Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Everybody saw this coming.

T R E 4 5 O N

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

In my day, never was longer.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

The words do not have to be perfect.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Open Thread: WYSIWYG

Open Thread: WYSIWYG

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… What You See Is What You Get.

Oh, remember that Vanity Fair review of his crappy restaurant?…

Reader Interactions

152Comments

  1. 1.

    Pogonip

    And for those waiting to hear, the Bavarian mustard is pretty good and not blisteringly spicy. I’m going to head out to Subaru Field and see if there’s any more lying around.

  2. 2.

    Kryptik

    Remember when “Merry Christmas” wasn’t a loaded cultural bludgeon with which to demean and assault your ideological foes with to remind them that if you’re not Christian, you’re not American?

    …because Christ, I don’t think I remember anymore.

  7. 7.

    lollipopguild

    Fox News Poll from the other day-31% said that Trump would be the worst president ever. Fox News. Baud needs to tighten his jock, he will be needed before too long.

  9. 9.

    Another Scott

    I don’t see that image on Donnie’s Twitter feed at the moment. Maybe they took it down?

    Maybe he/his minions can be shamed after all?

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (Or, maybe Fox made it up. Why would Trump put his message in quotes??)

  10. 10.

    Pogonip

    @Kryptik: I do! Heck, I’ve been known to send Happy Holidays cards myself. If I make people mad, I don’t get invited to the parties and precious mustard-consuming opportunities are lost–and from that picture of Cole, you see what happens to those who don’t get any mustard (or can’t afford any because they spend all their money at Home Depot). These poor mustardless souls end up frowning grumpily into a camera, scaring the cat away. It’s just not worth it. Snarling “Merry Christmas!” at infidels is at best a momentary pleasure, whereas a jar of mustard will last several months. Do the sensible thing, say “Happy holidays,” and party down with that mustard.

  14. 14.

    Gin & Tonic

    Here’s a privacy issue for perusal. I opened a Chrome incognito session, went to Amazon, looked at a few items, closed the incognito session, closed all other Chrome tabs/instances, re-opened Chrome (not incognito) came here to B-J, and the banner ad at the top of the page was from Amazon, showing me several of the items I’d looked at in the incognito session. I went into Chrome history, deleted browsing history and cookies for the last hour, re-opened B-J, and the Amazon banner ad still shows those items from my incognito session. It looks like the Amazon data is kept elsewhere, and persists across supposedly no-history sessions.

  15. 15.

    sukabi

    Looks like drumpf isn’t so much wishing a merry Christmas as much is he’s passing a giant turd.

    And is that raised fist supposed to be a signal to make it a very white Christmas?

  19. 19.

    Mike in NC

    Hair coloring needs attention, STAT! Makes you wonder if Manhattan Mussolini will need two hours of makeup work every morning.

  20. 20.

    Kay

    Here’s what the President-elect was up to today:

    Jeremy Diamond ‏@JDiamond1 4h4 hours ago
    “Lock her up!” chants breaking out during pre-program as Sharon Day talks about how they defeated Hillary Clinton

    Sopan Deb ‏@SopanDeb 2h2 hours ago
    Guy on the right, also says he’s with the show, has yelled multiple times that Clinton should be water boarded. From inside press pen.

    Jeremy Diamond ‏@JDiamond1 2h2 hours ago
    A Trump supporter just threw an empty water bottle at me after @realDonaldTrump rally. Called me “trash.”

    Just another day of good government and hard work on the pressing issues of the day in Trumpland.

    I think we need another stern lecture from KellyAnne Conway on how we have to respect Trump and his “team”. They’re very Presidential, obviously.

  21. 21.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    so the 90 Minute Hates are the same as they ever were

    Sopan Deb ‏@ SopanDeb 2h2 hours ago
    A Trump supporter just came to the press pen, tossed a water bottle at @ JDiamond1 [CNN reporter], called him trash, and then walked away.

    Guy on the left – Christopher Hart, hosts a show called “American Adversaries” in Orlando on AM660.
    Guy on the right, also says he’s with the show, has yelled multiple times that Clinton should be water boarded. From inside press pen.

    ETA: I owe Kay a Coke, as per certain internet traditions

  22. 22.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    I am trying to imagine Lumpy giving an address in a Sandy Hook kind of situation. What’s he going to do? A ‘lock him up’ rally? I can’t see this fucking moron doing anything but rah rah rallies.

