Listen I'm not telling this as a joke. Trump is good friends with Vince McMahon of the WWE. The strongest ego is usually the champ. Trump wants you to fight him it completes him and writes a better story. You have four options: fan, jobroni, heel, baby face. For those who don't know 'Jobroni or Jobber' is wrestlinglish a shitty no name wrestler that The Rock brought back into the lingo from his father and grandfather's time.

I am strongly warning you to watch WWE and study the ego storylines. Trump had the Battle of The Billionaires with McMahon and won a number of years ago.

I can't watch wrestling due to lack of TV or data but I am getting regular recaps from a good friend.

Trump's whole angle is 'Shtick'. You get wise to it and fight like a man you'll love it and be the champ. Cut the Po Co bullshit, that's what he's banking on.

I'm pretty sure Cali's already on board. Being born and raised in WA, I believe I speak for them. And Oregon's just junior Washington anyway (don't let Portlandia fool you, Seattle did it first). So how about we all tell Nevada and Utah that we're sleeping over at each other's houses, and make a fucking break for it!

I'll move back home to help of course.

well new mexico fought for the union so the confederacy would have stopped at tejas

nm+ colorado join the pacific coast via nevada, how's that.

arizona can go fuck itself ha ha ha

(but we'll have to dig a tunnel)

jeezus man the a.g. from oklahoma. that was a fucking punch in the gut.

i'll be alright. i still have health insurance... don't i?

i've snapped a bit.

==

fuck nevada

let's just do a tunnel

let's buy a highway off the mexican border and connect that way

okay sorry nevada sorry i take it back

i'm disoriented at the moment

TUNNEL

great!

:D

you know, the goobers have their own kind of political correctness that's been flying under the radar. read an article about it this morning actually that opened my eyes

they're calling it "patriotic correctness"

i.e., unless you're the most nationalistic, jingoistic, 'murka-can-do-no-wrong type of person making public statements, you're somehow a traitor

same kind of bullshit as the left just "the troops the troops the troops"

look here:

Terrorism is an “existential threat,” even though the chance of being killed in a terrorist attack is about 1 in 3.2 million a year. Saying the words “radical Islam” when describing terrorism is an important incantation necessary to defeat that threat. When Chobani yogurt founder Hamdi Ulukaya decides to employ refugees in his factories, it’s because of his ties to “globalist corporate figures.” Waving a Mexican flag on U.S. soil means you hate America, but waving a Confederate flag just means you’re proud of your heritage. The phrase “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” needs a trigger warning.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poste...t-as-stifling/

a fast food CEO as secretary of labor aaaahaaaa haaa haaaaaaa

man, we're getting RAPED

raped (yes, the michigan recount has been stopped)

The fucking Michigan recount has been halted and probably effectively stopped.
Why? 'Cause "taxpayer dollars" and stuff.

Well, now a bunch of tax dollars are going to compensate for 3/4 of a halted recount (in other words, OUT THE FUCKING WINDOW) ... is that really so much better than having them go to a complete recount that helps the people understand the NUMEROUS reported flaws and discrepancies in the MI voting system?

What. The. Fuck. Stupid. Midwest. Hellhole. Fuckers. Hate you.

Yeah, I'm "relaxing" alright.

i'm back to sanity tonight. please don't push me off the cliff again ha ha.

this article about chucky schumer preparing to lead based on warren's wing is interesting. the real revealing paragraph for me was this one though, and i'm emphasizing what matters:

Schumer’s predecessor, outgoing Democratic leader Harry Reid (Nev.), did his best both in the majority and the minority to protect vulnerable incumbents such as Mary Landrieu (Louisiana) and Mark Begich (Alaska), using parliamentary tactics to avoid tough votes. But a byproduct of this was that Democrats didn’t articulate a clear agenda — and Landrieu and Begich lost anyway.

there's more good stuff. the rest is all here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...06c_story.html

anthropologist discusses wisconsin rural voters (not really an anthropologist but seems to work like one)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...y-makes-sense/

yeah the reduced life expectancy is definitely a sign of economic decline in those regions. i'm sure some KKK types are turning that into some sort of "white genocide" narrative though. it doesn't work that way.. but they'll do it anyway.

trump definitely took advantage of their plight-- i'm saying this even though i'm really trying to be agnostic about his upcoming presidency. all i see is the extreme corporatocracy taking over-- privatizers, pollutionists, koch associates, etc.

