Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Infrastructure week. at last.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

I was promised a recession.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / We The People

We The People

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Eight years after artist Shepard Fairey created the iconic red and blue Barack Obama “Hope” poster, he and a team of artists have created a new series of public artworks for the inauguration. Named “We the People” after the first three words in the preamble to the Constitution, the series features Muslim-American, African-American, Native American, Latina, and Lesbian women.

“As artists, it is always important to create work with positive uplifting messages, but even more so during these divisive times,” photographer Ridwan Adhami told NBC News. “There is a need to balance all the negativity swirling around. We have a responsibility to the youth in our communities, we need to give them something to look up to that can hopefully inspire and encourage strength. That is what the ‘We The People’ campaign is all about, and I am proud and honored to be part of the movement.”

I believe (and will fight for) a better future. Here’s a hopey-changey open thread.

Reader Interactions

104Comments

  2. 2.

    Chris

    I made the First Family pic my Facebook pic for a day, but I’ve seen friends use the middle picture of the hijabi woman instead. I have to admit, that one’s better.

  3. 3.

    Chris

    Friend posting pictures of guys walking around in Soviet flag capes with “KREMLIN EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH” posters. That is hilarious.

  4. 4.

    ThresherK

    With no context I would think “We The Indivisible” looks a lot like a silent movie poster. (Yes, I’ve seen a lot of silent movies and posters.)

    Any word on the identity of the subjects? Part of me is worried about them being doxxed.

  6. 6.

    dww44

    Can someone help me locate the thread from a couple of days ago that provided verbiage to use on posters? I’m attending one of the sister marches and need to make my own signs.

  7. 7.

    JPL

    I’m sitting here with such a feeling of dread, that it’s almost as though, the end is near for a close friend. Hopefully,
    this is not the beginning of the end for our democracy.

  10. 10.

    randy khan

    Do something positive today. I just shot a small contribution to one of my favorite arts organizations, and told them it was a response to the inauguration. Pick an organization that matters to you and give $25, just for the symbolism – we’re not giving up.

  13. 13.

    hovercraft

    As power shifts, Trump’s team remains unprepared to govern

    01/20/17 11:08 AM—Updated 01/20/17 11:10 AM

    By Steve Benen

    When one U.S. administration transfers power to another, it’s not uncommon for various officials to remain at their posts for a while, which is why this Associated Pres report, published yesterday, may not have seemed especially surprising.

    President-elect Donald Trump has asked roughly 50 senior Obama administration appointees to remain in their posts after his inauguration to ensure continuity in government, his incoming White House press secretary said Thursday.

    The officials include the highest-ranking career officials at key national security agencies like the Pentagon and State Department.

    Just on the surface, there is a certain irony to the appeals: much of Trump’s campaign platform was predicated on the idea that President Obama’s team was an incompetent and disastrous failure, unfit for power, who must be replaced by people hand-picked by the Republican amateur.

    Evidently, as of yesterday, Trump decided Obama administration officials aren’t so bad after all – because the people he spent a year bashing are now being asked to keep doing their jobs a while longer.

    Note, we’re not just talking about random, low-level officials in obscure government offices. Team Trump has pleaded with top members of Obama’s team – professionals who work on highly sensitive tasks related to national security, for example – to stick around, for an indefinite amount of time, while the incoming administration gets its act together.

    And therein lies the broader point. Trump and his team have known for months they needed to prepare a vast executive-branch team to take the reigns of power this afternoon – and they blew it badly. The Republicans didn’t just ask dozens of Obama appointees to keep going to work because of the officials’ competence; Trump World is also scrambling because it’s desperate.

    Trump and his team were supposed to line up a small army of officials, and that simply never happened. The Washington Post is maintaining an online database on executive-branch offices that require Senate confirmation, and there are a total of 690 positions. As of now, Trump has nominated a grand total of 30 people to fill those posts.

    And that doesn’t include other government offices that don’t require Senate confirmation – positions Trump simply can fill on his own – which also remain empty.

    Republicans are eager to complain that Democrats are to blame for the fact that so few of Trump’s cabinet nominees are ready for confirmation, but it’s not Dems’ fault Trump hasn’t nominated anyone for 660 out of 690 executive-branch positions.

    What’s more, let’s also not forget that some of the people Team Trump have asked to stick around for a while have reportedly said no, which means those offices will be literally empty at 12:01 p.m. (ET) this today.