  31. 31.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kryptik:

    True story: I knew my Trump-voting cousin had become an irredeemable asshole when I publicly asked her on Facebook to wear a safety pin and she responded that she would wear her crucifix and that would let everyone know what she stood for.

    I’m still not 100 percent sure she knew how revealing that was. I now realize that she’s even dumber than I realized.

  32. 32.

    Scamp Dog

    @Gin & Tonic: Private browsing just means your machine isn’t saving any information. Your ISP and any sites you visit have alternate methods for keeping track of things.

  33. 33.

    burnspbesq

    Shit is hitting the fan in even the unlikely places.

    There was a post on my FB feed tonight asking for legal observers to show up tomorrow for a ceremony being held by the Ramapo band of the Lenape nation at their traditional ceremonial ground in Mahwah, NJ. They’ve used that ground without incident since I was in grade school, and suddenly assholes are breaking in and defacing buildings with Nazi symbols.

    Any Jersey-admitted lawyers who would like to help out can contact the NJ chapter of the NLG.

  37. 37.

    Kay

    @Mai.naem.mobile:

    The lying will be a real problem. We already saw it in action. The CIA were saying Putin directed the hacking. Trump denied it, but Trump was briefed on it. He knew. He was lying.

    Imagine when one of the members of his administration have to admit something and then Trump denies it. It will be impossible to tell the truth working for him. He’ll likely contradict them publicly if the truth is unflattering or embarrassing to him.

  41. 41.

    Kay

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    “Lock her up” always bothered me. It’s normal now. All Republicans will threaten to lock up their political opponents, even after their campaigns are over.

    Why not? The President does it. They’ll say it so often to the base that eventually they’ll have to actually lock up a political opponent to satisfy the mob.

  42. 42.

    Lizzy L

    @Kay: Not going to be a problem, because no one who works for T will ever admit anything that could embarrass T. No admissions, no truth-telling, no problems. See how easy that is?

    His press conferences — if he does them, and he may not — are going to be something else.

  44. 44.

    Seebach

    So what actions can there be to take? I can’t think of anything before protesting on Inauguration Day.

  46. 46.

    burnspbesq

    That whole sordid business about Trump potentially requiring Federal employees to sign NDAs–did that ever get resolved, or is it still a thing?

  48. 48.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Best New Year’s ever had was Hogmanay in Stonehaven, Scotland, circa 1974. Celebrating lasted 7 days.

    Tradition included “First Footing.” Mandatory to foist a generous glass of whiskey on the first dark-haired stranger to cross the threshold in the new year. Even in a smaller place such as Stonehaven, there were a lot of houses to visit for this then dark-haired American.

  54. 54.

    Mnemosyne

    @NotMax:

    One (fiction) short story I read had an inexperienced “first footer” being carried in by his friends because he had passed out. He had not yet learned to take a sip at each house rather than drinking the whole glass.

  59. 59.

    Anne Laurie

    @Kay:

    Imagine when one of the members of his administration have to admit something and then Trump denies it. It will be impossible to tell the truth working for him. He’ll likely contradict them publicly if the truth is unflattering or embarrassing to him.

    This is the guy whose lawyers only talk to him in pairs, because they need backup when he starts lying about what was said during his meetings with them.

    As my Irish granny used to say: The truth is not in him.

  64. 64.

    Mnemosyne

    @Darkrose:

    He’ll send out an anodyne tweet and then all of his flying monkeys will go on allthe cable news shows to talk about how it’s so much better than him actually making a speech or an appearance. And the MSM won’t make a peep.

  68. 68.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Mnemosyne:

    Everyone knows you can’t trust those Catholics.

    Even worse than that, it was written by Irving Berlin. It’s a conspiracy I tells ya.

    When they come for my 1/20th size model of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, they’ll have to prise it from my cold dead hands.

  69. 69.

    Mnemosyne

    Here’s the nightmare scenario that will be keeping me awake tonight: the thought that Obama has not acted more strongly to prevent Trump from taking office because he has received credible evidence that some figures in the US government and/or military will stage an actual coup to prevent anyone else from taking office.

    Sweet dreams, everyone!

  70. 70.

    Yarrow

    @Kay: Locking up political opponents is what authoritarians do. Of course they’ll do it. That’s who they are.