I had a few moments of attempted "agnostic" thinking on this, but Jesus fucking Christ it just gets worse and worse by the minute. Every new cabinet vetting announcement, the mounting evidence that there is at least some legitimacy to the accusations of "Russian vote hacking" that even I found fantastical at first, Michigan! For fuck's sake, I went to bed last night — a full month plus after the election — thinking about how I can say "not my president" all I want, but it won't be true... actually hoping for an electoral revolt even though I know hope is futile.

In terms of religion, I am an agnostic. Of the existing mythologies, I have a grab bag of favorites, but my true position is always "What the fuck do I know?" I remain open to other people's perspectives and ideas, and I remain open to any new evidence that presents itself.

With Trump, I am not of an agnostic mindset. I do not believe that nothing about his presidency or his motivations can be known. I fully believe that he is dangerous in a number of ways, many of which have yet to be revealed, and I can't look at his actions so far and pretend that this is anything other than the realization of what so many of us feared most.

scumbag greedhead IDIOT ex-TX governor Rick Perry is slated to be Trump's pick for Head of Energy Dept. This asshole has the oil companies so far up his ass he cries tar.

@ severino - i'm agnostic in the sense of economic theory and what works for the economy and the possible results of a corporatocrat administration.

meaning that perhaps a low-tax regime promotes entrepreneurship and investment as creates a hong-kong style prosperity.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...ticle13393877/

and maybe a little environmental rape will generate enough jobs and revenue, so that people can... AFFORD solar power, for fuck's sakes. plus if we deplete oil, we'll have no choice.

anyway, if you want to cast some doubt in your secure beliefs i recommend reading thomas sowell's BASIC ECONOMICS which is a very user-friendly but extremely neoliberal (in the sense of chicago school of economics, not american-style-"liberal") book. sowell is/was a disciple of milton friedman. he has some interesting arguments that i think they're going to be put in practice now.

don't know if you ever played alpha centauri but we're going from a lal/deirde alliance to a morgan/miriam/santiago alliance running this planet. not sure where zakharov stands... probably plays both sides.

now, sowell's theories don't inform my politics, because i'm suspicious of people who claim libertarianism but practice corporate welfare. but his ideas do inform my relationship with money, my understanding of scarcity and markets, my expectations for human behavior, etc.

he comes in book and audiobook form and even if you're going to hate him & reject him it's interesting to hear the opposing point of view in a dignified and respectable manner. there are many editions but they're all basically the same.

the story of the siege of antwerp he tells there to discuss price controls is fucking fascinating. there are others. but anyway check it out.

==

eta: also another thing to be "hopeful" about AS A LIBERAL is that the trumpet has a chance to pass the obama stimulus package, i.e., an infrastructure revamping program, in spite of bagger opposition. trump himself is not opposed to going into debt for this purpose and he carries weight.

well a F'in GREAT way to get your MAGA goin' is to pay a million for a meet and greet with the orange combover and his son's Uday and Qusay, you get to go a-huntin' with the boys, too

isn't he filling swamp instead of draining it talking about his cabinet? espec. goldman sach people.

this article is either really, really funny, orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr really, really sad. I vote for the former, since I am a bitter leftist :lol:

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/473884...ers-didnt-take

Dana Milbank: Trump voters didn’t take him literally on Obamacare. Oops?

I can even hear the old hag talking, you know, fuck these people. Trump said he loved the uneducated voter!!

"........... Trump voter Debbie Mills, a store owner whose husband awaits a lifesaving liver transplant; they got insurance through Obamacare, and Mills is hoping the law won't be repealed.

"I don't know what we'll do if it does go away," Mills said. "I guess I thought that, you know, [Trump] would not do this. That they would not do this, would not take the insurance away. Knowing that it's affecting so many people's lives. I mean, what are you to do then if you cannot ... purchase, cannot pay for the insurance?"

Mills, who supported Trump for other reasons, figured Obamacare repeal was just talk. "I guess we really didn't think about that, that he was going to cancel that or change that or take it away," she said. "I guess I always just thought that it would be there. I was thinking that once it was made into a law that it could not be changed." "

funny. definitely on the funny column.

this was also on the washington post

there's some good stuff in the article about how red "taker" states will be hurt the most under tRump. So have a great time, righties!

