The Match Cut Presidential Dog and Pony Show

[amberlita]

Do we know how much, if any, control Trump still has over his Twitter account? I just assume that his campaign and/or transition team has taken over and, since his voice and style isn't difficult to mimic, are just tweeting on his behalf.

[Gittes]

[Irish]

Do we know how much, if any, control Trump still has over his Twitter account? I just assume that his campaign and/or transition team has taken over and, since his voice and style isn't difficult to mimic, are just tweeting on his behalf.

The scuttlebutt during the campaign was: If the post comes from an Android phone, it's Trump. If it comes from an iOS phone, it's his staff. (All the recent posts about Hamilton have been from an Android phone.)

Also, this was ... curious:

He is worried, his aides say, that he will not be able to keep his Android phone once he gets to the White House and wonders aloud how isolated he will become — and whether he will be able to keep in touch with his friends — without it as president.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/20...-new-boss.html

[number8]

He also doesn't actually use the Twitter app very much himself, even before this election. The guy's a total luddite who doesn't even own a computer. Here's a profile from 2015 about Hope Hicks, who said that Trump still reads news in hard copy and would yell his opinions out loud to the room, which Hicks took notes of and then give to aides to turn into tweets. Trump does sometimes tweet himself from his personal phone, and those seem to be the raving after-hour ones. Anything that's tweeted during daytime is likely filtered through his staff.

[Henry Gale]

I also remember someone noticing a while ago that all of his more calmly on-message campaign tweets were sent from an iPhone, and all of his crazed rant tweets (especially the 3 a.m. ones) were sent from an Android.

Basically, it's hardly ever him, and when it is, it's not even on the same device.

[Ezee E]

Reading from hard copy while aides decide how to tweet would make for a wonderful skit.

[MadMan]

Meh people can vote third party. If enough did it would make the two major parties notice and maybe one would change for the better. Or maybe the worse.

Also I recognized how shitty Obama's foreign policy was back in 2011. Many Democrats want to overlook that.

[number8]

I find this pretty fascinating.

From now until the end of Trump’s presidency, everyone who enters and exits the building will have to be vetted by the Secret Service, even if the Trumps aren’t there. At the very least, their names will be run through agency threat databases. The service will want to inspect every package that goes into the building and will insist that staffers — at every shop, restaurant and residence — be scanned with a hand-held magnetometer, which detects hidden metal. When Trump is there, all of their personal effects will probably be checked by bomb-detection dogs, too.

Trump’s office is about 30 floors below his apartment. In between and below are residences and offices owned or leased by other people, who have rights that the city and state of New York are obligated to enforce. (For instance, the federal government can’t evict or move tenants at will.) Celebrities such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruce Willis, who keep apartments in the building, will find themselves living in Trump’s bubble.

If I was Bruce Willis, I'd just stay elsewhere for the next few years.

This part, though, hoo boy:

The WHMO will require significant new space of its own somewhere in the building. That means it will pay rent to its landlord — that is, to Trump, if the agency uses space that the Trump Organization owns. This would not be unprecedented; Vice President Biden charged the Secret Service to occupy a building on his property in Delaware. Government rules prevent the agency from accepting anything of significant value from a protectee, and land has value. During the campaign, Trump was able to recoup $1.6 million from the Secret Service because he flew on his own planes, and the agents, just like everyone else, had to pay for their seats.

[number8]

If you want a little schadenfreude today, go read the comments on the Breitbart articles about Trump's announcement today that he will not jail Hillary Clinton. You can taste the anger and disappointment of his supporters.

[Gittes]

Thomas Mallon wrote the following back in October.

Clinton will be as depressed as Nixon was the night of his landslide victory over McGovern, in 1972. Just listen to some of the White House tapes made that evening. In the course of phone conversations with Henry Kissinger and Hubert Humphrey, he sounds more in need of consolation than congratulation. Hillary, too, becomes more herself in defeat than in victory. After winning, her fraud complex, the curse of the compulsive achiever, will kick in, and she will be bitter over the perception that she owes her victory to the mutant candidacy of Trump. Having been denied the chance to run against a mainstream senator or governor, she will worry that defeating the Donald puts another Roger Maris-like asterisk next to her name, like the one next to First Lady—not the most desirable way for the first female President to have begun her ascent to the office.

As it turns out, aspects of these speculative remarks about the psychological implications of Clinton winning the election now easily apply to the reality of President-elect Trump. This is borne out by Trump's initial reaction to his own win — he seemed rattled — and the recent tweets in which he is desperately trying to paint a more complete and less qualified picture of his victory. Of course, these ideas cannot connect to Trump without some adjustments. For instance, Trump's psychological woes cannot be said to be symptoms arising from having bested a "mutant candidacy," but instead may be connected to his keen sense of having controversially defeated a more experienced opponent who far exceeded him in terms of popular votes. Still, it seems like a compelling assessment of some of Trump's behaviour in the wake of his win.

