The Trump transition continues to be an embarrassing mess. Today, Trump is holding his first meeting with a foreign leader since being elected. And he’s going into it completely unprepared. The Washington Post reports:
The 5 p.m. session with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump’s first with a foreign leader since the election, has raised questions among some in Washington’s foreign policy community because Trump has apparently not been briefed by the State Department. Officials said Wednesday that the transition team has not reached out to State.
A former State Department official said such a meeting with a foreign leader would normally be preceded by numerous briefings from key diplomats, which is considered especially important here because the Japanese are concerned about comments Trump made on the campaign trail. …
“The world does not stop for the transition,’’ said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely. Trump “would want an intelligence briefing. You’d probably want to get briefed on what’s what happening in the region.’’
Face it, Trump transition team: You’re mired!
@EJ (The Orphic Lizard): Doesn’t that count as wishing death on them? Even if we had the ability to get there, the pulsar would probably liquefy them before they got there.
@Snowberry – I’m sure these manly men who invented everything will be able to figure out how to survive the trip.
We’re not advocating forcible relocation, we’re inviting them to seek a home planet more suitable to their particular tastes!
Any thoughts on this? [from Daily Kos]
Wow: ADL head says if there’s a Muslim registry, ‘this proud Jew will register as a Muslim’
@IP
Of course, even though there’s not much going on this week. Honestly, if it wasn’t for Shuffle, Animal Crossing and Pokemon Moon*, I don’t think I’d be coping with this bullshit at all. Despite what AA seems to think, distractions are necessary sometimes.
*Aka “Why it took me, like, two days to respond. Oops.”
POKEMON MOOOOOON
I finally got my copy from Gamestop today. I was hoping to get the map too, but it turns out that’s only a pre-order bonus if you got both Sun and Moon. : (
But, still. I’m having fun. Especially since my roommates ordered theirs via Amazon, and they still haven’t arrived, leading Dude!Roommate to be ants-in-the-pants about me playing it as soon as we got in the car to leave GameStop. XD
I already have some new Pokemon, a Pikipek I named Pearl, and a Grubbin I named Snoot. Neither of them like to be booped on the snoot when I pet them. : (
I really like the “Pokemon Refresh” thing though, it’s really immersive to be able to brush/towel off/etc your pokemon after a tough battle!
Also, I got a Caterpie, a Slowpoke, a Wingull, and an Alolan Ratatta, which I’m still not fond of the aesthetic of. Though, the Pokedex entry has convinced me that they operate under mob rule.
Fun story about Slowpoke already: I wasn’t sure what to name mine, so I went to ask Dudette!Roommate, and she said “Bob.” and I went “That’s perfect.” and I typed in the name.
Then she says “Wait, what gender is it?” and I was going to say “It’s a male.”, but my brain was still in naming mode, so my mouth said “It’s a Bob.”
Apparently, Bob is not here for your gender conforming naming conventions.
@EJ (The Orphic Lizard)
I would recommend an exoplanet of HD 189733 A, the planet where it rains molten glass sideways.
@PI @SFHC
I’m gonna be skipping Pokemon for a while on account of having like 4 video games I need/want to play (FFXV HYPE) but OMG I heard they did away with Gym battles? I approve, especially since Gen 4 seemed to not even want to do gym battles, and I’m curious, what’s that like?
I’m saying David should do that too.
Did you know Trump just lied about saving a manufacturing plant? That is blatant propaganda.
@Fishy Goat: Sounds like a game of chicken, except once committed, you can’t blink even if you wanted to.
If the other guy blinks, they’ll back off and admit that it was a bad idea. Probably still try to use the data for something nefarious later, but nothing so blatant.
If they don’t, “muzzie-lovers” get classified as “undesirables” and get thrown in the
concentrationinternment camps along with everyone else.At this point I couldn’t tell you if it’s a high-risk or low-risk gambit.
@Snowberry:
That’s a fair point. Thanks.