To be fair, Betsy DeVos is not a politician in the strictest professional sense of the word... she's just one of the biggest independent "don't-call-her-a-lobbyist" lobbyists in the fucking world. Chairperson of the Michigan Republican Party, with more money any of us will ever see in our combined lifetimes tied up in school choice/charter school/voucher programs. So... y'know.. not part of "the swamp" ... more like a nasty toxic bacteria floating around on the surface.

Oh, hey, she had also accused Michigan workers of being overpaid. Michigan (now where has that word come up lately? Hmm...) where the minimum wage is lower than the federal, and were people make about $15,000 less than they need to to make ends meet. Oh, also, where Betsy Devos lives in a mansion, doesn't work, and throws parties for the Bushes. BAAAAAHAHAHA!

the left should start using stories like these.

let's applaud these people who are killing themselves for capitalism

lets not condemn them, let's clap.

#sacrificeyourselfforcapitalism

#socialism?overmydeadbody!

i died so the rich could have another vacation home? what sacrifices have YOU made for the market?

etc.

i'm deadly serious.

let's stop trying to convince these people of the good that they don't want. let's accelerate their death drive and make them OWN it.

after all, we're all COMMUNIST NAZI ISIS TRAITORS who deserve to be murdered or at least thrown in jail.

if you want to destroy the epa and die slowly of agonizing cancers the republicans are ready to oblige. so LET'S MAKE THESE FUCKERS LIVE UP TO THEIR IDEOLOGY. everytime they try and puss out and make compromises with liberalism, demand that they go further.

#killyourselfforcapitalism

it's all your own free choice after all, because of free will. we're not materialists! that's evil commie science!

#betterdeadthanred

^^ i like the idea

since goobers are all about "patriotism"

capitalism = USA = give your life for the market

hurry up & make the ultimate sacrifice

we'll wrap yr coffin in a flag

the coffin will be a rental though cuz soylent green is people

yes, fuck those voters. I am tired of worrying about the less fortunate that don't give a shit about anyone else. I'd rather have a family from Syria next door to me than the Republican lumber baron I do have.

yeah but guys don't you remember, for every working class voter we lose we gain 2 moderate republicans in the suburbs.

seriously tho ameribros, you tried your best, take a rest and relax. you deserve it. no shame in being defeated by the deliberately impossible obstinacy of idiots.

me... i just want a range life


heil trump y'all.

hes going nucular isnt he?

say hello to sun ra everyone

Whatever fucks your chuck.

Did anyone order a "Nazi Trumps Fuck Off" t-shirt yet?

http://www.alternativetentacles.com/...VgBq8DnrY4raFA

Funny you should mention this, as I'm waiting for the "shirt design revivals coming in the new year because it just seems like a good time for Youth Against Fascism tees", as promised on http://www.sonicyouth.com/main/ ...

Rhythm of the Clicks

William Bogard

One consequence of Trump is the dismal media rhythm his presence generates. And by dismal, I mean sad in the way Spinoza describes a debilitating encounter, one that wipes out your energy, anything left of your capacity to affect and be affected. The numbness we feel from our brutal encounter with Trump in the media has nothing to do with propaganda, or ideology, or what it all means. It’s about a sad rhythm, an anti-rhythm actually, that emanates from a void whose name is Donald Trump. Only afterward does the problem of its meaning arise.

Despite his nullity, Trump knows how to generate a steady stream of clicks. He is the maestro of clicks, a tap lesson in digital publicity. How does a nullity become seductive? Why is everything onscreen about Trump despite the fact that there is nothing to him? Is it trompe (trump?)-l’oeil? In trompe-l’oeil, Baudrillard writes, “objects are not objects. They do not describe a familiar reality, as does a still life. They describe a void, an absence… These are not mere extras displaced from the main scene, but ghosts that haunt the emptiness of the stage. Theirs is not the aesthetic appeal of painting and resemblance, but the acute, metaphysical appeal of the real’s abolition… Trompe-l’oeil does not seek to confuse itself with the real. Consciously produced by means of play and artifice, it presents itself as a simulacrum. By mimicking the third dimension, it questions the reality of this dimension, and by mimicking and exceeding the effects of the real, it radically questions the reality principle.”[1]

Trump the clickable, though, has none of the seductiveness of trompe-l’oeil, none of its play or questioning. The absence he evokes is haptic, not visual. What vanishes is not the depth of the real, its third dimension, but its temporality. Trump approaches the zero degree of rhythm. In fact, what passion he generates is for the end of rhythm, and the controlled end of time generally. Trump creates no intensive differences of his own, no immanent flux of time. With Trump, there are only series of clicks, each series like the last and the next.

