So I’m putting together a page (or possibly two) of anti-Trump resources, and I could use your help over the next few days. (No need think about any of this stuff today, obviously!)
I’m looking for a bunch of different things:
Information and graphics to help make the case that Trump’s victory is illegitimate, based on:
Hillary’s big win the popular vote; the ways in which the electoral college effectively overcounts the votes of rural whites and those in swing states and undercounts those of minorities; dirty tricks, from Russian hacking and wikileaks to the machinations of Comey and pro-Trump FBI agents (I’m especially interested in stuff talking about Trump’s connections to the dirty tricksters, as well as his public encouragement and exploitation of leaked emails and the like).
Information on protests and other anti-Trump activism:
Both local and national (and on the internet). Links to help people who want to get involved.
Information and resources to help people deal with Trump-related anxiety, etc.
Information on Trump’s massive conflicts of interest, and whether or not this could rise to the level of an impeachable offense
Information on his worldwide business dealings. Examples of the conflicts that have already become an issue even though he’s not yet in the White House. The issues raised by his plan to have his kids run his business — despite their continued involvement in the transition and their attendance at meetings with foreign leaders.
Information on Trump’s connections to white supremacists
The possibility that he engaged in “pay to play” for favorable coverage in Breitbart. Connections to far-right parties and activists in Europe. Examples of horrible stuff said and done by his white supremacist supporters. His refusal to clearly and specifically distance himself from these people — in person, on camera.
Trump’s compulsive lying; his vanity; his obsession with revenge; his encouragement of violence at his rallies; his flip-flops, mood swings, erratic behavior; his susceptibility to flattery; his promulgation of fake news and discredited claims
Trump’s racism and misogyny
Trump’s attacks on Muslims and Latinos. His record of discrimination against black tenants. His long history of misogyny. The accusations of sexual assault raised against him.
Historical parallels between Trump and fascist/authoritarian leaders in the past
Information about Trump’s unwillingness to follow traditional norms of presidential behavior and/or do his job
His massive ignorance about this country and the world and unwillingness/inability to learn. His attempts to dodge the press and threats against press freedom. His refusal to attend daily intelligence briefings. His refusal to make his tax returns public.
Trump’s terrible advisors and allies; the Russian connections
Further reading on Trump
Ranging from the terrible things he’s said about women, to his bankruptcies and sleazy business practices, to his embrace of assorted conspiracy theories over the years. I’m generally looking for longer articles here, but short primers on some issues are welcome as well.
Further reading on fascism. authoritarianism, right-wing movements and media
Information about Pence, particularly his anti-LGBT policies
Funny stuff
Recommended publications, writers, podcasters, etc to help make sense of Trump
Anything else you can think of that I’m forgetting
Thanks!
David, and honestly, everyone,
If you’re going to do this, be very careful. There is a lot of force, both outside our ideals and inside them, ready to push back on anyone doing this very thing. Just be ready.
Take any cyber security measures you can. A few notable people doing this have gotten oddly well times warnings about foreign governments trying to get their email.
I’m at thanksgiving, so it can’t say much now. David, I’ll send you some resources later.
For now, though, if you need a quick laugh to keep you going , the amazon reviews for the MAGA Christmas ornament are a good time.
Be safe, be smart, be strategic.
Thanks, everyone!
I’m going to try to rely on well-cited facts and carefully researched reportage. But I won’t avoid the NYT or even Mother Jones because some on the right will dismiss them; they’re generally very credible sources. I’m not sure what sorts of publications I could rely on that would pass muster with people who think the NYT is too left-wing to trust. Fox News? Breitbart?
I’ve got Meyer’s book; have not read it yet.
I’ve been reading a memoir of life during the 20s and early 30s in Germany by Stephen Haffner. Very enlightening.
Oh, and I fixed that lil typo. Ooops.
I’m referring to GG because he has frequently commented on this recently, claiming that the insistent references to Russia’s involvement in the election are Red Scare Tactics with no basis in fact. I don’t know what he has done to antagonize you, but he is respectable journalist who has followed this issue. According to him there is no concrete, public evidence that the Russians have some sort of significant involvement in swaying the election. Don’t you think that Democrats should have higher standards than to literally state the leader of the opposition party is an enemy agent and a traitor?
