 2017 [60 favorites]

Update on how the night went after the protest/sit-in I attended last night: my husband reports that I was muttering "your vote matters" in my sleep.

I dreamed I was sitting at Trump's table during a dinner. Trump ate nothing but Jell-O. No one else was allowed to eat.
posted by mama casserole at 10:19 AM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

Wouldn’t Congress have to appropriate this money?

Yes, Congress would have to appropriate the funds for the Wall. We're still in the warm afterglow of the Inauguration phase with the new guy making a lot of noise with executive orders and pushing the bureaucracy around. Congress will have to get involved on the bigger projects, and I still expect to see some pushback on the zanier stuff. I also expect to see Trump's version of Triangulation to keep the pressure up on GOP Congresspersons (they're setting up an outside the WH political org for this). (Yes, I know most people disagree about the pushback.)
posted by notyou at 10:20 AM on January 25, 2017

Elon Musk thinks Rex Tillerson could be an excellent secretary of State
posted by MrVisible at 10:20 AM on January 25, 2017

he voted in New York, where Trump had no chance of winning. It didn't end up mattering, obviously, but wouldn't "like, a smart person" vote in Florida, a swing state?

Except that would be illegal, whereas simply being registered in two states is a very common result of moving states, and not illegal at all, as far as I know.
posted by Coventry at 10:21 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

If the Times is going to do a puff piece on Trump in the White House, I'm at least glad they included this dig: But his meetings now begin at 9 a.m., earlier than they used to, which significantly curtails his television time. Still, Mr. Trump, who does not read books, is able to end his evenings with plenty of television.

That article was the absolute worst sort of stereotypical "fascist drives a truck over you with 'your going to die' on the side as liberal chuckles from under the wheels 'you're'" trash. It made me so angry. The people who understand the shade will titter and everyone else will go HUH LOOK HOW NICE AND NORMAL TRUMP IS.

It's amazing to me the friends and family who point out that they voted for Trump as if that's supposed to change my mind. Yes, it changes my opinion. Of you. You failed the biggest and easiest moral, civic and intelligence test of our time. You've proven to be a shitty person, Christian and American, so no, I don't care what you think, other than being thankful I found out you weren't the person I thought you were. (Or for confirming you're the person I thought you were.)

At work I am fighting really hard not to talk about politics at all even more than during the election, because I cannot actually see people who are still republicans as anything other than dangerous simpletons who actively hate me and everyone I love. I just don't want to know. I want to get my paycheck and go home and make my multiple calls a day to politicians on every new terrible thing.
posted by winna at 10:21 AM on January 25, 2017 [20 favorites]

Spicer is denying that any gag on speech by federal agency employees has come from the Whitehouse.

"Then what has the White House done to ensure that federal agency employees know whether any gag on speech reflects the administration's directives?" Ha, I kid.
posted by Etrigan at 10:21 AM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Spicer is now saying that Trump's suggestion of an investigation into voting irregularities is more about fixing voting registration problems. Aka non-white people actually being registered to vote.
posted by Gaz Errant at 10:22 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Those of you with strong enough stomachs to endure listening to Sean Spicer, I salute you.
posted by argonauta at 10:22 AM on January 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

Of course they do: Trump White House Senior Staff Have Private RNC Email Accounts

OMG u guys emaylz?!?11
posted by petebest at 10:23 AM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

You People Made Me Give Up My Peanut Farm Before I Got To Be President
posted by EarBucket at 10:23 AM on January 25, 2017 [37 favorites]

Huge, buried story today: Kaspersky manager in charge of investigating hackers arrested on charges of treason, along with senior FSB officer
...
Per Forbes: Case has been filed under Article 275, which allows prosecution when individual allegedly aids a foreign state or organization.

--@natashabertrand

This seems kind of significant.
posted by zachlipton at 10:24 AM on January 25, 2017 [38 favorites]

What I wonder is - where does Trump get the money for the wall?

He can mint as many trillion-dollar coins as he wants.
posted by Coventry at 10:24 AM on January 25, 2017

Spicer is now spinning wildly on the threat re Chicago. Playing it as Trump wanting to "provide the resources of the federal government" but Chicago apparently hasn't asked nicely yet so boo hoo.
posted by prefpara at 10:24 AM on January 25, 2017

Just a comment on Spicer's overall ability to do this job. He is coming across to me as not smart, not quick on his feet. He stumbles over his words. He is not charismatic and he is not able to roll with tough questions. I wouldn't hire him to communicate my trash.
posted by prefpara at 10:27 AM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

Let's check in on those conflicts of interest. How are we profiting from the Presidency today?

Trump Hotels Will Triple Locations in U.S. While Shelving Foreign Expansion Plans

Mar-a-Lago membership [initiation] fee doubles to $200,000
posted by zachlipton at 10:28 AM on January 25, 2017 [24 favorites]

Elon Musk thinks Rex Tillerson could be an excellent secretary of State

It's because Tillerson has suggested that he might still want the US to make some attempt to reduce carbon emissions, to deal with climate change via a carbon tax and have a seat at the table. I would imagine Musk views Tillerson as at least a competent lawful neutral who's going to mess up things that won't kill our planetary civilisation.

Musk on this:

"Elon Musk ‏@elonmusk 11h11 hours ago
More
Rex Tillerson supports a carbon tax. This is what is really needed to move the needle."

"Elon Musk ‏@elonmusk 18h18 hours ago
More
Tillerson also said that “the risk of climate change does exist” and he believed “action should be taken""

If he's thinking in terms of what's likely to end everything it makes sense. For better or worse, I suspect Musk probably does.
posted by jaduncan at 10:29 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

OMG u guys emaylz?!?11

Trump doesn't

Erickson added: “He gets his emails printed out, and he reads and annotates them and sends them back as a PDF.” Current and former aides say that is standard practice.

Roger Stone, a longtime Trump friend, said he knows to send emails to one of Trump’s assistants, who download them for him. Memos can be faxed, he said. But Trump wants to talk by phone, often sitting up into the wee hours dialing business associates or campaign aides.

“Until a couple years ago, there were no computer terminals on some of the desks at the Trump Organization. He doesn’t browse the Web,” Stone said. “Until about four years ago, he was still using bicycle messengers. They were very popular in Manhattan in the 1980s. He is very old school.”

posted by Buntix at 10:29 AM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

I found that watching Spicer's briefings was distorting my perceptions of the news in harmful ways. Just hearing someone tell me bullshit over and over again raises the plausibility I assign to the bullshit. I don't think I'm going to watch him again for a while. On the other hand, I think that means he's not necessarily doing a bad job. It really depends on what the goal of the briefings is.
posted by Coventry at 10:29 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

hillaryjade: Thanks, Excommunicated Cardinal, for this encouragement. I was starting to feel fatigued with the phone calls, since calling my Rep is like shouting into a barrel. Off to hit the phones again. :)

No problem! I'm so pleased you found that post helpful. I've been considering ways to try and gameify my activity--e.g., making a spreadsheet and assigning points per action or something. I think having something tangible to remind us of what we've done is really important in combating that fatigue.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 10:30 AM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

The attacks on the crime of Chicago and DC are pretty loud dogwhistles, both to racists and gun nuts (and obviously the combination of the two). The former believe Blah People are the reason why those cities are corrupt and violent, the facts that Chicago's corruption flourished under white mayors and that DC's hands are largely tied due to mostly-white conservative legislators notwithstanding. The latter believe that Chicago and DC are Exhibit A in evidence that localized gun control is supposedly a huge failure, despite studies showing that the actual problem is that they're surrounded by cities and states with much looser gun laws and high rates of both thefts and illegal trafficking of guns.
posted by zombieflanders at 10:30 AM on January 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

When asked about sanctuary cities not complying with Trump's demands, Spicer essentially says that Trump will figure out other executive orders he can use to fuck with them.
posted by Gaz Errant at 10:32 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

I've been considering ways to try and gameify my activity--e.g., making a spreadsheet and assigning points per action or something.

I have a point-keeping system for all my shit that I don't like to do but should do anyway (using Habitica) and "political action" is in there right next to "count calories all day" and "go to bed before 11."
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:32 AM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

Spicer out after promising to get the press the text of executive orders.
posted by prefpara at 10:33 AM on January 25, 2017

prefpara: "Spicer out after promising to get the press the text of executive orders."

Well, out as in the sense of "over and out", not as in out on his ass.
posted by chavenet at 10:35 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Erickson added: “He gets his emails printed out, and he reads and annotates them and sends them back as a PDF.”

Oh god the nightmare of dealing with that. There really is no level on which this guy is not The Worst, is there? I'm getting flashbacks to sales reps emailing me shitty scans of business cards when I needed a client's logo.
posted by jason_steakums at 10:36 AM on January 25, 2017 [26 favorites]

I can't believe I am doing this but... printing out emails is how Hillary operated too and how a lot of older busy people with assistants operate.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:39 AM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

Mexican media is reporting that @EPN may cancel his meeting with @POTUS next week if Trump orders construction of the wall
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:40 AM on January 25, 2017 [24 favorites]

printing out emails is how Hillary operated too and how a lot of older busy people with assistants operate.

This is true, but I am an executive assistant and I can confirm this behavior is annoying as shit. So don't worry, he's still the worst.
posted by something something at 10:42 AM on January 25, 2017 [20 favorites]

Just a few of my random thoughts lately:

I'm glad Trump has been to distracted by his shiny executive order pen to bother playing with the new football he got last Friday.

The Republicans have been bitching about repealing Obamacare for what, seven years now, and none of them have been able to come up with an alternative? Is that because the ACA was largely their idea in the first place?

Has anyone actually seen Trump's birth certificate? Now I'm not saying he was born in Russia or anything, it just seems he must have something to hide if he hasn't produced it.
posted by TedW at 10:43 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I've been considering ways to try and gameify my activity--e.g., making a spreadsheet and assigning points per action or something.

I challenged my Facebook friends to make more calls to politicians than me (in a week, or whatever timeframe), but so far no takers.
posted by sunset in snow country at 10:44 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I'd venture a guess that like she actually really liked her Blackberry.
posted by jaduncan at 10:44 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Restaurant worker accused of using racial slur against LVC student

Rickey Lee Bugg Jr., a junior member of the LVC men's basketball team from Hummelstown, said he and a friend were eating at Just Wing It around 1:30 a.m. Sunday when a man be believed was a manager came out and said "I don't need you n...'s money," calling him a racial slur.

"I flipped a few chairs," Bugg said, adding he yelled at the owner, "That's not the way to treat people." He said the manager told him that now Donald Trump is president, "I can say what I want."

Fuck this. Fuck this entirely.
posted by Talez at 10:44 AM on January 25, 2017 [34 favorites]

I'm getting flashbacks to sales reps emailing me shitty scans of business cards when I needed a client's logo.

The classic is a scan of a photo of a business card.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:45 AM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

They are building more detention centers. Oh god.

And there's the huge volume spike in CWX stock. I'm sure some insiders made a buck on that.
posted by holgate at 10:47 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

He said the manager told him that now Donald Trump is president, "I can say what I want."

More of that economic anxiety, huh?
posted by zachlipton at 10:51 AM on January 25, 2017 [51 favorites]

According to a draft of the order obtained by the Washington Post, the words “war on terror” were deleted from the order and replaced with “fight against radical Islam.”
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:56 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

According to a draft of the order obtained by the Washington Post, the words “war on terror” were deleted from the order and replaced with “fight against radical Islam.”

Onward, Christian soldiers!
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on before.
Christ, the royal Master,
Leads against the foe;
Forward into battle,
See his banners go!
posted by Talez at 10:58 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Carson (HUD), Perry (Energy), Haley (UN) and Zinke (Interior) were open, honest and seemed excited to work to do good. They vowed to work with Congress and to fight and defend their respective agencies functions. They aren't qualified but their priority is country and citizenry well being first. These people are also setup to be expendable. They don't have the President's ear.

Mattis (Defense) was okay too, plain straight forward answers and understands the job.
Chao (Transportation) is also okay and is actually qualified. McConnell gets extra eyes on the inside ... it is a mix of good and bad.

The other nominees get scary. There are two basic camps. Trump loyalists and party / donor loyalists.

Tillerson (State) is polished, gave empty political answers and I think he is running his own private scam. Sessions (Justice) ... sigh ... he is a doofus. He will be a puppet and will sign off on totally illegal shit. Mnuchin (Treasury) is a complete piece of shit. DeVos (Education) is completely out of touch. Price (HHS) is a criminal. Pruitt (EPA) some lead in drinking water might be okay. Pompeo (CIA) torture ... depends. Mulvaney (OMB) prepare to retire at 70. It is a complete shit show. These people are the wrecking crew.

Senators need to work with the department heads and giving a nominee a yes when there is little impact can make their job getting information out of agencies easier ... it is a social thing where the cost of signaling is low compared to reward. So for example having Carson believe Warren is someone he can talk to / is on his side, because she gave him a yes can yield a positive starting position. Sure Carson is a bad choice but among the choices not the worst, as he doesn't appear vengeful or hateful or destructive in purpose. Warren is a fighter. She is sharp. She has a strong record of doing the right thing. This isn't her first rodeo and Carson is someone she could influence. It is a pick your enemies vote.

I get resist. I get saying no. But having watched the hearings, a no isn't going to produce a better candidate. A yes isn't going to get one either and I totally get it does lend a veneer of credibility. But when a nominee promises, under oath, to act to uphold the laws and mission of their agency ... you take the positive where you can find it.
posted by phoque at 10:59 AM on January 25, 2017 [39 favorites]

printing out emails is how Hillary operated too and how a lot of older busy people with assistants operate.

Actually, Obama seems to be the first President to use a regular computer for work at the White House.

"The desk in Obama's Treaty Room, unlike the Resolute desk in the Oval Office, is piled high with paperwork. The room also contains a computer, a printer, and a television. Despite these office amenities, it's unlikely that Obama uses a computer regularly in the White House. As the Explainer noted last year, previous presidents, including Bush and Clinton, went without computers and e-mail in order to avoid the Presidential Records Acts of 1978, which requires commanders-in-chief to archive their correspondence and make it public."

emphasis mine
posted by anastasiav at 10:59 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

That draft order also refers to "the atrocities of September 11, 2011." Note the year.
posted by stopgap at 11:00 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

roomthreeseventeen: "According to a draft of the order obtained by the Washington Post, the words “war on terror” were deleted from the order and replaced with “fight against radical Islam.”"

This Is Just To Say

I have deleted
the words
that were in
your executive order

and which
you had probably
written
for Twitter

Forgive me
they weren't del-ISIS
too broad
and not bold
posted by chavenet at 11:02 AM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Huge, buried story today: Kaspersky manager in charge of investigating hackers arrested on charges of treason, along with senior FSB officer

This seems kind of significant.

Connect the dots for me. There's a quote in the article that says it "seems to be more about corruption than anything else." What are the more interesting possibilities?
posted by diogenes at 11:03 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

I, too, was devastated when Ralph Gubbins died. 9/11/11, never forget!
posted by Floydd at 11:03 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

An interesting story that's been kind of buried out of South Dakota (not @BadlandsNPS). On election day, voters passed an "anti-corruption" initiative to lower campaign finance limits, set curbs on lobbying, create an opt-in publicly funded campaign finance system, and create an ethics commission. The legislature has declared a state of emergency so that they can repeal the measure. Salon has more on the situation.
posted by zachlipton at 11:04 AM on January 25, 2017 [50 favorites]

I've been trying to call Warren and Markey's offices all day and have gotten voicemails (and the voice mailboxes are full). I'm guessing a lot of their constituencies are upset about their votes for Carson and Haley. Frustrating, but also reassuring.
posted by pxe2000 at 11:09 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

I wonder when the United States of America is going to be dissolved and replaced with the Imperial State of America.
posted by Talez at 11:09 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

> Yes. The problem with asking a group of people who were promised that honour, valour, equality and democracy matter enough to die for to be fascists is that at least some of us came to internalise the previous rhetoric. People remember the Khans, and we know what sacrifice looks like. I don't like the man, but I'll even have some level of respect for McCain in this matter. It's not only a party thing, it's a question of who we are. We were brought up to fight for freedom; it's not like the people who believed in it are the ones who want to throw it away.

I'm not surprised that it matters to some people that the constitution is protected. The real one, not the one with gold fringes.

It's certainly the thing that is making me angriest right now: because I grew up in a family that paid lip service to those ideals, that raised me to believe in them, and the very people who told me the young that they mattered are turning now, inexorably, in the service of pissing on them and using the Constitution to wipe up. I cannot express how angry I am; I cannot articulate it or even look too closely on the source of my iron-spined rage without sputtering and descending into apoplexy. I am angry enough to abandon my career, and if it didn't mean abandoning my family too--well. I have had to be gently talked into eating and sleeping, such is the force of my anger and my determination to do the right thing.

I'm honestly half wondering if any news outlets would be interested in a human interest women's march story that began with being abandoned by my fucking "NeverTrump" grandparents--my grandfather the whole time bragging about having gone to school with John McCain!--on the side of an Alexandria road, a thousand miles from my home, with nothing but my cell phone and a stripped-down purse--and ended with being sheltered and passed around from marcher to marcher to marcher so I could still stay okay. Put some teeth in those fucking NeverTrump assholes, dammit, and shine a light on their fucking hypocrisy. How dare you share heartwarming stories with me about how our family has served this nation since Taft at the very moment you are pivoting to destroy it? How dare you.

I am serious about this; I need to sit down and write it out, but I figure I'll go on to post my write-up within a few weeks, probably with legal names on. I am so angry and I am so betrayed and if I'm good at nothing else, I think I'm good at conveying that anger. And if my family thinks I can be coaxed into fixing this relationship without serious groveling, my oh my do they not know me very well. (Nor, to be honest, do they know my grandparents; my apple didn't fall far from the tree on this one. The primary difference is that I apparently picked up some basic morals by failing to realize that the patriotism wasn't supposed to be serious.)
posted by sciatrix at 11:09 AM on January 25, 2017 [71 favorites]

That is some serious God-complex shit right there, yo.

"I've had every disease there is except delusions of grandeur. Which is why God himself has chosen ME alone to DO HIS WORK ON EARTH!" [fake; quote from The Critic]
posted by Servo5678 at 11:10 AM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Here's an English article about the Kaspersky arrest. Officially it's about pre-2013 activities, but Russia so who knows.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:11 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Senators need to work with the department heads and giving a nominee a yes when there is little impact can make their job getting information out of agencies easier

It may also reflect senators' level of informal access to senior career staff.

Connect the dots for me.

Kaspersky uncovered / identified the CozyDuke spearphish used for the DNC hacks. The Cozy Bear hackers are considered to be affiliated with the FSB or SVR, while Fancy Bear group is presumed affiliated with the GRU.
posted by holgate at 11:11 AM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

>An interesting story that's been kind of buried out of South Dakota (not @BadlandsNPS). On election day, voters passed an "anti-corruption" initiative to lower campaign finance limits, set curbs on lobbying, create an opt-in publicly funded campaign finance system, and create an ethics commission. The legislature has declared a state of emergency so that they can repeal the measure. Salon has more on the situation.
posted by zachlipton at 3:04 AM on January 26 [−] [!]

NO! NO. NO. INCOHERENT RAGE ENGAGE. CORRUPT FUCKS.

AND DON'T ANYBODY TELL ME TO STAY CALM ABOUT THIS. OF ALL TODAY'S NEWS, THIS IS THE MOST CAPSLOCKWORTHY. HELL. NO.

edited for italics.
posted by saysthis at 11:11 AM on January 25, 2017 [21 favorites]

I wonder when the United States of America is going to be dissolved and replaced with the Imperial State of America.

after the jedi stop by the white house to arrest trump
posted by entropicamericana at 11:11 AM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

I'm taking some encouragement from Bill Kintner, a Nebraska state senator, resigning in disgrace today.

"Kintner retweeted a now-deleted tweet by Larry Elder, a conservative radio host. In it, three women are pictured holding signs referencing Donald Trump’s 'grab them by the pussy' comments; Elder’s comment was 'Ladies, I think you’re safe.' ... Kintner’s resignation came shortly before his colleagues were set to meet and consider his expulsion."
posted by mcduff at 11:14 AM on January 25, 2017 [34 favorites]

I have a plan to save the planet from nuclear annihilation. If we enter a situation where it looks like Trump might at any moment launch nuclear weapons, Rosie O'Donnell can starting Tweeting about Trump and his bankruptcy and his lack of Emmys. It will keep him busy for hours while the crisis has a chance to calm down.
She may be our only hope.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:20 AM on January 25, 2017 [41 favorites]

I reached my [R] senator's office this morning, identified myself as a scientist in the state and managed to get a staffer to tell me that no, Cory Gardner hasn't stated a position on the NIH censorship, and no, the staffer wasn't aware of this issue. So I wrapped my anger in all the patience and politeness I could muster and explained that the major professional society for my discipline had just issued a statement on internal memos leaked to them on this yesterday, and that the memos appear to place a gag order on any NIH staffer talking to any politician, including Senator Gardner himself, without running it through HHS, and that this was something I needed his office to investigate and to provide a response on, because no one should be censoring science paid for with our tax dollars. They asked me for an email and a link, so I sent them one, with a suggestion that they should start by calling the press office at NIH and like, seeing who can talk to them on the record. I also got the name and email of the staffer who directs their science and environmental policy in D.C. I'm at least vaguely hopeful that this is something that any politician should be pissed off about, since it affects their ability to talk directly to federal agencies. But man, my evens right now.
posted by deludingmyself at 11:21 AM on January 25, 2017 [66 favorites]

One comment deleted. Even though they express shared anger at hypocrisy, still let's skip the ironic "being anti-immigrant about Trump and his family" type comments; they still use the gross racist/anti-immigrant rhetoric that we're better off without.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:21 AM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

US Arctic Research Commission Twitter account is going "on hiatus"....

It looks like we are going on hiatus. To keep up on arctic science, sign up for the Arctic Daily Update at http://arctic.gov .
posted by anastasiav at 11:28 AM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

I get resist. I get saying no. But having watched the hearings, a no isn't going to produce a better candidate. A yes isn't going to get one either and I totally get it does lend a veneer of credibility.

Of course it's not going to produce a better candidate. No one thinks it would. Senate Democrats by themselves have zero ability to prevent Trump from appointing anyone he wants to anything. The few days have been, at least for me, incredibly enervating, largely because after an incredible worldwide set of protests and promises from so many Democratic politicians that they would do whatever they could to stop the Trump administration from making all of our lives smaller, shorter, and worse, the #Resistance is already squinting at Pompeo and Niki Haley and saying, "eh, whatever". It raises very real fears that no one with even a small amount of power will actually stand up to the Trump administration, even in small symbolic ways. People are crying out for solidarity right now, and not finding a whole hell of a lot of it in Congress, which is why we spent a whole day celebrating anonymous Park Service Twitter accounts for showing the tiniest amount of fortitude in the face of what's coming.

Not to mention that I don't think anyone can identify even one single small way in which any Republican was harmed by voting No on an Obama nominee, as they routinely did. Certainly they haven't been harmed electorally or in any way that's prevented the party from accumulating power.
posted by Copronymus at 11:30 AM on January 25, 2017 [23 favorites]

I'm at least vaguely hopeful that this is something that any politician should be pissed off about

FWIW, Arlen Specter was intensely opposed to NIH budget cuts in the naughties. "I want to keep living" was his rationale, roughly speaking, IIRC. But he would have no place in today's Republican Party.
posted by Coventry at 11:31 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

When I first moved to Tacoma, where I live now, I saw the Chinese Reconciliation park. Up until then, I had known nothing about that particular era of US history - As usual, we love to downplay that in many of our history texts.

There are many parallels to be found between then and now - from specifically exempting a nationality from US entry, to "economic insecurity" being used as justification for blatant racism, to fortification of the US/Mexico border. It's uncanny. I cannot speak to the senate or house as a whole, but this happened under a presidential administration that would seem very rational by comparison to ours now (kind of a given, I guess.) I fear for anyone who is of a nationality that may be barred entry from the US in the coming days....
posted by MysticMCJ at 11:31 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

@KatzOnEarth
First they came for the Latinos, Muslims, women, gays, poor people, intellectuals and scientists and then it was Wednesday.
posted by argonauta at 11:33 AM on January 25, 2017 [112 favorites]

Current message from Warren's facebook page reads:

I appreciate everyone’s energy and enthusiasm to get involved and fight back. But there have been a series of posts floating around Facebook encouraging people to “copy and paste, don’t share” ways to get involved that claim to come from me or my office. I know that everyone sharing these posts is doing so with the best of intentions – but these posts are fake. They did not come from me.
Please, check my Facebook pages for the post before you decide to email a government agency, call another Senator, or download an app on my behalf. Call my Senate office if you have any questions. It’s up to all of us to be diligent about what we share online, and I’m counting on you to get the word out.

Your Senate office's VM is full, Senator, but I agree with the sentiment. I think there's a very very energizing call to action going on, but let's all be mindful of what we read/repeat/share lest we get bogged down in more nonsense.
posted by lydhre at 11:34 AM on January 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

But [Arlen Specter] would have no place in today's Republican Party.

Even in the aughts, Specter didn't. He left the Republican Party while still in the Senate.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 11:35 AM on January 25, 2017

He was Republican when opposing the NIH cuts, though.
posted by Coventry at 11:38 AM on January 25, 2017

US Arctic Research Commission Twitter account is going "on hiatus"....

They've set up another account at @AltUS_ARC
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:38 AM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Do we have any idea if these Alt accounts are real?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:39 AM on January 25, 2017

They're alt-real.
posted by zachlipton at 11:41 AM on January 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

Kaspersky uncovered / identified the CozyDuke spearphish used for the DNC hacks.

Ah, that's the piece I was missing. Now I see why it's potentially interesting. Thanks!
posted by diogenes at 11:42 AM on January 25, 2017

Well yeah. If we would have all checked Elizabeth Warren's Facebook page before we decided to do anything, we would all be in favor of confirming Ben Carson.

I honestly don't get that. The primary purpose of the confirmation process is to determine whether people are, at a basic level, qualified for the positions they hold, even if they have differing political views. And Carson is objectively not qualified for the job. He has no experience with housing policy and no general management experience either. Let's ask his own spokesman: "Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience, he's never run a federal agency. The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency."

So why possibly would Warren or anyone else vote to confirm someone so obviously not qualified?
posted by zachlipton at 11:43 AM on January 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

NYC people:

In anticipation of a Muslim travel ban, civil rights groups are organizing an emergency rally in NYC's Washington Square Park today at 5pm.

--@AzmatZahra

Facebook event.
posted by zachlipton at 11:45 AM on January 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

Another one of the orders will reportedly block visas from being issued to Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Speaking of which -- Has Spicer been asked a single question about the continuing drone strikes in Yemen?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:46 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Per the NYT, Trump is still using his personal, unsecured Android phone

But Hillary's emails!
posted by nubs at 11:49 AM on January 25, 2017 [25 favorites]

OMG SOMEONE PLEASE JUST START HAMMERING THEM ON EMAILS. PLEASE.

If there is anything right in this world, anything at fucking all, someone please please please start harassing them about using an unsecured phone and private RNC emails. GOD DAMMIT.

/flips table
posted by lydhre at 11:50 AM on January 25, 2017 [62 favorites]

so do y'all think the union is going to make it until the first of the month?
posted by entropicamericana at 11:52 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

re: Mexico Wall

At this point I look forward to years down the line when it's torn down in celebration.
posted by INFJ at 11:54 AM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

Well, we've been downgraded to "flawed democracy" (we were on the fence last year)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:54 AM on January 25, 2017

Trump signed an executive order eliminating federal funding for sanctuary cities.

And cops, and firefighters, and public safety generally. Because, just like the literally exact same people who hammered on BENGHAZIBENGHAZIBENGHAZI just decided to cut embassy security funding in half, they:
A) just want people to die, or
B) want things to get so shitty they can start the real dictatorship, or
C) both.

Probably C.
posted by Etrigan at 11:54 AM on January 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

Trump signed an executive order eliminating federal funding for sanctuary cities. That means Portland just lost millions for affordable housing and homelessness initiatives, if I'm understanding this correctly.

That is what it means. San Francisco just lost $200M, I believe...
posted by suelac at 11:55 AM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Trump signed an executive order eliminating federal funding for sanctuary cities. That means Portland just lost millions for affordable housing and homelessness initiatives, if I'm understanding this correctly.

I think, per SCOTUS precedent, that the order can only apply to funds directly related to immigration enforcement, not all federal funding. So, it's not as much of a blow as it would otherwise seem. I don't remember the case name offhand, but it's the one about drinking age and highway funding.
posted by melissasaurus at 11:55 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Trump signed an executive order eliminating federal funding for sanctuary cities.

He signed an order saying that the possibility of holding back federal funding should be pursued; it's not clear that it can actually happen in this way.
posted by Justinian at 11:55 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Wait, I remember reading something about how the funding for sanctuary cities that was affected was not all federal funding for everything, but only federal funding for certain law-related activities. Let me see if I can find it. I remember it because it was one surprising "this is not as horrible as I thought" thing.
posted by Frowner at 11:56 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Trump signed an executive order eliminating federal funding for sanctuary cities. That means Portland just lost millions for affordable housing and homelessness initiatives, if I'm understanding this correctly.

Isn't the disbursement of Federal funds still controlled by Congress? Are we all just agreeing that he's the King now?
posted by contraption at 11:57 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

So he's looking to eliminate funding for immigration enforcement while raging about too many immigrants? Is that what's happening?
posted by erratic meatsack at 11:58 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Just got a chance to read my State Senator's email from last Monday, which included these delightful sections as his only comment on this past weekend:

It’s been a fraught few days for a lot of us with the Presidential Inauguration on Friday and the extraordinary Women’s March on Saturday.

All I can say is keep on showing up. Your voice and your presence matters. We can’t change anything without you.

Now, it’s time to turn to the nitty gritty of governing.

Last week, the Lt. Governor appointed Texas Senate standing committees....

[...]

An Inaugural

We have a new President. The inauguration caused me to remember the last time we had a new President. I took my son Cooper, who’s now in college, to that previous inaugural and wrote a Watson Wire about it. It was a special moment for us and I thought it would be fun to re-print that eight-year-old Wire in full.

He went on to reproduce the specific, joyful email he wrote up about visiting DC President Obama's first inauguration, accompanied by his eight-year-old son. Whereupon the constituent email ended. Good old Kirk Watson. <3
posted by sciatrix at 12:00 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

US Arctic Research Commission Twitter account is going "on hiatus"....

And the tweet stating this now seems to have been deleted.

They've set up another account at @AltUS_ARC

The first blast of tweets from which describe the commission, its founding and history, and its mission.

Civil servants are dedicated to serving their country. Our democracy rests in their hands, and their decisions to continue that service even if their bosses won't.
posted by biogeo at 12:01 PM on January 25, 2017 [60 favorites]

Here's some analysis of whether federal funding can legally be pulled from sanctuary cities. There may be better resources than this, but this is what the articles I've been reading have linked to when explaining if/how Congress would need to be involved in cutting off funding. So, the executive order is likely terrible, but its power is at least somewhat limited.
posted by snaw at 12:03 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

My congressman:

Trump's executive actions are more about sending a signal to his voters that the new President will act on fears of Muslims and Latinos rather than put forward actual, thoughtful security policy.

Local police have implemented policies on how to deal with the fact that they have large populations of immigrants who live and work in their communities but who are afraid to come forward. I don’t think Donald Trump knows more about policing in America’s cities then actual chiefs of police, but apparently Trump thinks he does. In the President’s world of alternative facts, immigrants are a threat and lead to higher, not lower crime. The factual data clearly show that immigrants commit fewer crimes than Americans born in the United States. But exploiting people’s fears is what this President does best.

We will not have meaningful border security until we have a functioning immigration system that allows in people to work and live and keeps out threats and violent offenders. We want people coming with visas through ports of entry with our permission, not coming with smugglers, but so far the Republican Party has thwarted that. We are simply not going to deport our way out of our current immigration dilemma because the solution is not deportations; it is having a legal alternative and a way for people to get legal.

The President should remember that three out of four Latinos are citizens, but when he attacks immigrant families, it reverberates through the nervous system of the entire Latino community. We are banding together with immigrant communities from other parts of the world, with faith and labor and business leaders and with allies from across the political spectrum to stand up to the President’s mass deportation plans.

As far as the wall is concerned, I suspect that a lot of Trump supporters would be just as happy with a big statue of a middle finger pointed south, because both that and a wall are about equally effective as national security strategies.

He was also the first (I believe) to boycott the inauguration, back in December.
posted by theodolite at 12:03 PM on January 25, 2017 [80 favorites]

OMG SOMEONE PLEASE JUST START HAMMERING THEM ON EMAILS. PLEASE.

If there is anything right in this world, anything at fucking all, someone please please please start harassing them about using an unsecured phone and private RNC emails. GOD DAMMIT.

/flips table

That the first question asked after he was elected wasn't about how his administration would be handling emails shows you exactly how it was used as a stupid club against Hillary.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:07 PM on January 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

Donald Trump's Foreign Business Partners Got VIP Treatment During the Inauguration

And of course, these people posted their pics on Instagram so we all can see just what special treatment they got.
posted by zachlipton at 12:10 PM on January 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

I read this as OMG SOMEONE PLEASE JUST START HAMMERING THEM.
posted by Brainy at 12:10 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Sooooo.... who wants to bet all these hiring freezes, stopping of grant money, defunding of health services by Trump et al will inevitably be funnelled towards building the wall? The wall will wind up being 50 miles long and cost 30 billion which will mysteriously go missing but will have in fact been directed into the pockets of the private contractors they will hire. It's Iraq all over again.
posted by supercrayon at 12:12 PM on January 25, 2017 [19 favorites]

The link I read about taking federal funding from sanctuary cities was on al-Jazeera and was at the bottom of the page as basically a footnote to the executive order for building the wall. It didn't provide any details except that he had done so.

Also, I've been writing in my journal all morning while reading this thread, and that link above about psychometrics and Cambridge Analytica has made me feel like we're living in some sort of Metal Gear Solid 2/Ghost In The Shell/Snow Crash/Children of Men reality.
posted by gucci mane at 12:13 PM on January 25, 2017

Not just Bannon.

Trump cabinet nominee Steven Mnuchin is also registered to vote in two states
posted by chris24 at 12:13 PM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

More people registered in multiple states:

Tiffany Trump
Steven Mnuchin
posted by zachlipton at 12:14 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Pretty sure my wife is registered in two states because we moved last year. Pretty sure it doesn't matter.
posted by Coventry at 12:15 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

So at DHS, Trump basically said, 'I don't care about immigrant families, I only care about the families of victims of killer/rapist immigrants who commit crimes.' Hopefully someone will post a clip/transcript soon. It was disturbing.
posted by gatorae at 12:15 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

The second executive order signed during an appearance at the Department of Homeland Security was to strip federal grant money from "sanctuary" states and cities, often governed by Democrats, that harbor illegal immigrants.

That's all it says :/
posted by gucci mane at 12:16 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Trump administration will publish a weekly list of crimes purportedly committed by undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:19 PM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

victims of killer/rapist immigrants who commit crimes.

Handy reminder that his classic example of a "murdering immigrant" is drunk drivers (Politifact, autoplay video/ads).
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 12:19 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

And, of course, it's inevitable that any attempt to crackdown on people registered in two states will leave many voters registered in zero states.

And when I say inevitable, I mean it's already happened: the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program.
posted by zachlipton at 12:19 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

In Music of the Revolution news...

* Billy Bragg reworks Bob Dylan: "The Times They Are A-Changing Back"

* 100 songs for 100 days: The Secretly Group will release a song a day for Donald Trump’s first 100 days in the White House, to raise money for those who might suffer under him

* Inauguration day releases

Personally I'm kinda hoping that things are now bad enough that Chumbawamba will rise from their deep sleep under the hill and start gigging again
posted by Buntix at 12:19 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Trump hangs portrait of Andrew Jackson in Oval Office

fuck
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:20 PM on January 25, 2017 [32 favorites]

Thanks, witchen. Didn't know that.
posted by Coventry at 12:20 PM on January 25, 2017

Trump administration will publish a weekly list of crimes purportedly committed by undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities.

@AdamSerwer: The White House is website is going to become a white nationalist blog

Time to prepare for martial law in blue states and blue areas in red states.
posted by zombieflanders at 12:21 PM on January 25, 2017 [27 favorites]

Trump administration will publish a weekly list of crimes purportedly committed by undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities.

This is terrible. This is how you get ethnic cleansing. This is like the run-up to the Rwanda genocide - a constant emphasis from the government on the criminality of the victimized group. Seriously, this is how you get people to commit murder.
posted by Frowner at 12:22 PM on January 25, 2017 [125 favorites]

oh fucking jesus fucking christ
posted by sciatrix at 12:22 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Observation: people who move between states sometimes end up accidentally registered to vote in two states.
Hypothesis: people who move between states frequently are more likely to vote Democratic.
posted by biogeo at 12:22 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Trump hangs portrait of Andrew Jackson in Oval Office

I guess plans will be changed and the 20 will now have Trump's nasty mug on it instead of Harriet Tubman.
posted by lydhre at 12:23 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

* Billy Bragg reworks Bob Dylan: "The Times They Are A-Changing Back"

Trump is not attractive, clever, smart, or far-sighted enough to be Bob Roberts.
posted by phearlez at 12:25 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Reading this thread is like drinking from a firehose (of shit).
posted by diogenes at 12:27 PM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

We can't even have lists of people killed by cops but sure, let's enumerate the "crimes" committed by immigrants.
posted by lydhre at 12:28 PM on January 25, 2017 [26 favorites]

Pretty sure my wife is registered in two states because we moved last year. Pretty sure it doesn't matter.

This, to me, is huge. The emphasis from Trump includes two things, being registered in two places and being on the rolls after you're dead, that aren't actually voting fraud. If you vote in two places, sure, but simply being registered in two places isn't the same. This is a way for him to "uncover" fraud that isn't fraud and justify new restrictions on voting. At a minimum expect to see Republicans in lower levels pushing purges of the voting rolls. It's obviously a phony investigation from the word go, because he's not looking at anything close to an actual problem.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 12:28 PM on January 25, 2017 [20 favorites]

Trump administration will publish a weekly list of crimes purportedly committed by undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities.

Are they going to have it organized by race, like Breitbart's "black crime" section?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:29 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

NPR: "Donald Trump has started wearing a red armband with a white circle and black symbol emblazoned on it over his jacket. Some people say this is an 'alt-right' symbol known as a 'swastika,' though Sean Spicer denies this accusation. We cannot be sure what Trump's intent is, though, so that is all we are willing to report at this time." [fake, for now]
posted by entropicamericana at 12:29 PM on January 25, 2017 [24 favorites]

Does anyone remember how I said I wrote a thank you note to President Obama back in October?

He wrote back! I got this yesterday. Mailed on 1/19.
posted by bq at 12:30 PM on January 25, 2017 [99 favorites]

Trump administration will publish a weekly list of crimes purportedly committed by undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities.

Okay. This is a tweet from a journalist; do we have an actual memo on this? Because if this is happening, fuck, I think I need to go and find the local chapter of the Pink Pistols and practice new skills, and that is in no way my first response to this shit. But this smells like I may need to start practicing in case I need to physically defend certain of my friends in my communities, and holy shit my wife already carries a green card at all times in case immigration comes down on them--a card which will be $900 to replace should we lose it--fucking hell. And not just immigrants, all my Latin@ friends will need watching out for and guarding, those assholes don't exactly look for papers before they aim and take fire, and probably my Muslim/Arab friends too.

Fuck. Fuck. Are we going to actually need to organize patrols to keep our communities safe under this new regime? How do we de-escalate this firehose of genocidal threat? How can we shut it the fuck down before people start being murdered?
posted by sciatrix at 12:30 PM on January 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

Hypothesis: people who move between states frequently are more likely to vote Democratic.

It's much worse than that - the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck system republican states have been using to combat this has a very high "error" rate that targets minorities.
posted by mayonnaises at 12:30 PM on January 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

NPR: "Donald Trump has started wearing a red armband with a white circle and black symbol emblazoned on it over his jacket. Some people say this is an 'alt-right' symbol known as a 'swastika,' though Sean Spicer denies this accusation. We cannot be sure what Trump's intent is, though, so that is all we are willing to report at this time." [fake, for now]

"We'll have fashion experts here shortly to discuss what this means for the spring season."
posted by drezdn at 12:32 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Trump administration will publish a weekly list of crimes purportedly committed by undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities.

Here's an example of a Declined Detainers Outcome Report. A "detainer" is when immigration control requests custody of an individual that has been detained by local law enforcement (full definition on page 3). A "declined detainer" seems to then be when local law enforcement doesn't wait around for immigration control.

The Declined Detainers Outcome Report, then, tells you all the terrible things that (unnamed) specific individuals did that could have been prevented if only law enforcement had turned that person over to immigration control.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 12:32 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

that link above about psychometrics and Cambridge Analytica has made me feel like we're living in some sort of Metal Gear Solid 2/Ghost In The Shell/Snow Crash/Children of Men reality.

IIRC Bruce Sterling's Distraction had a plot based heavily around the whole psychometric thing (can't find my copy, so not 100% sure it's the book I am thinking of), although don't recall it being quite as dystopian as current reality is tending towards.
posted by Buntix at 12:32 PM on January 25, 2017

If Trump isn't going to divest, we should consider his properties and hotels fair game as places to boycott, picket, and complain to. I realize this is going to make life hard for workers at those places, but as long as he doesn't divest himself, those locations are fair game. Case in point:

White House Shuts Down Comment Line. So People Are Mass-Calling Trump Hotels Instead.
posted by cell divide at 12:32 PM on January 25, 2017 [63 favorites]

I'm calling it now: The result of this "investigation" will be a complete, 100 percent purging of every voter registration in the entire country. And then everyone will have to re-register, and oh, gee, it looks like the hours those offices are open are just coincidentally really shitty in all the places he lost in states under Republican control.
posted by Etrigan at 12:33 PM on January 25, 2017 [22 favorites]

Does anyone know where the full text of these orders will pop up?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:35 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

And then everyone will have to re-register, and oh, gee, it looks like the hours those offices are open are just coincidentally really shitty in all the places he lost in states under Republican control.

In Wisconsin, after they made voter ID a requirement, they limited the hours/closed DMVs in urban areas.
posted by drezdn at 12:35 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Trump administration will publish a weekly list of crimes purportedly committed by undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities.

In my wildest, darkest, most paranoid liberal nightmares, never did I think we would willingly and affirmatively sink this low as a nation.
posted by madamjujujive at 17:29 on January 20

A silver lining: you can also just copy/paste this statement in a year's time, it'll probably still work.
posted by jaduncan at 17:32 on January 20

Assuming this is real, my own personal marker for that lasted 6 days. There's just the extremely loud whistle now. The first shooting has already happened at the Milo event, too.
posted by jaduncan at 12:36 PM on January 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

Okay. This is a tweet from a journalist; do we have an actual memo on this?

The tweet contains a picture of the actual text from the immigration/wall memo. It reads:

To better inform the public regarding the public safety threats associated with sanctuary jurisdictions, the Secretary shall utilize the Declined Detainers Outcome Report or its equivalent and, on a weekly basis, make public a comprehensive list of criminal actions committed by aliens and any jurisdiction that ignored or otherwise failed to honor any detainers with respect to such aliens.

posted by zombieflanders at 12:36 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

You know what would help with all this rampant voting fraud? Automatic voter registration at the Federal level. I hope congress can unite on this issue, since of course we all agree it's so important to have free and fair elections.
posted by contraption at 12:39 PM on January 25, 2017 [20 favorites]

In the town where I grew up, Conservative activists showed up at a school board meeting, with nothing on the agenda discussing transgendered students, and threatened to sue the school board if they made accommodations for transgendered students.
posted by drezdn at 12:39 PM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

According to a draft of the order obtained by the Washington Post, the words “war on terror” were deleted from the order and replaced with “fight against radical Islam.”

In the images of the edited order, those sections were changed to "...radical Islamism", not "...radical Islam".

It's a subtle but important difference, and one that needs to be pointed out lest we descend into the same "alternative facts" bullshit as them.
posted by rocket88 at 12:39 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

> Declined Detainers Outcome Report

Also, the report I linked to covers 8 months in 2014. It states that the detainers were associated with 5,132 individuals who had been "previously charged or convicted of a crime or presented some other public safety concerns."

So I guess taken at face value, this policy could show how roughly 640 people a month nationally could have been prevented from committing alleged crimes.

Tough on crime or concern trolling?
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 12:42 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

If someone's politics require "alternative facts" they're not in a political party, they're in a cult.
posted by chris24 at 12:43 PM on January 25, 2017 [26 favorites]

zombieflanders: "The tweet contains a picture of the actual text from the immigration/wall memo."

Googling for the first few words brings up this article on Fox News (which is about as close to an official gov't release as we're going to get right now, I guess) containing the full text of the order.

Meanwhile, I'm sure all the extremely principled and not at all craven conservatives who decried Obama's "governing by executive order" as the overreach of a dictator are lining up to denounce Trump right now.
posted by mhum at 12:44 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Sciatrix - Fuck. Fuck. Are we going to actually need to organize patrols to keep our communities safe under this new regime? How do we de-escalate this firehose of genocidal threat? How can we shut it the fuck down before people start being murdered?

We're going to do what it takes to help and protect those who are more in need of help and protection, for as long as we can. That's what we're gonna do. The form and intensity of resistance will have to be highly dependent on time/place so you might not presume that you personally will have to directly participate in patrols or any other armed action. I don't think we should even be asking whether we have any power to de-escalate before there's some kind of violence. That train's left the station.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:46 PM on January 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

prefpara: Spicer just said Trump is a "family man with a huge heart"

His heart is so uuuge that it couldn't be content with a single wife - he's had three! Oh wait, that's not what you mean?
posted by filthy light thief at 12:48 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm banking on "uses a terrorist attack to suspend the Constitution via executive order and declare martial law", myself

Given that the financial markets seem determined to go the full Icarus my money would be on a 2008 level (or greater, probably greater) financial collapse when the bubble bursts.

In 2008 there was a fully staffed and operational Gov't to conduct damage control and mitigate things enough that it didn't turn into a runaway process.

When the next one happens in October 2017, there is likely to be a stripped down government run primarily by incompetent people chosen for loyalty to the cause and ability to stay on message rather than any degree of expertise.

The ensuing chaos will almost certainly result in the blind and blustery application of force rather than reason.
posted by Buntix at 12:49 PM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

Chrome extensions make the news tolerable.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:49 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Lloyd Doggett live on Facebook standing with undocumented immigrants calling to avoid "anti-immigrant hysteria" by gaining the confidence of the immigrant community. Promises that next we will hear from local faith leaders on giving sanctuary to our neighbors and friends.

The hearts are flowing in.
posted by sciatrix at 12:53 PM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

* Billy Bragg reworks Bob Dylan: "The Times They Are A-Changing Back"

Not even a mention of Bob Roberts.

RollingStone.com - you just made the list, pal.
posted by petebest at 12:57 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

"We are commanded: treat the stranger as a neighbor. As Christians, and in my case, Presbyterians, we keep the immigrant at the heart of who we are. We too are mindful in this state of our status as immigrants to this native soil."

I had not predicted how good it was to hear the Christians standing up. Church ladies know how to organize.
posted by sciatrix at 12:57 PM on January 25, 2017 [36 favorites]

I'm sure all the extremely principled and not at all craven conservatives who decried Obama's "governing by executive order" as the overreach of a dictator are lining up to denounce Trump right now

I mean, I would be, but I'm trying to find my passport right now. Just in case. He's making secret fucking laws guys, this is not the time to "wait and see" if he's going to be horrible. This is, what, day three? He is exactly as horrible as we have feared.
posted by corb at 12:59 PM on January 25, 2017 [19 favorites]

I think there's more than enough to point to as far as Trump's moral failings that we don't need to fall back on the kinda shitty "he's been married more than once" angle.
posted by tocts at 12:59 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Standing in solidarity is not what I'm worried about. Feels like everyone keeping up with the deluge of shit is dreading a thing.

Communicating that The Thing Has Come to neighbors and friends is probably going to be a big challenge. Then communicating that protest action is needed right-now-drop-dinner-and-stop-those-vans-full-of-your-neighbors-from-departing-for-the-camps is a bigger challenge. Before/during/after this it's convincing people that Life Has Departed The Expected Path and that it is not the time for hand wringing over impeding agents of the government. Which is a huge problem and a bit of a lie (they could bury their heads in the sand and continue on).

So... I'm not confident. I'm here, and keeping an eye out, but not expecting things to go well.
posted by Slackermagee at 1:03 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best photos of the inauguration that I have seen. Really good.

'All of This Space Was Full': A Photographic Fact Check

Without disputing Spicer’s claims about the total capacity of the area he describes, his summary claim that it was "full when the president took the Oath of Office" is demonstrably false. The following photographs taken by Reuters photographer Lucas Jackson show the mall from the top of the Washington Monument. Enlarging the pictures makes it possible to see video screens with President Trump delivering his inaugural speech, complete with visible captions that help establish the time at which they were taken.
posted by futz at 1:05 PM on January 25, 2017 [19 favorites]

NPR did a whole segment this morning congratulating themselves for not using the word "lie" because the dictionary says "intent to deceive" and that is unknowable.

And furthermore did you know that there are no real objects it's all forces between electrons
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:05 PM on January 25, 2017 [35 favorites]

From the Trump knows you better than you know yourself article linked above, other reasons to not use Facebook:

Around this time, in early 2014, a young assistant professor named Aleksandr Kogan approached Kosinski. He said he had received an inquiry from a company interested in Kosinski’s methods. They apparently wanted to psychometrically measure the profiles of ten million American Facebook users. To what purpose, Kogan couldn’t say: there were strict secrecy stipulations. At first, Kosinski was ready to accept—it would have meant a lot of money for his institute. But he hesitated. Finally Kogan divulged the name of the company: SCL, Strategic Communications Laboratories. Kosinski googled them [so did Antidote. Here. —ed.]: “We are a global election management agency,” said the company website [really, the website has even creepier language on it than that. “Behavioral change communication”? Go look already]. SCL offers marketing based on a “psychographic targeting” model. With an emphasis on “election management” and political campaigns? Disturbed, Kosinski clicked through the pages. What kind of company is this? And what do they have planned for the United States?

What Kosinski didn’t know at the time was that behind SCL there lay a complex business structure including ancillary companies in tax havens, as the Panama Papers and Wikileaks revelations have since shown. Some of these had been involved in political upheavals in developing countries; others had done work for NATO, developing methods for the psychological manipulation of the population in Afghanistan. And SCL is also the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, this ominous Big Data firm that managed online marketing for both Trump and the Brexit “Leave” campaign.

posted by petebest at 1:06 PM on January 25, 2017 [20 favorites]

'All of This Space Was Full': A Photographic Fact Check

ENHANCE!
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:08 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Take Notice, Trump: We Are Not Protestors—We Are Protectors. When we call ourselves protectors, we cast our role as fulfilling our responsibility to the community that sustains us—not for our personal benefit, but for the benefit of all.
posted by homunculus at 1:10 PM on January 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

Lloyd Doggett live on Facebook standing with undocumented immigrants calling to avoid "anti-immigrant hysteria" by gaining the confidence of the immigrant community.

Lloyd Doggett's Austin-based congressional district, by the way, was famously gerrymandered all to shit back in the crooked old days of Tom DeLay.
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:11 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

NPR did a whole segment this morning congratulating themselves for not using the word "lie" because the dictionary says "intent to deceive" and that is unknowable.

Even criminal law allows a jury to find intent based on circumstantial evidence. NPR would have you wait until Spicer issues a confession on-air, I guess, before acknowledging the obvious. Fuck them.
posted by gatorae at 1:11 PM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

Remarks from the congressman and the crowd:

"We need to protect our community. Yes?"

"Yes!"

"And they are not telling the truth."

"Yes!"

"We will continue to demand the truth from Governor Abbott and President Trump and we will demand that they enact policies that are honest and just. Because when we have the truth, we will all be free. Yes?"

"YES."

"¿Aquí estamos?"

"¡Aquí estamos!"
posted by sciatrix at 1:12 PM on January 25, 2017 [20 favorites]

Here’s a terrifying Twitter thread from Maggie Haberman of the Times, paragraphified here:

A few final thoughts on the weekend/first few days. Trump had less than 4 hours sleep on Saturday, when he woke up and, at about 7 am., started calling advisers and aides angry about the @BCAppelbaum RT by parks, accusing media of being out to get him. Trump's worst impulse control is when he's tired or overstretched, or in an uncertain situation. All three took place Saturday.

Trump is unable to let go of any grievance or perceived slight. And he is genuinely transfixed by people thinking his election isn't legit. He is as his advisers say often, at his most self-destructive when the stakes are high (see post-primary, post-convention, debates) and has historically been the one who most undercuts himself. He is also driven by desire to be treated seriously/with respect.

For the WH the idea was that people would be around him who knew him or knew DC or could calm him. The more time ppl spend w Trump, the more they tend to adopt his mindset about how he is treated. Not all aides thought Spicer jeremiad was a bad idea. But all shared view POTUS was being treated poorly. by press. None could get him to move past the feeling of injury, to focus on the enormity at hand.

I am out of words.
posted by reluctant early bird at 1:12 PM on January 25, 2017 [33 favorites]

phoque: I get resist. I get saying no. But having watched the hearings, a no isn't going to produce a better candidate.

But couldn't it? Couldn't you say no until they put forth someone actually qualified and not terrible? Do the Dems have enough votes for that? After all, if the GOP could block a Supreme Court nomination discussion for months, why not shut down these shitty cabinet picks? Without direct leadership, staff operate as best as they can, and generally under prior direction.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:12 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

(Oh, we know. The Congressman's facebook is permanently filled with Texans saying "Gerrymandering took you away, but I miss you, Lloyd!" or "I am so glad to be able to vote for you again now I've moved!" We know.)
posted by sciatrix at 1:13 PM on January 25, 2017

Bruce Sterling's Distraction had a plot based heavily around the whole psychometric thing

I think you might be thinking of Neal Stephenson's Interface. Both books are very good and sort of relevant, though.
posted by Coventry at 1:13 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Please remember that if it comes down to armed citizen patrols versus militarized police, right wing militias, or, god forbid, the military, we are badly, badly outgunned. I'm not saying it's not justified using force to defend your family and community against a tyrannical government, I'm just saying they have tanks and firebombs and there isn't much we can do to fight that with force.

Remember that if it comes to the Trump administration ordering militarized police or the military against the populace, it is individual human beings who will be carrying out those orders. Some of them will be jackbooted thugs only too happy to have an excuse to unleash their violent impulses on their neighbors, but most of them will be average people, who probably entered their law enforcement or military careers out of a desire to serve their communities, not oppress them. They will not want to show it, but they will be conflicted between the trained impulse and sense of duty for following orders versus their own moral compasses and empathy for their fellow humans.

This time, if it does indeed come as Donald's threats seem to suggest it might, will be absolutely critical. Each of these individuals will be confronted with a moment when they have to make a single choice which will forever alter their moral arc of their lives. If they follow orders and do violence against innocent civilians, they will be psychologically committed to that course, and it will be extremely difficult to bring them back from that. We know that the human mind is equipped with an array of psychological defense mechanisms for justifying and rationalizing such decisions, and each subsequent act of violence is easier than the first. Conversely, if they commit to refusing to follow such orders once, they probably never will.

Responding to the threat of violence with violence makes it much more likely that the frightened human being on the other side of the riot shield will act on their fear instead of on moral choice, but it is the act, not the reason for it, which will psychologically commit them to become an oppressor. Responding to the threat of violence with nonviolent resistance forces the potential oppressor to confront the inhumanity of what they've been ordered to do.

In short, I fear that armed citizens' patrols may be only temporarily effective at protecting communities, and may escalate things toward civil war. On the other hand, nonviolent tactics like forming human shields to protect the vulnerable may save both those being targeted and the potential oppressors.

God I hope it never comes to this.
posted by biogeo at 1:15 PM on January 25, 2017 [47 favorites]

For the WH the idea was that people would be around him who knew him or knew DC or could calm him. The more time ppl spend w Trump, the more they tend to adopt his mindset about how he is treated. Not all aides thought Spicer jeremiad was a bad idea. But all shared view POTUS was being treated poorly. by press. None could get him to move past the feeling of injury, to focus on the enormity at hand.

Part of the reason for that is that he has deliberately surrounded himself with cronies and yes-men, with no effort to bring in a range of voices. There is no one who can or will express a different perspective, because they are a homogeneous group.
posted by Superplin at 1:16 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

I just called my senators to urge them to vote no on the remainder of Trump's nominees--both of them voted against Pompeo but for some of the other ones. When I called the first senator, as soon as I said I was calling with concerns about the senator's votes on Trump's nominees, the guy who answered said, "....yes." in the flattest tone of voice possible.

I also had to call each of them twice to get through.

Tea Party the shit out of the Democrats, everyone.
posted by Automocar at 1:17 PM on January 25, 2017 [19 favorites]

For the WH the idea was that people would be around him who knew him or knew DC or could calm him. The more time ppl spend w Trump, the more they tend to adopt his mindset about how he is treated.

Stockholm Syndrome is not just a yearning for a Northern European vacation. I have lived with someone who displayed most of the behavior patterns of our president and the very simplest thing to do to cope with them is blindly agree with everything they say and do. It is the only way to survive.

Not that I pity the people spending time with him, because they deserve their sadness, terror and alienation. But I fully understand what they are feeling. I just wish they weren't dragging the rest of us along with them.
posted by winna at 1:18 PM on January 25, 2017 [24 favorites]

> NYT: Trump Poised to Lift Ban on C.I.A. ‘Black Site’ Prisons

The United States of America Is Back in the Torture Business. Sean Spicer might affectionately call this "working day 3."
posted by homunculus at 1:23 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

OMG SOMEONE PLEASE JUST START HAMMERING THEM ON EMAILS. PLEASE.

If there is anything right in this world, anything at fucking all, someone please please please start harassing them about using an unsecured phone and private RNC emails.

These people have no principles. Trump could do the same thing Clinton did -- Trump could, as he noted, shoot somebody in public -- and his supporters would rally around the leader of their tribe.

They have no shame, because they have no principles other than power. And they have shamed the media with complaints about "gotcha questions," which is just another word for "we caught you in a massive act of hypocrisy," so badly that pointing out the inconsistencies became fodder only for TV comedians.

The media could, however, redeem itself slightly for its stupid obsession over Clinton's emails by pointing out that Republicans don't seem to care about this and so many other issues -- the deficit, for instance.
posted by Gelatin at 1:23 PM on January 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

Yes, yes, the real problem here is NPR's word choices.
posted by biogeo at 1:24 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yes, yes, the real problem here is NPR's word choices.

No one is saying that. We are capable of holding more than one thought in our heads.
posted by Etrigan at 1:25 PM on January 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

Trump is unable to let go of any grievance or perceived slight.

Like, a 70-year-old man who gets so apoplectic about tiny things has to be well on the way to actual apoplexy. Four years of that seems like it would take an awful toll medically, if it's even possible.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:26 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Buzzfeed has the executive orders.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:26 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

@tedlieu
My statement on the stupid #Wall that Trump--who had a rather small Inauguration--wants to build. [here's the statement; note the asterisks after Trump's name and associated footnote]
posted by melissasaurus at 1:27 PM on January 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

Civil servants are dedicated to serving their country. Our democracy rests in their hands, and their decisions to continue that service even if their bosses won't.

And shame on anyone, including and especially members of the so-called "liberal media," who let the conservatives' scurrilous slander of them being "unaccountable bureaucrats" or somesuch stand unchallenged.

(Seriously, NPR, nothing obligates you to amplify conservative propaganda. You should institute a policy that if a Republican soundbite uses the phrase "job-killing" before "regulation," you won't air it.)
posted by Gelatin at 1:28 PM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

Trump is unable to let go of any grievance or perceived slight.

There was actually a National Enquirer headline this week along the lines of "Trump's enemy list, and how he'll have his glorious revenge."
posted by drezdn at 1:29 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yes, yes, the real problem here is NPR's word choices.

“If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant..."
posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:32 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Suppress the vote, rig the electoral college: Bill would end Virginia’s ‘winner take all’ electoral vote system
posted by guiseroom at 1:32 PM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard met with Assad in Syria, she explains to @jaketapper
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:33 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

From the second executive order:

Sec. 13. Office for Victims of Crimes Committed by Removable
Aliens.

The Secretary shall direct the Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take all appropriate and lawful action to establish within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement an office to provide proactive, timely, adequate, and professional services to victims of crimes committed by removable aliens and the family members of such victims. This office shall provide quarterly reports studying the effects of the victimization by criminal aliens present in the
United States.

Sec. 14. Privacy Act.

Agencies shall, to the extent consistent with applicable law, ensure that their privacy policies exclude persons who are not United States citizens or lawful permanent residents from the protections of the Privacy Act regarding personally identifiable information.

It's a love letter to the alt-right's modern day lynch mobs and witch-hunters.
posted by snuffleupagus at 1:33 PM on January 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

lydhre: OMG SOMEONE PLEASE JUST START HAMMERING THEM ON EMAILS. PLEASE.

Colin Powell used an AOL account for his private email when he was the Secretary of State, deleted all the emails when he left office in violation of FOIA rules, and a reconstruction of some of the emails sent to his aides found them to contain some classified material. It was never about emails, it was always about knee-capping Hilary.
posted by bluecore at 1:33 PM on January 25, 2017 [71 favorites]

> The false claims about voter fraud really frighten me. And since a Trump administration peddles exclusively propaganda and BS, the threat of an investigation only scares me more. What kind of fake evidence will they cobble together, and how will they use it to justify enacting voting restrictions that entrench illiberal minority control of our supposed democracy?

I Can Hear the Squawk of Jim Crow: In which the age-old effort to make white votes count more takes on a new appearance.

Ever since Barack Obama was elected in 2008, it has been the committed position of the Republican Party to suppress the franchise among those people to whom the Republican party cannot appeal. It has done so by promulgating the myth of massive voter fraud in the face of all the available evidence, because it knows it can convince its base of pale mouth breathers of just about anything. This strategy has worked out splendidly, and now it's going to be supercharged by a fit of personal pique coming straight from the Oval Office.

Wonderful. Just as the Founders intended.

posted by homunculus at 1:37 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Will NPR be impacted by Trump's funding cuts to public broadcasting? God I would love to see all those fucking totebaggers unemployed.

I complain about NPR a lot, and it's extremely disappointing to watch them fail, again and again, to understand that the rules have changed, but I don't want to see it disappear. NPR is more than Steve Inskeep - I think On The Media, for example, has been doing a pretty good job. And more importantly: without an independent and basically trustworthy (if seriously flawed) fourth estate, we are utterly lost.
posted by theodolite at 1:37 PM on January 25, 2017 [24 favorites]

It's going to get worse before it gets worse.
posted by guiseroom at 1:38 PM on January 25, 2017 [23 favorites]

Donald Trump Is Still Using His Unsecured Personal Cell Phone

posted by futz at 1:39 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

No one is saying that. We are capable of holding more than one thought in our heads.

No one is saying you can't. But at a time when the POTUS has described himself as being at war with the media, attacking a media outlet over not reporting with a sufficiently liberal slant seems to work more towards his ends than towards ours.
posted by biogeo at 1:40 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

It's nuts that I have to read executive orders using the same janky Buzzfeed/DocumentCloud platform as Piss_Dossier.pdf
posted by theodolite at 1:40 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

biogeo: "But at a time when the POTUS has described himself as being at war with the media, attacking a media outlet over not reporting with a sufficiently liberal slant seems to work more towards his ends than towards ours."

Is calling a lie a lie reporting with a liberal slant now?
posted by erratic meatsack at 1:41 PM on January 25, 2017 [20 favorites]

Re: NPR

Let's not forget as well that cutting off federal funds to public radio isn't going to hurt NPR and it's not going to hurt the big public radio stations around the country, neither of which rely on federal funds for much of their budget. It's the small public radio stations throughout the country in small and rural markets (read: Republican) that are going to suffer and suffer hard.
posted by Automocar at 1:44 PM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

So why possibly would Warren or anyone else vote to confirm someone so obviously not qualified?

There are multiple things going on; I imagine she has to pick and choose her battles to maximize effort. This could have been done as a favor owed to another senator, or possibly to set up another senator to owe her a favor down the line.
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:46 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Take a deep breath everyone. The NPR thing isn't a big deal. (at least, not in comparison to other much bigger deals right now)
posted by INFJ at 1:46 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Conyers, Nadler, Cohen and Raskin to Trump: Torture is Wrong and Your Black Sites Order is Illegal: “There is a better way, Mr. President. Virtually every expert on the subject—including some you have chosen to serve in your Cabinet—have told us that torture is illegal, ineffective, and wrong. This executive order will not enhance our national security. It will instead dismay our allies and give our enemies a new platform for propaganda. It will betray our values. I urge you to reconsider.”
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:47 PM on January 25, 2017 [54 favorites]

Is calling a lie a lie reporting with a liberal slant now?

actual proven scientific facts are a biased liberal slant now
posted by poffin boffin at 1:52 PM on January 25, 2017 [29 favorites]

Here's the actual list of "enforcement priorities":

     (a)  Have been convicted of any criminal offense;

     (b)  Have been charged with any criminal offense, where such charge
has not been resolved;

     (c)  Have committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal
offense;

     (d)  Have engaged in fraud or willful misrepresentation in
connection with any official matter or application before a governmental
agency;

     (e)  Have abused any program related to receipt of public benefits;

     (f)  Are subject to a final order of removal, but who have not
complied with their legal obligation to depart the United States; or

     (g)  In the judgment of an immigration officer, otherwise pose a
risk to public safety or national security.

I.e., "anyone we goddamn want."
posted by theodolite at 1:53 PM on January 25, 2017 [38 favorites]

So the chatter now is major cuts to American UN funding (which I guess we're always in arrears on anyway) and major politically-determined pullbacks on other international aid. That's for tomorrow.

We're just sitting here watching the lights going out. This really is it; we've elected a wanna-be genocidaire and he's locking this country down.
posted by Frowner at 1:53 PM on January 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump administration mandating EPA scientific studies, data undergo review by political staff before public release
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:56 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

The lamps are going out all over America, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:58 PM on January 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

Remember how when the election just ended we were going "Well education is going to be the key moving forward, we have to increase public awareness"?

.
posted by erratic meatsack at 1:59 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

(g) is the most horrifying one. sure, let's depend on the sensible and unbiased judgment of the kind of people who would apply for a federal immigration job under this administration, why not.
posted by poffin boffin at 1:59 PM on January 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

the term "military junta" comes to mind
posted by poffin boffin at 2:06 PM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

In case anyone needs a new facebook/twitter banner
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:07 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

New Yorker, now that I've subscribed to your discounted introductory membership, why bring me straight down with your email subject / lead article? A Bad Day for Earth, with More to Come

Tuesday began with news that the Trump Administration had imposed a comprehensive gag order on employees of the Environmental Protection Agency. According to a leaked memo, “no press releases,” “no blog messages,” and “no social media will be going out,” and “no new content can be placed on any website” until further notice—perhaps an attempt to camouflage the other big E.P.A. announcement, which was that the agency’s grants and contracts had been temporarily frozen, effectively halting its work. Then, at nine o’clock, the President had breakfast with a group of beaming auto executives. Trump told them that he was “to a large extent an environmentalist,” but apparently his long participation in that movement had persuaded him that “environmentalism is out of control.”