I’m sorry if I’m being stupid about stuff. I just feel like a sitting duck right now. We’re not doing enough. Enough would be making sure he doesn’t get into office, and that looks almost impossible to me now.
Kind of?
The story goes like this: The Alola region is just starting their League, so they don’t have “gyms” like other regions. Instead, you have to face the strongest trainer on each of the four islands in an “Island Challenge”, which is functionally the same as a League, but it’s built slightly differently and it’s a bit more relevant to native Hawaiian culture which is super awesome.
I kinda wish they would do that for other regions as well. Like how Kalos was based off of France, so they could have done something that fit in with that theme more, etc.
Either way, I approve.
3DS is on the charger now though, since the light went red, and I need to maybe ease up a bit on it so roommates can catch up when Amazon finally delivers theirs. 😛
@Snowberry Would that still be an issue if it were flooded with international signers? Maybe that’s a way to render it useless and protect US citizens.
@Fishy Goat: If you can register online, then it doesn’t even need to be international; people can just flood the database with fake info. Someone could possibly hack in to it and erase everything. I wouldn’t put it past them to be that stupid; alt-right types don’t seem to consider the possibility of unintended consequences.
If you have to register in person, and prove that you’re a US citizen, then I don’t think international signers would be able to fake their way into it in enough numbers to make a real difference.
A couple of things – First, diversity is stronger than homogeneity. That’s why the fans of lily whiteness have to cheat. The fans of lily whiteness are dwindling and they’re mad and scared and scrambling for all the power they can get their hands on. I think us fans of diversity can hold them off until their numbers sink into irrelevance, but it won’t be easy and more of us than ever will have to work hard.
Second, I got a shot of hope from, of all places, a big bank commercial I saw on TV last night; it showed an interracial couple growing up together and getting married (and banking, natch.) A lot of big corporations know that diversity and tolerance are their future and that excluding various groups of people are bad for their bottom line because those people will just go to corporations that don’t hate on certain demographics. Businesses that *want* to discriminate are backing a losing strategy because their customer base is shrinking.
Someone, somewhere I read online (here or at Dispatches) posted a link to a spreadsheet of companies who were Trump-linked to boycott. I was pleased to find they were either companies I wouldn’t do business with (high fashion in sizes I can’t wear, fragrances, etc.) anyway, or ones I already boycott (lookin’ at you, Home Depot, Chick-fil-A, and Hobby Lobby).
@EJ (TOL)
I am reminded of a line from an old H. Beam Piper novel about a bunch of white South Africans who’d found a planet of their own where they could practice apartheid in peace. A very unhappy people, they settled on a planet with no native sapients for them to feel superior to.
It doesn’t take any preparation for Trump to tell the prime minister, “I like your Japanese women. They’re very hot and subservient.” He has a natural gift for that brand of diplomacy.
Christians are way more fucked up than I realized.
Listen, if your religion preaches about the end times being a good thing, I think you may want to rethink that because I’m pretty sure that didn’t come from any god or Jesus.
EDIT: Listen, I don’t know shit about Christianity, I’ve been an atheist since middle school at least, but I’m pretty sure if people think god have them the world, purposely breaking it so you can get to heaven is pretty blasphemous.
@Jack
I hit my “super-rebellious teen” phase when I was 10, which is when I started defying my parents on matters of religion. (Which led to them practically dragging me to church….Oddly enough, the elderly ladies’ class liked me enough to give me a baggie of hard candy every week just because I visited.)
I’ve kinda given up on analyzing the sort of worldview that the years before that gave me, mostly because the church itself started going under a crisis of succession and both my parents eventually just stopped going (and me with them). But I do recall a common theme in the hymns of waiting for God to come, and it just Being Better then if you were a Christian now.
I also accidentally made a kid I met at a Wednesday thing there a furry.
@Handsome “Punkle Stan” Jack
Reading between the lines, most religious fundamentalists of Abrahamic religions i’ve observed seem to preach a sort of morbid, authoritarian ”post-humanism”.
