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!
@Troubelle
No, that’s just fair’s fair — if someone tries to convert you, you can always try to convert them too…
Plus, kinda fun and awesome. 😀
An embarrassing mess perhaps, but still lethal. I for one am absolutely terrified. Twentyish, white, male, and middle-class, yes; and also bi, Jewish, disgusted with traditional gender roles, and oh most of my friends are queer. The Republicans now seem to have it in for everyone I know. And so many Democrats trying to extend an olive branch to these ghouls. Ugh.
Yes. I want to believe they’re too incompetent to manage a genocide, but I’m scared beyond feeling.
Also, if my dad tells me one more time that I’m being “hysterical”, I think my head will explode.
Oh. @Fishy Goat, and @Snowberry: I’d figured I would register myself as a Muslim pronto, if/when they got around to the registry. Maybe look into less subtle forms of sabotage too. Injection attacks against the registry’s website and database software, that kind of thing. Not sure how useful that would be in practice.
You folks are giving me some doubts though. e.g. Trump has already talked about murdering the civilian families of terrorists, so why wouldn’t he target families of random Muslims and/or dissenters? I don’t know, one has to fight back; but the combination of seething bigotry, mass surveillance, and complete lack of ethical limits is not making me optimistic right now.
(Likewise: I don’t think I’ll be wearing nail polish anymore, or otherwise presenting other than Boring Cismale, because I worry that doing otherwise would bring harm to my family and friends. In Fascist America, Patriarchy smashes you.)
(Oh, and I think this is my first ever post here. Hi everyone. May the gods I’ve never believed in look kindly on you all.)
Jack,
I couldn’t give a shit if someone personally holds post humanist views and don’t shove them down people’s throats. I do see them get creepy and aggressive once in awhile though. They sometimes go to comment sections about fertility or babies to tell people they’re immoral for having or wanting to have babies. Kind of the flip side of the forced birthers.
I still feel so hopeless and I haven’t been able to get anything done since the election.
@Skiriki
I’m actually not a furry myself. The kid (and by that I mean he was like….11. 12.) liked FNAF (it was early 2015), I knew about it, we talked, I offhandedly mentioned the furry fandom, he didn’t know what it was (he only mentioned that later), looked it up on his own time, and next thing I know he is literally making a fursuit. (And a pretty damn good one, too.)
@Troubelle
That’s EVEN BETTER.
Oh and FYI, folks, here’s a pretty good thread about this pisstake of an election and WTF they were thinking: https://twitter.com/jpbrammer/status/799686559901454336
@PI
Oh that’s interesting. That sounds strangely similar to that season of the Pokemon anime where Ash goes around the orange archipelago.
Ew.
Re: human self extinction types
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3A0A258DDA732275
(I hope that linked correctly)
101 video series on antinatalism and its ties to depression. I haven’t seen it in a while, so I don’t know how it holds up after so many years. I remember he gets more into his groove after the 1st few. That said, this is how I was introduced to what depression is (ie not just being sad), so it holds a special place 🙂
Has anyone been following #AuditTheVote? It’s gaining traction. There might be an investigation into election fraud!
@Skiriki
I also once told a church caretaker/babysitter (it was after hours, but we were still in the church if memory serves) that I would cancel their insurance. Mind that this was around the recent recession.
Also, I read the thing. I’m considering bringing this up to one of my parents later, though not during T-Day festivities.
Hmm, I have it bookmarked to watch later, but I’m kinda skeptical about video series featuring white men talking about philosophical concepts with video titles like “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”, “The Abuse of Empathy”, “Luke 3:10”, and “The Innocent Determinist” with an about channel tage that just has the quote: “Reality? Your ‘reality’, sir, is lies and balderdash, and I’m delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever!” Especially if I don’t know if this is to entertain or to “educate”.
Of course, these are randomly chosen titles and I’ve haven’t watched them so I don’t know the context of any of them. I am skeptical.
If these put any Thunderd00fus videos in my recommended section of YouTube, you will know.
A lot of that really came from the Second Great Awakening, a period of a lot of revivalist movements in the U.S. in the 1790-1840 time frame. (This was the time when both the Mormons and the Seventh Day Adventists got started, among many others that didn’t all survive to the modern day.) It didn’t really solidify until you got the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909; the commentary and notes there are what a lot of the more modern ‘biblical literalists’ got started with.
Take some of those attempts at deciphering what the Bible ‘really’ meant by people who didn’t have any grounding in the actual history or languages of the time, add in a large chunk of MGTOW-like anger at not being taken seriously and ‘you’ll be sorry when you see we were right!’ attitude, and you’ve got a lot of the core of the modern white evangelical movement. (And, as Fred Clark over at Slacktivist points out, that ‘white’ part seems to be a lot more important to many of the people involved than the ‘evangelical’ part. A lot of the active politicization of the evangelical movement in the U.S. actually started with Bob Jones University being forced to admit black students or lose their tax exemptions in the 1970s.)