At least Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe Records shared something positive: Shaheen Leads Bipartisan Group of Senators to Introduce Global HER Act to Permanently Repeal the Global Gag Rule

One day after President Trump issued an executive order to reinstate the Global Gag Rule, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the only woman on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and a bipartisan group of senators introduced the Global Health, Empowerment, and Rights (HER) Act, which would permanently repeal the harmful policy. The Global Gag Rule, also known as the Mexico City Policy, bans federal funds for foreign non-governmental organizations that provide abortion services or provide information about abortion as part of comprehensive family planning services, forcing clinics to choose between providing limited reproductive health services while accepting U.S. foreign aid or providing inclusive family planning and reproductive healthcare with a limited budget. The executive order issued yesterday expanded the policy from the Bush Administration to apply to every program that falls under global health assistance at the Department of State, USAID and the Department of Health and Human Services.

posted by filthy light thief at 2:07 PM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

angrycat: Why would any rational non-evil person sign on to be SoD when that means likely they will be a key bukkake participant?

Because it is easier to effect change from the inside.
posted by slipthought at 2:07 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Soon we will be pining for how the GWB admin was only a tiny bit war-crimey.
posted by Artw at 2:09 PM on January 25, 2017 [27 favorites]

ou sont les war criminals d'antan
posted by poffin boffin at 2:11 PM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

angrycat: Why would any rational non-evil person sign on to be SoD when that means likely they will be a key bukkake participant?

Also...

"The National Command Authority comprising the president and Secretary of Defense must jointly authenticate the order to use nuclear weapons to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."

Think about it.
posted by slipthought at 2:11 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

and at just the right moment, you can pull away and throw the bukkake master of ceremonies down the bukkake ventilation shaft!
posted by prize bull octorok at 2:12 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

@timkaine I will oppose Betsy DeVos’s nomination. Our next Education Secretary must be pro-public schools, pro-accountability and pro-civil rights
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:13 PM on January 25, 2017 [44 favorites]

so like hypothetically trumppence is all "lol let's push the button bros bc someone was mean to me on the internets" and then mad dog puts him in a sleeper hold? is that what we're counting on?
posted by poffin boffin at 2:14 PM on January 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

There are multiple things going on; I imagine she has to pick and choose her battles to maximize effort. This could have been done as a favor owed to another senator, or possibly to set up another senator to owe her a favor down the line.

I mean, great, but isn't this another example of the Democrats not understanding how profoundly the game has changed, because will there even be a Senate next year
posted by Automocar at 2:15 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Office That Protects Whistleblowers Fires Warning Shot Across Trump's Bow

The Office of Special Counsel, an agency that protects whistleblowers in the federal government, on Wednesday issued a reminder that any non-disclosure agreements or policies on employee communications must include language notifying federal employees of their whistleblower rights.

"Under the anti-gag provision, agencies cannot impose nondisclosure agreements and policies that fail to include required language that informs employees that their statutory right to blow the whistle supersedes the terms and conditions of the nondisclosure agreement or policy," the OSC press release said.

posted by dnash at 2:15 PM on January 25, 2017 [47 favorites]

The King And The Light

There once was a King who ruled a huge and prosperous kingdom. His power was such that there were none upon the earth who he considered his equal, and so one day he called down a star from the night sky and bade her walk with him. It was there, in his vast garden, that he asked her to be his wife.

“Where would I live?” she asked.

“In my castle,” the King replied.

The star laughed, and said she could not. For she was used to the vastness of space, and walls were not to her liking.

“Well then, if not in my castle how about in the fields of my kingdom,” he said, and he showed her the extent of his fields and the vastness of his domain. “All this is mine, and within it you can go where you please, for you would be Queen and none but me would dare stop you.”

But still she refused.

“Even your kingdom has borders. And borders themselves are walls,” she said. “Walls of another kind, yes, but they constrain all the same.”

“Then, if not my wife, my prisoner you will be,” the King said, and he called for his guards to capture her.

To this the star replied, “Wife, servant, prisoner, slave - what difference would it make what you call me? Without choice, the imprisonment is just the same.”

The King’s guards led her to the deepest and darkest part of the castle’s vast filthy dungeons, and there, in the smallest cell, they locked her inside. “Perhaps when this cell has dimmed the fire in your heart you will see the error of your ways,” the King said to the star.

To which the star said to the King, “It is not just me this cell holds in place, for you as well are bound by it.” But the King would not listen, and he left her there, glowing to no-one in the dark.

After a week, the King returned and asked once more for her hand in marriage. The star looked just as bright as before, if not brighter, and still she refused. “If a week is not enough to change your mind, then so be it,” said the King.

“And to you I say the same,” said the star. But the King would not listen.

After a month, the King returned for a second time, and asked her again to marry him. The star’s radiance was brighter than ever and she refused once more. “If a month is not enough to change your mind, then so be it,” said the King.

“And to you again I say the same,” said the star. But the King would not listen.

After a year, the King returned for a final time. “I have asked you three times to marry me, and three times you have refused. If you refuse me a fourth time, I shall abandon you here and you shall know nothing more but imprisonment for the rest of your days.”

By now the star was so bright the King had to shield his eyes against her majesty. “I have spent a year in this cage, hoping each day that you would come to understand that these walls have imprisoned you just as much as me. But you have understood nothing.”

The star reached out and took the King by the hand. “Look, I shall show you,” she said. And with that her brightness flared and the King’s castle was burned to the ground, and the people within were set free.

And then she shone more brilliantly than ever before, and every wall and building in the country was reduced to ash, although the people within were left unharmed.

And then her brightness exploded outwards once more and the walls and the borders of all the Earth were destroyed and everyone across the world was set free. And in the comfort of her light there was much rejoicing and a shared sense of kinship between all that would never fade.

The people of the world did give her praise, but they did not make a God of her, nor even a Queen, for her light had shown them that those that rule are another wall imposed upon the world, and the Gods themselves yet another.

To the King she said, “To you, and only you, shall I show a truly wall-less world, out beyond the binds of gravity.” And she bore him up into the immensity of space, and took him to the deepest and darkest part of her infinitely vast domain, and she set him down there in the darkness, where the only light was her own, for the rest of the stars were too far away to cast their light upon him.

“Now, my King, you are free.”

And she left him there in the dark, in the cold, far out beyond the walls of the world.
posted by dng at 2:17 PM on January 25, 2017 [53 favorites]

so like hypothetically trumppence is all "lol let's push the button bros bc someone was mean to me on the internets" and then mad dog puts him in a sleeper hold? is that what we're counting on?

Yes.
posted by biogeo at 2:19 PM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

poffin boffin: "so like hypothetically trumppence is all "lol let's push the button bros bc someone was mean to me on the internets" and then mad dog puts him in a sleeper hold? is that what we're counting on?"

Sleeper hold, People's elbow, Falcon punch, whatever works but basically yeah, I think.
posted by mhum at 2:19 PM on January 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

Head of the Office of Special Counsel to be shortly replaced by Chris Christie wearing a literal muzzle.

[fake, maybe]
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:20 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

i mean it's better than anything else we've come up with so far
posted by poffin boffin at 2:21 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

I would like to hear more about the possibility of radioluminescent starbeings seducing Trump and casting him out into space
posted by prize bull octorok at 2:23 PM on January 25, 2017 [73 favorites]

I've felt slightly less anxious about nuclear death since running across this tidbit:

Gold Codes are generated daily and provided by the National Security Agency (NSA) to the White House, The Pentagon, United States Strategic Command, and TACAMO. For an extra level of security, the list of codes on the card includes codes that have no meaning, and therefore the president must memorize where on the list the correct code is located.
posted by theodolite at 2:23 PM on January 25, 2017 [67 favorites]

Gold Codes are generated daily and provided by the National Security Agency (NSA) to the White House, The Pentagon, United States Strategic Command, and TACAMO. For an extra level of security, the list of codes on the card includes codes that have no meaning, and therefore the president must memorize where on the list the correct code is located.

Yeah but Trump is the kind of guy who has his bank account passwords post-it noted to his monitor.
posted by dis_integration at 2:24 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

He'll just have Jared highlight for him. Such a helpful young man.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:27 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

He'll get round this by making sure the real one always contains his name.
posted by dng at 2:27 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

> In case anyone needs a new facebook/twitter banner

Here's one for the more radical observer.
posted by guiseroom at 2:29 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

> From the second executive order:

Agencies shall, to the extent consistent with applicable law, ensure that their privacy policies exclude persons who are not United States citizens or lawful permanent residents from the protections of the Privacy Act regarding personally identifiable information.

(emphasis mine)

Note that this also excludes from the Privacy Act all lawful visa-holding foreign nationals who are not permanent residents (ie, green-card holders), including skilled professionals on H-1B visas, students on F-1 visas, researchers on J-1 visas, spouses of US citizens and permanent residents, et cetera.

This doesn't just punish those who are here without documentation. It punishes anyone who might come to the United States from abroad. In fact, it'll be the documented folks who are going to lose the most in terms of privacy protection, by virtue of the simple fact that they have more gov't documentation to protect.

Someone sounds funny, dresses funny, does math on planes? Better dox their ass.
posted by Westringia F. at 2:31 PM on January 25, 2017 [37 favorites]

Senators need to work with the department heads and giving a nominee a yes when there is little impact can make their job getting information out of agencies easier

holgate>It may also reflect senators' level of informal access to senior career staff.

Very good point and very true.

Copronymus> It raises very real fears that no one with even a small amount of power will actually stand up to the Trump administration, even in small symbolic ways. People are crying out for solidarity right now, and not finding a whole hell of a lot of it in Congress, which is why we spent a whole day celebrating anonymous Park Service Twitter accounts for showing the tiniest amount of fortitude in the face of what's coming.

Massively agree!

Not to mention that I don't think anyone can identify even one single small way in which any Republican was harmed by voting No on an Obama nominee, as they routinely did. Certainly they haven't been harmed electorally or in any way that's prevented the party from accumulating power.

Strong agreement again and maybe a couple clarifying points. It is a tough call and I have been wavering in thought about what is being won versus lost, there is a real weighing to do.

As for cost to Republicans, I don't think elections alone are the sole cost indicator (although probably the major one). I would suggest that while they held both House and Senate, and opposed the President as matter of routine, they had very little impact on agency missions. They didn't hold a lot of hearings (decent leadership, little indication of ethical breech or politicization or graft also made it a low priority). But their inability to shape policy within agencies because of the refusal style (even while they held all the law writing abilities) saw little of their agenda passed (speaking in broad strokes and simple terms).

The Democrats aren't operating from the same majority power position, so denial of everything (in my view) can't work in the same way it did for Republicans. It would likely see them simply shut out. Short end of the stick, leverage and all that. A Yes can give you more stick while a No (coming from a lower power level) may not move the grip or could actually cost grasp. So amount of cordiality or relationship calculation are social aspects to shared governance which are hard to quantify. Rightly or wrongly cliques and power centers exist. More voices in agreement, more leverage.

The greater the public out cry (and you have no idea how proud I am of all of you) can lessen the cost of resistance or remove the social graces people employ from the equation. For example Carson would likely have understood a Warren voting No, with zero impact on ability to work together if the public outcry is strong and clear and numerous in opposition. The astroturfing to start tea party is one of the things that allowed Republicans to be such unrepentant assholes.

But things are coalescing in the right direction

filthy light thief>Couldn't you say no until they put forth someone actually qualified and not terrible? Do the Dems have enough votes for that? After all, if the GOP could block a Supreme Court nomination discussion for months, why not shut down these shitty cabinet picks? Without direct leadership, staff operate as best as they can, and generally under prior direction.

Unfortunately not without Republican votes. Cabinet nominees are currently straight majority vote. The Supreme Court is still 60 (for now). The best thing Democrats can do is highlight the incompetence and criminality and conflicting interests. They could probably still do real filibusters and actually occupy the floor to delay and make a point. But Democrats alone can't stop them. This is why protest is so, so, so important.
posted by phoque at 2:31 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Flagged as fantastic, dng. Thanks.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:33 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

so like hypothetically trumppence is all "lol let's push the button bros bc someone was mean to me on the internets" and then mad dog puts him in a sleeper hold? is that what we're counting on?

Rule #3: ~~Institutions~~ Mad Dog will not save you.
posted by DynamiteToast at 2:36 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio:

The president's executive order runs contrary to our values, but the stroke of a pen does not change the people of New York City. We are not going to deport law-abiding New Yorkers. We will not tear families apart. We will not leave children without their parents. We are not going to undermine the progress the NYPD has made over a quarter century. We believe we are on solid ground for a legal challenge to the executive order should the occasion arise.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:36 PM on January 25, 2017 [58 favorites]

We really need Tim Kreider to start drawing things again.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:39 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Boston Globe: Walsh rails against Trump, calls immigration actions ‘direct attack’

“We will not be intimidated by a threat to federal funding. . . we will not retreat one inch,” Walsh said during a press conference that streamed live on the city’s website. “To anyone who feels threatened or vulnerable, you are safe in Boston.”

Walsh said in a press release that he will “use all of my power within lawful means to protect all Boston residents — even if that means using City Hall itself as a last resort.”

posted by jason_steakums at 2:44 PM on January 25, 2017 [36 favorites]

lysenko ftw!
posted by j_curiouser at 2:44 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

John McCain: .@POTUS can sign whatever executive orders he likes, but the law is the law - we're not bringing back torture
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:45 PM on January 25, 2017 [43 favorites]

From @us_arc:

Tweets will continue as before from USARC’s “Arctic Daily Update.” Glad you like them. Thanks for the input.

I think various federal agencies must be scrambling to figure out whether they are in fact obligated to follow gag orders from the White House. Little things like this provide a tiny window to the chaos that must be happening in federal offices across the country, and world.
posted by biogeo at 2:46 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

John McCain: .@POTUS can sign whatever executive orders he likes, but the law is the law - he's not building that giant mechanical exoskeleton

[real in 6 months]
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:46 PM on January 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

Walsh said in a press release that he will “use all of my power within lawful means to protect all Boston residents — even if that means using City Hall itself as a last resort.”

I have to say I didn't expect to be reading statements like that on Day 6.
posted by nubs at 2:51 PM on January 25, 2017 [34 favorites]

Ugh, today has been a shit show. I made my daily calls to my MOC's and received their voice mails. Every day it's something new to call and rail about and I'm starting to lose track of who I've called on what subject. Is there an organization or site that is organizing issues as they come up before the Senate? I've had a hard time even finding info on when the confirmation votes are happening.
posted by photoslob at 2:52 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Senator Warren's statement on Ben Carson.
posted by sunset in snow country at 2:54 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

photoslob, I saw 5calls.org mentioned on Twitter, seems pretty slick.
posted by theodolite at 2:54 PM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

photoslob:

US Gov tracker (who knows how long this will last...)
Countable (also has an app)
posted by gofargogo at 2:56 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

I have to say I didn't expect to be reading statements like that on Day 6.

Or is it Day 3?
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:56 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Is Trump suffering from neurosyphilitic dementia? Considering his lifestyle and the fact that his doctor seems to be the sort who would not be able to diagnose or else successfully treat syphilis and the fact that tertiary syphilis appears latent.
I'm not starting a rumor, just assking if he's sic [sic].
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 2:57 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

There must be some way that our corporate masters will benefit from bad trade decisions, genocide and consumers having less money to spend on their shit, but I can't see it. This is why I'm not a corporate master I guess.
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:01 PM on January 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

Somerville stands tall!
posted by lydhre at 3:03 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

5calls is exactly what I'm looking for - thank you!
posted by photoslob at 3:05 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Joe Curtatone have any interest in running for Governor?
posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:05 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Senator Warren's statement on Ben Carson.

I was angry about her yes vote, but I'm satisfied with this explanation.
posted by diogenes at 3:05 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'm not.
posted by Windopaene at 3:07 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Walsh said in a press release that he will “use all of my power within lawful means to protect all Boston residents — even if that means using City Hall itself as a last resort.”

I have to say I didn't expect to be reading statements like that on Day 6.

I do cleave to the hope that Trump will be the last dying gasp before the political equilibrium is punctuated and there is a quickening and evolution.

It happened here (in the country that in no way, shape, or form, had anything to do with Trump being born: it's suspicious he hasn't shown us his mum's birth certificate, n'est-ce pas?).
posted by Buntix at 3:09 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Read leaked drafts of 4 White House executive orders on Muslim ban, end to DREAMer program, and more
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:11 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

ABC released a clip from the Trump interview they're airing tonight with him talking about voter fraud. It's maddening.
posted by zachlipton at 3:13 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

From Warren's post: "But a man who makes written promises gives us a toehold on accountability."

With all due respect, that is simply not the case. Accountability means consequences, and there will be no consequences because Carson fails to live up to Warren's expectations. That is because Warren is in the minority, and there is no disunity within the GOP on the subject of HUD's mission. If we were talking about another agency things might be different, but the only consequences Carson could face would be if he actually tried to do the things Warren wants him to do, at which point he would face consequences from Republicans.

There was no upside to voting to confirm Carson. None. Warren's mistake is a small one, but it's a mistake, and the fact that she still doesn't understand how opposition party politics works after watching Republicans do it for years is disappointing.
posted by tonycpsu at 3:13 PM on January 25, 2017 [26 favorites]

Every day he looks and sounds more like my bubbe. She is 100 years old
posted by theodolite at 3:15 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Leaked drafts of executive orders, unsecured cell phone, outright lies by Spicer and unhinged tweets by the president. What in the ever-living-fuck is going on?!

I had a terrible thought today: these are the first days of an occupation. We. Are. Fucked.

Edit: oh yeah, voter fraud....
posted by photoslob at 3:15 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Ya know, Cheney and Rumsfeld must be kicking themselves right now, thinking "we coulda got away with so much MORE!"
posted by valkane at 3:17 PM on January 25, 2017 [51 favorites]

I'm not satisfied with Warren's explanation either.

He did well on the written portion of the exam, so he gets a Yes vote?

He's going to do whatever Trump and Bannon and Pence want him to do. Perioid. He serves at the pleasure of the President, so even he did somehow develop autonomy and stick to the claims he made in his hearing and the essay booklet he gave to Sen Warren, he will be dropped like a sack of dirt, and Trump will nominate that second person she feared anyway.

My God, are Democrats still trying to kick that football, even after 8 years of seeing Obama fall flat on his face every single flippin time he believed the Republicans when they promised they wouldn't snatch it away this time?

If I wasn't still riding the high of participating in the march last Saturday, I think I'd probably give up all hope right about now. As it is, I'm starting to think that far too many journalists and Democratic politicians are too far removed from the daily grind so many people go through to understand that this is not normal, this is not okay, and everything Trump proposes that is foul must be resisted to the maximum degree posible.
posted by lord_wolf at 3:17 PM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

The Economist has downgraded the US (from 8.05 to 7.98, but that's enough to slip under the threshold) from "Full Democracy" to "Flawed Democracy" status.
posted by zachlipton at 3:17 PM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

the hope that Trump will be the last dying gasp before the...quickening and evolution.

Don't you think you're putting a little too much faith in the whole Trump/MacLeod thing?
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:17 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

I was angry about her yes vote, but I'm satisfied with this explanation.

That explanation would be a satisfying one if there were a snowball's chance in hell of her "No" vote affecting Carson's confirmation in any way. As it is, her vote was purely symbolic, and voting yes is basically smiling warmly and offering a friendly greeting to the all-consuming inferno that is burning down our system of government, in hopes that it might remember and decide to negotiate in good faith "when it really counts." Democrats in congress have somehow still not figured out that the rules of civil engagement have been suspended for the duration.
posted by contraption at 3:18 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Senator Cantwell hasn't said yet how she'll vote on the DeVos confirmation. My mind, it is boggled. Even if we set aside -- and we shouldn't, but if we did -- even if we set aside differences like "should public school funds be diverted to religious schools," DeVos isn't qualified. She didn't know that IDEA is federal civil rights law.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:20 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

ABC released a clip from the Trump interview they're airing tonight with him talking about voter fraud. It's maddening.

That's something else. The interviewer says that Trump's evidence has been debunked. Trump refers to the Pew report again. The interviewer says he talked to the author last night and he confirmed that it doesn't say what Trump claims it says. Trump asks "then why did he write the report?" I doubt he even read the damn thing.
posted by diogenes at 3:21 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Oh hey I just remembered a word for when people try to act conciliatory and accommodating toward a fascist demagogue in hopes that his thirst for control will be slaked and he'll start acting in good faith and things will go back to normal: "appeasement." That's called "appeasement."
posted by contraption at 3:22 PM on January 25, 2017 [63 favorites]

there's no possible way Warren could see any strategic or practical advantage to voting "Yes" on a merely-unqualified nominee like Carson, we're all much smarter than her after all
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:25 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

How do you reason with a guy who doesn't care that the author of a report he's citing says he's interpreting it incorrectly? (That's a rhetorical question I guess.)
posted by diogenes at 3:26 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I saw 5calls.org mentioned on Twitter, seems pretty slick.

This is neato, but it's suggesting that I make 4 calls to one Senators office. This course is slightly concerning because I asked a staffer how often one could call and still be effective, and they basically said "Once per day per person".

Unfortunately, the one call per person per day system really makes it difficult to register all the necessary opinions about this latest shit tsunami that is rapidly approaching. Any one have contradictory information or suggestions about what to do? I have enough time to make quite a few calls, but I want to be effective.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 3:27 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

In which the story Trump told Congressional leaders about voter fraud makes absolutely no sense whatsoever (it involves a golfer who is not a US citizen, or maybe it was a friend of the golfer who is a citizen, nobody knows). This is what he does. He hears random bits of anecdotes and constructs them into giant narratives while ignoring opposing data or common sense of any kind.
posted by zachlipton at 3:28 PM on January 25, 2017 [24 favorites]

How do you reason with a guy who doesn't care that the author of a report he's citing says he's interpreting it incorrectly? (That's a rhetorical question I guess.)

So what I gather then is Trump is going to be on TV tonight and again showing the world that he is delusional. I expect he thinks his interview was tremendous and how can people not see he's right now.
posted by Jalliah at 3:29 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

"merely" unqualified? So we should be OK with Democratic senators signing off on anyone who isn't openly malevolent? The high road isn't the way to go here. The GOP needs to be made to own it all.
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:30 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

From the Immigration order signed today:

Sec. 7. Additional Enforcement and Removal Officers. The Secretary, through the Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, shall, to the extent permitted by law and subject to the availability of appropriations, take all appropriate action to hire 10,000 additional immigration officers, who shall complete relevant training and be authorized to perform the law enforcement functions described in section 287 of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1357).

And here's Section 287. if you want to review authorized law enforcement functions.

I suppose this is Trump's deportation force? He still needs Congress to appropriate the funding.
posted by notyou at 3:30 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

there's no possible way Warren could see any strategic or practical advantage to voting "Yes" on a merely-unqualified nominee like Carson, we're all much smarter than her after all

How exactly does an 11-dimensional chess expert express "Pull the other one, it has bells on"?
posted by Etrigan at 3:30 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

In which the story Trump told Congressional leaders about voter fraud makes absolutely no sense whatsoever

"Ahead of and behind Mr. Langer were voters who did not look as if they should be allowed to vote, Mr. Trump said, according to the staff members"

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 3:30 PM on January 25, 2017 [41 favorites]

When Trump asked "Then why did he write the report?" The interviewer should have said something like "To capture the information that he's telling you you're wrong about."
posted by diogenes at 3:31 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN

You know. Black, brown, tits or turban. The usual.
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:31 PM on January 25, 2017 [55 favorites]

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN

I'll give you three guesses, but it's "Not white."
posted by Etrigan at 3:32 PM on January 25, 2017 [19 favorites]

I caught a couple of minutes of Wolf Blitzer when I was changing channels. He was talking to Senator about an investigation. The Senator said (sorry don't know who) that they are the ones that would do this sort of investigation. He said that he's spent a lot of time talking to colleagues and it's not something they're talking about doing. He sounded dismissive of the whole thing.

Can the President force them to do it?
posted by Jalliah at 3:32 PM on January 25, 2017

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN

The man is a massive racist. Do you need me to spell it out for you?
posted by joedan at 3:32 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN

They weren't white.
posted by nubs at 3:33 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Can the President force them to do it?

Not by command. Possibly by coercion.
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:34 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

How does a hiring freeze jive with hiring 10,000 more immigration officers? Do these orders exist in some kind of universe where they are completely independent of each other?
posted by mollweide at 3:34 PM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

For some reason I'm finding myself listening to Paul Ryan being interviewed on MSNBC. What the hell is wrong with me?
posted by Jalliah at 3:34 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

How does a hiring freeze jive with hiring 10,000 more immigration officers?

The exception they put in it for security & safety, naturally.
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:34 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

In which the story Trump told Congressional leaders about voter fraud makes absolutely no sense whatsoever

That story isn't even coherent as a story, let alone as evidence of voter fraud.
posted by diogenes at 3:35 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

How does a hiring freeze jive with hiring 10,000 more immigration officers? Do these orders exist in some kind of universe where these they are completely independent of each other?

"Well, which is it, young feller? You want I should freeze or get down on the ground? Mean to say, if'n I freeze, I can't rightly drop. And if'n I drop, I'm a-gonna be in motion."
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:36 PM on January 25, 2017 [21 favorites]

there's no possible way Warren could see any strategic or practical advantage to voting "Yes" on a merely-unqualified nominee like Carson, we're all much smarter than her after all

Yeah, I'm inclined to give the pros -- who have access to all sorts info we do not, particularly how their constituents are feeling at the moment (Not super positive!) -- the benefit of the doubt.
posted by notyou at 3:36 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

How does a hiring freeze jive with hiring 10,000 more immigration officers? Do these orders exist in some kind of universe where they are completely independent of each other?

If he was capable of recognizing that two contradictory things can't be simultaneously true, he wouldn't be a Republican.
posted by IAmUnaware at 3:37 PM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN

The man is a massive racist. Do you need me to spell it out for you?

Sorry.

IN A SANE WORLD, TO REASONABLE PERSON, WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? ESPECIALLY, BUT NOT ONLY, IN A JUS SOLI COUNTRY? HOW DOES THAT MAKE SENSE? AND FURTHERMORE, WHAT KIND OF A DUMMY GOLFER IS TOLD HE CAN'T VOTE, AND JUST WALKS AWAY DISAPPOINTED YET WITHOUT KNOWING THE REASONING HE WON'T BE ALLOWED TO VOTE? ...AND! WHY DO I LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE I HAVE TO ASK THESE THINGS ANYWAY?

Sigh.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 3:38 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

The exception they put in it for security & safety, naturally.

Keeping up with this firehose of shit is a full time job. I suppose that's part of the plan.
posted by mollweide at 3:38 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

I suppose this is Trump's deportation force? He still needs Congress to appropriate the funding.

Sweet summer child, Republicans don't actually care about the deficit. Not when house to house deportation squads are on the menu.
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:41 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

The golfer story sounds like a tale a tea partier would be demanding an answer to at a Congressional town hall, not a conversation between the President of the United States and Congressional leadership. It's literally "my friend told me he couldn't vote, or maybe it was his friend who couldn't vote, I don't remember, and there were lots of foreign looking people standing around in line." The President of the United States is your racist uncle.
posted by zachlipton at 3:46 PM on January 25, 2017 [19 favorites]

Via @charlottechurch, this isn't about Trump, but it could, should, and in a better timeline would: be...

Tweet This, You Small-Minded Motherfucker!
posted by Buntix at 3:46 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Ryan says that the border wall is essential. I didn't hear his reasoning because I had to mute when he was talking about tax cuts.
posted by Jalliah at 3:46 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

I can't believe this fucking wall is going to be a thing.
posted by Jalliah at 3:47 PM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

Oh and Ryan is now saying he's okay with a voter fraud investigation. Not listening to what he's going to say about it. Channel is being changed.
posted by Jalliah at 3:49 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

there's no possible way Warren could see any strategic or practical advantage to voting "Yes" on a merely-unqualified nominee like Carson, we're all much smarter than her after all

I'm sure she did, and from the evidence available she decided that the possibility of a unified Democratic front resisting the appointments of people who are grotesquely unqualified for their posts was less valuable than the possibility that Trump, his party, and the members of his cabinet would act honorably in the future and abide by promises made in private communications with a single Democratic Senator. I'll concede that the stakes in this case are pretty low and that both of those things are pretty unlikely to happen. And hey, maybe there is some unseen master plan that makes her "Yes" vote a good strategic move, but at this point in the dissolution of our system of government I find it likelier that the Dem parliamentarians are continuing to play their parliamentary power games as though the other side were still composed of people like them, who care about principles of some sort and are interested in negotiating. I have a lot of respect for Warren but that explanation does not make me feel any better about that vote.
posted by contraption at 3:49 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

You know, if there were time travelers, they shoulda took out Orwell. Then fucking Bannon wouldn't have a fucking blueprint.
posted by valkane at 3:49 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

These are the bad times guys. We will see our government do horrible things. We will see people we respect get torn down and harassed. We will see our neighbors turn on each other and then rejoicing when their neighbor is wounded. We will see innocent people suffer. We will see injustice. We will see mendacity and lies go unchecked and unchallenged. We will see our heroes and those who should protect us make stupid decisions and disappoint us. We will see our strengths weaponized against us and turned into weaknesses. We will see ignorance and hatred and bigotry. We will see our institutions thrown down. This will happen.

Most important are the lies. They will lie and lie and lie, and their lies will sow confusion and despair. They will make us feel helpless.

However. We are not helpless and we are not confused and we will not give in to despair. We won't waste our time reaching out to the people cheering this - they are lost to us. We will grieve them and give them up. We will reach out to the people around us who will help. If we do this we will also see bravery, kindness, justice, inclusiveness, courage, toughness, and hard fucking work. You yourself will be brave, kind, just, equitable, inclusive, courageous, tough, and hard fucking working.

Don't despair, organize.
Don't give in to confusion, organize.
Don't feel overwhelmed, organize.

And most of all endure. There is steel within you and it's yours for the asking. Take it and use it.
posted by supercrayon at 3:50 PM on January 25, 2017 [66 favorites]

I can't believe a massive construction project can take place in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas without employing a ton of illegal immigrants as laborers.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:51 PM on January 25, 2017 [32 favorites]

per @SenFeinstein office:
30,000 calls to impeach then Pres Clinton
so far only 5,000 calls to vote "no" on Sessions
415.393.0707

--@michesf

CA folks: Pick up a phone, start dialing.
posted by zachlipton at 3:53 PM on January 25, 2017 [20 favorites]

I can't believe a massive construction project can take place in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas without employing a ton of illegal immigrants as laborers.

I'm honestly worried he's going to use this immigration roundup as slave labor. "Mexico will pay for it" indeed.
posted by jason_steakums at 3:53 PM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

Jesus Christ, Dianne, if I have to tell you how to vote on everything, what is the point in even having an elected official?
posted by entropicamericana at 3:54 PM on January 25, 2017 [59 favorites]

Just FYI, got a note from the Int'l Refugee Assistance Project that they now have way, way more atty volunteers than they need for now. They're now taking names to build a confidential call list as a hedge against future actions that may require rapid response.
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:55 PM on January 25, 2017 [21 favorites]

Jennifer Rubin, WaPo: Trump’s ‘orders’ are essentially memos to his advisers

President Trump seems to be testing just how gullible his anti-immigration supporters are. The “executive orders” issued today on defunding sanctuary cities, building the wall and reviewing past executive orders are not so much orders — in the sense that they change things on the ground — at all. These are props for glorified press events to take the place of real action. For the vast majority of his intended actions, the only immediate action is planning, meeting, etc. Cato Institute scholar Alex Nowrasteh observed via email, “These orders are pretty weak compared to his campaign promises — for which we can be (temporarily) thankful.”
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:55 PM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

per @SenFeinstein office:
30,000 calls to impeach then Pres Clinton
so far only 5,000 calls to vote "no" on Sessions
415.393.0707

Give me a break. Let's get us a Senator that doesn't put post-its on her computer screen or ignore the constituents who physically come to her office.
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:56 PM on January 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

per @SenFeinstein office:
30,000 calls to impeach then Pres Clinton
so far only 5,000 calls to vote "no" on Sessions
415.393.0707
--@michesf

CA folks: Pick up a phone, start dialing.

Gee DiFi it's almost like modes of communication have changed drastically since then and you should still be able to sensibly take the temperature of your electorate. "I haven't received a single telegram!"
posted by jason_steakums at 3:58 PM on January 25, 2017 [42 favorites]

415.393.0707
so far only 5,000 calls to vote "no" on Sessions

"We're unable to take your call at this time"

U WAT M8
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:58 PM on January 25, 2017 [28 favorites]

When things build up a head of steam this fast something has to blow.
I am really wondering where the flash point is going to be. I mean you can keep on politicking and arguing and lawering but shit is going to go down and then there will be the aftermath which will be full on fascist.
Probably the only real hope to avoiding civil conflict is that the men in the shadows remove the lunatic one way or another ushering in the dystopian reign of Pence.
posted by adamvasco at 3:59 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

The anecdote, the aides said, was greeted with silence, and Mr. Trump was prodded to change the subject by Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, and Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas.

I hope that silence was long and awkward and that Trump's words hung in the air like a bad fart.

Note that the Times is attributing this to three unnamed sources in the room. The White House is leaking like a sieve; this is going to start rattling him soon, the same as the leaks from his campaign did. Watch for threats against newpapers.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 4:00 PM on January 25, 2017 [24 favorites]

Has anyone tried using morse code to contact her?
posted by futz at 4:01 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Trump is unable to let go of any grievance or perceived slight. And he is genuinely transfixed by people thinking his election isn't legit.

It's almost like he has some kind of a dis-ease.

I'd say I'll be happy when "The President is mentally unfit to hold office" becomes a daily, then hourly message from the media, but I really won't.
posted by petebest at 4:01 PM on January 25, 2017

Could we send a horse-drawn cart to her office loaded with longhand letters?
posted by contraption at 4:02 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Not to worry, I've sent for the Maester. Have more capon.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:02 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Uh, DiFi staffer, you think maybe folks were a bit more clued in to the potential to impeach Bill Clinton and fired up to hit the phones after years of relentless hounding by his political opponents and weeks of buildup to that vote, and so maybe that's not the best comparison to make here? Not to mention, just this week you had 200 folks show up at your local office to express their displeasure at your vote in favor of CIA Director Pompeo, but you locked them out, and so maybe some have got the idea you're a lost cause, confirmation vote-wise.

In any case, let's look back to the impeachment vote... Oh! DiFi voted not guilty*, contra the wishes of those 30k voters.

What was the point of that tweet?

-----------------
*Dig the old timey web design!
posted by notyou at 4:05 PM on January 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

I'd say I'll be happy when "The President is mentally unfit to hold office" becomes a daily, then hourly message from the media, but I really won't.

It's really one of those glad not really glad things.

I'm doing my part though. So many more people today on my social media are talking like this and I'm 'oh hey, yes ever heard of narcissism and related personality disorders?' check it out. And then it's all 'OMG that's him, that's totally him. So many things make more sense now.'
posted by Jalliah at 4:05 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Jesus Christ, Dianne, if I have to tell you how to vote on everything, what is the point in even having an elected official?

Democratic cravenness when the stakes are this low has been astonishing even for them. They're going to confirm Trump's SCOTUS pick with 80 votes, and at that point why even bother. Just resign and make this a one party state once and for all.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:06 PM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

Bernhard fucking Langer, you are retroactively fucking stripped of all your Ryder Cup wins.
posted by holgate at 4:07 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Could we send a horse-drawn cart to her office loaded with longhand letters? Only if you get permission from Thurn and Traxis.
posted by drezdn at 4:07 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Oh ffs: The Democratic Senate Leadership Page has not yet been updated to reflect the 115th Congress. The Senate leadership can't be arsed to direct a staffer to update their own fucking web page?

I'm not even sure it makes a difference to contact them, if you're out of their state, but c'mon, get your shit together.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 4:07 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Jesus fucking Christ that Bernhard Langer story.

We need an investigation into the holes in Trumps brain, because it is clearly rotting out.
posted by Artw at 4:10 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Just one problem: Mr. Langer, who lives in Boca Raton, Fla., is a German citizen with permanent residence status in the United States who is, by law, barred from voting, according to Mr. Langer’s daughter Christina.

“He is a citizen of Germany,” she said, when reached on her father’s cellphone. “He is not a friend of President Trump’s, and I don’t know why he would talk about him.”
posted by Atom Eyes at 4:12 PM on January 25, 2017 [30 favorites]

I've just been told by a friend at the meeting, that 500 people have showed up in Philly to organize against gerrymandering. On a Wednesday night. In January.

I'm taking small glimmers of hope where I can.
posted by mcduff at 4:14 PM on January 25, 2017 [31 favorites]

Well I mean it's only been a few days plus the calls to block Sessions are probably getting diluted by the calls to block all of the other nominees and the calls to actually act like a senior member of the opposition party.
posted by ckape at 4:15 PM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

In CA - also got a "we can't take your call right now" message from Feinstein's office, but I left a voicemail asking her to vote against Sessions, Price, DeVos, and the rest of what I'm calling "Trump's Cabinet of Hate".

I was pretty nervous but it's better than nothing? (<--actually I'm not even sure about that - feeling pretty pessimistic today).
posted by too bad you're not me at 4:15 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

This is what Trump voters said when asked to compare his inauguration crowd with Obama’s

Would some people be willing to make a clearly false statement when looking directly at photographic evidence — simply to support the Trump administration’s claims?

Yes.

posted by peeedro at 4:16 PM on January 25, 2017 [41 favorites]

So Trump voters see five lights ?
posted by Pendragon at 4:21 PM on January 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

This is what Trump voters said when asked to compare his inauguration crowd with Obama’s

Proving the crazification factor once again.
posted by zachlipton at 4:21 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Trump voters see their Prince.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:24 PM on January 25, 2017

Just left a voicemail for Feinstein as well and mentioned yesterday's visit and the 21 letters and postcards that are on their way by postal mail since they didn't let us drop them off. Vote no on Jeff Sessions x 29, or at least I hope that's how they count it. I'm confused, are those numbers on calls about Clinton's impeachment something that the person who tweeted was told by a Feinstein staffer? Because if so.... I can't even. I am beside myself.

I did just get a Facebook message from an old friend in Ireland who I haven't talked to in years - he said he's been enjoying my activism updates and to keep up the good work. Just saying - if you're not American and have an American Facebook friend, it may buoy them to know you've got their back.
posted by sunset in snow country at 4:24 PM on January 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

The other thing that's galling about that Feinstein complaint is that now is the time when Democratic Reps and Senators need to be aggressively seeking out the opinions of their base, not waiting for their base to come to them - more access, more town halls both remote and in person, more communication with the people on the ground. Solidify your support and do some outreach, damnit! Work your asses off like never before to give constituents a voice!

It's this interminable wheel-spinning I can't take. Like, sure, almost all of the DNC chair candidates have been sounding good on paper, I'd be happy with Ellison or Buttigieg or even Perez because there's basically no daylight between them and they all want to go hard on the 50-state and 3,007-county strategy and I'll be here to help however I can when they do start looking at my district, but that election isn't for a month and then they still need to come up with and implement strategies and build out the infrastructure. We needed that leadership and coordination weeks ago. How many opportunities have we missed for up-and-coming Dems to be indentified and sent to speak out in their districts? You strike while the iron is hot, not after the iron has been left on so long unattended it's burned the house down.
posted by jason_steakums at 4:25 PM on January 25, 2017 [20 favorites]

15% wrong is better than I expected. 18% of Americans have seen a ghost.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:25 PM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

This is what Trump voters said when asked to compare his inauguration crowd with Obama’s

I think the conclusion is that they know the the truth, but they want to signal their support of Il Toupe. If you think of some of their responses as signals of loyalty instead of beliefs of fact, they make more sense.

Of course, it could also be because they're dumb as a box of lotion.
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:25 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Of course, it could also be because they're dumb as a box of lotion.

There was that Daily show segment during the election where the guy showed two identical pictures of Hillary to people at Trump rally and asked if they thought one was a body double. (related to the body double charges when she got sick).

They did pick the picture that was obviously the body double.
posted by Jalliah at 4:30 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Vote with your wallet by boycotting banks that are funding the Dakota Access pipeline: list of banks funding DAPL.
posted by jazzbaby at 4:33 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Folks, there is a March for Science in the works. Reddit.com/r/marchforscience
posted by ocschwar at 4:36 PM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

You know, if there were time travelers, they shoulda took out Orwell.

come on, it's columbus plus ferdy and iz.
posted by poffin boffin at 4:38 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Just heard from my climate change activist friend here in Canada that there is a whole group dedicated to saving all of the climate change data that this admin is getting rid of. He also said that California has suggesting that they will replace research that's not being done to the point of 'launching their own damn satellite'.
posted by Jalliah at 4:39 PM on January 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

I work at the USDA and..... hey, I can talk again!

SO: That first terse memo read as if the writer had a gun pointed at him and was forced to type it. The second memo told us to disregard the first memo and then at great length (just like a genuine memo) reminded us what our official policy was. And as a matter of fact our official policy is that every "public facing" piece of information is already required to be vetted. I was once interviewed by the local paper about my hobby (gardening) for a one paragraph fluff piece and that had to be submitted to higher official for approval and by the end of it the reporter regretted the whole thing. As did I.

I assume this all had to do with climate change. If you have a long memory, you will remember that we developed a new USDA climate zone map during the Bush administration, and it was later withdrawn because it clearly showed warming. Happily, the Nature Conservancy stole the map and posted it on their site. I remember Obama's first inaugural speech. We gathered in the conference room to hear it, and when he said the words "climate change", all of us burst into cheers.

Yesterday we were worried about the gag order because we had just laboriously gone through the vetting process to put up a Facebook account for our "Citizen Science" project for school children. Our agency is like your 80-year-old Grandpa and can't figure out how to use social media, but we got approval to do it just... last week.

It is very encouraging to read your supportive words. All of us government scientists are public servants and really truly believe that we serve the country.
posted by acrasis at 4:42 PM on January 25, 2017 [173 favorites]

@RepKihuen: .@POTUS I was once undocumented – now, I’m a member of Congress. #NoBanNoWall
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:42 PM on January 25, 2017 [27 favorites]

In case anyone needs a new facebook/twitter banner

I went all Apocalypse Now on Friday. With a special update on Saturday.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:42 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

I can't believe a massive construction project can take place in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas without employing a ton of illegal immigrants as laborers.

I'm honestly worried he's going to use this immigration roundup as slave labor. "Mexico will pay for it" indeed.

It is 100% perfectly legal in the United States of America to use convicts as slaves. It's right there in the constitution's slavery amendment.

Your city might, and your state probably, make heavy use of them right now.

Then there are the work diversion programs where people are given the choice of sub-human labor conditions or jail. (This is how my nice supposedly progressive reliably Democratic neighborhood keeps it's streets clean and it breaks my heart every time I see the chain gang at work)

So slaves building a wall? I'd be surprised if parts of the border were not already built by slaves.
posted by srboisvert at 4:45 PM on January 25, 2017 [29 favorites]

In case anyone needs a new facebook/twitter banner

I've just been using the final shot from Planet of the Apes.
posted by ckape at 4:50 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

If you want to mirror some government datasets: here's a list of things that need mirroring ASAP
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:57 PM on January 25, 2017 [19 favorites]

It is 100% perfectly legal in the United States of America to use convicts as slaves. It's right there in the constitution's slavery amendment.

Ava DuVernay's 13th (trailer) is an excellent documentary on this.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:07 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

NYT: Trump Prepares Orders Aiming at Global Funding and Treaties

They're really serious about throwing away US hegemony, aren't they?
posted by Talez at 5:14 PM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

If you want to mirror some government datasets: here's a list of things that need mirroring ASAP

Bit of schadenfreude here. Stumbled onto a Trump supporter discussion and they're kinda freaking out at all of these shows of resistance. They don't seem to be able to get their minds around all the things (like this) that people are just doing. Some are trying to figure out who the master organizer is. It's like they can't comprehend that there isn't someone or something out there directing people do it all.
posted by Jalliah at 5:15 PM on January 25, 2017 [46 favorites]

Don't let Trump take credit for the Dow 20K. During Obama's tenure, the Dow more than doubled and was within 257 points of 20K.
posted by Yowser at 5:15 PM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

They're really serious about throwing away US hegemony, aren't they?

Those are their standing orders
posted by Slackermagee at 5:16 PM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

Jallah, you just made my day. I've been archiving climo data for the past 24h. It just needed to be done.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 5:18 PM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]

Some are trying to figure out who the master organizer is.

C'mon, everyone knows it's Soros.
posted by Gaz Errant at 5:18 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Update on the anti-gerrymandering meeting in Philly tonight. 850 attendees! Standing room only crowd.
posted by mcduff at 5:19 PM on January 25, 2017 [28 favorites]

Some are trying to figure out who the master organizer is. It's like they can't comprehend that there isn't someone or something out there directing people do it all.

Willard: They told me that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound.
Kurtz: Are my methods unsound?
Willard: I don't see any method at all, sir.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:20 PM on January 25, 2017 [18 favorites]

US hegemony is bad for profits, comrade.
posted by valkane at 5:20 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Aw, crap, I was thinking about the White House.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:20 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

They're really serious about throwing away US hegemony, aren't they?

It's astonishing! The US has (had) so many structural advantages - the US dollar is the global means of exchange, the UN is located there, the computers that process most financial transactions are there, it has close cooperation with most developed countries' civil, military, and clandestine forces. These are things of literally incalculable value to the US, both financially and strategically. But it's as though the Republicans have been setting out to destroy each of these, and for no very good reason. It's astonishing! I'm astonished!
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:26 PM on January 25, 2017 [57 favorites]

It's a good old fashioned bust-out is what it is.
posted by notyou at 5:29 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Why, it's almost as if Trump were the puppet of some other state...
posted by Sys Rq at 5:29 PM on January 25, 2017 [42 favorites]

He's the puppet, but every Republican in America from McConnell to your uncle at Thanksgiving is happily and knowingly going along with the soft Russian coup, just to get their tax cuts and kick the poor/Brown people.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:32 PM on January 25, 2017 [33 favorites]

But it's as though the Republicans have been setting out to destroy each of these, and for no very good reason. It's astonishing!

The people who want America to be all Little House on the Prairie are enabling the ones who want it all Atlas Shrugged.
posted by holgate at 5:35 PM on January 25, 2017 [37 favorites]

Sometimes that only thing that keeps me going these days is thinking about when Trump eventually goes down (and I really hope he does, though I'm not so sure of anything anymore), that those stone-cold evil assholes Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Reince Priebus, Ted Cruz, etc, will go down with him and I hope they go down HARD. In my dreams, they're thrown out of office in shame and disgrace and not only can they never hold office again, they can't get any kind of a job, ever. Because they knew better and they had a moral duty and the power to do something and they fucking just went along with the whole thing. I hope they live to regret the day they cravenly went along with a despot to further their own power fantasies. I hope that the rest of America despises them and for the rest of their days they're followed with OJ Simpson-levels of social pariahdom.
posted by triggerfinger at 5:35 PM on January 25, 2017 [17 favorites]

@HeerJeet
Even if Trump were impeached tomorrow, damage to USA world standing already done. No one will again trust country that elected Trump.
posted by chris24 at 5:37 PM on January 25, 2017 [59 favorites]

Let's get us a Senator that doesn't put post-its on her computer screen or ignore the constituents who physically come to her office.

Pssst. There's a certain congressman you might approach: #morelikelieu

The Vox article linked by roomthreeseventeen above about the 4 leaked drafts yet to be released has this:

all admissions of Syrian refugees will be suspended until President Trump determines they can begin again. The total number of refugees allowed in fiscal year 2017 will be reduced from 110,000 to 50,000, and preference will continue to go to “religious minorities.”

So that's how they will make sure all of the Christian refugees get in.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:40 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Also, I think Pence is not opposed to the whole ethnostate thing.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:40 PM on January 25, 2017

A close second in my favorite former president category.

@VicenteFoxQue
Sean Spicer, I've said this to @realDonaldTrump and now I'll tell you: Mexico is not going to pay for that fucking wall. #FuckingWall
posted by chris24 at 5:41 PM on January 25, 2017 [51 favorites]

" The people who want America to be all Little House on the Prairie are enabling the ones who want it all Atlas Shrugged."

There is more of a connection there than you might think.

"A close examination of the Wilder family papers suggests that Wilder’s daughter did far more than transcribe her mother’s pioneer tales: She shaped them and turned them from recollections into American fables, changing details where necessary to suit her version of the story. And if those fables sound like a perfect expression of Libertarian ideas—maximum personal freedom and limited need for the government—that’s no accident. Lane, and to an extent her mother, were affronted by taxes, the New Deal, and what they saw as Americans’ growing reliance on Washington. Eventually, as Lane became increasingly antigovernment, she would pursue her politics more openly, writing a strident political treatise and playing an important if little-known role inspiring the movement that eventually coalesced into the Libertarian Party."
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:43 PM on January 25, 2017 [49 favorites]

that those stone-cold evil assholes Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Reince Priebus, Ted Cruz, etc, will go down with him and I hope they go down HARD

Add Richard Burr to that list. He was gung-ho on Trump and praising-- actually praising!-- Betsy DeVos for her "commitment" i.e.e her donations to his campaign. I loath him and it would be wonderful to taint him with Trump Goo that stains him forever.

Yeah, I've been using the #FuckingWall all afternoon.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:45 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

The left needs heroes right now. Roxane Gay is a hero:

Roxane Gay pulls book from Simon & Schuster over Milo Yiannopoulos deal
posted by triggerfinger at 5:47 PM on January 25, 2017 [58 favorites]

Here's another to add to the list:

Wichita Eagle: Kobach says he advised Trump on voter fraud probe, immigration orders

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Wednesday that he advised President Trump to investigate voter fraud and played a role in the early writing of expected executive orders on immigration policy.

Kobach, the only secretary of state in the nation with prosecutorial power, has filed nine cases against people accused of voting in more than one state. Six resulted in guilty pleas, one was dismissed, and two are pending.

So in his entire state he found 6, maybe 8, cases of voter fraud but sure, there are 5 million cases out there that need to be investigated.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:51 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Oh and one more quote from the article:

Carmichael noted that Kobach has not brought a single case against a noncitizen for voting illegally. All of the cases he has brought concern U.S. citizens accused of voting in more than one state.

“He has claimed that voter fraud is rampant in this state, but he has little evidence to support that allegation,” Carmichael said. “He has brought charges now against, I believe, nine individuals, all of whom are United States citizens, most of whom are Republicans, and the vast majority of them are white. And his office is now spending approximately a quarter of a million dollars a year prosecuting nine people and defending voting rights lawsuits.”

My bold
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:54 PM on January 25, 2017 [41 favorites]

That's the number of non-white people in Kansas.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:54 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

" The people who want America to be all Little House on the Prairie are enabling the ones who want it all Atlas Shrugged."

It was a sad moment when I grew up and realized that Pa was actually an asshole. Always dragging his family around because he pathologically needed to look for something better over the next hill. They'd work there asses off, finally get settled and then *boom* nah this is crap let's go again!
posted by Jalliah at 5:56 PM on January 25, 2017 [37 favorites]

The other thing that's galling about that Feinstein complaint is that now is the time when Democratic Reps and Senators need to be aggressively seeking out the opinions of their base, not waiting for their base to come to them - more access, more town halls both remote and in person, more communication with the people on the ground. Solidify your support and do some outreach, damnit! Work your asses off like never before to give constituents a voice!

I was simply dumbstruck when I read in this thread earlier today that the Democrats are still trying to push this Russia thing as the issue that's going to move them forward. Their people just articulated a clear set of issues where they want to take a stand! Millions of them! Where were congressional Democrats on Saturday? Did they speak to anyone at the Women's March? Listen to any of the speeches? Did they even watch news coverage of the event?

Our rights are under threat: women's reproductive rights, the rights of immigrants, LGBTQ rights, the rights of indigenous peoples to have even such basic necessities as clean water, the rights of people of color to not be gunned down in the street by police on a whim, I can't possibly hope to cover them all in one comment, these are all under threat right now, and the Democrats are still talking about this Russia bullshit? You know what, if this is how they want to play this, these idiots deserve to lose. I hope the movement that crystallized this past Saturday produces people that we can put in office who are worthy of leading the resistance to this unprecedented threat, because the people in there now, those people voting their approval for staffing the Cabinet with radicals, idiots and oligarchs, have completely lost touch with the reasons that we put them there in the first place.
posted by indubitable at 6:02 PM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

via Maddow: New PP poll: 18% of Americans believe that the inauguration had the biggest crowd in history.

44% approve of Trump's job performance

50% approve of the Women's March last weekend
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:03 PM on January 25, 2017 [19 favorites]

I can't let myself believe that @WhiteHouseLeak twitter account that witchen linked upthread but I'm definitely keeping an eye on it. Interesting note: it looks like Spicer mentioned New York and California as targets in the voter fraud investigation, but it appears @WhiteHouseLeak mentioned it before that. Could be a good guess, I mean that one in particular is an easy guess, but... keep an eye on that account. If it is real some of that stuff is huge - Ryan begging Priebus not to resign, appointees wanting Pence to swear them in because they don't want to be in a picture with Trump.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:04 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

@jabdi Trump’s Muslim ban is real and worse than you expected.

- If you are an Iranian national outside of the U.S. with a valid U.S. visa, you will not be able to enter the United States.
- Iranian dual citizens (e.g. a dual national of France and Iran) may be barred from entering the United States.
- U.S. permanent residents (green card holders) who are outside of the United States may be barred from reentry.
- U.S. citizens will not be directly affected by the ban.
posted by triggerfinger at 6:06 PM on January 25, 2017 [26 favorites]

Everyone should type www.alternativefacts.com into their browsers. I wanna know who did that so I can buy them a beer, or maybe a medal.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:06 PM on January 25, 2017 [41 favorites]

I can't let myself believe that @WhiteHouseLeak twitter account that witchen linked upthread but I'm definitely keeping an eye on it. Interesting note: it looks like Spicer mentioned New York and California as targets in the voter fraud investigation, but it appears @WhiteHouseLeak mentioned it before that. Could be a good guess, I mean that one in particular is an easy guess, but... keep an eye on that account. If it is real some of that stuff is huge - Ryan begging Priebus not to resign, appointees wanting Pence to swear them in because they don't want to be in a picture with Trump.

It's was worth reading just for this.
There is real talk inside the #WhiteHouse about @OMAROSA taking over as Press Secretary. Wheels=Off. #PresidentTrump

Can you even imagine?
posted by Jalliah at 6:09 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Sometimes that only thing that keeps me going these days is thinking about when Trump eventually goes down (and I really hope he does, though I'm not so sure of anything anymore), that those stone-cold evil assholes Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Reince Priebus, Ted Cruz, etc, will go down with him and I hope they go down HARD.

I think this is fantasyland, sadly. Trump could quite likely go down in a spectacular flameout. The rest? The country is too polarized. They can live forever on the conservative welfare circuit or whatever lobbying firm/think tank they want. The only way they get truly taken down is if Something Really Bad happens and they are hauled before The Hague.
posted by gatorae at 6:09 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

I have a feeling the whitehouseleak twitter account is disinfo personally. It's just too good to be true. I want it be true so badly though.
posted by nolabasashi at 6:10 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

In yesterday's press conference, Spicer literally said that anecdotes are more useful than statistics.

Definitely more persuasive. But the plural of anecdote is not data. It's propaganda. Label it & treat it accordingly.
posted by scalefree at 6:10 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

@WestWingReport

Trump White House continues to spring leaks. Lots of leaks. Staffers just can't stop spilling the beans
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:11 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

There is real talk inside the #WhiteHouse about @OMAROSA taking over as Press Secretary. Wheels=Off. #PresidentTrump

Can you even imagine?

Omarosa "Every Critic, Every Detractor, Will Have To Bow Down To President Trump" Manigault?

Why yes. I could imagine. But it's would still probably be worse than what I imagine.
posted by Talez at 6:12 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Not to continue the protracted NPR argument too much, but this was said above by Automocar:

Cutting off federal funds to public radio isn't going to hurt NPR and it's not going to hurt the big public radio stations around the country, neither of which rely on federal funds for much of their budget. It's the small public radio stations throughout the country in small and rural markets (read: Republican) that are going to suffer and suffer hard.

So I thought I'd back it up with the source for this claim, a report [PDF] commissioned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting back in 2012, and summarized by Media Matters a few days ago:

The study reviewed alternative funding mechanisms but determined that none could adequately replace federal funding without compromising the mission of public broadcasting. “A reduction or elimination of CPB funding will put 63% (251) of radio stations and 67% (114) of television stations in the public broadcasting system at risk,” according to the report. Many of the stations at greatest risk for shuttering altogether are in rural areas that have more limited programming options -- some are the only broadcast stations available to their audience.

I'm a producer for a large pubradio station in a major metropolitan market, and even with our big-city donor/membership initiatives and other means of support, CPB still supports us to the tune of $1.2 million a year (9% of our budget). Not exactly chump change.
posted by mykescipark at 6:13 PM on January 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

But even if we could, a literal list of crimes is among the least-helpful way of understanding the impact of policies. It's analogous to focusing on what you saw on the nightly news to understand the prevalence or absence of crime rather than looking at annual crime statistics; it goes beyond inaccuracy -- it will be, almost assuredly, actively misleading rather than simply wrong.

I think it's worth pointing out again, that THIS IS HOW REPUBLICANS THINK. Anecdata is their primary source. Rural conservative folks get their news from the TV. Their local (or nearest big city) news primarily tells them about crimes that have happened and flashes mugshots of people who committed crimes. For many reasons, some of them related to poverty and a lot of them related to bias in law enforcement and crime reporting, the criminals they see tend to not be white. (Also because cities tend to be much more diverse.) And so these sheltered white folks think 1)crime is a terrible problem because it happens so much and 2)most of the criminals aren't white. Because to someone who lives in a town of 7000 (like I currently do) it sure seems like a lot of crime on the news in the nearest big city (Houston.) Because they have no concept of how many people that city actually holds (in the metro area 6.7 million.)

And that's how we get Trump. Who's going to do something about all those dangerous people.
posted by threeturtles at 6:13 PM on January 25, 2017 [46 favorites]

The problem with @WhiteHouseLeak is that, if it's actually real, there's basically nothing he or she could write that we couldn't make up ourselves. And so there's no way to test whether anything in it actually comes to pass. Omarosa as Press Secretary? Of course it's plausible. Unless that account starts tweeting out copies of documents before the White House releases them, it's unverifiable: fake leaks from the Trump White House are indistinguishable from real ones.
posted by zachlipton at 6:17 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

I was just at Washington Square Park in NYC with, I think, thousands of protesters who gathered on almost no notice to stand up for refugees, immigrants, Muslims, and everyone under threat right now. I saw Linda Sarsour there and overcame some shyness to thank her for her work and courage. It is restorative to participate in these public demonstrations of resistance. It's rough right now, but people are coming together and showing up for one another. That is a reason to hope.
posted by prefpara at 6:18 PM on January 25, 2017 [47 favorites]

Apparently George Soros paid most of those Women's March protesters, according to 38% of Trump voters (per Public Policy Polling).
posted by gatorae at 6:23 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Why Trump’s Meetings With CEOs Seeking Mergers Trouble Observers: The president has flouted decades-old norms of antitrust by directly speaking with the executives of companies seeking to merge.

The President Is Meddling in Massive Corporate Mergers. What Could Go Wrong? Long live the plutocracy.
posted by homunculus at 6:25 PM on January 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

@Bencjacobs
Jason Chaffetz just made clear to reporters that he will not investigate voter fraud

@jbendery
When even Chaffetz won't participate in a partisan witch hunt for something that's not there, you know it's bunk.
posted by chris24 at 6:26 PM on January 25, 2017 [40 favorites]

TeePublic appears to be having a sale on shirts about punching Nazis and the like.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:27 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Jason Chaffetz just made clear to reporters that he will not investigate voter fraud

Dude. I'm... speechless.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:30 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Drawing on previous comments in this thread, I have developed the perfect band name for the era of Trump: Military Junta Bukkake
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:30 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Pssst. There's a certain congressman you might approach: #morelikelieu

That's my congressman! He's super awesome! I called today to thank him for introducing H.R. 669 and S. 200, the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017. This legislation would prohibit the President from launching a nuclear first strike without a declaration of war by Congress. (Co-sponsored w/ Markey from MA)

looks like Spicer mentioned New York and California as targets in the voter fraud

Besides being idiotic targets, I would love to see Trump or anyone else in his adminstration go up against Jerry Brown. I would freaking pay to see that.

Governor Brown Delivers 2017 State of the State Address: "California is Not Turning Back, Not Now, Not Ever"
posted by Room 641-A at 6:31 PM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

Politico: Trump hit with $2 million suit by contractor on D.C. hotel

Freestate says the Trump Organization has offered to pay only one-third of the project change and acceleration costs the contractor incurred. The suit contends that Trump’s businesses have a practice of unfairly pressuring contractors to accept reduced payments on projects.

“On information and belief, Trump’s actions in refusing to pay for work performed, after a project has opened, is a repeated practice of the Trump organizations on various projects, evidencing a typical business practice mean to force subcontractors to accept ‘pennies on the dollar’ with respect to amounts owed for the cost of the work performed,” the complaint says.

Yep. That's our President.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:31 PM on January 25, 2017 [31 favorites]

Apparently George Soros paid most of those Women's March protesters, according to 38% of Trump voters (per Public Policy Polling).

Was thinking about this the other day. I'm assuming that he would have paid expenses for the people that traveled.
So lets say DC ,go low range 500 (more for people that took flights) and lets say 500,000 thats 250,000,000
Across the country maybe 100 bucks each? x 2,000,000 that's 200,000,00 or x 2.5 million is 250 million.
Then add in the other countries.
So Soros must have ponied out more then half a billion dollars for that march.

I knew he was rich but wow that's impressive.
posted by Jalliah at 6:31 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

So whether [@WhiteHouseLeak is] real or not seems less important than whether it's influential. Which it is and could continue to be.

I think it's very important to stay safely on the side of "real". [Internet] propaganda is a dangerous thing; it got Trump elected.
posted by sylvanshine at 6:32 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

On Chaffetz: That's good to hear, but I want to see if he's saying the same thing 2 weeks from now. I have a sneaking suspicion that even this tepid early """resistance""" will crumble as Trump's team gets into place.
posted by gofargogo at 6:32 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

That New “Black Site” Plan Isn’t New, It Came From Mitt Romney’s Campaign

Despite Spicer's denial, the Times says "three administration officials said the White House had circulated it among National Security Council staff members for review on Tuesday morning."
posted by zachlipton at 6:33 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

How do you recruit paid marchers at short notice at that scale without obvious signs? It's completely implausible on those grounds alone.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 6:35 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Mattis, Pompeo stunned by CIA 'black sites' report-"The two officials in charge of Trump's terrorism detainee policies were 'blindsided' by a draft calling for the CIA to revisit techniques critics call torture."

You knew he was a snake when you picked him up.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:39 PM on January 25, 2017 [54 favorites]

That New “Black Site” Plan Isn’t New, It Came From Mitt Romney’s Campaign

Good old Mitt "Double Guantanamo" Romney! One of those "Never Trump" guys, isn't he?
posted by indubitable at 6:39 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

So I guess Chaffetz just got put on the enemies list.

Maybe it's good that the Senate gets a real taste of Donald's unhinged delusional wrath now.
posted by Jalliah at 6:41 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Their local (or nearest big city) news primarily tells them about crimes that have happened and flashes mugshots of people who committed crimes.

This was my experience in rural Southern Maryland. It took me a while to figure it out. I taught high school and used to sometimes chitchat with my kids about weekend plans and such. I was baffled for the longest time about their reactions when I mentioned that the mister and I were going to spend the weekend in DC doing fun city things. They were like... uh, aren't you afraid? Are you going to get shot?

Whut? It's the bloody nation's capitol! Smithsonian! Monuments! Museums! How do you hear "I'm going to DC" and immediately think "you're gonna get shot"??? And then it hit us: local news. We got both DC and Baltimore local news stations and all they were every night was a parade of gun violence. Be afraid of the city! Everyone has a gun and they're all black! Scaaaaary!
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:41 PM on January 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

> Vote with your wallet by boycotting banks that are funding the Dakota Access pipeline: list of banks funding DAPL.

Don’t Let Trump Distract You: Public Comment on DAPL Is Now Open. Now until Feb. 20 is the public’s chance to push for a full review of the pipeline’s climate impacts. Here’s what to do.
posted by homunculus at 6:41 PM on January 25, 2017 [18 favorites]

Was thinking about this the other day. I'm assuming that he would have paid expenses for the people that traveled.
So lets say DC ,go low range 500 (more for people that took flights) and lets say 500,000 thats 250,000,000
Across the country maybe 100 bucks each? x 2,000,000 that's 200,000,00 or x 2.5 million is 250 million.
Then add in the other countries.
So Soros must have ponied out more then half a billion dollars for that march.

I knew he was rich but wow that's impressive.

Someone else upthread did a similar Fermi estimate with the voter fraud conspiracy nonsense. I wish I could say that putting down numbers like this would help enlighten the people who buy into this crap, but I'm not holding my breath.
posted by indubitable at 6:43 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

I think this is fantasyland, sadly. Trump could quite likely go down in a spectacular flameout. The rest? The country is too polarized. They can live forever on the conservative welfare circuit or whatever lobbying firm/think tank they want. The only way they get truly taken down is if Something Really Bad happens and they are hauled before The Hague.

I don't know about McConnell and the rest, but Ryan... if impeachment happens things are already in chaos for the Republicans and then the Freedom Caucus may just proceed to go "well, in for a penny, in for a pound..." and go after Ryan. Their votes plus the Dems would do it.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:44 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

There is real talk inside the #WhiteHouse about @OMAROSA taking over as Press Secretary. Wheels=Off. #PresidentTrump

Can you even imagine?

Seriously? It's all too easy to imagine. It almost makes perfect sense. How could we not see it coming? Who am I and what am I doing here?
posted by mudpuppie at 6:45 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

There's a rogue NASA account now.

The unofficial "Resistance" team of NASA. Not an official NASA account. Follow for science and climate news and facts. REAL NEWS, REAL FACTS.
posted by Jalliah at 6:46 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Is the NASA resistance team NASA employees on their time off, or a bunch of kids sitting on their phones? This matters.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:47 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Mike Pence December 18, 205: Calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional.

I guess he has come around on that.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:51 PM on January 25, 2017 [20 favorites]

Is the NASA resistance team NASA employees on their time off, or a bunch of kids sitting on their phones? This matters.

Not sure how we would know.
posted by Jalliah at 6:51 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

@WhiteHouseLeak just went away
posted by neroli at 6:53 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Maybe it's good that the Senate gets a real taste of Donald's unhinged delusional wrath now.

I've been hoping this would be the unintended consequences of their shock and awe shit show. I hope red state Republicans are pissed they can't t through to their reps, either, to complain about liberals.
posted by Room 641-A at 6:53 PM on January 25, 2017

Someone started a list of the Rogue US Science-related accounts. So far there are about 20

@WhiteHouseLeak just went away

Damn
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:54 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Update to the RNC email story linked above:

(Since this story was published, the RNC has deleted the emails of Bannon, Kushner and Conway. Newsweek is waiting for further comment.)

