Suggested by Shaker LauraTee: "What's your happiest memory?"
Indomitable
Video Description: Video of Hillary Clinton giving her concession speech. She says: "To all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams." PEOPLE NEWS logo. Over footage of the Women's March, text reads: "The day after Trump's inauguration, Clinton tweeted in support of the Women's March: A movement to raise awareness for women's issues, environmental protection, and civil rights."
Image of a tweet from Clinton reading: "Thanks for standing, speaking & marching for our values @womensmarch. Important as ever. I truly believe we're always Stronger Together." Image of a tweet from Clinton featuring art of three women, reading: "'Hope Not Fear' Indeed. And what a beautiful piece by Louisa Cannell. #womensmarch 👊👊🏻👊🏼👊🏽✨" Image of a tweet from Clinton featuring an Instagram post, reading: "I stand w/ Nora Harren, a 17-year[-old] from Boise, ID, & every person marching for our values today. Onward! ✊✊🏾✊🏽✨ #WomensMarch." Image of a tweet from Clinton linking to this piece and reading: "Scrolling through images of the #womensmarch is awe-inspiring. Hope it brought joy to others as it did to me."
Over images of Clinton, and then the march, text reads: "In an exclusive statement to People, Clinton directly commented on the march, saying, 'On Friday, I went to Washington to honor democracy and its enduring values. On Saturday, we watched women and men across this country and the globe stand up, speak out, and peacefully march for those values with one voice. It was awe-inspiring. We have to keep up the momentum.'"
The Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by iced tea.
Recommended Reading:
Joshua: Seven Things to Look for in an Authoritarian Crackdown
Dave: I Was at Trump's Inauguration. It Was Tiny.
Grace: "We're here, we're trans, we WILL disrupt his plans!"
Adele: [Content Note: Privilege] Hold the Mansplaining: The Resistance Is Being Led by Women
Chauncey: [CN: Bigotry; abuse] Congratulations, America — You Did It! An Actual Fascist Is Now Your Official President
Jamil: [CN: Misogyny; transphobia] President Snowflake
Panama: [CN: Bigotry] Donald Trump Gives All the Fucks. This Is a Bad Thing.
Libby: Is the Department of Defense Subtweeting Trump?
Natasha: Obama-Era Climate Change Information Removed from State Department Website
Celebitchy: Jane Fonda: 'The predator in chief; their tactic is to divide and conquer'
Marcus: Protesters Hang "Resist" Banner from Crane Visible from the White House
Ruby: Agency Deletes Listing for Joint Paid Speeches by Robby Mook and Corey Lewandowski
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
RIP Mary Tyler Moore
Actress and activist Mary Tyler Moore has died at age 80. The Hollywood Reporter has a nice obituary focused on her acting career. She was also an activist whose work centered on diabetes and animal rights.
Ironically, Mary Tyler Moore was not a feminist herself, despite being a feminist icon to many women. But her starring turn on The Mary Tyler Moore Show was hugely influential for generations of women.
When I arrived at university, walking across campus on my first day in Chicago, I remember feeling exhilarated and scared and full of gumption. I was wearing a green corduroy cap, which my mother had made for herself before I was born, and I took it off my head and threw it up in the air in celebration.
Because a million rewatched episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show had suggested that was the only appropriate thing to do.
My condolences to her family, friends, colleagues, and fans.
Inspiring Acts of Resistance
So here is a place to talk about things you have seen that moved you, or things you are doing yourselves. Please also feel welcome and encouraged to share links to Twitter users and/or news sites engaged in resistance that you recommend following.
I will start with this: Scientists' March on Washington. Fuck yeah!
Daily Dose of Cute
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
We Resist: Day 6
One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.
So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.
Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.
* * *
Here are some things I've read today:
Charlie Savage at the New York Times: [Content Note: Torture; war crimes] Trump Poised to Lift Ban on C.I.A. 'Black Site' Prisons.
The Trump administration is preparing a sweeping executive order that would clear the way for the C.I.A. to reopen overseas "black site" prisons, like those where it detained and tortured terrorism suspects before former President Barack Obama shut them down.Utterly vile.
