Trump, October 2017: Apologize for untruth, u bum

"Warmest condolences" is such a weird phrase. I googled it, taking away search results from this week, and the phrase mostly just appears in articles about how to write condolence cards. I haven't seen an example of it used in situ.

https://healingtheheartpetloss.com/pages/tips-for-writing-condolence-message
http://metro.co.uk/2017/01/24/what-do-you-say-when-someone-dies-sympathy-messages-to-say-or-write-6400772/

I'm already in a FB fight with my stupid old white woman aunt over this morning's awful news. (This is a person who has spent months condemning the removal of Confederate statues and NFL protests, but attributes last night's tragedy to "you can't control crazy" and "I LOVE this country and its freedom.") Her first post this morning?

I have been watching the news. But tell me, has the President been blamed on FB yet?

My reply: At least you're thinking of the real victim here, Donald Trump.

What about your smart young brown man aunt

yea I've got no patience for this now either. my gun-nut buddy just posted something like "tell me again why I should give up my rights so YOU can be happy?" and I posted "it's not about happiness it's about not getting shot you dolt"

Gun laws need to change ASAP, but I'm not sure either 2nd amendment fundamentalism or "mental health" is an adequate explanation for this sick mass shooting phenomenon.

Something is deeply, deeply wrong in America right now.

male rage?

'right now'

xp not to "politicize." but there is a pattern.... that no one will cop to because it means reframing america's ideas about identity and otherness, and if my facebook discussions are any indication men really don't want to do this.

kind of curious about how many people still interact with acquaintances, relatives (friends?) who support trump online - almost enough to start a poll on the matter but there are enough trump threads as it is.

I agree with you. This is a male problem and it has to do with entitlement and an unwillingness to process emotions.

Xp

Even the alt right, to bring this back to Trump, largely grew out of gamergate/mra culture. Misogyny is a root cause of the civilizational fracture we are seeing.

mental health? the president has made me crazier than i used to be by about two notches. (for the record, i am not going to kill anybody ever.) i don't want to generalize my personal experience, but i don't feel like i'm alone in this response.

i definitely feel a lot more depressed and tense this year, and it's manifested itself physically as well. it could also be my age mind you. but...

Yeah what I meant by putting that in quotes is that mental health is linked to social and environmental factors. When it comes up in discussions around shootings though sometimes it is taken as a simple explanation for the violence -- i.e. If mentally ill people got the help they needed, we wouldn't have these issues. But really I think the antisocial forces manifested in these shootings are systemic. Better access to mental health care is part of the picture, stricter gun laws are part of the picture -- these things will make us safer -- but still: why are so many American men drawn to kill?

i for one am shocked that a country founded on genocide and built with slavery which spends hundreds of billions on eternally extending the military-industrial complex and makes access to guns easier than access to healthcare would have a gun violence problem

xp because it's the mark of a true action hero, whether on the battlefield or in popular culture? (even katy perry's dumb taylor swift diss rhymes "basket" with "casket")

trump calling for football to restore the tough hit during that batshit alabama speech is probably indicative here as well.

(xposts)

Trump is definitely depressing me on top of my usual fucking problems

My therapist told me people keep talking to her about Trump too - and I'm in the UK

, to bring this back to Trump,

if you will, please

Kind of can't believe Trump hasn't already tweeted "this would never have happened at one of my properties"

still plenty of time for that tbf

I'm sure that within 3 days the world will be roiling over some Trump tweet about how Country is the real patriotic American music

honestly can't fathom trump consuming any piece of popular culture that he isn't directly mentioned/lionized in

he is living in his ego bubble and hopefully it will burst soon.

three and a quarter years to go!

cant wait for him to latch onto this "LV shooter was actually ISIS" thing

three and a quarter years to go!

we'll see...

we'll all be dead before the end of 2018, let's be honest

Oh hey btw Congress let CHIP's funding expire

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-chip-funding-20170929-story.html

The consequences will be dire in many states, which will have to curtail or even shut down their children’s health programs until funding is restored. Hanging in the balance is care for 9 million children and pregnant women in low-income households.

wonder what the rational behind that wa-

9 million children and pregnant women in low-income households.

oh, i see

Fuck

does it matter if they're pro-impeachment or not? the republicans aren't going to favor his removal from office, ever. elections aren't for another year. don't they do enough empty gum-flapping as it is?