I am glad that Tom Blanton is watching and waiting:

Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, a Washington-based government watchdog that requests and collects classified information, sued the Bush administration (along with CREW) over the RNC server and lost emails, and is still waiting to see what was in them.

“If senior aides to President Trump were using private RNC servers on the afternoon after the inauguration, they have about 16 days to copy them into the official White House systems. If not, not they are in violation of the law,” he says.
posted by futz at 6:57 PM on January 25, 2017 [35 favorites]

I hope red state Republicans are pissed they can't t through to their reps, either, to complain about liberals.

I tried calling Senator Burr today at 5:30. He has 5 contact numbers and every single one of them had a recording saying the message box was full.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:57 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

@WhiteHouseLeak just went away

I got screen shots of them all except the last one.
posted by Jalliah at 7:01 PM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

When even Chaffetz won't participate in a partisan witch hunt for something that's not there, you know it's bunk.

The guy who said he couldn't vote for Trump because of his daughters and then turned around and said he would vote for Trump but he wouldn't endorse him? I predict a change of heart by Friday evening. Hell, maybe even hearings by Friday evening.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:02 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

The leakers pose an interesting conundrum for the White House - ferret them out and fire them and suddenly they're on every news broadcast and in every paper as a face of the Republican resistance to Trump.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:03 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

@WhiteHouseLeak just went away

Glad I read that before refreshing the page!
posted by jason_steakums at 7:04 PM on January 25, 2017 [31 favorites]

I was simply dumbstruck when I read in this thread earlier today that the Democrats are still trying to push this Russia thing as the issue that's going to move them forward.

Trump has both kinds of evil; against women & favoring Russia beyond reason. One's the dominant narrative at the moment but his geopolitical compromise will still take the stage in due time.
posted by scalefree at 7:05 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate Twitter but these rogue Twitter accounts are heartwarming.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:07 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Women’s March Participant Speaks Out About Being Target Of Senator’s Harassment Campaign
posted by supercrayon at 7:09 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

I'd like these rogue Twitter accounts to be real but we have zero proof. I am not buying it yet.
posted by futz at 7:15 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

A savvy journalist could attempt to verify some of the @WhiteHouseLeak claims.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:15 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

A savvy journalist could attempt to verify some of the @WhiteHouseLeak claims.

Someone call Teen Vogue.
posted by lydhre at 7:17 PM on January 25, 2017 [69 favorites]

I was simply dumbstruck when I read in this thread earlier today that the Democrats are still trying to push this Russia thing as the issue that's going to move them forward.

Can we talk more about this, because I can't seem to find where it was discussed previously, but I agree, wtf? Just tonight I got an email newsletter from Dick Durbin, Senate Minority Whip, describing how he's calling for a bipartisan independent commission to investigate Russian interference in the election. Like, sure, I'm not against it per se, but I've read at least 10 other much more disturbing developments in the past 48 hours, yet this is the important news you need to communicate to your constituents? Is this honestly what you're spending your time and energy on right now, or are you just unbelievably bad at PR? Because I'm really struggling to see the n-dimensional chess strategy here.
posted by gueneverey at 7:17 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

That Bannon is on the verge of driving everyone else out seems like the thread to follow. Obviously he's driving the ship right now but is he going to be able to do that after getting rid of anyone that knows how to do anything?
posted by Artw at 7:19 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Women’s March Participant Speaks Out About Being Target Of Senator’s Harassment Campaign

Holy shit. Can she sue him for harassment? Or does she have to wait for Melania to spearhead that online bullying initiative she's planning?
posted by Mchelly at 7:19 PM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

I'd like these rogue Twitter accounts to be real but we have zero proof. I am not buying it yet.

Thing is does it matter? Regardless of who is doing it, it's showing support and resisting the idea that these agencies should be gagged and information censored by this admin. I would say it's also a symbol of support for the people in those agencies.
And depending on the information they post could make it difficult for the admin to keep track of. It's an added pain in the ass for them in their quest for control. They'll be saying the same thing. Are they real? As well it could open up a way for actual people in the agencies to get information out. (on their free time of course)
posted by Jalliah at 7:22 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

witchen: the Family Business is pretty lean in terms of executives, partly down to its structure, but also because of narcissistic paranoia: the Family, a few lawyers, a few accountants, Meredith. The Executive Office of the President has 4,000 employees: remember that Jared Kushner asked how many of them were staying on.

I can well imagine a mid-ranking political staffer (perhaps with W Bush-era experience, perhaps a congressional staffer or hired from a governor's office) thinking that nobody at the top knows how to steer this kind of operation. What it leads to, dunno. RNC PR BS is the one to watch there.
posted by holgate at 7:23 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Regarding Russia: the Democratic prrss releases are actually how government is suppose to generally work: outrage happens , intern writes researched response, response is edited by staff, read and approved by the congressman. Sent to the press. It's a process that takes time.
posted by AlexiaSky at 7:24 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

I'll believe @WhiteHouseLeak if Priebus resigns, or journalists verify it, until then I'm just filing it away in my mind. Of course if it's true then the answer to this:

I love and adore the idea of leaks and chaos in the White House, but I can't connect any dots from that fact (the substance of the leaks, IMO, is less relevant than what their existence says about the ~vibe~ at the WH currently) to DJT's removal from office. Is it possible that this chaos will lead to his downfall?

...is that the vibe is so bad impeachment or a 25th Amendment solution looks a whole lot more likely (like I still wouldn't be holding my breath, but...). Priebus is the guy who people like Ryan are banking on, and if appointees can't even take a picture with Trump, that doesn't bode well. That would look a lot like "I want my once-in-a-lifetime swearing in photo to be with the eventual real President."
posted by jason_steakums at 7:24 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Trump on ABC said that he asked the highest intelligence people about torture and that they all told him torture works.

It will be interesting to see if those officials will back that up or respond in any way.
posted by futz at 7:24 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Holy shit this ABC interview. They are asking all the questions they should have asked during the fucking election, and David Muir looks like he wants to explode in a fiery ball of rage at Trump's idiotic responses, as do I.

I can't bring myself to watch it. Is Trump making a fool of himself?
posted by Jalliah at 7:25 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Holy shit this ABC interview. They are asking all the questions they should have asked during the fucking election, and David Muir looks like he wants to explode in a fiery ball of rage at Trump's idiotic responses, as do I.

Too bad he's not firey-ball-of-rage enough to respond to "Heads! Being chopped off! Haven't seen it in a long time! Like it's medieval!" with the observation that one of the U.S. allies Trump is okay with getting nuclear weapons beheads lots of people, for things like witchcraft.
posted by XMLicious at 7:27 PM on January 25, 2017

Trump on ABC said that he asked the highest intelligence people about torture and that they all told him torture works.

It will be interesting to see if those officials will back that up or respond in any way.

Yes it will because he is straight out lying again.
posted by Jalliah at 7:29 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

I think proving cooperation between Russia and campaign officials is pretty strategic. It's one area where there's bipartisan support. There's also a vanishing window of time to do so. If we let this one slide, we're kind of fucked.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:30 PM on January 25, 2017 [29 favorites]

He probably talked to Flynn about torture and that's all he needed.
posted by Jalliah at 7:31 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Trump 2020: Torture Works!
posted by valkane at 7:31 PM on January 25, 2017

@JuddLegum: TRUMP on Chicago: "I will send in whatever we have to send in. Maybe they won't be so politically correct."

Jibes with one of the @WhiteHouseLeak items about sending in the National Guard.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:33 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Trump to Muir: Muslims around the world are as angry as they can be! How can they get any angrier than they already are because of anything I do?

...and now he's repeating "Let's take their oil."
posted by XMLicious at 7:33 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Yes he is making a massive fool of himself, not that his supporters will give a shit.
posted by windbox at 7:33 PM on January 25, 2017

(not that the National Guard would be "politically incorrect" because that is an insane notion, but he may think so)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:36 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Flynn is a fucking spy and a direct conduit to the FSB, that's probably something that could stand a little looking at really.
posted by Artw at 7:36 PM on January 25, 2017 [24 favorites]

I hate it when the republicans are in office. It's just so embarrassing to be an american.
posted by valkane at 7:36 PM on January 25, 2017 [52 favorites]

Another in the series 'If You'd Told Me I'd Be Agreeing With...'

@MaxBoot
Major division in US politics no longer left vs right. Now it's actual reality vs alternative reality.
posted by chris24 at 7:37 PM on January 25, 2017 [37 favorites]

Trump on ABC said that he asked the highest intelligence people about torture and that they all told him torture works.

Is that literally what he said? Because that means he looked in the mirror and asked himself. If he actually meant an intelligence official/expert, then it is Flynn for sure.
posted by gatorae at 7:37 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Another consideration: political DC is a gossipy village, with its own unelected grand poobahs. They derided Bill Clinton -- "he came in and trashed the place, and it's not his place" -- and cast scorn on the staff he brought in. Keeping a staff of 4,000 high-flyers quiet is harder than doing so with a staff of a dozen, and if the grand poobahs feel like the place is being trashed, they'll start to say so.
posted by holgate at 7:38 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

I started writing a ranting about torture and how it doesn't work and then realized that I don't need to do that here.
Thanks Metafilter.
posted by Jalliah at 7:39 PM on January 25, 2017 [46 favorites]

The President of the United States just said the best thing is to let Obamacare explode and then wait two years, the Democrats will be begging him to do anything.

The thing is, I'm really scared he's not wrong about the latter part.

Then he said no one will lose their insurance. I think? It's hard to translate from gibberish --> English
posted by tivalasvegas at 7:41 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

I'm not sure if the Russian stuff will stick/have an effect, but I agree with RobotVoodooPower that it has the advantage of being more... bipartisan. In other words, plenty of Republicans would be more or less forced to turn on Trump if it could be proved he worked with the Russians.

Whereas the rights stuff? Thats what the Trump voters _voted for_. He campaigned on that stuff. Its not going to change anyone's mind. Its certainly worth being upset about, and its a huge deal, but its what we all knew, and what close to half the country supported. And certainly what the GOP supports. That stuff will only change with a new election (2018 or beyond).
posted by thefoxgod at 7:42 PM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

He is being asked if he heard the women's march crowd from the WH and trump said no.
posted by futz at 7:42 PM on January 25, 2017

Hmm, Trump's answer below seems familiar...

COURIC: But what [newspapers] specifically? I’m curious.
PALIN: Um, all of them.

@KevinMKruse
"What issue keeps you up at night, Mr. President?"

"Oh, all of them, Katie."

#POTUSonABC
posted by chris24 at 7:44 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Every now and then I think about what in hell Obama is thinking right now. I can't see him not paying any attention to what's going on.
posted by Jalliah at 7:45 PM on January 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

His answer to "what do you say to the people who are afraid they will lose their insurance?" was ultimately (from memory, so slightly paraphrased), "Millions of people will be happy with [my plan]. Millions and millions and millions are unhappy now." He made it pretty clear that he is mostly concerned about people who already had good plans pre-Obamacare whose doctors stopped taking their insurance, etc. post-Obamacare. No mention of high-risk people or pre-existing conditions, etc.
posted by gatorae at 7:45 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

I can't bring myself to watch it. Is Trump making a fool of himself?

Do fish swim in the sea and taste great in a tamarind-tumeric sauce?
posted by tivalasvegas at 7:46 PM on January 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

If I just button mashed my comments for the rest of the term to express my rage, would that lead to a metatalk? (Rhetorical)

Because this is beyond words.
posted by AlexiaSky at 7:48 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

cool, now i'm mourning the death of democracy but also a little hungry for fish
posted by palomar at 7:49 PM on January 25, 2017 [24 favorites]

Pittsburgh's mayor's response to Trump's immigration edict complete with a quote from Mr Rogers.
posted by octothorpe at 7:49 PM on January 25, 2017 [22 favorites]

Well, Illinois has a GOP governor, but it also has a Dem majority in both state chambers, and is one seat shy of a two-thirds Dem majority in the state senate to convict in cases of impeachment. Signing off on National Guard deployment in Chicago seems pretty damn impeachable.

and then wait two years, the Democrats will be begging him to do anything.

He's a fucking psychopath, but we know that already. Sarah Kendzior has repeatedly cited the Fox News interview about the purifying effect of economic collapse and riots. I wish she hadn't been vindicated over recent months, but here's where we are.
posted by holgate at 7:49 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

David Muir literally just tried to get Trump to read a thing and he stalled and rambled and didn't read the thing.
posted by windbox at 7:52 PM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

Alexandra Petri, WaPo: The true, correct story of what happened at Donald Trump’s inauguration
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:39 PM on January 24

This is fantastic -- I really needed that laugh just now.
posted by Mchelly at 7:53 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

the purifying effect of economic collapse and riots

Yes, this is probably a Bannon thing too. I think a lot of Trump voters believe this. They probably never have heard of the Holodomor.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:53 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

I started writing a ranting about torture and how it doesn't work

Even if it were the single best intelligence gathering method, it would still be immoral.
It would still be wrong.
And we should still not.

We should not cede.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:55 PM on January 25, 2017 [26 favorites]

He calls his inauguration crowd "the sea of love." christ.
posted by gatorae at 7:55 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Here is what he said about waterboarding,

"I'm going to go with what they say," Trump said of Mattis and Pompeo. "But I have spoken as recently as 24 hours ago with people at the highest level of intelligence, and I asked them the question 'Does it work? Does torture work?' And the answer was 'Yes, absolutely.'"
posted by futz at 7:58 PM on January 25, 2017

David Muir literally just tried to get Trump to read a thing and he stalled and rambled and didn't read the thing.

Some people have put forward the idea that Trump is functionally illiterate. This cannot possibly be the case. It can't. But I would feel better if we actually saw him read something more complex than a shitty giant chart.

I mean... there's video of him reading stuff in depositions and legal cases, right? I know there must be. I believe I've seen some of it.
posted by Justinian at 7:58 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

highest level of intelligence

He didn't say American intelligence, though…
posted by carsondial at 7:59 PM on January 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

Every now and then I think about what in hell Obama is thinking right now. I can't see him not paying any attention to what's going on.

I like to picture The Man Obama* crouched on a putting green, wearing a perfectly spotless Gi. His venerable airship is faintly visible, tethered to a nearby copse of palms, where it has been waiting since he brought low the servants of the mad Ronpaul, and ascended the feted Hill.

All at once he flings the Malboro in his hands two feet in the air and, in a single motion, plunges his fist through a stack of Pyrite bars, before snatching the cigarette from its falling arc and replacing it in his mouth in perfect economy of motion.

Nary ten feet away, a portrait of Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States, sits unframed in a stainless steel easel.

Behind him, at the wheel of the golf cart, Michele Obama lets slip only the slowest, smallest smile.

Not by me please come back and write more
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:59 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

There's video of him claiming he didn't bring his glasses to read depositions and legal cases.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 8:00 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

He has read from teleprompters. And when he reads the word "says" he pronounces it as though it were the plural of "say".
posted by perspicio at 8:00 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

I mean... there's video of him reading stuff in depositions and legal cases, right? I know there must be. I believe I've seen some of it.

He's frequently not great at staying on message with them, but he does teleprompters.
posted by chris24 at 8:00 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

They probably never have heard of the Holodomor.

But we have a nice shiny new memorial for it so close to the capitol! I presume as a middle finger to Russia.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 8:00 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

You wouldn't have #ISIS if we took the oil" in #Iraq. "We would've had wealth." #POTUSonABC

JesusfuckingChrist.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:00 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

He seemed physically and mentally unwell in that interview. Even compared to a few weeks ago.
posted by theodolite at 8:01 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

re: DREAMers, he said they should not be "very worried" and they should be "less worried" than others. OK, well, that is still some amount of worried, you evil fuck.
posted by gatorae at 8:04 PM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

plenty of Republicans would be more or less forced to turn on Trump if it could be proved he worked with the Russians.

Maybe I'm just in ultra-despair mode today, but seriously? This, this is going to be the last straw, and then Republicans will finally have an excuse to break ranks? All that other stuff was different, but surely this! If only we had a bipartisan study! Who could ignore that!
posted by gueneverey at 8:05 PM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

plenty of Republicans would be more or less forced to turn on Trump if it could be proved he worked with the Russians.

surely that
posted by entropicamericana at 8:07 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

He's frequently not great at staying on message with them, but he does teleprompters.

True enough. I'd still feel a lot better if he could take one of those SAT-style reading comprehension tests for me. Not much better but, you know, baby steps.
posted by Justinian at 8:07 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

At one point Muir mentioned critics who say it's not legal to steal a country's oil and he said "they're fools.. fools!" like Rita Repulsa
posted by theodolite at 8:08 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

For the love of christ no one tell him that Iran has more oil than Iraq
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:13 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Maybe I'm just in ultra-despair mode today, but seriously? This, this is going to be the last straw, and then Republicans will finally have an excuse to break ranks? All that other stuff was different, but surely this! If only we had a bipartisan study! Who could ignore that!

The thing about the Russia thing that makes it different is that it provides electoral cover for any Republicans who may want Pence instead. It allows them to act like their hands were forced and they get to do the whole "You were the Chosen One! You were supposed to destroy the Sith, not join them!" thing and act oh-so-sorry it came to this. I get why the Dems are focusing on it, but yeah, they can focus on more than one thing, I mean even supposing an impeachment over Russia went down Pence is going to carry on with a ton of the same policies so they need to already be fighting on those fronts.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:13 PM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

ABC 7 (Chicago) local news anchor, just now: "the President compared our city to war-torn Afghanistan"

I think all of Chicago* is halfway feeling like "Oh god, please don't let him make shit worse" and halfway we're wanting to say "Bring it, fucker."

*except for the unknown, but definitely nonzero, percentage of cops who are getting hard because they are fucking fascists
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:14 PM on January 25, 2017 [29 favorites]

He seemed physically and mentally unwell in that interview. Even compared to a few weeks ago.

He literally sounded sick, like somebody just pulled him out of bed or off the floor of an opium den
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:15 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Can a President just order the National Guard to go somewhere?
posted by Jalliah at 8:17 PM on January 25, 2017

I think proving cooperation between Russia and campaign officials is pretty strategic. It's one area where there's bipartisan support.

and

I'm not sure if the Russian stuff will stick/have an effect, but I agree with RobotVoodooPower that it has the advantage of being more... bipartisan. In other words, plenty of Republicans would be more or less forced to turn on Trump if it could be proved he worked with the Russians.

Why do some here have sudden faith that Republicans will finally see the light and #NeverTrump if we just somehow do this one more thing? People have been doing this since before Trump even won the primary. They've pulled that football away from you every time, Charlie Brown. Why are some asking to "reach across the aisle" and do something "bipartisan" when the Republicans have spent the last eight years acting in bad faith and are finally in a position to bring the boot down on all our necks? This shit right here is exactly the attitude that needs to be excised from the Democratic Party as it stands right now. Quit dicking around and start throwing sand in the gears everywhere you can.
posted by indubitable at 8:18 PM on January 25, 2017 [30 favorites]

At the end of the interview he made a point of showing Muir the photo that he tweeted the other day of his inag crowd. He moved his finger to different points in the crowd to emphasize how large the crowd really was.

He also said that visitors to the Oval Office were awed by the room. When asked who those visitors were he named to auto execs (Ford and ?) and Union leaders. Doin' a little bizness donnie?

He also bragged about the stock market and took credit for the record high, of course. He kept his voice low and calm, seemed to catch himself a few times before going off on a rant/tangent.

And one more thing, I swear! That thing that he wouldn't read? It was the letter that Obama left him. Donnie would not reveal anything that it said. Then Muir mentioned that he had seen a lot of notes that exiting presidents had left for the incoming president and said that Obama's letter looked unusually long. Donnie agreed and said that he called Obama to thank him after he read it.

whew. done.
posted by futz at 8:21 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

I don't think anyone is asking them to do anything bipartisan.

I'm saying the only possible way you could get the GOP to turn on Trump is to give them a non-ideological wedge that is hard to ignore, like Russia and Trump working together. I have no idea if it would work. But it might, whereas the GOP obviously does not care about women's rights or LGBT rights or immigrants or whatever else. This has nothing to do with neverTrump or some latent GOP hatred of Trump, its about maybe possibly forcing their hand.

Sand in the gears will not work. They can literally pass any law / rule they want without Democratic help, all they have to do is eliminate the filibuster, which they will do at the first opportunity.

Do it if you want, but it's not going to make any difference. Then again, I'm fairly convinced literally nothing will make any difference. I have no real hope things will get better.
posted by thefoxgod at 8:21 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Re his remarks at the CIA:

In fact, they said it was the biggest standing ovation since Peyton Manning had won the Super Bowl and they said it was equal. I got a standing ovation. It lasted for a long period of time.

This is delusional.
posted by zachlipton at 8:22 PM on January 25, 2017 [53 favorites]

Why do some here have sudden faith that Republicans will finally see the light and #NeverTrump if we just somehow do this one more thing?

All Republicans are Trump. He won for a reason, because he's the purest distillation of the Republican soul that has ever existed. They're never going to come around or snap out of it, 70 years of US history have been building up to the TrumpReich, and they rejoiced in his Ascension.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:23 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Can a President just order the National Guard to go somewhere?

TOG would be required to federalize the National Guard otherwise he needs the Governor's consent. I'm pretty sure if Rauner agreed to have the National Guard in Chicago he would be impeached and removed within hours.
posted by Talez at 8:24 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

lol, he's happy that the CIA people never sat down during his speech because it means they must love him so much. I don't know if it was here or on twitter, but I saw somewhere a former CIA person said that they never sat down because he never told them to. Basically like a courtroom where you wait for the judge to tell you to sit. They are respectful not adoring.
posted by gatorae at 8:26 PM on January 25, 2017 [20 favorites]

TOG would be required to federalize the National Guard otherwise he needs the Governor's consent. I'm pretty sure if Rauner agreed to have the National Guard in Chicago he would be impeached and removed within hours.

That's how I thought it worked. Who does he think he going to send in then?
posted by Jalliah at 8:27 PM on January 25, 2017

Is it possible he doesn't know that people are being paid to come to his conferences and clap for him and laugh at his jokes? That this isn't his own stagecraft, but Priebus or Bannon or Kushner's way of managing him by making him think he's popular, to stave off his insecurities?
posted by Mchelly at 8:27 PM on January 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

Actually never mind. He probably doesn't have a clue how it works.
posted by Jalliah at 8:28 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

In fact, they said it was the biggest standing ovation since Peyton Manning had won the Super Bowl and they said it was equal. I got a standing ovation. It lasted for a long period of time.

THEY COULDN'T SIT DOWN BECAUSE HE NEVER DISMISSED THEM TO DO SO. It would have been a handy little bit of protocol to be aware of #presidentshitheelfuckface.
posted by futz at 8:28 PM on January 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

That's how I thought it worked. Who does he think he going to send in then?

You really think that TOG knows about Posse Comitatus? He would probably just want to send soldiers in.
posted by Talez at 8:29 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

THEY COULDN'T SIT DOWN BECAUSE HE NEVER DISMISSED THEM TO DO SO.

But that's just standing, not a standing ovation. They didn't clap continuously during his speech. Or: "I’m growing increasingly convinced that Donald Trump doesn’t actually know what the phrase “standing ovation” means"
posted by zachlipton at 8:30 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'm still on the oil thing, because imo it was the most terrifying moment in the interview. Here's the transcript:

DAVID MUIR: You've heard the critics who say that would break all international law, taking the oil. But I wanna get to the words ...

(OVERTALK)

DAVID MUIR: ... that you ...

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Wait, wait, can you believe that? Who are the critics who say that? Fools.

DAVID MUIR: Let, let me ...

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don't call them critics. I call them fools.

DAVID MUIR: ... let me talk about your words ...

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We should've kept -- excuse me. We should've taken the oil. And if we took the oil you wouldn't have ISIS. And we would have had wealth. We have spent right now $6 trillion in the Middle East. And our country is falling apart.

Watching it, it's clear that it's never occurred to him that invading a country and plundering their wealth and resources might be frowned upon.
posted by theodolite at 8:30 PM on January 25, 2017 [54 favorites]

It's also possible he thinks he can use the Insurrection Act which was widened in 2006. It was used in the 1992 LA Riots, for example by GHW Bush to federalize the National Guard and send them into LA.

Which sounds very similar to what Trump wants to do.
posted by thefoxgod at 8:31 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

If a person is being forced to stand, and they clap politely at an appropriate moment, does it become a standing ovation? Oh the philosophical questions a Trump presidency inspires! This is so much better than "is golf a sport?"
posted by gatorae at 8:32 PM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

My very favorite thing today is news of protests and calls being made at Trump hotels about his policies. That's what you get when you don't divest, motherfucker--you just gave us hundreds more avenues of protest.
posted by emjaybee at 8:32 PM on January 25, 2017 [43 favorites]

Specifically, in the amended form:

"(A) restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the United States, the President determines that--
(i) domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of maintaining public order; and"

The latter bit is exactly what he is claiming, that Chicago is incapable of maintaining public order.
posted by thefoxgod at 8:33 PM on January 25, 2017

The latter bit is exactly what he is claiming, that Chicago is incapable of maintaining public order.

Which is complete bullshit but that's never really stopped TOG has it.
posted by Talez at 8:35 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's also possible he thinks he can use the Insurrection Act which was widened in 2006. It was used in the 1992 LA Riots, for example by GHW Bush to federalize the National Guard and send them into LA.

I would bet my unborn first child that Trump has no fucking clue what the Insurrection Act is. He thinks he's a dictator.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:35 PM on January 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

Trump’s Impulses Now Carry the Force of the Presidency

For a capital that typically struggles to adjust to the ways of a new president every four or eight years, Mr. Trump has posed a singular challenge. Rarely if ever has a president been as reactive to random inputs as Mr. Trump. Career government officials and members of Congress alike are left to discern policy from random Twitter posts spurred by whatever happened to be on television when the president grabbed the remote control.

posted by zachlipton at 8:36 PM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

We should've taken the oil. And if we took the oil you wouldn't have ISIS. And we would have had wealth. We have spent right now $6 trillion in the Middle East. And our country is falling apart.

Or we could have just NOT INVADED IRAQ.
posted by indubitable at 8:36 PM on January 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

Here's the full transcript of the ABC/David Muir interview.
posted by zachlipton at 8:36 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Which is complete bullshit but that's never really stopped TOG has it.

Right, all he would need is some plausible cover. In fact, TD Strange is probably right and he has no idea how he would do it or what the legality is, but if he decided to Priebus or someone would probably mention the Insurrection Act to him / the press as a justification.

That said, it's likely (hopefully) that this is just one of those tweet things that will never come to anything.
posted by thefoxgod at 8:40 PM on January 25, 2017

Can a President just order the National Guard to go somewhere?

Kinda/sorta. But that is, almost literally, crossing the Rubicon. Especially without the applicable Governor's/Mayor's invitations. Tanks in the streets will make even the Deplorables wild around the eyes with all their FEMA extirpations.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:44 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Re: DAPL Public Comment as linked upthread

Send your public comments by Feb. 20 to:

Mr. Gib Owen
gib.a.owen.civ@mail.mil

Subject Line: “NOI Comments, Dakota Access Pipeline Crossing”

Sample Comment:

Mr. Owen,

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Dakota Access pipeline crossing. I have grave concerns that the scope ignores key impacts that the Army Corps’ approval would cause, and that the “no-action” alternative, as proposed in the environmental assessment, does not constitute a realistic alternative.

The EA’s no-action alternative assumes that, if the pipeline is not built, the oil will be transported by truck or rail instead. This argument is flawed, however. The EA itself points out on page 5 that truck transportation is not realistic, and goes on to state that rail transportation would require massive infrastructure investments, far larger than any currently existing in the United States. For these reasons, the no-action alternative should assume that the oil is not extracted, as there will be no realistic way to transport it to the intended markets.

Additionally, the Council on Environmental Quality has directed federal agencies to evaluate projects’ direct and indirect, long- and short-term, and broad-scale greenhouse gas and climate change impacts through the EIS process. Approving this crossing would complete the project, allowing a flow of oil that, when all is accounted for, would have the same annual CO2 emissions as 29 coal-fired power plants. These emissions would have a significant impact on air quality, water quality, human health, and wildlife, and would not occur if this pipeline crossing was denied. Please evaluate these impacts as part of your review, in accordance with the guidance provided by CEQ.

Finally, I support your decision to include a thorough analysis of the effects of an oil spill on Lake Oahe and the people of Standing Rock. Even the strictest precautions today will wear with age, as we have seen with other projects where poor maintenance led to disastrous results. The impacts of a spill on the local population and environment cannot be discounted—a spill 30 years from now would be just as impactful as a spill on day one, and should be treated as a near-certainty in the requestor’s preferred alternative.

Thank you again, and I look forward to your inclusion of the project’s full impacts, as well as a no-action alternative that takes into account the infeasibility of other forms of oil transportation.
posted by petebest at 8:46 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

DAVID MUIR: Are you at all ...
(OVERTALK)
DAVID MUIR: ... concerned -- are you at all concerned it's going to cause more anger among Muslims ...
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Anger?
DAVID MUIR: ... the world?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: There's plenty of anger right now. How can you have more?

Oh you stupid, evil summer child.
posted by gatorae at 8:46 PM on January 25, 2017 [53 favorites]

The AltUSNatParkService twitter now has 869,000 followers in less the 48 hours.

That's a whole lot more then Donald's party had.
posted by Jalliah at 8:47 PM on January 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

So I had a bunch of crappy meetings and things today and was away from all types of news/MeFi etc. from like 10 to 5 pm. Then I came home and caught up on this thread.

Jesus.
Christ.
posted by FelliniBlank at 8:47 PM on January 25, 2017 [24 favorites]

I've been thinking about the mention upthread that Trumpian message boards and etc. are reflecting confusion at the organic liberal/progressive groundswell.

I've been thinking we should cultivate more of that.

I've been thinking a bunch of us should get FFLs, even if we never use them. And pointedly NOT join the NRA.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:49 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

i will take fmla (is it fmla if your family is 'the city of chicago'?) or all my weekends and drive down to chicago to perform peaceful civil disobedience for as long as i can afford if trump sends in troops to chicago
posted by localhuman at 8:49 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Ok people, this is seemingly not a drill. We have reports that Richard Spencer has been punched again.
posted by zachlipton at 8:51 PM on January 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

I've been thinking about the mention upthread that Trumpian message boards and etc. are reflecting confusion at the organic liberal/progressive groundswell.

Before I stopped talking to them my family kept a. asking "Why are you so MAD?" after b. I had just spent 20 minutes explaining why I was so mad.

They've drunk so much Fox News koolaid that people who defiantly and loudly reject their POV might as well be speaking in tongues. They mostly just want us to shut up and stop making them uncomfortable.

It delights me to simply say "Nope."
posted by emjaybee at 8:53 PM on January 25, 2017 [24 favorites]

He's wearing exactly the same clothes as the first time, so I'm thinking it's just a different photo angle.
posted by FelliniBlank at 8:54 PM on January 25, 2017

This is delusional.

Say, ah, which, y'know, Article is that? 25, was it? Something about the top-ranking officials going to the Senate, stating the President is unfit to fulfill the duties of his office something something?

Okay, let's mock this up - how it would look like in real life, and then start reeeeeeeaaaaallly thinking about it.

The whole "whoa, that sounds crazy" refrain - maybe we should encourage others to seriousify themselves up on that.
posted by petebest at 8:55 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

It's also possible he thinks he can use the Insurrection Act which was widened in 2006.

The changes were reversed in 2008, though I can't imagine it leaves us all that much safer when he campaigned on rounding up millions of people and putting them in camps.
posted by XMLicious at 8:55 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Ok people, this is seemingly not a drill. We have reports that Richard Spencer has been punched again.

Was this in Philly today? I saw a lot of anarchist friends posting his location some hours ago. Wondering if it's related.
posted by corb at 8:55 PM on January 25, 2017

That's terrible. Terrible. Stop punching him. Stop punching that nazi right in his fucking face.
posted by Justinian at 8:56 PM on January 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

Maybe he just has the one set of Dapper clothes?

Let's face it, he's pretty shit at being dapper, even if it is his selling point.
posted by Artw at 8:56 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Stop punching him in his Nazi face until you punch right through his Nazi face.
posted by Artw at 8:57 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

People really need to diversify and start punching different Nazis. Eventually we'll get tired of always seeing the same one punched.

Maybe.
posted by flatluigi at 8:58 PM on January 25, 2017 [28 favorites]

Before I stopped talking to them my family kept a. asking "Why are you so MAD?" after b. I had just spent 20 minutes explaining why I was so mad.

They've drunk so much Fox News koolaid that people who defiantly and loudly reject their POV might as well be speaking in tongues. They mostly just want us to shut up and stop making them uncomfortable.

It delights me to simply say "Nope."

I also came across a proposed master plan to get liberals to shut up. It's brilliant really.
boycott hollywood! (and other entertainment) Cause that will cut off funds and make them all sad an depressed when it all goes away something something.
posted by Jalliah at 8:58 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Again, a dot for Spencer.

☺
posted by jaduncan at 8:58 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

I mean, I kind of hope it was a second Spencer incident, mostly just because how sad is it for Mr. Fucking Dapper to wear that same stupid purple shirt to every shitty attention-seeking stop on his east coast lebensraum tour? Rinsing it out in the grungy sink at an interstate Speedway truck stop every night.
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:00 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Between the science gag order, and the statement that he's going to pick which press is allowed, and his abc interview I am literally terrified that the US is headed towards genocide. I'm going to watch for weakening or suspending the courts and government staff purges next.
posted by gofargogo at 9:00 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

"Frank" Spencer, as I shall now attempt to think of him.
posted by jaduncan at 9:02 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

re oil: also gives a good reason to blow up the Mosul Dam (or just capture it and let it fail organically) and kill hundreds of thousands of people.

jaduncan: "ooh, Betty!"
posted by holgate at 9:04 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

You know, "dapper" used to be a nice word. Fucking Nazis!
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:04 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Just reading on twitter and apparently he was punched twice in the same day. So that would explain the same clothes.
posted by Jalliah at 9:05 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

I didn't see if this was posted before, but the Twitter account Half An Onion In A Bag is on a very important mission.
posted by gc at 9:06 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Yeah video was his 2nd punch that day which people apparently knew about but there were no pictures. Which makes the video even more funny if true.
posted by Jalliah at 9:09 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

US Gov tracker (who knows how long this will last...

Govtrack is not government run, it's Josh Tauberer's project. He's a very prominent and productive member of the open data community. It is dependent in various places on electronic publication of materials from government sources but probably not stuff that is going to get shitcanned by the executive. Any bill tracking, for example, comes from Library of Congress materials.
posted by phearlez at 9:14 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

A moving thread from an Army officer that's (indirectly about) "take the oil". In short: a lot of people will die trying to operate oil wells and transport massive quantities of oil while surrounded by people who want to kill occupying Americans.

Let me put on my [ex-]professional hat for a second: you're setting out a mission where the large, delicate, flammable object that is an oil well must be protected against a resistance organisation that would presumably have outside state assistance. You can then either transport the oil via a long and hard to secure pipeline (given that it's hundreds of kilometres long), expensively transport the oil over a presumably IEDed and ambushed road, or transport by rail, which is also going to be IEDed/ambushed. Rail also has the exciting addendum that the track means that a) you can't steer out of the way of IEDs or ambushes, b) you have a very long braking distance, c) you can't use the line even if someone just destroys the rails, d) it's actually really hard to tell if someone has destroyed the rails or added an obstruction, and e) your course is completely predictable. You could fly the oil, but then you are running into the issue of it costing more oil than you're transporting and *certainly* costing more than not invading and just buying oil on the open market.

Every variety of that mission ends in death, and that's even setting aside quite how much support the insurgents can presumably get for 'the Americans are stealing our country's resources' and any international sanctions/blowback. Just on the purely amoral level, it's unlikely to result in much profit. There are reasons that IOCs and backing states operate with some level of consent, and it isn't just ethics. It's worse than that. The sums don't work, and operationally it doesn't work to the extent that DoD invest quite an impressive amount in developing a solar based infrastructure to replace oil wherever possible.

Again, it's an idiot's fantasy rather than a serious proposal.
posted by jaduncan at 9:15 PM on January 25, 2017 [69 favorites]

WaPo factchecker Glen Kessler
tweet

This interview is so filled with inaccurate and misleading statements by Trump I don't even know where to begin.
posted by Jalliah at 9:16 PM on January 25, 2017 [21 favorites]

You broke Kessler, you orange fucker.
posted by maudlin at 9:18 PM on January 25, 2017 [29 favorites]

whew. done.

Thanks for taking one for the team, futz. I tried watching the interview but just couldn't do it.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:25 PM on January 25, 2017

I hoping punching Spencer is like the new thing
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 9:25 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Welp, here's one Trump voter with buyer's remorse:

"@realDonaldTrump @DavidMuir @ABC There is something wrong with your brain. I am ashamed that I voted for you. You are so petty about crowds"
posted by guiseroom at 9:26 PM on January 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

Yeah video was his 2nd punch that day which people apparently knew about but there were no pictures. Which makes the video even more funny if true.

Somehow I am deeply amused by the implication that Dick Spencer finds being punched twice in one day just par for the course. I am struggling to recall if I have ever been punched twice in the same decade, but of course I am not a Nazi.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:28 PM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

Welp, here's one Trump voter with buyer's remorse:

I want to give these people some credit, but no. Fuck them all. This was all obvious THE ENTIRE TIME. What the fuck else were they expecting.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:28 PM on January 25, 2017 [29 favorites]

I don't think the return of $4 gasoline is going to be winning so much

With the present administration's attitude to climate change, much higher oil prices are probably the best hope of limiting emissions until someone sane is in charge again.
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 9:29 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

I tried calling Senator Burr today at 5:30. He has 5 contact numbers and every single one of them had a recording saying the message box was full.

North Carolinians, please note that they must have cleared their message boxes because I just got through. Tillis' mailboxes are full, though.
posted by winna at 9:34 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

A hyper-cynical thought is that "take the oil" just means "take the oil off the market" which helps large corrupt petrostates that might like higher prices. Though I don't think the return of $4 gasoline is going to be winning so much.

The standard version of this is more 'actually just reinforce a cravenly kleptocratic governance system that will give your IOCs the contract in return for your backing and bribes, knowing the government couldn't otherwise survive as they have no real skills and not much perception of legitimacy.' This is the thing that I'd politely refer to as 'some level of consent', and is one of the reasons why stable-but-illegitimate dictatorships are surprisingly popular with agencies that have to deal with places where the national economic interests of the agency's state are the prime concern.
posted by jaduncan at 9:35 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Uh-oh, I think I just found the Trump's Mirror Rosetta Stone. I was reading a WaPo article from last summer, about the two American nurses who contracted Ebola a few years ago and came back here for treatment: Trump wanted to keep Americans critically ill with Ebola out of the U.S. Trump's tweets about the situation itself are bonkers enough, but this one, regarding Obama's response, is chilling:

@realDonaldTrump (1:23 AM · Oct 16, 2014)
I am starting to think that there is something seriously wrong with President Obama's mental health. Why won't he stop the flights. Psycho!
posted by Room 641-A at 9:45 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

"What is wrong with President Obama's mental health? Doesn't he understand that I, Donald Trump, could get sick?" [fake]
posted by biogeo at 9:49 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

I'm still on the oil thing,

Man, that ABC interview was fucking bananas.
posted by My Dad at 9:54 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

Scientists march logo
posted by Artw at 9:59 PM on January 25, 2017 [25 favorites]

Then Muir mentioned that he had seen a lot of notes that exiting presidents had left for the incoming president and said that Obama's letter looked unusually long.

It's probably similar to the note I left my father about how to operate my TV when he housesat for me
posted by Automocar at 10:01 PM on January 25, 2017 [34 favorites]

(We may still all be fucked but I have much love in my heart for this logo)
posted by Artw at 10:01 PM on January 25, 2017 [10 favorites]

Possibly future generations will find the unread note and gain wisdom from it, more likely Trump wiped his ass on it.
posted by Artw at 10:03 PM on January 25, 2017

No, peed on it.
No, had Russian prostitutes pee on it.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:05 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

He went on for so long about how great the letter was, but what struck me is how he seemed surprised and confused by the tone of it. He had just twice referred to a primary challenger as a "combatant"; I think he did not recognize what you and I would know as sincerity.
posted by Room 641-A at 10:13 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

I think he did not recognize what you and I would know as sincerity.

Narcissists gonna narse.
posted by holgate at 10:22 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]

Oh boy.

Alec Baldwin is going to be the host of SNL on Feb 11.
posted by Jalliah at 10:23 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

He's going to be fixated on what SNL will do for the next 16 days, and we've only made it through five so far. There's no show this Saturday, but the best thing SNL can do for the 4th is not mention him at all. Let Kate McKinnon do the cold open as Hillary, with just "Hi, how's it going? [long beat] Live from New York..." and be done.

(I mean, this is assuming that he doesn't have SNL taken off the air or Baldwin arrested by then.)
posted by holgate at 10:34 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Alec Baldwin Will Get an Entire Saturday Night Live Episode to Make Fun of Trump

If you have dementia does it make you susceptible to literally dying of rage? Asking for no reason.
posted by Artw at 10:35 PM on January 25, 2017 [23 favorites]

Slate: Today in Trump's America Was the Worst Day Yet. A recap of the day's events, not even including the ABC interview, I think. It's phenomenally bleak reading.

And it's been posted upthread, but I just want to reiterate, if you read one thing today, make it Trump’s Voter Fraud Example? A Troubled Tale With Bernhard Langer. My jaw still hasn't closed. It's a story that nicely summarizes the President's entire information gathering process as a swirl of misremembered nonsensical anecdotes mixed with blatant racism and straight-up cluelessness.
posted by zachlipton at 10:39 PM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

Every now and then I think about what in hell Obama is thinking right now.

something rather like this i imagine
posted by poffin boffin at 10:40 PM on January 25, 2017 [15 favorites]

i should point out that when i made that ~7 years ago i stole it directly from this mefi comment
posted by poffin boffin at 10:48 PM on January 25, 2017

GQ We Are Running Out of Ways to Say That President Trump Is a Dangerous, Delusional Lunatic

It's been less than a week.

On Wednesday, during his first network television interview since last Friday's inauguration, President Trump kicked off this plum opportunity to assuage the fears of his millions of terrified constituents by staring intently into the camera and doubling down on his favorite insane conspiracy theory which, despite winning the presidential election three months ago, he still cannot seem to let go of.
posted by Jalliah at 10:51 PM on January 25, 2017 [28 favorites]

Paul Ryan: U.S. Will ‘Front Money’ for Border Wall, Devise Plan to Make Mexico Pay Later

Ryan’s remark that there are “different ways of defining” how Mexico pays suggests Americans may need to broaden their definition of what “reimbursement” means.

It depends on what the meaning of the word 'reimbursement' is."
posted by kirkaracha at 11:08 PM on January 25, 2017 [22 favorites]

Baldwin should SNL entirely in character and in every skit he's Donald Trump.
posted by PenDevil at 11:10 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

...exiting presidents had left for the incoming president and said that Obama's letter looked unusually long.

A lot of shade from Muir in this interview. I think he carefully phrased his questions in such a way that trump didn't feel too defensive while also not letting him off the hook. trump got played though. That is my takeaway. Let's see how trump feels about it tomorrow after he has watched the interview 5 times tonight. A raven may appear at his window as the sun comes up with a dead twitter bird in its beak cawing for blood or he might hold up Muir as the best reporter ever. Who the fuck knows?! Probably depends on who whispers in his ear vs who sent the raven..
posted by futz at 11:13 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Will their plan to get Mexico to pay be revealed before or after the plan they've been working on secretly for the past 6 years to provide better universal healthcare than the ACA?
posted by ckape at 11:14 PM on January 25, 2017 [9 favorites]

Is Paul Ryan suggesting that the US will pay for the wall financially, like with money, and that Mexico will pay for the wall... spiritually? Like with a somber mood due to strained relations? Or...?
posted by samthemander at 11:17 PM on January 25, 2017 [22 favorites]

Don't forget about the secret plan to fight ISIS too. I know there's a lot of secret plans to keep straight, but that's the world we live in now.
posted by zachlipton at 11:20 PM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

I'm pretty sure that by "Mexico will pay," Ryan means "Oh my fucking god, of course Mexico won't pay, could you Trump voters possibly be bigger damn rubes and suckers? Jesus Horse, the credulity. I can stare at you with my enormous dead yet sad eyes and you'll believe any outrageous shit I say. The wall won't even be built anyhow; it'll just be some muddy deserted construction site full of random cinder blocks while that fucking lunatic asshole I have to occasionally pretend to be allied with lines his and his buddies' pockets. But hey, it makes a great diversionary tactic to draw attention away while I dismantle the entire motherfucking American social contract. Have a nice night!"
posted by FelliniBlank at 11:23 PM on January 25, 2017 [85 favorites]

Baldwin should SNL entirely in character

He should do it as if the current White House occupant is guest hosting, and therefore is expected to play different characters in skits, but he just can't manage it and so every sketch falls to pieces around him.
posted by holgate at 11:27 PM on January 25, 2017 [38 favorites]

I found myself staring at the twitter comment box thing, and it was asking me "What's happening?" and murmured, "I don't know twitter. I just don't know." I think that's a sign for me to turn of the firehose and try to sleep. Thank you all.
posted by gofargogo at 11:27 PM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

Long thread, worth reading.

When you grow up in Germany & go through the school system in Germany, you will cover the Third Reich several times.
posted by Artw at 11:56 PM on January 25, 2017 [21 favorites]

He should do it as if the current White House occupant is guest hosting, and therefore is expected to play different characters in skits, but he just can't manage it and so every sketch falls to pieces around him.

The entire SNL episode should be a dramatisation of what happened the last time Donald hosted.
posted by PenDevil at 11:56 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Disaster: "Trump's policies toward Iraq." Video circulating now in social media in Iraq, key partner in US military strategy against ISIS.

Moron. Utter fucking moron. How big is his body count going to be?
posted by Artw at 12:03 AM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

Welp, here's one Trump voter with buyer's remorse:

I want to give these people some credit, but no. Fuck them all. This was all obvious THE ENTIRE TIME. What they fuck else were they expecting.

Pretty sure they were blinded by the Hillary hate. Now that there's no one to compare him to, they see him for what he is.
posted by frecklefaerie at 12:04 AM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

Yeah the whole "we should have taken the oil" thing makes me nuts. It's not like we could just take it all in one afternoon and split. There would need to be a permanent occupying force and...

And, fuck, it's theft. It's illegal and immoral and terrible strategy.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:05 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

But mostly is illegal and immoral but it's so stupid that it's easy to forget that the immorality and illegality are the main reasons not to do it.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:07 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

HE IS ON VIDEO SAYING HE IS GOING TO INVADE IRAQ AND STEAL THEIR OIL.

He could not have handed ISIS a bigger gift if he tried. He just fucked over everyone fighting against them, Americans, Iraqis and other. People will die because of this.
posted by Artw at 12:07 AM on January 26, 2017 [67 favorites]

I never want to hear anything about supporting troops from any trump supporter ever again, that's for sure. Whatever gains they made, your guy just destroyed them.
posted by Artw at 12:08 AM on January 26, 2017 [25 favorites]

So anyway, I guess that's the Reichstag fire sorted.
posted by Artw at 12:16 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Remember during the campaign when Trump supporters said everyone was wrong for trying to take his words literally?

Well it's becoming apparent that he did mean all that shit literally. The wall. Stealing Iraqi oil. I think at this point it's safer to assume he's serious about all of it. Military processions in public. Martial law in major cities. All of it. We can't impeach this ticking turd bomb fast enough.
posted by p3t3 at 12:19 AM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

Science: Trump officials suspend plan to delete EPA climate web pages

!!
posted by Room 641-A at 12:20 AM on January 26, 2017 [20 favorites]

Science: Trump officials suspend plan to delete EPA climate web pages

That's the one step forward. I'm greatly fearful of what the "two steps back" are going to be.
posted by CommonSense at 12:32 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

New plan: Delete the EPA
posted by Tenuki at 12:38 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

I don't know if "Alec Baldwin made fun of Trump for an entire episode of SNL" is necessarily what humanity should want on our tombstone
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 1:15 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

I feel like we should aim higher
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 1:21 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Well, the current top-rated TV shows are "The Walking Dead" and "The Big Bang Theory"... the nerdy scientists on the latter would obviously attack him, but I'd rather see him eaten by zombies on the former (although if they want brains, he'll leave them quite underfed).
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:31 AM on January 26, 2017

They should write this storyline into The Big Bang Theory and bring it to a catastrophic end as funding cuts gradually strangle the sciences and leave the gang packing groceries for $2.50 an hour under the new no-minimum wage policy while succumbing to sickness and disease with no way to get healthcare and watching helplessly as Koothrappali gets sent out of the country for being brown
posted by scrowdid at 1:41 AM on January 26, 2017 [64 favorites]

Android Central: So there you go. Trump’s personal Android phone is more than likely a Samsung Galaxy S3, released in 2012, and which last received a software update in mid-2015, with firmware based on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

Assume from now on that Trump's phone has been compromised for at least a year.
posted by PenDevil at 2:03 AM on January 26, 2017 [17 favorites]

Anyone curious about what was @WhiteHouseLeak before it was taken down, it's at archive.org.
posted by rory at 2:59 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Donald Trump is building his wall with Mexico as undocumented border crossing reaches a 40-year low

..And more recently, due to a growing Mexican economy, the number of people attempting to cross the US-Mexico border fell precipitously over the last 15 years. Since 2007, the total number of Mexican immigrants in the US has actually been on the decline.

posted by p3t3 at 3:01 AM on January 26, 2017 [21 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump: Ungrateful TRAITOR Chelsea Manning, who should never have been released from prison, is now calling President Obama a weak leader. Terrible!

I assume he is referring to this, which FNC must have talked about this hour. But seeing as Chelsea is still in federal custody for four months, this makes me terrified for her life.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:15 AM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

Huh. But when he called Obama the same, it was of course all fine.
posted by Too-Ticky at 3:19 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump: Ungrateful TRAITOR Chelsea Manning

Sadly Trump here manages to display more class than most of his supporters in not deadnaming Manning.
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 3:43 AM on January 26, 2017 [23 favorites]

So is he suggesting President Obama should only have pardoned Manning if Manning were sufficiently deferential?
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:53 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I see people saying their rep's voicemail boxes are full and I don't get it. I can set up an answering machine that'll basically record forever. With stuff I can get from the supermarket for <100$.

Wait, I forgot these are the people who think an email server is spycraft black magic.
posted by adept256 at 3:59 AM on January 26, 2017 [17 favorites]

I hoping punching Spencer is like the new thing.

Wholesome fun for the whole family! For Ages 8+
posted by C'est la D.C. at 4:13 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

I get why the Dems are focusing on it, but yeah, they can focus on more than one thing, I mean even supposing an impeachment over Russia went down Pence is going to carry on with a ton of the same policies so they need to already be fighting on those fronts.

If Trump was impeached because his campaign colluded with a hostile foreign power, wouldn't that take some of the wind out of the sails of the guy who won via the same tainted campaign?
posted by diogenes at 4:23 AM on January 26, 2017 [18 favorites]

So is he suggesting President Obama should only have pardoned Manning if Manning were sufficiently deferential?

As I understand it, Obama did not, legally speaking, "pardon" Manning, Obama commuted Manning's sentence.

That aside, I pay attention to Trump's ...

[Manning] should never have been released from prison

I'm sure Trump's base agrees with that. Can Trump undo Obama's commuting Manning's prison sentence?
posted by Mister Bijou at 4:27 AM on January 26, 2017

From twitter: @brianstelter 14 minutes apart: Fox says "ungrateful traitor," Trump says "ungrateful traitor," Fox says "weak leader," Trump says "weak leader."
posted by pixie at 4:36 AM on January 26, 2017 [51 favorites]

Shia LaBeouf arrested for scratching the face of an unidentified 25 yr old man. No info yet on whether the scratchee was a nazi.
posted by Buntix at 4:45 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm sure Trump's base agrees with that. Can Trump undo Obama's commuting Manning's prison sentence?

I don't think we actually know the answer to this, because no president has had the gall to attempt to rescind a pardon or commutation. I remember that Bush looked into doing so with one of his own pardons, but I don't think anything came of it. I don't think it would stand up in the courts on any sane reading of the constitution.

That said, very little stops Trump from just shipping Chelsea off to Gitmo in the middle of the night.
posted by dis_integration at 4:47 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Russian Spy Tied to DNC Hacking Arrested for Treason
posted by diogenes at 4:47 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Shia LaBeouf arrested for scratching the face of an unidentified 25 yr old man. No info yet on whether the scratchee was a nazi.

I saw the video; if it's the same guy, he looked into the camera and said "14/88", and he was wearing a Wehrmacht field cap, so I think that the answer to that is "yeah, he was a Nazi".
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 4:48 AM on January 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

Surely everyone in foreign policy circles is just freaking the fuck out right now because of the Iraq thing, right? Even in a Putinist-madman sense, that's not a great bomb to drop in an interview.

If there's anyone on the right with even the faintest ghost of a glimmer of common sense, they've got to be working behind the scenes to impeach. It's not going to be possible to have a foreign policy - even a shitty, imperialist foreign policy - with Trump in office.

My hope now is that with Trump taken down, Pence will still be weak by association.

Also, I have to say, I wish Chelsea Manning hadn't published that thing until she was out of prison. This all just makes me very, very nervous for her when I was already nervous. And I hope she has a safehouse assuming they let her out at all.
posted by Frowner at 4:49 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

So hey why hasn't any elected official raised the 25th yet?

Because they're spineless cowards, and because you only get one grab at that ring.

I wasn't aware that Reagan's new Chief of Staff in 1987 considered the 25th on the advice of the outgoing team (he would be diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1994).

Back then of course, insane world leaders were generally frowned upon.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:49 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

WaPo: In his first major TV interview as president, Trump is endlessly obsessed with his popularity
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:00 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Russian Spy Tied to DNC Hacking Arrested for Treason
posted by diogenes at 4:47 AM on January 26 [+] [!]

article/ Op-Ed in Talking Points Memo

reminded me of Obama saying some forms of retaliation would be visible, some not.
posted by From Bklyn at 5:01 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I was simply dumbstruck when I read in this thread earlier today that the Democrats are still trying to push this Russia thing as the issue that's going to move them forward. Their people just articulated a clear set of issues where they want to take a stand! Millions of them! Where were congressional Democrats on Saturday? Did they speak to anyone at the Women's March? Listen to any of the speeches? Did they even watch news coverage of the event?

DNC Chair Hopefuls Skip Women’s March for David Brock Donor Retreat
posted by srboisvert at 5:02 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Politico: Brock’s Florida conference outlined some of the philosophical fault lines. In one closed-door session, Chicago mayor and former Barack Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel advocated a measured approach to Trump opposition, one in which Democrats choose only specific fights with a tight game plan. Sitting opposite Emanuel, former Joe Biden chief of staff Ron Klain shared his rules for a “100 Day Fight Club” — a battle royale he advocated to mark Trump’s opening stretch, according to people in the room.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:05 AM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

This Politico article seems to confirm our worst fears, which is that Miller and Bannon are writing executive orders without any agency review, and even his own aides don't know what's in them.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:09 AM on January 26, 2017 [33 favorites]

This Politico article seems to confirm our worst fears, which is that Miller and Bannon are writing executive orders without any agency review, and even his own aides don't know what's in them.

It really does increasingly look like a Potemkin presidency; being run by the political equivalent of gamechair generals who think they are experts on military strategy because they spend 80 hours a week playing Call of Duty in their parents' basement..
posted by Buntix at 5:15 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Trump is off to Philadelphia today, so maybe he doesn't have time to sign anything.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:16 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

article/ Op-Ed in Talking Points Memo

reminded me of Obama saying some forms of retaliation would be visible, some not.

What do you mean?
posted by diogenes at 5:16 AM on January 26, 2017

Trump signed an executive order eliminating federal funding for sanctuary cities.

And cops, and firefighters, and public safety generally.

In Chicago those cops went for Trump at over 90 percent. The Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Donald Trump. International Association of Fire Fighters didn't endorse Hillary which was a surprise.

The ordered up a shit sandwich for everyone and now they will be surprised they too have to chew and swallow.
posted by srboisvert at 5:18 AM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

Not that there aren't already enough reasons to oppose Sessions' appointment, but here's one that hits me particularly hard. From a piece by Jay Michaelson of the Daily Beast, quoting a speech Sessions made in 2014:

Ultimately, freedom of speech is about ascertaining the truth... And if you don’t believe there’s a truth, you don’t believe in truth, if you’re an utter secularist, then how do we operate this government?

posted by metaquarry at 5:21 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Ultimately, freedom of speech is about ascertaining the truth... And if you don’t believe there’s a truth, you don’t believe in truth, if you’re an utter secularist, then how do we operate this government?

He thinks secularists don't believe in truth?
posted by diogenes at 5:24 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

A little light relief - a mostly forgotten British comedian poses a silly question on Twitter about the value of torture and the public responds.
posted by threetwentytwo at 5:26 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Hmm. Chaffetz Says He Wants To Review Trump's DC Hotel Lease [TPM]
Chaffetz told reporters he asked for the unredacted lease in december [sic] and that he still has not received it, according to Politico.
posted by Room 641-A at 5:29 AM on January 26, 2017 [19 favorites]

From the WaPo article threeseventeen linked about his ABC News interview:

"Trump insisted that he could have 'very, very easily' won the popular vote in the election — which concluded more than 11 weeks ago — had he simply tried."

Ooh, see, he's on the verge of a cogent answer there. I mean, something like "my campaign team and I knew that the election is decided by the electoral college, not the popular vote, and therefore we pursued a strategy designed to win the electoral college. Had it been a direct popular vote, we would have applied a different campaign strategy and won that" would be a reasonable response to people pointing out that he didn't win the popular vote.

But instead he goes back to rambling about millions of alleged fraudulent votes.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 5:29 AM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

He thinks secularists don't believe in truth?

He doesn't see how it's possible for them to ascertain the truth.

God = Ultimate truth
No God in the mix = no possibility at truth
posted by Jalliah at 5:30 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

I love the Bernhard Langer story.

Bernhard Langer is a great golfer, I would probably place him around number 10 of his generation. He is also conveniently an Aryan athlete, that sort of you-know-who-else-idealized-the-blonde-physical-ideal sort of person.

Unless proven otherwise, he is an innocent victim of Trump's delusions. I give 50/50 odds he's an Angela Merkel fan.

Now, the story has Langer, supposedly a friend and supporter of Trump, trying to commit voter fraud. He knows he is a permanent resident and anyone who deals with immigration knows they have no right to vote.

According to the story: "Ahead of and behind Mr. Langer were voters who did not look as if they should be allowed to vote, Mr. Trump said, according to the staff members — but they were nonetheless permitted to cast provisional ballots. The president threw out the names of Latin American countries that the voters might have come from."

So, this is in Florida. People who look Latino in Florida are voting. Oh nos! But, according to the story Langer recognized that these people as coming from other countries. Furthermore, he says people in front of him and behind were allowed to cast provisional ballots. So, Langer must have hung around and somehow learned that these illegal-alien looking people were given provisional ballots.

But, wait, these Latinos were given provisional ballots? Were those ballots counted? Since there is nothing to support the allegations of illegal aliens voting, why were these people shunted to provisional ballots? Is this story documenting voter suppression?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 5:32 AM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

(not that the National Guard would be "politically incorrect" because that is an insane notion, but he may think so)

The National Guard has fired on civilians before.
posted by srboisvert at 5:33 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Trump is off to Philadelphia today, so maybe he doesn't have time to sign anything.

Tonight on FXX: The Gang Punches a Fascist [fake]
posted by Mayor West at 5:33 AM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

As noted above, Bernhard Langer apparently isn't even an American citizen, he's a German citizen with permanent residence and is unable to vote here.
posted by zombieflanders at 5:36 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday said he will oppose President Trump’s pick for Education secretary, writing in a biting statement that Betsy DeVos would “single-handedly decimate our public education system.”

Decimate. ARRRRRRRGH!
posted by srboisvert at 5:37 AM on January 26, 2017 [24 favorites]

I read that: she's only going to decimate public education. Woo-hoo!
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 5:41 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

It's a story that nicely summarizes the President's entire information gathering process as a swirl of misremembered nonsensical anecdotes mixed with blatant racism and straight-up cluelessness.

So he's firing on all cylinders then?
posted by petebest at 5:43 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

He doesn't see how it's possible for them to ascertain the truth.

God = Ultimate truth
No God in the mix = no possibility at truth

The end result of that mentality would seem to be the Christian version of Shariah law.
posted by diogenes at 5:43 AM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

Politico: Brock’s Florida conference outlined some of the philosophical fault lines. In one closed-door session, Chicago mayor and former Barack Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel advocated a measured approach to Trump opposition, one in which Democrats choose only specific fights with a tight game plan. Sitting opposite Emanuel, former Joe Biden chief of staff Ron Klain shared his rules for a “100 Day Fight Club” — a battle royale he advocated to mark Trump’s opening stretch, according to people in the room.

Rahm Emanuel's political instinct is to always do the evil thing and to call it pragmatism.
posted by srboisvert at 5:43 AM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

As SLoG and many others upthread have mentioned, our republican senators' vmail boxes are all "full".

Given that we've been instructed that the most effective way to reach our MoC is to call them, would emailing them then become effective if calling is fubar? Would email floods also shut down their inboxes? Then what?

Please advise.
posted by yoga at 5:43 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Then what?

Then we show up at their offices.
posted by diogenes at 5:45 AM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

The end result of that mentality would seem to be the Christian version of Shariah law.

That's what the Dominionist types want; a Christian version of Iran. (Or Gilead from "The Handmaid's Tale".)
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 5:47 AM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

Chaffetz Says He Wants To Review Trump's DC Hotel Lease.

It's not a good sign for Trump if Chaffetz is willing to give him any trouble at all.
posted by diogenes at 5:47 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

ShitNugget of the morning: Knitting Store in TN will not sell yarn for the Womens March Movement
Huh. Wonder who her suppliers are?
posted by yoga at 5:48 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday said he will oppose President Trump’s pick for Education secretary, writing in a biting statement that Betsy DeVos would “single-handedly decimate our public education system.”

Decimate. ARRRRRRRGH!

Well, I'm sadly going to remind you that setting one in ten public schools on fire would be on the optimistic end of her vision.
posted by lydhre at 5:49 AM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

Matt Gertz: 9-11/Sandy Hook Truther Alex Jones says that Infowars has been offered White House press credentials.
posted by PenDevil at 5:49 AM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

That's what the Dominionist types want; a Christian version of Iran.

I guess I kind of knew that, but it's startling to see it captured so clearly in a one sentence quote from the nominee for Attorney General. I'm not going to be ok with any "pragmatic" yes votes from Democratic Senators on this one.
posted by diogenes at 5:50 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

This tweet from @PressSec looks like he typed in his password [Spicer has already deleted it, but tons of people got screenshots, lo. Good morning, sir.]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:50 AM on January 26, 2017 [54 favorites]

The part Of the ABC interview I keep thinking about this morning is where DJT says not one of the "millions of illegal votes "was cast for him, every single one was a vote for Hillary. Astonishing. He has zero proof that this actually happened, he doesn't know who, where, or how, yet somehow he knows these secret ballots had check marks next to Clinton's name. He has become so invested in the idea that he is more popular than she is, this is the story he must tell himself over and over.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:51 AM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

The part Of the ABC interview I keep thinking about this morning is where DJT says not one of the "millions of illegal votes "was cast for him, every single one was a vote for Hillary.

Maybe he thinks he's omniscient?
posted by diogenes at 5:53 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

From the knitting-store story: I just think that walking around dressed as a vulva is gross.

Has she not seen any of the hats? We're talking about the things with cat (as in "pussycat") ears, right? If your external sex organs look like that then, uh, you might want a medical consult.
posted by jackbishop at 5:54 AM on January 26, 2017 [22 favorites]

The end result of that mentality would seem to be the Christian version of Shariah law.

Yes pretty much. It's related to the Christian viewpoint (#notallChristians) that no one can be good without believing in God. That really the only way people can understand that 'murder is wrong' is because God said so. The only thing stopping lots of 'murder' is God saying so but more importantly that God will throw you in a pit of fire for all eternity if you don't do good by God.
There are people (I've met some) who have trouble understanding how it's even possible to 'be good' without this threat of eternal damnation so they have an inherent distrust(and fear) of anyone who doesn't believe because they think there's nothing really stopping them (besides threat of prison) from flipping from 'good' to 'bad' on a whim.
posted by Jalliah at 5:55 AM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

Tonight on FXX: The Gang Punches a Fascist [fake]

Frank: Guys! Trump is coming!
Sweet Dee: What? Are you serious, Frank?
Frank: Oh yeah! Me and him, we're two peas in the same pod! And I'm going to take him for everything he's got!
Mac: How you gonna do that, Frank? He's the president! He's gotta be a smart guy.
Dennis: Really smart. Everyone thought he was going to lose and he surprised everyone.
Frank: Nah. He's an idiot. All you gotta do is flatter the guy and he'll give you everything! So I'm going to offer to look into his voter fraud and get a fat government grant!
Mac: Frank did you just call yourself an idiot?
Frank: What?
Dennis: Yeah you just said you're two peas in the same pod and then called him an idiot!
Frank: Shut up you idiots this is going to work just watch!
Sweet Dee: But, Frank he's a fascist! You can't get in bed with him!
Charlie: What the hell is a fascist?
Sweet Dee: They're bad people, Charlie.
Charlie: So why aren't we doing anything about them?
Sweet Dee: Well because...
Charlie: I'M GOING TO FIND A FASCIST AND PUCH THEM!

[title card] Charlie Punches a Fascist
posted by Talez at 5:57 AM on January 26, 2017 [29 favorites]

The lady from the kitting-store is a wonderful example about how the purpose of feminism is lost on some people. Either they're equating it to misandry or they don't even know what it means and hate it because someone else told them it was bad.

The social media post by Elizabeth Poe said that as a business owner and a Christian, she promotes values of "mutual respect, love, compassion, understanding, and integrity." She called the women's movement "counterproductive" to unity.

Sounds exactly like feminism to me.
posted by INFJ at 5:59 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

ShitNugget of the morning: Knitting Store in TN will not sell yarn for the Womens March Movement
Huh. Wonder who her suppliers are?

This doesn't upset me a whole lot because she's only hurting herself and her business. And really all people have to do if they want to buy yarn is say 'I'm making a sweater for my baby niece'.
posted by Jalliah at 5:59 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Yes, and then after paying blurt out "IT'S FOR A PUSSY HAT! A PUSSY HAT!" and run out of the store cackling.

Ideally speaking.
posted by tocts at 6:02 AM on January 26, 2017 [92 favorites]

1. Ask which aisle has the pussy hat yarn.
2. Have shop clerk start her speech.
3. Interrupt and say, nevermind, Michael's is just down the street.
posted by cmfletcher at 6:04 AM on January 26, 2017 [40 favorites]

This tweet from @PressSec looks like he typed in his password

LOCK HIM UP
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:05 AM on January 26, 2017 [29 favorites]

Will their plan to get Mexico to pay be revealed before or after the plan they've been working on secretly for the past 6 years to provide better universal healthcare than the ACA?