You can tell this whole thing is mainly a political tactic and is not rooted in genuine concern because the logical conclusion (Trump should be arrested and jailed, c.q. the military and intelligence establishment is not to accept the legitimacy of his election) is not at all entertained. People just randomly shout out “Russian connections” and there is no follow-up and it has no effect on whether people really view his election as legitimate.
Betsy DeVos, swamp dweller: http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/betsy-devos-trumps-big-donor-education-secretary
Megalibrarygirl, thanks! I could def use help accessing paywalled academic papers. I can send you some titles once I get further into all this.
Number Sequence, thanks, I have been upgrading my security (passwords, proxies, etc) but def would appreciate advice on further steps I could take.
The wifi network I’m on at the moment won’t allow me access to his site to be able to provide you links, but read Greg Palast on GOP Voter Suppression. Jill Stein is bringing this into mainstream discourse,
The Exit Polls were right when they said Hilary would win, but the spoiled ballots of disproportional non-white voters is greater in most states than Trump’s margin of victory. Same thing happened in 2008 and 2012, but the large Democrat turnout eclipsed this and ensured Obama still won.
You do remember Trump calling publicly for Russia to hack Hillary’s emails, right?
No I don’t have proof Russia hacked the emails, but someone did, and it affected the election. Trump’s sympathies with Putin and several of his advisors’ Russia connections/lobbying for pro-Russia politicians are well known.
These are certainly questions that need to be examined and not simply dismissed as “political.”
Just as the FBI’s apparent intervention in the election (or at least the intervention of a pro-Trump FBI group) needs to be investigated.
At this point the question of whether or not Trump is a traitor is not a closed question.
There is also the question of whether or not his business ties may lead to him making decisions that favor those countries he’s doing business in. Indeed, there are already hints of this happening. And they’re not even particularly well-hidden.
I posted this in another thread; it has a good infographic on the weight of the electoral vote by race (with a source cited):
https://thenib.com/the-electoral-college-isn-t-working-here-s-how-it-might-die
Sinkable John said
My plan is to rotate between my personal favorites such as: Trumplethinskin, Mango Mussolini, Cheating Cheeto, Gold-plated Groper, and whatever else comes along that pleases me. These, of course, are for other contexts.
I like Agent Orange, it sounds like a bumbling secret operative who doesn’t know he’s being used to prop up fossil fuel and destroy the world.
Boycott the trumps. Hit them where it hurts. #grabyourwallet
The #GrabYourWallet boycott spreadsheet
#GrabYourWallet Twitter campaign
Hillary Clinton’s Popular Vote Lead Now Over Two Million
@zumahzumah
He didn’t do anything to me. Not a fan from back during the Snowden debacle. And then his BernieBro bullshit didn’t help. So, no, I don’t have an antagonistic view of Glenn Greenwald. I just don’t much care for what he has to say *shrug*
No
kupo, perfect! I saw that in the other thread but didn’t save the link.
Here’s something I found about voter suppression in key states. It pisses me off that Trump encouraged voter suppression under the guise of “making sure the election isn’t rigged” and no major media outlet has called him out.
http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2016/11/crosscheck-caging-and-how-gop-stole.html
Trump’s conflict of interests:
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/donald-trump-secret-service-campaign-travel-payments-228553
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/09/secret-service-paying-taxpayer-money-to-trumps-company.html
http://crooksandliars.com/2016/11/donald-trump-tells-ny-times-he-can-run-his
Trump railed on Hillary for accepting “sketchy” donations. But apparently when he does it, it’s totally fine:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/23/why-did-donald-trump-take-money-from-this-sketchy-ukrainian-oligarch.html
From the anti-donald trump subreddit EnoughTrumpSpam, Here’s a thread documenting each of Trump Cabinet picks with links to articles of their various “noteworthy” traits:
https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughTrumpSpam/comments/5dsjm8/trumps_cabinet/
Trump Jr. met with russian officials to discuss Syria “solution”
http://crooksandliars.com/2016/11/russian-collaborator-trump-jr-met-russians
The 141 stances that Donald Trump has taken during his white house bid:
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/full-list-donald-trump-s-rapidly-changing-policy-positions-n547801
Hope it helps. I’m taking a “that’s enough politcs for today” time out now. Enjoy Turkey (or this perfectly ordinary Thursday for all of you who don’t celebrate thanksgiving!) Day.