    Christopher Lu, the Deputy Secretary of Labor and the former executive director of the Obama-Biden transition, talked to Rachel about this on the show last night, and he noted how unusual it is for an incoming administration, 24 hours before the inauguration, to reach out to current officials, pleading with them to stay. It’s evidence of a team that’s woefully unprepared.

    Asked if he’s worried about the Trump administration’s preparedness, Lu said, “Of course.”

    I can appreciate why this seems crazy, but the fact remains that Donald Trump and his aides knew they had a responsibility to find qualified, competent staff to run key agencies of the world’s dominant superpower, but they just didn’t try very hard to complete this task.

    Foreign Policy magazine had this striking report yesterday:

    President-elect Donald Trump will enter the White House Friday with most national security positions still vacant, after a disorganized transition that has stunned and disheartened career government officials.

    Instead of hitting the ground running, the Trump team emerged from the election ill-prepared for the daunting task of assembling a new administration and has yet to fill an array of crucial top jobs overseeing the country’s national security and diplomacy, fueling uncertainty across the federal government.

    One career government official said, “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

    There are a lot of reasons to worry about the new Trump/Pence administration. This belongs near the top of the list.

    Sean Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary, boasted this week that the Trump transition will become “the gold standard going forward.” For all of our sake, I’m going to hope he realizes how ridiculous such a claim is.

  15. 15.

    hedgehog the occasional commenter

    Lot of people in my office wearing black today. Too many to be a coinkydink.

  16. 16.

    Larkspur

    Y’all are better than I am. I’m watching C-Span. I want to hug and kiss Barack and Michelle. I want to slap Paul Ryan’s smirking face. I want to tell someone to pay attention to Barron, who is looking lonely. I want to change the channel. There’s Agent Orange. A Hellmouth has opened up under Washington DC. Be careful everyone. Mute button: ready to deploy.

    ETA: Hillary looks lovely. Carter looks lively. Even Shrub…no, I can’t go that far.

    Agent Orange is wearing the same extra long red tie. Okay, I’ve had enough.

  19. 19.

    hovercraft

    I am told by the woman next to me, despite my stating clearly that I do not wish to watch or hear any commentary, that when the Shitgibbon walked out, he looked like he was walking to the electric chair, she has never seen him look so scared before.

  20. 20.

    Applejinx

    Hey, what is the House doing? Twitter’s talking about how the House was gaveled into session, breaking rules. WTF is going on up there?

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    @hovercraft:

    he looked like he was walking to the electric chair, she has never seen him look so scared before.

    He’s mirroring us!

    Actually, I would say a lot of us look resolved. Very resolved.

    I have been copying down presidential and FLOTUS remarks from the White House website, to keep me pumped.

  27. 27.

    Patricia Kayden

    @hovercraft:

    Sean Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary, boasted this week that the Trump transition will become “the gold standard going forward.”

    Why do Trump and his people lie so effortlessly? It’s as if they think we have all lost our minds and will believe anything they say.

  28. 28.

    Tilda Swintons Bald Cap

    BREAKING: The Secret Service has shot and killed another time traveller, bringing today’s total to 873. #InaugurationDay

  31. 31.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @hovercraft: when the Shitgibbon walked out, he looked like he was walking to the electric chair, she has never seen him look so scared before.

    At long last, I have something in common with Trump, aside from bad hair and an abiding contempt for the Bush family.

    and TBH difficulty tying ties. Though I usually get it right after the second or third try, and would never wear one out in public the way he does.

  33. 33.

    Chris

    @hovercraft:

    Just on the surface, there is a certain irony to the appeals: much of Trump’s campaign platform was predicated on the idea that President Obama’s team was an incompetent and disastrous failure, unfit for power, who must be replaced by people hand-picked by the Republican amateur.

    Is this normal – to a slight point, yes. Every presidential candidate running accuses the one he’s trying to replace of having been terrible for the country, and yet many end up keeping at least some of their personnel on board, sometimes for a very long time (i.e. Obama with Gates for an entire term).

    What makes this glaring, though, is that Trump made a big show of how he was going to run every Obama appointee out the door NOW NOW NOW the very second he was in office, specifically driving a stake through the traditional niceties like “sure, stay in for a couple months until everything’s settled in, if only so you don’t have to move your entire family in the middle of the school year” just to make sure everyone understood who was boss.

    And now he’s finding out to his chagrin that there’s actually a reason things are done that way, and suddenly backtracking so he’s not left holding the bag unilaterally. (As he desperately wanted to, but as he’s discovering he’s incapable of).