Considering his beauty pageant business, there’s probably already an international network of People Groped By Donald Trump.
(This thought occurred to me a couple weeks ago when former Miss Finland Ninni Laaksonen reported having been groped by Trump in 2006.)
Listen, Christians, Jesus didn’t die and painful death for you to blow up the world.
Listen, Noah didn’t save two of every animal so you can fuck them all over. God told him to do that. God likes the animals, but spit in your god’s face by fucking up the planet and starting wars so you can be raptured faster.
Listen, I’m 300% sure satan, Lucifer, whatever the fuck the king devil is would be more pleased with an end times than god, is what I’m saying. Doomsday cults are evil for a reason.
Listen, rethink your priority Doomsday cult Christians, because that ain’t god wanting the world to end. God didn’t tell you shit about starting the apocalypse, at least not the heavenly god.
Listen Christians, listen, Christians, get your shit together, Christians. The devil is good looking, the devil is full of temptation, and hastening the end times so you can get to heaven is pretty tempting.
Ya worshipping satan there, Christians. The apocalypse is the ultimate way to spread evil, dooming the unborn, the just to be about baptized babies, the born again and just about to be baptized adults, and everyone born after to hell. Not to mention pretty sure artificially making the apocalypse come faster is akin to murder, you are purposely murdering people, that’s a broken commandment, all of ya who supported shit to get the apocalypse moving are going straight to hell. Think about that, Christians. Killing and sacrifices are against the rules for a reason but you wanna sacrifice the world, I think you’ve been lead down a dark path, ya heathens.
At least as an atheist I turned away from god AND satan, ya just got tricked by the devil by your own greed, which is a sin, a DEADLY sin. Wanting heaven so badly you fucked up the world for it is greedy and selfish. You’re like Angelica from that one Rugrats cartoons where she purposefully lost her Cynthia doll to get a new one. And thinking you DESERVE heaven after fucking up earth takes is prideful, which is ANOTHER DEADLY SIN and entitled as hell.
As HELL.
(I’m sorry I just had to get that all out. It’s cathartic.)
WHO’S THE REAL DEVIL WORSHIPPER?
(It’s so damn cathartic.)
@authorialAlchemy I get that you’re feeling very vulnerable and anxious, if not also devastated and hopeless.
Humor helps us retain our strength and our hope.
I’m not sure exactly what you mean by “we’re not doing enough” but it certainly sounds like you’re saying that we’re wasting precious time joking around and mocking Trump when we should be really wringing our hands and screwing ourselves into the ground in deep thought and calls-to-action about what to do.
Thing is, since the election, in these threads almost EVERYONE has spoken out on things to do and ways to combat this. Yes, there has been a post or two pointing out the most ridiculous of Trump & his white supremacist supporters, and we’ve had some lighter moments mocking him.
SO WHAT? For one thing, creative thought requires that you sometimes take a break from a subject so that you can approach it again with a fresher sense of what you’re trying to learn or achieve.
For another, mocking Trump and his deplorables is a good way to show them they don’t scare us. Yes, it’s disheartening to see how things have gone. But this isn’t the end of kindness, of liberal sensibilities, of treating each other with dignity and respect.
They may LIKE to imagine themselves as just *that* powerful, but they never will be.
The fact that we can laugh at Trump and his woefully misguided presidency is a STRENGTH.
I think I realized what the worst part of the Cheeto Transition is for me. It’s waiting and wondering “How badly and what will he fuck up first?” I almost want it to just happen already so I can stop anticipating and start being something else.
Stupid brain. I’m supposed to want that to happen as late as possible.
I had to google posthumanism to refresh myself on what it was because there’s no way any posthumanism I’ve read about would involve giving into the greedy, greedy, assholish part of human nature to get to a post-human state. Except for Voluntary Human Extinctionist.
From their website
I like these people–well, the concept of them because some of the stuff in the FAQ is eh, but, you know, they aren’t bad. I mean look at this
It’s funny when I’m more scared of Christians than the people who want humans to go extinct.