There’s so much going on that it’s hard to keep up. Like, oh, Trump issuing a de facto ban on Muslim immigrants on Holocaust Remembrance Day. So here’s an open thread to discuss all things Trump and Trump-related. No Trolls or Trump fans allowed.
The gif below pretty much captures what it’s like to live in this new weird world.
me + all my friends gathering around the bad news trough for another day of terrible bad news pic.twitter.com/d2yhE87IWP
— Anna Swartz (@Anna_Snackz) January 26, 2017
The one thing missing from this gif, of course, is the massive resistance that is growing to fight against the source of so much of this bad news.
Sometimes, though, the best thing for us resisters to do is to turn off the news for a day or two to keep ourselves healthy enough to resist, so here’s a non-Trump open thread for all your non-Trump needs.
@John
They demand proof, which I’m sure they ignore when given. Oh, and they demand that the rogue accounts prove they’re really who they say they are and insist the rogue tweeters are traitors.
@kupo
Sounds about right. That is textbook collaboration.
Bet it would frighten a lot of them if they realized which side of history they’re on. Wonder how long it’ll take for them to pull their heads out of their own asses. Of course that doesn’t apply to the true believers, but it looks like it’s already slowly starting, seeing as how his popularity seems to be plummeting even lower now.
So what, two more days until that kind of data becomes illegal as well ?
Apparently one of my great-granddads blew up a bunch of bridges while part of the Resistance, then worked on rebuilding some of those very same bridges in the reconstruction effort after the war.
I bet he’d have some kind words for the people who still believe that “it won’t be that bad”.
I noticed that on the @roguepotusstaff account.
Apparently Trump didn’t mention Jewish people on International Remembrance Day because he was trying to be “inclusive.”
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/28/politics/white-house-holocaust-memorial-day/index.html
Beyond sickening.
On a mildly positive note, here’s an article about companies and groups pulling ads from Breitbart News: http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/british-columbia/ubc-breitbart-ad-1.3954799
Steve Bannon gets further up the ladder. Trump has appointed him to the National Security Council, while removing the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a full time member. The chairman will only be present when Trump decides his presence is required.
I apologise for the selfish moment, but I have a question to bounce off you guys: I’ve been thinking about giving up my US citizenship. I know that, without it, I wouldn’t be able to vote anymore, but 1. Being a citizen of a fascist regime makes me feel like a monster (and finding it out makes other Aussies treat me like a monster – I’ve taken to answering “What’s up with your accent?” with “I voted for Hillary!” to avoid harassment), and 2. What are the odds of America ever having free elections again anyway?
Basically, it’s having some potential way to help vs my conscience and neighbours screaming at me. Ugh.
@SFHC
Honestly I’d keep it, just so you have more political influence to go against our fascist regime. I don’t blame you for wanting to sever ties with the US. On the other thing, yeah the chances of that happening are very dire. Trump literally called himself “king.” I’ll be more surprised to see a free election than a civil war at this point. Between killing the environment, pseudo home military occupation, surveillance state, executive orders that violate the constitution’s core concepts, theocrats, oligarchs, being a Russian Vassal state to Putin, advocates of genocide, advocates of slavery of minorities/women and a mainstream media that’s just another propaganda mouthpiece, I can’t decide which one will turn “fractured democracy” to “dead country.”
So I know this isn’t Tr*mp-related but it didn’t seem to fit in the other open thread… The Red Pill has gotten some coverage on the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/55285fcb-81a4-424b-92ab-6c10278b5ab5
What’s troubling is that The BBC Three imprint is the one aimed at young people and teens, and from what I could bear to read of the article, they’ve painted MRAs as being somewhat more reasonable than we know them to be and glossed over their rampant misogyny.
Ugh. This isn’t why I pay my TV licence.
@M:
I would keep it.
On a practical level, citizenships are hard to get and worth holding onto. If the worst happens, then diaspora Americans may be able to help the resistance more effectively than just another foreigner.
On a moral level, American citizenship isn’t about being a subject of King Donald the First; it’s about being a sister to all the people who opposed him and he’s now going to abuse horribly. If you keep your citizenship then you show them that you haven’t forgotten them.
On a planning-for-the-future level, keeping your citizenship is a sign that there is a future. The American people will survive this, and they’re going to need to stand together to rebuild afterwards. If all the good people leave, that’s going to be harder.
@EJ I’m thinking of giving up my US citizenship as well, but your arguments make sense–something to consider.
I’ll just leave this here;
Now this is a story all about how
The world got flipped-turned upside down
And I’d like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I’ll tell you all about the prick with the ridiculous hair
I was to a billionaire, born and raised
In the bankruptcy courts I spent most of my days
Chillin’ out maxin’ relaxin’, a fool
And all groping some pussy outside of the school
With a couple of guys who were wearing the hood
I started blaming latins in your neighborhood
I dissed this disabled guy, but nobody cared
They said, “He’s movin on the White House, but we’re still not scared.”
I whistled for a limo and when it came near
The license plate said “Trump” and it had gold in the mirror
If anything I could say this ride was fine
But I thought, “I’ve got billions”
– “I’m elite, it’s all mine.”
I pulled up to the White House at 7 or 8
And I yelled at the driver, “Go home, migrant labor.”
I looked at my kingdom
With the world in despair
To sit on my throne as the Prick with the hair
Nobody Special,
Perfect.
I just read someone commenting “Stand Together”, and I can’t agree more.