Unrelated to the conversation:
I have a video here which I am interested in getting your thoughts on! It’s a music video and it’s very feminist (in my opinion) but I’m curious what other people think it’s about. Naturally, most people I’ve shown it to think it ain’t feminist at all, it’s just a video. But, well. You tell me!
(Also, the funk is strong)
http://66.media.tumblr.com/05d7944b7b0a6b46a2899acfd2dcd641/tumblr_ofthrmateq1uk5pr5o6_1280.png
So, what you’re saying is…White Nationalism and racism is the embodiment of satan.
I’m not shocked.
Well, let’s see: A city full of men with a phallic building is besieged by a yonic, upside down pyramid which begins to split open after they stop attacking it, spilling forth light that makes the city of men begin to shed tears.
Eh, it’s up in the air.
@Jenora Feuer I always find that amusing about today’s American conservative Christians. They go on about how the Founding Fathers were Christians, which of course most of them were, and how that justifies their political beliefs. Yet if they actually talked to the Founding Fathers about religion even the conservative ones would probably find their talk about the Rapture and the whole nine yards strange, since that theology was not something preached by the pastors of their time.
@Jack
Neither? He seems to be more interested in musing ideas than arguing them. Pretty insufferable, but it’s interesting
Good idea. And beware of casual ableism while you’re at it. Forgot about that…
He’s has gone after Atheist Assholes before (Islamophobia, ‘Cultural Marxism’, etc), and YouTube’s suggestion algorithm doesn’t recognize the difference between criticism and agreement, so you might. I blocked those channels ages ago, so I’m fine *shrug*
@Scildfreja
I’m not sure what’s feminist about it, but that’s cos I never know what’s feminist about things. I mean, it’s hard to ignore the… audiovisual metaphor going on. Maybe that makes it feminist? I dunno…
@SFHC
I am going for 200 levels Meloetta, and I did 300 levels Giratina last week. Also saving up coins to make a serious attempt at capturing Hoopa. What are you working on?
@Pokemon players
Did any of you play Pokemon Uranium?
History Nerd – Take it easy on yourself! I got all hyped up the week of the election and then tanked back into despair, myself. Mornings have been the worst for me; I’ve started flashing back to when my dad got sick again and the mixture of panic and dread I feel upon waking is slowly starting to fade. The pendulum swing of my moods gets less extreme, thankfully, as time goes on.
Talk to us here, talk to someone IRL, if you can. You’re not alone, we’re all shell-shocked and fearful. Take the time you need to gather your spoons!
I have been working on a plan; once my dad’s estate is out of probate, I will set up several monthly donations (ACLU, NAACP, NARAL, my list isn’t complete yet) and start looking into volunteering opportunities once I get my dad’s house rented and I have an income again.
Because I told all of this to my mall-walking buddy, she sent me a Facebook invite to a west coast faction of the million woman march for Jan. 21st and I made myself click the “going” button instead of the “interested” button. So, I’m gonna march in a protest for the first time in my life! Yeah, I’ll probably think about chickening out a couple dozen times between now and then, but right now I’m excited!
Wow, I just realized that today is the first day I’ve been in a good mood since the week before the election!
That would be entertainment, wouldn’t it? Like, you either make something to inform, you make something to entertain, or you make something to inform and entertain. There’s no fourth option…I don’t think…is there?
But, anyway, first video in and they’re like
And there’s 101 videos labeled antinatalism in this playlist. That’s funny.
So far from what I’ve been listening to, I agree with a lot of what he’s saying. Nothing new for me yet.
-SLAMS DOOR OPEN-
….
….
….
I made fajitas.
@authorialAlchemy, and anyone else feeling similar,
I’ve been following #auditthevote, yes. If you’re on Twitter much, Sarah Kendzior is definitely worth following, too (assuming you don’t already, that is). She’s been studying authoritarian regimes for years and has brought that expertise to tracking Trump. It was through her that I read about him claiming to have kept the car plant in the US – the same one you mentioned, I think?
She’s also just published a brilliant round-up of everything that’s been going on which is going to prove an essential resource, imho.
Finally, Scildfreja posted a link (a couple of days ago) to a great site that details stuff everyone can do, whether it’s giving money or time. And of course I can’t find it right now…
Apologies for the long comment; I think everyone here understands completely how you’re feeling. Take care <3
@Jack
You can make something to indulge yourself. Then again that’s just a self directed form of entertainment. This requires further thought…
@Troubelle
On Friday!? The prophecy is fulfilled!
@Catfish,
The Starbucks’ cup thing has been hilarious. Trumplings were already angry because (1) the Starbucks CEO endorsed Clinton earlier this year, and (2) recently they brought out a new cup design celebrating diversity and unity (the horror).
Then a customer decided that his coffee was taking too long because anti-white discrimination, which started this whole ‘write Trump on my cup’ thing. They are protesting by … continuing to give their money to Starbucks.