    I said in a thread earlier today that I hope Obama is watching his back and protecting Michelle and his girls. They’ll want to lock him up for some made up charge. But they’ll also want to hurt him – because they are sadists – and the best way to do that is to hurt his girls.

  72. 72.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Mnemosyne:

    Here’s the nightmare scenario that will be keeping me awake tonight: the thought that Obama has not acted more strongly to prevent Trump from taking office

    No, the nightmare scenario is that Obama is a constitutional lawyer who knows that there is no way to prevent Trump from taking office.

  75. 75.

    Yarrow

    @Darkrose:

    I was thinking about that. The man has absolutely no empathy. How would he ever respond to a national tragedy?

    Blame someone – Muslims, gays, etc. – then talk about how great he is, how he’s going to fix it. And make sure he’s got a crowd to cheer him. That’s how he responds to everything.

  77. 77.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: Highly unlikely. I think what you saw today is simply who the President is. He’s an institutionalist – he believes in deeply and has deep faith in American institutions and believe they’re stronger than they often appear and that each one and its prerogatives should be respected, even when they’re not functioning properly or those in them are showing anyone/any other institution any respect. He also believes deeply in people’s inherent goodness. That in everyone there is a a better angel of that person’s nature that can be coaxed out. He’s an incrementalist. For all that the ACA seemed like a lot of change all at once, he really has always tried to tackle big problems a bit at a time, doing constant, regular work to achieve the changes he thinks need to be made. And all of that is what you saw today. Anyone that expected him to come out and announce that Federal agents were arresting the following people… Or that all of Russia’s assets, and all the assets of Russia’s oligarchs, and all of Putin’s assets were now frozen by US action… Or that we had just reduced Putin’s dacha in Sochi to cinders and embers… just don’t understand the President very well.

  78. 78.

    Lyrebird

    @AnotherBruce: Seriously. The Christian side of my family has gone from “huh?” to “make it stop!” wrt the whole “war” on Christmas… They don’t want shopkeepers to be wishing them Merry Christmas before or during Advent, and they don’t think the holiday is primarily about buying things anyhow.

    Shocking.

    They definitely don’t think it’s about power displays by the already-powerful.

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    @Viva BrisVegas:

    IANAL, but I find it difficult to believe that there is absolutely no legal recourse if a presidential candidate conspires with a foreign power to steal an election.

    I mean, I suppose it could fall into a loophole of we never even imagined someone would do that, so we didn’t bother to make a law against it, but our espionage laws are pretty comprehensive.

  80. 80.

    Yarrow

    @Adam L Silverman: I didn’t expect him to do that, but I thought he might be more specific about what the issue is. I also thought he might hint at the hacking of the Republicans and how they could be at risk of being blackmailed. Maybe they are being blackmailed already! Not that I expected him to say that, but to outline the inherent risks of what has happened.

    Instead I felt he blamed the press and the American people. And yes, both of those groups (us) are to blame. But it was more than that – he seemed almost detached and like he didn’t grasp the urgency of where we are.

    His appeal to Trump to be better than he is to be president of everyone seemed comically naive. I understand we all hope he’ll be that way but there is nothing in his history to show he has that in him.

    As I said above, I hope President Obama is watching his back because authoritarians jail their opponents. I think they’ll be coming for him if he does anything besides keeps his mouth closed.

    I am surprised they are not briefing the electors with the intelligence. Maybe they don’t have the required security clearance. Maybe they feel it wouldn’t do any good. I don’t know.

  81. 81.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I didn’t think anything like that would happen today, because the Electoral College has not acted yet. I think Obama is still hoping that faithless electors will save us from this bind, because at least there’s some form of precedent and the Constitution.

    If he does have credible evidence that Trump conspired with the Russians and the electors don’t act, I don’t know what he would do. But that’s why the above is my nightmare scenario.

    Secondary nightmare: that there are a whole lot of insults being traded back and forth in the back channels between Washington and Moscow right now, with some threats that what just happened to Aleppo will happen to Los Angeles or Seattle if Trump is blocked from taking office.

  82. 82.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yarrow: The issue is, and what is so frustrating about it, is we have no idea what is going on in both the counterintelligence side of things and the cyber operations side of things. And to be honest we may never know.

  83. 83.

