Build on the momentum of this weekend’s massive protests by calling your members of congress with a blunt message: Trump’s behavior in the first several days of his presidency — from his belligerent inauguration speech to his petty and dishonest squabbling about crowd sizes — indicate that he is dangerously unfit and temperamentally unsuited to be president.
His plunging popularity and the massive size of the Women’s Marches against him represent a clear vote of no confidence in him from the general public.
We need to treat Trump like the failed president he will inevitably be. And we need to convince our elected representatives to do the same.
Tailor your message depending on which party each of your elected representatives belong to.
If they are Democrats (or independents who caucus with Democrats):
Find out if they boycotted the inauguration. (Here’s what I think is a fairly complete list of congresspeople who boycotted; no Senators joined in, AFAIK.) Thank them if they did; express your disappointment if they didn’t.
Urge them to stop treating Trump like a legitimate president, and to block every single thing he puts forward from this point onward. Urge them to vote no on every single one of Trump’s cabinet picks.
If they are Republicans:
Tell them that you think Trump is too dangerous and erratic a person to run the country — and have their hands on the nuclear codes. Note that Trump’s popularity is crumbling and his inauguration weekend was a disaster. The sooner they break with Trump, the less Trump-stink will cling to them once his presidency inevitably implodes.
Tell them to start by voting against Trump’s cabinet picks. (You might mention one or two picks you find especially unfit and/or reprehensible. See my #ResistTrump posts about his various picks for more info.)
Obviously, tailor your message however you want; these are just suggestions that I think will help carry the message of the Women’s March into the world of practical politics.
You can find the name and contact info for your representative here, and for your senators here.
See my posts here and here for information and advice on how to make your calls and emails effective. If making these sorts of calls is tough for you, here’s some advice on calling politicians if you have social anxiety.
We’ve got the momentum on our side. Let’s not lose it!
Playonwords,
January 20th has been the Presidential Inaugeration Day since 1937, unless it falls on a Sunday, which is why Obama’s 2nd Inaugeration was on the 21st.
But yeah, the Ego has landed.
Patriotic *devotion*, though? What’s next? An official proclamation changing the title of President to “Dear Leader”?
I’m sure people have seen this?
http://nypost.com/2017/01/23/trump-sued-for-violating-the-constitution/
Playonwords, I apologize; he didn’t make every January 20th the NATIONAL DAY OF PATRIOTIC DEVOTION. Just his Inaugeration Day.
Fuck me to tears.
@PeeVee
The First Dump’s hair certainly is on a Kim Jong Un level of hideousness.
I also exhibited my patriotic devotion to him on that day by being asleep. Or maybe peeing. ….urgh, wait, he *likes* pee…
Banananana dakry,
I read your story and I join the others in saying “well done!”
As an aside, I just completed a 24-hour urine collection for a lab test, and every time I went in the collection thingy that went over the toilet, I giggled. I thought of putting a pic of him on the underside, but damn, that’d be too juvenile, even for *me*.
I have also contemplated changing my username since those revelations came out, but you know what? Out of my own patiotic devotion to Trump, I’m going to leave it.
(I get thirsty every time I see your name, btw.)
Merkel advisors say Germany has ‘given up’ on Donald Trump acting like a President
@PeeVee
Don’t worry, I can be juvenile enough for both of us. >:)
Actually my handle is a Pratchett ref as a few people like Victorious Parasol know, but if you get thirsty reading it, that’s good too. 🙂
@Lindsay Irene
Chancellor Merkel according to the popular vote WE weren’t exactly wild about him either, and I’m terrified of any Trump we get. For what that’s worth.
@Banananana
I know; you’re just not sure how to stop spelling banana! I’m currently rereading Witches Abroad, as it’s the perfect antidote to current affairs.
Pratchett handles of the world unite!
This video is intriguing. Trump seems very insecure here. Also, check out the difference between the way Trump greets Nancy Pelosi and the way Obama greets her. Of course, Obama has known her for a while, so that’s presumably why he kisses her. But really, Trump’s handshake with Pelosi looks like he’s trying to break her arm.
Inauguration: Donald Trump mimics Barack Obama as they walk out of White House
Outgoing and incoming presidents met at the White House before travelling to Capitol Hill
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/inauguration-donald-trump-us-president-mimics-barack-obama-walk-out-white-house-oval-office-a7538046.html
@Banananana dakry
I am now imagining Nanny Ogg taking the measure of Donald Trump.
Let’s enjoy that thought, shall we?
On the off change that there are any necromancers in the community, I would really really like it if we could bring PTerry back just long enough to write a book in which Gytha Ogg and Esme Weatherwax tear an expy of Donald Trump into thin strips.
Just sayin’.
Well, they came close in Wyrd Sisters, though admittedly the duke was marginally more competent than Trump. And Melania is no duchess.
Sam Vimes would understand Trump instantly.
C.M.O.T. Dibbler would regard him as unfair competition.