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    President Obama tweeted his last messaged from his @POTUS account, which he will hand off to President-elect Donald Trump after the inauguration, and Obama asked that his followers “Share your thoughts” at the website Obama.org. Source

  42. 42.

    hovercraft

    @Larkspur:
    I have actually no problem reading about the goings on from the internets and especially you guys. I don’t want to hear her prattle, she’s a both sider who couches everything egregious that he does as no worse than what democrats have done or are doing.
    Besides telling you guys not to talk politics would be like asking you not to breath. It’s the reason we come here, that and the pet pics, and This Fucking Old House, speaking of which, when is move in day John?
    Must feed the peasants ;-) I’m sure that there will be an amazing thing or two that happens during the move, not to jinx him, but this is John Cole and his menagerie.

  45. 45.

    Brachiator

    The inauguration ceremonies are on in the break room. One guy and I were both saying, “I cannot believe this guy won.” I am surprised at how much anger and exasperation came bubbling up from my heart and soul. Not even the sight of the Obamas and the Clintons could make me feel better.

    I had to step away. I cannot watch this stuff.

  46. 46.

    The Moar You Know

    President-elect Donald Trump has asked roughly 50 senior Obama administration appointees to remain in their posts after his inauguration to ensure continuity in government, his incoming White House press secretary said Thursday.

    The officials include the highest-ranking career officials at key national security agencies like the Pentagon and State Department.

    @hovercraft: HA HA HA, to quote an old lady I used to know.

    I bet all 50 of ’em will be there a year from now. This incompetent orange motherfucker couldn’t run a McDonald’s.

  51. 51.

    Larkspur

    @hovercraft: Maybe John will manage to put his foot through something that hasn’t been renovated and his leg will get scratched but he will discover a previously hidden cache of old Spanish golden coins, and there will be much rejoicing.

  52. 52.

    Calouste

    @hovercraft: The shitgibbon doesn’t have to worry about the electric chair, the firing squad is the traditional way to deal with traitors. Or hanging, drawing, and quartering if you want to be even more traditional.

  53. 53.

    Brachiator

    @hovercraft:

    President-elect Donald Trump has asked roughly 50 senior Obama administration appointees to remain in their posts after his inauguration to ensure continuity in government, his incoming White House press secretary said Thursday.

    The officials include the highest-ranking career officials at key national security agencies like the Pentagon and State Department.

    Interesting. Previously, Trump was making noise about dumping past Administration officials, especially some of the ambassadors, precisely at noon on Friday. People who approved of this kept making noise about how Trump was running the country like a business, and was a CEO clearing out the old deadwood.

    But I guess that some reality finally filtered through the Trump transition team bullshit. Too bad that the most vehement Trump supporters still don’t get it, and are still coasting on the fantasy that an rank, rigid, incurious amateur can do the job of leader of the free world.

    Say now baby, I’m the rank outsider,
    You can be my partner in crime.
    But baby, I can’t stay,
    You got to roll me and call me the tumblin’,
    Roll me and call me the tumblin’ dice.

    We’re all rolling the dice on this one.

  55. 55.

    hedgehog the occasional commenter

    @randy khan: @rikyrah: @Comrade Scrutinizer: The flags really should be at half-staff…
    The TVs are on in both the main conference room and the break room, thankfully on very low volume. Fortunately I can avoid both to get to the other side of the office.
    Friend of mine and I are going to lunch today; she’s in black (as am I). We joke (sort of) about making it a 10-margarita lunch.

  56. 56.

    Larkspur

    Chuck Schumer speaking, being inclusive of everyone Agent Orange would like to disappear.

    The religious portion (invocations) were exceptionally (I think) chockfull of Jesus.

    Last night I had to comfort the dog because we had some ferocious rain and (a rarity here in the SF Bay Area), spectacular lightning and thunder. Thank you, weather, for speaking my mind.

  57. 57.

    hovercraft

    @Chris: @The Moar You Know:
    Perhaps this explains why he asked them to stay?

    Trump facing foreign policy ‘uprising’ within his own team

    01/20/17 10:11 AM—Updated 01/20/17 10:23 AM

    By Steve Benen

    It’s alarmingly difficult to identify the scariest member of Donald Trump’s team, but a credible case can be made for National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

    As regular readers know, Flynn has peddled bizarre conspiracy theories; he shared classified information with foreign officials without permission; his ties to Russia haven’t been explained in any real detail; and he was on the Turkish government’s payroll while serving as a top adviser to the Trump campaign without ever publicly disclosing that fact.