    Yarrow

    @Mnemosyne: I feel the same way. Obama did talk about the failure of our political culture. And he’s not wrong. But there has to be more to protect us than that. I mean one side conspired with a foreign power. We have no laws to protect us from that?

  84. 84.

    Mnemosyne

    @Yarrow:

    But it was more than that – he seemed almost detached and like he didn’t grasp the urgency of where we are.

    Or, as in one of my above nightmare scenarios, there are forces at work that he can’t tell us about that would cause something even worse to happen, like a coup or Russian airstrike.

  85. 85.

    Yarrow

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m less concerned about what our intelligence professionals are doing to Russia in terms of retaliation. I am more concerned about the willing partnership the Republicans have made with Russia and Vladimir Putin to take over our country.

    President Obama can do some sort of cyber retaliation, but as soon as Trump is in power those things will stop. We need Obama to protect us from Trump. Maybe he can’t affect the Electors, but maybe he can release enough information that it’s clear Trump has committed espionage or some law like that. Maybe he can leave things in such a way that Trump will be fighting off lawsuits and bad press from the moment he takes office.

    I just don’t have much confidence in that because dictators change laws they don’t like, and quickly. See what happened in NC. Boom. Laws changed. And suddenly Trump isn’t breaking any law or doing anything wrong. We’ve always loved Putin.

  86. 86.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Yarrow: Kay knows. Kay is knowledgeable as hell about how local things work, but she doesn’t get snark and sarcasm, so don’t use them with her.

  87. 87.

    Yarrow

    @Mnemosyne: I can only hope it’s a WH Correspondents Dinner / Bin Laden kind of thing. Obama is being cool and composed and not giving a single thing away. And then BOOM.

  88. 88.

    elm

    Today’s response was comically underwhelming, just like the comically politics deployed around the SCOTUS vacancy and the hilariously awful response to Russian interference before the vote.

  90. 90.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: Your secondary nightmare is also highly unlikely. Despite the recent revelations regarding Russia’s drone sub with the nuclear warhead, unless Putin decides to be suicidal and escalate completely to nuclear war, anything he would do is conventional. And he quite simply does not have the ability to project force that way, nor to sustain a campaign against the US should he try. Doing what he’s doing in Syria while trying to freak out Sweden with Russian naval maneuvers and parts of Eastern Europe by moving missiles into Kaliningrad has him stretched pretty thin. His economy is not doing well, Russia’s strategic financial reserve is down by over 2/3rds and is quickly running even lower. A direct, military attack on the US would not just cost him dearly militarily, by the time all was said and done it would cost him all of his soft power successes. Remember, his allies have very limited abilities to project power. Assad couldn’t even hold Syria without Russia. Iran isn’t going to be able to contribute much. Neither is Chechnya or Crimea or any of the stans he’s got influence over. They just don’t have the force projection capabilities or the ability to sustain a military campaign against the US, let alone the US, NATO, and our other partners and allies.

  95. 95.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yarrow: Unless the President-elect or someone working for him/for his campaign passed classified information to Russia or to any foreign power/actor that was not authorized to have it, then nothing that has been done is espionage.

    And, of course, part of what is frustrating is that it is unclear what actually did happen. But borrowing trouble from a future that may not come to pass doesn’t seem very productive.

  96. 96.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    It’s mid-December, and Russia has never been successfully invaded by a foreign power. Particularly given our recent disastrous forays into the Middle East, I’m not as confident as you are that Comrade Putin would hesitate to lob a (non-nuclear) bomb or two at the West Coast.

  100. 100.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @elm: Well, hello there, anonymous commenter on a blog. I for one am very interested in your strong and thoughtful opinions about how presidenting should be done.

  101. 101.

    Yarrow

    @Adam L Silverman: I don’t see it as borrowing trouble. I see it as knowing history and learning from it. Understanding how dictators and totalitarians work. How fast things change once they gain control. Understanding how weak our institutions are – how badly they failed us in this election – and how little we can expect them to hold up in the face of the Trump onslaught. Being prepared for what is coming. Making plans.

  103. 103.

    elm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Not this:

    With respect to the FBI, I will tell you, I’ve had a chance to know a lot of FBI agents. I know Director Comey. They take their job seriously. They work really hard. They help keep us safe and save a lot of lives.

    Comey is a hack who fucked up the election.