[MadMan]

Trump is twitter trolling to distract people from his conflicts of interest globally and how he plans to gut popular programs at the orders of Paul Ryan. I knew that social media would one day be a tool of the president but I didn't think it would be this soon.

[ledfloyd]

Trump is twitter trolling to distract people from his conflicts of interest globally and how he plans to gut popular programs at the orders of Paul Ryan. I knew that social media would one day be a tool of the president but I didn't think it would be this soon.

I don't buy this. A president-elect saying he wishes he could jail people or strip them of citizenship for exercising political speech (in the form of flag burning) is news no matter where it comes from or what else is going on at the time.

[Sycophant]

I don't buy this. A president-elect saying he wishes he could jail people or strip them of citizenship for exercising political speech (in the form of flag burning) is news no matter where it comes from or what else is going on at the time.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Is it absurd that our president-elect takes to Twitter with uninformed, childish rants? Yes. Does it perhaps detract attention from his legitimately horrifying cabinet picks and his reckless dealing with other governments? Sure--we and our news media need to follow, criticize, and resist. Is it a major fucking deal that this monster is declaring how things "must" be when they're both a settled free speech violation and an unconstitutional suggestion of stripping a person of their citizenship? Oh, Jesus, yes!

One of the hardest things about our situation is the number of fronts we have to be alert to. Evil fuckery abounds.

[MadMan]

Hillary was for the same thing regarding flag burning, btw. And yes I know it's news but I'm more concerned with the GOP trying to gut programs that help thousands if not millions of Americans. Also the Supreme Court upheld flag burning as political speech protected under the Constitution. So more than likely this is Trump using a bullshit subject that really isn't an issue as a distraction.

[MadMan]

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Is it absurd that our president-elect takes to Twitter with uninformed, childish rants? Yes. Does it perhaps detract attention from his legitimately horrifying cabinet picks and his reckless dealing with other governments? Sure--we and our news media need to follow, criticize, and resist. Is it a major fucking deal that this monster is declaring how things "must" be when they're both a settled free speech violation and an unconstitutional suggestion of stripping a person of their citizenship? Oh, Jesus, yes!

One of the hardest things about our situation is the number of fronts we have to be alert to. Evil fuckery abounds.

See I can agree with that last part of your post whole heartedly. Unfortunately yes Trump will do awful things on multiple fronts.

[Gittes]

I was just made aware of this particular episode in Trump's Twitter history.



...

[number8]

Donald Trump will remain credited (and paid) as Executive Producer on the next season of The Apprentice.

I kinda expected it just because of how the EP credit works, but it still feels so odd to know this is going to be a thing.

[Irish]

Continually dismayed by the "left" that is totally freaking out now. I used to think the right and the far right were whack jobs with bizarre policy ideas and too many conspiracy theories. Turns out, the left is just as freakish. My social feeds are a never-ending shitshow of delusion and paranoia.

This election has taught me:

- Buying into the established, binary political systems is dumb

- I can't look to any party to do jack shit for me or my community

- Ignoring Bernie out of hand was short sighted

- Policy wonks are the devil

- The left peddles bizarre conspiracy theories almost as easily as the right (and they really love talking about Nazis)

- "Engagement" on "platforms" means that even the established media players have an incentive to feed mass anxiety

- The New York Times and the Washington Post are grimy little publications

- The world will literally be bathed in nuclear fire and some will still talk about micro-aggressions

- My lifelong cynicism and paranoia toward authority figures turned out to be mildly useful

- Most of my friends -- liberals to a tee -- are much dumber and badly educated than I thought

- I've lost respect for countless artists, filmmakers, writers, and critics who parrot opinions before considering one

I don't pretend to have any answers, and I have no idea what's "really" going on -- but my God, it seems like people prefer to panic, like they really do want some big dramatic end-times scenario to play out. (Or maybe they're just performing that way on social media, because they think it makes them sound noble and heroic.)

Between these asinine #resist hashtags and RUSSIA HACKED THE ELECTION tweets, I haven't stopped rolling my eyes and sighing since Nov 8.

(Not looking to start idealogical arguments, honestly -- I really just needed to vent)

[TGM]

Continually dismayed by the "left" that is totally freaking out now. I used to think the right and the far right were whack jobs with bizarre policy ideas and too many conspiracy theories. Turns out, the left is just as freakish. My social feeds are a never-ending shitshow of delusion and paranoia.

This election has taught me:

- Buying into the established, binary political systems is dumb

- I can't look to any party to do jack shit for me or my community

- Ignoring Bernie out of hand was short sighted

- Policy wonks are the devil

- The left peddles bizarre conspiracy theories almost as easily as the right (and they really love talking about Nazis)

- "Engagement" on "platforms" means that even the established media players have an incentive to feed mass anxiety

- The New York Times and the Washington Post are grimy little publications

- The world will literally be bathed in nuclear fire and some will still talk about micro-aggressions

- My lifelong cynicism and paranoia toward authority figures turned out to be mildly useful

- Most of my friends -- liberals to a tee -- are much dumber and badly educated than I thought

- I've lost respect for countless artists, filmmakers, writers, and critics who parrot opinions before considering one

I don't pretend to have any answers, and I have no idea what's "really" going on -- but my God, it seems like people prefer to panic, like they really do want some big dramatic end-times scenario to play out. (Or maybe they're just performing that way on social media, because they think it makes them sound noble and heroic.)