    But as Trump World assumes control over the executive branch, Flynn isn’t just worrying Trump’s detractors. The Wall Street Journal reported overnight that the president-elect is trying to “quell an uprising within his own defense and foreign-policy team,” with Flynn at the center of the dispute.

    His pick for national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, has long clashed with the intelligence-community establishment over the U.S. fight against global terrorism, and is now butting heads with members of Mr. Trump’s team, including Rex Tillerson, Mr. Trump’s pick for secretary of state, [Gen. James Mattis, the defense secretary pick] and [Mike Pompeo, his pick to run the Central Intelligence Agency].

    Officials inside and close to the transition said that Gen. Flynn has been pushing various people for jobs at State and Defense, and is perceived as overreaching in his role as national security adviser.

    The Journal’s piece added that it fell to Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon to meet with Tillerson, Mattis, and Pompeo, and “soothe concerns” about the incoming National Security Advisor.

    This isn’t exactly reassuring. First, the amateur president-elect’s chosen Secretary of State, Defense Secretary, and CIA chief are already unhappy with Trump’s top advisor on matters of national security. The team hasn’t even taken the reigns yet – we don’t yet know for sure whether Tillerson will be confirmed – and there’s already infighting.

    Second, that infighting is significant enough that officials in Trump World are dishing to the media the day before Inauguration Day.

    And third, to help make the incoming Secretary of State, Defense Secretary, and CIA chief happy, Trump dispatched the 36-year-old head of his family’s real-estate company and the former chief of a right-wing website.

    It’s quite a team the president-elect has put together.

  58. 58.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    it’s little things like this that always make me want to tune in to Republican ceremonies and award shows, but I know I’ll always miss the funny, so I count on the internet and its so-called “Jiffs”

    Daniel W. Dresser ‏@ dandrezner 45m45 minutes ago
    I swear to God, Tiffani Trump looks like she’s gonna push Ivanka down the stairs.

    I hope I live long enough to read Tiffany’s revenge memoir.

  59. 59.

    JPL

    @Baud: I just started streaming the Confirmation on Netflix. I was going to see if they had the GodFather. I want to rewatch the scene where Michael is getting married, but at the same time his enemies are being murdered. It’s not to late to round up those who were in collusion with Russia.

  60. 60.

    les

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Why do Trump and his people lie so effortlessly? It’s as if they think we have all lost our minds and will believe anything they say.

    Because they know enough people will. They won, didn’t they?

  62. 62.

    Yoda Dog

    Not watching either. No way. 5 minutes left of the Obama Administration. Thanks, Obama. You were the best President I’ve ever known.

  63. 63.

    catclub

    @Calouste:

    At this rate (on nomination about every 2.5 days) the shitgibbon won’t have finished them all even if he lasts 4 years.

    Trump’s organization is family and it is very small, so Trump has never delegated. Every nominee has to go through him, then if he hands off, that only works until there is a glitch with one he has not personally approved, he flies into a rage over what the idiots have done ( to him),
    and then start all over.

  64. 64.

    zhena gogolia

    @JPL:

    I’m heartened by the breadth of the resistance. He doesn’t have Putin’s 80% approval ratings (thanks to years of a shut-down MSM). Yet.

  66. 66.

    catclub

    @JPL:

    It’s not to late to round up those who were in collusion with Russia.

    haha. Reagan sabotaged negotiations with the Iranians, Nixon sabotaged the negotiations with North Vietnam. They never suffered for those treacherous acts.

  67. 67.

    ThresherK

    @hovercraft: Sweet babby cheeses, so much of this transition is like watching teammates fight on the bench before tipoff of a basketball game.

    Hey, remember when “Clinton transition team” was a fking punchline on Murphy Brown because “Dems couldn’t do things right”? Who’s gonna lead the charge among the Beltway Inbreds to retcon the Trump transition into the best ever?

  68. 68.

    Gin & Tonic

    @hovercraft: I hope Adam doesn’t ban me for this, but did Steve Benen really write “taking the reigns”? Are there no editors who know the English language anymore?

  69. 69.

    hovercraft

    @Patricia Kayden: Because if they told or heck even admitted the truth, they’d be at home right now watching Hillary be sworn in.

    This fucking woman just tried to shove her phone in my face to watch it get sworn in. I snapped !!!

  70. 70.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JPL: I’ve been trying to think of something to distract me later on today. The whole Godfather saga is on Amazon streaming, if you have it. But even with Prime you have to pay, I think…

    My other candidates were Lonesome Dove or The Remains of the Day, for melancholy, or Yes, Minister, for laughs.