    Not this:

    I do hope that we all just take some time, take a breath, that’s certainly what I’m going to advise Democrats, to just reflect a little bit more about how can we — how can we get to a place where people are focused on working together based on at least some common set of facts? How can we have a conversation about policy that doesn’t demonize each another?

    We should demonize the shit out our fascist neighbors.

    Given what he said today, he may as well have said nothing.

  104. 104.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yarrow: I think it makes sense. What you’re seeing is a variation on the usual testing/probing that occurs in the gap between US Presidential elections and the inauguration of the next President when the Presidency changes hands. That’s also part of why the Chinese scarfed up our UUV today. They unsuccessfully pulled the same type of thing with a US Navy towed sonar area in 2008 and they also pulled something similar in 2000 when President Bush was succeeding President Clinton.

    In this case the Russians (though the Chinese action today works the same way) are probing to see if 1) the current Administration is still paying attention over the next 32 days and 2) what, if anything, the President-elect or his team might say, and ultimately 3) what the President-elect will then do when he takes over in late January. In the case of China in 2008, President Obama sent the same research vessel back after he was inaugurated with an Arleigh Burke class destroyer escort. I’m pretty sure President Bush 43 did something similar when the Chinese probed in 2000 as the election results were dragging on and the transition was abbreviated.

  107. 107.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: Yeah, I’ll wait for evidence before I believe trump or his people colluded. I think they were passive beneficiaries. Why would Putin, or his intelligence professionals, take the risk of working a bunch of impulsive semi-pros when they had Andrea Mitchell, Chuck Todd, most of the New York Times, Fox and all three networks doing the same thing without any help.

    Where I wouldn’t be surprised to find some more active and direct engagement on the part of some foreign actors (and yes, I have read too much LeCarre and watched the Americans twice) is with the NY FBI bureau, or someone in that fraternal order of agents headed up by some friend of Rudi G

  111. 111.

    Yarrow

    @Omnes Omnibus: Okay.

    @Adam L Silverman: I understand what the Chinese are doing in that context. But Sweden feeling it has to step up its military preparedness is a significant change. The article I read talked about how some of their defenses are falling apart because they haven’t needed them and haven’t kept them in good repair for decades. So this isn’t an every 8 years type of thing. It seems that Russia’s moves are getting Sweden’s attention.

  112. 112.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: Putin’s overwhelming concern is safeguarding his family and their fortune/security going forward. Its the reason he’s removed so much wealth from Russia and squirreled it away. Its why he has coup/Maidan proofed himself and why he’s set plans in motion so that he’ll essentially be President for Life of Russia from here on out. In order to further backstop this plan he needs sanctions lifted. Lobbing a nuke at LA isn’t going to get the sanctions lifted. And the response is going to be one where his family doesn’t survive (let alone most of the rest of the planet), so that even if his money does, there will be no more Putin’s to enjoy it.

    Are things tense? Definitely. Has Putin just pulled off a very successful influence operation? Yes. Does that and the incoming administration scramble up the geostrategic reality? Without a doubt. But we don’t know and we won’t know what that scrambling leads to and what the effects of it will be.

  117. 117.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yarrow: Russia has consistently done this sort of thing. What is different now is that Russia has stepped up the intensity and has brought its submarines far closer than they traditionally have. This has spooked the Swedes and rightly so. So they’re shoring up the necessary infrastructure that they think they’ll need should Putin do something more than put his naval assets in threatening/worrying locations. Sweden is not a member of NATO, but is a longstanding partner of the US and NATO. Putin is trying to figure out just how far he can push. He’s also trying to see what Sweden will do. And what, perhaps, the US and/or NATO might do.

  118. 118.

    ruemara

    @Mnemosyne: There seriously, really, truly isn’t, except as an act of impeachment. IT seems to require some people in the strange group called Kon gres.

  119. 119.

    Yarrow

    @Adam L Silverman: Poor Sweden. :( Bums me out that Putin is feeling emboldened because of dumbass American voters. Ugh.

    @ruemara: What we need is a modern “Deep Throat” to leak some info to some enterprising reporters.

  120. 120.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Putin is trying to figure out just how far he can push. He’s also trying to see what Sweden will do. And what, perhaps, the US and/or NATO might do.

