Trump, September 2017: Walmart Knockoff Hats and Other Indignities

Stepping back even further, we also have to cure the poison that's infected people's minds and beliefs via corporate propaganda over the past few decades. And to fix that we'd have to somehow maneuver around the media apparatuses and politicians that they have a near monopoly over... and somehow overcome the unprecedented levels of wealth and power they hold now... and the fact that they control both the Republican and Democratic parties... and it's all a self-reinforcing system.

And on and on and on. Fixing the US to work better for most people is a massive, generations-long project. My shit thrown on the wall guess is that we're going to experience a serious collapse or violent crisis before any of this starts.

I was mostly responding from my own context (DC, federal, executive) and since that's where Stevolende also appeared to be coming from, at least how I read his questions.

Systemic overhaul of the justice & prison system has to start at the local level to have any staying power. The federal justice system is not the most fucked up one at present, not even close.

The media infrastructure cannot be fixed by elected officials. That just has to eat itself, and it will.

I don't think Trump is unique to the two-party system. Blowing up the entire way we vote so that parties led by such luminaries as Dr. Jill Stein can have some seats in the federal legislature, on the off chance that disastrous coalitions don't form a la Cameron-Clegg, is frankly a waste of energy. I'd prefer we actually enfranchise the entire voting-age population first, then we can see if a new method of running elections is worth it.

Full employment is completely possible, just not under traditional capitalism.

Happy Labor Day you guys!

oh yeah labor day that's what u guys use to delineate when white clothes can or cannot be worn right

kinda like groundhog day iirc?

point of fixing two party structural advantage is not to give jill stein a few seats imho. and it doesnt have to be at the exclusion of other things. no one's yet really found a way to articulate it that's not super wonkish and detached from other concerns but I do think that at least at the local and state levels, the devices that generate the two-party structure (winner-take-all voting especially) end up suppressing turnout by a ton, and shd be in the same breath with other moves to expand the electorate. but obv they are less immediately sinister and urgent than active projects to rob ppl of the franchise.

emily post institute says dgaf re: old money labor day fashion rules

http://emilypost.com/advice/wearing-white-after-labor-day/

groundhog day has roots in old european pagan traditions and comes from german-speaking rural pennsylvanians

labor day is what the US and Canada do instead of May Day

It's incredible to me (and by that I mean totally not surprising) that with so much going on - Harvey, North Korea, debt ceiling, tax reform, Russia - he just decides to fuck things up more at the exact same time in the ugliest, stupidest way possible.

tombot - sorry if i was vague, but that was what i was going for - many of the most serious problems are problems that are not within the power of the federal government, any federal government, to fix.

i would say that trump's power _is_ unique to the two-party system, myself. i've been reading wonkish stuff like this paper, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3028990 . the presence of demagogues within the system is obviously not unique to america, but america is supposedly a "stable" democracy which nonetheless elected an authoritarian white supremacist to office in 2016, aided and abetted at every step by the system which political hacks said was supposed to prevent such an outcome. i'm not arguing for a full push towards parliamentary democracy, at least not until more moderate measures such as the elimination of the electoral college have been tried and found wanting, but at some point it becomes reasonable and appropriate to at least have a discussion about the systemic flaws inherent in our constitutional system. for instance, it seems certainly possible that the pitifully low rate of participation in a two-party democracy is, in some sense, an artifact of the two-party system.

DC, the franchise issues can and must be addressed at the federal level, by all three branches of government; the endemic use of FPTP voting method to the exclusion of other systems is something that would (and should?) need to be tackled locally and through amendments to state constitutions.

I guess what this points to is that the Democratic party needs to ensure it has strategies and candidates for the legislative, executive and judicial offices at all levels of government, which is something the GOP has been far more disciplined about for a long while. There have to be platform planks specifically aimed at state and local problems, and lists of rosters of judicial nominees like the one the Federalist Society has for Republicans.

Wait ... you think the Democratic party is part of the solution here? They're working for the same people as the Republicans, thanks to legalized corruption.

Ask the Dem establishment about overturning right to work laws. They'll laugh so hard in your face they'll probably give you $100 for the fun you gave them that day.

cool, I could use $100

Didn't Dems in Wisconsin flee from the state to avoid voting for right to work law? Then tried to recall Scott Walker over the issue?

State Democrats are a little different than federal Democrats...

it wasn't fleeing, it was tactical relocation

So state Dems are good?

Isn't that kinda lucky since right-to-work laws are a state issue?

Happy Labor Day

Democratic socialism for all

only decent dems are in the midwest; new england state & local dems are all THE WORST(tm) just ask a morbius (or a kaiser), western state dems are all sellouts too, and southern state dems are all pro-abortion scum, see it's all part of a pattern, man.

The Democrats in the state I live in are corrupt as hell; I even helped put a bunch in prison. We need more options.