Correction: Not Stephen Haffner, Sebastian Haffner.
http://amzn.to/2ftmBRs
His book The Meaning of Hitler is also great.
No, someone wasn’t paid $3,500 to protest Donald Trump; it’s fake news
Here’s some stuff- it’s a lot, I hope it’s not too cluttered.
Popular vote: “As of this morning, Clinton is already ahead by nearly 2.1 million votes, and that’s with nearly 1.5 million California ballots still to be counted. California, home to just under 40 million coastal elites, voted for Clinton by a nearly two to one margin, so the outstanding California vote alone is likely to bump Clinton’s lead by another 400,000+ votes.
Most of the rest of the uncounted votes comes from places like New York and Washington, collectively home to 27 million coastal elites. By the time all the ballots are counted, Clinton could well have THREE MILLION more votes than Trump.” http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2016/11/hillary-clinton-is-going-to-win-the-popular-vote-by-a-margin-greater-than-the-total-population-of-40-of-the-states
Anti-Clinton elements in the FBI and their links to Trump advisor Giuliani: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/03/meet-donald-trump-s-top-fbi-fanboy.html
and also at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rudy-giuliani-fbi-clinton-emails_us_581c9e3fe4b0e80b02c93d6b
Possible constitutional problem posed by Trump’s conflicts of interest:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/trumps-conflicts-interest-could-be-constitutional-problem
“Richard Painter, an attorney who served as George W. Bush’s chief White House ethics lawyer, thinks Trump could run into trouble with Article One, Section 9 of the Constitution—the emoluments clause. The clause prohibits anyone in federal office from holding a title of nobility granted by a foreign king and from accepting gifts from foreign governments.”
see also http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/us/politics/donald-trump-conflict-of-interest.html?_r=0 and https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/a-scramble-to-assess-the-dangers-of-president-elects-global-business-empire/2016/11/20/1bbdc2a2-ad18-11e6-a31b-4b6397e625d0_story.html
Trump and the Working Class:
http://samadlerbell.com/trump-and-the-working-class/
This, I think, is a really good article on working class issues and Donald Trump, and how racism is used divide up working class Americans to their mutual loss.
“Creating a multi-racial, anti-racist populist front will be difficult. There’s no roadmap. But it’s been done before—to varying degrees of success—by labor unions during the Black Freedom Struggle, by communists organizers in the South, by the CIO, by the New Deal coalition. A reinvigorated labor movement is an indispensable part of the way forward. Throughout history, unions have been the best vehicle by which white workers come to identify as workers first. That remains true today.”
https://thecorrespondent.com/5696/were-heading-into-dark-times-this-is-how-to-be-your-own-light-in-the-age-of-trump/1611114266432-e23ea1a6
I thought this was nice. It’s not on Kebdzior’s blog for reasons she states in the article. I found it emotionally helpful.
Some more book recommendations. Not sure how serious I am about the last category, but oh well.
About the (fictional) pasts many Trump voters seem to pine for:
Leslie J. Reagan – “When Abortion Was A Crime”
James W. Loewen & Edward H. Sebesta – “The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader”
Stephanie Coontz – “The Way We Never Were”
In the category Know Your Enemy:
Jeff Sharlett – “The Family” (Bannon: “Darkness is good. Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That’s power.” – strong reminder, for me, of the worldview described by Sharlett)
Katherine Stewart – “The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children” (re: DeVos)
Will Eisner – “The Plot: The Secret Story of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”
Guides for living in a Post-Truth world:
Jean Baudrillard – “Simulacra and Simulation”
Umberto Eco – “Faith in Fakes”
Umberto Eco – “Foucault’s Pendulum”
Phil Sandifer – “Neo-Reaction, A Basilisk” (going to re-appear in 2017)
Also, here’s a defense of the Electoral College by Ron Paul (yes, that one) that actually makes a lot of the points you want to make:
“Hands off the Electoral College” by Ron paul 92004) https://www.lewrockwell.com/2004/12/ron-paul/hands-off-the-electoral-college/
Undemocratic? That’s a feature, not a bug:: “The problem, of course, is that our country is not a democracy. Our nation was founded as a constitutionally limited republic, as any grammar school child knew just a few decades ago. […] The emphasis on democracy in our modern political discourse has no historical or constitutional basis. Yet we have become obsessed with democracy, as though any government action would be permissible if a majority of voters simply approved of it. Democracy has become a sacred cow, a deity which no one dares question. Democracy, we are told, is always good. But the founders created a constitutionally limited republic precisely to protect fundamental liberties from the whims of the masses, to guard against the excesses of democracy.”