A rhythm is a distribution of singular and ordinary points that vary in intensity. Rhythms have differences in accents, different pressures. They contract and release. There are spasms, they have a pulse (Trump likes to mock spasms). In the Haka of the Maoris, the collective rise and fall of pounding feet embodies the exhilaration and ecstasy of lines of flight. It sways and dips between highs and lows. Trump rhythms have none of these seductions. Do they even rise to the level of a beat, let alone a rhythm? They surface on the black hole of our screens and invest every encounter, every touch, with a noisy noise. The Trump effect is one of numbing loudness, noise trying to break through noise. It lacks even the suggestion of a groove. It hasn’t the barest rhythm’s improvisational energy, just the cold, calculated oversupply of clicks. Tap tap Trump, click Donald, tap swipe Trump click… There he is again! Click, tap. That’s what we’ve become these last two years. Caught up in the sad botlike beat of a line you can’t even dance to. The encounter with Trump in the media is soulless, boring work, like data harvesting, like having to click your way through spam. Each mindless click drags us further into the void, into the scam, but click we do anyway, drawn by a fascination with the onscreen destruction of time.

With Trump, the negation of the negation produces no synthesis, nothing new. It is all overkill, over-production. He surfaces here, there, he is everywhere. He knows nothing of the art of disappearance. He says this or that, whatever he says, he says, retracts, says again. He tweets. We click. He tweets some more. Although it is so stupifyingly ordinary, it has the weird semblance of a rhythm, and perhaps because of this, it also has the semblance of an affect, equally strange. We connect to digital screens haptically; they are like the old drum machine pads people used to tap to create new digital beats. Each tap crossed rhythmic lines that, until they intersected, were only virtual. And those machine taps generated an actual rhythm. Like all rhythmic encounters, our encounters with surfaces and screens have the potential to be happy or joyless. We create rhythms from what we are given in the encounter. If what we are given feeds our experience and sense of intensive time, the effect can be seductive and beautiful. Today we are given Trump, simulator of rhythm, master of the empty beat, destroyer of time. Clicking on that is something even beyond sad.

he's having a fucking press conference right now

i don't wanna listen to it because i'm sick and tired of his fucking voice

i'll read a written excerpt later, after his main witch goes on tv to explain how he didn't mean what he said so we shouldn't worry about it

Twitler speaks

here's the full text, annotated

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...anscript-215pm

eta: it's very fucking hard to read all that repetitive self-congratulatory bullshit

Sessions, Tillerson and Trump, all in one day. At one point, I had three windows open and bounced between them. Then I threw up.

Had to stop the Trump one. Yeah, I just can't even look at him.

I've learned: Sessions is slightly less purely evil than I once thought. But Tillerson is more so.

I've had to turn away from any video or audio recordings or Trump. It's just more than my frayed nerves can stand at this point.

Since shortly after the election, I've been on a print-only diet of Trump Pudding, including online publications of course. I find you only have to wait a few minutes for the latest rant, masturbatory self-aggrandizing statement or blatant denial of facts/manipulation of information to be available in a "read-only" format.

I know this thread has really cooled off in the last 4-6 weeks, but maybe you've noticed that I have been conspicuously absent. All I can say is: It's not a great time to work in the media. Even at the local level, there's a fear in the air about what his estrangement from the truth, and penchant for criticizing and attempting to discredit legitimate journalists, will mean for our profession. Also, even at the local level, he gets at least three to five headlines a day.

Is anyone still holding out hope that he might be a "good guy" in disguise? This really isn't about republicans and democrats anymore. It's about a hostile takeover of not only our government, but our way of life and our perceptions of reality. And because Trump zealots love Trump with the kind of unquestioning loyalty nornally reserved for sports teams and pop stars, very few are coming to the realization that they may have made the wrong call.

Bad times, friends.