President Trump's three-page draft order, titled "Detention and Interrogation of Enemy Combatants" and obtained by The New York Times, would also undo many of the other restrictions on handling detainees that Mr. Obama put in place in response to policies of the Bush administration.
If Mr. Trump signs the draft order, he would also revoke Mr. Obama's directive to give the International Committee of the Red Cross access to all detainees in American custody. That would be another step toward reopening secret prisons outside of the normal wartime rules established by the Geneva Conventions, although statutory obstacles would remain.
Julia Edwards Ainsley at Reuters: [CN: Islamophobia] Trump expected to order temporary ban on refugees. "U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign executive orders starting on Wednesday that include a temporary ban on most refugees and a suspension of visas for citizens of Syria and six other Middle Eastern and African countries, say congressional aides and immigration experts briefed on the matter. ...Another order will block visas being issued to anyone from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, said the aides and experts, who asked not to be identified."
Jerry Markon, Robert Costa, and Abigail Hauslohner at the Washington Post: [CN: Anti-immigrationism; white supremacy] Trump to sign executive orders enabling construction of proposed border wall and targeting sanctuary cities. "President Trump plans to sign executive orders Wednesday enabling construction of his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and targeting cities where local leaders refuse to hand over [undocumented] immigrants for deportation, according to White House officials familiar with the decisions."
Michelle Goldberg at Slate: [CN: War on agency] Trump Didn't Just Reinstate the Global Gag Rule; He Massively Expanded It. "In the past, the global gag rule meant that foreign NGOs must disavow any involvement with abortion in order to receive U.S. family planning funding. Trump's version of the global gag rule expands the policy to all global health funding. According to Ehlers, the new rule means that rather than impacting $600 million in U.S. foreign aid, the global gag rule will affect $9.5 billion. Organizations working on AIDS, malaria, or maternal and child health will have to make sure that none of their programs involves so much as an abortion referral."
Tom McCarthy and Megan Carpentier at the Guardian: Trump's supreme court shortlist: three potential nominees emerge. "Trump's reported top picks—Neil Gorsuch, Thomas Hardiman, and Bill Pryor—are all federal appeals court judges appointed by George W. Bush, with strong conservative credentials. Their collective views have ranged from supporting 'religious liberty' exemptions for employers who object to covering contraception under healthcare plans, to support for a rollback of abortion rights."
Hui Yong-Yu at Bloomberg: Trump Hotels CEO Plots U.S. Expansion With Foreign Plans Shelved. "'There are 26 major metropolitan areas in the U.S., and we're in five,' Trump Hotels CEO Eric Danziger said after a panel discussion Tuesday at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles. 'I don't see any reason that we couldn't be in all of them eventually.' Having Trump hotels in 26 cities would triple the current total."
Isaac Arnsdorf at Politico: Trump's company picks GOP lawyer, own attorney for ethics team. "Bobby Burchfield, a partner in the Washington office of King & Spalding who represented George W. Bush in the 2000 Florida recount, will be independent ethics adviser. He'll be responsible for signing off on transactions that could raise ethics or conflicts of interest concerns. ...In addition, George Sorial, a lawyer for the Trump Organization since 2007, will become chief compliance counsel. Sorial's work for Trump included his for-profit education company, Trump University, that recently paid $25 million to settle fraud accusations."
Jon Swaine at the Guardian: Four more journalists get felony charges after covering inauguration unrest. "Four more journalists have been charged with felonies after being arrested while covering the unrest around Donald Trump's inauguration, meaning that at least six media workers are facing up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine if convicted."
Senator Rand Paul has introduced his alternative to the Affordable Care Act and [pdf] it's total garbage. Like, scary and dismal garbage.
Michael Fitzgerald at Towleroad: [CN: Homophobia] AG Nominee Jeff Sessions Stands by Support for Extreme Anti-Gay First Amendment Defense Act. "Jeff Sessions, President Trump's nominee for attorney general, is continuing to stand by his support for the heinous anti-gay First Amendment Defense Act (FADA). Human Rights Watch notes that the bill 'would prohibit any adverse action by the federal government against an individual or organization for discriminatory actions against legally married same-sex couples as long as they claim they are acting in accordance with their religious beliefs.'"