― bob lefse (rushomancy), Monday, October 2, 2017 5:37

Yeah obviously the GOP will never do anything. It's about getting a message out with the appropriate level of severity. The public needs to be alarmed and made to push back against the idea of getting into a nuclear war. Trump's messaging is increasing the likeliehood NK will overreact. Currently we're sleepwalking into it. People were more engaged in fighting ACA repeal. They should be doing the same and much more on this issue. prepare the public for the possibility of NK doing atmospheric and reiterate that war can not be seen as an option in that case.

I apologize for the dumb question in advance, but are people really believing NK actually has nuclear weapons? I thought it was understood they were a bunch of blowhards with no technical capabilities.

they've had nuclear weapons for years

They have nuclear weapons. The technology they are still developing is long range missiles.

Currently we're sleepwalking into it.

The favored verb is "stumbling."

"have a way of escalating."
"stumbles into a ruinous war"https://t.co/HG4Iah4C7S pic.twitter.com/MHfFO2vJqj

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) October 1, 2017

it's amusing to me our president threatens North Korea with genocide at least once a week and we still do the "stumbling" routine.

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) September 27, 2017

I meant sleepwalking in terms of activists, liberal and left media, anti-war politicians etc.

we have no leverage

Same could be said with the recent healthcare fights.

Xpost some argue they have long range capacity. http://www.theroot.com/why-we-should-fear-a-north-korean-nuclear-attack-expla-1818763114/amp

Really, the only effective public protest I can envision would be "throwing your bodies on the gears," as the Berkeley guy said 50+ years ago. Disruptive civil disobedience and fucking business-as-usual up, on a mass scale, not nice marches. (And I'm sure we would see a massive response with gunfire from the current state.)

a mass protest / sit-in / march at NRA HQ would scare the shit out of me. you can imagine how many fucknuts would flock to that scene & open fire

Same could be said with the recent healthcare fights.

not true, the legislature responds to pressure and there were things to vote on.

foreign policy/military policy is now completely in the hands of the executive, there is no stopping it or influencing it if the executive is not open to being influenced and guess what

The news was making me feel shitty so I figured, hey, I'll watch some lighthearted episodes of Newsradio while I do stuff around the house. I shit you not: back-to-back, an episode about Mr. James absurdly running as an unqualified billionaire president followed by another with a b-plot about a hilarious Dilbert strip which was capped off with a Scott Adams cameo. And now I want to die.

there is no escape, OL, come get a hug

I still like that the campaign theme song for Mr James aborted presidential run was "Life's Been Good"

Yeah what I meant by putting that in quotes is that mental health is linked to social and environmental factors. When it comes up in discussions around shootings though sometimes it is taken as a simple explanation for the violence -- i.e. If mentally ill people got the help they needed, we wouldn't have these issues. But really I think the antisocial forces manifested in these shootings are systemic. Better access to mental health care is part of the picture, stricter gun laws are part of the picture -- these things will make us safer -- but still: why are so many American men drawn to kill?

― Treeship

it's a good question, and i am all for addressing the toxic mess "masculinity" has become in the 21st century. i also see a long list of problems here, some of which are easier to fix than others. addressing toxic masculinity is worth doing, but not just because it leads to mass murder; addressing the causes of mass murder is necessary, but toxic masculinity wouldn't be my first port of call.

Meanwhile, the usual garbage

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/02/jared-kushner-email-account-white-house-243389

i double-checked and the "year one" thread was November 2016. we've done our duty. think it makes sense to either close this grim naming tradition now, or ride it all the way to january 2021.

Trump Year One: The Threads