Vetinari would find uses for him.
THERE’S ONE OTHER DISCWORLD CHARACTER I WOULD LIKE TO MEET HIM, BUT I WON’T SAY WHO THAT IS.
Wʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ɪs ᴀ sᴍᴀʟʟ ᴄᴀᴘs ᴛᴇxᴛ ɢᴇɴᴇʀᴀᴛᴏʀ. Aꜰᴛᴇʀ ᴀʟʟ, ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴇʀsᴏɴ ʏᴏᴜ’ʀᴇ ᴛʜɪɴᴋɪɴɢ ᴏꜰ ᴅᴏᴇsɴ’ᴛ sʜᴏᴜᴛ, ᴀs ᴀ ɢᴇɴᴇʀᴀʟ ʀᴜʟᴇ…
Scildfreja:
I need to read more carefully the bill to see the awful catch, but this seems like a bill I could reluctantly support.
Nuclear energy is one way to get off fossil fuels. It’s very expensive and slow to build, because of all the safety requirements. Newer designs are far safer than older designs, so if you build a whole bunch of the new ones you’ll still only get a major problem every generation, like we do now.
So the downside: lose a small city every generation. The upside: greatly reduce carbon emissions.
It’s interesting that the GOP loves nuclear energy so much. It needs huge subsidies to be worth building, but once built it’s cheaper to operate than any fossil fuel plant, so it kills coal and natural gas. It’s almost like they aren’t actually sincere about their free market ideals.
“Licensing” is that the federal Nuclear Regulatory Committee (or some other C — acronym is NRC) gives a license to the plant before it’s allowed to get built, and again before it turns on, and at various other points. We have the same process in Canada, just with different acronyms.
Typically it is a private corporation that operates it. Canadian provinces mostly nationalized their electric companies, but not so much the rest of the world.
Moggie: I’m pretty sure HE is a republican.
Both parties bring him lots of work around the world, but the GOP is particularly effective.
Oh but I bet Trump would stiff him on payment.
Toshiba build nuclear reactors; including ones at the Fukushima plant.
That’s a reassuring thought next time your laptop fucks up.
Kat,
It’s been said that Trump doesn’t like to shake hands because he’s a germaphobe. Most of his handshakes are very awkward-looking.
This is also an excuse some of the alt-right commenters are using as the reason the Russian pee dossier is false.
I’ve read that he has had to practice handshaking because he doesn’t normally do it.
It’ll be interesting to see where all the reactors get sited. Lots of scope on the west coast to get smooshed fukushima-style when the cascadia lets rip. Lots of opportunities to sink beneath the rising sea on the carribean coast and south east. The former largely affects democrat-voting hipster libtards though, so maybe it wouldn’t be seen as a risk as such.
I wonder if this is all just a stick to threaten the coal providers with, something that no-one has any intention of following through. Fun times ahead, there’s no doubt about that.
I’ll need to watch that video to see whether Pelosi’s hands are bigger than Trump’s.
Esme being canonically dead, it may be Tiffany Aching then ?
On another way, you can hardly do headology if there is none to apply first (hair does not count).
And is there already any representation of US in the Discworld ? There are expy for many places (XXXX for Australia, Agathean empire and the time monks hidden temple for Asia, Quirm and the surrounding for western Europe, Uberwald for eastern Europe, and other places i do not remember the used names like the one with pyramids, the one with “greek-like” philosophers, the jungle one and so on), but the only one i can connect to US is the Holly Wood stuff in Moving Pictures.
@ pie
That’s an interesting thought. One of Trumps ‘Art of the Deal’ guiding principles is that you should always make clear in negotiations that you have an alternative (nothing revolutionary there of course, BATNA is a standard consideration). But who knows with Trump? It could be anything from being beholden to the nuclear industry to sticking two fingers up to the environmental lobby.
Loving the transportation of Trump to Discworld. Although what have these beloved characters done to deserve it?
Seconding the Nanny Ogg takedown though.
ETA What about the baddy in Making Money whose name I’ve temporarily lost? Isn’t he a bit Trumpish? Right down to his fascination with the Patrician.
I had a good friend in university who was a very strident supporter of nuclear power on environmental grounds, and so chose to do his PhD into it. His opinion was that:
1) Unless renewable power manages to become vastly more reliable, nuclear is the only realistic alternative to hydrocarbons.
2) Nuclear power is far safer than hydrocarbon power once you take the mineral extraction process into account. (Coal mining is a horrible process.)
3) Nuclear waste is far less dangerous than a lot of the waste and byproducts produced by hydrocarbon power. (Deepwater Horizon, I’m looking at you.)
4) We need better nuclear reactor tech anyway, because that’s where we’ll be getting power once we go into space.
For these reasons, I’m cautiously in support of Trump’s nuclear program. However, I would append a fifth point which Smithers did not make, because he was more into the science and not the politics of it:
5) Government spending on one-off construction projects is often used as a cover for graft.