It seems like two aspects of the same general policy that one of the hosts outlined on Pod Save America: "we will drive the car through the guardrail, and then on the way down, try to figure out how to build a plane."
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:07 AM on January 26, 2017 [20 favorites]

Regarding the RogueNasa account and the question of who is doing it. It looks like it was started by people at NASA

To prevent Hatch Act violations, ownership of this account has been given to two people who are not employees of the federal government.

Rest assured, we're still here for facts and science. We will keep in close contact with our NASA friends and update you when necessary.

A lot of good people are very afraid of losing their jobs. And for them, keeping food on the table trumps running a Twitter account.

We're going to use this account for science & political news + calls to action. We hope you stick with us. Facts matter now more than ever.
posted by Jalliah at 6:12 AM on January 26, 2017 [25 favorites]

The end result of that mentality would seem to be the Christian version of Shariah law.

I was born and raised an atheist, so I have had my antenna up for "if you don't believe in God, you aren't even a human person" since forever. And I do recall way back in the 80s GHWB had a line about how, because this is one nation under God, atheists should not be considered patriots or Americans. This attitude goes way, way back. Apply God to $thing, claim that since $thing==God, people who don't believe in God are now exempt from $thing. Truth, America, Laws, whatever. It's an all purpose fallacy. Apply directly to the forehead.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:20 AM on January 26, 2017 [29 favorites]

You'd be surprised how many people are born an atheist.
posted by adept256 at 6:23 AM on January 26, 2017 [37 favorites]

You'd be surprised how many people are born an atheist.

Lol well you know what I mean. My parents are atheists.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:25 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

"if you don't believe in God, you aren't even a human person"

I'm guessing that my Unitarian Universalist "Spirit of Love" isn't going to count.
posted by diogenes at 6:26 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

About contacting your congressperson: wouldn't it be great to do that thing from Harry Potter, where the letters keep coming? Ideally do it for Trump as well: 19 million letters telling him that you are loosing healthcare because of him..

I'm loving the image of owls continuously swooping in and out of offices.
posted by Jalliah at 6:28 AM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

This tweet from @PressSec looks like he typed in his password

Another explanation is that he was trying to DM someone their password over Twitter. Which means that conservatives voting for Trump solely on the basis of online security hygiene may be sorely disappointed.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:31 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

This tweet from @PressSec looks like he typed in his password [Spicer has already deleted it, but tons of people got screenshots, lo. Good morning, sir.]

Surprisingly string, I'd expect P@ssword or something.
posted by Artw at 6:33 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

conservatives voting for Trump solely on the basis of online security hygiene

All, like, two of them?
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:33 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

From the knitting-store story: I just think that walking around dressed as a vulva is gross.

Actual conversation at the Gravy household:
Mr: They don't look like vaginas to me
Ms: ???? They are supposed to look like cats
Mr: How? They don't look like cats either.
Ms: Those are the ears right there.
Mr: Hmmmm So not a cat face, just a cat's ears.
Ms: It's meant to be a simple pattern that anyone can knit.

I really want to sit down with the woman in the yarn shop over a cup of camomile tea and have a non-confrontational chat about life and women and protesting and knitting and DJT's attitude towards women. It would probably be a waste of time, but I'd rather do that than bombard her Facebook page with insults and invective.

Another bit from the interview that really stood out to me was where he was talking about the Dreamers. He said they should not be very worried. Then he said they are illegal. Then he said they should not be very worried. I swear I could see two people whispering into his ears. On one side, Kushner telling him, "Don't worry about the Dreamers, they are not a problem. On the other side, Bannon telling him, "Fuck the Dreamers, they are here illegally. We need to throw them out with all the other illegals.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:34 AM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

I am nowhere near caught up with this thread, but primarying Dems from the left is a colossally non-productive idea.

People have gone into this a little upthread, but the Democrats are not the Republicans, and the Tea Party are not Bernie-Bros. Take CA. DiFi partially wins because there are a lot of moderate Dems and actual conservatives in CA, and if you primary her from the left you'd better be damn sure you're not just splitting the vote so the R's can scrape up someone even worse.

Or take WY; it's a bright-red state, with just as many senators as all the others. If there's a Dem who stands a chance of winning there they will be moderate, otherwise you're stuck with voting for the least regressive GOP asshole you can find.
posted by aspersioncast at 6:35 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Knitting Store in TN will not sell yarn for the Womens March Movement

Wow. Look at her eyes. Notice those dark rings under them? "TN Yarn Store Owner Drunk-Rage-Posts Some Christian Crap After Feeling Particularly Self-Hateful".

With respect to the ReSisters, I'd recommend not shopping there for awhile but maybe still try to stay supportive and - oh wait you're already doing that and I'm dorksplaining. Sorry, I'll hush up on that part.

following weekend protests by marchers in knitted, pointy-eared hats.

PUSSYHATS, PLEASE.
posted by petebest at 6:35 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

This tweet from @PressSec looks like he typed in his password

'nyah' interspersed with 9257.

09/02/57 isn't his birthdate.....might be random but if it isn't this is a bad day on Spicernet.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:35 AM on January 26, 2017

"if you don't believe in God, you aren't even a human person"

Which is in the same vein as "As a people, we need to reaffirm our faith and renew the dedication of our nation and ourselves to God and God's purposes." Or "This is the most religious country in the world and sometimes we try to stifle that fact or hide it. But the profound and ultimately most important reality is that we are not only citizens of this blessed country, we are citizens of the same awesome God." Or "the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion."

Which, for me, is how "Maybe I _should_ vote for Ralph" turned into a serious proposition back in the day.
posted by delfin at 6:35 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

(I legit did not realize they were supposed to be cat ears until the middle of the march; I figured it was just a stylized uterus.)
posted by Etrigan at 6:37 AM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

Embattled Nebraska pol resigns after sharing Women's March tweet

I didn't know republicans still knew shame. I guess only at a state level?
posted by Artw at 6:38 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Surprisingly str[o]ng, I'd expect P@ssword or something.

I sincerely hope that he does not use it for any other accounts. It would be horrible if someone logged into those. And leaked all the interesting stuff they found there.

Terrible, it would be.
posted by PontifexPrimus at 6:40 AM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

So, after following all those AltNPS Twitter accounts, the Gmail address associated with my Twitter account was hacked this morning. Awesome.

Watch yourselves out there.
posted by slipthought at 6:41 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Another bit from the interview that really stood out to me was where he was talking about the Dreamers. He said they should not be very worried. Then he said they are illegal. Then he said they should not be very worried. I swear I could see two people whispering into his ears. On one side, Kushner telling him, "Don't worry about the Dreamers, they are not a problem. On the other side, Bannon telling him, "Fuck the Dreamers, they are here illegally. We need to throw them out with all the other illegals.

Well that Whitehouse leaks account said this is exactly what is happening. Bannon on one side. Kushner and Priebus on the other.
posted by Jalliah at 6:42 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

I didn't know republicans still knew shame. I guess only at a state level?

I wish! I think an infant sneezed on him and he caught temporary conscience.
posted by petebest at 6:42 AM on January 26, 2017

I'll admit that I didn't realize that those little pink triangles on pussyhats were supposed to be cat ears. In my defense, I didn't give it much thought, and I never saw one in person or looked at one very closely.
posted by diogenes at 6:42 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Spicer tweeted a password yesterday as well.

Nevermind about Russia compromising the US intelligence community when the current administration will mistakenly CC them in on some top secret memo.
posted by PenDevil at 6:43 AM on January 26, 2017 [16 favorites]

I've said it before but I really do think that part of Donald's weird contradiction thing is representative of fights his team is having. He listens and can't keep the arguments from different sides straight and ends up mushing them together.
posted by Jalliah at 6:45 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

I think I'd invite the yarn Quisling to see this performance art piece.

"I'm spending 28 days knitting from wool that I've inserted in my vagina," Jenkins says. "It's confining, because I'm attached to this knitting."

It's supposed to be confronting. That's the point.
posted by adept256 at 6:45 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Too far.
posted by petebest at 6:47 AM on January 26, 2017

TWO FACTOR AUTHENTICATION GUIZE.

It's a pain (though the best use of the SMS-displaying function of my Fitbit that I have yet found) but desperate times and all.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:47 AM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

About contacting your congressperson: wouldn't it be great to do that thing from Harry Potter, where the letters keep coming? Ideally do it for Trump as well: 19 million letters telling him that you are loosing healthcare because of him..

The letters will never reach him. Letter --> staff person --> trash. People at rallies/protests & TV ratings are the only things that matter to him, apparently. Example:

He spent part of his speech at the CIA complaining about the columns in the building because they prevented him from holding his speech in the larger room that could hold more people. I know that seems like a joke, but he seriously ended a speech in front of the Memorial Wall honoring the CIA's fallen heroes by talking about bringing in a builder who "knows how to build" because it prevented the "thousands of other people that have been trying to come in." That's the only thing that registers with him.
posted by bluecore at 6:48 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

TWO FACTOR AUTHENTICATION GUIZE.

I hear ya. It's a one-off account, so not really a big deal. I'm locking it down now. But the implications concern me.
posted by slipthought at 6:50 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is a good thing. Also, 'No shit sherlock'.

autoplay: Republicans are openly considering Donald Trump's 'emotional stability', says Carl Bernstein

Donald Trump’s “emotional maturity [and] stability” are being discussed in private by senior members of his own political party, according to veteran Washington journalist Carl Bernstein, in a turn of events he has described as unprecedented.

Bernstein was speaking on CNN late on Wednesday night, when he revealed there was “open discussion” among Republicans about Mr Trump’s fitness to rule.

Mr Trump has continued to repeat unfounded claims that between three and five million illegal votes were cast in the 2016 election, helping sway the result of the popular vote against him. There is no evidence to support such allegations, and they have been met with dismay by senior Republicans.

Bernstein said discussions going on in Washington this week were “unlike anything I have seen in 50 years as a reporter”.

“I am hearing from Republicans, and other reporters are as well, that there is open discussion by members of the President of the United States’ own party about his emotional maturity, stability,” he said.

“People are saying that his psyche is driving the news cycle.
posted by Jalliah at 6:50 AM on January 26, 2017 [40 favorites]

Nevermind about Russia compromising the US intelligence community when the current administration will mistakenly CC them in on some top secret memo.

I'm surprised Trump hasn't tweeted the nuclear codes yet.
posted by adept256 at 6:51 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Does anyone know what time/if Spicer is doing a presser today? I can't find any sort of schedule for this crap.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:52 AM on January 26, 2017

Will their plan to get Mexico to pay be revealed before or after the plan they've been working on secretly for the past 6 years to provide better universal healthcare than the ACA?

I recall back during the campaign, there was a casual mention of the 400+ millions of dollars in economic and military aid that the US sends to Mexico each year. If I were a betting person, I'd say that they will try withholding all or part of those funds. Mexico "pays" for the wall!
posted by Thorzdad at 6:52 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

With a mention upthread of Article 25, I'd like to remind you all that higher up NIH officials have been gagged wrt local, state, and federal elected officials.

So maybe the various highly specialized doctors at NIH have something to say (in an official way) that the Trump team would like left unsaid.
posted by Slackermagee at 6:54 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I've peeked into the Upside Down by looking at comments on news sites and, even here in MA, the prevailing opinion of the Trump supporters is that Mexico will pay for the fucking wall because we will magically stop sending them undeserved money.
posted by lydhre at 6:55 AM on January 26, 2017

@BilldeBlasio : we won't be turning anyone in, will not become immigration enforcers for those who haven't broken law, or broke minor law. .@BilldeBlasio says NYC already turns undocumented over if they've broken any of some 170 crimes. Says no need for Trump's executive order
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:56 AM on January 26, 2017 [17 favorites]

"I'm spending 28 days knitting from wool that I've inserted in my vagina," Jenkins says. "It's confining, because I'm attached to this knitting."

I'll take knitting from a vagina over legislation from an asshole any day.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:57 AM on January 26, 2017 [60 favorites]

Android Central: So there you go. Trump’s personal Android phone is more than likely a Samsung Galaxy S3, released in 2012, and which last received a software update in mid-2015, with firmware based on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.
Assume from now on that Trump's phone has been compromised for at least a year.

It must be running out of storage from the sheer amount of state sponsored malware competing for control over the various components.
posted by indubitable at 6:57 AM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

Oh, Trump's feelings were hurt that the Mexican president said he might not come.

The U.S. has a 60 billion dollar trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers... of jobs and companies lost. If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:58 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

So maybe the various highly specialized doctors at NIH have something to say (in an official way) that the Trump team would like left unsaid.

Eh, I dunno, they're "experts" and the people that need convincing hate experts.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:58 AM on January 26, 2017

If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.

So really, all we need is like one ranking Republican to say the word "impeachment", and Trump will be all "YOU CAN'T FIRE ME I QUIT" and we've got President Pence.
posted by Etrigan at 7:00 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

It must be running out of storage from the sheer amount of state sponsored malware competing for control over the various components.

The Illuminati has a slim microkernel that isolates the nation-states pretty well
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:01 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

> People are saying that his psyche is driving the news cycle.

Technically, the news cycle is driving his ~~psyche~~ psychosis. This is probably worse though.
posted by guiseroom at 7:05 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

A handy list of numbers if you want to reach Trump a bit more directly. Ask to speak to the Manager.

New York:
(212) 299-1000
(212) 842-5500
(212) 836-3249
(212) 715-7290

Miami
(305) 592-2000

DC
(202) 695-1100

Los Angeles
(310) 265-5000

Palm Beach
(561) 832-2600

Chicago
(312) 588-8000

Philadelphia
(856) 435-3100

Las Vegas
(702) 982-0000

okay maybe these are a list of his hotels and golf courses, but they're answering the phones.
posted by my left sock at 7:06 AM on January 26, 2017 [42 favorites]

Doomsday Clock moving from 3 minutes to midnight to 2 and a half minutes to midnight
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:09 AM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.

It's just delusion after delusion now. Mexico got a better deal with trade agreements, therefore of course they should be willing, they like owe us back now! Right? So obvious. Duh.
posted by Jalliah at 7:12 AM on January 26, 2017

You don't have to be mean to them.
posted by Too-Ticky at 7:12 AM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

> Spicer tweeted a password yesterday as well.

Passwords... or numbers station?
posted by Westringia F. at 7:13 AM on January 26, 2017 [20 favorites]

Would it be immoral if we all called those numbers and then hung up after a few seconds? Like a telephone DDOS?
posted by diogenes at 7:14 AM on January 26, 2017

On the other hand: I hesitate to do that to the people answering the phones. Unlike congressional staffers, they didn't sign up for this.

Yes, not cool. The people working the desks at his hotels don't need to be harassed. If you want to protest out front by all means but don't be jerks to the folks that are simply picking up a check to make ends meet.
posted by photoslob at 7:17 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Would it be immoral if we all called those numbers and then hung up after a few seconds? Like a telephone DDOS?
posted by diogenes at 11:14 PM on January 26 [+] [!]

Yes. Complain. At length. Much more effective DDOS.

And be polite. At length. Much more effective DDOS.
posted by saysthis at 7:17 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Re: calls to Trump properties.

On one hand, I want to call. I'm all for being as obstructionist as I can be. And slowing down the work of his businesses impacts his income.

On the other hand: I hesitate to do that to the people answering the phones. Unlike congressional staffers, they didn't sign up for this.

If it was any other situation then this one I would agree with you.

Step back to the bigger picture. There's a delusional, power mad man in the process of destroying democracy and looting the US for his own personal gain. Part of this is refusing to divest from these very businesses.

It's time to use whatever tools and avenues are available to try to stop it. Yeah it sucks upsetting these people but bigger picture, which longer term is going to be worse for all people?
posted by Jalliah at 7:17 AM on January 26, 2017 [34 favorites]

On the one hand I'm against pissing off low level workers at places who probably just make minimum wage, on the other...
posted by Artw at 7:17 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

> Like a telephone DDOS?

Oooh, finally a use for that modem I never threw away!
posted by Westringia F. at 7:18 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Future Sign and/or Tshirt alert!!

I'll take knitting from a vagina over legislation from an asshole any day.
posted by snuffleupagus
posted by yoga at 7:18 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Republicans are openly considering Donald Trump's 'emotional stability'

NOW?! They're doing this NOW?! He's speaking/acting just as he did since he announced his run.

This story needs to be put in DJT's face - repeatedly - until he blows up.
posted by zakur at 7:19 AM on January 26, 2017 [27 favorites]

following weekend protests by marchers in knitted, pointy-eared hats.

PUSSYHATS, PLEASE.

I was mentioning to the guy in the next cubicle that I wanted to get a hat for my wife to commemorate her marching on Saturday. A... um... pink, cat-themed protest hat... and a coworker pops up from her cubicle and says "IT'S A PUSSYHAT JERRY SAY THE WORD!"
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:19 AM on January 26, 2017 [65 favorites]

NOW?! They're doing this NOW?! He's speaking/acting just as he did since he announced his run.

They didn't think he would win. And the contingency for "but what if he does?" was always "ride as far as it'll take us then impeach and install our wet dream Pence."
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:22 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

roomthreeseventeen: Yesterday Spicer said in the briefing that they would "gaggle" in Air Force One today.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 7:22 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

So I actually just got through to a human at Feinstein's DC office and asked about the 30,000 calls to impeach Bill Clinton/5,000 calls to vote no on Jeff Sessions thing. He said that as far as he knew, it hadn't come from them (though he initially said "The senator hasn't released a statement on Jeff Sessions" and seemed confused when I said that I was more wondering whether it was something a staffer might say when someone called in. Interns). I was curious because now I'm seeing it pop up on Facebook. I'm kind of not inclined to post this on my Facebook though because if thinking there's a 25,000-call deficit is what it takes to get my friends to call, then so be it... But it bugs me to see people spreading stuff that might not be true.
posted by sunset in snow country at 7:24 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

I seriously cannot comprehend how anyone can look at those pink hats and think they resemble vulva. THEY HAVE POINTY EARS. I can get not thinking they look like anything because the pointines of the ears depends on the individual knitter, but, like, vulvae do not look anything like those hats.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:25 AM on January 26, 2017 [16 favorites]

Pence Will Speak at Anti-Abortion Rally
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:26 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

I wouldn't call a hotel to yell at anyone, but I don't see a problem with asking to speak to a manager, and then nicely registering a complaint on whatever topic. Trump does work for us, now.
posted by Mchelly at 7:27 AM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

TWO FACTOR AUTHENTICATION GUIZE. It's a pain

Yubikeys are both more secure (being dedicated offline hardware and therefore almost impossible to hack) and convenient (in that once you've plugged it in to your device, you just need to touch it to get an authentication code from it.)
posted by Coventry at 7:30 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Guardian: More Nazi-punching caught on video.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:32 AM on January 26, 2017

As an Atheist, I am not "allowed" to run for public office in my home state of Mississippi. I might still do it to challenge the law, except I am also a terrible drunk, and apparently that's not allowed, either.
posted by thebrokedown at 7:35 AM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

what's so terrible about being drunk
posted by murphy slaw at 7:37 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

I am also a terrible drunk

I have 240 years of data that says otherwise.
posted by cmfletcher at 7:38 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Via MediaMatters: Alex Jones Says Infowars Has Been Invited To Trump’s White House Press Briefings.

I shouldn't be surprised by anything anymore, but here we are.
posted by argonauta at 7:41 AM on January 26, 2017 [21 favorites]

Fox says 'ungrateful traitor,' Trump says 'ungrateful traitor,' Fox says 'weak leader,' Trump says 'weak leader.'

"No puppet. No puppet. You're the puppet!"
posted by kirkaracha at 7:41 AM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

what's so terrible about being drunk

ask a glass of water ... (hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy reference)
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:46 AM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

Yubikeys are both more secure (being dedicated offline hardware and therefore almost impossible to hack) and convenient (in that once you've plugged it in to your device, you just need to touch it to get an authentication code from it.)

It also makes phishing basically impossible after initial setup. There are a whole bunch of benefits to using U2F, here's a case study from Google's implementation on their internal networks [PDF].
posted by indubitable at 7:47 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

I've been trying to use the (very helpful for us phone-awkward types!) 5calls site linked above to do my (ineffectual....futile..) part, but I have two questions:
1) Since every issue, in addition to sometimes having committee chairs or ranking members, always lists both my senators (Burr and Tillis) as calls to make, should I be making individual calls on individual issues? Or one call to Burr that lays out everything (this will be a looong call), and one to Tillis? Or should a call on a different issue each day? Or every issue every day? What' s best?
2) I'm here on an F-1 Visa (and Im the process of changing to a green card) and married to a (new!) citizen, but I'm not actually a voter myself...can i still call myself a "constituent" when I call? Or is there better language? Or should I just fib?? Also, the threats of "I'll remember how the Senator voted" at the end of each script seem pretty empty and disingenuous since I still won't be able to vote in the coming elections...any other similar language I can use that doesn't feel like an empty lie?? Or are empty lies ok for this purpose (I.e. creating a volume/mass of pushback)

Thanks, more experienced citizens!!
posted by Dorinda at 7:48 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Yes. Complain. At length. Much more effective DDOS.

And be polite. At length. Much more effective DDOS.
posted by saysthis at 7:17 on January 26

I wouldn't call a hotel to yell at anyone, but I don't see a problem with asking to speak to a manager, and then nicely registering a complaint on whatever topic. Trump does work for us, now.
posted by Mchelly at 7:27 on January 26

Yes. Jesus, yes. Why would anybody have moral qualms about this? You're afraid of dying in a nuclear holocaust, but you don't want to inconvenience some poor hotel employees? You're outraged at the president's blatant business conflicts of interest, but you hesitate to do anything that affects those businesses directly? You're alarmed about the president's proclivities toward insular and secretive actions that antagonize the public, but you're not sure that pursuing alternative methods to get a message through is called for?

saysthis and Mchelly have this exactly right.
posted by perspicio at 7:49 AM on January 26, 2017 [30 favorites]

...terrible drunk...

with a little practice I'm sure you could become a better drunk, and with even more work, a fantastic drunk.
posted by From Bklyn at 7:49 AM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

I can get not thinking they look like anything because the pointines of the ears depends on the individual knitter, but, like, vulvae do not look anything like those hats.

Right, but how was I supposed to know if the knitter was bad at making ears or bad at making vulvae?
posted by diogenes at 7:52 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

The same way you know that they weren't making a truck? I feel like this is just making a really compelling case for comprehensive sexual education.
posted by dinty_moore at 7:55 AM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

You guys havecseem hats before, right?
posted by Artw at 7:55 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm here on an F-1 Visa (and Im the process of changing to a green card) and married to a (new!) citizen, but I'm not actually a voter myself...can i still call myself a "constituent" when I call?

I say yes; part of the job when they got voted in was to represent their district and everyone in it. That includes people who voted for them, people who didn't vote for them, people who didn't vote, people who can't vote. You live there, they are your representative, you are a constituent.
posted by nubs at 7:56 AM on January 26, 2017 [17 favorites]

i can't believe how many of you have never seen a vulva before
posted by indubitable at 7:57 AM on January 26, 2017 [17 favorites]

This is what a villain says moments before trying to destroy Gotham City
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:58 AM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

Doomsday Clock moving from 3 minutes to midnight to 6 days past midnight. FTFY
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:58 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Like, extremely stylized uterus makes a little bit of sense, but no matter how much squinting happens, that is not a vulva.
posted by dinty_moore at 7:58 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

I was kidding! I swear!
posted by diogenes at 8:00 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: 6 Days Past Midnight
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:00 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

i can't believe how many of you have never seen a vulva before

Hey, my first car was a Vulva.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 8:01 AM on January 26, 2017 [19 favorites]

People really need to diversify and start punching different Nazis. Eventually we'll get tired of always seeing the same one punched.

Hasn't gotten old yet.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 8:02 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Like, extremely stylized uterus makes a little bit of sense, but no matter how much squinting happens, that is not a vulva.

I also wasn't sure what they were supposed to be, and wondered if they were, like, abstract-art-vaginas or something. Then I passed two women on their way to the march who had made elaborate felted vulvae that stood up fully a foot above each of their heads, and realized that nope, the knitted hats were just kitties.

Wish I'd snapped a photo
posted by Mayor West at 8:03 AM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

Hey, my first car was a Vulva.

Nah, it's too boxy.
posted by Mayor West at 8:03 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Hey, my first car was a Vulva.

Boxy but good.
posted by peeedro at 8:04 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

No fucking way. The Spencer Punch is going to be like the Amen Break -- it's just going to keep getting remixed and integrated into new memes forever. We'll all remember where we were when we first saw this pillar of American culture descend from the heavens.
posted by tonycpsu at 8:04 AM on January 26, 2017 [31 favorites]

I thought it was like a double meaning re: cats?
posted by ODiV at 8:04 AM on January 26, 2017

"Dolores!"
posted by notyou at 8:05 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

There's no reason to stop punching Spencer just because there are other Nazis to punch. It's only a few seconds out of your day to punch a Nazi.
posted by contraption at 8:06 AM on January 26, 2017 [18 favorites]

Okay, now I want to see the Spencer Punch and the Wilhelm Scream over the Amen Break.
posted by Etrigan at 8:06 AM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

Android Central: So there you go. Trump’s personal Android phone is more than likely a Samsung Galaxy S3, released in 2012, and which last received a software update in mid-2015, with firmware based on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

I'm also going to take this as still more evidence that Trump isn't actually very rich, because that was the phone that they were giving away FREE with my cell phone plan when I finally decided to take the plunge and get a smartphone four years ago.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:08 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

I hope punching Richard Spencer becomes such a thing that even uncool middle aged people start trying to do it and they kinda mess it up but it's adorable in that cringey way.
posted by contraption at 8:09 AM on January 26, 2017 [46 favorites]

"Dolores!"

Seinfeld or Westworld reference?
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:09 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

can i still call myself a "constituent" when I call?

Yes, oh yes. Districts are drawn according to population, not just citizen population. (And senators/reps typically have constituent service staff specifically assigned to chasing up immigration-related FUBARs.) And you just say that any decisions taken now will be remembered at the next election.
posted by holgate at 8:10 AM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

~Republicans are openly considering Donald Trump's 'emotional stability'

~NOW?! They're doing this NOW?! He's speaking/acting just as he did since he announced his run.

They wanted to wait until they saw who the Vice President was. Pence is a reliable right-winger and a tool. Impeaching Trump to get Pence in the Oval Office would be doubleplusgood for the Republicans.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:10 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

I hope what's next is Trump voters wake up to this realization: "Donald is trying to trick us! He's gonna make us pay for the wall, and worse, my taxes are going to go towards paying Mexicans to build it. That's thousands of jobs that could be done by Americans!"

It's too much to hope for, really, but dammit, I need a sliver of hope in order to not hide in bed all day.
posted by fragmede at 8:11 AM on January 26, 2017

The State Department’s entire senior management team just resigned
posted by guiseroom at 8:11 AM on January 26, 2017 [34 favorites]

"No, Dad, you don't need to yell 'Nazi Punch' as you do it, you just punch him. Here, like this."
posted by contraption at 8:12 AM on January 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

“It’s the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember"
posted by box at 8:14 AM on January 26, 2017 [22 favorites]

“It’s the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember"

Hold on to your underpants, ladies and gents.
posted by lydhre at 8:14 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

that was the phone that they were giving away FREE with my cell phone plan

Or he lacks the wherewithal to deal with the UI changes of a new Android version.
posted by holgate at 8:14 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I seriously cannot comprehend how anyone can look at those pink hats and think they resemble vulva. THEY HAVE POINTY EARS.

It's not impossible to see them as stylised uteruses (uteri?), with the ears as the uterine tubes. I guess I'm just conditioned to view anything pink as an anatomy model.

They are super adorable, though, especially when I see them as hats with cat ears instead of medical illustrations.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:15 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Personally, I would not object to people shouting "Nazi punch!!!" when they punch Nazis.
posted by Frowner at 8:16 AM on January 26, 2017 [35 favorites]

Trump has already pressed fake nuclear button CIA gave him over a dozen times.
posted by Wordshore at 8:16 AM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

That's really a shame about all those State seniors bowing out. I totally understand why they're leaving, but with someone as potentially dangerous as Tillerson at the helm, it would be nice to have some veteran leaders there to at least put up a fight for as long as they can before they're axed.

Not saying I wouldn't choose to leave with dignity and take care of my own needs first -- just noting that it's regrettable that it's come to this.
posted by tonycpsu at 8:16 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

me irl
posted by entropicamericana at 8:17 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

can i still call myself a "constituent" when I call?

In addition to the other fine advice, I will point out that the elected official (and their staff) know that they have a chance to gain you as a permanent voter if you feel like you're really vested in their "correct" vote on something important enough for you to call them.
posted by Etrigan at 8:17 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Shall we tell the ex-State Dept people that the next president will pardon them if they violate the Logan Act?
posted by ocschwar at 8:19 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Shall we tell the ex-State Dept people that the next president will pardon them if they violate the Logan Act?

No, Pence will still hammer them.
posted by Etrigan at 8:20 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

My solidarity to all those from the State Department who decided their principles required them to step aside. They are all pragmatists by nature, or they wouldn't have been in those positions with such success by so long. They know what it may mean in terms of yes-men being chosen to fill the positions. I am sure this was a wracking and painful decision.

Of all the recent news, this sends a distinct chill down my spine for what comes next. I respect their decision not to be enablers of that future.
posted by meinvt at 8:21 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Re 5calls.org, I know a congressional staffer and they think some of that is highly ineffective. Things you should not do because any barely competent office will ignore or discount you:

* Call a member of congress that does not represent you even if they are on a committee. If you want to influence the committee find someone who does have a representative or senator on it or give money or help via a group working on that issue. The words they used to describe contacting someone who doesn't represent you is "total futility".
* Call the same official more than once a day.

It's kind of worrying to me so many tools are telling people to call officials that don't represent them. I imagine that might drown out actual people in their district by annoying the staff or overloading them. :(
posted by R343L at 8:23 AM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

Well it terrifies me to see the State Department people go. These are the people who issue passports.
posted by saysthis at 8:24 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

The words they used to describe contacting someone who doesn't represent you is "total futility".

I work with staffers for state legislators and this applies to them, too.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 8:26 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

I fucking hate the Samsung S3. That's the garbage phone the testers always bring out to break everything with.
posted by Artw at 8:27 AM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

HFS I just took a peek over at the righwing nutty-nuts section of my Facebook feed, and they're linking (I won't be linking) to an Infowars Exclusive about "Trump Operative Roger Stone Survives Assassination Attempt." I googled it for fun (I h8 myself sometimes) and apparently Stone first noticed symptoms of a normal stomach virus, but actually no it's a "radioactive substance used to murder spies."

So, more of the same wah-wah who's the REAL victim, plus it sounds like they know how much they're hated and trying to get out ahead of the narrative where people try to harm them. Is the best I can figure.

I find it interesting that it's taken so long to disseminate to your friends. Guess long in the relative sense. It came out 8days ago and was talked about here at least two threads ago. I have an interest in how fast the nutty stuff spreads and this particular story seems to be one of the slower ones. The general time frame for 'scandals' like this to make their way into FB world in any big way is no more then three days. For responses to major events like the Woman's March the initial response solidified in around 24hrs and the more 'scandal' related responses took 3 days and now are spreading more.
posted by Jalliah at 8:28 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Is that accurate? Is this a protest resignation, or is this the new administration clearing house completely by accepting resignations that are typically offered and rejected? Or is this Trump failing to realize they're required to resign and taking the resignations at face value? What is actually happening here?

Given that the new administration wanted a whole bunch of appointed positions that normally get extended for a period during the transition to leave as of Jan 20 (see ambassadors to a lot of places), I expect that this is more of the same. This is what happens when a bunch of people who believe in hostile takeovers, mass layoffs, and liquidation take the reigns of a government/

What the transition team seems unable to recognize is that having everyone with experience and established relationships all leave at the exact same moment is a recipe for a collapse of the system; nothing will get done for a long time because no one left is going to make a decision without direction from above, and it's going to take forever to get those positions filled and up to speed.
posted by nubs at 8:36 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Things you should not do because any barely competent office will ignore or discount you:

* Call a member of congress that does not represent you even if they are on a committee. If you want to influence the committee find someone who does have a representative or senator on it or give money or help via a group working on that issue. The words they used to describe contacting someone who doesn't represent you is "total futility".
* Call the same official more than once a day.

It's kind of worrying to me so many tools are telling people to call officials that don't represent them. I imagine that might drown out actual people in their district by annoying the staff or overloading them. :(

I respectfully submit that this is a rogue government, it is wildly out of control, there is no hyperbole in stating that it is a danger to human life everywhere, it must be ousted, normal political processes must be secondary to that goal, and any legal means of accelerating that process by preventing it from operating is fair game.
posted by perspicio at 8:36 AM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

Not only is punching nazis great but it's so great that when Shia does it it starts to redeem the unredeemable.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:37 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Or collapsing systems is just a thing they are in to.
posted by Artw at 8:38 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

What the transition team seems unable to recognize is that having everyone with experience and established relationships all leave at the exact same moment is a recipe for a collapse of the system

Actually, I take that back. Collapse of the system is part of what some members of this administration want. What I think they fail to realize is how much damage this is going to do long term - not just to the US, but to the US position in world affairs.
posted by nubs at 8:38 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

WSJ says they've identified one of the indirect sources of the information in the Steele dossier, a Belarus-born American who has claimed he helped market Trump properties to Russian buyers.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:39 AM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

I respectfully submit that this is a rogue government, it is wildly out of control, ther is no hyperbole in stating that it is a danger to human life everywhere, it must be ousted, normal political processes must be secondary to that goal, and any legal means of accelerating that process by preventing it from operating is fair game.

What that person is saying is that certain things won't do anything helpful in ousting or accelerating. Pushing harder on a stuck door doesn't always work.
posted by Etrigan at 8:39 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

MetaFilter: how many of you have never seen a vulva before
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:40 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

WSJ says they've identified one of the indirect sources of the information in the Steele dossier, a Belarus-born American who has claimed he helped market Trump properties to Russian buyers.

i literally cannot keep up with all of the ways that the president is venal, corrupt, and subject to foreign influence
posted by murphy slaw at 8:40 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

People in this admin would rather rule in hell than be mediocre in heaven.

It's a race against time as the government evaporates from the inside.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:40 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

"The long term" and "the US" also not really concepts they probably care about.
posted by Artw at 8:41 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Actually, I take that back. Collapse of the system is part of what some members of this administration want. What I think they fail to realize is how much damage this is going to do long term - not just to the US, but to the US position in world affairs.

It's not just that. It's that they don't seem to realize that they need a system in place to do some of the things they want to do. Or maybe they do realize that but don't understand that it not something you just whip up on the fly.
posted by Jalliah at 8:41 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

when calling your congress critter, is it best to call DC or their home office?
posted by entropicamericana at 8:43 AM on January 26, 2017

@joshrogin (WaPo): "Exclusive: The State Department’s entire senior management team just resigned"

hooooooooooooooly shit

Okay I am going to log off the internet because I think I am just going to go puke for an hour or so.

As someone said the other day on twitter, now I understand why people during the cold war drank at lunch.
posted by winna at 8:43 AM on January 26, 2017 [33 favorites]

What I think they fail to realize is how much damage this is going to do long term - not just to the US, but to the US position in world affairs.

A lot of them feel the government has no other job than to defend the borders. Anything else is left up to the states. So, killing-off the State Department probably won't cause any of them to lose sleep. Yet.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:43 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

A while back there was a Google Doc floating around regarding us "being his problem now" now. Well, that site document has morphed into a site called We are the 65 [million Americans who rejected the Popular Vote Loser]. The site contains a number of scripts for contacting legislators and a weekly call to action.

While they suggest that calling other state's senators and other district's representatives is futile, they are suggesting calls to the party leadership's office--particularly Schumer and Pelosi.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 8:44 AM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

I seriously cannot comprehend how anyone can look at those pink hats and think they resemble vulva. THEY HAVE POINTY EARS.

I didn't think they actually resembled a vulva. I thought briefly that they must be intended to represent some aspect of the female genitalia -- like maybe a clitoral glans? maybe? if you had bad vision and if they had skin tags or something? -- because they were pink, like vulvas (vulvae?), and called "pussy hats," and wondered why they were such extraordinarily terrible depictions.

I also thought until I was somewhere in my mid to late 20s that the closing song in Grease was just nonsense words like "shamalamadingdong" -- yuggaleggalaweg, yuggaleggalaleggalaweg, ooh ooh ooh, so really par for the course I guess.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:45 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

when calling your congress critter, is it best to call DC or their home office?

Wherever you can get through, at this point. Senators have multiple offices in their states usually, so first try DC, then go down the line until you find one that actually gets answered or at least has not full voicemail.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:46 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Pres Trump to hold joint WH news conference tomorrow with British Prime Minister Theresa May, announces @PressSec on Air Force One.

I guess we aren't doing any presser today.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:46 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I think Putin pushed Trump not to control America, but to destroy it.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 8:46 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Pres Trump boards Air Force One, but doesn't turn around to wave - as presidents have done for decades.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:46 AM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

Is this a protest resignation, or is this the new administration clearing house completely by accepting resignations that are typically offered and rejected? Or is this Trump failing to realize they're required to resign and taking the resignations at face value? What is actually happening here?

I don't know that we'll know what precipitated the mass resignation, but it sounds like the regular resignation process is a formality until they would all be confirmed. It's just that this batch of senior management decided to leave, and it sounds like they decided to leave after spending the afternoon with Tillerson (my emphasis added):

Tillerson was actually inside the State Department’s headquarters in Foggy Bottom on Wednesday, taking meetings and getting the lay of the land. I reported Wednesday morning that the Trump team was narrowing its search for his No. 2, and that it was looking to replace the State Department’s long-serving undersecretary for management, Patrick Kennedy. Kennedy, who has been in that job for nine years, was actively involved in the transition and was angling to keep that job under Tillerson, three State Department officials told me.

Then suddenly on Wednesday afternoon, Kennedy and three of his top officials resigned unexpectedly, four State Department officials confirmed. Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond and Ambassador Gentry O. Smith, director of the Office of Foreign Missions, followed him out the door. All are career foreign service officers who have served under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

I'm really hoping one of those resignees comes forward and discusses what panicked them enough to leave.
posted by gladly at 8:48 AM on January 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

The thing is, after everything Trump has done that isn't normal, plus what happened in North Carolina, and may now be happening with the "state of emergency" in SD, I think Republican lawmakers have gotten the message loud and clear: they don't have to listen to what their constituents want. So calling leaders who don't represent you is just one more excuse they (don't) need to turn off their voicemails and officially stop listening. I wouldn't be surprised if VM boxes are full so often because no one is bothering to listen already.

They are acting despite us.
posted by Mchelly at 8:48 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

So for two days running, not only has the President watched Fox News morning broadcast live, but has tweeted angrily about it. Can you imagine how much they can start charging on ads, just by saying "Advertise on Fox and have the President's ear!" I can't wait for the first proven instance of say Canada getting worried about their standing and starting a tourism campaign with the tagline "You know, Canada is a nice country" and Trump dropping it in an interview later in the day. Or Toyota running really American ads until Trump thinks their actually an American auto company.
posted by DynamiteToast at 8:48 AM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

Pres Trump boards Air Force One, but doesn't turn around to wave - as presidents have done for decades.

Well, you've gotta feel bad for the guy, having to suddenly take a plane which doesn't have everything covered in gold. No wonder he's having a temper fit. It's like flying coach.
posted by Mchelly at 8:50 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

@EPN: Esta mañana hemos informado a la Casa Blanca que no asistiré a la reunión de trabajo programada para el próximo martes con el @POTUS.

This morning we informed the White House that I will not attend the scheduled work meeting for next Tuesday with @POTUS.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:52 AM on January 26, 2017 [19 favorites]

With FT's interest in Millian seeming to be on the right track, it's probably worth looking closer at the companion pieces they produced around the same time:

posted by jason_steakums at 8:52 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Some diplo journos are saying the State Dept. resignations are not a new category of abnormal. But I bet it's pretty messy over there.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:52 AM on January 26, 2017

"You know, Canada is a nice country"

Canada. Great Country, Great People. Yuuuuge.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:54 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Some diplo journos are saying the State Dept. resignations are not a new category of abnormal. But I bet it's pretty messy over there.

I do not believe the entire senior management's resignations are accepted "during every transition." Fuck you, journalism.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:55 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Pres Trump boards Air Force One, but doesn't turn around to wave - as presidents have done for decades.

He doesn't want us to swoon. [fake]
posted by drezdn at 8:56 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I seriously cannot comprehend how anyone can look at those pink hats and think they resemble vulva. THEY HAVE POINTY EARS.

The lady said "I just think that walking around dressed as a vulva is gross," so maybe she was referring to the people who were actually dressed up as vulvas.
posted by peeedro at 8:56 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Was wondering about one tactic for contacting outside-my-area Democratic congresspeople. I get calls from DCCC and other Democratic fundraising groups. I've given a fair bit of money to the Democrats in the past. I used to ignore the calls, but answer them now so I can tell the poor phone rep (politely since it isn't the rep's fault) that I'm not giving more until I see a unified front and constant opposition. They always promise to pass the message upstairs, though I'll never know if they do.

Have no idea if that works, but I suppose it's worth a try. And maybe it's worth a concerted effort for those of us without a Democratic representative to contact the DNC, DCCC, DSCC, etc. Democrats live or die by their small donors so perhaps they'd listen. Seems like a better tactic than calling individual Democrats outside of my district / state.
posted by honestcoyote at 8:56 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto says he has informed the White House he has canceled trip to Washington.
posted by DynamiteToast at 8:58 AM on January 26, 2017 [16 favorites]

One of the weird, underreported stories is that Erik Noble, a data scientist who was critical to Trump winning the election and now one of Trump's inner circle, is actually a very well respected and accomplished mainstream climate scientist. I hope someone can get an interview with him -- I'd love to find out what's going on in that guy's brain.

It wouldn't be surprising if there are at least a few people that have the intention of trying to work it from the inside, especially about something so serious like climate change.
posted by Jalliah at 8:58 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Well, Trump's kept one Mexican from crossing the border.

Thank you, I'll be here all week. Tip your waitress.
posted by Etrigan at 8:59 AM on January 26, 2017 [96 favorites]

Pres Trump boards Air Force One, but doesn't turn around to wave - as presidents have done for decades.

Probably winded from all those stairs. Can they make a mobile escalator for the guy?
posted by peeedro at 8:59 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

To the minute, he has now been POTUS for exactly 1 week. To me, anyway, it feels like a lot longer.

Bearing in mind that this week, in the US, in politics, on MetaFilter, on social media, in the media, in the home and workplace and everywhere, has been ... interesting ... it might be healthy to personally stand back a little and think about how you can - or want to - handle the next 207 weeks of this administration.

Everyone will be different. Pretty much my entire (non-work account) twitter feed has been "AAAARGH". Other social media has been predominantly "What fresh hell is this?" in nature. Even my damned LinkedIn feed is full of US politics. Am unsure how sustainable reading my current informal/formal collection of constant sources is, but I'm feeling like it'll have to change in order to, literally, stay sharp and focused and functional over the next many weeks.
posted by Wordshore at 9:00 AM on January 26, 2017 [18 favorites]

To the minute, he has now been POTUS for exactly 1 week.

....minus 24 hours. Tomorrow's a week.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:01 AM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

I do not believe the entire senior management's resignations are accepted "during every transition."

I think the WaPo headline was a little hyperbolic. '@Diplopundit: There are 13 offices under the "Management" umbrella, the offices mentioned here do not composed the "entire" senior management.'
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:01 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

he has now been POTUS for exactly 1 week.

Um, 6 days, surely?
posted by jontyjago at 9:02 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's an alternative week.
posted by Etrigan at 9:03 AM on January 26, 2017 [56 favorites]

Inauguration Day: A Bad Lip Reading
posted by nubs at 9:03 AM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

Okay, now I want to see the Spencer Punch and the Wilhelm Scream over the Amen Break.

OK, if no one has made this by the time I'm home tonight, I'll get on it.
posted by LooseFilter at 9:04 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Also, the White House Press Secretary has tweeted 2 8-character incomprehensible strings in the last 2 days. Passwords? Nuclear codes? Hints for some Trump-themed ARG? There's got to be a reason, if they were mistakes he would have deleted them.
posted by miyabo at 9:04 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

You guys don't see 7 l̶i̶g̶h̶t̶s̶ days?
posted by chris24 at 9:04 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

It is 6 days.

And don't call him Shirley.
posted by yhbc at 9:05 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

In completely unrelated news, my scheduled comment script seems to have a bug in that $daycount is out by one.

Bollocks.
posted by Wordshore at 9:05 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

I have a Twitter alt-gov list going
posted by madamjujujive at 9:07 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

man i thought i could handle the ABC interview in transcript form but i had to nope the fuck out three questions in.

the president of the united states cannot formulate a coherent thought or speak his way to the end of a sentence. god help us.
posted by murphy slaw at 9:08 AM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

Bernstein was speaking on CNN late on Wednesday night, when he revealed there was “open discussion” among Republicans about Mr Trump’s fitness to rule.

THIS IS AMERICA. WE DO NOT HAVE RULERS. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU.
posted by biogeo at 9:09 AM on January 26, 2017 [60 favorites]

It's an alternative week.

That gave me the biggest, stupidest grin I've had on my face for a while, thank you. I think we need deadpan sarcasm and mockery as regularly as possible, to remind us that this is not normal.

(This is not normal. We did not choose this. This is not normal. We are all victims here. This is not normal.)
posted by LooseFilter at 9:09 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

I just brushed off an ancient Twitter account back from when I used to play Echo Bazaar. What is even happening in this world, I bloody hate Twitter!
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:09 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

It is 6 days.

sixth full day, but seventh of his presidency (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 9:10 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

roomthreeseventeen: "Pres Trump boards Air Force One, but doesn't turn around to wave - as presidents have done for decades."

Remember the fun old days when conservatives would freak out for a week over some tiny preserved slight to the office of the presidency from Obama? Like when he put his feet on the desk or was photographed without a tie on? Or when he didn't salute a soldier just right? Not that I give a crap if Trump waves or not from the door of Air Force One but I'm sure if Obama had done the same, they'd have been talking about it on Fox for weeks.
posted by octothorpe at 9:10 AM on January 26, 2017 [60 favorites]

I'd love to find out what's going on in that guy's brain

Being an accomplished academic in no way means that you aren't a weapons-grade asshole or other variety of shitbag.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:11 AM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

EPA Employees ‘Coming to Work in Tears’ Because of Trump Win

There's been speculation that many of Trump's critics in the federal workforce might opt to leave or retire early.

"If [Trump] starts doing rotten things, then people will say, 'Enough of this crap,'" said O'Grady. "You might see retirements from people who say, 'Why bother working there anyway?'"

Saracco worked at EPA during the Reagan administration. "There was a big exodus" then, she said.

Several also noted that EPA has an aging workforce like other government agencies — about 31 percent of the federal workforce is eligible to retire. In addition, according to this year's Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, 3.57 percent of EPA employees plan to retire within the year, while another 10.76 percent plan to retire within one to three years.

"Whenever there is a change of administration, career officials that are retirement eligible take stock and decide what to do next, even if you agree with the party coming in," said Joe Edgell, senior vice president of National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 280, which also represents EPA employees.

"Do I think a lot of people are going to retire? Well, yeah," Edgell said. "Could it be higher than normal? We have to see what happens."

(Quoted text from an older article linked from today's one above.)
posted by Buntix at 9:12 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Being an accomplished academic in no way means that you aren't a weapons-grade asshole or other variety of shitbag.

Actually in a lot of cases.....
posted by cell divide at 9:14 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

> It is 6 days.

sixth full day, but seventh of his presidency (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)

Careful, everyone.
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:14 AM on January 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

but I'm sure if Obama had done the same, they'd have been talking about it on Fox for weeks.

When Trump does it, it's "bold" and "different"
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:15 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

sixth full day, but seventh of his presidency (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)

Yes, exactly! That is, like, totally what I meant in that comment. Honest. Thanks!

Considers starting plate of bean argument about alternative calendars, but decides to make a comforting pot of tea instead.
posted by Wordshore at 9:15 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

witchen: HFS I just took a peek over at the righwing nutty-nuts section of my Facebook feed, and they're linking (I won't be linking) to an Infowars Exclusive about "Trump Operative Roger Stone Survives Assassination Attempt." I googled it for fun (I h8 myself sometimes) and the only other sources that mention it are Infowars affiliates and one-off malware blogs. Apparently Stone first noticed symptoms of a normal stomach virus, but actually no it's a "radioactive substance used to murder spies."

This group thinking that radiation poisoning is just something you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps and overcome is what it makes it so scary Trump has the Gold Codes.
posted by bluecore at 9:15 AM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

Dear Wordshore --

You have done yeoperson's work for MetaFilter's election threads. Please accept our ribbing over the definition of a week in the good nature in which it is proffered.

Yrs,
MeFi
posted by Etrigan at 9:17 AM on January 26, 2017 [46 favorites]

DAVID MUIR: You've heard the critics who say that would break all international law, taking the oil. But I wanna get to the words ...

(OVERTALK)

DAVID MUIR: ... that you ...

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Wait, wait, can you believe that? Who are the critics who say that? Fools.

DAVID MUIR: Let, let me ...

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don't call them critics. I call them fools.

DAVID MUIR: ... let me talk about your words ...

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We should've kept -- excuse me. We should've taken the oil. And if we took the oil you wouldn't have ISIS. And we would have had wealth. We have spent right now $6 trillion in the Middle East. And our country is falling apart.

I'm pretty sure this has been taken directly from a Godspeed You Black Emperor record.
posted by dng at 9:18 AM on January 26, 2017 [18 favorites]

President (Overtalk)
posted by cell divide at 9:19 AM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

So about Infowars being offered press credentials, the White House is denying it. Which leads to the ridiculous situation that either Alex Jones or the White House Press Office must be lying, and it's honestly impossible to tell which one I believe more right now. And I think that means that they've broken me and therefore they've won.
posted by zachlipton at 9:19 AM on January 26, 2017 [72 favorites]

I have been doing my best to 'engage' Trump supporters all morning. I now completely a fully understand why they don't see any problems with the ABC interview and even think he knocked it out of the park.

Their reality is so wildly different that finding any common ground is nigh impossible. They believe everything that is coming out of his mouth to the point where they are mimicing his exact arguments and really seem to be unable to see why they aren't even logical, let alone the delusional aspect of them. Every conversation has devolved into either them swearing and cursing my very existence or a stupid game of chicken 'who is going to get the last word'. (which at this point I will win out of sheer spite, even if it means a contunous response of 'see previous comment' And yes it is that dumb I know.)

It's a fucking cult.
posted by Jalliah at 9:20 AM on January 26, 2017 [45 favorites]

I wish this "oh shit did I leave the oven on" feeling would go away.
posted by theodolite at 9:21 AM on January 26, 2017 [25 favorites]

Godspeed You! Orange Emperor
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:21 AM on January 26, 2017 [18 favorites]

It's a fucking cult.

Yep.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:21 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

So how do we de-cult them?
posted by saysthis at 9:24 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Mexico’s President Cancels Meeting With Trump Over Wall
posted by Omon Ra at 9:25 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

I'm beginning to think it's a cookbook.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:25 AM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

I don't want to have a grip on this reality.

It's too fucking crazy.
posted by srboisvert at 9:26 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

It's a fucking cult.

If only. We'd be able to redirect the orgone energy produced to repair the climate.
posted by notyou at 9:27 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

So how do we de-cult them?

Paging Ted Patrick...
posted by OverlappingElvis at 9:27 AM on January 26, 2017

We also now have a statement from Bernhard Langer about the voter fraud story. It claims that the story traveled as such:

Person A told it to Langer (who knows he's not a citizen and can't vote)
Langer told it to Person C
Person C told it to Person D ("a person with ties to the White House")
Somehow it made it to Trump
Trump tells it to Congressional leadership

That is the shittiest possible method for the transmission of information to the leaders of our government. I wouldn't be surprised if the original story wasn't even about voting; maybe it was about too many people in line at the bagel store or something.

And as I feel the need to explicitly say every time I talk about this, Trump told an extremely racist story to Congressional leaders about determining whether people are eligible to vote based on their race.
posted by zachlipton at 9:27 AM on January 26, 2017 [35 favorites]

Yep.

There's been one 'convo', because it's not a convo in any sense that has been going on for about three hours now with the guy just saying the same sort of thing over and over and me replying with basically the same thing over and over. He is trying to wear me down at this point. It is so beyond stupid it boggles but I'm in it for the long haul now. Doesn't take up more the 30 seconds at a time so whatever. Now I wanna see how long he will keep it up.
posted by Jalliah at 9:28 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

California State Legislators Blast President Trump’s Executive Orders on Immigration

If the new President wants to wage a campaign of fear against innocent families, he can count us out.

We will not spend a single cent, nor lift a finger to aid his efforts.

In fact, the Senate will expedite the process to pass my bill, SB 54, to prevent state and local tax dollars and law enforcement resources from being used to help ICE destroy families and damage our economy.

The bill will be heard in both the judiciary and public safety committees on Tuesday.

We will also fast-track SB 6 by Senator Ben Hueso – the Due Process for All Act – to make sure those facing deportation have due process and adequate legal representation.

Thanks to the supermajority we won in November, we have the ability to use urgency clauses to implement new laws immediately, and the actions of the new administration demand an immediate response.

posted by jason_steakums at 9:29 AM on January 26, 2017 [41 favorites]

Pena Nieto cancels? Oy.

It's only been an alt-week!
posted by notyou at 9:30 AM on January 26, 2017

Robby Mook And Corey Lewandowski Team Up For Paid Speeches

Corey's next gig is advising Serb nationalists in Bosnia and Serbia. In other words, working for Putin.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:30 AM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

Now I wanna see how long he will keep it up.

Are you sure it's actually a real person and not a bot or a paid troll?
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:30 AM on January 26, 2017

You know that part in The Man in the High Castle, where (SPOILER ALERT FOR 50-YEAR-OLD BOOK) Tagomi is wandering around San Francisco, watching the fabric of reality rend before his very eyes as he's confronted by an impossible-to-imagine reality where the Americans somehow won the second world war and he's reduced from exalted occupier to disrespected foreigner? And that reality seems to be bleeding through, but only in sporadic pieces, and with no apparent coherence of purpose, and somehow life needs to go on even though it feels like a waking nightmare that must be disspelled?

All I'm saying is, we need a polysyllabic German word for that exact feeling, and we need it now.
posted by Mayor West at 9:31 AM on January 26, 2017 [34 favorites]

U.S. Border Patrol chief Mark Morgan has left the agency.
posted by slipthought at 9:31 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Hey, my first car was a Vulva.

Bloody Vulva drivers.
posted by Talez at 9:34 AM on January 26, 2017

Are you sure it's actually a real person and not a bot or a paid troll?

It's definitely not a bot. It's a real person, though no way to tell whether they're being paid or not. It's reached the point where I'm giggling when I respond so at least it's keeping me somewhat amused.
posted by Jalliah at 9:35 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

So how do we de-cult them?

We don't need to. They're a minority. He's starting as the most unpopular new president in history. We need to fight back, get our coalition registered and to the polls, and beat them. Fuck wasting any time and energy on deprogramming.
posted by chris24 at 9:35 AM on January 26, 2017 [37 favorites]

It's definitely not a bot. It's a real person, though no way to tell whether they're being paid or not. It's reached the point where I'm giggling when I respond so at least it's keeping me somewhat amused.

Just remember that if it's a public conversation, you're still reaching bystanders even if you aren't reaching him!
posted by jason_steakums at 9:36 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Livestream of #resistanceinphilly
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:36 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

All I'm saying is, we need a polysyllabic German word for that exact feeling, and we need it now.

Zeitschleierscheisseschlumpf.

Bitte.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:37 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Considers starting plate of bean argument about alternative calendars, but decides to make a comforting pot of tea instead.

We need to recalibrate in a similar method to Eternal September. November 87, 2016 is an option, albeit one that leaves us in the Death Zone that was 2016.
posted by delfin at 9:39 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

"If [Trump] starts doing rotten things, then people will say, 'Enough of this crap,'" said O'Grady. "You might see retirements from people who say, 'Why bother working there anyway?'" ... Several also noted that EPA has an aging workforce like other government agencies — about 31 percent of the federal workforce is eligible to retire.

Just what every working American so greatly fears – the dreaded "retiring early". With, what, 60-70% of final salary for life? The horror, the absolute horror.
posted by sylvanshine at 9:39 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Build your own Chuck Grassley form response! Just fill in the blank:

"I sympathize with your views on _____, BUT OBAMA!"

...and that's pretty much it with a bunch of filler around the edges. Fuck Chuck Grassley.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:39 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Just remember that if it's a public conversation, you're still reaching bystanders even if you aren't reaching him!

Yeah that's one of the reasons I'm not stopping. I'm sure by now it's at least entertaining for some people. Pretty stupid. Maybe next time I'll tell him that he might as well give up because my guy is paying me more then his guy so the more he goes on the more I WIN.
posted by Jalliah at 9:39 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

The State Department’s entire senior management team just resigned

"All are career foreign service officers who have served under both Republican and Democratic administrations."

omg the comments. never read the comments.
posted by lalochezia at 9:40 AM on January 26, 2017

That is the shittiest possible method for the transmission of information to the leaders of our government. I wouldn't be surprised if the original story wasn't even about voting; maybe it was about too many people in line at the bagel store or something.

Has there ever been a more sound foundation than third-hand gossip for abridging one of the most fundamental rights of a democracy?

I'm actually curious what the cumulative effect of the leaks, the protests, the sinking approval ratings, the resignations, getting stood up by Pena Nieto, what that's going to do to Trump's paranoia.
posted by gladly at 9:40 AM on January 26, 2017

I'm pretty sure this has been taken directly from a Godspeed You Black Emperor record.

"Slow Riot for New Zero Canada"
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:41 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

"America, You Look Like an Arab Country Right Now. Welcome to the club."
posted by effbot at 9:44 AM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

Livestream of #resistanceinphilly
Overhead view of the protesters heading into the streets from just now.

I've never been so proud to live in Philadelphia.
posted by mcduff at 9:45 AM on January 26, 2017 [20 favorites]

Barring all, like, normal ways of deposing an unfit leader, I do have a few extra bucks on "rack up the narcissistic injuries against him to the point where he actually has a very public, very obvious breakdown." I do not wish a mental health crisis on anyone under normal circumstances, but it might be the thing that actually saves the world in this case. Maybe if he hits bottom, he'll get some help. After he's 25th Ammendmanted out of there.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:47 AM on January 26, 2017 [17 favorites]

@NormEisen
1/ WARNING: Mr. Pres. your Muslim ban excludes countries where you have business interests.That is a CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATION.See u in court
posted by chris24 at 9:48 AM on January 26, 2017 [73 favorites]

a very public, very obvious breakdown

I think we're watching it
posted by theodolite at 9:48 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Yes Philly resistance has been awesome. I'm at work in university city until 5 but will be joining the Philly socialists protest at the Loews hotel after. If anyone wants to meet up, me mail me.
posted by lazaruslong at 9:50 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Josh Marshall on the whole "Russian hacker arrested for treason story": Wow, It Gets Bigger, citing the Moscow Times, which writes:

According to the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the FSB believes Sergei Mikhailov tipped off U.S. officials to information about Vladimir Fomenko and his server rental company “King Servers,” which the American cybersecurity company ThreatConnect identified last September as “an information nexus” that was used by hackers suspected of working for Russian state security in cyberattacks.

Marshall veers off into unsubstantiated speculation at this point, but the fact that a senior Russian spy has been charged with treason for the claimed reason that he was working as a US agent is indeed rather alarming.
posted by zachlipton at 9:51 AM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

I think we're watching it

Entirely possible, but I think there's a way to go before he hits bottom. He needs to do something that can't be explained away just by "He's a maverick! He tells the truth! He's just like me!"
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:53 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

rack up the narcissistic injuries against him to the point where he actually has a very public, very obvious breakdown.

He had it, six months ago, when he publicly mocked a disabled journalist by play-acting a neurological disorder. Tens of millions of people voted for a visibly unhinged narcissist anyway, because Clinton Derangement Syndrome.

The only way out is through.
posted by Mayor West at 9:53 AM on January 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

Entirely possible, but I think there's a way to go before he hits bottom. He needs to do something that can't be explained away just by "He's a maverick! He tells the truth! He's just like me!"

I honestly think that he could lose control of bodily functions on stage and still not lose supporters, because the information streams they rely on would not report it.
posted by dinty_moore at 9:54 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

He had it, six months ago, when he publicly mocked a disabled journalist by play-acting a neurological disorder.

That moment is the core of why I will never truly forgive those who voted for him.
posted by Gaz Errant at 9:55 AM on January 26, 2017 [36 favorites]

Trump is getting payments from foreign governments. We have no idea what they are. (Zephyr Teachout @ WaPo)
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:55 AM on January 26, 2017 [31 favorites]

Maybe next time I'll tell him that he might as well give up because my guy is paying me more then his guy so the more he goes on the more I WIN.

Yeah and then he'll see that as proof that Soros is just paying people to oppose Republicans
posted by Mchelly at 9:55 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

"America, You Look Like an Arab Country Right Now. Welcome to the club."

Bitterly resonant, and timely:

"If you want these protests to be successful spectacles, though, here are a few crucial tips: Use social media and talk about the importance of Twitter and Facebook in spreading the protest movement. Make sure to highlight that your movement is leaderless and organic. Emphasize the fact that you don’t belong to any traditional political parties or have established ideologies. Come up with catchy slogans. And above all, make sure you stress that you are the moderates. Journalists and analysts like to hear this stuff, as we discovered during our own protests.
[...]
A word of warning though, before embarking on this path. We tried the revolution thing ourselves, and it didn’t work out so well. Maybe you should just adapt to living in the new regime. We were always told that having a strongman in charge is the best solution for Arab countries, otherwise there would be chaos. Perhaps the American people are not ready for democracy after all.
posted by progosk at 9:56 AM on January 26, 2017 [19 favorites]

.@PressSec confirms that the EO this afternoon will be about voter fraud
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:56 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

1/ WARNING: Mr. Pres. your Muslim ban excludes countries where you have business interests.That is a CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATION.See u in court

Are there any more details on this? And in general, is there a good source for all of Trump's foreign business interests?
posted by J.K. Seazer at 9:56 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

@JuddLegum

2+2=15

Wrong

Millions of people agree w/me

Still wrong

Watch Fox, they say I'm right

But it's wrong

STOP BEING SO POLITICALLY CORRECT
posted by chris24 at 9:57 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

@POTUS Twitter account found to be linked to Gmail account.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:57 AM on January 26, 2017 [41 favorites]

Trump is getting payments from foreign governments. We have no idea what they are. (Zephyr Teachout @ WaPo)

Can someone summarize this article? I have hit my quota for NYT and Washington Post, and everything is behind a paywall.
posted by all about eevee at 9:58 AM on January 26, 2017

the fact that a senior Russian spy has been charged with treason for the claimed reason that he was working as a US agent is indeed rather alarming.

Not least because his alleged handlers now work for Trump. If I were a US asset in Russia, I'd leave for a third country immediately.
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:58 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Just what every working American so greatly fears – the dreaded "retiring early". With, what, 60-70% of final salary for life? The horror, the absolute horror.

Ya know, I'm not saying these folks don't have better options than a lot of us and they shouldn't get a massive pity party because they have to exercise those choices (though they deserve the respect of recognizing that they earned those choices through public service that many times paid less and had less prestige than choices they could have made in the private sector.)

But all that aside, the risks and pains of having to retire early are tremendous. My father got pushed out of a comfortable white collar job many years before official retirement age and before he'd have done so if it has been up to him rather than an outsourcing decision. And even for someone who had done well, and had the knowledge and ability to plan ahead and save well for retirement, it was a big challenge. Medicare eligibility is a bright line date, so you're forced out at 61? Better go find yourself some health care plan and enjoy paying the sorts of prices that are charged to the oldest among us.

In the end my father got health care by way of my mother because she took a job at fucking Starbucks. And because their employee pool skews young they ended up paying less for the two of them in their early 60s than I was paying for myself in my early 30s on a market purchased plan as I tried to run a small business.

They were blessed that this was a job my mother enjoyed and wanted to do, but that's in no small part because of our privilege. Over a decade later she still does it and loves it; those young folks in the shop are in many ways her kids and my siblings that she can dote over. But that's just dumb luck. And while she was enjoying this new outlet my father was learning to cope with being at loose ends and unwanted by a workforce he'd been a part of for forty years. He's done okay, again, in no small part because of prep and skills that hard work and privilege enabled him to gather.

But don't dare act like having to end your participation in what is a defining aspect of American life is no big deal. Yeah, they're well positioned to land on their feed. But the facts about how people fare under retirement can often be stark and ugly. That these folks have to harm their life plans and change what they do every day because of an orange stained incompetent is awful.
posted by phearlez at 9:58 AM on January 26, 2017 [68 favorites]

@POTUS Twitter account found to be linked to Gmail account.

By the end of his time in office, Trump will have done everything he accused Clinton of and so much more.
posted by drezdn at 10:00 AM on January 26, 2017 [35 favorites]

The thing is, after everything Trump has done that isn't normal, plus what happened in North Carolina, and may now be happening with the "state of emergency" in SD, I think Republican lawmakers have gotten the message loud and clear: they don't have to listen to what their constituents want. So calling leaders who don't represent you is just one more excuse they (don't) need to turn off their voicemails and officially stop listening. I wouldn't be surprised if VM boxes are full so often because no one is bothering to listen already.

They are acting despite us.

Which is why we must continue to act in greater numbers, in more ways, with higher frequency.

Let's not for one second lose sight of the fact that the Republican party has been very publicly advancing an aggressive war on consensual reality since the 90s at least. The current crop is ignoring the will of the people because democracy is antithetical to their principles, not because the people have somehow acted irresponsibly.

They have not built a levee that can hold us back, as long as this tide continues to rise.
posted by perspicio at 10:00 AM on January 26, 2017 [18 favorites]

Are there any more details on this? And in general, is there a good source for all of Trump's foreign business interests?

Norm Eisen is co-founder and lead lawyer at CREW and Obama's former ethics czar from 2009-11. He's also a Brookings fellow. He's tweeted a couple times today that they will be filing suits against Trump. I do not have more info than that but trust that it will be happening given his history and record.
posted by chris24 at 10:01 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Thrre was a NYT piece on the person running King Servers back in late September, and I never saw it at the time. Kicker:

While ambiguous about the hacking on his servers, Mr. Fomenko minced no words about American presidential politics. “In Russia, we don’t have this type of election,” he said. “It looks like little children fighting.”

posted by holgate at 10:01 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

@POTUS Twitter account found to be linked to Gmail account.

I would be so happy to see Hillary retweet that, without comment.
posted by Devonian at 10:01 AM on January 26, 2017 [75 favorites]

By the end of his time in office, Trump will have done everything he accused Clinton of and so much more.

By the end of his first fucking week.
posted by Etrigan at 10:02 AM on January 26, 2017 [53 favorites]

I would be so happy to see Hillary retweet that, without comment.

I would also accept a (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
posted by zachlipton at 10:04 AM on January 26, 2017 [29 favorites]

So how do we de-cult them?

We don't need to. They're a minority. He's starting as the most unpopular new president in history. We need to fight back, get our coalition registered and to the polls, and beat them. Fuck wasting any time and energy on deprogramming.