I just listened to an NPR broadcast about the Koch’s and the LONG TERM planning of the right wing Oligarchs. Their number #1 strategy? Confuse and splinter those of us on the left.
STAND TOGETHER on the places we can agree, and don’t get bogged down in arguing about our own pet specifics. (I mean, fight for them, yeah, but don’t splinter over them.)
Silly example, but hopefully it will serve. I found this blog while looking for information on how to resist Trump. First thing I see is, basically, “WHITE MALE RAGE is the problem”.
WTF?? I’m a late middle aged, hetero white guy… as white bread as you can get. Middle class, Christian, the whole 9 yards.
And as Progressive as I am, being human.. my first instinct was “Oh, they don’t want me to help”. So don’t label, don’t make others into overgeneralized bad guys, or you become what you fear and hate.
And if you are younger, and maybe don’t have the experience in social history or political history, remember that an awful lot of “Middle Aged White Guys” were fighting a very similar fight when we protested Vietnam and Johnson/Nixon.
STAND TOGETHER! Avoid petty inter-progressive warfare, and don’t preclude anyone out of your team.
@MAWG
So uh, y’know, I’m a white guy too, and I actually agree that white male rage is basically the problem.
No one is being “precluded out of the team”. It ain’t dividing no one, – the hand-wringing however, absolutely does.
I’ma just go and pretend I didn’t just read that, if it’s all the same to you.
@Middle Aged White Guy
The @Axecalibur corollary to Lewis’ Law:
Responses by middle aged, white guys to complaints about middle aged, white guys justify complaints about middle aged, white guys…
@John
He’s not just a white guy, he’s middle aged. Double the splaining!
You pose this as a “silly example” but it’s obviously something that’s sticking in your craw. Why? Do you think that all white men have white male rage? Do you think that something in the white male identity is intrinsically rage-y and that by saying white male rage is a problem, that means that the problem is white men?
I mean, you’re doing the #notallwhitemen thing here, and we give that the side-eye, because it demonstrates a basic lack of understanding about the fundamental problem.
Unless you are personally experiencing white male rage (in which case some more examination is needed here) I don’t see why someone saying “white male rage is a problem” is automatically an issue for you.
White men are an important bloc in the progressive agenda. Having high levels of privilege, white men are in an excellent position to leverage that privilege to change society for the better.
But the first step is in getting the fuck over yourself, and realizing that you are not the most important bloc in the progressive agenda. We’d like to have you if you’re going to be an adult about that, but if you’re more inclined to take your ball and go home if you can’t have the lead role, we can live without you.
http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/000/681/what-you-did-there-i-see-it.thumbnail.jpg
@Axe
Coulda made it even more inclusive splaining with some ableism.
I’ll chill, and instead of getting ticked, go with the assumption that I didn’t phase things very well.
What’s everybody so upset about, I really don’t get it……… and if you want to say “That’s the problem”, don’t just bash, but explain why.
The very first thing a person sees on the main blog page is the statement that White Male Rage is THE problem. That’s all I was objecting to, consider how it is when someone points the finger at the WHOLE group at whatever group you belong to.
Just look at the way I’ve been hammered here. All I wanted to say was “Progressives, let’s not fight among ourselves..”, and instead of responses, I get slammed.
How is that working together, how is that inclusive?
You people have no idea who I am or what I’ve done or what I do, and you say “Look at yourself”????????????
Come on, folks. Inclusive is inclusive, or it’s not.
(And the Vietnam thing………. I said IF someone doesn’t know history… why read “you don’t know history”. Though I admit it was in response to another comment elsewhere that “All Boomer Men are……”)
That’s the part I’m talking about. What’s with the mindreading, assuming I need to learn X or think Y?
Okay, MAWG, in smaller sentences this time:
Eliding “white male rage” with “white men” is fallacious. I explained it to you already once, very kindly. If you make me do it a third time, I will not be so kind.
When someone says “white male rage”, that is not an implication that all white males have white male rage. It is an implication that only white males have white male rage. The second implication and the first are not equivalent.
Especially if you are talking directly to me, thank you.
OK. I can accept that explanation, cause yeah, that’s how I heard it.
LOL, no joke…. I now have to leave for the theater, where I play a raging southern racist. Ha!
I wrote, then deleted, the comment Middle Aged White Guy quoted, for reasons best known to myself.
K, he’s gone, but I wrote this all out, so…
@WASP
Ugh…
Fine. Nobody has a problem with you being a middle aged, white guy. Some of our most valued commenters (and the site’s owner) are middle aged, white guys. Maybe it’s not people like you, in and of itself, we don’t like. Maybe it’s what you did, and maybe the thing you did is very often done by people like you
Since you asked, here’s why we’re huffy at you. In your 1st comment here:
You showed up. You implied that we were all nefariously misled by the Koch conspiracy. You belittled institutional racism and sexism to “pet specifics”. You took an unnecessarily condescending tone with your “silly example”. You went all #notallwhitemen when nobody even said all. You lectured us about unity, but were considering abandoning ship at the 1st sign of people being not especially kind to your dominant demographic. You used the old, stale ‘both sides’ gambit. You implied that 1)we are generally of a younger generation than you based on nothing and 2)being of a younger generation than you means we likely don’t know history. You attempted to assert your ‘progressive cred’ over us with some antiwar shit from 50 years ago. And, on a personal note, you severely underestimated how little I care for the ‘progressive team’. I’m on the @Axe Team, and I’m not sure you’d be a good fit…