Teddy Wilson at Rewire: [CN: War on agency] Arkansas Lawmakers Pass Anti-Choice Law That Courts Have Nixed. "The Arkansas House on Monday passed a bill, created by an anti-choice legislation mill, seeking to ban a commonly used procedure for miscarriages and second-trimester abortion care. ...Bills criminalizing the D and E procedure were created by the National Right to Life Committee, an anti-choice legislation mill."
Joanna Walters at the Guardian: Indiana bill would allow police to shut down protests 'by any means necessary'. "The proposed law, simply labelled Senate Bill 285, or SB 285, and designed to deal with 'traffic obstruction by protestors' would go into effect in July if passed. It calls for officials, such as a city mayor or county sheriff, to be required to quickly clear any mass traffic obstruction—defined as 10 or more protesters—blocking roads."
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
An Observation
I was managing to keep a lid on the bitterness about Hillary Clinton not being our president until I saw Donald Trump start to govern.
It's going precisely the way I thought it would, so it's not like I'm surprised.
It's just that seeing it actually begin to unfold is triggering a deep well of resentment, and a profound grief, that I was only able to keep at bay until he was sworn in.
And now I cannot contain it. I am angry and resentful and grief-stricken in a way I have never felt before.
But I am also resolved.
Everything else I am feeling will be poured directly into that cup until it runneth the fuck over.
On the White Supremacist Presidential Docket
[Content Note: Authoritarianism; white supremacy.]
Last night and this morning, Donald Trump tweeted these four things, as news also emerged that he would be signing an executive order today making good, as least partially, on his threat of a Muslim ban:
If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow. Among many other things, we will build the wall!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
So: 1. An attack on Muslims, still yet to be determined. 2. The threat of martial law in Chicago, which he has long talked about in thinly veiled racist terms. 3. Building a border wall along the Mexican border, the justification for which was right in his presidential announcement address, when he called undocumented Mexican immigrants "rapists." 4. An unjustifiable waste of taxpayer money for a "voter fraud" investigation, despite the fact that experts have routinely found no evidence of voter fraud in the U.S., in order to rationalize restrictions on voting rights, which always target Black voters in particular.
This is a brazenly white supremacist agenda. Which, of course, should not come as any surprise, given that Trump's entrance onto the national political stage was his disgusting, racist birther campaign against President Obama; that his entire adult life has been an exercise in leveraging and empowering white supremacy; that he hired Breitbart's Steve Bannon to run his campaign and then serve as his chief strategist in the White House; that his Cabinet is full of people with ties to white supremacy; and that his National Security Advisor has openly met with white supremacists at Trump Tower.
Obviously, it's deeply uncharitable to suggest that an enormous number of Trump voters supported him because of racism. We are supposed to say it was "economic anxiety," as though that is somehow distinct from racism for lots of white people, and as though it doesn't matter that the median income of Trump primary supporters was $72,000.
But it's abundantly clear that Donald Trump knows why people voted for him, as he busily stocks his administration with billionaires and bankers who will gut financial regulations and labor laws. They voted for him because of racial resentments, and he is delivering on that 100%.
The Brokenest of Broken Records Breaks Again
[Content Note: Authoritarianism.]
During the "give Trump a chance" bullshit, people like @sarahkendzior, @leahmcelrath, & I warned there was no time; it'd all happen so fast.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 25, 2017
.@sarahkendzior @leahmcelrath We were treated by a lot of people as alarmists; as conspiracy theorists; as overwrought hysterics. But here we are. It's happening so fast.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 25, 2017
.@sarahkendzior @leahmcelrath The only response at this point is unyielding resistance. Not an inch can be given. We're already far too late as it is.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 25, 2017
.@sarahkendzior @leahmcelrath None of this is normal. We can't respond as though it is. This isn't a normal administration. Adjust your thinking. https://t.co/FL8CDvDns3
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 25, 2017
.@sarahkendzior @leahmcelrath If you wait until you see the effects start to visibly disrupt your life, it'll be way too late. Radically resist NOW.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 25, 2017
.@sarahkendzior @leahmcelrath Cassandras. https://t.co/5CsN1vKefi
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 25, 2017
.@sarahkendzior @leahmcelrath Yes, she did. https://t.co/9k8X8dCg8Q
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 25, 2017
I warned you all things would move fast.