We do need to. However, we also need to prioritize, and they don't have to be deprogrammed for our coalition to work. A deprogramming of some kind _is_ needed because losers don't simply go away. We all still live here together. And it would be nice to avoid these extreme situations as much as possible.

But first things first.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:05 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Another "Delete your account" would do well.
posted by Dashy at 10:05 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Trump is going to have a giant private email server with "private email server" written on it, put in the oval office, and journalists will see it and shrug.
posted by drezdn at 10:06 AM on January 26, 2017 [34 favorites]

Are there any more details on this? And in general, is there a good source for all of Trump's foreign business interests?

Coincidentally I was just doing a (very little) digging on the UK Companies House site and noticed on one that while he did resign as director, he is still down as a person with significant control on the latest confirmation statement (new thing in UK meaning basically essentially what it sounds like) due to holding 75% of the shares. There hasn't been any update to the share holdings since then, so it's probably still the case.

A couple of other companies are:

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/SC469689/filing-history

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/SC497737/filing-history

They do have full company accounts on file, not dug into them yet, though.
posted by Buntix at 10:06 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Is that @POTUS gmail screenshot legit? If it is, it looks like they changed it to an official address since it was taken.
posted by tonycpsu at 10:08 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

The Editorial Board of the anodyne USA Today has already had enough.

The sore winner in chief: Our view
posted by chris24 at 10:09 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Peter Thiel Is Leading The Search For Trump’s Top Antitrust Officials

That'll end well...
posted by Devonian at 10:11 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

With, what, 60-70% of final salary for life?

You're confused. Federal civilian employees do get a pension, but it's pretty minimal -- 1.1% of salary * your years of service. So a 30-year employee might get 33% of final salary. Mostly federal employees are expected to save their own money through a program called TSP that's exactly like a private sector 401(k).
posted by miyabo at 10:11 AM on January 26, 2017 [19 favorites]

CDC Indefinitely Postponed LGBT Youth Health Summit After Election

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention abruptly and indefinitely postponed planning for an LGBT youth health summit after Donald Trump’s election to the White House, a source at the agency told TPM.

“This was supposed to be a big deal,” said the source, who requested anonymity given the politically sensitive nature of the cancellation. “They had a whole communications team on it, it was going to be on Facebook live. The intention was to plan a 5-year agenda.”

People will die because of stuff like this. And there are still brave civil servants willing to leak what's happening.
posted by zachlipton at 10:11 AM on January 26, 2017 [43 favorites]

In completely unrelated news, my scheduled comment script seems to have a bug in that $daycount is out by one.

Bollocks.

u should've written it in Rust, dogg
posted by indubitable at 10:12 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

President Obama spent his last full day in office working on a Revision of Adjudicator’s Field Manual, Change of Gender Designation on Documents Issued by U.S . Citizenship and Immigration Services
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:12 AM on January 26, 2017 [22 favorites]

Trump is getting payments from foreign governments. We have no idea what they are. (Zephyr Teachout @ WaPo)

Can someone summarize this article?

It talks about the history behind the emoluments clause of the Contstitution—how it was put in place by the framers as a direct response to relatively recent instances of corruption and influence-buying amongst European nations, and how seriously it has been taken by pretty much every single presidential administration since day one of the USA.

And then this bit:

Some corruption rules rely on proof that a deal happened, an explicit arrangement exchanging something of value for a political action, with intent to trade. Such laws are notoriously difficult to prosecute, because it is rare that either of the parties to an explicit bribe would come forward to report a crime. The laws apply well to the Keystone Cops of politics, clumsy lawmakers who take sacks of cash in the IHOP bathroom.

The emoluments clause, however, does not require direct proof of anything untoward, and that is essential to its effectiveness. The most powerful anti-corruption rules are prophylactic, forbidding a whole category of relationships that are likely to lead to corruption.

Consider the countries we know are making payments to Trump companies through state-owned entities, payments that affect Trump’s wealth: China and the United Arab Emirates, both at the heart of regions critical to U.S. foreign policy. Then consider the longer list of countries in a position to benefit him because of business relationships Trump has, including India, Indonesia, Turkey, the Philippines, Great Britain and Vietnam. This is just a beginning sketch of what we know so far; Russia, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan reportedly may also be involved with Trump businesses. The benefits come from a range of relationships: The Qatari state airline pays rent at the Trump Tower in New York; entities in Britain, Bulgaria, Brazil, Indonesia and Vietnam reportedly make licensing payments for the rights to produce local versions of “The Apprentice,” Trump’s reality TV show; his developments in India require governmental permitting, which under the law would be a forbidden benefit.

posted by Atom Eyes at 10:14 AM on January 26, 2017 [25 favorites]

Got an update on making calls to Congress Critters. I asked one the staffers I spoke to about calling Minority Leaders Pelosi and Schumer. They said that it was "up to the discretion of the individual Senator whether to take out of state/district calls into account", but that it "wouldn't hurt to call their offices". I would love to hear what y'all hear from other staffers around the country.

I called a couple of Schumer's offices but they were busy. However, Nancy Pelosi's DC ((202) 225-4965) office got to me real quick and sent me to a voice mail to leave a message about Medicare/Medicaid/ACA.

Also made calls to my own Congressfolk. To the senators, I voiced my strong support for the Sen. Shaheen's HER Act, which would in part, end this grotesque global gag order on discussing abortion.

I also urged them to reject all the PVL's cabinet nominees with special focus on:

* Sessions (history of racist actions, anti-LGBTQ, forced birth, doesn't believe in separation of church and state)

* Price (radical forced birth agenda, ethical conflicts of interests regarding tax and financial non-disclosures)

* Tillerson (no diplomatic experience, natsec risk because of ties to Russia, risk to global climate because of oil ties)

* Pruitt (chooses not to believe in anthropogenic climate change)

For my Rep, I praised them for supporting the HER Act in the House, as well as for supporting HR 371, The Presidential Conflicts of Interest Act of 2017.

I used scripts from We are The 65, which may be helpful. Please use any of my talking points, if they would help you call.

Keep calling; keep writing; let's get fuckin' loud(er).
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 10:21 AM on January 26, 2017 [48 favorites]

Don't know about anybody else but I have trouble with Facebook live streams to my Chromecast. This feed of the resistance in Philly on Youtube is working fine for me, however.

Makes for a great motivational soundtrack. I'm in the last few days of prepping for a move to Boehner's old district. Mars may need women, but Ohio needs progressives.
posted by perspicio at 10:25 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Mayor West: we need a polysyllabic German word for that exact feeling, and we need it now.
I'd go with Weltanschauungsteilzerstörungserfahrung. Gerne gemacht!
posted by Too-Ticky at 10:33 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

@samsteinhp
Trump is more or less begging GOP to not repeal Obamacare right now
posted by melissasaurus at 10:34 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

PhillyCam (a local cable access station) has a livestream bouncing between Independence Hall and City Hall.
posted by cmfletcher at 10:34 AM on January 26, 2017

So yesterday on my lunch break I accidentally overdosed on the torrent of Trump news and realized that I needed to step back from it to process and/or distract myself with other things.

So flash forward to today, where, for whatever reason, I find myself eating lunch and working backwards through the Bernard Langer story - and how it, uh, has played through in the last 24 hours - as the first thing I came across.

My parents are huge golf fans, so I'm fairly familiar with lots of golfers and the broad stokes of their careers, including Langer.

Asking yourself "Wait. Bernard Langer? Voter fraud? Isn't he German? Trump? What?" is one hell of a way to back into this news cycle.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:34 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

How long until they introduce the new uniforms?
posted by drezdn at 10:35 AM on January 26, 2017

Trump is more or less begging GOP to not repeal Obamacare right now

So basically, actively sabotage tens of millions of people's healthcare until the system becomes unworkable and they tell us "we tried it and you can all see we have to get rid of it." This is evil.
posted by zachlipton at 10:36 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

@samsteinhp
Trump is more or less begging GOP to not repeal Obamacare right now

It's Thursday. Oh wait I changed my mind because I figured out it will make me even less popular.
posted by Jalliah at 10:38 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Poll shows Trump with 36 percent job approval for first five days. 44% disapprove, 19% undecided.
posted by zachlipton at 10:39 AM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

It turns out Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner is also registered to vote in two states
posted by gladly at 10:39 AM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

So basically, actively sabotage tens of millions of people's healthcare until the system becomes unworkable and they tell us "we tried it and you can all see we have to get rid of it." This is evil.

It's also way more politically savvy than what the Republicans seem hellbent on doing, which is fascinating.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 10:39 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Trump is more or less begging GOP to not repeal Obamacare right now

quick, somebody explain to him that a veto is not ethnic food from the INNER CITY but a method of rejecting legislation!
posted by entropicamericana at 10:39 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

I have to imagine that a good chunk of that 36% are not actually paying attention to the news.
posted by Superplin at 10:40 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Trump also just thought his new CIA chief Mark Pompeo would be at the GOP Congressional retreat (he's not). It's pretty horrifying that he would even think the head of the CIA would attend a political strategy event like that.
posted by zachlipton at 10:41 AM on January 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

Cheeto Benito's neat-o veto drops GOP?
posted by Devonian at 10:42 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Oh, 100 percent, Tevin.
posted by Etrigan at 10:45 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Manhattan folks who are teens or know teens: Gale Brewer is hosting an information session tomorrow for teens to learn how to get involved with or join their local community board. Friday the 27th, 4-6pm at 1 Centre St, 19th floor.
posted by melissasaurus at 10:45 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

The chorus of Aimee Mann's Trump song "Can't You Tell" just echoes in my head.

Isn’t anybody going to stop me?
I don’t want this job
I don’t want this job, my god
Can’t you tell
I’m unwell
posted by Mothlight at 10:45 AM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

That sound you hear was a bunch of insurance company execs getting whiplash then realising that they're not covered for it in their insurance plans.

he really means "we're going to MAKE them pay" by using the military. I mean, he really thinks that is on the table right?

Perhaps more "sue them in Imaginary Court." But I wouldn't put it past him to think that asset seizures were on the table. I mean, he wants to steal Iraq's oil.
posted by holgate at 10:47 AM on January 26, 2017

.@PressSec confirms that the EO this afternoon will be about voter fraud

Hey guys I would just like to draw some attention to roomthreeseventeen's comment, because it seems this may be highly fucking significant. It's not talking about a press conference about voter fraud, EO is short for an EXECUTIVE ORDER. So there will be an EXECUTIVE ORDER this afternoon about VOTING.
posted by corb at 10:48 AM on January 26, 2017 [38 favorites]

@samsteinhp
Trump is more or less begging GOP to not repeal Obamacare right now
posted by melissasaurus at 2:34 AM on January 27 [+] [!]

DO IT! MAKE HIM VETO IT! DO IT!
posted by saysthis at 10:48 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Who's going to pay for the wall?

What are you even saying? It's a Trump project, the contractors are going to pay for the wall.
posted by From Bklyn at 10:49 AM on January 26, 2017 [30 favorites]

the contractors are going to pay for the wall.

Not when it's with somebody else's money, and by "somebody else", I mean "every US taxpayer", which in turn means "not him".
posted by holgate at 10:51 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Perhaps more "sue them in Imaginary Court."

He's got dozens of moon lawyers. The best!
posted by phearlez at 10:51 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I would not be surprised if Mikhailov was outed by the new administration. I mean, why wouldn't they want him dead/imprisoned?
posted by localhuman at 10:52 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Trump: "Where is Pompeo, where the hell is he?" Someone in the crowd: "He's working"
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:53 AM on January 26, 2017 [20 favorites]

One of the staffers I spoke to suggested that contacting your Reps and Senators and asking them to convey your comments to the Minority Leaders may be more effective than calling their offices. For instance, I just wrote my Senators to ask them to convey to Sen. Schumer that:

* I am dismayed by Democratic votes to confirm any of the PVL's nominees because of their lack of qualifications and lack of ethics disclosures.
* That doing so makes me question whether I want to give money and time to the Democratic party.
* That rejecting such nominees as block is fortifying, heartening, and energizes me for more activism because I know leadership has my back.
* That Democrats need to vote only for nominees that share at least some of our values since more of us voted for Sec. Clinton than the guy who also ran.

Again, if you want to use these talking points or try out this strategy, go for it.
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 10:53 AM on January 26, 2017 [26 favorites]

if Mikhailov was a US asset

He may just be a loose-end/know too much, and is going to serve as a cautionary example.
posted by Buntix at 10:53 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

He also just claimed "Here in Philadelphia murder has been steady –– I mean –– just terribly increasing" when homicides, violent crime, and property crimes are at record lows.
posted by zachlipton at 10:54 AM on January 26, 2017 [16 favorites]

> I'm beginning to think it's a cookbook.

> 'The President serves the American people.'

On a platter. To Vladimir Putin. Accompanied by a nice pan sauce.
posted by mudpuppie at 10:54 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Chelsea Manning is safe from Trump, legal experts say
posted by Buntix at 10:56 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Forgive me if this has been brought up before up thread but - when Trump says "Mexico will pay for the wall, it may be complicated, but they will pay," he really means "we're going to MAKE them pay" by using the military. I mean, he really thinks that is on the table right?

I read that more as "There will be some bullshit tax or fee or something that Americans pay that we will argue somehow means Mexico is paying for it," like an excise tax on margarita mix or something.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:58 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

He also just claimed "Here in Philadelphia murder has been steady –– I mean –– just terribly increasing" when homicides, violent crime, and property crimes are at record lows.

Trump: "I was watching TV the other day, there was this teenage kid who was forced to move from West Philadelphia all the way to Bel Air because a couple of guys who were up to no good ("bad hombres") started making trouble in his neighborhood." [fake?]
posted by melissasaurus at 10:58 AM on January 26, 2017 [36 favorites]

I'm getting tired... scratch that, I'm so much past tired of people asserting that laws are going to stop Trump from doing what he wants. He has no respect for the rule of law. Legal experts are not going to stop Trump from hurting Manning if he wants to.
posted by Gaz Errant at 11:00 AM on January 26, 2017 [19 favorites]

Not that it means much of anything but since I talked about it upthread might as well post the conclusion.
My stupid Trump supporter arguing that devolved into an almost 5 hour back and forth game of who will post last seems to be finally over

I posted last.

*little triumphs, sometime you just have to take the tiny triumphs where you can
posted by Jalliah at 11:01 AM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

A friend reports a "THIS JAWN IS OUT OF POCKET" sign in Philly.
posted by Etrigan at 11:01 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

I read that more as "There will be some bullshit tax or fee or something that Americans pay that we will argue somehow means Mexico is paying for it," like an excise tax on margarita mix or something.

That's what I thought at first. But he LOVES to talk about trade and punishing countries through unfavorable trade deals so I feel like he would have said "We'll make them pay through trade" if that's what he meant.

He loves to talk about millitary strength, he loves to talk about nukes, and he loves to talk about border security. What better way to "pay" for the wall than by taking hundreds of square miles of Mexican land and build the wall further south? I'm not saying that will happen or that congress would ever go for it but I can't help but think that calculus is going on his tiny, unimaginative brain.
posted by Tevin at 11:02 AM on January 26, 2017

Chelsea Manning is safe from Trump, legal experts say

Oh FFS...

The fucking President of the United States, who commands the loyalty of an army of Nazis, racists, and violently unhinged people, just publicly called her a traitor. On what planet is she safe?

It seriously feels like most of the country is walking around like Ned Stark thinking a signed letter is gonna save him.
posted by joedan at 11:04 AM on January 26, 2017 [66 favorites]

> Isn't the opposition to Le Pen just saying, look, you don't want to have someone like Trump? and scaring the hell out of the electorate.

That's my hope for the next Canadian election (not until 2019); Trudeau pointing at Kevin O'Leary and saying "You want Trump? 'Cause that's how you get Trump!"
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:05 AM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

for any minnesotans looking for something to rally against, the asshat david clarke is appearing at Right Way MN's Celebration of Law and Order in uptown of all places on saturday night. tickets are $35
posted by localhuman at 11:05 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

:O

A contact sends along a picture of a bookcase in what's called the Old State Department Library in the EEOB. It's the first thing you see
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:05 AM on January 26, 2017 [52 favorites]

Dances_with_sneetches, from what I can tell from talking to my family in Italy: no, it is not helping. Reporting on Trump is just not conveying the scope of his incompetence, corruption, denial, or mental instability. It's just politics as usual, but now with a zany new protagonist!
posted by lydhre at 11:07 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Here in the Netherlands, I see plenty of people saying the same kinds of rubbish about Donald that you folks are hearing, like 'at least he tells it like he sees it'. :-(
posted by Too-Ticky at 11:10 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

One of the staffers I spoke to suggested that contacting your Reps and Senators and asking them to convey your comments to the Minority Leaders may be more effective than calling their offices.

Also, now is the time for you to break out your cards. So for example, when I call, I always say "Hi, I'd like to leave a message for Blah? I'm a HISPANIC VETERAN, and as a WOMAN and MEMBER OF X ORGANIZATION, I am outraged." I usually add a few more in there. Because then, because of how people shorthand people, they're not thinking an individual, they're thinking "does this message reflect this demographic"?
posted by corb at 11:10 AM on January 26, 2017 [32 favorites]

Italy might not be the greatest sounding board; Berlusconi was very Trump-like. And they have a literal populist clown in their national politics.
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:10 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Trump: "I was watching TV the other day, there was this teenage kid who was forced to move from West Philadelphia all the way to Bel Air because a couple of guys who were up to no good ("bad hombres") started making trouble in his neighborhood." [fake?]

"I'd also like to give a shout out to some of the local small businesses here in town. One business in particular—wonderful place—a little bar called Paddys' Pub. A classy place run by good people. Really top notch people."
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:12 AM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

Of 690 key positions requiring Senate confirmation …

Awaiting nomination: 658
Awaiting confirmation: 28
Confirmed: 4
posted by kirkaracha at 11:12 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

But he LOVES to talk about trade and punishing countries through unfavorable trade deals so I feel like he would have said "We'll make them pay through trade" if that's what he meant.

The explanation (or at least, a possible one) is on the campaign site.

That 2 page document actually discusses a few ideas:

Propose the use of Know Your Customer Rules to track down immigration violators, which will cause Mexico to protest, because they "receive approximately $24 billion a year in remittances from Mexican nationals working in the United States. The majority of that amount comes from illegal aliens. It serves as de facto welfare for poor families in Mexico." Yada, yada, yada, they pay $5-10 billion once to keep the $24 billion/year coming in.
"Trade tariffs, or enforcement of existing trade rules"
"Cancelling visas: Immigration is a privilege, not a right."
"Visa fees: Even a small increase in visa fees would pay for the wall. "
In conclusion, "We have the moral high ground here, and all the leverage. It is time we use it in order to Make America Great Again."

posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 11:12 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

A contact sends along a picture of a bookcase in what's called the Old State Department Library in the EEOB. It's the first thing you see

It is literally like something out of North Korea.
posted by jedicus at 11:13 AM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

Trump To Sign Executive Order To Move Voter Fraud Investigation Forward: President Donald Trump will reportedly sign an executive order Thursday to move forward with an investigation into alleged widespread voter fraud which he has baselessly claimed cost him the popular vote.

"It will be a follow-up on the announcement yesterday to better understand voter fraud," White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters aboard Air Force One, as quoted by The Hill.

He said that Trump will sign an executive action to launch the probe on Thursday, according to a report by McClatchyDC.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:14 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Or a really shitty gift shop.
posted by Artw at 11:14 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

A contact sends along a picture of a bookcase in what's called the Old State Department Library in the EEOB. It's the first thing you see

The fight between bigotry and kleptocracy is the hellish "tastes great...less filling" of our times.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:15 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

> A contact sends along a picture of a bookcase in what's called the Old State Department Library in the EEOB. It's the first thing you see

Ethics aside...he can't even put together a decent book display.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:15 AM on January 26, 2017 [20 favorites]

RE: Spicer tweeting his password.

@AltNatParkSer
"Jim Acosta, CNN, Mr. Spicer, what was your mother's maiden name?"

"Quick follow up, what was the name of your first pet"

#launchcodes [image]
posted by chris24 at 11:17 AM on January 26, 2017 [39 favorites]

Ethics aside...he can't even put together a decent book display.

Never in a million years would he see the point.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:19 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Trump: The Trump Administration was a dream, given form. Its goal: to pay for oil wars, by creating a place where white men can work out their differences peacefully, by imprisoning and deporting aliens. It's a port of call – a home away from home – for demagogues, hustlers, plutocrats, and vandals. It's fantastic. The best. You'll love it, I promise you.
[Fake. Happy birthday, B5. I guess.]
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:20 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

I just have to take a moment and say thank you to Metafilter and everyone hanging out in these threads. Yesterday was a really rough day for me personally. I think I shed the first tears I have since the election. But every time I come back to the thread I'm reassured to see so many rational, informed people who care deeply about what is happening. I wish we could bottle these threads and hand it out on street corners.
posted by threeturtles at 11:20 AM on January 26, 2017 [49 favorites]

President Donald Trump will reportedly sign an executive order Thursday to move forward with an investigation into alleged widespread voter fraud which he has baselessly claimed cost him the popular vote.

he is just not going to be able to sleep at night until he gets a thick report that says "all americans love donald trump. he is the best president. we gathered all of the data and it indicates that the people who didn't vote for donald trump were confused or defrauded", is he?
posted by murphy slaw at 11:21 AM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

Does anyone know if China's new ICBM (DF41) is really operational or if moving them with in striking distance of DC this week is just a pointed message to Trump?
posted by ridgerunner at 11:21 AM on January 26, 2017

AP BREAKING: Ex-transition official: Trump administration to seek big budget, staff cuts at Environmental Protection Agency.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:22 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Coming in late to say that I also didn't know the pussyhats were supposed to look like cats until now. I even thought they sort of looked like ears on some people, but thought it was just coincidence. I had no idea what they were supposed to be other than pink square hats. I like them though, the pink square hats.
posted by bongo_x at 11:22 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Do we get to call them The Kakistocrats yet?
posted by Slackermagee at 11:22 AM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

>Trump To Sign Executive Order To Move Voter Fraud Investigation Forward:

"Later the same day, Spicer told reporters that Trump's investigation will focus on "urban areas" in primarily Democratic states like New York and California."

Par for the course.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 11:23 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Par for the course.

Don't forget, the goal isn't an investigation, it's to suppress the vote for 2018 and 2020.
posted by cell divide at 11:24 AM on January 26, 2017 [31 favorites]

he is just not going to be able to sleep at night until he gets a thick report that says "all americans love donald trump. he is the best president. we gathered all of the data and it indicates that the people who didn't vote for donald trump were confused or defrauded", is he?

It's more then that now. He is being called a liar. He is being disrespected. And now he's being called delusional. He can't back down now. His disordered narcissist brain won't let him.
posted by Jalliah at 11:25 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Republicans getting cold feet on repealing ACA.

Maybe, on Obamacare, Republicans Should Just Punt: The Affordable Care Act is a mess. But trying to replace it might just create a bigger one—and one that, this time, the people will blame on the Republicans.

A quote often attributed to former Ohio State University football coach Woody Hayes suggests “There are three things that can happen when you throw a pass, and two of them are bad.” Apocryphal or not, that’s how I’m starting to feel about the GOP’s plans to repeal and replace Obamacare.

The more I talk to conservative-leaning health care policy experts—sources that had previously helped me understand the debacle that would become Obamacare—the more convinced I am that this could all go horribly wrong.

posted by chris24 at 11:26 AM on January 26, 2017 [16 favorites]

Coming in late to say that I also didn't know the pussyhats were supposed to look like cats until now.

FWIW it took me about 4 days before it suddenly clicked that "Love Trumps Hate" was a play on words, not just really bizarre over-empathing.
posted by Buntix at 11:27 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Do we get to call them The Kakistocrats

No, that's too dignified for our Shitlords.

And it's in Mexican or some other godforsaken language.
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:27 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Do we get to call them The Kakistocrats yet?

Only if we can get Sarah Michelle Gellar to mishear it as "Taquitocrats"
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:28 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

the vote for 2018 and 2020.

Optimist.
posted by Buntix at 11:28 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

I really, really hope whatever Comey got was worth all this and all that's soon to follow.

(NB: I consider anything he got that is less than a package that includes eternal youth, invulnerability, immortality and being devastatingly attractive to consenting adults appropriate for his sexual orientation to have been a shitty reward for the damage his actions have done to the US and the world.)
posted by lord_wolf at 11:29 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Callista Gingrich is under consideration as the ambassador to the Holy See.

That would be the devout Catholic who fucked Newt for seven years while she was a congressional aide and he was still married to his second wife, after which he got divorced, married her, converted to Catholicism and asked for at least one of his previous two marriages to be annulled. Ten Hail Marys and a large donation to the archdiocesan roof repair fund will do.
posted by holgate at 11:30 AM on January 26, 2017 [39 favorites]

President Donald Trump will reportedly sign an executive order Thursday to move forward with an investigation into alleged widespread voter fraud which he has baselessly claimed cost him the popular vote.

But what happens, then, when the report comes back and there was no fraud????
posted by Windigo at 11:30 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

murphy slaw: he is just not going to be able to sleep at night until he gets a thick report that says "all americans love donald trump. he is the best president. we gathered all of the data and it indicates that the people who didn't vote for donald trump were confused or defrauded", is he?

Here ya go: "The true, correct story of what happened at Donald Trump’s inauguration" [Washington Post]

If you've read your article allotment, opening in Private or Incognito mode works. Not saying it's ethical to do so, but it works.
posted by slipthought at 11:30 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

But what happens, then, when the report comes back and there was no fraud????

Trump will send it back to the kitchen to be properly cooked, like the rest of his red meat.
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:31 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

But what happens, then, when the report comes back and there was no fraud????

Someone gets fired for incompetence and another investigation is ordered.
posted by Etrigan at 11:32 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

he is just not going to be able to sleep at night until he gets a thick report that says "all americans love donald trump. he is the best president. we gathered all of the data and it indicates that the people who didn't vote for donald trump ~~were confused or defrauded", is he?~~ are interned at an undisclosed location

FTFY.
posted by Mayor West at 11:34 AM on January 26, 2017

But what happens, then, when the report comes back and there was no fraud????

The report will show fraud, that is predetermined.
posted by cell divide at 11:36 AM on January 26, 2017 [34 favorites]

> But what happens, then, when the report comes back and there was no fraud????

There will be no investigation. All the numbers will be faked. There will be no actual report. It is all for show (I'm sure you know that, but I have to say that out loud to myself over and over and over again).
posted by Tevin at 11:36 AM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

But what happens, then, when the report comes back and there was no fraud????

you are presuming the report won't be written to ensure that there is evidence. Facts and reality will not save us.
posted by nubs at 11:37 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

From those in Europe. Isn't Trump really helping in elections against fascists (e.g., France)? Isn't the opposition to Le Pen just saying, look, you don't want to have someone like Trump? and scaring the hell out of the electorate.

So there was an argument that Alexander Van der Bellen (Green) won the Austrian presidential election, over the neo-Nazi, in part as a reaction against Trump. But a lot of talk from Europe has been around the idea of Brexit, Trump etc serving as an inspiration for people who want similar things in other countries (Le Pen, Wilders in Netherlands).

Incidentally in France, there's a political scandal involving Fillon and his wife, which seems awfully well-timed to knock him out of the race. (While I'm no expert, I wonder if this would put Le Pen against a centrist in the final race, meaning Fillon's supporters go to Le Pen and she wins).
posted by Pink Frost at 11:37 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

But what happens, then, when the report comes back and there was no fraud????

The report will show fraud, that is predetermined.

Maybe? I'm wondering who called whose bluff here.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 11:37 AM on January 26, 2017

Sigh. I guess I was assuming that there's SOME sort of transparency in a report like that.
posted by Windigo at 11:37 AM on January 26, 2017

Well, if they're focusing on urban areas, they're likely going to have to deal with county recorders. Who will make sure all data is available for everyone to see BECAUSE THERE IS NOW F*CKING FRAUD. Of course, the admin will do their best to spin it.
posted by azpenguin at 11:37 AM on January 26, 2017

I need a shirt that says, "I voted on the Upper West Side 400 times."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:39 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Politico Reaffirms the Political World's Rules on Authenticity

Democrats are at a party retreat in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Politico has a brief story about how they're seeking to improve their outreach to Trump voters:
[...] Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) moderated a “discussion with Trump voters," according to a draft [retreat] schedule obtained by POLITICO....

Former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D), along with Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), held a session on “speaking to those who feel invisible in rural America," according to the schedule. Other sessions were along similar lines: “Listening to those feel unheard” and “Rising America -- They feel unheard too.”

Well, fine. I don't think Democrats should focus on this to the exclusion of all else, but it's okay if they do it.

But I do object to Politico's headline for this:
Democrats hold lessons on how to talk to real people
Oh, right -- none of the nearly 66 million Hillary Clinton voters are "real people." Democrats never are. Democrats are all privileged white coast-dwellers in an elitist bubble, regardless of race, income level, or how far away from an ocean they live. The intersection of "real people" and regular Democratic voters is the null set.

posted by tonycpsu at 11:39 AM on January 26, 2017 [66 favorites]

I remember despising W, McCain, and Romney, but never did I look at any of those three and said, "that is an evil man." I was taught to hate Reagan so when he was shot I was glad, but I was twelve, I thought he was an evil man who would get us all killed. I grew up and no longer thought of him as evil, just misguided.

All of this. I just can't figure out how anyone could be so blind to who he very plainly is. And then I remember that his voters were taught to hate Hillary the same way you were taught to hate Reagan.
posted by Gaz Errant at 11:40 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Uh, who does the investigating?
posted by notyou at 11:40 AM on January 26, 2017

Uh, who does the investigating?

100 clams for Kris Korbach and Hans von Spakovsky.
posted by PenDevil at 11:42 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Oh, a Presidential Commission.
posted by notyou at 11:42 AM on January 26, 2017

From those in Europe. Isn't Trump really helping in elections against fascists (e.g., France)? Isn't the opposition to Le Pen just saying, look, you don't want to have someone like Trump? and scaring the hell out of the electorate.

Hi, I'm from the Netherlands and Trump's election isn't helping at all. The alt-right party of the Netherlands (PVV: the party of "freedom") is lead by Geert Wilders. And while the people who will vote for him are dumb as bricks, Geert Wilders is, unlike Trump, a smart guy. He knows how to use Trump's election to whip up his base to vote for him. The election is on the 15th of march and I'm scared :-(
posted by Pendragon at 11:43 AM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

And now for something completely different: a man cowering behind a tree. [alt-real]

Lindsey Graham: Mainstream media misses scoop of the year - @TheOnion nails it. I won’t go down w/out a fight. Seeking Asylum in Ecuador. #alternativefacts
posted by guiseroom at 11:43 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

In the United States, a Presidential Commission is a special task force ordained by the President to complete a specific, special investigation or research. They are often quasi-judicial in nature; that is, they include public or in-camera hearings.

So we're at HUAC for voters already?
posted by Artw at 11:47 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Lindsey Graham: ... I won’t go down w/out a fight.

Aaand I just yelled "FUCK YOU LINDSEY GRAHAM" in my office. Sorry about that.
posted by Etrigan at 11:48 AM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

But what happens, then, when the report comes back and there was no fraud????

I have talked for a while about how this all boils down to how you define 'fraud', because technical voter fraud doesn't have to be intentional, especially in big cities like NYC that have very, very small voter precincts and polling stations.

So, for example: let's say your family has an apartment in Brooklyn. When you're 18 years old, you register to vote. Then you move into a sketch apartment with some friends in another part of Brooklyn. Maybe it's not even far - just a few stops on the train, several blocks away. You don't bother updating your registration, because why would you? You know where your polling place is. You already registered to vote. You still live in Brooklyn. You haven't even moved boroughs!

But if you fail to update your registration, and you vote at that polling station when you actually live in another district, you are technically in violation of voting law. Really the only person harmed is the tiny district candidates you voted for, but technically you are in violation.

I would be literally shocked and astonished if Trump can't pull up huge, huge numbers of people who did this - it should be noted, ALL OF WHOM WOULD HAVE BEEN VOTING FOR THE SAME PRESIDENT, CANDIDATE FUCK-TRUMP.

Now, the correct solution is an information campaign and some better way of dealing with it. But is that what Trump is going to do?
posted by corb at 11:49 AM on January 26, 2017 [25 favorites]

I wish we could bottle these threads and hand it out on street corners.

I just saw the equivalent of a whole lotta that in Philly.

here I am, thinking, "Our president is an evil man." I'm having these moments of terror where I feel like I'm in an earthquake.

The feeling you get when you're anybody but Zaphod Beeblebrox and your picture of things meets reality.
posted by perspicio at 11:49 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

But no subpoena power, from what I google, unless Congress passes a law granting that power to the Commission.
posted by notyou at 11:50 AM on January 26, 2017

Republicans getting cold feet on repealing ACA.

Maybe, on Obamacare, Republicans Should Just Punt

I enjoyed that article but almost threw my computer across the room by the end. The fellow from the AEI outlines this.

So how could a realistic (and not disastrous) health care system look? According to Capretta, the most plausible (and simplistic) plan would (A) retain the employer-based system (replacing the “Cadillac tax” with a better designed upper limit), (B) provide tax credits for people outside the system, and (C) provide Medicaid for everyone who can’t afford health insurance.

Hey numbnuts, do you think there's more than a smallish percentage on the left who wouldn't do a fucking dance of joy at this? If the R loons would show up and propose something like this you'd get all but a few symbolic but it's not single payer for all votes from the Ds. The thresholds on the ultra-premium plans was always up for negotiation and the Ds tried to negotiate it (and everything else) with the Rs in power during ACA passage. Nobody would bite.

I don't say that to relitigate it, but OMF merciful G, you may as well talk about plans to fly to the moon by farting pixie dust out your ass. We're through the looking glass and nobody on the right will pass these amazingly unambitious schemes. The no way, never coalition won't do anything that will insure folks. They sued over the mandate (when do I get to sue over the mandate to pay taxes to support wars I don't like?), they sued over the medicaid expansion, etc forever and ever.

I am really full of despair today, I'm afraid. But I just don't know how we unfuck this as a nation when the whole Republican party has reached a point where they'd rather disregard their own think tanks than put aside strongman posturing but will agree to billions of deficit spending for an ineffective gesture on border security.
posted by phearlez at 11:50 AM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

if Mikhailov was a US asset, how was he compromised? Did the information put out by US intelligence somehow lead to his exposure? Without putting too fine a point on it, a number of close advisors to President Trump are being scrutinized for ties to Russia. Some of them participated in the intelligence briefings the President receives.

Do we have a very big problem?

I'm going to answer yes. Yes we do.
posted by diogenes at 11:51 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

RE: Spicer tweeting his password.

@AltNatParkSer....

Maybe this is more of a Meta comment, but these "Alt" accounts are really annoying to me. There's no way to know how many (if any) are legitimately run by actual park employees, and if I had to bet I'd expect the over/under to be like 4 or 5 of them. This isn't to call out chris24 because it's still kosher afaic to just post funny or interesting comments from twitter, but the Alt-park accounts rub me the wrong way.
posted by DynamiteToast at 11:53 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

the whole Republican party has reached a point where they'd rather disregard their own think tanks

The best part is that Obamacare (previously known as Romneycare) originally came out of right-wing think tanks.
posted by diogenes at 11:53 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Corb nailed it. There are a number of things (registered in two states!) that sound vaguely fraud-y but do not really constitute voter fraud in the "dead people casting votes" sense, which is how most people think of it. But they can take these numbers, which may sound very large but in reality convey nothing important, and perhaps combine them with a teeeny tiny handful of instances of real-deal fraud, however trivial, and viola! MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD!!! You can't trust those city-folk, you know.

It's the ultimate in truthiness.
posted by breakin' the law at 11:55 AM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

Italy might not be the greatest sounding board; Berlusconi was very Trump-like. And they have a literal populist clown in their national politics.

Absolutely, snuffleupagus, Grillo is a literal "leftist" Trump so they're primed for this bullshit. But I think that there is a huge problem translating Trump's rhetoric and cadence that just doesn't make it through. His syntax is very revealing and when the Italian news cleans up his speeches just to make them understandable, well, it suddenly sounds like populist nonsense instead of INSANE populist nonsense.
posted by lydhre at 11:56 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Warning signs from US Department of Transportation: two Performance Management webinars have now been "postponed until further notice" -- Pavement and Bridge Condition Performance Measures Final Rule Webinar (Google cache archive, the page linked from there is 404-not found now) and National Performance Management Measures; Assessing Performance of the National Highway System, Freight Movement on the Interstate System, and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (at least this page is still up, but notes "This webinar has been postponed until further notice")

There's a difference between "let's get our ducks in a row before we say anything" and "here's some rules and regulations that have been in development since 2012, but the current administration is freaking out about any and all rules and regulations, so we can't even give you guidance on the rules that went live in the last days of the prior administration."

Yup, they were preliminary published on January 9, 2017, and officially released* on the 18th of this month. Kind of a bold move, but these are the last two rules that were supposed to be rolled out a few years back, but developing rules and regulations takes time. On the other hand, breaking things can be done very quickly, as we are seeing right here and now.

* The official release date matters in terms of deadlines, because a responsible agency will want to know if they have 2 years from January 9, 2017 or January 18, 2017.

So my office is in minor freak-out mode, because yesterday's webinar was "indefinitely postponed" with some fore-warning (an email earlier that day), but today's was unceremoniously yanked without notice. We called the dial-in number and got a digital response (sounding like a modem or fax machine trying to talk back).

Personally, I'm really happy that all this shit is hitting the fan so fast, because it's pushing more people to act at once. This means more noise and confusion over all, but it's also easier to resist everything this administration is trying to do. If changes were trickled out, and worse, actually planned with methods for implementation, people would get worn out about "oh, another agency being reorganized, what a bunch of whining, entitled government slouches." Instead, it's a wave of inept overseers and executive orders that may be near impossible to pursue, given how the agencies and programs were developed in the first place.

And when this all hits real people with real problems, it's all on the GOP. Of course, they survived the Fall 2013 government shutdown, when GOP was largely (and correctly) blamed, but now Obama isn't there as the scape-goat and source of new miseries, imagined or real.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:00 PM on January 26, 2017 [37 favorites]

1,500+ Rabbis Sign National Letter Calling for Welcoming Refugees
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:01 PM on January 26, 2017 [38 favorites]

Accidentally voting in the wrong district across town is not and has never been what Republicans have been talking about when they've claimed to be concerned about voter fraud. Bringing it up in this context as an example of what sort of sleight-of-hand Trump might try to pull later on is fine, but none of the elected officials who've passed laws to stop voter fraud have ever done so with the intention of making sure extra votes don't get counted for the 27th Ward Dog Catcher candidate. It's always been about suppressing Democratic vote totals in national elections for them.

Of course it's not what they're talking about. But this kind of - let's call it fraudiness - can be used to justify measures which will then suppress Democratic vote totals.

I think Trump probably really believes there were millions of illegal votes that swung the popular vote to Hillary, because he's a delusional narcissist. And if his delusional narcissism can be used to create more of of a bullshit smokescreen justification for more voter suppression, so much the better, as far as his political allies are cocerned.
posted by breakin' the law at 12:03 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

> Personally, I'm really happy that all this shit is hitting the fan so fast, because it's pushing more people to act at once. This means more noise and confusion over all, but it's also easier to resist everything this administration is trying to do.

I have had this thought as well. It also makes it easier for GOP to act in some way against President Trump if people freak the fuck out for months while all the crazy shit is happening all the while.

I'm still worried about nukes though.
posted by Tevin at 12:03 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Aw shit. Stupid Trump supporter guy came back. Guess that was just a lunch break. Alrighty then. *cracks knuckles*
posted by Jalliah at 12:08 PM on January 26, 2017 [20 favorites]

Here's an updated State Department Org Chart. Blue X's are unfilled appointee positions. Red X's are resignations.
posted by argonauta at 12:09 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

“The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for awhile,” Mr. Bannon said during a telephone call.

“I want you to quote this,” Mr. Bannon added. “The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.”

“The elite media got it dead wrong, 100 percent dead wrong,” Mr. Bannon said of the election, calling it “a humiliating defeat that they will never wash away, that will always be there.”

“The mainstream media has not fired or terminated anyone associated with following our campaign,” Mr. Bannon said. “Look at the Twitter feeds of those people: they were outright activists of the Clinton campaign.” (He did not name specific reporters or editors.)

“That’s why you have no power,” Mr. Bannon added. “You were humiliated.”
posted by theodolite at 12:12 PM on January 26, 2017 [44 favorites]

So DJT, the "leader of the free world" holds the following in contempt:
Muslims
Non-anglos
Sick people
Books
Women except for maybe three and probably those three also
Scientists
Which is perfectly representative of his core support group. That group being less than the non-majority that actually voted for him in November.

I remember despising W, McCain, and Romney, but never did I look at any of those three and said, "that is an evil man." And here I am, thinking, "Our president is an evil man."
The previous Republicans just weren't evil ENOUGH. The party's problem with the Trumpster is not that he's evil, it's that he's not COMPETENTLY evil.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:12 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

These election threads / trump threads really need a "This is fine" yule log gif stickied to the page footer.
posted by birdheist at 12:14 PM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

Don't forget: if the GOP shows a change of heart toward President Trump it will only be because they have found that it is more politically expedient to fulfill their agenda without him. It will not be on the basis of moral objection (despite what they say).
posted by Tevin at 12:16 PM on January 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

These election threads / trump threads really need a "This is fine" yule log gif stickied to the page footer.

Just open this in another browser tab and refer back to it when needed.
posted by peeedro at 12:16 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

“The paper of record for our beloved republic, The New York Times, should be absolutely ashamed and humiliated,” Mr. Bannon said. “They got it 100 percent wrong.”

He added that he has been a reader of The Times for most of his adult life.

Oh, come on.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:17 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm still worried about nukes though.

Somehow, I don't believe anyone in the military is going to obey a first-strike command against N.Korea or Iran or China or any other nation. I think if Trump were to actually order such a thing, we would witness some serious shit hit the fan between the executive and the military.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:18 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

“I want you to quote this,” Mr. Bannon added. “The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.”

Good grief I can't even eat lunch without someone saying something utterly horrible.

And here's the thing. He's right. About the opposition party stuff anyway. If you at all care about objective facts and reality, you're the opposition party now.
posted by zachlipton at 12:20 PM on January 26, 2017 [29 favorites]

“I want you to quote this,” Mr. Bannon added. “The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.”

I'm pretty sure most members of the media are aware of the existence of the electoral college.
posted by breakin' the law at 12:22 PM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

News on AF1: Spicer says Trump has decided to pay for the wall with a 20 percent tax on imports as part of overall tax reform.

--@abbydphillip

So it will really be us paying for the wall through a massive tax increase on most of the stuff we buy?
posted by zachlipton at 12:22 PM on January 26, 2017 [63 favorites]

Of course, Bannon thinks "The media here is the opposition party... they were outright activists of the Clinton campaign.” He was head of a media group that were outright activists of the Trump campaign. There is so much lack of understanding of how he stumbled into his current position of power, I'm starting to believe that he is as incompetent as Trump. And that's a good thing. He's too stupid to effectively succeed at putting his evil agenda into effect.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:22 PM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

We'll see! He seems to be pretty good at it so far.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:23 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

The inevitable Bannon perp walk is going to bring me, like, Orgasmatron levels of pleasure.
posted by Etrigan at 12:24 PM on January 26, 2017 [46 favorites]

“I want you to quote this,” Mr. Bannon added. “The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.”

“The elite media got it dead wrong, 100 percent dead wrong,” Mr. Bannon said of the election, calling it “a humiliating defeat that they will never wash away, that will always be there.”

“The mainstream media has not fired or terminated anyone associated with following our campaign,” Mr. Bannon said. “Look at the Twitter feeds of those people: they were outright activists of the Clinton campaign.” (He did not name specific reporters or editors.)

“That’s why you have no power,” Mr. Bannon added. “You were humiliated.”

Well this pretty much shows exactly who is pushing and pulling Trumps delusional strings. I completely get that his main strategy is to discredit the media with the base. 100%. I'm not sure how pulling this sort of shit is going to work long term outside the base. Bannon is one power hungry fucker who I think is riding a high right now. I'm not sure he's capable of not over-reaching and screwing up his own plans. Seem like he is that type.
posted by Jalliah at 12:24 PM on January 26, 2017 [20 favorites]

i know this is terrible news but all this does is remind me that the HAWLEY-SMOOT TARIFF ACT was a thing

HAWLEY-SMOOT TARIFF ACT
HAWLEY-SMOOT TARIFF ACT
HAWLEY-SMOOT TARIFF ACT

it's so fun to say i forgot about the impending collapse of the union for a moment
posted by murphy slaw at 12:25 PM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

“That’s why you have no power,” Mr. Bannon added. “You were humiliated.”

dude ur doin cocky-funny wrong u beta u forgot the funny part ur such a richard spencer
posted by saysthis at 12:26 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Personally, I would not object to people shouting "Nazi punch!!!" when they punch Nazis.

I'll pay someone ten dollars if they shout, "Nazi punch and pie!!!"
posted by FelliniBlank at 12:27 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Bavarian marching powder. They're all on it.
posted by Artw at 12:27 PM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

This tweet from @PressSec looks like he typed in his password

'nyah' interspersed with 9257.

09/02/57 isn't his birthdate.....might be random but if it isn't this is a bad day on Spicernet

Well isn't this an interesting insight into how Spicer thinks. It's a childhood insult interspersed with numbers that are just off from his birthday. (9/23/71). So he shifted the day by two in a way that's memorable: 2+3=5 and lobbed off the last digit of the year. Probably because he was told not to use his birthday.

Expect the next one to be "f11th15is4!"
posted by susiswimmer at 12:28 PM on January 26, 2017

The "humiliated" thing is key to Bannon and filth like him, the fragile masculinity brigade who find anything other than total domination over the members of all other races and genders to be intensely painful and shameful. No good reason for any of them to be in society- all are dangerous to everybody around them.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:28 PM on January 26, 2017 [42 favorites]

breaker one-niner, we got us a TRADE WAR

we got a big ol' trade war, rockin' round the world
we got a big ol' trade war, watch this fucker unfurl
come on and join our trade war, nothin's shippin' for free
we're gonna use this trade war to launch into world war three

trade war
posted by murphy slaw at 12:29 PM on January 26, 2017 [31 favorites]

The plain folks of Nebraska don't want guacamole anyway. They'll have Liberty Pea Mash.
posted by holgate at 12:30 PM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

Bannon is using "media," "mainstream media," and "elite media" interchangeably here. Are they the same thing in his mind? If so, how does he refer to Fox News, Breitbart, et al?
posted by zakur at 12:30 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Bannon looks like the kind of guy you could remove by throwing bottles of Jack and oxy pills onto the White House lawn and just letting nature take its course.
posted by jason_steakums at 12:30 PM on January 26, 2017 [37 favorites]

The plain folks of Nebraska don't want guacamole anyway. They'll have Liberty Pea Mash.

I thought the pea guac guy was JEB!
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:31 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Bavarian marching powder. They're all on it.

Or legal-ish versions of same from their shady Drs. Feel Good.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:31 PM on January 26, 2017

I think it´s time for a recap of week one (from an FB journalist friend)
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the DOJ’s Violence Against Women programs.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Minority Business Development Agency.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Economic Development Administration.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the International Trade Administration.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the DOJ.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Fossil Energy.
* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered all regulatory powers of all federal agencies frozen.
* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered the National Parks Service to stop using social media after RTing factual, side by side photos of the crowds for the 2009 and 2017 inaugurations.
* On January 20th, 2017, roughly 230 protestors were arrested in DC and face unprecedented felony riot charges. Among them were legal observers, journalists, and medics.
* On January 20th, 2017, a member of the International Workers of the World was shot in the stomach at an anti-fascist protest in Seattle. He remains in critical condition.
* On January 21st, 2017, DT brought a group of 40 cheerleaders to a meeting with the CIA to cheer for him during a speech that consisted almost entirely of framing himself as the victim of dishonest press.
* On January 21st, 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a press conference largely to attack the press for accurately reporting the size of attendance at the inaugural festivities, saying that the inauguration had the largest audience of any in history, “period.”
* On January 22nd, 2017, White House advisor Kellyann Conway defended Spicer’s lies as “alternative facts” on national television news.
* On January 22nd, 2017, DT appeared to blow a kiss to director James Comey during a meeting with the FBI, and then opened his arms in a gesture of strange, paternal affection, before hugging him with a pat on the back.
* On January 23rd, 2017, DT reinstated the global gag order, which defunds international organizations that even mention abortion as a medical option.
* On January 23rd, 2017, Spicer said that the US will not tolerate China’s expansion onto islands in the South China Sea, essentially threatening war with China.
* On January 23rd, 2017, DT repeated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing him the popular vote.
* On January 23rd, 2017, it was announced that the man who shot the anti-fascist protester in Seattle was released without charges, despite turning himself in.
* On January 24th, 2017, Spicer reiterated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing DT the popular vote.
* On January 24th, 2017, DT tweeted a picture from his personal Twitter account of a photo he says depicts the crowd at his inauguration and will hang in the White House press room. The photo is curiously dated January 21st, 2017, the day AFTER the inauguration and the day of the Women’s March, the largest inauguration related protest in history.
* On January 24th, 2017, the EPA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to freeze all grants and contracts.
* On January 24th, 2017, the USDA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to stop publishing any papers or research. All communication with the press would also have to be authorized and vetted by the White House.
* On January 24th, 2017, HR7, a bill that would prohibit federal funding not only to abortion service providers, but to any insurance coverage, including Medicaid, that provides abortion coverage, went to the floor of the House for a vote.
* On January 24th, 2017, Director of the Department of Health and Human Service nominee Tom Price characterized federal guidelines on transgender equality as “absurd.”
* On January 24th, 2017, DT ordered the resumption of construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, while the North Dakota state congress considers a bill that would legalize hitting and killing protestors with cars if they are on roadways.
* On January 24th, 2017, it was discovered that police officers had used confiscated cell phones to search the emails and messages of the 230 demonstrators now facing felony riot charges for protesting on January 20th, including lawyers and journalists whose email accounts contain privileged information of clients and sources.
And today January 25th, 2017: the wall and a Muslim ban.

That´s just the first week and is possibly incomplete.
posted by adamvasco at 12:31 PM on January 26, 2017 [153 favorites]

It is fucking astounding that it hasn't even been a fucking WEEK.
posted by yoga at 12:32 PM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

zakur, it was a sad day when I realized not everyone groks the idea of communicating with precision and accuracy. He might not even understand the line of thought that led to your comment -_-
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 12:32 PM on January 26, 2017

This is truly the apotheosis of toxic masculinity.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:35 PM on January 26, 2017 [22 favorites]

Our congresswoman responded to our protest on Tuesday with a fundraising request- I responded on twitter.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 12:35 PM on January 26, 2017 [35 favorites]

ur such a richard spencer

You know who else was a Richard Spencer?
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:36 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Chelsea Manning is safe from Trump, legal experts say

Legal experts, whose every opinion is predicated on the rule of law existing, say she'll be a-ok. People living in America right now may disagree.
posted by indubitable at 12:36 PM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

I would disagree that Bannon is being successful. He's writing up Presidential Orders and giving then to Trump to sign that are freaking us all out, but when they have been seriously analyzed they have far less effect than it appears without the cooperation of the Congress and/or bureaucracy. And the way the gag orders on the USDA and EPA (and obvious Bannon move) seemed to evaporate in about 24 hours is a very good sign that Bannon, like Trump, is a Big Bully, but a Very Stupid Bully.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:38 PM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

“I want you to quote this,” Mr. Bannon added. “The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.”

@afterglow2046: While terrifying, this also shows how weak the Democrats are generally being right now. Not even considered the opposition.
posted by zombieflanders at 12:38 PM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

Nice shade, BiaB!
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:38 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

but when they have been seriously analyzed they have far less effect than it appears without the cooperation of the Congress and/or bureaucracy.

Bannon's just most elected Republicans minus the mask or the understanding of why the mask is being worn. He'll get far less resistance from Congress than we might think.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:39 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

We need to call this a massive tax increase every chance we get. Massive tax increase. Massive tax increase. Trump called for a massive tax increase.
posted by zachlipton at 12:39 PM on January 26, 2017 [23 favorites]

I wish we could bottle these threads and hand it out on street corners.

Free showings of You’ve Been Trumped Too in the towns and villages of rural red states would be worth a shot as well as it's essentially: rich sociopathic city slicker in suit and black polo neck tries to force government to steal land from independent family farms using eminent domain to make a golf course for other rich city slickers. [after they refuse to sell for several times the land's value, because, well... it's their land...]. They fight him, and win.
posted by Buntix at 12:39 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Oh, right -- none of the nearly 66 million Hillary Clinton voters are "real people." Democrats never are. Democrats are all privileged white coast-dwellers in an elitist bubble, regardless of race, income level, or how far away from an ocean they live. The intersection of "real people" and regular Democratic voters is the null set.

Well, I'm pretty sure city elites, like Bannon's "media elites" comes (at least partly) because so many of us are Jews. We're not real people. We're a fifth column.

I'd love to be shocked that the press doesn't see through this yet, I mean, it's not new, even in the media. But (((shrugs))).
posted by Mchelly at 12:40 PM on January 26, 2017 [26 favorites]

Massive tax increase

Yep, an incredibly regressive tax increase that will disproportionately affect the poor and the barely-getting-by.
posted by porpoise at 12:41 PM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

Trump’s Vow to G.O.P. Lawmakers: ‘You’re Not Wasting Your Time’

“It’s like being actually led into the Promised Land by Moses,” Representative Tom Cole, a senior Republican from Oklahoma, said of Mr. Trump. “We’re there and he’s our leader and people feel very comfortable.”

Jesus wept.
posted by vathek at 12:42 PM on January 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

The ordered up a shit sandwich for everyone and now they will be surprised they too have to chew and swallow.

so, lol. earlier today i had an unscheduled medication-related nap and my horribly clear and realistic halluci-dream during those 20 minutes was that trump was caught live on camera kneeling on the sidewalk gobbling up dog shit, just cramming it into his mouth and devouring it ecstatically. and instead of republicans being like "ok this? this is fucked up" they were all forced by their pathetic natures to also feast upon sidewalk poops, in public, with great enthusiasm, in order to show their craven loyalty to him. the media was doing cautious "well, what if it's not that bad?" reports and everything was extremely bizarre.
posted by poffin boffin at 12:43 PM on January 26, 2017 [52 favorites]

>@afterglow2046: While terrifying, this also shows how weak the Democrats are generally being right now. Not even considered the opposition.

I'm drafting a letter to the DNC Chair of our state that I will not be donating any money or directly promoting any DNC platform points until the DNC leadership actually shows some leadership and makes a concerted effort actually, you know, oppose President Trump.

I keep getting all these emails from the Ohio DP and the DNC telling me to give! Act! Call! But, with very few exceptions*, they are doing nothing.

*Tim Ryan, you are my hero right now
posted by Tevin at 12:43 PM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

"Please continue, Governor."

Mr Trump appears to be doing a good job of imploding all on his own. The Democrats may have guessed right that stepping back was the right move.
posted by notyou at 12:44 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Bannon is using "media," "mainstream media," and "elite media" interchangeably here. Are they the same thing in his mind? If so, how does he refer to Fox News, Breitbart, et al?

Bannon used to be the executive chair of Breitbart. I'm willing to bet that construction is very intentional, and not a betrayal of fuzzy thinking. In a 2015 profile previously posted to the election threads, Bloomberg characterized him as The Most Dangerous Political Operative in America.
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 12:44 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

> We need to call this a massive tax increase every chance we get. Massive tax increase. Massive tax increase. Trump called for a massive tax increase.

It's not that it's a tax increase, it's that it's a regressive tax increase, and it's being used to raise funds for wasteful spending that won't create many jobs and won't address America's real problems. I know the idea is to turn their own shiv on them, but Democrats will never be as effective in criticizing tax increases, because ultimately Democrats do want taxes to go up to fund more generous programs. Attack Trump's ideas on their merits, not simply on the fact that he wants to raise taxes. Sometimes raising taxes is a good thing.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:45 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Jesus wept.

Jesus stood up and wordlessly went out back, stopping only to retrieve his service revolver from the safe.

(you say tomAyto, I say TomAhto, you say Jesus, I say Biggles).
posted by Buntix at 12:45 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Well I'm not sure what I buy often that comes from Mexico off the top of my head, besides groceries as I live in Houston. This 20% tax on guacamole and margaritas is outrageous!
posted by DynamiteToast at 12:46 PM on January 26, 2017

But what happens, then, when the report comes back and there was no fraud????
Someone gets fired for incompetence and another investigation is ordered.

Fraud will be found. Because there will be some fraud. But a few hundred easily found may be enough of a bloody shirt to wave about. At that point Dear Leader should have made some statements about regulation VS cost and perhaps one can pivot on the cost of the new regulations VS the gain.

The only way the millions of vote fraud will be "found" is if Bev Harris has been right and the voting machines get tossed under the bus.
posted by rough ashlar at 12:46 PM on January 26, 2017

Mr Trump appears to be doing a good job of imploding all on his own. The Democrats may have guessed right that stepping back was the right move.

That doesn't mean you confirm his ghastly cabinet appointments. It's one thing to let him look like a damn idiot on TV and another to allow him to make real decisions when part of your fucking job is to prevent him from doing the horrible things he's trying to do.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 12:47 PM on January 26, 2017 [20 favorites]

The purpose and outcome of the voter fraud investigation will be the successful gerrymandering of all the states they haven't yet successfully gerrymandered.
posted by dng at 12:48 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

“It’s like being actually led into the Promised Land by Moses,” Representative Tom Cole, a senior Republican from Oklahoma, said of Mr. Trump. “We’re there and he’s our leader and people feel very comfortable.”

Jesus wept.

Sssh. That doesn't happen until the sixth book. No spoilers!
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:48 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

“It’s like being actually led into the Promised Land by Moses,” Representative Tom Cole, a senior Republican from Oklahoma, said of Mr. Trump. “We’re there and he’s our leader and people feel very comfortable.”

Ignoring the horribleness of this comparison for a moment, am I the only one who reads this and thinks....ahhh, probably not so comfortable over there?
posted by breakin' the law at 12:49 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

I wonder if Sarah Silverman will release a single titled "I'm Punching Richard Spencer"...
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:49 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

probably not so comfortable over there?

Moses dies on the mountain. Draw your own lesson from that.
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:49 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Sean Spicer: also registered to vote in two states.
posted by zachlipton at 12:49 PM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

“It’s like being actually led into the Promised Land by Moses,” Representative Tom Cole, a senior Republican from Oklahoma, said of Mr. Trump. “We’re there and he’s our leader and people feel very comfortable.”

If I remember correctly Moses never actually reached the Promised Land. If I (a godless liberal Episcopalian) am correct about this (and I am) and Representative Cole is not then he is never allowed to cite the Bible or religion as an authority again.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 12:50 PM on January 26, 2017 [18 favorites]

Atom Eyes: 1,500+ Rabbis Sign National Letter Calling for Welcoming Refugees

For A Stark Contrast To U.S. Immigration Policy, Try Canada (NPR, January 26, 2017)

Canadian immigration is not based purely on maple-leaf hospitality. This northern colossus — the second largest country on the globe — has only 36 million people. Eaton says a low national birthrate creates Canada's immigration imperative.

"We are not replacing ourselves. So we are always relying upon bringing new immigrants into the country, but it even has more urgency now," Eaton says. "If we want to maintain our standard of living, we are going to have to be bringing even larger numbers of immigrants."
...
"The biggest contrast between the U.S. and Canada," says Chris Alexander, Canadian minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship from 2013 to 2015, "is that we have reformed our immigration system continuously, intensively, for a decade at a time when the U.S. has been facing gridlock." Alexander is currently running to lead the Conservative Party. He says Parliament continually tweaks the immigration system because it's a national priority.
...
Ashot Verdanyan and his wife, Lora Yekhstyan, are the kinds of immigrants Canada prizes. They live in a cozy apartment in a heavily multicultural Toronto suburb. They came over from Armenia as part of the skilled worker program. He teaches English; she's an industrial engineer.

"We find that the American immigration system hasn't been flexible," Ashot says. Before migrating to Canada, they both lived in Iowa for nine years getting advanced degrees. "The Canadian system is much more flexible in terms of immigration. Canada's system is very organized. We wanted to stay in the United States, but even given our credentials, we were unable to do that, because we were restricted."
...
Some Canadians wonder if that most American motto — E pluribus unum — out of many, one — has moved north.

Emphasis mine. Sorry for the heavy block-quotes, there's more in the article.

For a bit more context: of 240 countries and territories listed on Wikipedia's list of countries by population growth rate, if you organize the list by UN 2010-2015% for lowest growth rates (final column), the US is #94 at 0.75%, while Canada is 110, at 1.04%. Again from NPR:

One reason there's not more social tension over immigrants is because Canada doesn't struggle with illegal immigration. This nation has fewer than 150,000 unauthorized immigrants. The United States — with its illegal border crossers and visa over stayers — has millions.

So the US can say "illegal immigrants are ruining [some thing]!" and ignore the fact that they provide a significant boost to our slowly growing population, while Canada cannot.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:50 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Related: Chris Murphy (D-CT) released a statement that he'll join other D senators in opposing Betsy DeVos for SoE. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) will be opposing Jeff Sessions for AG both in committee and the general confirmation.

No Rs have yet pledged to vote No so it's all symbolic at this point.
posted by birdheist at 12:50 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Well I'm not sure what I buy often that comes from Mexico

Appliances, cars and auto parts, tools, electronics, clothing, and a bunch of other stuff you can just go without on any given day.
posted by cmfletcher at 12:50 PM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

Agricultural Trade charts from the USDA Economic Research Service
posted by slipthought at 12:50 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'M COMFORTABLE! I SWEAR, I'M COMFORTABLE! IT'S LIKE MOSES IN THE SINAI, BUT WITH CHAIRS! REALLY, REALLY, COMFY CHAIRS!
posted by breakin' the law at 12:50 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm FB-arguing with someone who thinks that only land-owners should have the right to vote. Save me.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:52 PM on January 26, 2017 [23 favorites]

@LiterateLiberal: If there is a Muslim ban, refugees can pretend they're Christians. You know, just like Republicans do.
posted by zakur at 12:52 PM on January 26, 2017 [81 favorites]

Tell them they're a backwards ignoramus with the education of a goldfish and the brain of a pea.
posted by glasseyes at 12:53 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

“It’s like being actually led into the Promised Land by Moses,” Representative Tom Cole, a senior Republican from Oklahoma, said of Mr. Trump. “We’re there and he’s our leader and people feel very comfortable.”

See? Trumpism, Bannonism, call it what you like, it's the triumph of the protofascist wing that has devoured the GOP over the last thirty years.

This is not being foisted on conservatives. Conservatives have voted for this, nationwide, consistently, for decades now. Every Republican is complicit in building the foundation for this, no matter how they whine about how they didn't really want to put the capstone on.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:53 PM on January 26, 2017 [21 favorites]

I'm FB-arguing with someone who thinks that only land-owners should have the right to vote. Save me.

Block them and go about your day?
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:54 PM on January 26, 2017 [24 favorites]

Well I'm not sure what I buy often that comes from Mexico
Good chart here.
posted by mcdoublewide at 12:54 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

soren_lorensen, is that worth your mental health at this point? I'd say save your energy for someone more likely to be swayed.
posted by erratic meatsack at 12:54 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

That's for soren_lorenson.

You'll feel better, and it will be as useful as anything else you can tell them.
posted by glasseyes at 12:55 PM on January 26, 2017

Based on Spicer's comments, it's the GOP proposal for a border adjustment tax on businesses that functions something like a VAT, which the White House occupant said he opposed last week. The "last person he talks to" rule is still in effect.
posted by holgate at 12:55 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'm FB-arguing with someone who thinks that only land-owners should have the right to vote. Save me.

Ask the time traveler why he didn't stop the inauguration.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:56 PM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

Everyone kills Trump the first time.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:57 PM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

I think I just had to drop my bomb and walk away. Their justification is that land-owners pay taxes so only they should have a say. And I was like uhhhh sales tax? Wage tax? But you can't fix stupid, and I actually when I started typing thought I was on a friend's wall but lol actually no it's a newspaper. So it's just some rando, I'm out.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:57 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

I'm pretty sure we all pay a fuckload more taxes than Trump and his voters.
posted by Artw at 12:59 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

The inevitable Bannon perp walk is going to bring me, like, Orgasmatron levels of pleasure.

I say this dispassionately and matter-of-factly: if surrounded, I don't think Steve Bannon will allow LEOs to take him alive.
posted by Room 641-A at 1:00 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

The media treated the Trump campaign with kid gloves, never pressed them on anything, gave Trump massive amounts of free air time, covered all his rallies....what exactly do they have to complain of?
posted by thelonius at 1:00 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Tell them you think only those that have earned their citizenship in military service in the eternal fight against the vicious intergalactic space bug armies should be allowed to vote.
posted by dng at 1:01 PM on January 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

I'm FB-arguing with someone who thinks that only land-owners should have the right to vote. Save me.

If you're still at it, ask him if he knows why that restriction used to be in place.

(Answer: it was before the establishment of the secret ballot, and it was correctly argued that renters would vote as their landlords commanded.)
posted by ocschwar at 1:02 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

I say this dispassionately and matter-of-factly: if surrounded, I don't think Steve Bannon will allow LEOs to take him alive.

Given his levels of self-care, I expect it's because he will pre-empt the LEOs with a non-negotiable heart attack.
posted by ocschwar at 1:03 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm FB-arguing with someone who thinks that only land-owners should have the right to vote. Save me.

How much land? Would cemetery plots count?
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 1:03 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

it was before the establishment of the secret ballot

No, please don't remind people that that wasn't eternal right now.
posted by corb at 1:04 PM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

I say this dispassionately and matter-of-factly: if surrounded, I don't think Steve Bannon will allow LEOs to take him alive.

I think he's more Captain Hadley than Warden Norton. Big tough guy when he's got the stick, then he cries when someone tougher comes along with a bigger stick.
posted by Etrigan at 1:04 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

(Answer: it was before the establishment of the secret ballot, and it was correctly argued that renters would vote as their landlords commanded.)

Anybody who thinks landowners alone should vote is A-OK with the idea that your landlord should get to dictate your vote.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:05 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Every US citizen owns the National Parks. So even by "landowner rights" we are all landowners and have the rights.
posted by Dashy at 1:06 PM on January 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

Partly inspired by you guys (but I've seen this repeatedly) I wrote a thing about pussyhats from a knitter's perspective.
posted by threeturtles at 1:06 PM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

@keithboykin
If your faith allows you to believe that Donald Trump is a God-fearing Christian and Barack Obama wasn't, your faith is white supremacy.
posted by chris24 at 1:06 PM on January 26, 2017 [129 favorites]

So for anyone who knows about this area in general if there is a 20% import tax prices go up how much? I can't remember my this part of my macro-econ classes.
posted by Jalliah at 1:09 PM on January 26, 2017

The media treated the Trump campaign with kid gloves, never pressed them on anything, gave Trump massive amounts of free air time, covered all his rallies....what exactly do they have to complain of?

Their jobs. 1880's John Swifton points out the place of what we today call "Mass Media".