Overcounting the votes of rural whites and those in swing states and undercounting those of minorities is a feature, not a bug:
“election of the President by pure popular vote totals would damage statehood. Populated areas on both coasts would have increasing influence on national elections, to the detriment of less populated southern and western states. A candidate receiving a large percentage of the popular vote in California and New York could win a national election with very little support in dozens of other states! A popular vote system simply would intensify the populist pandering which already dominates national campaigns. […] Citizens in southern and western states in particular tend to value individual liberty, property rights, gun rights, and religious freedom, values which are abhorrent to the collectivist elites. “
Russia, Wikileaks, and the Trump campaign, contra @zumahzumah
http://www.vox.com/world/2016/11/1/13487322/donald-trump-russia-agent-hack
“The hacker who claims to be behind the DNC hack, Guccifer 2.0, is quite clearly a Russian cutout. […] three cybersecurity firms investigated the hack and found direct evidence that two Russian-linked hacking groups, Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear, did the DNC hack.
Perhaps most compellingly, they found that the malware infecting the DNC used an IP address that had previously been used in a hack targeting the German parliament. The German hack was — you guessed it — linked to Russian intelligence. It’s very unlikely that some other hacking group would use such similar code.
“The forensic evidence linking the DNC breach to known Russian operations is very strong,” Thomas Rid, a professor at King’s College who studies cybersecurity, wrote at Vice. “The forensic evidence that links network breaches to known groups is solid: used and reused tools, methods, infrastructure, even unique encryption keys.”
The March on Washington has a lot of satellite support sites – sister marches – I’ll be going to the London one!
Pantsuit Nation – a secret group on facebook – also has regional and international versions.
I just donated (a small amount) to the recount effort.
Flip-flopping: Colbert moderates a Trump vs. Trump debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJfH9O0w1WY
Trump’s Stunning Flip-Flop on immigration: http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/first-read-trump-s-stunning-flip-flop-immigration-n637621
Association with the “alt-right”
The Big Problem with Steve Bannon: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-mcmanus-bannon-populism-20161123-story.html and http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/11/steve-bannon-isnt-racist-hes-worse
“His editors at Breitbart News, the conservative website he ran, said Bannon tried to keep overt racism out of the headlines. That said, he allowed plenty of dog whistles. An entire category of articles was tagged “Black Crime,” for instance. The comment section was “a cesspool for white supremacists,” a former editor complained. Bannon shrugged off any guilt by association. “Are there some people that are white nationalists that are attracted to some of the philosophies of the “alt-right”? Maybe,” he told Mother Jones magazine. “Are there some people that are anti-Semitic that are attracted? Maybe.”
So even if we give Bannon the benefit of the doubt on racism, he’s still presided over a website that deliberately indulges in race-baiting, presumably to build its audience. Is that better or worse? You decide.”
Jeff Sessions: “Three decades ago, Sessions was deemed too racist for the Senate to approve as a federal judge. A man judged unfit to wear a black robe back then will now command the fearful apparatus of the federal government.” http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/the-signal-sent-by-picking-jeff-sessions-for-attorney-general/508301/
Hey Dave,
I’ve structured my blog around Trump’s white supremacist supporters and what they say. I’m still posting videos from the NPI conference, with a break today. I’ve altered my recommended reading to reflect this. But some great relevant books are:
“Trump Revealed”
“The Making of Donald Trump”
“The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund”
“Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream”
“America at War with Itself”
I also included books useful for responding to anti-immigrant/racist/misogynist arguments.
Hope that’s of some use.
My reading list. Forgot the link.