    ETA: Or the original, good, House of Cards, to wallow in cynicism and despair

  73. 73.

    Larkspur

    Very very tiny hands. Cannons going off. Alas. But soon Citizen Obama will be free to roam the country and the world, and I’ll be following him and Michelle. I love them. And their kids and their little dogs, too.

  75. 75.

    Yoda Dog

    Just saw a picture of Hillary smiling wide on Dana Houle’s twitter feed. She looks radiant. What an amazing woman. I had alot of mixed feelings about any dems attending this travesty, but seeing her there changed that for me entirely. We’re still here. We’re not going away and this fight isn’t over by a long shot.

  76. 76.

    Larkspur

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ll be going to Luke Cage.

    Any word on how many of the last minute “please don’t go” staffers are saying, “No thanks, I’m out of here.”?

    Agent Orange is delivering a hostile, disparaging speech. Too much, even for me.

  81. 81.

    Larkspur

    This is horrific. This is so offensive.

    ETA: He’s recycled his campaign speech. This is disgusting.

  83. 83.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @eclare:

    Planned Parenthood here. I haven’t personally used its services in many decades, but it needs to be there for those who need those services today, tomorrow, and beyond.

  85. 85.

    Chris

    @hovercraft:

    I’d be thrilled of he could somehow be pressured until he dropped Flynn. Doubt it, but hopefully at least the others at State, Defense and CIA can contain him.

  86. 86.

    catclub

    Downtown Josh Brown Verified account
    ‏@ReformedBroker

    It only took 8 years from the Financial Crisis for us to hand the country over to real estate moguls, hedge funds and Goldman Sachs.

  87. 87.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: I have no idea. And no, all the editors have been banished on to a small island. They’ve been issued one pencil, a notepad, and a dog eared copy of Strunk and White.

  88. 88.

    zhena gogolia

    @Josie:

    That is beautiful. It reminds me of Father Zosima’s last discourse in the Brothers Karamazov. Don’t lose heart by focusing on the evil in the world — do what YOU can do to lessen it.

  89. 89.

    zhena gogolia

    @Comrade Scrutinizer:

    I’m about to make my ACLU donation monthly. They sent an e-mail this morning about how they’re already filing suit. I didn’t read the details, but it was a cheery thing to get in my inbox!

  90. 90.

    Larkspur

    @JPL: “From this day forward it is only going to be America First! America First!” And on and on about the horrors of inner city crime and our disintegrating infrastructure. “America will start winning again like never before…We will bring back our borders…We will get our people off of welfare and back to work…” “We will eradicate radical Islamic terrorism from the face of the earth…” Blah blah blah. “We will be protected by God!” “The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour for action!” “We stand at the birth of a new little millennium [what?]…”

  92. 92.

    zhena gogolia

    @JPL:

    isn’t it a christening? much better than a wedding. I don’t know, I haven’t seen it since it came out.

  95. 95.

    Yoda Dog

    @Larkspur: He sounds like Hitler. And fuck godwin, I dont care.

    Alright I’m going to play with my kids. Bless you all. I have faith we will survive this shitstorm together.

  96. 96.

    Larkspur

    Rev Franklin Graham expostulating on the one true God and his one true emissary, Jeezus Christ, and how everyone must come to believe this in their hearts.

    Include me out. I like the old separation of church and state, quaint as it now seems.

    And I’m outta here.

  97. 97.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    Man, am I glad for you guys today… now I don’t feel so all alone (everybody must get stoned).

    Chin up. Keep a stiff upper lip. We shall fight Trump on the land. We shall fight him on the sea… and so forth.

  100. 100.

    zhena gogolia

    @West of the Rockies (been a while):

    We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

  101. 101.

    Yarrow

    I had to go to the bank and they had not one, not two but three TVs showing the stupid inauguration. I said to the three young Latino tellers that they shouldn’t be showing it, don’t give it ratings. That he was illegitimate. They gave me a look like they couldn’t believe I was saying that. Then some whispering and giggling. Figure I might as well be loud and proud with it. Nothing they can do about the TVs and I didn’t have the energy to find the bank manager. Just got out of there.

  102. 102.

    Brachiator

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I hope Adam doesn’t ban me for this, but did Steve Benen really write “taking the reigns”? Are there no editors who know the English language anymore?

    Fewer editors and fewer copy editors. With auto-correct software, you know, you don’t need no human beings to review essays and reportage.

  104. 104.

    PGE

    @Chris: Are you calling me ancient!? Make Way for Ducklings and Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel Maryanne were my two favorite books to have read to me. (I’m 60)

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