The whip-sawing on things like the 'black sites are back' or 'InfoWars is now White House press' may be in-part an effort to show "Mass Media" is not to be trusted, a failed trial balloon, or even more of Dear Leader playing his version of "to catch a mole" (because he LIKES that game it seems).

With these versions of trial balloons - no 'official' needs to actually stand before the storm holding the balloon to see if they are the path to ground for the lighting bolt.
posted by rough ashlar at 1:09 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Trump administration will publish a weekly list of crimes purportedly committed by undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities.

Incidentally, this is a page straight out of Bannon's editorial playbook at Brietbart, where it features a regular section called "Black Crime" (complete with its own tag).

And, true to Bannon's ugly form, that is a page straight out of the Nazi playbook, e.g. a Nazi paper publishing an article entitled "The Criminal Jew" with photo illustrations of Jewish people who had been arrested for various crimes.

Between Trump's xenophobia and Bannon's antisemitism, White House policy is being Godwinned.
posted by Doktor Zed at 1:12 PM on January 26, 2017 [65 favorites]

It's 2017 on Mefi and I'm here to kick ass and give out favorites. And I'm all out of favorites.

Seriously I'm all out, you guys are crushing it.
posted by supercrayon at 1:14 PM on January 26, 2017 [40 favorites]

If I remember correctly Moses never actually reached the Promised Land. If I (a godless liberal Episcopalian) am correct about this (and I am) and Representative Cole is not then he is never allowed to cite the Bible or religion as an authority again.

Man it's like these guys aren't even reading their Bibles or something....
posted by DynamiteToast at 1:18 PM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

So a badly written group of fascists in tacky outfits have taken over the government and are about to start a trade war...are...are they doing the PREQUELS
posted by Dormant Gorilla at 1:20 PM on January 26, 2017 [36 favorites]

Trip report: I just got an ACLU alert asking us to call on Sessions. I just tried calling Harris and Feinstein, mailboxes were full on 3 of the 4 numbers I tried. Keep up the good work!
posted by entropicamericana at 1:21 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Mr Trump appears to be doing a good job of imploding all on his own. The Democrats may have guessed right that stepping back was the right move.

them sitting around with their thumbs up their butts would actually be an improvement to the current strategy of actively voting in favor of ogres like Pompeo
posted by indubitable at 1:21 PM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

Trump is JarJar then.
posted by emjaybee at 1:21 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Between Trump's xenophobia and Bannon's antisemitism, White House policy is being Godwinned.

Godwinning is inaccurate/hyperbolic accusations of Nazism so maybe let's pack that lil chestnut up and save it for after these garbage people are indicted for treason and we can correctly apply it to silly internet arguments again

So a badly written group of fascists in tacky outfits have taken over the government and are about to start a trade war...are...are they doing the PREQUELS

no Palpatine was initially popular when he took office and implemented his ideas shrewdly and effectively
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:23 PM on January 26, 2017 [16 favorites]

"Mr Trump appears to be doing a good job of imploding all on his own. The Democrats may have guessed right that stepping back was the right move."

Did you copy and paste this from one of the July megathreads?
posted by klarck at 1:23 PM on January 26, 2017 [42 favorites]

Trump is JarJar then.

Sith JarJar? *ducks*
posted by drezdn at 1:24 PM on January 26, 2017

CURRENT MOOD: sitting on my kitchen counter, shoving chocolate chips in my mouth in an attempt to quell the screaming that wants out.
posted by Kitteh at 1:24 PM on January 26, 2017 [27 favorites]

I'm hoping for General Grevious. Completely horrifying in all of the setup stories and massively ineffective once the feature starts.
posted by cmfletcher at 1:25 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Does anyone have a gauge on the Freakout-O-Meter outside of my ever-expanding liberal bubble?

I would assume everyone is lighting their hair on fire like yours truly but I'm not entirely sure.

Any ideas/data?
posted by Tevin at 1:25 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Completely horrifying in all of the setup stories and massively ineffective once the feature starts.

I assume you haven't watched the cartoons?
posted by drezdn at 1:27 PM on January 26, 2017

The flash point is coming and the longer it takes to get there the nastier it's going to be.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:27 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Trump is imploding on his own. He's done. Brb, need to reset the anti-Ravager booby traps on my soup crate
posted by theodolite at 1:28 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Trump is JarJar then.

Per the original writing idea where he's the actual head bad guy behind everything and not the one due to the way he acted in the 1st movie is instead rejected for a greater role in the 2nd movie due to poor ratings and instead welcomes in his buddy as part of the overthrow of the Republic?
posted by rough ashlar at 1:28 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

It is actually very hard to think of a pop culture villain like Trump. Because most pop culture villains tend to at least be clever. King John from Disney's Robin Hood is closest one I've seen.

Should we survive this shitshow, I anticipate many Trumpian villains in our future pop culture. He'll have created a whole new category in TV Tropes.
posted by emjaybee at 1:28 PM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

Soo... no new Executive Orders today then?
posted by rabbitrabbit at 1:28 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Statement of Steven Goldstein, Executive Director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, the U.S. civil and human rights organization among Anne Frank organizations worldwide:

As President Trump prepares orders to wall out Mexicans and shut out refugees from America, today marks one of the most hateful days in our nation's history. Donald Trump is retracting the promise of American freedom to an extent we have not seen from a President since Franklin Roosevelt forced Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II. Today the Statue of Liberty weeps over President Trump's discrimination.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:29 PM on January 26, 2017 [49 favorites]

It is actually very hard to think of a pop culture villain like Trump.

Count Olaf from Lemony Snicket. Joffrey from GOT.
posted by zutalors! at 1:29 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

It is actually very hard to think of a pop culture villain like Trump. Because most pop culture villains tend to at least be clever. King John from Disney's Robin Hood is closest one I've seen.

He's Michael Scott, if Michael had been born to money and never had to develop the rudimentary social skills he needed to survive.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:29 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Massive tax increase

Yep, an incredibly regressive tax increase that will disproportionately affect the poor and the barely-getting-by.

Pitch it that way and a lot of them will like it more
posted by phearlez at 1:31 PM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

It is actually very hard to think of a pop culture villain like Trump.

Uhh
posted by theodolite at 1:31 PM on January 26, 2017 [30 favorites]

Peter Thiel Is Leading The Search For Trump’s Top Antitrust Officials

I think you mean "New Zealand citizen Peter Theil."

New Zealanders are awesome, by the way, but any chance to stress that Theil (Theil Twittler!) just received dual citizenship is worth taking.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:31 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Immortan Joe + Emperor Nero + Joffrey
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:31 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Seen on Twitter: Going to go out on a limb here and say America was greater last week.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 1:32 PM on January 26, 2017 [52 favorites]

In which we discover how Sean Spicer probably tweeted his password (Twitter 2FA is dumb, comes from the same phone number as Twitter SMS, but who the heck responds to the text with their password?)
posted by zachlipton at 1:32 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

he's like that asshole boss on the apprentice, only— ....heeeeeeyyyyy!
posted by entropicamericana at 1:33 PM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

Yeah, I think the reason why I forgot about Biff is that the dark timeline in Back to the Future 2 feels like a best case scenario these days.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:33 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

It's 2017 on Mefi and I'm here to kick ass and give out favorites. And I'm all out of favorites.

Got any evens?
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:33 PM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

“That’s why you have no power,” Mr. Bannon added. “You were humiliated.”

What twisted axe of self-hatred is Bannon grinding? Seriously - what devastating put down did he receive as a child or young adult to be so hell bent on making other people feel shame? It must be driving him nuts that the 'elite media' don't appear to be feeling anything of the sort...
posted by freya_lamb at 1:34 PM on January 26, 2017 [23 favorites]

Al Gore and others will hold climate change summit canceled by CDC

posted by futz at 1:36 PM on January 26, 2017 [61 favorites]

Off topic, but what is it with US Americans and the difference between ie and ei? I keep reading Brietbart, Theil, Feinstien...
do those letter combinations sound the same for you or something?
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:37 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

CBC is pointing out that the 20% tariff on $50bn trade quoted by the WH is nonsense, as the $50bn is the US trade deficit with Mexico. The actual trade figure is over $300bn.

But hey, deficit? Imports? Who could be expected to understand such abstruse elite concepts? Only the failed elite media! Humiliating!

This just adds to the evidence that they really are just doing this themselves and not consulting other people and departments. If they had consulted something this obvious to a person who understand trade would have been caught. I can easily see layperson making a mistake like this and not understanding quite how it all works.
posted by Jalliah at 1:37 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Noted American Neuroscientist (and YidLife Crisis star -- not to mention MacGyver) Blossom also considering registering as Muslim in protest.
posted by Buntix at 1:38 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

@cameronesposito

build 👏 the 👏 wall

build 👏 3 👏 more 👏 walls

add 👏 a 👏 roof

look, it's a planned parenthood 😎
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:38 PM on January 26, 2017 [34 favorites]

The 20% import tariff is already being rolled back errr was just one of the options.
posted by cmfletcher at 1:38 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Now, the correct solution is an information campaign and some better way of dealing with it. But is that what Trump is going to do?

My expectation is that a national cross-check (find similar names registered to vote in multiple states then invalidate their registration without properly validating results) campaign will be a major part of it, which historically has led to vote suppression of mostly Democrat-leaning voters on a much larger scale than has been recognized, followed by a push for a nationalism-fueled national strong ID voting "reform," also one of the more effective Democrat vote suppression schemes. Use one to sell the other & simply redefine "citizen" to favor them on a grand scale.
posted by scalefree at 1:39 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

After wasting entirely too much of the day arguing on Facebook, I have shocking news to report: Robert Byrd, who supported Hillary Clinton, was at one point a racist.

The next time this comes up, I'm pointing out that everyone who has ever endorsed Donald Trump was once a baby, and would you trust any candidate whose only endorsements came from babies? No, of course not, that would be unreasonable.
posted by compartment at 1:39 PM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

Now Spicer is backing off the 20% tariff plan, saying it's just an example of how they could pay for the wall and not an actual policy proposal.

For comparison, here's Spicer's own words from a few hours ago, where he describes it as "the plan that is taking shape now."
posted by zachlipton at 1:40 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

> The 20% import tariff is already being rolled back errr was just one of the options.

Was this a setup?
posted by guiseroom at 1:40 PM on January 26, 2017

I'm FB-arguing with someone who thinks that only land-owners should have the right to vote

Because that's how you get open rebellion.
posted by Slap*Happy at 1:41 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Well, the anti-free trade people should be happy. They're going to have to pay higher prices for certain goods. I guess they can always choose American products instead... if such products are actually produced in the US.

It seems unlikely US companies are going to totally rework their logistics networks and spend big $$$ move parts factories to accommodate Trump, whose merry gang of idiots will be long gone in a couple of years.
posted by My Dad at 1:41 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Trump's Basis For Voter Fraud Paranoia? 'Look At What Is Registering'

"We also need to keep the ballot box safe from illegal voting," Trump said. "Believe me, you take look at what is registering, folks -- they like to say, Oh, Trump Trump Trump... take a look at what is registering.'"

so much wrong in that comment.
posted by futz at 1:41 PM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

There have been a lot of Muslim Americans talking about how "joining" a Muslim registry is not a thing people will be able to just do, so I'm taking all this "SIGN ME UP!!!"-ness with some side-eye.
posted by erratic meatsack at 1:42 PM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

I hate Bannon I hate him I hate him I hate him so much I hate him more than I ever thought it would be possible to hate a person I have not met I hate him with the wild-eyed furor of someone whose head is on fire and I NEED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT or I may genuinely go mad.

Somebody tell me something I can do that will directly target Bannon. Like just personally dig at him and pester him and bother him and make his life ever so slightly worse and satisfy this itchy hatred. Is he on any kind of social media or accessible to me in any way? I would send postcards with mean writing on them if I had his address, or call and hang up on him if he had a phone number. I want to spend a few minutes of every day harming him personally in some small but satisfying way. This is purely for my own pleasure. I promise that I will not allow this to eat into my actually productive activism time. Somebody give me some ideas.

Also if anyone knows anywhere he is guaranteed to be I will show up and yell at him.
posted by pretentious illiterate at 1:42 PM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

Does anyone have a gauge on the Freakout-O-Meter outside of my ever-expanding liberal bubble?

The disconnected and not giving a fuck are still not giving a fuck.

Like Nixon having a (15%? 18% approval rating on his way out the door) there is a base that will always be a true believer. Say 20% as a baseline for the ha-ha's.

The comments about Iraq have not been covered by the 'don't like the Bush/Obama war VS terror/oil' crowd who felt Trump was a better choice VS other options in November. So far - the Iraq comment(s) have not "blown up" for that echo chamber to place their concerns about the WoT to be greater than the pro-Trump position.

For Dear Leader to have the massive cuts he claims to want, he's gonna have to hit the Military - and the complex Ike was worried about won't be happy with such cutting. That is when the worm will turn.
posted by rough ashlar at 1:44 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

you take look at what is registering

"what" and not "who"

his mind is incapable of assigning actual legitimate humanity to people who aren't white
posted by poffin boffin at 1:44 PM on January 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

New Time cover: it's a pussyhat ya'll.
posted by emjaybee at 1:44 PM on January 26, 2017 [59 favorites]

Bannon's just most elected Republicans minus the mask or the understanding of why the mask is being worn. He'll get far less resistance from Congress than we might think.

This is true. He's a perfect distillation of the base, and the GOP is terrified of their base.
posted by joedan at 1:45 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Was it a set-up!

That or it was announced and people that have a clue freaked the fuck out. I can't see a lot of big business corps happy about it.
How much of Walmarts goods come from Mexico for instance? No idea but if enough does I could see companies like them not being happy with such a big tax.
posted by Jalliah at 1:45 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Does anyone have a gauge on the Freakout-O-Meter outside of my ever-expanding liberal bubble?

Sorry, but it is mostly business-as-usual, at least in my circles. Here are a few data points from my friends and family:
1) Moderate, "Low-Information" Republicans: Worried about Trump, especially on trade and foreign policy, and getting more worried. But cautiously optimistic that maybe it won't be so bad, just him being incompetent.
2) Extreme Conservative: Never wanted Trump, but still thinks he's "better than the alternative." Likes several of the cabinet nominees. Generally not too concerned.
3) Non-Political Person Who Didn't Vote: Vaguely worried, but has more immediate day-to-day life worries. Still non-political and more concerned about local circle of influence.
4) Non-Political Person Who Voted Very Reluctantly For Clinton: Upset, but I wouldn't say "hair on fire" level of worry.
5) Political Wannabe Republican: "A little crazy, but exciting times!"
posted by alligatorpear at 1:45 PM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

"exciting times!"

Fuck that guy in particular.
posted by Artw at 1:47 PM on January 26, 2017 [30 favorites]

The approval rating for Trump is 81% among Republicans. Yes, Virginia, this is their god.
posted by gofargogo at 1:47 PM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

Is Lindsey Graham OK? I'm kind of of worried for him.
posted by pxe2000 at 1:48 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Border security yes, tariffs no. Mexico is 3rd largest trading partner. Any tariff we can levy they can levy. Huge barrier to econ growth /1
Simply put, any policy proposal which drives up costs of Corona, tequila, or margaritas is a big-time bad idea. Mucho Sad. (2)

--@LindseyGrahamSC

I...what?
posted by zachlipton at 1:48 PM on January 26, 2017 [36 favorites]

The ACLU's call to action on Sessions (mentioned above) is not just asking us to tell our Senators to oppose him. They want us to tell our senators to refuse to vote on his confirmation at all until he is given another hearing, and asked about his role in crafting the recently announced executive orders on refugees and immigration.

Sessions was a key advisor on Trump's recent executive orders that violate the civil rights and liberties of Muslim refugees, immigrants, people with disabilities, and LGBT people. The Senate and the American public need answers – we need the committee to ask him about his positions. Refuse to vote on confirmation until we get these answers at a second hearing.

That link has a tool which connects you to the appropriate number for your senator (if they are on the judiciary committee) or to ranking member Dianne Feinstein if you do not live in a state represented on the judiciary committee. They are asking that we call NOW.

For your convenience, here's a list of the senators on the committee:

Chuck Grassley, Iowa, Chairman; Orrin Hatch, Utah; Lindsey Graham, South Carolina; John Cornyn, Texas; Mike Lee, Utah; Ted Cruz, Texas; Ben Sasse, Nebraska; Jeff Flake, Arizona; Mike Crapo, Idaho; Thom Tillis, North Carolina; John Neely Kennedy, Louisiana; Dianne Feinstein, California, Ranking Member; Patrick Leahy, Vermont; Dick Durbin, Illinois; Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island; Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota; Al Franken, Minnesota; Chris Coons, Delaware; Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut; Mazie Hirono, Hawaii
posted by OnceUponATime at 1:49 PM on January 26, 2017 [27 favorites]

Like how can Lindsey Graham be so right on the broad concept yet oh so horribly wrong?
posted by zachlipton at 1:49 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

"A little crazy, but exciting times!"

Must be nice to be that privileged.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:50 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Border security yes, tariffs no. Mexico is 3rd largest trading partner. Any tariff we can levy they can levy. Huge barrier to econ growth /1
Simply put, any policy proposal which drives up costs of Corona, tequila, or margaritas is a big-time bad idea. Mucho Sad. (2)
--@LindseyGrahamSC

I...what?

I guess maybe it was some actual Republicans that freaked out about the 20% announcement.
posted by Jalliah at 1:51 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Robert Byrd, who supported Hillary Clinton, was at one point a racist.

Racism ended 50 years ago with the CRA according to these people, but Byrd's racism, recanted and repented for, will never die.
posted by chris24 at 1:51 PM on January 26, 2017 [30 favorites]

@FabricePothier: DC sources say that Trump admin has an executive order ready to lift Russia sanctions. @POTUS to talk to Merkel and then Putin on Saturday

I hope somebody is going to be watching the activity on that Alfa Bank account...
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:51 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Like how can Lindsey Graham be so right on the broad concept yet oh so horribly wrong?

He has talent!
posted by Jalliah at 1:52 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Like how can Lindsey Graham be so right on the broad concept yet oh so horribly wrong?

Stopped clock and all that.

After signing on to the Patient Freedom (to die in the street) Act he's not my favourite person right now, white knight with an R on his chest or not.
posted by Talez at 1:53 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Is Lindsey Graham OK? I'm kind of of worried for him.

His social media manager is doing an excellent job of distracting people from his votes to confirm all of Trump's nominees.
posted by jedicus at 1:54 PM on January 26, 2017 [19 favorites]

Mucho Sad.

So he points out that Mexico is our 3rd largest trading partner, then trivializes our economic relationship by making a joke about booze. WHAT ABOUT TACO BOWLS? ¡Mucho Sad!
posted by peeedro at 1:55 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

soren_lorensen: I'm FB-arguing with someone who thinks that only land-owners should have the right to vote. Save me.

So more votes for banks? How many people really "own" their land or home any more?
posted by filthy light thief at 1:55 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

So bigotry is cool as long as it doesn't put a strain on happy hour.
posted by cmfletcher at 1:57 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

20% tax on Mexican imports is NOT a policy proposal, but example of options how to pay for wall.

Isn't this an example of how Americans could pay for the wall? I mean it's going to fall on American consumers, not the Mexican government to pay this tax. Sure Mexican businesses would sell less and lose money, but it's not like their lost revenues would go into the pockets of the US government. It's like they think the primary purpose would be for Mexico to lose money, not for the US to receive money. Ditto a tax on remittances, which would again be paid by Americans, not Mexico.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 1:57 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

So he points out that Mexico is our 3rd largest trading partner, then trivializes our economic relationship by making a joke about booze. WHAT ABOUT TACO BOWLS? ¡Mucho Sad!

Doesn't even know when to use muy instead of mucho!

Muy triste!
posted by Talez at 1:59 PM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

Brilliant rhetorical move by Kenney turning Trump's attack on the citizens of Philadelphia into an attack on the citizens and the police.
posted by tonycpsu at 2:02 PM on January 26, 2017 [26 favorites]

Isn't this an example of how Americans could pay for the wall?

"There will be a payment. It will be in a form, perhaps a complicated form"

Nah, it's Mexico paying. It's just..complicated. /hamburger
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 2:02 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

There have been a lot of Muslim Americans talking about how "joining" a Muslim registry is not a thing people will be able to just do

Yeah, every time I hear about Silicon Valley types signing a "pledge" to "not build a Muslim registry" I feel like screaming, "YOU ALREADY BUILT IT, YOU SMUG ASSHOLES! YOU BUILT THE LARGEST SURVEILLANCE APPARATUS THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN!" [I'm not a Muslim, though]
posted by indubitable at 2:03 PM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

Isn't this an example of how Americans could pay for the wall?

I would like to point you to the last 12 months of Trump's statements as support for my position that trying to talk about how protectionism and tariffs really work is never ever ever going to get through to his supporters.
posted by phearlez at 2:03 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

I bet that Chinese officials know that Mexico makes a lot of cars and computers, not just Corona and tequila.
posted by zachlipton at 2:04 PM on January 26, 2017 [18 favorites]

I'd really like whatever Canadian economist they dredged up on the CBC Ottawa drive home program to stop stressing, "Well, if Mexico's relations remain strained with the new president, this could be a prime moment for Canada to step up our trade with the US! It could benefit us immensely."

Or, y'know, we could say, "Yeah, I'm with Mexico. Shove off."

(i know we won't so don't start)
posted by Kitteh at 2:06 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Found the loophole!
posted by jason_steakums at 2:06 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

@douglasmack
Hey so remember last April, when the Boston Globe published this “if he wins” front page as satire/warning?

Yeah.
[image]
posted by chris24 at 2:07 PM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

I bet Chinese officials have already sent out feelers to all the trade partners Trump is currently telling to go get bent.
This fucking guy. He's janking one way, the rest of the world is going the other and they don't have to follow our lead anymore.

I just checked and Mexico has already had a meeting with China where they officially pledged they were going to find ways to deepen ties and move away from being totally US dependent. They had the first meeting right after Trump was elected.
posted by Jalliah at 2:09 PM on January 26, 2017 [32 favorites]

How many of you wanna bet that the second Peña-Nieto announced that the meeting was off, that Chinese officials picked up the phone and called him? There's a big opportunity coming for nations to diminish US influence.

Jesus, I sure hope so. There are inflationary signs everywhere, including basic foodstuffs such as tortillas. Our savings lost 14.1% of their value since Trump won. And it's clear that large businesses are holding on investing, cutting costs everywhere until things get sorted out. That means more unemployment, fewer business opportunities, and slower growth for the economy. We're feeling the orange one's temper tantrum loud and clear down here. 23 years of building a relationship down the drain in a matter of days.
posted by Omon Ra at 2:11 PM on January 26, 2017 [18 favorites]

> @NormEisen1/ WARNING: Mr. Pres. your Muslim ban excludes countries where you have business interests.That is a CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATION.See u in court

Trump’s Immigration Ban Excludes Countries With Business Ties
posted by homunculus at 2:11 PM on January 26, 2017 [20 favorites]

Simply put, any policy proposal which drives up costs of Corona, tequila, or margaritas is a big-time bad idea. Mucho Sad. (2)
--@LindseyGrahamSC

This is exactly how you communicate economic policy implications to people who don't care to learn about economics.
posted by srboisvert at 2:12 PM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

Doesn't even know when to use muy instead of mucho!

He represents the state with South of the Border, so, um.

I bet that Chinese officials know that Mexico makes a lot of cars and computers, not just Corona and tequila.

As Maura Johnston noted on the twitters, there's a strand of middle-aged conservative-ish music that celebrates Mexico as a place of easy escape -- the Jimmy Buffett / Kenny Chesney thing. It's a weird cultural collision where people will gladly take cheap holidays in Cancun and drink quart-sized margaritas at home, then spout shit about brown hordes pouring over the border.
posted by holgate at 2:15 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

I guess it's a good thing we're scrapping NAFTA and its associated Most Favoured Nation provisions, right?
posted by Talez at 2:16 PM on January 26, 2017

There have been a lot of Muslim Americans talking about how "joining" a Muslim registry is not a thing people will be able to just do
Yeah, every time I hear about Silicon Valley types signing a "pledge" to "not build a Muslim registry" I feel like screaming, "YOU ALREADY BUILT IT, YOU SMUG ASSHOLES! YOU BUILT THE LARGEST SURVEILLANCE APPARATUS THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN!" [I'm not a Muslim, though]
Isn't the so-called registry just a harvest of the religion setting in Facebook?
posted by ZeusHumms at 2:17 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

This is exactly how you communicate economic policy implications to people who don't care to learn about economics.

With, you know, a side of casual racism.
posted by zachlipton at 2:19 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Isn't the so-called registry just a harvest of the religion setting in Facebook?

That setting is optional. My FB has no identification info in it except my birthday.
posted by Jalliah at 2:19 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Anyway, as trial balloons go, that was hindenburg.jpg.

(Can we even talk about trial balloons any more, when it was probably somebody else becoming "last person he spoke to"?)
posted by holgate at 2:19 PM on January 26, 2017

Looks to be a good couple years for Airbus, Embraer, and Bombardier.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:19 PM on January 26, 2017

So now the voter fraud executive order signing has been abruptly cancelled (or perhaps postponed indefinitely). Who knows who's fighting with who now, but I'm sure it will all get leaked soon enough.
posted by zachlipton at 2:20 PM on January 26, 2017 [27 favorites]

A poll that affordable healthcare is winning.

@VicenteFoxQue
@realDonaldTrump's ego monument real cost is around 25 billion USD. I ask you, America, what would you prefer instead of that #FuckingWall?
posted by chris24 at 2:20 PM on January 26, 2017 [80 favorites]

So now the voter fraud executive order signing has been abruptly cancelled (or perhaps postponed indefinitely).

What a dump.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:21 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

A post from Pantsuit Nation:

A VIEW FROM THE INSIDE OF THE OTHER SIDE
Last night I attended a Pro-President T meeting. My summary will be a bit long, however, I want to pass on what we learned,

In the art of war it is always advised to know what your enemy is doing, that is why there are spies. Two of the groups I’m involved with have a committee that is subscribed to T supporters newsletters, are members of various FB groups (with specially created profiles) and are on his mailing list for updates.

Last night 3 of us went to a group meeting. Two women and one man. What we saw and heard was both scary and informative.

The meeting was led by 5 men and we counted approximately 70 people in the room including us. We counted 13 women.

They started the meeting with a pledge of allegiance to the flag. Then they jumped into discussions, the first being the Marches. It was a lot of WTF and why don’t they just shut up. They discussed the report that there were no arrests so that meant that the police and the media were lying. The leader(s) then gave them an “action item” to find anything to dispute the no arrests report and to put pressure on the police to arrest protestors. Several people in the group admitted to being at the March to try to interfere, but felt they were bullied by the Marchers and had to stop “for their own safety” (actual quote). They questioned why so many people “got away with it” (Marching). It seemed to be a hot point with them.

The moved on to reports from the teams. They have teams and committees with specific tasks, ie: daily phone calls and collect tally’s of who makes phone calls to their Reps. It appears they call throughout the day, and each call is either a different issue or their personal favorite.
They have a team who monitor the public blogs and event postings of the Liberal groups (specifically mentioned Indivisible and MoveOn.) They laughed at the Indivisible Guide when one leader said “the Liberals will never get organized and carry any of this out, the snowflakes give up too easily, a little heat and they melt”. They talked about the “visit your representatives office event” that was planned for earlier in the day which was posted on MoveOn and all over FB. They also were at their reps offices, and a handful admitted to going to the Democratic representatives office in their own district to have their voice counted.
They have a team who spies on FB posts. When the man who was with us asked how to do it, he was told that if he was a member of Pantsuit Nation it’s almost an automatic in into most closed groups, and then once you are in one, you can get invited to others. Someone on their team joins all the public and open groups. Their report included reading a few actual posts, in a mimic whining voice, where the members were posting their concerns and frustrations and why bother. They actually cheered this. One leader applauded the report and said, “we don’t care if they like what we have to say, we don’t need them to agree with us. We just need them to give up, shut up and stay out of our way.”

They discussed some of the issues and the recent signed orders from the WH. Some of this discussion sounded intelligent, as if they had researched not only the issue, but how to present it to get the buy-in from the group. It felt to us like a persuasion/programming tactic.
They broke into their teams and anyone not on a team was asked to choose one to sit in on. We each went to a different team. Each team talked about their mission and their strategy. The phone team assigned times for each phone call and a number to text after you called. They practiced scripts. The Anti-Abortion team talked about how to plan protests at PP and other clinics, to find the names of Doctors who perform abortions and out them by protesting at their offices and clinics. The communications team discussed the content of their newsletter, the content they were borrowing from other newsletters and articles from Briebart that they wanted to circulate. We didn’t get the names of the other teams that we didn’t sit in on but there were 4 others.

We found out that this group used to be a young republican group and after the election and seeing the actions of the Liberals, they changed to a support T group to stand up for him and against Liberals.

I don’t believe all groups are this scary, however, they appear to be organized. One of the members in one of my groups, changed her registration to Republican so she could see what they do from the inside. She gets phone calls from a phone bank,sometimes several times a week, about issues and actions she should take, she gets their weekly newsletter and she attended a local Rep meeting. Her report is similar only in that they are very organized, take daily actions and communicate often.

So knowing this, what do we do?
Our recommendations:

1.) Don’t give up.

2.) If you Marched, email your local police to write a thank you for their part in keeping the peace.

3.) Get organized. Even if you are not with an organized local group, you can organize yourself. Set aside certain times for certain actions based on what you CAN do. We are all under time constraints and work/family/life commitments, however, find what time you CAN give. **We have found that being with an organized local group that you can see and touch helps us to stay focused and feeling our strength.

4.) Determine what actions you CAN take – when and how many phone calls, emails, visits, protests CAN you do. Focus on that.

5.) Limit your time reading all the comments on FB. Too many can become overwhelming and can end up feeling like you are carrying a larger burden.

6.) Find and cross post the good results that are happening, so we can all see the progress. It may be small steps like the postponement of a cabinet position approval/rejection, however, every step counts. If you have ever attempted to lose weight, you remember how some days feel like nothing is happening, and then little by little the results start to appear. Whatever goal you have reached in little steps, remember the little steps got the momentum started. Stay strong.

7.) Find support when you need it. It’s been shown that if you vent to someone who is also venting, you both stay in the same spot. If you can vent to someone who will HEAR you without judgement and without chiming in, you can both get through it faster and back to feeling stronger. If you both need to vent, take turns; 2 minutes each venting and really HEAR each other, then switch places. When the venting is done, take a positive action.

8.) Take a break. Do something positive for yourself every day (more a few times during the day if you need it) that doesn’t include thinking about politics – exercise, spas, reading a good book, writing a love letter. Find something that bring you joy and shifts your energy.

9.) Don’t give up. We are Stronger Together.

The opposition may believe that a snowflake is fragile when the heat is on, however, although the snowflakes may melt, enough heat can also cause a boil. Together, we can be an avalanche, and if we can focus our boiling angry energy we can be the heat that they fear.
posted by emjaybee at 2:21 PM on January 26, 2017 [109 favorites]

Mucho respeto, Señor presidente!
posted by Talez at 2:22 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Things I didn't think I'd spend 2017 writing:

Fuck you Nazi.
Fuck this Nazi.
Go fuck yourself Nazi.
Why is the president being advised by a fucking Nazi.
Punch this fucking Nazi.
It's ok to punch fucking Nazis.
Punch this fucking Nazi again.
Have you seen this fucking Nazi getting punched remixed to Blue Monday?
That frog is a fucking Nazi.
Get that fucking Nazi off tv.
Get that fucking Nazi off my planet.
Get that fucking Nazi out of the White House.
posted by supercrayon at 2:22 PM on January 26, 2017 [47 favorites]

the rest of the world is going the other and they don't have to follow our lead anymore.

When the 'rest of the world' stops using the US Dollar as the way to settle debts or becomes as useful as the Continental for settling trade debts, I'm sure the need to export something useful will put a yuge amount of Americans back to work.
posted by rough ashlar at 2:22 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Vox.com: Trump starts from the premise that he's popular and then believes any theory that proves it

President Trump’s Wednesday night interview with ABC’s David Muir suggested a very simple explanation of why he continues to make outrageous and false claims about voter fraud and crowd sizes: motivated reasoning.

This is the lens through which Trump’s repeated, easily disproven claims make sense. Trump believes that he’s a popular president, swept into office in a popular uprising, with a strong mandate. He starts with that belief and works backward. He fabricates claims to support it. If some of the fabricated evidence falls short — by, say, implying that he was elected in a corrupt election defined by copious voter fraud — he just shifts the fabricated evidence so it serves its intended purpose again.

Psychologists call this phenomenon “motivated reasoning,” and it’s incredibly common. But we’re only now starting to see just how destructive having someone who engages in it constantly in the White House can be.

This seems familiar. Would be an interesting angle to confront with. Common behavior, pursued with uncommon intensity and destructiveness.
posted by ZeusHumms at 2:22 PM on January 26, 2017 [22 favorites]

In Iraq, America’s Allies — and Its Enemies – Are Nervously Waiting for Donald Trump’s First Move
posted by Artw at 2:25 PM on January 26, 2017

Isn't the so-called registry just a harvest of the religion setting in Facebook?

The GPS and location data of your cell phone will do just fine comrade.
posted by rough ashlar at 2:25 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

When the 'rest of the world' stops using the US Dollar as the way to settle debts or becomes as useful as the Continental for settling trade debts, I'm sure the need to export something useful will put a yuge amount of Americans back to work.

When minimum wage is the equivalent of two yuan a day I'm sure our exports will be highly competitive!
posted by Talez at 2:26 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

I know this has been said before but let me add one to the chorus: Thank you so much for these threads and for everyone being so awesome and sharing in the terror together. I feel like a fucking crazy person at work sitting in meetings while people are talking about things like "clients!" and "projects!" and I just see their mouths moving in word-shapes while I'm screaming in my head YOU ALL REALIZE THAT OUR DEMOCRACY IS BASICALLY MELTING RIGHT? HOW ARE YOU IGNORING THE SLOW MOTION TRAIN WRECK OUT THERE AND FUNCTIONING. I need to get better at compartmentalizing but in the meantime, this place may as well be a full-on support group. Thank you to all involved.
posted by windbox at 2:28 PM on January 26, 2017 [61 favorites]

Floridians.

Fearing a loss of millions of dollars for defying immigration authorities, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez on Thursday ordered county jails to comply with federal immigration detention requests — effectively gutting the county’s position as an immigrant “sanctuary.”
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:33 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Hey look, in this timeline we're the bad guys.

@HeerJeet
USA/UK/Russia v. Germany. Like the world wars but with moral valance reversed.
posted by chris24 at 2:36 PM on January 26, 2017 [26 favorites]

Sanctuary Cities aren't just sanctuary cities out of the goodness of their hearts, either. It's actually really fucking hard to get any sort of legitimate policing done if your cities' residents won't even report a crime for fear of being deported.
posted by dinty_moore at 2:37 PM on January 26, 2017 [47 favorites]

"The media here is the opposition party... they were outright activists of the Clinton campaign.”

Odd that the media wouldn't side with the candidate that put them in fenced areas and berated them in front of angry crowds.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 2:40 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Democrats launch scorched-earth strategy against Trump

What began as a high-minded discussion about how to position the Democratic Party against President Donald Trump appears to be nearing its conclusion. The bulk of the party has settled on a scorched-earth, not-now-not-ever model of opposition.

I'm waiting to actually see this opposition in action, because it sure has hell hasn't manifested itself so far, but hey, welcome the Party to the party.
posted by zachlipton at 2:40 PM on January 26, 2017 [59 favorites]

WHAT ABOUT TACO BOWLS? ¡Mucho Sad!

Yes. Yes they are.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:41 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I'm not sure my definition of scorched earth and theirs hold together.
posted by corb at 2:41 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

I'll believe it when I see the votes.
posted by phearlez at 2:43 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Looks more like sous-vide to me.
posted by tonycpsu at 2:43 PM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

Isn't the so-called registry just a harvest of the religion setting in Facebook?

That setting is optional.

Many devout people use it, however. This atheist set his to "Muslim" a couple of months ago just to dilute the dataset. I hope lots of people do it.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:44 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Seems more like a lightly toasted-earth strategy—would you care for butter or jam?
posted by guiseroom at 2:45 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Seems more like a lightly toasted-earth strategy—would you care for butter or jam?"

How about some strawberry cream cheese? Is that an option?
posted by azpenguin at 2:47 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

delete Facebook, irl activist up, hit Nazis
posted by cmfletcher at 2:49 PM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

What really gets me is that there are a ton of arguments that can be made against pretty much everything that Trump has been doing that don't require the audience to be a decent human being that cares about other humans, but because the issues have become so politicized, they just don't fly.

I mean. . . Sanctuary cities lead to a lower crime rate! Illegal immigration props up our stupidly cheap agriculture sector! Tariffs hurt the middle class! DAPL creates like 50 full time jobs and was conceived of when we had much higher oil prices than we do now, so the banks have a really good reason to walk away! The ACA lowers everybody's premiums!
posted by dinty_moore at 2:53 PM on January 26, 2017 [29 favorites]

Russia is robably going to use their new leverage to push for higher oil prices, mind.
posted by Artw at 2:56 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Suddenly that 6 month lighthouse caretaker position in Tasmania is looking real good right now. Sigh.
posted by Kitteh at 2:58 PM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

Can someone who understands these things and follows them explain what the Democrats strategy is as the opposition party?
posted by cell divide at 3:00 PM on January 26, 2017

The library is looking really useful at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
posted by meech at 3:01 PM on January 26, 2017

@jakebeckman - someone should just start running for president like immediately. trump wouldn’t be able to resist campaigning again. agenda would stall
posted by DynamiteToast at 3:01 PM on January 26, 2017 [68 favorites]

Can someone who understands these things and follows them explain what the Democrats strategy is as the opposition party?

Mostly the denial and bargaining stages. Waiting on acceptance.
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:02 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Can someone who understands these things and follows them explain what the Democrats strategy is as the opposition party?

From what I can tell, it's 'make grand speeches and then vote for them anyway'. I think they might be able to learn, though. They seemed surprised that people are actually paying attention to how they vote.
posted by dinty_moore at 3:02 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

How does a hiring freeze jive with hiring 10,000 more immigration officers?

In Trump's own words, to the victor goes the spoils. The Border Patrol's union supported Trump in the election and we know how his narcissism works. Also in the news is that the head of the Border Patrol stepped down today after clashing with the Border Patrol's union. The union, in a Brietbart op-ed, called him a "disgrace" for supporting comprehensive immigration reform and criticized him as an outsider, his previous post was the internal affairs office at Customs and Border Protection and he was sent in to reform Border Patrol's insular culture.

The Border Patrol is a corrupt and dysfunctional law enforcement organization suffering from serious problems:

The Border Patrol particularly suffered during that decade of well-intentioned but badly executed growth. It’s long occupied a strange middle ground between a police force and a military one, and that tension has been exacerbated by its rapid growth and militarization since 9/11. In recent years, numerous watchdogs, both inside and outside the government, have accused agents of excessive force and questionable shootings; one internal report found that Border Patrol agents often fired their guns out of “frustration”(pdf) rather than fear.

CBP’s problems, meanwhile, don’t stop at the Border Patrol; the agency remains beset by an insular culture as well as endemic and systemic corruption, nearly a decade after its massive Bush-era hiring surge brought tens of thousands of new hires into the agency without adequate hiring or security oversight. Those problems were compounded by a revolving door atop CBP, as various controversies and the slow pace of Senate confirmation left the agency adrift through much of the Obama administration. Kerlikowske became Obama’s first Senate-confirmed CBP commissioner five years into the administration.

The problems by that point were all too clear: From 2005 to 2012, one CBP officer or agent was arrested almost every single day for crimes that ranged from DUI and domestic violence to drug smuggling and rape. In fact, the head of the DHS office in charge of investigating CBP misconduct in the Rio Grande Valley was, along with another agent, indicted himself in 2013, in part because the office was so overwhelmed by corruption cases that they started falsifying records. Nationally, CBP’s problems were so deep that, according to two top CBP officials, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano’s office ordered the agency to redefine “corruption” in order to lower the numbers of misconduct cases being reported to Congress.

Law enforcement hiring sprees rarely go well, 10,000 more agents is the last thing they need right now.
posted by peeedro at 3:02 PM on January 26, 2017 [39 favorites]

They won't be hiring law enforcement officers, but deportation stormtroopers for house to house raids. Trump's brownshirts will start at the border patrol, and expand from there.
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:05 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

someone should just start running for president like immediately. trump wouldn’t be able to resist campaigning again. agenda would stall

Nah, because then the disinformation machine can just get to work demonizing that would-be opponent, with the goal of making Trump look "Reasonable" in comparison with their ridiculous caricature of whoever it is. They can convince people that $Democrat eats baby brains with a spoon every day, and Trump's not so bad compared to that, right?

With no meaningful opposition at the moment, Trump gets a chance to be judged on his own "merits."
posted by OnceUponATime at 3:09 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Hey, in happier news, the (#1 Best Seller) John Lewis March Trilogy is back in stock on Amazon and my order finally shipped. I'm looking forward to getting more informed about what marching accomplishes, since apparently a lot of people I know think the answer is "nothing" and/or "property damage".
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 3:09 PM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

Things I didn't think I'd spend 2017 writing:

I've experienced a thing recently where I've been making a conscious effort to be more strict about comparisons to nazis, something I may have been over free with previously, and yet have found myself using the term multiple times per day often with its most literal meaning.
posted by Artw at 3:10 PM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

Also, in my last phone call with Klobuchar's office, I was pretty aggressive with comparing her votes to Gillibrand's in particular. It did feel a little two close to pitting two women against each other for my comfort, but both are up for reelection in 2018, and if Klobuchar has any intention to run for President in 2020, this has to be on her mind.
posted by dinty_moore at 3:12 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

They seemed surprised that people are actually paying attention to how they vote.

Yeah, I do get the distinct feeling of surprise. It's like when there's not been a boss in the office for a while and you show up as the new boss and start asking uncomfortable questions about hours and productivity and whatever happened to that one project that you guys were on? And what do you do exactly?

So we're kind of like the Bobs but not in an evil way. And if it makes our Dems hustle more and our Republicans hide, then that's clearly what we need to do.
posted by emjaybee at 3:12 PM on January 26, 2017 [16 favorites]

So what are the odds on Trump bringing back the old Nixon-era "Palace Guard" uniforms? Sets just the right tone of fascist kitsch. Everything old is new again!
posted by informavore at 3:13 PM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

Border patrol you say?
posted by valkane at 3:14 PM on January 26, 2017

I've experienced a thing recently where I've been making a conscious effort to be more strict about comparisons to nazis

Could mix in some tyrants of Rome comparisons: Commodus has as similarly scatalogical a name as Trump, if nothing else...
posted by Buntix at 3:16 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Nah, because then the disinformation machine can just get to work demonizing that would-be opponent, with the goal of making Trump look "Reasonable" in comparison with their ridiculous caricature of whoever it is. They can convince people that $Democrat eats baby brains with a spoon every day, and Trump's not so bad compared to that, right?

Yeah, I think this has been the Democrats' thinking, although clearly it hasn't been popular with the peanut gallery.
posted by notyou at 3:17 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

> So what are the odds on Trump bringing back the old Nixon-era "Palace Guard" uniforms? Sets just the right tone of fascist kitsch. Everything old is new again!

LOL. "However, the uniforms weren't thrown out. They sat in storage for a decade, and in 1980 they were sold to the Meriden-Cleghorn High School Marching Band in Iowa."
posted by christopherious at 3:17 PM on January 26, 2017 [23 favorites]

Can someone who understands these things and follows them explain what the Democrats strategy is as the opposition party?

There isn't one

But then they've only had since November 9th, and they're not, like, The Flash
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:18 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Just called my senators. Feinstein's mailbox was full (I assume so, anyway - it gave me a recorded message before disconnecting) but someone picked up at Harris' LA office. The staffer who answered said that Harris was already planning to vote No on Sessions and that she would communicate my opposition to DeVos. (My anxiety got the better of me before I could go through the rest of the cabinet nom list, but based on the hearing/vote schedule I figure I can just keep calling and work my way through?)
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 3:20 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Can someone who understands these things and follows them explain what the Democrats strategy is as the opposition party

As we speak Chuck Schumer is hard at work recruiting some "former" Republicans to run in 2018 and fundraising for his 2022 reelection campaign. Don't worry, Chuck has this all covered.
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:24 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

someone should just start running for president like immediately. trump wouldn’t be able to resist campaigning again. agenda would stall

That would actually just play into Trump's hands. At this point he's just running an eternal campaign. more rallies, more speeches with no q&a, more empty promises that he has little intention of keeping. There's a lot of parallels to these days and the way that the Bolsheviks took power where, rather than work on establishing any kind of popular mandate, they just focused all of their efforts on demonizing their enemies.
posted by bl1nk at 3:25 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

In which Trump doesn't bother to mute the TV when being filmed and photographed on the occasion of his first AF1 ride.
posted by zachlipton at 3:25 PM on January 26, 2017 [34 favorites]

Much shade in this NYT piece on the congressional GOP, but this packs a huge amount into one sentence:

“I think you can move from real to bizarre if you don’t watch out,” said Mr. Sanford, who was his state’s governor when he famously disappeared to Argentina to pursue an extramarital affair.

posted by holgate at 3:26 PM on January 26, 2017 [16 favorites]

Jake Tapper (video): Reminder that the president's top aide just told NYT that the press should keep its mouth shut. No.
posted by zachlipton at 3:29 PM on January 26, 2017 [30 favorites]

In which Trump doesn't bother to mute the TV when being filmed and photographed on the occasion of his first AF1 ride.

Grandpa needs his stories.
posted by Artw at 3:33 PM on January 26, 2017 [22 favorites]

My mantra for the Trump presidency: ‪eat, sleep, resist, repeat.‬ ‪eat, sleep, resist, repeat.‬ ‪eat, sleep, resist, repeat.‬

Plus I got my favorites brace yourselves. 👏
posted by supercrayon at 3:36 PM on January 26, 2017 [21 favorites]

Forty years from now Mike Godwin III will put out a maxim about how all arguments degenerate into Trump.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 3:42 PM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

Remember what I said abut sabotaging Obamacare so they'll have to end it? Trump White House abruptly halts Obamacare ads

The Trump administration has pulled the plug on all Obamacare outreach and advertising in the crucial final days of the 2017 open enrollment season, according to sources at HHS and on Capitol Hill.

Even ads that had already been placed and paid for have been pulled, the sources told POLITICO. Enrollment for 2017 ends next Tuesday.
...
The Trump administration is also halting all media outreach designed to spur enrollment in the days leading up to the Jan. 31 deadline. Emails are no longer being sent out to individuals who visited HealthCare.gov, the enrollment website, to encourage them to finish signing up. Those emails had proven highly successful in getting stragglers to complete enrollment before the deadline.

posted by zachlipton at 3:43 PM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

Wikipedia vandalism: Paul Ryan's mug added to the Invertebrate definition.
posted by porn in the woods at 3:46 PM on January 26, 2017 [55 favorites]

I grew up near swamps and marshes. Thick, wet ground teeming with life - frogs, snakes, bugs and more, not to mention all the different kinds of plants and trees. As a child, I spent summers, months, years playing and exploring, catching tadpoles and discovering strange critters and leaves and fiddleheads. While you're not going to necessarily build a castle in a swamp, why would you? Its kind of a beautiful, mysterious place.

Until you drain it - then its just dead land. Sure you can bring in a bunch of machines to plow it under and try to build something on it, but why ruin beautiful wet chaos with cement and glass? Besides, eventually, the water is going to come back someday (maybe slowly, maybe catastrophically) and the mosquitoes will stick around no matter what. The swamp will win in the end.

When I hear this "drain the swamp" metaphor, I keep thinking "this person doesn't understand swamps."
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:47 PM on January 26, 2017 [56 favorites]

From Ben Shapiro, over at the Daily Wire, a shareable article entitled "LYING IS BAD: 5 Reasons You Shouldn't Defend Trump's Lies Just Because You Like The Outcome." I wouldn't advise you read it yourself - it's very anti- The Left, but it's perfect for sharing with that super right wing person you know who still has morals. Excerpt:

Just to be clear, the rules we’re talking about are not rules like “be civil to your opposition” and “never attack harshly.” Those were stupid rules. We’re now talking about basic moral rules like “don’t lie.” Those rules were not set up by the left. They were rules set up by the Bible, or by basic Kantian imperatives, or by simple decency. Other people have value. You demean their value as human beings when you lie to them.

posted by corb at 3:49 PM on January 26, 2017 [26 favorites]

Jumping in with some good news from Madison, WI...our mayor released this statement today.
posted by altopower at 3:50 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Poll: Trump voters OK with a private email server

"Forty-two percent of Trump voters think he should be allowed to have a private email server to just 39 percent who think he shouldn't be allowed to," according to a write-up of the poll.

Do not expect to be able to reason with more than 40% of Trump voters.
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:53 PM on January 26, 2017 [34 favorites]

I think it's perfectly clear; "drain the swamp" refers directly to the governmental 'ecostructure', and the intent is to turn the government/bureaucracy to a barren desert, which the formerly regulated businesses never have to go near ever again.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:54 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

So I have like six tabs open while I'm reading this thread and the header in my browser for it right now says "Building a Cabin..." and I'm like "hey, that sounds nice."

Living in Actual Dystopia has not been very good for my personal productivity.
posted by breakin' the law at 3:54 PM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

It looks like the lesson that everyone took from the inauguration is that it is acceptable to punch a neo-Nazi, so long as that neo-Nazi is Richard Spencer.
posted by Apocryphon at 3:58 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

The Mainstream Media Lives Rent-Free in Steve Bannon's Head, and It's Killing Him

A couple of questions for you, Stevie. You want the mainstream media to "shut up" -- and yet you're asking the MSM to quote you. Isn't that a contradiction? Shutting up would mean not publishing anything, including your words of spittle-flecked rage. So which is it: Do you want to be quoted in the MSM or not?

And if you want to be quoted in the MSM, why, if you say the MSM has "no power"?

The answer is obvious: You still believe the MSM still does have power, and it's killing you. You've got this great gig, and the backing of the most powerful man on the planet, and still you just can't be happy, because you know you're under media scruitiny every day. If you had an adult's temperament, like the previous president and many of his aides, you'd just put your head down and do your job. But you can't, because the fact that you can't completely crush the media eats away at you.

posted by tonycpsu at 3:58 PM on January 26, 2017 [36 favorites]

We had the base case. We now have the inductive step. If logic follows, there is nothing prevent Richard Spencer from being punched again and again, into infinity.
posted by Apocryphon at 4:01 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

When I hear this "drain the swamp" metaphor, I keep thinking "this person doesn't understand swamps."

I keep thinking of how swamps like the nearby Great Dismal Swamp were refuges for escaped slaves in the South.
posted by indubitable at 4:05 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

One thing I don't quite understand. If the Trump Administration/Campaign/Corporation/Foundation is so careless in regards to its own data security, why haven't any White Hat Hackers/Leakers gotten a massive dump of all their internal communications and made it glaringly public in 120-point-type? All these leaks are getting reported but there is no central dumping place where everything can be seen, the private communications can be compared to public statements (and what Deplorable A says to Deplorable B is compared to what he says to Deplorable C). There would be no more effective way of shutting down the campaign to destroy America than to reduce them all to having to pass handwritten post-it notes to avoid getting embarrassing details publicized. Where is Trumpleaks.org? I'm beginning to believe the Ethical Hacker only exists on "Mr. Robot".
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:06 PM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

Where is Trumpleaks.org? I'm beginning to believe the Ethical Hacker only exists on "Mr. Robot".

David Kernell got a year for Palin's humdrum shit spewing. This hypothetical person would probably be throwing their life away for the act.
posted by Talez at 4:09 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Foop, don't look at me. I'm more of an esthetical hacker.
posted by Too-Ticky at 4:09 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Ivanka Trump’s Website Promotes A Russian App That Quietly Tracks Your Location

Ivanka Trump’s fashion-and-lifestyle website is promoting an app, developed by a Russian company, that can track people’s location even when it is not running. The app, called SkyGuru, was featured in the latest edition of “Weekly Clicks,” a roundup of recipes, fashion tips and fitness trends that “#TeamIvanka clicked, read and loved.”

SkyGuru says it can calm anxious flyers by alerting them to turbulence and tracking their flights through the air. But the small print on the app’s download page reveals another feature: it continues to monitor users’ whereabouts after their flights land, regardless of whether they close the app.
posted by futz at 4:11 PM on January 26, 2017 [18 favorites]

From those in Europe. Isn't Trump really helping in elections against fascists (e.g., France)? Isn't the opposition to Le Pen just saying, look, you don't want to have someone like Trump? and scaring the hell out of the electorate.

In France, it's clear that the Brexit and the Trump offsets have energized the extreme-right wing. They love the nationalist/nativist parts of Trump's policies, i.e. immigration, sovereignty, hate of anything foreign (except Putin's Russia...) and the anti-elitist/anti-mondialist discourse. But it's complicated: the Front National platform also includes stuff (borrowed from left-wing and green agendas) that would make Trumpers pale, such as support for the welfare state, social security and public services, concern for the environment etc. The FN is still full of angry racists, white nationalists and other fake-news lovers, but Le Pen isn't Trump and she sounds actually sane compared to him. She's not proposing to build a giant wall paid with Leprechaun gold, she's not planning to gut the beloved French healthcare system with nothing to replace it, she doesn't claim that climate change is a hoax (her dad just did the latter on Twitter, but she kicked him out from his own party last year) and she's not boasting about sexually assaulting people. So using Trump's particular brand of crazy is only marginally helpful in fighting the FN and the fight has to be local.
posted by elgilito at 4:11 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

People are trying to trend #RemoveBannon on Twitter -- does that work? How many retweets before the bees come?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:12 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Trump pressured Park Service to back up his claims about inauguration crowd: In a Saturday phone call, Trump personally ordered Reynolds to produce additional photographs of the previous day’s crowds on the National Mall, according to three individuals who have knowledge of the conversation. The president believed that they might prove that the media had lied in reporting that attendance had been no better than average.

White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the call simply demonstrated that Trump’s management style is to be “so accessible, and constantly in touch.”
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:14 PM on January 26, 2017 [23 favorites]

The call simply demonstrated that he's delusional.
posted by zachlipton at 4:15 PM on January 26, 2017 [27 favorites]

At some point Trump is going to realize that he is the coward in the monster movie who places everyone else at risk and then ultimately gets his head bit off during the one part of the movie where the audience cheers for the monsters.
posted by srboisvert at 4:18 PM on January 26, 2017 [18 favorites]

At some point Trump is going to realize that he is the coward in the monster movie who places everyone else at risk and then ultimately gets his head bit off during the one part of the movie where the audience cheers for the monsters.

You mean he'll realize it as his head is swallowed?
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:20 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

In a Saturday phone call, Trump personally ordered Reynolds to produce additional photographs of the previous day’s crowds on the National Mall, according to three individuals who have knowledge of the conversation.

showing once again how weak and fragile he is.
posted by futz at 4:20 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

"Forty-two percent of Trump voters think he should be allowed to have a private email server to just 39 percent who think he shouldn't be allowed to," according to a write-up of the poll.

Guys, hear me out. I'm beginning to think the whole emails thing might've just been a cover for racism/sexism/fascism.
posted by chris24 at 4:22 PM on January 26, 2017 [127 favorites]

> showing once again how weak and fragile he is.

I think we've found the Trump news story version of "...in bed." as it's applied to fortune cookies.
posted by tonycpsu at 4:24 PM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

HuffPo Petition Demanding Donald Trump Release His Tax Returns Breaks White House Record

The runner-up was a petition to designate the Westboro Baptist Church a hate group.

Hey, Westboro Baptist may have been a hateful group but at least they were not running the country.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:30 PM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

oneswellfoop: Where is Trumpleaks.org?

It's been my experience that an organization's adoption of tech is determined by its leader. That is, a group won't broadly incorporate tech beyond the level its own leader is comfortable using. Buntix linked to the not at all surprising revelation that _rump prints emails and prefers to communicate by phone. If he's anything like some of my old bosses, he probably also insists on sending faxes and hard copies whenever possible. So communication at his level would utilize media that are harder to intercept, and anyone far enough out of the inner circle will have developed a shorthand for email which you can only parse if you already live inside the crazy.

_rump still mentally living in the NYC of the 70s and 80s is also relevant here; he probably even speaks a little obliquely on the phone, like a mobster circumventing an FBI bug. I've always suspected that his tax returns didn't leak out because they don't exist in electronic form; he and his accountant(s) probably communicate exclusively by fax and then mail hard copies to the IRS.
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 4:30 PM on January 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

maybe pharmaceutically enhanced.

I have been saying this for a year. They. Are. All. On. Drugs. Bannon strikes me as a coke head and an alcoholic (a little for the upswing, a little for the down, even Steven). Trump absofuckinglutely is pharmaceutically enhanced, with legal uppers from Dr. Spaceman. None of them would pass a piss test.
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:35 PM on January 26, 2017 [25 favorites]

A couple of questions for you, Stevie. You want the mainstream media to "shut up" -- and yet you're asking the MSM to quote you. Isn't that a contradiction?

Not really. He wants them not to say anything of their own (like reporting, investigative journalism, fact-checking, commentary, editorial) and only quote him. "Shut up and be my unpaid stenographer," basically. That seems eminently reasonable to his knuckle-dragging fascist ass.
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:35 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

President Trump Releases National School Choice Week Proclamation
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:39 PM on January 26, 2017

I was just about to say today wasn't so bad EO and Presidential Proclamation-wise, nevermind the other nonsense, and whelp, there it is.
posted by notyou at 4:42 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Wait a minute. He signed a proclamation on Wednesday declaring the current week (22nd-28th) as National School Choice Week. And they posted it online late today. Doesn't that rob the school choicers of most of their week?
posted by zachlipton at 4:42 PM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

Wait a minute. He signed a proclamation on Wednesday declaring the current week (22nd-28th) as National School Choice Week. And they posted it online late today. Doesn't that rob the school choicers of most of their week?

It's an alternative week.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 4:44 PM on January 26, 2017 [33 favorites]

In France, it's clear that the Brexit and the Trump offsets have energized the extreme-right wing. They love the nationalist/nativist parts of Trump's policies, i.e. immigration, sovereignty, hate of anything foreign (except Putin's Russia...) and the anti-elitist/anti-mondialist discourse. But it's complicated: the Front National platform also includes stuff (borrowed from left-wing and green agendas) that would make Trumpers pale, such as support for the welfare state, social security and public services, concern for the environment etc. The FN is still full of angry racists, white nationalists and other fake-news lovers, but Le Pen isn't Trump and she sounds actually sane compared to him. She's not proposing to build a giant wall paid with Leprechaun gold, she's not planning to gut the beloved French healthcare system with nothing to replace it, she doesn't claim that climate change is a hoax (her dad just did the latter on Twitter, but she kicked him out from his own party last year) and she's not boasting about sexually assaulting people. So using Trump's particular brand of crazy is only marginally helpful in fighting the FN and the fight has to be local.

Somehow I get this feeling that, if Putin is playing n-dimensional chess, Trump is his poetic undoing. If Trump unravels, I bet the wind goes out of the Eurofascist sails right quick, and then maybe we can get back to democracy and progress sans Russian trolling.

I can hope.
posted by saysthis at 4:44 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Wednesday will now be the first day of the school week, renamed Yuugeday. We also live in the country of Bonerland.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:44 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 22 through January 28, 2017, as National School Choice Week.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand seventeen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-first.

Sorry, Parents, we missed a few days getting this typed up, but anyway, here's your week for School Choice.
posted by notyou at 4:45 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

I've always suspected that his tax returns didn't leak out because they don't exist in electronic form; he and his accountant(s) probably communicate exclusively by fax and then mail hard copies to the IRS.

Concur. And I suspect IRS doesn't scan submitted returns, although they probably have a way to automate inputting some of the data. Someone has seen that return.

At this point, I'd settle for the IRS's SQL query, or whatever.
posted by suelac at 4:46 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Doesn't that rob the school choicers of most of their week?

Seems fitting somehow.

I assume this is a vague sort of declaration of support for DeVos?
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 4:46 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Daily Beast Trump Draft Executive Order: No Funding for UN Abortions

A draft executive order from the Trump administration orders the federal government to stop funding any United Nations organization that promotes “the performance of abortion or sterilization as a method of family planning.”

It’s one of a number of prohibitions in the order obtained by The Daily Beast that sets up a process for reviewing all American contributions to the UN—and automatically eliminating many others. Also on the chopping block is “any United Nations affiliate or other international organization that grants full membership to the Palestinian Authority or the Palestinian Liberation Organization”; any organization “substantially influenced by any state that sponsors terrorism”; and any group circumventing sanctions against North Korea or Iran. The gist of the order was first reported by The New York Times.

Wait. Wut?! Sterilization is not a method of family planning now? Are you fucking kidding me? When did this happen? I mean I knew they were trying to ban certain BC methods because they acted like min-abortions or some such shit, but really? Women are not allowed to control their family size at all?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:46 PM on January 26, 2017 [22 favorites]

Wait a minute. He signed a proclamation on Wednesday declaring the current week (22nd-28th) as National School Choice Week. And they posted it online late today. Doesn't that rob the school choicers of most of their week?

What's the problem? There's still a choice as long as you choose Friday.
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:46 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

He treats National School Choice Week like he treats paying his vendors. He'll give you a fraction of what he promised, claims it's the full amount, and there's no recourse if you don't like it.
posted by zachlipton at 4:47 PM on January 26, 2017 [29 favorites]

Sorry, Parents, we missed a few days getting this typed up, but anyway, here's your week for School Choice.

I'm hoping it's a lovely parting gift for Betsy DeVos.
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:50 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

> Draft Executive Order: No Funding for UN Abortions

I should hope not, unabortions sound terrible.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:52 PM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

He'll give you a fraction of what he promised, claims it's the full amount, and there's no recourse if you don't like it.

Something Melania is undoubtedly all too familiar with.
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:52 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

someone should just start running for president like immediately. trump wouldn’t be able to resist campaigning again. agenda would stall

I dunno, I kind of love this idea. Some celebrity/moneybags should just tour around the country holding "campaign rallies" and boasting about how s/he is getting the "largest crowds at a campaign event EVER." Trump would lose his motherfuckin' mind and would immediately demand to start holding rallies again. Hopefully that would delay him signing/nuking things!
posted by TwoStride at 4:54 PM on January 26, 2017 [27 favorites]

Patriotic Devotion day was also not announced until after it was over. Retroactive fake holidays are just a thing now
posted by theodolite at 4:54 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Wednesday will now be the first day of the school week, renamed Yuugeday. We also live in the country of Bonerland.

"I hereby decree November 9, 2016 to be the first day of Trump Year Zero. Each Trump Year will last for an arbitrary number of days, at my sole discretion as President-for-Life. And Trump Year Zero has been good to me, so I'm thinking eighteen Old-Calendar months at least. Maybe a whole lot more."

REPORTER: So... you're saying 2016 never actually ended?

"Maybe it never will."
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 4:56 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

When pressed as to whether this now meant that the Mexican government would not have to write a check to the U.S. to repay it for construction of the wall, Spicer stipulated that the president had never said that was going to happen.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:57 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Other awesome petitions for the People's Tribune:

Issue an International Arrest Warrant for George Soros

Arrest and detainment of singer Madonna.

Charge Madonna with Terrorist Threats against the president of the United States of America.

Investigate Hillary Clinton for crimes committed against the People and Government of the United States.

posted by snuffleupagus at 4:57 PM on January 26, 2017

A couple of questions for you, Stevie. You want the mainstream media to "shut up" -- and yet you're asking the MSM to quote you. Isn't that a contradiction?

Bannon is waving a red cape in front of a bull. The bull makes an angry charge, but that's what the guy with the cape wants. Doesn't usually end well for the bull.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 4:58 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Patriotic Devotion day was also not announced until after it was over. Retroactive fake holidays are just a thing now

A sop to his pals in the Belated Fake Holiday cards biz?
posted by notyou at 4:58 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Patriotic Devotion day was also not announced until after it was over.

It's kinda like hanging a photo of a big event taken the day after your big event.
posted by nubs at 5:00 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

WSJ White House Security Adviser Facing Gun Charge in Virginia
Former Breitbart editor Sebastian Gorka was stopped at Reagan National Airport

One of President Donald Trump’s choices for a senior position in the White House is beginning work while facing a criminal charge after he allegedly tried to bring a handgun onto an airliner last year, court records show.

Sebastian Gorka, a national security and terrorism analyst, was stopped at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia last January by an officer with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, who detected a 9mm caliber handgun using X-ray equipment as it passed on a conveyor belt. The officer alerted airport police, who confiscated the gun and cited Mr. Gorka on a state weapons charge, according to a TSA statement.

A White House official said Mr. Gorka is working for senior White House adviser Steve Bannon.

"I hire all the best people."
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:00 PM on January 26, 2017 [34 favorites]

For comparison, here's Spicer's own words from a few hours ago, where he describes it as "the plan that is taking shape now."

...Jesus Christ. This government is just the political equivalent of those old Three Stooges routines where one of them is carrying a board over his shoulder, then turns around and smacks the other two, completely obliviously.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 5:09 PM on January 26, 2017 [29 favorites]

> Guys, hear me out. I'm beginning to think the whole emails thing might've just been a cover for racism/sexism/fascism.

It was about ethics in video game journalism.
posted by guiseroom at 5:11 PM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

In France, it's clear that the Brexit and the Trump offsets have energized the extreme-right wing. They love the nationalist/nativist parts of Trump's policies, i.e. immigration, sovereignty, hate of anything foreign (except Putin's Russia...) and the anti-elitist/anti-mondialist discourse. But it's complicated: the Front National platform also includes stuff (borrowed from left-wing and green agendas) that would make Trumpers pale, such as support for the welfare state, social security and public services, concern for the environment etc. The FN is still full of angry racists, white nationalists and other fake-news lovers, but Le Pen isn't Trump and she sounds actually sane compared to him. She's not proposing to build a giant wall paid with Leprechaun gold, she's not planning to gut the beloved French healthcare system with nothing to replace it, she doesn't claim that climate change is a hoax (her dad just did the latter on Twitter, but she kicked him out from his own party last year) and she's not boasting about sexually assaulting people. So using Trump's particular brand of crazy is only marginally helpful in fighting the FN and the fight has to be local.

yeah, generally, fascism looks different in different places, and nativism obviously looks different in different places, because they're both expressions of that nation's particular identity.
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 5:12 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

King Trump

(Highly doubtful of the veracity of @roguepotusstaff, but it's pretty apparent this is true.)
posted by Artw at 5:19 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

President Trope.