    He already knows what the US will do under Trump: nothing. Trump won’t order it, and a Republican Congress won’t vote for anything to happen to Russia. As everyone keeps saying, there is absolutely nothing that can stop Trump from taking office on 1/20. There’s nothing Obama can realistically do in the next 30 days that wouldn’t be reversed by Comrade Trump. So why wouldn’t Putin start acting like he’s already in charge of the whole world with nothing to fear? And why wouldn’t China already be treating us as Putin’s ally?

    And if Putin is in control of both Europe and the US, his family is secure. Haven’t you ever wondered what might happen if Putin’s prime directive of securing his family is completed and he starts looking around for a new one?

  122. 122.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    Even impeachment isn’t going to do much good — I don’t have a lot of faith that Pence hasn’t been suborned, too. And with a compliant Congress, I’m pretty sure we’ll be just as much Russia’s good buddy once President Pence is in charge.

    I’ve come around to Kay’s way of thinking: there are no more American institutions. They’ve all been hollowed out to the point that they no longer function. The Republican coup has been completed, and while Trump may not have been the dictator the Republicans were planning on, they’re going to go full speed ahead with him.

    “When fascism comes to the United States, it will be carrying a cross and wrapped in the flag.”

  124. 124.

    BlueDWarrior

    @Yarrow: This is one of the failure states of any little-d democratic institution. If the people, through a legitimate election (as in no one changed vote counts, etc.) elects a moronic psychopath to office, there is basically nothing that can be done except hope they commit an expulsion-worthy/impeachable offense and the system follows through on it. That or hope institutional inertia carries you to the next election.

  127. 127.

    BlueDWarrior

    @Mnemosyne: then at point, Democrats (fron the institutions to the base itself) will have to honestly look at the lay of the land and conclude your only recourse is total political war.

    And by that I basically mean demonification of the Republican party and base, ensuring that the rural and suburban areas of blue states having thier political influence stripped, maybe merely reduced if we’re feeling nice, cultural persecution of typical Republican constituencies…

    Now if we’re willing to go to that level, then we can win the fight on Trumpian terms. But that is the outstanding question, is it not?

  128. 128.

    Bill Butler

    @Pogonip:

    If I remember my greeting card history, it might have been Hallmark that reasoned they could capture the niche consumer market that chaffed at sending both a Christmas Card and a separate Happy New Year’s card. At first the one card said “Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year’s.” At this point I’m spit-balling, but they or another card company came up with “Happy Holidays” because of a smart headline writer discovered you could use a bigger font size that way, even more than 72 points. The public ate it up for decades. Then some idiot decided that this one aspect of the commercialization of Christmas was a good point of faux outrage.

  129. 129.

    mike in dc

    Our political war is not merely with Trump and the Republican party. It’s with the Mainstream Media, and it’s with accomodationists and collaborationists in our own party. We need people who will punch back and punch back hard. Whether it’s getting in the face of a talking head on tv, putting pressure on Congressional leadership to not cave, or pointing out that motherfuckers do in fact fuck their mothers, we need to smash mouths and scorch the earth.

  131. 131.

    Raoul

    @Seebach:

    So what actions can there be to take? I can’t think of anything before protesting on Inauguration Day.

    – Host a house party for your friends and discuss local actions you might take to protest various easy to predict atrocities. Like what’s the show-up plan at your City Hall if x or y happens?
    – How far is your state capitol, and how often can you afford to go there for events? Do you need to start saving gas money or building a list of ppl to carpool with? Throw a holiday cookie bake sale and put the gas $ in the cookie jar for later.
    – Are there friends you haven’t been very actively in touch with lately who you know are ‘political’ and like to do things (protest, yes, but are engaged in campaigns or interest groups). Call ’em up and hang out with them for a cup of coffee or some sort of re-bonding activity
    – Call your local Democratic party office (or green party, or some new kick-ass person who is launching a run for a local office) and offer to volunteer.
    – Go put in a shift at a food shelf or shelter or something. Be of use to your fellows who are having a hard time around the holidays. Part of what the world needs right now is compassion. We’re in a pit of empathy-deficit. Being of service outside of politics for a bit can create a well of personal resilience for when days get harder. You may also meet other active, social-change-y people while volunteering on something service related but ‘non political’

    Cheers.

    OK, I’m up too late again.
    G’night Seebach and all. Sweet dreams (we’ll need those, too).

