Flushed with triumphalism, and following in the footsteps of minions throughout history, last week the Kalamazoo GOP put up a billboard just down the street from me celebrating the person of their Dear Leader and promoting his slogan.
It lasted less than a week before some good person made the necessary adjustments.
FYI Kalamazoo’s GOP party has also brought us Rep. Fred Upton, slimy heir to the Whirlpool appliance / outsourcing fortune, and one of the worst of the worst.
Lots of weekend news to keep discussing, so let’s open a thread.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
Remember when Republicans kept telling us what a horrible dictator Obama was ? Good times, good times.
Lavocat
Celebrating vandalism is not something to be proud about, regardless of the thing being vandalized. Better to sponsor a dueling billboard than to deface this one. Imagine for a moment that the image of Trump is the image of Obama. Let’s not sink so low.
MomSense
Here’s what I wonder sometimes. Is trump’s incompetence what saves us or gets us all killed? He’s a total wildcard.
Hillary Rettig
@Lavocat: i can’t object too much. one problem is that billboard companies are consolidated like other media so it would be hard to get a true progressive billboard up.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Like so many of us are relating, my center-left, politically quiet wife of a gazillion years wants to chuck it all in and become and activist. One by product of that is she now watches some cable news (I stopped watching close to a decade ago) and listens to NPR with the same kind of analytical ear I used before I swore off them several years back.
What amazed me were the two late afternoon/early evening news ladies on CNN over the weekend. Good lord, they pushed back, they asked tough questions, they followed up. They did everything Villager media *never* does.
We’ll see how long it lasts.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Hillary Rettig:
I dunno. Living here in the billboard capital of ‘Murka (Misery), my sense is if you have money to blow on signage, any billboard company will accommodate you.
dogwood
When you get 600 protesters at the Boise airport things are moving rapidly. But to be fair, as an Idaho resident, Boise isn’t really a crazy right wing place. It’s a great little city.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Huh, Trump really has small hands, doesn’t he.
rikyrah
The people at the airports boosted my spirits this weekend.
Spanky
rikyrah
Trump’s newest national security moves labeled ‘stone cold crazy’
01/30/17 09:20 AM
By Steve Benen
Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, reviewed Donald Trump’s new directive on the White House’s National Security Council, and felt compelled to issue a candid assessment. “This is a ‘Holy Crap’ moment,” the congressman said.
Under the circumstances, it’s hard to argue with Larsen’s conclusion. The New York Times reported:
Sure, Trump’s national security team was already something of a mess. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn clearly has no business holding his current post; his deputy is even less qualified; and the person the president tapped to oversee NSC communications was forced to resign.
But this takes the problems to a whole new level. Susan Rice, who served as one of President Obama’s National Security Advisors, described Trump’s move as “stone cold crazy,” which also seems more than fair.
Putting the former head of a right-wing website on the White House’s National Security Council is bonkers. Putting him on the National Security Council while removing the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence is so plainly crazy that no one has been able to present a coherent defense.
rikyrah
HEADS UP
The senate is three votes short of blocking Betsy DeVos. If you live in ME, TN, AK, GA, UT, NC, WY, LA, KS, SC, or KY, call your senators.
— Thomas Pluck (@thomaspluck) January 29, 2017
Wag
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
My wife is undergoing a similar transformation. It is a thing of beauty.
And I’ve been thrilled to hear NPR calling out Trumps lies on a daily basis, just as I’ve been excited to see the NYT and the WaPo doing the same in print.
Hillary Rettig
@rikyrah: Mine, too! And they probably boosted their own spirits, too! We picked someone up from Detroit airport yesterday and saw the protesters arrive and they looked galvanized and great.
My favorite sign was one John retweeted, “First they came for the Muslims, and we said no fucking way.”
dww44
@MomSense: I said something similar to my spouse last evening. “If his policies don’t turn off his supporters, then perhaps the sheer incompetence of his administration will provided it doesn’t kill us all.” If this past weekend’s events don’t point the way, I don’t know what will. He and the evils and weasels inside the WH are not likely to be ever tamed by the saner ones who won’t be on site. God help us too that he’s put Bannon on the National Security team.
Spanky
It has always seemed that CNN’s website is more fair and balanced (for realz) than the TV version.
The whole front page – titled “Turning Point” at the moment – runs anti-ban, anti-Trump.
rikyrah
Americans Think Trump Will Be an Awful President
by Peregrine Frissell
January 28, 2017 5:00 PM
Progressives are still hungover after the surreal election that catapulted Donald J. Trump to the presidency, but here’s some limited solace: Americans aren’t confident in the capabilities of our new commander-in-chief.