The Dirty Coward
The Dirty Coward is the slime of the earth, working exclusively for themselves and shamelessly retreating from harm's way even if that harm is about to hit the All-Loving Hero that just saved his or her life two seconds ago. They'll take every advantage and are not above using dishonorable tactics and dirty tricks, but they'll cry and moan every time the tables are turned and someone uses the same tactics against them, asks for a volunteer, or reminds them of that promise they made. Often full of vicious plans for anyone they dislike, as long as they aren't in need of that person's skills at the moment.
...
They're usually only marginally competent to start with, and even the cleverest of them tends to be short-sighted. Even when they know that breaking ranks will leave a hole in the defenses that will let the enemy in, leading to far more danger for him or her in the long term, they will generally run for it anyway
...
It's tough to make a main character into one of these without them coming off as more slimy and irritating than funny. Unlike most villains, the dirty coward doesn't even have finesse, which can make them extremely annoying. The dirty coward may or may not have a horrific past to explain their actions, but it doesn't usually redeem them, at least not in the minds of the audience.
posted by srboisvert at 5:20 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Mexico should send Trump a VHS tape with Mariachi's Greatest Hits, tell Trump it's worth $120 billion and that should cover the costs of a $20 billion dollar wall and then demand that Trump send back the extra $100 billion.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 5:22 PM on January 26, 2017 [17 favorites]

Regarding the data that needs mirroring, I'd be happy to help; I'm fortunate enough to have a fiber link with both a 2Gb and 1Gb handoff (symmetrical) — aka, a metric fuckton of bandwidth.

Thing is, I have no idea how to DO this. Not familiar with how Github works. Could someone provide a how-to?
posted by CommonSense at 5:27 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

MeMail on its way in a bit, CommonSense.
posted by christopherious at 5:30 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Delta Traveler at JFK Kicks, Shouts at Muslim Employee, 'Trump Is Here Now, He Will Get Rid of All of You': DA

Fuck this shit.
posted by zachlipton at 5:31 PM on January 26, 2017 [42 favorites]

People were babbling about this being wildly paranoid back in December:

U of T hackathon to save climate data before Trump presidency brings "overwhelming reaction"
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:34 PM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

Zachlipton's message should be sent out over everyone's channels!
posted by cmfletcher at 5:36 PM on January 26, 2017

Climate mirror is just using Github Issues as a ticketing/tracking system; there's not really "git" involved. Just pick something from the list and mirror it somewhere, and comment on the issue with your mirror's URL.

Their main site is at http://climatemirror.org/ .
posted by fragmede at 5:37 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Mikhail Gorbachev: 'It All Looks As If the World Is Preparing for War' - authored by Mikhail Gorbachev

Politicians and military leaders sound increasingly belligerent and defense doctrines more dangerous. Commentators and TV personalities are joining the bellicose chorus. It all looks as if the world is preparing for war.
posted by futz at 5:41 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

This effort to sabotage Obamacare by pulling all the ads from the final days of open enrollment is a big deal. Here's a little thread from the woman responsible for all the advertising and outreach for two years worth of healthcare.gov open enrollment. Last-minute signups tend to be young and healthy people, because sick people who really need health insurance enroll early. Cut off the marketing and premiums next year will rise and/or insurers will drop out of the marketplace. It's sabotage.

It absolutely is and it's worse than what you say.

Trump and his minions went out of their way to do a thing that will have no real, measurable impact on their policy options, their public opinion standings, anything. Granted, it might make insurers a little more wobbly, but -- there is plenty of time to do that.

No big difference, this, except that a few thousand, or tens of thousands, or a hundred thousand people who would've gotten a quick email or text that reminded them "oh yeah, gotta do that thing", or seen an ad on TV or facebook, won't see it, and won't do it.

And some of those people, statistically, will get sick this year and will have to come up with hundreds or thousands of dollars for care.

And some of those people will go bankrupt.

And a few of those people won't go get that niggling thing checked out because money and it will turn out to be a very bad niggling thing.

Remember Obama and his policies of 'nudging' people toward healthier choices?

This is a nudge toward death.
posted by tivalasvegas at 5:41 PM on January 26, 2017 [58 favorites]

Quick update from Philly: the media is reporting more than 5,000 protestors today. It's been going on in waves all day. I was there earlier this evening. We shut down all four lanes of Broad Street (one of the major streets in the center of the city) as we marched and filled the streets close to the hotel where the GOP is staying.

My hope is that every city and town that Trump visits is shut down with protests like this.
posted by mcduff at 5:42 PM on January 26, 2017 [43 favorites]

I just finished listening to this week's episode of Primary Concerns, "How to Stop ObamaCare Sabotage" which features an interview with Andy Slavitt who was brought in to rescue the A.C.A. in 2015. He has a lot to say both hopeful and dire. He believes that Trump can easily save the ACA-- and by doing so save the 2 million jobs that have been created. Unfortunately if Congress does nothing to save it, there probably won't be another chance for a National Health care system because it took so much effort and planning and support.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:43 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

> Climate mirror is just using Github Issues as a ticketing/tracking system; there's not really "git" involved. Just pick something from the list and mirror it somewhere, and comment on the issue with your mirror's URL.

Just make sure you're picking a dataset that hasn't been mirrored yet (or only has one or two mirrors). The reddit thread has more info.
posted by christopherious at 5:43 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Public Books has posted the Trump Syllabus 3.0. The Trump Syllabus 2.0 and others (previously) remain relevant--the version number thing is an allusion to the earlier ones rather than an indication of an update/replacement.
posted by Wobbuffet at 5:44 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

You can also share the Obamacare ad that they pulled off the air through the social media channels of your choice.
posted by zachlipton at 5:46 PM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

$100 says that vile asshole who assualted the Delta employee will say that he was drunk and is "not really a racist."
posted by TwoStride at 5:46 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Overnight Healthcare: GOP chairman to introduce pre-existing condition bill

Yea!

"We want to make sure that people with pre-existing conditions continue to get covered," House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said on CNN Thursday. "In fact, I'll introduce a bill next week that will provide and reaffirm that commitment from Republicans."

Boo

A Democratic aide familiar with a version of the bill said that the measure would provide for an enrollment period during which people with pre-existing conditions could get coverage. However, the aide said, if there has been a gap where a person lacked coverage, then insurers could charge that person any price for insurance.

Also,

Just 15 percent of primary care doctors surveyed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania want the healthcare law to be repealed. Even among doctors who voted for President Trump, less than half -- 38 percent -- want the law to be repealed.

The survey, the results of which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also finds strong support for several provisions of ObamaCare. Read more here. http://bit.ly/2j9vHcy
posted by futz at 5:52 PM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

Regarding the incident in NY at the airport: "The suspect, 57-year-old NAME REDACTED of Worcester,"

O wormtown, why must you shame me even now?
posted by vrakatar at 5:52 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Interesting--when I read about 10 minutes ago they had his name up!
posted by TwoStride at 5:54 PM on January 26, 2017

I redacted it, 2-stride. Sorry if that was not clear.
posted by vrakatar at 5:55 PM on January 26, 2017

Ah, gotcha.
posted by TwoStride at 5:57 PM on January 26, 2017

NYC is having a HUGE fireworks display right now for Chinese New Year. I assume that they warned everyone, but holy crap, I missed it. Fiancé and I were just scared that some shit was going down.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:59 PM on January 26, 2017

Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Droll, Donald. Very droll.
posted by rhizome at 6:02 PM on January 26, 2017

"Mouth Shut" (as in Bannon says the media should keep its) is trending on Twitter. Sweet!
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:04 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

if there has been a gap where a person lacked coverage

It could be a "late" payment. The Republican's in the details.
posted by cmfletcher at 6:06 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

> SkyGuru says it can calm anxious flyers by alerting them to turbulence and tracking their flights through the air. But the small print on the app’s download page reveals another feature: it continues to monitor users’ whereabouts after their flights land, regardless of whether they close the app.

Soooo... just like Uber?
posted by indubitable at 6:07 PM on January 26, 2017

FAIR on NPR and lies
posted by rhizome at 6:13 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

@pourmecoffee If you're acting National Park Service Director and the President of the United States calls I bet you're pretty sure a bear killed someone
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:14 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Maddow is reporting that this man, Tom Countryman a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, rank of Minister-Counselor, currently serves as Acting Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, was on a plane to a Rome for non proliferation meeting; when he was ordered to turn around & fly back and removed of his job.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:17 PM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

Which is the kind of stuff the hub-bub over lies is papering over, and Bannon knows this.
posted by rhizome at 6:18 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Just wait to see how fondly he's viewed after even more of Kim Orange Ill.

Obama draws neck-and-neck with Reagan in poll of greatest modern president

"The Quinnipiac University poll indicates 29 percent say Obama is the greatest president since World War II — just shy of the 30 percent who cite Ronald Reagan, the long-standing titleholder."
posted by chris24 at 6:25 PM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

The fact that Reagan is the titleholder says all that needs to be said about how much we should pay attention to polls of Americans on who the great Presidents are.
posted by tonycpsu at 6:28 PM on January 26, 2017 [36 favorites]

Any bets on how long this lasts: Trump’s limo sports D.C.’s protest license plates: ‘Taxation Without Representation’. Thanks Obama.
posted by peeedro at 6:29 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Any bets on how long this lasts: Trump’s limo sports D.C.’s protest license plates: ‘Taxation Without Representation’.

Well, for folks such as himself, he's all about representation without taxation, so - not very long?
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:31 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Sebastian Gorka, a national security and terrorism analyst, was stopped at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia last January by an officer with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, who detected a 9mm caliber handgun using X-ray equipment as it passed on a conveyor belt.

See!?!? It's not "security theater" after all!!! They caught themselves an actual terrorist, by gum!
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:32 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

ABC says Trump claimed 2 were shot dead in Chicago during Obama’s speech. But it never happened.

According to the ABC transcript (they didn't air this segment of the video), Trump said two people were shot and killed in Chicago during Obama's farewell speech. There were no homicides in Chicago "for about 24 hours before and after Obama's speech," nor were there any shootings during his speech. There were several shootings in various parts of the city that day, but all the victims survived.
posted by zachlipton at 6:33 PM on January 26, 2017 [17 favorites]

In defense of the poll it was the greatest president post WWII. Eisenhower would be weak on defense and a philanderer compared to that right winger Clinton.
posted by cmfletcher at 6:36 PM on January 26, 2017

I have no doubt that Obama's numbers will continue to rise. Jared Yates Sexton wrote a tweetstorm about how the rise of social media coupled with Trump's chaos means we are all so much more involved in this Presidency and it is starting to add to our stress levels. He described it earlier today like having a second job. I know that like so many of you, I assumed that after the election my life would return to "normal," but in fact I spend even more time reading the news, reading this thread, calling, etc. I've cut way back on things like gardening, biking, and painting.

For 8 years Obama let us lead our lives in relative comfort knowing he had things under control. We weren't bothered with scandals or ineptitude or worrisome behavior. All of that is going to look so peaceful in our memories.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:36 PM on January 26, 2017 [62 favorites]

that link above about psychometrics and Cambridge Analytica has made me feel like we're living in some sort of Metal Gear Solid 2/Ghost In The Shell/Snow Crash/Children of Men reality.

I can't help but think that all of these activist tweetstorms are being carefully analyzed and put into a database that has no other purpose than evil to be unleashed at a carefully selected time. Ironic that the "populist movement" so depends on sprawling data collection.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:37 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Maddow is reporting that this man...

Really? Tom Countryman, on his way to Rome? Did he have a friend with him?

I swear, the writers of this season need to be fired...
posted by Etrigan at 6:38 PM on January 26, 2017 [18 favorites]

Fake Donald Trump tweets are the new internet fad in China
posted by futz at 6:40 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

@VicenteFoxQue @realDonaldTrump's ego monument real cost is around 25 billion USD. I ask you, America, what would you prefer instead of that #FuckingWall?

POLL:
44% Improve healthcare
39% Affordable education
04% Support agriculture
13% Modernize infrastructure

222,866 votes 14 hours left

Vicente Fox's ongoing trolling of Trump is giving me life. Making a #FuckingWall hashtag is pretty much the best.
posted by triggerfinger at 6:41 PM on January 26, 2017 [84 favorites]

@Trump_Regrets — Retweeting everyone who regrets voting for Donald Trump.
posted by guiseroom at 6:43 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Trump would favor Senate rule change if Supreme Court choice blocked

U.S. President Donald Trump would favor Senate Republicans changing voting rules to allow a simple majority of the Senate to approve his nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court if Democrats block his choice, he said in an interview airing on Thursday.

“I would. We have obstructionists,” Trump told Fox News, referring to possible use of the so-called nuclear option that would overturn Senate rules requiring 60 votes to overcome a procedural hurdle, or filibuster, for Supreme Court nominees.

...Trump told Fox News anchor Sean Hannity that he had made his choice. “I have made my decision pretty much in my mind, yes. That's subject to change at the last moment."

...Vice President Mike Pence told Republican lawmakers on Thursday that Trump would nominate a "strict constructionist" to the court
posted by futz at 6:48 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

I was thinking about how the Trumpkins and the alt-right and the Far Right are all surprised by how much The Left is digging in our heels and resisting Trump. How many of them still seem to think Liberals will give up easily. Think about if Clinton had won-- what is the worst that could have happened to them? They would be forced to see a woman giving the SOTU? They would be stuck with the ACA forever? They would have to tolerate gays and minorities? Maybe pay a bit more in taxes. Possibly have to go through background checks to buy guns at gun shows?

Now compare that to what we stand to lose under a Trump Presidency. The war on Global Warming. Women's reproductive rights. LGBTQ rights. Dreamers. The respect of the rest of the world. The right to be Muslim in America. Environmental safety. Food safety. Public Schools. Voting rights. MediCare, MediCaid, SS. The list is endless and depressing and scary. We are going to have to stay on guard and fight as hard as we can and we will lose some of these battles. It just doesn't seem just and fair that all of these things are up for grabs only because Hillary Clinton lost the election.;
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:53 PM on January 26, 2017 [43 favorites]

Scott Aaronson: First they came for the Iranians:

To the Trump regime, I make one request: if you ever decide that it’s the policy of the US government to deport my PhD students, then deport me first. I’m practically begging you: come to my house, arrest me, revoke my citizenship, and tear up the awards I’ve accepted at the White House and the State Department. I’d consider that to be the greatest honor of my career

posted by zachlipton at 6:54 PM on January 26, 2017 [40 favorites]

.Trump told Fox News anchor Sean Hannity that he had made his choice. “I have made my decision pretty much in my mind, yes. That's subject to change at the last moment."

Ugh. Christ, I hope its not Pryor.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:56 PM on January 26, 2017

I hope its not Pryor.

Naw, Trump goes for straight-up crazy, not Stir Crazy.

Also, he's dead.
posted by Rykey at 7:00 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

REPORTER: So... you're saying 2016 never actually ended?

"Maybe it never will."

Then Donnie will never be POTUS, merely PEeOTUS. Indefinitely.

So, basically, we're stuck in certain christian's version of hell for most of us. Pity poor Schrödinger's pussy.
posted by porpoise at 7:00 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Wait is the Obamacare ad they're pulling public domain since it was produced by the federal government? If so, private citizens may be able to buy air time for it and possibly even get it to run as a PSA with an appropriately inclined TV sales manager.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:02 PM on January 26, 2017 [25 favorites]

Like, say, running it during evening CNN on DC cable...
posted by jason_steakums at 7:03 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

If buying air time, better to produce a new UH OH TRUMP IS CRAZIER THAN YOU THOUGHT BUY THIS BEFORE YOU DIE ad and run it where there are the most swing-voter signups to garner.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:05 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

porpoise quit mixing metaphors, I'm drunk over here.
posted by vrakatar at 7:06 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

that link above about psychometrics and Cambridge Analytica has made me feel like we're living in some sort of Metal Gear Solid 2/Ghost In The Shell/Snow Crash/Children of Men reality.

I personally was hoping for the Snow Crash dystopia but what with the election actually obscurely decided by an arcane battle between Trump's victorious frog shamans and Clinton's esoteric Spirit Cooking it might actually be the Shadowrun dystopia. (Magical backwash from the struggle spread across oceans, its effects resulting in the revelation that South Korea had been taken over by a cult.)
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 7:07 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Chummer, can you spare a nuyen?
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:09 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

From the Muir interview re: voter fraud:

Well, we're gonna find out...We're gonna find out. And -- and, by the way, when I say you're gonna find out. You can never really find, you know, there are gonna be -- no matter what numbers we come up with there are gonna be lots of people that did things that we're not going to find out about. But we will find out because we need a better system where that can't happen.

So to summarize: We're gonna find out. We're gonna find out. You're gonna find out. You can never really find out. We're not going to find out. But we will find out.

Jeezus fucking christ. This is not political "spin." These are the ramblings of a demented person.
posted by zakur at 7:10 PM on January 26, 2017 [68 favorites]

Which orgs would be the best equipped to publicize running a donation drive and place the ad buys for something like that? I'd actually like to contact a few places with the idea.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:11 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Expecting Trump action, U.S. suspends refugee resettlement interviews

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has temporarily halted trips by staff to interview refugees abroad as it prepares for a likely shakeup of refugee policy by President Donald Trump, two sources with knowledge of the decision said on Thursday.

The decision effectively amounts to a pause in future refugee admissions, given that the interviews are a crucial step in an often years-long process.

The DHS leadership's decision to halt the interview trips was communicated to those involved in the U.S. refugee admission process on Wednesday, one of the sources said.

This is life or death for a lot of people. racist fuckwits.
posted by futz at 7:14 PM on January 26, 2017 [37 favorites]

If von Clownstick was at all serious about his legacy and image as President -- which is something he is rarely accused of NOT obsessing over -- one would think that he would bend heaven and earth to make these first few days run smoothly PR-wise. That it would be worth it to take things slowly and to demonstrate to the common folk that he is NOT a joke, that he IS capable of doing this job, and that people freaking out over his Presidency are leftist extremists because, see? This isn't so bad, is it?

This would give the media a story to run with and buy time for the conservative machine to dig in for its more ambitious goals, with Trump as the smiling figure up front and center. They, uh, didn't do that. Which suggests the opposite -- that Trump has received his briefings on what the job REALLY entails and screamed GET ME THE FUCK OUT OF HERE.

So, this is Plan B -- a simple smash-and-grab. Trump, you're the massive distraction up front. Say whatever you can to be a hero to the useful idiots and rubes who put you here. Do as much damage as you can and overreach as ridiculously as possible. Then cut and run, and President Pence will nod solemnly and decry the Poisonous Extremists who Drove You Out Unfairly and Thank You For Your Service, while establishing 90% of everything you did as The New Normal and Middle Ground going forward. You don't get to be The New Reagan but you do get to be The Martyr for 40% of America. Then it's Russian piss parties for the rest of your days!
posted by delfin at 7:19 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

We have obstructionists

Who are they, and what have they obstructed?
posted by kirkaracha at 7:20 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

If buying air time, better to produce a new UH OH TRUMP IS CRAZIER THAN YOU THOUGHT BUY THIS BEFORE YOU DIE ad and run it where there are the most swing-voter signups to garner.

I'm going to sell apocalypse insurance. Pays out in gold on the breakdown of society.

Good luck collecting, suckers.
posted by Talez at 7:23 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Pence says admin will do "full evaluation of voting rolls in the country"

Hang on to your butts.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:28 PM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

I finally got around to reading that ABC interview transcript and man I can't believe exactly how much more incoherent most of that is than the already-staggering levels of incoherency he got to during the campaign. It's baffling.
posted by flatluigi at 7:33 PM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

So it turns out the Reichstag fire was a crazy golf conversation, and they're straight up dismantling democracy in week 1? Fucking hell.
posted by Artw at 7:38 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Pence needs to go down with him. No forgetting this.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:41 PM on January 26, 2017 [40 favorites]

Check out the latest Time Magzine Cover.
Perhaps the Largest Protest in U.S. History Was Brought to You by Trump

Woo!
posted by Jalliah at 7:42 PM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

President Trump Delivers Word Salad of a Speech to GOP Retreat
Victorious GOP lawmakers wanted to get down to business at their Philadelphia retreat, planning their Obamacare repeal and tax reform. Then Hurricane Trump descended Thursday.

In a whirlwind speech, Trump expressed frustration that his commerce secretary pick hadn’t yet been confirmed, quipping that he’ll have to deal with the British on trade by himself; pledged that “criminal aliens [are] going to be gone, fast”; and praised “clean, beautiful coal.”

And then, puzzlingly, the president asked the gathering of congressional Republicans where Mike Pompeo, his CIA director, was.

“Where is Pompeo? Where the hell is he?” Trump asked. "Oh, he’s working?”

Pompeo had been confirmed to his new role earlier this week and was no longer a member of Congress, something Trump seemed to have forgotten.

Good. I like to see the GOP reap what they've sown. This is your President, you goddamn bootlickers.
posted by futz at 7:43 PM on January 26, 2017 [37 favorites]

Rust, I keep coming back to that point. Can you impeach an entire administration?
posted by mollweide at 7:44 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Trump loves Time. He brags about Time. He will likely see this.

Woo again!
posted by Jalliah at 7:44 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

From the Time cover article. Holy crap. It's brutal.

There is no precedent in U.S. history for the show of collective outrage that answered Trump’s Inauguration. But then, there is no precedent for Trump, either: impetuous, thin-skinned and, for his trouble, entering office facing a grassroots opposition that heated up faster than a cup of ramen.

The face of that Democratic opposition–some call it the resistance–is female, which is to say it’s a face that as a private citizen Trump liked to judge on a scale of 1 to 10, and as a candidate measured by worthiness of his sexual attention. The billionaire made the 2016 presidential campaign about women even before Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination, sliming the Republican primary field by insulting the looks of its only female candidate (“Look at that face!”) and then moving on to Ted Cruz’s wife. So it was that the Women’s March–marches, really, as demonstrations were logged in more than 600 U.S. locations–became the occasion for recovering, in the space of just a few hours, spirits that since election night had spiraled into deep troughs of despair, dread and worse.
posted by Jalliah at 7:47 PM on January 26, 2017 [59 favorites]

Trump staffer who shared racist posts online to join Education Department. She also at one point linked to a website claiming that the government assassinated Justice Scalia.
posted by zachlipton at 7:47 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

So that's the way it is now? The president of the United States can say whatever bullshitty lying thing comes into his head IN FRONT OF A NEWS CAMERA and there are zero consequences?

(from ABC News transcript)

DAVID MUIR: You say you're gonna launch an investigation.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Sure, done.

DAVID MUIR: What you have presented so far has been debunked. It's been called ...

(OVERTALK)

DAVID MUIR: ... false.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, it hasn't. Take a look at the Pew reports.

DAVID MUIR: I called the author of the Pew report last night. And he told me that they found no evidence of voter ...

(OVERTALK)

DAVID MUIR: ... fraud.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Really? Then why did he write the report?

DAVID MUIR: He said no evidence of voter fraud.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Excuse me, then why did he write the report?

(OVERTALK)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: According to Pew report, then he's -- then he's groveling again. You know, I always talk about the reporters that grovel when they wanna write something that you wanna hear but not necessarily millions of people wanna hear or have to hear.

... and the president starts talking about reporters groveling.

In our increasingly dim and forgettable past, this would have been the end of any politician.

But now, today, 2017 in the United States of America, it is just the beginning.
posted by sacre_bleu at 7:47 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

So, this is Plan B -- a simple smash-and-grab. Trump, you're the massive distraction up front.

I think you give them too much credit. I don't think any of them has any clue what they're doing.
posted by biogeo at 7:48 PM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

The people who are there on behalf of great fortunes and big corporations very much know what they're doing. These years will be harvest time in the unending campaign of the rich to get richer.
posted by sacre_bleu at 7:50 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

I can't believe for a moment that the Republicans in charge now are worried about Trump and his erratic behavior, except that they need him to keep it together long enough for them to complete their goal of rolling back the last 60 years of social gains.

Everybody keeps expecting them to be shocked and dismayed at his lunacy. It's a variation of the 'surely this!' problem with the voters. The lawmakers and the voters (with minor exceptions) got exactly what they wanted. This is going great for them (so they think).

I've dug around on r/the_donald and right wing forums and I'm not seeing any of the frustration or worries I'm seeing reporting here. They seem jubilant and love how riled up we are. They don't care that we are protesting, because that's just delicious schadenfreude right now.

I think we consistently underestimate how many people want exactly what we're getting.
posted by gofargogo at 7:52 PM on January 26, 2017 [39 favorites]

how many people are on r/thedonald though?
posted by zutalors! at 7:56 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

I've dug around on r/the_donald and right wing forums and I'm not seeing any of the frustration or worries I'm seeing reporting here.

Well, if you're a white male lacking the wit to comprehend how much you rely on a functioning government until you personally can't get what you want from it, I don't know why you would be frustrated or worried right now.
posted by biogeo at 8:00 PM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

gofargogo, check out @Trump_Regrets

Also, and this is just anecdotal of course, but I'm feeling heartened by what the typical "register as independent but usually vote Republican" voters I know are expressing.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:03 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

r_the Donald is a cult. And while it's a good place to get a view on the worst of the worst and see where some memes and talking point develop it's not a great view into what less culty right wingers are saying. It's also likely full of paid foreign trolls who are ampliflying the cult aspects. Though not so many since the election as many have left to concentrate on doing the same thing in Europe.
posted by Jalliah at 8:05 PM on January 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

Iirc the_donald has explicit, mod-enforced No Dissent rules
posted by theodolite at 8:07 PM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

I think we consistently underestimate how many people want exactly what we're getting.

His approval rating is at 36%. He managed Dukakis numbers of the popular vote. He's far from invincible. If X percentage want what they're getting, fine. Fuck them and beat them. They're not a majority.
posted by chris24 at 8:09 PM on January 26, 2017 [26 favorites]

Iirc the_donald has explicit, mod-enforced No Dissent rules

Yep. If you say anything remotely critical or questioning you're gone.
posted by Jalliah at 8:09 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

I've dug around on r/the_donald and right wing forums and I'm not seeing any of the frustration or worries I'm seeing reporting here. They seem jubilant and love how riled up we are. They don't care that we are protesting, because that's just delicious schadenfreude right now.

Yes I've stated here before but I can't hammer it home hard enough - they literally do not give a shit what he does, it's all funny to them and he is an alpha dawg business pro playing 12-dimensional chess and pissing off beta liberals. They are fucking trolls and he is their troll-king, plain and simple.
posted by windbox at 8:11 PM on January 26, 2017 [17 favorites]

Fair points about r/the_donald, I use them as the extreme without having to go to 4chan, but while his approval rating is low overall, it is exceptionally high among republicans. We may have the numbers, but this is going to be a tougher fight than many of us think.

We can't hope that the republicans in power or the voters on the right are going to wake up and come around. It's going to be a fight for every inch.
posted by gofargogo at 8:15 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

“The elite media got it dead wrong, 100 percent dead wrong,” Mr. Bannon said of the election, calling it “a humiliating defeat that they will never wash away, that will always be there.” . . . “That’s why you have no power,” Mr. Bannon added. “You were humiliated.”

Bannon's clearly a very disturbed alcoholic/addict and this is repugnant vitriol from the ostensibly winning campaign chairman who is on course to harm America more than anyone since J.W. Booth.

And I agree with him here. It's a very upside-down kind of schadenfreude I'm working with at the moment. Neither joyful nor shameful, but . . . jameful? Shoyful?

Take as given that "elite media" = MSM minus the useful idiot Fox, and they got it at least 95% of something - the only thing, some would say - wrong. They wrongly, and totally irresponsibly plastered That Fuck all over everyone's screens all-day, every day. And they were/are humiliated by the outcome. That relatively barest minimum of pushback we're seeing (not you, STFU NPR), is due to that.

And it won't ever wash away completely, but hey. 40% of oxygen-filtering, mammalian, humanoid-like beings think Ronald Iran-Contra Screw-The-Poor War-On-Drugs Fucking Jesus Reagan is a saint so who can tell. Principal Tanzarian was forgotten, so maybe we all agree to hush and let The Kids read about it themselves when they get older.

The MSM bought and paid for this shit buffet. I'm kind of hoping they choke on it and die, frankly. (Or transmogrify into responsible news organizations somehow. But I'm a dreamer.) And so does Bannon. Le sigh.
posted by petebest at 8:15 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Forget Poldark, my new crush is Vicente Fox and his Twitter account of delights!
posted by HotToddy at 8:16 PM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

I did enjoy the r/CrazyIdeas post I saw earlier that was basically "submit a website to r/the_donald that loads a pro-donald page 80% of the time and an anti-donald page 20% of the time and watch 20% of the sub go insane"
posted by jason_steakums at 8:16 PM on January 26, 2017 [29 favorites]

Watch this space. Jason Chaffetz of Utah has submitted a bill to start selling off the public lands.
posted by suelac at 8:29 PM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

... And to shut down federal law enforcement on the public domain and in National Forests.

Fuckers.
posted by suelac at 8:32 PM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

Having lived with this stuff in Maine, I gotta tell you guys, you have to pace yourselves.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 8:35 PM on January 26, 2017 [22 favorites]

So the national, weather service should eithold non serious weather data to make a point.

What's the weather today?
Dunno, trump doesn't support science.
posted by AlexiaSky at 8:36 PM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

This link lists who to call to protest the bills re: selling federal land and eliminating federal law enforcement. http://clerk.house.gov/committee_info/index.aspx?comcode=II00

According to one of the rogue national park twitter accounts you can call any/all of them not just ones from your state.
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 8:42 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

I love the first line of the Time article.

We could talk all day about numbers.

burn.
posted by futz at 8:45 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Case in point: they tried to impeach Paul LePage, but despite evidence, it didn't go through, because the Dems couldn't figure it out against ONE Rebublican asshole who kept gnawing upon the Dems very well thought-out speeches.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 8:45 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Ok, so the chatter upthread about someone just going ahead and running for president now... I mentioned that to a friend. He immediately replied, "Jon Stewart."

Good lord, Trump would flip out and redefine "off the deep end" within a week.
posted by azpenguin at 8:46 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Don't expect your Congress Critters to impeach Trump anytime soon, is what I am saying.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 8:48 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

From the Time cover article. Holy crap. It's brutal.

It's like they cribbed it from Teen Vogue.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:48 PM on January 26, 2017 [31 favorites]

I love the first line of the Time article.

I like the phrase, "there is no precedent for Trump." One gets the sense that it was deliberately chosen with the hope that his quasi-literacy would cause him to interpret it in the worst possible way.
posted by perspicio at 8:49 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Ok, so the chatter upthread about someone just going ahead and running for president now... I mentioned that to a friend. He immediately replied, "Jon Stewart."

Good lord, Trump would flip out and redefine "off the deep end" within a week.

Alec Baldwin
posted by Jalliah at 8:49 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Come on, seeing Alec Baldwin debate Trump AS Trump would be entertainment well worth the collapse of American society, right?
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:51 PM on January 26, 2017 [17 favorites]

I actually really want Jon Stewart for President. If he announces this week, I'll volunteer for his campaign immediately.
posted by MrVisible at 8:52 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

By 2020 there will be literal muppets running for office a la Black Mirror.
posted by ian1977 at 8:52 PM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

This is the time for serious opposition to Trump's policies, not an amusing distraction.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:52 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

By 2020 there will be literal muppets running for office a la Black Mirror.
posted by ian1977 at 11:52 PM on January 26 [+] [!]

This is the time for serious opposition to Trump's policies, not an amusing distraction.
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:52 PM on January 26 [+] [!]

Juxtaposysterical!
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:58 PM on January 26, 2017 [42 favorites]

The president is boasting about having pieces of paper on his desk.
posted by zachlipton at 8:59 PM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

The CDC canceled a climate change event. Al Gore will host it instead.

Remember on Monday, when the Washington Post broke a story that officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had abruptly canceled a long-scheduled meeting on the health risks of climate change? If you missed it, the CDC didn’t give a reason why, but it was clear it had to do with the new Trump administration’s doubtful stance on climate change.

Well, the event is back on with a new host: former Vice President Al Gore, of An Inconvenient Truth fame.

According to a press release, Gore, along with the American Public Health Association, the Harvard Global Health Institute, and a number of other health and environment groups, will hold a one-day meeting on February 16 at the Carter Center in Atlanta — a scaled-down version of the original three-day CDC event.

The Washington Post’s Brady Dennis reported that it’s not yet clear whether CDC officials who were supposed to go to the canceled event will attend this one.

But the move sends a powerful signal: Civil society and academic organizations will try to fill the conversation gaps about climate change left by the new administration.
posted by Jalliah at 9:01 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

Is it me or is his whole face situation veering into previously unexplored shades of mulberry
posted by theodolite at 9:23 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

I saw that too. The colors are alarming. Looks like HDR.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:28 PM on January 26, 2017

@danieldale "President Trump makes another argument in favour of torture, though he says he won't do try to use it right now because Mattis says no:"

There's a snippet of the Hannity interview in the tweet. He says that Mattis says he won't use it and he's with him all the way. But he thinks it works.
posted by Jalliah at 9:32 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

The colors are alarming. Looks like HDR.

A single exposure could never capture the glorious terror of his color.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 9:40 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Bill. Fucking. Kristol. : It turns out Trump and Brannon are the biggest snowflakes of all. So sensitive! But the WH is a nice safe space...

This guy.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:42 PM on January 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

Is it me or is his whole face situation veering into previously unexplored shades of mulberry

The face is terrifying.

But. More interesting. On the Presidential Desk of AF1, there's a piece of paper (he likes paper on his desk).

That piece of paper is pretty transparently a printout of an article from a website.

Trump is reading a news article.

About himself.
posted by dis_integration at 9:44 PM on January 26, 2017 [16 favorites]

> Is it me or is his whole face situation veering into previously unexplored shades of mulberry

I think it's closer to cerise.
posted by guiseroom at 9:50 PM on January 26, 2017

You can see just where the orange ends in this pic that also shows that he probably needed a MAGA hat today. Be sure to zoom in. (And sorry for any nightmares this causes.)
posted by chris24 at 9:54 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

At TPM US mole arrested in Moscow?

There is no need to believe anything reported by the Russians, as Marshall is careful to point out, but a putative US asset being unmasked a few days after Trump is sworn in is odd timing.
posted by mark k at 9:55 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

And sorry for any nightmares this causes.

He's...hefty. At age 70. In the world's most stressful job. That's my only comment.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:58 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

I cannot find the FULL transcript of David Muir's ABC interview with trump. The transcript on ABC.com is not the full transcript TRANSCRIPT: ABC News Anchor David Muir Interviews President Trump

I have used the googles but have come up short. Does anyone have a link to the whole damn thing? I wonder why ABC would leave so much content out of their transcript? I have endlessly searched for keywords on each "transcript" that I have found and all of them are truncated.

Muir mentions that thrump chose the "Resolute Desk" for the oval office as well as Union leaders visiting and I have this on tape but it is not in any transcript...or I am a shitty shitty googler.
posted by futz at 10:02 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

You can see just where the orange ends in this pic that also shows that he probably needed a MAGA hat today.

Oh no... He's not going to wear the MAGA hat as president is he. Sorry, but presidents don't wear hats.
posted by downtohisturtles at 10:03 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

You can see just where the orange ends in this pic

Is that the pic where he didn't turn around and wave? If so, he dun fucked up. Also it looks like he could just knit his comb over into his eyebrows...problem solved.
posted by futz at 10:08 PM on January 26, 2017

Oh no... He's not going to wear the MAGA hat as president is he. Sorry, but presidents don't wear hats.

Why not? He's well on his way to breaking all the other precedents. Bring back the hats. MAGA for casual days. A fedora for traveling. Beaver furred top hat for special occasions. A pity he hates facial hair since he could be the first bearded / mustachioed president since Taft.
posted by honestcoyote at 10:18 PM on January 26, 2017

That's a helicopter (Marine One); he didn't turn around when he was getting on an airplane (Air Force One).
posted by kirkaracha at 10:22 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I know kirkaracha. Dumb attempt at joke :)
posted by futz at 10:26 PM on January 26, 2017

EO to create the Marine One Hair Salon.
posted by holgate at 10:27 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

He's not a President, he's a Trump.
posted by Artw at 10:29 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

EO to create the Marine One Hair Salon.

I know I say this everybody 1000 comments or so, but please remember the [real] and [fake] tags! He has jumped the shark so bad that I no longer can tell things apart without them.
posted by corb at 10:31 PM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

Oh no... He's not going to wear the MAGA hat as president is he. Sorry, but presidents don't wear hats.

He already unveiled his presidential hat, so I'm not sure why he was out hatless.
posted by ckape at 10:39 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

(Sorry, corb, I thought the rhyme was the giveaway. There is no poetry in the man or his lackeys.)
posted by holgate at 10:42 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Donald Trump Just Gave an Hourlong Interview With a Guy Who Made This Face the Whole Time
posted by downtohisturtles at 10:52 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

I guess ABC's David Muir was too mean to Trump yesterday by asking him about waterboarding, so Hannity had to invent a hypothetical about his children being kidnapped:

And Hannity wondered aloud if Muir would have a warmer attitude towards waterboarding if he personally had an opportunity to employ it.

“If I had an opportunity to speak with David Muir, I’d say: ‘Okay, two guys go into your house, they kidnap your child, one guy gets away with your child, you tackle the other guy, that guy knows where your child is, would you not waterboard that guy?’” Hannity said.

I guess in Hannity's world either police should regularly waterboard suspects or reporter's children deserve what's coming to them.
posted by peeedro at 11:07 PM on January 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

Pence says admin will do "full evaluation of voting rolls in the country"

Hang on to your butts.

They know the Trump admin might be their last best chance to preserve their racist, authoritarian vision of America. It's going to get brazen as fuck.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 11:10 PM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

A friend of mine posted this screenshot on Facebook of these tweets from somebody, talking about "The Origin of Totalitarianism", and I thought it was interesting. This person's twitter has since been deleted, but the screenshot is here. Weren't there people upthread talking about this as well? What else should we expect?
posted by gucci mane at 11:10 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

while his approval rating is low overall, it is exceptionally high among republicans

Nah, just normal to maaaaaaybe a smidge low. Gallup instead of Quinnipiac, but GeorgeW started off in the high 80s, low 90s among Republicans, and didn't dip consistently below 75\% until 2008. Reagan started off in the same ballpark. Trump is starting off with Republicans like Bush the Elder.

The thing to really remember is that as he remains unpopular and keeps doing unpopular things, there are going to be two parts to it. One is that his approval rating among Republicans will drop some but still be pretty high. The other is that some weak Republicans will become Republican leaners, and some GOP leaners become pure independents, and depending on who's reporting what will stop counting in GOP approval. Because their disapproval drove their identification away from the GOP.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:16 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Hannity dredging up Kitty Dukakis? Yet again, everything old is new again.
posted by rhizome at 11:17 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

His approval rating is at 36%. He managed Dukakis numbers of the popular vote. He's far from invincible. If X percentage want what they're getting, fine. Fuck them and beat them. They're not a majority.

The problem is that people who want a lot of what Trump is preparing to deliver apparently are a majority in the places where it counts -- the US Senate and House of Representatives. And soon, thanks to years of successful obstruction, you will be able to add the federal judiciary to that list. And you can also add to that list the legislatures and governorships of a majority of the states.

Trump is an unprecedented threat to American democracy and needs to be opposed and defeated. That should be top priority. But that's not going to end the problem and things are not going to go back to normal, safe, and rational once he's gone.

Despite positions which are supposedly more in tune with what the people of the USA want, Democrats have been surprisingly bad at translating that into political success. There are many reasons for this . To some extent the Republicans have enjoyed the benefits of structural biases which are inherent in our system. To an even greater extent, the Republicans have been shameless about stacking the deck even further through gerrymandering and intentional voter disenfranchisement and the Democrats have been stupefyingly ineffective at fighting this.

And that's not even talking about midterm elections, when a frighteningly large portion of Democratic voters simply don't show up. I don't know what the Democrats can do to motivate their voters to vote in off years but they need to figure it out and do it, ASAP, because for far too long the party has been relying on the presidency and the courts to protect their agenda and we're about to see what happens when those protections fail and it ain't gonna be pretty.

Clinton, had she won, wouldn't enjoy nearly the power to advance her agenda that Trump has failed his way upwards into, and a lot of that is down to Democrats' years and years of neglecting to put proper resources into fighting for the other branches of government in this country. In my state they don't even bother to seriously contest our sole congressional seat..
posted by Nerd of the North at 12:15 AM on January 27, 2017 [55 favorites]

Gucci mane: if Bannon goes by the 1933 playbook, de legitimize/harass/arrest the press, remove your enemies from power, create or capitalize on a crisis to suspend rights.
posted by gofargogo at 12:18 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

I guess in Hannity's world either police should regularly waterboard suspects or reporter's children deserve what's coming to them.

Hannity himself claimed on April 22, 2009 that he would be waterboarded to demonstrate it isn't torture. I'm sure he has a genuine belief that it isn't, which is why Hannity will doubtlessly be keeping his word by finally following through. Or not.
posted by jaduncan at 12:42 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

did somebody say something about the country being run by Muppets
posted by reluctant early bird at 1:00 AM on January 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

The vanished twitter account noted a few comments above was the subject of an askMeFi in December.
posted by stonepharisee at 1:15 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Elliott Lusztig is gone? Dammit, he and Sarah Kendzior were the two most urgent and impressive anti-Trump voices on my Twitter feed. They had a falling-out a day or two ago, after he called a post of hers alarmist; his dejected response to her response to that may have something to do with the shuttering. He also got sick of people hounding him about his "true" identity, and pointed out that he's in the process of legally changing his name to Lusztig; yesterday he posted his current name, and he's posted his photo many times. That might also have factored into it.

Another urgent and impressive voice on Twitter: Caroline O.
posted by rory at 1:54 AM on January 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

(via the Grauniad) Set to footage of the Women's March in London, here's Lily Allen's cover of Rufus Wainwright's Going To A Town:

I'm going to a town that has already been burnt down
I'm going to a place that has already been disgraced
I'm gonna see some folks who have already been let down
I'm so tired of America

I'm gonna make it up for all of The Sunday Times
I'm gonna make it up for all of the nursery rhymes
They never really seem to want to tell the truth
I'm so tired of you, America

Making my own way home, ain't gonna be alone
I've got a life to live, America
I've got a life to lead

Tell me, do you really think you go to hell for having loved?
Tell me, enough of thinking everything that you've done is good
I really need to know, after soaking the body of Jesus Christ in blood
I'm so tired of America

I really need to know
I may just never see you again, or might as well
You took advantage of a world that loved you well
I'm going to a town that has already been burnt down
I'm so tired of you, America

Making my own way home, ain't gonna be alone
I've got a life to lead, America
I've got a life to lead
I got a soul to feed
I got a dream to heed
And that's all I need

Making my own way home, ain't gonna be alone
I'm going to a town
That has already been burnt down

(Bonus: here's her protest playlist.)
posted by progosk at 2:50 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the recommendations, rory. The video of Sarah Kendzior taking down that guy from Breitbart was worth it alone.
posted by guiseroom at 2:52 AM on January 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

Facebook Tweaks Its 'Trending Topics' Algorithm To Better Reflect Real News

As of Wednesday, the company has once again changed its trending algorithms. Personal preferences are now out of the equation. "Facebook will no longer be personalized based on someone's interests," Facebook says in a press release. "Everyone in the same region will see the same topics." For now, a region is considered a country, so everyone in the U.S. should see the same topics.

The latest algorithm changes are part of Facebook's ongoing effort to curtail the spread of fake news.

posted by books for weapons at 3:50 AM on January 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

@admlinks: Intel dossier on Trump said Russians offered him a 19% share in Rosneft to lift sanctions.

19% of Rosneft was just sold to an unknown buyer
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:25 AM on January 27, 2017 [66 favorites]

The Rosneft sale happened six weeks ago. Sanctions are to be lifted as early as this weekend. In six more weeks we'll probably have a NYT headline "FBI was investigating Rosneft ties to Trump..."
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:52 AM on January 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

Intel dossier on Trump said Russians offered him a 19% share in Rosneft to lift sanctions.

19% of Rosneft was just sold to an unknown buyer

In six more weeks we'll probably have a NYT headline "FBI was investigating Rosneft ties to Trump..."

If this is real, this is how we wind up with a Pence administration free of Trump's baggage.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:57 AM on January 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Wherein Trump's reported pick for EU ambassador compares the EU to the USSR and says he hopes he can help break it up like he did the Soviet Union.

@astroehlein:
Deeply offensive statement from Ted Malloch, reportedly Trump pick for amb to Brussels. EU like USSR? No sense of history (v @jonwalker121) [video]
posted by chris24 at 5:04 AM on January 27, 2017 [11 favorites]

Teresa who?

Teresa May - without the "h" - is in fact a soft porn actress and glamour model who starred in a video for the song Smack My B**** Up, by dance music band The Prodigy.

White House spells Theresa May's name wrong three times in memo ahead of visit (Daily Telegraph)

EDIT: linked fixed
posted by Mister Bijou at 5:04 AM on January 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

Just what, at this point, would Trump have to do to actually upset his core supporters? Sell Alaska back to the Russians?
posted by Major Clanger at 5:05 AM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Teresa May - without the "h" - is in fact a soft porn actress and glamour model who starred in a video for the song Smack My B**** Up, by dance music band The Prodigy.

Banner day for C-SPAN.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:07 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

I think the only thing that would sink him with core supporters is video of him crying on the floor in front of Putin or something else that irrepably destroys his tough guy facade
posted by C'est la D.C. at 5:09 AM on January 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Deeply offensive statement from Ted Malloch

I feel like they actually went and found some schmuck who looks like Farage for the lulz.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:09 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

If the Rosneft buyer is Trump, but the sanctions haven't actually been lifted yet? Quick, somebody figure out a way to stop him from lifting the sanctions! Then the Russians will take care of the problem themselves. I can dream, can't I?
posted by Rykey at 5:09 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

What makes you think he won't try to sell Alaska back to the Russians?
posted by tel3path at 5:15 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

WSJ is criticizing Schumer for opposing DeVos.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:17 AM on January 27, 2017

Major Clanger: Just what, at this point, would Trump have to do to actually upset his core supporters?

I really think it'd take one of:

Nuclear weapons detonated on US soil.
Hyperinflation of the dollar.
The destruction of Fox News.

Seriously, the guy is teflon with his supporters. I have never understood cults of personality, and these last two months are forcing me to rewrite my entire worldview.
posted by ragtag at 5:19 AM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump: Look forward to seeing final results of VoteStand. Gregg Phillips and crew say at least 3,000,000 votes were illegal. We must do better!
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:19 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Raw Story on Gregg Phillips. TL;DR: Trump is amplifying a kook with a twitter account who refuses to release any 'evidence'.
posted by PenDevil at 5:22 AM on January 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

The WSJ says "Democrats have decided to oppose nearly every one of President Trump’s nominees," and again the Right lives in a fantasy world I'd like to move to.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 5:25 AM on January 27, 2017 [32 favorites]

Not that it wasn't obvious well before the election, but at least some libertarians seem to be coming to their senses. From Radley Balko:

Fellow libertarians: So this last week has shown that Trump the president promises to be every bit as awful as Trump the candidate. His ABC News interview was exceptionally horrifying. Seriously. Go read it. We're now governed by your crazy uncle who sends you all those forwarded emails.

Maybe at this point, stuff like pointing and laughing at liberal/media hypocrisy, crowing about political correctness, invoking "Obama did it too" or "Hillary did it too" arguments, mocking social justice groups who fear Trump -- maybe these should no longer be our main priorities. Maybe this is the time to start directing most or all of our energy at the people who actually hold power now, and who are threatening to do some very unlibertarian things with it. Maybe, just maybe, we could even try to find some common ground with some of those aforementioned groups.

Just throwing it out there.

posted by chris24 at 5:28 AM on January 27, 2017 [44 favorites]

@BeauWillimon started a little Twitter campaign to mail Steve Bannon a note with the first amendment written on it.

Off to find a stamp.
posted by hilaryjade at 5:28 AM on January 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

@pdacosta:
"The truth is the opposition party right now." - Carl Bernstein on @CNN
posted by chris24 at 5:33 AM on January 27, 2017 [23 favorites]

Ragtag, I'm baffled by his particular cult too. Out of all the things to hate about the guy—almost all of which were known before the election—one of the biggest things turning his supporters against him is his overturning of the mortgage fee cut. Not his hugely expensive, deficit-exploding policy proposals. Not the massive transfer of wealth from average Americans to the richest. It's the five hundred dollars more people will have to pay on their mortgages.

I get that the "fuck you, got mine" is the primary mindset of ~~Republicans~~ Trump followers... but focusing on the mortgage fee cut is like raging at a bank robber for grabbing the gumball machine in the lobby on his way out. So weird.
posted by Rykey at 5:34 AM on January 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Well, they have mortgages. They can understand the fact that Trump just took money from their pockets. The deficit is some big amorphous thing that they (and I) don't really comprehend.
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:37 AM on January 27, 2017 [13 favorites]

National treasure John Dingell.

@JohnDingell:
I'm also registered in two states: the state of Michigan and the state of denial that this guy was elected President.
posted by chris24 at 5:37 AM on January 27, 2017 [73 favorites]

Is it me or is his whole face situation veering into previously unexplored shades of mulberry

Don't worry, the experts are on the case.
posted by Room 641-A at 5:41 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Where is Trumpleaks.org? I'm beginning to believe the Ethical Hacker only exists on "Mr. Robot".

David Kernell got a year for Palin's humdrum shit spewing. This hypothetical person would probably be throwing their life away for the act.

It's an area where it really helps to have state sponsorship and protection... There's also almost certainly a Dunning/Kruger aspect as it seems entirely likely there's a big overlap between the script-kiddie and fascist-kiddie communities. The more you learn about pen-testing and systems security the more you realise how hard it is to do untraceably, how much it would really be a full time occupation to do right. You are also more likely to have read the laws involved and it's more likely you have IRL-commitments that are going to suffer when you end up spending a couple of decades in the klink.

That said, the stakes probably are getting to the 'fuck-it' point, particularly for sys-geeks in the science community.

One of my daydream-ambitions would be to be part of an anarchist detective agency: lurking grey-hatted in the shadows, seeking to undermine those who seek to destroy civil society using the superpowers of Research and Pointedly Paying Attention. All I need is one big lottery win...

I was thinking about how the Trumpkins and the alt-right and the Far Right are all surprised by how much The Left is digging in our heels and resisting Trump. How many of them still seem to think Liberals will give up easily.

If history is any guide they may be in for a serious shock when they discover just how much some people hate nazis, and how willing they are to act on it.
posted by Buntix at 5:42 AM on January 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

I am having a mini meltdown BECAUSE I CAN'T BELIEVE THOSE FUCKERS VOTED THIS MAN AS OUR PRESIDENT.

I am not normally a hateful person but I have a strong desire to stomp on their faces.

I found out yesterday that one of my coworkers, who has made comments in the past that he was cool on Trump, actually voted for him. Taking advice from a friend, I asked with all sincerity why he voted for Trump and he told me it was because he wasn't Hillary. When I pushed a bit deeper he said it was because he's a hobbyist gun owner who likes to own and shoot guns. He felt that Hillary would take that away. He's also libertarian he said, and that he feels like there's too much government and far far too much welfare.

When my coworker told him that without welfare he'd have died as a child.. trump-voting-gun-owner made a face like that was sad but not enough to continue providing welfare. Then coworker asked if gun-owner had ever been poor, to which he said nope with a smug shrug.

Needless to say I won't be eager to grab lunch with him anymore.
posted by INFJ at 5:42 AM on January 27, 2017 [39 favorites]

Recent tweet from Gregg Philips, the nutjob Trump just namechecked to defend his popular vote loss.

@JumpVote:
No matter what Obama or anyone else says, the only entity that hacked election systems was Obama's Department of Homeland Security.
posted by chris24 at 5:47 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

PS > also just read this on maintaining outrage without burning out and found it helpful - apologies if it has been linked before.
posted by hilaryjade at 5:49 AM on January 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

The WSJ says "Democrats have decided to oppose nearly every one of President Trump’s nominees,"

Putting aside the litany of Republican obstructionism over the past eight years, those of us from countries with parliamentary (as opposed to presidential) government systems are now doing that quizzical cocked-head look your dog does when she's confused. Surely it's the Opposition's job and duty to point out the faults great and small in the Government's proposals. More so in an age when the same party controls the executive and legislative branches, since those days of back-slapping go-along-to-get-along bipartisanship are well and truly past, and have been since at least the GOP takeover of Congress in 1994.
posted by hangashore at 5:49 AM on January 27, 2017 [22 favorites]

Gregg Phillips' Twitter does not disappoint. Bible quotes, voter fraud evidence (Dept. of Homeland Security hacked election!), intel from his "spook" friends, Obama practically a cop killer, Lena Dunham, Soros conspiracy theories, Russia circlejerks, disappointment that @twitter and @jack would allow anti-Christmas and anti-Christian bots to generate fake hate so close to Christmas, popular vote is a liberal myth and doesn't exist, textbook definition of "mandate"—and that's only in the month of December!

Definitely my favorite though:
National popular vote is a false metric.

Similar to west coast leftist vote, national woman's vote, or homeless gay vote.

#unrigged
posted by guiseroom at 5:51 AM on January 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Surely it's the Opposition's job and duty to point out the faults great and small in the Government's proposals. More so in an age when the same party controls the executive and legislative branches, since those days of back-slapping go-along-to-get-along bipartisanship are well and truly past, and have been since at least the GOP takeover of Congress in 1994.

Nope. When the Republicans obstruct every possible thing they can using any possible parliamentary tool no matter how ill-fitting to the job, that's patriotism. When the Democrats even mildly question a GOP with the barest majority as to who their leader is selecting for cabinet positions, that's just sore losers foot dragging who should shut up and just accept that they lost, so obviously the GOP gets 100% of everything it wants now.
posted by tocts at 5:54 AM on January 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Just what, at this point, would Trump have to do to actually upset his core supporters?

Cooperate with a Democrat. On anything.

The WSJ says "Democrats have decided to oppose nearly every one of President Trump’s nominees," and again the Right lives in a fantasy world I'd like to move to.

No, that's accurate. Democrats HAVE decided to oppose nearly every one of President Trump's nominees. The Democrats' elected representatives, on the other hand...
posted by delfin at 5:56 AM on January 27, 2017 [36 favorites]

That is why I'm sadly skeptical that opposition will work for the Democrats the way it works for the Republicans.

The GOP proudly obstructs the government in every way for YEARS but the moment they have the power they attack the Dems for minimal resistance and, AND, here's the catch. Republican voters don't care about the hypocrisy. They don't. They fucking applaud it.

The Dems can't win that way because our base and our voters are radically different and respond to radically different things, like honesty and cooperation, hope and change. I thought Obama was nuts to push for bipartisan cooperation, because it plainly was never ever going to happen, and it fucked him (and us) over good.

There's value in standing your moral ground, and I think the Dems should be standing firm right now for lack of a fucking better option, but I can't see the optimistic or aspirational comparisons this to the Tea Party/GOP party line. It worked so well for them because, to their base, blatant lying, obstructionism, and hypocrisy are features not bugs. You have to tailor the resistance to your audience and I have zero clue how to do that right now on our side.
posted by lydhre at 6:00 AM on January 27, 2017 [18 favorites]

Bluntly, the GOP base is fundamentally alike to Trump -- which is to say, it has no shame, and only views shame as a thing you use against other people who are stupid enough to respond to it. So, obstruction: they're 100% for it when it's their side, because no tactic can ever be a source of shame for them, and they're 100% against it when it's the other side, because the other side is dumb enough to worry about being ashamed.
posted by tocts at 6:02 AM on January 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

> I have never understood cults of personality, and these last two months are forcing me to rewrite my entire worldview.

I assume even politicians I respect and admire are flawed human beings who might have motivations and ambitions I wouldn't approve of, so a mindset wherein someone can look at Trump and see some sort of God-Emperor is utterly beyond my comprehension.

> Ragtag, I'm baffled by his particular cult too. Out of all the things to hate about the guy—almost all of which were known before the election—one of the biggest things turning his supporters against him is his overturning of the mortgage fee cut. Not his hugely expensive, deficit-exploding policy proposals. Not the massive transfer of wealth from average Americans to the richest. It's the five hundred dollars more people will have to pay on their mortgages.

This mindset works both ways. Part of the reasons Rob Ford got elected was because he promised to kill an annual $60 car registration tax. Lots of people spend more than that at Tim Horton's every month without even thinking about it. It's peanuts. But because it was a tax that didn't directly benefit people it could be built up into a great and terrible oppression.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:03 AM on January 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Facebook Tweaks Its 'Trending Topics' Algorithm To Better Reflect Real News

A friend just asked if anybody else has "mostly Fox and Breitbart" in their trending news on Facebook right now. So ... if that's the result of this algorithm tweak, then great fucking job, Facebook.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:08 AM on January 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

Surely it's the Opposition's job and duty to point out the faults great and small in the Government's proposals.

That's not what's happening. The Republicans oppose people that they themselves previously praised simply because Obama (or a Democrat) nominated them. They oppose proposals that they themselves developed and successfully implemented simply because Obama (or a Democrat) proposed it.

This is not due dilligence, this is obstructionist bullshit. 💩
posted by Room 641-A at 6:09 AM on January 27, 2017 [29 favorites]

A friend just asked if anybody else has "mostly Fox and Breitbart" in their trending news on Facebook right now.

That's just Zuck celebrating the diversity of people with different viewpoints.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:13 AM on January 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

uncleozzy, taking the benefit of a doubt here, maybe your friend is a closeted republican?
posted by INFJ at 6:16 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

In Pravda news - the Voice Of America, the international broadcaster with an $800m annual budget and which used to be run by a bipartisan board of governors, is now run by 'a couple of twenty-something political operatives from the Trump campaign' directly appointed by Trump (link MSNBC/Maddow) - a blogger from the Daily Surge, and a member of the Utopian Experiment which tried to take over New Hampshire through libertarian entryism.

A recent change in VOA's rules now makes it legal for it to broadcast within the US.

Trimp TV is alive and well and is slouching towards your TV screens, and it's state-funded.
posted by Devonian at 6:19 AM on January 27, 2017 [36 favorites]

The thing that gets me is just how much it seems that this group is coming into the WH without what seems to be real preparation. You would think that some of his most important actions would be done properly but no if other reports are correct, Bannon and Miller are just writing these things themselves with little consultation with anyone else.

The question have is how much is due to it being just a show, how much is base on incompetence and not having a real understand of how it all works and how much is based on over confidence that just write shit on paper and it will happen somehow.

Take the wall for instance. The indications are that they got as far as 'I'm gonna build a wall.' They don't even have a proper funding plan in place beyond 'Uh Congress will front the money'. This is not going to be able to be built during his 4 years. * years is pushing it. The likelihood of it happening with more then just some 'show' miles is slim to none. That thing if done properly would take years. The engineering planning alone is something that would take months if not a year or two. The issue of all the private land that will have to be taken will take years considering the amount of eminent domaining need and more then likely court cases that will come out of that years. There will be court cases around treaty rights and environmental issues. It's a farce and is going to be one big boondoggle.

My question is how much does Donald understand this and how much do these people understand this. Does he really think that it's magically just going to start in a few months or due they actually know that it's all just a big 'show'.

Reality check: Many of Trump’s early vows will never actually happen

No one can accuse Donald Trump of campaigning in poetry. But after just one week in the White House, the new president is bumping up against the hard reality of governing in prose.

Many of the sweeping actions President Trump vowed this week through his executive orders and proclamations are unlikely to happen, either because they are impractical, opposed by Congress and members of his Cabinet, or full of legal holes.

The reality — that yawning gap between what Trump says he will do and what he actually can do — underscores his chaotic start, which includes executive actions drafted by close aides rather than experts and without input from the agencies tasked with implementing them.

On a host of issues, from health care to trade to immigration, Trump began his presidency with executive orders intended to both placate and excite his base by keeping his bold campaign promises — in rhetoric if not immediate, tangible results. And the White House says Trump’s executive actions should be viewed as initial moves to enact his agenda.
posted by Jalliah at 6:21 AM on January 27, 2017 [23 favorites]

If von Clownstick was at all serious about his legacy and image as President . . . one would think that he would bend heaven and earth to make these first few days run smoothly PR-wise

What if he is? What if this is the best showing of his organization? As Jack Nicholson said onscreen twenty years ago, what if this is as good as it gets?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:22 AM on January 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

As Jack Nicholson said onscreen 47 years ago, "This used to be a hell of a good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it."
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:24 AM on January 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

uncleozzy, taking the benefit of a doubt here, maybe your friend is a closeted republican?

Ha, not even the slightest chance. Of that I am certain.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:26 AM on January 27, 2017

If anything Jack Nicholson did or said is relevant to today, it's every single horrifying minute of The Shining.
posted by dng at 6:28 AM on January 27, 2017 [15 favorites]

uncleozzy, taking the benefit of a doubt here, maybe your friend is a closeted republican?

That shouldn't make a difference anymore, because as stated above:

"Facebook will no longer be personalized based on someone's interests," Facebook says in a press release. "Everyone in the same region will see the same topics." For now, a region is considered a country, so everyone in the U.S. should see the same topics.

posted by Too-Ticky at 6:29 AM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

As Jack Nicholson said onscreen 28 years ago, "This town needs an enema!"
posted by tocts at 6:29 AM on January 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

Trump liked to judge on a scale of 1 to 10

"You're an eight" said Trump.
posted by phoque at 6:30 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump any work and no twitter makes Donald a sad boy

[fake]
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 6:30 AM on January 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

My last comment is full of typos. Apologies. My computer farted, did something weird and I hit post in panic before it shut off.
posted by Jalliah at 6:31 AM on January 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

What if he is? What if this is the best showing of his organization? As Jack Nicholson said onscreen twenty years ago, what if this is as good as it gets?

This seems relevant to this question.

Trump’s government looks an awful lot like a badly run business

If this is what “running government like a business” looks like, it’s no wonder President Trump’s companies kept going bankrupt.

One week into the presidency, we’ve gotten a taste of Trump’s management style. And so far it’s been plagued by many of the bad habits common to poorly run businesses.

Take, for example, his administration’s clear indifference to — or outright rejection of — good measurement and analytics.

Or, as Trump’s commerce secretary nominee, Wilbur Ross, argued not once but twice in his confirmation hearing last week: “I have a very heartfelt saying in management that anything you can’t measure, you can’t manage.”

Ross, arguably the most business-savvy of Trump’s Cabinet picks, has not yet been confirmed. In his absence, the administration has not exactly been taking his “heartfelt saying” to heart.
posted by Jalliah at 6:35 AM on January 27, 2017 [31 favorites]

The issue of all the private land that will have to be taken will take years considering the amount of eminent domaining need and more then likely court cases that will come out of that years.

This, this this. I mean 'the feds are coming to take your land' isn't ever a tantalizing proposition for Texans, even if you smear it with a racist coating. But 'the feds are coming to take your land and you have to pay for the pleasure of it?'.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:36 AM on January 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

The objective of Trump's businesses is to make Trump feel better about himself. By that metric, they are all successes.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:40 AM on January 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

And of course this morning's tweet was inspired by what he saw on CNN this morning. Chris Cuomo roasting Gregg Phillips on New Day.

@ParkerMolloy
Anyway, if you want to know what got the Commander-in-Tweet going on that tangent this morning, it was @NewDay [video]
posted by chris24 at 6:40 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

This, this this. I mean 'the feds are coming to take your land' isn't ever a tantalizing proposition for Texans, even if you smear it with a racist coating. But 'the feds are coming to take your land and you have to pay for the pleasure of it?'.

And if the some of the stuff I read and saw on the news yesterday they aren't all so favourable to the whole wall thing in the first place, including one of their reps who has already spoken out against it.
posted by Jalliah at 6:41 AM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

The objective of Trump's businesses is to make Trump feel better about himself. By that metric, they are all successes.

Then they failing at this metric too. Those he's trying to twist his mind into believing it to be the case.
posted by Jalliah at 6:43 AM on January 27, 2017

Timeline: 7:25am, CNN has Gregg Phillips on, @ChrisCuomo challenges Phillips' lack of voter fraud evidence. 8:12am, Trump tweets about Gregg Phillips.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:45 AM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

If anything Jack Nicholson did or said is relevant to today, it's every single horrifying minute of The Shining.

Here's ~~Johnny~~ Donny!
posted by nubs at 6:47 AM on January 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

A friend just asked if anybody else has "mostly Fox and Breitbart" in their trending news on Facebook right now. So ... if that's the result of this algorithm tweak, then great fucking job, Facebook.

Eeeeexcellent. It's all falling into place.*

*Once again, I implore you to please get out of the ~~flytrap~~ FacePals. There's no win to be had in there, and real friends exist in real life.
posted by petebest at 6:47 AM on January 27, 2017 [12 favorites]

Canada, Netherlands discuss fund to counter Trump abortion order

Canada's minister for international development has spoken with her Dutch counterpart about a proposal by the Netherlands to fund abortions overseas in the wake of President Donald Trump's move to ban American funding for such services.

Lilianne Ploumen, the Dutch minister of foreign trade and development co-operation, announced her desire to establish an international fund earlier this week after Trump signed an executive order that prohibits funding to international organizations that promote or perform abortion.

Previous Republican presidents have applied similar limits on American aid, but Trump's policy significantly expands on the amount of funding that could be impacted.

"We have to make up as much as possible for this financial blow, with a broad-based fund that governments, companies and civil society organizations can donate to," Ploumen said in a statement. "So that women can continue to make their own decisions about their own bodies."

Ploumen reached out to International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and the two spoke by phone on Wednesday.
posted by Jalliah at 6:48 AM on January 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

trump is the apotheosis of the so-called "small government" conservative: he hates government so much, he doesn't know what it does. and now that he is the government, he doesn't know what he can or cannot do.
posted by murphy slaw at 6:51 AM on January 27, 2017 [22 favorites]

Once again, I implore you to please get out of the flytrap FacePals

Yeah, I should say, this is something I couldn't verify myself, since while I do still have an account, I haven't actually engaged with it in about three years. And life is better that way.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:52 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Personally I think social media is one of the the biggest battlegrounds today and leaving it concedes it to the fascists.
posted by chris24 at 6:54 AM on January 27, 2017 [63 favorites]

Seven immigration law professors confirm that term "removable aliens" includes legal permanent residents too, not just undocumented.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:54 AM on January 27, 2017 [27 favorites]

trump is the apotheosis of the so-called "small government" conservative: he hates government so much, he doesn't know what it does. and now that he is the government, he doesn't know what he can or cannot do.

Unfortunately, he assumes he can do anything. He's limited only by his ignorance.
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:55 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Quick look at my Trending topics gives you articles from The Guardian, CBC.ca, WaPo and LA times. My guess is that the algorithms draw upon news sites shared by friends and friends-of-friends.
posted by kariebookish at 6:57 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

> he doesn't know what he can or cannot do

This would be a lot more comforting if we all had more of an idea of what the limitations are than he does.
posted by tonycpsu at 6:58 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

I hate the reflexive Facebook dismissals. Yes, friends exist in real life, but my friends live all over the world and have stupid busy lives, as do I, so interacting while liking photos of our kids/cats/food is the only realistic way to do it.
posted by lydhre at 7:02 AM on January 27, 2017 [41 favorites]

brother if you are looking to me for comfort you have come to the wrong house
posted by murphy slaw at 7:02 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

*Once again, I implore you to please get out of the flytrap FacePals. There's no win to be had in there, and real friends exist in real life.

Sorry not going to happen here. I get the what problems and hate it with a passion but the positives still are outweighing the negatives. There is nothing out there yet the provides the type of easy access networking for people that are spread out across countries. For instance if I gave up facebook and went with physical 'friends' I'd be stuck in ruralville with 4 members of my family (the bulk of it spread out across two countries) and cut off from friends, who are spread out across (Canada and the US), cut off from events in my town (because this is one the main way people here put things together) and left with a handful of physical 'friends' who have something in common with me. As much as appreciate the this sentiment when you don't live in high populous area where there's choice because of size and diversity then Facebook provides and outlet for connection and sanity. If I went off facebook I would have barely any contact with anyone that isn't rural, white and Christian. There is nobody here to make diverse connections even if I wanted too.