Nods

the two-party system, while nominally encouraging "compromise", defines that "compromise" as "across the aisle". so under this system democrats will _always_ go out of their way to work with republicans, even when this is a patently stupid notion, over working with left dissidents, because that's what the political norms established by the us constitution encourage.

it's baked in before you even get to political norms - - - winner-take-all means there are always huge electoral incentives to try and "peel off" the "moderates" from the other party, rather than going looking for people that neither party is speaking to, and win races 51 to 49. even if gradually the pool of people voting at all shrinks as various groups are (a) actively disenfranchised by evil racist parties and (b) gradually tuned out of the process because neither of these parties sees any percentage in speaking to their needs.

Any news on electoral reform in any states? Maine succeeded last fall, anybody else trying? Because, yeah, I imagine voting under first past the post must be horrible.

Florida opted to stop having elections

someone on this board is a true cynic as well as being an Inside Man

only decent dems are in the midwest

Our state folks have fucked things up, economically, but they've nonetheless totally stalled the GOP gov's stupid fiscal agenda, overriding his veto on the budget and then more recently forcing his hand re: public school funding, with a few small compromises to make him feel like he won something. Kansas folks did the same thing, and I think Texas and NC state legislatures have been busy thwarting GOP BS these days as well, at least to some extent.

no lie, the biggest thorn in the tx gop is...the sorta-moderate gop house speaker joe straus. held up the trans bathroom bill until it died, basically

http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-insane-gifts-saudi-arabia-gave-president-trump?source=twitter&via=mobile

no lie, the biggest thorn in the tx gop is...the sorta-moderate gop house speaker joe straus. held up the trans bathroom bill until it died, basically

― Rob Lowe fresco bar (m bison)

pro-business gopers are far more effective as opponents to anti-gay and anti-trans bills than any democrat in a gop-gerrymandered state. i can't blame the democrats for not being as effective, but i can blame them for clinging to the pretense that they have any political clout whatsoever; the "peel off the moderates" strategy might pay dividends on a national level, but it's worse than useless on the state and local levels.

Enjoyed this detailed read; anyone with relevant experience on the legal/media front, would love to hear more:

https://www.lawfareblog.com/how-read-news-story-about-investigation-eight-tips-who-saying-what

I liked this tidbit:

Dirty little secret: It’s a common tactic for defense lawyers to put material out there in a fashion favorable to their clients and to make sure the sourcing is suggestive of an improper prosecutorial leak—and then complain publicly about prosecutorial leaks. This happens a lot.

Just another day

https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/congress-faces-a-tense-agenda-with-little-margin-for-error-1504566653

Mr. McConnell, a fastidious, 30-year veteran of the Senate, often prepared note cards with points he wanted to make during phone calls with the president. Mr. Trump was more casual, starting conversations with several minutes of chatter about the day’s headlines or what he had seen on TV, the kind of banter he used as a businessman with VIPs, according to people familiar with their discussions.

As it became clear Mr. McConnell couldn’t summon enough Republican votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the Senate majority leader stopped responding to the president’s chitchat, the people familiar said.

“Mitch?” the president said when Mr. McConnell fell silent in one call. “Are you there?”

Mr. McConnell waited a beat, then responded. “Yes, Mr. President. Back to the bill,” according to those familiar with the talks.

Big week coming up!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2017

Fuck you!

Yep, he's washing his hat.

Fuck washing a hat

Fuck hats

Is it infrastructure week again?

Big week coming up!

literally afraid for my family's safety when he says stuff like this

it is, always has been, and will forever be infrasructure week

This is already getting ridiculous.

As of today - no new applications for DACA. Those with current permits expiring by 3/5/18 can get 2-year extension. After that no extensions https://t.co/S9xFHeYvlD

— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) September 5, 2017

WH already whispering that Trump is bluffing on ending DACA https://t.co/mQ6IcNRKIT pic.twitter.com/ouUZbM2crg

— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) September 5, 2017

reaching robert has "urged Congress to schedule testimony of some key witnesses in public session — to avoid the possibility that the special counsel may be blocked from accessing information given to the committees privately" :(

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/05/politics/russia-mueller-hill/index.html

It's a small thing but LOL.

Sheriff Clarke, shut out by Kelly, going to Trump PAC, via sources.

— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) September 5, 2017

Congress, get ready to do your job - DACA!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2017

glad to see he's thought this through almost as much as the health care bill

Not that I should give a shit, but did the typical Obama tweet enjoy as many "likes" or as violent a reception as the typical Trump brain blurt?

MAGA DACA, MAGA DACA, sis boom bah!

The typical Obama tweet got responses you couldn't read to your kids

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan: "President Obama’s DACA program was a clear abuse of executive authority, an attempt to create law out of thin air."