Between these asinine #resist hashtags and RUSSIA HACKED THE ELECTION tweets, I haven't stopped rolling my eyes and sighing since Nov 8.

(Not looking to start idealogical arguments, honestly -- I really just needed to vent)

I've pretty much noticed all of this as well, and have come to the same revelations. But the only real positive I've been able to take from all that you listed is that it's been great fuel for a new project that I've been toying with, which has in turn been pretty therapeutic for me.

[Irish]

But the only real positive I've been able to take from all that you listed is that it's been great fuel for a new project that I've been toying with, which has in turn been pretty therapeutic for me.

Like, a new writing project?

Or are you building yourself a bunker in your backyard, Cloverfield style?

[TGM]

Like, a new writing project?

Or are you building yourself a bunker in your backyard, Cloverfield style?

Yeah, it's a new writing project at the moment, that'll ideally become another film project. Though that bunker honestly doesn't sound like too bad an idea, either! XD

[Irish]

I'm about ready to throw my phone into a lake

also:



This shit is seriously delusional

also:

Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America

"In this scorched-earth op-ed, Lauren Duca takes on Trump's systematic attempts to destabilize the truth and weaken the foundation of American freedom."

Lauren Duca is a twenty-nothing writing for Teen Vogue (?!).

Trump has repeatedly attempted to undermine the press, including such well-respected publications as the New York Times.

Totally reasonable to freak out over Trump's twitter rants and ignore the Obama administration's 8 year history of fucking with journalists and prosecuting whistleblowers (more than any other President in history).

Insist on fact-checking every Trump statement you read, every headline you share or even relay to a friend over coffee.

Unless the Washington Post cites unnamed CIA officials and attempts to red-bait their entire readership. In that case, totally take those "facts" at face value.

When defending each of the identities in danger of being further marginalized, we must remember the thing that binds this pig-headed hydra together. As we spin our newfound rage into action, it is imperative to remember, across identities and across the aisle, as a country and as individuals, we have nothing without the truth.

lol, sure kid. keep clinging to nebulous identity politics

[number8]

It's been really frustrating seeing liberals scapegoat progressive identity politics and rainbow coalition strategies as "why we lost." It'd be a shame if the left course corrects itself into addressing this nonsense economic anxiety myth.

[Irish]

It's been really frustrating seeing liberals scapegoat progressive identity politics and rainbow coalition strategies as "why we lost." It'd be a shame if the left course corrects itself into addressing this nonsense economic anxiety myth.

I think there's a distinction to be made between "progressive identity politics" and "rainbow coalition" (in the Jesse Jackson sense)---they're not the same thing.

I'm more frustrated that establishment Democrats are more willing to blame anything and anyone else than cop to the fact that Hillary Clinton was a terrible candidate who ran an awful campaign. Russian cyber-spies, "alt-right" neo-Nazis, "working class whites." Every week they're yelling about a different---and always external---group.

I don't think anybody's anxiety is nonsense or a myth. I mean, the Dem candidate came out and haggled over a $15 minimum wage, FFS, and now all these Beltway fuckheads are sitting around wondering, gee, why didn't this group or that group come out and vote for Hillary? Well, probably because they had the sense she'd fuck them over like Bill and Barrack did.

Wages have been flat for decades. Unions have been gutted. Rents are too high. It's almost impossible to survive on a minimum wage job. How does identity politics help solve any of those issues?

[Lazlo]

I think there's a distinction to be made between "progressive identity politics" and "rainbow coalition" (in the Jesse Jackson sense)---they're not the same thing.

I'm more frustrated that establishment Democrats are more willing to blame anything and anyone else than cop to the fact that Hillary Clinton was a terrible candidate who ran an awful campaign. Russian cyber-spies, "alt-right" neo-Nazis, "working class whites." Every week they're yelling about a different---and always external---group.

I don't think anybody's anxiety is nonsense or a myth. I mean, the Dem candidate came out and haggled over a $15 minimum wage, FFS, and now all these Beltway fuckheads are sitting around wondering, gee, why didn't this group or that group come out and vote for Hillary? Well, probably because they had the sense she'd fuck them over like Bill and Barrack did.

Wages have been flat for decades. Unions have been gutted. Rents are too high. It's almost impossible to survive on a minimum wage job. How does identity politics help solve any of those issues?

It doesn't necessarily on its own. But "identity politics" is tied into those things. The marginalization of various groups isn't something that should be ignored for the sake of economic messages. Democrats need to recognize that they can do more than one thing at a time, however.