  133. 133.

    Mnemosyne

    @BlueDWarrior:

    And by that I basically mean demonification of the Republican party and base, ensuring that the rural and suburban areas of blue states having thier political influence stripped, maybe merely reduced if we’re feeling nice, cultural persecution of typical Republican constituencies…

    Well, good luck with that. I already have people arguing with me that Trump wasn’t helped at all by the Russians and all of the stories saying so are just lies made up by the media. They think that anything that any Democrat says is a lie by definition.

    Half of this country is literally living in a fantasy world. How is “demonizing” them going to do anything other than feed their existing paranoia and detachment from reality?

  134. 134.

    RadioOne

    Replacing Barack Obama with Donald Trump is politically the stupidest thing this country has ever done.

  135. 135.

    Mnemosyne

    And in case I wasn’t already clear, the combination of Russia’s actions in Aleppo and Sweden plus China’s actions have me very, very freaked out. Russia seems to have already decided that the US is a nonentity that won’t act regardless of what Russia does, and I haven’t seen a smidgen of reaction from Trump that says that they’re wrong. I don’t picture any kind of effective response to an international crisis coming from either Trump or the Republicans in Congress.

    The isolationists on the left and right who wanted an America with no role on the world stage are about to get their wish, but I’m pretty sure it’s not going to work out the way they expected.

  137. 137.

    BlueDWarrior

    @Mnemosyne: well that’s my larger but unstated point.

    If you want to wage a total political war, you have to fist realize a lot of Conservatives have either a metaphorical or literal apocalyptic world-view. I don’t think you can defeat this ‘enemy’ in trying to fight them in warfare terms. That’ll just feed their persecution complex.

    Honestly, I don’t think any progress can be made until you defuse the sociological time bomb that is this pseudo-doomsday cult. Where I am lost is the general how.

  139. 139.

    RadioOne

    @efgoldman: apparently not. Am I a fool for thinking that the election of Abraham Lincoln was not the stupidest thing America ever did, despite the Civil War?

  140. 140.

    mai naem mobile

    I don’t understand how Russia gets stuff on the RNC and Trump etc.but OBama can’t . I am sure McConnell has shit in his closet. Why can Obama not at least get a fucking USSC appointment out of all this. They commit treason or sedition or whatever the legal term is and Obama is too chicken to hold shit over thsee mofos? It was his fucking appointment. I want Obama to hold Lumpys tax returns over his ugly face.

  141. 141.

    Lahke

    Up on the middle of the night and this is all there is to read? We’re usually sharper than this, folks!

    Had my gall bladder out yesterday afternoon — anyone else here have any guidance on what my diet ought to be after? Some of what I read online makes it sound like I’ll never have ice cream again.

  142. 142.

    mai naem mobile

    @Lahke: low fat,no huge meals and no big fat laden meals. I don’t think you have to give up ice cream, just can’t have a quart. Giving up fried stuff is more important.

  143. 143.

    mai naem mobile

    @Lahke: BTW I am little offended that my rant about Obama wasn’t up to snuff for you. I’m up because I have come down with a bad upper respiratory. My throat hurts. My head is stuffy. I had to go to Walgreens to get mucinex because I have no idea what happened to my expired mucinex from,ohhh, I dunno,2010???

  145. 145.

    Betty Cracker

    @Lahke: I have a spot of trouble with my gallbladder from time to time; I’ve kept it so far. But in my preparations for its (likely) eventual loss, I’ve asked around and have heard wildly different tales from gallbladder-less folks. Some claim you can eat anything you want after you have it out but caution you not to stray too far from a restroom immediately after. Others say go easy on fatty foods and eat smaller, more frequent meals. Anyhoo, best of luck!

  148. 148.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker: I know two people, a co-worker and a fellow commuter who had their gall bladders removed and did not have any significant issues afterwards. But as always with these things, you should check with your doctor, etc.

  149. 149.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @Lahke: Without a gall bladder, it’s hard to judge when and if your body can handle lots of fats. So you’ll have to try and see. Bodies are different. I’ve heard some people claim no dietary restrictions, and others who have to be super-cautious.

  150. 150.

    fuckwit

    @Gin & Tonic: combination of IP address and the unique signature of your browser (os version, browser version).

    I would suggest privacy badger, or if you really want privacy, tor and/or tails.

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