Public Policy Polling released a report on Thursday showing how low the expectations are for the new president—Americans suspect nearly every president over the last half-century will go down as more popular than President Trump. He’s only expected to outperform Richard Nixon, the man who made Watergate possible and ran the country armed with a lexicon of his own racial epithets.
Of those polled, 46 percent had a negative opinion of Trump, “historically awful numbers for a newly elected President,” notes the report.
The low expectations for Trump’s presidency stem from both the general unpopularity of his agenda, as well as the continued divisiveness and unpredictability of a leader who has a bad penchant for sending out cryptic tweets laced with fringe conspiracy theories. Public Policy Polling found that:
Hillary Rettig
@Wag: Everyone give https://www.democracynow.org/ a listen or look (and a few bucks). The best, most honest, most in-depth news!
Yarrow
They missed an opportunity to add two more K’s in front of “KGOP.”
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Those poll respondents are not fair to Nixon. RMN was a far better president.
Am guessing Trump will even surpass Warren G. Harding, who at least had the grace to die while in office.
Spanky
@Wag: My wife has explicitly told me NOT to tell her anything that Trump’s been up to. She just doesn’t want to hear about it. But I can tell ….
The girl who defied her parents’ wish to put her in a private school when Richmond VA schools integrated in the 60s and got bussed to a 97% AA school is still in there. Pressure’s building and she’s gonna blow, probably sooner than later. Then we’re gonna have some fun!
Woodrowfan
@Elizabelle: and Harding was actually kind of a nice guy. Dumb as a bag of rocks, but not an asshole…
dogwood
@Woodrowfan:
Comparing Trump to any other president is a fool’s errand. He has no redeeming qualities as a human being.
Central Planning
What’s the process for vetting people that apply for visas? RWNJ at the gym this morning said that we don’t do anything. You want a visa? You got one. Hard to argue that when you don’t know what the process is.
Woodrowfan
@Central Planning: does this help??
https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/immigrate/immigrant-process.html
http://www.immihelp.com/visitor-visa/visitor-visa-application-process.html
chopper
@Lavocat:
fuck that shit. this is fucking fascism we’re dealing with here.
SNoopy
I’m going to file this one with KitKat bars and Nazi-punching: things that I shouldn’t like, but secretly do.
Stan
@chopper: Agreed
The Other Bob
@Lavocat:
I prefer the celebration of good old-fashioned violence against Nazis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2qYNOYLJOM
Shana
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I’ve been a member of the same book group for about 16 years. Most of the women are Democrats but no one’s particularly active outside of voting. After the election several of them have contacted me asking “What can we do going forward? Can we all get together and discuss how to resist?” We’re trying to find a date most of us (and husbands) can meet, but I’ve sent out our Congressman’s contact info as well as our Senators, with phone numbers. I’ve told them that they need to call, repeatedly, and voice their opinions. It really makes a difference. Calls are logged by the offices, emails are read. While all of ours are Democrats – Connolly, Kaine and Warner – they need to hear from us to keep their spines stiffened and know their constituents have their backs. They’ve been skeptical – “Does it really make a difference?” – and I keep telling them it does.
The other thing I’ve told them is to speak up while involved in other activities, their churches, their civic groups, their volunteer groups. I feel we need to find our allies outside of the traditional Dem-leaning places. It helps other folks who may have thought they were the only Dems involved in an organization as well as demystifying us to Rs or R-leaning folks. They already know you from your work and time in the organization, you’re not the caricature they may have believed.
It’s a start.
Captain C
@Lavocat: Your concern is noted.
Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire
I have a friend in the military who almost didn’t make his flight overseas due to protestors giving him a hard time getting through. This was at Sea-Tac.
Thing is, he’s really liberal, but impeding him from catching his flight is not a way to win support (and he is supportive of the cause). I’m hoping the focus is on Drumpf and CBP, not random people and military personnel.
Glidwrith
Hmmm. Look closely at that thumb’s up. He can’t get the thumb higher and the fist isn’t closed. Coupled with some images of him signing things, I don’t think he can. I tink he’s got arthritis.
The Simp in the Suit
@Lavocat: Lighten up, Francis.
Glen Scofield
@rikyrah: I suppose that you’d prefer the former head of a left-wing website? Your hypocrisy is sickening!