— 🗽 (@leahmcelrath) January 24, 2017
Yet even I am feeling nausea from the disorienting speed of the destruction.
.@sarahkendzior @leahmcelrath Yes, she did. https://t.co/9XgKaR8jKA
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 25, 2017
I get tweet like this every day. 😩 Yes, I told you what would happen. You know who else did? Trump. And people didn't take threat seriously. https://t.co/MWXYskOddA
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) January 24, 2017
It's hard being a Cassandra who's cyclically abused for warning abt dangerous men. There is no joy in being right. Joy would be being heard.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 13, 2016
Like I've said: Authoritarians move swiftly; they aren't cautious. This is what we're seeing right now; why you feel psychological whiplash.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 25, 2017
A number of people are asking me how to resist. Although I will make occasional recommendations (for example), I can't tell any other person what their resistance should look like. Each person has a different set of capabilities; a different level of safety; a different set of talents; a different number of spoons. How one protests in a small, rural town might look very different from how one protests in a big city that's a major media center.
I only know what my resistance can and will look like. Each person needs to look inside themselves to define what theirs will. (Though certainly there are plenty of people who will offer good advice!)
And, to be honest, you don't want me to define your resistance for you, because then you'd be limited by the boundaries of my imagination. Would I have conjured a national park resisting by tweeting facts? Nope! But that is a brilliant and important act of resistance.
All I will say is this: In an environment of official neglect, demoralization, and division, survival itself is an act of resistance. Staying engaged is an act of resistance. Building community is an act of resistance.
If there is nothing else you are able to do to resist, just hang the fuck on, as hard as you can. And that will be good enough.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker KitSileya: "What's your favorite quote?"
The first thing that came to my mind was this quote from my dear, departed friend Maud, which is more relevant today than ever: "There are times when you must speak, not because you are going to change the other person, but because if you don't speak, they have changed you."
An Observation
There are a lot of reasons why I cast my vote for Hillary Clinton. Chief among them is that she wanted to govern this country, not destroy it.
And, frankly, that alone was reason enough.
When I used to tell progressives who couldn't muster support for her because she was not the golden unicorn of their dreams, that, despite her insufficient perfection, Hillary Clinton wants to govern, the almost universal response was a derisive snort. Like that didn't matter.
It mattered. And if they didn't see it then, I sure as fuck bet they do now.
Just Stop
[Content Note: Racism; privilege; sexual assault.]
WW who are angry at BW for pointing out that WW helped elect Trump would be wiser to direct their ire at THE WW WHO HELPED ELECT TRUMP.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 24, 2017
I mean, seriously, y'all. I worked myself into a stupor trying to elect Hillary. That doesn't change the fact that WW HELPED ELECT TRUMP.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 24, 2017
And I'm not even a little mad at BW or other WOC who point out what is a fact. WE SHOULD BE POINTING IT OUT, TOO. WW failed big time.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 24, 2017
"The truth is, a lot of white women are rank misogynists. And they voted against Clinton, in part, because of that." https://t.co/AxXVsDBMxL
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 24, 2017
By way of reminder: CNN's exit polling showed that 42 percent of white women voted for Trump; 45 percent of them had college degrees. And although a larger margin (53 percent) were older (ages 45-64), a significant number of women ages 30-44 (42 percent) voted for Trump, too.
By comparison, 94 percent of Black women voted for Hillary Clinton.
That is a significant difference. And if 94 percent of all women had voted for Clinton, and 42 percent of men had voted for Trump, I bet that some of the white women currently complaining would be pretty keen to point out that disparity, without handing out cookies to the men who didn't vote for the authoritarian nightmare president.
Of course, if 94 percent of all women had voted for Clinton, she would've won.
The fact is that a very large number of white women failed to do the right and decent thing in this election. And if you're more angry (or angry at all) at the women of color pointing that out than you are at the white women who voted affirmatively for a confessed sexual predator, reexamine your life.
Discussion Thread: Navigating Trump
Whew. This first week has been a doozy already, and it's only Tuesday.
How are you doing? Are you finding ways to process everything that's happening, or are you struggling with it and looking for advice, or comfort, or just the validation of hearing you're not alone?
