So here’s an open thread to discuss the inauguration of popular vote loser and possible Russian agent Donald Trump. No trolls, Trump fans, etc.
I think I might go all Chuck Tingle and live-tweet a bizarro world version of the event. Or not. I don’t know.
I remember Obama’s first inauguration, and how Roberts muffed the oath a bit, but Obama correctly stating it as written.
I cried during that ceremony, because it was such a life-altering event, and I watched the light and the hope that shone from Obama…which the GOP spent the next 8 years trying to extinguish.
I cried today, but for a different reason. I watched Obama saying goodbye to his staff, and all of the emotions that flitted across his face…
I will miss Obama. Very much.
I did not watch Trumphole being sworn in, because to do so would tarnish the memory of the 2009 ceremony, when the last truly decent person was sworn in.
I don’t know about presidents, but my congressman, Keith Ellison got sworn in with Thomas Jefferson’s Koran and the right threw a tantrum over it.
I love having a representative who induces so many white tears.
….Something has to crack eventually.
Someone has to object.
Someone has to garner a following
Someone has to demonstrate that this simply can’t stand.
If it means a new nation entirely, so be it.
Eighty thousand voters in three states. That’s what this comes down to.
OMG, BWA HA HA HA HA!!! That is flipping hilarious!!!
This reminds me of my late mother, who unfortunately lived next door to an especially virulent racist bigot. (He built a house next door to hers.) Every time she saw him, he would regale her with the most nasty rhetoric, especially against the couple who lived on the next street over. (“If I’d known there were going to be [slur] here, I’d have never built this house, blah blah”)
So, in a very passive-agressive way that defined her sense of humor, when she sent out holiday cards that year, she purchased one Kwanza stamp, especially for his card. (He did get the hint…and when he started on gay people, she asked him, “have you seen the new rainbow stamps?”
Damn, I miss her.
Eurgh. I can’t watch. I won’t watch. I know I don’t comment here often, but seriously, this is just intolerable.
I’ll be at the Sister March in Philadelphia tomorrow, so at least I’ll feel like I’m doing something, but I just feel so powerless in light of all this. Still, I’ll do what I can.
This piece by John Pavlovitz is pretty fantastic and sums up a lot of what I’ve been feeling: http://johnpavlovitz.com/2017/01/19/let-the-record-show/
And to add insult to injury, I’m pretty sure my dog is afraid of me leaving him, because he ATE MY FUCKING PASSPORT last night and now I have to desperately hope the State Department remains functional long enough to issue me a replacement. This is not the time to render me incapable of fleeing the country, you goddamn canine.
I spent the whole day away from american news, but I guess it’s time to stick my head out of the sand for a while.
… please tell me it’s not too late for a dumb miracle yet.
Police gassed protesters on K Street in DC.
The righties are spreading images on Facebook of people smashing into a Starbucks and saying it’s the inaugural protesters but I have not been able to find anything else about it yet.
Fitting, that Trump would be inaugurated amidst police firing tear gas into crowds. It’s an angry day today.
Well fuck, someone smashed and burned a limo that wasn’t even involved in the parade. Thanks, morons, you just gave Fox News an evening’s worth of content. ON A FRIDAY. That means a WEEKEND’S WORTH.
The smashing and burning and suchlike is really angering me at the moment. I know it is likely mostly those people who join protests just for the hell of it rather than actual legitimate parts of the protest, but that just saddens me even more.
@Falconer
I wonder when Trump and his team are going to decide that Fox News isn’t adoring enough of them. I am in equal parts scared and amused to wonder when they’ll decide that even that cesspit of bigotry is ‘biased’ against them, but they’re far right enough that it is likely to happen.
@Alan Robertshaw
That’s brilliant! It reminds me of an item several years back about UKIP on BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show, where Jeremy played ‘Making Plans for Nigel.’
@nparker, they’ve already decided to let Jim Hoft and the Gateway Pundit into the White House Press Room. It’s only a matter of time until “traditional media” gets shut out in the cold.
I wanted blogs and new media to succeed, but not like this. Not like this. It’s like Josh Marshall wished on a monkey’s paw or something.
The traditional media have no one but themselves to blame if they get shut out. They’ve been enabling right wing extremism for the sake of ratings for years. This is where it got them. An ill informed public voting in a 1st amendment hating wannabe dictator.
@wwth
All of them have been bought out my major corporations who control the kleptocracy. “Balance both sides” is the biggest scam that has ever been fabricated in mainstream media. Any talk of corruption? Any talk about infrastructure? Any talk that implies them to be critical or in disagreement of something? Nope. Let’s just not have any form of a critical eye, calling others out for falsehoods is unprofitable. Here lets give Trump 2billion in free advertisement what’s the worst that could happen?
jesus christ I didn’t watch the speech but I heard it was basically a huge pile of alarmist “THE COUNTRY IS SICK AND DYING AND ONLY I CAN SAVE IT”
I shouldn’t be surprised, but at the same time it’s so ridiculously fascist that ._.
Maybe related: I live in Australia and I got ill and threw up at around 2AM on the 21st. Probably allergic to evil!
I saw the swear in at work. And ABC’s live coverage with George Snuffleupagus (Jimmy Dore’s only worthwhile contribution to society). Fuck everything and anyone that, in any way, enabled this
Worst part, it was boring. It was normal. It looked like an inauguration. Hillary Clinton was in the wrong spot, but otherwise… Ugh
Newsnight (BBC2) just did quite a good piece on Trump and race.
Worth seeing on iPlayer.
@Elizabeth Regina
Thanks for the tip, Your Majesty. I’ll get right on it.
Are any other London mammotheers going to the march tomorrow?
@David Futrelle
I went straight into hypervigilant mode and have stayed there.
While I don’t condone punching people in the head while they are being interviewed, even if they’re a neo-nazi, here’s a gif of a neo-nazi getting punched in the head while being interviewed.
@JoeB
That’s Richard Spencer, the dapper Nazi.
His hair may have gotten mussed.
@Weatherwax (Bows)
*Plummiest accent*
One lives to serve.
Also serious piece was cut through with clips from Beyonce’ s ‘Formation’ and I thought it a)worked quite well and b) deserved to be seen more widely as an outsider’s analysis of race issues in the U.S.
I was planning on attending the protest in St Paul tomorrow but it’s going to be raining during it. It’ll be just a few degrees above freezing so it’s going to be cold rain. I just got over being really sick and I can’t afford to get sick and miss more work. So I’m gonna have to skip it. I’m disappointed.
Sadly there will likely be more opportunities to protest in warmer weather months though.
Sigh.
Pity these aren’t valid US postage. (Also they were issued 3 years ago and are probably mostly collector’s items now.)