So no. I'm going to keep my connections with the wider world as problematic as the platform might be right now. The positives outweigh the negative.
posted by Jalliah at 7:04 AM on January 27, 2017 [42 favorites]

If any of you are NYC local, this is going down outside Schumer's building tomorrow.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:05 AM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

As always, Facebook is what you make of it. If you find your life better without it, more power to you, but I personally find a lot more good and joy in my feed than pain and rage, because I've curated it that way. Zuckerberg can change all the algorithms he wants, but he can't force me to friend or follow awful people.
posted by Roommate at 7:06 AM on January 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Seven immigration law professors confirm that term "removable aliens" includes legal permanent residents too, not just undocumented.

So basically my choices are either stay as an LPR and make myself invisible so the jackboots won't come knocking on my door to deport me if I get too loud or become a citizen and give up any chance of making any illegal detention an international incident.

Well the next four years are certainly going to be fun.
posted by Talez at 7:06 AM on January 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

The woman who the 14 year old Emmett Till supposedly came on to, which led to him being brutally lynched and mutilated and the killers acquitted, admits she made it up. This country was and is racist AF.

HOW AUTHOR TIMOTHY TYSON FOUND THE WOMAN AT THE CENTER OF THE EMMETT TILL CASE: With a renewed cultural interest in the 1955 murder that catalyzed the 20th century civil rights movement, an interview with the author of a new book who tracked down the long-hidden woman at its center.
posted by chris24 at 7:06 AM on January 27, 2017 [33 favorites]

Personally I think social media is one of the the biggest battlegrounds today and leaving it concedes it to the fascists.

Totally agree. Sure, social media can be distracting and evil, but it can also be a powerful tool for organizing and connecting and influencing. Just leaving it altogether is not the answer (although if people personally want to do that for their own mental health, more power to you). The answer is to avoid getting sucked into the non-productive aspects of it but still to use it to further our cause.
posted by aka burlap at 7:08 AM on January 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

*Once again, I implore you to please get out of the flytrap FacePals. There's no win to be had in there, and real friends exist in real life.

Facebook is how I found out someone I thought had died as a teenager was alive and (mostly) well, after ten years. Without facebook, I would still think she was dead. For all of its evils, it is also the dominant social media site.
posted by dinty_moore at 7:08 AM on January 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Even though large tracts of Facebook and many old and famous websites have fallen or may fall into the grip of the alt-right and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in forums, we shall fight on the message boards and blogs, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the wikis, we shall defend our internet, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the networks, we shall fight on the social networks, we shall fight in the databases and in the chatrooms, we shall fight in the portals; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this website or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our virtual communities beyond the firewall, armed and guarded by the moderators, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New Web, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:09 AM on January 27, 2017 [14 favorites]

This is amazing.

@Stl_Manifest On Holocaust Remembrance Day #WeRemember the victims of Naziism turned away at the doorstep of America in 1939. #RefugeesWelcome. Built by @russelneiss
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:11 AM on January 27, 2017 [48 favorites]

Soooo... Pence is 100% behind the vote recount, which POTUS is justifying by citing a lunatic twitter guy with an app which for some reason CNN put on TV.

Since there seems to be no pushback from either party, we seem to be fucked since POTUS can now cite any twitter lunatic to justify any policy with full cooperation of his party.

Or maybe I'm not seeing the bright side.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:11 AM on January 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

We take the money he saved with the Endowment for the Arts and the mortgage tax discount to fund 0.00001% of the recount.
posted by ian1977 at 7:13 AM on January 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

"The truth is the opposition party right now." - Carl Bernstein on @CNN

"Carl Bernstein is garbage" -- Bob Woodward, sometime soon
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:14 AM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

My (very carefully curated) Facebook experience is about 10% ugh, 70% uplifting and 20% life-saving. I have had emergency after emergency this year, and I have been able to quickly find resources and recruit actual bodies when my mother attempted suicide, when the rental I got her near me flooded, and this weekend when I need help moving her in one huge push. I don't know where I would be right now without being able to cry into the wilderness and have many kind voice holler back. Meanwhile, one of my dear friends has alienated EVERYONE with his unhinged FB persona, and my husband is in the middle of a long-lasting rage-quit. You get out what you put in. (I'm la-la-la-ing privacy issues etc. Just can't deal with that this minute. Thanks, though.)
posted by thebrokedown at 7:14 AM on January 27, 2017 [24 favorites]

The Endowment for the Arts might as well be defunded for now, since future generations will have to decide whether artifacts generated during this administration will be put into a memorial or destroyed.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:16 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Oh my lord. Do not wander into the 'rants and raves' section of your local craigslist. The trumpists are in full force.
posted by ian1977 at 7:19 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Blessed are the postmakers. Can we have a new thread, pretty please?

Seven immigration law professors confirm that term "removable aliens" includes legal permanent residents too, not just undocumented.

Jesus, Scarfolk Council [real website, fake place] is sounding more real everyday.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:19 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

From way upthread: By the end of ~~his time in office~~ next week, Trump will have done everything he accused Clinton of and so much more.

Fixed.
posted by Gelatin at 7:20 AM on January 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

Not only are the trumpists in full force....they are warning minorities, women and liberals in general of all the righteous ass-kickings that are on the way. How creepy.
posted by ian1977 at 7:24 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Robin Porch, a staunch Hillary Clinton supporter, died just hours after Donald Trump was inaugurated President.

So in her obituary, the 62-year-old Illinois woman's family worked in a little nod to her political leanings.

"With Trump as president, Canada wasn't far enough, so she moved to Heaven," the obit reads.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:25 AM on January 27, 2017 [42 favorites]

Facebook helped me find my dogs one time. They got out and went walkabout, which is a serious thing when your surrounded by fields and neighbors are half a km in each direction. A friend said don't worry I'm on it and sent out a blast because she has everyone around here in her nettwork. was out roaming hill and dale and knocking on doors when I came to them. It was hell because I didn't even know what direction they went in. 4 hours later a message came through FB that they were spotted (Mom was home with it on). They were in the opposite direction from where I was searching so I was able to narrow the search area. Dogs were found.
posted by Jalliah at 7:26 AM on January 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

China 'deploys long-range nuclear-capable missiles to coast' in response to Donald Trump's 'aggression'

So that doomsday clock was probably overly optimistic.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:27 AM on January 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

Not only are the trumpists in full force....they are warning minorities, women and liberals in general of all the righteous ass-kickings that are on the way. How creepy.

The vindictiveness has been a hallmark all along, but it's still so upsetting to see it power. Trumpists on Reddit were crowing about how the proposed tariff would destroy the Mexican economy and basically salivating about the prospect of a failed state on our border like that wouldn't be a disaster for the US. I get that they're cruel hateful people, but it's making them so stupid.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:30 AM on January 27, 2017 [25 favorites]

President Trump makes another argument in favour of torture, though he says he won't do try to use it right now because Mattis says no:"

Thanks, General Mattis. We only need you for a few years and then we promise you can go back to your farm after the Republic is saved.
posted by corb at 7:31 AM on January 27, 2017 [11 favorites]

Let me see if I've got this right.
1) Make outrageously false claim
2) Wait for media to call you out for lying
3) Say that the media is lying
4) Make fake evidence supporting your false claim, thereby "proving" that the media is lying
5) ???
6) Profit--who am I kidding, you were doing that anyway.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 7:32 AM on January 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

President Trump's Insecure Android A Galaxy S3 does not meet the security requirements of the average teenager, let alone the purported leader of the free world. The best available Android OS on this phone (4.4) is a woefully out-of-date and unsupported. The S4, running 5.0.1, is only marginally better. Without exaggerating, hacking a Galaxy S3 or S4 is the type of project I would assign as homework for my advanced undergraduate classes.
...
Based on the available information, the working assumption should be that Trump's phone is compromised by at least one—probably multiple—hostile foreign intelligence services and is actively being exploited. This would be exponentially more dangerous if he were carrying this phone into especially secure places. Security experts were rightly aghast to learn that Secretary Clinton kept her BlackBerry in her secure office in the State Department. This is far worse.

So what can be done?

First, anyone around the President should presume they are being actively recorded by hostile powers, regardless of location, unless they are positive the phone is out of the room. One wonders how many secrets have already been lost through that abominable device as Trump and his team get up to speed on our most closely held national security matters.

Remember how the election was based on the sole issue of email security practices?
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:33 AM on January 27, 2017 [66 favorites]

Thanks, General Mattis. We only need you for a few years and then we promise you can go back to your farm after the Republic is saved.

Look: I am highly, highly dubious about his ability to save us from dying in nuclear war and then un-install himself from military dictatorship. But he did he would surely earn the name: CinciMattus
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:35 AM on January 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Can we please, please, PLEASE lay off with the constant comments about how everyone needs to leave Facebook? Good for you if you've decided to do that, but please, your sanctimony about "real life" is not going over well for those of us who are geographically isolated from the people we love the most and want to stay in contact with.
posted by palomar at 7:37 AM on January 27, 2017 [57 favorites]

> "With Trump as president, Canada wasn't far enough, so she moved to Heaven," the obit reads.

Beating the rush! That's smart.
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:41 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Besides, if I left FB, how would I be able to follow people like Sarah Kendzior, Ijeoma Oluo, Luvvie Ajayi, friggin' Dan Rather, and so on? They're on FB, posting things relevant to my current set of interests, keeping me current on what's going on in communities where my only entry point is social media. If I followed the marching orders people keep bleating at me about how I need to disconnect from anything that could ever possibly be icky in any way, I'd know nothing at all about how the March for Life turnout today is fucking abysmal so far... I wonder what else I wouldn't know much about.
posted by palomar at 7:43 AM on January 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

Can we please, please, PLEASE lay off with the constant comments about how everyone needs to leave Facebook? Good for you if you've decided to do that, but please, your sanctimony about "real life" is not going over well for those of us who are geographically isolated from the people we love the most and want to stay in contact with.

This. I literally live on the opposite side of the world to my old friends and family so it's really difficult without something like Facebook.
posted by Talez at 7:47 AM on January 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

(My mom's new rental is owned by the father of my high school sweetheart. High school was 30 years ago. Thanks, Facebook!)
posted by thebrokedown at 7:48 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

"I Was Trained for the Culture Wars in Home School, Awaiting Someone Like Mike Pence as a Messiah"
so... this is disturbing..
posted by xcasex at 7:49 AM on January 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Just what, at this point, would Trump have to do to actually upset his core supporters?

Keep in mind that The Blue is an echo chamber for your POV - it is why you are here and went through the effort to get an account. Odds are your media consumption reflects what you want to hear.

There seems to be a base of around 20% support no matter what due to someone being perceived as part of "your group". Be that group something like political party or whatever. Don't expect that part of "core" to leave.

Government is seen as "broken" - and simple things like not being able to leave a message when you call will be taken as an example. Right now the events are seen as an attempt to "fix" things by getting rid of parts of the government and telling "big media" to go to hell. (Big media are the ones charging $100 a month to get cable TV - taking a swipe at 'em is a proxy attack on the $100 a month bill for the circus part of bread and circuses.)

The Democrats are not seen as being able to deliver on fixing things due to being a part of the system and benefiting from it.

As long as a 2 party either/or system exists you'll end up with the brokenness which got Trump in charge.

You could try to appeal to the "its broken" POV by offering up an actual change to the system like Instant Run Off voting.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 55% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. I can't find the 59% of the actual Trump voters are OK with events per a Rasmussen pole.
posted by rough ashlar at 7:50 AM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Some more hope: Mattis Is Trying To Repair The Damage Trump Is Doing. Also contains some inspirational quotes:

While the president fans the flames of intolerance, Mattis tells the military and civilian employees to be an example to the rest of the country. (“Our armed forces are stronger today because of the perseverance of Dr. King and so many others in this country who have fought for civil rights and equality for all. And we can trace our department’s roots back to an Army patrol in 1805 when we listened to our better angels, and on this day of action, we are inspired to continue being a model for our nation.”)

posted by corb at 7:51 AM on January 27, 2017 [17 favorites]

Remember how the election was based on the sole issue of email security practices?

"I only cared because it was Hillary. Trump can do whatever he likes."
posted by Talez at 7:51 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Seconding palomar, and adding: look, the reason I am so much on Facebook right now--after avoiding it and minimizing my time on it for literally eight years--is because that is where my local organizing is happening. If I want to keep up with the Texas-based Pantsuit Republic, or the Austin Women's Activism Network, or the Austin Indivisible chapter, or Muslim Solidarity ATX, or my local Black Lives Matter chapter--that is where those groups coordinate their local events. That is the biggest place that discussons are happening, that is the biggest place where people are making events and showing up, and that is the best way to plug into local shit at least here.

I am honestly struggling to help people off facebook plug into the local surge of activism and organizing happening in my city because I genuinely do not know where the fuck to send people except email signup lists, which are harder to coordinate for a lot of folks.
posted by sciatrix at 7:53 AM on January 27, 2017 [15 favorites]

Talking to Berners in 2017
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:53 AM on January 27, 2017

Keep in mind that The Blue is an echo chamber for your POV.

Maybe if you define my POV as reality.
posted by diogenes at 7:54 AM on January 27, 2017 [13 favorites]

What if he is? What if this is the best showing of his organization? As Jack Nicholson said onscreen twenty years ago, what if this is as good as it gets?

That's the fun part of my theory. IT DOESN'T MATTER if it works or not. The underpinnings remain sound because an impasse is already baked into it.

What motivates Trump? Not being a success -- else he'd work harder at it. He's failed his way to the top repeatedly and emerged bigger than ever. Not being rich -- see previous statement, plus being President is a way to make everyone ELSE rich. Not political power -- he's never wanted it before. No, it's IMAGE. He wants to be the biggest name in the world, to slap his name on every solid object, to have every pair of lips on Earth talking about him, and in true P.T. Barnum style all publicity is good publicity as long as they spell TRUMP right. And now he's won the biggest popularity contest in the world, he's both famous and infamous, but now what does he do?

What motivates the Republican Party? Two things. One is to install what they believe into law -- overturn everything Obama has done, install their own machine and judges and legislatures to a nigh-irreversible degree, make Babby Jeezus happy so he'll come back. The other is CONTROL. They built a Useful Idiot Generator and it ran so out of control Sorcerer's Apprentice-style that now even Republicans are getting chucked out and the likes of Trump is winning their primaries. They want to reestablish control of the voter base.

So, Trump runs wild and overreaches profusely and on purpose, now that he sits atop a Republican majority that can't be overridden. He goes after 150% of what the Teabots and granny-starvers want. His people get confirmed because, well, how can they not? His own party controls everything. He gets the briefings as to what the job actually requires and says "screw this, this is WORK and I want to get back to my companies." So he resigns in a fit of pique. He rides off into the sunset with 120% approval from 40% of America, who buy Trump Everything for the rest of his life. He becomes The Martyr, the greatest Republican who ever lived and who would've saved the world If It Wasn't For Those Evil Demonrats And Welfare Queens.

Exit Bad Cop, enter Allegedly Good Cop. President Pence says "Let's bow our heads for our Great Leader who was driven out by the poisonous media and rabble. Now let's move forward." Whoever they can and want to keep from Trump's appointees, they keep. Whoever is clearly incompetent gets replaced by someone who's just as conservative but understands what credentials and a public-facing persona are. The Overton Window has been bulldozed so far to the right by all of this that replacing a Hyper-Right Dingbat with a Hard Right Dingbat makes the Hard Right Dingbat the new Center. The Teabots are happy because they have solid conservative majorities everywhere, Pence will put Hard Right Dingbats on the Supreme Court and be Super-Tough On Everyone They Hate and Pence is Simply Carrying On Their Hero's Legacy. And the Republicans get to run the table for years.

[/babble]
posted by delfin at 7:57 AM on January 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

Remember how the election was based on the sole issue of email security practices?

And without the revelations of the emails how would the public know about the party people who wanted to 'cook the books' to get a preferred outcome along with showing how the party people WANTED Donald Trump to be the selected option?

Are the public not entitled to know what was shown by the email security practice revelations?
posted by rough ashlar at 7:58 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

snuffleupagus what movie is that clip from?
posted by aiglet at 7:59 AM on January 27, 2017

So uh. I'm trying to put new post together but so much has happened and happening that it would need a book. Think it's okay if I only get some of it? Cause this is going to take while if it's everything.
posted by Jalliah at 8:01 AM on January 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

-that is where those groups coordinate their local events

This is pretty scary to me, knowing that a fascist is in charge of the NSA. Please assume all plans are being read by Steve Bannon, because it's likely they are. It's not going to take them long to figure out how to turn the IC tools against political opposition domestically.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:01 AM on January 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

what movie is that clip from?

Millennium (1989)
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:02 AM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Once again, I implore you to please get out of the flytrap FacePals. There's no win to be had in there, and real friends exist in real life.

I know this is being beaten into the ground, but I just want to point out that the entire women's march happened as it did due to Facebook, and it continues to be an amazingly valuable organizing tool, particularly for reaching people outside of the normal sphere of activism. It also provides amazing social confirmation topeople (particularly women) who might feel socially isolated in their political beliefs that they are not alone. The revoulution may be live tweeted, but only because it was organized on Facebook.
posted by anastasiav at 8:02 AM on January 27, 2017 [51 favorites]

what movie is that clip from?

Millennium
posted by valkane at 8:03 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Not political power -- he's never wanted it before.

And yet he was in the run off's for alt-parties like the Constitution party and a few others over the years.
posted by rough ashlar at 8:03 AM on January 27, 2017

Jalliah, all the #nextpost needs is the velociraptor chase scene from Jurassic park, right?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:04 AM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

No one runs on the Constitution Party with any intention of winning anything.
posted by delfin at 8:04 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Not political power -- he's never wanted it before.

And yet he was in the run off's for alt-parties like the Constitution party and a few others over the years.

Letting other people put his name on ballots for parties that are never going to win isn't seeking political power, it's seeking name recognition.
posted by Etrigan at 8:05 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Facebook is useful for marketing and organizing. You just have to treat it as though your every interaction with it is a matter of permanent public record.
posted by Coventry at 8:06 AM on January 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

Jalliah, all the #nextpost needs is the velociraptor chase scene from Jurassic park, right?

Or just a link to The Scream.
posted by diogenes at 8:07 AM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

This is pretty scary to me, knowing that a fascist is in charge of the NSA. Please assume all plans are being read by Steve Bannon, because it's likely they are. It's not going to take them long to figure out how to turn the IC tools against political opposition domestically.

Well if Bannon and the NSA really wants to spy on local art shows, Robbie Burns events, the XXX pubs friday concert and the local hospital funding drive way up here in rural Canada then all the power to them.

I get what you're saying here but I'm not that concerned about the upcoming Sledding Festival being spied on. Political events sure but this is mundane, everyday rural stuff I'm talking about here.
posted by Jalliah at 8:09 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

*Once again, I implore you to please get out of the flytrap FacePals. There's no win to be had in there, and real friends exist in real life.

A little late to this party so maybe it's already been said, but Facebook is where 90+% of our local organizing takes place. There are currently several protests being organized based on FB event pages. Without FB, those of us in red areas would never have been able to find each other to start organizing. I would bet a LOT of money that many women who participated in the marches last Saturday knew about it because of Facebook. It's not just puppies and wingnuts.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:09 AM on January 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

snuffleupagus, I think blaming Bernie supporters for this situation probably comes under "poking known sore points," but I'm happy to debate the point if people are interested.
posted by Coventry at 8:11 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

WSJ is criticizing Schumer for opposing DeVos.

Good. Then the opposition must really have legs.
posted by Gelatin at 8:11 AM on January 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

WaPo got a draft of Trump's cybersecurity executive order: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3424611/Read-the-Trump-administration-s-draft-of-the.pdf … Digging in now to analyze. Have asked WH to verify.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:12 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

snuffleupagus, I think blaming Bernie supporters for this situation probably comes under "poking known sore points," but I'm happy to debate the point if people are interested.

I'm just going to keep clicking replay because I can read numbers.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:13 AM on January 27, 2017

AP: As of now, Spicer says Trump will sign the extreme vetting/refugee executive action today, along with two others on military readiness, NSC
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:15 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Just got a message from Wordshore. He is working on one and it will be much, much better then my clunky attempt.

Go Wordshore!
posted by Jalliah at 8:17 AM on January 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

what movie is that clip from?

Millennium yt (1989)

Also relevant to the current state of the world:

Millennium (1998).
posted by Buntix at 8:19 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is what we're up against, guys. Time to make Civics a mandatory annual class in K-12.

Macomb v media: voters who read little news think Trump had a great first week

Even for a country as accustomed to division as the United States, the split perception of Trump’s first week in office could not be more worlds apart. On the one hand, there is Trump as seen through the lens of the coastal mainstream media that has called him out with historic bluntness, epitomized by the lead story of the New York Times: Trump Repeats Lie About Popular Vote.

Then there is how residents of Macomb County, an overwhelmingly white working-class suburb of Detroit, see their new commander-in-chief. It is as if all the raging controversy of the week had somehow washed off him on the 600-mile journey from Washington to Michigan, leaving a cleansed and beatific Trump committed to creating jobs and putting America first.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:20 AM on January 27, 2017 [11 favorites]

cybersecurity

No mention of InfraGuard that already exists. And no where does it mention how great Donald Trump is, so its not written by him.
posted by rough ashlar at 8:21 AM on January 27, 2017

From the Hannity interview: "Well, it was Ronald Reagan, it was, a lot of great presidents, actually [used the Resolute Desk]... FDR, Roosevelt..."

Either Trump is unaware that Theodore Roosevelt used his own desk, now called the Theodore Roosevelt desk, or he is unaware that FDR and Roosevelt are the same person.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:22 AM on January 27, 2017 [13 favorites]

As far as Bannon and the NSA spying on FB events. It's important for people to understand that there is no 'secret' on FB just as a general rule. It's not so much Bannon being a threat right now, it's other people who support Trump that are more likely to cause problems at this point. Upthread there is a post about how Republican groups are 'infiltrating' these groups. It's just a given that this stuff will happen with anything that out in public, FB or not FB. It's always happened even before the internet. It's just something you have to deal with when organizing in public.
posted by Jalliah at 8:23 AM on January 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

Time to make Civics a mandatory annual class in K-12.

Some of these people probably had pretty good educations. They're just willfully ignoring them.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:24 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

From the Hannity interview: "Well, it was Ronald Reagan, it was, a lot of great presidents, actually [used the Resolute Desk]... FDR, Roosevelt..."

Trump constantly repeats himself for emphasis, and often repeats himself using a slightly different word so it doesn't sound like he's just, just, just, just stumbling for the next one.
posted by Etrigan at 8:24 AM on January 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

Millennium

Doot DOO doo doo doo...
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 8:24 AM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Trump constantly repeats himself for emphasis, and often repeats himself using a slightly different word so it doesn't sound like he's just, just, just, just stumbling for the next one.

He sounds like a third grader who is unprepared for his book report. "FDR... I mean, Roosevelt, yeah, that's the same guy."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:25 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

A brief exchange of messages with the ever-awesome Jalliah has occurred. One is just finishing off a nextpost which, after link checking and a final pot of tea over which to contemplate the tonal fortitude of the text, will be live soon. I apologize for forgetting to call dibs on this before commencing construction.
posted by Wordshore at 8:26 AM on January 27, 2017 [14 favorites]

It's akin to confabulation, in my mind, these speech patterns. He just keeps talking until it makes sense to him.
posted by thebrokedown at 8:26 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

In conclusion, FDR was a Roosevelt of contrasts.
posted by delfin at 8:27 AM on January 27, 2017 [36 favorites]

WE HAVE NO TIME FOR TEA! Who do you think we are, the British?! (Eagerly awaiting, and thank you!)
posted by thebrokedown at 8:28 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Oh god ignore me. I read "nextpost" as "teapot" and I've lost my mind completely halp. Oh god ignore this, too.
posted by thebrokedown at 8:30 AM on January 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 55% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance.

Pre-11/9 I would've wrote this and the LA Times tracking poll off. Now they're the only ones I believe. Bannon was right, we don't understand this country and its not ours. It's theirs.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:31 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

I read a wonderful idea I'd like to share. I plan to stop calling Trump anything other than "The Republican President." This is not "rogue Trump doing crazy shit." This is the Republican Party destroying the country. I want people to remember the Republicans every single time they think of Trump.
posted by staggering termagant at 8:31 AM on January 27, 2017 [37 favorites]

Jalliah, Wordshore, thank you for everything you do.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:32 AM on January 27, 2017 [12 favorites]

WE HAVE NO TIME FOR TEA! Who do you think we are, the British?!

{contemplates} Thank you for providing the inspiration for the forthcoming post title, which I was stuck on. Your inspiration is both marvelous and splendid.
posted by Wordshore at 8:34 AM on January 27, 2017 [14 favorites]

Roomthreeseventeen, shout out to you too for pulling in new headlines to keep me informed. Thanks.
posted by samthemander at 8:35 AM on January 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

wordshore: a final pot of tea

Taylors of Harrogate Loose Leaf Tea?
posted by Mister Bijou at 8:35 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Pre-11/9 I would've wrote this and the LA Times tracking poll off. Now they're the only ones I believe.

You have it backwards; they were the ones that got what they were looking at -- the national vote totals -- wrong. The other pollsters basically said "a medium-small Clinton win," which is what in fact happened.

You just don't want to look at nationwide polls to predict presidential election outcomes, is all.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:36 AM on January 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

A recent change in VOA's rules now makes it legal for it to broadcast within the US.

Trimp TV is alive and well and is slouching towards your TV screens, and it's state-funded.

Mike Pence tried to start a state-funded ~~propaganda arm~~ "information service" here in Indiana, and his attempt was more or less laughed out of the room. Not even Statehouse Republicans were willing to get publicly on board. I hope this effort not only gets smacked down, but also helps reinforce the narrative that Republicans have to lie, because the facts are not on their side.

(I know the Gish Gallop of executive orders is demoralizing, but the stench of "Trump can't handle the truth" is unmistakable.)
posted by Gelatin at 8:36 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Roomthreeseventeen, shout out to you too for pulling in new headlines to keep me informed. Thanks.

Seconding that - thanks, ever-informative Roomthreeseventeen.
posted by Wordshore at 8:38 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

New York - Senator Gillibrand wants you to fill out this survey.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:41 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Pre-11/9 I would've wrote this and the LA Times tracking poll off. Now they're the only ones I believe. Bannon was right, we don't understand this country and its not ours. It's theirs.

Fuck that. It's not theirs, not yet.
posted by emjaybee at 8:42 AM on January 27, 2017 [11 favorites]

This is what we're up against, guys. Time to make Civics a mandatory annual class in K-12.

It's not just civics. It doesn't surprise me at all that for people that don't follow news and events like we do here have this view at this point in time. It takes much, much longer for news narratives to disseminate through populations that don't follow or don't care. It's even longer if all they are seeing are the cherry picking and opinion from places like FOX news. The more complicated and complex the issue is the longer it takes. Bias are at play of course. If you expect the President to do well and hope that he's going to do well (bring back the jobs) then any information that does get through contrary to that view is going to be dismissed as a one off occurance or not a big deal.

Repetition is the key for contrary messages to get through. Which is one of the reasons why Bannon freaked the fuck out at the news media this week and is attempting to control and shape the 'narrative' from his end.
posted by Jalliah at 8:43 AM on January 27, 2017 [16 favorites]

Facebook Tweaks Its 'Trending Topics' Algorithm To Better Reflect Real News

A friend just asked if anybody else has "mostly Fox and Breitbart" in their trending news on Facebook right now. So ... if that's the result of this algorithm tweak, then great fucking job, Facebook.
posted by uncleozzy at 10:08 PM on January 27 [5 favorites +] [!]

Bannon you BASTARD.

Accountability for algorithms!
posted by saysthis at 8:45 AM on January 27, 2017

Lawyers, Guns & Money on Jeff Sessions
posted by kingless at 8:45 AM on January 27, 2017

Trump's plagiarized cake ended up on the Daily Show.

“It’s all styrofoam,” Noah exclaimed. “Just like Trump’s administration, this cake is bad for the environment.”

The cake is a duplicate of the one served at Barack Obama’s 2013 inauguration, which Noah noted was ironic.

“This guy just copies everything about the Obamas,” he said. “They copied Obama’s cake. They copied the Obama speech. The only thing they couldn’t copy was Obama’s approval rating.”

posted by kirkaracha at 8:47 AM on January 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

Bannon was right, we don't understand this country and its not ours. It's theirs.

Which is precisely what Bannon wants everyone to think. In and of itself, that should be motivation enough to keep plugging away.
posted by delfin at 8:48 AM on January 27, 2017 [19 favorites]

Never forget we outnumber them.
posted by Artw at 8:50 AM on January 27, 2017 [25 favorites]

oh my god

British press corp is locked outside the White House because our birthdates were submitted in UK format and secret service don't get it. 🇬🇧

Those of us born after the 12th day of the month have been let through. This full military welcome is awaiting Theresa May at White House.

White House press officer just told me off on the phone for laughing when they told me about not knowing British date formats were different

"Why is that funny? One person put their birthday as 01/08/[year], why would we be expected to think that means August 1st? Why?"
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:51 AM on January 27, 2017 [72 favorites]

The cake is a duplicate of the one served at Barack Obama’s 2013 inauguration, which Noah noted was ironic.

THE CAKE WAS A LIE
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:51 AM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 55% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance.

"Likely voters." Is Trump the president of Likely Voters According to Rasmussen, or is he the president of all of us?
posted by dirigibleman at 8:51 AM on January 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

Man that thing about Trumps android phone is simultaneously stunning and outrageous and not at all surprising. How in the world is the NSA allowing that.
posted by DynamiteToast at 8:53 AM on January 27, 2017 [8 favorites]

WE HAVE NO TIME FOR TEA! Who do you think we are, the British?!

Time for Tea.
posted by Coventry at 8:54 AM on January 27, 2017

> How in the world is the NSA allowing that.

Because the NSA is a government agency that takes orders from the President, not the other way around. If we want to force the President to do anything, it has to be encoded in law as a limitation on the executive branch's power.
posted by tonycpsu at 8:55 AM on January 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

I've gotten all confused; is Rasmussen considered a reliable pollng outfit, or one with more suspect methods?
posted by nubs at 8:56 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

A new post, for the debating of issues and the sharing of information relating to current politics in the United States of America, is now live.

God Save The Queen.
posted by Wordshore at 9:01 AM on January 27, 2017 [17 favorites]

I've gotten all confused; is Rasmussen considered a reliable pollng outfit, or one with more suspect methods?

Yes to both.

(They are predictably and consistently a few degrees rightward of the equilibrium in which most other polls land.)
posted by delfin at 9:04 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

God Save The Queen

The fascist regime!
posted by petebest at 9:05 AM on January 27, 2017 [15 favorites]

British press corp is locked outside the White House because our birthdates were submitted in UK format and secret service don't get it. ... "Why is that funny? One person put their birthday as 01/08/[year], why would we be expected to think that means August 1st? Why?"

Here is how you train Americans to recognize dates put together in a sensible manner: put the year first. The logic of 2017-01-27 meaning January 27, 2017 actually does penetrate pretty fast, says the woman with a bunch of American clients who get the word "colour" spelled their way while accepting my date format of choice.

Really, even Canada isn't consistent. I have to re-write the dates on many receipts for my business because some stores use dd-mm-yy and some use mm-dd-yy. If I got to make just two small tweaks to the world, it would be making all drivers use the Dutch Reach and all people writing dates in numbers use YEAR FIRST! Maybe I should make some hats ...
posted by maudlin at 9:06 AM on January 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

"Why is that funny? One person put their birthday as 01/08/[year], why would we be expected to think that means August 1st? Why?"

Just wait until they have to deal with the european formatting of currency.
posted by dinty_moore at 9:08 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

****

NEW THREAD OVER HERE FOR MORE DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

***
posted by lalochezia at 9:12 AM on January 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

British press corp is locked outside the White House because our birthdates were submitted in UK format and secret service don't get it. 🇬🇧

The best response is farther down:

@jimwaterson That's because the last time you guys came you burnt the place down

--@davidluhnow
posted by zachlipton at 9:22 AM on January 27, 2017 [16 favorites]

I've been reading this thread intently the last few days. I've never been invested in politics until now. I've also never felt such deep rage toward another human in all my 32 years.

So many new feelings over here!
posted by sucre at 9:34 AM on January 27, 2017 [14 favorites]

British press corp is locked outside the White House because our birthdates were submitted in UK format and secret service don't get it.

The Secret Service have been looking like the keystone cops for almost a decade now. They had about 100 scandals and failures under Obama.
posted by srboisvert at 9:37 AM on January 27, 2017

@jimwaterson That's because the last time you guys came you burnt the place down

And this time, you're already on the case...
posted by Devonian at 9:38 AM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Ragebump back at you, witchen!
posted by sucre at 9:44 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Please don't get angry with people who are imploring you to quit Facebook. We're not doing it because we think it's better for your mental health or something, no, we're mostly worried about your cybersecurity.

For those of you who feel that Facebook adds more good than bad to their lives, I have some tips on how to keep yourself and your data a bit safer while not leaving Facebook.
posted by Too-Ticky at 9:46 AM on January 27, 2017 [12 favorites]

Man that thing about Trumps android phone is simultaneously stunning and outrageous and not at all surprising. How in the world is the NSA allowing that.

Maybe it facilitates eavesdropping by the various security services.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:53 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

right now says "Building a Cabin..." and I'm like "hey, that sounds nice."

Traditional Axe Making and Wooden Lodge Construction (hopefully not going to be essential life skills soon, but just in case...)

I can't vouch for it myself, but apparently http://www.fbpurity.com/ is good for filtering out the rage-triggers from facebook.
posted by Buntix at 9:55 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Bannon was right, we don't understand this country and its not ours. It's theirs.

I'll move to the new thread but I want to address this first. This is bullshit. 54% voted against Trump. Clinton got a plurality. Collectively speaking, Democrats received more votes for the House & Senate than Republicans. Only the weird rules in the Constitution regarding the EC and the Senate let the Republicans control those. Only gerrymandering and disproportionate representation let Republicans keep the House.

No, the Democrats do not have a huge majority among Americans, but Americans are not the fucking sheep you think they are. We just had a protest where 1 in 100 Americans showed up. Unprecedented and in a country which is traditionally adverse to hitting the streets.

Yeah, rural areas are strongly pro-Trump. They're not the majority of the country and they don't own the country. Don't let your despair fall into Republican rhetoric which pretends cities don't exist and the only people who count are rural and suburban whites.

Rasmussen is one of the less accurate pollsters with a strong rightward bent. PPP has Trump approval at 44 and Quinnipiac has it at 36.

The country is only theirs if we let it be.
posted by honestcoyote at 10:29 AM on January 27, 2017 [25 favorites]

futz: Al Gore and others will hold climate change summit canceled by CDC

So the _rump camp have their alt. facts that deny science, so we'll have scientists who publish on alt. twitter handles and hold alt. conferences. Navigate around the blockages, continue as before, but now with more tenacity.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:36 AM on January 27, 2017

Can't resist a dead-end comment about Facebook, privacy, and rage triggers... I've set my posts to "public" to remind myself that's what they really are anyway, and because 99% of what I post these days is terrifying things Trump has done, and I cheer for every "like" or comment (even though I get a lot less of them on public posts!) because I know some fraction of that person's friends saw it.

I've joined my local "Indivisible" groups (three of them, in fact) and the "women's march" and "march for science" groups, where I share news and calls to action.

I've also made myself a separate Facebook profile (with a male name to deter harrassment) which I use entirely to post links (mostly from these threads) in the comments on Breitbart, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Fox News posts. Because yeah social media is a battlefield and I'm bringing the battle to enemy territory. I'm seeking out the rage triggers.

I've never used Facebook so much in my life as since this election. Anyone who was following me for the cute pictures of my kids and XKCD links I used to post has probably unfollowed me by now. It's all resistance all the time for me on Facebook these days. I open that app like a grim frickin' duty.
posted by OnceUponATime at 10:39 AM on January 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

chris24: Obama draws neck-and-neck with Reagan in poll of greatest modern president

"The Quinnipiac University poll indicates 29 percent say Obama is the greatest president since World War II — just shy of the 30 percent who cite Ronald Reagan, the long-standing titleholder."

tonycpsu: The fact that Reagan is the titleholder says all that needs to be said about how much we should pay attention to polls of Americans on who the great Presidents are.

Anecdote: while stopping at a chain restaurant in Southern California, somewhere near The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library around 6 years ago, somehow we got on the topic of that library, and our young waitress, who we guessed was around 18 or 19 years old, proclaimed that Reagan was her favorite president. We didn't say anything then, but once we left the restaurant, we asked each-other what she really knew of Reagan, and expected that most of it came from her parents.

History is tricky that way - you have to keep teaching about the terrible things that happened in the past, especially if you're lauding those leaders for anything. It's rare to find a saint, so if anyone casually calls a politician a saint, you better believe there's a lot of sinning that has been painted over in their mental image.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:42 AM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

constantly repeats himself for emphasis, and often repeats himself using a slightly different word so it doesn't sound like he's just, just, just, just stumbling for the next one.

Which is what Reagan did much more often towards the end of his presidency than the beginning.
posted by holgate at 10:52 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

I would be literally shocked and astonished if Trump can't pull up huge, huge numbers of people who did this

corb, Trump has already done this. In the ABC interview, he cited, in support of his claims of voter fraud, a PEW study that found millions of people in the registers who were either dead or double-registered. Muir pushed back and said, but the PEW study also found no evidence of voter fraud (i.e. that data is true, but there is no evidence the dead/double-registries have been used for fraudulent voting).

Trump replied that the PEW reporter is changing his story, then, and that now he's "groveling" (yes he continues to double-down with that word, knowing the audience will know exactly what he's referencing).

He is so gross and dishonest, there just aren't words for it.
posted by torticat at 11:46 AM on January 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

> Please don't get angry with people who are imploring you to quit Facebook. We're not doing it because we think it's better for your mental health or something, no, we're mostly worried about your cybersecurity

That's rarely how it's expressed; people tend to be more condescending, maybe because Facebook is seen as a place for middle-aged women.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:17 PM on January 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

Vicente Fox's ongoing trolling of Trump is giving me life.

i've been trying to figure out which of our formers would be the best candidate for a no holds barred twitter battle with putin and i have decided upon GHWB as he is so old and infirm that he would certainly get away with it.
posted by poffin boffin at 12:22 PM on January 27, 2017

I don't want to overburden the current election thread with this obsevation, but I can't help but read Vicente Fox's twitter handle as Vicente Fox WHAT. Like each of his tweets is precluded with him being like YEAH I SAID THIS WHAT OF IT.
posted by dinty_moore at 12:31 PM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

That's rarely how it's expressed; people tend to be more condescending, maybe because Facebook is seen as a place for middle-aged women.

My only motive in talking about it is to dump on the privacy-crushing vileness that is Facesbook as a business. Since when is it seen as a place for middle-aged women?

And if so, where'd all the kids go?
posted by petebest at 12:38 PM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

i have decided upon GHWB

do it Poppy parachute onto the White House lawn and lead a coup

the CIA will back you, you can have your second term, it's not too late
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:44 PM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

And if so, where'd all the kids go?

They're all on that there Snapchats these days...

It's just not the same, I can remember when all this used to be MySpace fields with the occasional garish neon Geocity...
posted by Buntix at 12:54 PM on January 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

snapchat and instagram.
posted by futz at 1:21 PM on January 27, 2017

And if so, where'd all the kids go?

Places where their parents don't have accounts, of course.

But really, the way that 'oh just quit facebook' is thrown around very much ignores that it essentially means cutting off contact with people whose entire internet is essentially facebook and don't live nearby. 'real friends will be there in real life' doesn't sound like people are worried about privacy, it sounds like deligitimatizing any sort of relationship that is maintained over the internet, which is a weird argument to make on a longstanding internet forum.
posted by dinty_moore at 1:23 PM on January 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

As true as it is about friendships online having become a significant feature of life for many now, it still is a little off putting to hear so many people seem to claim that they are essentially trapped into using Facebook and there isn't anything else that can be done. It just seems like the same kind of issue that keeps people from trying to change the political scene, but with a corporate focus instead.
posted by gusottertrout at 1:37 PM on January 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

What does Mattis mean about an army patrol in 1805?
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:44 PM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

And if so, where'd all the kids go?

music.ly if my daughter is representative.
posted by ian1977 at 1:45 PM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Meanwhile… Melania Trump appears in the cover of Vanity Fair Mexico…
posted by Omon Ra at 1:46 PM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

New Thread
posted by dinty_moore at 1:47 PM on January 27, 2017

But really, the way that 'oh just quit facebook' is thrown around very much ignores that it essentially means cutting off contact with people whose entire internet is essentially facebook

Facebook: it's complicated.

Facebook is the gravitational centroid: it's the default and generally only place the 'olds' end up and really feel at home. It's also where a lot of people who have been there and done that (IRC, Delphi, Plastic, HazABanana...) end up when life catches up and it's just too much hassle to participate with enthusiasm rather than just grumping from the sidelines when time and energy permit.

It's also a place almost* everyone has an anchor these days (I do too, I just haven't logged in due to not wanting to see a recent** ex move on, or risk accidentally replying), including the young 'uns...

Facebook is the unwalling of the garden AOL tried to be...

umm, what was my point again?

* For certain values of almost.
** OK, after checking dates it does seem to be over 2 years now, so only another 6 to 12 months before I will be active on facebook again!
posted by Buntix at 2:13 PM on January 27, 2017

State lawmaker sends Sharia law "poll" to Texas mosques

Densho Encyclopedia: Loyalty questionnaire

I'm fucking beside myself right now.
posted by sunset in snow country at 2:15 PM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

What does Mattis mean about an army patrol in 1805?

Lewis and Clark expedition.
posted by Etrigan at 4:18 PM on January 27, 2017

And if the some of the stuff I read and saw on the news yesterday they aren't all so favourable to the whole wall thing in the first place, including one of their reps who has already spoken out against it.

This. Texans have never wanted a wall. For one thing because there's like a lot of mountains and rivers and stuff on the border already. And there ARE already barriers in place in the crossable areas.

I mean, plus generally that we're mostly happy to live with our immigrant neighbors and recognize how deeply our economy depends on them. Not to mention how profoundly our culture is a blend of Mexican and American cultures already and has always been.
posted by threeturtles at 4:48 PM on January 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

very much ignores that it essentially means cutting off contact with people

No. Email? Blog? Phone? Text? That thing with the paper and the little colorful square that goes in the upper corner?

I mean, except for postal mail, that's what Facebonk is right? Is someone saying Facebook has their friends hostage and there's no other way to stay in touch? If so, that's news to me.

Facebook is the unwalling of the garden AOL tried to be...

It's more like a wireless leash. I mean they follow everywhere one goes, every time one goes, and they report on what one does, yes?
posted by petebest at 4:53 PM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Is someone saying Facebook has their friends hostage and there's no other way to stay in touch? If so, that's news to me.

Actually yes. There are a ton of people who refuse to do any contact other than Facebook. I won't do Facebook so they won't talk to me on any other medium and I lost friends. It's "inconvenient" for them to say, tell you about a party instead of just posting it on Facebook. So much as I don't like the thing, I am choosing to give up friendships if I won't be on it. Other people feel differently.

can'tbelieveiamdefendingfacebooksorta
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:15 PM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

No. Email? Blog? Phone? Text? That thing with the paper and the little colorful square that goes in the upper corner?

You do realize it takes at least two people to have a conversation, right? Most people don't give a flying fuck about privacy, and asking them to go out of their way to appease you gets questionable results, because it is asking more emotional labor from people who are for the most part very busy and don't have you as their top priority.

Off the top of my head, people I wouldn't hear from without facebook:

*My best friend from high school, who is a grad student who has never been good at email. We keep vastly different hours, so calling doesn't work, and she doesn't have a smartphone so she doesn't text. She's on facebook, though, so we keep on touch that way. The five years where she didn't have facebook I heard from her maybe once or twice.

*My friend who is essentially a professional organizer and is at her home address maybe two or three months out of the year. She spends a lot of time travelling across the country, so her answering the phone is sporadic, and her email is really her work email. Facebook is her non-work internet space, so it's best to contact her there.

*The aforementioned friend who I thought was dead for a decade. She's a working single mother of three, so she doesn't have that much time to dick around on the internet. Without facebook, I probably wouldn't know she was alive, but even if I did, it's not like she's going to take the time to sit down and write me a letter. Hell, I don't have that sort of time to write her back.

*I get to see pictures of my nephew and niece that way. I occasionally see pictures of my nephew and niece if I ask for them off of facebook, but that's another step and my brother's main response is 'just check facebook', because they did all of the work to get them up there.

All of these people are in their thirties, by the way. A lot of thirtysomethings never really embraced the internet or social media until facebook. It's not just olds.

Look, I admit I'm a little paranoid about this. A lot of people I knew when I was growing up have had some sort of teenage brush with death/incarceration/were moved across the country suddenly and without warning, and I still like checking in on people to make sure they're okay. Facebook makes it easy - and when I was doing the same thing before facebook during my teenage years, it was a hell of a lot of guesswork and not many results. But besides that - Facebook is the way that a lot of people keep in contact with each other, and it makes me wonder how isolated you are that you don't even realize that.
posted by dinty_moore at 7:46 PM on January 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

Actually yes. There are a ton of people who refuse to do any contact other than Facebook.

So in that case it's not Facebook making that decision, it's the people themselves? Limiting their interactions to Facebook only? Hm. That's too bad, I got nothin' there.

Most people don't give a flying fuck about privacy, and asking them to go out of their way to appease you gets questionable results, because it is asking more emotional labor from people who are for the most part very busy and don't have you as their top priority.

Yeah. But in all those examples, as above, those people are choosing Facebook over any other option. That's guaranteeing that all of their personal data, habits, metadata, and P2P relationships will be slurped up by multinational corporations, nation-states, bad actors, scammers, Steve Bannon, and the personally-targeting marketing behemoth without legal restrictions that is The Platform itself. And if someone wants to be friends they'd have to submit to the same? Because they can't be arsed to check a second email address.

Nöpe. Not for me, that's . . . not good.

I still like checking in on people to make sure they're okay. Facebook makes it easy

No doubt. But you wouldn't be the only one who likes to check on people.
posted by petebest at 8:30 PM on January 27, 2017

tap
tap

taptaptap

Is this thing on? Ah, good.

WE GET IT. You don't like Facebook and think that people who use it are just dumb and if you keep condescending at them they will eventually thank you for saving them from The Horrible Corporate Privacy-Sucker.

Thanks. You can stop now.
posted by Etrigan at 8:58 PM on January 27, 2017 [11 favorites]

It's more like a wireless leash. I mean they follow everywhere one goes, every time one goes, and they report on what one does, yes?

I'm old enough to remember us saying that about cell phones (and I'm not that old).

Times change. If I didn't have a cell phone -- hell, if I didn't have a smart phone! -- I'm not sure how I could keep in touch with half the people I know.

The same goes for Facebook.

The mythos of the internet, sadly, is entirely backwards. The internet favors a monopoly: if everyone's doing it, then it's easy to speak to everyone. And modern people don't give a shit about privacy.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 9:01 PM on January 27, 2017

You know, honestly I was thinking of making an emotional appeal to explain why people might not choose to sacrifice relationships for privacy. But really, the more obvious questions is why you would assume that any other popular mode of modern communication is safer. Gmail isn't - google loves tracking people and would totally turn over that information. Phone and texting certainly isn't. I would expect my phone provider to hand over my phone records readily. Facebook messenger at least has an encryption option, even if it's opt-in, which makes it better than Skype.

So why facebook specifically? Other than it's known as the place where women share pictures of their kids so grandma and grampa can see.
posted by dinty_moore at 9:05 PM on January 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

Maybe grandma and grampa have been transferring steganographic messages regarding the secret construction of the Twin Roosevelt Jaegers this whole time, and they're about to rip the roof off of a nondescript Deerfield Beach condominium complex and take off up I-95.

I mean, probably not, but it wouldn't be the most shocking thing to have happened yet this week.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:17 PM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Etrigan:
WE GET IT. You don't like Facebook...

I agree with Etrigan and all the others that have responded. Please stop beating the poor dead horse. I am not a facebook fan but I totally understand why people use it. You are on metafilter and speaking to adults. I would err on the side of assuming that folks have already done their own risk analysis and let it be from now on. :)
posted by futz at 9:25 PM on January 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

the more obvious questions is why you would assume that any other popular mode of modern communication is safer.

End-to-end encryption? Of course it could be backdoored as the administration has called for, so maybe not 'assume'. Also, a lack of cross-functional ubiquitous tracking would help, though "safer" there might just mean "fewer attack vectors".

I'm not saying I know of a vetted, open-source, P2P, E2E-encrypted social media platform everyone will want to use. I wish I did.

WE GET IT.

Gkhh. FINALLY.

You don't like Facebook and think that people who use it are just dumb

No. Maybe they're just happy.

and if you keep condescending at them they will eventually thank you for saving them from The Horrible Corporate Privacy-Sucker.

Also no. But I don't need to tell you that. Condescending people like us know that a sum of money offered for the detection or capture of a criminal, or the recovery of lost or stolen property, is its own reward.

You are on metafilter and speaking to adults. I would err on the side of assuming that folks have already done their own risk analysis and let it be from now on.

I have no quarrel with you, good metafilter. I wish only the best online interactions for anyone who may so jack in, and I apologize if my strident tone caused offence. May we all be rid of The Great Mendacity soon, and a pleasant refresh of our feeds to all.

*tapping coconuts, away*
posted by petebest at 10:25 PM on January 27, 2017

Facebook is awful. Coworkers, old bosses, and distant relatives don't need to know my political opinions. And the only people who would broadcast their political opinions to that kind of crowd are idiots, which is why most of the resulting opinions are idiotic.

I'm on a bunch of slack nets with different groups of friends where we lampoon Trump mercilessly, that's helped take some of the edge off.
posted by miyabo at 11:03 PM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

The mythos of the internet, sadly, is entirely backwards. The internet favors a monopoly: if everyone's doing it, then it's easy to speak to everyone. And modern people don't give a shit about privacy.

I'm sorry, but this is... It's just... I mean... What???

Mightn't it be that modern people do in fact give plenty of shits about privacy, but this supposedly favourably monopolistic internet doesn't give them a choice in the matter?
posted by Sys Rq at 11:14 PM on January 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

But really, the more obvious questions is why you would assume that any other popular mode of modern communication is safer. Gmail isn't - google loves tracking people and would totally turn over that information. Phone and texting certainly isn't.

Email from a non-Google, non-US provider = safer. Telegram and Signal are safer. There's probably more...
Privacywise, you can't get much worse than Facebook and Google, mostly because they're so much all over the place and get their data from pretty much every site on the internet that you visit. But there are other options.

I think that most people don't actually care a whole lot about privacy. They care somewhat, but easy choices are easy and yes, better options are fewer and harder to find, and they don't care that much.
posted by Too-Ticky at 12:40 AM on January 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

Mightn't it be that modern people do in fact give plenty of shits about privacy, but this supposedly favourably monopolistic internet doesn't give them a choice in the matter?

Look: Amazon thrives because a single entity with a vast infrastructure is far easier to buy from (one-click checkout!), easier to search, and more likely to have a vast array of options than a thousand smaller internet vendors.

Ditto for Facebook. It's there because everyone is on it, at least for people above the age of 25 or so. The same goes for Twitter. Switching to a rival platform with fewer people when the whole point of the platform is to communicate with the people I know makes no sense.

As for privacy -- people in their 30s grew up with Livejournal rather than diaries. People in their twenties started posting pictures on Facebook in college or high school. The vast majority of people I know only started to care about privacy when they went to get a professional level job.

Privacy is dead, at least as far as the general public is concerned. It's uninteresting. If you live online (as most people do), posting the stuff you read to Goodreads means you can share the books you read with your friends! You can share music playlists and the movies you're watching! And yes, you can check into locations online. Because there's no point in going to a nice restaurant unless you have proof that you were there.

Do people care about privacy? From some all-knowing entity, maybe. But it's at the bottom of pretty much everyone's priority list.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 6:19 AM on January 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

Privacy is dead, at least as far as the general public is concerned. It's uninteresting. . . . it's at the bottom of pretty much everyone's priority list.

Wow.
posted by petebest at 6:33 AM on January 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

End-to-end encryption? Of course it could be backdoored as the administration has called for, so maybe not 'assume'. Also, a lack of cross-functional ubiquitous tracking would help, though "safer" there might just mean "fewer attack vectors".

Your idea of popular and mine are very different.

Okay, last thing I'm going to say to this, and only because it comes back to the actual topic of this thread - you know when facebook would have come in handy? When my friend's entire family was deported and she was eventually sent to live with some cousins she never met before in Texas. It would have been really nice to not have to wait for her to find a phone number and then worry about long distance rates. I'm pretty sure a lot of people are worried more about deportation than privacy right now, considering we just kicked out legal green card holders.

Or when my friend's family didn't have the money to pay the phone bill, which is tied to another worry people have with this current administration - job loss. When you have half an hour on a library computer to get all of your internetting in, it's a lot better to be able to post in one space and have most everyone see it.

(If you say 'but dinty, they could just start a blog!', I know you're full of shit regarding encryption, because really? It'd be safer to post something on a bar wall. At least the bar might check ID's, and more eyeballs will read it.)

Back in the 90's, both of the answers in these circumstances was for people to randomly disappear. Which isn't a worry people have for people right now, but may very well be one soon. Relying for your own footwork and word of mouth to check in on the people you care about is pretty horrible, let me tell you. I really hope you don't have to find out for yourself.

Yes, I can go dark on the internet, but I can't expect my friends to follow me. These people are never going to care enough about privacy to go out of their way for communication. I've chosen to keep those relationships alive instead. Other people are free to choose differently.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:53 AM on January 28, 2017 [5 favorites]

That's funny, and here I thought you were all up in arms just two, three years ago about NSA surveillance, and now you think it's just fine and privacy is for the birds?

But then again, privacy is a thing of the past here too and VPNs are too feeble and inconsistent to be even the slightest bit useful, so I might as well throw my lot in with the rest of you.
posted by tel3path at 7:03 AM on January 28, 2017

Lately I've been wishing I wasn't such a dabbler and had enough actual skill in various areas I've touristed in to actually build privacy (and other rights) protection tools in software and hardware. It's a daunting path from a dusty amateur radio license, an arduino starter kit and shitty grades in math to an encrypted SDR packet radio darknet protest support drone.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:10 AM on January 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

you know when facebook would have come in handy?

That's a terrible situation, and it is totally understandable why any solution, private or not, was needed there.

If you say 'but dinty, they could just start a blog!', I know you're full of shit regarding encryption, because really? It'd be safer to post something on a bar wall.

Shit-capacity aside, today's young go-getters can get a domain, web hosting, a Wordpress instance (with kung-fu action password protection grip and gyroscopic .htaccess dir lockdown), and a secure certificate for ~$6/mo. Setup is easier than ever, but it's still some kind of barrier for most people. So, 273.5% more secure than a bar wall, but not perfect.

encrypted SDR packet radio darknet protest support drone.

ZOMG yes! Do it! Do it!
posted by petebest at 7:18 AM on January 28, 2017

Do people care about privacy? From some all-knowing entity, maybe. But it's at the bottom of pretty much everyone's priority list.

Why is doxxing even a thing, then? Until people are sending photos of their genital warts to their doctor's office by posting them publicly, we probably ought to reserve judgement on whether the desire for privacy is dead. (It occurs to me, would even a nudist unhesitatingly do that? I don't know any nudists, so I don't know the answer.)
posted by XMLicious at 7:38 AM on January 28, 2017

I'm pretty sure a lot of people are worried more about deportation than privacy right now, considering we just kicked out legal green card holders.

There is zero chance Facebook won't be used to find people to deport, if it somehow hasn't been already. It's not just handy to you and me; it's also handy to three-letter government agencies. If people are worried about deportation, they should be every bit as worried about privacy.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:03 AM on January 28, 2017 [3 favorites]

> Yes, I can go dark on the internet, but I can't expect my friends to follow me.

Exactly. I could put in the time to learn about encryption, or I could dig out my old Kinkos key and get back into zines (yes, I know, I know), but most of my friends don't have the time or resources for that. So we keep in touch via Facebook, where we organize protests, and we support each other emotionally, and we discuss politics. And we share photos of our cats.
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:40 AM on January 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

There is zero chance Facebook won't be used to find people to deport, if it somehow hasn't been already. It's not just handy to you and me; it's also handy to three-letter government agencies. If people are worried about deportation, they should be every bit as worried about privacy.

Wow. Yes. Along with interactions with health care, schools, places of employment, police, funeral homes, churches, and immigration help centers. And probably taquerias, considering the boneheadedness of this administration.

Imagine this, people who are worried about deportation are already worried about these things, because they aren't idiots. But, despite what you think they should be worried about, internet privacy their top priority above all else.

And I really don't know what to say to people who think that the solution to someone not being able to pay a monthly bill is another monthly bill.

Look, we all wish there was a better option that would allow for privacy and connection. But there isn't. So people have to make difficult choices, and the choice can't be for maximum privacy all of the time, because eventually you have to leave the house or talk to a person. People might make different choices than you would want them to, but you can also imagine that it might be for a reason other than their ignorance. This really shouldn't be a difficult concept for Metafilter.
posted by dinty_moore at 3:29 PM on January 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

Imagine this, people who are worried about deportation are already worried about these things, because they aren't idiots.

Yeah. That's what I said. You were the one saying they don't, remember?

Look, we all wish there was a better option that would allow for privacy and connection. But there isn't.

There isn't, therefore there shouldn't be? The hell kind of logic is that?

The internet does not "favor monopolies"; it requires universal standards, and corporate interests have taken full advantage of that by making their own proprietary ones and accidentally getting popular. There is no justifiable reason whatsoever for the likes of Google and Facebook to be holding the internet hostage. We got along just fine before they ever existed, and we will get along just fine when they're long forgotten and rotting in the ground like so many E.T. cartridges.
posted by Sys Rq at 4:11 PM on January 28, 2017 [3 favorites]

Privacy is dead, at least as far as the general public is concerned. It's uninteresting. If you live online (as most people do), posting the stuff you read to Goodreads means you can share the books you read with your friends! You can share music playlists and the movies you're watching! And yes, you can check into locations online. Because there's no point in going to a nice restaurant unless you have proof that you were there.

I think this is a caricature. Yeah, people do a lot of stuff under their IRL real identity, partly because of different cultural boundaries and partly bc it's now very difficult to engage in the Google/Facebook ecosystem without linking stuff to your actual name. But a lot of that shit people do on Google/FB/Instagram/etc is also curated within an inch of its life, and its presence doesn't mean they're not doing other stuff in incognito mode under a different handle.
posted by en forme de poire at 4:36 PM on January 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

And of course with privacy there's a sort of continuous gradient of choosing between convenience and connectedness on the one end and total privacy on the other. After all, nobody here is advocating we exchange e-mail only with people with whom we've exchanged one-time pads, and nobody is advocating that everyone just tweet out their credit card numbers and medical records. People are just setting the trade-off in different places based on the application and the risks. I think most people -- probably justifiably -- judge the risk of having nominally private but unencrypted (and likely-not-that-sensitive) information stolen and mis-used by the government as pretty low on the scale of things they should be worried about. That doesn't mean that people don't actually care about privacy or wouldn't use end-to-end encryption if it were less of a pain in the ass to get their contacts on board, and it also doesn't mean that everyone who uses Facebook/Twitter/Google/etc. is educated stupid wake up sheeple. (WhatsApp was reported to have strong encryption, and I'd be surprised if that didn't drive part of the demand, the recent discovery of security holes you could drive a Winnebago thru notwithstanding.)
posted by en forme de poire at 4:54 PM on January 28, 2017

I disagree that "privacy is dead," and I think it sucks that we have to sign up for one or more huge ad-tracking conglomerates to stay in touch with our loved ones, and yet here we are. Their terms and conditions are terrible, but Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, etc., provide real value in helping people maintain contact and organize.

Speaking of which, the Twitter CEO was just on CNN (in a pre-recorded segment, it looked like) objecting to Trump's anti-immigrnat policies, and it occurred to me: why doesn't Twitter just cut him off? They are under no obligation to provide a service to him - or to the "POTUS" as an office for that matter. And his ability to distribute his little mental turds without media intermediation is really key to his ability to draw attention to his outrageous ideas and thereby dominate the media cycle.

I'm not saying we should go full-on "just don't look," but really, why does Twitter have to facilitate this?
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 5:02 PM on January 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's pretty clear that a lot of people are committed to using Facebook and will justify that use, so arguing this seems largely pointless. I would add though that what brought this specific round of Facebook haters vs users is their involvement in the sharing of fake news sites, not privacy concerns directly. This sharing of falsehoods helped elect Trump as president, and given Zuckerberg's alleged interest in running for office himself, there is more involved here than convenience and desire for notice vs privacy.

That so many people have been energized to fight against the Trump administration and politics as usual is heartening, but failing to take the same sorts of actions against the other elements of our culture that abetted the rise of Trump and will continue to warp the fabric of US democracy strikes me as missing the point somewhat. I'm not going to argue that people should leave Facebook or stay on it, but that if they choose to do the latter, or have dealings with any corporation or business aiding in the normalizing or assisting in the spread of falsehoods, people need to act against them just as certainly as they do the office holders directly or this cycle will repeat itself.

It isn't enough anymore to just focus on the politicians themselves since they too are just another part of a larger system that is working against individuals for its own interests. If you stay on Facebook, fight them and their methods just as you would for your rights with politicians. Treating Facebook as simply beyond one's control, a given one can't effect, is going to allow it to continue to shape politics as befitting the interests of those who control it and those who will misuse its properties to better themselves at the expense of the many. Don't think of Facebook or Twitter, or Google, or CNN, as being separate from the rest of the system, treat them as you would any actor within the political system and don't allow them to use you and your information against your interests.
posted by gusottertrout at 5:18 PM on January 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yeah, people do a lot of stuff under their IRL real identity, partly because of different cultural boundaries and partly bc it's now very difficult to engage in the Google/Facebook ecosystem without linking stuff to your actual name.

People do stuff online as themselves IRL because Google/Facebook have made it such that it's too much of a pain not to?
posted by petebest at 8:43 PM on January 28, 2017

Still catching up with this thread, but this picture from Air Force One really got to me. Since the election, and even more so since the inauguration I've been alternately shocked, bewildered, enraged, and fearful by turns. But that's the first picture that really hit me with sorrow.

Seeing the classic AF1 jacket we've seen so many times without thinking about it, hanging on his chair back as a prop (no question that was staged), and embroidered with Trump's name on it -- it just really hit me how awed and thrilled I would have been to see that with Hillary's name on it. I never doubted she could (have) govern(ed) well, but I hadn't realized how much even the little stupid symbolic things - that jacket, the official portrait at the Oval Office desk, the animatronic robot at Disney World's Hall of Presidents - I was yearning to see a woman in. The little symbolic things Trump doesn't and won't and probably can't even appreciate.

We've lost so, so much.
posted by Mchelly at 8:51 PM on January 28, 2017 [8 favorites]

The crowds today were pretty Rodham tho.
posted by petebest at 8:55 PM on January 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

People do stuff online as themselves IRL because Google/Facebook have made it such that it's too much of a pain not to?

What is your actual question about what I wrote?
posted by en forme de poire at 9:23 PM on January 28, 2017

Is it the case that people who use an IRL persona online would prefer not to, but do so mostly because its really annoying to fight through Google/Facebook as a sockpuppet?
posted by petebest at 9:37 PM on January 28, 2017

I just need a place to say how scared I am of Steve Bannon without someone calling me paranoid. Now that he's gotten onto the National Security Council (!!!) I'm terrified that this man is planning death for every non-white, non-Christian person in the U.S., which includes me.
posted by droplet at 9:47 PM on January 28, 2017 [3 favorites]

Come join us at the new(er) thread, droplet!
posted by mochapickle at 9:57 PM on January 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

The fact that Reagan is the titleholder says all that needs to be said about how much we should pay attention to polls of Americans on who the great Presidents are.

Hyperreal. History is just the stories we tell each other.
posted by Meatbomb at 1:28 AM on January 29, 2017

Is it the case that people who use an IRL persona online would prefer not to, but do so mostly because its really annoying to fight through Google/Facebook as a sockpuppet?

There are obviously a lot of other factors but yeah, I think that's at least part of the problem. FB's "real name" policy makes it hard to be pseudonymous, for instance, and because FB and Google sign-ins do double-duty as all-purpose passports for things like Spotify, Hulu, etc., it requires more effort to disentangle all of that from your real-world identity. Even the major free e-mail services now typically require a cell phone number in order to be activated; I remember looking into this recently and you have to really go out of your way to find one that doesn't require that kind of real-world authentication these days.
posted by en forme de poire at 3:03 AM on January 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

FB's "real name" policy

Yeah, I remember hearing that for the first time and wondering what possible purpose that could serve for a (seemed like, at the time) a new GeoCities / LiveJournal / Myspace service.

Even the major free e-mail services now typically require a cell phone number in order to be activated;

Which is really antithetical to what the Internet was about to me (still is too, but "was" exclusively for awhile): the choice to create a persona or not. Some people were IRL from the start out of convention, but it was always an *option*. Maybe part of my resentment to FB is the impression that they started that "real [info] policy" and other sites like Google thought hey - that's quick monetization we're leaving on the table. Now everybody does it or tries to do it.
posted by petebest at 6:30 AM on January 29, 2017 [2 favorites]

I wonder how much it would cost to buy Reddit and just shutter it.

I also wonder if it's time to start protesting its owners/operators wherever they go. CDA immunity is not immunity from public opinion.

Why isn't there some org making the shit that gets posted in /r/the_donald and etc more visible? I promise you, most boomers have NO IDEA and think the fight is still happening on the morning shows and in the newspapers.

Fuck, people right here believe that.

The election is over, there's no longer any point in trying to deny them the spotlight when they've put the worst of their idols into office. Now its time for the public to see who these people really are.

And unfortunately, they've all locked down their FB timelines and all you see now are dog pictures and earnest calls for unity and love (without specifying with or for who, of course).
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:51 AM on January 29, 2017

Oddly, I've noticed what has to be a real trend in that regard: low information trump supporters who live in cities and suburbs of cities seem to share lots of local animal shelter posts and bemoan all the cruelty to animals while championing some fake news bullshit in their next post.

This tangent crystallized some noodling that led to this bit of me strapping on some spockears. Dig it:

The human animal is a social one, and evolved to have a pretty high baseline level of empathy even given that the function's easily led into deficits by tribal behaviors. But those deficits are--like stress, and really, most cognitive functions--'meant' to be short term things. Modern conservative tribal politics have pretty much demanded maintaining a constant empathy deficit, and the ability to immediately shut it off should anyone in the tribe fail too many loyalty displays.

That takes a toll; it causes cognitive dissonance and stress on any non-psychopath. Any empathy display for a human being runs the risk of suddenly failing tribal loyalty tests oneself--so, they lock down. Public-facing support your local animal shelter and puppies and kittens posts are one of the few safe ways to display empathy.
posted by Drastic at 10:56 AM on January 29, 2017 [6 favorites]

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