Are you finding ways to resist? Looking for ways to resist? Finding ways to engage in self-care, or finding it hard to look away?
Here is a place for discussion. As always, please don't offer advice unless it's explicitly solicited, and no emotional auditing. We are all having lots of feelings about all of this, and the last thing any of us needs is to hear that our feelings aren't valid.
Two Facts
1. David Brooks is still being employed by the New York Times to write a garbage column.
2. [Content Note: 'Splaining; privilege] This week, David Brooks retroactively trolls the Women's March, saying it "can never be an effective opposition to Donald Trump," because: "In the first place, this movement focuses on the wrong issues. ...All the big things that were once taken for granted are now under assault: globalization, capitalism, adherence to the Constitution, the American-led global order. If you're not engaging these issues first, you're not going to be in the main arena of national life."
LOLOLOLOLOLOL fuck you.
Every single thing about this column is indefensible trash, but perhaps my favorite (ahem) part is in this juxtaposition:
Finally, identity politics is too small for this moment. On Friday, Trump offered a version of unabashed populist nationalism.It's so cute that David Brooks imagines that Trump's brand of "unabashed populist nationalism" (i.e. white supremacy) somehow isn't "identity politics."
Because it is. In fact, it is the original identity politics.
Daily Dose of Cute
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
We Resist: Day 5
One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they disgorge every single day.
So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.
Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.
* * *
Here are some things I've read today:
A number of Trump's Cabinet nominees have been passed out of committee for full Senate votes: Rex Tillerson for State; Ben Carson for HUD; Wilbur Ross for Commerce; Elaine Chao for Transportation.
James Mattis (Defense); John Kelly (Homeland Security); and Mike Pompeo (CIA) have already been confirmed in full Senate votes. The only Democratic Senator to vote against all three of them is Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York (who filled Hillary Clinton's vacated seat).
Trump will also be retaining James Comey as FBI director, because of course he will.
Lisa Lambert at Reuters: Republicans pass sweeping bill to reform 'abusive' U.S. regulation. This piece is nearly two weeks old already, and the fact that it went largely without notice makes it all the more terrifying. Remember what I was just saying about checks and balances? At best, this is an extraordinary erosion of checks and balances. At worst, the House just declared we're a dictatorship now. (Relevant reminder: Trump campaigned on slashing 90% of federal regulations.)
Josh Dawsey and Nancy Cook at Politico: Trump Assembles a Shadow Cabinet. "The White House is installing senior aides atop major federal agencies to shadow the administration's Cabinet secretaries, creating a direct line with loyalists who can monitor and shape White House goals across the federal bureaucracy."
Caroline Mortimer at the Independent: Trump administration suspends all Environmental Protection Agency grants. "Staff at the Environmental Protection Agency have been told by the incoming Trump administration to freeze all the grants designed to fund research, redevelopment of former industrial sites, air quality monitoring, and education, but were banned from discussing it with anyone outside the agency."
Steve Holland at Reuters: Trump to advance Keystone, Dakota pipelines. "U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed executive actions to accelerate the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects and to decree that American steel should be used for pipelines built in the United States. Trump also signed an action to expedite environmental review and approval of high-priority infrastructure projects that he hopes to get moving as part of his drive to rebuild U.S. airports, roads, and bridges."
Oliver Darcy at Business Insider: Breitbart National Security Editor and Fox News Contributor Expected to Join Trump White House. "Breitbart national security editor and Fox News contributor Sebastian Gorka is expected to join President Donald Trump's White House, a source familiar with the matter told Business Insider. The source said that the position is likely in the National Security Council." This is terrifying, given Breitbart's position on meddling in foreign elections to assist white supremacist referenda and candidates.
Richard Engel, Marc Smith, and Eric Baculinao at NBC News: Beijing Strikes Back at White House, Draws Red Lines Over South China Sea, Taiwan. "A day after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer vowed that the United States would stand up to China's military expansion in the South China Sea, officials here are firing back. 'There might be a difference' of opinion regarding who has sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea, 'but that's not for the United States' to get involved in, Lu Kang, a senior official with the Chinese foreign ministry, told NBC News in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. In other words, he was suggesting the U.S. should butt out of China's relationship with its neighbors. But the new Trump administration has made it clear it has no intention of doing so."
Jon Swaine at the Guardian: Two journalists covering inauguration protests face felony riot charges. "Two journalists who were arrested while covering the unrest in Washington D.C. surrounding Donald Trump's inauguration last Friday have been charged with felonies and could face up to 10 years in prison. The journalists, who were there on assignment, are both charged with the most serious level of offense under the District of Columbia's law against rioting. They could also each be fined up to $25,000 if convicted."
Stephen Wolf at dKos: South Dakota GOP will declare 'state of emergency' to repeal voter-approved ethics reform law. "On Monday, Republicans are set to begin passing House Bill 1069, which would effectively eviscerate the voter-approved ethics reform law. Especially galling is how lawmakers are using a mechanism reserved for declaring literal states of emergency so that the repeal measure would take effect immediately."
Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) has introduced federal legislation "To provide that human life shall be deemed to begin with fertilization."
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Oscars Thread
The 2017 Oscar nominations have been announced. Spoiler Alert: They are still very white! Although the Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories did manage to respectively nominate two and three people of color!
No female director nominees, of course. But Mel Gibson got a nomination for Best Director, so.
In better news: Hidden Figures got a Best Picture nomination, and it's one of three pictures with Black leads that are nominated in the category, along with Moonlight and Fences. Joi McMillon is the first Black woman to be nominated for Best Editing for her work on Moonlight. And Viola Davis is the first Black woman to be thrice-nominated for an Oscar.
And if you're a Lin-Manuel Miranda fan, you might be thrilled to hear that his nomination for Moana brings him one step closer to being the youngest EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner ever!
Discuss.
This Is a Real Thing in the the World
Authoritarianism watch, part 87,942 in an endless series: "Trump names his Inauguration Day a 'National Day of Patriotic Devotion'."
No, really.
President Trump has officially declared the day of his inauguration a national day of patriotism.The order opens with this declaration: "A new national pride stirs the American soul and inspires the American heart. We are one people, united by a common destiny and a shared purpose." This, despite the fact that Gallup announced yesterday that the Loser President has set a new low for inaugural approval ratings.
...On Monday, the paperwork was filed with the federal government declaring officially that Jan. 20, 2017 — the day of Trump's inauguration — would officially be known as the "National Day of Patriotic Devotion."
"Now, therefore, I, Donald J. Trump, president of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Jan. 20, 2017, as National Day of Patriotic Devotion, in order to strengthen our bonds to each other and to our country — and to renew the duties of government to the people," the order says [pdf].
"Our Constitution is written on parchment, but it lives in the hearts of the American people," the order continues. "There is no freedom where the people do not believe in it; no law where the people do not follow it; and no peace where the people do not pray for it."
President Donald Trump is the first elected president in Gallup's polling history to receive an initial job approval rating below the majority level. He starts his term in office with 45% of Americans approving of the way he is handling his new job, 45% disapproving and 10% yet to form an opinion. Trump now holds the record for the lowest initial job approval rating as well as the highest initial disapproval rating in Gallup surveys dating back to Dwight D. Eisenhower.He doesn't even have a 50% approval rating, and yet he's declaring a "new national pride" among "one people, united by a common destiny and a shared purpose."
We're not even united by a common reality.
Relatedly: Last night, the Loser President met with Congressional leaders and insisted, with zero evidence, "that he only lost the popular vote because between 3 million and 5 million people voted illegally."
This straight-up did not happen. It is a lie—and it is a lie with two very specific purposes. One: To justify tasking incoming Attorney General Jeff Sessions with encroaching on voting rights under the auspices of "preventing fraud." Two: To salve the Loser President's ego, because he cannot bear that he legitimately lost the popular vote by a huge margin and has no mandate.
The Loser President is still stinging from losing popular vote. Bring it up every chance you get. #resist https://t.co/jMiGibddHN
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 24, 2017
He is not a legitimate president, for a multitude of reasons. But the one that bothers him the most is that, even given huge assists from Vladimir Putin, James Comey, and a corporate media that gave him billions of dollars of free advertising, he still lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly three million votes.
